Shut the Front Door. (saturday part one)

It started off like any normal Saturday.  Fresh eggs for breakfast, putzing around the garden, cutting flowers for the house.    But my beautiful friend Nicole (click for all of you midwifery needs!) just got invited to be the midwife for a new family down the road, and they were having an open house for their new organic farm and CSA yesterday, and she promised that they were going to be our new best friends, and...wait what?  Shut the front door.  A new young family down the road with an organic farm?  So Coco and I got gussied up and waited on the porch for Nicole to pick us up.  I packed up some eggs, preserves, flowers, and fresh cornbread...and we were off to woo them with our wares and our good looks.

Literally, we were not quite a mile away as the crow flies, when we were welcomed into the beautiful embraces of Emily and Nigel Griswold - the perfect inhabitants of Family Circle Centennial Farm.  Emily,  is a fifth generation farmer, her hands in the very dirt that her great, great grandfather purchased in 1907, her family sleeping under the roof of her ancestors 1924 farmhouse.  Nigel proudly walks you down row upon row of organic food, and eagerly shares his beautiful bees with you at the back of the lot.  Their lovely daughter ran through the grass laughing with Coco.

No, seriously.  This all happened.

We have been so hell bent on finding our community here, and yesterday, finally,  it felt like we did.  We met members of Emily's family who have farmed Stockbridge for generations.  Joe could have talked corn and soybeans with the "good ol' boys" of Stockbridge all night long.  And while Emily's father is a conventional farmer, he sees her passion for organic farming, and was eager to tell us how supportive and excited he was about her new homestead.  Family, local food, planting roots...literally and figuratively - how thrilled we are to have ventured over yesterday, and how excited we are for what lies ahead.

If you are new to CSA's (community supported agriculture), here is the lowdown.  You pay a fee in the early spring to a local farm to cover the cost of seed and labor.  Then, starting usually in June, you pick up your weekly box of fresh veggies, flowers, eggs, honey, etc., depending on the farm.  Farms with hoop house usually have fall/winter shares with lots of yummy greens and root veggies.  There is also an amazing meat CSA that my dear friend Allison (click for her scrumptious food blog, the last bite) partakes in run by Emily's cousin Ben (I think I have that right?) (click on Ben for info on Bending Sickle Farm Community Farm, and the farm is moving soon to Stockbridge...keepin' it in the family, or community, or both!!).  I have had Ben's meat, and Ben's meat is goo...oo...ood (draw that out a little when you say it).

So... check out The Family Circle Centennial Farm CSA, there may be a few spots left for this summer!  Or, next time you are driving up M-52, keep your eyes peeled about a 1/2 mile past Leeke rd....on the right...for their organic farm stand!  And if this sweet love story about a girl, her family, and her land wasn't enough to convince you, maybe these will....

Emily and Nigel's Family Homestead

We could have stayed all day, but we were already committed to dinner at Allison's and a night of music at Johnny's Speakeasy...and the night only got better...stay tuned for Saturday Part Deux!