A special meal

There is a lot of talk these days about “food miles.” Basically, the things Americans eat have traveled an average of 1,500 miles from source to dinner table. But yesterday we were treated to a lunch that would have been better measured in feet.

The occasion was our on-farm lunch out at Eric and Joanna Reuters’ Chert Hollow Farm. The 40-acre, mostly-wooded homestead is largely self-reliant, reflecting the couple’s ethic of sustainability. During the growing season they raise an array of heirloom and other produce for sale at the Columbia Farmers Market and then freeze, can or otherwise preserve the rest for their consumption over the winter. They were gracious enough to share some of their hard-won food with my family yesterday, in a lunch and farm tour I’d been looking forward to for some time.

When we showed up about 11:00am, a small gaggle of geese announced our presence like winged guard dogs. While Eric put the finishing touches on the meal, Joanna took us down to a paddock to visit with their animals – the geese, a half-dozen chickens and two very personable goats. We surveyed the hoophouse, chicken coop and a couple of other small structures the Reuters have added – bit by bit – over the three years they’ve lived on the farm. Most of the wood comes from the farm and was milled on-site. Many other materials are purchased through Craigslist. The goal is to reduce environmental impact by utilizing the resources of the land while obtaining secondhand what they can’t produce themselves.

Little Ms. SME gets up close and personal with Garlic. Or is it Gloria?

The kids enjoyed visiting with the animals, but my stomach was growling; the dinner bell rang none too soon.

Lunch was a Southern-food fan’s dream: oven-fried chicken, okra, Mercuri tomatoes, cornbread, Hoppin’ John and pecan pie. They threw in a lemon merignue pie for the hell of it. I loved it all, but especially the chicken and the tomatoes, both grown in the small fields just outside the kitchen window and each lightly breaded with the Reuters’ own cornmeal. Eric fretted that his pecan pie didn’t “set up,” but he uses sorghum instead of corn syrup and is still working out the ratio. It didn’t matter to me – the pie was delicious.

As a special treat Eric brought out some goat-milk cheddar he’d been aging since last summer. Sharp and tangy, it was so good I spent the rest of the day thinking about making a cheese press of my own.

Walking around the property after lunch we got a sense of where Eric and Joanna are looking to take the farm. They have a series of long, no-till raised beds for planting future crops. Some trees are being cleared to make way for an orchard and series of berry patches. A barn – utilizing more of their own wood – is also in the works. It struck me that Eric and Joanna are profoundly conservative in their approach (indeed, most farmers throughout history have had to be). They keep records, buy things secondhand and work hard to see their farm become not just some philosophical success, but a commercial one as well. While largely “off the grid” from this city boy’s perspective, they value community and good company. Hopefully, we were able to afford them at least some of both.

Driving away on the rutted dirt road, we felt honored and lucky; it’s a truly humbling thing to dine on food people not only cooked, but coaxed from the land themselves.

In a couple of months, when the farmers market is in full swing, be sure to stop by their stall and say hi to the Reuters. They’d like to meet you, sure, but they’ll also sell you some great edamame.

(First and third photos brazenly ripped off from Eric’s blog)