Month: June 2017

HI! Are you coming for some of this action??

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow until 1 with:

Tomatoes! Including Brandywine, Giant Belgium, Azoychka Russian, Limmony, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Cherokee Purple, Aunt Ruby’s German Green,  Green Giant, Black Krim, romas, American Original Beefsteak, Bloody Butchers and cherry tomatoes.

I ate 3 tomato sandwiches on that sourdough bread when I got home from the market last week. Then I had to go hold the couch down for awhile.  Tomatillos, mini eggplant & 2 varieties of big eggplant, savoy & red cabbage, okra (white & red), a variety of cucumbers including Asian, lemon, mini white, mini green and slicers; freshly dug potatoes: German Butterball, Carola and Huckleberry Gold. Green peppers and jalepenos, sweet & red onions, sweet potatoes, wheat. In fact, if I can muster, I’m going in a minute to dig up some Purple Pinecone potatoes too!! (don’t hold me to that)

Bloody Butchers are one of my most popular varieties and my SUPER AWESOME customers ask for them by name. They have a really rich tomato flavor and this recipe…seriously, there are no words. Maple. Roasted. Tomatoes.  Make 2 pans because you’ll eat the first batch and then…what happened??

I mostly use them for a simple pan sauce that is amazing  – I just heat some olive oil in a pan, add chopped garlic and let that heat a minute until fragrant on kind of low heat, or med low, then add quartered or chopped Bloody Butchers, a little salt and sometimes a splash of balsamic, but not always. Just let them cook down to your liking. There are a lot of good people walking around out there, addicted to that sauce. You know who you are 🙂

We are all stocked up on beef cuts, and have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: filet, flank, skirt, flat iron, ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, sirloin,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones.

If you’re thinking about what to make for company this weekend, I would seriously recommend these  Crock Brown Sugar + Roasted Garlic Pulled Pot Roast Sandwiches or this Slow Cooker Barbacoa.  Or there are always hot dogs!

We have hot dogs (skinny and quarter pounder), beer brats-these are quarter pounders, sliced corned beef, sliced pastrami and sliced bologna.  Made from our 100% grass fed Angus beef, no added nitrates or nitrites.

Ground beef special – Buy 5, Get 1 free, and a special on  cube steak and stew beef – 20% off. Apparently beef stew is not the most popular summer dish. Whaaaat??

Bulk pricing on our beef: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing

BTW in unrelated news,  I follow Anthony William on Instagram and he just posted on the health importance of the humble potato 🙂 – WHO KNEW:

“Potatoes are a nutritious, healthy food that are rich in vitamins A, C, & B-complex and minerals such as manganese, iron, magnesium, copper, and potassium.🌟Potatoes contain an antioxidant called quercetin which has anti-cancer and cardio-protective properties as well as a storage protein called patatin which has been shown to exhibit activity against disease causing free radicals.👍🏻Potatoes are an excellent source of B6, a vitamin which is essential for the formation of almost every new cell in the body.😇Vitamin B6 also is a vital component for the neurological system and for the creation of amines which are neurotransmitters that send messages from one nerve to the next.✨This makes potatoes an important food for those who are heavy thinkers and those recovering from stress damage and adrenal exhaustion.🙏🏻They are also particularly beneficial for depression, insomnia, sleep disorders, brain fog, and stress related illnesses.💁🏻Potatoes are also known to be good for promoting cardiovascular health and are highly beneficial for reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, atherosclerosis, and COPD.💗Potatoes themselves are virtually fat-free and packed with dietary fiber which helps to prevent constipation and protect the colon from polyps and cancer.🙌🏻Their high fiber content also helps to lower blood LDL cholesterol and keep blood sugar levels stable and within normal range.❤️Fresh raw potatoes are a rich source of vitamin C, enzymes, minerals, and antibiotic properties and can be juiced with fresh tomatoes, lemons, or other vegetables for additional health benefits.👌🏻Steamed potatoes are the most healthy form of cooked potato and will ensure that they retain most of their vitamins and minerals and remain a strongly alkaline, healing food.😋”

See you tomorrow!

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market until 1 with:

Loads of beautiful, hellaciously delicious tomatoes! Including Brandywine, Giant Belgium, Azoychka Russian, Limmony, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Cherokee Purple, Green Giant, Black Krim, romas, Bloody Butchers. The yellows are really abundant this week. Their flavor is so unique – sweet but tangy, and for the VERY best flavor, let them ripen completely. They will sometimes get little orange stripes on the bottom when they are ripe, but not always. The yellow tomatoes go great with the smoked mozzarella from Uno Allo Volta in bldg. C. I also seriously love the soft crust sourdough from Duke’s in bldg B for the ultimate tomato sandwich experience 🙂

Tomatillos, mini eggplant, red and green cabbage, a few heads of cauliflower, a variety of cucumbers including Asian, lemon, mini white, mini green and slicers; carola potatoes, sweet & red onions, Tuscan garlic, 3 kinds of kale, sweet potatoes, wheat.

We are all stocked up on beef cuts, and have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: filet, flank, skirt, flat iron, ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, sirloin,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones.

Hot dogs (skinny and quarter pounder), beer brats-these are quarter pounders, sliced corned beef, sliced pastrami and sliced bologna.  Made from our 100% grass fed Angus beef, no added nitrates or nitrites.

Ground beef special – Buy 5, Get 1 free.

Bulk pricing on our beef: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing.

I love refrigerator pickles: quick, easy, OMG good & no heating. You don’t want to lose all those health-giving enzymes by cooking! Plus they stay crisp (I’ve found that Asian cukes stay the most crisp.) They’re perfect when you come in from the heat.  So healthy too! Raw apple cider vinegar (like Bragg’s) is a fermented food, so it helps increase good bacteria in the gut and balance pH. Cucumbers are super hydrating and contain more than 50 trace minerals, amino acids, enzymes and coenzymes that help with digestion and a lot more. So cucumbers, raw apple cider vinegar, your favorite sea salt, garlic,  dill and water. Mix up the brine, cut up the cukes. That’s it. Two or three days in the fridge and they’re ready. Here’s the recipe.

See you tomorrow!

Finally planting sweet potatoes with Shane and my sister. 500 purple and 1500 Covington organic slips.  The cows stood at the fence,  mesmerized. Those are sunflowers on the left. Can’t wait for them to bloom!

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market until 1 with:

Tomatoes, tomatillos, red and green cabbage -we have a favorite coleslaw recipe – Tangy Mustard Slaw.   So good on burgers too. Purple, orange and white cauliflower; broccoli, a variety of cucumbers, lemon squash, okra, carola potatoes, sweet & red onions, 3 kinds of kale, sweet potatoes, wheat.

We have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, sirloin,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones.

Hot dogs (skinny and quarter pounder), beer brats-these are quarter pounders, sliced corned beef, sliced pastrami and sliced bologna.  Made from our 100% grass fed Angus beef, no added nitrates or nitrites.

Ground beef special – Buy 5, Get 1 free.

Bulk pricing on our beef: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing.

Soooo cabbage.  I have a lot to sell. Let us review the health importance of the simple cabbage 🙂 thereby setting into motion my evil plan to sell more cabbage while helping to prevent all of the problems listed below.  Experts say:

A. Cabbage supports joints, reduces arthritis and helps to reverse osteoporosis.

B. It’s BRAIN FOOD. We all know someone who could use more of that.

C. Cabbage is a cruciferous veg – this category (which includes cauli & broc) helps to stave off a myriad of cancers – breast, ovarian, cervical, brain, lung and intestinal. Shazam.

D. Cabbage is high in sulfur, a valuable nutrient. I amend our fields with organic sulfur virtually every year after what I learned in soil class.  According to my learnins 🙂 soils in our area are low in sulfur and we need this nutrient – it is the 3rd most abundant mineral in our bodies! It helps restore growth of lung tissue, vitamin conversion, protein synthesis and more.

And lastly, without enough sulfur…SAGGY AND WRINKLED SKIN!! Nuff said.

Onions, garlic and grassfed beef and eggs are also sources of sulfur.

This little mockingbird baby was in the garden when Shane was tilling. I never would have seen it. He saved the day. I guess they fledge the nest but can’t always fly right away so the parents still bring it food and it doesn’t matter if it smells like a human because the maternal instinct is so strong and their nose isn’t that great anyway. (I had to google it to make sure it would be ok). He set it down in the raised bed and the momma bird was in the tree making  a big fuss.

See you tomorrow!

Pepper plants survived the monsoons but the squash plants, not so much. Finally dry enough for me to pull weeds without taking the crop with it.

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow til 1 with:

Tomatoes, orange and white and a few purple cauliflower; broccoli; green & purple cabbage; 3 kinds of kale, squash, cukes, a little okra, red & yellow onions, and I dug some Carolas but the clay was really sticking to them so I stopped. There’s about half a crate. Sweet potatoes, wheat. Basil, cutting celery, purslane, mint.

We have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, sirloin,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones.

Shane picked up hot dogs (skinny and quarter pounder), beer brats-these are quarter pounders, sliced corned beef, sliced pastrami and sliced bologna from The Weeping Radish today!  Made from our 100% grass fed Angus beef, no added nitrates or nitrites.. When we have this stuff made, we keep back the premium steaks, brisket, bones and ground beef for the market (and the organ meats for our dogs) and we send the whole chuck, shoulder, rump, round, sirloin to the Radish. It’s made from the GOOD STUFF people 🙂 No weird parts.

There are a few packages of hot dogs that didn’t properly seal (not vacuumed) on sale for $8 lb.

Bulk pricing on our beef: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing.

Tomato plants are already taller than me.

It’s finally getting dry enough to mow and weed around my crops. We got 3.5″ of rain in one day and I don’t know what else on the other days. I haven’t been able to even walk down the crop rows really, boots sinking into deep mud except what I have on the landscape plastic.

All but 3 of the squash plants died this week. Some got broken over in the storms and the rest who knows. If I was diligent I would  investigate…

Cucumbers are where it’s at anyway 🙂 I’ve been making the MOST delicious juice, cuke-celery-apple-lime.

All the rain and not being able to work in the fields, seeing the weeds take over and not being able to plant is killing my shazaaam. It has been really beautiful weather though, especially in the evenings.  Picking cukes in a sweatshirt, that’s new right!   Shane is starting back on first cutting orchard grass. Hope to get lots of stuff done next week.

Ok I’ll see you tomorrow!

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow til 1 with:

White & orange cauliflower (just 1 purple), green & purple cabbage (this Dijon Roasted Cabbage is one of our favorite recipes for green cabbage), tomatoes, cukes, summer squash, red & white spring onions; curly, rainbow and lacinato kale; sweet potatoes, wheat.

Fresh cut herbs: Genovese basil, parsley, cutting celery, mint, purslane.

We have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, filet, sirloin, flat iron,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones, and all natural hot dogs (quarter pounders only) and bologna made with 100% Angus beef with no added nitrates or nitrites.

Special on ground beef – Buy 5, get 1 free.

We’ll have beer brats, skinny dogs, sliced corned beef and pastrami coming back soon!

Bulk pricing: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing.

Did you know we have a raw juice vendor back at the market? In building C at the far end. He has a bunch of delicious raw veggie juices (and samples), granola, cashew cheese and I don’t know what else. I’m totally advertising for them because I want them to be busy so they’ll stay. The previous one didn’t last long and I like to have my green juice! It just doesn’t work out on Saturday mornings for me to make it, I’m doing good if I stumble out of the house with a coffee and a banana.

That’s so messed up! I just bought 1500 ladybugs for the tomato hoop house to help with the aphids. Eat something else!!

I’m so cute.

Yikes! I’m so murdery!

See you tomorrow!