Posts Tagged ‘Hope’s Edge’
Turkey Tracks: Improv Sauteed Cabbage
Turkey Tracks: December 31, 2016
Improv Sautéed Cabbage
I hardly ever use recipes any more.
I collect the good clean food found in one of our co-ops or that comes from my summer CSA or garden and just…cook it.
The other day I had one small cabbage, the size of a large softball, left from the summer CSA, Hope’s Edge. Cabbage keeps really well in a produce drawer. I don’t wrap it.
I had some leftover meatloaf, and it was lunchtime, and I was hungry.
So I put the meatloaf into the oven to warm–takes only about 15 minutes–and started sautéing the cabbage in some of my Wilderness Family Naturals centrifuge extracted, unheated coconut oil. (I order this coconut oil by the case and am always willing to see a jar to someone at cost as it is much cheaper to bulk order.)
I added a hunk of raw butter for added flavor and browning and good fat, some chopped shallots, some Penzey’s spices, local sea salt, and pepper. Penzey’s spices are highly rated by the Weston A. Price Foundation.
It’s looking good!
And it was…
The meatloaf got a little brown on top as someone stopped by to give me something. This one had added grated carrots and a handful of the greens I dried and whirred into tiny green flakes in the food processor last summer. (A recipe for meatloaf is elsewhere on this blog.)
But this lunch was delicious, nourishing, and filling.
Turkey Tracks:
Turkey Tracks: October 14, 2014
“My Salad”
We got a bag of mixed lettuce from our CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) farm, Hope’s Edge, last Friday.
Located just west of me, the farm has had some heavy frosts–though our yo-yo weather continues and today is nearly 70!
So, the lettuce was a welcome treat in our weekly share. This lettuce has…survived.
When one tries to eat within the seasons, lettuce runs out in the fall. I personally switch to lacto-fermented foods, like sauerkraut, when the lettuce runs out. I am so not a fan of the lettuce that gets shipped in here from California in plastic boxes. That lettuce has been gassed and is very old–like about 18 days old. Whatever zip was in it is long gone.
I’ve been savoring my bag of lettuce–knowing that the cukes, the tomatoes, the celery are all nearing the end of their days.
Here’s another poem from Jeanine Gervais, who seems to be in a creative mood these days. She’s eating, likely, what’s left in her garden these days.
My Salad
A Zen Buddhist monk book says
to practice
living
in the moment
say,
“I am washing the dishes
to wash the dishes”
and so I eat my salad
to eat my salad
15 seeds
in tiny halved cherry tomato
raspberry dressing
a pink blanket
covers green leaves
speckled by black pepper polka dots
the white of sliced
radishes
edged
in magenta
a still frame
captured.
By Jeanine H. Gervais
October 11, 2014
Turkey Tracks: My Bowl Runneth Over
Turkey Tracks: June 29, 2014
My Bowl Runneth Over
My strawberries are coming in!
Here’s the first day’s pick–Friday. Something over two quarts. The bowl is large.
These berries are, if I remember right, called “Sparkle” and are renowned for their taste.
The second day was even bigger. I took a bigger bowl out to the garden. Got around three quarts.
Today, Sunday, a smaller pick, but the berries are still large, and the bushes are loaded with developing strawberries that are still green.
I also cut the garlic scapes (delicious!) and will make a soup with them. I made a chicken bone broth over the past two days. And, I picked the heads off of each of the broccoli plants–now they will bush out and grow more heads. Or so I hope.
Our first CSA pickup out at Hope’s Edge was last Friday. We got the loveliest sack full of lettuce, greens, herbs, green onions AND three pounds of wintered-over potatoes–a tasty treat. Get out the duck fat for frying some up!
It’s swimming HOT today. But not so humid. It’s the first solid summer heat we’ve had.
Yeah Summer!
Turkey Tracks: August Dinner
Turkey Tracks: August 25, 2013
August Dinner
On Friday I pick up my produce from my CSA (Community Shared Agriculture). We CSA members are now at the point where we are getting A LOT of food. As I put away the food, I isolated these ingredients for my supper.
I LOVE Romano green beans. They are my favorites. (Well, ok, I like the haricot verts, too. And the Dragon’s Tongue. And the Providers.) After the CSA, I came home and made a fresh bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich–on gluten free bread–Sami’s–and saved the bacon grease. Lard is really good for you, actually. By keeping the grease on the stove from lunch to dinner, I was creating an asset to use later.
That purple veggie is a kolhrabi. They also come in green. They’re good grated or sliced thinly and sautéed. They’re nice, too, diced and thrown into a lighter summer veggie soup.
First, I cut up the eggplant, put it into a colander over a bowl, and salted it.
Next, I made a fresh salad–made by grating the kohlrabi and some of these tender new carrots. I added in some corn I took off the cob a few days ago–I always cook extra corn and reserve the kernels for salads this time of year. Again, that’s creating an asset for later. I shaved in some parsley. And over it all, I poured a mustardy, garlicky vinaigrette. I keep that kind of salad dressing all made out on the counter–where it just gets better and better. It’s another asset. The salad went into the frig to mellow out. (It is good for several days.)
Next, I washed and snapped the Romano beans and put them into a saucepan with some of the bacon grease, water, and some salt. I wanted them “Southern Style”–or cooked until soft.
Then, I cut up all my lovely vegetables and put them into the cast-iron skillet where I fried the bacon. i also added a lump of unrefined coconut oil, which is so, so good for you and very, very stable–unlike frying with olive oil. (I reserve olive oil now mostly for eating on salads.)
What you see in this pan is the following: the eggplant, the fresh onion, yellow squash, zucchini squash, some fava beans i soaked in salted water and peeled (assets, yes, bukt boy are they a lot of work), and some sliced new potatoes. Add some good sea salt.
When the veggies had cooked down a bit, I added the tomato and some basil, some chive, and some mint from the garden. Maybe some tarragon, too. (An herb garden is a major asset.) I don’t know what it is about mint in this kind of dish, but it’s delicious. See the color developing?
It’s your call as to when you think the dish is ready. Here’s how far I took this batch–and the flavor was deep and rich and gorgeous. I shaved in some parsley to finish it.
Meanwhile, I had put chicken thighs into the oven–dressed with butter and lemon slices.
When the chicken was done–I poured myself a glass of orange/cucumber/lemon/rosemary infused water. (You can see I need to make more sauerkraut–which is chock full of enzymes and probiotics. I try to eat a little every day of one of these lacto-fermented veggie concoctions.)
And here’s my plate of beautiful, beautiful summer food:
I should have added one of the lacto-fermented dill pickles i just took out of the crock and refrigerated. The roasted lemon slices carmelize, become sweet, and are delicious.
Best of all, I will have at least two meals to reheat and enjoy–or some fun foods to have for lunch.
And, look, folks. Not a recipe in sight. This kind of cooking is my most favorite. You cook, simply, what is in season because that’s all you need to do. The fresh, wonderful food will do the rest for you.
Turkey Tracks: Pie Pumpkins and Pie
Turkey Tracks: November 13, 2011
Pie Pumpkins and Pie
The best pie pumpkins are long–like a huge salami. They’re dark green that starts to turn orange in patches–they turn orange when you cook them.
I usually get one from our CSA, Hope’s Edge. And I buy a few more, roast them, and freeze the meat–for winter pies. Organic, of course.
Just slice the pumpkins in half, scoop out the seeds, put them on a shallow pan that has some sides–the roasting pumpkins can give off juice–and roast them for at least an hour at 350 degrees. You’ll know when they are done–they’ll smell delicious and will fork easily. Let them cool, scoop out the meat, and freeze or make a pie.
It takes about 2 cups of pumpkin to make a 9 or 10-inch pie. Each of these halves makes about two cups. Convenient, huh?
My favorite recipe comes from NOURISHING TRADITIONS, by Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary Enig.
Start with a flakey pie crust of your choice. (Use butter or really good lard–not any of those fake fats like vegetable lards or margarine.)
2 cups pumpkin
3 eggs–if small, use 4 eggs
3/4 cups rapadura–which is dried cane juice. I also use organic sugar. The rapadura has a stronger taste, but the pumpkin can take it.
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each salt, powdered cloves, nutmeg
grated rind of lemon
1 cup piima cream, or creme fraiche–piima is a cultured cream. You could also use sour cream.
2 tablespoons brandy
Mix everything together well, pour into your pie shell, and bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes. The time will depend on the size of your eggs and the liquid in your pumpkin. I used 3 small eggs, and the pie took more like an hour to puff in the middle. If it takes longer, cover the pie with some parchment paper to prevent burning. (Don’t use aluminum foil! For anything!!)
This pie is as light as a feather and absolutely delicious.
Serve with REAL whipped cream.
Turkey Tracks: Love Lies Bleeding: Hope’s Edge Flowers
Turkey Tracks: September 2, 2011
Love Lies Bleeding: Hope’s Edge Flowers
Today is Friday, and on Friday’s I got out to Hope’s Edge, our CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) farm, to pick up our food. I take a Mason jar and a pair of scissors along with me and cut a bouquet of flowers from the three long rows of flowers Farmer Tom plants for us each year. I can fill the jar with water so the flowers don’t wilt hopelessly on the way home.
How pretty is this view? Not even Hurricane Irene diminished this view.
Each week the selection of flowers changes as different varieties come into their own.
Here’s a bouquet from a few weeks ago. Outrageous, huh?
That amazing dark pink draping “flower” is called Love Lies Bleeding.
Here’s last week’s bouquet:
And, here’s a picture John took on a recent visit that I really like:
Hope’s Edge folks are hard-working folks who raise the most amazing food for us to eat! We are so blessed!
I wish for you a CSA program like Hope’s Edge.
Turkey Tracks: Blueberry Buckle
Turkey Tracks: July 24, 2011
Blueberry Buckle
We’re still making desserts this summer from recipes in RUSTIC FRUIT DESSERTS, Julie Richardson and Cory Schreiber: http://www.amazon.com/Rustic-Fruit-Desserts-Crumbles-Pandowdies/dp/1580089763. (A book suggested by Tara Derr.) We freeze about 20 pounds of ORGANIC wild Maine blueberries every August, which our wonderful CSA, Hope’s Edge, makes available to us. I don’t know if you’ve ever had wild Maine blueberries. They are much smaller than the big round ones most people can get in supermarkets. And, they’re chock full of flavor. Once you’ve had these little guys, the big blueberries seem utterly tasteless. So, be warned!
Now, the “wild” Maine blueberries are anything but wild. Yes, there are some wild blueberries at the edges of our woods. But, commercial wild blueberries are a wild myth! They’re heavily cultivated, actually. And in the harvest year, which is every other year, the commercial (as in NOT organic) are heavily sprayed with all sorts of heinous and poisonous pesticides and herbicides that get into the watershed (atrazine compounds)–in Maine we have a LOT of watershed–just take a look at a map of Maine–and that stay in the ground for up to 175 days, like the organophosphates often used as pesticides. Organophosphates attack an insect’s nervous system. And it remains a mystery to me why people think a compound that attacks nervous systems is NOT going to affect THEIR nervous systems–especially when it hangs around for 175 days on the ground, gets tracked into homes on shoes and clothes, and when it, often, gets INTO the plants and berries themselves and CANNOT be washed out.
Many of these chemicals kill bees and any other insect that gets in the spray, which, in turn, affects the bird population. But, since commercial bees (poor things) are trucked in from across the country to pollinate the crop BEFORE it is sprayed, it’s our LOCAL bees and hives that are at risk. (How dumb is that?) And, many of these chemicals affect a human’s endocrine system (read reproductive ability), cause birth defects, cancer, and so on. (How doubly dumb is that?) The EPA is going to render a new verdict on atrazine in the near future, and it’s already been banned in Europe.
So, if you want to try a “wild” Maine blueberry–for heaven’s sake–buy organic ones. Or come up here and pick some yourself!
Anyway, since I usually make blueberry cobblers, making a blueberry buckle was an experiment. So, far, it’s been voted the favorite dessert and has been repeated once more. (It’s GREAT for breakfast too.) It’s a rich cake, studded with blueberries and lemon, topped with a crunchy crumb topping, and drizzled with an intense lemon glaze when it’s still warm. Here’s a picture:
Here’s a better one!