Farm to City
- Sep 26, 2016
- 2 min read
This past Labor Day I got spend some time upstate Connecticut with my aunt and uncle, and on that Saturday we spent the day with their dear friends on their gorgeous 30 acre property. What a magical place and special day. They have two huge gardens filled with everything you can imagine, horses, chickens, llamas, 3 goats, roosters...the list goes on. And every Labor Day weekend, they host what they call the "Corn Party." The corn, planted 72 days earlier, was ready to harvested and I was there to witness the action.
My experience with corn, up until this point, was like most Americans: open up a frozen bag and heat until thawed. During the summer, I'd buy a few ears from the supermarket or MAYBE the farmer's market. But not this day. I picked corn off the stalks. I husked. I cut it off the cob. And I bagged it. About 100+ bags of it. This year yielded a small harvest—just a mere 487 ears. Yes. A SMALL harvest. In previous years it's been upward of a 1,000!
The entire experience was unlike anything I've ever done before. I had been to this garden the previous year to pick some fresh vegetables, but let me tell you: corn is A LOT of work! And I will never look at corn the same way. But it was fun, too. (And the wine, beer and delicious home cookin' didn't hurt either!) Most people in attendance that Saturday were Corn Party veterans, but they were kind enough to show me the ropes. And as a thank you to helping with the harvest, everyone was sent home with PLENTY of corn (amongst other delicious things) to enjoy throughout the winter.
Lucky for me, my farm haul included:
24 heads of garlic
10 ears of freshly picked corn
10 bags of flash-frozen, freshly-cut corn kernels
8 large carrots
4 homegrown cucumbers
3 spaghetti squash
4 butternut squash
4 red beets
3 white beets
8 Japanese eggplants
4 large purple eggplants
2 extra-large daikon radishes
2 enormous zucchini (literally, the largest I've ever seen...plus some "normal sized" zucchini)
about 2 pounds of cherry tomatoes
a quart of fresh picked raspberries
several pounds of swiss chard, rainbow chard and kale
multiple varieties of peppers, including sweet, jalapeño and poblanos
3 dozen freshly laid eggs
1 jar of homemade pepper jelly
1 cantaloupe
1 pumpkin
And with so many fresh vegetables, clearly CLEARLY the only thing to do was to invite some friends over to feast. So we did. For hours and hours. I hadn't been that full since...my day at the farm five days earlier. Below are some of my favorite photos captured at the Corn Party 2016. I've already begun to document some of the recipes and dishes I've made using my incredible, freshly picked vegetables (like this one, or this one, or this one), but more to follow in the upcoming weeks—stay tuned!
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