Last year Maria Hernandez Cruz, 40, and her family were inspired to start growing their own food, so they established Cruz Family Little Farm on their one-acre lot in Douglassville to help address some personal needs.
“We have some medical issues and are trying to eat healthy,” Cruz said. “We are in need of things with no chemicals and growing things naturally.”
When it comes to planting and harvesting, it’s a family affair.
“I have one grown son and three girls,” Cruz said, adding that while her son is grown up, she has three young daughters at home. “They help me in the garden, with the chickens, honey and the farmers market.”
Aside from providing food for their own family, they also share eggs, honey, flowers, produce and herbs with the community at Pottstown FARM market.
“Everything I talk about is what we share at our table,” she said, referring to customers at the market. “We sell what we eat from our table so we share from our table.”
Their motivation to grow and sell things at the farmer’s market extends beyond any profits from sales.
“We don’t do it as a profit,” Cruz said. “It’s more like teaching people that you can eat healthy with a small property — you don’t have to have a lot of acres to eat. You can do it in your backyard — you can do it anywhere and produce healthy and good food.”
Cruz, who was born in Mexico, moved to Brooklyn, New York, when she was 10 years old. At age 24, she moved to Pennsylvania.
“I didn’t like the city and I always wanted to live in a place where I could have a backyard and grow my tomatoes,” she said. “I have always loved the natural stuff.”
The primary cook of the home for her husband and three daughters, these days Cruz enjoys making her family “pumpkin flower quesadillas,” made using the blossoms growing on their pumpkin vines.
“We chop them and stir fry with onions, garlic and then we grab a tortilla and we put cheese in there,” she said, adding she uses corn tortillas and mozzarella cheese.
The quesadillas are topped with green sauce, also known as salsa verde.
“Right now we have a lot of tomatillos and I roast it with some jalapenos and blend it with garlic and then I top it with it,” she said of the quesadillas.
Cruz said her family is currently looking forward to their sweet potatoes being ready to harvest to make a fall dessert that she also makes using pumpkin on occasion.
“I’m waiting for my sweet potatoes so we can eat roasted potatoes with honey,” she said. “That’s our favorite dish for fall.”
To make it, she washes the sweet potatoes and then cuts them in half before adding some sweet ingredients.
“I put a little bit of cinnamon and a little sugar on top to make it crisp,” Cruz said, adding that she uses white sugar, cinnamon and cinnamon sticks.
After roasting the potatoes in a foil-covered casserole dish, next comes the finishing touch.
“I take it out and drizzle our honey on it and eat it as a dessert,” she said.“You can buy your own sweet potatoes, but when you grow your own it tastes better.”
In addition to what they grow for their own family and the farmers market, the Cruz family sells herbs to The Blue Elephant restaurant in Pottstown.
“They love the rosemary and the Cuban oregano,” she said. “They asked me to grow shiso — a Japanese mint they use in their sushi.”
A dish Cruz enjoys making at home using Cuban oregano is Chicken Oreganata.
“You ground the oregano and put garlic, vinegar and black pepper and you marinate your chicken in that,” she said, adding that when ground, Cuban oregano forms a paste that resembles pesto.
Since Cruz spent a large part of her youth growing up in New York City she likes to dabble into different styles of cooking given the diversity of foods to which she was exposed.
“I cook some Dominican, some Puerto Rican, some Chinese, Mexican and Italian,” she said. “Whatever my kids want that day I make for them.”
Learn more about Cruz Family Little Farm
Facebook: @cruzfamilylittlefarm
Find them at Pottstown FARM market
October 2, 16 and 30, 9 am to 1 pm
Smith Plaza, Pottstown
www.pottstownfarm.org
Medical issues inspire family to eat healthy and grow their own food - The Reporter
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