We visited Nichols Farm as a restaurant staff to see where our beautiful fruits and vegetables are grown, and to see the Nichols family 2015 investment in a new distribution center with winter greenhouses, the entire facility powered by geothermal and solar energy.
I rented and drove the 12-seat passenger van that included Chefs Rick and Deann Bayless. We left Xoco at 8AM on a Sunday morning and arrived in Marengo about 9:30AM to begin our tour.
Doreen Nichols welcomed us with water, a farm visit essential. Lloyd Nichols, one of my favorite people, began by showing us the bulletin board used to categorize the many hundred if not thousand of varieties of heirloom species of fruits and vegetables growing in their orchard and fields.
Sons Nick and Todd, with their close friend our chef Hector Cotorra, drove us through the farm on all terrain vehicles, stopping occasionally for the best part – small bites in the field. Nick and Todd are lifelong farmers and when I showed them my bb gunshots, they laughed and said they shot each other with bb guns all the time growing up.
As the afternoon sun blazed overhead (giving me quite the sunburn,) the chefs prepared a summer feast of fruits and vegetables (and hamburgers made from Topolo’s ridiculous grass-fed sirloin) for the staff and Nichols family.
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