The sauce for this dish easily works with pork or even beef, but is especially good with all poultry. Duck has a reputation of being difficult-from greasy to rubbery to gamy to hard to cook. It really isn’t that hard to deal with as long as you don’t try to cook the duck whole. The breasts are easily done in a sauté pan that is transferred to the oven to finish. Legs should be cooked separately, either roasted, braised, or confited (slow cooked in their own fat). Depending on who you talk to, duck fat is considered to be between butter and olive oil as far as health benefits go. I recommend you look it up yourselves if you are curious. I will say it washes off hands a lot easier than any vegetable shortening I’ve ever used, and it tastes great. So, while cooking this recipe, have a little heat-proof container to put the fat you drain off into handy. Look for moulard or Pekin duck breasts for this recipe. These breasts are larger and ½ a full breast (1 side) will feed two.
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Things are hopping on the farm now. We’re doing a lot of planting every week, and getting into the swing of harvesting more each week. This is a simple dish with a mild ginger glow and coconut sweetness that was acts as a foil to the earthy minerality that is collards. This dish was first concocted to go with tandoori chicken and cinnamon cardamom carrot threads. This would work with other greens such as Portuguese kale, lacinato, or mustard greens.
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This recipe was originally made with ramps, which is a wild onion which does not seem grow here and is really delicious and has a season about a month and a half long it seems. This is an approximation of that sauce made with items readily available here-baby leeks and scallions. The sauce is essentially a vinaigrette thickened up with lots of alliums and herbs, and is great for topping meats (this was first made for red wine marinated lamb chops) and fish, or being used on a salad made with flavorful sturdy lettuces such as romaine, Little Gems, and the like.
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This dish was inspired by a 12 pound tub of Kimes Apiary honey from the main farm I was gifted this winter. The flavor of this honey is phenomenal and brings a lot to the dish. The leeks have an earthy funky note that marries so well with honey. If you don’t have access to the Kimes Apiary honey, look for something that is floral, buttery, and low-key, and not cloyingly sweet for best results. Use these leeks as a starter dish or a side to something braised in wine or vinegar, or something fried like chicken or squid.
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This was made to go with steak in lieu of spinach. It has a similar texture, but doesn’t carry that oxalic acid texture that spinach sometimes has that makes the teeth feel furry. Also, mei-quin has a brighter flavor that goes well with hanger or flap steak and grass fed beef, and makes a nice foil to the flavor imbued by grilling.
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This is a sort of modern California riff on the steakhouse classic of steak with maître d’hôtel butter served with spinach. While a baked potato or frites might be what comes to mind as a starch, I’d go for Pommes Anna instead. The recipe calls for a hanger steak- there is one per animal and it has a strip of gristle running down the center that must be cut away (ask the butcher to do it) – which has a wonderful “beefy” flavor. However, if you like meat cooked more well done, this is not the cut for you. Anything past medium and the steak is chewy as wet saddle leather. Other cuts that are flavorful and off the beaten path include flap, chuck eye, and flatiron. The last is a steak that is flavorful like a chuck steak, but has the tenderness of filet, except for a strip of gristle running through the middle. Cut it out after you have cooked it or you end up cutting the steak into tiny bits that cook too fast. Be sure you use a hot flame or pan so the meat chars a bit, as that flavor is part of the overall appeal.
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We are saying goodbye to Molly this week, which is a sad thing for us because she has done just an amazing job as our CSA administrator. 
The USDA has proposed imposing an Organic Check-off Program in which all organic producers would pay a percentage of their income to a federal program that would fund research and marketing for the industry as a whole. Think “Got Milk” or “The Incredible Edible Egg.” This dressing is pack with herb flavors. Although it was made to go with a fava and lettuce salad, it would be great as a dip for vegetables or falafel, and would be good in chicken salad or with skewers of grilled chicken, lamb, or beef. Avoid using curly parsley here as it will make it taste bitter and vegetable.
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These tubers are neither from Jerusalem or are they related to artichokes. They are in the sunflower family, and have some of that nutty flavor. This recipe takes its name from my kids. Once when I was making this, they were watching and my daughter commented that the slices of sunchoke looked like gold coins. These are great-they taste like a cross between potato chips, French fries, and sunflower seeds. Just be sure to serve them hot, as they do not hold well. Peeling these is beyond tedious. Soak them in cool water for 5 minutes or so, then scrub them with a brush.
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This “winter” just doesn’t want to go away—another storm is forecast for tomorrow. We are up to nearly 40 inches of rain this season, which is nearly double what we get in a normal year. This is how I imagine it is to farm on the East Coast, where they get rain throughout the spring and summer.
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This is the most fundamental way of cooking asparagus. I learned this from my wife, and as long as I pay attention, it has never failed me. It yields moist, perfectly textured asparagus, tender without being the least mushy, slippery, or thready/stringy on the outside. This also works for asparagus that has been cut into smaller pieces.
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This first day of spring is being ushered in with yet more rain, making for a wet harvest day. Steve was on the tractor dawn to dusk through the weekend getting ground worked up and compost spread in advance of the storm. He wasn’t the only one. Some nearby farms have had tractors working through the night.
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This recipe makes a simple dish with that has plenty of flavor. If you wish to, adding some chopped lacinato kale adds color to the dish and contrast to the flavors, all of which meet under the aromatic umbrella of the garlic chives. This recipe is set to yield a “dry” dish, but if you wish, you can use more stock and have the carrots in a broth, adding little pasta shapes or Israeli couscous or grains if it pleases you.
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Here’s a salad where textures, flavors, and colors all play off one another. Even the beets join in as the different color beets are seasoned with different types of vinegar. The dressing is a light creamy (yogurt) dressing flavored with garlic chives. The flavor and aroma are redolent of garlic, but do not have the heat of clove garlic.
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The National Weather Service reminds us that winter is not over—they are calling for a pattern change and chance of showers after the upcoming weekend. But it has sure felt like Spring the last few days. We are in full production mode. This dressing was originally intended for the Arugula, Radish, Avocado, Breadcrumb Salad.
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Mayonnaise is used for simplicity, as well as for its wonderful ability to brown up and form a nice glaze. If you wish for something lower calorie and lower cholesterol, you can use whipped egg whites instead, although it may not brown nearly as well. You could whip the whites and fold in the whisked yolk if you want loft and richness as well. If you do not have green garlic, just use a single clove of garlic minced or just season the pan by cooking the whole clove in the oil you’ll cook the spinach in. Don’t have oyster mushrooms? Don’t worry about it. Cook ¼ of a finely diced white or yellow onion and cook it until soft before adding spinach. Although the recipe looks long, it is really not. There are just lots of tips to ensure this is an easy dish.
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I hope you have all weathered the storms in your homes or are at least getting the relief you need at this point with a little sunny weather. It was a frosty morning here, maybe the coldest night of the year so far. We are seeing dry-ish weather in the near-term forecast and are jumping on the chance to knock down some of the cover crops at our Lewis Road property to prepare more ground to plant into.
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This is a brightly flavored treatment for meaty swordfish. The radishes are a great foil for the buttery sauce and sweet tasting fish. Untoasted coriander seed has a citrusy profile that matches well with the sauce. If you wanted to, you could lightly cook the radishes in the sauce to give them a softer flavor, but the soaked raw slices provide a nice crunch as well as a little heat for contrast.
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