Ann's Local Food Letters

Might I Suggest?...

2012-01-17T10:42:00.001-05:00

...something nice for your sweetheart (or yourself) to brighten up these last dark days of winter? Perhaps something handmade? By someone you know? Because we all have to pay the farmers somehow...

It Hailed Today

2012-01-11T17:51:00.000-05:00

And rained for most of the rest of it. And might snow tomorrow......

But I, and several other lucky Chattanoogans, will still have something great to eat. Thanks! to the year-long farmer's market, run by brave farmers who really care about us. O, we are so so lucky.

Water Kefir

2011-12-19T11:57:00.002-05:00

I recently became the proud parent of some water kefir grains. They came from a friend in Atlanta who gave them to my father who gave them to me.

And o man, is it ever wonderful. It's the easiest kind of parent to be, and the rewards are outstanding. All you do is add water and sugar to the babies, and they get to work.

Sometimes I add dried fruit or candied ginger, and it takes on those flavors powerfully. It also destroys the dried fruit to a pulp, rather quickly. And leaves a nice sediment. It's the best bubbly beverage out there.

The thing is, they grow...fast. So I've got plenty to share. Let me know if you would like to try your hand in the wonderful world of water kefir, and I'll send some of my hard working little kefir grains to a brand new home.

The Delectable Spectacle!

2011-12-12T14:06:00.002-05:00

For even more photos, check out the blog put together and written by the ladies who organized this spectacular event: Nothing Could Be Finer

2011-11-26T16:50:00.000-05:00

Beet Dip

2011-11-16T10:14:00.001-05:00

This beet dip is taken from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian, where it is called Pantzarosalata II, or Pureed Beet Salad (in Greek). I usually change it in some/several ways, but her original recipe is tasty, so I'll write it here.

1 good sized beet (about 6 oz) or two smaller ones
4 T chopped walnuts
1 slice stale white bread, or you could use a small boiled potato
1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped
6 T olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
1/2 t salt, or to taste

Boil the beet in its skin until soft, about 40 minutes. Drain, peel, and let cool. Chop coarsely. Throw everything in a food processor and blend until smooth.

That's what Madhur says to do. I've done all that and almost none of it. Sometimes I don't have bread- it is just fine left out, although it has a more "vegetable" texture instead of a starchier one. I've never used a potato. I've also left the walnuts out, but they make it really good. I've added cumin and cilantro, lemon juice instead of vinegar, parsley and chives. I'm pretty sure I used a touch of tahini once instead of walnuts, with good results.... Just play around and see what happens. Serve with a nice crust bread or handmade crackers by Ashley.

2011-11-14T09:56:00.001-05:00

Late Autumn at Alezxanna Farm

November 12^th 2011

To Start

Sequatchie Cove Lamb Liver Pâté

With River Ridge Farm chicken livers and Link 41 bacon

William’s Island Farm Beet Pâté

With no livers at’all

Served with Sequatchie Cove’s Cumberland cheese, Ashley’s handmade rosemary crackers, and Pocket Farm hakuri turnips

Focaccia

With Circle S Farm baby squash, Crabtree roasted green peppers, and Sonrisa’s whole wheat flour

......

Sweet Potato Tortellini

With Sequatchie Cove shiitake; served in a warm lamb broth

The Feast

Sequatchie Cove Farm Beef Roast

Braised with shiitake mushrooms and Bill’s vino

Riverview Farm Grits

Layered with Cumberland cheese and Fall Creek Farm butternut squash, and Alexzanna herbs

Marinated Garbanzo Salad

With William’s Island Farm kale, Circle S cauliflower, and Crabtree kohlrabi

Signal Mtn Farm Lettuce Salad

With Crabtree pea shoots, Tant Hill asian green mix, and Pocket Farm arugula

To Finish

Fall Creek Farm Apple Torte

With Louisiana grown Asian persimmons and Sonrisa’s whole wheat flour

Featuring (and Many Thanks to)….

All beautiful and colorful wine and water glasses are made by Prentice Hicks and donated for use during this dinner. They can be taken home to drink from and brighten your every day. They are 2nds and specially priced. Please ask for prices

Cute and pretty tea cups that held your tortellini, a few plates, small bud vases, and some serving bowls are made by Anderson Bailey, and are also donated for use during this dinner. They are the elegant, mostly white pieces. They too can be taken home (or purchased for holiday gifts perhaps?). Please ask for prices.

Flowers are from my own yard and Alexzanna Farm, lovingly and beautifully arranged by Jennie Bartoletti

Of course this dinner would have been nothing but empty plates and stomachs without our dedicated and hardworking farmers and food artisans- William’s Island Farm, Sequatchie Cove Farm and Creamery, River Ridge Farm, Signal Mountain Farm, Crabtree Farm, Tant Hill Farm, Circle S Farm, Pocket Farm, Riverview Farm, Sale Creek Honey, and Fall Creek Farm were all extremely important in the making of this dinner. They are all at Main Street Farmer’s Market- along with many other farms producing equally delicious produce and meat.

Thanks to our gracious hosts Suzanna and Lawrence for opening the doors of their beautiful home and letting us enjoy it for the evening.

And last, but decidedly not least- Many thanks to all of you- the supporters of local farmers and craftspeople. You choose to make this community better and more alive every day. I look forward to seeing you all at the Main Street Farmers Market throughout the season-which never ends!

Comin' on Thanksgiving

2011-11-10T08:14:00.002-05:00

The leaves have turned, they days are getting shorter, the shade is chilly but the sun still hot. The air is a crisp crunchy blue, no longer sodden with humidity. It's a season-change and we all know it, no matter how disconnected we are from the outdoors. Farmers react to it and respond. "First frost" means something out there in the fields and the peppers had better be in by the first freeze or they'll turn to mush. Even from our sheltered inside-lives we can look out the kitchen window and know that something's in the air. And shopping at the farmer's market is different too. Pumpkins, winter squash, greens, and sweet potatoes? Is something starting to look familiar? Is it beginning to feel a bit like Thanksgiving?

Of course, like most of our holidays, the true origin of Thanksgiving is all but lost. I won't even delve into this, because I think we all know what we've lost in the translation of the years. But maybe it did all start with an act of kindness, sharing, of generosity. For the sake of romance, let's just run with that. And Thanksgiving is something really special. It's a day of true American culture, one of the only. All countries who have gained independence from another have an Independence Day, and most of our other holidays are strange consumer-oriented versions of religious or pagan celebrations. But Thanksgiving, although similarly celebrated in cultures and communities over the world in the form of autumn/harvest-festivals, is all ours. And that is important for a society. America is a big place, with lots of different people from lots of different backgrounds. It's such a large country that it almost doesn't make sense; a child that lives in countries all over the world, raised by many parents and is now a hulking giant, unsure of what its beliefs are and what background to carry.

I realized the other day (again and again, for some reason I think about this a lot) how young our country is. We really want that deep-rooted culture, that sense of belonging and place. That's what Community is all about. When you read articles about "true southern food", about the barbecue joints and the fried chicken, it's not really about the pork or the chicken, it's about us. It gives us that comforting sense of belonging and familiarity. If it was an article truly about the pork or the chicken, it would be a story of terror and sadness- glimpses of the small hog farmer leaving the land because they can no longer afford to keep it, factory-farmed meat, dangerous slaughterhouses, trucks shipping animals across the country and back. But seriously, who wants to hear that? Let's talk about the sauce, and how it's different from their sauce, how our pork is smoked right, how ours is pulled right, how ours is ours. It's our culture and it's something to be proud of.

O and it is. Thanksgiving, our American holiday, is something to be proud of. It is the one day of the year where the whole point is family, friends, food, and seasonality. We eat traditional autumn foods- heavy and comforting, preparing ourselves for the dark cold road of Winter to come. We join together in the kitchen and give thanks for the folks around us, and the bounty of food that the earth has given us. And some of us keep an eye (or two) on the football score....whatever makes you happy.

The nice thing about our culture is that we have not really strayed so far from the beaten path. For the first couple hundred years of our young and fast-growing country, we really did have those things we are still proud of. The hogs were raised by neighbors, and the chicken fried by grandmothers. The templates are still there- the sweet potato casserole, the roasted turkey, the cranberry sauce (a little northern, but they're still seasonal). We don't have to purchase these things from the grocery store because they aren't exotic- they belong to us, and to the land around us. All we have to do is step in and reclaim it, buy food from our neighbors, support our community, and make our culture thrive. Then we'll really have something to give Thanks about.

Stop by the Main Street Farmer's Market next Wednesday the 16th, or the special Thanksgiving date Tuesday the 22nd and pick up your Thanksgiving meal. Look for seasonal recipe ideas on all the farmer's booths, and don't forget to try something new! (like turnips).

Coffee Rubbed Lamb Ribs and Butternut Soup

2011-11-01T09:46:00.000-04:00

I've said it before, but I'm gonna say it again. It's not me, it's the lamb. I promise. If you think you don't like lamb, it's because you've never had this lamb. Meaning, katahdin lamb grassfed out in the Sequatchie Cove. It's just so different than the "other stuff"-whatever you've had before that you think you don't like. It's mild, it's tender, it was raised correctly under the sunshine with love, it wasn't shipped from all the way around the world (not that there's anything wrong with New Zealand as a place, it's just an awfully long way to ship something that is also raised almost in your back yard). And best of all, it is literally almost impossible to mess up. I don't know what it is, but I have yet to ruin any lamb dish. You could burn it, but I bet it would still be good underneath. It stays tender and succulent no matter what- even if you forget and overcook it. Try it. It will change your life. O, and PS, they aren't itty bitty and cute when you eat them- they look like sheep. Which makes us all feel better somehow.

Ribs with the Rub

I pretty much took this directly from Barbecue! Bible by Steven Raichlen, plus or minus a few things (cardamom). It was meant for a brisket in the book, but works on lamb just fine. I bet it would work on about anything.

1/2 cup finely ground good coffee- may I suggest anything from Velo?
1/2 cup (but I'd use a tad bit less next time) kosher or sea salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Hungarian paprika
2 T ground ginger
1/3 cup chopped garlic

This should be about 2 cups- enough for 6-8 pounds of meat. Rub this (the recipe makes it "wet" by including oil, but you don't need this on a fatty meat) all over the ribs, fold them up in a baking dish and set them in the refrigerator from a few hours to as long as overnight.

Preheat the oven to very low- around 275 or 300 degrees F. Cover the ribs tightly with aluminum foil. I had so many ribs that they were all stacked on top of each other in the dish. This turned out to be fine. Place them in a single layer if you desire, unrolled. If not, just unroll them and stack them on top pf each other. Cook til the ribs are done and tender and pulling away from the bones at the ends- about 2-3 hours, depending on the size and how hot the oven is. Take the ribs out of the pan (they should be sitting in a nice fatty paprika colored liquid), put them on a platter and clean your baking dish. Place the ribs back in the clean dish and pour a touch of white wine and tomato juice on top. You can let these cool and put them in the fridge now until you are ready to eat, and reheat them later OR heat the oven to 350 degrees and cook them, uncovered, til slightly more crispy- about 25 or 30 minutes. Slice into portions of about 3 ribs and serve warm. If you have chilled them, let ribs come to room temp before reheating.

Butternut Soup

For about four-six people.

1 medium butternut squash- halved
1 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
1/2 t garam masala
1 T oil, butter, lard
1 potato, washed and cubed
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 t minced chile, or 1/2 t dried cayenne
2 T finely chopped fresh ginger root
2 lime leaves, or 1 stalk lemongrass
4 cups chicken or veggie broth, or just water
Salt to taste

Bake the butternut, cut side down, on a pan with a small amount of water at 350, til the thickest part is soft when poked (about 45 minutes, maybe less). Let cool just a smidge, if you'd like. Then scoop out the flesh and put it in a bowl- compost the skin. Stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg, masala, and a touch of salt into the squash and let sit while you prepare the rest.

Heat the oil in a heavy soup pot til warm, then throw in the garlic, ginger, and hot pepper, followed by the potato. Add a touch of salt and saute til fragrant. Add the broth and cook til the potatoes are done- about 15 minutes. Let cool slightly, then blend briefly til smooth.

This is the way I do it, so I don't have to juggle between the blender and pots and bowls: I blend the liquid with whatever else goes in the soup, then I blend the squash separately til smooth, then I dump it all together and stir to combine.

When everything is smooth and combined, add the lemongrass or lime leaves, taste for salt and add as needed (but remember the leaves will help add depth as it cooks, so don't over salt it at this point). Simmer for about 30 minutes more. Or, better yet, simmer about 15 minutes, let cool, refrigerate, and reheat and eat it the next day (soup's always better the next day).

Serve warm.

2011-10-31T10:02:00.000-04:00

Fall Feast with Velo Coffee

October 29^th2011

To Start

Spring Rolls with a Coffee Dipping Sauce

With Crabtree Farm pea shoots and Sequatchie Cove arugula and cilantro

Sequatchie Cove Cumberland Cheese Puffs

With Sequatchie Cove eggs and rosemary from my yard

Beet Fritters

With William’s Island Farm beets

......

Riverview Farm Butternut Soup

The Feast

Sequatchie Cove Farm Lamb Ribs

Rubbed with Velo’s Rwanda coffee

Riverview Farm Red Cornmeal Muffins

With Sequatchie Cove Farm sage

Butterbeans and TiRoc October Beans

With William’s Island Farm kale and collards

Arugula and Lettuce Salad

With Crabtree sweet peppers and a dressing made with Ashley’s mustard, Sale Creek Honey

and Velo coffee

To Finish

Fall Creek Farm Apple Cake

With Velo coffee glaze with nutmeg and “true” cinnamon

from the island of Dominica

Featuring (and Many Thanks to)….

Various bowls (big and small), cups, a few plates, and vases (small and big) are made by Anderson Bailey, and are also donated for use during this dinner, as well as displayed around the walls. He is here enjoying himself amongst you and wares can be bought directly from him.

Flowers are from my own yard and Crabtree Farm, lovingly and beautifully arranged by Jennie Bartoletti

Of course this dinner would have been nothing but empty plates and stomachs without our dedicated and hardworking farmers and food artisans- William’s Island Farm, Sequatchie Cove Farm and Creamery, Signal Mountain Farm, TiRoc Farm, Riverview Farm, Sale Creek Honey, Fall Creek Farms, Velo Coffee, and Crabtree Farm were all extremely important in the making of this dinner. They are all at Main Street Farmer’s Market- along with many other farms producing equally delicious produce and meat.

Thanks to our gracious hosts Andrew and Jessica for opening the doors of their beautiful home (and work-space) and letting us enjoy it for the evening.

* Lamb and soup recipes soon to follow!

2011-10-22T20:41:00.000-04:00

We simply let the sun shine and learn to soak it up

Muscadines!

2011-09-27T18:33:00.000-04:00

The smell and taste of muscadines captures the true essence of fall. The smell of them fallen on the ground and fermenting brings joy to both me and the honey bees. This year we went to a vineyard outside of the city and picked muscadines, where we were accompanied by many of the said bees. They reminded me of this, although it happens at a different time of year, different side of the country, and different winged creature it's still the same joyous outcome:

On a certain day in the shouting springtime great clouds of orangy Monarch butterflies, like twinkling aery fields of flowers, sail high in the air on a majestic pilgrimage across Monerey Bay and land in the outskirts of Pacific Grove in the pine woods. The butterflies know exactly where they are going. In the millions they land on several pine trees- always the same trees. There they suck the thick resinous juice which oozes from the twigs, and they get cockeyed. The first comers suck their fill and then fall drunken to the ground, where they lie on a golden carpet, waving their inebriate legs in the air and giving off butterfly shouts of celebration, while their places on the twigs are taken by new, thirsty millions.

John Steinbeck, Sweet Thursday

thanks Luke

Crawl under the drooping vines and there you'll share a world of rich ripe red, pink, or golden fruits in various stages of ripeness with the bees, who themselves are in various stages of drunkenness, all shouting the same joyous yells of celebration.

yeah, thanks Luke

I came home and made a few things to remember that by.

Muscadine Jam

My grandmother is the only one who usually makes this, and now I know why. It is time consuming and you must be patient. The result is better than anything you could hope for though, so it's completely worth it. I took this recipe directly from Canning For a New Generation, with the exception that it was made with Concords in the book. I would prefer muscadines anyway.

4 pounds muscadines red, pink, and/or golden (although it helps to have a fair amount of red, to give the jam a nice rich color), stemmed and rinsed
2 cups sugar
3 T fresh lemon juice

Sterilize 4 half-pint jars in boiling water and keep them hot in the canning pot while you proceed..

Squeeze the grapes one-by-one from their hulls. It helps to have help, preferably someone who likes the smell of muscadines as much as you do. Put the hulls in a bowl or saucepan and the pulp in another large saucepan. Bring the pulp to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the seeds separate from the pulp. Pour it all into a sieve held over a large saucepan, or ladle batches in the sieve. Press as much pulp as you can through the sieve with a rubber spatula; discard the seeds. Add the sugar and about 1/2 of the hulls. Stir in to melt the sugar and add more hulls to make it nice and thick. The jam will thicken slightly as it cooks, but it will be more of a preserve, not super thick or gelatinous like jelly. Some like more skins than others- I added a little over 3/4 of the hulls back and saved the rest for juice.

Bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until a small dab of the jam spooned onto a chilled plate and then returned to the freezer for a moment becomes somewhat firm, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir gently for a few seconds to distribute the hulls in the liquid.

Sterilize the jar lids by pouring boiling water over them, or dunking them in a pot of boiling water for a minute. Be careful not to boil the lids, as that might break down the seals. Ladle the hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch head-space and process in a boiling-water bath for about 5 minutes.

Store unsealed jars in the fridge and sealed ones amongst your other jars of relishes, pickles, and jams in a cool dark place.

Muscadine Juice

As Liana Krissoff says in Canning for a New Generation:

To make grape juice (for quaffing rather than for jelly), crush the grapes, simmer them (with some whole spices or herb springs (not needed for muscadines I say!), strain, let sit overnight, then strain again. Return the juice to the pan and add water to dilute it (pure grape juice can be a little intense), add sugar if it needs it (it probably won't), and a bit more lemon juice if desired. Bring to a boil and then ladle into sterilized pint of quart jars, leaving 1/2 inch head-space, put the lids and rings on, and process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

I added neither water nor sugar to mine and left it as a concentrate, as I didn't know how I would like to use it later.

Onigiri

2011-09-08T11:34:00.000-04:00

The first and most important step for this recipe, I found, is to have a nice set of small bowls. Not small like small soup bowls, but small like salt bowls. Like the ones made by The One and Only Anderson Bailey (at least the one and only who makes gorgeous salt bowls). These bowls have many uses, big and small, and will take you far in life, I promise.

Onigiri are easier than they look, but next time I am going to flavor the rice up more. The recipe I used was from Canning For a New Generation by Liana Krissoff and it didn't call for anything in the rice. I added a little salt and quite a bit of rice vinegar and bit of honey, but it was still a bit bland for my taste. Next time I think I'll make some real sushi vinegar by soaking some kombu in the rice vinegar, and that might help give the rice some of the ever-desired umami.

2 cups sushi rice
Stuffins such as fermented or pickled veggies. I used a mixture of kimchee and fried bacon, all chopped up and crumbly. Use whatever you want to fill- just make sure it is strong and salty.
Sushi Vinegar (or rice vinegar mixed with a little sugar and some kind of salt- you can use soy sauce or dulce flakes if you don't mind the rice not being pristine)
Nori

Rinse the rice well, until the water runs clear. This helps it from becoming super gunky. Put it in a medium saucepan with 2 1/4 cup of water. Lisa says to let it soak for 30 minutes, but I just went ahead and cooked mine without soaking. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce to a small simmer for about 10 minutes, or til the water has been absorbed and the rice is tender. Sushi rice is a little trickier than long-grain rice, and a little fickle as well. It is important to not peak while it's cooking, maybe just look once to make sure that water is still simmering. And don't stir it, as it will get gluey. When it is done remove it from the stove, take off the lid, and put a clean, wet dishtowel on top. Set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.

When the rice has cooled some, scoop it into a bowl, break it up with a wooden paddle, and pour about 1/4 a cup of the vinegar over it. Fold the vinegar gently but thoroughly into the rice, taste it, and add more vinegar until it tastes good. The filling for the onigiri should be rich and salty so don't give the rice too much flavor, as you want a nice contrast. Again cover the rice with a wet towel and keep it there as you work out of the bowl.

Fill a bowl with warm water and set it aside to dip your fingers into. This is the secret to keep sticky rice from sticking to your hands. Line a very small bowl or teacup (or several) with a small piece of plastic wrap. I have never bought plastic wrap before in my life (seriously!) until I made these. It works very nicely though, and now I have some on hand for next time. Wet your fingers and pluck about a 1/4 a cup of rice from the bowl. Roughly shape it into a ball, make a dent in the center, and spoon a teaspoon of the filling inside. Pull the plastic wrap over the rice ball and twist to close. As you do this the rice will wrap itself around the filling. Don't worry if some filling oozes out. You will cover the bottom with nori anyway. Set aside.

Repeat until the rice is gone and you have a whole lot of nice tidy rice balls. You may unwrap and eat them immediately or put them still wrapped in the fridge for later. To serve, tear a small squarish rectangle from a sheet of nori, take the plastic off the onigiri, and press the nori square around the bottom. Enjoy by itself, or serve with a dipping sauce if desired.

THIS is Summer

2011-08-23T10:52:00.000-04:00

Friends, tomatoes, family, panting dogs, swimming, time to balance rocks and listen to the cicadas buzzing....

Little Bitty Lambburger

2011-08-16T09:08:00.001-04:00

My brother Kelsey raises the best lamb I've ever eaten. The (heritage) breed is Katahdin and it is bred to withstand our hot and humid climate. The sheep shed their wool instead of having it sheared and are much more resistant to the pests of some wool sheep (of which I'll just not mention as they are only interesting to shepherds). Kelsey's sheep are shepherded merrily around the farm with rotational grazing so they are always munching on some good green grass under the hot sun, which, as I said, they tolerate. The result is tender, mildly flavorful, and completely delicious. I always tell people who think they don't like lamb that they've just never eaten this lamb before. The cuts are smaller so it is eaten more delicately and I always feel so healthy and vibrant after consuming it. It seems to dance lighter on my pallet than heavier meats like beef or pork and is a wonderful summer time meat.

Here are two lamb chop recipes I have posted before: a simpler version from this past spring including now out-of-season asparagus and some of my thoughts on meat eating; and the longer version written about the same time, but the spring before.

And here's the other fast-food lamb favorite:

Itty Bitty Lamb Burger

These are amazing on Niedlov's brochen. Those are the little rolls that are in the basket by the cookies at the cash register. I like them because they are small and the crust is ever so chewy and crunchy and wonderful. They certainly aren't for the faint-of-teeth, but they are fabulous teeny burger buns for the rest of us.

The nice thing about burgers is that they are always in season and can be topped with whatever else is in season and never get boring because the seasons always shift. Of course the summertime is rich with tomatoes and those are a given when it comes to burgers (or any other aspect of summer). I used quick cucumber pickles (cukes sliced thin and marinated with some onions, vinegar, and honey for several hours) this time as well as some yogurt cheese for tanginess. On top of the burger I melted a little slice of Coppinger cheese as well (can't have too much cheese when you're an assistant cheesemaker!). I also threw on some of my hot pink kraut made with red cabbage.

How I make my burgers in an oven:

for 3 or four people- depending on what side dishes are on hand

1 pound ground lamb
1 clove garlic, minced
a pinch of cumin
a pinch of salt
a touch of prepared mustard

Mix the meat with the rest of the ingredients. They can be changed or omitted at your taste. Meat is usually just fine the way it is- if you bought the right stuff- so if you don't feel like gathering up seasoning just add a dash of salt and leave it at that. Divide the meat three or four ways, depending on how hungry you are. I usually do it four ways if I'm feeding two people, that way you can have seconds if you want but don't have to eat too much if you don't. I am always satisfied completely by a quarter pound, but some fellas out there might need more.

Pat the meat out into patties that are larger than your bun by about an inch. Try to make the middle of the disk a little thinner than the edges- this helps keep an even thickness while cooking. They will shrink up a lot and lose moisture and a little fat as they cook so you want them both thinner and wider than you think you do.

Preheat the oven to broil and set a rack close to the broiler. Put the patties on a grate over a roasting pan. Broil them til they are browning, beginning to shrink up, and sizzling (about 5-7 minutes), take them from the oven if you need to while flipping them. Broil for a little less time than the first side, add the cheese, and cook til melted. Drain on a paper towel or bag (such as the Harvested Here bag my cucumbers came in at the market, pictured below under draining burgers) if needed. Serve with toasted buns and seasonal accompaniments of your choice.

Eggplant "Involtini" and Pimento Cheese

2011-08-08T15:00:00.000-04:00

This recipe was taken from this really great cookbook Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. Tartine is a wonderful bakery and cafe in San Francisco that we visited while in that very city. The cookbook is worth having, if just for the recipes towards the back. Most of the book involves very detailed recipes for wonderful professional tasting bread. The back end of the book shows creative and tasty ways to use up leftover professional tasting bread. This one is called "Involtini" which is an Italian word for "little bundles" of something yummy. The Italians are very good at using up old bread, as it is very important to not waste a crumb of anything that was made with love. Ask Carlo Petrini about his grandmother's dish of stale bread and tomato sauce....

The recipe called for a few things I didn't have, or weren't in season so here's what I did:

for the tomato sauce:

1 small onion, finely chopped
about 10 roma tomatoes, peeled
3 cloves garlic
a little olive oil
salt to taste

Saute onion in olive oil over medium heat until transparent. Add the garlic, saute for a minute, and then throw in the tomatoes. Cook, stirring every now and then about 20 minutes, crushing the tomatoes as they soften. You want it to be a little chunky and also a little runny- a lot of liquid will evaporate when you bake it.

for the stuffing:

Bread crumbs from 4 slices of ciabatta (make croutons by tearing the bread into pieces, tossing them in oil and a little salt, and then toasting them at 400 til browned. Then crush them under a rolling pin to make bread crumbs)
1 1/2 cup grated Sequatchie Cove's Cumberland cheese
1/2 cup homemade "kefir cheese" (Tartine calls for 2 cups ricotta and the grated zest and juice of one lemon. I had neither so those were my substitutes)
1 t thyme leaves
1/4 t salt

Combine all and set aside while you prepare the fun part:

Slice 2-3 medium sized globe eggplants lengthwise into roughly 1/4 inch slices. I actually used some asian-style eggplant, which worked, I just had very teeny little bundles. If you own a mandoline use that. If you don't, like me, practice your handy dandy knife skills. I am lucky enough to own a small Shun, which has a very thin blade and is perfect for delicate slices. Soak the eggplant in salt water for about an hour to draw out the bitterness. Then blot the slices dry with a clean kitchen towel and heat some olive oil in a large skillet or wok til hot- about 360 degrees F if you have a thermometer (which I don't). Fry each slice for a few minutes, a few at a time, until they take on a little color and then set aside to drain on paper towels or bags while you fry the rest.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Pour tomato sauce in the bottom of a medium-sized baking dish. Put a small spoonful of filling on the end of each slice and roll it up. Place seam down in the dish. Repeat with all the rest. Sprinkle a small amount of cheese on top and bake about 20-25 minutes, until the sauce is dark and bubbling and the rolls are nice and brown. Tartine spoons cream over the rolls before baking and then sprinkles with Asiago after. I didn't have those either so I just reserved some Cumberland and used that before baking. Serve warm.

and.....

Kinda Sorta Frank Stitt's Pimento Cheese

My grandmother sends me clipping from the Wall Street Journal's food pages when she sees something I might find interesting. I drool and muse over them and then stick them in a drawer after recreating and embellishing a few of the recipes. Padgett had just traded me a wheel of Cumberland when a whole page about pimento cheese arrived in the mail. I found it to be fate when I saw Frank Stitt's own recipe on the menu. Frank is a chef and restaurateur from the great city of Birmingham, Alabama. He and his wife Pardis are doing some wonderful stuff down there, as well as making fabulous pimento cheese... Frank uses sharp cheddar and adds white pepper, a teeny touch of sugar, some Worcestershire sauce, cream cheese, and some hot sauce. I did none of those but the rest I followed...

1 pound sharp cheese, shredded and let come fully to room temp. (Cumberland is wonderful but you could cut it with some less pricey cheddar if you wish.
3 sweet red peppers, roasted, skinned and deseeded, chopped small
1/2 cup mayonnaise (I bought it only for this purpose, but it's easy to make if'n you wanna)
very teeny piece diced fresh cayenne (or more to taste)
1 t paprika powder

Blend everything but the peppers until just about smooth in a food processor. Fold in peppers and serve at room temp with crackers, cucumber strips, sungold cherry tomatoes, toasted bread, fresh pepper slices, or whatever you most desire. Its creamy saltiness does go well with raw vegetables though, so at least try it. I like to put a dab on a basil leaf, wrap the leaf around a sungold cherry tomato and eat the whole thing just like that.

2011-08-02T09:34:00.001-04:00

* Recipes soon to come (especially for the eggplant). I promise!

Summertime Celebration Menu

July 30^th, Laurie’s house

To Start

Link 41 Bratwurst on Niedlov’s dinner rolls

With Handmade sauerkraut from Signal Mtn. Farm red cabbage

Sequatchie Cove Cumberland “Pimento” Cheese

With Crabtree sweet peppers and Pocket Farm anaheim pepper

Served with: William’s Island sungolds, Crabtree cucumbers, tiny Tant Hill tomatoes

and toasted Niedlov’s Italian loaf

Melon Touched Gazpacho

With Riverview melon, TiRoc, Circle S, and Sequatchie Cove tomatoes, Dan’s cucumbers,

and Pocket and Crabtree peppers

The Feast

Heirloom Yellow Indian Woman and Tiger’s Eye Bean Salad *

With William’s Island patty pan and sungolds and TiRoc basil and tomatoes

Riverview Farm Grits

With Alexzanna oregano and parsley and Riverview garlic

Iced Crabtree Cucumbers

With Circle S onions, Sale Creek honey and Sequatchie Cove muscadine vinegar

Eggplant Involtini

With William’s Island Eggplant, Niedlov’s ciabatta, Cumberland cheese, Pocket tomatoes, and Riverview garlic

To Finish

Velo Coffee Pudding and Fruits

With Sequatchie Cove Farm milk, eggs and blueberries, and Alexzanna figs

*I bought the heirloom beans at a farmer’s market in California this spring and have been trying to find someone special to serve them to. They are not local now, but they once were.

Featuring (and Many Thanks to)….

All beautiful and colorful wine and water glasses are made by Prentice Hicks and donated for use during this dinner. They can be taken home to drink out of forever. They are 2nds and specially priced for this dinner. Please ask for prices

Various bowls (big and small), cups, small casserole dishes, and vases (small and big) are made by Anderson Bailey, and are also donated for use during this dinner. They may be taken home as well, please ask for prices (many are also 2nds).

Gorgeous hand-screen-printed and sewn tea towels scattered about are lovingly made from recycled fabric by Elspeth Schultze, and can also be obtained to brighten your kitchen and home for $12.

All flowers are lovingly grown and arranged by Padgett Arnold

Of course this dinner would have been nothing but empty plates and stomachs without our dedicated and hardworking farmers- William’s Island Farm, Sequatchie Cove Farm and Creamery, Circle S Farm, Signal Mountain Farm, Alexzanna Farm, TiRoc Farm, Riverview Farm, Pocket Farm, Tant Hill Farm, Sale Creek Honey, and Crabtree Farm were all extremely important in the making of this dinner. They are all at Main Street Farmer’s Market- along with many other farms producing equally delicious produce and meat.

Thanks to our gracious hostess Laurie Vaughen for opening the doors of her beautiful home and letting us enjoy it for the evening.

I'm Sorry, I Just Can't Help Myself

2011-07-26T09:37:00.001-04:00

I don't usually "blog" this much but THIS is something worth reading. Mouth watering, exciting, riveting, cutting-edge, something worth writing a list for. Something worth being very, very proud to be a part of.

I am getting ready for a super special dinner this weekend and I usually never write a "shopping list" for the market, but I just did today. If I got just one or two things from each vendor I would have all the colors in the rainbow in my house and on my plates, as well as every taste, texture, smell and summer explosion. And that is very very special. I almost thought about going to the grocery today (something I haven't done in over a month) but who needs a grocery when they have (organically/sustainably grown and raised): figs, herbs, cucumbers, peppers sweet and hot galore, sun golds, edamame, pink-eyed and purple hull peas, green beans, yard long purple beans, melons, grits, onions, broccoli cabbage, potatoes, cheese, coffee, zucchini, eggplant, garlic, squashes of many kinds, blackberries, lamb, eggs, beef, okra, chard, pork (bacon), corn, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!!!!!!!!!!..... and I'm not even done. (there's more!)

Yay!

What's Coming to Market:

Alexzanna Farms: Cantaloupes, Raspberries, Eggs, Potatoes, Herbs, Flowers and Fresh Figs

Circle S Farm: Tomatoes, Edamame Soybeans, Bell Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes, Okra, Eggplant and Pie Apples

Crabtree Farms: Sweet Carmen Peppers, Okra, Jalapenos, Garlic, Cherry Tomatoes, Squash and Cucumbers

Creekridge Farm: Pasture Raised Eggs, Okra, Herbs and Squash

Fall Creek Farms: Grass Fed Beef & Lamb, Heirloom and Beefsteak Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Sweet & Hot Peppers, Red & Green Okra, Summer Squash, Eggplant, Mixed Specialty Beans, Melons, Basil, Cabbage, Swiss Chard and Fingerling & New Potatoes

Hoe Hop Valley Farm: Pasture Raised Chicken, Eggs, Chicken Livers and Blueberries

Link 41: Handmade Fresh Sausages and Bacon

Niedlov's Breadworks: Artisan Breads and Pastries

Pocket Farm: Pink Eye Peas, Green Beans, Italian Heirloom Zucchini & Yellow Squash, Heirloom & Sungold Tomatoes, Sweet & Hot Peppers, Fresh Basil and Cut Flowers

River Ridge Farm: Beef (steaks, roasts, ground beef), Chicken (breast, thighs, legs, wings, and wholes), Pork (thin cut pork chops, bacon, Boston butt, breakfast sausages, fresh brauts and fresh Italian links) and Market Special this week: ground beef $5/lb and ground pork $4.50/lb

Riverview Farms: Organic Grits, Cornmeal, Polenta, Sweet Corn, Melons, Squash, Potatoes, Tomatoes and Barley

Sequatchie Cove Creamery: Artisan Farmstead Raw Milk Cheese

Sequatchie Cove Farm: Beef, Lamb, Pork, Eggs and Blueberries

Signal Mountain Farm: Tomatoes, Blueberries, Sunflowers, Greens, Fennel, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Squash, Cucumbers, Sungolds, Onions and Cabbage

Tant Hill Farm: Pastured Eggs, Blackberries, Cherry Tomatoes (wild cherrry, tomatoberry and sungold), Heirloom Tomatoes, Diva Cucumbers, Green Beans, Hot Peppers, Green Bell Peppers, and Purple Chinese Long Beans

TiRoc Farms: Tomatoes, Hot Peppers, Squash and Purple Hull Peas

Velo Coffee Roasters: Organic & Specialty Hand Roasted Coffees

Williams Island Farm: Tomatoes (heirlooms and sungolds), Peppers (sweets and hots), Eggplant, Cucumbers, Summer Squash and Winter Squash (butternut & acorn)

Putting Up. Again

2011-07-25T09:35:00.001-04:00

It's time to Swim in Tomatoes! A few weeks ago we went out to Crabtree and pulled up irrigation tape in trade for 2nds tomatoes. That means they are spotty and need to be dealt with.

So I dealt with them. Next time I'm just using a freezer, I've got enough jars to satisfy that desire a lady has to see colorful gems of jars lined tidily up on shelves- waiting for "hard times". (Winter).

eggplant tomato relish (in background)

Books I used:

Canning For a New Generation. I don't do Facebook but they do. You should at least get their real book, even if you aren't interested their face.

The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich.

But there are lots more. If you have a favorite canning/pickling book let me know. I'd really love to get some newer ideas. For next tomato season.

tomato "chutney" with ginger and fenugreek

2011-07-19T16:36:00.001-04:00

What Else I've Been Up To http://chattanoogacantbefiner.blogspot.com/

That's My Story, And I'm Stickin' To It

2011-07-08T11:17:00.002-04:00

These days, it seems we have to take a semi-radical stand about most things. Even as someone who only subscribes to the National Geographic, I know that our direction as Earth's human race needs to change, and now. Of course larger groups of people are going to make a larger visible change, but that doesn't stop you and me from trying in our own teeny tiny ways. There are loads things I try to support (or not) via my buying and lifestyle habits. I try to only buy fair trade sugar/coffee/chocolate. I don't use the clothes dryer unless I have to. I try to generate less trash, buy organic dairy products, beans and grains, never go to big-box stores, think conscientiously about supporting only local businesses, craftspeople and farmers. I never buy produce from the produce department, usually. I try not to buy any processed foods, ever (except chips). If I can cook it myself, I might as well. And if I can't...well...guess I shouldn't eat it.

But those are all "tries". I've bought non-fair trade sugar before. Same goes for non-organic dairy products, and conventional produce. I'll eat it if it's offered to me, and sometimes I'll even order it in a restaurant. I've bought apples from the produce department of Whole Foods, even when they're not in season (!). There is nothing that I do that is one hundred percent consistent, except this one thing:

I never, ever, ever eat meat that is from somewhere I don't know, unless it is absolutely and completely too rude to refuse. For much longer and more involved versions regarding "vegetarianism" and other local food choices, each with a different take (and hopefully a little humility mixed in) visit my older posts here or here or...hmm...maybe here.

The reason is, I think CAFO meat is bad, bad, bad (and more bad). It's bad because of: the grainfedforcefedanimals, petroleum dependency, antibiotics, hormones, GMOs, mono cropping, the bees, the ozone, the runoff, the waste, the slaughterhouses, the workers, the land, all the living creatures, and, of course, most of all ME. Because, whether we admit it or not, it all comes down to mememememe! (or you). There are way too many factors to ignore, and it's so so easy to just say "no, I won't support that, ever. No authentic fajita, or pulled pork sandwich, or duck confit will change my mind."

So what good does it do? Maybe a very small amount. But think, I could be eating meat from "those places" every day, and I'm not. I eat meat once every couple weeks, and it's from animals I met, who are helping the land not hurting it. They are happy and healthy, grassfed and sun warmed, and are killed one at a time by men and women who are not risking their lives every time they punch in for work. I believe in supporting good instead of just "boycotting" the bad. And you know what- I don't even care how small my difference is, I'm still not gonna change it.

I have some blanket rules for my life- Low impact as comfortable, Local when possible, Organic when reasonable, and Why buy clothes retail? All things, I'm sure, can be improved on, and some things I should be more diligent about. But I will always have that One Thing I'm not going to back down on, ever. There is no "try" in this rule, and I like it that way. It gives me some stability and also perspective into how hard I actually may or may not be trying with the other rules.

We all need at least one Story to Stick To, one thing that we don't do because we have to, but because we want to. And every day, we should refine our other stories more. Like, maybe I'll try to eat less chips.

So, if'n you wanna, tell me your story, the one that you stick to always and all the time. I really want to hear it; maybe it's something I haven't even thought of yet and maybe sharing it will help grow the story into some small kind of change. Ask Ben Franklin, small change one day makes big change, even if it's just a penny's worth.

Most of you know my email address, or just leave it in the comment box.

2011-07-01T17:39:00.000-04:00

Farm Photos from potluck and contest Visit them Here.

Fantastic Ferments

2011-06-23T17:44:00.000-04:00

SNAP PEA KIMCHI

Sequatchie Cove snap peas and garlic scapes, Circle S broccoli, Crabtree kohlrabi and
William's Island carrots

CAULIFLOWER, NAPA CABBAGE, KOHLRABI, FENNEL, AND CARROT KIMCHI

Crabtree kohlrabi and fennel, William's Island carrots and napa, and Circle S cauliflower

SAUERKRAUT

Riverview Farm and William's Island cabbage, Anderson Bailey's sweet little salt bowl

Pressing and ready to ferment. I just learned how to applique beets

Ready for some Link 41 brats!

SOUR BEETS WITH CARAWAY SEEDS

William's Island beets

SOUR CUCUMBERS

Crabtree cukes, Riverview garlic, William's Island dill, and oak leaves
from my yard for crispness

NETTLE AND LEMON VERBENA WHEY "SODA"

Wild harvested nettles from Sequatchie Cove, Alexzanna lemon verbena, and
Sequatchie Cove Creamery whey

And I'm not telling you how to make any of this, 'cause you gotta have this book.

You can get it on Amazon or at his site or through Chelsea Green

Seriously, if you don't own it, GET IT NOW! It will change your life.

And your fridge will never smell the same

2011-06-21T12:04:00.000-04:00

Reminder: Show what you know about local farms

Farm Slideshow, photo contest (with prizes), and local-food potluck at GreenSpaces, Wednesday June 29, 6:30 PM

LAST WEEK FOR PHOTOS

Get em while you can!

Farm trip still to come:

Circle S Farm, Saturday June 25

Meet 8 AM in the Main Street Farmer's Market lot, some carpooling will be available

*Pocket Farm Tour, Thursday June 23^rd has been cancelled*

Ø Email photos of food, farms, animals and plants to anntindellkeener@gmail.com

Deadline is Monday, June 27th

Farms to visit on your own (please contact farmers before visiting. They welcome you but like to know you’re comin’-email and/or phone #s can be found below, either linked or listed):

o Crabtree Farms any day but Sunday

o Sequatchie Cove Farm any day but Sunday

o Alexzanna Farm -(706)820-9042, supersuz@bellsouth.net

o Tant Hill Farm

o TiRoc Farms- any day but Saturday (423)802-6090, garydebi@gmail.com

o William's Island Farm any day but Wednesday. Unless you have your own canoe a little planning is necessary, but worth it.

o Circle S Farm- any day

o River Ridge Farms –any day but Saturday

2011-06-09T11:04:00.001-04:00

Join the Slow Food “Farmarazzi”

Recently a few states in the US tried to make taking photgraphs on farms illegal- all farms, good or bad. The verdict is still out for some of those states.

Help us celebrate our right to know and show where our food comes from

v Visit the following participating farms from the Main Street Farmer’s Market on the listed days during the next three weeks. Take photos of plants, animals, and the farmers themselves (if they don’t run away first) and enjoy the beauty of our own local farms. Email your photos to anntindellkeener@gmail.com

v Meet on Wednesday June 29 at 6:30 for a pot-luck and viewer-judged photo contest at GreenSpaces on Main Street. Don’t forget to include locally grown or produced ingredients in your dish!

To see other Slow Fooder’s photos visit the national SF Facebook slideshow here

Ø To sign the petition protesting these laws click here

Farms to visit (please contact farmers before visiting-email and/or phone #s can be found below, either linked or listed):

o Pocket Farm

o Crabtree Farms any day but Sunday

o Sequatchie Cove Farm any day but Sunday

o Alexzanna Farm -(706)820-9042, supersuz@bellsouth.net

o Tant Hill Farm

o TiRoc Farms- any day but Saturday (423)802-6090, garydebi@gmail.com

o William's Island Farm any day but Wednesday. Unless you have your own canoe a little planning is necessary, but worth it.

o Circle S Farm- any day

o River Ridge Farms –any day but Saturday

OR: Visit the following farms on the following dates for a “field trip” with Ann Keener. Meet at the Main Street Farmers Market parking lot, on William’s and Main. Some carpooling will be available; otherwise you will just be following the lead. Bring lots of water, a hat, and a camera.

o Sequatchie Cove Farm –Saturday June 11^th, 9:00 AM

o William’s Island Farm- Sunday June 12^th , 9:00 AM

o Crabtree Farms- Tuesday June 14^th, 3:45 PM

o Alexzanna Farm-Monday June 20^th , 4:00 PM

o Circle S Farm- Saturday June 25^th ,8:00AM

Fast Food

2011-06-01T10:48:00.000-04:00

I have been working a "real job" this past week making lots of Cumberland for Sequatchie Cove Creamery. The master cheesemaker was on vacation so he left the cheesehouse in charge of his trusty (we hope) assistants.

Since the farm is on cenral time and is about 45 minutes outside of Chattanooga, I was getting home pretty late eastern time. Most days I would get back at 7:30 hungry and ready for supper that wasn't ready for me. So I've been cooking real fast food meals. Now is the time of salads and greens. I could eat them every day (and do) but it is nice to have some amount of variety in the way they are prepared. A key with the salads is to prewash a whole lot of lettuce and make a big jar of dressing. Those are the most time consuming parts. And for some reason they are also some of my least favorite kitchen chores. Especially washing lettuce.

Now, I know I'll go on and on about local food, but anyone who was attending Vandnana Shiva talk should know that maybe all local isn't the only way to go. Sometimes you have to rely on your further-away neighbors to grow organic quinoa, lentils, or other grains and legumes. An organic label is important since we can't waltz onto these people's farms like we can in TN and check out their growing practices. Local grits are good and I eat my fair share of them but sometimes you need some brown rice too. I try to have some protein (usually non-meat), some cooked veggies, some raw veggies, and some kind of carb. Sometimes it's all mixed up in one big bowl. I like that because there are less dishes to wash.

Five Super Fast and Also Nutritious Meals for Workin' Folk
.....

Quinoa and Lentils

for four people (or two with leftovers):

3/4 cup quinoa
3/4 cup lentils (I like 'em all and have a large variety on hand. I think I actually used mung beans for the photo)
1 1/2 cups water
herbs, garlic scapes, carrots, kale or whatever you like, chopped
Salt to taste- chili powder is also nice too

Combine everything and bring to a boil. Turn down and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, or til the beans are soft and the water is absorbed. Put together a big green salad with lots of raw veggies. Hakuri turnips are amazing, as are snap peas, carrots, and thinly kale, collards, or chard. Serve warm with relish, salsa, grated cheese, or just plain. I made some delicious eggplant-tomato relish last year that tastes super yummy on this.

Noodles with Beans and Greens

I fall back on this one often. The beans are a new addition since I happened to have leftover beans from the night before. They were actually frozen fresh beans from last summer so they took about 20 minutes to cook themselves. Beans take some thinking ahead to make. If you soak and cook a huge batch of them and then freeze them in portions you can always have some on hand. Just like canned beans but cheaper and yummier.

2 bundles soba noodles
1 bunch kale or collards
1 cup cooked beans
1/4 cup tamari
splash of rice wine vinegar
drizzle of sorghum
a touch of hot water
whatever else grabs your fancy

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and toss in the noodles. Cook til just tender- about 10 minutes. In the meantime, lightly steam the greens. Toss noodles with beans, greens and everything else. Serve with steamed asparagus if you can still find some. I topped mine with a little Sequatchie Coppinger. And don't forget the big green salad.

Cheese Grits and Lentils

for the lentils:

1 1/2 cup lentils (red, green, black, yellow...)
a few carrots, diced
1 hakuri turnip, diced
1 bunch greens, chopped
3 cups water
1 t turmeric
dash of asafoetida
1/2 t mustard seeds
1 T minced ginger

Saute the ginger and mustard seeds til fragrant in a pot with a touch of oil. Throw everything else in the pot and bring to a boil. Turn to a simmer and cook til lentils are soft- about 20 minutes. In the meantime be working on ....

the grits:

1 cup heirloom stone-ground grits
1/2 cup Sequatchie Cove Creamery's cheese (they're both good)
4 cups water
handful chopped herbs- cilantro is awesome if you can still find some that's not bolted

Bring water to a boil. Stir the grits in quickly, whisking all the while. Turn down to a simmer. Cook, stirring every now and then, for about 15-20 minutes or until thickly bubbling. Add the cheese and herbs and taste for salt. You may or may not need some, depending on your taste and how salty the cheese was. Don't burn your tongue! I always forget how hot grits get and burn my tongue almost every time I taste them for salt. And then I can't taste a durn thing.

Serve warm with the lentils (they can be either room temp, cool, or warm) and a big green salad.

Grits and Mushrooms with Greens and Things

Noticing a trend?

Turnip and mustard greens do better when they are cooked longer with a little bit of sorghum, vinegar, and some Link 41 bacon. So don't be scared of the William's Island farmers when they beg you to take their turnip greens. Buy them up and cook 'em like your granny used to- for as long as you can take it.

Cook the grits as above. Chicken or beef broth are delicious instead of water and you don't always have to use cheese. I like to cook sliced oyster or shiitake mushrooms in a skillet with a tiny amount of oil until they are shriveled and dry. They have an amazing flavor and a delicious and chewy texture.

Serve with a big green salad or bowls of fresh veggies.

Focaccia with Greens and Andouilli

This one does take a little preparing ahead but it can be the day before. Any kind of sausage will do so if the Link 41 doesn't have this one, just try another. I call this focaccia because it is less involved than pizza, but really it's a hybrid. There's no tomato sauce and no cheese. Just throw whatever you like on it, but sparingly. All greens are good but tend to dry out. I used arugula here which is, of course, delicious. If you use thicker greens wilt them a bit before adding them. The extra moisture will help.

for the dough:

2 cups all purpose or whole wheat bread flour
1 1/2 ish cups Sonrisa (if you still have some) whole wheat flour
1 1/3 cups lukewarm water
1 t yeast
2 t salt

If using active, but not instant, yeast let it sit in 1/3 cup warmish water about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the water and start adding the flours and salt. When the dough is too stiff to stir, but still soft, turn out onto a floured surface and knead as long as you can stand- 20 minutes is nice but hard work. You don't have to knead much if you don't want to- the longer you knead the chewier and more developed your crust will be but we aren't being master bakers here. Add flour as needed but don't overdo it. The dough should be a little moist but not tacky. The longer you knead the less flour you think you need- it's like a big complicated riddle that has a lot to do with gluten.

Put in a greased bowl, turn once to coat in oil, cover it, and stick it in the fridge til the next day.

The next day, take it out and roll it out to fit a baking sheet. Let it sit about 15 minutes while you chop and prepare the toppings allow the oven to preheat to 400 degrees. If you use sausage just throw it on raw. Focaccia is usually cooked with a certain amount of oil on top but you don't need it if you're adding the sausage. Dimple the dough with your fingertips, add your toppings, and cook for about 20-25 minutes. Serve with a big green salad.

Big Green Salad Dressing

Salad dressing is super easy and there is absolutely no reason anyone should ever buy it. If you want variety add a teeny bit of very finely minced garlic or more mustard and honey. Or use a different vinegar or substitute lemon juice for vinegar. My friend Candice adds mints to her green salads, which you should try even if you think you don't like mint. It is very refreshing. The formula for salad dressing is: 1 part acid (lemon or vinegar) to 3 parts oil (I always use olive but you don't have to I s'pose). I add a little bit of local honey for sweetness and a touch of mustard for taste and as an emulsifier. So....if you were to make a large batch of dressing the recipe would look something like this:

1/4 cup vinegar or lemon juice, or combination
3/4 cup oil
1 T prepared mustard of your choice
a drizzle of honey (I don't like to measure honey as it is far too messy)

Shake it all up and drizzle very sparingly on the salad. A little goes a long way and we want to taste the wonderful freshness of our local greens and veggies! Store in the fridge. If the oil solidifies just let it sit at room temp while you prepare the rest of supper.

Puttin' Up- the beginning of it

2011-05-17T13:08:00.000-04:00

I've only just begun. But do I ever have some pickled beets to eat through. Last fall I kind if went a little wild with William's Island's beets and as I begin to clear my cabinets out I am finding that there are plenty left to go around. Let me know if you love beets, 'cause I'll love you if you want some.

I took this recipe from Canning For a New Generation by Liana Krissoff- totally worth owing no matter what generation you come from or can for.

This is not jam or jelly and will not gel as such. But it is very beautiful and delicious spooned on biscuits or pancakes or whatever you most love.

Strawberry Preserves

3 pounds-about 9 cups- strawberries rinsed and hulled, and any and all bad spots cut completely off
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 T fresh lemon juice (and I used the zest too)

Prepare hot water bath and 5 half-pint jars and lids (the recipe says 4 but I ended up making 5). For more info on that buy a canning book (Canning for a New Generation is perfect but there are other good ones out there as well). It is best to learn from the books than some crazed local food advocate.

Toss strawberries in sugar and let sit over night. The next day simmer the strawberries and their juice for about 5 minutes. Drain the berries and add the juice back to the pot. Boil juice, stirring every now and then, for about 15 minutes, until the juice has reduced to about a cup and a half. Return the strawberries to pan add the lemon juice, and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring often and skimming off as much foam as you can. The berries should be glossy but still hold their shape. The liquid should be thickened but it will not gel. Ladle into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Screw lids on til just tight and process for 5 minutes in hot water bath. Let sit 12 hours before moving. Store any unsealed jars in the fridge.

Please please please learn all the rules when canning. They are worth knowing. Sugar is easier to play around with but it is always very important to be super clean and sanitary. Follow recipes exactly until you have a huge understanding of what you are doing. There are things to know, but once to you know them there's nothing to be scared of.

Back to the Heat (and a little bit of meat)

2011-05-10T09:59:00.002-04:00

Well it was nice the first two days. But now it sure feels like summer.

Although I am practically a vegetarian most of the time (I just don't end up eating that much meat), I have been eating nothing but meat since I've been back. Sometimes it's the easiest fast food there is. Especially if you have some Link 41 sausages stowed away in the freezer or maybe a few lamb chops. I just get tired of lentils when I'm in a hurry.

(On a side note- I DO eat "vegetarian" often at restaurants. It's a lot easier to explain than I-only-eat-meat-that-I've-met. Given that a lot of non-vegetarian places in the south tend to have fairly unremarkable vegetarian options we end up eating at strictly vegetarian spots. But that poses a whole new problem- soy products and "fake meat". I honestly don't have a problem with a little tempeh and tofu but there ARE other ways to make really great healthy, wholesome food without using meat. We went to a vegan place in San Fransisco and there was not one single soy product or processed protein item on the menu. Not even fake cheese (well there was a kind of fake cheese but it was made with cashews). It just doesn't count if it's some over processed slab of soy, mushrooms, and factory sawdust).

ANYWAY, that being said, it's really nice to come back home and eat some grassfed lamb. We ate meat out there of course. There are plenty of grassfed farmers doing the right thing. But nothing tastes quite as good as an animal raised on home soil.

Katahdin Lamb Chops

with Asparagus and Soba Noodles

This might sound fancy but it's not really- and it took me about 20 minutes from start to clean up to make. Even if the lamb is frozen. I threw it in a bowl of cold water and the chops were thawed by the time the water for the noodles was boiling.

for two people

the noodles:

2 bundles soba noodles
1/4 cup tamari
1/4 cup rice vinegar or lemon juice
drizzle of sorghum syrup
thinly sliced ginger to taste
1/2 bunch chopped herbs (mint, cilantro, basil, oregano, and parsley all work nice. Use whatever you have growing in your herb garden or get to the farmer's market early and try to snag some nice looking bundles of herbs)

Boil about 5 cups of water. Throw in the noodles and cook about 10 minutes- til done. Drain the noodles and wash them with cold water til cool to the touch. Don't be too vigilant about draining them now; some of the water will be nice to dilute the sauce. Toss the wet noddles with all the other ingredients and let sit while you prepare the chops.

the chops:

I sort of got this recipe from The River Cottage MEAT Cookbook, a book definitely worth having. It tells you to brown the chops and cook them with garlic and wine. The recipe is a wonderful one but this short-cut tastes just as good and is really easy. I like it because I can just throw the chops in the oven while I finish other stuff.

4 pastured katahdin lamb chops
a touch of oil or pan drippings
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat a cast iron skillet with the oil til hot. Brown the chops on each side for a minute, salting and peppering each side after they are browned. Put the skillet in the oven and let the chops cook for about 10 minutes, or until desired done-ness. For a different version, more like the cookbook recipe, here are my lamb chops I made last May. It is a tiny bit more time consuming, but delicious and also a little more explanatory.

the asparagus:

1 bunch of very fresh asparagus
juice of 1 lemon
a touch of butter (about 1 T or less)
salt

Steam the asparagus til just done in a small amount of water (you can save this water and sip on it when you're done). Dab with butter, drizzle with lemon juice and sprinkle with salt- very lightly on all fronts. Serve warm or at room temp.

Ferry Building Market Winnings- San Fransico

2011-04-26T14:33:00.000-04:00

organic Pink Lady apples, Mandarin oranges, heirloom beans (chosen for the Ark of Taste), beets, kiwi, grapefruit, lemons, nettles, broccoli, young garlic, spring onions, Farmhouse Culture sauerkraut, tortillas made from heirloom corn, white radishes, thumbelina carrots, "soft drink" made with whey and flavored with lemon balm and nettles, kale, yogurt from organic jersey milk, savoy and red cabbage, lemon balm, spring mix and wild arugula....YAY!

Matt Davis and Steep Ravine Loop Trail in Mt Tamalpais State Park (and some picnic bean salad)

2011-04-17T15:49:00.001-04:00

Hiking out here, in Point Reyes and the Mt Tam state park has been addictive and amazing. The walks just keep getting longer because everything is so dramatic and beautiful that we don't want it to end. Spring is here and there are new flowers to learn and clear blue skies to enjoy. It also makes me realize how beautiful it is back in Tennessee and how, now that I have been here two weeks and becoming "used to" the incredible beauty constantly surrounding me, it is easy to overlook our surroundings and keep your eyes trained on the the tips of your shoes. Going new places always helps me open my eyes to all of my surroundings.

what to do when approached by a mountain lion

We started out after an early morning rain storm, up in the mountains. After practicing warding off mountain lions, we traveled further down into the woods of oaks covered in rich layers of green moss and fragrant bays. There were white false Solomon seal flanking fallen trees and beautiful little calypso orchids peeking out of the leaves and moss on the ground.

Suddenly we burst out into a wide open grassland, the sun playing games as it ducked out from passing clouds and showing off the brilliant yellow poppies and shining on blue lupines and western larkspur. All around us were rolling hills and further out the sea. We felt so alone in the quiet stillness accompanied only by fat banana slugs in the shadows, but the highway snaked below and we could see houses further down by the coast. All too soon we left the open grasses and dipped back into Douglas firs and bays, walking along a stream running down the mountain-side with us. As we switched back slowly down a rather steep slope it was almost laughably beautiful, like it wasn't even real. I felt as though I were trespassing into a private Fairy Land where one must be far more exquisite than I was as I lumbered along, breathing in the rich and wonderful wood smells and wanting to stop and somehow capture forever that one patch of sunlight where the forget-me-nots danced.

But down down down we went, coming out near the ocean into a dry patch with thistles and false yellow lupine bush and huge white cow parsnips.. We walked though the town and sat on the beach, ready for a lunch of heirloom bean salad and fresh baguette from the bakery down the street. After resting and a golden nugget tangerine we found our way to the continuing trail-head and began the march back uphill. We began walking through dry scrub and the hot sun. I had to turn around every few feet just to take in the growing view behind us as more mountains and the low-tide marsh became visible.

Then the trail went downhill a moment and we were back in the woods, again walking beside another mountain stream. And although we were but minutes away from the first trail down, these woods were completely different. They were darker and wetter, protected by towering Redwoods and the ground completely covered with ferns. Trilliums had just finished blooming and were sporting tri-seed pods. Stone steps were set into mossy banks so we could climb our way up. Halfway up we stopped and sat on huge Redwood stumps, drinking warm miso soup from a thermos (the Rainbow Grocery co-op in the city sells locally made white miso in the bulk section) and crunching on a Pink Lady apple bought at the market. The clearest mountain stream ran over mossy rocks at our side and fairies dangled by their knees from the curled ends of new fern shoots. We passed over mossy bridge after mossy bridge, climbing back up towards the clouds.

The guide book we found the hike in said we would not want it to be over, that we would want to turn around and do it again. We laughed at that, thinking we could not possibly want to hike a trail called "Steep Ravine Trail" (for that is what it was) again. But I wanted to turn around and do it all over again.

Heirloom Bean Salad

with roasted beets, fennel, and fresh beet greens

Unfortunately I don't remember what the name of these beans was. I am not good at remembering those kinds of things, and I have heard so many new names for things in the past few days. They are medium sized and meaty and red and white, like calypso beans. The only thing in this salad not bought at the farmer's market was the salt, although I could have gotten that there too.

for four people:

about 2 cups dried beans, soaked overnight
2 large beets or 3-4 smaller ones, unpeeled and sliced into wedges
2 fennel bulbs and stalks, sliced up to the fronds.
the greens from the beets, sliced into ribbons
1/2 bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
small handful chives, chopped
juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste

Cover the beans with water and cook til soft- about 45 minutes or so. Toss the beets and fennel with a touch of oil and salt and roast in a medium oven til soft and the beets are beginning to shrivel. Let beans and veggies cool. Toss the beets and fennel with the beans and the chopped herbs and greens. Whisk the olive oil gradually into the lemon juice and pour over the salad. Mix it all together and add salt as desired. A little minced raw garlic can also be added, if you like raw garlic. Serve room temp or cool with fresh bread.

It's not THAT hard

2011-04-15T20:46:00.002-04:00

A few posts back I explained that eating locally was hard work; that you really had to try. That goes for Chattanooga, Tennessee. But here in the San Fransisco Bay area, I have to admit, it's not that hard. The hardest thing is gauging just how big your eyes are in relation to your stomach. There are farmers markets around every corner. There is everything for sale from salt to olive oil to tangerines and kiwis. For me, celery is a real treat- I don't remember the last time I bought a celery stalk. But fresh horseradish root? Avocados and Meyer lemons? Sacks of assorted heirloom dried beans and baskets of dirty organic heirloom potatoes- enough varieties to eat a different one every day of the month.....how could this possibly be hard? Going to a huge market can be a little intimidating for a country girl, and learning which farmers are the best to support takes a little practice. There isn't as much signage here as there is at home, and the farmers might not be expected to be as outgoing as the friendly Main Street farmers are. I just choose the booths with the most down-to-earth price signs and look for words like sustainable, small, and organic. Out here, where they grow almost all the organic produce the rest of the entire country eats, the word "organic" doesn't mean a whole lot. I try to look for the small-time people who have a little dirt on their sleeves and real passion in their produce baskets. And let me tell you, it is a whole lot of fun.

Asparagus, Leek, and Heirloom Potato Soup

with fresh horseradish sour cream

I usually try not to be so fancy. I also usually never use asparagus in a soup. Asparagus is prized Spring Candy. I only steam it and drizzle the smallest amount of lemon juice and salt on top and eat it hot, spear by spear. It is really only good for a short amount of time- best eaten very fresh (as Barbara Kingsolver explains in her chapter "Waiting for Asparagus" in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle). After I brought my two bunches home, I realized that I might have jumped the gun out of pure enthusiasm. The asparagus was clearly not picked that morning; it was a little floppy. So I decided putting it in a soup would not be a crime.

for four people, with leftovers:

THE SOUP:

2 bunches asparagus, sliced
2 large leeks or 3 smaller ones, sliced (all of the white and halfway up the green. Watch out for dirt once you start getting to the greens)
4-5 medium sized potatoes, washed and unpeeled, chopped into roughly 1 inch cubes (I used a waxy red kind but I think a more floury one would be better. Ask your cute and friendly local heirloom potato farmer what she advises. Unfortunately for me I didn't know what I was making when I bought the potatoes or she could have aided in creating the perfect soup)
2-4 T grassfed cow butter
salt to taste
Water, veggie stock, or chicken stock (I used water and it was just fine and delicious) to cover- about 5 cups

THE CREAM:

3/4 cup grassfed cow sour cream (milk share people- this is easy too- just like buttermilk (see buttermilk biscuits one post down) but you use cream instead of milk. You can use buttermilk as a culture or sour cream- about 4 T to 2 cups)
2 T fresh horseradish root, finely grated
1 small squeeze of lemon
very light sprinkle of salt

For the soup, melt the butter and saute the leeks in it until they get a little soft and start falling apart. Add the potatoes and a touch of salt, cover with liquid and simmer til the potatoes are just soft. Add the asparagus, a touch more salt, and enough liquid to cover again. Simmer for a few minutes, until the asparagus has changed colors and is soft. Do not overcook! Any green soup that has been overcooked will look positively disgusting, I promise. Blend the soup in batches until smooth. Be careful not to over-blend, especially if you are using waxy potatoes. Hot potatoes have a bad habit of getting gummy when over-mixed (I read all about the "chemistry" of potatoes once and learned a lot. I don't remember any of it word for word now but I retained a lot. There are quite a few food science books out there worth reading at least once.) Return to pot and heat til warm. Taste for salt and possibly something sour (like lemon juice), or something spicy if you like, but remember that adding the horseradish sour cream will help with both of those. Serve hot with the sour cream you should have made while waiting for the potatoes to cook.

For the sour cream mix everything together in a bowl and keep cool while finishing the soup.

Serve with a green salad and maybe some fresh locally made bread, although you might not need it.

Noodles with Shiitake and Greens

2011-04-03T09:44:00.001-04:00

This is my kind of fast food. The noodles are most certainly not locally made, but at least they are from the local Asian grocer. I go to the sweet little shop on Hixson Pike across from the Bi-Lo. They carry a lot of the same products that Whole Foods carries in their Asian aisle, and are beginning to carry increasingly more "clean" products (without artificial colors or added preservatives). I stock up on noodles and seaweed when I go. I usually get lots of udon and soba but I try other kinds as well.

for two people, with possible leftovers:

1/4-1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms (or shiitake and oyster combined), de-stemmed and torn or sliced (I save the stems in the freezer until I have enough to make a rich and yummy stock)
1 bunch or greens (kale, chard, collards...) torn or sliced. I usually pull the really big stems out, but if the stems are fairly small I just chop them up with everything else
2-6 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 dried chili, minced or ground
a little bit of oil (or bacon grease). Coconut oil is super yummy.
1/4 cup tamari
teeny tiny dash of sesame oil
large drizzle of sorghum syrup
1 T cornstarch (optional)
water or mushroom stock
2 bundles soba or udon noodles

Boil water for the noodles (about 5 cups)

Heat oil (or bacon grease) in a wok or skillet til hot. Saute garlic til fragrant and then throw in the mushrooms and chilies and cook til beginning to get soft. Add the greens and a touch of water or mushroom stock; enough to wilt everything. Let simmer til greens and mushrooms are soft.

Cook the noodles while you finish the sauce.

In a small bowl, mix a touch of water with the cornstarch, if using. It will add a silkiness to your sauce and help coat the noodles but is in no way necessary. Add the tamari, sesame oil, and sorghum. Add more water to stock to make a liquid-y sauce. Take a spoonful or two of the sauce and mix in with the cornstarch paste. Add the cornstarch and simmer for a few minutes until thickened. Taste for salt or heat and add tamari or hot pepper accordingly. Pour everything over the hot noodles and serve warm or at room temp.

Buttermilk Biscuits

2011-03-24T11:14:00.001-04:00

First get a sister-in-law who is sweet enough to make a biscuit "coozie" for you. If you aren't lucky enough to have one of those (the sister-in-law or the coozie) you can make one yourself or just use a plain old dishcloth. It is nice to keep them wrapped up and steamingly warm while you finish cooking the eggs or whatever; or while you eat your first biscuit. Biscuits are not something I make that often but there is no real reason for that. They are so super easy to make and wonderful to eat. Serve with sorghum syrup, butter, honey, sausage, and/or a fried egg. If you are really lucky and have a grandmother who excels in the world of jams and jellies you can serve them with muscadine jam or pear "honey" made from pears you helped your grandmother knock out of the tree last autumn.

Sonrisa Farm's whole wheat flour is perfect for things like biscuits because it is so soft and makes them nice and flaky. For those of you who have a milk share, buttermilk is really simple to make and totally worth it. For a quart of buttermilk add about 1/4 cup of cultured buttermilk (either store bought or from your last batch) to a little less than a quart of sweet milk. Let it sit at room temp for a few days, or until the milk thickens are looks a little curdled. Then chill it and use as needed.

Grandmama's pear honey, Anderson Bailey's sweet little bowl

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F

2 cups Sonrisa Farm whole wheat flour (or any other locally grown and milled flour, if you are fortunate enough to find some)
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
pinch of salt and sugar (sugar is optional)
6 T butter, chilled
about 3/4 - 1 cup buttermilk- depending on the flour (some absorbs liquid quicker than others)

Mix the flour and baking soda and powder and salt together. Cut the butter in with pastry blender or your fingers (I use my fingers) until mostly blended but the butter is still in little pieces, like oatmeal maybe. Pour the lesser amount of milk into the flour and stir til it comes together in a ball. You don't want to overwork the dough or it won't be tender but don't be too cautious or it won't hold together. Knead it a few times gently until it forms a nice soft dough and then roll or pat it out on a floured surface to about 1/2 inch thick (or a little more than half the hight you want you biscuits to be). Cut with a biscuit cutter and bake til brown and yummy smelling, about 12 mintues. I usually check to bottoms and when they are nice and brown the biscuits are usually ready. It can be a little hard to tell with all whole wheat flour because they kind of look brown to start out with. Serve warm, wrapped in a handmade biscuit blanket or clean dish towel.

Let Me Tell You (again) Why I EAT LOCAL

2011-03-17T16:03:00.001-04:00

I often get frustrated by local restaurants claiming they "buy local" and that they proudly supported local farms when that's actually a bit of an exaggeration. Or by hearing people complain that the Whole Foods isn't stocking organic red bell peppers (in March?! Of course not! It's March. Why eat peppers, we have tons of kale?) Or hearing people complain about Whole Foods in general. We live in Tennessee. Buy your food from your farmers. I don't care what's in the produce section of the grocery store. I eat what's in season and only what's in season. I prefer to support the positive things happening in my community more than I like trying to find something wrong with a chain grocery store. And there are a lot of positive things in our community.

And then I REALLY started thinking about it. Buying locally and seasonally is HARD work. It is as hard as farming, but on the other side. It means buying from not only the several companies for dried goods, produce, and meat, but also juggling that between numbers and linen service and wait and kitchen staff. It means having to change the menu very regularly to accommodate the seasonality of foods, of dealing with busy and sometimes quirky farmers. It means several more invoices and checks. It means having to use the WHOLE animal or plant instead of just the loins, breasts, or roots. It means dirt and sweat. It takes a buyer who is very emotionally invested in “making numbers work” to afford the more expensive cost of local food, even if those numbers are in your own home. And most importantly, it requires a consumer base who is comfortable with eating a "house salad" in March that isn't served with the ever-present insipid tomato wedge.

...YOU (are the consumer base)

Again, of course, we aren't consumers, as Carlo Petrini pointed out. We are co-producers and WE are creating this market that allows food retailers to make claims that, although may be the truth, are a very stretched truth.

One of my first kitchen experiences was when I was sixteen and spent a long weekend in the kitchen at Blackberry Farms. “Ann,” the commisarian said, “one of the most important things to remember in this business is that if you start with shit, you’re going to end up with shit.” Pardon his language, but it’s true. And I can truly taste it with my entire being, and not just the tastebuds. That is the fruit of being a farmer's daughter- years and years of eating fresh, seasonal, and carefully grown and produced food. This is only a taste that is “acquired”, and it is acquired through very conscious financial and lifestyle decisions.

And before you stop in your tracks and tag me as a “food snob,” would like to explain myself……

When I spend, and earn, my money I consider many things. I think about WHO I support when I buy something. I think about what impact it is having on all the environments around me- both my own personal one, and also the whole entire world’s. I am particularly focused on food because that is what I am most passionate about. But it can’t possibly stop at food.

When I go out to eat in a restaurant, for example, I am conscious of where my money is going. Primarily I want it to go back into the community. I want it to go to the local people who’s wages I help pay that cook and serve the food, clean the tables, dishes and linens. I want it to go to the local business owner. But if the buck stops there and starts being dispersed across the world to large corporations and “farms” that are out of my control and that I know nothing about, then I don’t want the buck to start. I don’t want to support large industrial “farming” because I have heard enough about its horrors. We all have. We’ve all seen Food Inc., read Fast Food Nation, or have been exposed to something that illustrates the poor treatment of workers, animals, land, and the whole environment. Just the fact that the food has been shipped hither and thither, and thus, in it’s small way, is contributing to the recent-enough oil spill in the Gulf, should be enough to turn around and plant some kale in our gardens. “Cheap” food is only cheap for a very short window of time- mainly the moment you hand the money over. The rest of the time it does some very expensive damage on community, culture, eco-systems, and all things small and wonderful.

When I eat I consider all the things listed here above and below, but of course, I also think of myself. We all do. We, as humans, and more specifically, Americans, can’t help but think of ourselves quite often. We think about how pretty we look, how smart we seem, how funny we are, how successful. And in order to do all those things at their up-most, we think about how healthy we are. We run, we bike, we swim, we eat kale and garlic. We make sure we are feeding ourselves correctly at all times. Is there enough protein, EFAs, enough vitamin C, D, A or B? A very nice added bonus to eating locally is that not only does it support the local economy, cut down on fuel usage, not support agro-monsters, etc, etc, etc, but it also makes us, our bodies, and our EGO feel good….

We need to be less greedy and more patient. Our society has raised us to think that we can have everything we “want” at anytime. And “want” has turned into just that- a word enclosed in parenthesis.   We don’t even WANT that grain-fed filet mignon from that unknown farmer. We don’t want that vanilla infused sauce made with apricot nectar and chilies. We just think we do, but we have gone so far from even understanding the meaning of WANT, much less the meaning of NEED.   WANT comes from expectation and desire, both very exciting features that come with being human. Want comes from waiting.   A cucumber will never really taste good if you can walk in to the store any day and buy it. It will taste good only when it is fresh off the local vine, still warm from the July sun.

So what do we do? How do we become conscious consumers that have the potential to change our local restaurant fare and prevent future oil spills?

I was watching this DVD that Netflix recommended to me a few weeks ago about China. There was a little section on a village somewhere in Northern China, or maybe somewhere near or in Tibet. Anyway, it was a very desolate place where small villages lived and grew their small little crops and went to little markets and all that quaint and hard-knock stuff. Then all of a sudden there was a screeching and squeaking and a huge flock of cranes moved in outside the village. They ate some of the farmer’s grains, pooped all over the place, and made a huge ruckus.    And the farmers felt BLESSED. The cranes were a symbol of good luck and the farmers welcomed them and allowed the cranes to incorporate themselves into the village. This was shocking because in America, the land of plenty, the farmers would have SHOT the cranes, the consumers would have complained that they didn’t have as much grain as they wanted, that the birds were stinking up the place, and the whole community would have been in turmoil.

Well, that’s nice to hear but what was important to me was that those people were still living, and happily at that. What do we need so badly that we have to consume without thinking? We have gotten ourselves into such a mess that it is almost too hard to live simply and wholesomely because we have obliterated the market. Because the market won't exist until we, the co-producers, step up and ask for it. We have to demand and participate in supporting seasonal, local food from our food retailers. We have to be conscious of how much oil we use with every step and every bite. The doesn’t mean that we have to stop stepping or biting, but that we should step more lightly and chew more thoughtfully- and maybe buy a diesel car so we can support the local bio-diesel producer. And we can still subscribe to Netflix.

It is hard to buy local, but it shouldn’t be. It is easy once we tell ourselves there are no other options, and even easier when the market grows to accommodate our demand. The only change we will see will be made by us; by our own personal consumption and the awareness that I, or you is not the most important. Our healthy bodies are important, but they're only truly healthy if we are helping other healthy bodies thrive. Always ask, "Who grew that superfood?"

I think that food is the center point to everything- but that’s just because I think that. I respect everyone’s beliefs, passions, interests, and goals that help towards making this world the place it should be. Every step counts- and there are many many steps. I take the wrong paths all the time, but try to stay steady on at least one. If we make the choice to change one thing about our lifestyles, specifically one thing that we do EVERYDAY (like eat), it is surprising at how quickly the awareness of everything else follows. We have collectively done a whole lot of damage. The very important thing is to realize that and to collectively start to do a whole lot of good. It may not make the flock of cranes come by, but if they do we should know enough to appreciate them.    We need to slooow down and really think about where we want to spend our time, what we want to choose to call our food, what we should plant in our gardens, and where we buy our clothes. Because every bit counts- from the first spring spinach leaf to the last beet green. And fortunately for us Chattanoogans, there's a year round farmer's market for that. (The Main Street Farmer's Market!)

Grits with Mushroom Sauce

2011-03-10T16:54:00.001-05:00

So easy and so amazing. I could eat it every night.

for four people

For the sauce:

About 2 cups chopped or torn shiitake mushroom or shiitake and oyster mixed
4 tablespoons butter
5 minced garlic cloves
about 2 cups stock (I used beef because of its richness but you could make a really quick broth with the mushroom stems in water and that would work too)
1/2 cup or so tomato product (I used some leftover tomato sauce but am just about to try tomato juice, both canned last summer. Just plain canned tomatoes would work as well.)
salt to taste
a small handful chopped parsley

For the grits:

1 cup Riverview Farm grits
4 cups water
salt to taste

Start the water for the grits. While you are waiting for it to boil, melt the butter in a saucepan and then add the garlic. Cook for just a few seconds, til it smells good. Then add the mushrooms and cook til they begin to release water. If they are kind of dry add a teeny bit of stock and cook til the mushrooms have changed color and are soft. Add enough stock and the tomato to cover and let simmer, stirring ever now and then. When the grits water boils add the salt and grits all at once and stir with a whisk. Cook for about 15- 20 minutes over medium heat, stirring often, until the grits are thick and bubbly. Pour the grits into a bowl and cover with the mushrooms. Sprinkle parsley on top and serve while hot with kale slaw or lettuce and arugula salad.

Spring's on its Way

2011-03-02T09:16:00.000-05:00

And we're still eating lots of bacon.

Beets, Brussels, Sunchokes, and some Bacon

I have some beets tucked away in the drawer of my fridge from several markets ago- just buy as many as the farmer will let you when they're around. Beets keep a long long time as long as they are in a bag in the drawer- they tend to get a little soft when exposed to air for too long. Make sure they're dry and the tops are removed or they might mold.

When I roast veggies I never peel them, unless they are just so giant that the skin has gotten thick- turnips are especially easy to tell because the skin will begin to peel right off with a paring knife.

No salt or oil is needed here, the bacon will do the trick. Stop by your friendly neighborhood Link 41ers on Main St and they will hook you up. Of course, if you would prefer not to use bacon, oil and salt would do wonderfully.

for four people

2 smallish beets, and sliced into wedges
1 large handful of brussel sprouts
3-4 sunchokes (those yummy delicious things that look kind of like ginger but aren't), washed and sliced into wedges or chunks
1 small or 1/2 very large turnip, sliced
2 slices back or jowl bacon (the meat on these adds a little texture and holds up to roasting better than belly, but you can use that too), diced
a few tablespoons crumbled blue cheese (I used Rouge's Caveman Blue)

Toss vegetables with bacon on a sheet pan and bake in a 350 degree oven until everything is tender. Some things will cook quicker than others (like the turnips), but that's ok. Texture makes things interesting. Scoop off pan with a slotted spoon, making sure to leave most of the bacon drippings behind. Sprinkle with blue cheese while warm and serve soon.

Kale Slaw with Carrots and, yes, More Delicious Sunchokes

I got a lot of sunchokes last week at the market. I just couldn't resist- they are so crunchy and wonderful! I kind of stole this recipe idea (at least the lemon juice part) from Beth, a past William's Islander. She said you are supposed to "massage" the kale for a long time to make it wilt. I just gave it a few quick rubs, but it does the trick. The lemon juice really helps, although vinegar has the same effect, just less gentle.

for two kale lovin' folks, or four

1 bunch of kale, thinly sliced. I usually leave the stems in, if they are thinly sliced enough it is no problem.
1 carrot (another thing I stocked up on), sliced into little sticks. You can use a mandoline if you own one (I don't). You can also grate it, it just doesn't look as pretty
1 sunchoke, sliced however you can (they are a little eccentric in the shape)
1 clove garlic, minced
juice of 1/2 large lemon
salt to taste (a little more than you think you'd want, it helps break down the kale and soften the carrots)
a teeny drizzle of honey

Salt the kale and pour the lemon juice over. With very clean hands lovingly massage the kale for a few seconds or more, until it is no longer squeaky, but more subdued and soft. Toss in everything else and let sit til you are ready to eat. The longer the better.

The Last of Last Year's Pink Beans with Andouille Sausage

Now that spring is around the corner I am going through the freezer and canned goods cabinet with much more abandon. I have a LOT of pickled beets to make my way through, and it seems that fresh beets rarely go out of season, at least in my fridge. I froze lots of beans and peas from the market last year and have been merrily cooking them all winter long. They are nice because they are frozen fresh, not dried, so I don't have to plan ahead by soaking them overnight.

1 quart bag of frozen beans (or about 1 1/2- 2 cups dried cranberry beans, soaked overnight) cooked til soft
1 turnip, diced
2 kohlrabi, diced and greens chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 dried cayenne, crushed (optional- taste a bit of the sausage first to see if you want more heat)
1 link andouille, sliced

Cook the sausage til almost done. Throw in the garlic and kohlrabi and cook til tender. Add the turnip and cook a bit longer and then add the beans and let simmer for about an hour til everything is nice and soft and wonderful.. Taste for salt and add as needed. Serve with grits or quinoa or rice.

Seven Billion Co-Producers

2011-01-20T15:39:00.001-05:00

I recently read an article in the latest National Geographic about the impending seven billion world population. It was a good article, and I fell immediately into a deep sleep on the sofa after finishing it. When I was awakened I blurted out- I can never have children! Now that I have regained my senses I am thinking much more clearly about that whole matter. Although much of the article talked about the rapid rate of population growth, the gist of the article was focused on the consumption of the people more than the number. It's not the people themselves that are harming the planet, it's really more about what the people are DOING with themselves after they are born. And of course we all know who we are REALLY talking about- ourselves. India and China may be the most populated, but we are by far far far and away the hugest consumers. Of course, the densely populated slums of India are causing their own problems but that is what I let other people work with. What I am really interested in, more than anything else, is what my neighbors are eating.

We were talking the other day about STUFF. It's nice to be on the lower level of middle class because that means I don't even have very much money to spend on stuff. But even if I did I sometimes wonder what it would be spent on.... more bacon maybe? Or I bet I would order fair trade produced fabric or chocolate over the internet. I might get a new wok, or maybe some really nice handmade shoes. I realized the other day that there are people I occasionally bump elbows with who spend $18 dollars on jeans from Wal-Mart because that is what poor people do, and don't have enough in their budget to buy local, sustainably grown food because that is what rich people do. I would NEVER spend $18 on jeans, even if I wore jeans. I certainly wouldn't buy them, or anything else, from Wal-Mart. I would go to the Goodwill, spend $5 on a beautiful wool skirt and take that $13 and get on over to the market and buy me some grits. And kale, carrots, and a couple bright red beets.

I am very lucky to have been brought up this way. I once told a friend that we didn't have a TV when we were growing up because we were too poor, and he laughed at me. It is partially true, but not all the way. I'm sure we didn't have a TV because there were better things to do, but I have the feeling that if my parents had an extra $500 to spend, it would not be spent on a TV. That was not in any way the priority. Somewhere along the way we were given a TV which was not turned down, thereby exposing me to a few years of Sesame Street and whatever else my brother and I could scrape out of PBS before the TV blew up. I am told that I found the Painting By Number hour fascinating. There actually ARE people out there who are too poor to buy a TV. And they own one. This was illustrated so well in Peter Menzel's book, Material World. It is a book of photographs of families around the world with all of their possessions hauled out of their homes. The image that sticks with me most clearly is a family on a tiny boat in China, in it are their fishing ducks, traps, a cooking pot, sleeping mats, and a TV run on a tiny generator. I may not have everything in the photo correct but you get the idea. I just remember thinking, seriously, a TV?

Nomadic Family- somewhere in China, photograph by Huang Qingjun

A TV is just a token example, not really what I mean. I currently own a TV, not for channels, which I don't get, not even PBS, but for Netflix. The point, which I'm sure everyone understands, is that what your children are eating is much more important than what they are watching on TV. This is really a much bigger topic than I am really interested in getting into right now, or really ever. That is what my smarter friends are for. I am just reminding yall of this- what the article said- It's too late to keep the new middle class of 2030 from being born. But it's not too late to change the way we all consume.

Speaking on consuming, after I heard Carlo Petrini speak at the CDC almost a year ago I learned a whole new way of thinking about consumption. Since I don't see the need to re-word what I already wrote, I'll just stick it here:

"But rarely do you hear an international modern leader speak so humbly and yet so radically. All Slow Food stands for is sustainable community. It doesn’t even stand for McDonald’s bashing- although that might be where the name came from. Slow Food, or should I say Carlo Petrini, doesn’t want to go around tearing down fast food restaurants. We, the Slow Fooders, don’t have time for that. Slow Food stands for moderate consumption of local food grown healthily, traditionally, and moderately by real small-time men and women who are proud to be human.   We are proud to carry human traits like umami, anger, love, greed, guilt, compassion, and generosity.

Petrini also said he doesn’t like the word consumption- it is and sounds like a disease. We are not consumers, we are co-producers. As eaters of food we are co-producing with the farmers. We can make the choice (which sadly we have to do just that, make a choice) to become a fellow producer with the farmers who grow our food. So when we buy a bunch of collard greens (Carlo’s new favorite southern delicacy), we are choosing to stand beside the farmer in the field where these greens are from. If we buy collards from California in mid-summer we might very well be sweating in the sun with our Latin American brethren. As a consumer we can return to our cush homes and cook those collards in top quality consumer rated pots but the people we worked the fields with that day might not have the same dinner (and we, as aware compassionate human Americans should know what that means by now). On the other hand, if we choose to buy collards in April from the sustainable farm down the road we can work the fields with those brethren and bring our collard dish to the local pot-luck later that night and share it amongst friends.

The saddest thing about that last paragraph is that we aren’t actually co-producers in the present. Surely our decisions will affect the future but right now in the present we don’t really have to co-produce. We can eat those organic collards grown in California by our Latin American brethren and not actually feel a dern thing. We don’t actually have to live their lives just yet. But somebody will.   And that most likely will be my grandchildren.

And what I like about Carlo Petrini is that he is not like me. He does not say radical things like I do. And yet he has somehow he gathers eight thousand “peasants” together every two years to talk; much more radical than anything I will ever do. Terra Madre is a meeting of moderation- a gigantic pot luck- where peasants, food producers, fermenters, young business owners, leaders of community, farmers, natural dyers of cloth, weavers, basket makers, shoe repairmen, cooks, musicians, writers, painters, sculptors, cheesmakers can all get together and just COMMUNICATE. That means to start a world-wide COMMUNITY of this simple moderation that defines humanity completely. The title Slow Food is such a shallow name for such an important movement.   It is not about food, it’s about humanity. We are co-producers of our life. Everything we do is shoulder to shoulder with our neighbor. "

So, have those babies. But feed them with love and respect for the entire planet. Fortunately that doesn't mean to go without the necessities, but it does mean that we might need to toss the TV out the back door and open the front to some grits and collard greens. Remember that we co-produce not only our food but also our clothes, light bulbs, and the gasoline we put in our cars. We are working side-by-side with children in sweat shops when we purchase $18 jeans at Wal-Mart. We are stripping the seas every time we order a tuna steak, etc, etc, etc. You know what it means. As I said above, WE might not actually be co-producing right now, but if we don't slow down and think about everything that passes through our hands and mouth, our grandchildren just might have to. In a real way. There is nothing radical about changing just a little. See yall at the market!

Shopping Without Recipes...in January

2011-01-07T12:40:00.002-05:00

Now, I'm not trying to say that I am the best cook in the world, nor am I passing (much) judgement on those who must shop with recipe in hand. All I am saying is that, if you really want to get things done, shopping with a recipe is NOT how you shop at a farmer's market. Shopping with a LIST is almost pushing it. The point of shopping at a farmer's market is to fill your basket with whatever catches your fancy and then make the menu later. I think recipes are wonderful but I honestly think that they are the biggest obstacle in the way of empowering us all to the best best cooks in the world. Recipes are not LAWS, even for very inexperienced cooks. They are simply guidelines written mainly by people who do not live in Chattanooga, Tennessee or the surrounding area. They don't know what our farmers grow or what is in season in our area at any given time. But we do so we can take what they give us with a grain of salt, take out the celery, and add extra carrots. I walked past an abandoned cart at the grocery store the other day and I could tell exactly what the shopper was going to have for dinner. There was 1 small hunk of ginger, 1 chicken breast, 1 head of garlic, 1 can of coconut juice, 1 red bell pepper, and 1 green. Any guesses? If you took that list to the Main Street Farmer's Market last blustery and rainy Wednesday you would be sorely disappointed. If you took an empty shopping basket and enough money for 3/4 of your weekly food budget (they don't sell salt or beer yet at the market) and a very open mind you would go home happy as a pig in mud. It is a little harder in January, I will admit. But that's what eating seasonally is all about. We can't have what we think we want all the time, but what's there is actually all we need. A little creativity never hurt anyone either.

When Jim and I did the Pulse article together we started at one end of the market with a wad of cash and worked our way to the other end. The second booth had the squashes and Jim asked me So, what are we going to do with them? And I thought, Are you crazy? I have no idea, they just look good so let's get them. We'll figure it out later. Jim is in no way an inexperienced cook. I'd even bet that he is better than me at some things, like cornbread. But I realized at that moment that that question is NOT the gateway question for shopping at a farmer's market. If you had to ask that question with every ingredient you bought then it would take well over the hour you have alloted in the winter to shop. You would be rummaging your mind for beef flank recipes while the carrots zipped off the table next door. Just BUY the dern thing and think about it later. And if, when you find the recipe you like most of all, fajitas for example, don't be deterred by the lack of ingredients on the list. Make something else up. Don't have peppers? Thinly sliced turnips and carrots marinated in lemon juice and garlic and then sauted til soft with some cumin and ancho pepper are a wonderful substitute. Come up with an idea, look at the recipe and then pretend like you never saw it. Grated beets and thinly sliced kale make a great slaw. Or beets roasted with cumin seeds til shriveled are amazing in fajitas or on top of refried beans. It also helps to have a shelf full of jars of relishes, tomatoes, and pickles from last summer when you went overboard at the market. As taste of the summer bounty always jazzes things up.

We are amazingly blessed to have so many farmers in our area with such diversified product. The staples of meat, honey, eggs, grits, cornmeal, polenta, sorghum, flour, and coffee are always there. And every week is a new opportunity to try out an old recipe in a whole new way, for every week comes something a little different. Last week at the market made me feel happy and proud to live in Chattanooga. When I showed up in the rain at five minutes after the market began the parking lot was packed and Crabtree had already sold out of green onions. Can you believe that? In the dead middle of winter.

THE WEEK'S WINNINGS

and a snack while you wait til next week.....

SCC Cumberland Quesadillas

I do buy tortillas from time to time. I like the whole wheat ones from Greenlife/Whole Foods. I REALLY like the sprouted grain ones but they are on the more expensive side. Quesadillas are a perfect and wonderful snack, especially pared with homemade sauerkraut and made with "the good stuff" (Cumberland cheese of course). Just grate it up, cover half the tortilla with it, and cook in a medium-hot cast iron skillet til browned on both sides and melted in the middle. Serve with homemade kraut, cucumber and pepper relish from last summer, or just as they are- warm and yummy.

Eating in the Dark and Other Such Tales of Winter

2011-01-02T17:01:00.002-05:00

Although it is cold and dark outside most days, most of the day, there are still those out there who are digging in the frozen soil, checking on the roaming pigs, and milking the cows through rain, snow, ice, and mud. I have tried very hard to not break down and buy any vegetables this winter from anywhere but the Main Street Farmer's Market and so far have succeeded. There was one week though where we got awfully tired of cabbage. Fortunately there is a nice supply of various kimchees in the fridge and pickles, sauces, and relishes in the freezer and on the shelf. There is still cheese, grits, bacon, honey, sorghum, and pecans at the market. And every now and then, if we're lucky enough, there is lettuce for salads, sweet crunchy carrots, beets, turnips, kale, and even tender brussel sprouts. The produce in my fridge is confined to the produce drawers instead of sprawling everywhere, but sometimes it's nice to have an empty spot to stick a pot of chili.

This meal took me maybe 20 minutes and is most comforting and delicious.

For two very hungry folks:

Williams Island Carrots and Lemon-Orange Tahini Dip

I was lucky enough to receive a case of biodynamicly grown oranges and grapefruit for my birthday in November. Even if you aren't that lucky it's kinda locavorily allowed to buy citrus this time of years, tis the season after all.

1 cup tahini
juice of 1 orange and 1 lemon
1 teaspoon, more or less, ground cumin
pinch of cayenne
1 tablespoon or so chopped ginger
1 close garlic, chopped
Salt to taste- about a big pinch

Puree everything in a blender til super smooth. Taste for seasoning and add juices, salt, or spices as desired. Serve with super fresh and crunchy carrots.

Steamed Kale with Muscadine Vinegar and Sorghum

I am also lucky enough to have a (vinegar making) crazy father. He recently blessed me with a growler full of muscadine vinegar. It tastes of the clear blue skies of autumn and a twang of muscadine goodness. Sorghum, I am realizing, goes well with everything. It has a rich earthy sweetness that almost isn't sweet anymore and compliments almost every flavor in the world.

1 bunch kale, coarsely chopped or torn
Splash of vinegar, muscadine or otherwise
Drizzle of sorghum syrup
Dash or pinch of salt

Steam the kale with the vinegar and salt in a bit of water til wilty and tender. This time of year greens start getting much tougher and more bitter. Sometimes, although it is not in vogue, it is nice to steam them a little longer. Drizzle in the sorghum at the very end. Serve warm.

Udon Noodles with Homemade Miso and a Little Bit of Beets

Of course I am not crazy enough to make my own noodles, I buy them at the Asian Food Store on Hixson Pike. I AM crazy enough to make my own miso, but one fit of insanity can last you several fruitful years. I made black bean miso over three years ago and it is still doin' me good. The recipe I used was from Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation- the best "cookbook" in the world and there is no excuse not to own it.

1 bundle udon noodles
1 beet, grated
1 tablespoon miso, handmade or otherwise
1 teaspoon minced ginger
Splash of tamari
1 teeny tiny drop of sesame oil

Bring a pot of water to boil, and add the noodles. Make sauce by diluting miso with hot noodle water and then adding ginger, tamari, and sesame oil. Add a bit more water to make a thin-ish sauce that can coat the noodles. Toss noodles with grated beet and sauce. Serve warm.

2010-11-18T09:37:00.001-05:00

Jim Pfitzer's cover story about our "Locavore Thanksgiving"....

http://chattanoogapulse.com/current-issue/the-pulse-vol-7-issue-46/

2010-10-30T15:46:00.002-04:00

2010-09-07T19:30:00.000-04:00

2010-08-12T08:54:00.001-04:00

Farm-Infused City Dinner Menu August 7th 2010

To Start

Chinese Tea or Coffee City Chicken Eggs
With Velo Mexican coffee or black tea, Muddy Pond sorghum and Dominican cinnamon

Babaganoush
With William’s Island Farm eggplant and Niedlov’s baguette

Link 41 Coffee Cured Bacon Sandwiches
With Alexzanna Farm tomatoes, Velo coffee and Niedlov’s Farmer’s Rye

The Feast

Chilled Zephyr Squash Soup
With William’s Island zephyr, swirled with roasted Signal Mtn Farm sweet pepper puree

...........

Link 41 Smoked Ribs
From Sequatchie Cove Farm heritage pork

Jalapeno Cumberland Cornbread
With Tant Hill Farm jalapenos, Riverview Farms cornmeal, and Sequatchie Cove Creamery Cumberland

Iced Sequatchie Cove Farm Cucumbers
With balsamic vinegar brought back from Modena, Italy after Terra Madre and handmade Caribbean sea salt

Circle S Farm Yellow Wax Bean Salad
With William’s Island Farm Sungolds and oregano from my yard

To Finish

Velo Coffee Custard
With Daisy’s figs and city chicken eggs

Featuring (and Many Thanks to)….

-All beautiful and colorful wine glasses and water glasses are made by Prentice Hicks and donated for use during this dinner. They can be taken home, if desired, for $20 a cup and $25 a wine glass

-Various bowls (big and small), plates, and vases (small and big) are made by Anderson Bailey, and are also donated for use during this dinner. They may be taken home as well, please ask for prices.

-Many of the gorgeous serving bowls are by Danielle Fox, as well as a few cups, plates, and smaller bowls. They are donated for use during this dinner and may also be purchased, ask for prices.

-All the beautiful flowers are grown, harvested and lovingly arranged by Padgett Arnold.

-Of course this dinner would have been nothing but empty plates and stomachs without our dedicated and hardworking farmers and artisans- William’s Island Farm, Sequatchie Cove Farm and Creamery, Circle S Farm, Tant Hill Farm, Alexzanna Farm, and Riverview Farms, Link 41, Velo Coffee Roasters and Niedlov’s Bakery were all extremely important in the making of this dinner. They are all at Main Street Farmer's Market- along with many other farms producing equally delicious produce and meat.

And last, but decidedly not least- thanks to all of you, the eaters, who choose to make this community better and more alive everyday. I look forward to seeing you all at the Main Street Farmers Market throughout the season!

When in Doubt, Alliterate

2010-07-20T17:25:00.004-04:00

When I first started cooking I used to drive my mother crazy with my quirky experiments in flavor combinations. I would try to see how many spices I could use, how much sweet could go with that bitter, or what crazy way I could twist a traditional dish. It came partly from the trend that was happening, and still is, where "fusion" and experimentation are more hip and important than where the food actually comes from or preserving it's true taste. But it also came from the simple fact that I was learning. I had to experiment and really get to know what goes with what and why and how before I could actually make it work. You just can't believe what other people say or write when you are fifteen years old; you have to do it your darn self. You have to find the delicate edge between too much salt and not enough with your own tongue, not trust a recipe. And if you get the wild idea that blueberries might be good with beets, the only way to find out is to try it. I have come to respect the art of cooking simply and try with every meal to achieve a perfect fresh balance. It's really, really hard to make each ingredients shine as bright as they should without muddying them up with spices or tricky sauces. There is a very fine line between bland and fantastic and it is an art to draw out the personality of every vegetable, hunk of meat, and piece of fruit so that they not only stand alone but also mingle harmoniously with their bowl-mates, whoever that may be. Only sometimes do I feel like I have achieved this and it is a wonderful feeling to do justice to the hard work the plants, animals and farmers put into each ingredient. I won't pretend that I can do that well yet, I still stumble all over the place and over-flavor all the time. Of course, it is impossible to cook well and simply without good food, and good food gives you such an advantage. And every now and then I revert completely back to my wild and crazy days of basing meals on the first letter of the ingredient, or the color of the food (I made an all black meal once that really wasn't half bad....) I believe that it is impossible to be a bad cook, you just have to lose all fear and listen to the food. (and shop from your local farmers because they do the hardest part- growing stuff that tastes amazing all by itself)

Baked Beets with Blue Cheese, Blackberries and Blueberries

I've often made roasted beet and raspberry salad with feta or blue cheese. There really isn't any difference here except that all ingredients start with "b".

For four people:

6-9 medium sized beets, sliced into wedges (skin on)
1 cup blue cheese of your choice (mine was from undisclosed sources and very good, but Greenlife has a nice selection), crumbled or diced
3/4 cup blueberries
3/4 cup blackberries
salt to taste
oil

Toss the beets in oil to coat and bake in a 350 degree oven til slightly withered and nice and soft (about 35 minutes). Let cool slightly and toss with berries and cheese. Taste for salt and toss with more oil, if desired. Serve warmish.

Bratwurst and Brown Rice

1 cup short or sweet (or combo) brown rice
2 cups water
Pinch of salt
2 Link 41 brats, sliced

Cover rice with water and salt and bring to a boil. Turn to a simmer and cook til done, about 45 minutes. When water has been completely absorbed and rice is tender, turn off heat and let sit. Fry sliced brats in cast iron skillet til browned and firm. Toss with warm rice and taste for salt. Serve warm, room temp, or even cold the next day.

Sungolds, Sweat, and Pink-Eyed Peas

2010-07-16T08:38:00.001-04:00

O I've been here. I've been sushi rolling, cheese making, cheese sellin, chicken tending, weed pulling, bean pickin, blueberry eating, river swimming here. I've also been cooking as well, I just haven't found the time to sit down and tell anyone about it.....

I would have said, back in my younger more naive days, that summer was my favorite season for food, if not just because of tomatoes. Now that I am more mature I can tell you that although beets are wonderful, cabbage is delicious, and butternut squash is what angels must dine on, summertime food is the BEST. I do love all the other seasons, nothing says late spring like the cool sweet crunch of a sugar snap pea or autumn like butternut tortellini. But eggplant, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, and pink eyed peas? The Main Street Farmer's Market is dazzlingly dizzyingly full of these wonders. It is begging me to get my glass jars down from the cabinets and get to "putting stuff away". But right now I'm just eating it. This is the easiest and most fun time of year to eat entirely seasonally and locally. If I didn't work in a grocery store I wouldn't even remember what the inside of one looks like!

Sungolds and Pink-Eyed Peas

for four people

3 cups shelled fresh pink-eyed peas (buy as many as you can and freeze them, seriously)
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, rough chopped
2 cups Sungold cherry tomatoes, half of them halved and the other half left whole (how's that for a tongue twister?)
1 bunch basil, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil, or less
Salt to taste

Cover the peas, onion, and garlic in water and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and let cook til done, about 15-20 minutes. Salt to taste and let cool. Remove peas, onions and garlic from liquid and toss with Sungolds, basil, and olive oil. Serve chilled or at room temp.

Cumberland Cheese Grits

1 cup Riverview Farms grits
4 cups water (or 2 c water and 2 c beer)
2 garlic cloves, minced
Pinch of salt
1/2-3/4 cup shredded Sequatchie Cove Creamery's Cumberland cheese

Bring water to a boil and then whisk in the grits and garlic. Add a pinch of salt (the cheese will add salt flavor, so you can add more after you taste it with the cheese) and turn down to a simmer, stirring often. Cook til thick and bubbly, about 20 minutes, and add the cheese. Stir til melted and serve warm.

Chard and Beet Slaw

Normally I slice all the veggies by hand because I think it looks nicer. Grating works just as well though, and it's a lot quicker.

1 bunch chard, or any other green thing you can find (what did I tell you about those greens?), thinly sliced
1 large, or 2 small beets, grated
1 small summer squash, grated
2 small carrots, grated
Large drizzle of honey
Large pinch of salt (you want it to get everything good and soft)
Splash of vinegar

If you serve with the grits and peas, start this first. Toss everything together and let sit while you finish everything else, at least 20 minutes. I always like to add a little raw garlic to slaws, but that is up to you.

Eating Seaonally (You Gotta Eat Your Greens!)

2010-06-16T12:50:00.005-04:00

When I was in Dominica for four months this winter, I had a lot of time on my hands. I also had a lot of crayons and that led to a lot of greeting card making, which led to writing a children's book. The title was There's a Chicken in my Kitchen!. It was about growing up on a farm- through a young ten-year-old girl's (my) eyes. It was divided into four chapters- spring, summer, fall, and winter, with a section in the back with corresponding recipes. There were two vegetable stories per chapter- along with one animal story and one story about the seasons (swimming in the river, dirt and bugs, etc). Spring-time I had a story titled- You Gotta Eat Your Greens! and it was all about... yep, how we gotta eat our greens. And trust me, you might think you're sick of them now- wait til mid-summer and an edible leaf is nowhere in sight.

The other week at the market I met a very nice elderly couple who had just heard about the market and were there "checking it out". They had walked around, viewed the kohlrabi, kale, collards, lettuce, radishes, beet greens, and cabbages and said to me as they left, "We sure are glad we know about this! We'll have to come back when the vegetables start coming in".

Now, before you say anything, don't even try to pretend you don't know what they're talking about. They are talking about the good stuff- the okra, summer squash, cucumbers, and best of all, tomatoes. Now that the weather is sweltering and sticky, we are ready for the food to fit the season. But this is part of learning what the season IS. Although it may feel like August, it's still (barely, but still) June, and we are yet a little way from the rich, ripe overflow of tomatoes and cucumbers. The squashes are peeking through the present greens, and are very welcome. Green beans are coming in, potatoes are being dug, onions are being pulled before the solstice. But still the kale, collards, cabbages, and radishes are hanging to the last threads of cool morning air, and we should make the best of it. The great thing about new foods coming in is that the old ones are completely changed. Brand new recipe ideas pop up as potatoes mingle with the radishes- roasted and tossed with dill, mustard, and olive oil. Summer squash is thinly sliced and added to a cabbage slaw. Steamed green beans and caramelized onions can completely change your ideas about kale. Sauteed zucchini will be mixed with chopped basil and thinly sliced chard that has been wilted in balsamic...

These are my favorite times of food-seasons, when the old overlaps with the new. The flavors of everything suddenly change and open up new ways of not only cooking the foods, but also experiencing the tastes. I love it when spring meets summer and when summer meets fall. It's like a new season comes at the PERFECT moment, just when you think you are tired of the old one, an opportunity comes where you can fall in love all over again. It creates these wonderful little mid-seasons, almost like individual seasons themselves. This would never, ever happen if we could pick and choose what we wanted, whenever we wanted it. Sometimes it is a bit challenging to keep cooking that darned old kale week after week, when all you want is a tomato. But if you stick with it, the rewards are beyond amazing. You grow to really know what the food tastes like, and learn to cook in ways that ten stacks of cookbooks could never teach you. It takes a real commitment to cook entirely seasonally and to not give up on the kale before it gives up on itself. But, as Carlo Petrini said, it is the waiting that makes food taste so good- the longing, the suspense. It is also the dedication of hanging on to the end. True love is never gained without full commitment and joy.

....... .......

Even if your refrigerator looks like this:

....... .......

Here's to the brand new market season!

Kinda-Sorta Kimchee, or, What to do With All Those Veggies

2010-06-08T17:55:00.003-04:00

I just received the Main Street Market letter and saw the post on A Strange Grace, a blog attached to the email, about kimchee and remembered- O yeah, I wanted to do one of those too. I don't make real Korean kimchee and don't pretend to. I just ferment seasonal vegetables because they are really, really good like that. Grace's little short history is nice, I would recommend reading it. My inspiration comes from Wild Fermentation- a "cookbook" that I would say is an absolute MUST for every single person who has ever met and loved vegetables. I have gone through many fermentation phases, including miso, but the fermented root veggies is a phase that never stops. You can ferment almost anything, as Sandor will tell you. In this batch pictured below I actually had some green beans from Crabtree that produced themselves a bit early. I really love broccoli and snap peas too. Kohlrabi is wonderful and crunchy, beets turn everything a nice fushia, radishes are really good whole, and garlic scapes are beyond amazing. Just experiment and don't be afraid. As far as I can tell nothing will kill you, it might just not taste that good....

Wild Fermentation can actually be purchased now at Greenlife- the last time I saw it it was on the beer brewing shelf. It can also be bought through Chelsea Green Publishing, and I'm sure on Amazon. Both Sandor's site and Chelsea Green are on the sidebar of this blog

What I usually do:

Take a HUGE pile of veggies- greens, roots, stalks.... I have heard that un-fresh stuff can be used but personally I can taste that in the finished product, the veggies just don't sparkle as much if they aren't really fresh. Wash them all but don't worry too much about the dirt, but only if it is local and organically produced. A little dirt is good for us- in fact, Sandor has a recipe for eating it in his other book The Revolution Will Not be Microwaved, which is also very worth owning (and I am in it for a brief moment, or at least my very moldy salame is). Chop everything as you like it. I usually do a variation of slices and rounds. Small radishes are super yummy left whole, and I even left some teeny tiny beets from Circle S Farm whole in my last batch. Sometimes, if two vegetables are similar in color or texture (if you use beets or even pink radishes everything will turn pink anyway), I cut them into different shapes, just so I'll know what is what when it's all done. For instance, last time I cut the kohlrabi into sticks and the daikon into rounds.

Make a paste of finely chopped (by hand or in the food processor) ginger, garlic, and chilies. This part is all up to you, depending on how spicy or strong tasting you like it. The tastes mellows a WHOLE lot, so use three times as much as you think you need. I really don't like it too spicy, but I do like a lot of ginger and garlic. For one gallon I usually use two or three heads of garlic and a large hunk of ginger. I add about three dried chilies- string up and dry this summer's chilies in your kitchen and you will have enough all winter and next spring-long to make whatever you want with them. In Wild Fermentation, the recipe tells you to first soak the veggies in a brine of 3 T salt to 4 Cups water (un-chlorinated). Then you pour off and save the brine, mix the softened veggies with the ginger-garlic paste, and pack them into a jar or crock. If the moisture drawn out of the veggies does not cover them by the first day or so you add back a little brine. I have started skipping the first step and just adding a little brine to the raw veggies tossed with paste and packed in a jar. They only problem with this is that it is harder to control how salty the veggies will be and how much moisture will come out of them. I end up having brine overflow onto the counter, even if I only added a teeny bit. If you have never done this, read Wild Fermentation, and don't follow my advice.

Whatever you ferment the stuff in, you have to be able to fit something inside to weigh down the veggies, to both help press their juices out and to keep them from floating up and being exposed to the air, and thereby getting moldy. When I do small 1 gallon batches I use a glass wine or other booze bottle full of water to act as a weight. It does not fit entirely snug into the jar, there is some wiggle room, but I have never had a problem. I prefer to use bottle withOUT a punt, just so no veggies hang out up in there. (Wild Fermentation has several other suggestions). Cover the whole thing with a cloth to keep out bugs and dust and set in a cool dark corner to ferment. Taste everyday. You can skip the tasting the first few days if you don't like salty veggies, but the magic will happen either quickly or slowly, depending on how cool your corner is. The hotter it is the more salt you should use and the quicker the fermentation happens. The kimchee can be left out until it is as pungent as you'd like it. Once it tastes perfect, stick it in the fridge and enjoy for as long as it lasts. It is very nice as an after dinner digestif.

The veggies I used for this one:

Signal Mountain Farm bok choy (mainly the white part and some of the green)
William's Island Farm and Crabtree Farm garlic scapes
Crabtree Farm green beans
Circle S Farm spring onions and teeny beets
Crabtree Farm kohlrabi and beets
William's Island Farm Hakurai Turnips
Sequatchie Cove Farm Easter Egg Radishes

and.......Helios Radishes from my own yard!

Then, yesterday I just made another batch. I didn't have any garlic or ginger so I used layered tons of William's Island Farm garlic scapes and some whole and ground dried chiles with:

William's Island Farm daikon and turnips
Circle S Farm broccoli
Crabtree (or Sequatchie Cove, I don't remember) Farm kohlrabi

And that's it. I thought about throwing some beets but I decided I wanted this one to be whiter. I just poured some brine on it, weighted it down, and put it in the corner. I obviously added too much brine, as you can see things floating in it. I may pour off some of the excess brine, especially if it looks like it might creep up and overflow. In about a week I'll let you know how it is....

June Celebration Dinner Menu

2010-06-06T18:48:00.002-04:00

To Start

Chilled Soup
With Crabtree Farm kohlrabi and Williams Island Farm leeks and garlic scapes

William’s Island Farm Leg of Lamb Sandwiches
On Niedlov’s Farmer’s Rye with William’s Island Farm arugula pesto and Sequatchie Cove Creamery’s Cumberland cheese

Wontons filled with Link 41’s Lamb Sausage
OR
Sequatchie Cove Farm Shiitake
Both with William’s Island Farm nappa cabbage

The Feast

William’s Island Farm Lamb
Braised with William’s Island Farm garlic scapes in red wine

Cold Soba Noodles
Tossed with roasted Crabtree Farm beets, Circle S Farm spring onions,
Signal Mountain Farm fennel bulb and handmade black bean miso

Roasted William’s Island Farm Daikon and Hakurai Turnips
with cilantro from my yard

William’s Island Farm Nappa Cabbage Slaw
With Signal Mountain Farm radishes and Sale Creek Honey

To Finish

Chocolate Beet Cake
With Crabtree Farm beets, Scharffen Berger chocolate, and a Sequatchie Cove Farm strawberry sauce

Featuring (and Many Thanks to)….

-All beautiful and colorful wine glasses and water glasses are made by Prentice Hicks and donated for use during this dinner. They can be taken home, if desired, for $20 a cup and $25 a wine glass

-Various bowls (big and small), plates, and vases (small and big) are made by Anderson Bailey, and are also donated for use during this dinner. They may be taken home as well, please ask for prices.

-A few of the plates and vases are made by Danielle Fox. Unfortunately there was a mishap in her last firing and she was not able to donate as many pieces (beautiful serving bowls) as we hoped. Her few pieces are donated for use tonight and available for purchase as well.

-All flowers are done by our gracious and talented hostess Eleanor Cooper.

-Of course this dinner would have been nothing but empty plates and stomachs without our dedicated and hardworking farmers- William’s Island Farm, Sequatchie Cove Farm and Creamery, Circle S Farm, Signal Mountain Farm, Sale Creek Honey, and Crabtree Farm were all extremely important in the making of this dinner. They are all at Main Street Farmer’s Market- along with many other farms producing equally delicious produce and meat.

And last, but decidedly not least- Many thanks to all of you, the eaters, who choose to make this community better and more alive everyday. I look forward to seeing you all at the Main Street Farmers Market throughout the season!

Recipe- Sorrel and Spinach Bisque

2010-05-22T15:28:00.002-04:00

I kind of took this from Seasons of My Heart by Susanna Trilling. It is a roasted poblano bisque in the book, but I liked it because it uses ricotta, or requeson, in the recipe. I had a whole lot of ricotta because Nathan made me some. Well, he didn't actually make ME some, he just had to make some to make a starter culture for a cheese he was making. Ricotta, or requeson literally means "re-cheesed" because that's what it is. It is made out of whey, which if you know anything about making cheese, or Little Miss Muffet, you would know that whey is what comes out of the milk when you make cheese. Usually the curds are all you worry about and the rest of the whey goes to the pigs. But sometimes, when you really feel like it, the whey can be heated super hot and, if you add an acid (like lemon juice or vinegar), even more cheese will come out of the whey. It has very tiny soft curds and we call it ricotta. Nathan gave me the pile of ricotta and used the totally de-cheesed whey to make his starter....

Of course, all the vegetables are available at the Main Street Farmer's Market. I can't say how long the sorrel and spinach will be around. Alexzanna Farms has had sorrel the past few weeks and most everybody has had some kind of spinach, onions, or garlic scapes. Unfortunately the milk and ricotta will have to be outsourced because they are not yet available at the market (and probably won't be anytime soon, you just have to be really lucky/good at squeegeeing the cheese-house floor to get some of the real good stuff).

1 large pile torn fresh spinach leaves (maybe five cups)
1 smaller pile torn fresh sorrel leaves (maybe three cups)
1/2 to 1 cup chopped spring onions
3-4 garlic scapes, chopped small
1 tablespoon butter
1 quart stock (I used lamb because that was the first thing I saw in the freezer. Chicken or veggie would work just as well)
1 cup milk
1/2 cup ricotta
Pinch of ground cayenne
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onions and garlic scapes in butter in a soup pot over medium heat til the onions are soft. Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Throw in the leaves and cook til wilted. Stir in salt, pepper, and cayenne. Cool slightly, then blend in blender til smooth. (I don't have a blender, just a food processor, so nothing ever gets quite smooth enough). Mix about 1/2 cup of the mixture in with the ricotta in a bowl. Add the ricotta mixture to the soup and blend again. Pour mixture back into the pot and whisk in the milk. Heat back up or cool it off to serve chilled. Taste for salt and spice- a little jazzing up might be necessary. If serving chilled, let cool at least three or four hours. If serving hot, serve right away.

Waiting for Wednesday (and the proverbial Asparagus)

2010-05-04T17:46:00.002-04:00

So, it's Tuesday night and I'm down to the last few spinach leaves, and scrounging for any radishes that might have rolled under the produce drawer. Every week I load up on produce, thinking that I never could possibly eat half of what I can't stop myself from buying, and end up getting so excited about it that I use most of it in the first meal. Spring is the best because I feel like I have been starving myself for the past four months- scraping by on potatoes and frozen and canned goods from the summer before. (of course this winter I spent eating avocados and mangoes in a tropical paradise, but that market story is another tale altogether). So when the time comes I try to eat as much greenery as a grass-fed cow. Lacking the extra stomachs, I end up eating about half the greenery. But I make sure those morning grits or fried egg are topped with kale, or collards, or something that tastes like it's been alive in the past few days.

The Main Street Farmer's Market is officially opening (I think) this Wednesday, but it has been going on all winter. I have been living from lamb chop to lamb chop, duck eggs to overwintered collards, and finally to glory be!- all the produce my heart desires. Arugula, spinach, asparagus (to supplement my own growing in my yard- don't tell Suzanna, or she won't sell me any), kale, sausages, radishes, beets, carrots, lettuce, herbs, grits and cornmeal, shittake, and even bamboo shoots have been blessing my every meal for the past few weeks. I feel like I have come out of a desert and fallen into an oasis. I no longer look longingly at the various produce on the grocery shelf, knowing that even if I buy it it won't have the same wonderful taste as in-season, locally grown stuff will. I HAVE the in-season locally grown stuff all the time now, right at the edge of my knife and the tip of my tongue. And I could not be more content, not even if I were a pig in a waller....

Lamb Chops with Grits and Greens

for two- four people

I like this meal because it is what any busy home-cook wants. It is quick, easy, and impressively delicious.

1 cup Riverview Farm grits
1 large handful chopped or torn kale, collards, chard, or any other green thing you like- from any or all farms that have them
1 bunch chopped scallions, or other herb of your choice
4 cups water, or chicken broth made with River Ridge Farms chicken
Salt and Pepper to taste

1 packet Williams Island Farm lamb chops (there are usually four to a pack- they are so tiny that I like to give one person two apiece)
Salt and Pepper
1/2 cup red wine or dark beer
4-6 cloves garlic, peeled but whole- optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Start the grits first- they should take about twenty minutes. Bring the water to a boil, then whisk grits in gradually. Lower heat to a simmer. Add salt and cook, stirring now and then, til thickly bubbling. Add the greens and stir til wilted. Stir in half the herbs and pepper to taste, and serve topped with remaining half herbs.

Start lamb chops when grits are about 10 minutes from finished. Heat a cast iron skillet til very hot. Sprinkle chops generously with salt and pepper. Sear lamb chops briefly on either side and set aside on a plate. Pour wine or beer into skillet to "deglaze", or take off any bits sticking to the pan and to get the yummy lamb juices up and mingling with the wine or beer. Add the chops back to the skillet, throw in the garlic, and cook in oven for about seven minutes. If they are firm-ish when poked with a brave finger, the chops are done. The katahdin lamb that Williams Island Farm raises is almost impossible to mess up- it seems to be tender and moist even if well-done. But I would recommend medium-rare (which is when the meat is still has a little give when poked, but not too soft).

Serve with warm grits and a fresh lettuce, arugula, spinach, or combination of all, salad.

Recipe- Pork Shoulder

2010-04-28T11:04:00.003-04:00

I really don't eat or cook that much meat. I like it alright, I just never get a hankerin' for it that often. But when I do, the things I like cooking best are the slow-cooking, braising types. I like beef shorts ribs, chuck roasts, and pork shoulders. Pastured and forested pork is so amazingly flavorful by itself. But it also picks up new flavors really well, so it is easy to make a shoulder complex, rich and flavorful without doing much of anything. I also like to braise meats because the longer they cook, the better. I always get so worried about overcooking a dry-roast beef roast or a baked chicken. When something is slow-braised you can throw it in a low oven and know that four hours is even better than two....

It is very very important that the quality of the meat is good. Never try to do this with anything that comes from a grocery store (unless it's Greenlife and it's Sequatchie Cove meat). The Main Street Farmer's Market has two beef vendors and three pork (and one lamb, but that's a different story). My rule for eating meat is that I have to at least have met the farmer who raised the animal, if not the animal itself. I never eat meat outside of that, and wouldn't DREAM of buying anything other than local, grass-fed, happy-lived meats. It would be a waste of time and money, not to mention all the other stuff that I won't mention.

for six people (or less than that, but with leftovers):

1 medium sized pork shoulder- around five pounds- fat intact
2 heads garlic
large handful of herbs- I used oregano and thyme, but anything works
2 dried chilies (fresh work just as well, in the summer when they're in season)
liquid of some kind (I like to use different fruit juices and/or alcohol. This time I used pear juice and mead. Beer, white wine, or cider are also good, as are apricot nectar or pineapple juice - whatever you have)
Salt and pepper

Those are just suggestions.... Really, you can use anything you want, less garlic, more chilies, or maybe some spices.... Whatever you use, it will be good, and don't forget to be generous with it. Sometimes I like to use some canela cinnamon and a couple cloves, more chilies, and more oregano to give it a kind of Mexican flavor.... it all depends on how you feel that day.

-preheat oven to around 350 degrees F

Throw the herbs etc in the bottom of a large dutch oven-style pot. I have a big Le Cruset that I cook just about everything in. A tight lid and heavy pot are all that is important. Put the shoulder(s) in and generously salt and pepper them. Pour liquid over everything. You don't have to cover the meat, it should just come about half-way up. Put lid on your pot and throw it in the oven for at least two and a half hours. Longer is better, but not too long (like not until the liquid has evaporated and the house is burning down). The meat should be very tender, not tough, when you poke it. If it is still tough it will be very dry because the magic hasn't happened yet. With all meat, there is a gray-area in between magics. Either you cook meat quickly til it is barely done, or you cook it forever til it is very done. Even if it is cooked in liquid it will be dry if you try to pull it out too early.... I like to check it every hour or so to see how it is doing. If the liquid has dried up, add more.

If you want to save the braising liquid to pour over the pulled meat, take the meat out of the pot and pour the liquid into a container and put it in the refrigerated for several hours. There will be a LOT of fat on it, and cooling it is the easiest way to get it off; it rises up and hardens and you can just scoop it out. There should still be fat on the shoulder roast, cut it off and do with it what you will. It is important to leave on while cooking because it helps keep the meat moist and tasty. The easiest way to get the meat ready for eating is to pull out all the bones- they should slide right out- and pull the meat with your hands or forks into bite-sized shreds. Serve with or without the liquid with cornbread, grits, rice, or whatever else you happen to love.

The Seasonal Cure For Seasonal Ails

2010-04-20T20:12:00.002-04:00

Everywhere I go I hear people complaining of "their allergies". 'Tis the season for thick yellow pollen. And it's been very thick this year- due to our abnormally dry spring. People are red-eyed and sneezing, cursing the spring weather instead of welcoming it. Of course, this happens every spring and doesn't really have much to do with the dryness. It might be worse this year but it's always THAT-BAD. I have always had the belief that the more exposed people are to seasonal pollen, the less likely they are to be affected by it. "Allergy" has become a misused term in our language, and although I will not explain in depth now why I believe that, I still do believe it.

There are real allergies. Some people are allergic to peanuts, or shellfish, or eggs. Although I think it may be possible that there has been some kind of long-term genetic build-up to these allergies through generations of eating habits I never doubt that they are very,very real. But when I hear people say they are suffering from "seasonal allergies" I just can't help but say:

DRINK NETTLE TEA!
(o yeah, and play outside more)

The last two springs I have worked inside the semi-sterile kitchen of Greenlife. I spent much of my spring time under florescent bulbs. I would go out in my yard after work and plant flowers, pull weeds, and inspect the pollen build up on my car. But I wasn't working constantly out in the air all day, and I must admit that I got scratchy eyes and sneezes and tight sinus-y feelings.

This year is different. I am trying harder to be outside more often. But I am also drinking this Magic Elixir called Wild Nettle Tea. We drink it every day and I seriously have sneezed, oh, maybe six times this spring. Nettles are supposed to be amazing for millions of different things. They are in tons of natural hair and skin products. They are traditionally eaten in season in many countries, like Ireland, England, and those other cool-ish places. You can steam them and eat them as any other green, distill them into a hair tonic, or drink them as an "allergy fighting tea".

The thing is, the tea kind of tastes like pot likker, and wild nettles sting. So you have to be very very careful (use tongs) when transferring them to your tea jar. And I like to add things that make the tea taste better. I have lemon balm and mint growing in my yard, and I use a local (namely Sale Creek Honey) honey as a sweetener. This adds a little Allergy Attack bonus, since local honey is supposed to cure all allergy ale's too.

I have heard from SO many people (health nuts, believers, and non-believers alike) that this is the best, best, best way to combat those "seasonal allergies". Synthetic medicines and pills just don't cut it if you want your body to build up a true, strong immunity. The thing that we sometimes don't think about is the fact that maybe this pollen isn't out to get us, we have just lost the lifestyle and diets needed to work with it. We need to be co-existing with the world we live in, not combating it.

Wild Nettle Tea

1 handful lemon balm-preferably from your yard or your neighbor's- dirt attached is ok and highly sought after, as we might need more dirt in our diets anyway
1/2 handful mint, also from local yard (if you plant mint it will be everywhere forever)
2 tong-fuls wild nettle- available in local woods or at the Main Street Farmer's Market from Alexzanna Farms
Large drizzle of local honey, also available at the Main Street Farmer's Market from Sale Creek Honey

Stuff everything in a large jar (I use a half-gallon). Pour almost-boiling water to fill and let steep about 12 hours. The longer the better. The nettles will create a slightly slimy consistency. I pour half of the cooled tea in a glass and fill the rest with water.

Recipe- Mayonnaise

2010-04-17T20:42:00.002-04:00

I never, ever buy mayonnaise. I don't really use it that often. I use it in deviled eggs or egg salad, and sometimes I get a hankering to use it on a sandwich or two. So when I need it I just make it. I have no idea why it is a terrifying thing to make- I think that legend must have come from people who don't buy good, fresh, truly free range eggs. If you have those eggs then all of your wildest egg dreams are possible. If you don't, well, just don't try to make any "tricky" egg dish or sauce. In fact, just don't use eggs at all. It's not worth it.

1 whole "good egg" from any farmer at Main Street Farmer's Market -room temp
1 egg yolk -room temp
1 teaspoon good mustard (homemade mustard is really super easy to make; I just use my friend Ashley's homemade stuff)
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice (or any kind of acidic liquid will do- like vinegar)
3/4 - 1 cup olive oil OR a mixture of olive oil and vegetable oil of your choice- sunflower is good
nice pinch of salt
1 teaspoon herbs, garlic, or whatever you want to flavor it with (optional)

Place a medium sized bowl on a wet-ish dish towel (this will keep the bowl from spinning obnoxiously around while you try to whisk). Whisk the eggs, mustard, salt, lemon juice, and flavorings together until they are combined. Slowly, slowly add the oil, whisking all the while. If you accidentally add too much, just whisk it in until it is all combined. You never want to see any oil pooling up anywhere. Keep whisking and adding until all of the oil is emulsified into the eggs. If it is not thick enough (it will never be as thick as the "store bought" junk), whisk a bit longer, and add a bit more oil. It will also firm up in the fridge. If you mess up and have scrambled eggs with oil instead you can add another yolk or even a touch of water- adding slowly like you did the oil. But I seriously have never messed it up. Don't be afraid.

Supposedly this can be done in the blender even more easily. I don't have a blender so I couldn't tell you....

When I was at Ballymaloe Cookery School part of our 'semi final exam' was exhibiting the cooking skills we had learned over the past three months. The night before I studiously/anxiously sharpened my filleting and boning knives, worried that I would be requested to fillet a round fish (landlubber that I am I had only filleted about five round fish in my life) or bone a leg of lamb. Lucky for me I ended up having, in a very quiet room and carefully watched by three teachers, to make pie pastry, mayonnaise, and a poached egg. If I can make mayonnaise while being scrutinized then anyone can. I have terrible stage fright.

When I Was a Duck Mom....

2010-04-13T23:28:00.001-04:00

My friend Ashley from William's Island Farm raises ducks. Well, she used to raise them, back in the day when the weather was warm. Her first batch was brought up in a yome on an island with no running water or electricity. If you have ever been a poultry mom you would understand that the lack of those two resources are a little trying for raising young poultry. So for this go-round she recruited me and my trusty help, Mike, to be the parents of twenty young Indian Runner ducklings.

I knew the drill, I've raised chicks out at Sequatchie Cove many a time. You notify the local post office that a very loud and slightly moving cardboard box will be arriving ANY DAY NOW in the post, and to call you when it comes. The post office loves this- after days of sorting Netflix and water bills, young fowl is a welcome and exciting diversion.

Here on Lookout Mountain I was a little wary of informing them about my upcoming package. But Steve, the postman, was well learned in the ways of young birds. A man in Rising Fawn ALWAYS orders chicks, he assured me. You have to dip their beaks in water ASAP, he said, they are ok at first because they have been living off their eggs, but by the time they get to the post office they are hungry and thirsty, they need to be taught where to get water.

I concluded that I was in good hands but woke up every morning for four days, staring at the phone, waiting for the post office to call. When they finally did we ran out the door, coffee-less, and carefully put the peeping box in the back seat. We rushed home and dutifully dipped each teeny beak in water and watched the ducklings as they stumbled around their new home. We had prepared a kiddie pool with pine wood chips, a feeder, a grit plate, and a waterer for the young'uns. The wood chips were covered with the latest Sunday New York Times; carefully picked pages to educate our flock on the latest styles and travel spots. The newspaper was to keep the little birds from confusing the chips as food and choking on them. All that night we heard wee peeps coming from the downstairs bedroom as the ducklings ran circles around their new home under the heat lamp, their flat little feet pattering on the newspaper.

Ducks are NOT chickens and ducks LOVE water. After realizing half of their allotted drinking water was used in splashing their neighbors, we set a little pan in their house so that they could play in it at their will. They took turns leaping in and swimming around, their tiny paddles furiously churning as they peeped and splashed contently. Of course, this play time was limited and there was always a life guard on duty. We didn't want any drowning to happen on our watch.

There was some inspection, but the young ducks soon learned, one at a time, that THIS was the place to be.

And they packed it in, getting the most out of their short allotted "play time".

I am assuming that I now know a little bit about being a parent. Baby ducks poop, play, demand food at very high volume, and sleep like they might be dead.

They don't hold "normal" hours like the rest of us. They eat when they're hungry, drink when they're thirsty, and peep when they feel like it it. Two AM is not the wrong time for a loud and crazy "peep show'.

But everyone grows up and wants to sleep on the roof of their house. Soon, the ducks became bigger and more experimental. One followed the other until they got their roof privileges taken away.

They usually were confined to the kiddie pool full of wood chips, but every now and then we had to change those soggy (due to excess playing) wood chips and they got to play in the bathtub while that happened.
Unfortunatly for them, the whole tub wasn't full of water. They had to be content with the plain-ol'-pool.

A few very special and well behaved duckling were even allowed outside as they grew larger (this takes about a week).

These ducks love to forage. They love collards and kale, lettuce stems and chickweed, clover and grass. After they got over the concern for their fellow ducklings they immediatly took to being out on an open range.

But after three weeks, their cute little bodies morphed into teen-age awkwardness. Their down began to turn to little rough pin-feathers. Their tails that they wag so happily like little duck-dogs were sprouting one-two-three tail feathers. Suddenly their kiddie-pool was no longer the large open circular range that they knew in their youth; they were ready to fly the coop.

Ashley, I left on the William's Island voicemail, their peeps have almost turned to quacks. It's time to take your ducks to pasture.

It was true. In the morning when we went down to greet the angry waterless mob there were some strange croaking murmurings in the crowd. They weren't exactly quacks yet, more like sick bronchitic croaks.

They're monsters, Mike said
.

They're teenagers, I said. Their voices are changing and so are their bodies. They are growing up. This is not the end, it's just the beginning of something else.

They'll never be as cute as they were, but one day they will be sleek and business-like in their new suits of feathers. They will still be the same busy ducks running from food to water, grabbing whatever weed or bug comes their way. And their big green eggs will make the most delicious custards and souffles. I just know it.