Thursday, August 28, 2008

as high as an elephant's eye

While going to the Appleseed shoot last week, and earlier this summer to Indianapolis, I had the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the scenery as Mike drove the car. Having lived in suburbia for so long, I love seeing the wide open spaces and vast horizons created by farming. I admire the tidy green rows of crops, wonder about a lone tree left standing in the middle of an empty field, and wave hello to cows as we speed past. We dream together of owning a piece of land of our own...

"But we don't know anything about farming. What would we grow?"

"Cats."

Yeah, probably - but we'd likely be the only ones because as we drove along, all I saw was corn. Miles and miles of it along the highway. Some of that corn might eventually make its way to the weekly farmer's market in downtown Willoughby and then to the dinner table at the Fallacy house. It's lovely grilled of course, with sea salt, fresh rosemary and a bit of garlic but there are few things in this world more delicious than homemade fritters, made with fresh sweet corn and served with maple syrup.

The sun is setting earlier these days and the cicadas are in the trees, whirring their last desperate love songs - summer doesn't last forever. Taste it before its gone.

15 comments:

The Duck said...

Well if you buy a large enough piece of land to farm, lease it to a local farmer to farm it, & just enjoy the country living.

Anonymous said...

That miles and miles of corn is very unlikely to make it to your plate. Most of it is what we call "cow corn" in NY - it's grown for bulk and mass, not large ears. The corn is not the sweet corn you're used to eating... it's edible, but not real good. Cow corn generally gets chopped (think of a huge coffee grinder mounted on a tractor) and covered to ferment into silage, then fed out over the winter.

Although this year, ethanol seems to be a prime destination for it too... *eyeroll*

(Yep, I'm a country boy.)

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Grow clover and alfalfa and apples and a little corn. Then when deer season comes...

Grow an acre of hop vines and make beer.

Grow potatoes. Heirloom potatoes. A couple dozen varieties all over the property, and get yer Irish on.

Weer'd Beard said...

I'm still talking to the Mrs. about the Emu Ranch idea...sofar no luck...

Mike W. said...

Weer'd - We actually have a Llama farm here in Hockessin.

Anonymous said...

Grow cats. What a wonderful line.We're doing it here.If you need more cats, let me know.

Toni

Anonymous said...

We're trying not to grow cats. That's why we got some nice stinky boys to chase the rodents; they don't need to be fixed. Unfortunately, they periodically become road pizza.

I'm trying to learn how to grow stuff, and it's incredibly frustrating. It takes deep knowledge and constant attention.

Bob said...

Remember that if you decide to farm in Montana that dental floss is a profitable crop, at least according to the late Frank Zappa:

I might be movin' to Montana soon
Just to raise me up a crop of Dental Floss
Raisin' it up
Waxin' it down
In a little white box
I can sell uptown
By myself I wouldn't
Have no boss,
But I'd be raisin' my lonely Dental Floss

Anonymous said...

O. My. God. I WAS born on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon Line and on the wrong Continent. Gimmeeeeee!!!! Ever eat corn right from the stalk? Raw? It's sweet as all get-out. Mmmm...:::drool:::

Grow cats?? What are you going to do with all that p***y?? *heh* :)

I'm a baaaaaaad boy, Abbott...

Anonymous said...

Bob, I wasn't familiar with that Zappa lyric, and, God help me, as I read through I could hear Garrison Keillor singing it (one of those things he does on PHC before "Lake Woebegon.")...

That's it, I'm opening a beer.

Unknown said...

"I admire the tidy green rows of crops, wonder about a lone tree left standing in the middle of an empty field"

The lone tree is probably left from the days when the farming was done with horses.The farmer and the team would have a shady place to eat and rest

Anonymous said...

Breda,

Most of that corn is field corn and will got to seed, animal feed, maybe some corn meal, and now possibly some ethanol.

You CAN eat field corn, and it tastes good if you get it young enough. This time of year is is all ready starting to harden the kernela snd you won't want to eat it, it will worst than the worst sweet corn you have ever eaten.

Some do make sileage around here but mostly with corn that did not grow properly due to water or way too late planting.

Buckshot

phlegmfatale said...

om nom nom!

Anonymous said...

OT: Breda- how do you feel about a woman VP?

I have video of her with an AR.

http://palinforvp.blogspot.com
/2008/07/mccain-palin-team-you
-can-trust.html

Ken said...

Zercool and buckshot beat me to it. Probably make good cornbread, cornmeal mush, or cornflakes though. In the immortal words of John Wayne: "Corrrrn dodger?"