Ironwood Farm and the Flavours of Childhood

Nova Scotia Hodge Podge

Every Wednesday, Movita goes to a pick up spot in Halifax to get the CSA box from Ironwood Farm  and she brings it out to the house. And every week, we have fun taking off the cover to discover what is inside. This week, there was a small bag of fresh basil, blueberries, a fine onion, a few new carrots, a few new potatoes, young yellow beans, an English cucumber, baby beets, a magnificent head of Bibb lettuce, two young tomatoes, and a plump, pretty eggplant.

So Wednesday night's supper was a pot of Nova Scotia hodge podge. I use Jackie Huskins' recipe - the one that Movita posted on her blog. I like it more than the less healthy one we used growing up that had a touch of salt pork. Jackie's tastes every bit as good.

Ironwood Farm

I don't know what varieties Rupert and Heather are growing on their farm at the mouth of the Avon River in Hants County, but vegetables have not tasted this good since my own dear father kept a large vegetable garden so many decades ago that it now seems like another lifetime.

I am the first one to take advantage of, and enjoy the benefits, of the global market place but while supermarkets now have fruits and vegetables available all year round that in the old days consumers only saw at certain times (or not at all!), it seems to me that we are most often getting hybrids grown more for their ability to ship well, to store well, etc. and less for real, old fashioned flavour.

So I have been enjoying chard and beet greens that are absolutely delicious and bring back memories of childhood. And carrots that are oh, so carroty!! And beans that make you wonder why you aren't eating beans every single day. The Buy Local movement has a lot of merit.

Warm baby beets with a touch of vinegar