Soaking grains

I haven't done a lot of research into this subject myself, so am only offering you a peek into something I'd like to know more about myself. My friend Kristi has done more backgrounding on this -- the premise is that some people believe soaking grains before cooking/eating makes them more digestible, and releases more nutrients for our bodies to access. I haven't tried it yet, but see what you think.

Here's a link with more info.

There's plenty more out there, I imagine -- just Google around.

Sorry for short post today. New puppy in the house!

Happy day!

Today's post brought to you by kale

I usually don't even open the ads in my inbox, but I love this exercise-apparel vendor, lululemon, so I did open one, and found a cool blog about kale. It's worth a read!

What's up with kale

And -- you knew it was coming -- a recipe! My friend Amber is the best recipe-sender I know, and she shared this one with me last week. I made it last night. Amber's husband Jeff and my family agree -- this is one of the best salads EVER.

Eat up.

Sam says

Sam wrote to say that she wasn't trying to prod me to action -- just making sure she hadn't missed something. But in her writing, she shared some good stuff.

Her personal seed order this year, she says, is all heirloom seeds. The Tricities Voluntary Simplicity group she steers is doing a discussion course right now called "Hungry for Change." This week's chapter is on healthy eating.

I'll let Sam's email do the rest of the talking:

"One of the readings is about how the nutritional content of today's veggies isn't as high as it was 50 years ago b/c of the intensive planting and conventional farming practices that have developed since then. So, even though we realize that with heirloom varieties we may not get quite as much food, what we do get should be chock full of goodness. I hope you'll encourage your readers to try at least one heirloom vegetable this summer in their plots. My new favorite is a lima bean that's like none other! It's called Hopi Orange Lima and the beans are not only gorgeous, but are meaty and really delicious when cooked w/just a bit of salt, although I'm sure they'd take to any seasonings you might like. Anyway, here's a picture of the seeds. Drought and bug resistant too, since they're from the southwest. They are however, a long season crop (5 months!) as many dried beans are, so gardeners might want to consider planting them in early May if this warm winter continues."

Thank you, Sam!

Hopi day!

Signs of life return

Sam emailed me last week to ask if I was still blogging here, and in doing so maybe roused me to a tad of action. As we start to see signs of spring, maybe you'll start to see signs of blogs, too! I do think, though, that if this blog is to prosper, it will take a village. So, if you happen to be reading here, and in your goings-on come across a recipe or a quote or an idea that you think would be well shared here, please -- please -- comment it to me or otherwise send it my way!

In the meantime, prepare yourself for mostly sporadic recipes. I haven't been in the garden mind lately, but it's time to start getting myself there, isn't it?!

I'll start easy today, as there are three to get ready and out the door (not to mention myself). I make muffins once a week to feed to the flock here at my house, and to freeze if there are leftovers. My go-to is some variation of banana, since we so often have ripening ones. Last week I did a Moosewood base with the addition of a generous scoop of peanut butter. I also halved the oil and subbed in applesauce. I usually add either some flax seed meal or some chia seeds.

Enjoy!

Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home's Muffin Madness

Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home's Muffin Madness

  -- Basic Wet Ingredients --
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 - 1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

  -- Basic Dry Ingredients --
2 cup unbleached flour (I use whole wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Choose one of the following combos to add to basic ingredients (the above is NOT a plain muffin recipe, but the base for the following)

Apple muffins: Add 2 cups of grated apple and 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel to wet ingredients and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to dry ingredients.
Banana muffins: Add 1 1/2 cups of mashed banana to wet ingredients and 1 cup chopped nuts and/or 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to batter.
Blueberry - lemon muffins: Add 1 1/2 cups of blueberries and 1 tablespoon of grated lemon peel to wet ingredients.
Zucchini muffins: Add 2 cups of grated zucchini to wet ingredients and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom to the dry ingredients. Fold in 1/2 cup of raisins or currants and 3/4 cup of chopped nuts to batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine wet ingredients, combine dry ingredients. Add two mixtures together and take care not to overmix. Spoon batter into oiled standard muffins tins and bake for 20-25 minutes (10-15 minutes for mini muffins...that will be eaten by the monsters!) Insert knife into center to check for done-ness.

Spotlight: Genevieve Lodal

It's a long time coming, Harvest of Hope blog readers, but finally I've gathered the gumption to post an email interview with Genevieve Lodal. Genevieve is the daughter of Susan -- one of our selfless leaders -- and she works at an organic farm in Vermont. Susan suggested that I get in touch with Genevieve since what she does is so close to some of what we do at Harvest of Hope, and the following interview is the result.

Meet Genevieve! Many thanks to her for her willingness to share her time and wisdom with us here.

How did you find out about the farm and start apprenticing there/working there?

I found Berry Creek Farm and its owners Gerard and Rosemary Croizet through the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont's Apprentice and Farm Worker Program. After working for a full season at an organic fruit and vegetable farm in Southeastern Penn., I was interested in further learning how to farm organically through hands-on experience. I have family who live in Vermont and thought it was an area of the country where I might enjoy living and working.

Where did your interest in gardening begin?

I really became interested in growing my own food and gardening while volunteering and later working at a farmstand run by the non-profit Fair Food in Philadelphia. Their mission is to connect the Philadelphia marketplace to local growers and producers, and one way in which they fulfill this mission is through the operation of the Fair Food Farmstand in the historic Reading Terminal Market. It's open 7 days a week in a busy urban marketplace, and I just loved seeing the tangible connection between the fertile countryside and downtown Philly.

What's the most fulfilling part of your work there?

Particularly this year amidst the economic turmoil and freak weather patterns, I've found a great deal of satisfaction in being so rooted to my local environment. What we are able to grow in northern Vermont is quite different from my hometown and other areas I've lived, as our season is shorter and the temperatures generally cooler (we're in USDA Zone 3 versus Kingsport's 6b). As a result, you really come to appreciate each and every variety and type of vegetable and fruit as they come into season. This year, I feel like I waited forever for red bell peppers, but once they came, they couldn't have been sweeter (literally and figuratively)!

What would you want the Harvest of Hope gardeners to know if you could teach them/tell them one thing?

For me, the biggest obstacle has been (and in some ways continues to be) the learning curve. There is so much to know and understand about growing without the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. I believe the plants and environment will tell you what you need to know, but it requires patience and awareness, which take time. These aren't skills and knowledge that can be known in a few months or even one season, but each season builds on the previous, and the connection built by paying attention and individually caring for your plants is priceless.

What's your favorite vegetable dish and would you share the recipe?

This is a hard one; a great side benefit to growing your own veg is the development of a love for previously unknown or unloved varieties. Right now, leeks are bountiful, so I'm eating a lot of them. One of my favorite ways to prepare them (other than just using them in place of onions in other recipes) is to braise them with chicken stock and herbs, as in this recipe:

Recipe: Braised Leeks Adapted from "Sunday Suppers at Lucques"

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

6 large leeks
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
About ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup sliced shallots
1 tablespoon thyme leaves
½ cup dry white wine
1½ to 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock.
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Peel any bruised outer layers from leeks. Trim roots, leaving root end intact. Trim off tops on diagonal, leaving two inches of green. Cut in half lengthwise. Clean very well in water to remove internal grit. Pat dry with towel.
3. With cut sides up, season with 2 teaspoons salt and a few grindings of black pepper.
4. Heat pan over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Pour in ¼ cup oil and wait 1 minute. Place cut side down in pan without crowding them. (Make in two batches, and use more oil, if necessary.) Sear them 4 to 5 minutes, until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper, and turn over to cook 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer them, cut side up, to a gratin dish that will fit leeks and chicken, or use two dishes.
5. Pour ¼ cup oil into pan and heat over medium heat. Add shallots, thyme, ¼ teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper. Cook about 5 minutes, until just beginning to color. Add wine and reduce by half. Add 1½ cups stock, and bring to a boil over high heat.
6. Pour over leeks, without quite covering them.
7. Braise in oven 30 minutes, until tender.
Yield: 6 servings.

What's been the easiest thing to grow?

I think swiss chard is an easy crop. It goes in early in the spring and will give you plenty to eat throughout the season, until frost.

What's been the hardest thing to grow and why?

Tomatoes, while very rewarding and essential (in my book), are a bit difficult, as there are so many pests and ways the plants can be compromised, from fungi to insects to extremes in temperature. Ours are grafted and grown the greenhouse, as again, our season is not too long up here, and we take a great deal of care in cleaning and suckering (taking off new shoots so that the plants direct energy into fruit production and maturation) to produce wonderful, fresh tomatoes.

What's one unexpected thing you learned while apprenticing at the farm?

I didn't really have too many expectations when arriving here, as I knew that what I'd experienced last year on the farm in Pennsylvania was just the tip of an iceberg of ignorance. The greatest surprise I found is that blackcurrants, a small bush fruit with a distinct smoky-sweet flavor that is popular in the UK in a lot of flavorings (often it's the purple flavor in candy instead our standard grape over here), actually grow in the US! Visiting England and Scotland with my family and as a student over the years, I grew to love the flavor of blackcurrants and always brought back something with me and made it stretch as far as it could. When I arrived up here last April, I mentioned to my host family that I missed the flavor, and lo and behold, they had a row of blackcurrant bushes in the middle of their fields. So we've made jam and cassis (a French liqueur made from cooking down the juice of the berries with sugar and cognac), and I've been in heaven.

What do you wish for Kingsport in terms of gardening/growing things/overall health?

I'm sure the foundations of my love for the outdoors and for establishing and maintaining a healthy community were laid while growing up in Kingsport. I have fond and vivid memories of playing outside under our black walnut tree and going to snip fresh chives or winter savoury for a dinner my mom was preparing. Kingsport, like many other cities and towns, has a strong and caring citizen base. As we as Americans have become increasingly disconnected to our food sources, I hope a focus on growing food locally, support of community garden efforts, and general understanding of our connectedness to each other and our environment will strengthen the health in and of Kingsport's community.

Bags to Benches for Bays Mountain Park PSA

In celebration of America Recycles Day, which is nationally recognized on November 15, Keep Kingsport Beautiful is sponsoring “Bags to Benches for Bays Mountain Park.”  November 14-18, bring your plastic grocery & shopping bags to collections sites around the city and make your bags into benches for Bays Mountain!  Collection barrels for the public will be located at Kingsport City Hall, Bays Mountain Park, the Kingsport Area Chamber of Commerce, the Kingsport Public Library and Kroger.  Stop by and drop off your plastic bags and wraps for recycling and help out Bays Mountain Park at the same time.  Kingsport City Schools, Rock Springs Elementary, Domtar, and Eastman Chemical Company, an ENERGY STAR Partner, are also participating in “Bags to Benches for Bays Mountain.”  For every 30,000 bags collected, The Trex Company will give Bays Mountain Park a free park bench. 

Also, now is a great time to become a part of Keep Kingsport Beautiful by joining The Clean Team and supporting all of the many environmental and beautification endeavors of Keep Kingsport Beautiful.  Our Clean Team Fundraising Campaign continues through the end of January 2012.  Citizens and businesses can contribute at a various levels to support Keep Kingsport Beautiful and programs like Trashbusters, The Fun Fest Trash Barrel Paint-In, Santa Train Cardboard Recycling, “Bags to Benches for Bays Mountain Park,” the annual Beautification Awards, Tree Fund semi-annual tree plantings, and more!

Good things

Two things I've got to share with you all.

1. The City of Kingsport has composted leaves! You have to go get them, as there are liability issues amok if the city were to bring them to you, but for $20, you can fill a pickup truck bed, or a trailer, or whatever other large transport mechanism you can muster with composted leaves. And at least in our experience, this  is a rich material -- think dirt rather than leaves. If you need more info, call 224.2818 and ask for Mr. Bob Fickle (I believe this is his last name).

2. A recipe, of course. I harvested our family's bounty of sweet potatoes not long ago, and tonight I'm channeling Thanksgiving goodness with this easy favorite from my mom's friend Nancy.

Nancy A's Sweet Potato Souffle

4 or 5 large sweet potatoes (You can bake them or steam them. I peel and steam them.)
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp almond extract
1 egg (we are out so I used a couple of Tbsp peanut butter instead and we'll see how that goes)
1/2 stick butter, melted

Mix ingredients and pour into a lightly greased dish. Bake 25 minutes at 425 degrees.

Happy day!