support your local farmers

So when we went down to New Jersey last week, we sacrificed our box o’ vegetables from the CSA, because we left on the morning of pickup day. We asked our friend Greenough if she’d like to pick up the box, and she happily did. Well, I say “happily”. She confessed that she felt simultaneously blessed, and oppressed, by the contents. Such is the nature of an enormous box of freshly picked veggies and greens – first, you have to prep them (picking beans from the stalk…slug removal… dirt/stem removal…), and then by golly you have to EAT it all. Oh, the injustice.

So I went over to her house today to pick up the empty box and, bonus, fill it up with stuff from her garden. Welcome to a tour of Skunk Barn Farm:

Romeo, checking me out.

I left my camera in my car at first, but when I saw these morning glories…

…I had to go retrieve it.

not-yet-opened. Is it just me, or do you want to jump up and down when you see this? Just me? OK. I’m still gonna jump up and down.

all-done-with-opening. (I’m still bouncing, here…)

A mystery weed that she’s allowed to do its thang. Doesn’t that flower like a really cool fairy crown? No? Is that just the post-morning-glory-excitement talking?

Here’s her house, which is a renovated barn. The downstairs has a concrete floor with radiant heating. and very cool high-tech yet old school German wood-fired stove/oven/boiler combo that heats the water for the radiant floor. (She also has regular gas burner/oven combo.) Exposed beams. Root cellar. But – welcome to Vermont – an outhouse.

Back to the green stuff:

“go away, I’m busy.”

the lovely Greenough amidst the snapdragons.

Here she is about to pull up a carrot for me.

that’s some carrot!

We proceeded to the lower half of the garden, site of rhubarb, basil, winter squash, more tomatoes, zucchini, and probably lots of other stuff.

…oh, like zinnias!

Her housemate – who, by the way, wears FiveFingers!! Hooray! – had planted the traditional Native American triad of corn, beans, and  squash.

 

 

Did you know you can eat corn fresh on the cob? Like, raw? I’d sort of heard that, from a friend whose grandfather’s favorite method of eating corn was to walk out to the garden with a warm dishtowel, By the time he made it back to the house – towel draped over the corn – he considered his meal ready to eat. This was, incidentally, positively delicious.

 

So here was my Support Your Local Agriculture Haul: one fat carrot. two giant zukes. basil – alas, more pesto…sigh. rainbow chard. spinach/chard hybrid. tomatoes that didn’t survive the trip – I et ‘em all. sorrel. nasturtium. lacinata kale. All in all, a most profitable visit! Thanks, Greenough!