How To Eat Supper

Listening to The Splendid Table on National Public Radio yesterday on the drive home from our 2nd farmer's market (of the summer season anyway), it struck me that CSA's, otherwise known as Community Supported Agriculture, is the way to have fabulous suppers thru the year!

Traditionally, CSA's are a way for a farmer to make an early income and pay for employee payroll as well as the seeds necessary to plant all those vegetables. For those who might not know what one is, it's a situation wherein one joins a CSA, pays a modest fee to the farmer to receive weekly 'orders' of foods-be they veggies, meats, eggs, bread, flowers and the like. I say 'orders' because in most CSA arrangements the customer gets what is pre-chosen each week, mostly what's ready to be consumed. So in July, here in Vermont, what would one get? Green beans, basil for pesto, greenhouse tomatoes, new potatoes, lettuces and perhaps some berries (if the farmer is diversified in that way).

I have discovered a brilliant concept in a new form of CSA: River Berry Farm. Located in Fairfax, Vermont this is a very diversified farm offering greenhouse plants, strawberries, raspberries, mixed veggies and organic eggs. The concept is different in that one pays a flat rate and gets credit. So instead of a pre-chosen allotment of foods, the customer can utilize the credit to purchase anything they raise on the farm! So in light of full disclosure, for my share I can buy veg plants in their greenhouses at the start of the season for my garden and then graduate to luscious organic raspberries and glorious cottage garden flower bouquets later in the summer.

And what's more? As I was then on cheese deliveries in downtown Burlington, I noticed something interesting. The same size bag of spinach at a large chain supermarket was over $5.00, while at a local co-op it was a bit less (and local and organic). However the spinach that I received as part of my share (again full disclosure) was huge and less money, costing about $3.50. Not only less in dollars, but more in value for those bags are fresher, the spinach tastes sweeter and there is virtually no waste inside the bag. You know those little brown wilted leaves that always remain in a bag of California-shipped spinach. So to be succinct, like mom always said "Less is more."


This bag of spinach was taller than my coffee pot! Below is supper a few nights ago of slow bbq'd pulled pork, thyme infused white bean salad and River Berry Farms' fresh spinach with a lemon vinaigrette.



What's for supper tonight? Some more low-n-slow bbq and I'm thinking wilted River Berry Spinach with some fresh cream from the farm and a bit of melted La Fleurie cheese. Some roasted sweet potatoes on the side. Now that's how to eat supper!

Ah-butter

With all the calving going on, but yet not enough cows in the parlor for cheese making, I decided to get started stocking up on raw milk grass-fed butter. What is this? This is butter made when the cows are out on grass and not pasteurized. With the larger proportion of Jersey cows' milk now in our herd, their milk makes superior butter.

What makes superior butter, you ask? Larger fat globules which the Jersey cows have. The size of the globules makes the butter 'break' into butter and buttermilk more readily than milk with smaller fat globules. And oh, the color! Butter made from cows out on grass is like egg yolks from chickens out on grass-bright yellow. Since I don't own a butter churn I use the food processor method for making butter.



Basically pure chilled cream is put into a food processor and whirred around for a few minutes until it breaks into a sloshy yellow mess of butter and buttermilk. Then it is rinsed with cool water and washed and washed and worked by hand until the liquid is out of the now solid butter. Then all that's left to do is form or package up the butter into whatever vessel you like. I like packing butter to be consumed soon in little ramekins.

Butter for storage is wrapped in freezer paper and frozen to be eaten later in the year. Visit Eatwild to learn more about the benefits of raw milk butter and other dairy products.

Lions, Tigers and Bears, oh my...

Lambing, calving and cheese making, oh my! Well spring has truly sprung in Vermont as the grass has just begun on our farm to green up. Granny Smith green at this point. Birthing time always brings with it a season of obstetrics. Little sleep and then all of a sudden lots of babies on the ground. We have a ball watching the lambs, especially, frolicking with each other and engaging in their daily races. Lambs, like clockwork, run races of sorts until they are so out of breath, they all come to a screetching halt at once. How do they know when to all stop at the same time? It's as if it's a choreographed dance. Or perhaps they are a secret society.




Our calves, on the other hand, do what we call, boinging. All of a sudden they discover their legs and boing straight up in the air with tails held skyward and zoom across the field in a short burst. And then they are done.



The above photo is Peony, a first time mom, with her new baby, Carmela. Peony is half Jersey, half Brown Swiss. Unlike most dairies, we leave the babies on the moms for a bit to nurse. There are several reasons for this. For first time moms, it is very beneficial for the bonding process, and what is known as 'let-down'. This is the process of any lactating mammal of letting down her milk. She needs to get used to the sensation of having something nurse on her udder and it is stress-less. On the other hand, training a new mom in the milk parlor having never been nursed before can be a small nightmare. She must learn not only to walk into a very clean man-made room, hear a loud vacuum pump (which runs the milking machines), then stand still while a milker puts teat cups on her udder and then, lastly, let down her milk. So by leaving their babies on for a bit, they learn in a most natural way to let down and also give the farmers a small break during a most challenging and busy time of lambing and calving. Another huge benefit is of health. The calves get the antibody rich colostrum direct from their mothers.

The other day another baby born, to Iris, another Jersey-Brown Swiss.


Altho the heifer introducing herself to him is Bramble, who was born inconveniently in the middle of a blackberry bramble patch a few years ago. The markings on this baby are from his Dutch Belted father, with his semi-belt around his middle. Bramble herself is a Jersey-Dutch Belt cross and she didn't get the white belt either. Her mother, Reo, short for Oreo, has a most beautiful thick white belt across her middle.

The 5 Seasons of Vermont

Well here we are again. The worst season in Vermont. It's called mud season. It is after winter and before spring. Some would argue that in Vermont there is no spring. Just winter and then mud season and quick summer. All the winter run-off causes roads, pastures, fields and driveways to turn to muck. Including ours.

Our small viewing room is still open but if you come to visit please be aware that the farm road to it is a bit messy. This should all end by the end of April-hopefully. It is never a sure thing, how long it will last. And also remember that our viewing room is self-serve as we don't have the extra hands to give formal tours. We are in the throes of calving and lambing now. Yikes!

Please stop by and visit us at the Montpelier Winter farmers market tomorrow, April 5th. It will be the last one until next winter. After this market ends, we will be attending the Burlington Farmers Market for our 15th season! It begins May 10 and runs thru Oct 25, 2008 (Saturdays 8:30-2, in City Hall Park). See you then!

Farm Fresh Raw Milk For Sale in Vermont

March 14th was a great day for Vermont! Currently in Vermont dairy farmers can sell up to 25 quarts of raw milk per day. They CANNOT advertise, sales must be via word of mouth and no signs can be hung at the dairy. For those who may not remember, there are 4 quarts in a gallon. So 25 quarts equals roughly a bit over 6 gallons. A newly freshened cow (one that has just given birth) gives that amount per day. So with current law in Vermont, a farmer is only allowed to sell, by word of mouth approximately one cow's worth of milk. Vermont is the only state in New England to limit raw milk sales to 25 quarts.

There has been significant discussion and debate regarding the health benefits versus risks of selling raw milk. Some states allow raw milk sales with advertising, some allow sales at the retail level in stores, and some even allow milk to be shipped via Fed Ex. In Vermont, what had been proposed with this new bill, the Farm Fresh Milk Bill, as it has been called, was a stringent third party certification and testing program, coupled with the allowance to advertise milk sales and give the informed consumer the choice to buy raw milk. I won't use this space to go into lengthy discourse pro or con raw milk but I will say the bill got a very favorable response from lawmakers.

Unfortunately as time ran out to fix a complicated issue of jurisdiction, they moved to strike all which means to completely change the bill as it is currently worded and instead worded it to increase the volume of milk a farmer can sell to 50 quarts a day as well as advertise! More info will be available as to its status as well as sound files on their website Rural Vermont. Hats off to all involved in moving Farm Fresh Milk forward in Vermont!

New York City trip

Well it's been a while since I last posted as I traveled to New York City to visit cheese shops and get together with some long missed friends. While there I had the unusual treat, for me anyway since I don't get off the farm much, to dine at Momofuku noodle bar. Having seen the chef making his well-known steamed buns on Martha Stewart I was intrigued to try them. Little did I know that it would only be a few weeks later! They were better than I had imagined, just right thickness, perfectly done, and oozing with the heritage breed pork juices from the meat inside. As heritage pork raisers ourselves, I was thrilled to see New York city chefs spreading the word, just from a taste standpoint alone. Fun!

After dinner, my friends from Cheese by Hand took me a few blocks away to meet up with Anne Saxelby of Saxelby Cheesemongers, a fantastic cheese booth in the Essex Street Market on the lower East side. She had just done a tasting to die for............my favorite foods! Beer, cheese and BACON! What is not good with bacon? The pub hosting, Jimmy's No.43, is on East 7th Street. Walking down a set of stairs I entered an underground small pub with low lighting graced with the smoky smell of hearty bacon-and of course, beer. What a great time! And fantastic place to host.

While in NY I also required bringing home bialys and lox. Those in hand in my cooler bag, I returned home on the train to another week of meals courted by lox. Oh............and did I mention the Patriots did get creamed by New York? Much to the chagrin of my husband.

Super Bowl Sunday!

The New England Patriots are unbeaten and about to play in the Super Bowl today. After a long day at farmers market yesterday and another long day of cheese making and shipping tomorrow, Monday morning, I decided to play it easy and forgo all the planning for junk foods and fatty pupus (that's appetizer in Hawaiian) and just keep it simple and grill some of our own grass fed beef and bake some potatoes from the garden. And for dessert, dark chocolate gelato and to gild the lily, it IS the Super Bowl after all, some liqueur soaked cherries and fresh bakery-made cannoli. Go team!

Ulterior motive? Brewing some more beer. What's this contraption?

This is a wort chiller. It enables me to cool down the wort (the liquid that later becomes beer) quickly so I can pitch (throw in) the yeast to get the thing fermentatin'! Next up? A pilsner style. I definitely will be re-creating the Belgian Style Pale Ale for the husband has them almost all gone before their time! The last Belgian Pale Ale below...crisp, refreshing and effervescent.

One More Farmers Market...

Despite a nasty pre-market storm to include a half inch of ice, sleet, freezing rain and snow, the show was to go on. I battled the interstate thru chunks of ice causing rough road conditions and getting behind and oh-so slow Fed Ex Custom Critical truck. Wait. Aren't those the ones that are supposed to deliver critical boxes in the same day such as organs etc? At least the driver was driving carefully.

I arrived late and was later greeted by some familiar faces from another farmers market. Nice to know that folks will drive well over an hour to buy our cheeses and meats. "Buy Local" is truly becoming a movement in Vermont!

At the end of the market a frequent cheese buyer from Pete's Greens came over and handed me a jar of canned tomato sauce. What a nice ending to a long day to be able to come home and make some spaghetti with sauce ready to go. Thanks Roger at Pete's Greens!

Obsession Revisited

Once upon a time I heard someone call the art of cheese making "controlled fermentation." It would be fair to say that I am obsessed, then, with all things fermentation. I am a cheese maker, I bake slow fermented hearth breads, especially in the winter when my schedule allows and now, I am revisiting the quest for good homebrew. My husband, back in the early 90's, used to brew beer at home. Me, partial to wine, I paid not much attention. Now with worldwide grain crops causing skyrocketing prices for microbrewery beers as well as the unavailability of hops, I felt compelled to save money on his beer purchases and decided to do homebrew. Somehow he has not quickly picked up the equipment and taken over, but I have. I ran to the local brew shop, Vermont Homebrew Supply, and picked up some malt, hops, corn sugar, and several more books we probably didn't need to add to our beer library........at this point.

On the fast track I first made an English Ale, also known as a bitter. And while it was still happily bubbling away (fermenting) I travelled again to the brew shop and bought more! For my next brew I decided to try, with the shop owner's help, a Belgian Style Pale Ale made with honey. Today it still is fermenting and we patiently await the English Ale to carbonate in their bottles.

Given the obsession with all things fermented I also relish lacto fermented vegetables such as true kimchi and sauerkraut. One great tangy, crunchy fabulous brand in Vermont is Flack Family Farm's version I just purchased at Healthy Living down in Burlington. The health benefits are well-documented and known but what's also a boon is their taste! It's like no other. You get the salt, the crunch, the umami? That unidentified '5th' taste sensation. The 4 tastes we were educated about in school, that the human tongue has receptors on to send messages to the brain. You know, bitter, sour, salty, sweet. And now added.....umami. It's the unknown taste, you get it in true Parmesan cheese, soy sauce, fish sauce, anchovy, wild mushrooms and other foods that are good for you. Happily, they also make our meals take on so much more depth!

Foodies Rejoice!

Foodies Rejoice! The all-new huge spacious Healthy Living Market on Dorset Street in Burlington, Vermont is now open and welcoming all in a fantastic space. From the well-organized local produce section to the hot deli, artisan bread, soup, sandwich and panini pressers panel to pastry purgatory, I confess I am enamored by this new store. What can be more comforting than a PB and Choc panini? (peanut butter and chocolate-a perfect match)

The cheese department is all-new too and its size reflects the knowledge and experience of its cheesemonger, Lydia, who is committed to cut-to-order should the customer desire but also offers on-the-fly purchases as well. Her new selection is perhaps the largest in Burlington and definitely on par with well-known shops in New York City and Boston.......

What is 'cut-to-order?' This is when a customer does not know which cheese to buy or what it tastes like. Although curious, he/she does not venture to ask......Then comes 'cut to order.' The customer should ask for a taste or several tastes and then can better decide which he/she prefers to buy. A relationship develops between the seller and the buyer and true customer service is actually, had. I recommend to all lovers of cheese to relinquish your shyness and ASK for a cut of cheese. After all, you are the customer and cheesemongers want you to buy what you will enjoy. As for Lydia, she and her experienced staff are excited to show you what's available!