Local Farms
N- and I went on a mountain farm tour yesterday. The first farm included a two hour two by the farmer who specializes in sustainable agriculture. He is one of the people working to bring back the American chestnut tree. He showed terraced mountain agriculture, grabbed plants and passed them around for eating, and showed us how they grow blueberries. They even grow heirloom apples there, and I learned that apples come from Kazakhstan, and now I'm obsessed with this idea of forests of apple trees.
From there we bought some artisan goat cheese from Spinning Spider Creamery. At this point it had been pouring down rain (3 pm = mountain rain in the summer) so we didn't stick around to get a tour. Besides, I'm not sure touring the farms where cheese is made is always the best recommendation for eating that cheese. We bought the garlic dill chevre and one of the surface-ripened cheeses, which is a firmer texture.
There was an entire long list of farms to visit, but I have excellent picking ability. The first farm was up this gravel road that was so uneven it felt like we had hydraulics, and the last place was down a bunch of winding mountain roads into a valley. At least that road was paved. At Zimmerman's Berry Farm, they were out of raspberries because of how many people had been there the day before, but we stayed and picked black raspberries. I know black raspberries as "black caps" that grew wild in the woods where I grew up. They are more raspberry-like than blackberry, it is just the color that is different. But since it had rained the bugs were going crazy - the berries are grown organically (no pesticides = BUG CITY!) so we picked about a 1/2 pound before letting the bugs have the berries back.
Two places talked about wineberries, which I had never seen or heard of before. When I first heard it, I thought they were being sarcastic about grapes, but apparently there are these berries that look like raspberries but aren't tart at all, just sweet and amazing. They get ripe in a few weeks, so we might be taking another trip down the winding mountain roads!
I got one of the local foods bumper stickers for free, whee! N- hates bumper stickers but he never drives the Neon, so I figure, why not make it reflect who I am. :)