The snack bar

We’re in that wonderful time of year when the tail end of blueberry season overlaps with the beginning of blackberries. In the brambles at the edge of the orchard, fat blackberries seem to have ripened over night, and the clusters I’ve been protecting from the goats have turned from hard and green to deep purple that drips with juice when you brush them. In the blueberry patch, the last clumps of berries are tucked beneath the leaves, and picking them is like a treasure hunt.

The canes behind the girls’ swing set are completely off-limits to grown ups–we call them “the snack bar”–but every day I do a sweep of the rest of the property, picking whatever I can before the birds do. When the blackberries are in full swing, I’ll make a big batch of jam, but this morning I felt like making a quick treat for breakfast: black and blueberry preserves. The natural pectin in the fruit gives it a nice texture–firm enough to spread on biscuits and cornbread, but gloppy enough to spoon over ice cream.

Black and Blueberry Preserves

Food, Recipes blackberries, blueberries, preserves, Recipes

Doing the berry mash.

Master Preserver Allison Duffy led a great class at the farm this Saturday, and over the course of the morning, she patiently answered all of my questions about pectin. The short answer: using packaged pectin powder takes out the guesswork. This jam is delicious, and the (relatively) low amount of sugar in it allows the fruit to take center stage. Click here for more photos of our workshop and the jam-making process.

Allison Duffy’s Strawberry Jam

Recipes, Workshops jam, pectin, Recipes, strawberry jam

Bea digs into her morning granola

At our house, summer is granola season. In cooler months, we like our cereal hot, but when the weather turns warm, there’s nothing like a bowl of homemade granola with goat’s milk or yogurt and a little fresh fruit. Each year we fiddle around with the recipe, but this is our recent favorite (though Charlotte takes out the raisins).

Summertime Granola

Recipes granola, Recipes, summertime breakfast

Sealed jars of rhubarb jam rest on the counter

This year, we’re working hard to extend the productive season of our rhubarb. We love the bright, tart flavor, and when we can harvest those first stalks from the garden, we’re assured that spring really has arrived. By this time in the season, we’ve had countless pies, crisps, and cobblers, but we still want more! In the garden, I’ve cut out the seed heads, trimmed off the yellowed leaves, and prepared a plot so that we can divide our largest plant in the fall. In the kitchen, I’ve made a batch of jam, so we can keep savoring our stalks through the winter.

Though I’ll sometimes add a little orange zest and cardamom to rhubarb pie filling, around here, we generally prefer our rhubarb unadorned. And so, when I was searching for a good jam recipe, it was disappointing to find so few that really let the rhubarb shine. Finally, I just came up with my own. It’s tart enough to give your mouth a little pucker, but sweet enough that our girls have been eating it with a spoon!

Plain Old Rhubarb Jam

Recipes jam, Recipes, rhubarb

Radishes: under appreciated, under used?

It’s radish season and throughout the garden, fat little red and violet globes are popping out of the soil. They’re everywhere–between potato mounds, on the garden path, interspersed with the trellised peas–because last year a few plants eluded our harvest, produced their fragrant flowers, and dropped seeds. We’ve been gathering the early crop as we weed, but now that our French Breakfasts and Easter Eggs are ready, we have an abundance. We’re eating them at every meal: fresh and crunchy in salads, braised until tender with onions and thyme, thinly sliced on toast with sweet butter, coarse salt, and a pinch of freshly grated lemon zest. This afternoon, the girls and I are planning to make a batch of spicy radish pickles.

While trimming a bunch early in the season, we wondered why we so rarely eat the edible greens. A few weeks ago, we used them in a sorrel soup, and since then, we’ve been eating them like any garden green: stir fried, sautéed with olive oil and garlic and tossed with pasta and cream, picked young and added to salad greens. Last night, we made a delicious radish leaf pesto, with pistachios and Parmigiano-Reggiano, amending the recipe with extra garlic and the zest of half a lemon to give it an extra zing. Don’t be put off by the spines on mature leaves–they’re wonderful greens, packed with nutrients and a nice, spinach-y flavor. If you bring some radishes in from the garden, or find them at the farmers’ market with a nice head of greens, give the following simple sauté a try!

Radish Greens with Garlic

Bea picks her radish.

Garden, Recipes radish, radish greens, Recipes

Ten Apple Farm Schav garnished with baby radish and chive flower

We didn’t have quite enough sorrel to make a classic schav borscht, so I improvised with what we had at hand: radish greens! Though they’re a little spiny when raw, the leaves are tender and flavorful when cooked. The soup was surprisingly good, and was a great use for greens that would otherwise have gone to the goats!

Ten Apple Farm Schav

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I came up with this blintz recipe a couple of years ago for the Shavuot issue of (the now defunct) Jewish Living magazine. Since then, it’s become a farm favorite. The tang of lemon rind and chévre is mellowed a little by the cream cheese in the filling, and the addition of lemon juice to the wrapper brightens up all the flavors. Later in the season, we replace the rhubarb with strawberry, blueberry, or even just a drizzle of honey.

Blintzes with Chévre

Rhubarb Sauce

Ten Apple Farm goat cheese blintzes with sour cream and rhubarb sauce

Food, Judaism, Recipes blintz, dairy, Jewish, kosher, radish greens, Recipes, rhubarb, rhubarb sauce, schav borscht, shavuot, sorrel

A delicious blend of local and not-so: Fiddlehead and avocado salad

The days are warmer, the rhubarb is taller, and it’s with much regret that we say goodbye to fiddlehead season. We ate the last of our cache in this salad, and when we went back to our source, the sign had been taken down and the cooler was gone. We’re on to asparagus around here, and pea shoots and mint and a whole lot of chives. If you can still find them, fiddleheads are awfully tasty in the following salad–their texture was especially nice with the creaminess of the avocado and the pop of sesame seeds.

Fiddlehead Avocado Salad

Food, Recipes fiddleheads, Food, Recipes

Ten Apple Farm's Fiddleheads Alfredo with homemade whole wheat pasta

We usually don’t see fiddleheads until the middle of May, but this weekend we were surprised to find a sign by the side of the road, in black marker on bright orange poster board, pointing the way to a cooler full of foraged ferns. We find that this is the best way to get fresh fiddleheads: putting our cash in an honor-system jar and taking a Ziploc full, usually with stream water pooled at the bottom of the bag. Fiddleheads are the tight, curled heads of a fern that grows on the banks of rivers and streams, picked when they’re tender and haven’t begun to unfurl, and in Maine they’re a spring delicacy. We love them–the kids like to unroll them in their mouths, and Karl and I love their earthy flavor and asparagus-like texture. They’re incredibly versatile and you can use them in everything from pasta to curry.

We bought three pounds, so we’ll be doing a lot with fiddleheads this week. We’ll post each of our recipes, and we’d love to hear what you do with them!

Fiddleheads Alfredo

Recipes fiddleheads, pasta, Recipes

Four courses of chévre

We had a small but enthusiastic class at the farm on Saturday for our Cooking with Chévre workshop. After making a batch of chévre (drained in heart-shaped molds, naturally), we used the fresh cheese in three dishes: Polenta Cakes with Chévre and Roasted Peppers; Homemade Pasta With Chévre, Walnuts, Black Grapes and Rosemary; and Lemon Chévre Tartlets. I’ve included the recipes below–accompanied by a green salad, they make quite a feast. And since they’re all garlic-free, after dinner smooching will be even more fun!

Polenta Cakes with Chévre and Roasted Peppers
Adapted from At Home With Magnolia, by Allysa Torey

Makes 4-6 servings (about 10 cakes)

Polenta:
2 cups water
1 cup milk
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fine cornmeal
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
6-8 tablespoons olive oil

Topping:
6 ounces fresh chévre
roasted red peppers, cut into thin strips

To make the polenta: In a medium-sized saucepan, combine milk and water. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in the corn and salt. Gradually whisk in the cornmeal. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring often, until the mixture is very thick, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

Spread the soft polenta evenly into a buttered baking sheet—it should be about 1/2 an inch thick, and will not cover the entire sheet. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

When completely chilled, cut the polenta into 2 inch circles (or hearts), using a biscuit or cookie cutter. Place the polenta cakes on a second baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and, working in batches, cook polenta cakes until golden, about 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Drain briefly on paper towels (be careful–they’ll stick if you leave them too long), move to a platter, and tent with foil to keep warm. Top each cake with a dollop of chévre and a strip of red pepper and serve immediately.

Cheese, Recipes, Workshops Cheese, chevre, goat cheese, Recipes, Valentine's Day, workshop