Tat-soi

The weather is turning to fall. Finally. Well, kind of. We'll get a nice day of 60 degrees here and there. Pull out a sweater and some boots. But then the weather is like, SYKEEEE! I'M GONNA BE 91 DEGREES TODAY, SUCKAS! Yeah. Monday the high is 91. I am not kidding. I took Maggie to the beach yesterday. It is October. Oh, Tennessee. I know we'll appreciate the randomness that is your weather when it's 60 degrees mid-December. But for now? Ready to be done with field work when it is above 75 degrees.

One thing I love about farming is the lack of boredom. Just as I am sick and tired of picking summer squash and cucumbers, it is suddenly time for fall greens! And root crops! All of our summer crops are winding down, with the exception of bell peppers, and fall veggies are bursting forth. The new little greens are so sweet and tiny - collards, arugula, leaf lettuce, kale, tat soi, mustard greens. Everything is lush and happy to have respite from the pests that have been plaguing us all summer. Something about a thriving plant is so good for my soul.




For those of you interested in garden, this is a handy little tool. You can map out garden beds with using 47 varieties of veggies. It will automatically show you how many of a particular plant can fit in a square foot and will provide information on the planting of each vegetable. What would we do without the internet?

Nope, no more Green Market Farm.

So. The farm I was going to move to? Didn't happen. The short of it was that I didn't realize I was getting into a very, very dysfunctional family situation until I had already moved a good bit of my stuff out there. It lasted one week. That was quite long enough.

Lesson learned? Some people are crazy. I need to slow down and ask more questions before diving in headfirst. Thankfully nothing was ruined -- I'm still in my East Nashville house, still working for Farmer Stacy, and just got hired on to work in the produce dept of a nice grocery store, Harris Teeter.

Also, for clarification, Farmer Brandon of Green Market Farm is a great fellow and we are on great terms. He had nothing to do with my leaving. He is extracting himself from the dysfunction as well, as he is marrying Amy Delvin of Delvin Farms and is merging his venture with theirs.

Gobs of cob.

One of my current aspirations in life is to build a cob home. Cob is a method of building that consists of mixing together straw and clay. Walls are approximately 1-2' thick, keeping the home cool in the summer and warm in the winter, requiring minimal heating. Cob can be beautiful and is more organic in form than standard building; walls do not have to be straight, but can be shaped and molded in a natural way. Windows can be all different shapes and sizes and nooks can be carved out.

Cob building is cheap and can accommodate modern plumbing and electrical wiring (preferably done by a professional, of course). I'd love to get my hands dirty at some point and give it a try. Here are a couple examples of beautiful, beautiful cob homes.

This cob home is located in South Africa, built by an artist. I am especially in love with the bedroom, with its window-speckled wall and the metal stars suspended from the high, fabric-covered ceiling. Magic!!





The New York Times featured this cob home in Texas. Scroll through the slideshow. It is inspiring that something this beautiful can be built by an ordinary person with no construction training, and at such a low cost.

A taste of things to come:

At last!

Whew! It has been a month of craziness. Heat wave of 95+ weather that, given humidity levels, felt like 100+ and caused intense feelings of suffering and despair. We've finally arrived at that fall nip in the air and I could not be more thankful.

For me, this month has been one of figuring out what to do next, farm-wise and life-wise. My time with Farmer Stacy is over halfway done; I'll be working with him until the first week of November, which is when his CSA ends.

I've gone from considering buying my own place, to renting somewhere with a big yard to grow, to thinking of using a friend's land to farm. My "plans" changed pretty much weekly, and drastically.

But now a REAL plan is as good as set in stone: I am moving to Green Market Farm in Gallatin, Tennessee, a town about 40 minutes northeast of Nashville. Hooray!

I will be interning/apprenticing: helping grow organic veggies and fruits with Brandon Tavalin, a young farmer who partners with his grandparents and other interns bring good food from the earth. The focus is on wholesale and restaurant sales, as well as several farmers markets (East, West and Woodbine) and supplementing other farms' CSAs.



Maggie and I are moving into the old farm house on the main piece of land (10 acres out of the 30 Brandon cultivates). Our part of the house, two bedrooms and a sitting room was an addition built in the 1930s and has high ceilings, hardwood floors, and fireplaces in both bedrooms. The house kitchen is MAGIC and there is a nice big dining room table -- dinner parties, for sure!

Here's an article about the farm and Brandon's mission. There's no farm website and a rather sparse facebook page, but pictures and details are soon to come on here! And as soon as we get settled in, hopefully in a week or two, I'd LOVE to have visitors out - it's a lovely place.

Harses

Bristol!

Meet the equine residents of Paradise Produce!
These two sweethearts have gotten me over my fear of losing fingers to 4" horse teeth.

Kate!

What in the world am I doing?

My first year’s goal is to begin a Winter CSA (community supported agriculture) share. Customers will pay at the beginning of the season and will pick up a share of approximately 25 lbs of produce every other week, January through April. This will equal eight pickups per share, weighing in at 200+ pounds. What is included in the share is split into four parts:

Storage produce: Potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, beets, cabbage, turnips, radishes, winter squash, pumpkins

Fresh produce: Kale, Belgian endive, Swiss chard

Canned goods: Spaghetti sauce, salsa, fruit preserves and jams, pickles

Frozen goods: Tomatoes, summer squash, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower

These are projected crops for the initial year. I plan to expand upon this, learning more about growing fresh veggies over winter and adding more frozen produce as I am able to purchase freezer equipment. For the first year, however, I want to keep things simple and work mainly with plants I have some experience with and storage methods requiring little start-up cost. Some experimentation will happen, if time and resources permit. I am definitely excited about learning more with each passing year.

I will be using organic, sustainable methods to grow these yummies: no chemicals, farm-produced compost/fertilizer, minimal machinery usage, cover crops, and much more. I may incorporate some biodynamic elements, such as planting by the lunar signs to give plants a bit of a natural boost.

If things go as planned, I will make my first planting in October – garlic, which grows over winter to be harvested in June. The rest will be started in March and April of 2011. Growing will continue through November, with Round One of CSA shares beginning the first week of January 2012. It seems a long way off, but will happen quickly!

I would like to spend the summer and fall at Nashville farmers markets, selling any excess produce as time and resources allow. I hope to produce enough to sell at least 15 shares for Round One.

More to come, but these are the (possibly too detailed) basics. What do y’all think? Input is more than welcome, encouragement and suggestions would be fabulous!

Stuffed Patty Pan Squash

Patty pan is a cute lil squash. Probably my favorite shape. I found a few recipes online for stuffing it, but none that suited my taste just right. I came up with this version that is basically cheese calzone filling inside a squash. That makes it healthy, right?

This recipe is just for one squash, but of course you can easily double, triple, quadruple, etc. It took about 10 minutes of actual prep work to make this -- super simple!


You need:

One medium patty pan squash (approx 6-8" diameter)
1/2 C ricotta cheese
1/4 C mozzarella cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced
herbs - oregano, basil, etc. - fresh is always best!

First you need to boil the patty pan until it's about 3/4 of the way done. This should take about 12-15 minutes. While that's going, pre-heat the oven to 350 and mix up the cheese, garlic and herbs. When the squash feels slightly tender when poked by a fork, yet still pretty firm, take it out, let it sit for a bit til it cools down. Then slice the top off -- top being the part where the stem was, the narrower end. Scoop out the insides, leaving at least half an inch of the lining. Be careful when you're scraping out the bottom - don't bust it! Fill 'er up with cheesy goodness, wrap in aluminum foil, and bake for 25-35 minutes, until the cheese is nice and melty. Eat that sucka up!


Another awesome way I like to eat patty pans is sliced thinly, about 1/4" thick, sauteed with garlic and olive oil, patted dry, then put on a sandwich or in a quesadilla. Yummmm.

Farmers market, hey-o!

I am now officially working for West Wind Farms as a farmers market booth operator (I think that's a good job title, yeah?) at the West Nashville Farmers Market, every other Saturday 9-12. Today was day 1 on my own and went by without a hitch. Out of the 30ish organic grass-fed free-range meat products I had, the most popular were eggs, boneless skinless chicken breast, chicken thigh meat, 80/20 ground beef, ground turkey, beef snack sticks and low sodium beef jerky.

Cah-ching!

All Life is Sacred

"We and all other creatures live by a sanctity that is inexpressibly intimate, for to every creature, the gift of life is a portion of the breath and spirit of God. We will discover that for these reasons our destruction of nature is not just bad stewardship, or stupid economics, or a betrayal of family responsibility; it is the most horrible blasphemy."

"We are holy creatures living among other holy creatures in a world that is holy. Why is it apparently unknown to millions of professed students of the Bible? How can modern Christianity have so solemnly folded its hands while so much of the work of God was and is being destroyed?"

"Obviously, 'the sense of the holiness of life' is not compatible with an exploitive economy. You cannot know that life is holy if you are content to live from economic practices that daily destroy life and diminish its possibility."

The industrial economy is "an economy firmly founded on the seven deadly sins and the breaking of all ten of the Ten Commandments."



"Everything that lives is holy" -- William Blake

"Creation is nothing less than the manifestation of God's hidden being." -- Philip Sherrard, Greek Orthodox theologian

"It takes a lot of nerve to destroy this wond'rous earth." -- Bowerbirds

"To Dante, 'despising Nature and her goodness' was a violence against God." --Wendell Berry

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork." --Psalm 19


Wendell Berry, "Christianity and the Survival of Creation"

Of honor

"To us life, all life, is sacred. When we killed a buffalo, we knew what we were doing. We apologized to his spirit, tried to make him understand why we did it, honoring with a prayer the bones of those who gave their flesh to keep us alive, praying for their return."



‘When you kill a beast, say to him in your heart:
By the same power that slays you, I too am slain, and I too shall be consumed.
For the law that delivers you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.
Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven.'

Death and dinner.

The scene: Maggie holding a baby broiler chick at Farmer Stacy's.

Me: "Maggie, one day that chicken will be dinner."
Maggie, with great enthusiasm: "And it will be so dead in my mouth! And it will be so yummy!"

Cooking list.

This week I would like to make:

Pizza - homemade crust, mozzarella, fresh tomatoes
Shepherd's pie (meatless) with seitan
Grilled squash & zucchini sandwiches
Pasta with goat cheese and cherry tomatoes
Sweet potato corn chowder

Who wants to come over for lunch/dinner?

Fettucine with Garlic Cream Sauce and Roasted Beets

I have a confession: I'm not much into the straight up taste of beets. But they're so dang pretty that I have to keep trying them. I've discovered that, when paired with a delicious garlicky buttery creamy sauce, beets taste pretty good. Add in a lovely friend and you're all set for the perfect Saturday lunch!

This time around I used golden beets and Chioggia. I think they're prettier than the standard dark red, and the taste is about the same.

Here's what you need:

1/4 cup butter
1 cup cream OR 1 cup milk with 3 tbsp flour
2-4 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped finely
3-4 large garlic cloves
A bunch of beets
A box of linguine

Here's what you do:

First you need to roast the beets. Rinse and wrap them in tinfoil. Put them in the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes, til they're tender.

About 30 minutes into the roasting, get started on your sauce. Melt the butter and stir in the milk -- but first, take a bit of the milk and stir it up with the flour in a cup or bowl, til the flour is mostly dissolved. Crush the garlic (I loooooove my garlic press so so much for this), add it and the parsley in. It'll take this 5-10 minutes to thicken up; give it a little longer if you want it to set more. Add a bit of salt, but make sure you're careful with it, since salted butter obv has salt already. Make your pasta. Mix 'em up. Enjoy.

As with most of what I cook, this can be tasted and tweaked according to preference. You can't have too much butter and you CERTAINLY can't have too much garlic.

Idyllic/Realistic

Paradise Produce: The ultimate paradox of the idyllic and the realistic.

The most valuable contribution Farmer Stacy has made to my farm learning is in accurately informing me of the difficulties of farming. It isn't always so pretty. It isn't always so fun to be pulling garlic when it's 99 degrees outside and feels like 105. Weeds happen; ones like spiny amaranth sneak up and slice your hand wide open. Manure can get smelly. Blood gets everywhere when you slaughter chickens and their wings flap around. Your back starts to hurt when you have to transplant 1000 ft of sweet potatoes. Two acres of crops is a LOT for one farmer to manage.

Yet! The beauty of the Lord's creation is tough to ignore. Wild turkeys strut their stuff in the morning, tail feathers all poofed out. Hummingbirds zoom by the back door on their way to the feeders. A pair of beautiful bluebirds made a nest under the eaves of the barn and little beaks stick out the top to receive juicy green caterpillars. On top of all that, the bounty of what the farmer has grown is exciting. Digging up a patch of huge carrots is super satisfying.

Most days, the rough and the lovely balance out pretty well. It's good to be in a place that is realistic through and through.

The farmer's daughter and her living quarters.

Finally got Maggie's room cleaned up, after MONTHS of it looking like a disaster zone. Also, Maggie apparently is into dancing in the rain. I was pretty into it as well, a welcome relief from the 98 degree weather we've had for what seems like forever, but has actually only been 2 or 3 weeks.

I don't know how to make these pictures not look weirdly crappy quality. Frustrating. I don't know if I feel like investing the time to learn blogspot enough to figure out this problem. Sorry, y'all!

I just revisited my old livejournal. Hoo boy. Even writings from 2008 seem extremely dated. I am a different person... or am I? My last entry was a little over a year ago. It went like this:

These days, I'm thinking I'd really like to marry a farmer. I've been thinking that for a couple months now.

Hmm.



Interesting how things change but don't.

Swiss Chard Pasta with Cream Sauce

I'm fighting off a bit of a cold and wanted to get some yummy, colorful chard into my dinner as a vitamin/antioxident pick-me-up. Generally only the leaves are used, but this includes the ribs/stems, which are tasty too.

Chard has quickly become one of my favorite veggies from the farm. Not only is it beautiful, delicious, and versatile - it can be happily included in pasta, omelets, soup, dips, and so much more - but it is also TOUGH. Not tough as in hard to chew, but tough as in not needing to be babied. Some veggies are wimps. Lettuce is one of them. If you so much as LOOK at lettuce the wrong way, it crumples up and then turns brown. Chard, however, is tough and can handle a good amount of rough handling. Let's give a big round of applause to chard! And then put it in our stomachs.


1 cup milk (I used unflavored almond milk)
2 tbsp flour
1/4 cup butter
1 bunch of chard, chopped
Garlic, minced
Onions, minced

Sautee the onions, garlic, and half the butter in a large pan or pot. In a cup, mix together 1/4 a cup of the milk and the flour. After a couple minutes, add the milk/flour mixture, the rest of the milk, the chard, and the rest of the butter. Cook for several minutes and then mix with whatever pasta you'd like (I've been super into penne lately). Enjoy!

The beginning of summer.

This little guy became my friend today while we began building a chicken pen.

Farmer Stacy and the bee hives. Honey harvest will be soon!

I forget the name of this garlic variety, but look how gorgeous!
And tasty - used it in my dinner tonight.

A goat and buggy.

While researching goat training information, I came across this gem of a picture. What little girl doesn't dream of being pulled by a team of billy goats?




Goats are smart and can be trained to do many things: cultivate/till a garden, pull carts/wagons, give spa pedicures, etc etc. A Nubian buck that weighs 175 lb would be able to pull about 250 lb. Maggie definitely weighs less than that, so I think we'd have her coach and four taken care of.

Currently preferred livestock breeds

Jersey cow: Known as being sweet-tempered. Extremely cute. High butterfat content in milk.



Dominique chicken: America's oldest chicken breed. Hens are calm and good-tempered.



Nubian dairy goat: Strong personalities. Bond well with owners. Lower volume of milk, but high butterfat content. Can also be used for meat.



Border collie: The working dogs in Babe. 'nuff said.

Rye Toast with Roasted Beets and Goat Cheese

Holy goodness, this turned out even better than anticipated! I've been craving beets and beet greens for weeks now. Finally remembered to pick some before leaving work last night. My tummy is sooooo happy right now. Not to mention that I now am super charged with folate, vitamin B, vitamin C and potassium. Pink-stained fingers are just a side benefit.

What you need:
BEETS with greens
Extra virgin olive oil
Bread (I used rye sourdough from Silke's)
Goat cheese (I used Noble Springs' cherry berry chevre)
Vinaigrette

Wrap beets in aluminum foil, drizzling a bit of olive oil and salt on top. Roast at 375 for approximately 45 minutes (will depend on the beet size - you can tell if they're done by sticking a fork in 'em). Remove from oven, wait a few minutes til they've cooled down, then peel the outer skin off. Slice thinly and add to toasted bread topped with goat cheese.

For the greens, chop, pour a bit of vinaigrette on top, and add in some of the roasted beets.

So dynamic

Today marks the date of my first planting by the biodynamic calendar, according to this garden site. Today is considered a "fruit" day, meaning that now is a good time to work with fruiting plants -- anything from tomatoes to green beans. And pole beans are exactly what I will be planting! Cherokee trail of tears, heirloom, thanks to Justin O. I'm planting them right next to the tomato cages so the bean vines can climb.

Why I like my job today.

Because today I:

Ate 1/3 a watermelon in five minutes
Fed handfuls of clover to Kate and Bristol
Harvested carrots, kohlrabi, kale, garlic, and onions
Watched Emma during lunch break
Got a pat on the back from my boss
Made a rainbow with the hose while rinsing vegetables

Gimme dat sugar.

Today I made a discovery: there is a vegetable I like raw, without any sort of dressing. Sugar snap peas! They are a pain to pick, but so so so so so SO delicious. I had a hard time not eating every single one.

Henry David Thoreau

“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”

Gleaning! & my very first published recipe

While harvesting carrots at Paradise Produce this morning in the hot hot sun, I asked Farmer Stacy if it would be okay if I took home the small carrots that weren't big enough to bunch and sell. To my delight, he said yes! I am officially a gleaner, just like Ms. Ruth from Biblical days. I left the farm with three bunches of itty bitty carrots (about 2" long): one went to Miss Sheila, Maggie's daycare teacher, one came home with me, and one was traded for a bar of Olive and Sinclair chocolate (coffee bean, mmm).

Today also yielded several tidy bunches of garlic scapes, an exciting piece of garlicky goodness that I only recently discovered. Garlic plants send up these flower stalks when they feel ready to produce seeds, a process that also leads to the plant shutting down its growth. Today it was my job to snap off the scapes to allow the plant extra time to fill out the underground bulbs that will become the familiar garlic I dearly know and love.

Garlic scapes are wondrous things, lovely to behold and tasty to chomp. I threw these curly, wonderful lovelies into the soup pot with the baby carrots and some potatoes and whipped up a nice little spring meal for myself and my dear friend Colleen. Perfect end to a hard day's work.


Potato and Garlic Scape Soup

• 1 cup diced onion
• 1 cup diced carrot (I used babies)
  
• 1/2 cup garlic scapes, chopped (more if you're feeling adventurous!)
  
• 6 cups diced baking potato (about 2 pounds)
• 4 cups vegetable bouillon
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup 2% milk (I used raw!)
• 2 tbs flour
  

Chop garlic scapes as you would green onion. Drizzle some olive oil in a pan, add onions and sauté 5 minutes. Add potato, carrots, broth, salt, pepper, and bay leaf; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until potato is tender; remove bay leaf.

Use a potato masher (or a big spoon, or really anything capable of mashing) to break down some of the potatoes -- but leave it chunky. Take 1/4 cup of the milk, add the flour and stir together. Slowly stir this mixture into the soup, then add the rest of the milk. Cook over low heat until thoroughly heated.

How to tell if a leaf is too bug-ridden to harvest:

"If there's enough daylight to read a book."

"Quit talking about it and just grow something."

-- Justin O., paraphrased

The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it.

I'm on the verge of being overwhelmed by all I don't know. There is SO MUCH to learn about agriculture, about agrarianism and rural life and connections to Scripture and St. Isidore the patron of farmers and Amish agriculture and ecosystems and SO MUCH. It seems I add a new book to my "to read" list daily (I have an entire bookshelf already filled with ag-related books, only a few of which I've completed yet). There is so much wisdom and knowledge out there. There are so many individuals who have done amazing things with the land.

Yet -- God's hand is what enables this all. We cannot grow plants on our own. Our best efforts are in vain if He does not bless them. It is through Him that we have the ability to push a seed deep in the soil or research potting mix. And once we have done all we can do, exhausted our knowledge and resources in hopes of abundant harvest, it is our blessing to sit back and wait to see what He will do with what we have done.

Remembering that is like taking a deep breath when on the edge of hyperventilating. It's not me, it's Him.

Lucky duck.

Over the course of the last few months, I've worked in several different gardens: the East Nashville Cooperative Ministry (ENCM) McCoy community garden, the ENCM Bells Bend Cooperative Farm, Sulphur Creek Farm, and Paradise Produce. During this work, I've discovered a four-leaf clover in each garden and, on Friday, found not one, not two, but SEVEN lucky clovers while pulling radishes with Farmer Stacy at Paradise Produce for the Saturday morning farmers market in Franklin.

The literary analyst in me wants to declare that there is symbolism aaaaalllllll over these occurrences. Seven (luckiest number) four-leaf clovers (well-known sign of luck) in a day, accompanied by ladybugs galore? It has to mean something! Right?

I may never know if this is a symbol, literary or otherwise, of anything other than my own observational skills. However, there is in fact an agricultural basis behind the assignment of luck to four-leaf clovers and ladybugs. Farmer Stacy hypothesized that the presence of four-leafed clovers, which he notices often on his land, are a sign of soil fertility -- the clover plant is able to produce an extra leaf in response to high levels of nutrients in the soil. Ladybugs and luck also have a well-known garden explanation. These ladies voraciously consume aphids, a nasty critter that delights in gnawing on crops.

I am blessed to be working in such gardens that benefit most not from luck, but from the hard work and dedication of the men and women who are committed to loving the land and tending it well.

I'm pretty sure Thomas Jefferson addressed the idea of luck best: "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

Amen, sir.

It all began with the Spring 2009 issue of The Local Table. Who knows where this will end?

I'm hoping it won't.