Month: September 2017

baby turmeric – I get lots of questions about it. It’s not spicy like ginger and it’s most famous for it’s cancer fighting curcumin.  It’s great added to lots of dishes, I just finely chop it and saute it along with the onions and garlic when I’m making soup, stews, stir fry, greens, etc. but my most favorite use is to grate it into simmering veggie broth along with ginger, garlic and some chopped greens and cabbage, grated carrots and a squeeze of fresh lime juice for a light lunch. I love to add dulse flakes too but not everyone loves the flavor of seaweed 🙂

I will not be at the market next Saturday but I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow until 1 pm with:

baby turmeric and ginger (perfect for immune-boosting turmeric ginger shots!), lots of arugula – not too spicy! 3 kinds of lettuce: red butter, red mini romaine and green something. Spinach, napa cabbage, carola and huckleberry gold potatoes potatoes, and new crop sweet potatoes.

I’ll 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, boneless  chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, rump roast, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones.

We have hot dogs (skinny and quarter pounder), 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.

The lettuces 🙂

So, arugula. Love it or hate it, it’s really good for us. It’s cleansing to the body and like other bitter veggies, it supports the liver, lymphatic system and more. We need to eat bitter, like it or not. This Linguine with Arugula, Garlic & Parm is a great way to use arugula if you don’t love it. Toss it in there raw and the heat of the other stuff wilts it and takes off the edge. I added some roasted veggies and extra arugula because it might look like I threw a boatload in there, but it wilts down to nothing and then I’m like DRATS THIS IS MOSTLY PASTA!! AGAIN!!!!

I like it to be mostly greens and veggies with a little pasta but that never works out – will I EVER figure out how much pasta to make??

I also got on a kick of making salad with these spicy, crispy potatoes instead of croutons. I tossed them with smoked paprika, garlic salt, crushed red pepper and black pepper then roasted them until they seemed croutoney.

This is my little tractor, Minnie.

We’ve had it for a few years but none of the implements would work because they’re giant tractor size so Shane’s been slowly collecting Minnie size implements. This is the baby tiller 🙂 and we have a baby middle-buster, and now a potato digger that works, so I can do potatoes and sweet potatoes by myself.

…the end of the hay season.

See you tomorrow!

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

Tons of fresh + OMG delicious chestnuts! This is the big week for my chestnuts but I hope to have some next week too. Lemon squash, zephyr squash and round zucchini, okra, hot peppers, carola and huckleberry gold potatoes and purple pinecone fingerling potatoes, eggplant + mini eggplant, wheat and no sweet potatoes this week.

I’ll 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, filets, flat iron,  brisket, eye of round roasts, boneless  chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, rump roast, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones.

We have hot dogs (skinny and quarter pounder), 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.

Chestnuts! How to roast – Wash and dry them, score with an “X” and roast at 400 for 20 minutes. Pop them out of the shell while they’re still warm.  If you stick them in the freezer for 15 minutes after scoring but before roasting, they’re easier to peel.

They freeze great, without changing the texture. Roast and peel them before freezing. I thought they would get soft but we took some out that have been in the freezer since last fall (oops) and they taste fresh and sweet, and have the same texture as the fresh ones. They can definitely be used in any recipe or rewarmed and eaten plain.

They’re so good just roasted and eaten straight out of the shell, and I’ve also made a chestnut bisque with them that was delish. My sister and I have picked out these recipes to try soon, they sound out of this world!!

1.Caramelized Onion Butternut Squash Roast with Chestnuts. I will be making with sweet potatoes once they’ve cured

2. The chestnuts part of this Roasted Chicken and Chestnuts from Martha Stewart – OMG. LOOK at these guys. Sherry, garlic, shallots, bay, thyme?? Gaaaaaah. I’ll roast the chestnuts first though so I can peel them.

3. Cornbread Stuffing with Chestnuts, Leeks & Chantarelles. The list of ingredients!! It’s got to be amazing. Can you tell I’m starving right now 🙂 This also happens to be gluten free.

Shane’s working on the last cutting of alfalfa, interrupted by Irma. It’s supposed to be pretty after the stormy days, but the ground will be so wet and that’s an issue with the hay.

Muscadine grapes are in season now, and I feel like they’re so under-utilized. Lots of folks selling them at the market right now.  We found a fantastic recipe for Muscadine Pie – it uses the pulp and hulls so you only throw out the seeds. It’s really delicious, sweet/tart. I love a tart pie topped with some vanilla ice cream. We froze enough for 2 pies for the holidays, and we made this, what my mom would call “crisp” – the pie filling topped with a mixture of oats, flour, brown sugar, butter or coconut oil, and cinnamon.

You need 8 cups of muscadines to yield 4 cups of pie filling. We liked a mix of bronze and purple best. It was sweeter and still had the purple color. Squeeze the grapes, separating the pulp/seeds into one bowl and the hulls in another. Simmer the hulls with a little water for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. They will get really tender. In another pot, simmer the pulp and seeds with 1/2 to 3/4  cup sugar for 15 minutes. I also tried cooking the hulls in the Instant Pot for 10 min on hi and they were perfect.

When the pulp has simmered for 15 minutes, mash it through a colander to get rid of all the seeds. Transfer the seedless pulp to a bowl, drain the water from the cooked hulls and mix the hulls and pulp together. Taste and add more sugar if desired. We used some less ripe grapes because they contain more pectin and we didn’t need a thickener, but you can use flour, arrowroot powder or cornstarch to thicken it if you want.

See you tomorrow!