Recipes for the Overwhelmed...

Is your fridge full of greens now? Are you having trouble keeping up with them? Don't worry, we've got some helpful tips for you today to help you use some of that stuff up faster.

Now hopefully Jaime, Ina, Giada, and Bobby never read these, because I am not a chef by any means. I am going to apologize ahead of time for that. I am more of a stay-at-home-dump-things-in-a-pot kind of cook. Plus I have three kids and am homeschooling, so cooking school is no where in my future. But these recipes are tasty and even my kids eat them, which for me is the ultimate praise. So here goes.....

Organic Mint Sun Tea

Glass Pitcher

Sunny Day

Cup of Sugar (you can adjust this to your personal taste or leave it out)

Mint Leaves

5-6 Tea Bags

Fill pitcher with water, place tea bags and mint on top, cover with plastic wrap ( I don't enjoy bugs in my tea), set in a sunny spot outside for a few hours. Bring it inside when it is the darkness that you prefer.

Remove plastic wrap, tea bags, and mint. Dump in sugar and stir. Dump in ice cubes if you are going to serve right away to cool it down. Take a big sip and remember that summer is almost here.

Baked Chicken and Vegetables

2-4 chicken breasts

chopped fennel

carrots

onion

herbs

olive oil

salt/pepper

garlic and another seasonings you can't live without

The awesome thing about this recipe? You dump it all in as much as you want and you're done. Yep that's it. Well, you need to bake it. So, 350 degree for about an hour. Cover with foil so chicken doesn't dry out. This is my go to summer recipe. I dump in whatever comes in the basket and it is so fresh and tasty.

Ground Turkey Soup (from allrecipes.com)

1 lb ground turkey (Bradfords now have 5 lb bags available)

8 c water

8 cubes beef bullion (side note: I always use beef broth/stock instead, it's up to you)

4 potatoes, peeled/cubed

2 carrots sliced

1 small head cabbage

1 c pearl barley (if you don't have this ....skip it)

Brown the turkey and then in a large pot combine all the ingredients except the barley. Simmer for hour. Add in barley for last 15 min.

I think this sounds delicious with a dollop of daisy on top and some chives.

Pesto (the ultimate way to use up those greens)

This is when the food processor we talked about previously will come in handy. I play around a lot with pesto. I use whatever greens I may have that are on the edge of going bad. Like I said, I am not a chef, but this has always turned out well for me. Just think: greens, EVOO, nuts, parmesan and you should pretty much get something delicious. We use it on everything from breads, pasta, fish, chicken.

Arugula Pesto

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups baby arugula leaves
• 1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
• 2/3 cup pine nuts
• 8 cloves garlic

Watercress Pesto

Ingredients

• 1/2 clove garlic
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• 3 ounces watercress, rinsed and dried
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Directions

1. Place the garlic, walnuts, watercress, Parmesan cheese, and mayonnaise into a food processor or blender. Pulse until a finely chopped paste has formed.

• 
  
• 1 (6 ounce) can black
• olives, drained
• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place the arugula, basil, pine nuts, garlic, and olives in a food processor, and chop to a coarse paste. Mix in olive oil, lime juice, vinegar, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Process until well blended and smooth.

Well, I hope this helps today. Leave a comment about the recipes if you have questions. I apologize that mine don't have exact measurements. I tell people that's why I was an English major not a Math major. I try to avoid math as much as possible!

You've Survived Week #1

Congratulations on your first basket! You're probably staring at most things and wondering.....aren't these weeds I pull out of my flower beds? I assure they are not! Many of you are asking what things are and I thought that I would go ahead and post pictures to help you out.

Watercress

Pea Shoots

swiss chard

fennel

kale

Hope this helps. I will post pics of new products as they are placed in your basket.

-Megan

Fight for Your Right to Garden!

Since I'm no longer working on the farm every day, I don't have as much to contribute to the blog.  However, inspired by our experiences at Leaping Waters, Dina and I built our own little urban garden on our balcony here in Vienna.  We didn't actually have to fight for our right to garden.  But if you watch the video at the end of this post, you'll understand the title.

What we did do is decide that despite the limitations of our suburban apartment's balcony, we'd garden nonetheless.  With help from our good friend over at Arcadia, Farmer Mo, we decided on a combination of deep pots for vertical veggies like tomatoes, some more shallow boxes for shorter plants such as herbs and radishes.

Dina and I celebrated Easter by heading over to Cravens Nursery and Pottery last Sunday to choose seedlings for our garden.  We were wowed by exotic bushes from Japan and lovely little lemon trees, but made our way eventually to the vegetable section.   As we strolled through the herbs and tomatoes, the excitement of growing our own food took hold.  I think, if we could, we would have walked away with one of everything.  But given our budget and our space limitations, we had to make tough choices - green zebras, cherry peppers, and chocolate mint, for example, all made the final cut.

We then headed over to Home Depot for deep pots, long planters, railing box holders, and organic soil.  Before long we were home and elbow deep in warm, dark soil.

Except for today's torrential rains which shook some of the more fragile herbs up a bit, the garden's great.  We even have radish sprouts breaking through the soil!

I'll keep you posted on our progress and will look forward to seeing you all at Holy Cow!

If you're interested, you can also follow my new urban food adventures here. 

garden progress

Had a chance to do a garden inspection. I am always at work when Jeana is here. Tomorrow I have the day off work and we plan to work together. The chard ,fennell,cilantro,spinach and baby lettuce will be ready for the new May 2nd veggie basket start up date. There will be plenty of peas shoots too. I am amazed at how fast everything is growing- including the weeds! The flea beetles have started to eat the tiny arugula,mustard greens and raab so we will need to water these (flea beetles hate water!) then cover them with row cover immediately.
The green house is overflowing and we will transplant the largest tomato plants ,cucumbers and summer squash and the beans and corn we have started in soil blocks to get an early crop.
I feel a little overwhelmed by all there is to do - but know that with 2 of us working tomorrow and Jeana with full days the rest of the week it can be done!!!
Sarah

turkey egg omelette

Sorry no photo avail. Just picture the smile on my face. I just prepared a turkey egg omelette with purple asparagus and chives that were picked from the garden less than 5 minutes before cooking.
WOW. I love spring!

HOLY COW!!! Memorial Day Chef to Farm Event

HOLY COW!! MEMORIAL DAY EVENT
Monday May 30th, 2011 3-9pm
Come enjoy the food as 4 amazing chefs prepare our Ancient White Park beef out in the open fields where our animals graze.
True farm to table cuisine!

Tarver King from The Ashby Inn & Restaurant
Chef Kostas from Local Roots in Roanoke
Scott Lockhart from Horizon Bar and Grill in Roanoke
Joe Palma from West End Bistro in Washington DC

Purchase tickets @ TicketDerby.com
$50 adult, $10 child 5-12 y, child <5 y free

Cookbooks and Recipes

When I received my very first basket from the CSA, my first thought was.....now what? You might be thinking the same thing. There were greens in there that I thought were just weeds! But after a few weeks I found some awesome resources to help me figure out what I was cooking.

The first cookbook that I bought was The Organic Cook's Bible. This was really helpful because it had a ton of colored pictures so that I could just match what was in the picture to what was on my kitchen counter.

The second book I have used a lot is Clean Food. This is a seasonal cookbook and a lot of what the Bradfords grow falls in line with the recipes.

And finally, www.allrecipes.com has been an awesome resource. Type in the ingredients that you have and it picks recipes for you!