|
 The Garden of One Earth Farm
It is impossible to determine just where the vegetable garden ends and the flower gardens begin here at One Earth Farm. In spring when the sour cherries are in full bloom, and in midsummer when vibrant heads of purple cauliflower are hot with noonday sun, and even in late autumn when the bright red rosehips hang heavy after their first kiss of frost it becomes quite clear that no such line actually exists. Indeed, a cluster of ambitious heirloom tomato seedlings taking hold amidst this year’s celery bed are perhaps more weed than the young nettles destined for tea or the lamb’s quarter fated for a delightful summer soup. Even the rich bird and insect life of the garden seem set on further blurring the lines between man and nature, between flora and fauna, between bloom and beast. Certainly, to see a bluebird weighting the branch of an apple sapling like some heavy azure blossom from the tropics, or to see a bumble bee hurling its fuzzy yellow bulk through the garden like an airborne dandelion, is to witness the animal kingdom itself erupting into bloom. After poking around in our garden a bit one of our regular egg customers commented, “Jeez, you guys must eat with your eyes.” Indeed, we eat with our whole bodies. We are like the proverbial Italians gathered around the dinner table talking about what they are eating, what they ate yesterday, and what they will eat tomorrow. It is almost impossible for us to grab a couple marans eggs from the fridge and not remark at their beauty. And when we lift the grill cover and find ourselves momentarily held captive by the beauty of wedges of red cabbage and rows of green and yellow beans, how can we not tingle with excitement? The soil never ceases to bring forth new culinary treasures the likes of which cannot be fully appreciated without committing the use of all five senses. We commit all five senses to every meal and are drunk on the experience. |
“I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.” - Henry David Thoreau One Earth Farm really is all about food – food that feeds the mind and spirit as well as the body. Every meal begins with a flat of seedlings and a pair of boots worn thin for their travels to the barn. Every day begins with a thought to the day’s food - a thought to the loaf of sour dough we left rising on the counter last night, a thought to the frozen earth outside that will not yet surrender last summer’s parsnips, a thought to the rabbit marinating in the fridge for hasenpfeffer for tomorrow evening. Every season begins with anticipation for its harvest – anticipation for its purple Peruvian potatoes, crisp red romaine, or sweet, juicy Black Gold cherries. We are obsessed with delicious, beautiful food. Born into a culture that feeds rather than eats and imagines that a well scrubbed, factory processed, bag of GMO russets denotes ‘clean food’, we are ourselves just now discovering how to eat – and how to cook. Here old-time homestead mainstays like rutabagas, collards, and rabbit have broke with tradition and have returned home as curries, wraps, and breakfast food. Old cart-horses like winter squash and chicken have leveraged pastas from beneath its pesto and roasted pepper sauces. Fresh tomatoes and grilled asparagus have joined forced to reinstate the poached egg as breakfast food most triumphant. Cool crisp romaine hearts have seduced and bedded steamy sticky rice over lunch. And the humble sunchoke has finally grown a pair and has all but vanquished the ever trendy jicama from the table - indeed of late the sunchoke has even been giving the ubiquitous potato the hairy eyeball. It’s mayhem in the garden and anarchy in the kitchen; a rethinking of what constitutes a garden as well as what constitutes breakfast, lunch or dinner. One Earth Farm began as an experiment in living more simply and growing our own food. But soon our passion for growing food created such a surplus that of necessity we began offering eggs or produce for sale. Whether you share our passion for nutritious organically grown produce or colorful free range eggs and grass fed poultry and rabbit we invite you to contact us. We enjoy selling locally, but most of all we enjoy selling to people who love food as we do. ■ ■ ■
|