Bay Branch Farm » in the kitchen

Local Turkey

Annabel — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:34:51 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving! This year we purchased a turkey from Plum Creek Farm in Columbia Station. We really like these farmers, appreciate their farming practices and were fortunate enough to help harvest birds last year about this time. Due to scheduling, we were not able to help harvest this year, but we did put in an order for a turkey, a duck and 6 chickens. The turkey is huge – 28 pounds! Lots of full tummies and leftovers for everyone to take home….and super tasty!

It barely fit in the oven....or the pan for that matter!

saving seeds

Annabel — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:34:44 +0000

A few months ago, I noticed some of the arugula in our raised bed had gone to seed. I cut the plants with seed pods and put them in a paper bag to dry. Today, I found them in the cupboard and decided to see what they looked like. The pods and the stems were completely dry and the seeds came free easily by gently separating the pods. I harvested a bunch of seeds and plan to plant some in the basement this week. I am pretty confident that they will germinate since some arugula plants emerged in the raised bed where none had been planted – I think these came from some of the leftover seed pods. Will make a post about the basement arugula, which I hope to put outside (in our mini greenhouse) once established.

Harvesting arugula seeds from dried seed pods

Did the same with some dried cilantro seeds (coriander).

Coriander seeds

Eating with the seasons

Annabel — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:32:28 +0000

Orange is the color for fall….food, that is. With all the squash that’s coming from the garden and is available at the farmer’s market, it’s easy to make a colorful fall meal.

This year we bought a pumpkin, but never got around to carving it. This is a great link to how to prepare a pumpkin for cooking. Usually, we just carve it, taking out the seeds for roasting. This year, I’m using the whole thing. Never been a big fan of pumpkin, but a friend once made a pumpkin roll that’s to die for, so I asked her for the recipe. Here’s how to make it.

Pumpkin Roll Recipe
Recipe credit: Signe Anderson

3 eggs
2/3 cup pumpkin
1 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)

Grease a 10 x 15 cookie sheet and line with wax paper.
Beat eggs and then add pumpkin, granulated sugar, vanilla
Mix all dry ingredients and then fold them into the egg mixture
Pour batter into wax-paper lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)
Bake @ 375 degrees for 15 minutes
Sprinkle powdered sugar on tea towel and turn cake onto towel. Peel off wax paper. Roll cake into towel and cool in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Filling

8 oz. cream cheese
3/4 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp soft butter
1 c powdered sugar.

Whip ingredients with beater until smooth. Unroll cake. Spread filling over entire cake and re-roll.

Pumpkin roll

Chill at least 2 hours before cutting. Yummy!

Butternut Squash Soup

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic crushed
1 apple
bit of grated ginger
chicken or veggie stock
salt and pepper
1/2 c. cream or whole milk

Saute onion and garlic in butter
Add squash, apple and enough stock to cover. Season with salt, pepper and a bit of ginger. Bring to boil and then simmer for 15 minutes or until squash is soft
Blend with hand blender and then stir in cream. Serve warm. For added treat top with bacon or fried prosciutto.

No soup for you! (picture that is)

Applesauce Recipe

Annabel — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:07:34 +0000

It’s fall and that means apples. Applesauce, apple crisp, apple pancakes….Yesterday we boiled the apples for applesauce.

Applesauce Recipe
Makes about 10 quarts

lots of apples – we filled a 12 qt. pan and half of an 8 qt. pan (sorry….we didn’t weigh before hand)
cinnamon – 2 tbs.
water

Wash and cut the apples. Put all pieces (including seeds and core) into a large pot with about an inch of water in the bottom. Bring to boil and cook until the apples are soft and break easily with a wooden spoon. Let cool and then process in a food mill. This will remove all the seeds and core bits. You may want to run it through the mill a couple of times. We use a hand blender once it’s been through the food mill. The hand blender makes it nice and smooth. Return the mixture to the pot. Add cinnamon to taste and heat to bubbling. Then take your sanitized jars and fill with the hot sauce. Process in a hot water canner for 20 minutes.

This is a 12 qt. saucepan full of apples.

Processing apples in a food mill

Final product - 10 qts.

potato tower – results

Annabel — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:55:37 +0000

well, the potato tower did not produce that much. in fact, it was quite disappointing, but i think we learned some valuable lessons and we are not so upset that we won’t try again next year. i think we planted them a bit late. we planted in may and they should have been planted in april. we also feel we planted them too close together. but, we have not tossed the potato tower….we will try again next year and report on results.

though, i should say, the few tiny potatoes we did end up with were super tasty….boiled them and ate them with a little butter, salt and pepper….yummy!

Our small handful of runt potatoes

fall harvest means good food

Annabel — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:54:04 +0000

This season has been so outstanding. We have grown zucchini for the first time…..I know, I know….zucchini is the easiest thing to grow, yet somehow it has eluded us until this year. This season, we actually have sun and space and the plants have thrived! This means zucchini bread, ratatouille, soup….and lots of shredded zucchini in the freezer for winter soups and other tasty treats. Eggplant is another exciting vegetable we’ve pulled from the garden. And, butternut squash are also on the vine and getting ready for soup. Below are a few pics……

that is a regular size spoon for reference

Ratatouille fixings - all from our garden except the onions

Butternut squash

salsa recipe

Annabel — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:39:22 +0000

The abundance of tomatoes has led us to a salsa frenzy. I used to live in MD with a dear friend whose mom makes the best salsa, so I asked for her recipe. Memories of hers are still fresh in my mind, and I am so pleased with the results of our own efforts. Good food starts with good ingredients and we have been fortunate to have been inundated with tomatoes and peppers in our garden this year. We even used our own garlic in the recipe. Cilantro still seems to be a challenge for us to grow, so had to buy that and the hot peppers and onions. So tasty!

Tomatoes for salsa!

SALSA – modified by Nancy Hutchins

Original recipe says it makes 10 pints, but I usually end up with about 8 ½

Quantities don’t have to be exact

16 C tomatoes, peeled and chopped

2 C onions, chopped

2 C green peppers, diced (or 3 peppers)

1 jalapeno pepper, diced

4 – 6 cloves garlic, minced

5 T canning salt

4 T chili powder

2 T crushed red pepper

½ C sugar

1 C white vinegar

chopped cilantro (whatever amount looks good to you) added toward the end of simmer

additions: 1 fresh hot pepper in addition to or in place of crushed red pepper

—–

½ C water and 6 T corn starch , dissolve corn starch in water

1. Dip tomatoes in boiling water to make it easy to remove skin.

2. Bring all ingredients except cilantro, water and cornstarch to a boil and simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hrs.

3. Add cilantro for last 5 – 10 minutes or so.

4. Add cornstarch/water , stir, allow to thicken for a brief time

5. Pour into sterilized jars. I do jars in the dishwasher (use heated dry to keep them hot) and sterilize the inner lid, tongs, ladle, in a pot on the stove. Fill and turn them upside down for a few minutes. Jars are easier to fill if you find one of the canning funnels that fits over the top of the jar. Wipe rims and side of jars before sealing with a clean paper towel.

I made a few minor modifications. First, I added an additional hot chili pepper for more spice and, per instructions in my canning book, processed the jars in the canner for 15 minutes. Enjoy!

spink’s garlic

Annabel — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:36:20 +0000

look what my awesome husband grew for us!

over a pound of garlic!

it's so tasty!

next year we plan to ramp up production. kudos to craig (of sirna’s farm & market in auburn, oh) for sharing advice on how to grow garlic…..we’ll be trying his tips this fall. another resource we rely on heavily is Growing Great Garlic: The Definitive Guide for Organic Gardeners and Small Farmers by Ron L. Engeland. do you have any good tips on how to grow garlic to share???

purple beans and garlic!

Annabel — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:19:12 +0000

tonight we harvested our first batch of purple string beans….yes, they are purple, which really helps in the harvesting process….but they do turn green when cooked. they are delicious. nothing like fresh-picked dinner!

purple beans

we only planted a little bit of garlic last fall and it is now hanging in the garage to dry out. we buy our garlic from seeds of change. they only ship in the fall for fall planting. we plan to put a 12′ x 4′ bed in this fall.

fresh garlic

part of the harvest....ready to dry

salad – from the garden

Annabel — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:22:40 +0000

we are eating salad from the garden….yummy!

from this....

....to this