This week
Living Amongst Your Food
2 August 2010
Notes on deliveries for August 5, 2010
New this week:
- 5-pack of amazing 8oz sorbets ( line 426)
- Incredible sausages from Schmidt's of Steelton PA, ( lines 428–439)
- 3 pack of seasonal fruit wines and a Riesling PMV (line 442)
- Fresh Chesapeake seafood every other week ( lines 218–231)
- Wild cherry syrup w/ dark chocolate and vanilla ice cream combo pack (line 424)
Hello Arganicans,
Today we received our purchase of young sheep that has been long in the planning. A new pasture is fenced, a giant walk-in freezer is built, and dates have been set on the calendar with our local butcher. Now, most of these sheep are very young—and really just too cute for such a fate. I can already see the problems developing with so many fuzzy little lamb chops mixing with our kids and the many neighbor children who regularly hang out at the farm and river. Every one of these creatures will soon have a name, and, as the months go by, I will be bargaining with them on the fate of each pet. No matter how many we raise, they will all have a name and be claimed as pets.
We started our family in the heart of DC and raised the 1st kids on the concrete sidewalks of Mt. Pleasant. Our move to the country is still seen as a 'departure from the norm' by all of our kids who remember the land where one's house touches that of your friend's. Facing issues such as how your pet becomes your food is just one of the items removed from normalcy. So too is using the swimming pool as an irrigation tank. When I suggested to my daughter that we should use the pool to also raise tilapia, she threw a fit—not because she has problems with killing tilapia or eating fresh fish—it is just that her family is yet again, one more eccentric step removed, when talking to her soccer playing friends who simply do not put fish in pools. Very serious social baggage these days.
In my defense I submit that feeding a flock of animals, as pets in perpetuity, or maintaining a pool when we live on the edge of a river, are great inefficiencies of time and money. Do I need to point out that we are already happily swimming with fish, and eating them too? Things must be useful, practical, and serve a need on a farm. I think these are good issues to understand, as they serve to build a true knowledge of the price—and value—of your food.
I have not yet won this argument, but I hope—through the regular practice of this weekly text—I may yet arrive at a proper case that will win over the young and nimble minds living at this farm.
Today I am saved from hard discussions by the sweet remedy of conflict-free wild cherries, which are now abundant on our farm. Though we introduced them last week, they are now yours to try in the form of a ready-made syrup, sold in combination with semi-sweet chocolate and Tricklinlg Springs Vanilla Ice Cream. It is in this arrangement that the wild cherry received it greatest appreciation. (Combo pack, line 424) Please chop the chocolate into chunks and mix in with the ice cream. Drizzle with the spectacular crimson wild cherry syrup and become a believer. This is truly the ruby riches of the forest—and exactly why we go through all the trouble.
Check out our amazing 5-pack of sorbets. We are selling this at a loss to get you off your crack cocaine habit and get you hooked on these fresh ways to extend the local fruit season. (line 426)
A few quick notes on other items to numerous to mention: The sausages from Schmidt's of Steelton, PA fame. My family grew up eating this stuff—and I have not yet had better. And so now we are driving back there to old Steelton, PA, past the derelict steel mills where the sweet music of the Polka Quads still drifts down where the canal breezes blow. These meats are the real deal, and I know of way too many people who return—by bus, car, airplane—back to Schmidt's in order to drag a suitcase of these handmade treats to all parts of this country.
Oh and sorry to those who did not get fresh trout last week—the phones went out up there in the mountains and our order was not ready. This week we have fresh from the Chesapeake—next week we will be fresh from the mountains repeating this flip-flop indefinitely.
Bidding goodbye to our amazing berry-picking Woofer girls who leave the farm tomorrow, until next week—from Dom, Rachel, Praggie Tom, Rebecca, Jamie, Joe, Casey, coffee haulin’ Jose, and the whole team at Arganica!
