Gorman Farm Update: The Vegetables (And Honey) Are Starting To Arrive Despite The Heat

The Gorman Produce Farm's produce stand has started to pick up steam -- even as the steamy weather makes it harder and harder to grow vegetables this summer.

This week, the Gorman Farm was seling corn, fennel, eggplants, beets and squash from their own fields.  They're offering lemon cucumbers and yellow beets, although it's mostly standard -- organically grown -- vegetables.

They're selling melons and tomatoes from the Eastern Shore, and they're saying that their own tomatoes are just a few more days away.  Pole beans after that.  I'm also looking forward to some sweet peppers.  I walked away with a bag off vegetables -- including a dozen ears of "day old" corn that made corn and sausage risotto and still filled half of my grill.

Lydia and Dave Liker are in their second year leasing the farm on Gorman Road -- just a yellow beet's throw from Columbia and Rte 29.  As I have said before, if you read a Howard County food blog, then you should go check out the local vegetables at Gorman.  (Although watch the cost.  My $2 fennel was so small that it chopped into four pieces.  Good flavor, but tiny.)

This is a rough year to grow vegetables.  I know from my own parched patch, along with my CSA, which has been mostly greens and lettuce.  Gorman's strawberries were a fun way to start the year, and I love that they're selling the first batches of honey from their own bee hives for $8 a pound.  I'll keep an eye out for more interesting buys in the weeks ahead.

Gorman Produce Farm

11051 Gorman Road

Laurel, MD 20723

301-957-6884

NEAR: This is on Gorman Road east of Rte 29 and west of U.S. 1. This is south of Rte 32, just minutes south of Columbia and almost walking distance from King's Contrivance.

From Broken Land Parkway, take Broken Land south of Rte 32 until it deadends. Turn left and then right on Murray Hill Road. Take that until it deadends into Gorman Road. Turn right on Gorman. You'll see the farm's sign on the left just before a point where the road bends to the right.

From Rte 29, take the exit for Johns Hopkins Road, which is also marked for Gorman. Turn left at the top of the ramp and go through the next traffic circle. The road changes name to Gorman, and you just drive until you see the farm's sign on the right at a point where the road bends to the left.

From U.S. 1, go west at the light for Gorman Road. You'll pass the Savage library. Gorman Road actually turns right. The "straight ahead" changes name to Skylark Boulevard as you enter a housing development. After you turn right to "stay" on Gorman, the road curves and curves. You'll see the farm's sign on the left just before a point where the road bends to the right.