A Taste of Wilson County

Last Saturday, the day before Father’s Day, Lil’s grandchildren gathered at the farm as we have many times in the past. This particular gathering has come to be known as “The Cousins Reunion.” In the old days, when Grandad was still alive, his sons and daughters gathered at Easter, Father’s Day, and Christmas regularly. After he died in 1971, family issues that had been buried out of respect for him resurfaced and the gatherings ceased. Several years ago, after nearly all Lil’s step-children had died, one of my cousins stepped up and said, “ Whatever issues our parents had with Lil or each other, we liked the getting together. Let’s do it.” So we did. And we do.

Geography and gas prices are taking their toll. One family lives in Colorado. Another in Kansas. Most are in the San Antonio or Houston area. (There are also a couple in South Carolina and Florida who have not shown up, but we are still hoping to pull them in someday.) So this year Colorado and Kansas did not make it. And one of the Houston cousins took a fall and shattered her elbow a couple of weeks before the event. Nevertheless, about 30 folks representing at least four generations arrived in the ninety-eight degree Texas heat on Saturday.

Now that the farm is our responsibility, Debbie, Terry, Melinda and I took on the role of hosting the gathering. In the past we just showed up with our covered dish like everyone else. But we wanted to do something different this year.

So the four of us spent all day Friday traveling through Wilson County (crossing over to Atascosa and Bexar Counties briefly) visiting farmers markets and small farms to gather locally grown fresh produce for the meal.

In Pleasanton, Texas the South Texas Farmers Market Association sells produce on Fridays, so that was our first stop. There we met a friendly woman selling vegetables from the back of her pickup under a tree off one of that main highways passing through the town. That was the farmers market. We bought squash and tomatoes and got directions to the Verstuyft Farm in Von Ormy, Texas, another half hour away.

The drive to Von Ormy took us through Poteet, the Strawberry Capital of Texas. But the strawberries had come in a couple of months ago. The Verstuyft Farm was wonderful. We entered down the long drive through the fields yielding tomatoes and corn and beans and a dozen other wonders. Under the covered market area we bought onions, cream peas, corn, beets, green beans, and new potatoes. Then we headed back toward Stockdale.

After lunch in Stockdale at Mollie’s Café we drove just out of town on Hwy. 123 to Bush’s farm stand. (A sign on the wall says, “This is not H.E.B.”) We bought more tomatoes (salmonella free) and four big, juicy, sweet Stockdale watermelons. Stockdale is the Watermelon Capital of Texas and next weekend is the Watermelon Jubilee, celebrated since 1937. Just down the road was another stand selling organically produced garden fare, and we added to our squash stash.

From Stockdale we drove to La Vernia to get our Texas bred meat at Baumann’s Supermarket. Mike Baumann married my grandmother’s sister, Christine. They had a store in Floresville when I was a kid. It is closed now. I assume this is still part of the family business. When we walked in the store my sister and I both noticed the aroma. It smelled just like the Baumann’s store in Floresville had – just like most general stores in small towns. I’m not sure how to describe the fragrance – like cardboard boxes, fresh vegetables, and open freezers or something. We bought a brisket, two broilers, and some sausage made there in the store.

One more stop – Rhew’s Orchard. Frank and Ann Rhew live about four miles down the county road from our place. They grow peaches and pecans. We visited with Ann for a while. She’d been one of my grandmother’s friends. We bought a box of peaches and she threw in a small bag of some white peaches they were harvesting for the first time this year.

We spent the evening working in the yard and house getting ready for the next day’s event. The brisket cooked all night. Early Saturday morning we made a quick run into Floresville for breakfast at Olivia’s and a visit to the farmer’s market being operated in the Wal-Mart parking lot by the Local Harvest organization and a small stand in the parking lot of the donut shop. Then the kitchen went into high gear. It was as hot in there as it was outside. But it was worth it.

By the time the spread was laid out we had green beans cooked with new potatoes and onions, fried corn, corn-on-the-cob, cream peas, beets and beet greens cooked in balsamic vinegar, sliced tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, a squash & onion medley, peach cobbler, pecan pie (from pecans off our own trees), brisket, rosemary garlic baked chicken, sausage, and hot rolls. Cousins arrived with their salads and more desserts. Two watermelons were iced down for later. What we ate on Saturday had been raised within about 30 miles of the farm and most of it had been connected to the soil in the past few days. It was delicious. Melinda and Debbie did a great job cooking. One of the cousins said, “Lil would have been proud.”

Our goal is one day to serve such a meal all of which has been grown within about 200 yards of the house.