Harland's Creek Farm-Certified Organic
Harland's Creek Farm, LLC is a certified organic farm located four miles west of Pittsboro NC. Our flowers, herbs, vegetables, and fruits are certified organic. We also have eggs from pasture raised hens that are fed an all-grain diet that is antibiotic free. The farm is operated by Judy Lessler, Erasmo Flores, and Rene Rios. Judy started the farm with her husband in 1999. After many years working on the farm, Erasmo and Rene became partners in 2016.
We sell our products at the Durham Farmers Market on Saturdays and Wednesdays. Visit the market's web site for more information. We are also at the Western Wake Farmers Market. Many of our products are sold through CSAs. See the CSA tabs for more information and procedures on enrolling. And we also sell to local restaurants, mainly: Poole's Downtown Diner, and Death and Taxes in Raleigh, Tazza Kitchen in Raleigh, and The Boot, Maeto Bar de Taps, and Geer Street in Durham. These are the all topnotch places with excellent chefs. We are particularly in awe of Ashley Christensen who leads a great team of chefs in multiple sites.
Farming Practices. We have five acres under production including a one acre poultry pasture. We rotate the 3-quarter-acre main summer garden over a three areas and grow cover crops on the other two areas. Another 3/4 area plot is intensively farmed with crops both in spring and fall. Soil amendments include compost, green sand, mined phosphates, feather meal, and other products approved by the National Organic Program (NOP). Mulching, row covers, flame weeding, and landscape cloth help control weeds and pests. We have deer fences and a Jack Russell terrier who pursues the groundhogs. All our flowers are conditioned using NOP approved materials.
You can buy directly from us. Please send an e-mail to hcffarmers@gmail.com or call Rene at 919-200-2794 for more information.
Cooking--Farming--Thinking
Escarole and Endive
Posted by Judy Lessler :: Tuesday, May 10 :: 10:04am
Escarole and endive (Chichorium endivia) are native to the East Indies, were brought to Egypt and known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. It was grown in England by the 1500s. It is in the same family as dandelions. A similar plant, Chichorium intybus, includes chicory and radicchio, is native to northern Europe.
I first became enamored with escarole after a visit to France in October 2012. Farmers markets were full of large escarole plants that sometimes weighed nearly a kilogram (2.2 lbs.). It is a cool weather plant and grows better in a place like France where the weather is cool but not cold. We generally pick it much smaller than the French versions because of the heat of NC. Endive comes in two types, so called Belgian Endive or witloof and is grown from roots that are stored in a root-cellar or cooler and then forced to produce leaves in the fall and early winter. I have never tried it because of the technical skill needed.
Frisࣾếe is a very frilly form of endive and is called Trés Fine Maraīchère in France. I have grown this and found it to be a good addition to salads.
Below is a picture of the type we grow.
Judy started HCF. She develops meal plans for the CSAs, maintains our web-site, and writes our blog. You can meet her most weeks at the Durham Farmers Market on Wednesday and Saturday.
Erasmo worked part time on the farm for years, He became a partners in 2016 and lives in Siler City. You can meet him at the Saturday Durham Farmers' market on alternate Saturdays. He is active in all aspects of the farm, is our main tractor guy, and is transitioning into doing the book-keeping.
Rene has been full time on the farm since 2012. He works on all aspects of the farm, receives and delivers restaurant orders, and does most of the deliveries. This is Rene with two of his children in front of his house.
We are a great team.
