Recipes
Here in the Farm Kitchen, things are done a bit differently. Like using up what you have. Making it pretty. Including those you love. You know, Different.
-
Getting the Winter Greens in, Putting a Garden to Bed, and a Good BLT
Today the sun is shining brightly down, taking the sting off the chill. The greenhouse soaks up all that sun and makes it feel like July. Which is good, since that’s where I spent most of the day, planting the Winter greens. There will be spinach and arugula, beet greens and kale, wheatgrass and the lettuces. Some will be for the animals (they like a nice green treat in Winter, too), but most will be for us. The culinary/medicinal herb garden was officially put to bed today, with the last row being tucked in with leaves, then coated with mulch (that helps to keep all those leaves from blowing right…
-
Honey Wheat Bread
There are a few raspberries still clinging to life, and because I am who I am, I have to go out each and every morning and gather what I can. Today’s gleanings measured in at just under one cup–just enough to nibble on with my breakfast. For lunch there’s a bit more gnocchi in the freezer–leftover from last Friday’s exploits. Maybe I’ll have them, tossed in a pan with some brown butter and sage. These are all fringe things, of course, to what is really going on, and what is really going on is that I’m making a loaf (or two, we’ll so how this dough comes out) of honey…
-
Raspberry Breakfast Bars and Rendering Lard
There are fourteen pint jars of raspberry jam staring at me in the basement. Fourteen jars. That’s a lot of jam (and that’s not even mentioning the peach jam, the grape jam, the plum jam, and the rosehip jam). It looks at me, wondering what it will be. And I tell them most will slathered on toast or biscuits over the next several months. Some will be Christmas gifts. But some will be used today. In a very simple, very delicious breakfast bar. And this is how it is to be done: One half cup good butter (or lard, or coconut oil) is set in a sauce pan to melt…
-
Beans, Moles, and Bayberries
In the plot of earth that circles the fence that circles the garden, there is planted a double row of corn and a single row of beans. Now. Our garden is rather large, which left a rather large amount of beans to gather, eat, and can. And when we could gather, eat, and can no more, I made an executive decision to let the beans go to seed and use that seed for next-years-beans and to help feed the chickens and pigs this Winter. Well. Those beans did not give up, let me tell you. Finally, I went out this morning and we did battle. I pulled and picked and…
-
Roasted Rhubarb and Raspberry Jam
The frost predicted a little over a week ago came last night, taking with it the raspberries. I was up before the sun getting the last of them. The Rhubarb, also, saw its last. These I gathered and trimmed and placed in a roaster, squeezing an orange over all and coating them with more than a little sugar. This was placed in the top oven rack, with the daily pumpkins just beneath. That rhubarb will make a nice crumble sometime this Winter. Or a crisp. I guess I will decide when the times comes. For now, it is safely roasting and bubbling away. The raspberries I’ve gathered all late Summer/early…
-
Pickled Beets and Sourdough Bread
October has begun and with it, the cleaning out of the garden. The last of the Summer beets were dug up, their tops and stems set in the dehydrator for Winter chicken feed, but the bulbs, the heart of the beet, was trimmed of all but it’s roots and an inch or so of it’s top, washed, and set in a pot of boiling water for twenty minutes or so. Once they were knife tender, they were strained and left to cool and there they sit, waiting for me to do something with them. But I decided to write instead. Who wants to peel a hot beet? No. They can…
-
The Last of the Apples and Two Pumpkins
The apples have all given up early this year, with most having been made into sauces and pies. There are a few stragglers left, as seen above. Those lost lonely souls, too small to be peeled and sliced, were overlooked all last week as a late-in-the-day-snack. BUT, this is a Farm and on a Farm, third and (almost) foremost, there is no waste. So. They will have to be made into something. Thank you for the suggestion, but the dried apple bucket is filled to the brim. And the Farmer has had his share of pies (more than his share, if you ask me!) Hmmm…how about a dumpling? That would…
-
Garden Patties
The Zucchini is up to it’s old shenanigans again—singing away with all it’s might. Just yesterday I picked three. Off one plant. And what does one do with so much zucchini? I asked myself as I lugged it into the kitchen. I looked at it and it looked back at me. Daring me, really, to make anything, ANYTHING other than another loaf of bread. So, that is just what I did. Zucchini is a bit moist, so after it was shredded it was set to rest a bit in a very salty brine (a cup of water to a quarter cup of salt). While three zucchinis worth (about three cups)…
-
The Spring Thaw–Repurposing Last Season’s Freezer Fruit
Right now in our freezer we have twenty three bags filled to the brim with berries (black, red, and mull), roasted tomatoes and pumpkins, as well as more than a few sliced and pitted plums. Now, the off-ic-ial rules clearly state that such bags need to be used up or discarded, but that is not the way here on the Farm. No. We use what we grow. And how we do it is this: The berries themselves may be thawed and used immediately in any which way, and the way in which I have chosen (this year*) is by canning them in a simple syrup. That way they may be…
-
Make Your Own Laundry Soap
Here at the Farm, we have layers of plans, for many things. We have buckets of flour. We have an electric mill and wheat seed (if the flour runs out) and we have a hand-crank mill (if the flour and the electric run out). Are we planning on that happening? No. But if it does, God willing, we’ll still be enjoying our daily bread. But we’re not talking bread today. But something just as important: Cleanliness. Right now, laundry soap is still sitting there nice and pretty on all the grocery store shelves. We can buy however much we want. And sometimes we do. Let’s face it, it’s easy, works…
