Chellie Pingree Posing with my Truck

As a member of the Committe of Agriculture, Rep. Pingree wanted to hear thoughts we had as local farmers.  One of the big concerns was about funding for projects for small scale agriculture versus the subsidies for large scale commodities.  This brought forward the fact that the Farm Bill is up for renewal in 2012 and could be brought before the committee at any point.  Rep. Pingree mentioned that there were now several members on the committee from New England and that she hoped a coalition could be formed that might help smaller local farms.  I say that a coalition should be formed of those who represent small and “local” farmers and their customers (i.e. you!)  I want to help Rep. Pingree find other representatives that have a strong small scale and local farmer base as their constituency.  So, I need your help!

As I write this note, the Senate Appropriations Committee might be further cutting funding to the ATTRA and SARE programs which are both extremely valuable for small scale and local farmers.  Before it is too late, those of us who farm and those who enjoy local food from small scale farms need to start coming together and have our voices heard!  My thought is to identify super-star farmers from all 50 states that Rep. Pingree can use to help convince her fellow representatives that local agriculture is important!  Afterall, local farmers are everywhere.

If you know of a farmer that is well known (perhaps in one of the movies such as Food Inc, Fresh, Greenhorns or any other documentaries about local food and farmers), please note them in the comments below.  I would like to get all 50 states represented.  Do you think you can help?

Let’s see if we can find at least one super-star farmer for each state.  Post a comment below with the name of the farmer/farm, where they are and if you have time what congressional district they’re in.  I’ll start…

Delicata
This variety is becoming more and more popular. It is 5-10 inches long with green stripes that run the length of it. One of the best ways to eat it is to just cut it in half, remove seeds and bake it either plain or with some cinnamon. The skin can be eaten. In addition to just baking, I have seen it in soups and stuffed!

Sweet Dumpling
Much like the delicata squash, sweet dumpling can be eaten whole. Because of their shape, they are well suited for stuffing.

Spaghetti

The most interesting part of spaghetti squash is it’s spaghetting like textured flesh. It should be a deep yellow or orange color when ripe, otherwise the taste may be a bit bland. I’ve seen people cut them in half, bake them, add butter and maybe a little maple syrup and then just use a fork to twirl the flesh out like spaghetti.

Sunshine

Sunshine is in the buttercup category. It has a sweet, meaty and dry flesh. The orange flesh color stays bright when baked or cooked. This squash makes a great pie and is excellent in soups.

Acorn

I think the most common way I have seen acorn squash cooked it to cut it in half and bake it, but I have also heard that it is tasty in a “pumpkin” pie.  The flesh is yellow and is slightly fibrous.  The skin is tough, so don’t eat that.  It should store for a couple of months.

Acorn

Carnival

Although carnival looks similar to sweet dumpling, it is more like an acorn but used like a butternut.  The skin is firm like acorn.  Also, notice the coloring is a little different from sweet dumpling and that the bottom comes to a point, while sweet dumpling is either flat or starts to curve back inwards.  It is often noted that the flesh tastes like sweet potato and butternut squash.

2 pounds of turnips
3 T of butter
1/2 C broth (beef or vegetable)
salt & pepper

Peel turnips.  Unless you are using small turnips, you will want to cut the turnips in to smaller pieces.  The original recipe calls for forming the larger turnips in to ovals, but I didn’t bother doing that.  Instead, I just cut them in to slices about 3/4 inch thick and in pieces about 1 1/2 – 2 inches across.

Melt butter in to a saute pan that is large enough to hold the turnips in one layer.  Over medium high heat, turn the turnips in the butter to coat them.  Lightly brown sides, 5-8 minutes.  Turn heat to low, add broth and then cover and let simmer, stirring occasionally.  They will brown and glaze as they cook.  The turnips will absorb the flavor of the stock.  When they are cooked through (about 5-8 minutes) remove the cover, turn the heat to medium and reduce the broth quickly to glaze.  Season with salt and pepper.

Sweet Peas Podcast tells a great story of the family’s journey in eating well in a way that is healthy for not just the consumer, but the environment and the community.  Also, Lisa Marie is developing a line of wonderful chocolate…so keep your eyes out for what she has coming out soon.  She does have a good deal on the chocolate “bark” until the product launch in September!

Serves 4.

Dressing: mix the following ingredients in a small bowl and set aside for later.
juice from 1 lime
1 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp aged balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
1/2 tsp black sesame seeds

Slaw
7 leaves of green cabbage- finely shredded
1/2 red cabbage- finely shredded
1 mango – cut into chunks or thin strips
1 jalapeno- deseeded and finely sliced
about 20 pistachios or peanuts
6-10 mint leaves- roughly chopped
appox. 20 cilantro leaves- roughly chopped

Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Add dressing and toss together.

A Colorful Dish to Add to a Meal

Romanesco

This beautiful vegetable is a variation on cauliflower. It has an almost alien appearance with the fractal patterns in the florets. It is quite tasty roasted, steamed or eaten raw.

I posted a great recipe roasting romanesco, fennel and leeks: Roasted Romanesco with fennel and leeks.

Ingredients:
1 head of romanesco, cut into 1 inch florets
1 bunch of baby leeks or you can use 2 onions, cut in to1 inch sections
2 fennel bulbs, cut lengthwise and cut up in and then cut up in to sections about the same size as the romanesco florets
olive oil
5 garlic cloves

Preparation:
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Toss romanesco in 2 T of olive oil in a bowl. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add oily romanesco and sauté until it starts to brown. Transfer to a glass, rimmed baking sheet.

Heat 2 more T of olive oil in the skillet. Now brown the leeks or onions for a couple of minutes on each side. Transfer leeks to baking dish with romanesco. Finally, sauté fennel in 2 T of oil until it browns slightly and transfer to baking dish.

Roast vegetables in the oven until they are caramelized. This takes about 25 minutes.

There are two types of peas we have for PYO: shell and snap. The pop/shell on the shell peas are very tough, so you need to pop them open and strip out the peas. Snap peas can be eaten shell and all, but I do recommend stripping the strings to make them a bit more tender. When peas are not quite ripe, they will look thin and you may see small indentations where the peas are growing. Below you can see the pea pod is somewhat thin:

It's thin and not plump

When a shell pea is ripe, you will see the peas bulging out the sides and the pod as a whole will look much more plump:

This shell pea is plump and the peas are bulging out!

A snap pea looks very plump, but if the peas are starting to bulge out the sides, then it is overripe! Also, notice the dark green stripe along the length of the pod:

A snap pea ready to be picked! Notice how it is consistently plump and no peas bulging.

]]> http://derifarm.com/deriair/2010/07/peas-and-picking-them/feed/ 0 http://derifarm.com/deriair/2010/06/week-2-harvest-62210/ http://derifarm.com/deriair/2010/06/week-2-harvest-62210/#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:36:58 +0000 Deri Farm http://derifarm.com/deriair/?p=150 This week has many of the same items as week one: chard, garlic scapes, hakurei turnips and radishes.  Head lettuce and beets are new this week. Don’t forget that in addition to the beet root, the greens are tasty too!