On the way back from an outing to New Jersey, we got a hankering for Jersey tomatoes in tonight's rendition of a classic Mediterranean side favorite - tomato-basil salad. Of course, there were no places to get farm-fresh tomatoes on the way back, since the house that sells produce on the way to the I-95 on ramp did not have tomatoes and would not probably for another week or two, and there were no other farms around that section of Hamilton. We went out of our way once back into Pennsylvania to search out the farms that my parents like to drive by on their way to a favorite breakfast spot/general store in Carversville. Fortunately we found Milk House farm as one that actually had a farm market that was both open and stocked.
The setup was so rustic, homey, and organic that I felt my nostalgia for a life in the country being relieved. The market was a small shed next to the chicken house, where at any given time, one can hear the crow of a rooster and the clucking of severely satisfied chickens. Roosters' calls dominated the farm, and some woolly mammals of some sort were romping and prancing in the fields near the trees. I swear they were llamas.... Regardless, the farm had the air of the beyond-organic approach to both agriculture and life as Michael Pollan might describe in any one of his amazing books and articles (the one from the NYT this past weekend about which I still must post), and the market was based on the honor system in its cute cubby. A scale was on one wall, while a calculator and a notebook as well as a money box were all on the opposite wall, adjacent to a basket of donated bags for the less green members of our society who do not keep bags in their cars for exactly such impulse farm purchases. We surveyed the room amazed at the selection displayed in such a small, cozy area. There were poblanos, to which my dad flocked rather swiftly since he has an obsessive love for such Mexican peppers. I shot to the bin suggesting the existence of sweet bell peppers in various hues: purple, yellow-green, and shades in between the two. I satisfied my craving with simply a half pound of those and a half pound of Japanese eggplant, for which I have several recipes in a new Japanese home-style cookbook I bought and scoured. Who doesn't love rustic Japanese recipes? We stuffed wonderfully fresh scallions into a bag along with several huge and brightly colored tomatoes and yellow onions. Surprisingly, they had fresh thai basil plants, and I had to truly force myself not to pick up a bunch, since I rarely see it for sale around here in the Acme (bleh!). I didn't, however, because we have a HUGE basil plant in the back yard along with a more manageably-sized purple basil plant with a rather strong anise aroma and flavor profile alongside the standard pepperiness of standard basil.
Once we got home, I headed over to the Grapevine Natural Food Store on State Street in Newtown in order to pick up a package of Kuzu, for which i had several recipes and an undying need to try some within the coming weeks before heading off to Philadelphia. It was pricey but worth it, since the multitude of recipes sound wonderful, healthy, and appealing to a palette such as mine : T. Also, my favorite checker was working today who I hadn't seen due to my schedule being hectic and not being able to stop in to buy some things and her vacation coinciding with the times I have been able to stop in to stock up on my favorite oatmeal passion//obsession: Old Wessex brand 5-grain Multigrain hot cereal. A post to come on solely that topic when I can get around to describing the cereal's perfection! That's where today's journeys have left me, only to puzzle out what is for dinner (probably shrimp) while watching Battle Squid on the Legit Iron Chef - woohoo!
