Pure Land Organic is a new-ish, budding farm located on the back farm roads of McKinney, TX. The facebook post I saw mentioned that they would have tomatoes for picking on Thursday and Friday of the week from 9-12. I suddenly had visions of my mom canning my grandma's southern chow-chow relish in our steamy summer kitchen in NC; and a wild hair was born. I would pick those tomatoes and I would make relish. This whole thing is very ironic since as a kid I hated every single ingredient you'd find in this relish (except sugar), but I digress.
I knew this little adventure was straight up C's alley, so Friday morning, we loaded up with sunscreen and bug repellent and set out on the journey to the exotic farm afar. Afar meaning- from my house in NW Frisco, it was about a 25 minute drive. HAHA!
I entered the address- 7505 County Road 201 into GPS and it worked great, and I didn't have any issues finding it other than Siri waits to long to tell you to turn. The scenery was great as we slipped away into the "country" and breathed a little sigh of relief. The weather unexpectedly cooperated in that it was fairly overcast- the sun started to peek through a bit while we were there, but over all, it wasn't too bad for the last day of June in Texas.
We turned into the one-way driveway into the farm, and were greeted by an old farm looking building containing a tractor and a white tent set up to the side. There were about 5 or so cars parked in the grass- so not too busy. I was immediately greeted by whom I can only assume was one of the farmers- (Megan?) and she was so friendly, helpful and excited to see us.
There were several rows of tomatoes for picking- $3 per pound and a bucket was around $5, and you could choose red or green, regular ones or cherry ones. She did have small scissors on hand for cutting the peppers and explained how to pick the tomatoes properly. We filled one with the green tomatoes for the relish, one with red for other stuff, and then moved on to the bell pepper row. I picked the most humongous green bell peppers for my relish, as well as some beautiful purple ones that I didn't even know existed. The final row in the garden was the hot pepper row with jalapeno and shishito peppers. We took a few shoshito with hopes to recreate a dish we've had at a restaurant recently.
As I checked out, (and she does take cash and cards via square- and I always spend too much so used the card)- I added a bucket of onions, red onions, and garlic at $2 per pound. All were nicely cured and with smooth tight skins and no bruising. Nothing like you'd see in the store- so much better. I chatted quite a bit with the farmer. She mentioned they had already pulled the carrots. The birds had gotten to the little peach tree orchard this year- but they were thrilled because this was the first year they'd gotten peaches at all- I bet next year will be a great crop. She also mentioned that she has black eyed peas that will be ready for picking in a couple weeks, and she's willing to give those away because they are a "cover crop" to help the soil... Black eyed peas are pretty labor intensive to shell and prepare. But, yes, my family loves them so this southern Grits will be heading back to pick some of those, too. And I found a gadget online that I might add to speed it up. She also mentioned having arugula and kale, so I get the feeling they will keep rotating crops year round. |
| Look closely at the size of those peppers! |
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| Chow-Chow used a bunch- here's the leftovers. |
Pure Land Organics also farms out to several area restaurants known for their organic and local menu selections. There are lots of farms in the area, but pick-your-owns are not as prolific and I learned from her that it's probably because getting liability insurance for agri-tourism is kind of a new and weird thing. Thank goodness she found someone to do it, because all our kids should be seeing where our food comes from! She mentioned that they are open for field trips, and scout outings; and I plan to keep checking in on this little farm in the days to come, until I can have my own big garden one day.
Before visiting, check their facebook page for the most up-to-date picking times.
I wish I had gotten more thorough information and her name, and better pictures, but honestly, I didn't plan to blog about this- it just kinda happened. So sorry and I'll try to do better in the future. This blogging thing is turning into quite a time-consuming hobby but I love it!
In the mean time, I've canned that relish- it's cooling and I can't wait to enjoy it over the Fourth of July holiday. Happy Fourth, ya'll! Enjoy your barbeques!
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