Who’s afraid of the prime rib roast?

This year I was invited to sell at the wonderful Octagon Barn Winter Market, a beautiful post and beam structure on the top of a windy, snow-covered hill in Knox, New York. About an hour into the show I spotted local farmer, Sandy Gordon, selling grass-fed prime rib from a cooler for an amazing $10 per pound. Christmas dinner!

I’m not a big beef eater. I don’t know much about the various cuts of beef or how to cook them.  After googling around, I ended up back at seriouseats.com, where they’ve done exhaustive work on the subject. Grassfed beef is leaner and tastier than factory food, but it can be tough if not treated gently. The folks had turned around the traditional high heat sear followed by low heat roast. They recommend a long, slow roast at 200 degrees followed by a high heat sear at the very end – once  the meat has had a chance to rest for at least a half hour.

I was enjoying the party too much to take my own picture. This is from seriouseats.com but it looks exactly like my roast. Yay.

I didn’t realize you were supposed to “dry age” the meat, so I let it sit, uncovered, for about four hours before cooking. I was a little worried about the fat content so draped some garlic flavored beef bacon over the two 3.5 lb. roasts before cooking. I placed both roasts on racks in a 200˚ oven for exactly four hours, when the roasts clocked in at 130 – 138˚ internal temp. I let them sit for an hour or so and as we were setting food on the table and moving people in that direction, I popped the two roasts into a 500˚ oven for eight minutes and began to carve. I held my breath, but both roasts were perfect. Did I say PERFECT? The meat was juicy and pinky/red all the way through with a nice crust on the outside. Tender. Did I say tender? And yes, tasty.

To go with the meat we served a beautiful raw Brussels sprout salad and gruyere scalloped potatoes along with a squash-rice bake my brother supplied. After dinner we had a whimsical bouche de noel and amazing cookies courtesy of Nancy.  Everything was home made and most of the ingredients were local, except for the cheese, the chocolate, coffee, wine, and almonds. 

To Buy or Not to Buy

When Nancy and I met, we were in our 40s and had two households full of stuff. We decided against exchanging gifts for birthdays and Christmas, opting instead for trips together. One of our most memorable travel meals was in a small Moroccan restaurant in Paris on New Year’s eve. We had neglected to plan for the event and the streets were mostly deserted – shops and restaurants closed. We wandered about the misty streets, wondering if we would have to eat our stash of chocolate and goat cheese for dinner.  I can’t remember the restaurant name or the street but I can still taste the salty sweet lamb tagine that we shared.

Though I love the symmetrical sloping shape of the tagine, I’ve never managed to own one. This year we talked about getting a tagine as a family gift and Nancy found a cast iron beauty at Williams Sonoma. But before she hit the buy button, she remembered reading that a dutch oven is an acceptable substitute. We have several dutch ovens on our overburdened shelves. Did we really need a $286 cooking pot weighing nearly 10 pounds, that has traveled from France to California and back to upstate New York? We decided to find out.

We chose this recipe for beef  tagine from Jamie Oliver that tasted just fine in the Dutch oven. Remarkably, we had all the ingredients. The stew beef came from Bella Terra Farm and the ras el hanout spice mix and butternut squash were purchased at the Schenectady Greenmarket. I substituted homemade beef stock for vegetable and used heirloom roma tomatoes from our friend Ev Rau, which I roasted and froze this fall.

The meat's been marinating for hours. The tomatoes have thawed and we're ready to go. BTW the long squiggly things in the squash box are fingerling sweet potatoes. Not one of nature's better ideas.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ pounds stewing beef
• olive oil
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
• a small bunch of fresh cilantro
• 1 x 14 ounce can of chickpeas, drained
• 1 x 14 ounce can of chopped tomatoes
• 3 ½ cups vegetable stock, preferably organic
• 1 small squash (approximately 1 ½ pounds), deseeded and cut into 2 inch chunks
• 3 ½ ounces prunes, pitted and roughly torn
• 2 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted

This is a very satisfying winter dish. The squash held it's shape but also helped thicken the sauce. The ras el hanout spice mix gives the dish a complex, smokey flavor. If you don't have a Moroccan grocery nearby, here's a recipe for the spice mix.

 Spice Rub

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon ras el hanout spice mix
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika

Massage the beef in the spice rub and refrigerate overnight. When ready, saute in olive oil. Add onions and cilantro stems. Once the onions are soft and fragrant add chickpeas, tomatoes, and half the stock. Cover and cook for 1.5 hours. Then add squash and prunes. Cover and cook for another 1.5 hours, adding more stock if needed. If the mixture is too soupy at the end, uncover and cook until it's right for you. Garnish with toasted almonds and cilantro leaves. Serve with couscous. Yum!

Cows at Gordon Farms

We decided instead to invest in a farm share for local pasture-raised beef. Gordon Farms is up the hill, about 8 miles from Altamont. Each month we’ll receive 6-7 lb of grass feed beef in various cuts delivered to the house. Instead of churning through fossil fuels and filling our shelves with one more seldom-used implement, we’ll be supporting a hardworking local farmer and forging stronger connections in our community.  Plus the meat tastes so much better than supermarket beef and we can sleep better knowing that we’ve taken one more step away from consumerism and the industrial food economy.

Thanksgiving 2014: THE END

We were so relaxed going into our Thanksgiving dinner. Since we do it on Saturday it seemed that we had all the time in the world. Silly girls. Friday night we put together what seemed like a pretty manageable to-do list and then Saturday morning all hell broke loose.  No pictures because we worked nonstop from 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. when we fell into bed exhausted. I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way you can relax at your own party is to have it catered!

Menu

• Bread medly including breadsticks, two kinds of sourdough dinner rolls and really cute pumpkin dinner rolls
• Cider-brined turkey
• Gravy
• Dressing with bacon and sausage
• Mashed potatoes & Macomber turnip
• Roasted/caramelized root vegetables: whole carrots, beets, fingerling sweet potatoes & potatoes split lengthwise roasted then sautéed in butter and rested in a warm oven for an hour or so. Everything is better with butter and these were really good.
• Butternut squash & sweet potatoes roasted
• Harvest salad: rosemary-infused fingerling sweet potatoes & potatoes, fresh kohlrabi matchsticks, Macomber turnip fresh through the mandoline and roasted in chunks, watermelon radishes, toasted sunflower seeds, red pepper, roasted Brussels sprouts & cauliflower, frisee, dinosaur kale in thin strips and Brussels sprouts leaves for garnish.
• Fennel risotto (from sister Jaye)
• Snacky stuff (from sister Margaret)
• Saratoga beer (from brother Bob)
• Entertainment (from brother Don)
• Desserts & wine (from cousin Margie)
• More desserts (from daughter Kori)
• 3 purchased pies from Shaker Shed
• Edelweiss wine from Altamont Winery

Sources

• Altamont Winery
• Barber Farm
• Bella Terra Farm
• Cornell Farm
• Gade Farm
• Honest Weight Food Coop
• Meadowbrook Dairy
• Migliorelli Farm
• Pleasant View Farm
• Schoharie Valley Farm
• Shaker Shed

Notes to self:

•  A fresh, crispy salad with lots of diverse ingredients is a nice idea but not very practical for 24 people.
• Preheat the crockpots so you can put cold ingredients in and actually warm them up.
• The Thermapen doesn’t lie. If it says 154˚ it means that the meat is still raw. Thankfully we had already cooked one turkey to perfection.
• 1 brined turkey = 1 gallon of gravy
• Two 16 lb. turkeys or one 30 lb. turkey for 24 people
• You can’t have too much stock
• Caramelized roasted vegetables (whole carrots) were a hit.
• Just make two breads: pumpkin rolls & crusty rolls
• Apple & pumpkin pies work fine frozen and reheated. The Dutch Apple pie was a mess. The topping melted into the filling. It tasted fine but looked nasty.
• You don’t need 3 pies, gingerbread, pumpkin loaf, and chocolate mousse cake for 24 people. Assign desserts and don’t buy or make your own.
• The wine was sweet and strong. It held up well with the turkey dinner.
• Every year I have to reinvent the gravy: Get some stock simmering on the back burner.  Pour drippings from the turkey pan into gravy separator. Skim fat from the top into a large saucepan (I had about a cup) and get it really hot. Add an equal amount of flour slowly, whisking the whole time. Cook, stirring until the roux reaches the right brownish color. Stir in the pan drippings. Add warm stock until the gravy reaches the right consistency. Keep stirring until it boils and keep adding stock as necessary. One turkey made about 2 quarts of gravy.
• Remember to thank everyone for coming so far, bringing so much, and doing the dishes!

Turkey Twins

I don’t expect anyone will care about turkeys now that everyone is off to the mall, but we do our Thanksgiving on Saturday, so I’m just now finishing the “Service Turkey.” I thought I’d make notes here and to have something to refer back to next year.

We bought two 20.2 turkeys from Pleasant View Farm in Altamont. These summer boarders had a nice life and good, sweet nonGMO feed. They were processed on the Thursday before Thanksgiving. I picked them up on Saturday morning, putting one in the cottage fridge and the other in the cottage freezer. The refrigerator turkey would be brined Thursday and cooked on Friday. The freezer turkey (or Show Turkey as we call it) would be cooked on Saturday for carving. Our plan was to cook the "Show Turkey" au naturel without brining so we could see whether brining diluted the real turkey flavor, as claimed by the experts over at Serious Eats.

All seemed copacetic until I discovered on Tuesday that the freezer turkey was frozen solid (surprise!). I looked up thawing a turkey and learned that it can take 5 days to thaw a 20 lb. turkey in the refrigerator and, oh by the way, we didn’t have any refrigerator space! Luckily we had a blizzard and a cold snap so the back porch has been at a pretty constant 40˚ all week. We’ve been using it as a walk in cooler and moved the show turkey over to the house on Wednesday.

Nancy baked nonstop: wholewheat dinner rolls, cornmeal-sage dinner rolls, breadsticks, crackers for cheese and crackers (!) and a beautiful apple tart with salted caramel glaze for Thanksgiving dinner #1 next door.

Cider-brined turkey

I found this recipe too salty last year but I liked the cider flavor in the meat. I chose to brine the service turkey so the cider would flavor the gravy. I also hoped that the brine would allow the turkey to be reheated without drying out on Saturday.

Recipe

• 4 quarts apple cider
• 1 ½  cups kosher salt
• ¼ cup allspice
• 8 bay leaves
• 4 quarts cold water
• One 20 lb turkey

8:00 a.m. Simmer one quart of cider with salt, allspice, bay leaves for five minutes, stirring until salt is dissolved. Let it cool completely and then pour mixture, water and cider into a brining bag. Let the turkey swim in the brine all day.

8:00 p.m. drain brine, rinse turkey thoroughly and let sit in the fridge (or on the back porch) overnight.

Friday: Everyone else in the world is shopping. We’re still cooking!

8:35 a.m. Cracked the wings and put them under the turkey. Slathered it all over with one stick of melted butter and put it into the oven (legs toward the back) at 325˚. Closed the door and never looked back.

12:00 p.m. The house smelled overwhelmingly of turkey so I checked the temp. The legs were cooked but the breast was still at 135˚ so I flipped it around and closed the door.

12:35 p.m. The breast was 168˚ and everything else was hotter than that. I didn't link the legs to allow heat into the cavity, hoping the thigh junction would cook. Exactly 4 hours to cook a 20 lb. turkey at 325˚.

Sorry the flash makes it look radioactive!

2:30 p.m. Finally got around to carving the turkey so I could save the drippings and make gravy this evening. About half way in I sampled a bit of dark and a bit of light meat. This might be the best turkey I’ve ever eaten. The meat was flavorful and moist -- almost unbelievably good. 

3:00 p.m. I finished carving and after Nancy came back for a second “taste test,” we decide to end the experiment and brine the Show Turkey. Of course I used all the whole allspice in the first brining so we ran out to the store for more. The Show Turkey has thawed a lot and I’m going to follow my sister’s advice. "Put it in water (cider), throw in salt and call it brining!" It’ll be a slightly quicker soak. I’ll take it out tonight before I go to be and we should be good for tomorrow.

On to roasted vegetables, gravy, stock, and stuffing!

Turnitup (sorry)

What’s crazier: to host Thanksgiving dinner for 24 from food sourced within 50 miles or to cook a vegetable you’ve never seen before yesterday? After bringing the turkeys home and settling them into the fridge and freezer, I headed off to the Schenectady Greenmarket, Gade, Honest Weight Coop, and then on to Schoharie Valley Farms. Most of the menu consists of root vegetables in one form or another, gravy, and pie. How hard could that be?

This year I decided to forego my wild rice dressing since I haven’t seen wild rice growing in the marshes around here. But that left us looking for a textural shift from the sweet mushy stuff that passes for Thanksgiving side dishes. We found a roasted vegetable salad that included sunchokes, frisee, and radicchio. It would give a light, bright contrast to the beets and Brussels sprouts. But sadly, we couldn’t find frisee anywhere and the only radicchio we found was at the coop and it had traveled here from Guatamala. Nancy was starting to talk about citrus and I could feel our resolve crumbling.

REALLY BIG turnips at Schoharie Valley Farms.

Schoharie Valley Farms didn’t have much of their own produce, but we added some vegetables we were missing and circled around a display of really big turnips. We were told they were Macomber Turnips, a local specialty, and that some people use them as an alternative to rutabaga. Now this wasn’t much help as a description, since I’ve never cooked a rutabaga! Still, we got two, thinking we could mix them with the mashed potatoes to lighten the meal.

Once we got home and did a little internet research we discovered that our Macomber Turnips are at true find. How many other vegetables have their own historical marker? According to ediblesouthshore.com these gargantuan turnips were developed by the Macomber brothers for the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876 and have been a local legend ever since. And according to Diaryofalocavore.com, they taste good mashed, aerated, roasted, sautéed, or raw in salad. RAW. I'll let you know how it turns out!

The question remains, though: How did they get to Schoharie? More to follow....

Thanksgiving

I’ve come to local eating one meal, one farmer, at a time. This summer and fall I’ve rarely gone to the supermarket. Nancy bakes bread. We get our milk delivered in glass bottles from Meadowbrook. We source meat and produce from our farm CSA, Gade Farm, the Carrot Barn in Schoharie, or the Schenectady Green Market. But now fall is giving way to winter and soon the market offerings will narrow down to root vegetables. My poor attempts at freezing roasted tomatoes or poached zucchini will feed us for about a week. Meat will become more important in our menus and we’ll reluctantly browse the produce aisles at the co-op.

But in the meantime, we’re going to have one big local feast this Thanksgiving with at least 24 friends and family. My goal is to serve food that is sourced no more than 50 miles from home. I’ll cook it simply so we can actually taste the food. And we’re planning ahead so we can actually enjoy the company.

Turkeys

There never really was any question about where I would get my turkey. I spend a couple hours each week interviewing my 95-year-old farmer friend Everett Rau about his life and times for a book. This year his son and grandson invested in a turkey flock. As I sat with Ev through the summer I watched the turkeys grow from scrawny poults to radiant white turkeys with bright pink heads and cerulean blue highlights. I enjoyed hearing their soft warbles as the flock came crowding toward me whenever I approached their enclosure to take pictures or just to visit.

Turkey poults in July.

It's only a matter of days before these guys take a trip to Root, NY for processing. 

Today is pick up day in the reconstructed German threshing barn! Ken's not happy with the bags and will process the birds at the farm next year.

My two birds. Turkeyland was Ev Rau's business in the 1950s, revived today promoting nonGMO free-range turkeys.

Today was the first of four turkey distribution days at Pleasantview farm and I made sure that I was there early. I had been a little nervous about a farm-processed turkey. Would it be too sad? Would there still be traces of the birds I’d been visiting all summer? Perhaps because they're such flocking birds, there weren't any that stood out as individuals. And here they were, processed and plucked -- looking less like animals and more like dinner in their plastic bags with Farm labels. They looked smaller too, and though most of the birds were 30+, I found two perfectly matched 20 lb. turkeys and was happy to take them both. 

When cooking for a crowd, we’ve learned to cook two smaller turkeys rather than one huge one. We cook one the day before and use the giblets and drippings to make stock and gravy ahead of time. Thanksgiving day we warm up the “service turkey” in the oven’s warming tray. Meanwhile the “show turkey” cooks more quickly, is less likely to dry out, and always looks beautiful. Smaller birds are easier to handle and you don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to put the turkey in the oven!

Nancy’s been reading about the pros and cons of brining on Serious Eats. I enjoyed our cider-brined turkey the last time we hosted Thanksgiving dinner but I’m inclined to agree with the no-brine philosophy. If these field-raised turkeys have the same flavor punch as the fresh chickens I’ve been getting at the farmers market, I’d hate to cover it up with cider and salt. Will keep you posted!

Taking Stock

Studio in the cottage. July 2013.

It's been about a year since I started incubating Farm Share Studio. In the beginning I was just trying to eat local and painting what appealed to me. I wanted small subjects since I hadn't painted in decades and needed to rebuild my technique. I can't say that I have a technique yet. Each painting is new and as I try new mediums or introduce a new pigment or brush I find that everything changes.

Ready for the Wintemarket. December 2013.

Last December I organized a Wintermarket in Altamont and I prepped a few paintings for cards and prints. I then created an Etsy site, which required branding and Farm Share Studio was born! Being featured on the Mohawk's Felt and Wire blog was like coming home. Besides Etsy, my cards are available at the beautiful new Pulp & Paperie shop in Toronto and The Open Door Bookstore in Schenectady. Prints are available at Gallery 5 One in Clifton Park.

New studio. June 2014.

Even the studio changed. In September I rented the cottage to a friend and moved my supplies into a small three-season porch in the main house. We cleaned out my parent's house and I "inherited" my mom's wooden easel and some of her brushes and paints. Yes, they all still worked after 40 years!

Studio wall. July 2014.

Besides the joy and frustration of sitting down to paint, the best experiences have been meeting farmers like Everett Rau, actually harvesting my own food, and working with the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy to support their work in Guilderland.

And of course, the food. There really is nothing like eating food that comes from your neighborhood. The more I learn about the industrial food system and our local, organic alternative, I'm so grateful to live in a region that is waking up to the joyful necessity of local food and local farms.

WPA poster promoting Victory Gardens.

Best served same day

I was honored to have my paintings as the featured collection for the month of June at the Altamont Free Library. When it came time to take the show down, we celebrated with a party to benefit the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy through sales of prints and cards. Nancy and I catered the party ourselves with mini desserts we made from local strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, which had reached a crescendo of ripeness right about then. 

The day was hot. The fruit was ripe. And every recipe said “best served same day.” With five different desserts on tap, it was a bit like an episode of “Chopped,” except we started cooking at 7:00 a.m. and finished about 5:00. All were new to us and we went a little overboard because we weren’t sure if they’d all work and they all looked so yummy. One I wouldn’t make again but the rest were true gems. Unfortunately there are no pictures of our own work because we were too damn busy and stressed! But if you’re looking for berry desserts, follow these four to the letter and we’ll endorse 100%.

Roasted Strawberry Goat Cheese Squares

Kitchn.com

Loved the roasted strawberries! Our berries were fresh from the field but not super sweet. Balsamic vinegar and maple syrup intensified the flavor and created a really delicious syrup. There was a lot of strawberry mixture left over, which I used on yogurt or oatmeal for several days. The puff pastry was easy to work with. Nancy used a biscuit cutter to score the tops. The added mint leaves were simple too.

Raspberry Madeleines

SeriousEats.com

Nancy usually makes Madeleines at Christmas. Having them with buried raspberries in summer was an unexpected treat. We don’t have central air conditioning and by midday our kitchen was a sauna. So we closed off one room and ran the A.C. up full, creating a “cool room” for the pastries. This way we were able to sprinkle powdered sugar without it melting into everything. One question — why is there always too much Madeleine batter for the number of cookies in the pan?

Raspberry Financiers

Joyofbaking.com

What a GREAT discovery! These cookies were originally made in the financial district in Paris and designed for busy bankers to pop in their pockets on the way to work. Perfect party food, non? These have raspberries added 4 minutes into baking so they don’t sink down into the batter. The whole recipe worked perfectly and it took all my willpower not devour them all as I organized the platters.

 

American Beauty: Cornmeal-Berry Sheet Cake

Marthastewart.com

What a perfect cake! The cornmeal gave the cake a nice texture. It felt, somehow casual, but dressier than a coffee cake. The blueberries and raspberries are sprinkled over the top in abundance and they sink in but leave pockets of syrupy goodness that hint at what’s to come. I cut the cake into 11/2 inch squares and put them on cupcake paper cups. The 9 x 13 sheet cake made a lot of little bites and they were the backbone of the platters — with the fancier pastries used as accents. And best yet, even though the recipe recommends serving same day, we brought back the extra and it kept in the refrigerator for a week!

Berries from Maynard Farms and Altamont Orchards.

Farming to a higher power

Because I started from a gardening background, when I think of farming I think of vegetables. Creating small rills of soil that shelter the tiniest seeds is, to me, the most optimistic thing I can do. Especially in the northeast, when the ground never seems to warm up and a cold wind can blow through May. A carrot seed is about the size of this period. And within one season it can grow into an edible root a foot long — except in my rocky soil, where the carrots grow to four inches and then express their secret love of the baroque. 

My farming knowledge is growing like carrots these days, as I look for reasons to visit farms and to talk with farmers. This spring I was blessed to meet Everett Rau, who’s been farming for nearly a century on a cold hillside farm in Altamont, New York. Ev will celebrate his 95th birthday in August and has lived and farmed his family land since 1919. He carries in his living history the story of American farming in the 20th century.

Everett Rau in his kitchen. June 2014.

On June 23, Ev and I had a conversation before an audience of 70 or so friends and residents in Altamont Village Hall. Ev talked about the ups and downs of a life in farming and how his family was able to survive the Depression by growing and preserving their own food and in WWII how they turned food rationing to their benefit by selling homemade sausage on the side to co-workers at GE. When I asked Ev why people turned their backs on farms after the war, he said that “People changed. Before the war, everyone helped each other. The work was hard but it was what you did.” After the war the culture became more materialistic and less trusting. 

Somehow, we never got to Ev’s view of animals during the interview, which is funny because his diversified farm, at one point raised 3,000 turkeys. He also had 300 laying hens, pigs, and sheep. According to Ev, he and his wife, Peggy, love to watch sheep grazing, seeing them as almost biblical when they cross the dyke to get a drink in the pond.

“Raising animals pulls us into their lives in ways that we could never predict,” said Ev, remembering the time he acted as a midwife for a difficult birth. The ewe had birthed one lamb. Ev watched it dive out feet first as so many had before. But then he noticed her lie down and saw a little nose peeping out of the birth canal. With the feet facing backwards, the shoulders would have been huge. Ev grabbed some old bathroom towels and was able to get ahold of the lamb’s head and pull in time with the sheep’s contractions. He heard a crack and kept pulling, fearful that he’d injured the lamb, but trying to save the sheep. As the lamb emerged, Ev noticed that it wasn’t breathing. He severed the umbilical chord and cleared its mouth, then pushed gently on its ribcage — feeling that he was working with a greater power. Suddenly there was a gasp and a breath. The lamb got up and nursed and eventually grew to be a healthy sheep. “I knew that was the moment I worked with God,” finished Ev.

Ev and his grandson Tim in front of their antique Farmall tractor

Today Ev is working with his son and grandson to expand the offerings of Pleasant View Farm to include organic fruits and vegetables, pasture raised beef and antibiotic-free turkeys raised on non GMO feeds. The local foods movement has given him hope that his family can again make a living on the hillside farm that has been theirs since 1799. 

My interview with Everett Rau is being incorporated into a documentary by the Village of Altamont Archives and Museum. The event was covered by the Guilderland Spotlight, and the Altamont Enterprise.

Bridging the Food Chasm

I'm about half way through Closing the Food Gap by Mark Winne and getting really mad. So many of the issues in the news today were identified so many years ago. Mark and his confreres started working on food and community issues in Hartford, CT in the SEVENTIES and were developing creative solutions to food deserts and food insecurity in urban areas. How is it possible that we would still be dealing with the same issues today?

In his book, Mark is candid about successes and failures — like a community co-op that closed after 19 months because of a lack of management expertise and financing. But beyond financing, he says, co-ops and farmers markets succeed when they appeal to a “well-educated member/customer base with a highly evolved food consciousness.” What lower income communities want is easy access to an up-to-date chain supermarket with broad selection and lower prices. 

While our region does have fairly good grocery store representation in our cities, there remains a food chasm between local food producers and low income consumers. The chain stores carry token amounts of local produce but to eat local/organic you must go to the co-op, farmers markets, or invest $450 in advance in a CSA — all of which are barriers to busy, cash strapped families. 

So this morning my frustration dissipated just a little when I read what the Capital District Community Gardens is doing. Since 2007 Community Gardens has been hosting Veggie Mobiles, which deliver fresh, locally grown produce to low income neighborhoods. On Wednesday, they launched an online marketplace — a "Virtual Veggie Mobile" — stocked by more than a dozen local farmers from around the region. This wholesale marketplace will serve group homes schools, hospitals, day care centers, restaurants and convenience stores. It’s an ambitious and holistic approach to bridging the food chasm. To learn more, or sign up your organization to purchase whole foods wholesale, visit market.cdcg.org.

Working Progress

When I visited Patroon Land Farm on its cold, windy hilltop behind the Helderberg escarpment, I was struck by how impermanent it all seemed. Half-plowed fields were still waiting for a string of warm days for planting to begin. It’s hard to believe that this scruffy collection of buildings and just five employees could produce over 450,000 pounds of produce for the Northeast Regional Food Bank since 2006. 

The project began when Pauline Williman placed her family’s 162 acre farm in a land trust and began producing food for the food bank on her own. In 2006 the Patroon Land Foundation and the Food Bank became partners and hired Mark Weinheimer, a professional farm manager. The partner’s vision was to create a sustainable farm that would supply fresh produce to the food bank, educate community volunteers, and create an income stream through the sale of CSA (community supported agriculture) shares. In CSAs, consumers pay for their weekly share of the harvest in advance and share in the bounty (and the risks) of the farm.

According to Mark, the CSA had 450 shares last year and expects to sell 600 in 2014.  Most of the farm shares are delivered to members who work in NY State office buildings but a small percentage of shareholders stop by the farm to pick up their produce every week. Popular items that can’t be grown in the rocky hilltop soil are sourced from other like-minded farms — corn from Barber’s farm in Middleburgh and carrots from Schoharie Valley Farms. 

Mark and I looked out across the empty fields. It was mid May and the wind was brisk. “We have a bunch of volunteers coming tomorrow and I hope it doesn’t rain,” he said. It’s been too cold and wet to plant so far and the greenhouse is bursting. He pointed out the flats of larger vegetables waiting outside the greenhouse for planting. “Hardening them off?” I asked, trying to sound knowledgeable. “Not by choice,” he said, and shook his head. 

Volunteers transplant seedlings in the greenhouse.

The next day, when I stopped by to take pictures under towering clouds and warm, humid air,  the place was humming with volunteers transplanting seedlings in the greenhouse and working on a road project. If you’re looking to join a farm CSA, your membership in Patroon Creek Farm will not only feed your family but many others by supporting the work of the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. 

A Masters Degree in Chicken?

It didn’t start out this way, but this blog seems to have turned into a school for cooking chicken. To be honest, I never really used to think much about chicken. Like most Americans, I eat a lot of it – assuming it’s healthier for me than beef or lamb. And I have a bunch of recipes designed around inexpensive chicken thighs from Perdue or Tyson Foods.

But a little reading is a dangerous thing. These days I stand paralyzed before the poultry case at my local supermarket. How on earth can they sell chicken thighs for $1.69 a pound? Of course the chickens are factory farmed; the thighs have no taste; and they’re pumped with salt water, antibiotics, and tainted by salmonella. To be safe you practically have to don a hazmat suit to keep your family out of the emergency room.

Hunters chicken compliments of Joy of Cooking 1964.

My mother, who would be 80 this year, grew up in the depression and hated raising chickens in her back yard. “They’re nasty birds,” she scoffed when she heard that young people wanted to keep chickens in downtown Albany. But though she loved buying chicken in yellow Styrofoam trays, she sometimes became wistful about fryers. She tried to explain that there used to be tender, small chickens in the stores but I honestly had no idea what she meant. Except for already cooked rotisserie chickens, all I ever knew were boneless breasts, legs, thighs and roasters.

Fryers

My last few farmers’ market meat purchases were stewing hens. I now have buckets of broth in the freezer and have eaten my fill of chicken fricassee, chicken tagine, and chicken soup. I was looking for something tender -- a spring chicken. And there they were – fresh 2 lb. fryers. Arriving home with my tiny bird,  I set about looking for a recipe…

I’m sure there’s a cookbook out there dedicated to fresh local chicken, but I can’t find recipes on line and the books I have, except for my old Joy of Cooking, feature cooking times and techniques made for CAFO birds. So I went back to my Joy, which still had recipes featuring fryers and broilers. I selected Hunters Chicken (p. 469) and followed the recipe to the letter. The results were perfect. The chicken was tender, the sauce velvety. I now know I can use those techniques in lots of different ways.

Hunters Chicken

• My fryer was freshly slaughtered so I let it sit in the refrigerator for a day. Then I salted it inside and out and chilled it for several more hours.
• I cut the chicken into serving pieces -- separating the leg parts, cutting off the wingtips and cut the breast into four small pieces. All were dredged in flour and browned in olive oil.
• After removing the pieces from the oil, I sautéed a chopped up medium onion, garlic, and sliced mushrooms. To this I added ¼ c tomato puree, 1 c white wine, and ¾ c of chicken broth along with half a tsp each of marjoram and thyme.  I tossed the chicken back in and brought the mixture to a boil -- simmering for an hour. The stew was served over spaghetti along with spinach, which is finally back in season thanks to high tunnel green houses.

The only problem with the dish was that I could have used another chicken or two! I now know that I can use my little fryers in anything requiring quick browning and hour-long cooking.  Next week we’ll see what happens if we simply bake them!

News on the Farm Front

During a recent house renovation I found a 1948 issue of the Knickerbocker News stuffed into the wall as insulation. The headline made me laugh: GOP Brings Tax Issues Into Congressional Row Over Inflation. Some things never change, I thought, as I carefully turned the brittle pages. But as I got into the interior I realized that some things have changed a lot. This was a city newspaper that covered the region. I was amazed to see the way farm coverage was intimately linked with all phases of life. Even the Altamont Enterprise has very little farm reporting these days, I realized. How do we know what the issues are if we don’t read about them

I couldn't resist. Here's a "future farmer" at Indian Ladder Farms.

Young Farmers NY

I’d be the first to admit that I’m not generally excited by Republican legislative proposals but the NYS Senate Republicans have just launched a package of initiatives that, on its face, deserves all of our support. The Young Farmers NY initiative will provide $30 million including tax credits, loans and funding for agricultural efforts. According to the Schenectady Gazette, the state has lost about 50,000 acres of farmland in each of the last five years. The average age of NY farmers is 57. The goal of the initiative is to make it easier to transfer farmland to the next generation and preserve existing farmland in the state. Link to article.

Making Farmers Markets more accessible 

According to the Associated Press — and also from the Schenectady Gazette: New York State wants to make farmers' markets more accessible to low-income consumers. Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the state will make $130,000 in grants available this year to support at least 13 traditional farmers' market and youth market grant projects. Individual grants up to $10,000 will go to applicants with the best ideas on how to improve access to farmers' markets participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once known as food stamps. The money comes from the "FreshConnect" Farmers' Market program, which promotes the sale of locally-grown food. Link to article.

Farm to Institution

A new grant to the American Farmland Trust/New York will help small local farmers connect with institutional buyers. This is important because 83% of fruit, vegetable, and dairy products are grown on land near cities that is directly in the path of sprawling development. These small family farms contribute to the local economy, preserve agricultural diversity, and can allow us to reconnect our lives with the land. With billions of farm bill dollars going to GMO corn, soybean, and wheat production, consumers can break the cycle and buy directly from local farms — at farm stands, CSAs, the co-op, or at farmers markets. 

Unfortunately, according to Bernard Melewski, of Black Creek Farm CSA, “It’s very difficult for a small diversified organic vegetable CSA to become more than a hobby.” He was excited to tell me about the project, which he believes holds promise for small producers. The Farm to Institution New York State Partnership (they need a better name!) was launched in February to connect small local farmers to institutional buyers. Funded by the Local Economies Project of the New World Foundation, FINYS will create a virtual farmers market to match up universities in the SUNY system, senior centers, and other nutritional outlets with produce from small local farms. “I need to provide a diverse food basket for my CSA shares but that often means that I end up over-producing one crop or another. This virtual market will give me an outlet for those items. I’m also looking forward to targeting certain high-margin crops for this market,” said Melewski.

Without solid infrastructure linking farmers to markets, the local food movement will always be a luxury for those with money and time. Projects like these provide meaningful connections between farmers and institutional consumers and promise to bring organic locally sourced food into the mainstream once again. Link to press release.

Omnivore's dilemma

Visiting the farmers market in February, I understand why my northern European ancestors were omnivores. It’s still too cold for high tunnel greens and the root vegetables just keep getting bigger and less diverse. Gone is the lovely carrot medley with thin white roots reaching out to lure me in. Instead there are big, thick orange carrots about the size of my forearm --along with parsnips, potatoes, turnips, some die hard squashes, and apples. Even the eggs have slowed down.

This is where we’re happy for meat of all varieties. Since starting this blog, I’ve been educating myself about meat — where it comes from and what they do to get it to us safely (for the most part). It’s not a happy story. Factory-farmed pigs are housed in cages so small they can’t turn around. Chickens grow fat so quickly that they’re unable to stand. Manure fouls the water supply, methane gas accelerates global warming, and antibiotic resistance flows silently into our bodies. Some sights can’t be un-seen or un-learned. As a result I face a crisis now in the supermarket. Will that chicken send me to the hospital with antibiotic resistant salmonella? Does that sausage harbor listeria? And what were the lives of those animals like who died for my dinner?

Trying to eat locally farmed, ethically raised meat on a fixed income is tough. My days of spending $10 per pound on ground beef are long gone. I understand that the comparison is unfair — as the low prices we enjoy in the supermarket are the result of collusion between government policies and big Ag that support monocultures and factory farms. But $20 for pork chops seems a lot for one meal.

Assuming that these costs are the true cost of farming, how do we bring meat into our winter diet without going broke? First, I think we need to be realistic about our food costs. In the next few months I’m planning to track what I really spend and find ways to incorporate locally raised meat in a financially responsible way. Last week was a start.

Chicken soup

Cooper’s Ark Farm from Schoharie is now selling frozen stewing hen carcasses — two for $3.25. In the past the slaughterhouse would have disposed of them. Each package includes the wings and legs. I simmered them with carrots, celery, and onions in a crockpot for about 10 hours and set the pot on the back porch overnight. The next day I pulled out the chickens, strained the broth, and made an amazing chicken soup with fresh carrots, potatoes, celery, and thin egg noodles. At the last minute I added thinly sliced cabbage and some drained, canned tomatoes. There was enough dark meat from the legs and wings. the whole house smelled like fragrant chicken stock for two days and the bright green cabbage made us feel like spring was here at last. What’s more we had enough soup for about 10 servings. The only thing I would have done differently is cook the noodles separately and toss them into the individual bowls as I don’t like starchy soup.

Shepherd’s Pie

I love grass-fed beef but $20 for prime cuts is just too much. Last week we found ground lamb from Bella Terra Farm of Sprakers for $6.00 per pound. They call themselves the vegetarian and the butcher. Paul (the butcher) does his own cutting, which helps keep costs down. Add potatoes and onions from Barber Farms and carrots from Migliorelli Farm. The lamb was super lean and very mild. I made a traditional shepherd’s pie from Joy of Cooking. Six yummy servings for — maybe — $7 worth of ingredients. Not bad!!

These aren’t big beautiful roasts, and meat occupies a smaller place on the plate but the flavors perfume the house and we can eat guilt free for another week.

Salt is the new pepper and cauliflower is the new kale

When I left marketing I figured I was leaving trend reports behind. Imagine my surprise when I learned that vegetables have their own advocacy organizations. How else can you explain the ascendance of humble kale? But the world of food is fickle and a chorus of leading trendologists is now predicting that cauliflower will supplant kale as the fashion food of 2014.

Articles in the South China Post and Huffington Post Canada began touting the virtues of cauliflower starting at the end of 2013. From a health perspective, we could do worse. Cauliflower is a member of a family of cruciferous vegetables (including broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale) that are high in nutrients including organic compounds called indoles. These include diindolylmethane (DIM), which has shown to support the immune system and help keep hormones, especially estrogen, in balance.

Both kale and cauliflower are low in calories and high in fiber and vitamins — though kale beats cauliflower hands down when it comes to vitamins A, C, and K. What’s drawing folks to cauliflower is its versatility and ability to masquerade as so many other — higher calorie — foods.

Cauliflower can be mashed, grilled, broiled or cut in steaks and barbecued, served on its own or in salad or tossed with herbs, vinegars and oils. For those following a gluten-free food plan, there are many recipes for pizza with cauliflower crust.

With all this hoopla you can expect to see instant cauliflower “mashed potatoes,” cauliflower steaks, and chips. I personally like my cauliflower prepared simply. It was the biggest surprise when I came to roasted vegetables a few years ago. Now I almost never cook it any other way.

We toss our cauliflower in sesame oil and roast it in a 400 degree oven until cooked.

Another approach is to sautee the cauliflower in olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice. then finish by roasting in a 500 degree oven for 15 minutes. Toss with parmesan cheese and chives.

You can bet I’m starting my cauliflower paintings now — perhaps against the 2014 color of the year: Radiant Orchid!

Finding color in a black & white world

As you can see from the studio window, we had a snow day last week. In desperate need of a dose of color we turned to our winter squash, now frozen on the back porch. Brilliant, saffron colored, and slightly sweet, butternut squash and sweet potatoes store up summer sun and yield it back when you need it most.  

African squash and sweet potato stew via Cook's Hideout.

African Squash & Sweet Potato Stew

The recipe from Cook's Hideout is simple and flexible. Luckily, we had all the ingredients, so we didn't need to go out. We baked and scooped the butternut squash and were relieved to see that it was just fine. We had (unfrozen) sweet potatoes from the farmer's market along with our new winter friend, kohlrabi for crispness. The other ingredients included peanut butter, canned diced tomatoes, chili powder, cinnamon, and garlic. Our stew was thicker than the photos at Cook's Hideout -- probably because we had to mash the butternut squash.

The recipe made a lot for our family of three so we froze some. I'm happy to say that freezing didn't alter the taste or texture a bit. This one is definitely a keeper!

Hilltown Farmers Market to Close

In a note to the Altamont Enterprise, the Helderberg Hilltowns Association announced that they would not reopen the Hilltowns Market at the Masonic Hall in Berne this year. Despite many loyal vendors there were not enough customers to make the market viable for all. Below is a list of Hilltown Farms that offer community supported agriculture (CSA) shares, providing eggs, meats, herbs, spices and other items. Links to these and other farms can be found at www.hilltowns.org. Click on the Hilltowns Association logo on the left and scroll down to Resources. Can't travel to pick up your CSA shares but still want to eat local? Try Farmiemarket for delivery.

• Baitsholts Farm
• Crosby Farm
• Eight Mile Creek Farm
• Gordon Farms
• Heather Ridge Farm
• Lady Liberty Farm
• Longfield Farm
• Newcombs Farm
• Otter Hook Farm
• Patroon Land Farm
• Raven Crest Botanicals

Mysterious winter vegetables

Last week everything but meat and mushrooms seemed to disappear from the farmers market. It's been too cold for the high tunnel greens, and even the apples and pears are dwindling.

But there are two vegetables that endure: kohlrabi and celeriac. This winter we tried both. Let's just say that cerleriac had some unfortunate intestinal consequences and we probably won't go back. Kohlrabi, on the other hand was a wonderful surprise.

Though it looks like a root from an alien planet, kohlrabi is really an enlarged stem that tastes like a cross between cabbage and broccoli. Thin skinned, easy to slice, the flavor is nice and subtle and the texture is crisp and fresh. Such a surprise this time of year. 

We tried it boiled with butter and parmesan cheese but it seemed too mushy and a waste of such a light and airy food. Better to chop it into matchsticks for munching or slice thinly for salad. 

Joy of cooking then and now and then again

The internet has changed how I cook. Sort of. When I get an unfamiliar vegetable or heritage chicken from the farmers market I google it. Up pops some fabulous recipe from a food blogger. Then begins the search for the most authentic version of the recipe. An hour later, I surface. . . . and consult The Joy of Cooking.

Joy of Cooking was my first cookbook. Today the paperback pages are brittle, the cover is creased, and there are water and food stains throughout. I remember rushing out to buy the New Joy of Cooking in 1997 – in hardcover. As I explore the world of local food, I like to see how different the two books are – and how newly relevant the old Joy of Cooking has become.

Last week I got a stewing hen from Cooper's Ark Farm at the Schenectady Greenmarket. When my mom lamented the fact 20 years ago that she couldn’t find stewing chickens in the grocery store any more, I had no idea what she was talking about. Now I do. My little stewing hen is one tough bird – and full of flavor.

Chicken Fricassee

The OLD Joy of Cooking recommends throwing the hen in a pot with a carrot, a celery stick, an onion and water to cover. Boil it, skim off the froth, and then simmer for hours. Once you have a broth, make a “pan gravy” with butter and flour and broth. Throw in the chicken meat, cook some noodles and you’re done.

The NEW Joy of Cooking assumes that your chicken is tasteless and finds flavor in other ways. You sautee onions, carrots, garlic, and celery; cut the chicken up into pieces and brown. Toss in some herbs and add broth from an aseptic container. Heat through and serve over noodles.

My chicken fricassee merged the two worlds.

I put the 2 lb. chicken, carrot, onion and celery in a crockpot and turned the heat to high until just bubbling. I skimmed off the froth and turned the heat down to low and let it cook until I got home from work. Then I strained the broth, cleaned the chicken, discarded the vegetables and set the broth aside to cool on the back porch (it’s cold!).  Next day I skimmed off the fat and reduced the broth down by about a third to make it nice and concentrated.

I like texture in my food so at this point I switched to JOC2. I sautéed onion, and garlic in butter in a heavy saucepan. I added flour to take up the grease and whisked my simmering broth into the pan. I kept adding broth until I had a nice gravy. Once I had the gravy I added the carrot slices, the celery, and cooked chicken and simmered the pot while I cooked the egg noodles.

The chicken meat was a little dry but the flavor more than made up for it. We tossed the leftover fricassee into prepared pie crust and had chicken pot pies. The leftover broth went into kale soup. Three intensely flavorful meals: not bad for a $6 hen!

Shopping is not the only answer

In this compelling Ted Talk, Stacy Mitchell lays out the reasons why buying local -- alone -- will not solve the concentration of power among big box retailers and big banks. As she says, we we can't make the world a better place by being better consumers. This won't change the fundamental fact that we are swimming upstream against a powerful downcurrent of public policies that are taking our economy in the wrong direction. She advocates for pushing changes in public policy that will support local farms, local banks and local infrastructure. It's a powerful argument.