Essex Corn Chowder: Nurishing food from here

There's something about the time change for me that shifts the feeling from summer-fall to winter-fall. Fall feels like it's trending toward winter now. We've had a couple of glorious, unseasonably warm and sunny fall days, but the early darkness and frosty mornings remind me of what is to come.

There's been exciting work across the road, preparing some cabin sites. One of the machine operators is a friend and is related to the last family who owned and operated this property as a farm: Charlie and Gertrude Gay. He shared a few fun memories of coming over to the farm as a kid.

When I invited him to check out our butcher shop, where we're cutting up our pigs, he spotted some bacon ends in the cooler. He said, "That's funny. I was just talking last night about wanting to make some corn chowder, and you really can't make corn chowder without bacon ends." So I sent him home with a package, and Racey and I were so inspired that we made corn chowder as well.

Here's Racey's recipe for what we're calling Essex Corn Chowder. We are members at Essex Farm, just down the road, and this chowder represents the continued collaboration between our two farms in our kitchen, culminating in a bowl of deliciousness on the dinner table.

The ingredients are almost entirely from Reber Rock Farm and Essex Farm. We cut the corn from the cob this summer; the potatoes and onions also come from the garden, and the bacon ends come from our pigs.

And while we do get milk from our friends at Essex Farm, occasionally we get our milk and yogurt from North Country Creamery. The only ingredients in the soup that were not produced here were the flour for the roux and salt.

Your Farmer,

Nathan Henderson
Reber Rock Farm
Essex, New York