A Trip Down South

    Produce farmers don't really know the meaning of the words summer vacation.  Planting season begins in April, or sooner if you have a greenhouse to take care of, and is not really over until the end of October.  Therefore, any extended trips usually have to be taken in the winter.  

    Having said that, I have been lucky enough to sneak away for a few days on a camping trip to the Carolina coast.  All of my crops have been planted and while I am still harvesting early vegetables like peas and lettuce, the main season veggies like tomatoes and peppers are not yet ready.  There is not really a good time to leave the farm--it will probably be a jungle when I return--but this is one of my last opportunities to get away before things get really crazy.

    It is full produce season in South Carolina right now.  Yesterday I visited a farm and was jealous of the beautiful tomato plants just loaded with big red tomatoes.  The farmer told me that they are about three weeks behind down here due to a cool spring.  It is plenty warm here now though.  I am writing this at about 11:00pm using the campground's wi-fi and it is still about 85 degrees.  I am told that it has been cool and rainy in Zanesville this week.

    At the farm's roadside stand there was sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, okra, and cantaloupe.  The big school buses which they use to haul watermelons out the fields were lined up waiting for the harvest to begin in a few days. 

   I brought some of my own vegetables with me like lettuce and snow peas.  The season for those crops has long since been finished down here, so I feel like I am enjoying the best of both worlds.  All of this fresh produce, plus the fresh shrimp we bought, has made this the best food I have eaten on a camping trip.  It is amazing the good things you can cook on a forty year old Coleman camp stove.

    Don't worry, I will be home in plenty of time to pick good things for the Zanesville Farmers Market on Saturday. We may not have the selection at home yet that I have been enjoying down here this week, but each week you will find something new added to the farmers' tables. 

    On my trip I was able to visit my friends Georgia and Tanja Phillips.  This mother/daughter duo are renowned cooks in their small community so I was happy to get the following recipe suggestion from them.

Bacon and Pea Pasta

• 1lb. Bacon
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 quart garden peas, shelled
• 1 yellow crookneck squash, diced
• 1 lb. pasta of choice (Tanja prefers linguine for this dish)
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Parmesan cheese to taste

Boil a pot of water and cook pasta until al dente.  Meanwhile, cook bacon in skillet until crisp.  Drain and crumble.  Leave some of the bacon grease in skillet and use it to sauté the onions until golden.  Add the yellow squash and sauté a couple of minutes.  Add the peas and sauté for a few seconds longer, but do NOT overlook the peas.  Add the bacon, squash, and peas to the pasta, season with salt and pepper and add Parmesan cheese.

 Island home!

 Hunting Island Lighthouse.  I love lighthouses, by the way.

 Beach!

 Dempsey U-Pick Farm, St. Helena Island, SC   And I thought I had sandy soil!  This is Becky in front of the tomatoes.

 Eggplant

 Tomatoes

 Sweet Corn

 Squash plants.  Look at those perfectly raised beds--they were at least 12 inches high.

Eggplant patch.  They were so tall--I wish I had someone standing next to them for scale (how could I forget Dr. Ritter telling me I always need to include something for scale?!)

 

This is a small portion of a huge hydrangea hedge in someone's yard.  I wanted so badly to stop and cut buckets full to bring home!!  This picture doesn't do it just--absolutely gorgeous!