Local Seasonal Eats

Tomato Flowers Photo:Lindsay

After the farmer’s market we went out to the garden to check on it.  Everything is starting to jump up!  Our Cherry tomato has buds on it!  The carrots are sprouting, the leeks are growing; overall, everything looks great.

Eggplant Pests Photo:Lindsay

Something seems to be eating our eggplant leaves, though, and upon some initial google searching, I think our culprit might be flea beetles.  They apparently love eggplant.  It also looks like there’s not many organic methods that will get rid of them right away.  In our case, our plants are so young that we need to take care of these bugs soon otherwise our plants might suffer.   None of the other plants seem to be affected by them yet, but I also don’t want them to spread to any of the other veggies.

First Harvest Photo:Lindsay

We were lucky enough to take home our first bounty from the garden!  We had to thin out a little onion since it was growing too closely to some of the others, so we’re going to add it to the green onions we got at the farmer’s market earlier today.  I’m so proud to be such a great farmer.

Pretty soon the lettuce will be ready to start eating, so we probably won’t be picking up as much at the farmer’s market in the next few weeks.

Garlic Scapes Photo:Lindsay

Westside Community Market.  Today we went to the west side community market since we were on a bit of a time crunch.  Chad and I got up later (since we got home a little late last night) and were out there around 10:30am.  A lot of the vendors were starting to pack up, but we were able to snag the following:

• Vanilla Yogurt from Sugar River Dairy
• Lemon Dill Pasta from RP’s
• Tomatoes and Dried Beans from Flyte Farm
• Yellow Onions and a Cucumber from JenEhr Farm
• Goat’s Milk Feta from Dream Farm
• Tuscan Dream and Onion Havarti Cheeses from Edelweiss
• Garlic Scapes from Primrose Farm
• Leeks from County Line Plants
• Beef Chuck Roast and Chicken Wings from Jordandal
• Green Onions from Vang Family Farm

We plan on making some pizza this week along with a latin dish with the beef.  We’ll also give the chicken wings a try!

Asparagus and Beet Panzanella Photo:Chad

As we continue to develop this blog, we’re trying to figure out the best way to communicate our story and our project while also being able to balance the amount of time needed to make all of the updates and posts.  As such, I’m going to try to limit the number of individual meal and recipe posts in favor of more unified ‘what we made this week’ type posts.  Additionally, I’ll be directing you to the blog or site where we got a recipe, unless it’s a family recipe, or something not available elsewhere online.

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Now onto this weeks post.  I finished off the end of a travel week for Lindsay with a modification of a recipe for panzanella I had seen on In Jennie’s Kitchen the same day I read about the rhubarb and strawberry jam.

Her recommendation for making a “bread salad” intrigued me.  The skeptic in me said, this is just a salad with homemade croutons, and warm asparagus.  This is both somewhat true and completely false.

Yes, if you were to make this same salad in a somewhat different order the croutons would stay mostly crisp, and the addition of the warm asparagus would just be a pleasant, if somewhat different, take.  However, tossing the crisp bread cubes with the dressing and other ingredients, and then letting the bread soak up some of the flavor makes this dish both comfortable and unique.

I added roasted beets and raw beet greens to mine and served it with a baked piece of salmon from the local fishmonger that I had marinated in a garlic and dill paste.

The meal was perfect in its complexity of both texture and taste, with the sweet salmon balanced with the fragrant dill and garlic.  While maybe better suited to a meal of it’s own, the salad was tasty and unique.  The beets and greens adding that unique flavor that I can only assume people who really love them understand.  I can’t say that I disliked my addition of the beets, but next time will try it as Jennie intended.

Cayenne and Garlic Linguini with Spicy Cilantro Pesto Photo:Lindsay

On Friday we wanted to see what a “processed” meal from the Farmer’s market might look like.  The convenience items you can get at the farmer’s market have very little in common with those mass-produced, artificial ingredient filled items that the modern grocery store is full of.  Obviously, simplicity is something we need in our lives, and having a few ingredients in your kitchen that can be thrown together to make a full meal is both satisfying and comforting.  Knowing that these ingredients are made locally and from local ingredients, and also contributing to the local economy all make the meal even more enjoyable.

We used a package of RP’s Cayenne and Garlic linguini and after preparing it as directed (4 min.), tossed it with some thawed Spicy Cilantro pesto from Renaissance Farm, a handful of halved cherry tomatoes from Don’s Produce and a small handful each of Butler Farm’s Feta and shredded parmesan.  While boiling the pasta I threw a couple slices of the garlic bread in the toasted oven and whipped up a quick farmer’s market salad.  In less than 15 minutes we had a deliciously spicy pasta dinner made from local ingredients and products.  This is what eating local is all about.

Snap Peas Photo:Chad

The dramatic changes I saw at Wednesday’s Dane County farmer’s market really demonstrated how rapidly the food season changes around here.  Where only a few weeks ago spinach, greens, and asparagus were covering most of the tables, this week it was all about the strawberries and snap peas.

Of course, you could still find a vendor selling greens, asparagus, and spinach – you just had to really look.  Which was exactly what I did.  You see, I was on a mission to find and preserve some asparagus, since the season is coming to an end.

I found the process for raw pack canning this low-acid vegetable in the Bell Blue Book.  I’ve learned that because of its low acidity, it needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 240 degrees, which a traditional boil cannot accomplish.  This means I get to play with a borrowed pressure cooker.

As for other things market related, I saw my first beets of the season, and seeing as I’ve always disliked them, I forced myself to buy some.  By doing this, I have to make something I’ll enjoy, and hopefully in the process can change my opinion about these bright red roots.

Here’s a list of what I ended up with:

• Salad mix – Prairie Farm Produce
• Beets – Deforest Family Garden
• Sweet Peas & Radishes – Mcfarland Family Farm
• Whole Chicken – Pecatonica Valley Farm
• Dill – Lee Family Garden
• Potatoes – Heck’s Market
• Asparagus – Lost Lake Acres
• Beef Tips & Greens – Green Barn Farm Market
• Strawberries – Sue Vang Farm
• Cucumbers & Tomatoes – Don’s Produce

As an interesting side note, Summit Credit Union was doing a community service / marketing effort during the market giving people $10 if they promised to “Pay it Forward”.  A few friends and I took them up on their offer.  Stay tuned to find out what we did.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Photo:Lindsay

Sunday we picked up a canning kit so that we can start persevering some of the wonderful produce that is currently in season to use later this summer or during the wintertime.

Our first foray into canning was a simple strawberry and rhubarb jam.  This summer spread was inspired by a post I saw over on food blog In Jennies Kitchen, where they are giving away two canning kits.  (What are you waiting for hit the link leave a comment, and you could be canning in no time)

Canned Rhubarb Photo:Chad

After successfully canning three pints worth (it’s no 21 jars, but it’s a start) we moved on to preserving some of the leftover rhubarb for a mid-summer recipe.  About two pounds fit into one quart jar, after stewing in about 1/2 cup of sugar and simmering for 30 seconds.

The work involved is rather easy, and I’m going to take a stab at asparagus next.  Stay tuned.

Radish Top Soup Photo:Lindsay

Since radishes are in season right now, we’ve been eating a lot of them. Normally, we just chop the greens off and throw them away.  But I was looking in the Victory Garden book for the storage techniques for radishes and it said to cut the tops off and store them separately from the radishes.  Store them for what?!  Well, a few pages later we found a fantastic recipe for Radish Top Soup.  We used the tops of radishes we had gotten over the last two farmers market visits from Roots Down Farm, Lor Garden, and Thor Farm.

We didn’t put the heavy cream in the soup, and honestly, we think that if you add cream, it would be almost too much.  The soup has such a wonderful flavor and already has a nice, thick, texture.  The cream really isn’t necessary.  We served it with some garlic herb croutons on top, which added a wonderful flavor to the first few bites.  We froze most it of it, and hope it reheats well.

If you have any other ideas of what to do with radish tops, please share them in the comments.

Asian Beef Salad Photo:Lindsay

On Thursday night, having just had the beef roast the night before, we wanted to try to use some of it up, so we made an Asian salad with roast beef, cherry tomatoes from Canopy Farm, Australe lettuce from Snug Haven, salad mix from Black Earth Valley, and spicy Asian radishes and sugar snap peas from Roots Down Farm. We made an Asian-style sesame dressing which accompanied it, but since the dressing wasn’t very good, we’re not going to share it with the masses.  We’ll have to come up with a better sesame dressing for next time.

Beef and Dill Potato Pasty Photo:Lindsay

Then, on Saturday, we decided to use up the rest of the beef by making and freezing some individually sized Cornish pasties.  We wanted to use the dill we had gotten at last week’s farmer’s market since it was going a bit limp in our refrigerator, so we started scouring the internet to find a recipe that would include the beef, potatoes, and our quickly diminishing dill.  There really wasn’t a recipe that satisfied him, so we kind-of mashed a bunch of them together to make these Dill Potato and Leftover Beef Roast Pasties.

If you’re not familiar with pasties, they’re traditionally a little dry, so you’ll want to eat them with some sort of sauce.  Lindsay prefers ketchup, but Chad likes his with Sriracha sauce. Also, if you’re in the mood for a history lesson, the origins of the Cornish pasty are also quite interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty.

Our pasties came out crispy, but firm enough you could eat with just your hands, like you’re supposed to.  The dill was subtle, but present, and the beef stayed tender, even through it’s second cooking.  We’ve already reheated a few of these and will look forward to pulling them out of the freezer for a quick meal.

Rosemary and Garlic Grilled Beef Roast Photo:Lindsay

Wednesday night, after being inspired yet again by Cooks Illustrated, we decided to try grilling a beef roast.  We had picked up a rump roast a few weeks ago from Pecatonica Farms and decided to try it on the grill instead of in the oven as traditional roasts are cooked.

We let the roast sit in a garlic and rosemary salt rub for 24 hours before cooking it, to add to the flavor.  Then, after heating up the grill, seared the meat on all sides, cooking it for about 10 minutes. Once seared, we turned the primary burner down to medium and turned the rest of the burners off. The partially cooked meat was moved into an aluminum roasting tray with drainage holes punched in the bottom which was set on the cool side of the grill.  We then cooked the meat with the lid down for about 45 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through cooking, until the thickest part of the meat registered at 125 degrees.

The roast was delicious and juicy.  We served it with some fresh grilled asparagus from Priske Farm, which was dressed up with a little bit of orange and thyme (again at the recommendation of Cook’s), and some leftover stuffing from last week’s butterflied roasted chicken.

Since the roast was 4 lbs and there were only two of us eating it, we had to come up with some creative ways to use the rest of the meat.  Look for those in upcoming articles!