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  • A Flower Feast

    Mellisa Hannum 10:28 am on August 18, 2010 | 0 Permalink
    Tags: , , , local food,

    David, our produce manager, popped his head into my office just before the end of my shift yesterday. His eyes were shining with excitement as he said, “One of our local farmers just brought in edible flowers. Do you think you could put something up on Facebook about them tomorrow?”

    Shoot, I’d do one better than just put it up on Facebook. How could I resist the concept of local, edible flowers for my Eat Local dinner? And if I was going to eat it, I should blog about it, right?

    I clocked out and headed to the produce department, giddy with anticipation. I was going to craft a dinner around flowers! Awesome, awesome, awesome! My brain began to spin with options. Obviously, I was going to make a salad with the flowers as the main ingredient. Local greens, blackberries, and Sungolds rounded out the edible posy. We had some green beans we had picked during our last visit to our CSA farm. If I kept it simple and tossed them with some regional butter, they’d compliment the sweet greenness of the salad. Then a little bit of protein… Charles helped me out with that decision – regional chicken it was (and it was reduced – score!).

    The minute we walked in the front door, I started warming up the stove-top, cast iron grill and put a pot on to boil for the green beans. Then I began arranging the salad. I must admit that almost half of the local blackberries didn’t make it into the bowls. They’re wild, so they have that wonderful untamed tang as well as sweetness. A healthy amount of Sungolds, sliced in half so their juices incorporated with the greens were next, and then I added the flowers. It was like arranging in a vase, but better, because it would soon end up as our meal. As soon as the green beans and chicken were cooked, dinner was served.dinner!

    The flowers gave a green pop to the palate. I especially enjoyed the nasturtiums. They presented a sprinkling of spice across the tongue followed by a delightful burst of mandarin oranges. Charles wasn’t as enthusiastic about his edible arrangement, so I helped myself to his nasturtiums too. Because of the wild, green flavors of the flowers accompanied with the chicken and green beans, I’d recommend a Sauvignon Blanc made in the New Zealand style. It complements the range of flavors wonderfully.

    A little bit of exotic beauty for dinner – it’s so great to work in a place where I get to be introduced to so many wonderful, new experiences, especially when those experiences are on a plate.

     
  • A Feast of Color

    Mellisa Hannum 11:48 am on August 5, 2010 | 0 Permalink
    Tags: Eat Local, , , local food,

    Color! One of the things I love about cooking during our peak produce season is the huge amount of color that I can incorporate into any dish. The varied hues of heirloom tomatoes, the vibrant purple of eggplant, the glowing greens of freshly washed herbs — it’s a feast for the eyes as well as the tongue.

    My past few CSAs have been a rainbow of produce – tons of basil, patty pans, chard, collards, radicchio, amazingly sweet onions, mint, lemon verbena, Japanese eggplant, strawberries, and so much more. I love to spend a few moments gazing at my box before I place it lovingly in the car.

    The drive home is a feast too, with the amazing aromas of the herbs and strawberries mingling, filling the vehicle with so many tantalizing smells, Charles and my stomachs begin to rumble louder than the gravel road.

    And then the joy of turning those aromas into meals! I love the bounty of summer.

    Cheesy Tomatoes Love Herbs

    Serves: 4

    Ingredients:

    1/2 cup bread crumbs

    salt and pepper to taste

    1/2 teaspoon water

    1 egg

    1 package 8 oz Sierra Nevada Cheese Company Chevre, made into four rounds

    4 very thick slices of fresh tomato (heirloom or slicing)

    2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil, plus a drizzle for dressing

    1 small head of curly endive (or you could use traditional endive)

    1 bunch cilantro (or you could use fresh basil)

    1 bunch wrinkled cress (or you could use radicchio)

    drizzle of red wine vinegar (If you use the basil & radicchio, use balsamic vinegar instead.)

    How-to:

    Mix breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Add water and work until crumbly. Beat egg is a small bowl. Dip Chevre rounds in the egg and then the bread crumbs. Place in fridge for 15 minutes.

    Place tomatoes on plate and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
    Add olive oil to a skillet and heat on med/high until the oil is hot but not burning. Carefully place the Chevre rounds in the oil and cook 45 seconds, then flip and repeat. Place rounds on tomatoes.
    Toss greens with the drizzles of red wine vinegar and olive oil. Add a little seasoning if desired. Heap 1/4 of the greens on each tomato slice, and voila!

    goat cheese medallions

     
  • OMG, It's Squash Season

    Mellisa Hannum 11:24 am on July 28, 2010 | 0 Permalink
    Tags: local food, summer squash, zucchini

    crookneckSummer squash — it really is the gift that keeps on giving. Our squash season has just begun, so at this point, I’m still looking forward to sauteed patty pans, zucchini in my pasta, and filling in the gap with crooknecks. That probably won’t be the case by the end of the summer.

    Yet I can’t help but love this extreme giver of food. You can do so many, many things with summer squash.  My grandma has been gifted with zucchinis that are too large to cook and has discovered that they pickle as easily as cucumbers. Then of course, there is the gloriousness that is zucchini bread. They’re a great addition to stir fries. They’re lovely as a side dish. They’re terrific stuffed, as casserole, and even as appetizers. How could I not love something that gives so much and asks for so little?

    Zucchini Bread Recipegreen zucchini

    Ingredients

    2 eggs, beaten
    1 1/3 cup sugar
    2 teaspoons vanilla
    3 cups grated fresh zucchini
    2/3 cup butter, softened
    2 teaspoons baking soda
    ½ teaspoon salt
    3 cups flour
    1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
    2 teaspoons cinnamon
    1 cup chopped walnuts

    Directions

    Preheat oven to 350°F.

    In a large bowl, mix together sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add zucchini and butter. Sift flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together and gently spoon into mixture, a third at a time. Fold in walnuts.

    Divide the batter equally between 2 buttered 5 by 9 inch loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour (check for doneness at 50 minutes) or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool thoroughly.

    Makes 2 loaves.gold zucchini

     
  • I want tomatoes!

    Mellisa Hannum 10:06 am on July 21, 2010 | 0 Permalink
    Tags: , , , local food

    I want tomatoes. If I have to deal with the intense weather that makes me melt into a puddle of mush, I at least want heirloom tomatoesthe satisfaction of biting into a ripe, sweet, flavor-packed tomato.

    So far this year, I haven’t been able to have that experience. The plant at my house has a small collection of blossoms. The plants at the farm through which I have my CSA have more blossoms, but no fruit. It’s almost August, and I ain’t got no tomato satisfaction.

    Such is the way of the world of produce. Some years, the bounty overflows. Others, your garden yields up your first harvest at the very end of the season. Our house is at 3600 feet, so the garden’s timeline for growth is already shorter, and during a year like this, it’s even less.

    wee green houseThank goodness for the wonders of modern invention, like porch green houses. I wouldn’t even be able to harvest a handful of fruit this year if it wasn’t for that glorious creation. Isn’t it amazing the good that can come from a few metal pipes, shelves, and plastic? (My fresh herbs like it too.)

    And thank goodness for local farmers that are just down the hill. Because of those wonderful farmers with their steadier, slightly warmer weather, we just got heirloom tomatoes in the store. While nothing can completely replace a fresh tomato plucked from the plant and still warm from the sun, these come a close second.

     
  • Komatsuna, How Do I Love Thee?

    Mellisa Hannum 4:16 pm on July 14, 2010 | 0 Permalink
    Tags: , local food,

    I have a new leafy-green komatsunalove, Komatsuna. This turnip relative is also called Japanese Mustard Spinach.

    The leaves are large and a glossy, dark green. I found that the greens had a lovely mix of flavors — sometimes a dance of dill, sometimes a mustard bite. I enjoyed everything about Komatsuna — the texture, the tastes, the ability to be used in so many dishes.

    It was great sliced thinly and added to a salad mix. It was wonderful as a spinach substitute in a breakfast scramble. It was delightful as the main attraction in a stir-fry. It was an amazing new treat for me, and I ate it accordingly. I can’t wait until we get our next batch in some future CSA box… Why couldn’t it be this week?

     
  • Understanding Your Hamburger

    Mellisa Hannum 9:35 am on July 7, 2010 | 0 Permalink
    Tags: , local food,

    I’m half town mouse and half country mouse. My mom loves her creature comforts — full-service cable, air conditioning, and oodles of places to eat out on a whim. My dad grew up on a dairy farm, getting in scrapes, being a buddy with dirt, and being happiest sans roof.

    Mellisa and calf

    Me with the calf I rescued from a ditch

    By the time I came into the picture, my paternal grandparents had shifted from dairy cows to beef, Polled Herefords to be exact, and moved to Montana. My brother, sister, and I spent many a summer day up at their ranch, getting into our own scrapes, helping where we could, and learning the all-important lesson of farm to table.

    I was really lucky to get these experiences. To look at me, you’d think I’m all town mouse. In fact, whenever playing, “To Tell the Truth,” my story about herding cattle always gets chosen because, well, no one looks at me and thinks, “Well golly, of COURSE she’s herded cattle.” Part of my luck, I feel, is that I was exposed to the whole circle of life and have a pretty priceless understanding of how a calf that I rescued from a ditch would someday end up as hamburger, and I was okay with that.

    Understanding breeds acceptance. When I became a vegetarian, my beef-raising family accepted that change with nary a blink. When I returned to eating meat a fhamburgerew years later because of my health, that too was accepted. While I never came back to the place where I ate as much meat as I had before going veggie, I gotta say, a good grass-fed, grass-finished steak or hamburger is a lovely thing to experience.

    Locally, we’re gifted with a wonderful beef rancher by the name of Jim Gates. His beef tastes as good as it gets – lean, juicy, and chock full of flavor. Jim is something of a rock star around these parts, and if you’ve ever had some Nevada County Free Range Beef or talked to Mister Salt-of-the-Earth himself, you know why.

     
  • Riverhill Farm Fresh

    Mellisa Hannum 2:32 pm on June 30, 2010 | 0 Permalink
    Tags: , CSA, , , local food,

    Sunlight shining through evergreens, winding roads, and glimpses of large houses, small houses, and farm houses down private drives — last Friday found us at Riverhill Farm, picking up our first CSA box.

    The warm air was still. A tractor grumbled to the right. Interns busily worked down orderly rows but still took the time to smile and wave as we went up to the farm stand. It’s a very satisfying experience to get to drive out to a gorgeous, industrious farm to pick up your food.

    Our region of Northern California has had some pretty funky weather so far this season, so our CSA actually ended up being postponed a couple of weeks. Everything was so fresh and amazing, it was worth the wait.

    We had a lovely assortment of veggies. In our box were kohlrabi, spring garlic, braising mix, arugula, fennel, beets, mixed herbs, and a bonus of apricots from Chaffin Orchards and a bag of freshly milled polenta from Grass Valley Grains. Plus, they handed us a strawberry basket, in order for us to go out to the field to fill it up with juicy, ripe, strawberries. Fridays have just become my favorite day of the week.

    I hadn’t planned what I’d make for dinner after picking up our box, but this is what I came up with:

    Two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

    One bulb spring garlic, chopped

    One kohlrabi, chopped

    Two handfuls braising mix

    Two tablespoons Thai Peanut Sauce (we had a sample hanging around the house)

    Two tablespoons peanuts (also just hanging around the house)

    Throw kohlrabi and garlic in a sauté pan and cook two to three minutes.  Add braising mix and cook just until wilted. Stir in peanut sauce and peanuts and keep on stovetop until warmed-through, about a minute.

    Serve on top of some steamed rice, and voila – an incredibly quick and tasty dinner.

     
  • Heaven and Cherries

    Mellisa Hannum 9:58 am on June 23, 2010 | 0 Permalink
    Tags: , cherries, , llano seco pork, local food

    In Heaven, there are cherry trees.Eric in the cherry tree

    I know this. There just have to be. Every summer afternoon spent up in my grandma’s cherry tree was a little bit of Heaven. The still, dusty, oppressive heat of the Sacramento Valley would retreat under the shade of the old, wizened tree. I’d scramble up the trunk and sit on my favorite branch, kicking my legs with their perpetually skinned knees as I gathered a bucket’s worth of cherries and consumed another bucket’s worth.

    That first taste of a summer-ripe cherry brings me back to those long-gone June afternoons. For the moments that I’m savoring that sweet, plump fruit, I’m a kid again – sitting high in a tree and having pit-spitting contests with my brother and sister. Cherries are one of the reasons that I love June. Though the month may blindside you with a few triple digit days, it always makes up for it in the sweetness of its fruit.

    My brother in the cherry tree.>

    Pork Chops with Brandied Cherry Sauce

    Serves: 4

    Ingredients

    • 15ounces of Mountain Sweet cherries
    • 2 rounded spoonfuls sugar
    • 4 large, boneless center-cut Llano Seco pork chops
    • Salt and pepper
    • 2 tablespoons Calolea extra-virgin olive oil
    • 1 large shallot, finely chopped
    • Splash of brandy
    • 1/2 cup chicken stock
    • 2 tablespoons regional butter
    • 3 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, finely chopped

    Directions

    cherriesPreheat oven to 375 degrees F.

    Put cherries in a small bowl with the sugar.

    Heat a skillet with an oven safe handle over medium high to high heat.

    Season chops with salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil to a hot skillet. Place chops in skillet and sear meat on both sides to caramelize the chops. Place a loose tin foil tent over the pan and transfer the chops to oven to finish off, 7 or 8 minutes, until meat is firm to touch, but not tough.

    Remove meat from oven and transfer to dinner plates. Cover chops with foil to keep warm. Place chop skillet back on stove over medium heat. Add a tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan. Add shallots and sauté 1 to 2 minutes. Add cherries and warm through. Add brandy, then add stock. Reduce stock a minute, then add butter in small pieces. Toss sauce to combine and sprinkle in mint. Pour sauce down over chops.

    Adapted from a Rachael Ray recipe

     
  • Local Food Adventures Begin...

    Mellisa Hannum 9:40 am on June 16, 2010 | 0 Permalink
    Tags: , , local food,

    garlic scapesOne of the things I thoroughly enjoy about the local produce season getting under way is the challenge of trying new things. Before Heaven and Earth Farm brought garlic scapes into the store last week, I had never heard of them, but typing the words into Google gave me a few ideas about how to cook up these bad boys. Specifically, this blog gave me a recipe that screamed to be made.

    So I did. I don’t have a food processor, (someday, oh one beautiful someday, I shall!) but I do own a blender. The blender worked okay, but I ended up needing to put in about a tablespoon more olive oil to get it to mix together properly.garlic scapes pesto pasta

    I tossed the pesto with some al dente fettuccine, sprinkled some extra Parmesan on top, and WHAMO! Talk about a taste sensation – the intense flavors of garlic and greenness danced upon my taste buds in a very pleasing samba.  We paired it with a Viognier from Pilot Peak Vineyard and Winery which was an extremely good call. The garlic amazingness brought out pear flavors in the wine that were lovely counterpoints.

    Thank goodness for the adventure of trying new, local foods and getting some terrific meals out of it.

     
  • The Future of Farming

    Mellisa Hannum 12:32 pm on March 13, 2010 | 0 Permalink
    Tags: A Farm For The Future, , , , local food, Permaculture

    “What drives me to make our farm a farm of the future is the knowledge that I have no other choice but to try,” said Rebecca Hosking.

    Hosking, a wildlife filmmaker, came home to Devon, England to take up the work on the family farm. During the last fuel crisis when costs skyrocketed, she realized that the only way she knew how to farm was not sustainable. Oil isn’t something that farmers are going to be able to rely upon for much longer, but how do you farm to feed the world without tractors, tillers, semi trucks, and jets? Oil is in every part of what we eat, be it in the farm equipment to plant and process to the transportation to the grocery store. When it comes to that fossil fuel dependence, the future of our food looks pretty bleak.

    That bleak horizon sent Hosking on a journey of sustainability, and the things that she learned were fascinating. How about having a diverse pasture for your cows and sheep? One family, through a lot of attention to detail and hard work, discovered the diversity of grasses they needed to be able to pasture their livestock year-round without the supplement of alfalfa in the winter. Plus, that diversity created a root structure that was so strong, the pasture wasn’t destroyed by the traffic of livestock. Even more, their discovery of what made their pastures strong and healthy lead to one of the most revolutionary ideas in farming – no tilling! They likened it to taking the skin off of a human being, and their logic was as strong as the land on which they farmed.

    The fascinating discoveries continued as she explored Permaculture farms. The biodiversity made the land healthier and lead to high food yields. Plus, it aided in thinking outside the box, such as in using trees as a fodder crop for livestock. Maybe even better, Permaculture farming is low maintenance and low on energy use, and you maintain a healthy, symbiotic relationship with the land. The one drawback to Permaculture is that you can’t grow cereal crops. However, nut crops can grow in this manner and can supply what humans get from cereals. With all of that wild land, though, how can you farm for more than just your family? Actually, and I thought this was wonderfully astounding, Permaculture can yield enough food for 10 people for every acre.

    So while the way we do farming now can in no way, shape, or form be how we continue to farm – even in the near future – there are options. Our reliance on oil is a major issue, a scary one at that. But thanks to pioneers like Hosking, we may just have successful farms in the future. Let’s hope so, for all our sakes.

    “A Farm for the Future” will be shown in BriarPatch’s Community Room on Friday, March 19, at 6:30 p.m.

     
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