Saturday, September 09, 2017

Farm to Table

Southwest of Ann Arbor, less than half-an-hour's drive from our house, an area of beautiful farmland remains productive and relatively undisturbed by urban growth. In many cases, farms have been in the same families for several generations. Shopping at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, I've often bought eggs, chicken, lamb, wheat-berries, and other produce from the Ernst family farm in this area. Curious, I drove around there near the address on their food packages and took a few photos.


Beautiful silos, grain cribs, animal barns and fields of corn still stand unchanged, although closer to town, much farmland has been bulldozed for subdivisions and shopping centers. Also among the farms are quite a few barns that have now been turned into wedding venues or other non-farm uses.

This cow seemed to be checking me out as I drove by.
(I wasn't that close -- this is taken with a long lens!)
Ernst Farm products are now available at the new Argus Farm Stop near our house, along with meat from several other local producers and local fruit, vegetables, cheese, and more.

Ernst Farm meats in the Argus freezer -- we bought some brats, and...
After defrosting the brats, we threaded them with scallions on skewers to grill on the barbecue.
Along with the brats, we cooked some portobello mushrooms. If anyone is growing
mushrooms locally, I don't know where they sell them -- not at Argus or the Farmers Market.
We bought these at Kroger's. I'm hoping someone starts a local mushroom farm!
Brats on the grill.
The mushrooms, with garlic slivers inserted in the gills,
were sprinkled with rosemary & basted with oil and balsamic vinegar.
They were quite delicious. Another recipe from Steven Raichlen.
Leftover brats and mushrooms went into a pot of chili with adobo peppers,
black beans, corn kernels, etc.

11 comments:

Beth F said...

I am blessed to be in a area with abundant family farms and multiple farmers' markets. It's always fun to visit the farm that is producing the food you're eating.

Judee@gluten Free A-Z Blog said...

Mae,
I live in an area where we have farms and farmer's markets. I have often done the same thing- driven around the farms and taken photos. It is so peaceful and beautiful in the farm area and country roads. And then a twenty minute ride later, I am back to the supermarkets and housing developments of the suburbs.
Love your photos!

Vicki said...

I love farmers' markets!

jama said...

Lucky you to live near a farm. The brats and mushrooms looked delicious. Enjoyed your pics too. :)

Carole said...

Love that big old barn. Have a great week.

(Diane) bookchickdi said...

That looks liek such a fun place to visit and those brats look delicious.

Sue Jackson said...

How wonderful to have so many local farms so close by! That's great. We get our veggies from a local farm CSA. And your cooking looks delicious, too!

Sue

Book By Book

Jeanie said...

Mae, I don't see that market here -- looks like the farm itself is just wonderful and boy, your feast is glorious. Loved the photos!

Mae Travels said...

HI Jeanie,
The freezer case with the meat is in the Argus Farm market that I've been writing about lately. The earlier post had several photos of Argus. Also, I mentioned how I had often bought their products at the central farmers' market. That was my thought process... mae

Tina said...


Thank you very much for your kind words on my blog. We are fortunate and survived hurricane Irma just fine. My family is well and I couldn't ask for more. I feel awful for the folks in south Florida...it's devastating. But I wanted to thank you for keeping us in your thoughts.

Great post and I love the local farmer's markets and local foods. We have some in the area and I enjoy it.

Deb in Hawaii said...

It's always great to get things fresh from the farm. I wish we had more options here but we certainly have many more than we used to. ;-)