Farm-cation

Today, rather than celebrating Halloween with you, I would like to celebrate the final day of National Cheese Month by telling you about Liberty Hill Farm, where we spent two wonderful nights a couple of weeks ago!

Liberty Hill is situated on the edge of the Green Mountain National Forest near Rochester, Vermont.  It's surrounded by lush mountains which, when we visited, were tinged red and gold.  We arrived in the late afternoon and were welcomed by Beth's warm smile and the delicious aroma wafting from the kitchen.  While we ate dinner in the cozy dining room, Beth shared some of the farm's history with us.

The farm was founded in 1780 by John Emerson.  Bob and Beth Kennett purchased it in 1979, and have been taking in guests since 1984.  You could say they were pioneers of the now-popular agritourism industry!  They raised two sons--David and Tom--who went off to college, then returned to the farm to work and live with their growing families.  Bob and Beth both come from old farming families - Beth's ancestors starting farming in Maine in 1641, and Bob's in New Hampshire in 1742.

The inn is clean, homey, and deliciously quiet, especially to our noise-conditioned city-mouse ears.  It really felt more like we were staying with extended family.  In the morning, we awoke to a pink sunrise over Rochester Mountain.  After a delicious hearty breakfast, we borrowed some of the rubber boots that are kept on the front porch for guests and started exploring. 

Liberty Hill Farm is a member of the Cabot Co-operative.  Every morning before dawn, a truck comes to pick up the milk.  I was amazed at the volume of milk the farm produces every day - each cow produces about 60 pounds per milking, and they milk about 100 cows twice a day.  That translates into 12,000 pounds, or about 1500 gallons every single day!  100% of Cabot's profits go directly back to Vermont family farms.  Many of their products are only available locally or online, but you can get their Cheddar in the fancy-cheese aisle at most grocery stores and Costco.  And their butter is the best I've ever tasted - the second night at dinner, I ate extra bread just so that I could eat extra butter.

Kitten on the prowl!  They have tons of barn cats who just wander around.  This one was so teeny!

This calf was only about a week old!  The little ones (about a month old or younger) all have their own little calf pens, and they get fed a calf formula (cheaper and more consistent nutritionally than milk) twice a day.  When they hear the food coming, they all start mooing like crazy!  I got to help a little by putting the buckets of formula into their little calf-house windows.

We had a wonderful time, and I can't wait to come back with our kids someday.

Roasted Vegetable Ragu

Last Saturday night, I had a few friends over for a Slow Food $5 Challenge dinner!  Did you participate in the challenge?  It's a pretty simple idea: a movement to take back the value meal.  To teach people that good, clean, fair food does not have to break the bank.  Well, we proved it this weekend.  Here's what we had for $5 (or less) apiece:

Crostini with White Bean Dip
Spaghetti with Roasted Vegetable Ragu
Apple Pie with Maple Whipped Cream

There was enough food to feed 8, and we ate the leftovers for a couple of days.

Also, my friend brought the sweetest hostess gift with her!

Fresh herbs from her garden; thyme, basil, lemon thyme, thai basil, and mint!

Here's the price breakdown:

Olive oil, about 1 cup total, $3

1 baguette, $3
1 pound dried spaghetti, $1

White bean dip ($7.55):
1/2 pound runner cannellini beans, $2.25
carrots, celery, and onion to flavor the beans, about $1
2/3 cup toasted sliced almonds, $3
juice and zest of 1 lemon, $.30

Roasted vegetable ragu ($5):
3 pounds Roma tomatoes, $1.50
1 bunch purple heirloom carrots, $2
1 eggplant, $1
1 zucchini, $.50
1 yellow pepper, $1

Apple pie (8.25):
3 pounds Honeycrisp apples, $3.75
1 cup pastured organic butter, $2.50
Flour, sugar, spices; maybe $2

Grand Total: $27.80
Divided by 8 =  ...drumroll please...

$3.48 each!

WHAT?!  I am shocked.  Are you shocked that for (much) less than the price of a burger and fries at McDonald's, you can have a 3-course, locally-sourced, homemade, all-natural, healthy, DELICIOUS meal?!

Here, go cook it yourself.

Purple carrots!

Roasted Vegetable Ragu

I thought of this idea after I made this amazing fresh tomato sauce a couple of weeks ago.  It's a little bit heartier early autumn version of the same thing.

1 pound dried spaghetti

3 pounds Roma tomatoes
6 medium carrots, diced
1 eggplant
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into small chunks
1 small zucchini, quartered and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/4 cup olive oil
a handful of basil leaves
2 cloves garlic

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Toss carrots with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and begin roasting.  Slice eggplant into 3/4-inch rounds and place onto a paper towel-lined cookie sheet.  Sprinkle generously with salt, and lay another layer of paper towels on top.  Press down on each slice, and then let them sit for at least 10 minutes to release some of their bitter juices.  Cube and add to the carrots after they have been roasting about 20 minutes, adding oil if needed to make sure that each piece is coated.  Roast eggplant and carrots another 20 minutes, and then add zucchini.  Toss, and roast another 10 minutes before adding peppers for the final 20 minutes.  After about an hour of roasting, vegetables should be golden and tender.  Meanwhile, prepare the tomatoes.

Peel the tomatoes by scoring each one on the bottom, dipping them in boiling water for about 60 seconds, and then plunging them into an ice water bath.  The skins will slip right off.  Halve each tomato and seed them over a strainer set over a bowl (to collect the juice).  Crush the tomatoes using your hands (so fun!) and add them to a wide deep saucepan over low heat.  Discard the seeds, but reserve the juice (you can add it to the sauce if it gets too dry later on).  Cook the tomatoes, continuing to crush with a potato masher as they cook.  Cook for about 15 minutes before adding all the roasted vegetables. and then simmer over low heat for 30-40 minutes.

Place the olive oil, basil, and garlic in a small saucepan over low heat just until the oil starts to sizzle, then remove from heat and allow to steep until you're ready to use it, at least 10 minutes.

Cook pasta in boiling, salted water until al dente.  Drain, reserving about a cup of starchy pasta water.  Strain solids from olive oil and stir into sauce until incorporated.  Toss pasta and sauce together, adding a little pasta water if the sauce seems too dry.  Remove from heat and add one or two tablespoons of butter, and toss until melted.  Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and sliced basil.

Here we go!

I like to decorate with vegetables.

Like many of the best journeys, this one begins with a trip to the farmers' market.

Going to the market is the highlight of my week.  Getting outside in the sunshine and the fresh air, walking among the stalls and selecting the most beautiful-looking fruits and vegetables, talking to the farmers.  It's an experience I wouldn't miss.  Which is why I've making biweekly trips to the market all summer.  It's been lovely.  This week, at the start of the Locavore Challenge, I felt a little more pressure to be a smart shopper.  I'll be out of town all weekend at a wedding, so I won't be able to make my weekend trip.  Normally, this would not worry me.  If I forget something at the market, I'll just make a quick trip to the grocery store!  But I have pledged to eat locally, which makes the store a little bit tricky.

Not to say that you absolutely can't get local food at the grocery store - not at all!  Yesterday I found Michigan blueberries at Costco.  But last week, I saw Guatemalan blackberries at Whole Foods.  That was exactly the opposite of what I would have expected, but it just proves that you have to read labels.  And not just nutritional labels!  Just because something is in season where you live doesn't mean that your local grocery is sourcing their produce locally.

So anyway, here's what I got today, and what I plan to do with it:

2 quarts of peaches (homemade ice cream, canned peach halves in simple syrup)
1 quart of plums (breakfast and snacks)
about 6 pounds of tomatoes (canned whole tomatoes)
giant red and golden beets (salad for lunch next week)
20 red hot cherry peppers (homemade hot sauce)
gourds and mini pumpkins (to look pretty)

Locavore Challenge!

Photo from www.greencitymarket.org

Yesterday, I signed up for the Green City Market's two-week Locavore Challenge, pledging to eat only local food, to the best of my ability, from September 8 (tomorrow!) until September 22.  There's no better time of year I could think of to attempt such a lofty challenge.  It's going to be so fun, and so delicious!

I'm going to use these two weeks as a "back-to-school" time for myself, learning more about local food and artisan food producers in the Chicago area.  And of course I'll share what I learn (and what I'm eating) with you!

Want to join me?  Go to the Locavore Challenge website and sign up!  Let me know in the comments if you're coming along for the ride!  I'd love to have company, and you better believe we're going to eat like kings and queens for two straight weeks!

Quick Takes!

I haven't participated in these before, but I've been reading others' for a while, and I have a bunch of random things to say today, so it seems like a perfect time to start!

1.

We're going out of town (again) this weekend.  Not anywhere fancy, just Indiana.  But we get to see a bunch of different friends.  On Saturday, we're going to a wedding.  I really love going to weddings.  Watching people exchange vows and rings takes me right back to my wedding day and really makes me want to squeeze my hubby.  Which I then get to do on the dance floor!  Whee!  And then on Sunday, we're headed a couple towns over to Indianapolis to see Sarah and celebrate my goddaughter's half-birthday!  So exciting.



2.



Last night I made two dinners.  I wanted salad, and the Coppertop Guy doesn't eat salads (yet).  So I baked him a frozen chicken breast, and sauteed some sliced potatoes, and blanched asparagus, and then for me: baby arugula and cherry tomato salad with a warm bacon dressing.  Deeeeeelicious.  And then we polished off the rest of the chocolate pudding pie.  It was awesome.

3.

Update on the garden: The plants have been in their containers less than a week, and we already have progress!  I spotted 7 or 8 tiny jalapeno buds, and blossoms on one tomato plant!  It made me so happy, I squealed.  MY BABIES ARE GROWING!  I am amazed by how little I know, and how much there is to learn about growing even the few that I'm attempting to grow right now.  Like, for instance, what is a good organic fertilizer?  (Answer for now: fish emulsion.  EW.  I'm trying to get over it.)  Another question: how the heck do you stake or cage a tomato plant?  And when do you need to do it?  They are just babies right now, but should I wait until they need stakes to put them in?  Or do I stake them early so that the vines can grow on the stakes?  I actually don't know the answers to any of these questions yet.  Anyone have ideas?

4.

I took a Pilates class on Tuesday night.  I've taken lots of different yoga classes, but never Pilates.  It's very different!  And my abs are still sore!  I also checked out a couple of workout DVDs from the public library: Skinny Bitch Boot Camp and Skinny Bitch Booty Bounce.  Omg.  Don't judge me.

5.

Tonight we're going to Slow Food Chicago's Sweet Summer Solstice Potluck Supper at the Chicago Honey Co-op!  There are so many things to be excited about, I can hardly contain myself.  The Chicago Honey Co-op is "an urban apiary dedicated to beekeeping training and sustainable agriculture."  As a person who someday hopes to call herself a beekeeper, I am really looking forward to seeing it!  A certain man who lives in my apartment is a little more apprehensive.  I was telling him all about it at lunch today.  Here's how the conversation went:

Him, dripping with sarcasm: "Oh, sure, that sounds like a great neighborhood.  I've heard a lot of good things about that area." 

Me: "It's a farm!  There's a farm there!"

Him: "No there's not!  There's an abandoned Sears warehouse filled with bees!  Why are you taking me to a horror movie?!"

*sigh*

Anyway, I'm making a rhubarb cobbler to take with us, and I'm looking forward to seeing some people I know, and to meeting some new friends!  And learning more about the bees!!!!  (I love bees.  Did you know that?)

5.

I'm a little tired of asparagus.  Am I even allowed to say that?  I feel like it was only a couple of weeks ago that I was whining, "When is the asparagus going to be here?"  And now I go to the market, expecting it to be gone, and it's still there, staring at me, like, "Well?  Are you really going to let me sit here?  If you don't eat me this week, you won't have good asparagus until next May.  Are you willing to wait that long?" 

I'm ready to say yes.  I'm asparagus-ed out.  Sorry.

6.

Rhubarb, on the other hand, I could keep eating until it came out of my ears.  AND!  They had cherries at the market yesterday!  WHAT?!  I was amazed.  Normally, you don't get Michigan cherries until the middle to end of July!  Sometimes for the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City (the Cherry Capital of the world, don't cha know), they have to ship in cherries from Washington!  Shhhhhhh.  Anyway, Michigan tart cherry pie is on the menu for next week.

7.

Many thanks to my awesome friend Meg the Grand for suggesting the charmingly retro disposable camera as a solution to my phone-only photo predicament.  You're the best! 

Have a great weekend, everyone!  And head over to Hallie's page for more Quick Takes!