Real Fruit. Real Food. Real Fresh.

In the States, we look in the grocery store bins and rarely see a blemish on our produce. Its big and shiny and perfect. If I had to eat out of my garden that way, quite a few of my veggies and fruits would end up in a stew or the compost.

We just came back from two weeks in Germany and France (business and pleasure), and spent a lot of our travels using public transportation. Something I really noticed in our travels were the fresh fruit stands. Not just in the villages or outside, but inside the subway tunnels.

Paris subway fruit stand

And even more, we didn't notice them visually, but by aroma. The wonderful, ripe fruit smell just woke you right up. And it happened again and again.  The fruit was colorful, all sizes and so aromatic, it just made you remember what fruit was supposed to taste like. Wonderful and flavorful.

People walked away with a bag of cherries or a single peach in a napkin, and later you would see people wiping their chins of the juice as they rode on the trains.

I now have a little eight foot square raised bed that we put together in June, and I have a few herbs and veggies coming along, but I need to seek out the good farm stands, and even a favorite grocery store for my shopping. I see that some of the stores are associated with local farms for certain produce, so I will give them a look. Coming from just a few miles away, the food should come in riper and fresher, so we can hope for flavor.

One of the stores wraps up what they consider overripe produce, and sells it at a huge discount. I think its just right and I often see no damage. They are soft and ready to cook.

Actually, one of my favorite pasta "sauces" is more of a veggie stew. I take the blemished odds and ends out of the garden(or now from the discount cart) that won't slice or keep very well because of a crack or stink bug blemish and chop or slice it up into a meaty size.  For me, and my daughter, the texture makes it more of a meal, so while the water comes to a boil and then cooks the pasta, I quickly sauté the onions, garlic and peppers, and then just drop the chunks of ripe tomato on top to simmer and break down till the pasta is ready. There is still a lot of chew and texture to the stew/sauce, and is very satisfying. Of course, we add our favorite herbs and spices, and sometimes we take a small pan to toast a few pine nuts for more "meat". Grate a little cheese. Done.

The fun is in the challenge of the time you have while the pasta cooks and what's available in your garden and pantry. Its summer. Give it a shot. In a half hour you'll be sitting at the table and thinking of the next variation on this theme. Different pasta. Something out of the freezer? I've never made it the same way twice and its always great and satisfying.  And real and fresh!

Bon Appetit!

PS: Send me some new combinations/additions you've tried.

Coloring Brown Eggs

This is the season that a person usually wants a white egg shell, but today I found the solution to coloring all eggs. Dinosaur Eggs at Our Best Bites.

I've been following this blog a few months now and I hope you enjoy it too.Remember though, do NOT use fresh eggs for hard boiling unless you want a peeling mess. Also, I think the fresh membrane might make this project less successful.

Start aging those eggs. Two weeks to go for Easter.

Flambe

This is what happens when you have too many thing on your mind.My nice garlic bread went in for a little bit more browning, and as we were eating, Dave asked if I was still cooking something. The smoke was filling the kitchen, and when I opened the oven, my bread was in flames. I threw the sheet pan into the snow, and the bread kept burning long enough for me to find my camera and take these shots, stop the smoke detector from shrieking, and go back out to take another look. Still going.Well done.

Oven Dried Tomatoes - Or - How to Stay Warm When The Temperature Cools!

I love the intense flavor in roasted vegetables, and sun dried tomatoes are right up there in taste. Its also a great way to store those too many tomatoes. A couple weeks ago, when we had some cooler days, I got started on this storage project. First I picked and washed a colander full of the small varieties of tomatoes from the garden. I had quite a bounty, and we just couldn't eat them fast enough. For most of the tomatoes I just sliced them in half, but some of the bigger tomatoes were cut in slices for quicker drying. Next time I will quarter them instead.Then I placed them in rows, not touching, in Pyrex dishes where I had sprinkled a layer of salt, and gave them another sprinkle of salt on top. When you type in "oven dried tomatoes" in your "search" box, you will not find one recipe alike. Some have you marinate the tomatoes; heavily spice the tomatoes; oil the tomatoes; peel the tomatoes. I did none of this. I would not recommend peeling the tomatoes though. The slices that exposed the flesh to the glass were reduced to almost nothing, and were difficult to pry from the glass. Resting the tomatoes on their skin make them easy to collect. The first batch I made followed a dinner that had been cooking at 400 degrees. I popped the tomatoes in and let the oven cool to 200. I looked up several recipes that gave temperatures from 130 to 200F, and I would recommend 200F with occasionally moving things along with a temperature boost to 400 and then turning it back down to 200 for a couple hours. One thing you need to be sure of is that the pieces are totally dry. You retrieve the pieces one by one, depending on size, and I think the process took at least eight hours. Maybe more. Some recipes said it would take 16 hours, so you may want to leave them on your lowest setting overnight. I did this on a dry day, so I'm sure that helped.I then let them cool before I put them in a freezer bag to keep frozen for when I need them in a recipe. Again, some recipes stored the tomatoes in oil and I might do that another time, but I wanted mine to keep as long as possible without spoiling.

There is nothing like the taste of summer food in the cold of winter.
I can't wait!

Conestoga Herb Guild Herb Fest

When I was in Lancaster a two weeks ago, I passed a sign that said, "Herb Fest".

Following up, I found my way there on the given day.

There were all sorts of herb crafts and foods.

Lots of lavender recipes and gifts. Demonstrations by friendly members.

Gifts to make for yourself to take home.

I even found a plant I'd never seen before, Ajuga Burgundy Glow, so it came home with me.
This was a well done "Fest", and it will be my pleasure to attend in the future.

One more September 11 remembrance.

Frozen Eggs: Thawed

Do you remember my Freezing Eggs project last year?
Here is the link: http://onthepondfarm.blogspot.com/search/label/freezing%20eggs

If you recall, I was expecting a slow egg producing month or two in the winter, so I put a few bags of eggs in the freezer for those times. The slow month didn't happen. Even with the awful February where hardly any animal or human got outside, but to shovel snow, we had enough eggs.Right now, the heat seems to be affecting production, and sales have kept the back log down, so I decided this was a good time to pull out a bag and test the product.
Success! I put the bag in the refrigerator last night, and it was still mushy this morning. Mom was ready for her breakfast early, so we scooped a semi frozen spoonful that look like about an eggs worth and popped it in the pan. It slowly melted down into a fine little omelet. Tasted just fine. In all the fun of making the rest into an omelet later, I forgot to take more pictures, but you wouldn't have known these weren't fresh from the barn.I think this method of freezing eggs would work really well for campers and travelers that don't have lots of space, and need to keep things in coolers. Using the semi frozen eggs make it really easy to portion too.
Now that we have lived to tell the tale, I hope you can find use for this successful experiment sometime.

Scrambled Eggs and Herbs

My herbs are coming in, and some are already seeding.
Its hot, and its peak egg season.
Time for some quick recipes taking advantage of fresh from the farm, or garden, items.

I hate to do much cooking while I'm living in air conditioning (finally turned it on yesterday!), so I look for meals that require little or no cooking.
I follow Bitten, which is now Diner's Journal, on my side bar, and this showed up two days ago.

Soft Scrambled Eggs, Infused With Herbs

The photo reminded me of my mother's soft scrambles. The word "infused" sounded magical for some odd reason. So I started to read.

The first line read: I had the good luck to be at an herb garden this weekend. I read on.

There are two recipes. One takes five minutes,. The other 40. Both are scrumptious sounding, and when it cools, I will try the longer recipe. Five minutes over the stove is max for now!

Breakfast for dinner? I'm inspired.

Enjoy...and stay cool!

Its Milkweed Time! Cooking with Tizy!

When we got Zola and Vinegar, the first two bred does, in August three years ago, I spent hours removing milkweed from the field we prepared for them. Milkweed is poisonous to goats. They are back in that field now, and I have not seen the milkweed yet, and was quite happy about it.
Tizy is a long time friend, and past coworker of Hubs. He has a great sense of humor, and of experimentation, especially when it comes to foraging and the culinary arts. A few days ago I got this notice from him, and he is allowing me to pass on the news.

I just wanted to give you a heads-up that the milkweeds are coming into their "prime" now. We had our first batch yesterday, and they were delicious. For years, I was "skeered" to try them, but we've had them 4 or 5 times now (with no ill effects), so I've got no hesitation about recommending them to anyone else now. I'd rank them among the choicest wild greens. (And when you line them up on the plate, they make an "elegant" presentation.)

If you read the wild food books, they all say you need to boil milkweed in 2 or 3 changes of water to "remove the bitterness", but I've convinced myself that (at least for the milkweeds growing around here), there just ain't no bitterness to remove. Every time I've made them, I've snuck one after the first boiling, and there wasn't the slightest bitterness of any kind. If you Google "milkweeds", you'll see there's a fella in the Midwest who's spent a lot of time trying to get to the bottom of this alleged "bitterness" business (cuz his milkweeds aren't bitter either), and the best he could come up with is that maybe they're bitter somewhere, but it's probably one of those situations where the plant's are extremely sensitive to microclimate. If so, I live in a favored milkweed "appellation". The wild food books also tell you to wait until the water's fully boiling before dropping in the milkweed, but I suspect that's "hooey" as well. Next time, I'll throw caution to the wind and just boil them "regular" to see how they'll come out. I suspect there won't be any difference.

If you're on a quest to eradicate milkweed from your farm, eating them's a great way to do it.

Now before you go traipsing through the field for your milkweed, please be aware that there are many kinds, and parts can be toxic. Check out the links I found for good information and some interesting history also.

Identifies many milkweed plants. Its a large genus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepias

Interesting stories here: http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/bi/2000/Ethnobotany/milkweed.html

Brown Eggs vs. White Eggs, And Curry Egg Salad Recipe

Once in a while, the question of Why are brown eggs brown? comes up. A short while ago, I saw this article on Yahoo Green, which has the answer to the big question - and more.

What’s the difference between brown eggs and white?

By Lori Bongiorno

The color of the shell is merely a reflection of the breed of the hen. In general, but not always, hens with white feathers and earlobes lay white eggs and those with dark feathers and red earlobes lay brown eggs.

For more, click on the title, or go here.
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/the_conscious_consumer/128/what-s-the-difference-between-brown-eggs-and-white.html

The hens are really laying, and with our guest hens, we are glad our customers are calling with big orders. I have a few that start to get over a week old, and they become egg salad for my lunch. Tuesday, when I joined my quilting group, I brought a bowl of my recipe and some crackers to share. I was surprised at the clean bowl when lunch was over because my egg salad used a small addition of curry. It was a hit! The other comment was that it was so yellow, but I think my free range eaters have as much to do with that as the curry.Often I make my egg salad with dill, but I was looking for something stronger lately. Above is a photo of the ingredients: Hard boiled egg, relish, mayo, pepper and curry powder. No salt needed, and I like to flavor without salt when I can. Curry carries the day as far as I'm concerned.
The quantities are really up to your taste, but this is a jumbo (that's all we get!) hard boiled egg, a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise, a flat tablespoon of relish, a couple turns of ground pepper and a generous shake (1/2 tsp) of curry powder.
Blend nicely in a bowl, and serve as a sandwich or on a cracker. Makes a nice appetizer or lunch.

I think you'll like it. Plain Good!

Happy Easter!

We enjoyed Easter Saturday here with family, as has become our tradition.
The Braid pre-baking
With college kids having to travel back to school for Sunday evening, Saturday became the easier, relaxed day, to gather family and friends. The turban dough, ready to go!
And after years of pulling out Easter bread recipes and not making them, I finally made two challah breads that were lovely.
The recipe I used was inspired by one of the blogs I follow, "a stitch in dye",

http://stitchindye.blogspot.com/2010/03/little-unplugging-help.html
and the link below in her post:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10809/sweet-vanilla-challah

Today, after Easter Mass at beautiful St. Vincent's Basilica, we feasted on a big breakfast under the arbor.

What a place to enjoy!

First Frost? Lets Bake!

Today Fall really showed her face. The weather has been wet, but today the damp and coolness started to penetrate the house and my bones. Its really time for soup and baking.
So in an effort to keep the house cozy and warm, I baked a double batch of the Amish Friendship or Friendly Bread. I have directions with both names and two somewhat different ingredient lists.My second batch had a bit of an eruption and blew up onto the muffins. I wasn't sure how to deal with the two different timed bakings, but it all worked out fine. And the explosion was very tasty!
Tonight as we were bringing the animals in, my neighbor told me that there was a frost warning. It took me by surprise, as I have been watching the temperatures and the weather reports. The full moon is in four days, and I was looking for frost warnings, but I guess I missed it. As we looked at the evening sky, that halo that signals bad weather was ringing the moon.
The only saving grace may be those clouds, but the wind is supposed to blow them away by morning. I do hope it holds off. I picked my peppers, but I would like to have the tomatoes last a little longer.

Pulled Goat at the Westmoreland Fair

To my friends that have never seen me eat meat - this was my lunch today. This is a Pulled Goat sandwich. It was very nicely and mildly seasoned, and I required a squirt of barbecue sauce to zip it up. The meal started with an 80 pound goat that was deboned and was at about 40 pounds when it was put in the roaster. It was the fastest "seller" at the luncheon for the auction goers, with choices of roast beef, lamb, and pulled pork. My compliments to Becky who made it and told me how it was prepared. It sounds a lot like the way I make a pot roast. I am less intimidated after today.
I think this is the second time I have had the opportunity to try goat in the past two years and this was very nice. I feel as a goat meat farmer I have to be able to sell my product from experience. I tried the Goat Stew at the PASA conference last year, but the meat was overwhelmed by the sauce and veggies. This was a very positive experience and I can stand behind the flavor and texture. Today was the auction of the market animals. All the hard work was going to market for sale. A few sad faces in the ring with their animals, but I think most of the kids should be happy with the prices they got for their efforts.

We arrived at the fair in a downpour, but as we left the skies were clearing, and the scene from the fair entrance was stunning.