Crooked Sky Farms

Guess what I got to do on Friday morning?!?  I got to go on a private farm tour! So how did this lucky event come along for me?  As usual, it’s all in who you know. 

I met Jennifer Woods back in October 2011, when Peggy and I attended that super cool dinner at The Accidental Yard – CLICK HERE to read all about it. Jennifer is a full-time mom to Patrick who is 5 and two-year-old Gretchen (pictured above), a contributor to Chow Bella (CLICK HERE to read just one of the nice articles Jennifer has written about me), and the Marketing Manager for Crooked Sky Farms. Yeah, Jennifer has a full plate!

Anyhow, Jennifer emailed me a week or so ago and asked if I’d like to tour the farm. Would I? Heck, YES!!  There was supposed to be a group of us but the others rescheduled (maybe because they looked at the forecast and noticed that Friday’s high was supposed to be 112 degrees!).  So I met Jennifer and her two adorable, outgoing, well-mannered, articulate, farm-enthusiast kids at the farm at 8:00 AM.

We jumped in the Gator, which looked something like this, but without the hay in the back, and headed out into the fields.

First stop, the artichokes, which the farm crew was still harvesting the last of – but most of the remaining chokes have gone to flower, and you know how much I love those!

Oops, I almost forgot, before we got to the artichokes, we ran into Crooked Sky Farms owner and farmer, Frank Martin and his dog Skye.  Frank kindly welcomed me to the farm, chatted a bit, and then we were on our way.

After the artichokes, we made our way to the corn. There is nothing like sweet corn pulled right of the stalk and eaten in the field! YUM!

Gretchen was chowing down!

Seriously – could she be any cuter!?!

Once our bellies were full of sweet corn, we jumped back into the Gator and drove on – to the rows upon rows of tomatoes.

The farm crew members had beat us to the tomatoes, but we found a couple, here and there that were ripe.

You can learn more about Crooked Sky Farms HERE.  You can follow them on Facebook and/or Twitter. Or best of all, if you are local, you can join one of the several Crooked Sky Farms CSAs.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. A community of individuals that subscribe to receive weekly produce directly from a farm. Join or just check it out HERE.

I have already signed up and can’t wait to pick up my first boxful of luscious farm-fresh produce!  I joined the Paradise Valley Montessori Academy CSA.  If you too are interested in joining the PV CSA, CLICK HERE to get the info on how to do so, or just leave me a comment if you need more info and I’ll be happy to help you get to the source and start the ball rolling. The more the merrier!

Here are a few photos of the bounty I brought home…

I want to thank Jennifer for the awesome invitation and the fantastic tour, Frank for operating such a wonderful Certified Naturally Grown farm in the heart of Phoenix, and Patrick and Gretchen for being sweet and so much fun. xoxo

Oooh! Look what I found crawling around on my loot – not just one – but three of these little fellas. Now they are doing their duty in my herb garden.