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BY CLARE HOWARD OF THE JOURNAL STAR
Published June 3, 2006. Reprinted with permission from the .
Hard on the north rim of Crow Creek Valley, the Corso women work in cold, misty rain bending over black earth that has lost all memory of chemical herbicides and pesticides.
Fallow for over two decades under the protective ownership of the Sun Foundation, the ground is responding this spring to gentle hands planting crops unique to the culinary and philosophical heritage of the women. They are passionate about food, health, sustainable agriculture and the natural beauty of fresh produce.
Their affinities run to over a dozen varieties of heirloom tomatoes from Anna Russian to Tommy Toes. Spring mesclun, arugula, Swiss chard, radicchio, onions, garlic, Chiaggo beets, Japanese eggplant, haricot verts, wax beans. Red, orange, yellow and chili peppers. Yukon Gold, sweet, Russian Blue and French Fingerling potatoes. A sampling of their herbs include rosemary, sage, parsley, cilantro, basils. There are pumpkins, raspberry vines, melons, grapes.
The best of the bounty, each in its season, will end up under a big yellow umbrella at the Crow Creek Farm booth new this year at Peoria RiverFront Market. Now in its third year, the market is open from 8 a.m. to noon today and each Saturday through Sept. 30.
Supplementing early spring vegetables at the Crow Creek Farm booth will be homemade chocolate-pecan biscotti, cloth grocery bags made with organic cotton and handmade grapevine wreaths. There may be rhubarb turnovers made with whole wheat flour and unsalted butter. Over the course of the season, the Corso women will also sell homemade scones, bread, pasta, salsas and pestos.
"I can't say what will be for sale each week, but everything at our booth will be our own. Our own produce, crafts and baked goods," Kathy Corso said. "American consumers have gotten so far away from local. People say they love fresh tomatoes in season, but in the stores they buy tomatoes that come from 1,500 miles away."
Crow Creek Farm evolved over years of dreaming, study, travel, cooking and environmental advocacy. Kathy Corso, 56, has a degree in counseling and was director of the Cancer Center for Healthy Living for five years. She is a 16-year cancer survivor. Daughter Kristina Corso, 24, has a degree in biology and is pastry chef at Seven on Prospect and Basta's. Daughter Angela Corso, 32, has a degree in zoology and is a licensed massage therapist who lives in Park City, Utah, in the winter.
Both daughters worked on organic farms in northern Italy and Tuscany with World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Kathy Corso took University of Illinois classes and attended conferences on organic farming techniques. All three are lifelong natural food advocates.
The women have one acre near Washburn in Woodford County in cultivation, using raised beds mulched with straw. They are collecting rainwater for irrigation. Companion plants that resist animals and insects accompany the procession of produce-bearing plants across the field. Basil is protected by nasturtiums. Tomatoes are guarded by marigolds. If this year's venture proves successful, an adjacent acre will be added to production next year.
Influencing the Crow Creek Farm culinary heritage is Kathy Corso's 92-year-old Italian father-in-law who instigated decades of pasta making and cooking in the Corso household. His favorite version of ravioli is with meat, spinach and cheese. The women continue that heritage but have branched out to include ravioli stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese, walnuts and squash. They make versions of bow-tie pasta with beets, tomatoes and spinach.
Weeks before the opening of RiverFront Market, the women worked in the field late on a Friday afternoon under a steady rain with temperatures never breaking 50 degrees. Long rows of cans, still wrapped in their yellow and red Full-Red California Tomato labels, stretched across the field, guarding individual tomato plants from marauding rabbits.
"Every day we make pasta sauce at work, and I always ask for the used cans," Kristina Corso said.
"You know, I really don't like radishes," Angela Corso said at the end of sowing a long row.
"I love radishes," her sister said, pushing soil over the seeds as they progressed along the row. "The last time I wore this rain jacket, I was in Italy feeding very large pigs!"
Italy's woodland pigs are free roaming and root a diet of chestnuts, making their meat especially sweet and prized for Italian prosciutto.
"We are planting the basil and radishes together," Kristina Corso said. "Then when you pull a radish, you thin the basil."
"It's not from a scientific journal, but our friend Tina has done this for years," Angela Corso said. "She's not sure where she read this but thinks it was in Rodale Press."
"Boy, I remember just a few days ago thinking man, it's hot," Kristina Corso said.
"What was that? I swear that drop of rain felt like snow!" her sister said.
Many of the plants in the field were started from seeds in peat pots back in February and warmed by plant lights in an extra bedroom. The women resisted transplanting during the first blush of warm spring weather, wary that once the seedlings were in, a final errant frost could wipe them out. They work primarily by hand following practices that are labor intensive and agriculturally sustainable.
"Part of life is eating with friends and family," Angela Corso said. "There are things you do because they feel right, not because they will make you rich. It may be that the real reason we are here is to be with each other and eat each others' cooking and be able to say, 'That was good.'"
The motto for Crow Creek Farm: "He who eats well lives well."