Lida Farm

Have you ever seen a tractor out cultivating a planted field?

Cultivation is when you’re driving astride plants with a tractor and killing weeds by dragging metal implements through the ground. A rare sight nowadays actually since most every crop operator has moved to GMO crops where weeds are killed off with a spray truck filled with glyphosate or Round-up (94% of soybeans and nearly 90% of corn planted today are herbicide-resistant, USDA ERS).

If you were standing on the township road and saw me out cultivating, it would be like watching paint dry. I’d be on the Farmall H (when the carburetor is working), the Allis Chalmers G (when the battery is strong enough to start it) or the Farmall 674 crawling across the ground in low first gear. Not much going on. I wouldn’t notice you on the township road leisurely walking faster than the tractor because, to me, I’m holding on for dear life, laser-focused on the plants below that I’m trying my best not to kill off. To you, I’m moving the speed of a turtle, but, to me, I can feel like I’m going 30 mph, zooming across the field.

I remember the first time my farm mentor, Paul, put me on a tractor and said, ‘OK, drive across that bed and try not to hit the plants…’ It was a total adrenaline rush. After weeks of battling weeds with hand hoes, I was now just slaughtering weeds with this miracle machine. This Allis Chalmers G from the 1940s was putt-putting down the rows, its sweeps just an inch or two from these plants we so carefully raised to maturity – like clearing the ground with a machete next to your first-born toddler. If you’re just a bit off, the whole row is ripped up and game over. Oops, no peppers this season – sorry.

I first climbed on that Allis G 23 years ago. I certainly don’t sweat it as much as I did back then, but I still find the experience exhilarating. The attention to the plants while moving across the field bed by bed puts me in a total flow state, all attention on the slightest detail of the tractor. One the true pleasures of farming, especially done while listening to The Stones or some other loud rock…not good with soft Indy.

In the box:

• Sugar Ann Snap Peas
• Curly Kale
• Red or Green Butterhead or Oakleaf Lettuce
• Green Onions
• Garlic Scapes: Little curley things off top of garlic plants – chop up and use anywhere you’d use garlic or green onions to add some garlic-y flavor. Less strong than the bulb itself.
• Radishes
• Zucchini: Yeh, first summer crop out of the field!
• Basil
• Napa Cabbage: I had to pick this earlier than I wanted (heads not fully formed) but started to bolt in the stress of last 4 weeks of heat and drought.

How Farmers Cook Dinner: Zucchini Fritter

I dig these for breakfast. I’m especially into them since I’ve been trying to stick to a savory breakfast to start the day instead of some tempting sugar bomb.

Ingredients:

• Zucchini, grated. About 2/3 cup per fritter/person
• Eggs. One egg per portion of zucchini. If you like it eggier, add two per person
• Green onions, chopped. About 3-4 green onions per portion/person.
• Kale/chard for topping.
• Olive oil
• Soy sauce/Yuzu sauce

Add grated zucchini and green onions to bowl, crack in eggs and combine. Over medium heat add olive oil to pan. When hot, throw on fritter mix and spread evenly. When firm/brown on one side, flip. When done on both sides, put on plate. Roughly chop and rinse kale or chard and add to same hot pan and add a little water to steam for like 30-40 seconds. Add to top of fritter and add soy or yuzu sauce or simply salt and pepper to taste. I sometimes eat this with siracha sauce.

**This is a very forgiving recipe and you can add anything you think you’d like in the fritter that’s sitting in your fridge – peppers, onions, broccoli…whatever. You may want to sautee them before adding to batter.