Debuting Nourish and the Culinary Art Car or Han Solo and Sulu got nothing on me!

 

 

Hey everybody!  Saturday was Nourish’s opportunity to unveil the Culinary Art Car at one of our events.  The Culinary Art Car is a kinetic sculpture through which messages of sustainability, healthy eating and local foods are brought to our community through this collaboration between the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Lakeshore Technical College. Last year at the fundraiser (which is coming up on October 3 this year).  A Plymouth family had the winning bid to bring us and the Art Car to their home for a catered party!  It was a great event with a ton of fun had by all and the food was well liked!  We served curried chicken salad in cucumber boats, sweet potato and horseradish croquettes, blueberry cream cheese wontons, caesar salads in parmesan cups, mini BLT quiches, and trio of brushcettas (tomato basil, mushroom, or white bean).  All items were, of course, focused on local grown and sourced food.  We had produce from the farmer’s markets, Springdale Farm, and our home garden.

 

 

 

Piloting this “sexy beast”, as designer Mac Maker put it, is one of the highlights of my career!  Such an honour to drive this masterpiece around.  People stop, stare, smile, wave, give a thumbs up, and then giggle or chuckle when I press the crazy horn!  None of this would have been possible without the great volunteers we had from auction to prep to execution and of course, clean up.  I am blessed to work with people that there because they WANT to help and truly put the concerns of others before themselves.  Sounds like what restaurant service ought to be, but I digress.  If you or your group would like to volunteer, please contact me.  There are many opportunities available.  Thank you all for your help!

 

 

       

Cherries and Berries and (flaming) Booze, oh my!

Hey everybody!  We are starting to see more fresh produce at the farmer’s market and in our backyards, but it still seems pretty slow.  The rest of the summer I am conducting Garden-to-table classes at Cook’s Corner ( cookscorner.com)  in Green Bay on Wednesday evenings.  The last class was about Cherries and Berries.  We updated some classics by adding rhubarb to a cherries jubilee and prepared balsamic and black pepper macerated strawberry shortcake.  Here are the recipes, and check out the upcoming classes!  I would love to see you!

 

Chef Todd

 

Cherries Jubilee

Ingredients
1 pint vanilla ice cream
1 pound fresh, ripe sweet cherries, such as Bing
1/2 cup sugar
1 lemon
1/3 cup golden rum and/or brandy
Directions
Evenly scoop the ice cream into 4 dishes or decorative glasses and put in the freezer until ready to serve (this can be done up to 4 hours ahead).

Wash and pit the cherries. Put the cherries and sugar in a large skillet. Peel 2 strips of zest from the lemon in wide strips with a peeler and add to the cherries. Squeeze the juice of half the lemon over the top. Stir to combine evenly. Cover and cook the cherries over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves, about 4 minutes. Uncover and cook over medium-high until cherries get juicy, about 5 minutes more.

To flambe the brandy: If cooking over a gas flame, pull the pan off the heat and add the rum. Ignite the alcohol with a long match or one held with tongs. Swirl the pan slightly until the flames subside, about 30 seconds.

If cooking over an electric stove, put the rum in a small sauce pan. Warm it over medium-low heat and carefully light it with a long match or one held with tongs. Pour the brandy over the cherries, and swirl the pan lightly until the flames subside, about 30 seconds.

Ladle the cherries and their juices over prepared ice cream scoops. Serve immediately.

Strawberry Shortcake with Balsamic and Black Pepper

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds strawberries, stemmed and quartered
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons balsamic
Pinch of fresh ground black pepper

Whipped Cream, recipe follows
Whipped Cream:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions
Mix strawberries with 3 tablespoons sugar, balsamic, and pepper and refrigerate while juices develop, at least 30 minutes.

Spoon some of the strawberries with their juice onto each shortcake bottom. Top with a generous dollop of whipped cream and then the shortcake top. Spoon more strawberries over the top and serve.

Whipped Cream:
Using a mixer, beat the heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest until soft peaks form, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.

Volunteer Day with Nourish!

The kids volunteered with NOURISH Farm to Family Philanthropy on Tuesday. They toured and helped out some on the farm and then brought the goods to the Salvation Army and helped prepare a fantastic dinner of garden fresh salad, pasta and chicken with local basil and garlic scape pesto, rhubarb focaccia bread, and lemon and local rhubarb bars! It’s a great family experience. We have plenty of volunteer opportunities for families as well as chefs, contact me if you are interested.

 

Garden Update

Hey everybody! There is nothing better than to toil in the soil! We have been working hard the last few weeks and loved every moment of it.

Despite the weather working against us for the most of the spring, we are happy to report we are looking better than we have the last few years at this time.

We started peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, Brussels sprouts, watermelons, and pumpkins in the house some time ago. We transferred them to the garden over the last week and sowed seeds for corn, summer squash, carrots, potatoes, peas, green beans, black beans, and, of course, romenesco broccoli.

I can’t wait to witness this one growing and discover how it cooks up! I swear it looks like something off an Allman Brother’s Band tour poster!

We spent a lot of time re-setting the raspberry and strawberry rows. We felt with better organized rows it would be much easier to harvest the fruit. The plants took to the change really well. We ended up with an extra row of raspberries and two more rows of strawberries. That includes giving away some and planting others in different areas such as the edge of the woods and patio planters.

 

The asparagus has been up for awhile.  We harvest about 4 dinner sides a week!

On the downside, we lost all but the garlic chives and dill in the herb garden due to the bitterly cold winter and the lilacs were ravaged by the last frost. We love cutting sprigs and bringing that beautiful scent into out home. We will have to ration them this year! We replaced many of the herbs with both seeds and some 3 inch potted ones. Mint, sage, purple ruffled basil, sweet basil, rosemary, cilantro, thyme, and Italian parsley are all looking wonderful!

The trees look beautiful in full bloom. My favorites are the cherry blossoms but they are all just so neat. This is our oldest, largest, and most awe inspiring apple tree. Man, the stories to be told if these trees could speak!

Amy has worked tirelessly on the flower beds and they look great. The daffodils and tulips are up and some annuals were planted to add color. We lost a rose bush but the others seem to be coming along.

We approach these projects with the mindset that we do not know everything we need to, but we will work hard and keep reading and researching how to do it better. Every year seems to be more efficient and rewarding, and, frankly, that’s enough to us!  On top of all that, working the garden turns into some quality family time.  The boys love to help and even Pippe, the garden cat is always somewhere close!

Garden Update or Sowing the Seeds

Hey everybody!  Spent the day outside and you can’t wipe the smiles from our faces!  It is amazing how underneath that clean, pristine layer of snow is a dirty, muddy visage complete with 5 months of litter from our busy street!  We spent the day getting the yard picked up, taking down outdoor holiday lights, cleaning the garage, and working on an awesome re-purpose project that we will share soon.  Most importantly, however, is we planted the first round of seeds to start indoors.

We have done this for a few years now.  Early planting allows us the get the most of the the relatively short summers we have up here and get some our garden treats a little earlier.   As vegetables grow we transplant them to larger pots and temper them to outside temps at we get closer to outdoor planting time.  We are expected to be frost free around May 17th, but there is a 7 foot frost line this year, which is a little scary.  There is some fear among farmers and gardeners that the ground temp will not be in a good growing range for a month after that.  While we do not use a standard “raised” bed, this year we will be filling the garden with mulch, soil, compost, newspaper, and grass clippings that should help raise the soil temp.  We are looking to add about 9 inches to the garden.  We will talk much more about this in coming weeks.

Today was about getting a jump on the season and feeding the need to get in some dirt.  We use a commercial mini-greenhouse product with a planting medium that is dried to tiny little hockey pucks.  After soaking with a few cups water, the soil is reconstituted and seeds are planted.  We plant 2-6 seeds per small cylinder of soil and thin two one as they start to grow.  The clear top paired up with our southern facing sun room, create a miniature eco-system and great climate for our wee little seedlings.

Today we planted 12 different types of seed.  Watermelon and pumpkins are fairly new to us this year.  Our intention is to keep these small and controlled, only growing 4-6 of each and limiting their ability to take over a garden.  We have both an eggplant (black beauty) and tomatillo for this season also.  The eggplants did quite well last year, with one plant producing 16-20 small fruits.  We are going to try tomatillos again.  These guys require some good heat and were a challenge last season, but we are trying again.

We have four types of pepper planted.  Jalapeno, mixed color bells, habanero, and cayenne.  All fared well last season and we expect a solid showing again.  Finally, we have our tomato varieties, super sweet 100, roma, big boy, and tigerella.  We had a ton of success with tomatoes last season and are approaching them the same this season.  The super sweets are tiny and we train them up a trellis on a southern exposed garage wall.  The other three virtually took over our garden resulting in over 175 pounds of product!

So, that’s where we are today!  I am trying to check for sprouts in our starters every hour, guess I need to find another project.  Thanks for hanging out!

 

Weekly Garden Update

Hey everybody!  This week has brought the recession of the snow and thoughts of being ankle-deep in the dirt, sun-tea on the picnic table, and kids playing outdoors.   While it may not be time to get outside, gardening season is getting into full swing around here.  I borrowed “The Garden Primer” by Barbara Damrosch from the local library and immersed myself in it.  Such a wonderfully written book with so much information arranged perfectly.  Reading this had got my mind reeling and ideas changing and morphing into a master plan.

We added another tool to your garden kit this week, also.  We had been using a garden planner app for the ipad, but discovered this wonderful one through Mother Earth News.  It is free to use for 30 days and then only 25 dollars a year.  The web or Ipad based software allows you to plot your garden to scale and stock it with plants.  I keeps track of space needed for each plant, when it should be planted, provides a ton of information about most of the items in your garden, and gives me something to geek out on when I can’t sleep!  The thumbnail image is tough to read click to see a screenshot of my first garden design.  This one is quite rough, but I was just trying to get a handle on how to use it.  Like I said, I’m very impressed so far and think this is going to be a great tool.

We did want to share another link from Mother Earth News.  This is an easy to navigate and read version of the plant info included in the planner. Vegetable Planting Guide from Mother Earth News

http://www.growveg.com/clients/growguideplantindex.aspx?c=4

This weekend we will be starting tomatoes, brussels sprouts, some peppers, and other items in seed trays.  We are about 6 weeks from planting.  In addition to the perennial items, we are planting 22-30 vegetables and variations this year!  Our widest array to date.  I’m sure it will be a ton of work and we are so excited to get started.

Thanks for hanging out and may visions of romanesco broccoli, purple dragon carrots, and black krim tomatoes dance in your heads!

 

 

 

 

Getting off on the Right Foot for the Gardening Season

Hey everybody!  Spring is almost here.  Which means the number on thing on our minds is garden prep.  We need to till and fill the garden.  Figure out when to start the tomatoes, peppers, and other plants we jump start indoors.  This year we are trying to do more companion growing, expand the garden some, and try some new plants.

We have been raising gardens for 4 seasons.  Every year we seem to approach it in a more orderly fashion and formulate better plans.   This year we start the season with 21 fruit trees (and the intention to add a couple more), three solid rows of raspberry bushes, two crimson rhubarb plants, three rows of red and purple asparagus, 24 or so strawberry plants, and another 800 square feet or so for yearly planting.  In addition, there is the 25 square foot herb and tea garden and thrice that for flower beds.  Today, I am going to outline the process for the year.  Every other Monday (maybe more often during active times) I will post an update as to where the garden is, how things are going, or how we met challenges.  Should be a fun season for all of us!

As with any large project, the best place to start is with a list.  We make a list of the tasks that need to tackled through the growing season.

1. till garden
2. clean up asparagus, raspberry, and strawberry plants
3. cut back grape vines
4. build up lost soil
5. decide on plants
6. plant indoor starters
7. compost/fertilize herb garden
8. Set up rain water barrels
9. trim peach and pear trees
10. plant garden
11. pest prevention (cat can’t get them all!)
12. stake out large/vine plants
13. continually weed and add compost/grass trimmings
14. trim /coddle plants as needed
15. harvest
16. end of season maintenance

As the year goes on, we will tackle these issues, sometimes more than once.  Stay tuned it is going to be an awesome adventure to get through fall.  Thanks for hanging out!