Veggie Dinner Last Night

With no kids home last night, John and I decided to have an all vegetable dinner. We picked everything from the garden just before eating! What a meal. Eating food grown in your own backyard is about as local as it gets!!!

Quotation

"The participatory nature of local food systems holds tremendous power, not merely to secure and understand the cycle and source of our nourishment, but to reawaken a sense of responsibility for and toward the communities in which we live. To assume accountability for our food is to assume accountability for our lives." Ben Hewitt, The Town That Food Saved

Dinner Last Night

I love summer! The warm weather is great but more importantly the fresh food! We really enjoyed the local potatoes last night. I served them with our lamb, carrots from last year and Swiss Chard and Zucchini picked from the garden! It really was fantastic!

Organic Potatoes

I had a great surprise yesterday when I visited Galen Farms to purchase Raw Milk. Another milk customer was selling Local Organic Potatoes, Squash and Yellow Beans! I purchased the Organic Yukon Golds! -Having them for dinner tonight with Lamb!

Homemade Black Cherry Icecream

This was fantastic! I'm not a huge fan of Black Cherry ice cream, but this won me over! I made jelly with the juice that I drained off the cherries John had picked me a couple weeks ago...pictured a few posts back. I used the jelly with heavy cream and our eggs! I also saved some of the whole cherries in the freezer and threw a large handful in! Beautiful!!

Thinning the Turnips

I went to thin the turnips yesterday and realized I should have sooner! We had several large ones. I thinned out the larger ones and served them boiled with butter. If anyone has a great turnip recipe, please share!! They are nice boiled, but I would really like another way to prepare them.

Costata Romanesco

I harvested our first summer squash plants this morning. Very excited to try the Italian heirloom green striped zucchini, Costata Romanesco! It is said to be the best tasting squash in the world! We will see.......

Swiss Chard

I harvested more Swiss Chard this morning for the freezer. Our goal is to have a green item on the plate once a day! I have seen several road side stands in Penn Yan with Swiss Chard and Spinach. If you have not had Chard before, you should really give it a try! It is fantastic! This version doesn't get as tall or stalky either-Bietola Da Coste Riccia Da Taglio.

Sweet Black Cherries

Summer is truly flying by too fast. It seems I have not had even a minute to post any news! I will try to make up for it:) Recently John picked me a large bowl of sweet Black Cherries. We have several Cherry trees on our farm. I froze a bag and cooked and drained the rest for jelly!

10 Reasons to Drink Raw Milk

Great article....check it out on-line at.... http://nourishedkitchen.com/10-reasons-drink-raw-milk/ Purchase raw milk from Galens Homestead Acres, located in Clifton Spring New York!
http://www.galenshomesteadacres.blogspot.com/

Peas!

OK, for all the locavores, there is just no excuse to not eat fresh vegetables! The local stands are full of chard, spinach, asparagus, lettuce, rhubarb and now peas!!

Hunt Country Vineyards

My daughter and I visited Hunt Country Vineyards last week. We had a fantastic time tasting wines and shopping in their gift shop! Everyone at Hunt Country is wonderful to talk to and we were treated to a personal wine tasting with Joyce Hunt! She graciously came over to the tasting room after just giving her Bernese Mountain Dog, Hedy a bath. I was very impressed with several of their wines and purchased many to take home to enjoy for the summer. To visit Hunt Country check out their website at: www.huntwines.com or find them on facebook!

Chipotle

Check out Chipotle's "Food with Integrity" Pledge. Come to the Chipotle Fundraiser Event and support your NY state farmers! Next Tuesday - The new Chipotle on Mount Hope is opening and featuring this special deal! Support your local farmers! For your $5 donation, you'll receive a burrito, chips & salsa or guacamole, and a fountain drink. The first 300 customers in the door will also receive a canvas farmers market bag and organic seed packets!

100% of proceeds will benefit local farms supported by NOFA-NY.

Read more about Chipotle's at http://www.chipotle.com/#/land

Farm To Table -Local Wine and Food Tasting This Friday Night!

Local Wine & Food Tasting
Friday, June 4, 2010
5 pm - 8 pm
New York Chiropractic College
Seneca Falls, NY


Vendors Include: Cayuga Sunrise, Glenora Wine Cellars, Knapp Vineyard, Montezuma Winery, Muranda Cheese Co. Finger Lakes Culinary Bounty, Ventosa Vineyards, Billsboro Winery

This event looks fantastic! Saturday Conference with Speakers and Exhibitors offered as well. See their website: http://www.pathwayswellnessprogram.com/finger_lakes_farm_to_table.html

Radishes

Yesterday I came home with local asparagus, strawberries, radishes, spinach and rhubarb! Made a huge spinach and radish salad for dinner! Was really refreshing! I am not a huge radish fan, but in the salad and fresh they really are great.

Spinach

Spinach has hit the local produce stands! Great steamed or use for fresh spinach salad!

Pasture Butter

Pasture butter is made from the milk of cows that graze on fresh grass in the summer. It's rich in Vitamin E, Beta-carotene, and Selenium. Studies have found it contains more cancer-fighting conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) and a healthier ratio of heart-protective Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids than traditional butter. Check out Galen's Homestead Acres and purchase raw milk to make your own! http://galenshomesteadacres.blogspot.com/

Quotation

"The cheap-food boom has been seductively comfortable for us all. Let's face it: Farming is damn hard work, typically done for damnable pay. By relinquishing this burden, by handing the reins to the corporations, we relieved ourselves of a lot of backaches, sunburns, and financial strains. We struck a deal: The agribusinesses got a guaranteed chunk of our income and our full faith in their ability to keep us sustained. In return, we got to pursue lifestyles that don't resolve around the soil and toil and that allow us a measure of leisure time unprecedented in human history. In early 2009, American television viewing reached an all-time record of a stunning 151 hours per month. That's more than five hours per day, and let's be clear about something: You and I don't get to sprawl across the sofa masticating pork rinds and watching American Idol unless someone else is growing the food." Ben Hewitt, The Town That Food Saved.

Quotation

Ellie gave me a copy of Michael Pollan's latest book, Food Rules An Eater's Manual. It is a small paperback containing 64 'rules' about eating healthy. If you have not read The Omnivore's Dilemma, I suggest reading this book. It is much shorter and will inspire you to think further about what you are putting into your mouth each meal. "Rule 44-Pay more, eat less. Americans spend less than 10 percent of their income on food, less than the citizens of any other nation." Michael Pollan, Food Rules

Stewed Rhubarb

With so much Rhubarb at the roadside stands I wanted to find a good way to eat more of it without making a pie! This stewed Rhubarb was easy and absolutely delicious. Serve it with ice cream or as we had it tonight, with homemade tapioca cream. Awesome! Try googling rhubarb and learn the many health benefits too :)