Road Ramblings

Club member T. McLeod and I hit the road this morning to make the circuit to our local food suppliers. We had a great day...it was beautiful out, and we got to talk with such wonderful people along the way. Here are some highlights:

* 9:30 AM Landis Gourmet Mushrooms: John Herron met us at the cotton mill and gave a tour of the basement, where he is raising oyster mushrooms. Whereas last visit had only Brown Phoenix, this time we have Golden Oyster and Blue Tree. John showed us some shitake mushrooms that he's testing out as well; they take a lot longer to grow than the 2-week cycle of the oyster mushroom. He's got a lot of room to expand his business, and is plenty capable of doing so. Help spread the word to your local restaurants and shops...he's going places.

* 10:15 AM Hoffner Dairy, Mt Ulla: What a pastoral scene...a baby calf, born just last night, standing with its mother in brilliant green grass against dark brown-black soil. The farm dogs greeted us with gusto and Chris gave us a quick overview of the place. We're looking to Chris to help provide organic vegetables to us in the upcoming months. At our request, he and his family have begun planting mixed greens for late spring harvest. He's got some delicious pecans available, too. Chris also told us about his experiments with popping his sweet corn...he placed the whole cob in the microwave...what a mess! (Needless to say I asked him to save some cobs for us this summer to purchase in the fall.)

* 11:45 PM Bird Brain Ostrich Ranch, Sherrills Ford: The sight of a flock of ostriches roaming around the barnyard is somewhat startling at first. Wow, there's a LOT to know about ostriches, and Pat Roberts is the person to tell you! Her knowledge also helps ensure no part of the animal goes to waste, either. If anyone out there needs salt-cured dog bones, green leather for tanning, or the ornamental feather...she's got it! And she's creative in other ways, too. For example, Pat's now feeding her ostriches kale. She likes it, so she figures they should, too. And she's discovering that it's making a difference in the quality of her birds. Makes me want to get my kale patch back up and thriving!

* 12:45 PM Grateful Growers, Denver: So when a boar gets loose in a field full of sows, the result is three sows giving birth to litters within 24 hours of each other. We got to visit the days-old piglets in their rustic but well-crafted hut amid a green pasture. As Natalie discussed her not-so-tasteful role of surgeon next week to castrate the little males, the chickens started making a racket. It was time for them to come out of their cages and roam for the afternoon...now that the morning has past and the hawks have ceased their hunt for the day. Chicken club information will be coming out soon...there are new chick prices and feed prices and a new processor...lots of numbers Natalie has to crunch. And then...another discovery...a local soap-maker is using lard from GG to make soaps and lip balm. All natural stuff...smells great and works well too. (T and I both had to make impulse buys!)

* 2:00 PM Apple Orchard Farms, Stanley: Well, Art's just having a ball with his farming. We saw the cows and chickens down in the pasture, and the tomato plants are just getting started in the greenhouse. Art had a sugar-cured ham getting hickory-smoked on the grill. My whimpering about how good it smelled scored us samples. I really didn't want to leave at that point; it was SO good. I'll be heading back to Art's next Friday since his freezers were just about empty today...at least that's my excuse for going back...really I'm just hoping to get another taste of whatever he's cooking!

T. summed up the trip well. It may have been a Friday, but it felt like Sabbath. We were able to visit with these real people who are doing tremendous work to grow our food. And it's their faces and places that we'll recall when we sit down to give our thanks.