Love Your Greens & Your Farmer
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! When many greens are growing, hearts are glowing (with health and wellness that comes with eating your greens!) and loved ones are near. I know making food certainly brings more people to the table. Everyone eats, after all.
One of those people who you will be getting to know and love over the coming months is your farmer. Here at Garden City Harvest we don’t deliver your CSA for one very good reason. We want people to come to the farm, we want to see you, we want your kids to come see where their carrots and cukes are grown. We want to cultivate community in and between our shareholders. We really like you. Farming is better when you are around (and yes, I totally stole that line from Annie of the Pea Green Boat).
That said, I wanted to talk a little about Greg, who is the head farmer at River Road Farm. If you ask Greg to describe himself in 3 words, he’ll tell you: committed, organized, hardworking. He might roll his eyes at you, cause really, how can you boil someone down to 4 words?
He told me, “I try to stick with the simple things. Otherwise, you lose track of the important things.” For Greg, the simple things are food, wild places, and basketball.
When he was growing up, it was mostly him, his mom, and his brother. They moved around quite a bit, but the place Greg identifies with the most was Maryland. That’s where his grandparents lived, where he learned to fish and to hunt. He’s had a diversity of experiences throughout his life. Early in life, he joined the Air Force and was stationed in Germany. Later, he got a degree in philosophy. He started working for Garden City Harvest in 1997, and learned the art of farming as the organization grew. He has used his strong commitment and wondering mind to guide him in his life choices, “My studies in philosophy set me up especially for a kind of concentrated wondering.”
He has spent a great deal of time in the wild places of Montana. He worked for the Great Bear Foundation, alongside his work in the farm fields. I’ve seen him off to gather dandelion greens and other wild edibles for a Great Bear feast from the forest. He dreams of bringing more wild to the farm in the form of native plants, better animal and insect habitat and the like.
He keeps stacks of wood for animals and insects to live in, he gets to know the many spiders on the farm. He’s planning to put a osprey nesting platform up at the farm in the coming year.
He has worked with the Poverello Center since he started with River Road, and grows about 5,000 annually for their soup kitchen. He also helps the chef at the Poverello understand how to use all of this food. I’ve always loved a story he told me about one of the first seasons he grew food for the Poverello. It was the fall, and Greg dropped off a load of winter squash. When he returned the next week, there was all the beautiful squash decorating the tables. Greg suggested that the squash was great decoration, but that the chef might want to cook with it, too. And they made a simple squash soup. Soon after, the soup became a staple on the fall menu. It takes more than growing the food to get it on the table. It is the simple things that make translating that squash into soup that fills your belly. The human connection.
In that spirit, I want to share some greens recipes with you. For this is a time to cherish, rather than feel overwhelmed. Also, in the spirit of knowing your farmer, ask yours what he or she likes to do with the greens. Our farmers have inspired me to try something knew so very many times.
In the coming weeks, greens are the thing. And take heart, they cook down to almost nothing. They are pretty interchangeable. And they are great for breakfast with eggs, lunch with toppings, and dinner as a side or a cooked bed for whatever else you are making. Here’s a great recipe for greens from a past blog :
- Crispy White Beans with Greens and a Poached Egg by the Kitchn
- Chard with Pine Nuts and Raisins by the Moosewood Cookbook (Almonds taste great with this recipe, if you don’t want to spend $$ on the pine nuts)
- Sesame Noodles with Wilted Greens by Budget Bytes (A great way to use greens is just wilt them into pasta! add your favorite seasonings and some butter! Nom nom.)
- Quick-Braised Chicken, Beans, and Greens by the Kitchn
Welcome, and welcome back! See you next week.