One of my favorite weekly habits over the last few years has been to visit the Tower Grove Farmer’s Market here in St. Louis. It’s a wonderful array of farmers, artists, and restaurants. As a result, most of the produce I buy is local.
Perhaps my favorite farm stand is Grand Army Farm, which has a variety of eggs, garlic, yarn, and the best Vietnamese coffee (and also meat from a variety of animals, which I would buy if I weren’t pescatarian). The owner, Rosalie, hosted a farm day a few weekends ago to visit with all of her baby animals, so Megan and I drove a little west of St. Louis to join the festivities. We invited some friends with kids who also love animals.
There’s a wide array of animals at Grand Army Farm (which is named after a nearby road): Goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, quail, ducks, guinnea fowl, turkeys, cats, dogs, and more. The dogs were among my surprise favorites, as we were warned that they were “working dogs”…which they are, but they’re also giant, friendly puppies. One of them curled up on Megan’s shoe for a while:
One of my other favorite animals was Nacho, a baby goat who loves affection just as much as he loves food:
Megan also got to do one of her favorite things: Hold tiny birds in her hands, including this baby chicken (and later an even smaller baby quail). We eat a lot of chicken and quail eggs, so it was great to see how well Rosalie treats these animals.
Rosalie also demonstrated what it’s like to sheer an angora rabbit. I was surprised by how calm the floofy rabbit was during the process, especially while surrounded by 20 people.
I loved the farm day at Grand Army Farm. It left me wanting to see some of the other farms from which I buy produce and cheese. I might also consider volunteering every month or so at some of the farms–there’s something in me wants to have a stronger connection between what I eat and where it comes from, bridging the gap I so often take for granted.
Have you ever visited a farm from which you buy food?