A Few of My Favorite Farmers

This is a radish, people. Who knew?

 Some years back, before babies were born and houses were built and when dreams were ripe for the picking, a dear friend named Erin lived not too far away down in Massachusetts (I did not hold this against her).

She is one of the most lovely people you are likely to meet, so lovely that Anne and I asked her to perform our wedding ceremony, which she did with great poise and warmth.

The Right Reverend Erin.

 Erin worked on a CSA farm as an apprentice, where she met another apprentice named Ben, the one person who could give even her amazing loveliness a run for its money. You can imagine what it was like when they got together--a goodness and light overload! What an amazing couple. Alas, they followed their dream and returned to the land of Erin's birth, Minnesota, so they could start their own CSA farm, which they did with great success. It is called Open Hands Farm and is located in Northfield. I am very happy for them but miss them dearly, so it was a great treat to have them come back east recently and spend a night with us here in NH. They have a beautiful daughter named Allia, and while she and Olive may need some convincing at this point in their lives, we are all certain they will be BLDFF's (Best Long Distance Friends Forever).

Plastic, mmmm.

A great crop of people.

While they were driving around Massachusetts before they visited us they came across their old farm boss, who now runs a strictly winter vegetable business, which evidently is booming. He would not let them leave without taking a huge bag of root veggies, which they in turn brought up to us, since they couldn't really bring them back on the plane with them. This guy is a prolific organic grower, as these beautiful and bountiful crops will attest to. They completely elevated the salad I was serving with dinner to new levels of 'WOW!'

Root veg heaven!

Nom nom nom.

This radish looks so great it deserves another look.

Yellow carrots!

So even though they are back home in Minnesota planning their upcoming year, they still linger back here with us in the form of beets, carrots, parsnips and radishes. You gotta love farmers.