Local Frittata

We have eggs up the wazoo right now. Our chicks aren't producing yet (October), but we've found some local sources so I loaded up.

There's a (non certified) organic farm very close to us, Windjammer Farm where I bought a few dozen. These were added to the two Larry Schultz cartons of eggs that I actually found at Cash Wise. My MIL brought me some "Fertile Eggs," from Fertile, MN then Freddy and I visited the Mankato Farmers' Market on Thursday (which seems like a decent market). I bought some eggs and frozen OG chickens as well as some produce -like a quart of homegrown strawberries for only $4! It was a good trip. In general, I'm still in the exploring stage of moving and, so far, that is really focused around food sources. I still need to make it to the new St. Peter Food Co-op. Maybe today if it rains.

I'm considering selling some produce next year at the Mankato Farmers' Market, so I talked it up a bit with the vendors there. It has been a tough spring for growers which makes me want to put up some high tunnels and do things with a little more control over the elements. I'm still deciding what it is I'm going to plant next year. I'm going to see how things grow here, and so far, everything is coming along wonderfully in my garden plots. That said, there is plenty of time for disasters to arise this growing season. Weather and bugs being the most feared culprits. And deer.

In the meantime I'm enjoying my food searching. Suddenly, I found myself eating an almost 100% local frittata for lunch yesterday which must mean the season is moving along. Eggs from Windjammer, asparagus and steamed nettles from here, green onions from the farmers' market, and cheese from Wisconsin. Not bad! If only I had used some local butter instead of olive oil.

Aside from frittatas we are eating eggs as swedish pancakes, egg tortilla wraps, and egg salad in addition to our scrambled dishes for breakfasts. We will have them taken care of in no time.

Garden

This time of year was always so exciting on the farm, lists to make, seeds arriving in the mail, prepping the seed starting area for the onions that would soon be planted into trays...

This year FGH and I are going to have a garden in the backyard. I've been not so excited about it, since it's really quite a bit smaller than 40 acres, but now that I'm about to put the seed order in the mail I'm getting excited. We're renting here, so I don't want to add any more tilled area besides the 8'x8' garden spot that already exists. So, I'm planning on some major container gardening. I've never done this and I'm a little nervous. I will continue to have a CSA box every week from our old farm (now loon organics) as a back up.

My list so far:

For containers:

Tomatoes (of course)

Bell Peppers

Peas (trellised in a pot)

Herbs (Basil, Parsley, Oregano for sure)

Salad Mix

Precious Garden Plot Area:

Green Beans

Herbs (Basil, Parsley, Oregano for sure)

Kale (a lot of bang for your buck space-wise)

Heads of Lettuce

Zucchini (trellised)

Cuke (trellised)

Spinach

Radish

Things I'm NOT growing:

brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, caul, bok choy...)

potatoes

winter squash

corn-I have always thought it so funny when home gardeners plant 6 stalks of corn!

everything else

I really like fresh eggplant, but it takes up some footage....might try it in a pot...we'll see.

If anyone has some container growing advice send it this way. I'll do some googling about it. I'm going to need a lot of pots, too. Hmmmm. I'm guessing water will be the biggest factor. I will have a toddler helping me, and he will probably REALLY like the hose next summer so TOO much water is probably the actual problem with those pots.

Here's a gardening journal that will find it's way into my shop soon. It's a journal made from a variety of papers from the "Veggie Line." I may have to keep it for my own gardening notes come to think of it.

Baby Bok Choy Stir Fry

Happy Solstice!

Summer is finally here and we have a fridge full of fresh produce waiting to be eaten. Our CSA started last week and it is super fun. Since I know a bit about CSAs already I have quite the "game plan" for dealing with our weekly share:

1. I will bring some shopping bags to each weekly pick-up site and fill them up, leaving the box out of our cluttered house.

2. I plan on washing and trimming all the produce before putting it away. It is being stored in tupperware and reused spinach clam shells (you know, the huge rectangular plastic containers that spinach and salad greens are packed into).

3. There shall be no rationing. All of the produce is so delicious fresh that it's best to gobble it up. There has not been a problem thus far of running out since I've also been volunteering at the farm for some extra stuff. It would be much worse to have something spoil.

4. Salads for lunch every day.

That's all I have so far. The biggest difference so far between joining a CSA and living on a CSA farm is that I have this urgency to use everything up. When we were living at the farm, it was like,

"Oh, half a head of lettuce left? Just feed it to the chickens and we'll pick more tomorrow. "

and now it's,

"Use every bit, rehydrate that fallen leaf and it will be as good as new."

Here's a pre-CSA baby bok choy stir fry that I was cooking up after snagging a boxload of greens after an afternoon of volunteer hand weeding a couple of weeks ago. It's so pretty.

Heating Up the Kitchen

I am growing tired of cooking as evidenced by the last few meals of bread, cheese, avocado, and salad.  That still sounds good, actually, but I know the boy(s) in the house enjoy the casseroles.

  

OK, I like them too, it is comfort food after all. 

Tonight I have the kitchen heated up with a couple big pots of food bubbling away.*  These should last a few days (or longer since I got a little creative on one recipe and that's not always the best idea...it may be in the fridge collecting fuzz for a couple of weeks).

Curried Lentils

I make this often.  The boy likes it and you can throw all sorts of veggies in it.  He likes the curry.  Go figure.

1/2 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 carrots, cubed 

1/2 head cauliflower, cubed (baby-sized chunks)

1 white potato, cubed

1 large sweet potato, cubed

olive oil

salt

2 tablespoons curry powder

2 tablespoons tomato paste

4 or so cups of broth (chicken or veg)

2 cups red lentils

frozen peas

Saute onions in olive oil until soft, add garlic and carrots and saute another 5-10 minutes.  Add curry and saute a few seconds.  Add tomato paste, potato, sweet potato, broth, lentils, and plenty of salt.  Bring to a boil and then reduce and almost fully cover with lid.  Simmer for a good 20 minutes or until veggies are soft and lentils have turned into a good mush-consistency.  Mmmmm, mush...great word choice.  Add peas.  

Split Pea Quinoa Casserole

1/2 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 head cauli, chopped

olive oil

2 tablespoons herbs d' provence

splash of plum vinegar (or another tasty vinegar)

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1 cup uncooked split peas

5 cups broth (chicken or veg)

1 can wild salmon

salt

saute onions and garlic in olive oil until browning, add cauliflower and herbs d' provence, and salt and saute another 10 minutes.  Add the splash of vinegar.  Mix mixture with quinoa, split peas, and broth in a 9x13 (or comparable round) baking dish.  Evenly distribute sections of the salmon throughout casserole.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes, covered, checking and stirring half-way through.  

I think next time I'll add mushrooms and maybe asparagus.

*It is now out of the oven and quite tasty. 

Spring Frittata

Mmmmmmm.  Seasonal eating just got a lot tastier in Minnesota with the first spring greens arriving at the the farmers' markets.  We visited the Mill City Farmers' Market on Saturday to visit our old farm's new owners, Loon Organics.  We'll be picking up our CSA share there this summer.  

We ended up with a big canvas bag full of very familiar produce. Hey, isn't that the asparagus we planted?  Who knew the produce grown on that particular land would look a certain way, even after we moved?  It's something I never thought about.  Isn't asparagus always the same?  No.  After purchasing or at least browsing through asparagus in the local co-ops and grocery stores it was apparent right away that it was our asparagus, the long stems that grow about 14" in one day because they were planted on a uber-fertile former cow yard.  Pretty cool, I think.

We also loaded up with baby bok choy, radishes, and mesclun mix.  I'm so excited to be cooking with farm-fresh produce again...It was a long winter. 

I cooked up a spring frittata that turned out quite well.  Peter loved it.  I loved it, and most importantly, the little man in the house devoured it.  

I threw our radish greens in with the remaining 1/2 bunch of asparagus, a can of wild salmon, and some farm eggs.  I'm always looking for ways to use up radish greens.  They're so healthy yet I don't love their texture in raw salads.  At the farm we threw them to the chickens, but now we're actually buying them and we don't have chickens.   It was simple and oh so good.

Spring Frittata with Salmon

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 bunch radish greens, chopped

1/2 bunch asparagus, ends removed, chopped into 1 inch segments

6 eggs

1/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.  

Add asparagus, saute for a few minutes then add a splash of water and cook until slightly softened, 5- 10 minutes, or until water is evaporated.

Whisk eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and cheese together.

Add radish greens to skillet and cook for about 1 minute or until wilted.

Add can of salmon (drained first) and cook for another minute or so.

Pour egg mixture over salmon and veggies, stir together once,then let simmer over burner until somewhat set in the middle.

Place under boiler until firm, about 2-4 minutes.

We ate our frittata at room temperature which I think is the best.  

I love the versatile frittata, it allows a delicious quick meal made with whatever is in the pantry or produce drawer.

CSA

After one warm day, I am filled with spring fever. 45 degrees in January in Minnesota is like a tropical vacation. Seriously, as I was jogging behind the jogging stroller I told a sidewalk-scraping St. Paulian that 45 is hot enough, I was sweating buckets. Spring fever usually gets me excited to plant the first seeds and to finalize all the CSA plans for the upcoming growing season. Since we are no longer on the farm or running a CSA, I started to feel sad and bitter...again...about moving away from the farm. I emailed Loon Organics (they bought our farm) and decided to join their CSA this year. I thought it would be a great way to keep in touch with the farm, Toblerone, and hopefully some of our members. I will really really miss all the produce so it should help to get a full box every week. We will be picking up at the Mill City Farmers' Market in Minneapolis every Saturday morning. The new farmers (I call them the loons), will be selling produce as early as May 9 with hoophouse greens (yum!) I'm very excited to visit this market, as we had no time to do such things the past 6 summers while farming. I also signed up for the tomato share, salsa, greens, and pesto share (which were very popular amongst our August Earth members). It will be very interesting to experience a CSA from the other end. As for playing in the dirt (another thing I will greatly miss), I plan on getting a community garden plot, helping friends with their gardens (Sarah for one) and volunteering at "the" farm (our old farm). I feel like this farm transfer may end up like an open adoption. Hopefully.

A shot from last spring in the greenhouse with new onions, brassica seedlings, and spinach poking up in the background: