Babe + Sage Farm Dinner

Technically, this post isn't a cycling write-up, but good, healthy food is critical to good bike performance.  It's even better when that good food comes from a local, sustainable farm.  Recently I learned of Babe + Sage Farm near Gordon, Georgia.  Tonight Robert and I got to go there for a farm dinner.

Bobby and Chelsea own Babe + Sage and have several part-time employees who assisted throughout the evening with serving and cooking.  All of them work on the farm itself, too.  We received a warm welcome on the porch of the farmhouse with a variety of wines and two types of bruschetta:

The arugula and broccoli were grown on the farm.  In fact, Bobby said that the broccoli came from the first three heads that they have harvested this season!  How special that we got to partake of them.  The bread was some of the wonderful artisan bread that they bake right there.

Next, Bobby led us eight dinner guests on a tour of the farm.  But first, he answered a common question: where does the name Babe + Sage come from?  He and Chelsea had tried and tried to come up with a name for their farm.  It finally came to them from a piece of artwork by Kim Joris (who happens to be a friend of mine, too - small world!).

The words on the artwork are from a longer quote:

“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, to all bravely await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.” ~William Henry Channing

Then we set out to see the wonders of the farm in the beautiful late afternoon sunshine.  Last year they laid about 6,000 feet of PVC pipe for irrigation.  The things sticking up are the sprinklers:

I didn't expect the irrigation pipes to be as large as they are, 3" mains and 2" laterals; that's like a drinking water system!  Note the pecan trees in the background above.  Pecans are just one of the many crops they produce.

These are some plants in the greenhouse waiting to be put into the ground:

The fall crops are well underway.  Wild areas are left between every few rows of vegetables as part of the sustainable land management:

There are six planting areas.  Each year, three are cultivated and three are planted in cover crops (peas, legumes, or beans) to restore the carbon-nitrogen balance.  The next year the groupings are swapped.  This allows the fertility of the soil to be maintained.  It certainly appears to be working because we saw the most beautiful, lush vegetables!

Bok choy

Kohlrabi

I'm not sure of the names of all of the types of greens that they grow; I believe they have over two dozen varieties!

One thing I love about adventures like this is that I always learn something.  The thing that fascinated me the most tonight was learning that many cruciferous vegetables (e.g., kale, collard greens, cabbage, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower) are the same species.  They are simply different cultivars; broccoli has been developed for its large flowering heads, and kohlrabi is actually an engorged stem.  It's kind of like various dog breeds are all the same species.

As an aside, I first learned of kohlrabi from the periodic table of vegetables hanging in my kitchen.  Yes, someone actually came up with a vegetable to go with every element symbol!  Is that cool, or what?

Back to the farm tour...we then moved on to the processing areas.  Here's the brick oven where they bake all of that delicious bread:

This is the root vegetable washing area.  Note how they use readily available materials from around the farm.  This screen door is simply flipped over for easy backwashing:

Another terrific piece of ingenuity: they put large quantities of greens in this washing machine to get the grit off.  It's like a giant salad spinner!

Wrapping up our walking tour, Bobby explained that he and Chelsea lease the land from the Oetter family, who have owned it since the Great Depression.  It's the perfect situation for young, sustainable farmers like them; they don't have to expend capital to purchase land, the Oetters receive income from their property, and the land is regenerated and conserved.

It was time for the main meal.  We gathered inside the farmhouse at a long table set simply yet elegantly.  The first course was a salad consisting of a number of Babe + Sage greens, the last of the tomato crop, slices of slightly pickled watermelon radish, and honey-apple vinaigrette.

Next came lamb and fall veggie pot pies served in individual ramekins.  The vegetables were from Babe + Sage, and the lamb came from a farm in Sandersville.  The pot pie was incredibly flavorful!

A variety of seasonal vegetables also was served on the side: sweet potatoes and (I think) turnips, greens, and roasted radishes.  I had never had cooked radishes, and they were delicious!

We headed back out to the porch for a little break before dessert.  I enjoyed talking with everyone.  We had all kinds of connections, including Lori, who used to live in Monticello and go to church with Robert and me, and Christy, who works at the same company with a couple of our cycling friends.  Bobby and Chelsea said that our friend Benny often stops by when he rides his bicycle over from Milledgeville on the dirt roads.  Additionally, several of us know John Pluta, a half-crazy beekeeper in Milledgeville.

Jesse did most of the cooking for the evening, and he capped it off beautifully with a rustic bread pudding drizzled with local honey.  It wasn't too sweet - just right:

I'm glad Jesse shared with us the cookbook that he used for many of the dishes.  It came from the library at Georgia College in Milledgeville.  I checked the copyright date, which is 1952.  Isn't this terrific?

I hope Robert and I can visit Babe + Sage again soon.