Boggy Creek Farm

www.boggycreekfarm.com

What a treat it is these days to be able to buy food from a local organic farm.   Even more if it is an inside the city limits.  It is said that there are more than 11 million FarmVille farmers in Facebook but there are only 2 million real farmers in the US.   Doesn't make sense,  does it?    If we realized it is food we are talking about.  

Carol Ann is one of them.   She not only knows and studies the land where she proudly grows real food, she teaches and takes under her wing future farmers with respect for the profession.
They work hard.  Every day in every weather conditions.  They wish for rain and worry about frost.
But they love their job and do it well.  (I am  grateful for that!)

And then, once the produce is ready to  be harvest,  all their hard work is displayed.  Beautiful bunches of vegetables are perfectly arranged at  Boggy Creek Farmer's market.    

Patient chefs wait in line to be the first buyers,  moms and dads rushed in during the morning until every single vegetable is sold.   And I mean everything!  (I am grateful for that too)

Carol Ann blooms on market days.  Wednesday and Saturdays are the days where her hard work is payed off.   I imagine it would be like having an art show and knowing  every single piece was sold.
Pretty cool!  

Meet Carol Ann, and her assistants Marissa and Austin

It is early in the morning....
The first one to arrive is Austin.  He rides his bike everyday to work.   Marisa comes right behind him.  Carol Ann is organizing her thoughts and planning their schedule.

After a long day of work Carol Ann cooks a "Farm-Lunch" for the three of them (and visitors too, meaning me).    Her recipes are simple and fresh.  She wants everyone to be "nourished, not fattened" and she does it well.  For ideas and recipes go to her Facebook page. 

Meet Juanita.

When I was 7 years old my parents bought a property outside Mexico city.  Two hours and a half  away from the big city.   
Every weekend we would drive up the mountains to find refugee from the chaotic life,  in a very rustic and wonderful house  close to a small town called Temascaltepec.  
For as long as I remember not much has changed in this town.  One single road will take you in town and and a secondary one will take you out.
There are no restaurant chains or big name supermarkets.  Only local owned business serving this small community.   As small as this town might  be it is close to being self sufficient.
The oldest "tortilleria" is located across the main plaza.  It has been in the same corner for many years.   It was recently painted orange by the owner's son and daughter who are now in charge.   Meet Juanita Arteaga and the "Tortilleria Del Centro."
She will always greet you, weigh and pack your tortillas, and even roll a warm one for you to take on the road.

Rice for the newly weds

Ivan and Lourdes were greeted with rice at the end of mass.  As newlyweds they were wished good luck and abundance.  As well as fertility.   

They were hit several times with bunches of it.  People cheered. A group of Mariachis sang.

In small towns in Mexico weddings are community events.  Uninvited people show up to comment about the bride's dress. In laws lend flower arrangements only to take them back with them.  Children play soccer outside church while the hour and a half mass is over.   Then the bride and groom walk through town while the Mariachi band follow them.   Giving the unaware a second chance to participate.  

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Beekeeper

Martin Cassiano started working as a beekeeper when he was 18 years old.  Thirty five years later he has become an expert in the world of bees.
Today he manages 400 beehives,  and collects 20 tons of honey a year.  Amazingly with very little budget,  Martin and his two helpers and  nature's good will (as Martin says)  make this modest business work.

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Carol Ann's Chickens

On November 2011  I took a workshop in Austin with Lynn Johnson, Scott Martin and Penny de Los Santos.  My assignment was to follow and photo document Carol Ann Sayle at her beautiful urban farm, Boggy Creek Farm.
The workshop was more than I had expected to be.  Honestly I thought it was going to be shooting in group and having critiques.   Maybe be back at home for dinner.  Never  did I imagined I was going to be abandoning my four 12 year old kids and husband for a week.
On the second day of the workshop I was so stressed out about being pulled in two different directions I was ready to give up.

Fortunately I did not.   This workshop helped me more than anything I have done for my career in the last 10 years.  It gave me a chance to feel vulnerable but at the same time to realized it's a matter of will and determination and it made me feel empowered.

And as if this would not be enough I got to meet and learn from a real gardener, with real knowledge. Knowledge that is leaned by doing, by getting dirty and sleeping tired.  I got to followed Carol Ann, and her assistants Marisa and Austin while working, preparing the soil, planting and weeding.   I watched her cook and then shared lunch with them everyday. 

And then, as it always happens, while gathering at the kitchen, an interesting conversation came up.  Marissa and Austin were talking about how Butterball was acting weird.  Butterball being one of Carol Ann's chicken.
The three of them really liked these birds!    It was too cool to ignore.
The next day for almost 2 hours, instead of following Carol Ann, Marissa or Austin, I followed the chicken (Penny was not happy about it) these are some of their portraits.

Carol Ann,  Austin and Marissa this one is for you.

Elizabeth

   Watching Elizabeth cook at The Culinary Institute of America  is like watching an Orchestra play.  Everything moves and works together in a coordinated and beautiful way.   Watching her at home is like watching an Orchestra play your favorite Symphony... plus caipirinhas!
Her "White House" as she calls it, is an old house in down town New Braunfels, TX

A fixer upper in  good hands.  I would say.

Every room in the house is beautifully decorated with one of a kind furniture and Elizabeth's life favorite findings.

The kitchen, still not remodeled, is small and unpractical,  The working area is not larger than a cutting board and yet Elizabeth dwells the place.  She moves and prepare meals for friends and family as if she was at The Culinary Institute, while getting milk on a plastic cup and looking for a ban-aid for one of her two small children.

Music is always playing, today Brazilian music.  Elizabeth is mixing something in a bowl while sipping her glass of wine.  I can tell she is enjoying herself... orchestrating her space.

Calm and focus, humming her music she swings around the place, and at the end  a meal of roasted lamb-chops, fresh cut salad from her garden, couscous and grilled asparagus had been prepared.

Same old Kitchen

I have cherished memories of my parent's kitchen.  Not that it was a modern, state of the art kitchen.  On the contrary, it was an old, badly- taken- care- of- kitchen.  The kind where the drawers are hard to open and when they are closed, they all looked crooked. 
Every year my parents had sincere intentions of fixing it up, but the most we ever did was paint it in a different color and change the paper on the shelves and drawers.  I can even remember the smell of rust in the drawers as I struggled with the old spoons, knives and can opener.  Back then I wished my parents would buy new stuff.  But their answer was always the same.  "Soon."
When my parents passed away I realized how much of them were reflected in those old utensils.  They held so many memories.  I know we all have a spoon we really like, a knife we can't cook without, a favorite cutting board.  Somehow all those shiny, new utensils start to lose their appeal.  Instead we begin to treasure those old, burned never-fail utensils that keep so many stories.

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