Sept. 01, 2003 - 19:08 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Corn Hunting

Two to four times during the summer months Heather and I go a bit north of Denver looking for fresh produce. What we usually find is green goods far above the quality found in the supermarkets.

I guess perhaps it is because the farmers around Denver grow things that do not ship well but taste seventy five per cent better. But whatever the cause, what we find and buy graces our dinner table until the supply runs out.

Rocky Ford Cantaloupe was on sale up there. For Denverites and many Coloradoans Rocky Ford Cantaloupe is pure food of the gods. Tender but not sloppy, tasty but not oversweet, a character all its own. We got several, hoping to eat the last before it gets too late.

I usually run into something vegetable I haven't seen before, today it was Japanese Egg Plant. Weird technicolor things they were, I asked a man how they cooked up and received the reply, "Mmmmm good." He got away before I could find out more, he was in tow by his wife.

Heather and I used to range the countryside almost to Loveland, through some of the by-ways that were well traveled enough that vegetable stands were by the roadside in front of the growers house. For a few years we knew which stand had the best tomatoes, potatoes, beets, onions, corn etc., and when the ripening would occur for each item. On our first trip up we would get an estimate on when each thing could be expected on the stands.

The last two years before 2003 we navigated the old grounds and found few of those stands left and what stands there were offered low quality stuff, (probably bought at Denver super markets ? ? ? ) and disinterested staff.

This year we confined our shopping to one particular stand we knew well on the north-south highway from town. Not quite to the next town north, but out a ways from town -- still giving us the feeling of "being out in the country." Their quantity, quality and selection is beyond compare. It is family owned and the family is large enough that it seems to be entirely staffed by family members. Oh, do they ever work hard and do their best to make their prospective customers happy. Biggest problem is finding one of the family to ask silly questions of, receiving courteous and diplomatic answers in the kind of English that most of us understand.

It has the construction like most roadside stands, except it is much bigger, dusty parking lot, dirt floors, open air store with abundant shade.

It is a happy adventure for us to go out there. Yet every year we are saddened that the little roadside stands seem to have disappeared. It was sheer enjoyment to talk with the wife or on Saturdays and Sundays the husband too. Just pleasant conversation while choosing what to buy. Sometimes the conversation would dwell on the current crop and difficulties of the farm year that year. Then too, sometimes we would get into deep conversation about whatever quirk of mind any of us had. Polite exchanges of views on politics were in the conversational area. No shouting, name calling or things like that. Sometimes it would be both sides talking about their children, the sad things, funny things and the proud things they did or didn't do.

Each house different, shady spots along the way. Some times a cow or two just the other side of the fence from the yard. Or sounds from the chicken yard out back. It had the feel of country an excursion of pleasure far from the mass confusion of the city. There would be quiet there, peace surrounded us.

Laughable, in the summer whenever Heather or I buy something from our supermarket that turns out be especially good we remark that perhaps that particular thing was grown on one of the truck farms around Denver.

We miss those old days, not too long past of neighborly dealing and visiting when ahungry we went Corn Hunting . . . . . . . . . . .

Blog