Two farm tours, a workshop and an extraordinary dinner!

Wanna come over for a tour and some dinner?

Check out: http://www.kawarthaecologicalgrowers.com/blog/

CSA Share #6

From the City (temporarily in a small town)...

woah. I'm easily getting behind here these days. Blogging as proven itself more challenging than I thought it would be. Here's my share from last week:

1 bulb fresh garlic (which didn't make the pic)

1 bunch carrots (which simon ate half of)

1 quart red new potatoes

1 pint ochre

1 bag beet greens and swiss chard

1 bag salad greens

1 small cucumber

1 quart cherry tomatoes

1 orange pepper

1 dozen eggs

2 bags of all purpose flour which made the bread

My recipe this week is a vegetarian vegan red lentil curry with potatoes, ochre and carrots. It's pretty delish. You should probably make it today for dinner.

Red Lentil Curry

• 3 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 cup red lentils, cooked but not too mushy
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 medium new potatoes, washed and cubed
• 3 small ochre, thinly sliced
• 14-oz. can coconut milk
• 2 hot house tomatoes or 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 1 Tbs. curry powder, preferably hot
• 1 tsp tumeric
• salt to taste
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• dollop of yogurt to garnish

Saute onions and garlic. Add curry powder and tumeric. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add carrots, potatoes and ochre and mix well. Allow to cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add tomatoes, coconut milk, bay leaf. Cover and cook until potatoes and carrots are soft (15-20 min).

Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with rice, cilantro and a dollop of yogurt. Best served the next day but really, who can wait that long???

CSA Share #5

From the City (temporarily in a small town)...

My CSA share this week:

Stir fry greens

2 cucumbers

1 quart currants

1 bag basil

1 quart snow peas

1 bunch garlic scapes (sadly the last of the season, on to fresh garlic for us!)

2 heads of lettuce

1 dozen eggs

1 purple pepper (which Simon ate all of before I could even have a bite)

1 large pork shoulder

Small town living is goooooooood. I've been having the best time these past two weeks totally relaxing and spending lots of time with fam, both mine and Simon's. Its these times that you really have to, not to sound like a total cheese or whatever but, cherish. We really do have the best families.

The last two weeks in my life have consisted of:

• swimming at least once every day
• mini road trips to see family
• playing cards in the sun
• big walks/hikes
• waking up on our time (never with an alarm clock because I think that it is one of the worst, most unnatural things to do ever, but we also never sleep past 8 am because we've really started to enjoy the cool early summer mornings)
• gardening
• playing with our nieces and nephews who are wonderful and adorable and exciting and fun and exhausting all at the same time
• cooking
• eating
• baking pies
• picking raspberries
• going to the farmers market down the street
• eating dinner all together
• being part of a family book club/reading in the shade in the hot afternoons

I know right...it totally pays to take summers off, just not monetarily of course.

So I had big big plans to make pulled pork sandwiches. My SIL sent me her amazing recipe, I had the ingredients, I had the ambition, I was ready to go. Then I got side tracked. Simon said, "let's not cook, it's too hot, let's order pizza tonight instead" and so, knowing my weakness for things doughy and cheesy I ditched the idea to make it. Something similar happened the next day. So instead I roasted it and it wasn't nearly as good, still delicious but definitely no pulled pork. So I say, if you buy the pork shoulder, don't get lazy, don't listen to the ramblings of a certain someone, make the sandwich.

Here's the recipe if you prove to be a better person than myself.

Pulled Pork for the Slow Cooker/Crock Pot

1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp. ground mustard
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt and pepper
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
3 pounds(ish) pork shoulder

Mix all ingredients in slow cooker, add pork. Cook on high for 6-8 hours.

I still did manage to eat most of my share last week. We had amazing salads with a basil vinaigrette, sauteed garlic scapes, scrambled eggs with leftover ham and stir fried greens with soy and sesame sauce.

Basil Vinaigrette

1 cup olive oil

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup honey

1 bunch basil

salt and pepper

Puree the whole mess in your blender, bullet, food processor or whatever other fancy tool you have on hand.

"a little of what you fancy does you good"

CSA Share #4

From the City (temporarily in a small town)...

So as you can see, I've been picking up a little of the blog slack lately. Laura is as busy as a bee on the farm working hard and I, let's just say, have a little more time on my hands.

Here's what I got in my share last week:

1 quart strawberries

1 quart cherry tomatoes

1 bunch garlic scapes

2 bunches of beets

1 bunch spring onions

1 dozen eggs

1 bag of salad greens

1 deliciously amazing roll of summer sausage (which we have easily eaten half of)

Our lunch pretty much all week.

Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese

1 large bunch of beets

2-3 cups beet tops washed

2 large spring onions

1/4 cup goat cheese

Olive oil for drizzling

Balsamic vinegar for drizzling

chopped italian parsley (optional, only if you like it)

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a baking dish add beets and a light drizzling of olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

When beets are cool, peel them and set aside.

In a pan, saute finely chopped spring onion. Add beet greens, cover and turn off the heat.

In a bowl, combine beets, greens, parsley, goat cheese, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Mix well and enjoy!

Simon and I ate this salad for the better half of the week and it really is quite delicious.

CSA Share #3

From the City (temporarily in a small town)...

We picked up our last CSA share in Toronto until September and it contained:

1 quart strawberries

1 bunch baby beets plus the tops

1 bunch green onions

1 bunch rhubarb

1 bunch garlic scapes

3 huge white turnips plus the tops

1 bag of salad greens

1 small cucumber

1 loaf of bread

1 dozen eggs

I'm not gonna lie, doing any cooking last weekend was tough. We spent the majority of the weekend cleaning and packing and actually moving which is NEVER and easy task. There is also more stuff than you thought there was, more mess to clean up and barely enough room to move it all. Alas though, we finally made it. No more city for two whole months.

Here is a recipe that I did actually have time to make:

Green Onion and Basil Pesto

1 cup basil leaves ( I raided my herb garden)

1 cup beet tops (or spinach, or swiss chard or whatever green you might have on hand)

5 large green onions
¼ cup walnuts or pine nuts
¼ teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons olive oil

Puree the whole mess.

Make a yummy pizza or pasta or whatever else you fancy.

CSA Share #2

From the City...

We picked up our share two days ago and of course, we were totally totally ecstatic about the goods.

Here's what we got:

1 quart of strawberries (which we ate on the walk home, they were warm, sweet and delicious)

1 quart shelling peas

1 large bunch garlic scapes

1 incredibly beautiful tomato which will be happily made into a sandwich tomorrow

1 bunch of baby beets with the greens

1 head of buttery lettuce

4 Naked Pig sausages made by Kyle Deming, which were incredibly unbelievably more amazing than I thought possible.

1/2 lb organic noodles

After our first week as CSA members, we've stuck pretty well to our guns. Aside from a handful of oranges, avocados, a loaf of bread, milk and some goat cheese, we ate only from our CSA share. Which is pretty great. We're eating super locally and paying a fair price for our food, which makes up feel pretty good.

Here's a recipe from our dinner tonight. It was pretty amazing. It also gave us a chance to use up some of our leftover spinach from our last share.

Green Noodles with Barbecued Naked Pig Sausages

Ingredients:

1/2 lb noodles

1 quart shelling peas, shelled

1 cup chopped garlic scapes

1 cup spinach

1 large onion, chopped

4 good quality sausages, barbecued to perfect and cut into chunks

1 small hunk of ontario goat cheese (optional)

1/2 cup olive oil

sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

Method:

1. In a pot , bring to a boil enough water to cook your noodles in. When noodles are almost finished, add garlic scapes and peas. Drain and set aside.

2. Saute onions in a splash of olive oil. Add spinach. Now add noodles, peas and garlic scapes. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Add sausage and top with goat cheese. Serve and enjoy heaven.

Note: this whole recipe from beginning to end, took us about 20 minutes to prepare. Not bad, not bad at all.

CSA Share Numero Uno

From the City...

I picked up my first CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) box on Friday and this was the core list that every large share was given:

A huge bunch of spinach

Large bunch of spring onions

Bunch of rhubarb

Quart of Fingerling Potatoes

Head of Romaine

Choice of herbs (I chose parsley)

In addition that that core list, I had $15 extra dollars that I could spend on the table. The table being loaded up with fresh bread, jam, jelly, meats, honey, maple syrup and other goodies.

We were in desperate need of eggs and maple syrup so that's how we spent our money.

What I've really enjoyed about this first share is that I've had to work with what I'm given and my recipes have had to reflect only what is in the box that given week. Simon and I are making a real effort to only eat what the box provides, minus some avocados and oranges of course.

So here's what I've cooked up so far.

Scrambled eggs with green onions, spinach and ontario goat cheese.

Roasted fingerling potatoes (smothered in Ketchup a la Simon), grass fed organic steak from Kawartha Ecological Growers, spinach and romaine salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

Homemade Falafels with Yogurt (with minced garlic)

Recipe:

4 cups cooked chickpeas ( 2 15 oz cans)

4 medium cloves garlic

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp salt

2 green onions (4-5 if they are smaller, like I said, mine were quite large)

1/4 cup parsley

1/3 cup water

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/3 cup flour

oil for frying (I used coconut and it turned out pretty well)

1. Rinse chickpeas and drain well.

2. Combine all ingredients except flour, in a food processor and process until you have a uniform batter

3. Add flour and stir until thoroughly combined.

4. Heat a heavy skillet and add about 3 tbsp of oil. When it's hot enough to sizzle, drop tablespoons of of batter onto pan, flattening each slightly. Saute for about 10 minutes on each side, until golden and crisp.

5. Serve with pita and yogurt.

....I wonder what goodies I'm gonna get this week...