For a Taste of Homegrown Freshness, Pay a Farm a Visit

Businesses are slowly bringing back some food events — which you can attend masked up and staying the heck away from other people — and whether or not you decide to be a patron at one of those, one can start to feel cooped up after 100 days in a pandemic.

One thing you could do this Saturday is make a trip north to a couple of farms. Last weekend, we hit two places (out of so many options). The drive was longer, at about 45 minutes, but the break in routine was welcomed, and what we came home with made for great sustenance throughout the week. Plus, it was a lovely alternative to navigating the grocery store.

The first stop was the Reeves Family Farm because the main goal of the trip was to come home with okra. We learned about this farm from last year’s Okrapalooza dinner, which took place among its okra fields. Now, the farm is selling its produce along with some other farms’ goods.

There was plenty of okra, watermelon, cantaloupe and plums — and we took home as much as we could handle. Cute little wooden carts are how you shop in the small farm store at the Reeves’ place. We bought tomatoes to be stewed with the okra (only some, because I’d pickle more okra this week) as well as some pickling cucumbers.

Some frozen biscuits got in the mix, too, so we could finally dig into some jam I made earlier in the summer.

They sell Full Quiver Farms’ works, which include some stellar cream cheese you have to try.

But for dairy, we headed south toward Garland to stop by Lucky Layla Farms. That drinkable yogurt is delightful, and the flavor options were plentiful. We went with mango, blackberry and peach — probiotics that taste the way we love them to.

Don’t leave here without butter, either: This golden butter is lightly salted and churned to create a product that outdoes the typical stuff.

So go here, or visit another farm; just do so while wearing a mask and keeping your distance. Farms, like everything else, need our support right now. And if you like the quality of ingredients you have access to yourself and through restaurants, now's the time to get their products.