Produce productivity

Things have been just bustin' out all over at Mansion Farms, where I have a share and get to pick up freshly harvested veggies every week.

I am learning a lot about locavorism.  What I am learning is that you have to put what is on hand to use now, or find a way to preserve it for later.  This week's haul included broccoli, radishes, beets, and lots of onions.

The broccoli was steamed and enjoyed with dinner.  That is a no-brainer.

However, owing to a busy week last week, I still hadn't done anything with last week's radishes, beets and onions and I had a lot on hand.

I spent about three or four hours on my feet in the kitchen, but this is what I accomplished:

• Topped all the beets - the freshest I washed and dried, to be sauteed later in the week
• The beets all got cleaned and roasted for an hour, then peeled
• Some of the beets went into a light vinaigrette, to be enjoyed with lunches this week
• Some of the beets were saved to be re-warmed for dinners
• The last of the beets, I pickled with a few of the red onions
• Some of the radishes were cleaned and saved to be eaten raw in salads
• Some of the radishes were cleaned and saved to be roasted - yummy, if you've never tried it
• Some of the radishes were pickled with garlic and fennel.  The jury is still out on this
• The onions were chopped and sauteed in butter and sherry
• Once the onions were cooled, they were spread onto pastry and two rustic tarts were made and frozen for later

Gorgeous and delicious onions!

Radishes ready for pickling

 Golden and regular beets - ready for pickling

Left:  pickled beets and red onions, right: pickled radishes

Two frozen onion tarts, ready for impromptu cocktail gatherings!

It seems like a lot of work, but I think it's worth it.  I'm learning more and more about food.  I believe our bodies were meant to eat things in cycles.  I believe in supporting small farmers.  I believe in not eating food that has traveled thousands of miles.

But I have to be a realist - for now, I don't live this creed every day of the week.  I hope to gradually get to the point where more and more of my food is grown by myself, or those that I know personally.  But for now, I do the best I can.

The chickens are coming! The chickens are coming! The chickens are coming!

I have wanted chickens for AGES.  Several of my neighbors raise them and the eggs are to die for.

Plus, chickens are funny.  Really - just find  yourself a couple of chickens and sit and watch them for a while.

I found a really good and inexpensive coop design on Mother Earth News.  It uses a dog crate, which I have, and welded mesh fencing and hog rings, which I don't have.  I am looking forward to going to Tractor Supply to get them.

This isn't a big "structure" and it will be fairly easy to drag around the yard so the chickens and grass can do that mutually beneficial thang that they do so well.  Plus, it's "critter proof" so that foxes, etc. can't get into it.  No way to keep the snakes out, though.

I have been browsing chicken catalogs and websites for ages, trying to decide what kind of chickens I want.  Top of my list are Ameracaunas, which lay the blue tinted eggs.  They are so pretty!  We barely go through a dozen eggs here at our house, so theoretically, I don't need a whole lot of chickens.  A good layer will give you nearly an egg a day.

But the breeds!  There are SO MANY interesting breeds!  "SO MANY" being the operative words here....  I finally decided to order based on interesting looks, and not on production capacity.  Add in the fact that I am sure to lose some to inexperience and snakes (and maybe the dogs), and some will wind up being roosters, I have hedged my bets and ordered seven chicks.

These are some sketches of some of the breeds I selected.  I tell you, I canNOT WAIT to see these funny guys walking around my yard, and listen to their gentle, inquisitive clucking.

Except for the roosters.  I can wait for those.  Generally, they are aggressive and noisy.  If some of my fluffy little chickies grow up to be roosters, they are destined for the soup pot, so I can look forward to a new skill:  butchering chickens.

So, now I wait.  I wait until March 23rd, when I will get a call from the post office that they have a noisy box full of holes for me to come pick up.

Wish me luck!

Garden planning

It's been in the back of my mind, but so far I've done nothing.  Two years of abysmal failure is not a good motivator.

But I've been exchanging emails with Farmer Sandra who DOES know how to garden, and supplies me with the yummiest stuff.  We've been planning a "joint chicken order" (more on that later), and she's gotten me excited now.  She even sent me pictures.

She says, "FYI, This year I will also have some started seeds that will be transplant size that will be available for sale for any back yard gardens as well. Let me know if you're interested...tomatoes, broccoli, cabbabe, cauliflower, peppers..that sorta thing.



All my seed is from organic sources so that's all good too.  I've been using these kewl lil seed plugs...they expand in size when watered and allow for ease of germination.  I then pop the whole thing into a 3" jiffy pot, harden them off and plant them directly into the garden when the time is right...very easy.  Also, tweezers are the way to go on planting the seeds."
 
So, now I am excited!  Now I don't have to be a "drive by stalker" at the nursery wondering when their delivery truck comes, and then lurk at the back of the place when the truck DOES come, to get the varieties I want, and the healthiest-looking plants.  I will have organic, heirloom seedlings to start in my freshly tilled soil.
 
So - motivation has set in.  I think I will go scavenge some horse manure.

Yes, it's another post about food!

A while back, when I went to my farm share, I got some really cute 8-ball zuchinni.  I just love these little guys and if I ever get any better at gardening, I want to try and grow them for myself.

Someday, when I don't have hungry athletes to feed, just ONE of these, stuffed with random yummy goodness, will be perfectly adequate for a meal for me.

Also at the farm that day were sweet potatoes.  It was a logical step to stuff the squash with that!  So, dice it finely, and sautee with the ubiquitous onion.  And a bit of chili flake, 'cuz you know, I cook in Texas.

Also, the insides of the squash went into the sautee, and then the whole mess got stuffed back into the squash, which had been lightly oiled and well seasoned.  Next, they are roasted in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Surely stuffed squash is a perfectly fine mean on it's own!  But nooooo!  I had to add garlic bread, grilled artichokes, and a bit of steak as well.  Bon appetit!

Okra

Something I've never had until moving to the south is okra.  Gardeners who grow it say it's one of the easiest things to grow around here.  Judging by the overflowing bushels of the stuff every week at Sandra's farm, I would guess that to be no lie!

The classic way to prepare okra is to deep fry it.  That's all well and good, but I searched for a healthier way to use it.  I tried roasting it in various iterations (with garlic, with cherry tomatoes....) and didn't really come up with a way to use it that my family would eat.

Until..... my neighbor shared a jar of pickled okra with me.  It's yummy!  And Bridget loves it!  Time to pickle my own okra, and teach Missy B in the process!

Into the bottom of each jar goes mustard seed, dill, crushed garlic, one fresh jalepeno and one dried red chili.

The pickling liquid is equal parts cider vinegar and water and a whole bunch of pickling salt.  Packing the okra in the jars was a bit of a challenge.  I don't like to use wide-mouth jars so that my canning rings are interchangeable amongst my smaller jelly jars.  But, by alternating big end and little end, and starting with the largest okra pods first, we got the jars stuffed tightly.

Ladle in the hot pickling liquid, and drop them in boiling water to process for 10 minutes and voila!  Pickles!  Bridget loves them in her lunch and I hope we've made enough to get through the winter.

In touch with my food. Literally.

One thing I've learned in trying to eat more local, less processed foods is how much I have to touch my food now.  Whether it's for preservation or just prep for dinner, there is a lot more involved when you quit opening up cans.

Take the purple hull peas.  I'd never had them before.  Farmer Sandra grows them and I was intrigued.  They're a pretty greenish purple and look like beans.

Except they are not.  The edible part lies within the hull and must be painstakingly removed.

Shellin' peas - it can either be relaxing or mind-numbingly boring.

The first time, I did them all by myself.  What began as relaxing soon became monotonous.  It took well over an hour.

I cooked them in sauteed onion and bacon and then boiled them for about 90 minutes.  Delicious!  The kids LOVED them!

So, I decided they were worth the effort and the next time I brought them home from the farm I made it a Family Project to shell the peas.  What began as relaxing soon turned into bickering, adolescent fits, and at least one nameless person leaving the room in tears.

But I digress.

The point is, it took no little while to get all those peas out of their hulls.  But they were worth the work.  Purple hull peas are not something you'd ever find in the grocery store, in a can, or in the frozen food section. They are wonderful and this is the only way you can enjoy them.  By touching every little dang pea.

A few weeks back, when I went to "my farm" to get my veggies, Farmer Sandra had harvested ALL the carrots.  They were not going to stand up to the heat, and needed to be used now or they'd be no good at all.

I pretty much filled my bag with carrots that week, intending to find a way to preserve them.

Homegrown carrots are neither as "pretty" or as large as you find in the grocery store.  But they have a much more robust flavor, and earthiness that all good root vegetables should have.  And a lot more charm in their appearance.

Problem is, before preserving, all of these carrots needed to be vigorously scrubbed.  I'm a scrubber, not a peeler.  I think peeling is wasteful in both taste and mass and nutritional value.  Scrubbing hundreds of little carrots took no little while.

The next challenge is to preserve them in a way that I think enhances their flavor and makes eating them a pleasure rather than a chore.

As usual, I scanned a lot of recipes and decided to go a bit exotic.  Star anise, cinnamon, clove all seemed to be good compliments to their earthy flavor, and some lemon (juice and peel) to brighten the overall effect and contract all that earthiness.

They sure look pretty, but I need to give them a few weeks in the jars before trying them.  I'll let you know how they taste.

All this prep work gives new meaning to "handmade food."

Saturday morning farm visits

This year, I bought a share in a small local farm.  I am a big fan of locavorism, and while I am far from perfect, I do what I can.  I believe it is good for our bodies, good for our planet, and good for the dying breed of small growers.

My farmer's name is Sandra, and I found her on Local Harvest, a great website that connects consumers with local producers of all manner of food and goods.  I was very lucky to have hit the Local Harvest website shortly after she put up her profile, as she only sold 10 shares on her farm this year.

Sandra's farm is called Mansion Farms and it is out in Roanoke, the next town over from me.  Let's see if she's reading.....  Sandra, why do you call your place Mansion Farms?  You can leave a comment. ;-)

So.  Every Saturday morning I make the quick drive out to Sandra's place to pick up my share of the produce she has harvested that week.  Being a terrible novice gardener myself, I am learning a lot just from chatting with her for a few minutes every week.  Maybe someday it will all sink in enough that I can grow some of this stuff successfully myself, but for now I am glad that Sandra is doing it for me.

There is different stuff available every week, and the fun challenge is figuring out how not to let it go to waste. I try to incorporate everything I pick up that week into our meals, and if there is a lot of stuff, I try to preserve it.  It has all been a great learning experience.

Sandra has lots of stuff going on besides her 1/2 acre vegetable garden.  She keeps a flock of chickens and sells the eggs.  I know you've heard me say over and over and over - there is nothing like a farm fresh egg.  Once you try one, you will never buy those weak facsimiles from the grocery store again.

She has goats and sheep and is working on expanding her herd to use for meat.  She also keeps turkeys.  An endangered breed called Midget White.  One of these little guys will be my holiday bird this year.

Sandra also trains and rescues "Livestock Guardian Dogs."  You send these lovable guys out in the pasture with your goats, turkeys, sheep, etc. and they keep the predators at bay.  The turkeys have even figured out to run to the dogs when they sense a threat, such as a large bird overhead, etc.

It's a pleasant errand to run every Saturday.  I enjoy hearing Sandra's plans for expansion, learning what can and can't grow in different times of our growing season, and learning how to cook new foods such as okra, and purple hull peas.

As I've said before - Nature can't be wrong.  I think it will be worth it to listen to her rhythms and dance her dance.

The All Food All The Time Blog

I know.  You are just waiting anxiously to find out what I did with all that farm fresh produce!  And how were those pickles after all?  And what about the jelly?

And I just left you hanging.  I am sorry.  I've been busy eating.

The word Ray used to describe this creation was "fantasmagoric" I think.  Aidan's friend who was here for dinner said "Omigawd, Aidan, can I move in here?"   High praise, indeed.  Fresh ingredients, simply prepared - nothing more.

More of those vegetables were grilled an thrown into a yummy risotto that Ray made.  Leftovers of that will be my lunch today.

The pickles are delicious.  The bread and butter chips taste exactly like they are supposed to.  The dill that Ray made have a wonderful crunch and are just sour enough.

"But what about the blackberry jelly?" you ask....  Trial and error.  Super Confident Me did not do a test batch.  Super Confident Me cooked and processed about 30 jars in one marathon session.  Super Confident Me was horribly deflated to discover none of it jelled to Super Confident Me's satisfaction.

Ugh.

Deflated Me had to open up every jar.  Deflated Me had to clean and re-sterilize everything.  Deflated Me had to hubble bubble toil and trouble over the burning fire and bubbling cauldron for another afternoon.

Happy Me got jelly.  Happy Me made some cute labels of the cute berry pickers for the lids of the jelly.

Now I am back to Super Confident Me and saw the wild mustang grapes growing by the side of the road.  Super Confident Me went and picked a bunch.

Super Confident Me's kitchen looked like a murder scene as I rendered all the lovely, tart juice.

Super Confident Me has a couple of pitchers of juice which will make maybe about ten pints or so of jelly.  Should I do a test batch?  What do you think?

But dang.  I have to go to the boring old tire store.  The story of the wild mustang grape jelly will have to wait for another day.

Oh, the suspense!  What will you do!?

Meet your meat

I met my Thanksgiving dinner over the weekend.  One of these scrawny little guys will be the centerpiece of my Thanksgiving table come November.

They don't look like much (yet), but hopefully by November will look more like this:

The breed is a "Midget White" and it's one of many endangered breeds that are being revived by small growers throughout the country.

Mine is being grown at "my" farm over in Roanoke - just a few miles from my house.  I say "my" farm, because this year I bought a share in the farm and every Saturday I get to fill a bag with the week's harvest.

I'm looking forward to watching my turkey grow and learn interesting tidbits from Farmer Sandra about keeping poultry. 

And slaughtering poultry.

Yes, let's just put that out there.  Slaughter.  Turkeys really don't just magically appear frozen, featherless and shrinkwrapped with the giblets (read: guts) in a little wax bag.

Hungry yet?

This week in Pam's local kitchen

Top left:  potatoes, carrots & beets.  I think I'll roast them.
Tom right:  zuchinni, yellow squash, banana peppers and some other kind of mild pepper.  Salsa?  Zuchinni tart?  Grilled squash?  Risotto with some roasted carrots too?
Bottom left:  More peppers, including some really spicy Asian varieties.  Currently on the back patio getting sun dried.
Center:  Tomatoes of all sizes.  Salsa?  Freeze for sauce later?  Bake the little ones with chicken breasts until they burst and become a sauce?
Bottom right:  Purple hull peas.  Never had them before but apparently the peas are delicious sauteed with onions, and then you can boil the hulls to make jelly.

Providers:  Two different neighbors and my farm share.  Everything was grown right near me.

My sincere apologies to those who come here for updates on the kids, or absurd and amusing tales of motherhood.  While the crops are bursting, this is now the All Food All The Time Blog.  We will get back to our regularly scheduled programming once the kids get around to doing something amusing or absurd.

The wild mustang grapes have ripened and are calling to me.  That must mean more jelly making is in my future.

Cucumbers are better than.....

This week at the farmer's market, I bought every cucumber they had.  I love cucumbers.  After all, they stay hard in the crisper for weeks, you know.  I got all sizes, because you know, size doesn't matter - and a cucumber will never try to convince you otherwise.  And even thought I bought a LOT of cucumbers, none of them seemed to have a problem with the fact that I could handle ALL those cucumbers.

OK.  I'll stop now.  My intentions for the cucumbers are purely culinary.  Seriously.

Ray even got interested in the cucumbers.  Culinarily speaking of course.  Seriously.

We both wanted pickles.  Dill for Ray, bread-n-butter for me.  Ray even got green tomatoes to pickle as well.  Hmmm....  are green tomatoes better than women and I missed the joke?

Back to the cucumbers.  Seriously.

And this is VERY serious, because I even broke out the French mandolin to slice 'em purty and didn't even lose any of my parts in the process.  Tricky things, them mandolins.  I also sliced onions and salted the whole mess of 'em and let them drain.  A little finely minced sweet red pepper went in there too.

As usual, no particular recipe was followed, but I just tossed in various ingredients that I'd seen listed in the recipes I perused on canning websites.  Tumeric, mustard seed, clove, garlic...  All simmered in a pot with equal parts cider vinegar and brown sugar.

In go the cucumber slices to heat through, and then fill and process the jars.  The hardest part of the whole ordeal is waiting the 3 weeks until they're ready.  I hope they're good, because I've already given a few jars away.

Ray is using a fermentation process for his dill pickles, which won't require water bath processing.  Being a beer maker, he's more comfortable with that whole fermentation thang than I am.  I should have helped him and maybe I'd learn a thing or two about how to properly treat a cucumber.  But Bunko the night before, followed by 5:30 wakeup for swim practice and a 9am meeting, and well, I confess I was sleeping in the middle of the day while my husband was in the kitchen having his way with several dozen cucumbers.  I know.  I missed out.

We'll let you know in a few weeks how good those cucumbers actually are!  Or maybe we won't.  We're shy that way.

When Life Gives You Radishes.....

....make radish sandwiches!

Between my own garden, and "my" farm in Roanoke, it's still mostly spring onions and radishes lately.  The tomatoes and green beans are teasing us, as are the cucumbers.

We had another party to go to last night and I had picked up a bunch of produce from my farm share in the morning.  The hostess had asked me to bring an hors d'oeuvre.  Once again, the challenge was to find a way to use what is local and in season, rather than resorting to the soulless yet abundant produce at the grocery store.

One of my favorite cooking websites is epicurious.  I typed "radish" and "scallion" into their recipe search, and voila!  Several recipes for radish finger sandwiches.  As usual, I scanned the various recipes, as well as the comments sections, and came up with a plan of my own.

First, I made a compound butter using finely chopped spring onions, parsley, anchovy paste and some really nice French sea salt.

Then I sliced the radishes very thinly using a mandolin.  These radishes are very spicy, so they got a quick soak in some lime juice.

Finally, assembly!  Very thin whole wheat bread, butter both slices, layer the radishes, trim the crusts and cut into little pieces.  I thought they were delicious and the sea salt really brought out the flavors.

Sadly, I think my garden is done giving me radishes.  Between the heat and the fact that one of the dogs tried to hide a dead bird in the radish section, well, maybe I'll replant in the fall when it's cooler.  They only take about 4 weeks from planting to crunchy yumminess!

The "Challenge" of Fresh Produce

I picked up my first bag of fresh produce from my farm share today.  It's early in the season, and judging by my own garden, I was expecting neither an abundance nor a lot of variety.  That is the way of in season and local produce.

Available today were green beans, radishes (the spiciest I've ever had!), spring onions, sage, mint, garlic, a few small serrano peppers and eggs.

The challenge now lies in using all this wonderful goodness every week.

I will make a salad tonight that has fresh greens from my own garden, augmented with some from the store, I must admit.  I don't have enough yet and awesome gardener lady down the road says hers are too sad to share.  Bridget picked and washed the greens, then  I taught her how to par-boil and slice the greenbeans, and how to make the perfect hard-cooked eggs.  Of course the radishes will be sliced (thin!) for the salad as well.

The sage has been hung in my pantry to dry.  The garlic needs to cure another few weeks.  The mint awaits this evening's mojito.

I took a bunch of the onions.  Onions are usually treated as a background ingredient, starting a dish as the mire poix.  I just love onions and often grill, sautee, or roast them as a side dish.  Today I made an onion tart.

I blind baked a sheet of puff pastry.  Chopped and sauteed most of the onions (and snuck those shy serrano peppers in there as well) in butter, oil and sherry. 

I saved some of the onions to braise (in butter and sherry) to top the tart with.

Once the tart filling was cool, I mixed in some grated manchego.  Goat cheese would have been a good complement to the onions as well, but manchego was what I had.

Spread it on the tart shell, top with the braised onions and back into the oven.  It'll make a nice appetizer to bring to the neighbor's BBQ tonight.

I can't wait to pick up next week's bag!