However, my father has cancer so I, in turn, called upon my friend Greg Balbierez to find my father some organic beets. He, in turn, hooked me up with Carl Skalak Jr. farmer of Blue Pike Farms. Carl dug me up some beets from his farm. Not only was that a NICE gesture ( as the ground was frozen etc...etc...) but a bit more than I expected as since I am originally from a farm county (wood) I have come to realize that many ( NOT ALL, but some) farmers are a touch.... touchy. We will leave it at that.
Nonetheless, Mr. Skalak dug up some beets, made no promises and could only provide me with a very few of the little red Monsters...er, I mean veggies.
I took them home, the irony of the fact that I was providing my family with fresh veggies from an inner city farm and transporting them into farm country was NOT lost on me ( OR Mr. Skalak, who I attribute to the actual pointing out of this fact) .
My mother made them, washed 'em, peeled them and cooked them and offered some to me. They had eaten some the night before and were so taken by them that the second night I was back, they offered them to me. I felt if I turned my father and mother down I would be doing them a dis service since she had taken the time to fix them and I felt SOMEWHERE and SOMEHOW Carl would know I had turned down his beets that he had crow barred out of the frozen Cleveland ground. So I accepted, plugged my nose and suffered them down my gullet. Only then something funny happened, I didn't have to plug my nose, heck, I didn't even have to stop breathing. They were GOOD, really, really GOOD. I mean, I was used to a gritty dirty soil taste from a beet, not this pleasant almost flavorful taste that was sweet and pungent at the same time but NOT soily ( is that a word?) tasting. SO while my tasting of Blue Pike Farms beets has not turned into a love affair with the little red bulbies ( another new word) I would say, if you like them, beets I mean, then I would go out of my way to buy them from him. Just in case you DO come across BPF in your summer wanderings from Farmers Market to Farmers Market
Heck, I hear he even grows some other kinds of veggies too. If they are as good as the beets were, then I might even see you at the markets, seeking him and his farm goods out for another taste...
See ya there