Balsamic Sorghum Vinaigrette
Combine equal parts Balsamic vinegar and sorghum with two parts extra virgin olive oil.
Shake until emulsified and serve.
Serving suggestion: Dress a green salad topped with thinly sliced beets and onions
Red Wine Vinaigrette with rosemary and garlic
Combine one part red wine vinegar with two parts extra virgin olive oil.
Add chopped herbs and garlic, if desired. Shake until emulsified and serve.
Serving suggestion: Toss with chopped tomato, cucumber, and onion. Refrigerate for half an hour before serving to let flavors combine.
Creamy and Sweet Lemon Vinaigrette
Combine equal parts lemon juice and sweetener; shake until sweetener dissolves.
Add equal parts of sour scream or yogurt and extra virgin olive oil.
Shake until thoroughly combined and serve. Keep refrigerated.
Serving Suggestion: Dress a mixed greens salad
Purple Maize Farm
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Friday, May 23, 2014
Travelling with greens and using all those stems
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Lettuce, lettuce, and more lettuce. Buttercrunch is really putting on a nice show this spring, and the colors are really starting to pop.
__________________________________________
The greens bunches are getting huge. We're eating them in everything, from scrambled eggs to pasta dishes.
I know a lot of you are traveling this summer. If you're wondering how to use the greens in a car-friendly dish, try making a nut butter salad:
Chop the greens up in fine ribbons, like in the Greens Crash Course. In a blender or food processor, combine raw cashews, a liberal amount of curry powder, healthy drizzle of apple cider vinegar (ACV), lemon juice, and some salt and pepper with enough water to form a thick sauce. Add more cumin if you feel like it. Toss with the chopped greens and let everything meld for an hour.
Other combinations to try:
cooked chickpeas, curry, garlic, onion, ACV, healthy oil (nut free)
peanut butter, soy sauce, ginger, honey or sorghum, ACV, healthy oil
These dishes are fine for a few hours without refrigeration. They make great summer potluck salads, in addition to healthy road food.
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What about all those colorful stems? Don't throw them in the compost bin just yet!
The stems are crunchy and have way more flavor than celery, so you can chop them up and use them anywhere you'd use raw celery:
deviled eggs
tuna, egg, chicken, pasta, potato, etc salad
inside wraps
sprinkled on top of green salads
baked into quiche or a fritatta
delivery vehicle for creamy herb dips
crou d'etat platters
Chopped up stems looks like confetti!
If you like spicy foods, try these Siracha fridge pickles.
Labels:
ACV,
apple cider vinegar,
CSA,
greens,
lettuce,
marinades,
salad dressing,
spring,
stems,
tea bag
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Lovely Lettuce
While popular and familiar, iceburg
lettuce, by itself, makes for a pallid salad. Unless, of course, it's
a wedge salad with blue cheese and bacon dressing garnished with
sliced green onions and cranberries.
Romain and butterhead type lettuces
are far more nutritionally dense than iceburg, which is mostly water.
Lettuce leaf stalks have more fiber than the leaves, where vitamins
and minerals are concentrated.
Lettuce stored as a full head
maintains quality longer than if prewashed and cut. Damaged or cut
leaves release an enzyme that causes the degradation of Vitamin C and
discoloration.
If storing cut leaves, dry thoroughly
with a spinner or by gently tumbling in a clean towel. Store wrapped
in a damp paper or dish towel in a sealed plastic bag or container.
The tight, blanched inner leaves of a
head of Romaine or butterhead lettuce make crunchy, delightful scoops
for egg, tuna, and chicken salad or dips like guacamole and chunky
salsa.
We're used to eating salads as a small
primer to the main dish, but fresh lettuce is so delicious and
beautiful, you really can showcase it as a main dinner event.
A giant bed of lettuce can be the base
of a “taco” salad. Pile on browned ground beef seasoned with
cumin and chili powder, cooked brown rice, chopped green onions,
cilantro, and salsa. If you're feeling indulgent, be generous with
the sour cream and cheese; otherwise trying substituting Greek yogurt
for the sour cream. Crumble some tortilla chips on top and dig in!
Another favorite main dish salad at
our farm is a dish that my mother taught me, and her mother taught
her. Buttercrunch is my favorite to use for this salad, but any fresh
lettuce will do. Mix one part honey or sugar with one part lemon
juice. Toss the lettuce with a generous amount of extra virgin olive
oil and some salt. Pour the sweetened lemon juice over the salad and
server with chopped boiled eggs. I have found bacon to be an
excellent addition to this salad, but then there are few things that
don't taste better with bacon! Served with a thick slice of whole
wheat toast, this sweet and savory salad makes for an excellent light
dinner at the end of a hot day spent planting okra and corn.
Make a vegan-friendly, but still robust
and filling, salad by using chickpeas. I highly recommend buying (and
then cooking) dried chickpeas, as they taste much better and have no
added sodium, but canned will do in a pinch. In a blender, combine
half the chickpeas with some water, a lot of curry powder, generous
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and fresh or powdered garlic.
Process until smooth. Salt to taste. Toss the rest of the chickpeas
in this curry chickpea dressing and pile the combination onto a
mounded plate of lettuce. A ripe avocado makes a great addition to
the dressing or topping the salad.
Whether you're working to improve or
maintain your health, including salads as a major part of a few meals
per week will help you towards your goal. With a little culinary
creativity, there's no way you'll get bored with green salads before
the spring lettuce bolts and makes way for summer tomatoes.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Spring Color
For many people, the stars of the
garden are of course the flashy tomatoes, rambling cucumbers,
towering okra, and dazzling spectrum of flowers, but you don't have
to wait until June for color and taste to come pouring out of your
soil.
Greens are often maligned as boring and bland, perhaps because many people have only ever encountered them out of a can, which is no way to meet any vegetable. The traditional method of cooking a mess of greens is to boil them for hours with pork fat. While sopping up potlickins with homemade cornbread is indeed delightful, greens are very versatile and can be used in a multitude of dishes.
Greens are often maligned as boring and bland, perhaps because many people have only ever encountered them out of a can, which is no way to meet any vegetable. The traditional method of cooking a mess of greens is to boil them for hours with pork fat. While sopping up potlickins with homemade cornbread is indeed delightful, greens are very versatile and can be used in a multitude of dishes.
Turnip greens, mustard greens,
cabbage, and kale are the most commonly encountered greens in the
grocery store. Kale has recently been enjoying celebrity status in
foodie culture—with good reason. High in vitamins and minerals,
kale and the other greens can be an important part of maintaining
good health through healthy eating habits.
Swiss chard, closely related to and
resembling beet greens, has also been featured in many cooking shows
and blogs. The large glossy leaves are tender with a mild flavor. Use
them raw in place of a tortilla in chicken or egg salad wraps. Chard
stalks come in a stunning array of florescent colors. I finely chop
the tender stalks to sprinkle over my deviled eggs or salad like
edible confetti.
Add a nutritional punch to almost any
savory dish by throwing in some chopped greens. From scrambled eggs,
quiche, and fritatta, to chicken, egg, and potato salad, soups, and
stir fry, there is little for dinner or lunch that can't be improved
by adding greens.
Mild greens can be shredded or
julienned and added raw. More pungent greens can be used in small
amounts or cooked lightly to mellow their flavor. A big mess of mixed
greens cooked for 15 minutes in just a little water and coconut oil,
dressed with cider vinegar and a drizzle of honey, seasoned with salt
and pepper, is a fine addition to rice and beans for an easy and
nutritious simple meal.
Add sensational diversity to your bowl
of lettuce and elevate the salad to a work of culinary art. Combine
curly, frilly leaves that hold a dressing well with leaves that have
a big crunchy stalk. Throw in speckled leaves, purple leaves, dark
green spinach and the blanched chartreuse inner leaves of a head of
romaine lettuce, and you'll forget that you're even working with
“greens”. Top off the salad with slices of a white and pink
'Chioggia' beet and a 'Purple Dragon' carrot, and you'll have a
creation worthy of the finest dining establishments.
Cold hardy and easy to grow, greens
will heartily welcome spring to your garden and can even be grown in
pots on a sunny porch. The kale and arugula I planted last week
germinated in less than 24 hours! Sprinkle seeds over soil you've
prepare for a seed bed and cover lightly with soil. We use
lightweight row cover directly on the soil to speed germination. The
plants will push up the row cover as they grow, and it will afford
some protection from pests.
About the time the summer bugs start
having their heyday with your greens, the cucumbers, squash, and
tomatoes will be gearing up. Chard and kale left in the ground
through the summer will rebound when fall's cool-off begins, so you
can get two harvest seasons from one planting.
Wild Garden Seed is a small seed
company that improves and develops varieties for direct-to-consumer
growers, which includes home gardens. Their lettuce varieties 'Joker'
and 'Freedom Mix' are the most stunning lettuces I have encountered.
From 'Purple Peacock Sprouting Broccoli' to 'Scarlet Ohno' turnip,
the color and taste of their varieties are superior to anything
you've ever bought from the grocery store. A few of their varieties
are offered through FedCo Seed Company, as well.
The world of greens is vastly more
expansive than the shelves of Food Lion or Wal-Mart would lead you to
believe. Grown without toxic sprays, harvested fresh, and prepared
lovingly, these leaves can support good health while providing beauty
to be appreciated around the table with family and friends.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Cusp of Spring
These teases of warm weather have
gardeners and bees alike yearning for spring. It's a good time to
reflect on the importance of the present moment. In a few weeks,
we'll all be busy bees with too much to do to waste time wanting for
what is not. Anyway, the daffodils, still hiding their cheerful
yellow faces, are letting us know in no uncertain terms that spring
will be later than it was last year.
This is actually a Snowberry Clearwing Moth |
While the bees brave this cool weather
to forage on blushing red maple buds and tiny purple henbit flowers,
gardeners and farmers are powerless against the urge to awaken tender
plants from their slumber, nestled inside lifeless-looking seeds.
Some need soaking, some require scoring; others can just be scattered
on the soil surface and lightly misted. Some will burst through the
testa (seed coat) after only a day, whereas others will dally for
weeks—which seems endless.
Once the tiny plants start their
journey toward the sun, they need tender, loving care. In a
greenhouse or on your window sill, they must have bright light or
they will be become lanky and weak, to ultimately flop over and
shrivel. But don't let them get too warm or you risk the soil getting
too hot and scorching their tender roots. The growing medium must
retain adequate moisture, but don't over-water, which can cause
damping-off, lanky growth, and mildew.
Seedlings from seeds sown directly in
the garden must fend for themselves from the beginning. Some
lightweight row cover can help them along, but if you cover with
plastic, be sure to remove it on sunny days—even cold sunny
days—otherwise the plants will bake.
Carrots, beets, and other hardy
Viridiplantae babies seem to appreciate row cover directly on the
soil after sowing. The thin air space between the soil surface and
row cover creates a high-humidity buffer that is a little warmer than
the air temperature, preventing soil crusting and encouraging strong
germination. The plants will push the row cover up as they grow, and
the row cover can provide protection from pests looking for a spring
feast.
Intrepid growers already have some
seed potatoes and onion sets out. Some just couldn't resist seeding a
round of root crops and hardy greens, like arugula, lettuce, and
kale. Many are chomping at the bit to start tomatoes. I'm holding off
for another week or so. I definitely heard thunder in February,
which, I've been told, means frost in May. I don't want to end up
with giant, leggy tomato plants by the end of April, a situation
which contributed to a lack-luster tomato harvest on our farm last
year.
If you haven't turned your soil yet,
or even bought your seeds, fret not. You have ample time.
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange is an
independent seed company offering many unique varieties specifically
suited to growing in the humid heat of Southern summers. 'Louisiana
Purple Pod' pole beans are a favorite of mine—productive whether
it's hot and dry or comparatively cool and wet, always a stunning
purple with great crunch and sweet taste. This variety is also
open-pollinated, so it's easy to save your own seeds. Just let some
pods dry on the vine, harvest, clean, and store in a cool, dark, dry
place.
FedCo is another fantastic source for
GM-free seed. With low prices and a staggering inventory, they offer
something for everyone. As a cooperative, they offer seeds from many
independent producers, constantly working to improve their varieties
and to create new varieties specifically for the home garden and
direct-to-consumer growers. A huge proportion of our yearly seed
order comes from FedCo.
For my tomato-obsessed compatriots,
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Company has no comparison. With literally
hundreds of open-pollinated and heirloom tomato varieties of every
color, shape, and taste to peruse, you'll have a hard time putting
down their eye-popping catalog. They also offer a large selection of
unique vegetables, collected from around the world.
The cusp of spring is a time tinged
with reflection, yearning, grand optimism, and colorful seed
catalogs. Surely, this will be a year with just enough, but not too
much rain, no vine borers or imported cabbage worms, immaculate
weedless rows, and no trace of early blight.
Labels:
Baker Creek,
bees,
carrots,
FedCo,
heirlooms,
kale,
seeds,
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange,
spring
Friday, May 31, 2013
Week 4 CSA
Expect greens, greens, and more greens. And the last of the garlic scapes!
If you're like us, you've got more jars of jellies in your pantry than you know what to do with. Try combining the jelly with peanut butter (or cashew or almond butter), add a little water to loosen, apple cider vinegar and lemon to taste, add a couple good squirts of Bragg's amino acids, and a healthy drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in your blender and process it until it's smooth. It makes for a sweet, creamy dressing that will impress your friends and use up those homemade jellies!
You'll also be receiving a head of cabbage from Eddie Ray in Smithville. They're organically grown and a great size for a small family or couple. If you'd like to make kraut, let us know, and we'd be happy to provide you with beautiful cabbage from our farmer friends.
If you're like us, you've got more jars of jellies in your pantry than you know what to do with. Try combining the jelly with peanut butter (or cashew or almond butter), add a little water to loosen, apple cider vinegar and lemon to taste, add a couple good squirts of Bragg's amino acids, and a healthy drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in your blender and process it until it's smooth. It makes for a sweet, creamy dressing that will impress your friends and use up those homemade jellies!
You'll also be receiving a head of cabbage from Eddie Ray in Smithville. They're organically grown and a great size for a small family or couple. If you'd like to make kraut, let us know, and we'd be happy to provide you with beautiful cabbage from our farmer friends.
The season's first cabbages marks kraut
making time! Homemade sauerkraut is nothing like the mushy stuff in a
can from the store. Store-bought kraut has been heated to make it
shelf stable, which completely destroys all the health benefits of
this fermented food.
Fermentation, which makes nutrients
easier to absorb during digestion, occurs when sugars in food are
broken down, resulting in lactic acid, which lowers the pH (raising
the acidity) of food below the growth range of dangerous bacteria,
preserving the food and all its nutrients without refrigeration.
Lactic fermented foods add good
bacteria to your stomach. An entire ecosystem of bacteria inside each
of us is responsible for actually breaking down food we eat into
forms that can be absorbed by our bodies.
Fermented foods help balance your
body's pH. The good bacteria absolutely vital for digestive health
cannot thrive in an acidified environment. A standard Westernized
diet high in animal proteins, processed fats, and sugars leaves our
bodies chronically acidified.
Fermentation can be carried out on
your kitchen counter. All it requires is finely shredding your
cabbage or other vegetables and packing them down with salt in a
ceramic or glass vessel to release the juices, which mix with the
salt to create a brine that covers the vegetables. Cover and let the
vessel sit a few days to a few months, until it acquires the flavor
you desire.
Properly prepared, fermented foods are
as delicious as they are nutritious. Local author, Sandor Katz, is
internationally known for his fermentation skills and knowledge. His
book, Wild Fermentation: the flavor, nutrition, and craft of live-culture food, is
a great introduction to fermentation. It's available at the Liberty Library in the old high school building in Liberty.
Labels:
cabbage,
greens,
salad,
salad dressing,
spring
Friday, May 24, 2013
Week 3 shares
Salads, salads, and stir-fry! TWO heads of lettuce, in addition to the last of the Asian greens, some very spicy mustards bunched with the season's last watercress, leeks, onions, carrots, and GARLIC SCAPES! These succulent treats will probably only be around for another share or two, so be sure to get creative and savor them!
There are lots of recipes available online suggesting creative uses for scapes.
Here's one for Northern Bean and Garlic Scape Dip (and the website I lifted the picture from)
Garlic Scape Pesto
And a collection of recipes
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Today we have a couple gluten-intolerant Wwoofers over, so I made a big bowl of egg salad and served it on top of the "farmer food" lettuce... which is what we call the stuff that's too ugly to put in your shares! It still makes a beautiful salad.
Don't forget to use the ribs from you greens to add a fun crunch to stuff like egg salad.
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This is the first year we've harvested the tops of the bolting chard. I think I'm in love. They're so tender and delicious, and to boot, they cook up really quickly in a stir-fry.
When in doubt, chop it up, throw it in a pan with some rice, try some seasonings like soy, ginger, and garlic or cumin, coriander, and a little curry powder, and you've got yourself a quick, healthy, flavorful meal. Experiment with adding exotic ingredients like coconut milk simmered with lemongrass to keep it exciting!
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You'll find a variety of little edible flowers and herbs. The light purple poofs of small flowers are chive blossoms, the yellow are kale flowers, white flowers are arugula, and the dark purple is sage. Sprinkle them over a big pile of lettuce for a salad prettier than a picture!
Labels:
Asian greens,
CSA,
greens,
lettuce,
salad dressing,
scapes,
spring,
watercress
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