The Farm

We're fortunate to live in a city where the production and consumption of local, organically grown food is emphasized and, during the non-tundra months of May through October, typically available in abundance. One of our favorite Sunday morning activities consists of warm scones, decaf coffee, and the galvanized metal bin full of children's toys and books at Anodyne coffee shop, followed by a brief walk across Nicollet Avenue to the Kingfield Farmer's Market, where Lili chirps and points at the fruit and vegetable vendors from atop Mama's shoulders. This year, we also joined forces with our neighbors and chipped in for a CSA share. Every Tuesday, I arrive home to a sturdy green and white cardboard box overflowing with (thus far) kale, lettuce, radishes, green onions, snap peas, strawberries, canned tomatoes, and ground corn meal. Lili loves to help me divide our farm fresh share, load the Radio Flyer wagon full of vegetables, and cruise down the street for our weekly delivery to "And-gela".

Our particular CSA is provided by the (aptly named) The Farm. The Farm is a third-generation, family owned and operated farm located in Hutchinson, Minnesota, and the current owner, Farmer Dan, was kind enough to invite his CSA participants to his home this past weekend for a farm tour and open house. We arrived and departed amid brilliant blue skies, partook of beans and raspberries plucked fresh from the vine, and purchased a carton of gorgeous eggs, laid earlier that morning. Aside from forming an immediate bond with the newly hatched free range chickens, my hope was that Lili would gain the slightest, even briefest sense of where our food comes from, and what it looks like prior to being placed in her ceramic monkey bowl by the moms. As it turns out, Mama and I learned a thing or two, as well, about life on The Farm.

Compost!

Chickens, chillaxin'.

Enjoying the chicken view and duck perspective. 

Farmer Dan, leading the tour. All in a day's work. 

Mama, raspberry pickin'.

Lili, raspberry eatin'. 

 Touring the greenhouse. 

Knee high by the 4th of July.