4th of July

Happy belated 4th of July everyone! I went home for the weekend and made some lovely terribly easy veggie burgers for a BBQ. It is a fun recipe to improvise based on what you have. See below.

Today was my FIRST class on the farm! We had 50 kids between 5 and 12 come to spend the day on the farm, learn about gardening, visit with the chickens, harvest some vegetables, and cook some delicious food fresh from the farm! It was exhilarating to see the children so excited to be cooking. I had a great time and am still in disbelief that I get paid to do this. We made a whole wheat pasta salad with balsamic dressing that had 6 items from the children's garden (various kinds of squash, kale, basil, parsley, scallions, and tomatoes) , a oil and vinegar coleslaw with caraflex and napa cabbage, and strawberry lemonade.

It was great to see so many kids trying new vegetables and go up for seconds. When Hilary asked why they thought the food was so good, a kid yelled out "Because we made it!" A 12 year old boy tried the coleslaw and said, "That is SO good!"

How rewarding!

Black Bean Vegetable Burger

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained, rinsed, and dried very well
  
• 1 carrot, shredded
  
• 1/2 onion, small dice or minced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, minced
  
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions

1. If grilling, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil. If baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and lightly oil a baking sheet.
2. In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty.
3. Add minced onion, cilantro, garlic, shredded carrot and any other vegetable you'd like. Stir into mashed beans.
   
4. In a small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder and cumin.
5. Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Add more if needed. Divide mixture into four patties.
6. Refrigerate patties for 15 minutes before cooking.
   
7. If grilling, place patties on foil, and grill about 8 minutes on each side. If baking, place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes on each side.

Strawberries everywhere!

This weekend at the Menands farmers market, we sold produce from the greater farm so it was a lot more that was harvested than we were used to. It was a very rainy day so the market wasn't that busy. We had a lot of leftovers! Since we had leftover strawberries that we had harvested ourselves, we cut quite a few up for children's programs. I can't wait to make strawberry lemonade or strawberry rhubarb pie! So exciting! We still had more so I took some home and made strawberry cake (recipe below). We also had tons of basil left so I made some basil and oregano butter (recipe below). YUM!

Strawberry Cake

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour *I substituted flour for Bob Red Mill's gluten-free flour mix
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup coconut sugar or turbinado/rapidura sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 10-inch pie pan or 9-inch deep-dish pie pan.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.
3. Pour into prepared pie plate. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer, you may need to overlap some strawberries.
4. Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. Let cool in pan on a rack. Cut into wedges.
   

Basil Butter

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 pound salted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 2 cloves garlic or 2 tablespoons chopped garlic scapes

Directions

1. In a food processor, chop basil. Add butter, pepper and garlic; blend until smooth. Drop by half-tablespoons onto a baking sheet or in a madeline baking pan; freeze. Remove from baking sheet and store in freezer bags.
   

ENJOY!

Worlds Collide

Tuesday we trekked into the city to go to the main office to learn more about the organization as a whole and see a cooking class. It was certainly fascinating to hear about the organization and it was great to see everyone's passion and enthusiasm for what they do. It really puts in perspective how much coworkers attitude for their job makes such an impact on everyone else. It is a small team of about 5 women but everyone works so hard and so much gets done! It was nice to see classes done in the city although there won't be much overlap with classes up here since the environment and equipment are just so so different. It certainly gave me confidence to teach classes here and hopefully back in the city when this is finished.

It was weird being in the city with people from my "new life." It really did feel like my lives were colliding and I almost felt uncomfortable. If this is how I feel after a week I'm curious to see what it is like at the end of this program. I already feel I'm going to miss the hard labor.

Yesterday, we had all of the city staff come up to the farm to help plant. We got a lot done and I got to cook lunch for everyone which was a great foray into cooking in the kitchen in our office (garage). I made a caramelized onion frittata with farm fresh eggs, a salad with tango greens (head lettuce), yellow peppers, pickled red onions, and sunflower seeds, and a rhubarb spritzer (recipe below). We also had some stinky cheese and whole grain bread. It was lovely and it was nice to show my culinary skills.

The past few days have definitely given me a perspective on how to do classes here. They are really giving me a lot of leeway as far as the classes go with very little stipulation. My creativity is certainly flowing and I can' t wait to start testing recipes down in the pavilion!

Rhubarb Spritzer

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
  
• 1 pound rhubarb, roughly chopped (approximately 8 stalks)
• 2 liter seltzer

Preparation

1.

In a medium saucepan, bring 1/2 cup water, sugar, rhubarb to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the rhubarb is tender, about 5 minutes. Push through a sieve. Let cool.

2.

Mix syrup with seltzer. Enjoy!

I Am Free

Just finished my first week of country life and it is more than I could have imagined. I'm so happy in this new role that I can't believe I'm being given the opportunity to do what I love, work outside, and have rewarding fulfilling days with great coworkers. It is a world away from my old job in a tiny cubicle surrounded by unhappiness that was slowly suffocating me. Every day walking from the office down to the children's garden I take a deep breath and think : "I am free."

My days have been starting early in the morning and go late into the evening but I don't even care. I'm actually enjoying what I do and that is more than I can ask for. We've been doing quite a bit of planting during my first week. It involves prepping the beds as the soil here is very clay like and hard to work with. I've planted beet greens, swiss chard, tomatoes, sunflowers, carrots, radishes, and various squashes. We've also been to the Chatham Farmers Market a cute market in the local town. We harvested kale, mustard greens, edible flowers, and head lettuce to sell. We also had a childrens activity where they could plant a seed in a paper pot they made. It was the first experience with children we've had so far since the programs won't start until the end of this month.

Yesterday we went to a cookout as our little team that was being hosted by a couple who have a beautiful garden and sell their produce at the Kinderhook market. They hosted other young farmers in the area and I had such a great time. It was just so enjoyable to be with other like minded people in the arena of environmental policy and health. The couple was older and their home and lifestyle just seemed so calm. I can only hope that I reach that state of happiness and calamity at their age.

Tomorrow we go to the city to see a class conducted in the city and get to talk to some of the staff more about our own roles. I think seeing a class will be so helpful for me to understand how they run a class and how my classes should go. I can't wait!

More to come....