Miskatonic University Press

Two months ago I wrote about Clover Roads Organic Farm as one of the vendors I missed when the Wychwood Barns Farmer’s Market closed. I wrote them a letter … and heard back from John and Inge Crowther by email! And since then, I’ve got three orders of stuff from them. Here are some pictures.

In the first order I got a head of lettuce, a cabbage, onions, carrots, a dozen eggs, some fresh herbs and some soap.

Here’s a close-up of the rosemary, sage and soaps (one of which is scented with rosemary). Nice smells!

In the second order I got much the same stuff. The eggs are interesting because there’s a mix of shell colours and sizes (from large on up, I’d guess—I’m no expert on egg sizes, but any one of them suits me for breakfast). I also got more soap to stock up.

I also got honey and some dried herbs, including herbes de Provences, which I’ve never used but am keen to try out.

It’s incredible the difference between fresh lettuce and store-bought stuff. Those plastic tubs of organic lettuce at Loblaw’s seem virtuous, but on the one hand you’re just making price-fixing billionaires richer and on the other the lettuce goes all manky in a couple of days. Lettuce fresh from a market, picked that day or the day before, stays fresh forever.

Yesterday I met the Crowthers for a pick-up over by the Barns in the mid-afternoon, during a blasting thunderstorm which, fate would have it, began just before I left home and ended just after I got back. I was soaked through, but me and the onions all dried off easily enough. Tonight I made a nice salad with Clover Roads lettuce, onions and cucumbers and some cold-smoked Arctic char I’d got from another Wychwood Barns vendor a few months ago and kept frozen, with a dressing based on yogourt and Clover Roads herbed mustard. Delicious.

The markets are opening up, and Wychwood Barns will restart eventually. I’m going to see the Crowthers on Saturday at a very small local market that’s filling in the gap. Here’s hoping the full market will be back later this month or next—and more people will be able to get Clover Roads lettuce, onions, herbs, cucumbers, eggs, ice cream, smoked chicken, soap, honey, herbed mustard …