Jun
27
Way Fruit Farm, Fruit Smoothies, and Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie
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Today we stopped by Way Fruit Farm, a local grower famous most recently for a campaign stop by Republican Vice Presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin. The Way family have been farming here since 1826. Throughout the season, they’ll have all sorts of fruits including strawberries, blueberries, cherries, apples, and pumpkins. Unfortunately for us, the only fruit available today were strawberries and cherries.
The strawberries are compact and darkly colored. The flavor is perfect: both tangy and sweet.
For dessert tonight, we’re making a strawberry-rhubarb pie. We’re using the rhubarb we froze from the first CSA share a month ago. I’ll write more about it later.
We’ve been making fresh fruit smoothies (recipe below) every night for the past week and were anxious to get some fresh, local fruit for next week.
Fruit Smoothie
1/2 c. strawberries, sliced (about five decent-sized berries)
1/3 c. blueberries
1/3 c. red raspberries
1/3 c. blackberries
1-2 tbsp. sugar, to taste
8-10 fresh ice cubes
Place all of the ingredients in a blender. Pulse until thoroughly blended. Add ice or water to thicken or thin as needed. Serve and drink immediately.
Makes approximately 16-18 oz. of smoothie.
You can substitute whatever berries you have on hand or are in season for you.
We’ve also added a small amount of V-8 Splash to the mix for added flavor.
Jun
25
Notes Toward an Automated Garden
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I’m following Pothos on Twitter. I’m fascinated by the idea of the Botanicalls kit. In particular, I’m interested in its possible application to my garden. To that end, I’ve outlined a three-phase plan to fully automate watering my garden.
Phase one:
A Botanicalls unit networked over wifi, powered by solar power and enclosed in an all-weather box, emails me when the garden needs to be watered.
Phase two:
Addition of rechargeable battery pack to box to enable nighttime watering. Addition of automatic sprinkler system. Botanicalls sends commands to start and stop watering as needed.
Phase three:
Addition of weather report module. Before activating sprinkler, queries NOAA report and parses data to determine if rain is likely in the next 24 hours. If it will rain, watering is postponed.
This is obviously a work in progress, but that is what I am ultimately envisioning. I’m sure there are commercial systems out there — in fact, I have seen them — but I’m also sure they can’t beat a DIY system on price or sheer enjoyment of building something.
Jun
23
Pesto Chicken with Pasta
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We have been getting so many vegetables from the CSA, and I haven’t been sharing what we’re doing with them. Last night’s dinner was one I must share.
We began by knowing we wanted to make a pesto sauce with the fresh basil and fresh garlic scapes we received in Friday’s share. The obvious use was on pasta. And then we needed some protein. Chicken was the obvious choice as well.
Onward to the recipes!
Pesto Chicken with Pasta
1 box pasta shells, or other pasta of choice
1 lb. chicken breast, cut into 1″ cubes
salt
pepper
Pesto sauce (recipe below)
Cook pasta according to directions on the package. Drain and place in large serving bowl.
Coat the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil. Heat to medium-high heat. Sautee the chicken cubes. Once they are thoroughly cooked, remove from pan and set aside.
Combine pasta, sautéed chicken cubes, and pesto sauce in a large serving bowl. Toss to coat the pasta and chicken with the pesto sauce. Serve with a simple side salad.
Pesto sauce
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 c. fresh basil, chopped
1/2 c. fresh garlic scapes, chopped
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
1/3 c. pine nuts
salt & pepper to taste
Combine the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until fully combined. Adjust the ingredients to taste.
We served it with a chilled bottle of Caves Aliança 2008 Vinho Verde, a fruity, slightly bubbly white wine from Portugal.
(Once again, I forgot to take pictures.)
Jun
11
Full Circle Farms CSA Blog
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Our friends at Full Circle Farms have resumed blogging. They’re at fullcirclefarmscsa.blogspot.com.
Jun
3
Locally-Sourced BLTs
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I really need to start taking photos of these meals before we eat them.
Last night we made Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato (BLT) sandwiches for dinner. It was a very “local” meal. The bread was from a local baker who buys her grain from a local farmer and grinds it herself. (If I knew her name, I’d share it, but my mother buys the bread when the lady comes to her office and I’ve never met her myself.) The lettuce came from our CSA through Full Circle Farms. The bacon was from a 4-H hog bought by my wife’s boss at last year’s Grange Fair Junior Livestock Auction. The only non-local ingredient was the tomatoes, which were from a pack of vine-ripened, hydroponically grown tomatoes I picked up at one of our grocery stores.
We also made fried potatoes with some of the spuds we picked up at the Boalsburg Farmer’s Market last Tuesday. Those came out surprisingly well. I sliced the potatoes, with skin on, into 1/4″ pieces and fried them in oil in a skillet on the stove.
Jun
2
Bellefonte Repeals Farmers Market Limits
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Bellefonte Borough Council voted 5-4 last night to repeal the ordinance that had limited vendors at the Farmers Market to only those who grew their products locally. The change takes effect for the 2010 Market.
I’m pretty sure this amounts to a distinction without a difference. As I understood it, the original reason for the limitation was to promote local agriculture. I don’t think we’ll see growers trucking produce in from California, Florida and Mexico all the way to Bellefonte. I don’t think we’ll even see growers show up from beyond Centre county. What we will see is a number of vendors who otherwise have been unable to sell their goods. If the net effect is a wider selection of locally-grown produce, and increased access to a market for area growers, then the change will be for the better. Again, I don’t think we’ll see much change next year, and any change we do see will be positive.
