Archive for ‘May, 2017’

Friday morning

That is actually Thursday evening: my first CSA pickup of 2017! Boc Choy, Kale, Arugula, Spinach, Pea shoots, Radishes.

The spinach is an overwintered variety specifically grown for an early spring harvest. The leaves are huge and the note accompanying my box notes that it is sweet, tender and does not cook down as much as “regular” spinach.

This is Friday morning … an early planning session for how to enjoy those gorgeous vegetables. I browsed my new cookbooks: Six Seasons: a new way with vegetables and
Dishing Up the Dirt

Auggie “assisted” by stealing my chair when I got up to refill my coffee.

Bear waited outside, checking frequently to see if I was EVER coming out to go for a walk.

Friday morning.

My Farmer: Lower Valley Farm, Kalispell, Montana

It was 5 years ago when I purchased my first CSA half share from a farm just down the road from me: Swallow Crest Farm . The following year, the farm did not offer CSA shares. Because it is just me and even a half share was a challenge to use, I decided to buy from Farmer’s Market just what I needed versus finding another farm with CSA offering.

I enjoy the market … once I am there, but Saturday mornings getting to it – yikes! The market is located in the parking area of our community college: a beautiful small campus. Unfortunately, around it are Wal-Mart, Costco, Home Depot, Lowes … what the family of my favorite market source calls “the land of everything”. Oh, and there is a huge sports complex: ball park and soccer fields. Saturday mornings, the traffic around the Farmer’s Market is more than I enjoy dealing with. Last year I went to the first few weeks market and then not until the last weeks.

This year, I bought a half share from Lower Valley Farm: my favorite Farmer’s Market Farm. They are located at the south (lower) end of the valley as am I, but on the west side vs my east side location. Pickup is on Thursday 5-7 p.m. so perfect for me. The first pickup this year is Thursday – YEA! Farmer’s Market started on May 6 and I went – Saturday’s are not as bad until Summer visitor traffic gets added to the mix so I told myself to “buck up Buttercup!” and head to town.

I’ve been enjoying tatsoi, baby arugula, pea shoots and sun shoots. All except the baby arugula are new to me.

Everything is wonderful and fresh but O MY – the pea shoots!! I didn’t realize they would taste so much like peas. They are wonderful in a salad and in a sandwich. The sun shoots are good but the pea shoots are my new favorite green thing.

On a previous post ( Sun, snow, banana bread and asiago rolls ), I made fragrant brown butter cardamom banana bread from Andrea Bemis’ blog: Dishing up the dirt .

Andrea’s book, ‘Dishing up the Dirt’, her blog and her Instagram have lots of recipes and inspiration for eating and cooking from the garden.

https://instagram.com/p/BUF1xbzD9iM/

Above from Andrea’s Instagram is reference to another new book on cooking from the garden.

I bought it. Six Seasons: a new way with vegetables . It is another beautiful book with recipes organized by season. The author, Joshua McFadden’s obvious passion for seasonal, farm fresh vegetables is obvious and I am looking forward to trying many recipes from the book.

And then this morning in my Instagram feed:

https://instagram.com/p/BUIx0xiFmh3/

Ya-hoo and Hoo-rah!!! More shoots and arugula plus radishes to sub for the turnips in yogurt/herb/poppy seed dressing and I have a couple of days to plan what to do with the rest of the bounty.

More later this week from the farm pickup and as in 2012, a weekly wrap up of what I received and how I used my CSA share goodies.

Lilacs and other things

I’ve been watching the lilac buds grow and unfold and today noticed the purple flowers.

This bush by the house has small blooms of deep purple…

…enough to entice a hummingbird!

And completely unrelated … Auggie on top of the woodpile.

Of Orchids and Lilies

Saturday evening, under gray and cloudy skies, watching my step over wet rocks and sticks in the woods…

Two Calypso Orchids! The small blooms are about 1/2 the size of my thumbnail and they are turned over so they tend to hide under grasses and greens.

Violets are starting to bloom now so there are other purple things in the grasses.

I have read that conditions of soil have to be just right for the orchids and they can be dormant for years. There had been a small patch that had a few orchids every spring but I’ve not seen them for several years. These two were in an entirely different area. I had only my phone the first night and could not get a clear photo.

Last night, I took the big camera – gorgeous and unique!

And speaking of unique… Saturday, returning on a high from finding the orchids, I saw near the house what looked like two Glacier Lilies blooming practically on top of each other.

It was two and they were on top of each other, on one stem: a double!

Beef AND LAMB – it’s what’s for dinner!

A combination of beef and lamb makes for easy and delicious meatballs with just a few simple additions.

The basic recipe:

1 package lamb
1 package ground beef
1.5 T lemon pepper (T = tablespoon)
1.5 T Italian seasoning
1/2 cup finely diced onion (about 1/2 of a medium onion: yellow, white or sweet onion)
1/3 cup breadcrumbs (you can also use cracker crumbs)
1 egg

Mix all together. Refrigerate for an hour if possible but no problem to cook immediately.
Form meatballs golf ball sized.

To cook, you can bake them on a sheet pan, or “fry” them in a fry pan and then cook in gravy or tomato sauce.

For baking: 425 oven for 15-20 minutes to internal temperature of 160 or until they are NOT pink inside.

Below are the step by step instructions:

The meat.

The rest of the ingredients.

Mix the meats, spices, onion, breadcrumbs and egg.

Your hands are the best tool for this!

Roll mixture into golf ball sized meatballs.

See recipe above for different cooking options.

I baked at 425 for 18 minutes. Internal temperature was 178 and…

If you don’t have a meat thermometer, cut one open. It should look done with no pink inside.

Serving options:

You can make a gravy from the drippings and serve over rice or noodles.

OR

Add the meatballs to tomato sauce and serve over spaghetti or any pasta OR in a roll for a meatball sandwich.

OR

Split them and serve on small rolls – Sliders!

***For my friends from the Bigfork Community who tried these and picked up a recipe and maybe have a question or comment, your first comment goes to moderation. Once I’ve “approved” it, additional comments will appear immediately on this or other articles. This is to help prevent spam comments.