Kitchen Garden Journal

Preparations are underway at the farm for this year’s Garlic & Arts Festival in Orange, MA. This year marks 5 years we have been selling our garlic and other produce at the festival!

The Garlic & Arts festival is so much more than a garlic festival. Over the years, Deb and Ricky from Seeds of Solidarity farm, along with an army of volunteers, have turned this festival into one of the great gathering places for people in this part of the world. For me, the best part about it is being there with so many awesome people. Lots of people look forward to this weekend all year, myself included.

For us as a farm, it’s a great departure from our normal routine. It’s such a refreshing feeling to put our products and our faces in front of a new audience. And we get to really geek-out about garlic –varieties, flavors, growing techniques—with garlic lovers from all over the region. 

The Garlic & Arts Festival is special for us because we are primarily offering our garlic as planting stock for amateur growers. We have people coming back year after year saying how amazing their garlic crop has turned out. It's really a great opportunity to be part of that.

We take immense pride in the way we’ve multiplied our particular strains of garlic over the years. Growing garlic requires a different and more thoughtful approach than most crops we grow (except perhaps tomatoes, for which we grow our own seed as well). The festival reminds us every year to celebrate and appreciate this special plant, without which, the food I eat every day would simply not taste as good.

Another great thing for about this festival is that over the years it has given us the opportunity to interact with the public not just as growers but as cooks. We've demonstrated some of our favorite garlicky comfort foods over the years. We'll be doing our cooking demo at 2:30pm on Saturday; this time it's hand-cut fries with aioli using our own potatoes, garlic and eggs.  

We hope to see you there! Saturday and Sunday 10am-6pm in Orange, MA. For more information see garlicandarts.org. 

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This is the time of year when a turn in the weather will trigger fits of hording. The fruits of summer are living out their final days, and the mind begins to fearfully anticipate a season when the supermarket will again become a source of fresh produce. 

Over the years we have honed in on some easy ways to preserve the bounty of the abundant seasons, mostly involving freezing. (We put a chest freezer on our wedding registry. It gets more use than the champagne flutes.) These preserving projects are quite simple to do and apart from ample freezer space, require only a minimal time commitment. Here are a few ideas:

Sweet peppers can be cut up into small pieces and frozen immediately in large ziplock bags. If you have never tried this, you will be amazed at how they defrost right in the oil as you sauté them, and how you would never know the difference once they’re cooked. They don’t retain the crunch they have when fresh, so you wouldn’t want to put them in a salad. But they’re great in stir fries, omelets or saucy concoctions like peperonata. 

Hot peppers are one of my favorite things to freeze. So overly abundant in August and September, I don’t really start craving (or having the time to cook) spicy Thai food until the middle of winter, when the only hot peppers in the stores are ancient, depressing things. I just put them whole into a quart sized bag and pull from it all year (and often into the next).  

Other seasonings I have had good luck freezing are ginger—I buy a few pounds from Old Friends Farm and it lasts all year—and garlic. I find that our garlic really only lasts in top shape in our kitchen until the end of January. As it dries out, the flavor becomes too strong to eat raw. So last year I peeled a whole bunch of garlic the week it was picked, when it’s just so fresh and juicy, and froze it in a bag. It turned out to be a great convenience food; I would just grab a clove and grate it, still frozen, on the microplane, into a salad dressing or a marinade. If I didn’t use the whole clove, I just tossed it right back in the bag and stuck it back in the freezer. To sauté the frozen garlic just wait a few minutes for it to partially thaw, then mince it and sauté it like normal. It acts and tastes just like fresh! It really got me through March and April.

You can even freeze some of the more rugged herbs like parsley, thyme and rosemary. I freeze them in plastic containers. No one has ever used a whole bunch of rosemary before it goes bad. Just stick it in the freezer. 

Sweet corn is only available for another couple of weeks. Why buy frozen corn in the store when you can make your own for dirt cheap and it tastes so much better? Just cut the corn of the cobs, stick it in a bag and you’re done. Corn and seafood chowder all winter.

Broccoli and greens are also easy to freeze, but you have to blanch them first. Just dunk them in boiling water for a minute and then plunge into cold water to stop the cooking.

When freezing  green things you want to avoid ending up with gallon sized bricks that you need a chainsaw to portion out. With greens, form serving-sized balls and freeze them on a cookie sheet before putting them in bags. 

Blanched broccoli can be put on the sheet in a single layer and frozen so that when you transfer it to a bag, the florets are individually frozen and you can pull out just what you need. 

Though I’m kind of embarrassed to admit it, we survive on tofu and tempeh stir-fried with frozen peppers and broccoli all winter long. A home grown meal that only takes 20 minutes to prepare. No chopping, even. And the kids will usually eat it. 

Don’t even get me started on fruit. If you’re diligent, your freezer is already half full with strawberries and blueberries. But other fruits are easy to freeze, too. I’ve got a whole case of peaches at home that I’m going to blanch, peel and halve, freeze on a tray and transfer to bags. They make amazing smoothies and are great for baking. A bowl of vanilla ice cream topped with stewed frozen peaches spiked with local honey and ginger in January, anyone?  

Being a family of food-loving farmers, we have learned to delay our gratification. There simply isn’t enough time for us to savor the fruits of our labors and of the seasons in the way they should be: unrushed. We’re often too exhausted to cook this time of year, so when we have the energy, we devote it to preservation projects. Gratification may be delayed, but when it comes, it sure is sweet.

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3 Asian Eggplants (the long, skinny kind)

¼ cup canola or other frying oil

3 large cloves of garlic, chopped fine  

Two to five Thai chilies, cut in fairly large pieces

2 Tbsp natural sugar (Palm sugar or turbinado)

¼ cup soy sauce, or a 4:1 mixture of fish sauce and dark soy sauce

1 bunch thai basil, leaves stripped and left whole

Cut the eggplants diagonally into 1 inch segments. In a wide skillet or wok, heat the oil and fry the eggplant slices, turning occasionally, over medium-high heat until golden brown on the outside and creamy-molten on the inside. Add more oil if the eggplant soaks it all up. 

When done, remove pan from heat and transfer the eggplant to a paper-towel lined plate. Discard all but 2 Tbsp of the oil. Return pan to heat and fry garlic until sticky and not quite brown. Add sugar, soy sauce and chilies and stir quickly to dissolve sugar. (You may want to add a few drops of water to prevent sugar from burning.) Add eggplants pieces back to the pan along with the basil leaves. Stir to coat and wilt the basil, about 30 seconds. Serve hot with jasmine rice.

Note: this technique works well with chichen, pork, tofu, etc. either alone or in combination with the eggplant. A variation I find particularly tasty is to brown ½ lb of ground pork in the pan first, then use the rendered fat to fry the eggplant. Continue the recipe as above, adding back the pork and eggplant together in the final step. 

I will always remember this recipe because I cooked it the day we brought our daughter, Lily home from the hospital. It was the first of many meals I ate one handed, that little 5 pound lump clutched in my left forearm. 

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The heat wave brought some intense hot and dry weather to the valley last week. While it certainly stressed out a lot of plants and farmers alike, it was the perfect opportunity to get our garlic and a lot of our onions out of the field.

Due to the cold, wet spring we had—which seems like a distant memory now—the garlic harvest started a week later than usual, around the second week of July. The hot, dry conditions that ensued were perfect for harvesting garlic. If it’s wet and rainy during the harvest, the garlic might not dry properly. That was definitely not the case this year, and after a couple of weeks hanging in the loft, the garlic is good and dry and we’re now bringing cured garlic to markets. Check out last year's garlic harvest post for some arty work shots.

After we missed the promised rain last Monday, I saw my chance to field-cure some onions and shallots. So we started windrowing them on Tuesday (where we lay them out in the sun in rows) and by the end of the week they were ready to bring inside. We got to use the onion boxes that we made back in March, which are copies of boxes used on this and many other Valley farms back in the old days. (The one that Alissa & Brian are modeling in this photo is an original one that we found in the barn here. The new ones are visible behind.)

Now the barn is filling up: garlic in all the rafters and onions all over the floor in the loft. Now we just need to sell some and quick, so we can stop worrying about the loft collapsing! Although we hopefully will still have some to sell during the winter time.

Some of our favorite garlic and onion recipes can be found in The Vegetable Pages, like spaghetti with aglio, olio and pepperoncino, Greek salad, and green beans with red onion & vinaigrette. We'll be demonstrating how to make french fries with aioli at this year's Garlic & Arts Festival, Saturday, October 1 in Orange, MA.

The heat  is also pushing along our summer crops and we’re excited to start harvesting some new things. Tiny Padron peppers are a popular snack in Spain just tossed with olive oil and pan roasted or grilled. Once in a while you get a hot one, so watch out! (Martha likes them.)

We’re also psyched about our artichokes coming in. They look great and the flavor is so amazing. So different from the week-old ones we get from California. Here's a link to how to trim an artichoke for cooking. Now we need to get our own page on artichokes up!

And tomatoes are really starting to come in now so stay tuned….   

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Ingredients:

Cooking Oil (olive or other)

Mushrooms

Garlic or shallots or cipollini onions, usually not more than one of those

Ham, bacon or pancetta, optional

White wine, sherry, Port or Madeira, optional

Butter

Salt 

Parsley

Cream, optional

Heat the oil and mushrooms in a wide, heavy skillet over medium high heat. The mushrooms should all fit in the pan in a single layer with a bit of breathing room between them. (Otherwise, when the mushrooms start to heat up and release moisture, they will steam each other rather than brown.  If you have a lot of mushrooms to do, work in batches.) Sometimes I add some bacon as well (like 2 slices, max, diced pretty small), for that extra umami kick. Keep it moving but refrain from stirring constantly.

When the mushrooms have taken on some color and are about halfway through cooking, it’s time to add the garlic or shallot or onion and a nice knob of butter. I also usually salt and pepper them at this point. Keep sautéing them until the alliums are golden and caramelized and starting to stick to the pan. (If you had added the butter and garlic in the beginning, they would be too burned by the end.)

Now it’s time to add the wine. Stir until completely evaporated. Your pan will look greasy again like it did before. 

Just before turning off the heat add the minced parsley, not too much. If you want to turn this into a cream sauce, add the cream now, bring to a simmer and cook about 5 minutes longer. 

Now you can serve it with the starch of your choice. I like toasted white artisan style bread or fresh egg pasta like homemade tagliatelle. (I use the packaged Bionaturae brand pappardelle when I feel lazy.)

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Nature's first green is gold. At our farm, the first sign of life in spring is always the green shoots of garlic poking up from their straw-covered beds. Garlic is the foundation of practically every dish that we make in our kitchen, and its life cycle signals the passage of time in our fields.

By the middle of May the shoots have taken off; leafy, succulent and sweet, they are now ready for the frying pan, the salad bowl, the cuisinart. 

Spring garlic is a spring treat.  It is available only for a brief period in late May and early June, so now is the time to enjoy its mild garlicky essence in spring-inspired dished of all sorts: spring garlic omelettes, salad dressings, potato salads, asparagus risottos, spinach sautes, and on and on and on. 

Spring garlic is entirely edible. To prepare it for cooking, simply trim the tougher leaf tips, strip off the first layer of skin, and trim the roots.  Chop the stalks like scallions and use them in any dish that calls for garlic.  Since it has a much milder flavor, use twice to three times a much as you would of regular bulbs.  Many people who are sensitive to garlic can enjoy spring garlic without hesitation because it is so mild.  Even used raw in pestos it does not overwhelm.  5 stalks of garlic and a small bunch of basil make a nice pesto for one pound of pasta.

Spring garlic is symbolic of a return to the kitchen to delight in the green grassy taste of the New England spring.  Its natural mates are asparagus, spinach, lettuce, greens, and eggs.

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Photo by Candace Hope

In the first apartment I ever had, when I was 18 years old, a vegetarian, and new to cooking, I made this at least twice a week. The recipe has evolved somewhat since then, but the basic concept is the same: noodles, peanut sauce, fried tofu, and vegetables. It’s also my favorite thing to order at two of my favorite local restaurants: The People’s Pint and The Lady Killigrew. Always fills you up. Never lets you down. 

1 lb pasta: whole wheat spaghetti, buckwheat soba, or udon noodles

Peanut sauce: 2/3 cup natural peanut butter
¼ cup tahini sesame paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 hot chilies, minced, or 1 tsp cayenne
3 Tbsp soy sauce or 2 Tbsp soy and a heaping spoonful of miso paste
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp sesame oil 1/2 -1 cup water, to thin the sauce

Garnishes:
Fried tofu slices Blanched broccoli florets
Shredded cabbage
Shredded carrots
Sliced radishes
Sliced cucumber
Chopped scallions
Chopped cilantro 

Method:
Boil the pasta until al dente, drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking. Toss with a little  sesame oil and set aside.

Prepare the sauce by mixing together all the ingredients and diluting it with lukewarm water to the desired consistency. It should be moderately thick: thin enough to coat the pasta without clumping but not at all runny.

For the fried tofu, cut a block of firm or extra firm tofu into thin (3/16”) slices. Dip the slices in soy sauce and fry them in hot canola oil until crispy, turning once, like you would fry bacon. Drain on paper towels and chop coarsely into bite sized pieces. Put in a serving dish on the table.

Toss the sauce with the noodles and serve each person clump in a large bowl. Prepare the rest of the vegetables and herbs and arrange artfully on the table for the diners to serve themselves. 

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Thanks to everyone who came out to the Garlic and Arts Festival in Orange this weekend. The crowds were huge, our garlic sold out, and a good time was had by all. Business was booming, but truthfully, the real reason we go is to get the maple cotton candy. We killed a whole bag on the couch last night and then collapsed. 

A big, big thanks to Ricky and Deb from Seeds of Solidarity and all of the organizers and volunteers that make the festival possible. There is simply no other event that brings the whole region together to celebrate the best of everything, and we feel honored to be a part of it, year after year. 

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My recent batch: daikon radish with its greens, napa with carrots and pears

From watching Maangchi I’ve come to understand that kimchi is comprised of essentially two elements: a salted vegetable and a “sauce” of salt, sugar, hot pepper powder and aromatics like garlic, ginger, and scallions. It takes a little thinking ahead to salt the vegetables but it comes together very quickly and you can eat it for months.

For the salted cabbage:
1 head napa cabbage
Kosher salt or sea salt
For the kimchi sauce:
1 ½ cups water
¼ cup rice flour or AP flour
¼ cup sugar
½ cup fish sauce or 1 ½ Tbsp salt
½ daikon radish, cut into julienne strips
1 head garlic, minced
½ inch piece of ginger, minced
½ cup Korean hot pepper powder
3 scallions cut into 2” pieces

Method:
Wash the head of cabbage, carefully rinsing any dirt away from the base of the outer leaves. Pat dry and cut cabbage into 4 quarters. The leaves should be attached at the core. In a large bowl or wash basin sprinkle the cabbage quarters all over and between the leaves with the salt, massaging gently. Leave for approximately 1 hour. Turn the cabbage over and leave for another hour. You will see that the leaves have wilted considerably and a lot of liquid has accumulated. Rinse the cabbage in three changes of water, squeeze them gently to expel the water and set aside.

Meanwhile, assemble the ingredients for the sauce. Mix the water and flour in a small pan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  When the mixture thickens and begins to bubble, turn off the heat and allow to cool. Add the sugar and fish sauce or salt. Add the other ingredients and mix well. It should be a gravy-like texture and sticky, not watery. Taste it. It should taste like kimchi but sweeter. It should not be overly salty tasting. If it’s not spicy enough for your taste you can add more hot pepper. Same goes for the garlic, etc. In addition to the daikon, you can add other vegetables if you like, such as carrots.

Spread the sauce all over the cabbages and between the leaves and put them into a plastic container with any of the remaining sauce. Leave it out at room temperature for 1 day, then refrigerate. You can eat it right away or wait a while. The flavor will gradually go from sweet to sour as it ferments. It will keep indefinitely, but it is best if eaten within 2-3 months. To serve, cut cabbage with scissors into bite sized pieces.
Watch Maangchi make it here.

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Napa Cabbage is great in stir fries of any kind. I love to make these curry flavored stir-fried rice noodles at home almost as much as I like ordering them in Chinese restaurants.

Recipe adapted from Rasa Malaysia

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
8 dried or fresh shiitake mushrooms
12 ounces of fine dry rice vermicelli (Wai Wai brand recommended)
2 stalks celery, sliced thin
2 cups napa cabbage, cut into fine ribbons
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
1 cup bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
8 green onions, root end trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined, or
1 pound char siu (Chinese barbecued pork), cut into matchsticks
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

For sauce:
3 tablespoons Madras (hot) curry powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 cup chicken broth
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons hot chili paste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Method:
1) If using dried shiitake mushrooms, soak them in hot water for half an hour. Drain, then cut off the stems. Slice the mushrooms thinly.
2) Put the rice vermicelli in a large bowl and soak in enough hot water to cover, until the noodles are soft (about 8 to 10 minutes). Drain noodles and set aside.
3) Start by heating up 2 tablespoons of oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add the curry powder, the ginger, and the minced garlic, and saute until fragrant. Add the chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar, and chili paste. Stir to combine and then cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and set aside.
4) Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large wok over high heat. Add in the remaining garlic and ginger, and stir-fry until the garlic starts to become golden. Add in the celery, onion, pepper, cabbage, sprouts, green onions, and mushrooms. Stir-fry for 3 minutes, until the vegetables start to soften. Set the vegetables aside in a bowl.
5) Heat the last 2 tablespoons of oil in the wok over high heat. Add in the shrimp and stir-fry until they start to turn pink on both sides. Or simply add the char siu and toss to combine.
6) Add in the noodles and the vegetables. Mix the ingredients thoroughly to coat all the noodles and incorporate all the vegetables.
7) Serve hot.

Note: you can buy an acceptable pre-cooked version of the Chinese pork at Trader Joe’s.

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