Apricots at the Church Farm

The LDS (Mormon) Church has a system of farms that it uses to feed needy people., both inside and outside the Church.  These farms have been purchased using contributions from  church members, and are largely run using volunteer labor.  Says Wiki:

Virtually every item you can think of is grown on Mormon welfare farms. Oranges and grapefruit are grown at the church’s extensive land holdings in Florida. Strawberries and apples grow in Ohio. Tomatoes are raised in the Sacramento, California area. Raisins come from the Fresno, California area. The Mormon Church is thought to be one of the largest potato producers in the United States. The Mormon Church is also believed to be largest producer of nuts in the United States with farms in the San Joaquin Valley in California. Apples are grown in Idaho. Pears grow in Oregon and bean farms are in southern Idaho. Cattle are raised in Florida.

I encountered one of these farms more or less by accident this week.  When I travel, I watch for local food to buy.  This week I was in Hurricane, Utah, and followed the signs for fresh apricots.  The farmer told me that his apricots had been severely damaged by hail– they got six inches of the stuff in ten minutes.  However, he told me that the Church Farm down the road had apricots, and because the fruit was ripe and would otherwise go to waste, they had opened up the orchard for anyone to pick their own apricots.  Free.

Local food is wonderful stuff.  Free local food is even better.  So I drove down to the church farm and picked two bags of apricots, which we are now enjoying.

Add to that a bucket of pie cherries from a neighbor, beets from the farmers market, and spinach from our own garden, and the summer harvest is sure to inspire a few recipes in the next week or so!