Dearest Connoisseurs of "Earthly Delights" -
With temperatures in the teens and a dazzling winter wonderland piling up around us, it is hard to imagine "local food" and Farmers Markets being an available option. Shouldn't we be at the good ole' supermarket mesmerized by fluorescent lights, endless shelves of packaged products, milling over non-food ingredients we can barley pronounce? Heck NO! The Food Revolution has no off-season!! My gang of gregarious growers (despite the cold and ice) are dedicated to feeding your body and soul every Friday night at the BADSEED Farmers Market from 4-8 PM. Pickins' are slim when it comes to fresh produce, but after all, Winter is a time to celebrate the season with hearty and soulful foods that coat your bones like grass-finished lamb & beef, all natural pork, succulent oyster and shitake mushrooms, farm-fresh eggs with burnt orange yolks, artisan sheep's milk cheese, creamy winter squash, sweet potatoes, wholesome breads, spreads, and more. Spring is just around the corner.....until then, one must INDULGE in the delights of the icy season!!! Stay warm and eat up!
The BIG BIG News:
With temperatures in the teens and a dazzling winter wonderland piling up around us, it is hard to imagine "local food" and Farmers Markets being an available option. Shouldn't we be at the good ole' supermarket mesmerized by fluorescent lights, endless shelves of packaged products, milling over non-food ingredients we can barley pronounce? Heck NO! The Food Revolution has no off-season!! My gang of gregarious growers (despite the cold and ice) are dedicated to feeding your body and soul every Friday night at the BADSEED Farmers Market from 4-8 PM. Pickins' are slim when it comes to fresh produce, but after all, Winter is a time to celebrate the season with hearty and soulful foods that coat your bones like grass-finished lamb & beef, all natural pork, succulent oyster and shitake mushrooms, farm-fresh eggs with burnt orange yolks, artisan sheep's milk cheese, creamy winter squash, sweet potatoes, wholesome breads, spreads, and more. Spring is just around the corner.....until then, one must INDULGE in the delights of the icy season!!! Stay warm and eat up!
The BIG BIG News:
As you recall, last week I dumped a whole dirt-load of "farm up-dates" on y'all, but I said I was saving the really crazy news for this week. So as promised, here it is (I get freaked out even typing it!!) - Farmer Brooke and Farmer Dan are having a BABY. Yup! I'm 4 months pregnant! Come June, a little "badseed" will be entering the world. God forbid! Needless to say this baby was not at all planned and I am nothing short of terrified. Dan and I are feeling an overwhelming amount of financial, physical, and emotional strain as we build our off-grid farmstead and continue our efforts with BADSEED. We had no plans of ever having children, let alone in the midst of the most challenging time of our lives. But hey, what the heck did I expect?? I am a farmer for crying out loud - my business is "the birds and the bees". If anyone should understand how Mother Nature works, it should be me. Plants and animals live to procreate. It is simply their destiny. In fact, the farmer plays a rather manipulative role - choosing when and how to breed their animals and (in the case of a cultivator of plants) harvesting the fruits of their crops before they can ever sow their seed. Sometimes I think my pregnancy is a product of my Karma. Perhaps I have harvested the fruits of one too many angry tomato plants who desperately wanted their seeds to return to the earth. Mother Nature figured that by "knocking me up" I would surely be unable to do much damage this season. I mean c'mon - I'll be 8 months pregnant in the height of Spring Planting! Once baby is out, I'll be breast-feeding and changing cloth diapers around the clock. Those damn tomatoes may think they have the last laugh, BUT little do they know that this pregnant farmer still plans to run circles around her apprentices and "rip it up" in the field from sunup to sundown with baby in belly & baby in hand. Okay, Okay, I'm not just being "cocky". Really, what choice do I have? I can either sink or swim....(the work won't go away and neither will the bills). But, don't worry! Baby and I are doing fine so far. We dug sweet potatoes during the early days, planted out an orchard when baby was about the size of a walnut, and we've been tending to the animals and working the field everyday since in the cold and the ice. Baby doesn't seem to mind. People like Dan and I spend every waking minute cultivating life, so this really cannot be too far from our area of expertise. Right? We will rise to the occasion and be wonderful parents someway, somehow. People do it everyday.
Okay, enough baby talk. Lets focus on something I am a little more comfortable with, like FOOD:
Recipe Round-Up
Alright folks, ya hungry? I sure am. In the winter I absolutely crave the richest, most decadent dishes. Being a connoisseur of rustic Sicilian cuisine, I tend to to be drawn to rather laborious handmade pastas with fresh eggs from my hens and seasonal ingredients like butternut squash and sweet potatoes.
Check out this month's Tastebud, themed "Comfort Classics", which is filled with delicious, heart-warming recipes including my Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Basil Pesto Cream Sauce. You can pick up a print copy for free at BADSEED and various locations throughout the city.
**Butternut squash can be used instead of sweet potatoes to make a mouthwatering gnocchi as well. Go wild. Pics attached.
This Week's Organic Offerings:
Bigg Blue Farm, Stan & Carmen Biggs (Mosby, MO)