Food In Many Forms

 I had every intention of doing monthly CSA check in's this year, but ultimately it got away from me... again! However, I do have time today to talk about our end of season haul, and how I stretch our farm goodies for as long as possible. First, I took 6 white onions and 5 red onions and hung them in a dark closet tied up in an old pair of panty hose. I throw in a knot between each onion to keep them separate and dry.  Then, I did the pickling. I have been saving tomato sauce and salsa jars for pickles all year. I thinly sliced watermelon radishes, daikon radishes, carrots, and hot peppers that have accumulated over the past 2-3 weeks. I also made a mix of matchstick carrots and daikon to sprinkle on sandwiches. I sprinkled in mustard seeds, black peppercorns, garlic cloves and crushed red peppers, and then covered them in boiling hot water & vinegar, mixed with salt. I used a 1/2 gallon of vinegar, and I made 3-4 tall jars and at least 3 small jars. This was also a great ...

 I have a busy week ahead with early start times and lots of demands at work. I have been stressing for days about what breakfast food I can grab and run out the door to make my 7 am start time. Today, I decided to re-make these delicious morning glory muffins, with a few adaptations. I love that these recipes has so many fruits and vegetables, but how many servings does each one have really? Let me break it down... 1 apple - 1 serving 1/2 cup applesauce - .5 serving 3/4 cup raisins - 3.8 servings 6 carrots - 12 servings 8 oz pineapple - 1.4 servings / 18.7 servings per recipe, .6 servings per muffin So, if I have two muffins for breakfast, I'm getting > 1 servings of my fruits and vegetables for the day. It's not great, not terrible. As I said before, I do want to figure out how to add more protein to this - maybe next time I can add some flax seeds or something. Ingredients 1/2 cup spelt flour 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour ½ cups sprouted wheat flour ¾ cup almond flour 1 ...

Determining the menu for our Sicily trip was the easy part. The larger challenge is making sure you have a solid team for provisioning, and that your crew members are on board to help prepare meals. Here are some other considerations when you plan your sailing trip to the Aeolian islands: Availability of different foods Don't assume that you will be able to prepare your favorite taco recipe or chicken teriyaki in Italy. Although there were a few international foods available, the best availability is always going to be for local foods and local recipes. Through my research beforehand, I learned that Italians generally eat a light, sweet breakfast, like biscotti or pastry with coffee. Our group tends to eat a lot of yogurt for breakfast, and muesli is pretty common in Europe, so that was a good combo (one of our crew mates mixed the yogurt with muesli, banana and nutella - yum!). Seafood is popular in Sicily, so I knew there would be plenty of tuna, sardines and anchovies. We rarely...

Each time we go on a sailing trip for a week at some marvelous destination, I look up what other people have done for meals. It always feels like there are very few resources available, so I thought I would add my menus to the collective knowledge base, talk about what was easy to find, what was hard to find, and what I want to remember for next time. For your reference, we sailed with Dream Yacht Charter out of Portorosa Marina in mid-September. This is considered shoulder season for the Aeolian islands. The weather felt like shoulder season, but the vibe on the islands was "off-season" - a lot less nightlife and fewer people. The Menu  Saturday   Portorosa        Sunday Panarella by dinner  Monday Panarella  Tuesday Panarella > Stromboli   Wednesday Stromboli > Salina > Lipari  Thursday Lipari > Vulcano  Friday Vulcano > Lipari >  Mari...

 It's hard to believe this is our fourth year doing the farm share. I have often felt anxious about the start of the season - there is a lot of pressure to use up all the produce, clean it, prepare it, etc. Somehow this year feels easier. Partially, it is easier, because we have been consistently splitting up the share. But also, I think I better understand the flow of duties each week.  Day 1: cut up green onions, chop off carrot and beet greens, wash and freeze kale, spinach swiss chard, or other cooking greens, wash at least 1 head of lettuce if there are no clean salad greens, maybe wash a 2nd lettuce, like radicchio or arugula Day 2: roast zucchini, yellow squash, or beets, wash steam broccoli for freezing, slice turnips, and/or radishes to put on salads or pickle Day 3: pickle radishes, turnips or beets This way, I always have salad greens, which I can use for salad. I do a classic Caesar with rotisserie chicken, parmesan, and croutons, or throw Costco Tuscan bean salad,...