Eating on the farm, from the farm, for the farm - A

Working on a diverse organic farm has amongst it's many fun chores one that tops all - eating. Eating a farm's own produce is not just a privilege, it's a duty at times. The asparagus harvest has been a daily chore on Simpler Thyme since I got here in mid-May through to now and for another week to come. We usually do it first thing in the morning: 6:30 and we're walking up and down rows of asparagus, bending over to cut the stalks just below the soil surface, placing the catch in an 11quart wooden basket. The thing about harvesting asparagus, and any food for that matter, is that not all stalks, roots, leaves, fruits, etc. are "perfectly sized", shaped, proportioned; some asparagus stalks come out S-shaped, multi-headed, curling in on themselves, with a really open head. These morsels are still tasty, but not the most aesthetically pleasing; hence we eat them on the farm.
Sometimes it's a matter a not having been able to sell an item or collection of items. Right now in the industrial 'cooler' are a few boxes of lettuce, garlic scapes, and other odds and ends that didn't sell on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday; some of it looks wilty and sad considering it spent time outside, dehydrating, in market. These bunches of veggies also need to be eaten, if not by us human farmers and workers and family, then by chickens, pigs, ducks, or whoever else needs fattening up.

I just wanted to share some photos of ingredients/meals I've helped put together with farm or local ingredients.



Last Tuesday I made one whopping stir fry with swiss chard,



Garlic "scapes," (these curly things are the stalks and immature flower heads of the garlic plant; you can eat the whole thing raw or cooked until tenderized)




Snow peas, also from the farm like the above two items,



And ground beef, from the pasture to a freezer last year, to the wok last week (with some of the garlic scapes).