A couple of weeks ago I visited the Grant Family Farm north of Fort Collins to check on my produce. As you'll see from other blog postings, I've been receiving a weekly produce basket as part of my veggie share for the year. The folks at Grant Family Farms really do make you feel like you're part of the farm - after all, if the farm is hit by hail, you feel it in your weekly produce basket!
The tour included a a visit to the ducks, and turkeys - both for sale to members. The turkeys require a down payment but will be ready in time for thanksgiving.
The surrounding farm land is spacious and open - nothing but beautiful blue sky, green grasses and light mountain breezes rolling off the foothills. The field in the picture below is of over winter wheat almost ready for harvest. This organic wheat should show up in our basics later in the year as artisan ground whole wheat flower.
We also toured the newly created hen houses where the farm raises all their free range Rhode Island Reds and collects the beautiful small, brown eggs. The eggs, although small, are full flavored with bright, golden, thick yolks and will continue to get larger as the birds mature. As explained by our host with the bull horn - the hens are allowed to freely roam through out the yard and near by fields, scavenging for bugs, and worms to supplement their normal grain diet. To help protect the hens, the farm has enlisted the services of a couple of llamas (not pictured), which they claim keep watch over the flock and will ward off any hungry coyotes.
As we continued the tour around the farm we were able to see the farm hands in action transplanting row upon row of tomato seedlings from the near by hot house to the fields. It was easy to imagine how in a few weeks, all these fields would be bursting with produce ready to harvest and bring to the dinner table. We can even see the changes in produce week over week - what started off in week 1 as small, delicious heads of red leaf lettuce have matured into larger, fuller heads each and every week.
I hope you stay tuned each week as I give you the blow by blow of the week's take and how to prepare it in fresh and fun ways.
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