Morning temp: 72F
Afternoon high: 90F
Tonight's projected low: 69F
Wind: NE at 6 mph
Humidity: 52%
Moon: Waxing, 99% Full
1. It's been extraordinarily hot here, so hot that working outside beyond 11am is a bit insane by my standards. Raised in New England, I've never really gotten used to the heat here in the South, even after 25+ years.
2. We're harvesting some wonderful vegetables from the Garden on a daily basis, Sungold and Black Cherry Tomatoes, Squash and Cucumbers just to start.
3. As M indicated in her post, we've also been visiting a Saturday morning market where local farmers come to sell their food. There seem to be two sorts of folks who attend. The first kind are specifically seeking local produce, either out of some ethical impulse (shipping food across the country is fantastically unwise in about a hundred major ways), or because they realize that food grown locally is not just fresh, they're better food. If you're running Money Mart Empire, and you want to ship California Tomatoes to Virginia, what kinds of Tomatoes will you want? The kind that taste great but don't tolerate shipping very well? Or the kind that tolerate shipping but are washed out and tasteless? At real markets with real farmers, the kinds of tomatoes available are themselves superior to those at Money Mart.
The other sort of patron seems to be the curiosity seeker, perhaps expecting that food grown locally would be far less expensive - after all, what kind of truly successful person would grow food for a living? I believe we were beset by such patrons this last Saturday. While M was picking her way carefully through the crowds of shoppers eagerly buying up the last of Spring Onions, Strawberries and Turnips, one fellow in front of me looked down at the baskets of produce, at the signs posted here and there, at his wife, and burst out in disbelief, "I can't believe you're going to pay this much for some food!", and stalked off to wait in the car. Well, there's always Money Mart, where tasteless veggies sit waiting, after a 2,000 mile, gasoline sucking, climate-warming truck ride!
4. 51% of all gasoline used in America is used to transport food across the country. In 80% or more of these instances, this food could easily be grown locally.
Friday, June 29, 2007
I Can Has Locally Grown Grass-fed Cheezburger?
K and I have started visiting a Saturday morning farmers' market in our county. We've been able to purchase leeks, onions, garlic (for a taste test at home against our own) sweet little Japanese turnips, strawberries, eggplant, eggs, and grass-fed beef. Next week, one of the farmers will have free-range chicken available.
The farmers' market is satisfying on so many levels. First, there is David, the "garlic guy." He has lots of other veggies and eggs -- but the first time we met him he treated us to such an eloquent, intelligent, informative lecture on the various varieties of garlic, when they should be harvested, how long they need to cure before being eaten...that he will always be "the garlic guy." Last week we bought some turnips from him. K was under the impression that he hates turnips. So David grabbed one, peeled it with his pocket knife and sliced us each a little sweet sliver of turnip. K started filling a bag with turnips so fast that he actually started a run on the turnips.
And then there were the strawberries. They were red all the way through. They brought back sense memories from when I was a little girl eating strawberries. These strawberries had a complexity of flavor that isn't available from a strawberry grown 2000 miles away. Kenny was eating them so fast that his hands were a blur.
The beef has been the big prize. I had almost no experience cooking grass-fed beef. It is leaner than grain fed beef, so it can get tough, or dry, or rapidly overdone. The first week we bought ground beef. The second, T-bones. Last week we bought a London broil and a sirloin tip roast.
Here is my recipe for grass-fed cheezburgers.
1 lb grass-fed ground beef
3 bulbs of garlic (no, I don't mean cloves)
1 small onion
1/8 cup + 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of water
1 free range egg, lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Place the unpeeled onion with the unpeeled bulbs of garlic (yes, really, the whole damned head!) in a piece of aluminum foil. Sprinkle with the tablespoon of olive oil and the tablespoon of water. Fold the aluminum foil around the onion and garlic, making a sealed packet. Place in preheated oven for one hour. (This step can be done a day or so in advance -- roasted garlic and onion are actually really nice things to have in your fridge to add flavor to all sorts of recipes.) Remove packet, open it and let the garlic and onion cool. Once cool, squeeze the creamy roasted garlic out of it's skin and peel the onion. Run a knife through these ingredients, making sure that there aren't any too big pieces.
Place ground beef in a medium mixing bowl. Add the egg, the remaining olive oil and the roasted, minced garlic and onion plus a bit of salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly with your freshly washed bare hands. Form four patties. Salt and pepper the outside of the patties.
Cook in a non-stick pan over medium heat with a smear of olive oil. Place slices of your favorite cheese on the patties after you flip them, letting it melt as the burgers cook. I prefer a nice cheddar.
For the safest burger, you should use a meat thermometer and cook your burger to an internal temperature of 160 degrees. As a nurse, I recommend this -- especially if you are using grain-fed beef. I believe grass-fed beef to be less dangerous and I enjoy it at medium rare, 130-140 degrees. However you like your beef, I think using a meat thermometer the first few times you cook with grass-fed ground beef is probably a good idea. It just cooks faster.
Serve on a good bun!
Michael Pollan, in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma, does a really good job of explaining why grass-fed beef is safer (microbially speaking) than grain fed.
The farmers' market is satisfying on so many levels. First, there is David, the "garlic guy." He has lots of other veggies and eggs -- but the first time we met him he treated us to such an eloquent, intelligent, informative lecture on the various varieties of garlic, when they should be harvested, how long they need to cure before being eaten...that he will always be "the garlic guy." Last week we bought some turnips from him. K was under the impression that he hates turnips. So David grabbed one, peeled it with his pocket knife and sliced us each a little sweet sliver of turnip. K started filling a bag with turnips so fast that he actually started a run on the turnips.
And then there were the strawberries. They were red all the way through. They brought back sense memories from when I was a little girl eating strawberries. These strawberries had a complexity of flavor that isn't available from a strawberry grown 2000 miles away. Kenny was eating them so fast that his hands were a blur.
The beef has been the big prize. I had almost no experience cooking grass-fed beef. It is leaner than grain fed beef, so it can get tough, or dry, or rapidly overdone. The first week we bought ground beef. The second, T-bones. Last week we bought a London broil and a sirloin tip roast.
Here is my recipe for grass-fed cheezburgers.
1 lb grass-fed ground beef
3 bulbs of garlic (no, I don't mean cloves)
1 small onion
1/8 cup + 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of water
1 free range egg, lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Place the unpeeled onion with the unpeeled bulbs of garlic (yes, really, the whole damned head!) in a piece of aluminum foil. Sprinkle with the tablespoon of olive oil and the tablespoon of water. Fold the aluminum foil around the onion and garlic, making a sealed packet. Place in preheated oven for one hour. (This step can be done a day or so in advance -- roasted garlic and onion are actually really nice things to have in your fridge to add flavor to all sorts of recipes.) Remove packet, open it and let the garlic and onion cool. Once cool, squeeze the creamy roasted garlic out of it's skin and peel the onion. Run a knife through these ingredients, making sure that there aren't any too big pieces.
Place ground beef in a medium mixing bowl. Add the egg, the remaining olive oil and the roasted, minced garlic and onion plus a bit of salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly with your freshly washed bare hands. Form four patties. Salt and pepper the outside of the patties.
Cook in a non-stick pan over medium heat with a smear of olive oil. Place slices of your favorite cheese on the patties after you flip them, letting it melt as the burgers cook. I prefer a nice cheddar.
For the safest burger, you should use a meat thermometer and cook your burger to an internal temperature of 160 degrees. As a nurse, I recommend this -- especially if you are using grain-fed beef. I believe grass-fed beef to be less dangerous and I enjoy it at medium rare, 130-140 degrees. However you like your beef, I think using a meat thermometer the first few times you cook with grass-fed ground beef is probably a good idea. It just cooks faster.
Serve on a good bun!
Michael Pollan, in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma, does a really good job of explaining why grass-fed beef is safer (microbially speaking) than grain fed.
Monday, June 11, 2007
The Past Two Weeks.
Morning temp: 75F
Afternoon High: 87F
Tonight's projected low: 65F
Wind: E at 6 mph
Humidity: 94%
Overall; So far, it's been cloudy, misty and raining all morning. Let's see it raining today and every day this week!
1. As you might imagine, M's injury (a broken foot from a fall in a very dark parking lot at work) has really slowed us both down considerably. Still, and perhaps miraculously, we have made progress on a number of fronts.
2. Mr. Garden's Pattypan eyes, Zucchini nose and mustache, and Eggplant mouth signal a new phase in Spring/Summer harvests!
3. After the Deer Attack a few weeks back, and the ever-slower pace of bentwood fence building, we decided to use welded wire fencing. 100' was plenty, costing about $130.00, and the posts already laid in worked perfectly. No more bunnies and deer munching on our Polebeans, Sweet Potatoes and Beets! The first shot below shows the Eastern side of the fence stretching away from the Sugar Maple in the back yard. The second shows the South side of the fence, already finished in bentwood. We still plan on constructing one bentwood wood gate for the Eastern side.
4. M discovered a spray mixture that seems to have detered the bugs who were formerly chewing big holes in our Collards and Eggplants: Cayene Pepper, Dish Soap, Garlic and Onion.
5. We harvested the remaining Garlic, and let it dry (or "cure") on our the back porch for two weeks. We tried to provide lots of room for air to circulate over and underneath to avoid rotting.
6. Once dry, we brought the Garlic into the kitchen, laid them out on two old towels, clipped their stalks, tied them up with string into bundles of 10, and hung them up for storage over the fireplace. We gave one bundle to my folks upstairs, and we're sending one bundle to M's folks. That leaves us 8 bundles for us.
7. We count the Garlic a success, an experiment that shows us not only that we can grow our own Garlic, but the quantity we can expect out of a 5 x 5 Bed. In the future, we'll need probably 10 Beds of this size for a year's supply.
8. While pulling up some wayward volunteer Potato stalks growing in the Cucumber Bed, I discoverd a number of wonderful Ukon Golds! What's amazing about this is that we did nothing to assist these Potatoes, just let them be.
Afternoon High: 87F
Tonight's projected low: 65F
Wind: E at 6 mph
Humidity: 94%
Overall; So far, it's been cloudy, misty and raining all morning. Let's see it raining today and every day this week!
1. As you might imagine, M's injury (a broken foot from a fall in a very dark parking lot at work) has really slowed us both down considerably. Still, and perhaps miraculously, we have made progress on a number of fronts.
2. Mr. Garden's Pattypan eyes, Zucchini nose and mustache, and Eggplant mouth signal a new phase in Spring/Summer harvests!
3. After the Deer Attack a few weeks back, and the ever-slower pace of bentwood fence building, we decided to use welded wire fencing. 100' was plenty, costing about $130.00, and the posts already laid in worked perfectly. No more bunnies and deer munching on our Polebeans, Sweet Potatoes and Beets! The first shot below shows the Eastern side of the fence stretching away from the Sugar Maple in the back yard. The second shows the South side of the fence, already finished in bentwood. We still plan on constructing one bentwood wood gate for the Eastern side.
4. M discovered a spray mixture that seems to have detered the bugs who were formerly chewing big holes in our Collards and Eggplants: Cayene Pepper, Dish Soap, Garlic and Onion.
5. We harvested the remaining Garlic, and let it dry (or "cure") on our the back porch for two weeks. We tried to provide lots of room for air to circulate over and underneath to avoid rotting.
6. Once dry, we brought the Garlic into the kitchen, laid them out on two old towels, clipped their stalks, tied them up with string into bundles of 10, and hung them up for storage over the fireplace. We gave one bundle to my folks upstairs, and we're sending one bundle to M's folks. That leaves us 8 bundles for us.
7. We count the Garlic a success, an experiment that shows us not only that we can grow our own Garlic, but the quantity we can expect out of a 5 x 5 Bed. In the future, we'll need probably 10 Beds of this size for a year's supply.
8. While pulling up some wayward volunteer Potato stalks growing in the Cucumber Bed, I discoverd a number of wonderful Ukon Golds! What's amazing about this is that we did nothing to assist these Potatoes, just let them be.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Morning temp: 60F
Afternoon high: 81F
Tonight's projected low: 61F
Wind: NW at 13 mph
Humidity: 61%
Moon: Waning, 85%
Overall: we've had rows of dark clouds, and sprinkles of rain. We're grateful, and likewise hoping for as much rain as the rain kami would like to give us, gently though!
Getting Caught Up.
1. A few nights past, M tripped over a cement block in a pitch-black parking lot leaving work. As a result, she fractured a bone in her foot, which will take 6 - 8 weeks to heal. We're not certain yet as to whether she'll need surgery. So, I'm somewhat behind on my blogging.
2. Meanwhile, the Potatoes have grow like crazy, and we're late in mulching them. No, this is not a viking burial mound.
3. The Corn, however, has certainly not grown out of control. Last year we double-planted (i.e., planted pairs of seeds side by side, to better the odds of getting full rows), but in each case both seeds germinated, and we had corn stalk pairs everywhere. This year, we single-planted, and only a few seeds germinated, giving us a modest corn patch thus far : (
4. The Bread making, however, continues to develop nicely. Our next Bread Day, probably tomorrow unless a doctor's appointment gets in the way, we'll post the steps of our current recipee, with photos for each.
Afternoon high: 81F
Tonight's projected low: 61F
Wind: NW at 13 mph
Humidity: 61%
Moon: Waning, 85%
Overall: we've had rows of dark clouds, and sprinkles of rain. We're grateful, and likewise hoping for as much rain as the rain kami would like to give us, gently though!
Getting Caught Up.
1. A few nights past, M tripped over a cement block in a pitch-black parking lot leaving work. As a result, she fractured a bone in her foot, which will take 6 - 8 weeks to heal. We're not certain yet as to whether she'll need surgery. So, I'm somewhat behind on my blogging.
2. Meanwhile, the Potatoes have grow like crazy, and we're late in mulching them. No, this is not a viking burial mound.
3. The Corn, however, has certainly not grown out of control. Last year we double-planted (i.e., planted pairs of seeds side by side, to better the odds of getting full rows), but in each case both seeds germinated, and we had corn stalk pairs everywhere. This year, we single-planted, and only a few seeds germinated, giving us a modest corn patch thus far : (
4. The Bread making, however, continues to develop nicely. Our next Bread Day, probably tomorrow unless a doctor's appointment gets in the way, we'll post the steps of our current recipee, with photos for each.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Let-us give thanks for a great season!
Morning temp: 60F
Afternoon high: 86F
Tonight's projected low: 62F
Wind: N at 0 mph
Humidity: 69%
Moon: 100% full O
This Morning.
1. With the Lettuce bolting (we just noticed that all of the freshly cut plants grew back quick and straight and narrow), we're marking May 31st as the official end of our Lettuce season. Thank you Spirits of the Lettuce Bed for a wonderful and prolonged harvest, blessing us with too many meals to count (though in the future I would like to see just how many we get from year to year)! I'll soon dig-in the remaining plants, and prepare the soil for a planting of something new.
2. I'm off to purchase two additional soaker hoses, lay them out in one of the officially sanctioned Potato Beds, and mulch the Bed with straw. I'm healing a strain in my right upper back/shoulder, so we'll see how far this work goes.
3. The new, lighter, baguette-style Bread recipe we've derived is wonderful. I'm considering a entry soon that documents each step, for anyone out there who's just a few steps behind us in Breadmaking.
This Afternoon.
1. With rain coming tomorrow (Thank Goodness & welcome rain Spirits! We need you badly!), we're planning to harvest all remaining Garlic this afternoon. I'll dig this Bed and prepare it for something new as well.
Afternoon high: 86F
Tonight's projected low: 62F
Wind: N at 0 mph
Humidity: 69%
Moon: 100% full O
This Morning.
1. With the Lettuce bolting (we just noticed that all of the freshly cut plants grew back quick and straight and narrow), we're marking May 31st as the official end of our Lettuce season. Thank you Spirits of the Lettuce Bed for a wonderful and prolonged harvest, blessing us with too many meals to count (though in the future I would like to see just how many we get from year to year)! I'll soon dig-in the remaining plants, and prepare the soil for a planting of something new.
2. I'm off to purchase two additional soaker hoses, lay them out in one of the officially sanctioned Potato Beds, and mulch the Bed with straw. I'm healing a strain in my right upper back/shoulder, so we'll see how far this work goes.
3. The new, lighter, baguette-style Bread recipe we've derived is wonderful. I'm considering a entry soon that documents each step, for anyone out there who's just a few steps behind us in Breadmaking.
This Afternoon.
1. With rain coming tomorrow (Thank Goodness & welcome rain Spirits! We need you badly!), we're planning to harvest all remaining Garlic this afternoon. I'll dig this Bed and prepare it for something new as well.
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