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Local St. Paddy’s

Mar 17th, 2013
by sophie.
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While I know that real Irish people (in Ireland) don’t eat corned beef, I have these culinary adventures on my list and today seemed like the right day to make my As-Local-As-It-Could-Be Reuben Sandwich.

rueben

The corned beef began as a brisket from Eagle Wood Farms. I followed Alton Brown’s recipe for corning, except instead of his spice list from faraway places, I got a pre-made mix of faraway spices from Penzey’s in Norwalk. I added salt and potassium nitrate (yes), not local. I brined it for 10 days, turning it every morning and evening. I cooked it with:

corned_beef

The sauerkraut began as cabbage from Sport Hill Farm, fermented per Sandor Katz‘s instructions. This would have been a great entry in the Westport Market’s cabbage contest, but there wasn’t enough time for the fermentation. It’s been fermenting for several weeks now. This is not my first attempt, but it is my first attempt that worked!

fermenting_sauerkraut

I made the rye bread following Martha Stewart’s recipe (mostly).

  • bread flour – red hard spring wheat from Wild Hive
  • rye flour from Wild Hive
  • honey from Swords and Plowshares
  • butter from Smyth’s Trinity Farm
  • yeast and salt: not local. I didn’t use caraway seeds.

Color me delightfully surprised when the loaf really did “tip out” of the loaf pan!

rye_bread

The Swiss cheese is Cry Baby from Arethusa Farm Dairy. (Thank you, Lisa from New Morning! I owe you big time.)

The dressing. Sigh. Should it be Thousand Island or Russian? What constitutes an authentic recipe of either? Here’s what I made:

dressing

Served with a dill pickle, fermented right here. Original cucumbers from Daffodil Hill Growers.

And that’s my sandwich. I hope you had a happy St. Paddy’s Day!

 

Peas be with you

Mar 17th, 2013
by sophie.
2 comments

The cooperative event between Debra Tyler’s Motherhouse and Bluestone Farm Living Arts Center was billed as such:

Women’s Wisdom: Sacred Agriculture

Mar 16,2013  -  Time:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Motherhouse and Bluestone Farm invite all women to join in a full day celebration of our connection to the earth through sacred agriculture. We’ll share our farming herstories, rituals, pea planting, pot-luck lunch, earth blessing way of the council, drumming circle and more.

In case you’ve never thought of sacred and agriculture together, here’s a good short read on the spirituality of farming. In case you don’t readily picture women when you think of farming, consider that the first farmers some 8-10,000 years ago were likely women and that the fastest growing group of those entering farming today are women.

My apologies for the pictures below. I used a phone (which is not a camera, despite what they say) and I was so caught up in the event, I forgot all about an illustrative progression. There are much better shots over at the Bluestone Farm Fans Facebook page and at Motherhouse’s blog.

We began with a fire and some food, mostly homemade from scratch. When I say from scratch, I mean the cheese spread was made from cream from their own cows. From scratch.

We blessed and sorted the dry peas, which are both food and seeds. These peas are not your garden variety peas, but a pea that’s more like a bean (whose name I should have written down but didn’t). Although much smaller, they have culinary attributes similar to a garbanzo, yet thrive in our climes. We were sorting through them to find the best specimens to plant—those that would produce the best plants. We prepared the beds, put up fences for the plants to climb, and planted the pea seeds in the still-frozen Earth.

planting_2 planting_1

We visited with the cows.

cows_1 cows_2

We ate a fabulous pot luck lunch.

eating

We smudged with sage, we drummed, we spoke.

drumming_2 drumming_1

While I left exhausted, it was a most excellent day. This was the inaugural event of the space that had previously been a school, which is now something new. It was a pleasure to be part of the energy transfer.

Cabbage Forage

Jan 19th, 2013
by sophie.
1 comment

In honor of the Westport Farmers Market‘s Cabbage Recipe contest, I adapted this Crock Pot Cabbage and Pork Soup recipe with a cabbage head from Sport Hill Farm.

cabbage_pork_soup

I changed it up to keep it local and also used a Dutch oven instead of a crock pot.

Food Sources:

I cooked it in the oven in a covered Dutch oven for one hour at 325ºF and six more hours at 200ºF.

The sweet and heat give it a unique flavor depth, but you can still taste the individual ingredients. Even if I don’t win the contest, I still win because this is a healthy soup made from excellent ingredients from exceptional farms.

 

Local Thanksgiving 2012

Nov 24th, 2012
by sophie.
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A happy tradition of a Thanksgiving of local food continues at my house…

Appetizers

A number of these items were put by in season to be enjoyed now.

Soup

Chicken soup with bowtie pasta or brown rice. Chicken from Sankow’s Beaver Brook, onions and carrots from Newtown Cedar Hill Farm, celeriac from Riverbank Farm, and leeks and garlic from Sport Hill Farm. Parsnips, pasta and rice: not local.

Main Course

Dessert

Beverages

Thanks to all of my farmers—I hope your holiday was as fabulous as mine. Thank you to my family for your help and a great day.

2012 CSA, Week 21

Nov 24th, 2012
by sophie.
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The grand finale from my Sport Hill Farm 2012 CSA. Patti’s back!!!

Week 21 – 10/18

  • 2 acorn squash
  • 2 spaghetti squash
  • 2 Delicata squash
  • 2 butternut squash
  • 2 fennel bulbs
  • 1 bunch scallions
  • 2 heads of broccoli
  • 1 head of escarole
  • 2 heads of lettuce: green and red

This has been another wonderful year of a CSA. I highly recommend this model to anyone who is interested. Choose your farmer well! Thank you Patti, Al, and the Popp family!

2012 CSA, Weeks 18-20

Nov 24th, 2012
by sophie.
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Lot’s more food from my Sport Hill Farm 2012 CSA.

Week 18 – 9/27

  • 1 spaghetti squash
  • 1 Delicata squash
  • 1 acorn squash
  • 4 eggplant
  • 1 bag of beans
  • 2 bell peppers
  • 1 bag tomatillos
  • 1 bag edamame
  • 3 tomatoes
  • 1 fennel bulb

Week 19 – 10/4

  • 1 spaghetti squash
  • 1 Delicata squash
  • 1 acorn squash
  • 6 ears of corn
  • 2 Asian eggplant
  • 1 bag green beans
  • 1 bunch Tuscan kale
  • 1 bag bok choy
  • 1 bunch scallions

 Week 20 – 10/11

  • 1 butternut squash
  • 1 spaghetti squash
  • 1 buttercup squash
  • 1 bunch kale
  • 1 bunch collards
  • 1 bunch beets
  • 1 bunch of Swiss chard
  • 2 heads of broccoli

 

 

2012 CSA, Weeks 14-17

Sep 23rd, 2012
by sophie.
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I have a few weeks of CSA bounty in the queue. The food has been fabulous and I have a good amount saved up for the dark days and have enjoyed quite a bit “live.”

Week 14 – August 30, 2012

  • 1 bag of potatoes (with a garlic bulb)
  • 6 ears of sweet corn
  • 2 bell peppers
  • tomatoes: 3 red slicing, 6 heirloom
  • 2 bok choy
  • 1 cantaloupe
  • 2 heads of lettuce
  • 1 bunch of kale
  • 1 bunch of collard greens

my cart runneth over…

Week 15 – September 6, 2012

  • 2 heads of lettuce
  • 1 bunch of collard greens
  • 1 bunch of kale
  • 1 watermelon
  • 6 ears of sweet corn
  • 1 eggplant of choice (Asian/Italian)
  • 1 bag of string beans
  • 1 bag of edamame
  • 2 bell peppers
  • 4 slicing tomatoes
Week 16 – September 13, 2012

  • 2 heads of lettuce
  • 1 bunch of collard greens
  • 1 bunch of kale
  • 1 bag of edamame
  • 1 bag of tomatillos
  • 1 bunch of carrots
  • 1 bag of sweet peppers
  • 1 bag of mixed tomatoes
  • 1 watermelon
  • 1 bag of eggplant
 Week 17 – September 20, 2012

  • 1 watermelon
  • 2 Italian eggplant
  • 1 bunch of beets
  • 2 peppers
  • 1 bag of string beans
  • 2 slicing tomatoes
  • 1 bag of edamame
  • 1 bunch of kale
  • 1 bunch of collard greens

 

 

 

Good food news. Really.

Sep 9th, 2012
by sophie.
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Nicholas Kristof points out in his New York Times Op Ed that you rarely get good news about food or food production, but he’s happy to report that one of his oldest friends (Bob Bansen) is raising happy Jersey cows in Oregon and proving that one can be both a good businessman and human being at the same time. Kristof  takes us to the farm and gives us a tour of this wholesome, organic operation.

Bob, 53, a lanky, self-deprecating man with an easy laugh, is an example of a farmer who has figured out how to make a good living running a farm that is efficient but also has soul.

As long as I’ve known him, Bob has had names for every one of his “girls,” as he calls his cows. Walk through the pasture with him, and he’ll introduce you to them.

…

“For productivity, it’s important to have happy cows,” [Bob] said. “If a cow is at her maximum health and her maximum contentedness, she’s profitable. I don’t even really manage my farm so much from a fiscal standpoint as from a cow standpoint, because I know that, if I take care of those cows, the bottom line will take care of itself.”

Bob with his girls in the pasture

While describing Bansen’s switch to organic eight years ago, Kristof reminds of the spin on the Stanford study that said or organic food was not more nutritious than conventionally raised food. It brings back the main point, that organic food is not poison.

It’s a good article, with good news for a change and worth reading the whole thing.

2012 CSA, Week 13

Aug 24th, 2012
by sophie.
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Week 13 at the 2012 Sport Hill Farm CSA is definitely NOT unlucky! The bounty continues.

  • 1 cantaloupe
  • 1 bag of potatoes and garlic
  • 3 cucumbers
  • 1 Italian eggplant
  • 1 Asian eggplant
  • 2 green bell peppers
  • 2 heads of lettuce
  • 2 heads of bok choy
  • 1 bag of adorable tomatoes
  • 1 head of kale
  • 6 slicing tomatoes

Frittata: bok choy, garlic, and tomatoes from Sport Hill Farm. “Cry Baby” cheese from Arethusa. Woodbury Laid Eggs.

Pan-seared cucumbers. Next could be battered in corn meal and deep fried…

2012 CSA, Weeks 11 &12

Aug 18th, 2012
by sophie.
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Still pumping along on the 2012 Sport Hill Farm CSA. Look at this bounty!

8/9, week 11

  • 4 cucumbers
  • 2 Asian eggplant
  • 2 Fairytale eggplant
  • 1 bag of onion and garlic
  • 1 bag of tomatillos
  • 1 bag of string beans
  • 4 red slicing tomatoes
  • 2 green bell peppers
  • 3 heirloom tomatoes
8/16, week 12

  • 1 bag from the tomato bar, mix as you wish (cherry, black cherry, Juliet plum)
  • 2-4 cucumbers
  • 2 Italian eggplant
  • 8 ears of corn
  • 2 green bell peppers
  • 1 bag of string beans
  • 1 cantaloupe
  • 3 heirloom tomatoes (1 of each kind)
  • 1 red bok choy
  • 2 heads of lettuce
  • 1 bag of red tomatoes

The freezer is perilously close to being full.

 

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