Cookbook Recommendation

Two friends of mine, Theresa Rogers and Tika Altemoeller, have written an inspiring vegetarian cookbook called Dharma Feast Cookbook – Recipes for a Fresh Start. It is going to be available in February. I am honored to say that my photographs are in it.

I own the first edition of Dharma Feast and use it all the time.What I love about it is the emphasis on simple ways in which we can cook and eat more consciously, as opposed to just getting another meal checked off the to-do list. When you pay real attention, the way Tika and Theresa do, to the way in which you choose, prepare and serve your meals, the food is more nurturing and delicious.

There are wonderful Indian recipes, many tips for cooking the staples of a vegetarian diet and lots of information about how to change your habitual ways of eating. There is also a chapter about making healthy school lunches.

Periodically, I am going to include some of the recipes here. I’ll start with a simple one that uses our most loved vegetable at the Morningside Market – Arugula.

Fussili Rice Noodles

Serves 4

1/2 cup olive oil

1 Tbls. minced garlic (2 cloves)

1 lemon, zest and juice

2 tsp. kosher salt

2 tsp. black pepper

1 pound rice fusilli noodles (or regular pasta if you prefer)

1/2 pound baby arugula ( I even use more)

1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

Heat olive oil in medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Then add the zest and juice of lemon, salt, and pepper.

Cook rice noodles according to instructions on package. [I think they are best when rinsed and then reheated. Then you can't really tell the difference from regular pasta. We like Tinkyada brand rice pasta.]Drain and return to pot.

Immediately add olive oil mixture to pasta and cook over medium low heat for 3 minutes. Pour hot pasta into large bowl. Add arugula and tomatoes. Toss well. Season to taste and serve hot.

Variations - Substitute whole grain pasta for rice noodles.

Or add finely grated raw cheese to top of pasta after tossing or serve in a small bowl on the side.

We had it the other night:

Rubberband Man

This blog post was supposed to be about endive  mix. Many of the vegetables in the following pictures are from the endive family – sugarloaf endive, radicchio, I think there may be some frisee and/or escarole that made it in here. But while reviewing the pictures that I took of Nicolas and his endive heads, all I could see were his hands; how hard-working and rugged they are, how masculine – but mostly – how covered in rubber bands. The many rubber bands in the first shot have nothing to do with the task at hand. They are there, as rubber bands always seem to be on Nicolas, for some upcoming picking job where they will be vitally necessary. I have even seen several of them lined up on his wrist, many times, while he is sleeping. I love that.
So, in case you are more interested in the vegetables, that large icy green wonder above and directly below is called sugarloaf endive.

Here it is in the field, where Nicolas is singing its wonders to Jesse on a farm tutorial. I’ll include that video at the end of this post.Farmer and his dog.

Or is she Jesse’s personal dog? Really, she is faithful and loving to all of us, especially whomever holds the turnip, or the meat.

Beautiful fall carrots:

Back to the endive family. Below is part of a row of escarole endive. We use these a lot to make a favorite salad. We chop them into strips and mix them with dulce (a seasoning), olive oil, mulkasan (a vinegar), some salt, minced garlic and chopped walnuts.  You can make this with any of the endive heads. So good!

Radicchio endive:And for any growers, backyard or big farm, or hope to be, here may be some information for your endive-growing needs:

Tutorials; Green Smoothies; Rambling

Jesse has made two farm tutorials with Nicolas this month. I’ll post them both at the bottom.

This was taken right after Jesse filmed Nicolas talking about Swiss Chard. The filmmaker is ready to leave the farm and go edit his new tutorial. The farmer is getting geared up for many more hours of labor. He and his crew are heroic. It is busier at the farm right now than it has been all year. We’re all getting more energy by turning all these beautiful vegetables into green smoothies. We’ve been drinking one every morning, even the kids most days. They make a huge difference in our ability to get it all done, and to  help cut our cravings for chocolate and cheese, part of the day anyway 

Here are a few of the vegetables we’ve been throwing into the blender:

Lots of Swiss Chard, collards and other greens make their way into the green smoothie as well. Nicolas also adds flax oil and mulkasan and sometimes some coconut oil.

Three random pictures from a beautiful fall farm day:

Willie:Jesse with Fennel. Doesn’t the shadow of his hand on his sweater look like it’s reaching for his heart? He doesn’t think so either. Hey, it’s Halloween! I love Halloween.

White on white. See the honey bees? We have lots of honey this year.

One more, and then I will relinquish this space to the farmer’s wisdom on my son’s tutorials.

I caught the Turkeys plotting their escape. They sense that November is here. You can hear their passionate discussions in the upcoming Swiss Chard video. They sound like canned laughter. 

Finally, the videos:

Tomatoes and Turnips

Jesse’s last tutorial was very long and gave him some great experience in filming tutorials. He decided to make a new one for anyone here. It is due to premiere some time today or tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are a few photos of our fall tomatoes, never before so healthy nor so abundant. Here are a few of the cherries; so Christmasy:

And one of the tunnels that is filled with heirlooms and basic reds:

Below is Mark, today’s tomato picker, showing us a full wheelbarrow of tomatoes from just one row! Terrible photo of the tomatoes, but I really wanted to show off Mark.

And though we have many photogenic vegetables right now, Nicolas and the boys, and Willie, were all about the turnips today, so that’s what got my focus. They’re pretty photogenic too.

Gillen has always dug the turnips. He-he. Here is his most recent recruit to turnip love – Willie:

Two of a kind:

How perfect for our theme that Nicolas is wearing a Turnip Truck hat. The Turnip Truck makes a few of his deliveries for him.
Carrot cruising:

Stay tuned for a leek tutorial.

Annual Update

No, this time I really mean it – there will be regular Crystal Organic Farm blog posts, weekly! That’s the plan, anyway.

With the weather so beautiful, it’s easy for Jesse and I to join Farmers Nicolas and Gillen, Helen, Elizabeth and the whole gang out there.

While Summer crops and flowers, thankfully, still linger:


There are many new fall favorites re-emerging. Some have not been seen on our farm for a few years. Like Edamame beans:
But Jesse’s new farm tutorial (he has taken my job with the video camera) will give much more information on that score. He filmed his first video yesterday and will have it up here soon.
And we even put in some real labor.
Jesse cleaning the cucumbers.

Headless garlic video

The farmer, that is, not the garlic. There will be heads of garlic but I filmed in widescreen and have not been able to fix the farmer‘s headless state. He isn’t going to have time to re-film, so I hope it is useful anyway.

Farm “food tour” with Gillen

Yesterday, Jesse, and Elizabeth’s son Eli were coaxed into the Isuzu “pup” (the truck that Gillen can drive) with Willie (our new go-to-the-farm-everyday-with-Nicolas puppy) to go on what Gillen called a “farm food tour”.Visiting us between taking in the peppers and the turnips:
For the first time in a while, I was picking flowers, so I don’t have pictures of their adventure. But I do have a picture of some of the last Zinnias of the year:
And of these ladybug-like (but yellow?) bugs who were at it the entire time we made bouquets, moving from flower to flower while they procreated. When we left the barn, they were still together, and still looking for the perfect resting spot. Or maybe this species is like the Black Widow and the male was just being dragged around dead, having served his purpose.

It’s like Wild Kingdom out here.

But for the kids, it was an Anthony Bourdain inspired travel network food adventure that we heard about in detail later.

They started out at the Persimmon tree, no one liking this fruit but Gillen. From there they drove to the peppers, Jesse’s favorite, and grabbed many to eat on the road. Gillen and Jesse love Hakurai Turnips so wanted to share them with Eli. Not finding them in the ground, they looked in the cooler and discovered a full box. Eli declared them edible as they tasted a lot like his favorite, the carrot, if you didn’t look while you ate, and if you only ate one bite. Gillen and Jesse also grabbed a handful of cherry tomatoes.

Next they traveled all the way to the back fields where they ate cabbage, kale, Daikon radishes and watermelon radishes.

Their biggest peril, besides getting Eli to take bites of everything, occurred when Willie the puppy jumped out of the truck and ran into the woods, a very thorny section of the woods. This was great because it meant that they came back to us with large holes in their shirts, truly looking the part of food adventurers.

I grew up in a big city. I never even knew what kale was, before falling for a farmer. It’s amazing to watch my kids growing up able to pick their own vegetables. Not to mention, able to drive a stick shift, something I still can’t do.

Greens

Halloween orange and black showing up everywhere together make me strangely happy, and not, like my kids, because of the candy that they represent. But ever since meeting Nicolas and beginning this farm, the many tantalizing shades of green that cover the ground in fall are even better.

Tender lettuce greens, their beauty just enhanced by the red leaves next door.

Escarole; deliciously bitter. Surprisingly delicious. A big head chopped up with a few cloves of minced garlic, good olive oil, a brief pass of mulkasan (or other vinegar), chopped up walnuts, dulce, salt – then marinated…mmmmm.  For Nicolas and I, the taste of Fall starts with the taste of escarole salad. Thanks to Helen – who brought the inspiration for this salad, and its appearance on the farm, here from Europe.

Arugula, the farmer’s market favorite. After eating brunch at a wonderful restaurant, The Shed, that uses Nicolas’ produce, we now love eating it with olive oil, some lemon and good grated parmesan cheese.

Below, that southern staple, gentle collard greens.

Kale, our new favorite of the non-salad greens. Much tougher than collards but when you get in there and massage it in oil, you can even eat it raw. My kids are loving it too.

Krispy Kale (before it has been cooked):

O.K. Here I used swiss chard, but usually I just use kale. I cut it into smaller pieces, drizzle olive oil over it, making sure to rub it into the leaves, add salt, and then cook it at 350 degrees for about ten minutes, or until very crisp. I wouldn’t give up my Kettle brand potato chips for it, but it does seriously compete!

Kale Salad. I’ve made this a few ways but my favorite is from a recipe by Persephone – good friend,  chef, and health consultant who can be found at Clean Up, Clear Out.

Marinated Kale Salad

3-4 cups of kale shredded

Plus any combination of the following: tomatoes, avocadoes, red peppers, mushrooms, red onion, raw shredded carrots.

Vinaigrette (this is soo good):

3/4 cup apple cider vinegar or juice of one lemon or orange ( I used more oil and much less vinegar than called for here due to my kids’ preference. Also, this will make enough vinaigrette for many more salads. Though we just make a huge one with three big heads of kale.)

1/4 to 1/2 cup flax oil

3-6 cloves garlic

1-2 tablespoons mustard powder (I used dijon mustard).

De-stem kale and roll and slice into thin strips. Toss kale and vegetables with vinaigrette. Let marinate overnight so that leaves become tender. Try different combinations of additional vegetables. Olives are good too.

 

Then there’s Bok Choy (had it in a stir-fry with turnips, onions and garlic the other night), broccoli, collards, turnip greens sauteed with the turnips…

I seriously crave these greens, as much as I used to crave candy corn.

Back behind the lens

I’m back. Jesse was too busy living and learning elsewhere to be here. A bumper sticker has been showing up on cars with farm-woman Helen (Nicolas’ mother) on it, along with this blog address! So, I’m feeling inspired to start blogging again. The cooler weather helps too.

Just in time to show you the end of the peppers:

Crisp fall rows of lettuce:

Elizabeth, flower farmer; frequently accompanied by a rainbow:

New Farm Blogger, Jesse

It is so wonderful to get comments here (hello former Crystal Organic Farm fabulous farmers Athalia and Kirk!)  and to have lots of people watching last year’s farming tutorials.

So, why have I not come through with lots more farm photos and videos? My camera is broken, has been for a month now. : (  I didn’t have it in me even to share recipes without the great photos.

In the meantime, Nicolas has recruited younger, brighter help here! Our son Jesse will be blogging. He has been making lego videos for a year now so is all ready to use his expertise to bring you farming tutorials. But for now, he is sharing information (with point and shoot pictures) about our Red Torpedo onions. Heeere’s Jesse!

Here is the process of the Red Torpedo onions:

Almost ready to pick -

After being picked we must sort out all the rotten ones

Finally ready to eat. They just need to be cleaned up. They’re good in a stir fry or sandwiches. I don’t really like onions but I like them in a stir-fry.