Farm life 2016

It has been a long time since I posted in my blog! Sometimes life, work and other priorities just get in the way of finding time to sit down and write!

This year has been tough for growing food or just about any work we are accomplishing outside on the farm; extreme cold in the spring (late frost in May), and a fair amount of rain this summer, along with some very hot and humid days! We also had a little excitement on the farm; a lightning strike hit a downed tree on the edge of one of the fields! We ended up calling the local fire department as we had no way of getting water up to the fire to extinguish it!  Yet, despite natures best effort we are seeing some results.  When I planted the garden, after the late frost, I thought we were back on track, but the seeds I purchased this year turned out to be terrible! Literally, nothing came up from all of the seeds I purchased! After two weeks of not seeing any production I went back to the company where I purchased our seeds and they replaced everything! I have purchased seeds from this company for the last four years and have never had this problem? They knew I was not some stranger and happily took care to replace the seeds.  

Grapevines after late frost

Lightning strike on a down tree near one of our fields

To help the garden this year, after the seed fiasco, I started making manure tea with our cured horse manure; it really has helped speed up the growth of the plants.  I take dried horse manure and place it in an old sock and let it steep, covered, in a bucket for a week. The result is water filled with nitrogen to feed the plants. I carefully pour the liquid gold down near the plants; being careful to not get it on the leaves (I didn’t want the leaves to burn in the hot sun from the nitrogen). 

Beets and just to the left underneath the blue bucket is my horse manure tea

Last fall I planted garlic for the first time in our garden and yesterday I harvested the garlic; we now have 34 beautiful garlic bulbs curing! The garlic really took in our sandy soil with the addition of other nutrients added to the bed. We now have beets, carrots, swiss chard, and tomatoes flourishing in the garden. The good news on those bad seeds and the late replant is that all with the exception of the swiss chard can be harvested after the first frost. Thus, the time lost in getting started won’t be too impacted; we just may not have the large carrots and beets we normally dig up. Now that I have dug up the garlic bed I will be planting some lettuce and spinach in the bed to continue using it for the growing season.

34 bulbs of garlic harvested!

Garlic bulbs hanging for cure; we will cure them for about 3 weeks

Swiss Chard

Tomatoes (yes, I know they need to be pruned and tied up!)

Carrots

The grapevines this year took a really hard hit in the late frost; every single vine was hit with the frost! For the remainder of the season we have been working to not create too much distress for the vines and held back on some of the pruning.  It seems to be working but now we are faced with the scourge of gardeners; the Japanese beetle! Those mother#*$&@$’s are working on decimating the leaves on the vines! A while back I heard that if there are soybean fields nearby the beetle population explodes; our neighbor to the north of us planted soybeans this year and guess what? So….now I am on the hunt to come up with a plan to go after the beetles! There are a number of ideas out there but the problem with most of those ideas is the rain; with lots of rain, you have to apply whatever solution you did before the rain. We used to go up and pluck the suckers off into a container full of dawn dish detergent but with this population that will be tough. I have heard of spraying with soap and water but again with rain you will be at it every day! I have heard of traps but the problem with the traps is they actually attract more beetles to the area! So…stay tuned I really am not sure how other than spraying we are going to beat these bastards!

We took on a couple of projects this year with the help of our son William; one of which he hopes to produce income for the farm. We are harvesting down trees in our woods for firewood, or campfire wood or specialty wood for those who might like to craft their own creation. There is enough wood that we will not have to cut any live trees and for the project and if we start any live tree cutting we will bring in a forestry expert. The woods near the farm are important to the farm and to just go in and randomly cut would be foolish beyond belief!   The beauty of this project is it is helping us clean up the woods. One just has to look around and you can easily find trees that have fallen on to other trees (they are tricky to cut down) and removing them for future wood sales.  William had this grand idea that we could remove a number of trees, split the wood and sell it but has quickly learned that one tree is a lot of work! Despite the heavy work load it is coming along slowly and we are getting the downed trees out while managing small areas of the woods. One of the species of trees that has plagued the woods and is slowly making its way out into one of our fields is the black locust; this tree is a fast growing tree and the wood is incredibly hard! It takes a toll on the chainsaw! They grow incredibly tall in a very short amount of time and as fast as they grow they get blown down in heavy winds; unfortunately they fall onto another tree pushing that tree down as well! It is our hope to get to the trees that are doing this damage and help the other trees to prosper. In doing so, we uncovered a beautiful maple that we will be able to tap for syrup next spring!  

The second big project is one that William took on his own; he is removing the brush trees and fencing that connect two of the fields. Years ago someone put up a barb wire fence between the two fields and separated them but now William has gone down the row and removed the fencing, and pulled the scrub trees out.  This will be good for the two fields and the current tenants of both fields will be able to connect them and increase their crops. All of this work has occurred on some very hot and humid days!

Our foraging for food this year has gone well; Sara found a nice patch of morels in our woods. We have never had any luck finding morels in the woods but this year the conditions ended up being perfect! She spotted the tasty fungus around a dead elm and we noticed that the bark was falling off of the elm; it seems that might just be the key? Sara also did an incredible job bringing home asparagus this year; we must have consumed over 20 pounds of fresh asparagus this year! Plus the asparagus bed in the garden this year produced a nice bumper crop as well!

Tasty morels from our woods this year!

I am always amazed at how quickly life on the farm can take a sharp turn into an abyss of chaos or unforeseen difficulties; fortunately for us, our work in growing food, is primarily for our consumption. Thus when difficulties arise it is about learning and how to approach the problem that can best solve the problem. The respect I have for those who are selling their vegetables or working their farm is something we all should have! Consider the following facts:

·         Small farms made up the majority of the 800 farms that disappeared from the Wisconsin landscape in 2014, according to new national agricultural data. http://host.madison.com/wsj/business/number-of-small-farms-in-wisconsin-continues-to-drop/article_2760181d-ae69-517f-b5e2-d1871dd823fe.html

·         Current laws and other legislation are in fact hurting small farmers, whether it is the water use, or the ability to compete with large industrial types of farms.

·         Not a single word of the small farm plight has been discussed by any politician in this election cycle.

Our future in having locally sourced food from small farms is something we all should be concerned about. Supporting a local economy is by far better than buying into a global idea that only benefits large industrial farms.  When you purchase produce at the farmers market you are feeding more than just your family, you are feeding the family who sold you the food.  My lessons this year have taught me the importance of perseverance and realizing what this could have been like had it represented the whole farm on a larger scale! Imagine how Wollersheims felt knowing that the vines were not going to produce grapes this year due to the frost or an entire field destroyed by fire or pests! We are very lucky in the sense that our issues were not going to cause us financial ruin but instead were only minor setbacks for our own food source. 

The Annual Deer Hunt on the farm

Preparing to butcher our buck

I spent time thinking about this blog and what I wanted to write.  When I first started my blog my interest dealt about writing about life on the farm and as a chef growing food.  The significance of this comes from my belief of having access to good quality food and showing to the outside world how to go about growing food for your family.  Life on a farm is about life and death, it is a constant, and we may witness the birth of an animal or the end of life.  We are surrounded by wildlife that may prey on other wildlife, coyotes, hawks and other creatures will roam the fields as they hunt for food.  Like the animals we too have come to understand hunting for our food. Managing the farm includes keeping the balance of life under control and only hunting what you will consume.  We are not hunters of antlers and trophies, we are hunters of food.  I am not judging those that hunt for trophy nor am I suggesting we are better because of our hunting reasons.  We are excited if our bounty for the year includes a large buck but we are excited if our hunt includes a large doe. Our freezer is often stocked with vegetables from the growing season and venison from the hunting season; it is preferable to raise, hunt or forage our own food.  The simplicity of doing this is not political, it is not based on social media memes or other glorified reasons, it is based on using what is in front of you and providing for yourself with what you have available. 

Delaying my writing of this blog came from concerns of others, who currently are not of mind to read about hunting and anything to do with guns.  I am empathetic to the feelings of others whose lives impacted by a gun or gun violence.  Sadly, we live in a time where many will resort to a gun to undo the life of another. This is not new but due to social media and the internet we are assaulted with the behavior almost daily.  The exposure of the violence is not something we should ignore or believe it is going to just go away.  As a hunter this bothers me for many reasons, the first I do not want to lose my right to hunt game for food and the second there are people in this world who have no respect for human life. 

One of the views of our hunt this year

Hunting in general has been a way of life for some and yet a denied right for others; early modern Europe hunting was exclusive to the noble and in fact controlled by the noble. Pheasants did not have the land or rights to hunt in many forests and those rights were held by only the noble.  Hunting for sport was more important than allowing the citizens to hunt for game.  Today we have two kinds of hunters, those that hunt for sport and those who hunt for the meat. I would fall in the latter category.  

The experience of hunting can be demanding, cold, and harrowing and yet exhilarating all at the same time.  Opening day is the day when you find out if you properly prepared yourself for the elements, and prepared your rifle to accurately shoot.  Depending on the weather you may find yourself bundled in multiple layers and as you head into the field you can feel every one of those layers weigh against your body.  I started to carrying a back pack with me when I go out; I can carry extra water, gloves and other extra garments that will keep me warm and more importantly in the field longer.  I also carry extra ammunition, my field knife, binoculars and rifle stabilizer in the pack. We usually head out just before sunrise to (I say “we” if someone else from our family or friend will be joining us on the hunt) find our spot to sit. Throughout the year you can observe the fields and get a pretty good idea of where you should be sitting opening day or throughout the hunt.  If more than one person is going out we have a plan of where each of us can shoot or if we are going to be moving around to create movement from the deer.  Sara will sleep in and head down later in the morning; when she comes down her weapon of choice, a cup of tea! Sara will walk the woods, to try and drive any deer sitting tight in the woods, towards me.  She has done this for quite a few years and in fact she will also purchase a tag for hunting, but I am the one who will fill the tag, if I can.  I always enjoy Sara’s company when she walks the woods and meets up with me after her foray, and she enjoys the exercise making her way through the woods, plus she can work on her trails for the horses.

Once I arrive to the area where I am going to sit I will quickly look around before settling in for the long haul.  The opportunity to shoot will often happen right away on opening day, the deer are not running until those first shots ring out.  If nothing is moving I unload my pack with any items I may want to have nearby, binoculars etc. This year we had snow on opening day; this is usually a good thing as we can track the deer in the snow a lot easier, although, I can track deer fairly well in snow or no snow.  It’s kind of humorous when you start to think about life on the farm as it is all about feces; this can be manure for growing crops, inspecting to see what animals are making their way around the house and hunting, as we look for fresh feces giving us signs of deer or other animals we may be hunting.  I swear sometimes it’s all about the shit! I digress though and want to point out there are other signs we will look for; deer beds for example are areas where the deer pressed down the grass as they were laying down. These beds can be very telling, they will point to the trail they ran off to or upon further inspection let us know how long ago they may have been in the area.  In the snow you can look at a track and identify if it is fairly new just by cut of the snow or how frozen the ground is where the track is left. 

Sitting in the cedar scrubs waiting for the deer to pop out!

This year Sara had pushed out three deer and I took my shot only to miss! I was pretty upset because I had taken the time to site in my rifle this year, and even went out and purchased a new scope. Unfortunately it was off, and as I learned the second day it was really off! I stayed out all day on opening day and after taking the shot I did not see much to shoot at and in fact the closest deer I did see was in another field across from our farm. The second day sitting and I had a nice doe pop out in front of me, I took the shot and I missed.  Completely flabbergasted and angry; I don’t usually miss and in fact take a lot of pride in only having to take one shot to put an animal down.  I literally left all my gear in the field took my gun back to the house and went upstairs to retrieve another rifle. Sara asked what was wrong and all could respond was to explain I missed again and have no idea why the site was off so badly! Perhaps, it was fortuitous in the end, because when I returned to my spot and settled in, another large buck came charging at me from across the field. This guy had no idea I was settled in behind some scrub cedars, and when he realized my presence he stopped jumped one of our fences but when he landed I shot and put him down with one shot! It was a surreal experience for a couple of reasons, the first watching this buck racing down the field towards me, at an incredible speed, in itself an awesome sight and the second watching him fly over the fence, well above my head, I knew this time I am not going to miss! It is important for me to put the animal down quickly, not just because it is humane, but also to keep the animal from running off, and having to track an animal that has been shot, and with every move it makes in that condition, the meat will change.  The single shot worked and the by the time I walked up to the buck life disappeared from the animal.

We are without a doubt very lucky to live on a farm where we can hunt and have the equipment needed to haul back our carcass after field dressing the animal. Field dressing is extremely important and if handled wrong the meat can be ruined! It is important to carefully remove the organs without piercing them and to make sure the animal has bled out properly. If at any point you do not do a good job you are at risk of tainting the meat and ending up with a very poor quality.  Once I have successfully field dressed the animal I will walk back and get our tractor and haul the animal back to hang for skinning and butchering. 

After field dressing the buck

The next stage is just as important when it comes to butchering the deer. I understand the importance of hanging the meat for a period of time before processing, but the hanging time can also have other problems, first being the weather! If it is not cold enough outside to hang the deer for any extended period of time, it is better to skin and butcher the meat quickly. The key is the cooling of the meat; I will butcher the animal into the primals and quickly and get them into the freezer or an area where I know it will be cold enough to store the meat for further processing.  The other reason we struggle with hanging our venison is we have numerous coyotes in the area and when they smell that meat they will be out! I have always butchered our deer the same day or within two days of the kill and honestly the meat is excellent.  The work that goes into the butchering is not easy, especially if you are working to remove all of the meat without damaging the meat.  I will debone all of the primals, it really is not a good idea to utilize the bones from venison and due to CWD it really is not safe.  The other important part of the butchering is to remove the fat, venison fat is not tasty and in fact it is what will make the venison taste off.  The primals are broken down into the neck, shoulder and its fore shank, the loin or otherwise known as the back straps, the round and the hind shanks. Inside the carcass are the tenderloins.  You can get some meat from the flank and brisket, but it will depend on the size of the animal as to how much you may get.  Once I quickly removed the primals I will cut them into the fabricated cuts, steaks roast etc.  Any stew meat I will decide to either keep as stew meat or process it into sausage or ground venison.  Finally I seal everything, label it and place it in the freezer.  It can be labor intensive but having that meat in the freezer will ensure we have meat for most of the year and we will not have to purchase any meat for the house.

The point of this blog, sharing my experience with those who want to hunt or hunt already and are like minded about hunting.  Life on the farm is just that life, it comes from the ground and all around you and how you manage that life on the farm is about preserving the balance of life. Consider if we did not hunt, the deer population would grow exponentially and cause crop damage and other wild life would be impacted.  The act of hunting for food is just that the hunting for food and it is no different than raising chickens, or other livestock that will eventually be slaughtered for food. The difference being you will not always get a deer and you are not purchasing any feed for the animal, unless they are eating the crops. 

Skijoring on the farm 2016

A few years back Sara and I discovered the sport of skijoring; having a horse tow a skier, usually in a race, or a course with jumps or other obstacles. In our case we choose to traverse around the farm, Sara rode one of our horses and pulled me on my skies. It truly is an amazing experience to only hear the sound of the hooves of the horse as your skies glide through the snow.  This particular horse is 26 years old, Rhythm, and having him work like this and do so well was also nothing short of spectacular. We are working our quarter horse to take over the work and hopefully by the end of this winter we will have him pulling us on our skies.

We have been waiting for snowfall at the farm; it really has been a mild winter and we finally received enough snow on the farm to skijor! This year I attached my GoPro to my riding helmet to share the experience. I apologize as the video is a bit jittery, due to it being attached to the helmet! Watch the link below and let us know what you think of our skijoring adventure!

Mushrooms and foraging

"There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from a furnace. To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue." Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac

Part of this year has been spent getting to know the hidden treasures found on the farm, mushrooms.  We experienced the thrill of foraging mushrooms and learning not only the delectable edible ones but how to forage these unique gifts from nature.  In years past we always discussed how we should learn to forage mushrooms as we could see them all over the property! Despite the abundance of mushrooms we, or more appropriately me, were apprehensive of picking and eating mushrooms we did not know.  To aid us in gaining knowledge of the mycological edibles, we first enlisted a good chef friend of ours, who foraged mushrooms on a regular basis for his restaurant in Madison, Osteria Papavero.  Chef Francesco Mangano became our guide into the woods and assisting in learning the mushrooms varieties found on the farm. He was careful to point out the ones he knew about and quick to point out the ones he did not know.  Along with Francesco, we purchased two books the “The National Audubon Society Field Guide to Mushrooms” and “Mushroom with Confidence” by Alexander Schwab. The first book proved to be the most useful as it not only offered visuals for comparison with the mushrooms it also contained important information about the mushrooms. Francesco also suggested we join the Upper Midwest USA Mushroom IdentificationGroup on Facebook.  This proved to be invaluable!  We would take pictures of the mushrooms in the environment where we located the mushrooms, and take pictures of the mushrooms on the top and underneath; post the pictures on their Facebook page and within a short period of time we would get an identification response!  

Chick of the Woods 

Aborted Entoloma

The satisfying results of foraging are not just about finding the mushrooms and having the opportunity to cook these delectable treats.  Walking the land and looking around you and exploring the many different contours of the land and catching the glimpse of the wildlife found on the farm can be exhilarating in itself.  When you are foraging you have to look up, down and underneath and around trees, bushes and logs, sometimes you may even brush away leaves to find the growing population of mushrooms.  In one incident, we walked into the woods around dusk and as we made our approach into the woods you could hear turkeys roosting in the trees suddenly deciding they did not like being near us and take flight to the next tree.  We are not talking about 1 or 2 turkeys, no more like 10 or more! Another time we were walking and Sara came across a red coral looking mushroom, it was located in amongst a pile of leaves; it truly was a thing of beauty! I took a picture of the mushroom in its environment and made sure to get all angles of the growth including where we located the mushroom. I posted it on the Facebook page and within a short time we learned it was a Chick of the Woods or Laetiporus sulphureus.  Later I cooked this wonderful mushroom with roast beets, roast pears, roast parsnips and onion cream.  Sara immediately discovered why its name, Chick of the Woods, was indeed because it had the texture of chicken! The flavor was like no other mushroom I have eaten, truly earthy but in such a nice way. 

On another occasion, I had gone down to our summer campsite to take care of our tent and as I walked over to our tent I was looking down and all around me were mushrooms! They had popped up over the last few days and I immediately recognized them as Aborted Entoloma! The work on the tent was put off as I started gathering as many as I could and get them into a bag for dinner the next night! To be sure I posted the pictures of where I found them on the Facebook page and reviewed the field guide.  I was correct in my findings they indeed were the aborted entolomas! For these, I washed them off and sliced them to be sautéed with potato gnocchi.  The flavor was not the same as the chick of the woods but still tasty. They were much milder than the chick of the woods and the next time I prepare them I will look at both drying them first and grating them after they are dry.  I have done this with other mushrooms in the past and find that the dried mushroom ends up having a much more pronounced flavor.

Roast root vegetables, pears and chick of the woods mushrooms

Potato gnocchi and Entoloma mushrooms

Our garden fared well this year and we were able to harvest beets, carrots, leeks, parsnips, and mustard!  I cut back on growing vegetables in all six beds this year as we did not think we would need as much from the garden. This did two things, first I planted a cover crop, mustard and mustard is a great green manure; when it reaches a certain height you cut it down, cover it and it will decompose into the soil thus creating a great source of nitrogen and the second great beneficiary is eating the mustard because you end up with a great deal of it even when you cover the crop! From late July thru the harvest time we were eating leeks, carrots and beets as I worked on thinning out the crops.  All in all, I believe we ended up with at least 50 pounds of carrots, 25 pounds of beets and 10 pounds of parsnips. The leeks fared well and we ended up with about 3 dozen leeks.  Around mid-August, I planted more leeks and my plan will be to harvest them in the spring.  I heavily mulched the bed and in fact covered the young leeks.  We will see if they make it through the winter.  I also planted garlic this fall in one of the beds we did not grow vegetables; garlic is something I use a lot in my cooking and so I felt it was time to have some garlic. I talked with another farmer friend of mine from Garden to Be Scott Williams about obtaining the garlic for planting and he had a source! Thanks to Scott I was able to get the garlic and we discussed planting the garlic and any tips he might have to assist me in my planting. The plan with garlic is to snip the garlic scapes when they come up in the spring (they are tasty by themselves) and this will allow the plant to focus its energy on producing the garlic bulb. These are generally harvested in late June.  I am anxious to see the outcome of both the garlic bed and the leek bed.

The harvest from the garden

Leek bed ready to go through the winter

Recipes:

Roast beets, parsnips, pears, onion cream and chick of the woods

Yield: serves 4

Ingredients

4 medium sized beets

4 medium sized parsnips

4 pears

1 leek

1 whole unpeeled white onion

Chick of the woods mushrooms

2 tablespoons of sunflower oil

½ cup of Olive oil

¼ cup of Lemon juice

To taste Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

½ cup of honey

¼ cup of white wine vinegar

Method:

1.       Wash the root vegetables thoroughly and dry them off. Place them in a heavy pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast them in the oven at 375 degrees until they are tender.  The parsnips may finish cooking before the beets; just remove them while continuing to cook the beets. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool enough to handle them. Using paper towel or towel that you don’t mind turning bright red, rub off the peeling from the roast beet. Slice the root end off of the beets and the top end off; quarter the beet for serving. Cut the parsnips into smaller pieces.  Set aside to combine with other ingredients in an area where you can keep them warm.

2.       Cut the tops off of the pears and cut the bottoms off the pears. Place in a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle brown sugar on each pear. Roast at the same time you are roasting the beets and other root vegetables. When they are tender cut wedges off the pears and remove the core. Slice the wedges into ½ inch wedges and keep warm.

3.       Place the whole onion in a heavy-bottomed pan, skin and all, into the oven with a tablespoon of olive oil. Roast until tender. When tender remove the onion from the oven and simply squeeze out the inner part of the onion from the skin. Cut the bottom off of the onion and puree it in a blender with the remaining olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

4.       Slice and wash the chick of the woods mushrooms and look for any tiny twigs, leaves etc. that the mushroom may have grown around.  Dry the mushrooms and in a sauté pan add the sunflower oil and heat the oil to just before smoking.  Slice and wash the leeks while the oil is heating up and add to the hot oil along with the sliced mushrooms.  Cook the mushrooms over medium heat until they start to get crispy and most of the water has evaporated from the mushroom.

5.       Combine the roasted root vegetables with the pears and add the honey and vinegar and mix together.

6.       Place all of the ingredients into a bowl and drizzle some of the onion cream around the bowl and serve.

Gnocchi sauteing in clarified butter

Entoloma and Potato Gnocchi

Yield: 20 dozen small gnocchi

Ingredients

2 pounds russet potatoes

1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour

3 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons kosher salt
1/4 cup of clarified butter

Sauce

½ pound of diced tomato

¼ cup of olive oil

1 tablespoon of chop garlic

1 tablespoon of chop shallots

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon of minced chives

Salt and pepper to taste

Entolomas

¼ pound of Entoloma mushrooms

3 tablespoons of sunflower oil

1 tablespoon chopped shallots

½ tablespoon chopped garlic

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

½ cup dry white wine

Method:

1. In an oven preheated to 350 degrees bake the potatoes for one hour or until they are tender.  Scoop out the potatoes into a ricer and place on a board or counter.  Make a well in the center. Place a layer of about a ½ cup of flour in the well, add the egg yolks, and then add about ½ cup more flour and the salt. Use a dough scraper to chop the potatoes into the flour and eggs. Do this quickly to prevent the dough from being overworked.  Add more flour as necessary. The resulting dough should be homogeneous and barely sticky on the outside. Shape the dough into a ball. Roll the ball of dough lightly in flour. 
2. Pull off a section of dough and roll into a long tube that is about a ½ inch thick. Cut into ½ inch pieces. Take gnocchi one at a time and using a lightly floured gnocchi paddle push the gnocchi onto the paddle and roll it down the paddle onto a floured surface.  It is best to test the first gnocchi off the paddle for seasoning and durability. Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil and when you have the first gnocchi completed drop into the boiling salted water. The gnocchi is finished when it floats to the top. Test the flavor and if it has not exploded in the water it is good to go. Once the all of the gnocchi have been blanched in the salted water remove them to toweling and lay them out to cool completely. Do not stack the gnocchi when you remove them from the water or you will smash them!  You can freeze them at this stage or use immediately.
3. In a medium size sauce pot add the olive oil, chop garlic, and chop shallots and heat together for a few seconds. Add the diced tomato and cook together covered until all of the tomatoes have broken down into a liquid. Add the balsamic vinegar and remove the cover and cook to a sauce consistency. Finish with salt and pepper and minced chives.
4. Wash the entolomas and slice them. Sauté the sliced mushrooms in about 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil with the garlic and shallots. They should be somewhat crispy when you are finished sautéing them.  When they have reached a nice brown color add the white wine and set aside.
5. In another sauté pan add clarified butter and let it heat up over medium heat. Add the blanched gnocchi and sauté in the butter until they are lightly browned. Remove the gnocchi from the pan and add the mushrooms.  Toss the finished gnocchi with the sauce and sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over the top with a little extra virgin olive oil and serve.

Compost and planting leeks for the winter

After one year of composting food scraps from our house, we now have rich organic material to add to our garden. We planted leeks today to harvest after the first hard frost. If we don't harvest them we are going to mulch them heavily for a late spring harvest. 

Looking into the inside of our composting barrel; you can find the barrel in one of my previous post.

The compost came from all of our food scraps in the house, with the exception of meat products. The barrel has not been emptied for one year. I was amazed at how we kept filling it and as nature did its thing and broke down the matter there was always room for more. In addition when I went fishing and came home with extra worms I would throw them in the compost. Finally I want to point out that at no time did the compost smell unpleasant. 

I planted this bed on August 20th; depending on our first hard freeze I am going to try and harvest it in November. Leeks are hardy and as the weather gets colder I will increase the mulch up around the leeks.  I have been told I could cover them over the winter and harvest them in the warm spring. I will do this if the leeks are not big enough in November. This bed was planted with mustard for most of the summer; I cut the mustard and worked it into the soil prior to planting. If you look closely you will see the awesome compost on the rows! 

Peeling a farm fresh hard boiled egg

Farm fresh eggs are great to eat but when cooking the eggs for deviled eggs or hard boiled eggs they can be a "devil" to peel.  The reason for this bedeviling task is what makes the farm fresh egg superior; between the shell and egg white is a thin membrane that protects the inner egg from outside bacteria. I have tried many methods to peel the shell without ripping away the cooked egg white. One method involves puncturing a pin hole at the bottom of the egg, this does two things 1. The pin hole releases the sulphur from the yolks, while cooking, thus keeping the yolk bright yellow. 2. Allows water to get into the egg and helping to release the membrane from the egg white. While this method worked somewhat successfully I have come up with a much easier method.

Before we get to my ease of peeling your farm fresh egg here is some interesting facts on eating farm fresh, pasture raised hens. Mother Earth News conducted a study on farm fresh eggs vs. store bought eggs and they concluded, “Eggs from hens allowed to peck on pasture are a heck of a lot better than those from chickens raised in cages! Most of the eggs currently sold in supermarkets are nutritionally inferior to eggs produced by hens raised on pasture. That’s the conclusion we have reached following completion of the 2007 Mother Earth News egg testing project. Our testing has found that, compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:  1⁄3 less cholesterol, 1⁄4 less saturated fat, 2⁄3 more vitamin A, 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids, 3 times more vitamin E, 7 times more beta carotene, 4 to 6 times as much vitamin D” Information provided by Mother Earth News

Now for my new method to peel the hard cooked egg; a method that makes the most sense! Sometimes my inner Chef should stop and review the tape and stop over thinking how I am doing a task and get back to the basics! The process is to simply crack the egg  and under running cold water, gently press on the shell, while turning the egg, continue to do this until the shell rubs free. The video demonstrates how I peel the egg under cold running water. Note I am pushing on the shell very gently as I turn the egg under the running water. 

When I cook my hard boiled eggs I put them in a pot with enough water to cover the eggs, and place a lid on the pot. I bring them to a boil, shut off the heat and let them sit covered for ten minutes. I drain the hot water after ten minutes and run cold water on them until they are cool. Now I can peel them with my fool proof method! 

Canning the Pickles

Canning food has a long history in our country dating back to 1858 when John L. Mason created the square glass jar with a screw on lid and tops with a rubber coating.  The ability to store vegetables, fruit and other seasonal foods made it possible to transport food by pioneers or store food for the winter. 

There really is no fallible method in the canning process; this is why it is imperative to understand the process prior to undertaking your own canning.  Each step in the process can be problematic if not followed correctly and could be fatal to those you love if you are not careful.  With that stated I am sharing how we can at our house but would encourage you to research and create a complete understanding of the process prior to undertaking.  I have read a lot of material regarding the canning process and often I will read "how my grandmother canned and no one became ill due to her canning methods."  The problem with a statement like this is the unknown illnesses from those days; food poisoning was always going on but more than likely it was misinterpreted as the flu or other sickness.  I am a huge fan of growing food, preserving the harvest and eliminating highly processed foods from our cupboards.  In order to be successful at maintaining the ability to do this we need to combine old world ideas with modern knowledge.  Taking those early methods and understanding the science behind them will greatly improve the safety and provide nutritious food for your family. 

Canning food and which foods to can, are important to me as it will greatly impact the product when I go to cook later.  For most of my vegetables I prefer to freeze them; the nutrient content does not lessen as much as it would if I canned the vegetables.  In the case of pickles you need to can them if you are going to have that crunch, and zippy flavor.  Pickles do not freeze well, lol!

Our canning process for our pickles

We use a pressure cooker for canning

Create a new brine for the pickles and sanitize the lids in boiling water. See my previous post for the brine recipe. When making the new brine omit the salt! Remember we brined the pickles first and pickled them in a crock with salt! 

Bring the water up to a boil to sanitize the jars

Slice the larger ones in half

Match up the size of the cucumbers

The jars are filled with new brine and pickles and ready for canning. We left a 1/2 inch head space for the vacuum to work in the jars.

Our pickles were pressurized at 15 lbs of pressure and the process starts when the button on the front pops up; they are pressurized for fifteen minutes once that button pops up

Pickles removed from pressure cooker. It is very important you read how to release the pressure in pressure cooker and follow those instructions. For us it was to allow the pressure to release gradually after removing from heat; we knew it was released when the button popped back down.

We ended up with 11 quarts of pickles!

"Preserving evokes deep-rooted, almost primeval feelings of self-sufficiency and survival, gatherer and hunter, for this is how our ancestors stayed alive. " The River Cottage Preserves Handbook, by Pam Corbin

The above quote comes from one of my favorite books related to preservation of food. Pam writes a unique book on preserving foods, many of which are not commonly found in books here in the states. 
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall writes the introduction in Pam's book describing how he first heard of Pam, "...of first hearing of "Pam the Jam" when she was running Thursday Cottage Preserves, a small commercial company that operated in an almost domestic way, making old-fashioned preserves the old fashion way, with real ingredients. I knew she was the perfect person for the job.", you can learn more of Hugh at https://www.rivercottage.net/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall

There are many other books available for reading on how to preserve and in doing the research you are sure to come across some really interesting ideas for your own home canning. Our pickle recipe for example was derived from two very old Polish cookbooks and I believe the outcome of our pickles were definitely the same as if you walked into an old fashioned store with the barrel of pickles!   

Old Fashioned Polish Crock Pickles

Fermentation

What is fermentation?

Process by which microorganisms converts sugar into another substance in the absence of oxygen

Fermentation comes from the Latin word fevere, meaning to boil. The ancient Romans, upon seeing vats of grapes spontaneously bubble and transform into wine, described the process using the closest analogue they could think of. The process was not actually boiling, the gas from the yeast produced enzymes transformed the sugars in the grapes into alcohol, thus it appeared to be boiling.

Lactic acid bacteria

Rod and sphere shaped bacteria that are present on the skins of fruits, vegetables and humans.

Used for their ability to convert sugar into lactic acid and used in producing pickles, kimchi, and other lacto-fermented products. Because of the lactic acid they are able to tolerate low-pH environments. They are salt-tolerant and thrive in anaerobic environments.

Pickling

A great pickle has a good amount of crunch with the right amount of sour! Pickles are a lacto ferment and one of the easiest fermented foods to prepare.  If you want to pickle something just remember a 2% solution of salt to the total weight of the product you are going to pickle. To figure that out just use a bakers percentage, the main product is your 100% or in this case cucumbers.

Crock Pickles

Approximately 1 pound of grape leaves

Fresh Dill leaves, stems or seeds

3 ounces pickling spice

12 pounds of freshly picked cucumbers (they should be fairly equaled in size and medium in size). The best cucumbers are all green, bumpy and have no yellow on them.

Pickling Solution

2 gallons of cold water (water should be from a well or free of chlorine and other additives you could use distilled water)

1 pint of distilled vinegar

5.12 ounces of canning salt 

Method:

1.       In a 4 gallon crock with a lid, place a layer of grape leaves, one of the fresh dill leaves, stems and or seeds. Scatter 1 ounce of pickling spices on grape leaves and dill. Fill with evenly sized cucumbers half way up the crock. Repeat with grape leaves, dill and pickling spices and add more cucumbers up to the last 2 to 3 inches from the top.  Repeat with grape leaves, dill, and spices.

2.       Combine water, vinegar and salt and mix together thoroughly. Pour over cucumbers and place a non-metallic weight on top to keep cucumbers from floating above the brine.  If you are using a stone do not use limestone.

3.       If the temperature is kept at 86 degrees Fahrenheit the fermentation will be complete within 2 weeks (if cooler, fermentation will take longer).

4.       Pickles should become dark green, but should not be slimy. At the end of the curing, the pickles may be canned in sterilized jars. Strain the pickling liquid and add fresh dill, and grape leaves to the liquid and pour into the jars with the pickles prior to canning. 

Cucumbers coming out of brine after 3 weeks

Ready for canning

UW Health at The American Center Community Open House Culinary Demonstration

On Sunday UW Health at The American Center, their new health care and wellness facility on Madison's east side hosted an open house to the public.  As a part of the open house chefs from the Madison community were asked to come in and do a fifteen to twenty minute demonstration featuring healthy ethnic styled foods.    The featured chefs and restaurants were Bunky's Cafe Teresa Pullara, and her husband, Rachid Ouabel, Chef Patrick DePula from Salvatore's Restaurant, Chef Kevin McGuinnis from Madison College and myself.  The center features a brand new demonstration kitchen to be used to educate the community on the benefits of healthy eating, and at the same time assist patients who may have to change their own personal eating habits due to their current health.   UW hospital has opened two demonstration kitchens in the Madison area, the other being on the west side of Madison.  The significance of this for Madison College will be in our networking with UW and connecting our future demonstration kitchen with UW’s.  The open house featured some key athletes; legendary Donald Driver of the Green Bay Packers and recent star of UW basketball Sam Decker. Thus the open house was packed and of course filled with folks wanting to meet and maybe get an autograph! I am sure having the two stars on site helped us but we did have standing room only for our presentations!

You can view my demonstration at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2OkFt-ImLegVG9nM0dMTEFZck0/view?usp=sharing

For my demonstration I only needed to head up to our garden and have a look at what was growing in abundance. Our carrots and beets this year are exploding and we have been thinning them out over the last couple of weeks.  Normally I will harvest my root vegetables after the first frost; I cover them with hay when the weather starts to chill and a frost is coming. When we get that first frost we will go out and harvest all of our root vegetables. The sugar content in the root vegetables will increase exponentially and thus we end up with sweeter flavors. We have done this in years past and I can tell you of times we were being snowed and rained on while we worked into the night pulling up those tasty vegetables!  When I cook our root vegetables I prefer to roast them in the oven; roasting will caramelize the sugar in the root vegetables creating a great flavor profile.  For my demonstration I choose to Spanish Pinchos. They are similar to Spanish Tapas but have their own twist on tasty appetizer portions; you can order several different types, like Tapas but usually they are in the form of a type of sandwich or served with a bread component.  Typically you will find some kind of omelet or something prepared with cod.

Our fresh beets and carrots

Map of the Basque region

The Basque region of the world sits in two countries, Spain and France; the people of the Basque region are rich in culture and history. The region spans about 100 miles from Bilbao, Spain to Bayonne, France. Politically the Basque have undergone much, and yet despite the efforts of Franco, to wipe their culture from the maps of Spain, they are still a thriving community of people.  An interesting part of their language is that it is the only language in the world that does not have a similar dialect anywhere else in the world! During the Franco era the Basque were forbidden to speak their language and because of that there are older generations who do not know their language and yet it is the younger generation who speaks the language; this is definitely unique in the world of language as most often the language is lost when it comes to a younger generation. 

Fresh fish Pincho

While traveling in Northern Spain, Basque Country, I learned of Pinchos or Pintxo; they are found in Pincho bars in the Basque country.  At the time we were traveling with students and others in the Northern Spain region specifically for the Basque cuisine.  The trip was quite memorable and of course the food and wine were nothing short of spectacular! One of the fascinating aspects of the Pincho bar is the wine; when you order you simply ask for blanco vino or tinto vino or white wine or red wine.  The server behind the bar pulls one or the other from the wall of wines on the shelf and pours your selection. There is no sommelier or specific winery from which they make the selection; in fact you have no idea where the wine was produced! I can honestly state I did not have a single bad glass of wine! Each bar has a chef who has developed the menu of different pinchos offered and in fact there is a competition held in the Northern region to find who has the best dish for that year. We dined at one of the winners for the 2009 competition.  The bars will keep track of how many pinchos, what kind of pinchos consumed by the number and size of tooth picks left behind after you have eaten your pinchos.  I should state this was clearly not always the case when we dined but on some occasions the toothpick count was happening. 

Spanish award winning Pincho Chef; they earn the hat he is wearing in this photo when they win! 

The Pincho I choose to create follows in the recipe below. Feel free to ask any questions regarding the recipe and hopefully I can assist you! I will post a picture of my pincho later in another blog; the video did not really do it justice when I finished preparing. 

This is the recipe for my dish:

Grilled Beets, Roast Carrots, Pimento Aioli, Seared Chicken Breast Pincho

Yield: 4 Pinchos

1 Medium Red beet roasted in olive oil, salt and pepper and peeled

1 Medium Carrot roasted in olive oil with salt and pepper

1/8 cup Honey (used for seasoning the vegetables)

½ cup Olive oil (used for vegetables, bread and searing chicken)

¼ cup White wine vinegar (used for seasoning vegetables)

¼ cup Pimento puree (you can purchase canned pimentos for the puree)

½ cup Aioli (see recipe)

1 cup Brine (for chicken breast) see recipe

1 - 4 to 6 ounce skinless Chicken breast

4 Slices crusty French bread (use a good quality French bread for this)

To taste salt and pepper

1 tablespoon minced chives

4 Small beet greens the smaller ones are the best as they are tender.

4 Long sandwich skewers (skewers should be able to go through all of the items on the pincho)

Method:

1.            Slice Beets into 4 slices and brush with olive oil, honey and white wine vinegar. Places beets on a very hot grill and mark both sides quickly being careful to not burn the honey. Season with Salt and pepper.

2.            Slice roast carrot into 4 even slices, lengthwise. Brush with honey and white wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.

3.            Brine the chicken breast for about 1 hour. Remove from the brine and pat dry. Season lightly with salt and pepper and sear the chicken breast in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Finish in the oven until the chicken is completely cooked.  Let the chicken breast rest and slice into 4 equal slices.

4.            Rub sliced crusty French bread with olive oil and lightly brown each slice in the oven.

5.            Whisk in pimento puree to the aioli.

6.            Brush pimento aioli on each slice of bread and layer first with beets, carrots, small beet greens, and sliced chicken breast. Using a squeeze bottle squeeze bottle drizzle aioli on to each pincho and sprinkle with minced chives. Skewer with a large sandwich pick and serve. 

Brine

Yield:  1 cup

½ cup kosher salt

¾ cup Water

½ cup Ice

1 tablespoon Honey

1 Sprig Fresh thyme

1 Sprig Fresh Italian Parsley

1 Bay leaf

Method:

1.            Combine salt and water and bring to a boil. Add ice and chill. Mix in honey and add herbs. Chill completely before using.

Aioli

Yield: 1 pint

1 Egg yolk

1 teaspoon Garlic mashed to a paste (1 toe of garlic will work)

½ ounce white wine vinegar

¼ ounce Water

½ teaspoon Dijon vinegar

1 cup vegetable oil

5 ounces Extra-virgin olive oil

To taste kosher salt

To taste Pepper

1 Tablespoon Lemon juice

Method:

1.            Combine egg yolk, garlic, vinegar, water and mustard. Whisk them to together and slowly whisk in the vegetable oil at a very slow stream to form the emulsion. Continue adding the oil slowly; when finished with the vegetable oil continue with the olive oil. When finished it should be the consistency of mayonnaise. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice and chill immediately.

Note on roasting vegetables

Wash the outside of the vegetables thoroughly before roasting. Try to have equal sized vegetables for roasting as they will vary in their cooking times.  Beets tend to take a long time to roast; I like to season them and wrap them in aluminum foil when roasting. This does two things, one it keeps the flavor of the beets contained to the beets and does not dry out and two it assist in the cooking time of the beets. I usually roast my vegetables at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  You can also roast them with some aromatics; using fresh herbs for example will offer a nice additional flavor.

Grapevines third year

These are a couple of pictures of our grapevines after three years. We are going to start putting up the wire trellis in the few weeks.

Sandhill Crane taking flight

I just wanted to share this picture I took on the farm yesterday.  Magnificent bird in flight!