Farm Dinner

Minimal preparation, just sliced tomatoes and basil, sliced cucumbers, steamed beans with thyme.

Our Berry Situation

The farm has two types of berries growing along the Western perimeter; blackberries and raspberries. Both came from Nick the Farmer in the form of sticks with a little root ball at the bottom. We never thought they would thrive like this. 

You can see two shades of green in that bush. The darker green are the blackberries, the lighter leaves are members of the raspberry bush. Some of the raspberries are ripe. We had them for dinner last night with a salmon that was swimming in Alaska just a couple days ago.

State Fair Biennial: Ice Cream Throwdown

Four contestants, all ice cream making enthusiasts. Votes were tallied from the tasting audience. 

The entries were: Lychee Lime Sorbet (not really an ice cream but so good!), Chocolate, Chocolate Bourbon, Banana Bourbon, Fig and Lemon Zest, and one more that went so fast I couldn't even write it down. And the winner is…

State Fair Biennial: Food

Tons of food. A lot of the ingredients we used were from our garden. It's the last harvest of figs this year and it was great to share them with everybody. Jalapenos are in abundant supply right now too and were made use of in a jalapeno lime butter, a green chile mayo and a big hit, the jalapeno fig jam. Friends brought a lot of food to share as well which makes a party even more fun. A main food attraction event this year was the State Fair Sausage Fest. In our italian neighborhood sausage is a specialty. On the grill were fennel sausage, broccoli rabe sausage, pepper and onion sausage, hot pepper sausage and some lamb sausage.

State Fair Biennial: Dessert Spread

Farmer No. 1 was up to her usual tricks with concord grape pie and cupcakes. Farm friends brought more tasty treats like a JEFF cookie platter.

Making Fig Jalapeno Jam

Figs are ripening non-stop right now. For this harvest we decided to make a Fig Jalapeno jam. Hot and sweet.

We are working on jam labels too and will show pictures of the finished product soon.

Cucumbers

Our magnificent cucumber patch is where it's happening. We have a mix of japanese and kirby cucumbers in there. The kirby cucumbers are perfect for pickles because they are small and the seeds are soft. This first batch consisted of only four small jars. More on the way.

How we used it: Poblano Peppers

Pepper harvest over the weekend. They're still coming which is great since it's hovering around 40 degrees outside now.
Translated into delicious vegetarian chiles rellenos for farm friends patrick, erica, and patrick's mom.

End of Season Dinner Party

A few weeks ago we invited some good friends over for an outdoor dinner. It's getting colder out and the light is fading. The dinner was a lot of fun and we can't wait for next year to do this more.
Farmer No. 1 setting the mood.

Farmer No. 2 and farm friend Mike picked figs and prepared them on the spot for a snack.

Fresh figs with peppered honey.

How we used it: Figs

There is a massive abundance of figs right now. Since we took over the farm three years ago, the fig tree has grown three fold. We are constantly looking for different fig uses. Farmer No. 1 has made vast quantities of jam. We are almost figged out.

This fig tart recipe asked for 1.5 lbs of fresh figs. No problem there.

It is a Fresh Fig Tart with Rosemary Cornmeal Crust and Lemon Mascarpone Cream

The Best Pie in the World

Have you ever heard of Grape Pie? We hadn't either, but when we discovered our Concord Grape vine actually produced lots and lots of fragrant, juicy grapes, we started looking for recipes. A friend recommended Grape Pie, so we tried it. The result is a fabulous, sweet pie similar to blueberry pie, but very grape-y and delicious. Here are the steps to make your very own:

Step 1: Harvest the grapes or buy from the local market (they are in season now!). 4-5 cups are needed for a 9-10 inch pie.

Step 2: A little labor intensive, but each grape has a seed inside that must be removed. Squeeze the grape so the inside pops out into a bowl, and put grape the skin in another bowl.

Step 3: Heat the insides with the seeds in a skillet until they turn pale yellow and the seeds become loose. Push the insides through a fine strainer or food mill to separate the seeds from the juice and pulp.

Step 4: Combine strained juice/pulp with skins, 1 cup sugar, 1 T lemon juice, 3 T cornstarch and stir until smooth. Pour into an unbaked pie crust (homemade crust is worth it!), dot with butter pats, and cover. Cut vents. Sprinkle crust with sugar and cinnamon (the cinnamon is key for the perfect flavor). Bake at 450 degrees for 30 mins, then 375 degrees for 30 mins until bubbling through the vents.

Step Five: Enjoy this slice of heaven with a little vanilla ice cream!

How we used it: eggplant, peppers, basil

For dinner tonight we grilled eggplant and peppers, topped with feta cheese, basil, olive oil, lemon juice. It was very tasty. The lemon and basil really make it complete.

How we used it: cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic

This was a yummy preparation of cherry tomatoes that we marinated in balsamic vinegar and put on toasted ciabatta rubbed with garlic, topped with ricotta and sprinkled with basil. We got the recipe from a really pretty cookbook A Platter of Figs.

Harvest

It's been a whole two weeks! Farmer No. 1 and No. 2 got married on August 8! The ceremony was hosted by Farmer Barbara and Dave Murphy in their beautiful backyard garden in Colorado Springs. We'll post pictures in a few weeks. 

Well we got right back to work at Brooklyn Farm. It's peak season right now with crops piling up everywhere. Here is Farmer No. 1 looking very serious and determined hunting down ripe tomatoes.

Our lima beans are ready for picking!
Tonight we ate a local fresh dinner with homemade spaghetti sauce. Onions from the farmers market, pasta from Caputo's, and Brooklyn Farm tomatoes, garlic and basil. The only major carbon footprint comes from the 4000 miles the parmesan travelled. Tough to avoid.

The green bean and lima beans were steamed with butter and truffle oil. Yummy!

Operation Red Chard

Hello! Farmer-for-a-day guest blogging here!

There’s nothing better than getting fresh produce from Brooklyn Farm. It’s a combination of all my favorite things – food, free stuff, and usually a trip to see Farmers 1 & 2. Once upon a time, I had a green thumb, but my choice of borough and the airshaft that casts a permanent night (and pigeon habitat) on my windows has left me without a garden.

Farmer No. 2 met me at an undisclosed Manhattan location to deliver to me fourteen tomatoes, two jalapeños, and a beautiful bunch of red chard.

I have never eaten chard. In fact, until this incident, it scared me. Sometimes vegetable names scare me, like scapes. (I have heard that scapes are like garlic, but frankly, I do not eat scapes because it sounds like scabies or scabs or scabbies.) However, as a guest blogger I had a duty to cook and eat the chard.

Today could not be another ice-cream-cake-for-lunch-Tuesday.

Meanwhile, I found a recipe in the New York Times. I roughly followed the directions and boiled the chard for about a minute in heavily salted water, immersed it into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.

As it cooled, I heated olive oil in my pretty blue pot, roasted pine nuts and sautéed minced garlic. The recipe said to sauté the stalks for 3-5 minutes before adding the leaves, but given that the Brooklyn Farm produces tender baby chard-lets, and not the tough stalks on grocery store chard, I didn’t feel bad about disregarding this step.

The pièce de résistance of the dish was the golden raisins and cranberries that I soaked in hot water for about 10 minutes. I added these reconstituted fruits and the ½ cup of soaking water into the pot with the chard, pine nuts, garlic. I added a little salt and pepper and was ready to eat!

It looked like Christmas in a blue pot! Red, green, and Christmas light-shaped pine nuts. Would it taste like Christmas, too?

First bite analysis: It tasted like stir-fried lettuce boiled in beet juice. But as the flavors melded together, it got much, much better. I added more salt and pepper and experimented with a sprinkle of nutmeg. The bites with the golden raisins were divine, and the moment I got some of the browner, crispy pine nuts in the bite, I was a chard convert.

Recommendations for next chard preparation: more pine nuts, fried longer until golden, and more golden raisins. I’d also add bacon at the beginning.

Everything’s better with bacon.

Farm Pizza

Farm friends Patrick, Erica and baby Lyla came by on Friday to experiment with grilled pizza. First we got some dough from Vinny's Pizzeria. $5 each which I think is a bit stiff… can't you tell when somebody's eyes go to the upper left they are lying? So when I ask 'Vinny' how much just dough is… his eyes go upper left and says…$5… he just threw out a number right? Anyways, it was worth it. Farmer No. 2 still had to throw the dough around to spread it out.

And then on a super hot grill you lay the dough down for 20 seconds. Turn it 90 degrees for another 20 seconds and the flip it for 30 seconds. As read by Farmer No. 1 from Men's Journal.
Take the dough off the grill and put down the ingredients on the first side. Then stick the pizza on the grill for another 2–5 minutes.
Done! This was the first pizza and you can see Farmer No. 2 was still figuring out how to get the shape right.
Fresh beets and tomatoes from the farm. A caprese salad by Farmer No. 1.

Great pictures by Patrick.