ridgeland harvest

Yesterday, Sam and I went out to Ridgeland Harvest, our CSA farm, for their annual Garlic Party.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and we support a family farm run by Cate and Mat and their two small sons Paul and John. In exchange for a reasonable amount of money, they grow and deliver to us a box of tasty, organic fruits and vegetables once a week for twenty-two weeks of the year. And they host events at the farm so we can get to know them and how they grow our food.

After meeting everyone, we walked around the farm for a few hours seeing the fields and hearing how Cate and Mat plan, plant, rotate, deal with pests organically, agonize over weather, and thoroughly enjoy being small farmers. Along the way we grabbed some sweet corn from the stalks, grazed the raspberry bushes, plucked and nibbled on some edamame, and pulled a few onions.

Sam and I don't buy any of the animal products Ridgeland Harvest offers, but we enjoyed chasing the chickens and pigs around. At first, the pigs ran away from the group invading their field, but by the time we left, they were following us through the tall grass.

Everyone brought a veggie salad, and Cate and Mat roasted samples of each of the four types of garlic they grew this year: German, Siberian, Asian Tempest, and Georgia Crystal. Delicious. Mat also took the corn we'd picked earlier and grilled it in the husk, which I have now decided is the best way to eat sweet corn. And just in case that wasn't enough, there was homegrown bbq chicken and raspberry cheesecake.

We left with stomachs full of great food, hands full of raspberries and garlic, and happy to know we are supporting a wonderful family with a wonderful farm.