All posts by sophie

Connecticut, farmer's markets, farms, locavore

Local Thanksgiving 2019

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Thanksgiving–the holiday where we celebrate our farmers and the harvest with friends and family.

Here’s my 2019 return on the gifts of the land. Sorry so few photos—I was caught up in the various moments!

Appetizers

Soup

Chicken Soup (recipe) from chickens from Stuart Family Farm. Carrots from Riverbank Farm. Celeriac, parsnip, garlic, onions, and parsley from Fort Hill Farm.
Celery,  brown rice, small bowtie pasta, and Parmigiano Reggiano, not local.

Main Course

Dessert

Beverages

And everyone got a menu.

locavore

Local Thanksgiving 2018

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I love Thanksgiving, the holiday where families of eaters come together to celebrate their farmers and their skill at coaxing nourishment from the ground. 2018 was a particularly tough farming year and several crops suffered. It wasn’t a great year for tomatoes or celeriac. It was meh for some apple varieties. What happened to the pears? Kale seems to have had a happy year and the garlic was impressive as well. I’m amazed at and grateful to my farmers for continually making the best of the elements. Here’s my 2018 return on the gifts of the land.

Read on for the 2018 edition of the annual posting of my Thanksgiving menu and food sources.

Appetizers

Soup

Sigh. Pic is from 2017. It was nearly exactly the same.

Chicken Soup (recipe) from chickens from Stuart Family Farm and Camps Road Farm. Carrots from Riverbank Farm. Celeriac, parsnip, garlic, and parsley from Fort Hill Farm. onions from High Hill Orchard. Celery,  brown rice, small bowtie pasta, and Parmigiano Reggiano, not local.

Main Course

 

Beverages

Photo from 2017. Mostly the same in 2018. It was too darn cold to pose bottles for a photo shoot!

Dessert

Again, I missed taking pics of dessert. The pies looked the same two years ago.

The printed menu my guests received had some errors, omissions, and typos, which are corrected in this post and reprinted here.

 

locavore, putting by, recipes

Hot pepper sandwich spread

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I love a good hot pepper relish to spread on my sandwiches. Not too hot. It needs to have flavor but also just enough zing to make a sandwich more interesting. Last year, I got some green tomatoes and hot peppers from a friend and thought that would make a flavorful relish, and yes, it was flavorful, but it turned out to be too mild. It was pretty hot when I taste-tested it but once it had to compete with the rest of the sandwich, it lost its zing.

This year, I got some hot Thai peppers from Daffodil Hill Growers and thought I’d use them in my next attempt. There are many kinds of Thai chili peppers and these are not the super hot ones you’d get in a Thai restaurant. Due to a series of unfortunate events, Daffodil is unable to determine the exact name of this pepper. Maple Bank Farm has a very similar looking (and by similar I mean identical) hot chili pepper that they said is Ring of Fire. Their Ring of Fire pepper is similar in heat to their hot red cherry pepper.

I’m finding conflicting Scoville heat ratings on both the Ring of Fire peppers and the hot cherry peppers.  For example, this place says Ring of Fire is 70,000-85,000 Scoville units while this place says 20,000. I wonder if this device is a real thing? Certainly, it would settle a lot of ambiguity.

All this is to say, I can’t give you a definitive name nor the actual Scoville rating of either pepper. Practically speaking, both of these hot peppers are in the jalapeño neighborhood of heat, give or take.

Speaking of Maple Bank and hot red cherry peppers, these are the other peppers I used in my mix.

I made a small batch of the relish I mostly following this recipe.  I used:

  • 9 oz Daffodil’s green Thai chili peppers (including the seeds)
  • 10 oz Maple Bank’s hot red cherry peppers (including the seeds)
  • 10 oz of red onions from Fort Hill Farm
  • 3 garlic cloves from Mountain View Farm
  • 4 tsp sea salt
  • 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 6 Tbsp of Woodbury Sugar Shed‘s honey

Chopped ingredientsChop the peppers, onions, and garlic in the food processor. Bring the vinegar, honey, and salt to a boil, add the chopped veggies, and simmer for 10 minutes. Let it cool, then put it in jars and into the refrigerator. I give it about a week for the flavors to develop before diving in.

It was a huge hit at my company’s picnic, which consisted predominantly of engineers, so there’s that.

One pint of hot pepper relish

Realizing I was going to need a lot more peppers to make enough to last the year, I quickly engaged my farmers at Daffodil and Maple Bank and over the next few weeks, they scrounged up enough peppers for me to make 5 more pints. Thanks!!

If you’re curious about how the Scoville scale works, see this article.

 

Connecticut, farmer's markets, locavore

Brave the elements–it’s worth it

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About a month ago, this little gem arrived in my inbox from Farmer John at Camps Road Farm. This is too good not to share.

I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right

How’s that for a click-baity email subject line? I’m two cups of coffee in and I cannot help myself.

I know what you’re thinking, “It’s cold and rainy outside, I want to stay inside and be snuggly.” Well, if you’re not thinking it, I know I certainly am. But then picture this:

The temperature is dropping down to 5 degrees tonight after the 50 degree yesterday. There’s freezing temps, black ice, and frigid winds in the forecast. It’s ok though because this morning you went to the New Milford Farmers’ Market and you’re roasting a chicken from Camps Road Farm.

Your house is full of the comforting aroma of roasted goodness. The temperature in your house is that much more comfortable with having the stove on. As you sit and enjoy the glass of beer you got from Kent Falls Brewing Company you dream about eating the pickles you got from Mountain View Farm, and the potatoes and spinach you got from Fort Hill Farm.

You can’t wait for dinner so you take the edge off by dipping bread from Wave Hill into hummus from Riverbank Farm. Dinner hasn’t even happened yet and already you’re looking forward to the steak and eggs you’ll have for breakfast tomorrow from Happy Acres and Kimberly Farm.

What I am saying here is, food is joy. There are a collection of people who have made it their job to make sure you get that happy feeling in your belly. We would love to see you this morning.

New Milford Farmers’ Market
East Street School
50 East St. in New Milford (right on 202 near CVS)
From 9 – 12:30

While this is a shameless plug for the market, I hope you enjoyed the picture I painted here. I certainly enjoyed writing it. It’s time to go pack the van. I hope to see you soon.

Cheers,
Farmer John

Indeed John, your vivid imagery certainly motivated me to get out and brave the elements! While I have enough local food stores on hand to get through nearly the entire winter, I still like to get out there and see what the farmers have for us in the winter. But damn, it was cold! Thanks John for getting me out of my comfort zone to get some more fixins for comfort foods.

See you at the New Milford Farmers Market.