Good Thing Fifteen: My Brother is a Farmer

My older brother--Richard Stewart--trained in college to be a graphic designer and we always thought he would be an artist. He was always drawing and painting and sculpting. But when the recession hit just after 9/11, he was the last hired at his design firm, and so was the first fired.

So, he went to work for my dad (also Richard Stewart) on the family farm. I don't know if he knew if it would stick or not, that it was his future. . . or if maybe it felt like just a temporary thing until he figured out his next step.

Ten years later, he's still going strong. He's built up a truck garden/organic/farmer's market presence in Cincinnati--selling veggies and honey at farmer's markets and to local restaurants. He's a bee keeper. He's become a sort of farmer celebrity in Cincy and northern Kentucky. Just yesterday at the Northside farmer's market, he was selling honey, dried black beans, corn meal, turnips, and carrots.


Once or twice a year, the farm, Carriage House Farm LLC, is a part of farm tours and my family gives lectures on growing things, keeping bees, foraging for food in the woods (have you eaten a pawpaw grown in the wild? yum).

He's happy. That makes me happy.


Plus I totally get free honey every time I come home for the holidays.

More Cincinnati

Carriage House Farms LLC

The "vineyard." Clearly there's a lot more growing these little grape vines need to do, but they're on their way. And for now, they make a pretty walkway down the center of the "truck garden".

Maybe the family farm shouldn't be on this list because not everyone can visit it. But it's a draw for me and it's an appealing reality of Cincinnati and lots of smaller cities--in that there's nature and farmland nearby. Cincinnati is an incredibly green town--in the traditional sense, meaning tons of trees and green expanses. And then right outside are these beautiful gems: family owned farms, wildlife preserves, huge public parks within a 10-20 minute drive from home, instead of an hour.

There are city folks who faint at the sight of mud or bugs or views unobstructed by tall buildings and cab stands. But for those city folks like me who like a mix of rural and urban, maybe the smaller city makes more sense? We'll see. . .

Chalk Food

Leave it to Dad to find the most "bar food" item on the menu to go with his beer. Fries. . . but "Duck Fat Fries". We all had a taste and they were amazing.

Mozarella and tomato salad

The Market Cheese Plate and smack in the middle of the plate is a piece of honeycomb from Richard's hives.

Melon Cucumber Salad

Mushroom Ragout

Lobster Risotto

Ribeye steak over beans and marscapone potatoes.
(Blurg, that was yummy).

Chalk

Okay, so Chalk Restaurant isn't technically in Cincinnati. It's located in the rejuvenated riverfront area of Kentucky directly across the river. . . but it's all part of the package of Cincy living (as is the York Street Cafe--which is one of my favorite restaurants of all time, also in Kentucky).

Chalk is an amazing upscale restaurant that crafts new menus every week, based on what local produce is available to them in the area. And Cincinnati is a small enough city that there are farms close by--making that local shopping and eating so much easier than in a big city like Chicago.

Chalk showed up on my parents' radar because the chef came to buy produce from the family farm in Cleves, OH--Carriage House Farms LLC. He buys honey and bee pollen from my brother--plus seasonal veg and flowers for his table centerpieces. Read the fine print at the bottom of the menu and you'll find CHF listed in the thanked farms.

Giant hanging garlic scuplture. The restaurant host made fun of it, but I think it's clever.

Carriage House Farms Takes No Prisoners

CHF LLC is doing great--per usual this time of year. This is the time of the year that everything is coming in on the farm in Cincy--carrots, onions, garlice, beans, and tomatoes and peppers seconds away from being ready. And so this is also the time of year that I'm sad to be so far from home.

We took bags of produce home with us from this weekend's visit. . . . but it's not the same. It;s way better to be there and to help out.

Rich picking onions out for us from the drying masses

baby grape vines

carrots picked only moments ago

Dan in basil heaven--it's like a giant raw stand of pesto

They're doing farmers' markets and they have a group of folks volunteering labor hours for produce pay-offs, and Richard is selling his honey and some produce to a few fancy-schmancy local restaurants--Chalk is one of them.

So. Cool.

Carriage House Farm Splendor

So, my country mouse family continually sends me emails with pictures of the farm and updates on its progess throughout the year. Which is great. I love it. It sometimes makes me jealous and/or homesick, but I love it.

And now that my brother is hip deep in beekeeping, I get pictures of bees a lot.

Here are the newest pictures which make me terribly jealous right now--because clearly, Cincinnati is in full bloom, while up here in Chicago, we just got an inch of snow. grr.

I'm thinking this first shot is of a crab apple:


the second shot is a tiny fuzzy bee butt busy in this crab apple:

more snow bees

My bro's bees totally rocking the Ohio winter.

city mouse, country mouse

I live in Chicagoland, but my people live in Cincinnati and work full time on the family farm in Cleves, OH. So, I've chosen to be a city mouse, while my brother has chosen to be a country mouse. And this works out really nicely for us, because I love visiting the country, and when my brother and his wife's schedule allows, they love to visit the city.

But sometimes visiting doesn't feel like enough for me, the city mouse. I wish I could be there more--certainly to help out and to see how the farm changes from season to season, but also selfishly to take part in (i.e. eat) the harvest. I miss the work and the family and the land.

Thankfully, they all keep me in the loop and send me updates and amazing photos, and I secret squirrel study the farm's blog that my brother manages when I need a country fix. This past year, my brother added bee keeping to the already long list of farm activities/businesses. I've always been a fan of bees and the work they do, but now I'm getting to understand their fascinating personalities and work ethic vicariously through my brother.

Here are a few pics of bees being amazing even during the winter. . . and inspiring, too. If these little skinny guys can keep at it in the cold and the snow, then with my coat and mittens and boots and scarves, I can certainly keep plugging away even in sub-zero temps.

Hi, Dad

It's maybe a little bit weird to put a picture of my Dad here. . . but it's such a handsome photo, and there's a lot of subtext here, as in any photograph, that's maybe not visible to the naked eye:

1. My mom took the photo with a small digital camera. She's not a trained photographer, though she clearly has a good eye and the day and the sky were really cooperating--because the set up of the shot and colors and the composition blow me away. So, for me, this is a photo both of my Dad and my Mom.

2. Dad is standing amongst soy beans near the end of a particularly difficult growing season in Ohio. Flooding after planting. Scrapping corn for soybeans. Then too dry conditions. It's a miracle these plants--the Plan-B plants--are there and so handsome for the shot. And a triumph for my Dad after a season of worry.

3. This photo is where I came from--people who work hard and make things with their bare hands. It's a proud start for me. It's a humbling start for me.

4. Nature's design is often the best design. . . which we all know, but sometimes, I think, forget. Especially those of us living in cities. Green and brown. Grey and green.

5. Plus, you know, subject/object, signifier/signified, Roland Barthes, yadda yadda. . .