Farming is a passion - often unrequited

They say that farming is in your blood.  While I didn't have much of an opportunity to farm with my family when I was young - the last of the dairy farm was being put to bed when I arrived on this earth - the farm itself stayed in the family.  I played in the barn, I got under foot of the farm hands that were still haying, I played in the pastures with the heifers that remained here, I caught salamanders in the ponds, I made forts in between boulders and next to hand stacked stone walls, I slept on the floor of a handmade cabin at the south end of the lake and went potty in the woods, even in the rain.  Those are just a few of the things that are in my blood.

I have been homesteading and slowly growing a vegetable, livestock and Christmas tree farm on my families land for almost ten years.  I tried to fit in infrastructure projects, livestock care, weeding, watering, planting, baking, canning and farmers markets with a full time job, a terrible pregnancy which gave me the most wonderful Little man.  As he grows there are t-ball practices and games, soccer practices and games, cub scouts, etc.  The dream of farming has taken a side seat, a back seat or all too often gets relegated to the back of the trailer whose wheels are falling off.

Last summer I made the VERY difficult decision to leave a career that I loved, working with people that I both loved and admired and a profession whose dedication is unwavering, in order to spend more time on the farm.  I miss them terribly.  

The first few months were a huge adjustment.  Learning a new part time job, taking on a second part time job since the cut in pay was more than my budget could absorb but giving up much of that extra time that was supposed to be spent on the farm, and trying to sell summer piglets who were eating me out of house and home.  Then winter arrived far too early and best laid plans of erecting a high tunnel in November have become hoping to get it completed by the end of March.

Farming is a passion and in order to be successful, many things have to take a back seat.  We don't travel, we don't take family vacations more than a few miles away from the farm, it has been more than two years since I have bought myself a new pair of pants or even some desperately overdue new shoes.  Little man needs food, warmth, and clothing; the animals need bedding and feed; the car insurance and light bill need to be paid, the car needs fuel and perhaps if there is anything leftover then maybe we can grab a takeout pizza or sandwiches once every other month or so.  It has been a difficult winter, one which was not completely unexpected, but one that makes this farmer question - far too often - whether she made the right decision.

Spring is four days away - at least chronologically if not meteorologically.  The chicks are scheduled to hatch this weekend and this past weeks thaw proves that there is actually still grass under the white which has blanketed the ground for the past five months.  It will be lean, but this farmer will be working hard to make a go of it over the next nine months.

A winter of firsts

This winter has been a little harder than most on the farm.  Normally we are outside for most of the season working on various projects, but this years weather has been harsh.  When temperatures are tolerable in the single digits, the winds have been blowing a gale causing fingers to go numb quickly.  Pounding posts for the greenhouse has been impossible as the January thaw which usually has us outside with our first campfire didn't show up this year.  But alas, when you can't get outside, you work on other projects.  It has been a winter of firsts - but definitely not lasts.

Our chickens have continued to lay, despite the weather and we got our first blue egg this weekend.















I tried a new flavor of jelly - plum apple.  It is beautiful in the jar and even more delicious on toast.

We attended our first winter farmers market last week and we did pretty well.








Spring does promise to arrive eventually and temperatures are creeping closer to tolerable each week.  Today I will clean out and ready the brooder box, baby chicks are scheduled to arrive this weekend.

Storing potatoes & easy recipe

This picture almost makes them look green,
they were perfectly fine.

Last weekend I used up the last of the potatoes that were stored for winter use.  We put up just under 100 lbs for the off season and they lasted through the end of February.  150 lbs will have to be the number for this year so that we can make it most of the way until the next harvest.  

Three factors will ensure successful storage of your potatoes:

• A good cure right after harvest
• That the potatoes aren't washed - you can brush off a lot of the dirt being careful not to harm the cured peel - but don't wash them
• Store them in the dark - if they aren't in the dark, they will turn green - if you eat too many green potatoes, you could become very ill.  

A burlap bag inside of a cardboard box proved very effective this year in the mudroom.  Temperatures didn't stay below zero for too long so that room was fine.  Had they stayed below zero for any length of time, that room would have gotten too cold.  Potatoes like it just above freezing.

There are three of us in the house, we don't have company for meals very often but we both take leftovers for lunches for our off farm jobs.  Potatoes stretch or fill out chicken & biscuits, stews, soups, top shepherd's pie, stand alone, are spiced up for side dishes, put in foil packets with onions and cheese on the grill; they are used in a pile of my cooking.  One of my favorite potato recipe is so simple that it is hardly worth writing down and probably is somewhere on the interweb, but it is so good, that even if I cut up two potatoes for each of us, there aren't any leftovers.

Herb roasted potatoes 
3T olive oil
2T minced garlic
1T each of oregano & thyme
Salt to taste
Paprika for color
3-5 medium potatoes - cut up into 1 - 1 1/2 inch pieces

Preheat oven to 400 or 425 degrees.
In a large bowl mix the first five ingredients until blended.
Add potatoes and toss until evenly coated.
Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper - spread potatoes evenly.
Bake for 25 - 35 minutes until potatoes are crisp and tender.

Enjoy!

Making waffles, saving squash, greenhouse update, and almost getting fired

I was pretty excited when I got home last night, the temperature outside was 14 degrees and the temperature inside the greenhouse was 36 degrees.  My compost pile, combined with a partly sunny day had kept the temperature above freezing.  The bubble burst this morning as the thermometer read 13 degrees inside the greenhouse; the outside temperature was just above zero.  My little eight cubic foot compost pile will not be sufficient as the only source of heat for my 250 sq. ft. greenhouse.  A girl can dream.  

January is still too early to be planting seeds outside of a controlled temperature environment.  The free piles on the side of the road will be perused and craigslist, facebook, the local newspaper, and local bulletin boards will be carefully watched for items that will help make our farm projects better.  Who knows, somebody might discard a portable wood stove or some other heater that could keep my little glass house warm.

Free piles and tag sales have been pretty good to this house over the past couple of years.  One of Little Man's favorite breakfasts is waffles.  Tag sale left overs yielded this slightly ancient waffle iron.  It makes the perfect size waffles to be reheated in the toaster. (A huge bonus since the oven died right before Christmas.)  The waffle iron cannot be left unattended as it is powered by the old fashioned fabric wrapped electrical cord.  It has absolutely no safety features like automatic shut off, a temperature light or a timer.  Trial and error lead to five-minutes for the perfect waffle once the temperature gauge on the top reaches bake.  Eggo waffles were on sale this week at the grocery store, but the list of ingredients was longer than my arm.  Good food is worth the time to make homemade waffles.

Saving seeds and freezing squash also helps save some money.  With a 700+ lb yield of squash from the garden this year, I baked and froze squash in two cup bags.  One bag is enough to make a rich pumpkin pie or one dinner of butternut, blue hubbard or mama mia squash.  The seeds are dried and put up for spring planting.  Most years, the squash is true to its breed, however, every once in a while we will get a cross breed that is a little unusual.  They all still taste really good.

Although I still have to have an off-farm job, my heart is still 23 miles northeast next to the lake.  While at that off-farm job today, I was told (albeit jokingly) that I was fired.  Standing in the middle of the hallway, I didn't think about where my next paycheck was going to come from or if my resume was up-to-date; I was actually pretty happy thinking about all the projects I could get done on the farm.   As I headed back to my desk, I was actually sad that I didn't get fired.  Hmm, maybe it's time to try again working on the farm more and off the farm less.  

Meal planning Friday

I love to cook!  I would spend all day in my kitchen dirtying every bowl, dish, piece of cutlery, pot, pan, baking sheet, etc. in the quest to make the perfect meal (I might have said this once or twice before).  Unfortunately when you are working full-time and still want to spend time with your children after you get home from work, the perfect meal is not attainable every night.  Often dinner would be the last thing on my mind, neither Little man's father nor I would remember to take something out of the freezer in the morning, and then neither one of us would feel like cooking - dinner turned into yet another point of contention between the two of us.  After 30 minutes or more of thinking about what to make I would come up with something, head to the refrigerator looking for an ingredient that I knew we had three days ago, only to find it had been consumed in a snack while waiting for dinner to cook yesterday.

I set to the old, faithful, search engine and typed in 'meal planning' hoping that someone, somewhere would at least point me in the right direction to get started.  Salvation came out of that search - there are women who blog about just this type of thing - I knew there was something I liked about the blogging community.  My clicks landed me at thebettermom.com.  In addition to her strong faith and empowering woman through that faith, she publishes bi-weekly, gluten-free meal plans.  Each meal plan is accompanied by the recipes to cook all the meals therein.  This meal planning thing was going to be easier than I thought!

Needless to say I didn't go home, empty my freezer, cabinets and refrigerator of all my food and start with a monumental grocery list - although that might have been fun.  I went home and discussed it with Little man's father - if I do the planning, will you at least cook something from the weekly menu on your nights to cook dinner?  With a few grumbles and groans, he agreed to give it a shot.  Saturday morning, I inventoried the major food groups finding out what we had in the house and started to list a few basic meals that could be made with those items.  Then I thought about how to use up the left-overs; the roast chicken would make a chicken/cheddar/rice casserole or chicken and biscuits.  I quickly had a list of six meals for the following week.  I made out my grocery list with any items I was missing for those meals and then I added in a seventh - try-something-new recipe and added any missing items to the grocery list.

Getting the shopping done was only half the battle, dinner still had to be prepared each night.  Well, my internet search also yielded some pretty great tips, including some on involving your children in meal prep and clean up.  When I was single, I got tired of spending a fortune on lunch everyday so I used to cook up two family-sized meals on Sunday and parcel them out into individual lunch size containers and put them in the freezer for lunches during the week.  By the third week I had a pretty good selection of meals to take with me to work.  Meal planning involves the same kind of commitment on one of your weekend days, but it is centered around prep for the week, not necessarily cooking a week's worth of meals on Sunday while football is playing the background.

This past weeks menu looked a little bit like this:

Saturday - Pesto Pasta w/Italian Sausage, salad, garlic bread
Sunday - Roast Chicken w/oven roasted vegetables
Monday - London broil, baked potato, vegetable of choice 
Tuesday - Chicken/cheddar/rice casserole, vegetable of choice (made ahead or frozen)
Wednesday - Beef stew w/ herb and cheese biscuits (crockpot meal)
Thursday - Ham/potato/bean skillet
Friday - Parmesan chicken fingers w/ herb and blue cheese quiche, salad
Saturday - Tuna casserole, vegetable of choice (made ahead or frozen)

Sunday I made a double batch of cream of celery soup - 1/2 went into the tuna casserole which I made the same day and put into the freezer and half was put into the refrigerator for the chicken/cheddar/rice casserole.  Beef for the stew was cut up out of the roast that I bought at the grocery store and put in a separate storage bag in the freezer.  Carrots, onions, peppers, and tomatoes were cut up and placed in a covered bowl for Wednesday's stew. 

When meat is brought home from the grocery store, we now try to marinate it right away and freeze them with their sauce.  As the meat thaws it soaks up some great flavor.  Little man's father needed only wash a few potatoes and put them in the oven while finishing up chores or playing with Little man.  The meat and vegetables were started at the same time and in less than 20 minutes, a hearty, delicious and not terribly unhealthy meal was had by all .  While we were eating dinner, the rice was cooked for Tuesday's casserole.

After dinner on Tuesday, the meat for the stew was browned and added to the crockpot with the vegetables and remaining stew ingredients.  Wednesday before leaving for work, the crockpot was started.  The Parmesan chicken fingers were frozen after I made a double batch a couple of Sundays ago so we would have a quick meal option.  Quiche's can be baked ahead of time, frozen and reheated, unfortunately this didn't happen this week so the side dish for tonight's dinner will change on the fly.  Saturday, I try to have a quick and easy meal since I am usually running around trying to accomplish an entire weeks worth of chores in one day.

In the three weeks since we started planning meals for the week,  Little man's father and I haven't argued about dinner once, I have managed to follow the sales, stock up on local produce and meats when possible and have dropped my weekly grocery budget to right around $100.  This includes diapers, cleaning supplies, garbage bags, laundry detergent, etc.  This week's grocery shopping and meal planning has been sidelined by a trip to my mother's to check on an electrical problem, but tomorrow morning I will start anew.

Cream of celery soup

Celery, onions & chicken broth before flour & cream are added

Good food is something many people take for granted, I am not one of those people.  They say to have loved and lost is better than to have never loved at all - this does not hold true for good food.  I have mentioned before that I lived just outside of New York City for several years.  REALLY good food is available on almost any corner and if an establishment chooses to provide or produce poor quality food, they don't last long.  Having all this available within a 30 minute drive (sans traffic) in any direction was something that I took for granted.  What 'The City' has in great ready-to-eat or prepared food as well as the supply chain to support it, Northern Vermont has in its natural, local, quality ingredients.  A supply chain exists, but it is difficult to get a regular delivery of really fresh seafood to Burlington, let alone out to Newport or Island Pond.

One learns to preserve the fresh whenever possible and then hones the art of making what was once fresh come alive again in uncomplicated, deliciously prepared meals.  For me, one of the great things about being on the farm that much more is the opportunity to craft delicious home cooked meals.

A simple and flavorful cream of celery soup was to become the foundation of homemade chicken and biscuits this week.  Celery from the summer was taken from the freezer along with our neighbors onions which were chopped and frozen at the peak of freshness, and set in the skillet to soften.  Our own chicken broth was added, a touch of salt and pepper, a little flour and some cream from the farmer down the road to make a light, fresh, flavorful soup.  Some people puree carrots in their cream soups to add some additional flavor, but our broth is already packed with flavor from the chicken and the herbs it was cooked with.

To this yummy soup we added some frozen vegetables and left over, farm-raised roast chicken, and a quick batch of fresh biscuits.  It is a stick to your ribs kind of meal that is great for cold and snowy/rainy days.

The recipe I used for the soup:

4 cups chopped celery
1 extra large onion, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup flour
4 cups hot milk
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
     (I omitted this ingredient since I was adding the soup to chicken & biscuits)

Saute celery & onion in some of the chicken broth or a little butter to soften.
Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.
Whisk together flour, milk, salt & pepper, add to pot with the butter.
Boil for 10 minutes.

You can now either strain out the vegetables or run them through a blender or food processor to make a smoother soup.  Again, since it was going into another dish, I used it just the way it came off the stove.

The importance of the simple things this holiday season

Little man has been teething which is accompanied by a low grade fever and restless nights.  Mom makes those restless nights that much harder on herself as she sits bolt upright at the littlest sniffle or sigh that comes through the baby monitor.  Working extra hours off the farm in an effort to catch up on some bills accompanied by poor driving conditions the past couple of days have kept the comfort and rest of sleep at bay.

Lying awake watching moonlit shadows play across the newly fallen snow, my thoughts turn to holiday preparations.  That holiday tablecloth was not where I expected it to be the other day, perhaps it is in the attic.  Company will be coming, beds need to be prepared and a vacuum run upstairs.  Furniture needs to be re-arranged in the living room to accomodate the Christmas tree which will again be far too large for the space - but I like them that way.  Where did we put those pine cones?

Celebrating the all important first birthday and Christmas will carry so much more importance than they have for the past couple of years for us.  Little man's first Christmas was interrupted by mom's sudden departure for and admission to intensive care unit at the hospital a mere ten days after his arrival into this world.  My mother and grandmother were on the farm when I fell ill.  I can't express how thankful I was to have my mom both at my side in the hospital and to support my husband while I spent the next several days in the intensive care unit.  As Christmas comes back around I am thankful for a full recovery and hopeful for an uneventful holiday here at the farm.  It will not be a commercial series of events for us.  The simpler side of the holiday will include handmade ornaments and stockings from a family friend who has long since passed.  Popcorn strings on and handmade presents under the Christmas tree.  We will make pine cone feeders for the birds and squirrels.  Gifts will not be exchanged between adults this year as none of us needs to throw our hard earned cash into something that doesn't fit, isn't the right color or will end up stuffed on a shelf in the basement somewhere.  Spending quality time with family will be the order of business this holiday season.

Little man will be showered with all the goodness he deserves.  Good food, most of which was raised right here on this farm, will be shared.  Perhaps a bottle or two of hard cider or home brew will be lifted.  The house will be warm, tummies will be full and another set of moonlit shadows will play on a different layer of freshly fallen snow.

How will you be spending your Christmas?

Photo courtesy of: http://www.rarespecies.org/garden.html

Cheddar Broccoli Pasta

Part of our goal of sustainability means using the most basic ingredients to create delicious meals.  Eventually we will be able to grow or barter for all of the ingredients we need to sustain our family.  In the meantime we only purchase basic supplies from the grocery store.  It is a rare occasion when we buy anything labeled 'Just Add Water' or 'Heat & Eat.'  One can only eat so many vegetables and potatoes without needing a little something to spice them up. 

Eating well is more than just a hobby or a means to an end to satisfy nutritional requirements, it is a passion; often one I don't have much of an opportunity to engage in.  Ensuring Little Man is fed is goal number one and sometimes at the end of the day that means throwing together a protein, vegetable and a starch and feeding him whilst doing dishes, sweeping the floor, switching the laundry, or running his bath.  Once in a great while I am inspired to dirty every sauce pan, frying pan, soup pot, baking dish, serving spoon, mixing spoon, whisk, mixer and spatula in the kitchen to make a masterpiece.  Sometimes you just come up with a simple fix for a starch and vegetable that is whipped up with ingredients already in the house.   Such was the case the other night.

How about cheddar broccoli pasta?  An envelope from the store which requires only the addition of water, butter and milk is available for a mere 99 cents, but that includes all name and number of preservatives and ingredients I couldn't pronounce if I had a degree in chemistry.  I started with a basic white sauce:

White Sauce
1 TBS butter
1 TBS flour
3/4 cup milk
dash pepper

Melt butter in saucepan, add flour, combine.
Add milk and stir over medium heat until sauce is thick and bubbly.

I added 3/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese for our meal but any manner of cheese that you have in the house is fine.  Cheddar by itself can make the sauce a little grainy, but I used what we had on hand.

While making the sauce, in another pan bring some water to a boil, add pasta of your choice and frozen or fresh vegetable - cook until done.  Drain, add cheese sauce and voila, Cheddar Cheese Broccoli Pasta.

Not too bad for a quick side to venison steaks for dinner.

Sausage

As home butchers we end up with little extras - small pieces of loin that just didn't make it into the original roast, edges of hams, and parts that probably should have been bacon or a rolled roast but got cut too small when we put our pork into the freezer.  Not ones to let much go to waste the decision was made to try and make sausage this year.

I remembered my grandmother grinding up meat for her meatloaf when I was younger and I knew somewhere in the house - her house for which I am now the caretaker - I had seen that grinder.  Retrieved from the far reaches of the baking cabinet and given a bath, I attempted to put it back together and secure it to the table.  Some 30 years ago now I sat beside her watching the juices drip from the grinder onto the paper towels she had placed on the floor.  An old book was wedged in between the table and the grinder to either protect the table or provide a more stable surface for the grinder.  Assembly and mounting complete, so began the journey into sausage making.

Ground pork: Insert meat into top of grinder and turn handle.  Not as easy as it looks.  The pieces of pork don't stay in the grinder very well.  It is a delicate balance of inserting meat pieces and not loosing a finger whilst turning the meat out through the blades on the front of the grinder.

Onions: They go right the grinder too.  Each one sent onion juice pouring out of the back and down the handle onto the paper towels on the floor.

Garlic: Check.

Spices: What ratio?  What spices?  On to the internet, recipes galore.  We settled on a sage sausage recipe, not realizing until after we were done that it was a turkey based recipe and the spices were a little too heavy, beating out the subtle deliciousness of the fresh pork.

Anything else?  Salt.

We use a lot of sausage in everything from spaghetti to stuffed mushrooms to breakfast and meatloaf.  It turned out OK but I will certainly be looking out for some new ones.  There are thousands of recipes on the internet for sausage so I will not recreate the wheel here.  Making our own will not only save some money but allow us to try some unique flavors.  I am thinking Apple Sage might taste pretty good.

Living in fear of a kitchen appliance

"Hello, My name is Jennifer and I am afraid of my pressure canner."

I stand in front of you and admit my fear.  Now I need to face it head on and hope I don't blow up the house or send fragments of metal across my kitchen.  I actually have two, one that was my grandmother's for which I have purchased a new rubber seal and an instruction manual.  The other is tiny, meant for quick cooking single servings of meals and such.

We have been blessed with an abundance of green and wax beans this summer.  Later tonight or tomorrow we will be pulling all the plants and harvesting the beans.  DH has frozen several batches already and with designs to use what remains of my freezer space, I have to seek other options for items that cannot be canned using a water bath.  I made this mistake with carrots a few years back - DO NOT open a jar of carrots after four months that has been water bath canned. 

Yesterday I was talking with a colleague who uses her pressure canner all the time and she assures me that it is extremely easy to use.  They can green beans every year and she does it herself now when all canning used to be done in the company and under the tutelage of her mother.

Sometime between baking apple pies, berry pies, squash pies, whoopie pies, breads, and a couple more dessert items  for farmers market; I will be attempting to use my pressure canner for the first time.
Wish me luck!

Transitioning

It is taking a little getting used to, but the transition to full time farmer and part time employee is going fairly well.  Balancing the to-do list with the everyday chores, let alone blog posting will require commitment to a schedule which I have not yet been able to achieve.  It also happens to be summer vacation from school and my step-children are a welcome addition to the farm for a short while.  I figure that I will get the schedule completely figured out right about the time that my step-daughter returns to her mother's for the beginning of the school year.

DH and I are learning to communicate better and at night will discuss a task or two that we wish to get accomplished the following day.  I will plan on working on my task first thing in the morning and separately DH will do the same.  Little man wakes up, we take our turns getting up with him for his early morning bottle, and then when the other spouse wakes up, we each start out to work on our appointed task for the day.  Both of us are out the door when we look at each other, then back into the house and say something to the effect of, "I thought you were watching him while I did..."  Eventually we work it out and the day goes on.

As often happens here, one task turns into five.  Cleaning out the rabbits will inevitably include repairs to the waste deflectors, cleaning up the work bench with  left over tools from yesterday's project, cleaning up the chicken coop, moving the chicken tractor, weeding a flower bed, putting up screening to keep the chickens out of the garage while still allowing air flow for the rabbits, etc.  The original task of cleaning out the rabbits (a 45 minute task without interruption) has taken three hours and the second item from the to-do list was either not started or stopped mid-way through.  Kids at the farm requires happily scheduling time in our day to go down to the lake for swimming or fishing or perhaps a trip down to the library.  Scheduling sufficient family play time has fallen by the wayside; when we actually get to the lake, we are there for far longer then planned.  Dinner then comes late and by the time kids are showered and in bed, blog posts don't get written.  My household paperwork has fallen desperately behind and I think I have only made it down to the garden once in the past week.  Not great for someone who is planning on making part of her living from the yield of that 1/2 acre.

During times of quiet, like this fifteen minutes stolen while little man and DH sleep (we were up until 1:30 a.m. baking for farmers market and then back at it around 6:00 a.m. to get the cannoli shells made) and the bigger kids are drawing and making paper airplanes; I often wonder if I am going to be able to make this farm work.  Organization seems nearly impossible and focus on any project is difficult with little man going through a separation anxiety phase.  As the bank account dwindles from regular bills - electric, phone, fuel -animal feed and an expensive brake repair on the car, the tension mounts and I wonder if I made the right decision. 

While sitting on the front porch with my bottle of homebrew, after everyone has gone to bed at night, bellies full with meat and vegetable grown on this very farm; I worry, but I am filled with contentment knowing all that this ex-corporate ladder climbing girl has managed to accomplish in just five short years.  Bring on the next five!

Quiche

Everyone has those favorite recipes that they make over and over again.  So much the favorite that you memorize the recipe, make subtle changes to it over time and even change out ingredients to make what has become old, new again.  One day, I just stopped making quiches; not for any particular reason, just didn't make them anymore.

Baking for farmers market has drummed up some requests for some home cooked meals.  One item that was requested was a vegetable quiche.  I don't know if you have ever made one before, but they are the simplest things to make, especially with the advent of ready-made pie crusts from the grocery store.  Put the pie crust into a pie plate, put it in a 425 degree oven for 5-7 minutes.  While that is cooking, make the center of the quiche.

Three to four eggs, one cup of milk, one and a half cups of cheese and whatever other ingredients you think go well together, and salt and pepper to taste.  Beat the eggs and milk together, add the cheese and other ingredients, pour into your hot pie crust and put that back into a 325 degree oven for 30 - 45 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean and the center no-longer jiggles.

This particular quiche had broccoli, green onions, a touch of nutmeg, and cheddar cheese.  I have made them with spinach and garlic, ham and swiss cheese, and with beets - that was a pretty color.  They are delicious, relatively healthy, depending on your choice of ingredients, can be easily made with leftovers, and pretty inexpensive if you have your own chickens and make your own crust.  DH said that I can make another one for the house anytime I felt in the mood.

Happy 4th of July

Holiday inspired cookies, baked yesterday for farmer's market.

Cannolis - getting better each day

 

Having lived just outside of New York City for several years I had access to some of the best restaurants and bakeries available.  Being the particular type of person I am, I often over criticize myself and my cooking, comparing it to those foods I used to eat on a regular basis.  Recipes for products at farmers market are tried, if they pass my critical palette then I allow my husband to try them.  After he tries them then I try to get one more person to try them before I allow them to go on the table for sale.  My most recent baking adventure includes cannolis. 

I am fairly confident in my pastry shells, although I know that I will no longer be substituting a red wine for a white anytime soon, but the filling is still a work in progress.  Many people know that the base for a cannoli filling is ricotta cheese.  While I have managed to get mine fairly smooth, "I" can still taste the ricotta consistency.  Last week we tried them at the market for the first time and they went over pretty well.  I was disappointed with my candied citrus zest, but DH told me that it was fine and I gave it shot anyway.

This week I will be trying chocolate chip cannolis and perhaps even some plain cannoli filling inside of a chocolate dipped cannoli shell.  We'll see how much time I have before we go to market tomorrow.

Farmers market day

Farmers market days are pretty busy around here.  During the summer there are vegetables to be harvested and washed, herbs to be cleaned and packaged, and baked goods to prepare.  Our vegetables are behind schedule this year due to other commitments, like an off farm job and a little man to take care of.  Today my day will start much like any other with my large mug of coffee which will accompany me to take care of whatever animals DH hasn't had the opportunity to tend to in between bottles, breakfast and morning play time.  Inside to clean off the kitchen table and baking cabinet of all the accumulations from the past couple of days.  Any morning dishes will be washed and the dishwasher and drying rack will be emptied of any of their clean dishes from the past day or so and readied for the next batches of dishes.
Then the organized chaos begins.  Any frozen fruit that I will be using for my baking will be removed from the freezer (or collected from the garden later in the summer) and placed on the table or immediately into the bowls from which it will be mixed.  Sticks of butter are removed from the refrigerator or freezer and placed on the table to soften.  Any eggs which are required to be at room temperature for various recipes are added to the supplies.  Fore the record, my kitchen table only seats six people.

Breads which have to rise are made first and placed in covered bowls on the kitchen table to rise.  Next comes the pie crusts.  I find that my crusts come out flakier if I chill them prior to baking.  Double batches of crust are made, the bottom crust rolled out on the baking rack, placed in the pie plate while the top crust stays in its bowl, both are then relegated to the refrigerator until the fillings are complete.  Bowls washed from the batches of bread are re-used for pie fillings.  Pies are completed and placed in the oven while the bread is removed from its first rise, placed in bread pans for its second rise.  Bowls washed again are re-used for whatever other delicious creation I am making for that days market.  Cookies, doughnuts, cannolis, breakfast bars, fruit tarts, dinner rolls, specialty breads - it doesn't helpt to write this post on an empty stomach.

Cooling racks replace covered bowls; defrosting butter and fruit is replaced by packages of freshly baked cookies.  Labels are meticulously prepared to be sure that all ingredients are reflected as allergies are commonplace nowadays.   Wrapping and packaging is completed and everything is packed into the car on top of the tables, the canopy, the bins fully of jellies and preserves, the box of other crafts and the bin full of supplies for the booth.  It is an organized chaos and on summer days the kitchen can get a little extra warm, but it is a labor of love. 

Resourcefulness

"Necessity is the mother of invention" - I don't know who said it originally, but I certainly live it everyday.

I don't live too far from the nearest store, but the operating hours of that store never seem to coincide with when I am trying a new recipe, when I run out of cat food or infant formula, or if I just need a little chocolate fix.  So at 8:45 p.m. after either working late at my off farm job or trying to squeeze in just five more minutes of greenhouse expansion before I cannot see past the end of my hand in the dark and I want a sandwich, the store is inevitably closed.  Thank goodness for the internet where I find a from scratch mayonnaise recipe.  There are a bunch of them out there and I have used whichever one was the handiest to I will let you find one specifically to your liking.

Running out of dishwasher detergent brought on another internet search.  Borax, washing soda and kosher salt - much to my delight - make dishwasher detergent.  These are items that I have on hand so I saved trip to the grocery store.  Come to find out that mixing these ingredients also saves a significant amount of money.

Fabric softener, while not a vital ingredient to acquire clean clothes, is something that I like to include in my washing ritual.  Mixing inexpensive hair conditioner, white vinegar and water creates a good fabric softening product.  Besides being a less costly option, the bonus is that you can find an inexpensive hair conditioner in unique scents like coconut making you think that even though you are sitting in your cubicle at work, it smells like you are wearing suntan lotion in Key West or Aruba.

Sometimes I find that I spend entirely too much time searching the internet for cost saving ideas and projects for the farm - but every once in a while I find something extremely useful.  It was a pretty good sandwich too.

Homemade bread can be taken for granted

It becomes very easy to take things for granted.  When I lived in Connecticut, I took for granted that I could get a pizza delivered to the house at one o’clock in the morning.  I also took for granted that that pizza was going to be a thin, New York style pizza with fresh mozzarella cheese and fresh basil with marinara sauce that did not come directly out of a can.

When I moved back to Vermont I realized that I would be giving up some of these conveniences in order to live in a rural setting with fresh air, no traffic and the opportunity to see more than two stars each night.

Now that I have been making fresh wholesome meals for me and my family, I had taken for granted the sheer delic-ee-ousity of homemade bread.  I make bread twice or three times a month for DH and I.  Additionally I make cookies, rolls, pies, cakes, etc. as need or desire warrant.  This weekend I had made fresh bread for the week and tried a new recipe for crusty rolls (like the kind I could get at any deli in Fairfield County, CT or Westchester County, NY; but you can’t find anywhere in VT). 

While we were waiting for the rest of dinner to cook, DH and I broke into the still warm loaf of wheat bread resting on the counter.  I had taken for granted how fantastically delicious a slice of warm, fresh baked bread with a slab of butter can be.

I ended up eating less dinner and I now have to make more bread for this week.

Irreplaceable baking tool

My paternal grandmother was not a great cook; she had several basic meals that she prepared which I thought were delicious, and since have learned differently.  While they were not going to win any awards for flavor or presentation, they were good, hearty, stick to your ribs meals which would keep you going throughout the day’s hard work until time for the next meal.  The one thing that she did make which I could never get enough of, were her incredible dinner rolls.

As soon as I was tall enough to reach the counter of the antique baking cabinet (which I rushed into by using an old milking stool), I was allowed to sink my hands into the warm, silky soft, floured dough and help shape the rolls for their last rise on special occasions such as a holiday meal or my grandfather’s birthday dinner.  She used two pieces of baking equipment which I consider irreplaceable in the baking process, a stoneware bowl and an old fashioned baking cabinet.

When I moved back to the family farm, the baking cabinet remained in the kitchen.  I don’t know that I ever remember my grandmother keeping flour and sugar in the sifters, but I remember rolling out lots of dough on the enamelware surface.  Today, the flour sifter is full and used almost daily for bread, pie crusts, cakes, gravies, or any other recipe which requires the white fluffy powder.  The sugar sifter remains unused as I think it stays fresher when stored in a sealable container.  Summers keep the enamelware counter full of freshly baked pies or breads bound for farmers market.  Dough for the loaves of bread rolled onto that counter came from one of the several stoneware bowls which I have acquired over the years at various yard sales and antique stores.

I have scoured antinque stores, online auctions, yard sales, and some very obscure little stores in the middle of rurality looking for my own baking cabinet only to discover that several hundred pie sales will be required before I am able to make that acquisition.  In the meantime, I will cherish the memories of four-year-old Jen, perched on a wobbly milking stool, shaping dinner rolls with my grandmother each time I roll out another pie crust or knead another loaf of bread. 

Slow-Cooker Success

I am a huge fan of the slow-cooker – dump in a pile of ingredients the night before, remove it from the refrigerator in the morning, set the cooker on low for 10 hours and when you get home from work, not only does the house smell delightful, but you have a delicious, wonderful and often nutritious meal waiting. 

This was not always the case.  For years I thought that the only thing that could come out of a slow-cooker was a grayish-looking, meat-like substance which once resembled chicken or beef – Forgive me, Mom.  She cannot be blamed for the shortcomings of her early slow-cooker meals.  The slow-cooker, or Crock-Pot® as many of us know it, was introduced to America in the early 1970’s.  It was a gift from the heavens to those working and single mothers who came home tired from working all day only then to have to cook a meal for their eagerly awaiting children.  When it was introduced, however, I don’t think sufficient re-education was provided.  Slow cookers retain much of the moisture which is present in the item being cooked; it is rarely necessary to add additional water or broth.  This was contrary to how many generations had been taught to cook.

Much of my cooking instruction came from my mother, including how to use my Crock-Pot®.  I don’t remember exactly when I was taught or read that additional liquid didn’t have to be added to my culinary creation in order for it not to burn; but today, unless I am making beans, soup or chili, I rarely add any additional liquid.  The meat simmers in its own juices rendering even the toughest cut of chuck into a delectable slow roasted delight.

I need to thank Jenna over at Cold Antler Farm for reminding me that I can use my Crock-Pot® to slow cook my tough old laying hens.  For several years I have been boiling them in order to de-rubberize the meat so that it could be used in a casserole or chicken and biscuits.  Recently Jenna posted about slow roasting her old hens, de-boning the meat and using it in a pot-pie.  The light bulb went on and I thought to myself, especially since it is fall and we are culling our non-layers to make room in the coop for winter, duh – I could be doing that too.

Two days later, out came the slow-cooker and in went one of the old frozen hens marked for stewing.  That afternoon the de-boned meat went into a chicken, cheddar and rice casserole.  Dinner was met with rave reviews and – “Wow, you can actually chew the chicken this time!”

Thanks again, Jenna!

Grilled Tomatoes

The weather has hinted at being a little bit warmer lately and my thoughts are turning to fresh garden vegetables.  In their absence, I must resort to that which comes from the grocery store.  DH and I use our grill all winter long, but the fresh steak and grilled tomatoes from the grill last week was just delicious.

Grilled Tomato Ingredients

Vine Ripe or Plum Tomatoes - or whatever is fresh out of the garden later this summer

Mozzarella, Parmesan, Cheddar, Pecorino (or other favorite) Cheese

Salt & Pepper

Olive Oil

Garlic

Preheat grill, spray rack with cooking spray

(be careful it will flare).

Slice tomatoes in half, season with salt and pepper - grill on both sides till almost tender.

Place sheet of aluminum foil on other half of grill - or if you have one of those vegetable holders for the grill that will work too - add some olive oil and garlic. 

Place tomatoes skin side down onto foil/holder.

Top with shredded cheese - close grill cover, cook for 1 - 3 minutes until cheese is melted.

I suggest tongs to remove tomatoes, it also helps them hold their shape so they don't fall apart.





Depending on the thickness of your steak, you can use 1/2 of the grill to cook the tomatoes and the other half to cook your steak.  Of course these go great with pretty much anything or even sandwiched between two slices of crusty italian bread by themselves.

Steak, haricots verts and grilled tomatoes - not bad for a healthy meal!