By Cecilia
This year I am challenging myself to eat exclusively from the farm. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, but never quite felt ready to take the plunge. I am having some misgivings about starting this endeavor during what looks like a long, wet, and probably food scarce spring. I don’t expect to do this perfectly. I hope that through the season I can update everybody about how well (or horrible) it’s all going. I would love to be able to share some of my reflections on what it feels like to really get creative with the food we grow here. If I knew I would be doing this I definitely would have spent more time canning last summer, but I am excited about the way this will inspire more commitment to food preservation techniques.
I’ve always thought about how easy it would be on this particular farm to never have to go to the grocery store for anything. Because we have meat, eggs, oil, bread, herbs, and vegetables, there is really no need to buy food off farm. Of course, we don’t grow peanut butter, chocolate, or pamplemousse LaCroix.
I think it will be motivating for me to feel like the entire Open Field community is on this journey with me. In the spirit of food blogs everywhere that nobody asked for, I will lay out the perimeters of this year-long challenge.
· No Buying Groceries: this is the goal, but it might take time to fully wean. If you see me in the fancy cheese section of Petaluma Market, please mind your own business. Or actually please reprimand me.
· Eating Out with Friends Okay: This is not about self-denial and I don’t want my social life to suffer as much as local Reese’s sales inevitably will.
· Pantry Items Okay: I have a lot of food in my pantry and I am not going to let it go to waste just because it is not from the farm. I am hoping that this helps me feel like my diet is still bountiful until we start really having summer harvests.
· Gifts Okay: Any gift of food brought to the farm counts as farm food. Shout out to members that bring extra lemons from their trees! And also to Seth and Sarah when they can’t eat all the yogurt from their milk share.
· Salt: I will be buying salt. Diamond Crystal, specifically. I don’t know what else to say about that.
My main motivation in all this is to create a deeper sense of connection to the land I live on and the community I share it with. Even though I only started this a little over a month ago, I already feel aware of the deeper sense of gratitude. Because I don’t have a constant immediate access to sugar, the candies Kelsey brought back from Japan felt so special (as they were!). Every bite was a gift. It is a good feeling to have a deep sense of appreciation for everything I eat.
I am also already amazed by unexpected abundance, even in this time of year. Last week I almost cried because I used the last of my popcorn from my pantry. Four days later, AJ sent me a message saying that she had milled all the popcorn from our experimental trial last summer and that it was bagged and ready to eat. Honestly I had kind of forgotten that we tried growing popcorn.
I don’t really have a recipe this week, instead I would like to share my menu for a dinner I hosted this weekend. When I told my non-farming friends what I’m doing, they all seemed to think I am on some kind of extreme diet. In reality my eating has not changed too much. Even without summer veggies, there is still so much to eat (but I might have to reassess that when we finally run out of spaghetti squash).
I had two friends over for burger night and this was all the ingredients used:
BIG SALAD:
Rosalba chicory
Mei Qing choi
Thinly sliced watermelon radish
Grated celeriac
Chopped scallions (scallions available next week!)
Lots of cilantro
Dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, and salt
BURGERS:
Ground beef seasoned with salt and Chimayo ground pepper, with an egg mixed in
Revolution bread baguette for buns
TOPPINGS:
Cabernet onion slices
Pickles made from our salt & pepper cucumbers
Ketchup canned from our paste tomatoes
Salanova butter lettuce
Diced fermented Aji Crystal peppers
CRISPY ROASTED POTATOES:
Thinly sliced Harvest Moon potatoes roasted in lots of oil at high heat until crispy
Seasoned with salt, thyme, and Basque ground
pepper
Dipped in homemade ketchup!
DILLY BEANS:
I’m actually still going through jars of Dilly Beans that I preserved 2 years ago. They are the ultimate side dish for any meal.
Upcoming Farm Events: Potluck This Friday 3/10 at 5:30 pm
CSA barn hours:
Winter: 2:30-6 pm (starts the week after daylight savings in November)
Summer: 2:30-6:30 pm (starts the week after daylight savings in March)
Pick List:
Eggs
Red Norland, Yellow Finn, and Harvest Moon Potatoes
Cortland Yellow and Monastrell Red Onions
Rhonda Beets
Joan Rutabaga
Hablange Parsnips
Mars Celeriac
Purple Top Turnips
Bora King Daikon Radish
Finale Fennel
Storage #5 Green and Ruby King Red Cabbage
Treviso and Rubro
Ruby Red Chard
Prize Choi
Lettuce Mix
Cilantro
Spaghetti Winter Squash and Pie-Pita Pumpkin
Sonora wheat flour and wheat berries
Herbal Tea Blends, Ground Chiles, and Whole Dried Chile peppers (Please bring your own jars!)
Pick your own flowers and herbs
Saltonstall Olive Oil (Please bring your own jars!)