Worth the Effort!

While we were on vacation in Oregon, we drove past numerous farms and were really excited about everything we saw. We finally decided to stop just outside of Portland at a pick-your-own fruit place, Hoffman Farms Store, and had the opportunity to pick both strawberries and two kinds of raspberries. I've never picked any of these fruits before, so it was a lot of fun!

Here are some photos so you can get a sense of the experience - I definitely recommend picking your own produce if you ever get the chance. It's a great way to spend a few hours... and besides, you get to eat the fruits of your labor. Literally!

Strawberries

Raspberries

Golden Raspberries


All done!

Neither of us had tasted golden raspberries before, but now I'll definitely seek them out. They're delicious, a little more sweet and less tart than regular raspberries. Don't just take my word for it though, try them for yourself!

PS - We also bought Rainier cherries several times over the course of our trip. They are SO good - I wish we could have brought some home with us!

Read more...

This Week's Share - 7/28/10

I think this is the most varied and colorful produce we've gotten yet from the CSA! We're very excited to make some great food with these items...

Green Beans


Green Pepper

Rainbow Carrots

Red Cabbage and Scallions

Summer Squash/Zucchini

Thyme

Tomatoes

This week, J swapped out the lettuce for a 2nd head of red cabbage so we could each have one. They took a zucchini, while I asked him to get us a yellow squash to mix things up...

Read more...

2 More R & J Meals

Here are some photos from dinners that R and J made recently!

Steak tips; sesame beet greens; roasted potatoes and kohlrabi:

Steak tips; corn risotto; salad with homemade tahini vinaigrette:

Read more...

Kale

We actually haven't had any kale yet this year (the one time that there was some in the share R and J had taken it), but I had saved a few recipes to try using kale. I'm hoping we get another shot at it, but in the meantime, I wanted you to at least have the recipes...

• Spicy Parmesan Green Beans and Kale (Giada De Laurentiis)
• Indian-Spiced Kale and Chickpeas (Eating Well)
• Wine-Steeped Greens (Rachael Ray)

Kale Chips (Red Fire Farm)

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 lb kale, chopped
- Olive oil, salt, pepper

PREPARATION:

- Preheat oven to 400˚
- Toss kale with olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Spread out on a baking sheet and bake, turning every 5 minutes until brown and crispy.

Kale should be dry and able to be eaten by hand like chips!

Raw Kale, Squash and Turnip Salad (Red Fire Farm)

INGREDIENTS:

- 2 med zucchini or summer squash
- 1 bunch kale, chopped
- 2 med. Hakurei turnips, julienned
- 2 pearl onions, thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup cider vinegar
- 3 Tbs. dill
- 1 Tbs. Maple syrup
- salt

PREPARATION:

Slice the squash lengthwise with a peeler and place the ribbons in a bowl. Toss with turnips, salt and let sit and wilt while preparing the kale. Salt the chopped kale and massage for 5-10 minutes until tender. Add to the kale and toss with remaining ingredients. Let marinate for an hour, stirring occasionally to coat the veggies with the vinegar. Add salt before serving if needed.

Read more...

What to Do with Mr. Zucchini?

We didn't end up using the zucchini from last week, so we now have 1 large zucchini and 2 smaller ones. I'm trying to decide what to make with them, and I'm leaning towards some sort of loaf bread.

As I've mentioned in the past, I LOVE to bake. I made a birthday cake for Dan's birthday last week (see the photo below), and it was so nice to be able to make something homemade again. Most of my baking supplies are still packed away from our move, but this will give me an opportunity to get them out!


Here are a few zucchini ideas I'm considering:

- Zucchini Blueberry Muffins
- Zucchini Cornbread
- Zucchini-Parmesan Loaf
- Yogurt Zucchini Bread with Walnuts
- Zucchini-Nut Bread
- Zucchini Orange Bread

- Two-Colored Squash Loaf Cake (I'll have to wait and see if we get any yellow squash tomorrow for this one)

My mom's friend used to make this amazing chocolate cake with zucchini in it, I'll see if I can get the recipe...

Read more...

Playing Catch-up

Sorry for the lack of posts lately - we had central air conditioning installed (thank goodness!) and then I was "under the weather" for a few days, so unfortunately we haven't been doing too much cooking.

We were able to use much of what we've gotten from the CSA to make fresh salads, and we made pizza with Red Fire Farm tomato and our own basil, as well as fresh mozzarella and garlic olive oil. It was delicious, but not all that photogenic - we're still getting the hang of making homemade pizza that looks as good as it tastes!

Tonight we made stir-fry (for a refresher on our typical recipe, click here). Today's version included brown rice, onion stalks (the green part), carrots, red and orange peppers, celery, tofu and edamame. It was delicious, as usual!


We had the sweet corn from the CSA the other night as a side dish, it was very tasty - what a great treat, considering that I don't usually get to eat good corn this early in the summertime.

I'll try to post some more soon...

Read more...

Summer Cookbook Ideas

I recently heard a story on NPR about some new cookbooks that are great for summer cooking - I'm excited to try out a few of them. Have you heard of any of these? I've actually already mentioned a few of them on the blog, but here are some others that sounded good to me:

• Melissa's Everyday Cooking with Organic Produce
• Farmer's Market Desserts
• The Vegetarian Option

Read more...

This Week's Share - 7/21/10

We were very excited about this week's share, because there were a few new items! I even took some photos... (If you notice a difference in my photos this week, it's because my camera broke and I've been using Dan's - I think the color and saturation are different on his camera and I also don't know how to work it quite as well as my own!)

Here is what this week's share included:

• Basil
  
• Beet Greens
• Carrots
• Ailsa Craig Sweet Onions

• Red Potatoes
• Garlic*
• Lettuce
• Sweet Corn

• Swiss Chard

• Tomato
• Zucchini

* A new feature of the CSA pick-up this week was a "swap box" where you could leave an item you didn't want and exchange it for something that another member didn't want. J left behind the garlic because it was pretty sad-looking, and he took an extra amount of Swiss chard. Works for me - I love Swiss chard!

Read more...

Magazine Suggestion

Those of you who really know me are aware of my (small) obsession with magazines. I can't really explain why I love reading them so much, but I currently have a giant stack waiting for me since we've been so busy lately.

One magazine that I've discovered in different areas of the country that seems particularly relevant to this blog is Edible Communities. Published 4 times a year (with the seasons!), different versions are about specific cities or regions and the articles highlight things that would interest locavores - including local producers, farms, up-and-coming restaurants, shops, etc. There's always at least a few recipes in there as well. If you click here, you can see the most recent issue of Edible Boston in digital format. I didn't realize that it's free to read them online, I may now have to scroll through a few other regions as well!

My parents brought me several copies of Edible White Mountains which they got during their recent farm stay experience and I saw Edible Portland and Edible Seattle when we were away.

Other locations of Edible magazine that might interest some of you (or at least are interesting to me!):

• Edible Brooklyn
• Edible Buffalo
• Edible Cape Cod
• Edible Chicago
• Edible Columbus
• Edible Finger Lakes
• Edible Manhattan
• Edible Ohio Valley
• Edible Philly

Read more...

This Week's Share - 7/14/10

Sorry that I don't have any photos to show you this week, but here's what was in the share:

• Ailsa Craig Sweet Onions
• Carrots
• Cilantro
• Fennel
• Lettuce (We took all of the lettuce)
• Scallions
• Tomato
• Zucchini
• Radicchio (R&J took it this week)

I never specifically said this, but our friend N took our half of last week's share since we were out of town. I'm not sure exactly what was in it, which is why you won't see Week 5 listed anywhere...

Read more...

Getting More Out of Your Herbs

I just read 2 great online articles about herbs - how to properly dry and store them for use this winter (including tips about which herbs are better to air dry, and which you should freeze) and how to clone herbs so that you can increase your garden. I want to try both of these ideas!

Our herbs have gotten huge - I was worried that they would be dead when we got home from vacation because of how hot it was last week here in Boston, but they seem to be doing fine. Can't wait to get the window-box mounted, it's still sitting on our side porch from when we moved into the house... I'll post some photos once it's up there.

Read more...

Specialty Ice Creams

I'm watching an episode of Foodography on the Cooking Channel which is all about ice cream! I'm learning about all different specialty ice cream makers who are using local ingredients and/or making small-batch ice creams. I would love to learn more about these producers:

• Laloo's Goat Milk Ice Cream
• Van Leeuwen Artisanal Ice Cream Truck
• Milk Made Ice Cream (hand-delivered!)

Read more...

No Cucumbers For You!

I thought we were going to get cukes this week, so I found a bunch of recipes online that I wanted to try. Unfortunately we didn't get any, so I'll have to try them in the future (or I guess I could just buy some at the grocery store....). Tell me what you think!

Cold Cucumber Soup (Red Fire Farm)

INGREDIENTS:

- 5-6 cucumbers (peel if desired)
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 Tbs. chopped dill
- 1 tsp salt
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp minced mint
- 1 Tbs vinegar
- black pepper to taste

PREPARATION:

Place all but one cucumber in the blender and process until smooth. Chop remaining cucumber and add. Chill.

Other ideas:

• Cucumber-Mint Ice Cream
• Cucumber-Avocado Salsa
• Cucumber Chips with Zippy Dill Dip
• Chilled Cucumber Soup with Yogurt and Fresh Mint
• Sweet Corn and Cucumber Salad with Goat Cheese
• Tomato, Melon and Cucumber Salad
• Pineapple-Cucumber Gazpacho

Read more...

Buy Local Chocolate!

I just read about a local Boston chocolatier, Taza, that is now struggling because of flash flooding this past weekend at their new factory - luckily all of their chocolate and goodies survived, but their company's offices are ruined. They're selling off the stock they currently have in the hopes of raising capital to rebuild. If you have a few dollars to spare and want to help out a great local business, check out this link (even if you don't want chocolate, they're also selling t-shirts).

While we're on the subject of chocolate, we discovered Theo Chocolate on our vacation. A great Seattle chocolatier, this is how they describe themselves on their website: As the first and only organic and Fair Trade chocolate factory in the country, all of our ingredients are carefully screened to ensure they meet our standards for social and environmental responsibility. We visited their store in Fremont, WA this past Sunday, and really enjoyed trying a lot of different free samples! I had been hoping to take a tour of their factory, but they were booked up until the middle of this week.

My favorite flavors were Mint Dark Chocolate, Jane Goodall 70% Dark Chocolate (yes, that Jane Goodall - they have a partnership), and Coffee Dark Chocolate. (Those of you who know me and my dislike of dark chocolate must be laughing right about now, but it's true - I really enjoyed them!)


Oh, and I love their motto: "Theo Chocolate - Because Chocolate Grows on Trees."

PS - You can also buy their chocolate at a bunch of specialty stores, including PCC Natural Markets. A Seattle grocery store chain that is what I would imagine Whole Foods was when it was just a local store (or City Market/Onion River Co-Op in Burlington, VT), Dan and I had a lot of fun wandering around the PCC Market in Fremont. Definitely check one out if you're in the Seattle area - they have TONS of bulk food products and lots of local stuff.

Read more...

Farm Stay

I'm very excited to introduce my guest bloggers for the day - my parents! I hope you enjoy their post about a recent farm experience they had. I'm actually a bit jealous - sounds like their trip was a lot of fun. Have you ever done anything like this? I'd love to hear about it in the comments section...

***********

Shari was kind enough to hand over the keyboard to her Mom and Dad, thereby giving us a chance to post our very first blog entry. Our subject for today is a brief farm-oriented vacation we took last month. A few weeks earlier, we had driven across the heartland of New York State on the way back from our niece’s Cornell graduation in Ithaca. As we passed our millionth beautiful farm, Shari’s younger sister, our 20-year-old college student daughter, R, expressed a deep regret that she had not had a real chance to see farm life close up. In point of fact, R, who was born an animal lover, had begged all her life (unsuccessfully) for a furry pet. Since we had never fulfilled her pet dream, we were determined to at least find a way to give her a farm experience before she started her summer job a couple of weeks later.

A few Google searches unearthed a variety of Agritourism and Farm Stay websites that had links to B&Bs that combined comfortable accommodations with some sort of farm experience. We chose the Inn at Valley Farms B&B in Walpole, NH and stayed very comfortably in the Garden Suite in the main farm house. The farm was in a beautiful section of Southwestern New Hampshire. One of our first sights was of our very friendly hostess, Jackie, working with her daughters in her vegetable garden.

During our time at the farm, we enjoyed delicious breakfasts made with fresh, local products, including eggs from their own chickens. Without being excessively preachy or pushy, Jackie explained her family's philosophy of farming which included treating the animals humanely and using sustainable techniques such as allowing the chickens to graze naturally on rotating areas of the farm in uncrowded conditions. She told us that their thinking is very much guided by Michael Pollan. Jackie also lent us a DVD of Food, Inc, which we watched in the evening. I must say that our eyes were opened on some of the truly awful practices that food producers use to increase volume and cut cost.

Probably the highlight of our stay was the more than 2 hour detailed tour that Jackie gave us of all aspects of the large farm, from her garden to the chickens, turkeys, pigs, goats, and cattle that live peacefully in that truly beautiful corner of New England. R was overwhelmed by it all (and so were we), not the least of which was having the opportunity to remove a warm egg from under a chicken that had just laid it!

Some of our best vacations are those that have a consistent thread that weaves through our various experiences. This three day trip was no exception and that was certainly by intention. During our time at the farm and on the way to and from there, we took the opportunity to visit several other food and animal-oriented venues that really rounded out the experience, including:

- Retreat Farm in Brattleboro, VT, where we hand-fed hay to a variety of animals and where we shot a rather odd video.

- Sweet Maple Alpacas in Putney, VT, where we spent a fascinating hour with a very patient alpaca farmer learning all about these peaceful and amazing animals.


- Friendly Farm, in Dublin, NH, where we had taken R as a 2-year-old and where she got as much of a thrill as a 20-year-old bottle feeding a baby goat.

- Grafton Village Cheese Company in Brattleboro and Grafton, VT, where we witnessed cheese being made, sampled a bunch, and left with several bars of Cheddar.

While I can’t say we were transformed, we were certainly affected by our experiences. We are trying to buy more fruits and vegetables locally which, of course, has become easier with the proliferation of farmer’s markets. I can tell you that I have not since purchased eggs in a plastic container – one of Jackie’s pet peeves. And I think I can also say for certain that R’s wish was more than fulfilled.

Read more...

Do Your Best to FLOSS!

While we were on our trip, I read about the idea of FLOSS - Fresh Local Organic Seasonable and Sustainable food. It sounds like such a great way of ensuring that your food is both good for you and good for the environment.

I've had a bit of trouble locating some information for you online about this movement, but here's one example (click on "themes"). I'm hoping that you get the idea. We ate at several restaurants that pride themselves on using local and/or organic products, and I'll be sure to post about them (and the rest of our trip!) in the next few days.

PS - I bet you thought this post was going to be about something else. That kind of floss is important too!

Read more...

Ingredients

Has anyone heard about this documentary, Ingredients? I want to see it - it sounds cool!

It's all about the local food movement, and apparently a lot of the people featured in it are from Oregon. I actually discovered it when I was planning for our trip, but I haven't been able to locate a copy of the film...

Read more...

Fried Eggs and Greens

I'm sorry that I don't have time to post a real recipe tonight, but we're leaving for the airport at 5 am, and I have to finish packing!

Tonight's dinner was AMAZING, and we'll definitely be making it again. I'll post a recipe then (although Dan made it on the fly, so hopefully we'll be able to re-create it).

Here's a photo:

Ingredients:

- Olive oil
- Greens from pearl onions (basically scallions)
- Spinach
- Beet greens
- Eggs
- Parmesan cheese

We ate it with bread (I made mine into an open-faced sandwich) and put a little balsamic vinegar on top for extra flavor. So good!

It was loosely based on a recipe I saw recently (possibly from Martha Stewart?), which I will find for you when I have more time. Sorry! Have a great week... will write more when we get back!

Read more...

Citrus Fish and Beet Salad

Tonight's dinner included "mystery" fish and the beet salad I posted about yesterday. I'll get to the details in a minute, but first, an explanation about the "mystery..."

So I'm not sure if we just ate tilapia or flounder, but it was an error on the part of the clerk at the fish store today. Or possibly that the fish was mislabeled? I asked for tilapia, and then decided that the flounder looked better. So I told her that I wanted flounder instead, but she reached for (what I thought was) the tilapia. I said, "I actually wanted that one" and pointed to what I thought was flounder. She said that was the tilapia, and although I showed her that the signs said the opposite of what she gave me, she charged me the price for the tilapia (which was lower than the flounder). The woman in line behind me was laughing at the entire exchange! Regardless, I made some sort of white fish tonight as a main dish to eat along with our beet salad.

Now, back to dinner...

First of all, I was excited because it was the first time that I cooked fish myself! (yes, I know, some of you are probably cringing at this statement, but Dan usually does all of the prep involving raw things. EW. Tonight he was doing yard-work though, so it was all me. YAY!)

To season the fish, I used fresh orange and lime juice, garlic, salt, pepper and fresh cilantro. I also left the squeezed orange and lime in the pan. Somehow not that much of the flavor actually came through in the cooked fish (although Dan disagrees with me, he enjoyed the fish more than I did). I also made a side salad using red lettuce from the CSA, almonds, orange, and some of the leftover dressing from last night's salad.

We expected the beet salad to have a lot more garlic and lime flavor than it did. I think next time I'd use a lot more dressing, or perhaps not leave it overnight before we eat it. The cucumbers actually soaked up more of the flavor than anything else. Hmm...

As you can probably guess, we were both kind of disappointed with tonight's meal. I guess you win some and you lose some, right?

At least it all looks pretty!

My rating: 6.5/10
Dan's rating: 7/10

PS - For those of you who are curious, I'm not sure that I like beets anymore than I did before. I did like the striped beets better than the regular ones, but I still don't think I'd choose them over something else. Again, Dan disagreed with me - he really likes them!

Read more...

Reducing Waste

I'm going to be taking a short hiatus from the blog in a few days, as we're going on vacation to the Pacific Northwest. We've been planning this trip for almost a year, and I'm so excited to get away! I have a feeling that we'll be eating a lot of sustainable and locally grown food in Portland and Seattle, as they seem to be up-and-coming food cities with lots of great environmentally-focused chefs. I'll be sure to take lots of photos to share with you when we get back!

As I sit here dreaming about everything we're going to do, I can't help but wonder how to use up all of the veggies in my fridge before we head out of town. Since I'm guessing it's not going to be possible, I've been contemplating ways to save the produce for later use. I would love to can them, but I don't yet have the supplies to do so (I'm hoping to spend some time later this summer experimenting with it, but I don't think that now is the time).

I have been able to successfully freeze herbs in the past, so I think I may try that with the herbs we have left (dill, cilantro, and parsley). It's actually really simple - wash and cut the herbs, and then place them in ice cube trays. Fill the rest of the tray with water (or oil, or any other cooking liquid, i.e. wine!) and freeze. Then when you need some for a recipe, just defrost or add directly to your pan. It helps if you measure a specific amount into each ice cube tray, so that you know how much is in there when you need it later for a recipe. (as a side note, I also do this with leftover coffee, because then I can make iced coffee and not have to worry about it getting watered down when the ice melts!).

But I was wondering if it's possible to freeze other veggies, and I've discovered that it is! This website is a great resource for how to freeze specific types of produce.

I also think I'm going to make pickles out of the cucumbers we got from this week's harvest. My mother-in-law makes great refrigerator pickles, here's her recipe (I may even try to use fresh dill in them, although I've never done that before):

Pickled Cucumbers

INGREDIENTS:

- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup vinegar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp. celery seed
- 1/2 tsp. dill weed
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed

PREPARATION:

1. Combine ingredients in a jar.

2. Slice 2 cucumbers and add to mixture.

3. Marinate in refrigerator. Best if at least 6 hours - 12 hours.

Any ideas on other ways to preserve our veggies if we can't use them right away?

Read more...

Roasted Squash Salad

Based on a Google search I just did, (and the help of the University of Illinois Extension) I think that the summer squash varieties I got at the CSA pick-up were Goldbar Squash (the yellow one) and either Vegetable Marrow White Bush Zucchini or Lebanese White Bush Zucchini (the green one). Does anyone know about squash varieties? (I guess I'll have to do a post about squash soon.)

Regardless of what type of summer squash they were, they were very tasty! This is what we had for dinner last night:

Roasted Squash Salad (Adapted from Eatomaniac)

INGREDIENTS:

- 2 summer squash
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup Craisins
- 1/4 cup feta cheese

- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon honey

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Cut the squash into 3/4-1 inch wedges, coat them with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and place them in a baking tray.


3. Place the prepared squash and apples in the oven for about 20-30 minutes until they are soft. Once done, set aside and let them cool to room temperature.

4. Combine remaining olive oil with lemon juice, balsamic vinegar (I used our 12-year aged balsamic!) and honey.

4. Assemble salad ingredients and top with dressing. Enjoy!


(The original recipe called for the addition of roasted green apples, but we didn't have any apples. I added honey to the dressing to make up for some of the sweetness that was missing, and Craisins because I like them!)

I also discovered a new website, Food52, that has some great recipes and tips. They're doing a contest for most of the summer featuring a different ingredient each week. The winner gets a Whole Food gift card! This week's challenge is actually summer squashes - check out some of the recipes or submit your own here.

PS: The spinach also came from the CSA...

Read more...