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Friday, June 4, 2010

Who is YOUR farmer?

This year we decided to come back to the farm! We enrolled in a local CSA and purchased a spring share, a full summer share, a fall share and an organic/pasture-fed chicken share. (For those unaware - CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture). Our farm is JenEhr and I cant rave enough about the first four weeks of crops!

The first night home, with our first chickens, I made an herb roasted chicken, some sauteed japanese hakurei turnips with leeks and green garlic, a spring mix salad with the sweetest (yes sweet) radishes and a strawberry-rhubarb pie.

Jeremiah's first comment was - "Mom, that chicken tastes strange". It wasnt a bad comment, not at all. He loved it. He thought I had used something different on it. We spent some time explaining to him WHY the chicken tasted different and basically, that's what a chicken is SUPPOSED to taste like!

I had been thinking this week how its been very different for my children than it was for me. I didnt grow up on a farm, like my own mother, but we were never farm from the earth. Gardening in the back yard was not enough for her. No, we had to have at least a 1/2 acre somewhere - to mini-farm. So summers were spent going to the garden, weeding, watering, planting, hoeing, harvesting. It didnt stop there. I think I learned how to can tomatoes before I learned how to ride a bike!!

And speaking of chickens - every summer she got a dozen or so chickens from a local farm as well. I remember on several occasions, going the farm, seeing them butchered, taking them home and preparing them to be frozen so we could have them throughout the winter. Huge metal washtubs in the front yard. One with hot boiling water to loosen the feathers and the other with cooler water so they wouldnt "cook". Plucking the feathers, then cleaning out the insides. Right in the heart of the city of Madison.

Mom always went to the farm and got her eggs, until I was at least a few years into college or even married, if I remember correctly (somewhere in the 80s). The eggs werent "certified organic" or "pasture-raised"; the chickens werent labeled "free-range"; neither were the vegetables from our own garden. They were just the products of our (mostly my mother's) labors. But really, it was a microcosm of the CSA.

So I am not far from the traditions of my family.

I can tell you with all honesty, I will never be a farmer. I like growing herbs (in pots, on my porch) and planting flowers (in pots, on my porch). I dont even mind going to the pick-your-own farms and picking strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillas, zucchini, squash. However, I do so appreciate those local small farms that have a passion for producing GOOD food. So much so, that I feel I must support their efforts. So far in just a few weeks, I have several batches of spinach blanched and frozen, I have made a stash of strawberry rhubard sauce; I am now completely converted from using V8 juice for my homemade stew to the wonderful tomatoe puree that was made by my farm;  and finally we enjoy discovering new foods that have quickly become favorites.

I am thankful for JenEhr - my farm.

PS  - This week I will post my recipes for the strawberry rhubarb sauce and the japanese turnip sautee!