Keeping it local on an island
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Just a quick hit—there was a terrific piece in the New York Times “Dining In” section this week about a network of fishermen, farmers, kitchen gardeners, and cooks who barter and give food and expertise to each other to save money (and other resources) on Martha’s Vineyard. Read, “On Martha’s Vineyard, Using Scallops As Currency.” And, there are recipes!
Dark Days: Bangers and Mash…sort of
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The last couple of potatoes in my kitchen were on their last legs. I grabbed the mandoline and sliced them up real thin, planning a potato galette. I love the look of a galette, the potatoes all spiraling from the center. It’s pretty. I’ve never had much luck doing a skillet galette, but I continue to try. This time was no exception - I melted a little local butter in the bottom of a skillet, layered in some potatoes followed by a sprinkling of dried parsley from last year’s garden and little chunks of butter and a bit of salt, and kept layering until I ran out of potatoes. 45 minutes later (on low heat), the potatoes on the bottom were nice and brown.
And this is where it always goes wrong: the flip.
I seem to be incapable of flipping a galette without completely destroying it. No longer pretty, I did manage to brown the bottom of the flipped galette...and it still tasted good. But it wasn’t perfect. I guess I’d rather have a good tasting galette than a pretty galette.
Pretty or not, it was the perfect accompaniment to the fantastic chicken sausage with white wine and herbs from Griggstown Quail Farm in Princeton, NJ. Even my husband loved them, and he usually turns his nose up at anything other than pork sausage.
Do the butter churn
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Did you ever notice that when you read a recipe that involves whipping cream, the instructions always say to make sure you don’t beat the cream too much? The reason for that is simple: too much beating the cream turns into butter.
If you’ve never made butter before, this probably sounds a little oversimplified. However, it really is just that easy. You just need maybe a pint of cream at room temperature. There are plenty of local dairies that produce cream, so finding the only ingredient you need is super simple.
There’s a low tech way to do this and a slightly higher tech way - and neither involves a milkmaid and a butter churn. You’ll either need a jar with a tight lid or an electric mixer with a whisk attachment. I guess you could even use a wire whisk if you’re especially strong in the wrist, although I’m not sure how well that would work.
OK, ready?
Pour room temperature cream into the jar and screw the lid on tightly or pour the cream into the mixer bowl. Shake the jar for all you’re worth for 30 minutes to an hour, or you can mix it for maybe 15 minutes or so in the electric mixer. I’ve made butter by jar before, but it’s pretty tiring. I prefer the mixer. The cream will go from very liquidy to forming soft peaks. And then the soft peaks will go to hard peaks. And then, magically, it’ll turn yellow and get chunky. Here’s where your common sense comes in - you have to keep tasting it at this stage until it’s got the right taste.
The perfect stage is the middle photo (click the photo for a bigger look) - chunky with buttermilk being released. When that happens, wash the butter. To do this, dump the buttermilk out that has already been released (obviously, you can save this for baking or something) and throw in maybe 1/4 cup of really cold water - mix the water into the butter. You can do this a couple of times - you want the water to be clear instead of cloudy or milky looking. Sometimes I wash the butter by kneading the butter while I run cold water over it. This is crucial: any buttermilk left in the butter will give it a rancid flavor. And who wants that?
When the water is running clear, you’ll need to press the water out of the butter. Use your hands or a spatula to squish all the water out.
At this point, your butter is ready to go. Salt it, mix in herbs, shape it...whatever. You can freeze homemade butter for about three months, or it’ll keep in the fridge for a week or two.
Now true, people look at me kind of funny when I say that I make my own butter. But the taste of homemade butter is far superior to the stuff you can get at the store, and I know exactly what goes into it.
Making bread the easy way
I’m probably the only person left on the planet who has not tried the No Knead Bread recipe that appeared in the New York Times in November of 2006. Even though I had read hundreds of blog entries about how the recipe works and how the bread is really good, I didn’t quite believe it. I scoffed at the idea of good bread without kneading. And I admit it - I’m suspicious of short cuts.
But my husband got it in his head that he wanted to try the bread recipe recently. He researched the best vessel in which to cook the bread [some cast iron pot available at Target, apparently] and went out and bought yeast. And then everything sat around for two weeks. I secretly think that he had no intention of mixing the bread - he wanted me to do it and thought that if all the stuff was sitting right in front of me, I’d break down and bake it myself. As a testament to how well my husband knows me, I did that very thing yesterday.
And, as luck would have it, I had local flour in the house. Daisy Flour only has pastry flour [whole wheat and regular white, plus spelt]. Typically, you wouldn’t use pastry flour for bread - pastry flour is made from low protein wheat and has very little gluten, which generally does not make for a good, chewy bread. But hey, that’s what I had on hand and I used it. As it turns out, it didn’t make a difference: the bread is fantastic - chewy with a good crisp crust!
For my first go, I didn’t go too crazy - I replaced half of the flour with whole wheat flour. That’s it. But there are a gazillion variations on this bread - from the type of flour to multi-grain to various add-ins. I have yet to see someone have a disaster with the recipe, no matter what they did. Later today I plan to mix up a batch with oats and sunflower seeds. And I’m looking forward to the garlic harvest this year, so I can make roasted garlic and rosemary loaves.
Stock dividends by water bath
Monday, January 21, 2008
Like Kevin, I also routinely make my own stock. Anytime I have bones leftover from something, I automatically save them and cook up a pot. Right now in my freezer I’ve got a few quarts of rabbit stock, although I generally don’t freeze my stock - I prefer to can it.
I really don’t think the way stock is preserved impacts the flavor - at least as far as I can tell. However, there are two reasons I like to can stock instead of freeze it.
- Freezing stock takes up freezer space. I have a chest freezer that isn’t full, so it’s not the worst thing in the world - but I do like to clear up as much freezer space as possible in case I get a big haul of meat or vegetables that I plan to freeze. You could also make the case that you use electricity to keep stock frozen, although if your freezer is running anyway...well, what’s the difference?
- I’m sort of an immediate gratification kind of girl. When I want to make risotto or soup or something, I don’t want to take the time to defrost stock. It seems much easier to me to can it and have it ready to use.
And it really is easy to can stock, and doesn’t require a lot of equipment. Aside from the stock and the soup pot you made your stock in, you need canning jars that you can buy at nearly any grocery store. That’s it. Now granted, nearly all canning sites will say you should use a pressure canner to can stock - but I’ve been canning stock with the water bath method for a decade and nothing bad has ever happened to me.
Have I cheated death and sickness for a decade on sheer luck? Maybe. My grandmother canned her stock this way, and so did my mother. So even though I know I should use my pressure canner for stock, I continue to use a water bath. Perhaps one day my luck will run out. Just keep this in mind before attempting my method - my method is not recommended by food safety experts.
This is how I can chicken stock:
- Sterilize your canning jars. The easiest way to do this is to put the jars and the two piece lids (not screwed onto the jars) into a dishwasher and run them through a cycle. If you don’t have a dishwasher, place the jars and lids on a cookie sheet in a 250 degree oven for 10 minutes or so. Honestly, though, you can skip this step - if you’re going to be processing jars for more than 10 minutes, which I do. Of course, I’d rather be safe than sorry (which is ironic, all things considered) so, unless I’m in a big hurry, I sterilize the jars first.
- Pour soup stock into canning jars, being sure you don’t fill the jar above the lid threads. If you’re concerned about fat, refrigerate the stock first and skim the fat off the top before pouring into jars. I also like to strain the stock through a fine sieve and then into the jars.
- Place the lid on the jar and then screw the rings on - make sure the rings are on very tightly.
- Bring a big soup pot full of water to a boil, and place jars into the pot. I generally use pint jars (four at a time) to make sure the jars can be completely submerged in the water bath.
- Boil jars for 20 minutes and remove from the water bath. Turn the jars upside down so that they are sitting on the lid.
- Let the jars cool and then press on the lid to check for a seal - if you press the lid down and it stays down, that’s OK...but if you press the lid down and it flexes back up, that’s not OK.
I do have some things that makes canning easier - tongs, a funnel, a silicon mitt. But you really don’t need any of that stuff to can.
Keep in mind that not all food can be canned in this manner. I can most foods in a pressure canner, as recommended, and I suggest you do the same to avoid botulism. As I said, perhaps I’ve just been lucky but nothing has ever gone awry for me when canning stock in a water bath.
Garlic Interlude
Had to put a recent picture I took of some garlic left over from a garden we were given. Garlic, as I was telling M, is so amazing yet unassuming it is probably my favorite veggie. Well, there’s tomatoes too, of course. And potatoes, brussels sprouts, mushrooms, onions… Oh, dear. Hmm… enjoy!
Stock Dividends
Saturday, January 19, 2008
I suspect that cooking locally has made me thrifty. Or, quite possibly, thrift has made me cook locally. I can’t be sure which came first, to be honest. In fact, it’s most likely, a third explanation - that of a symbiotic relationship (to make myself sound ecologically-minded). When I first joined a CSA, I’m ashamed to admit that I was rather wasteful. Each week, there was something (or, sadly, things) in my box that I simply did not (or would not) use. This was particularly true in the early and late weeks of the season when I was inundated with greens in more variations than I knew possible.
Six CSA seasons later, though, I think I’ve got the hang of it. It’s more than stockpiling recipes for, and stamina for large amounts of, chard and kale. When I shopped at a supermarket, my consumer preferences were paramount. I bought what I wanted regardless of season - or possibly even quality. Wasting is less of an issue when you’ve purchased everything you want. As I moved to CSA’s and Farmers’ Markets, though, that changed. My consumer preferences took a back seat to seasonality and quality. Instead of just buying what I wanted, I bought what I wanted from the best of what was available according to the season. Gradually, I think, this made it’s way into my cooking. I stopped thinking of what I wanted to make and what I needed to get and started thinking of what I could make.
The best barometer of this change is in my approach to chicken stock. In the beginning, it was bouillon, and then it was canned stock. Eventually, I made my own, going to the Reading Terminal for Godshal’s turkey legs (a tip I got from Lynne Rossetto Kasper) and vegetables from Iovine’s. Now, the idea of actually buying ingredients specifically seems absurd. It’s liquid trash - and I mean that in the best sense.
First, I always purchase whole chickens from Meadow Run Farm and quarter them myself. This way, I have a steady supply of chicken backs in my freezer. Oh, I also save the any bones leftover from dinner (once I pick them clean for the cat, of course). As for vegetables, I now have a bin for the scraps - broccoli stems, carrot tops and tips, the bits of onion I cut off before dicing, celery bulbs, shavings from celeraic, etc. Not to mention cheese rinds, which I always keep a steady supply of in my freezer. Every couple chickens, which is how I measure it - like phases of the moon or something - I’ll make more stock.
I’ll even use old take-out containers to store it. That, however, I wouldn’t necessarily attribute to thrift or interest in conserving resources: it’s really so I don’t have to feel guilty about ordering so much takeout from Tiffin.
Rice for the rest of us
Friday, January 18, 2008
For the last couple of weeks I and some of my fellow FTP contributors have had our noses stuck in seed catalogs. Many of us will begin our indoor seed starting for certain long season crops pretty soon and it’s a great time of year to fantasize about gardening - especially in light of the snow yesterday!!
Always interested in growing new things, I stumbled upon a kid’s website recent that describes the growing conditions necessary for growing your own rice. As you might imagine, rice is not exactly native to Pennsylvania. Rather, rice is native to tropical and subtropical southern Asia and southeastern Africa. Most of the rice grown today comes from Asia, and it’s growth requires quite a bit of water.
That said, it’s entirely possible to grow your own rice without flooding your backyard! All it takes is a bucket, a bit of compost and potting soil, some rice seeds, and water. You can grow the rice indoors - as long as your have temps above 55 degrees, that’s all you need (click for the full instructions). The rice needs a long growing season - 90-120 days.
I have to assume that a large number of rice plants would need to be planted to get a decent enough yield. Still, it might make a fun experiment - and think of how proud you’ll be to have rice that you’ve grown yourself without all the pesticides.
Kennett Square, Part One
Thursday, January 17, 2008
On Saturday, M and I made a pilgrimage to Kennett Square in Chester County. I’ve been wanting to do this trip for some time, and when some of my in-laws gave me money at Christmas expressly to buy mushrooms (at my request), I knew it was time.
I’ll talk about the mushrooms in part two, because here I’d like to talk about the vineyard we visited. Stargazers Vineyard and Winery (http://www.stargazersvineyard.com) embodies what Farm to Philly is all about—local, good food (or, in this case, drink) made by people who are interested in local, good food. Stargazers has an additional draw, which is that they are deeply committed to sustainable farming.
Although we had to borrow my parents’ car to get there (it’s near Coatesville), it was well worth it. The vineyard is open to the public Sundays from 12 to 5. The first thing we noticed was that the roof of the winery has a quilt of solar panels blanketing it. Also, one side of the roof of the main house has windows for passive solar collection.
Alice and John Weygandt and Brian Dickerson (who, with wife Jennifer, are now the General Managers and are being groomed to take over at some point) were on hand to greet us. Knowing we have a particular interest in sustainable housing, the Weygandts kindly showed us how their “envelope” house regulates the temperature using a double north wall and a solarium on the south side.
We talked about the farm markets in which they participate (Brian had just returned from Headhouse), and their efforts at sustainability. Their grapes are not organic, because our climate makes mold a stumbling block, but they are surprisingly chemical-free. Their website has a short page about their work in this department that’s worth reading. The solar panels we saw cover the electricity for the winery and their house, and Alice Weygandt said they sell the extra to the Energy Coop.
We went down from the farm house to the winery. (The house is designed in such an architecturally unusual and energy-saving way it’s hard to think of it in the same category as my family’s damp and drafty farm house in Wales.) We had a tasting of several of their very reasonably-priced wines, including a warming port-like Tinto Forte, a lovely Chardonnay, and a Pinot Gris that they’re not making again (so we bought three bottles!).
As always, it added just that extra zing to the wine to know that what we would be drinking for months ahead was grown and made by the people who stood in front of us. There’s just nothing like shaking the hand of the farmer who feeds you!
Finally, we both used their bathroom. I wouldn’t normally mention the toilet, but even this had evidence of their interest in the environment. The water for the sink is ingeniously looping into the tank for the toilet, and it involves two kinds of pumps, and let me just say, it was awesome. Use the bathroom when you go there. Let’s leave it at that.
We have already enjoyed some Pinot Gris we gave my parents (as a thank you for the loan of the car) with dinner at their house, and we will likely enjoy every bottle with some local veggies on the table as well!
Eating Dolly
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
I’m sure many of us buy meat and poultry from local farmers, but there’s always going to be a time when you don’t have time to get to the farmer’s market or something and you have to buy meat from the grocery store. That being the case, you might have been a little disturbed yesterday when the FDA announced they were OK-ing the sale of meat and dairy from cloned animals without proper labeling.
Food from healthy clones of cattle, swine and goats is as safe as food from non-cloned animals, the Food and Drug Administration said in a report released Tuesday.
“Extensive evaluation of the available data has not identified any subtle hazards that might indicate food-consumption risks in healthy clones of cattle, swine, or goats,” the 968-page “final risk assessment” concluded.
“Thus, edible products from healthy clones that meet existing requirements for meat and milk in commerce pose no increased food consumption risk(s) relative to comparable products from sexually-derived animals.”
[...] About half of the more than 30,500 comments from the public the FDA has received about the matter have dealt with labeling, he said.
But, he added, agency regulators cannot require cloned products be labeled as such if—as they assert—there is no material difference between them and food produced by conventional methods.
“There’s really nothing for us to label,” he said.
Well, then.
The good news here is that in the event you are compelled to purchase meat or milk from the grocery, you can always purchase organic: the Organic Trade Association has assured the public that meat and dairy from cloned animals cannot be sold as ‘organic’, since that would be prohibited under the National Organic Program regulations.
Look for sales of organic meat and dairy to skyrocket.
Of course, all this brouhaha is a bigger argument than ever to only purchase locally grown meat and dairy from a farmer you know and trust.
Cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Many of us have differing ideas about exactly what ‘local’ means, but I tend to think of ‘local’ as anything within 100 miles of my house. As such, most of Maryland is included - including the Chesapeake Bay. Chesapeake Bay seafood is pretty easy to find, but you have to think twice about whether or not it’s healthy for you. The Bay has a ‘dead zone’ and is on the EPA’s ‘dirty waters’ list.
The Bay is constantly being polluted with excess nitrogen, which is terrible for the health of the Bay. The number one nitrogen polluter of the Bay is agricultural run-off, particularly manure and waste from chicken production. I’m told that chickens outnumber people by just about 1,000 to 1 in the area. Perdue Farms is based in Maryland.
New-ish governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley, has proposed some new regulations that would finally let the state’s environmental agency police large chicken farms, which would - in turn - improve the quality of water in the Bay (and the quality of the seafood). The regulations would require large chicken farms to get state permits, incorporate pollution controls, and allow inspections, or face some pretty hefty fines. Of course, chicken industry spokespeople aren’t overly thrilled by the idea and say its unnecessary, saying that it might be cost prohibitive to family farmers.
Interestingly, federal law required Maryland to begin policing chicken farm pollution three years ago.
Dairy and pig farms have been regulated in Maryland for years, so it seems like a good idea to regulate poultry farms as well. I have to wonder, though, if it might be more advantageous to require farmers to use more sustainable farming practices, rather than simple pollution prevention methods. Even big corporate farms like Perdue could utilize at least some sustainable practices [like Rumbleway Farm does] without a huge cost, right?
Whatever the case, if this will significantly impact the quality of the Chesapeake Bay (and the food that comes from it), I’m all for it.
Dark Days: frozen treasures
Now that it’s January, and both garden and CSA programs are looming, I feel pressured to use up all of my preserved food from last season. For dinner last night, I hauled out a local chicken from Godshall’s Poultry in Reading Terminal, and then rooted around in my chest freezer for ideas for side dishes. Every time I roast a whole chicken I’m compelled to make mashed potatoes, but I knew that my freezer would hold some kind of alternate treasure.
As it turns out, I was right - one of the first things I pulled out of the freezer was a back of roasted butternut squash. Hmm. Chicken and butternut squash. Good. And then I pulled out a bag of broccoli. It certainly would make for a nice color combination, so I went with it. Both have good, strong flavor, too - perfect to stand up to the citrus marinated chicken I planned.
This past weekend at the Fair Food Farmstand, I snagged about half a dozen of the organic oranges from a family farm in Florida, knowing that I wanted to use them for marinade. Those oranges are really the only non-local part of the meal. The other marinade ingredients: garlic from Landisdale Farm, bay leaf from my garden, and a bit of salt and pepper. After the chicken was done roasting, I combined the pan drippings with the leftover marinade and reduced it, mixed it with local butter for a great gravy for the chicken. There’s something really fantastic about fresh citrus in January, and what’s better is that even though it’s not local, I’m still supporting a small grower.
The broccoli was one of the last things I received in the CSA program last year. I simply reheated it with some local butter. The roasted butternut was also from the CSA program. I heated it with some buckwheat honey from Linvilla Orchards and local butter.
It was a really great mid-Winter meal, and I felt great about getting to use some of my freezer bounty!
So you want to be a farmer?
Monday, January 14, 2008
Now here’s a great opportunity! “My” farmers at Blooming Glen Farm in Perkasie are on the hunt for interns:
Interns wanted for 2008 on Bucks County, PA farm
Blooming Glen Farm is seeking three full time, full season interns from April 1st to mid-November for 2008 (couples welcome). We are a diverse organic vegetable farm marketing to a 160 member CSA (all on farm pick-up), a weekly farmers market in Philadelphia, and local restaurants. We grow a large variety of field crops and devote the bulk of the space in our 5 greenhouses to intense tomato and heirloom tomato production. We are located in scenic Upper Bucks County, an hour from downtown Philadelphia.
We are a young ambitious farm looking for enthusiastic hard workers with a sincere interest in sustainable and organic agriculture. You will be an integral part of our team, and gain hands on experience in all aspects of the farm from seed to harvest. We provide a stipend and housing in a beautifully restored farmhouse.
Please see our website at www.bloomingglenfarm.com for more details about the internship and to apply.
Farmers Tricia and Tom are incredibly friendly, smart, creative and passionate and it shows in everything at the farm—from Tricia’s luscious food photography to the perfectly organized pick up days. I love that they hold a work requirement for members, and the variety of produce they grow is unlike any CSA around. As a member, I especially appreciate that they hold potluck events throughout the year, write a bi-weekly email newsletter, have an online calendar and educate us on the sometimes strange veggies we find each week.
Clearly, I can’t say enough great things about Blooming Glen! I’m willing to bet the internship program they offer is a pretty incredible, empowering and unique experience.
Hmm.
I’m beginning to think I could be convinced to apply…
Bababloo
Sunday, January 13, 2008
If you saw this cheese in your refrigerator, you’d probably make a face and toss it. And you would be missing out! This is another lovely cheese from Valley Shepherd Creamery in New Jersey - what they call Bababloo.
Bababloo is a mixed milk (sheep and cow) blue cheese that is cave-aged from ninety days to six months. I generally don’t love blue cheeses, but I really love this one - it tastes like the raw milk cheddar available from the Farm Fresh Foodstand in Reading Terminal with blue cheese mixed in. It’s salty and creamy, with a really great blue taste.
This is a stellar snacking cheese! The block in the photo lasted about 15 minutes in my house. It is fantastic with pears.
Farm to Philly Fiber
Spinners, knitters, crocheters, there’s a fiber CSA worth mentioning here: Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm. (Where the sheep and goats go to the beach!) Just like with fruits and veg, you buy a share of the shearing. It’s a one-time dealio, and you can choose the format of your share: roving (for spinning) or yarn. I haven’t seen or handled it, but I am in love enough with the idea that I almost don’t care. (And besides, their herd is full of promosing stuff: Cormo, angora, Corriedale, etc.) Although an ideal situation would be a mid-Atlantic fiber CSA, until the idea catches on, this one will have to do.
