We had fantastic plans today to do two of my favorite new things: get local food and not have to pay anything! A friend of mine sent us an email about Miller Farm, in northern Colorado, that was closing up for the season and trying to rid themselves of the remainder of their crop. They had two types of potatoes, pie pumpkins, carrots, and beets, and would allow each person ten ten-pound bags over the next two days, while supplies lasted.
All summer long we have been visiting farmers’ markets in Aurora, Parker, and even Boulder due to my reading of Animal, Miracle, Vegetable by Barbara Kingsolver. Now that I have been thoroughly educated on the costs, financially, ecologically, and healthily, of eating processed/frozen/faraway foods, our whole family has been trying to eat locally. I have a storage room filled with jars of Colorado peaches and pears, peach jam, and tomato sauce (no easy task–this is easily an 8-hour-process). We also have gathers a multitude of winter squash, mainly butternut and acorn. It’s stacked high, and we’ve just begun to dip into our supply as the farmers’ markets have closed for the season.
So when my friend sent that email, I was enthralled. Miller Farm is the one we primarily buy from. They have the best prices. One rainy morning in late August, they sold me 30 pounds of tomatoes for $25!! And none of them thought I was crazy. When I told them I’d be making sauce, one of the women asked, “Have you ever tried making ketchup?” I knew I was in the right place.
My intentions for this morning were to rise early and arrive there when they opened their “doors” at 9 a.m., but the girls actually slept in a bit today, and Bruce and I couldn’t resist staying in bed a bit longer ourselves. So when we finally piled in the Hyundai and headed north, it was nearly 10 o’clock, and just before 11 when we saw the flashing lights of a traffic-directing cop and the long line of cars. In all directions, cars filtered into the massive dirt parking lot. Going north, east, west, and south, cars were parked along the roads. And at the crossroad of route 66 and Miller Farm, men in heavy flannel shirts, baseball caps, and jeans held huge signs that read, “Produce gone.”
My friend works for Fox News, where they had done a “live shot” earlier this week, advertising this event. I should have known. Is it the economy, the environment, or the desire to taste vegetables straight from the farm that brought all those people there today?
All I know is, If You Put it on TV, They Will Come…
Instead, we drove the girls into downtown Longmont, a place I’ve never been myself. I was surprised to see the early-twentieth-century brick buildings with “gold rush” type facades, and admittedly pleasantly surprised. I always criticize the mundane strip malls of Colorado towns, but Longmont had a nice old-school charm. We had a delicious lunch at Abbondanza Pizzeria, walked around, Christmas shopped, and headed on down to Dairy Queen so that they could redeem their “chore points” for ice cream (we have begun a new system to try and encourage positive behavior).
Even though we didn’t get our vegetables, we had a family day filled with new sights and adventures.
