Sweet potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes (a wonderful root vegetable that we have just started growing again after years).
Swiss Chard
Broccoli and cabbage
Jesse, Gillen and visiting friend/farmer Cameron Lovejoy.
Among her many talents, Helen can take cuttings from so many plants and create new growth. It is miraculous what she can do with a bit of vermiculite and her intuition. From one rose plant that I bought many years ago, Helen created a whole fence line of rose bushes. She is the queen of propagation.
I hear that there is a hottest farmer contest going on. Nicolas may be over 40 but I sure think he’s still got it, especially when he is farming.
Even more so when farming with his children.And most of all when he is bringing me food! Here, he gave me the first ever asparagus. I got it! Not the chefs or the market. That was something.
The colors feel more vibrant than ever, as we approach the end of their season. They are raging against the dying of the light.
Helen and Elizabeth know just exactly how to best show them off, combining them into unexpected combinations with Eucalyptus, and even sprays of green from the Cypress Trees.
or through the right lens, it all looks so bountiful,
and beautiful. And it is.
The farmer looks so happy. When not drop dead exhausted, he is!
But there is a reason that organic vegetables cost more than conventionally grown, and that the farmer has to have his back adjusted.
Without chemicals, there is a much greater use of the hands and the back.
For every row of tomatoes (or beans or peppers or potatoes) that beat the disease and the insects, there are often one or two rows of those that don’t survive.
Behind every tender okra lies a plant that itches the farmers so badly that they have to wear long sleeves in the heat in order to pick it.
Beneath many of the beautiful butterflies and moths lie their progeny – caterpillars that eat great holes out of the plants:I remember the first time that I bought an organic pepper. I was flabbergasted by the price. It was soon after falling for Nicolas, 15 years ago. I went to the Dekalb Farmers Market to buy food for a party. It was in December so, duh!, pepper was not in season, not available locally and the one I chose was orange, so had stayed on the vine a long time to turn that color. I didn’t think seasonally or locally then. I hadn’t yet farmed in the middle of winter (hands freezing in the outdoor sink’s water to rinse the greens) or in the dogs days of a Georgia August.
Now, I get it.
This post resulted from Nicolas mentioning that some new customers don’t want to pay for the tomatoes. All he really wanted to point out was that the heirloom tomato at your local farmers’ market was not picked green; rather, it was allowed to ripen on the vine. Faster methods of ripening the tomatoes wouldn’t allow nature the time it takes to bring forth the best quality. I just wanted to add that it isn’t just time, but also loving, back-breaking, slow attention that has gone into bringing forth this fruit.
This summer, we had more sweet corn than any previous year. Gillen did most of the work to make it happen. He made some money on it too! But it is never enough corn. We love it so. In the end, the worms took over and we didn’t have as much as we had hoped. Next year, we plan to grow three rounds of it, at least.
It is delicious, of course, simply boiled and slathered with butter and sea salt. Jesse actually prefers it raw. But I found this recipe from an old issue of Bon Appetit and we really liked it this way too.
From the August, 2003 issue of Bon Appetit. This recipe was created by a reader from Atlanta, Tracey Medeiros:
4 servings: 4 ears of fresh corn 6 tbls. olive oil 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 1 garlic clove, minced 1 tbls. fresh lime juice 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (we like the local Italian guy’s (Zio Micu’s) organic sauce at the Morningside Market a lot! But the kids didn’t want this in the corn) 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (sorry for the crazy formatting; I’m tired of fighting it, so have decided it works : )
Cook corn in pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain. Whisk 5 tbls. oil, cheese, garlic, lime juice, cumin, and pepper sauce in medium bowl to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Add corn and saute until heated through, turning frequently, about 2 minutes. Brush corn with some of Parmesan cheese mixture. Turn corn and brush with more cheese mixture. Cook until coating begins to color, about three minutes. Transfer corn to platter. Mix cilantro into any remaining Parmesan mixture and brush over corn.
We ate it with Helen’s beautiful eggs, tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella cheese.
Nicolas used to save many seeds. But when his variety got really big, several of these seeds grew into plants that were clearly no longer the pure heirloom breed but rather had been cross-pollinated. So, for the past few years, he had stopped saving seeds and bought from great companies like High Mowing Seeds.
His mother, Helen, continued to save a bit. And he is happy to have them. He’s going to use the tomato seeds she saved from last year. Nicolas is also going to grow a few plants in isolation in order to save their seeds.
For some breeds, like squash, different families have to be planted really far apart or to be isolated with nets. Tom, at High Mowing Seeds, does a lot of this. More and more new technologies are being developed to address this issue.
O.K. I lied. I do not have a smart picture of farmer Nicolas speaking on a panel (though he did speak and did look mighty smart) and I do have lots to say about the film that proceeded the panel. I brought my camera, but without a memory card. My brain needs someone replacing its memory card. ; )
If you haven’t seen this film, Food, Inc., you can see a preview at their website. It is really powerful – enough to convince the kids that they never want to eat meat out again (unless at a restaurant where they use meat from farmers they know). They were eating twizzlers and popcorn and drinking lemonade while they watched but didn’t feel so great about this choice by the end of the film. I was glad about my choice to drink a beer (yes! an old historic movie theater that served good beer) as it helped to keep me from yelling out loud while viewing some of the atrocities wrought by Monsanto.
This brings me to one of the most horrifying revelations in the film. Those who are victims of Monsanto’s ownership of their seed (even if that seed has drifted on to their property from neighboring farms) and who have lost their livelihood as a result; AND those who have had a child die as a result of a food-borne illness due to industrially farmed cattle (all the meat out there that isn’t farmed by small or certified farmers) have even lost their ability to speak freely about their plight. They have learned the hard way that you don’t want to get sued by Monsanto or the big meat corporations. Those who have tried fighting for their right to save seeds or get out of Mansanto’s clutches have mostly gone bankrupt due to lawyer fees, before they even get to court.
There is so much more to this movie. This is just the part that gets me ranting. As Michael Pollan said in the film, our country’s present food policies are the most important thing we can become informed about today. Our food is now engineered. It has changed more in the last fifty years than it did for thousands of years before this. McDonald’s is the largest purchaser of ground beef, potatoes, chicken, tomatoes and lettuce. The top four meat packers control 80% of the meat system. Meat companies were never this powerful. We are eating chicken and turkey that has been redesigned to have large breasts and can’t even walk anymore so has to be artificially inseminated. Most of what we eat is largely made up of industrial gmo corn (including everything from fish to vanilla extract) but there is no labelling in place to tell us what has gmo ingredients. The film points out that for the past two decades, our government has been controlled by those they are supposed to be regulating.
I know. I said I wouldn’t rant. I need to go to the flowers now and leave my soap box to the professionals.
Here are a few of the flowers that you can find at the market or Local Farmstand store this summer.
These are the fruit of Helen’s passion for beautiful flowers.
Of course, she is also growing Passion Fruit:
Helen has many talents. One of them is seed saving. I took several pictures of her process with the tomato seeds over the past several days and will post that tutorial soon. Right now, we are getting ready, the kids and Nicolas and I, to go to a showing of Food, Inc. in Atlanta. It will be followed by a Q & A with Nicolas and some other organic farmers. I’ll try not to come back raving about food policies here ( just with a photo of Nicolas looking smart: ). I’m sure I’ll be recommending the movie. It’s supposed to be great.
We eat seasonally and don’t put up a lot of food, so by the time a vegetable or fruit’s season rolls round again, we are very anxious to reconnect. This is why we can stand to eat so many tomatoes for months in the summer. Plus, they are just that good.
There’s simple gazpacho, with peppers, tomatoes and garlic (yet to be blended):
Sometimes, we get crazy and add cucumbers and red onions:Then, there’s the many kinds of tomato sauce. Here, I was preparing a lot in order to freeze some for the winter. I boiled a big pot of water and submerged the cored tomatoes for about thirty seconds in order to easily peel off the skins. But this was before I got a powerhouse blender. I am curious to see how we like it with the peel left on. I hope we like it. It sure would simplify the process.
Sliced with “stuffed burgers” (stuffed with chopped herbs, english peas and carrots; invented and built by Jesse):Salsa! Here, just with cilantro (not from the farm, unfortunately) and garlic:
Much of the time, we just eat them sliced with coarse salt. Sometimes we’ll add Buffalo Mozzarella and basil or some bread and mayonnaise, or a pizza crust and mozzarella cheese. It will be the end of August before we get tired of them.
I hear that there is a 
And most of all when he is bringing me food! Here, he gave me the first ever asparagus. I got it! Not the chefs or the market. That was something.
The colors feel more vibrant than ever, as we approach the end of their season. They are raging against the dying of the light.
And it is.
But there is a reason that organic vegetables cost more than conventionally grown, and that the farmer has to have his back adjusted.
I remember the first time that I bought an organic pepper. I was flabbergasted by the price. It was soon after falling for Nicolas, 15 years ago. I went to the Dekalb Farmers Market to buy food for a party. It was in December so, duh!, pepper was not in season, not available locally and the one I chose was orange, so had stayed on the vine a long time to turn that color. I didn’t think seasonally or locally then. I hadn’t yet farmed in the middle of winter (hands freezing in the outdoor sink’s water to rinse the greens) or in the dogs days of a Georgia August.
This summer, we had more sweet corn than any previous year. Gillen did most of the work to make it happen. He made some money on it too! But it is never enough corn. We love it so. In the end, the worms took over and we didn’t have as much as we had hoped. Next year, we plan to grow three rounds of it, at least.
gside Market:
These are the fruit of Helen’s passion for beautiful flowers.
Helen has many talents. One of them is seed saving. I took several pictures of her process with the tomato seeds over the past several days and will post that tutorial soon. Right now, we are getting ready, the kids and Nicolas and I, to go to a showing of 
Then, there’s the many kinds of tomato sauce. Here, I was preparing a lot in order to freeze some for the winter. I boiled a big pot of water and submerged the cored tomatoes for about thirty seconds in order to easily peel off the skins. But this was before I got a powerhouse blender. I am curious to see how we like it with the peel left on. I hope we like it. It sure would simplify the process.
Sliced with “stuffed burgers” (stuffed with chopped herbs, english peas and carrots; invented and built by Jesse):
Salsa! Here, just with cilantro (not from the farm, unfortunately) and garlic:
