Fresh Choice

You won't find deep-fried grouper at Avenue Sea restaurant in Apalachicola, Florida. Fine dining here means meals prepared fresh by Chef David Carrier. It's also a place where the ingredients are as important as the presentation. A name found frequently on this menu: Crescent Moon Organic Farm. The gourmet dishes here are about as close as most diners will get to the farm; it's located 45 miles away, hidden in the woods down a one-lane road, too remote for many visitors. And that's a shame, because a visit to Crescent Moon is unlike visiting most other agricultural enterprises.

Jack Simmons and Carmen Sturchio have only been farming these three acres of vegetables for about 4 years. Jack owns the farm, Carmen helps run it. And their relationship is almost as new as their farm - it began just five years ago with an unusual first date, taking care of a friend's chickens. But Jack didn't have a background in agriculture. He had just returned to Florida after living in the Caribbean on a sailboat. While preparing to be a contractor, he was drawn to this piece of land, where Crescent Moon Farm now sits. The buying process wasn't particularly formal: "One time when I walked over here the guy who owned the place was over here and I asked him if he wanted to sell it and he said, 'what is your offer?' and I said, ' I don't have any idea. I will have it appraised.' And here we are."

Carmen has a background in growing produce on a small scale, meaning she is now in charge of their largest crop. lettuce. But they grow a little bit of everything here. Each week the pickup truck gets loaded up to sell produce at farmers markets in nearby cities. In addition to that, Jack and Carmen recently created a CSA... that's "community supported agriculture" It's an arrangement where members buy a stake in the farm, and in return get fresh produce each week. Customer Nelson Martin admires this week's selection, and says he likes to support the neighborhood farm. "I am a vegetarian and appreciate the good organic food. For 20, 25 bucks..you get stuff you can't find anywhere else."

At Crescent Moon they work hard to balance their passion for farming and environmental stewardship. Jack uses pure biodiesel recycled from restaurant fry oil to fuel his truck. Jack points out that "It's the restaurants' that we deliver produce to, (they) save this oil for us. It's a waste product for them. "They pour the oil through window screening into a hanging trash can to filter out larger items, say French fries and chicken wings. Jack's goal? "I would like to use the old farm model where you take half your acreage and grow it to meet your energy needs. And I would like to see what percentage of our total farm energy that we can grow."

Jack admits sometimes this lean operation is fueled mainly on the passion of the people who work here. "I love it. It's hard work. It's scary financially. It's very scary. Some weeks I start off at the first of the week wondering if I need to tell the guys to take the week off. But so far it's worked out. It's the most meaningful thing I have done. Yeah, we're growing stuff, we're feeding people. Yeah, we're helping the earth.

The dramatic increase in farmers markets all across the country has spurred a growth in "fresh from the farm" producers, like Cresent Moon. Every state currently has programs to expand those market numbers. In fact from the mid 1990's to 2005, the number of farmers markets in the U.S. grew by more than 250 percent.

Something to Ruminate On
Contrary to popular belief, a cow does NOT HAVE four stomachs...but just one stomach with four compartments. The Rumen is the largest of these and can hold up to 50 gallons of partially digested food known as "cud." Hmmm.... From there cow feed passes through the Reticulum, the Omasum and the Abomasum which pulls the nutrients into the bloodstream. From there it's all downhill... through the intestines and out...creating cowpies!