Cheese--the perfect gift for the locavore in your life

As the cold weather continues and winter greens and storage crops start to dwindle, the perfect local food to focus on is CHEESE. I love cheese and am so thankful for the amazing community of cheese makers, sellers, and proponents who have sprung up in the last couple of years to revive a once thriving cheese culture here in Southeast PA.

One of the best resources for cheese in the county is the newly formed Chester County Cheese Artisans group. Upcoming events include a holiday open house at Yellow Springs Farm and a winter Farms Market at Birchrun Hills Farm.

Speaking of winter farmers market--the next installment of the Kennett Square Winter Market will take place Friday, December 17th with a great cheese assortment from Amazing Acres and God's Country Creamery--two of the cheeses featured in GRID's Holiday Cheese plate. The first cheese PA Noble is available through the Lancaster Farm Fresh 4 Season Buy Club that makes drop offs at Inverbrook (I actually ordered some this week) and then the Noble Road--one of my personal favorites is available at Talula's Table.

If you are willing to travel a little farther afield -- Philadelphia cheese blogger Madame Fromage will be leading a guided cheese tasting at the Reading Terminal tomorrow--click here for the link. Madame Fromage will be teaming up with GRID magazine in the future to produce a monthly feature on local cheese-- in the mean tine check out the newly created Cheese TV.

Other links featuring local cheese:

Talula's Table Blog

CC Dwell interview with 8 Local Cheese Makers

Great posting from the Apples and Cheese, please blog about eating local this time of year

Community of Giving--Sustaining the Presence of Farming and Music

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
- J R R Tolkien

Happy December 1st--an occasion that marks the transition from the holiday of gratitude to the season of giving. It is in this spirit that I want to encourage your generosity and support to include two very worthwhile entities that truly embody the sentiment in the Tolkien quote above. They are the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) and the Philly based musical group Hoots and Hellmouth.

I could write volumes (and have already dedicated several postings to both PASA and HnHM) about the interconnectedness between these organizations and our farming operation, our community and each other. Instead I encourage you to explore the websites of each--it becomes very clear that both are all about the creative promotion and success of "food and cheer and song."

Vibrant local food systems are the key to successful farms, healthy food, and respect for the natural environment. PASA, one of the leading advocates for these concepts, works together with farmers and consumers to ensure a thriving, sustainable Pennsylvania food system for us all.

I invite you to join PASA as a member and connect with a larger network of people who appreciate good food and the farmers who grow it.
-PASA is a network of people who care - we all have a role in assuring the health and longevity of our regional farms and food supply.
-PASA is the catalyst that brings together those dedicated to advancing sustainable food and farming systems.
-PASA is a dynamic new model for partnerships between traditional agricultural and our ever-changing society and has worked to forge positive and needed changes in the way food is grown, harvested, distributed, and marketed in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Our family farms face enormous threats and whether we can save farming in time is up to all of us--of course your support of Inverbrook is greatly appreciated however without the educational opportunities and advocacy work of PASA we would be lost (take the recent and successful senate passing of a Food Safe Bill that includes several amendments friendly to small farmers).

If you are interested in taking the next step here are two things you can do:

Click here to send a donation to support good, honest food for everyone.

Click here to sign-up for PASA's e-news and stay up-to-date on PASA policy updates and news.

On a somewhat related note--the musical locavores that make up Hoots and Hellmouth are looking for financial support from their fans to complete a recording of new songs. You can be a part of this grass roots campaign by making a donation on Kickstarter--an online fundraising site. For as little as $10 you can help support the band in their next creative endeavor.

To get a sense of Hoots and Hellmouth's dedication to sustainable agriculture check out this NPR story on their fall farm tour

In case you are not yet familiar with the band, here are some videos of Hoots and Hellmouth in action. The first is high energy Hoots at the Philadelphia Folk Festival a couple of years ago singing "What Good Are Plow Shares". The second video is of "Roll Brandywine Roll" a beautiful song inspired by our beloved river.





Hope you will join me in supporting these two worthy groups. Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving--the true Pleasure of Eating

Happy Thanksgiving! I thought I would put forth one of my favorite Wendell Berry excerpts--all about the true pleasure of eating. Thank you all for your support--from turkeys to salad greens, from farmers markets to CSAs--you should feel proud of your connection to the land and community that is embodied in this very special meal.

An excerpt from Bringing it to the Table (2009, Counterpoint Press):

" The pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet. People who know the garden in which their vegetables have grown and know that the garden is healthy will remember the beauty of the growing plants, perhaps in the dewy first light of morning when gardens are at their best. Such a memory involves itself with the food and is one of the pleasures of eating. The knowledge of the good health if the garden relieves and frees and comforts the eater. The same goes for eating meat. The thought of the good pasture and of the calf contentedly grazing flavors the steak. Some, I know, will think it bloodthirsty or worse to eat a fellow creature you have known all its life. On the contrary, I think it means that you eat with understanding and with gratitude. A significant part of the pleasure of eating is one's accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes. The pleasure of eating, then, may be the best available standard of our health. And this pleasure, I think, is pretty fully available to the urban consumer who will make the necessary effort.

I mentioned earlier the politics, esthetics, and ethics of food. But to speak of the pleasure of eating is to go beyond those categories. Eating with the fullest pleasure - pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance - is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend. ..."

(Wendell Berry from the 1989 essay "The Pleasures of Eating" as republished in Bringing it to the Table, 2009.)

Unusual Roots--Salad Turnips and Winter Radish Recipes

I have to give a final plug to these three unusual but delicious roots. First the sweet and mild salad turnip--one reporter finds them almost better than chocolate. These tender turnips are the perfect addition to crudite platters and winter salads (see recipe at the end of this posting)--they have all the sweetness and texture of a radish with almost none of the heat.

Next is the Watermelon Radish, their main virtue is their amazing inner coloring--I found this great recipe for watermelon radish chips on bucks county CSA Blooming Glen Farm's website. I tried it out immediately--the chips are delicious, however it made the house smell like a Chinese restaurant. I also discovered some recipes where you make baked radish chips. I look forward to seeing if this cooking method is a little less ordor intense, either way it certainly lessens the oil intake which makes these delicious snakes all the more healthful.

Finally I want to highlight the Asian cooking staple the Daikon Radish. I like to use Daikons in stir fries, soups, and stews instead of turnips--they cook a little faster and have basically the same taste. Here is a chicken soup recipe from the new New York Time's recipe blog Food52. A more traditional way to enjoy Daikon Radishes is after they have been pickled--check out Food In Jars Pickled Daikon recipe.

Enjoy your roots!

Baby White Turnip Salad With Toasted Pecans And Bacon
Time 5 minutes Serves 4
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Ingredients
4 small white turnips with their greens attached
1/4 c. pecan halves or pieces
3 oz. bacon
1 green garlic stalk or green onion, sliced on the bias
salt and pepper, to taste
1-2 Tbsp. Balsamic Vinegar
1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
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How to make it
Preheat the oven to 350.
Remove the greens from the turnips. Tear the leaves with your hands into medium to large pieces and set aside.
Slice turnips as thin as possible (use a mandoline if you have one). Put into a bowl of iced water.
Toast the pecans in the oven just until they start to brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.
In a non-stick pan, saute the bacon until crunchy on the outside. Remove from the pan and set aside, reserving the fat.
Prepare a simple vinaigrette: combine vinegar with a pinch each of salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle in about 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil. Set aside.
Heat the bacon fat in the same pan. Once hot, add the green garlic/onion and saute until tender. Add greens to the pan, season with salt and just a splash of balsamic vinegar and cook until they are wilted.
Remove the sliced turnips from the iced water bath, dry them with a kitchen towel and toss with the vinaigrette.
Arrange the turnip slices and their greens in a mound and sprinkle bacon and pecans on top.

Asian Greens--Bok Choy and Tokyo Bekana

This final week of the 2010 CSA Season was once again full of asian greens. I meant to post these recipes last week, but time just seem to melt away. Hopefully you still have plenty of the asian green offerings still stored in your fridge, otherwise I believe both the bok choy and the tokyo bekana will be part of next week's extended CSA share (pick up on TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY 1pm until dark) as long as we do not get a freeze this weekend.

When I first graduated from college I worked at the Stroud Water Research Center with a Chinese scientist who was always telling me about this delicious mild asian green--something like a cross between cabbage and romaine lettuce. I was so happy when the Johnny Seed Catalog finally started offering the green he was talking about, known as Tokyo Bekana. Tokyo Bekana is basically the lose leaf version of Napa/Chinese cabbage. It has a wonderful sweet and mild taste and crisp texture. I made a delicious chicken salad last weekend with chiffonade cut tokyo bekana, a curry-lime dressing, finely chopped apple, and dried cranberries (from trader joes)--it was delicious.

Bok Choy is an asian green you might be more familiar with, but still in need of recipe ideas. I have included three recipes all from Barbara Kafka's fantastic recipe book Vegetable Love:

Radiant Bok Choy
This is one of my proudest recipes, with a minimum of ingredients and a maximum of flavor and beauty. The white part of the bok choy turns the brilliant color of Asian mendicants' robes and the green stays intensely emerald.

The vegetable does very well on its own with rice. As a vegetarian dish, it can have soaked dried shittake, stemmed and cut into strips, added during the final six minutes of cooking. It can a succulent sauce and side dish for chicken or fish--or shreds of either can be added for the final six minutes of cooking time.

1 tablespoon of canola oil
2 tablespoons of turmeric
2 pounds of bok choy (about 4 pieces), halved lengthwise
1 can of coconut milk, plus enough water to make 3 cups liquid
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice or 4 lime wedges
In an 8- or 9-inch saucepan, heat the oil over low heat. Stir in the turmeric and salt and cook for about 1 minute. Add the pieces of bok choy, laying them on their sides cramming them in so as to make them compact as possible.

Pour in the coconut-water mixture, cover the pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook for 6 minutes. The bok choy should sink into the sauce and cook evenly. If some of bok choy is not covered with liquid, turn the pieces. Re-cover and cook for 6 more minutes.

Stir in the lime juice, if using. Or serve hot, accompanied with lime wedges, if desired. This is also good tepid. Serves 4 as a side dish.


Ginger and Garlic Baby Bok Choy
This is a perfect side dish with fish, or serve on a mixed vegetable platter that has no other vegetables using vinegar. It is good hot or cold.

1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 pound baby bok choy (about 35; 5 cups)
2 quarter-size slices peeled fresh ginger, cut into matchstick pieces (about 2 tablespoons)
1 clove garlic, smashed, peeled and cut into thin strips
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

In a 10-inch frying pan, heat the oil over medium heat for 3 minutes, or until very hot. Add the bok choy, ginger and garlic. Cook, tossing regularly with two wooden spoons, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the leaves are completely wilted but the whites are still slightly crunchy. Keep the heat between medium and medium-high so that the pan is sizzling but the oil is not sputtering.

Add the vinager and salt. Cook for 1 minute more. Remove from the heat and serve. Makes 2 cups.

In this recipe, also from Vegetable Love you can replace the napa cabbage with the tokyo bekana. Also the soy-sesame dressing can be replaced with any good Asian dressing--something with ginger would be delicious.

Shredded Napa Salad
Make this in the winter when the selection of other greens is limited. It has a lightly Asian flavor and is very pretty. It's as good as a side dish as it is a first course. It goes very well with fish dishes.

1 ounce dried shittake mushrooms (about 5 medium mushrooms)
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/8 teaspoon hot red pepper sauce
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 pound napa cabbage, shredded (about 4 cups)
2 scallions, trimmed and sliced (about 1/3 cup)
1/3 cup Soy-Sesame Vinaigrette
1 ounce red or daikon radish, trimmed and cut into 1/8-inch slices (about 1/4 cup)

Combine the mushrooms, vinegar, hot pepper sauce, 1/2 cup of water and black pepper in a 2 1/2-quart souffle dish or casserole with a tightly fitted lid. Cover tight with microwave plastic wrap or the lid. Cook at 100% for 5 minutes. If using plastic wrap, prick to release the steam.

Remove from the oven and uncover. Allow to stand until cool enough to handle. Using scissors, remove the mushroom stems and discard. Cut the mushrooms into 1/2-inch strips.

In a large serving bowl, combine the mushrooms with the cabbage, scallions and the dressing. Toss to coat, and scatter the radish slices over. Serves 8.

Sunchoke-Jerusalem Artichoke Links

As I mentioned in the previous post, I want to provide some recipe links for the more unusual vegetables that are showing up in this week's share. Jerusalem Artichokes also known as a sunchokes, are a great flavor for this time of year--earthy, nutty, and sweet--delicious. These little tubers are not only delicious they are good for you, the only draw back is that they can cause gas. Read more by clicking the links below:

-A posting I put up last season about Sunchokes (go phillies!!!).

-Two great intros to Sunchokes from Culinate All Choked Up and Deborah Madison's musings on Sunchokes

-My favorite good food advocate and celebrity chef Jami Oliver's Sauteed Jerusalem Artchoke recipe

-A chicken and sunchoke recipe that looks amazing--to be honest I have never tried pairing chicken with sunchokes--sounds delicious

Sunchokes are also great eaten raw, enjoy.

This Week's Share--Beets, Bok Choy, and Sunchokes

This week's share includes many vegetables that you might not be so familiar with cooking or preparing. I am going to do my best to post a serious of entries on these various fall staples including the Tokyo Bekana Asian Green, Sunchokes also known as Jerusalem Artichokes, and Bok Choy (Pac choi). In the meantime click on the link below for some guidance in dealing with the baby beets in this week's share. These beets are from a more recent planting, and should have less of an earthy taste, since they were grown with a more steady supply of rain and cooler weather. The beet greens are as delicious as the tiny roots.

Links (all from Culinate, a great online resource for recipes and such)
-Beet Intro
-Beet and Beet Greens on Pasta
-Beet Greens and Yogurt