Tasty turnips

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Imagine my delight when I heard the Fair Food Farmstand had gotten in a shipment of Hakurei turnips from Gottschell Farm!  They’re only one my very favorite vegetables, and nearly impossible to lay hands on.  Oh sure, I’m growing them in the garden this year but there’s no way I could resist buying several bunches of them.  My first dragon boat race of the season is today, and having Hakurei turnips (recipe) for dinner last night was a good luck omen.

Better yet, I can count last night’s dinner as my third One Local Summer challenge meal of the week!  I served the turnips with pork chops in a glaze of buckwheat honey.

pork chops, Country Time Farm - 80 miles
honey, Bee Natural - 59 miles
turnips, Gottschell Farm - 52 miles
onion - Landisdale Farm - 100 miles
spring garlic, my garden - 0 miles

not local: walnut oil, salt and pepper

The great e-scape

Friday, June 06, 2008

The garlic patch is growing like crazy.  I grew four varieties of garlic this year - Georgian Crystal Purple, German Extra Hardy, Musik, and German Red.  I can barely imagine what is going on under the dirt right now, particularly the German Extra Hardy.  Some of the stalks are super thick, much thicker than any of the garlic I grew last year.

But there were no garlic scapes in sight.  I kept checking, week after week, wondering when I’d see some stalks.  This week has been kind of crazy and I didn’t have a chance to really check the patch out for a few days.  Lo and behold, it’s scape heaven in there! 

I know that some of the local farmer’s markets are just beginning to get garlic scapes into stock, and I’m awfully glad of it.  I’ll get a few dozen scapes from the garden, but that’s never enough.  I’d really like to put at least two servings up to eat in the Winter - I can’t imagine anything better than eating garlic scapes in February!

Even though garlic scapes are becoming better known and more popular, many people still don’t quite understand what they are.  A garlic scape is simply the flower stalk of hardneck garlic varieties.  They sort of have a texture like green beans, but they’re a fantastic garlicky flavor.  There’s all sorts of discussion about when one is supposed to harvest the scape.  Everyone agrees that the answer is “early”, but some say you should cut it before the scape starts to curl.  As you can plainly see, my scapes have already started to curl.  Aside from the good eating, harvesting the scape encourages garlic to put its energy into developing big fat bulbs, rather than growing a flower.  It’s a win-win.

I like eating garlic scapes simply sauteed in olive oil with garlic, but there are other options.  I hear they’re excellent grilled and in stir fries.  I found these interesting recipes for using up those scapes (as if I’d have a problem!):

Garlic scape vichyssoise
Garlic scape green curry
Garlic scape pesto
Garlic scape hummus

Hendrick’s Dairy Telford Tomme

When I was at the Fair Food Farmstand last week, I asked the staffpeople for cheese recommendations, and they agreed on Hendrick’s Dairy’s Telford Tomme.  I have to agree with them--this is, hands down, my favorite local cheese so far.  It reminds me of a Gruyère, but it’s a bit nuttier.  It’s a little too crumbly for slicing with a cheese plane, but only just, and it melted nicely.

Clark Park market report, 5 June

Thursday, June 05, 2008

I’d completely forgotten that the Clark Park Thursday market started up today, but then I saw people walking up the street eating strawberries...and then I saw the tents.  There’re definitely fewer vendors than on Saturday mornings, so it’s an easier market to miss (if, say, you were driving by instead of walking), but there was still a good amount of variety.  For non-farm stands, there’s Betty’s Tasty Buttons (wonderful chocolate) and Big Sky Bakery (mostly bread, but I think they also do cinnamon rolls). 

The farms there today were Eden Grove farm, which had spring onions, lettuces, asparagus, and strawberries; Quaff Valley Farm, which had lettuces, strawberries, radishes, and eggs; Mountainview Poultry, with chicken, turkey, and various poultry products; Landisdale Farm, with strawberries, snap peas, shelling peas, lettuces, kales, pac choi, and their usual selection of eggs and dairy; and Backyard Bison, with various kinds of bison products.

(I bought hot bison jerky stick things and asparagus.)

Playing chicken

I recently finished Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  Admittedly, I was super jealous about all the poultry they were able to raise on their land.  Out here in Aldan (that’s Delco), we are not zoned for farm animals so I have to live vicariously through others.  My mother laughs at me - she spent her formative years trying to avoid egg duty on the farm: she and the chickens had a hate-hate relationship.

Even if I weren’t interested in supporting the local foodshed, I’d probably still go out of my way to purchase locally grown, pastured poultry.  The difference in taste is astounding.  The texture is way, way better than commercially produced chicken, not to mention true pastured chickens are less fatty and have higher nutritional value - like cows with cheese, happy chickens make happy...chicken meat.

The Fair Food Farmstand carries chicken parts from Shady Acres Farm in Elizabethtown, PA - they’re a small family farm who raises pastured poultry.  Also cool is that they supplement their poultry flock’s diet with locally grown grains.  Not surprisingly, a package of the chicken legs came home with me the other day, and featured in my second One Local Summer meal of the week: onion stuffed chicken legs, mashed potatoes, and asparagus..

Chicken legs, Shady Acres Farm - 99 miles
Onion, Landisdale Farm - 100 miles
Garlic, the last of my preserved garlic from last year - 0 miles
Rosemary, my garden - 0 miles
Butter, homemade from Dutch Way Dairy cream - 100 miles
Cream, Dutch Way Dairy - 100 miles
Chicken stock, homemade from a local chicken carcass - 0 miles (sort of, maybe 50-60 miles if you count the chicken)
Potatoes, Green Meadow Farm - 50 miles
Asparagus, Rineer Family Farms - 69 miles

not local: salt and pepper

Here’s a recipe for the chicken (for two servings):

1/8 c. finely chopped onion
1 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp fresh chopped rosemary
1 clove garlic, minced
2 chicken legs
1/2 c. chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Mix onion, butter, rosemary, garlic.  Season with salt and pepper.

Carefully loosen the skin on the chicken leg.  Rub half the onion mixture under the skin and mound the other half over the skin.

Place chicken in a roasting dish.  Pour the chicken stock over the legs, being careful not to knock the onion off.

Roast for 50 minutes, basting every 10 or 15 minutes.

Yes, There Are Even Local Artichokes

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

In our house, we try very hard to maintain a food budget, and, for the most part, we succeed.  Yet, there are occasions that call for indulgence – a Friday night out to dinner after a long, hard week, or that weeklong holiday between Christmas and New Year’s.  We can safely add the reopening of the Headhouse and Passyunk and South Farmers’ Markets to that list.  In this lull between the end of Winter Harvest and the beginning of our CSA, we have wallowed in Rineer Farms’ strawberries, Livengood’s spinach, and Weaver’s Way herbs.

Unquestionably, our favorite indulgence this season has been artichokes from Culton Organics.  Good artichokes are rare enough even at Whole Foods, but locally grown artichokes were, for me, an unheard-of rarity.  Culton Organics alternates between the smaller artichokes and the larger, globe artichokes pictured here.  Not wishing to appear snobbish, we purchase whatever is offered. 

For the larger artichokes pictured here, we trimmed off the uppermost and outermost leaves and the stalk, stood them upright in a pot of water and olive oil, and braised them for an hour.  To eat them, we plucked each leaf and scraped the meat off the base.  (Once I had finished with all of the leaves, I even went so far as to cut out the chokes, and then gnaw on what remained of the base and stem - it was every bit as good.)

For the smaller artichokes, I used a recipe from my erstwhile, original hero Mario Batali (sorry, Mario, but Marc Vetri has surpassed you) that makes a wonderful condimento of artichokes, garlic, parseley and, of all things, sweet vermouth. 

I used to think of artichokes as nearly being too labor intensive to justify cooking at home (about some things, I am very lazy), but less so anymore.  I suspect much of it had to with the very foreignness of the artichokes and how rarely I prepared them.  With a little indulgence, that is changing. 

A fine way to start the Summer

Last night I made my first official One Local Summer meal.  It was not without its drama, of course.  Let it suffice to say that I love the people who run the Fair Food Farmstand, and thank them for doing me a massive favor yesterday.  Thank you!

Anyway....my first OLS meal of the challenge is walnut and mashed potato croquettes with catsup.  The recipe is from a book given to me last year on my birthday by a good friend and her husband, the title of which is Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  I am not a vegetarian, but the book has some very excellent recipes in it and is a good source of inspiration for me when I’ve got 12 tons of corn and no inspiration!  In this case, I had some black walnut meats from Green Meadow Farm that I was dying to use, and I’m always happy to use up some of the homemade catsup I canned last season.

I haven’t eaten something called a “croquette” since I was very young and my mother foisted store bought, frozen chicken croquettes with that nasty chicken gravy on us.  I’m pleased to say that the walnut and mashed potato croquettes were a whole other animal - very light and yummy.  Not surprisingly, my husband took one bite, made a face, and declared them awful - he does that with just about half the things I make.  And in this case, he heard “croquette” and expected them to be just like those gross frozen chicken croquettes of his youth (apparently, nearly everyone of our generation knows the horror of the frozen croquette) - and was sorely disappointed that they weren’t.  As you can tell, dinnertime is often a point of contention at our household.

So how did I do on keeping it local and following the rules of One Local Summer?  Pretty well…

Walnuts, Green Meadow Farm - 50 miles
Potatoes, Green Meadow Farm - 50 miles
Butter, homemade from Dutch Way Dairy cream - 100 miles
Cream, Dutch Way Dairy - 100 miles
Bread crumbs, made from Le Bus bread - 10 miles
Sage and rosemary, my garden - 0 miles
Eggs, Natural Acres - 100 miles
Onion, Landisdale Farm - 100 miles
Catsup, my garden - 0 miles

Not local: salt and pepper, oil for frying

Something to do with all the greens

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

There are so many varieties of greens at the markets and in our shares these days, I thought I’d share one of my favorite (and most flexible) recipes for a mixed bunch of them. I’ve adapted this from Paula Wolfert’s Mediterranean Greens and Grains.

Leafy Greens, Garlic, Yogurt, and Red Pepper Swirls

3 C loosely packed mixed greens (in the photo are red mustard greens, arugula, and some leftover lettuces)
handful of mixed greens herbs (I used parsley, dill, and mint)
6 oz yogurt (I used Pequea Valley, so it was already thick; my suggestion is this or Greek/Greek style or already drained regular)
1 small clove garlic, crushed (start with this and let it sit a few hours before you decide to add more)
2 T olive oil
1/4 t dried oregano or a few leaves fresh, minced
generous pinch Aleppo pepper (a sweet paprika w/red pepper flakes will work, too)
pinch herbes de provence (if you have it)
salt to taste

Wash the greens and fresh herbs. Get a large pot of water boiling. Add the toughest greens first to the boiling water to soften them (the mustard went in for about 2 minutes), then the arugula, then the lettuce bits (these for about 30 seconds). Drain. Cool in cold water or, if your hands are diner server tough, plop the hot greens in a dishtowel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Finely chop them. Also chop the fresh herbs. Mix the herbs, greens, yogurt, and garlic together. Then heat the olive oil and add the oregano, herbes de provence, and pepper and swirl together until fragrant. Mix this with the greens mixture, salt to taste, and refrigerate. I eat this the way it is, or last night I slathered it on some crusty bread.

Enjoy! I highly recommend Paula Wolfert’s cookbooks—many of the spices are available at Bitar’s, or if you visit NYC, at Kalustyan’s.

CSA Report:  Blooming Glen Farm

(Click photo to read notes at flick’r regarding names/quantities of share.)

While out in the field picking our allocated two quarts of strawberries, I realized that my son would have easily eaten his weight in the berries had no one been watching.  I had to explain to him how the farmers calculate the quantities-per-member, and that if we took more than our share, someone could be out of luck.  In other words, two quarts is two quarts, not two quarts plus whatever you can shove into your mouth while you’re out on the field.  Of course, this was after he had already gone on a mission to find the biggest strawberries in the lot and devoured several of them.  He had strawberry juice on his shirt, his mouth, his fingers… absolutely shameless.

In any case, we’re fully embracing the CSA season over here—hope you all are, too!

And so the berry onslaught begins

Today was a banner day: the first strawberries came out of my garden.  There weren’t too many, just enough for me to have a nice dessert of sliced strawberries tonight after dinner.

I think the garden is slightly late this year in starting to produce.  Last year I picked my first pint of strawberries out of the garden on June 1, and in the 2006 my first couple of berries ripened up on May 30.  I’m not sure if this is a product of the cool Spring we had, or if perhaps I just need to fertilize the strawberries a little better.  Whatever the case, I’m just glad to have them!  As usual, I predict I’ll be completely sick of strawberries in a couple of weeks...but I will be thrilled to have frozen some come January!

Sloan Street Garden Update

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Even with the unpredictable weather of late, my plot in the Sloan Street garden seems to be thriving, even with a few minor setbacks due to squirrel damage and some cukes that got a little too chilly one night.

From left to right, we have:
-snow and shelling peas (which are finally discovering their trellises)
-bright lights swiss chard
-lemon cucumbers
-pickling cucumbers
-kentucky wonder green bean
-bloomsdale spinach
-cherokee purple tomatoes (in chicken wire cage due to aforementioned squirrel destruction)
-rutgers tomatoes
-roma tomatoes
-jelly bean red & yellow grape tomatoes
-wee tiny genovese basil
-mesclun bundles
-carrots

I find is encouraging that just one short month ago this verdant urban oasis looked like this:

And p.s.: that’s chamomile going crazy in the plots behind mine. 

One Local Summer - regional coordinators!

For those playing along with the One Local Summer challenge, we thought it might be nice to get to know your regional coordinator a little.

Western Region.  As a brand new farmer, Laura is still discovering the ins and outs of growing her own food and living sustainably outside of town. She, along with her husband, 2 large dogs, cat and 15 chickens live on 3.5 acres in Arlington, WA. By day she’s in marketing, but by night she’s learning to can, freeze, preserve, grow and bake - plus vital skills like fence building, rototilling and shocking the well. Everything you need to know if you someday want to drop off the grid and only go to town for sugar and coffee.

New England Region.  For the last year, Kim has been eating as locally as possible in central New Hampshire.  This has resulted in many adventures like learning about canning and freezing, rendering lard and finding sources for local meat. Along the way she’s been learning a little bit about digital photography and a lot about how many ways to prepare butternut squash.  Kim chronicles her adventures at Yankee Food.

Midwest Region This is Debbie’s second “One Local Summer” summer.  She lives in a college town in Iowa and is a vegan, which makes finding local protein sources pretty challenging.  She lives alone except for the company of Buddy, an impossibly cute and tiny rat terrier and his bigger, but younger, sister Frankie, a calico cat, in an apartment with no growing space, not even a balcony.  Her primary local food sources are a wonderful natural-food coop, her CSA and the farmer’s market.  She’s looking forward to getting started!

Southern region.  Joyce is a 30-something living in North Carolina with her wonderful partner Jeff, three cats, and one hamster.  She is finishing up her masters degree, and will be teaching community college in the fall. She also reads, knits, cooks, and volunteers with ESL classes, and sits on the board of directors for her local co-op.  Her biggest goal this summer (besides defending her thesis) is to finally learn how to can (and to raid her dad’s garden in the process).

Mid-Atlantic Region. Elizabeth, one of the coordinators of the Mid-Altantic region, has been blogging since 2006. A writer by trade, she began her blog, Seedling, in order to document her exploits cultivating a very small patch of suburbia. Ultimately she’d like to do away with her lawn altogether. Until then she has numerous flower beds, a veggie patch and a baby daughter to keep her busy. Elizabeth is passionate about cooking, food and food politics. A native of the Garden State, Elizabeth’s adventures in local eating have led to all sorts of tasty finds from grass-fed beef to farm-fresh veggies, homemade cheese, pasta and more. What’s more, she’s happy to share her sources with anyone interested.

Mid-Atlantic Region.  Nicole, the other of the two regional coordinators for the Mid-Altantic region, is the owner and one of the contributors to the Farm to Philly site.  She grows about 15% of her own food in a small garden at her Delco home (while her husband, dog, and three cats look on) and continues to take over more and more of the yard for edible landscaping.  Nicole’s day job is Director of Development for a bi-national reproductive rights nonprofit.  And in her spare time she goes sky diving, volunteers at Planned Parenthood and the Fair Food Farmstand, and is on a local dragon boat team.

International Region.  Joanna.  no bio available.

chives, continued!

Saturday, May 31, 2008

This month has marked the beginning of my second summer managing farmers’ markets, and in fact this very week was my one-year anniversary of working for Farm to City.  It’s been rewarding and challenging in ways I couldn’t imagine before I had a job that I loved, but one of my favorite things about my job is that there are always new vegetables to discover!

One of my newest discoveries is chive blossoms.  I had never paid particular attention to chives themselves, but on the first Saturday of the Rittenhouse Square farmers’ market, I found myself unable to resist the light purple thistle-resembling blossoms at the tent of Crawford Organics (one of the partner farms in Paradise Organics, if that name is familiar to people).  I’d heard that people often put them in salads, and since buying that first little bag of chive blossoms, I’ve done that myself.  I slice off the stem end of the blossom, to let the blossom fall into individual petals so the taste isn’t overwhelming, and sprinkle it over the lettuces and other salad greens that are so plentiful at this point in the season.

But what I happened to do the first morning after I’d bought the blossoms—and what I think is so far my favorite, tastiest way to use them—was sauté a chopped blossom or two in butter, then scramble eggs in. 

Perhaps it’s an idea for tomorrow’s brunch. 

(I promise I was thinking about the entry all week, before seeing Nicole’s entry about chives in general!)

Beware the chives

When Craig and I first moved into our house, which was about four or five years ago, one of the first things I planted in the garden were two chive plants.  Ever since, they have reliably over-Wintered and provided me with more chives than I know what to do with.  Really, what can be done with chives?  Oh, I know, lots of things.  But I never really use them for much other than sprinkling them over a baked potato or garnishing something every now and then.

This year I’m determined to try some new things with chives.  I don’t want to be the person who continually gives away big handfuls of chives to my friends and co-workers just because I don’t know what the heck to do with them!  No doubt my friends and co-workers will wonder where their chives are this year...but I will feel better for making better use of what comes out of my garden!

The first idea for chives involves pesto.  Nearly any herb can be made into pesto, so why not chives?  I found several varieties, one of which is a very classic version that simply substitutes chives for basil.  Another version combines chives with mint, basil, and red onion.  Yet another version combines chives and parsley.

If you make your own butter, you can make chive butter.  You can add chives to homemade mayonnaise.  Or make chive oil.

Whether cooking or baking, chives can go in just about anything.  Here are some recipes to try that involve chives:

• buttermilk biscuits with goat cheese and chives
• cheesy chive crisps
• chive bread with smoked salmon
• cheese and chives scones
• carrots with chive cream
• thyme, onion, and chive muffins
• chive vichyssoise
• camembert, chive, and apple scones

My chives are going crazy right now and there are lots of flowers - chive flowers are useful and edible, too!  Try chive blossom vinegar, or one of these interesting recipes: aspargus with sesame and chive blossom, fennel and chive blossom souffle, or chive blossom tabbouleh.

Rate a CSA program!

Friday, May 30, 2008

Many of us at Farm to Philly count on Local Harvest to find out about CSA programs and markets, but the site is really expanding its user friendliness!  One of the newest features is a star rating system and user reviews for farms and CSA programs, etc.  This is really a great step in the right direction for those of us flying blindly to pick CSA programs.  I’ve been trying to put in reviews wherever possible, and I hope you will, too!

Local Harvest also has a really great newsletter, and an interesting blog.  Be sure to check those out!