By Anna
Every morning I start my day with the intention to be present and notice and appreciate what is all around me. Often I forget about this intention until the next morning. Then I try and do it all over again. I’ve found that one thing that helps is making a physical list of the tiny (or big!) beautiful things (excellent book by Cheryl Strayed btw) - moments of gratitude or joy or wonder or amusement in my day. I think this helps to even out the ridiculous and unkind scale in my head that counts uncomfortable or blue or upsetting moments with 10x the weight of joyful ones. Here are the (mostly) farm related items on my list from the past two weeks, what’s on yours?
- lovingly pestering everyone I work with here to make a list of their top 50 songs of all time, receiving several Spotify playlists and one typed out physical list left on my kitchen table
- the lemons in the walk in cooler (thank you __ !)
- hanging the new barn door with David and seeing how thoughtfully he designed it all
- weeding the perennials and losing myself in the repetitive task, soaking up the sun
- the fact that there are now five dogs on this farm
- contemplating renaming this farm to “Five Dog Farm” against Seth’s will
- feeling like a Ghostbuster wearing the backpack sprayer
- feeding the cows and reading their names as I ride by on the trailer
- farm lunches and the resulting farm lunch food coma
- the yellow color of dock root
- having a two hour dance party for AJ's birthday, smiling so much that even my face was sore the next day
- eating fresh cut arugula in the wash station
This Week’s Pick List:
Eggs
Takrima Leeks
Matador Shallots, Cipollini, Cortland Yellow, and Monastrell Red Onions
Tetsukabota, Gil’s Golden Acorn, Spaghetti Winter Squash
Pie Pita Pumpkins
Yellow Finn, Red, and Harvest Moon Potatoes
Yaya Carrots
Rhonda Beets
Mars Celeriac
Hablange Parsnips
Purple Top Turnips
Bora King Purple Daikon and Watermelon Radish
Kossack Kohlrabi
Ruby King Red, Primo and Murdoc Green Cabbage (Lots!!!!)
Song Cauliflower
Joi Choi
Ruby Red Chard
Parade Scallions
Regiment Spinach
Esmee Arugula
Tatsoi
Salanova Lettuce Mix
Various chicories!
Tea Blends and Ground and Whole Chiles (Please bring your own containers!)
Saltonstall Olive Oil (Please bring your own jars!)
Revolution Bread (Friday only!)
Skillet Pizza
(This is less of a recipe and more of a PSA because I am an evangelical about making pizza in a cast iron!!!)
1. Preheat the oven to 475º F
2. Make some dough (or buy a fresh ball of it), about 12 oz. per 10 in. skillet
3. Heat up the skillet on the stovetop - this is the time for you to cook anything that you will place on your pizza. Examples include ground beef, caramelized onions, sausage, etc. that you then remove from the pan and set aside. If you are not going to cook anything to put on top that’s ok too, you really just need the pan to be medium hot and greased by the end of this step.
4. Roll out the dough on a floured surface, aiming to get it as thin as possible and circular. Carefully place the dough in the bottom of the empty, warm, greased skillet (which should still be on a burner turned to medium heat) - it should cover at least the entire bottom of the pan and rise up the sides slightly.
5. Thinly spread whatever sauce you’re using, then cheese, then toppings. Do not add the toppings you already cooked, those go on last (in my opinion they get too toasty if you put them on now). As an example, a recent pizza I made was red sauce, mozzarella, and raw thinly sliced fennel. I added caramelized onions and red pepper flakes and drizzled honey on at the end and it was DIVINE.
6. At this point you have finished assembly and the bottom of the pizza should be getting a little crusty and brown from the heat under the skillet. Turn off the burner and place the skillet / pizza in the oven for 10-15 minutes, checking frequently if you’re like me and chronically burn things.
7. Remove your pizza, place the last toppings on if you have them, slice, and REJOICE.