Therefore, as much as I'd like to "pull you in" with romantic anecdotes of life on the farm I simply cannot. In fact, my face will fall flat on the key board if I continue to type much longer!! Besides, my brain is like mush and I have officially reached the ranks of ZOMBIE FARMER. However, this Zombie Farmer (along with her zombie farmer husband) did manage to have a big night out with Percival this past Saturday. It was a wedding in Weston with dinner and dancing. It was a HUGE deal as Farmer Dan and I never get to go anywhere fun, let alone dance and dine!! It made me feel like a human being again. Ever since I started farming I have been working like a dog and I barely get to come up for air. Now that I have this magical little boy in my life, I am realizing just how important it is to "throw down the garden hoe" and take the time to LOVE those around you (sleep or no sleep). So, in conclusion, I AM A ZOMBIE, not much of a farmer, I LOVE my kid, and I like to dance. Whatever profound point I had set out to make in this little "rant" has been long lost in the mush of my sleepless mind. Who cares! I'll see you Friday.....
Just a reminder : If Friday's are no good for you, get your hands on our sexy veggies every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 6 at the URBAVORE FARMSTAND. Bring your food scraps while your at it - we will turn them into next season's bounty with our City-Wide Residential Composting Program. We can also be found on Sundays at the historic City Market from 8 to 3 pm. Eat up!
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Sexy Veggie of the Week
This week' Runner-Up is not really a vegetable at all, BUT it is so damn delicious that I couldn't possibly ignore it. Give it up for some herbal insanity known as Thai BASIL.
This prolific herb, native to Southeast Asia, has gorgeous purple stems, mauve flowers, and licorice-flavored leaves that explode with an intensive and ever so distinctive flavor. Many strains of Thai basil are used heavily in Asian cuisine both cooked and raw. You may be familiar with it as that glorious anise-flavored leaf that accompanies a steaming bowl of Pho at your favorite Vietnamese Restaurant. (It doesn't get any better than that...) For us Westerners who may be a little shy at trying our hands at the various asian dishes that celebrate thai basil, here is an excellent and EASY recipe for THAI BASIL PESTO. This sexy sauce can be generously slathered over rice noodles or (better yet) seasonal veggies & LOCAL TOFU from Central Soyfoods!!
This week's Grand-Prize-Winner is Varietal Gourmet GARLIC in Red Chesnok, Music, German White, Silverskin, and Artichoke.
HEAVEN HELP ME!!!....the giant garlic harvest is FINALLY dug, dried, and cleaned and bedazzling the market tables. Get it while it's HOT!
Needless to say, Farmer Dan and I are OBSESSED with garlic - (it is a no-fail crop and it makes EVERYTHING taste better....). Therefore, we grow a whole heck of a lot of it in an assortemnt of pungent & interesting varieties. As our farm expands, we plan to grow more and more and eventually we hope to offer some of the most rare and coveted varieties of gourmet garlic in the world!!
This Friday we will have the following:
Red Chesnok - (I've talked about this stuff before....) It is a hard-neck variety that comes from Shvelisi, Georgia. It has beautiful purple striping and a simply superb flavor that lingers when cooked. It's unusually creamy texture and potent disposition has given it the reputation of "best baking garlic" on the market. It is a favorite amongst gourmet chefs across the globe.
Music - This German beauty is a large and stately well-formed porcelain garlic with a rich and musky flavor that explodes upon the palate. These large (easily handled) cloves will store for close to 9 months in proper conditions!
German White - Similar to Music, this German Hard-neck is equally as delicious. It has a strong, moderately spicy flavor with 4 to 6 large cloves per bulb.
Silverskin - This soft-neck variety is most often found on supermarket shelves due to it's looong storage life. Unlike the supermarket Silverskin, our's is grown is nutrient rich organic soils giving it more flavor and integrity. Bulb wrappers are smooth and pure white with three tasty bulb layers. This is the most popular braiding garlic due to it's shiny skin and symmetrical shape.
Artichoke - Artichoke garlic is named for it's layers of overlapping cloves (like the layers of a true artichoke). Three to five layers will produce somewhere between 12 to 20 cloves. This pungent and powerful garlic has a soft-neck and stores beautifully. Bulbs can be quite LARGE and irregularly shaped, but full of flavor and character none the less! (a personal favorite)
Pictures are attached. You know the drill - print them out, blow them up, and plaster them all over the men's room!!
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THIS WEEK'S ORGANIC OFFERINGS -
URBAVORE Urban Farm
A project of BADSEED - Brooke Salvaggio & Daniel Heryer
5500 Bennington Ave., Kansas City, MO 64129
Welcome to URBAVORE - an off-grid, diversified, urban farmstead in the heart of KCMO. Born in 2011, URBAVORE is working towards the creation of an “edible oasis” that brings organic growth, sustainable life, and creative solutions to a city neighborhood. We grow an extensive variety of heirloom vegetables noted for their unique appearance and extraordinary flavor, as well as an array of culinary/medicinal herbs and edible flowers. URBAVORE is a non-certified, beyond organic operation dedicated to respecting both the health of the individual and the environment. It is our aim to build community and collective consciousness through the universal pleasure that comes from eating good food.
OFFERINGS:
*Freshly Dug POTATOES in Purple Majesty, Purple Viking, Austrian Crescent, Colorado Rose, Yukon Gold and more
*GARLIC!!! (in assorted gourmet varieties)
*Freshly Pulled Sweet Red Italian ONIONS!!!
*ORGASMIC EGGPLANT (in Black Beauty, Rosa Bianca, Thai Purple, Swallow, & Ping Tung)
*Cool CUCUMBERS!! (picklers, Persians, & slicers)
*SEXY SUMMER SQUASH!! (in yellow crookneck, eight ball, raven zucchini, & french scallop)
*BODACIOUS BEETS (in Cylindra, Chioggia, Detroit Dark Red, & Three Root Grex)
* Gold Ball Buttery Cooking TURNIPS
* THAI BASIL
* SWEET ITALIAN BASIL
* LEMON BASIL
*HEIRLOOM TOMATOES (just a few that we snatched away from the deer!!)
Herb'n Gardener
Lew Edmister
17th and Belleview, Kansas City, MO 64108
For the “meanest greens” in town, check out Lew's gourmet selection of urban-grown goodies. He grows a mouthwatering array of lettuces, spicy mustards, arugula, and gourmet salad mixes on KC’s west side. Other tasty morsels include heirloom tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, okra, and filet beans. New For 2011 -RUSTIC BREAD straight from Lew’s hand-built wood-fired oven. YUM!
OFFERINGS
From the Lips of Lew:
"
one thing that keeps us farmers doing this dance (other than our collective insanity) is that we get to continually witness the intensity of the extremes of growth and sometimes destruction of our crops, and as follows, our incomes. in the space of a week i've witnessed the canopy of my kale rows change from barely holding onto any life at all, to now having a blossoming full canopy of new leaves. and it's all because of the magic of rain. i tell you it's a powerful vision. it reaffirms my belief in living in the cathedral of my garden. the kale i couldn't harvest last week will be on the table this week. as we used to say in the sixties and seventies, "far out"!!! that rain has also saved my peppers and i can smoke more of them this week. smoked anaheim and hungarian hots. yum! while i'm on the subject, i want to repeat my offer of smoking whatever peppers you guys are growing if you want. i'll do it on a straight split basis. yes, i'll have arugula again this week as well as the salad mix i make with it - spice on spice. the sweetswiss chard seems a little slower in recovery, but i'll still have some. my potted winter thyme can still be set out and will winter-over. the rosemary i started from seed is now in need of potting up one more time, but i'm still bringing it along"
JJ Farms
John & Judy Kaiahua
8531 E. 81st Terrace, Raytown, MO 64138
816-356-3938
John has been growing organically since 1984!! He plants, weeds, and harvests all his own crops on urban land that has been chemical free for over 20 years. Produce includes a wide array of vegetable offerings as well as apples, peaches, and pears in season. John is originally from the far off lands of Hawaii where he comes from a long line of pearl divers!! Now he spends his days out of the ocean and in the dirt, growing righteous foods for the Kansas City community. Lucky us!
*John and Micki will be absent this week and maybe for the next few Fridays. Summer crops pooped out in the excess heat and Fall crops are on the way. Stay tuned for their AWESOME offerings. (John grows one hell of an autumn cabbage!!!)
Bigg Blue Farm
Stan & Carmen Biggs
19801 NE U.S. Highway 69, Liberty, MO 64068
Despite full-time jobs, Stan and Carmen Biggs still find time to organically grow an impressive array of colorful vegetables, greens, and storage crops on 7 fertile acres in Mosby, MO. Stan started out growing nutritious foods for his family as a 4-H project as a small boy. Stan’s passion for gardening was renewed when he met his wife Carmen, who grew up on her family’s 1,500-hectare farmstead in Romania that had passed through many generations. Today they cultivate the earth together, bringing well-fed customers delicious homegrown foods every Friday night at the BADSEED Farmers Market and through their Community Supported Agriculture program.
OFFERINGS:
*Heirloom TOMATOES (Cherokee Purples, Ida Gold, Green Zebras, Lemon Boys and more)
*Red Slicing Tomatoes
Cantaloupe (mix of Hales, Athena, Arava and Edens Gem)
Sweet Corn!!! (it made it through the heat!!)
Peppers
Candy onions
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Yellow squash
*FREE-RANGE BROWN EGGS from Barham Cattle Ranch in Kearney, MO
Parker Farms All-Natural Meats
Tom & Paula Parker
Richmond, MO
"We produce all-natural gourmet beef, lamb, pork, poultry, and eggs. All of our beef and lamb is 100% grassfed. They are never fed any grain, animal by products, antibiotics, or injected with growth hormones. We have been practicing Management Intensive Grazing since 1997. It is our goal to care for all of the livestock that we have been blessed with, in as natural and humane a manner as we can. Our chickens for meat and eggs are also raised on pasture with green grass under their feet as much as the weather in this part of the world allows. Our hogs are fed grain, but do live outdoors with dirt under their feet. We do not use any petroleum based pesticides or fertilizers on our pastures. We believe that healthy people, and healthy animals start with healthy plants and a healthy, biologically active, soil community. Our meats are available at the BADSEED Market or through our Community Supported Agriculture shares."
OFFERINGS:
*Ground Beef & Patties
*Pork Products: Chops, Brats, Breakfast Sausage, Italian Sausage, & Spare Ribs
*Lamb Cuts: Ground Lamb, Shoulder Steaks, Rib Chop (butterfly cut, loin chops), Leg (bone in whole, shanks, lamb liver)
**Pastured Chickens (just a few available....come early!!)
*Tea Towels, Hand-made Teas, Candles, and Gourd Bird Houses from the lovely Parker Girls!!
Green Dirt Farm
Jacqueline Smith & Sarah Hoffman
Weston, MO
"Life is too short to eat grocery store cheeses! Green Dirt Farm, LLC invites you to try our HANDCRAFTED ARTISANAL SHEEP CHEESES created with milk from our very own PASTURED ewes. You can be assured of a richness and depth of flavor unique to the rolling bluffs of Weston, MO. Also on the menu is 100% GRASS-FED LAMB which is of unsurpassed quality, tenderness, and flavor."
OFFERINGS:
*Grass-Fed Lamb
*Artisan Sheep's Milk Cheese in aged and fresh varieties
New Traditionalist - Artisan Bread
Chris Glenn
Kansas City, MO
Chris produces old-world, rustic loaves from the finest locally-grown and milled flour on the market. His breads are made from a sour-dough "starter", lovingly kneaded, and baked to perfection in a wood-fired oven. Flour and water never tasted so good!
OFFERINGS:
*Our busy baker (and new Daddy!!) will be taking the week off to catch up on LIFE! Get your hands on his crusty buns next Friday.
Miller's Honey
Les MIller
Independence, MO
Les Miller only produces the best damn RAW HONEY on the market. No joke!! He is an encyclopedia of knowledge when it comes to sustainable bee keeping and uses 100% natural and holistic methods for managing his hives which range from 60 to 100 at any given time. His honey is sold in various quantities, and 1 gallon jugs are available on request! Bees wax candles and other by-products are also available for purchase.
OFFERINGS:
*Raw Honey
*Bees Wax Candles
Get Real Food Co.
Sean Henry
Kansas City
"At GetReal Food Company, we’re committed to creating incredible beverages made with real foods that are naturally brewed. Hand-crafted by real people who truly care about the details, from what they make to how they make it, from what they put in their bodies to what you put in yours. The result is a series of beverages that create a new expression of soft drinks and mixers."
OFFERINGS:
*Kombucha
*Micro-Brewed, All-Natural SODA!!
THIS IS THE BEST STUFF ON EARTH!!!!
Other goodies include:
The new shipment has arrived and we have a full assortment of artisan flours locally grown and milled. A bakers dream....
Remember:
LIVE NUDE VEGETABLES!! and other organic delights...
EVERY FRIDAY AT BADSEED
Yours Truly,
Brooke
-farmer and MILK mistress of the BADSEED
* REGULAR HOURS thru November 18
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