...so goes the saying.
Many (more than is decent to admit) moons ago, I was born in the bustling metropolis of Pittsburgh, PA, fairly accounting for my loyalty to the Steelers. I'm no bandwagoner! Black and Gold are in my blood, y'ins.
Through a series of events, some fortunate, some unfortunate, my family moved to the decidedly bucolic land of South Jersey. Not the fabled shore points (Cape May, Atlantic City, etc) of everyone's summer vacations, mind you. No, the flat, rural farmland of Salem County. Case in point: I think two blocks west of my parents' home is the "center" of town - pretty much the only proper traffic light in town (all the others are blinking reds and yellows), and two blocks east of their home lie bonafide farm fields. Some of our neighbors had horses as their family pets. Fast forward many years, and I now live in an UNbucolic suburb of NYC. In fact, if I wanted to drive to the nearest farm, it would be several towns away, not several blocks, and it would probably be to the Bedford "farms" that belong to Martha Stewart and Ralph Lauren - hardly the moguls one brings to mind when you mention "farmer".
Anyway, waaay back in Februrary, taking advantage of a President's Day Monday-off, Husband decided it would be a fun and cultural thing to tour a farm (this, after watching Anthony Bourdain tour a farm in his homestate of New Jersey). Being a Jersey girl myself, I was game. We drove about two hours (accounting for George Washington Bridge traffic - you'd think for the guy's birthday they'd let up on the traffic a bit) west and south to the Bobolink dairy farm for a tour of the place by it's owner, a modern-day cheese maker.
It was strange how "at home" I felt. Sure, I'm a city slicker now, and I'm not about to sell everything and become a cheese farmer, but it was fascinating to learn about the way this husband and wife run a biodynamic farm. They keep bulls and cows, preferring to keep their farm populated the "natural" way - so much so that they rotate the bulls with other dairies to prevent too much inbreeding. Everyone is grass-fed, and all of the milk is used to make cheese, save for a small amount that the farmers themselves drink. They keep chickens, not for laying (although the small amount of eggs they yield are the freshest, most delicious you could get), but for assisting the process of fertilizing.
Snooki and GTL jokes aside, there are some pretty cool places in the Garden State - I mean places that helped ole' Jersey earn that license-plate nickname. It's inspiring and somewhat comforting when you see people treating the Earth well and acting as good stewards of the Biosphere. And getting in touch with nature isn't just for us farm-raised South Jersey girls...anyone could come to love it! Sometimes I'm glad that you can't take the Jersey out of me.
*sometimes*
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