Spring 2012 February 15, 2012

I have been sadly neglecting this blog for some time now, and keep intending to come back to it but life has gotten very busy for me here at the urban farm. This morning, however, I have some quiet time and a few thoughts rolling around inside my head so I decided to post an update!

First, my two girls (Eek and Eve, the dairy herd) are both pregnant and due to kid in about a month. It is very exciting and requires a bit of preparation. Mucking the pen, making sure the girls are healthy and getting enough to eat, and building a separate birthing pen are all on my list of things to do. They both seem happy, although Eve reminds me very much of myself in the third trimester…she radiates an attitude of “get these things out of me!” Lots of groaning and waddling!

The chickens are doing well in the cold, and are enjoying their new coop immensely. We had a fully insulated coop build before the winter snows came and they seem much happier. They are now right up next to the goat pen and have free reign of that area. They are no longer allowed in the main yard due primarily to the havock they wrecked on our gardens this year. Sadly, we have lost one of them to an unknown illness, but the other nine are happy and healthy and we are still drowning in eggs!

Our fruit trees suffered a bit this last season, the combination of the extreme cold and the dry summer was very hard on them and I have a bad feeling the cherry will not recover and will have to be removed. One of the apples was completely devastated and has already been taken out. I am hoping to buy some local heirloom variety trees to replace them this spring, but there is still work that needs to be done in the orchard before then. Primarily, we are looking into cover crops and the possibility of building a wall in order to help the micro-climate out. We will see what happens when the weather turns!

Due to some poor yields last year with a few plants we have really simplified our garden plans for this year. We are going to stop trying to grow potatoes and some of the root veggies (carrots and beets seem to do very poorly in our gardens), and we will focus on more native plants. Tomatoes, flint corn (for cornmeal), beans, squash if we can manage to avoid the vine borers, maybe some melons depending on what we can find seed for, and some chiles. We are hoping that if we move to just a few crops we will get more of everything.

Aside from that, all is well here on the urban farm. I am hopeful that baby goat pictures will be coming soon! The girls are both due around the 20th of March so hopefully I can get some photos shortly thereafter. Happy Spring to all of you!

– RFM

So Inspiring! August 27, 2011

Last night I had the opportunity to listen to Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface farm and author of several books including one titled “Everything I want to do is Illegal”. He has been a long time proponent of organic, sustainable, locally grown food and is an icon of the Real Food movement. I was really excited to hear him speak and he did not disappoint. The lecture he gave last evening was focused on local food sheds and the things necessary in order to have a successful and sustainable local food system.

The things he mentioned were relatively straightforward – farmers, obviously, and then distributors, processors and consumers. He spoke of the need for local processing plants and how the lack of local butchers and canners has a huge impact on the ability of local, small farms to get their product from farm to table. The same problem arises with transporting the product. Rather than having each farmer drive in their own vehicle to the farmer’s market, he suggested a cooperative transport system.

What was so inspiring about this was that here in Santa Fe we actually have some of that infrastructure already. We have something called Santa Fe Farm to Restaurant Delivers, where a truck goes to the farms, picks up the produce and then delivers it to the restaurants here that participate in the Farm to Restaurant project. All of this is made possible by the Santa Fe Alliance. It is so wonderful to live in a place that is working to move towards a more sustainable local food system.

I was able to walk away from the lecture last night feeling not only inspired, but also hopeful and confident that the local food movement will be successful. I only hope that I can take my small backyard farm and turn it into a sustainable and healthy place to raise my animals and our food. And while not everyone can raise their own food, everyone can support local farmers and their local food shed. So Happy Eating!

Red Chili Brownies July 29, 2011

I am currently in the depths of catering hell. Well, not quite, but I can pretend in the hopes of getting sympathy right? Suffice it to say that while I am actually making a bunch of food for an event, it is generally going smoothly so the h-double-hockey-sticks is a bit of an exaggeration. I have successfully finished four deserts and am currently taking a short break from prep work for tomorrow’s breakfast. I figured what better time than now to share with you, my readers, the most excellent creation I conjured forth – Red Chili Brownies.

Now, I realize that this is not an entirely unique creation. In fact, chocolate and spice seems to be the thing these days, but I am proud of myself for the original recipe nonetheless and am hoping that some of you might enjoy nibbling on a few of these while imaging yourself in the Land of Enchantment.

For those of you familiar with the local fare, Red Chili is a staple in northern New Mexican food. Everyone seems to have an opinion about how to prepare it and while I do not purport to be an expert, I certainly have my own preferences. I tend to buy red chili powder, rather than pods, and use it as a seasoning for sauces and other savory dishes. This was my first foray into spicey-sweet.

I wish my camera was working because these things are beautiful. Basically I started with pan of brownies, which I then cut into circles with a biscuit cutter and topped with a thick bittersweet ganache and a dash of red chili powder. They are bite sized pieces of marvelosity. Which I realize isn’t a word but it certainly describes these little morsels!

Red Chili Brownie

10 TBSP organic unsalted butter
6 oz unsweetened chocolate of your choice
1 3/4 c organic cane sugar
4 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1 TBSP vanilla
1 c flour
1 – 2 TBSP red chili powder from New Mexico red chili (if available)*
1 tsp cinnamon

*Depending on how hot you like it! I use about 1 TBSP because I am a whimp!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 9×13 baking dish.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler. Once melted, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Whisk the flour, red chili and cinnamon together in a bowl and set aside. While waiting for the chocolate to cool, beat the eggs and salt until light and foamy. Add the sugar and beat until mixed. Slowly add the cooled chocolate to the egg mixture, stirring while you do so in order to incorporate the chocolate fully. Fold the flour and chili mixture into the batter until just combined. Pour into the prepared baking dish and bake until just set, so that a toothpick stuck in the center comes out somewhat cakey, about 18 minutes.

For the ganache:

Heat 1 c heavy cream over a low heat until it just starts to simmer at the edges and begins to form a skin. Pour an 8 oz bag of bittersweet chocolate chips into a heat proof bowl and then pour the hot cream over them, stirring until the mixture is smooth and uniform. Spread over the cooled brownies and sprinkle lightly with red chili powder.

Happy Eating! (and lets hope I can my camera up and running so I can have pics of these!)

Drought July 23, 2011

Drought!

This year has been particularly difficult from a gardening standpoint here in fair Santa Fe, NM. While we do technically live in the desert and are used to dryness and all the things associated with it (dust, giant poisonous insects, bad skin…) we are also used to a monsoon season. Sadly this year it just hasn’t kicked in. In the past, our monsoons typically start up in early July, sometimes earlier, and give us a break from the heat in a form of nice, regular afternoon thunderstorms. Not so much this year. We have had three rains so far, and while the clouds start and try to build up every afternoon, they tend to disperse without dropping any of the wet stuff on us.

As a result our food plants are very stressed. The orchard is a mess. Our trees, which suffered some severe cold this winter (think 20 below) are now suffering from severe drought combined with extreme sun. While we can water them, we really can’t give them shade. Suffice it to say we only have one bearing fruit at the moment (a nice little plum that is hidden and shaded by the location of our RV) and the others look sickly. Our cherry tree doesn’t even really have leaves anymore.

We lost both of our red raspberries and while the black one is doing okay it isn’t happy. Our tomatoes, which I started from seed, suffered from a late frost and only about four survived so we bought replacements for them. And while our salad garden did great, our corn is pathetic, our squash still has borers and our carrots and beets never came up.

This has been a very hard year for gardening here in the high desert and it makes me realize how much work needs to be done in this climate to feed oneselves. Our chickens are doing well, although they started molting with the heat, and our goats are dusty but content so at least our milk and egg production is stable.

Suffice it to say one of the reasons I haven’t written here in some time is simply because I haven’t had anything from our garden to write about! It has been a hard year and I am hoping that the monsoons will come finally (the forecast has been for a higher chance of rain this week) and that our plants will start producing some delicious foods. We do have tiny zucchini’s, and some green tomatoes so I am hopeful we will be able to have a few harvests before too long.

In the mean time, I will continue to hope for rain and look toward the skies.

Happy Eating!

Cavities! Oh no! June 17, 2011

I have cavities?!

So in a routine dental visit this month we discovered that my three year old has some problems with his teeth. FOUR cavities! I have been trying to keep his diet as close to my ideal as possible, but given that I am not the only person who feeds him, this hasn’t always been possible. On top of that, I have not always been as firm about sugar as I probably should have been. I consider natural sugars (things like honey and pure maple syrup) less harmful in general due to their other nutritional content, however he still probably gets too much. So after some internal struggles (which involved a certain amount of self-flagellation) I have decided that I probably need to stick to my guns better than I have been.

The real problem that I am having is that I am doing so many things RIGHT. Raw milk, lots of butter and high fat, high vitamin foods. Liver regularly. So the thing I have concluded is that it is the sugar and (duh moment here) the flour products. We eat a lot of bread – home made, fermented even, but it is still there. I am just frustrated I think because this is something that I feel like I was doing right and now I find out that my efforts, though good, may not be enough! His father – sorry babe – has terrible teeth and while we have always kind of assumed it was dietary (sugar, sugar, sugar) I am beginning now to think it is hereditary since the kiddo seems to be suffering from similar issues and his diet is significantly better than his father’s was at the same age.

Regardless, there will be some changes and I will renew my efforts to eliminate those things from his diet of which I know he eats too much. And luckily the trip to the dentist was painless – no screaming, no crying, no trauma. But I am determined to keep it from happening again and am hopeful that this can be accomplished.

Have any of you combated tooth decay successfully using diet alone? I’d be curious to hear your stories!

Delicious Ricotta and Peach Tart May 29, 2011

Now that my goat is back in milk, I am back to my cheese making rituals. The girl I have in milk at the moment is giving me nearly a gallon a day already, and will probably give me more in the next month or so. One of my favorite cheeses to have on hand is ricotta. Ricotta is really a by-product of other cheese making, as it is made by reheating the whey left over from the drained curds of any other cheese. The actual ricotta itself is the small pieces of protein, known as albumin, and when the whey is recooked the proteins denature and if you have fine cheesecloth on hand you can strain it and get ricotta!

There are many uses for this cheese, but my favorite use is in baking. Ricotta can be used to make cheesecake like tarts, adds great flavor and texture to baked goods such as cakes and muffins, and of course is used frequently in baked pasta dishes such as lasagne. I like to experiment with it as it is very forgiving and last night in an effort to make some room in my fridge, I came up with this fabulous recipe.

Ricotta and Peach Tart

3-4 medium peaches
2 c ricotta cheese
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 c cane sugar
1/2 c hazelnut flour

For the pastry

1 1/4 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg yolk

Begin by making the pastry. You can use a food processor to speed this up. If you are going to mix it by hand, it is helpful to have the butter softened. Whisk the flour, sugar and salt together. Add the butter and combine, with the processor or a hand held pastry blender, until you have the appearance of coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolk and mix until it just comes together. Pour into a 9 inch tart pan and shape with your hands. Prick holes in the tart shell with a fork (or use pie weights to keep it from bubbling) and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until it just starts to brown.

While the pastry is blind baking, make the filling. Mix the ricotta with the egg white, whole egg, vanilla, sugar and hazelnut flour. Whisk until well mixed. Remove the tart shell from the oven and add the mixture. Return the filled shell to the oven, lower the oven temperature to 375 and bake until the tart sets, This should take about 35-45 minutes depending on the texture of the ricotta. Home-made ricotta tends to have more liquid in it than store bought and will take longer to set.

While the tart is baking, slice the peaches in half and remove the pits. Thinly slice the peaches, keeping the skin on, and place in a bowl with a tablespoon or two of sugar. When the tart is set, remove it from the oven and place it on a cooling rack. Arrange the peaches on top in whatever pattern you want, being sure to include any juices that have accumulated while the peaches were macerating. Let cool and serve.

Enjoy and Happy Eating!

Tomato Tragedy! May 19, 2011

Our tomato plants did not fair well with the transplant from pot to garden plot the other day, and now it looks like we are expecting weather in the low thirties this evening which, I am afraid to say, may be the final blow to the already stressed plants.

I will be really disappointed if they don’t survive. We had four different heirloom varieties and I have been fantasizing about all the things I will be able to do with them come late summer. At this point it really only looks like about three of the plants will pull through, but I haven’t entirely given up hope yet. Of course, we will have to see how things are tomorrow morning after our cold snap. I fear the worse.

The most distressing part about this, of course, is the fact that I like to think that our gardens can feed us. This is probably unreasonable regardless of circumstance, but when something like this happens it really highlights how fragile the balance is. If we WERE totally dependent on the garden, we would now be down a whole crop. And while that isn’t necessarily the end of the world, it does mean that one of the best foods for canning and preserving would be completely missing from our winter cupboard. It makes me really appreciate and understand how hard it is, and how much luck goes into, being able to survive without the convenience of readily available supermarket variety food.

It is easy to forget that even our farmer’s at the local farmer’s market here struggle with that and are also subject to the whims of nature, regardless of their experience or skill at keeping their crops happy and alive. Just this year one of the local tomato growers lost almost all their plants due to a natural gas shortage which killed the heaters in their greenhouses. So please, think good thoughts tonight while the temperatures dip. I am hopeful that the plants will pull through, but if not I will have to replace them with some other varieties. I hope that your gardens are doing well in spite of the weather here!

Happy Gardening!