It’s interesting about food. We sit down at a table, we tell somebody what we would like to eat, and pretty soon they bring it to us. The end of a long process that starts in greenhouses, farms, pastures, gardens and then ends up on a plate in front of you. I had a little deeper peek into that process yesterday as I had an opportunity to follow the path a little. We started out at the Loveville Produce Auction. You really ought to go sometime, it’s worth a trip. Horse drawn wagons loaded with boxes of beautiful fresh produce that was just picked the night before. You know how pretty an onion can be? A gleaming white globe fading into deep green tubular foliage above. Somebody has to do that to each of the hundreds of onions riding on the back of the wagon that pulls up to the auction. It's quite a scene between the buyers and sellers. We're in our shorts and polo shirts, and the Mennonites are of course dressed (for market) in their straw hats, (usually) blue shirts, suspenders, the ladies in bonnets and the kids miniatures of the adults. Cameras stay in the car..
The boxes of produce are either put out on the floor, or as was the case when we were there yesterday, the wagon simply drives into the pavilion and the buyers observe the contents. The grower will stand in the wagon, and peel back the ears of the corn, or hold up the melons, squash, cabbage so all can see the quality. What follows takes some experience and education to understand, which I have not even come close to mastering. Numbers are called out over a tinny sound system representing quantities (numbers of boxes), prices and then the bidding starts. Each buyer has a bidder number and somehow that gets communicated to the auctioneer and ultimately a sale is made. It's not very obvious to the uninitiated.. One step complete.
Then, after the auction, the successful bidders load the stuff in the back of the pickups or vans, and off they go to deliver them to the back doors of restaurants. In the door, maybe to the walk in. After that, they can be prepped and readied to be put on your plate. Good fresh local produce. It tastes sooooooooo gooooooood! We had some corn last night, just wonderful. Sure, some of the stuff comes on the Sysco truck and it’s all right, but local stuff is very good. Seek out places that offer it...
Between the bidding and the pickup stages we had a chance to drive around in the country some and take some pictures of barns. They’re so neat..
the interiors are usually in states of decay
there's always some nice little detail..
And see some of that produce in the field
A nice day indeed. Hot, but nice…
After tromping around looking at the barns and stuff, a thirst developed so we stopped at a local watering hole for a refreshing glass of suds, and it turned out there was a group gathered to watch the US World Cup soccer game. Our timing was perfect and we got to see the last gasp goal.. the place erupted. Then we got back in the vehicle and delivered the produce so you can have that side of sauteed zucchini...
at that point we were NOT
DFD
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