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Dane will be at Matthews, Maria will be at Yorkmont, Marcel will be at Davidson and Jason will be at Tailgate.
We will have:
Beefsteak tomatoes - ripened fully on the vine
Round Pink tomatoes
Dane will have Gregori tomatoes and Mecklenberg tomatoes
Sungolds Sungolds Sungolds Sungolds Sungolds
Chocolate Cherries
Golden Potatoes
Squash - off of new vines - very nice.
Dane will have cucumbers, peppers, and eggplant
Given up on dry and comfortable, I can smell my own shirt as I pick tomatoes up in the barn and decide whether they can come to market or not. Thunder rumbles all around me. I ignore it. It has been promising all day with no result. I opened the truck door to get packing tape out to try to reconstruct some boxes and quick as a wink, Core', our farm dog, jumps into the cab and will not get out no matter how much I pull, yell or plea. I have too much to do to argue with her. I open the window a crack and shut the door. She can stay inside while I work. Not 5 minutes later the sky yellows, thickens and drops out a huge amount of hard rain. Smart dog. I keep working in the barn and need to open the truck door again and find her curled up napping on the drivers side seat cushion while I stand out in the rain thinking only of tomatoes. I think we keep pets to remind us what sanity is.
Our farm is a working farm. It looks like a working farm. People used to come and visit and I would give them a tour and I could see the mild shock and disappointment cross their face. This is not a "fun farm" like Pattersons or some of the beautiful places that other farmers tend to properly. This is a working, all male, drop-it-and-get-on-to-the-next-task farm. I used to hate the fact that our farm is so "working"/rough looking. I would imagine nice farm to fork dinners on the hill overlooking the prettiest part of our farm. If we could move all that drip tape, weeds, 4 rows of old crops and a scarecrow - it would be perfect. And if I could just get that barn to stay clean.... Dreams - all of it. I now invite people to WORK on our farm when they want to come over. "Sure, come on over! You got yukky clothes to wear?" They do. And from what I can tell, they seem happy for the experience. No more apologetic tours. They get free produce before they go home. Sometimes they come back! Amazing. I always enjoy them and am grateful that they were there. I feel a little guilty that I am having them work. But, it is a working farm. It is what it is. I gave up on having a farm-to-fork dinner on
our farm a long time ago.
You can imagine my surprise when I was sitting with Ellen, the owner of The Bed and Bike Inn (www.bedandbikeinn.com) after we picked a big box of blueberries from her bushes and she said, "You know, I think we should have one of those farm dinners here." I sat up a little.
"Perfect!" My mind began to go. We have some wonderful farmers in this area that would have to be asked. We know fantastic chefs. We could use it to benefit Friendship Trays and Slow Foods. The more we played with the idea, the better it got. Now I have to say - Farmer
Jonathan has been planting mental seeds in both of our minds. You know, the guy who helps Dean Mullis, helps us at the farm and stays at the Bed and Bike Inn when he is in town here. We picked a date, Saturday, September 26th. And with help from Donna Thrasher, we picked a price point and number of guests. $75 and 70 guests. Now there is much more to do. But I wanted to put it out there.
Lastly, Chef Sean and 131 Main in Dilworth has been onto me to get his logo onto our web site. They have been using our tomatoes in their tomato salad for over a year. I like that he cares. I got to talking with him a little. "What is your tomato salad anyway?" I imagined slices on a plate. "I'll make one for you." He came out with this succulent salad consisting of sliced heirloom tomatoes, dried dates, juicy orange slices, bacon and crumbled blue(?) cheese. Oh my gosh! I did not expect the combination of sweet and acid, salty and tangy to
taste that deep! "This is really good!" I told him and cringed at my own loss for decent adjectives. I got in the truck and gobbled the rest of the salad down while I finished deliveries. I thought of ways I could call and order the salad so that no one would know it was me buying more salads each week. I could call in as "Mrs. Smith" one week and "Ms. Jones" the next...Incognito for tomato salad!
--
Maria Fisher
704-239-5255
We will have:
Beefsteak tomatoes - ripened fully on the vine
Round Pink tomatoes
Dane will have Gregori tomatoes and Mecklenberg tomatoes
Sungolds Sungolds Sungolds Sungolds Sungolds
Chocolate Cherries
Golden Potatoes
Squash - off of new vines - very nice.
Dane will have cucumbers, peppers, and eggplant
Given up on dry and comfortable, I can smell my own shirt as I pick tomatoes up in the barn and decide whether they can come to market or not. Thunder rumbles all around me. I ignore it. It has been promising all day with no result. I opened the truck door to get packing tape out to try to reconstruct some boxes and quick as a wink, Core', our farm dog, jumps into the cab and will not get out no matter how much I pull, yell or plea. I have too much to do to argue with her. I open the window a crack and shut the door. She can stay inside while I work. Not 5 minutes later the sky yellows, thickens and drops out a huge amount of hard rain. Smart dog. I keep working in the barn and need to open the truck door again and find her curled up napping on the drivers side seat cushion while I stand out in the rain thinking only of tomatoes. I think we keep pets to remind us what sanity is.
Our farm is a working farm. It looks like a working farm. People used to come and visit and I would give them a tour and I could see the mild shock and disappointment cross their face. This is not a "fun farm" like Pattersons or some of the beautiful places that other farmers tend to properly. This is a working, all male, drop-it-and-get-on-to-the-next-task farm. I used to hate the fact that our farm is so "working"/rough looking. I would imagine nice farm to fork dinners on the hill overlooking the prettiest part of our farm. If we could move all that drip tape, weeds, 4 rows of old crops and a scarecrow - it would be perfect. And if I could just get that barn to stay clean.... Dreams - all of it. I now invite people to WORK on our farm when they want to come over. "Sure, come on over! You got yukky clothes to wear?" They do. And from what I can tell, they seem happy for the experience. No more apologetic tours. They get free produce before they go home. Sometimes they come back! Amazing. I always enjoy them and am grateful that they were there. I feel a little guilty that I am having them work. But, it is a working farm. It is what it is. I gave up on having a farm-to-fork dinner on
our farm a long time ago.
You can imagine my surprise when I was sitting with Ellen, the owner of The Bed and Bike Inn (www.bedandbikeinn.com) after we picked a big box of blueberries from her bushes and she said, "You know, I think we should have one of those farm dinners here." I sat up a little.
"Perfect!" My mind began to go. We have some wonderful farmers in this area that would have to be asked. We know fantastic chefs. We could use it to benefit Friendship Trays and Slow Foods. The more we played with the idea, the better it got. Now I have to say - Farmer
Jonathan has been planting mental seeds in both of our minds. You know, the guy who helps Dean Mullis, helps us at the farm and stays at the Bed and Bike Inn when he is in town here. We picked a date, Saturday, September 26th. And with help from Donna Thrasher, we picked a price point and number of guests. $75 and 70 guests. Now there is much more to do. But I wanted to put it out there.
Lastly, Chef Sean and 131 Main in Dilworth has been onto me to get his logo onto our web site. They have been using our tomatoes in their tomato salad for over a year. I like that he cares. I got to talking with him a little. "What is your tomato salad anyway?" I imagined slices on a plate. "I'll make one for you." He came out with this succulent salad consisting of sliced heirloom tomatoes, dried dates, juicy orange slices, bacon and crumbled blue(?) cheese. Oh my gosh! I did not expect the combination of sweet and acid, salty and tangy to
taste that deep! "This is really good!" I told him and cringed at my own loss for decent adjectives. I got in the truck and gobbled the rest of the salad down while I finished deliveries. I thought of ways I could call and order the salad so that no one would know it was me buying more salads each week. I could call in as "Mrs. Smith" one week and "Ms. Jones" the next...Incognito for tomato salad!
--
Maria Fisher
704-239-5255
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