Greens at the Golf Course

The local line-up. (Picture by Nic Romano)

It was a rainy Saturday morning, and as I drank my tea I remembered some chatter from the night before about an organic farm stand at the golf course.  Friends had come over for dinner and after a bottle of wine and talk of packing suitcases and getting on a train to Oregon, the benefits of raising goats, the odds of winning the lottery, how to blog on Wordpress and other topics of conversation throughout the evening, I couldn't be sure if the farm at the golf course was a dream or a real thing -- or as real as our plan to raise goats in Oregon. Maybe we had also planned to farm the golf course? So I decided to trek off to find the mystical organic farm stand somewhere in the fog of my memory and the San Clemente hills.

Turning off the street and down a lane with cypress trees on each side, whisking me to the front doors of the elegant Bella Collina club, I felt a bit self conscious with my put-puttering car whose ceiling is falling in on my head and whose dashboard is held together with silver duct tape. No matter -- I rather like pretending I belong when I obviously don't, so I held my head high as BMW's and Mustangs passed me on their way out the cypress-lined drive through the heavy oak gates. 

I spotted some green umbrella's on the hill side and sighed in relief at the sight of a miniature farmers market taking place. It was real after all. 

I marched up the stone steps and Farmer Nic greeted me, though I didn't know his name until later. Try some raisins, he said, pouring some plump and juicy dried grapes into my palm.

I sampled the fava beans, sucked on a honey stick and picked my own rainbow chard as Farmer Nic packed me a basket of seasonal produce, freshly baked bread and pizza doughs, with a packet of raisins thrown in for good measure.

He told me how his grandfather traveled from Italy to the mines of the Midwest in search of a future. How his grandmother refused to leave her hilly, goat-herding hometown to meet her husband in America, but eventually succumbed to his pleading when he threatened her with divorce. Once in America they grew their own vegetables fertilized with manure, raised their own goats, chickens and children, and baked bread on Tuesdays. 

And here he is now, farming a faux Tuscan hillside with organic procedures and a vibrant heritage. Maybe he came straight out of a book, or maybe the book is just waiting to be written. I thought for sure a farm stand in the golf course must have been a figment of my imagination, but it's as real as the goat-herder from Italy and his golf course greens-growing grandson Nic. 

Villa Romano Green Farms located at Bella Collina Towne and Golf Club

Open from 10-1 on Saturdays

To pre-order a Harvest Basket e-mail farmernic@vrgreenfarms.com

*Although not certified organic, Farmer Nic uses all natural, sustainable practices -just like his family before him. 

Visit my website at www.kirstenrenee.com