By Emily Buehler, Weaver Street Market Website Coordinator
I managed to visit four farms on this year’s Piedmont Farm Tour. On Saturday, my sister (visiting from Boston) had requested that we see “lots of animals,” so we headed first to Woodcrest Farm. In the barn, we could pet baby goats (the chickens scurried away), and outside, we saw gigantic bunnies, doves, and the farm’s herding dogs, as well as the greenhouse. The Greens, who own Woodcrest, had prepared a guided tour of the land that led past the goats and the farm pond and into the woods, with interpretive signs. We returned to the entrance across the wide field with the cows.
Next we headed down to Perry-winkle Farm, lured by the promise of wood-fired oven pizza. We did visit the chickens at the Egg McMansion, but mostly we sat and ate pizza, which had a crispy crust made with locally milled flour and green garlic from Perry-winkle’s fields. Cathy and Mike were on hand, greeting visitors and answering questions about the farm.
We missed the downpour on the drive to Fickle Creek Farm, where we followed a guided tour past fields of broilers, sheep, and cows. The sheep spend much of their time “on loan” to solar farms, where they organically keep weeds from growing up around the solar panels. The tour led past a pen in which mother pigs lay with their muddy piglets, who loved posing for photos. Then came the famed Egg Mobiles, where children could hunt for eggs under the watchful eye of a displeased hen. The tour looped past the barn and back out to the field where we’d parked.
After so many farms, I thought I was done for the weekend, but my mom (a gardener) expressed an interest in seeing the fields at Two Chicks Farm, whose award-winning sauerkraut she’s been eating since moving to Hillsborough last year. So on Sunday we drove north to Two Chicks Farm. Without the lure of sheep and cows, it was much quieter than our Saturday visits had been.
Out in the fields, Debbie pointed out the rows of cabbage, garlic, and other crops that will be fermented into Two Chicks’ wide variety of preserves. Beets, peppers, and radishes were in the three hoophouses that are in production all year. I grew emotional when I saw the ninety-six foot row of tomato plants: last fall, I discovered Two Chicks’ fermented salsa, the best salsa I’d ever had, with fresh yet harmonious flavors, only to have the supply end a week later. The long row of tomato plants promised months of salsa later this year. In the greenhouse, Audrey showed us seedlings growing in soil blocks, an efficient and beneficial method for starting seeds. On the way out, we stopped to sample Two Chicks’ goodies.
Thanks to all the farmers who took the time to be on this year’s tour. If you didn’t make it out, save the date for April, 2017.