Although Food Wednesday was yesterday, I thought I would share this website on food. Specifically about defrosting and roasting a chicken. It is never to late to learn something new.
This website 100 Days of Real Food has some really great info. I could get lost in the content for hours.
Since it is farmer’s market season, you should be able to find fresh or frozen whole chickens easily near you. We will have broiler chickens ready for sale in late July.
I have been trying to figure out what to call our new venture into the food business, by way of the Peterborough Farmer’s Market. We have had two weeks at the market cooking food from local farms and vendors and it has been very successful so far. The only thing that has been tough is explaining who we are, what we do as Oxbow Farm and why we are cooking food. So, I have decided to tie our cooking to our latest column, “Farmer on the Street.” With a yet-to-be-finalized killer tag line, this title will explain the fact that we are taking local products and creating yummy, healthy food, but we are still Oxbow Farm at the very core.
We will let you know our final decision on wording soon.
Yes, it has been a while. I’ve been busy. But here is a picture to make you happy!
I recently went with my daughter’s preschool class to the local dairy where they learned how to milk a cow, the old fashioned way and with technology. It was stinky but fun.
It will only be a few weeks before the spring Farmer’s Markets in this begin. Some winter markets will continue operating but at a much fuller scale.
Do you have a plan to visit your local market this year? What is holding you back? The common culprit is money. There is a general thought that all items at the market are expensive. Sometimes that is true and sometimes it is not. You have to be smart and know what it is you are buying. You also have to know why items are priced the way they are…but that’s a whole other blog post…
Check out this short blog on how to shop at the market on a budget from this amazing website: Hand Picked Nation
Let us know, what do you buy at your local market? What is your strategy?
Hi all! Sorry for the lack of posts last week. I was soooo sick! I did not have enough energy to attempt anything more than my normal “get the kids and animals fed” duties. Although I am still not 100%, I plan on making an effort with my posts this week.
In other news the snow is almost gone. That means I can soon plant peas!
Thanks for being patient..
So, it turns out that if I was taken hostage and asked to make bread, I wouldn’t die- as long as I had dough already prepared and access to a dutch oven.
It is hard to figure out how big this loaf is from the angle of my picture, sorry. It was about one pound and it was enough for a family of 4 to have a piece or two with dinner, plus a little big left over. We probably could have eaten the whole thing in one sitting, but that would have done a number on our bellies.
I used the book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I followed the recipe exactly except for their method of cooking. They tell you to place your bread on a baking pan with a dusting of corn meal on the bottom to prevent sticking. They want you to place a separate dish of water in the oven too. This is to create a bit of steam which in turn creates a nice crust on the outside of the loaf. But I placed mine in a dutch oven with a little bit of cooking spray on the bottom. When the cover is on, it creates steam inside which cannot escape and therefore causes the crust to harden too.
Find the book and a link to the book’s site here. I never actually knew that they had a site until I just searched for the book. Now I am super-excited.
This bread is made using the new “make the bread and let it rise in the fridge” fashion. It goes against everything your Grandmother told you about baking bread. And like I mentioned before, I made it exactly like the recipe. Maybe next time I will try to use less dairy or will try spelt flour. My family loved it so i must make it more often.
Thanks Raisa for letting me borrow the book and for giving me the inspiration to be organized!
Have you tried making this style bread before? Send me your photos of the bread you have made?
This past weekend I attended the first ever New Hampshire Meat Conference. It was a gathering of all things meat; farmers who raise meat and those that process, promote and eat it! I learned so much and I made some great connections. On Saturday night a bluegrass band played during the “Meat Ball”, but during their intermission there was a meat cutting demo. The goal was to de-bone and cut up into sections a half pig in 20 minutes. It was a 400lb sow, to be specific. He did it with 0 seconds to spare.
Here is a bit of the excitement.
Have you ever seen anything like this before? Share your stories with us.
I have already planted some seedlings with the Cornucopia Project last week but I am gearing up for more. Perhaps this weekend? One of my problems last year with my seedlings (as I had many) was the fact that I used a washable marker to mark what I planted on my little sticks. It was within arms reach so I used it. Then after a few spritzes with the water bottle, they slowly started to leak down the stick, making the letters pretty illegible.
Last summer while I was visiting my sister in Ottawa, (hi Mary) we ventured to a farmer’s market in Carp. I had the best spring roll there I have ever had AND I saw this wonderful idea for labeling your garden.
Do you have any gardening hints? Let me know! Log in to share your comments below. (In order to avoid spam, our followers must log in to comment)
You may be snowed-in where you live today, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t travel….virtually I mean. My friend Laura Mahoney has been busy touring New Hampshire and taking photographs of all that she sees as she goes. She has a specific focus on farming but that doesn’t stop her from photographing whatever she finds that is beautiful or interesting. She is planning on visiting Oxbow Farm in the coming weeks but until then, check out her site and see if you see a familiar face or place.
www.touringnh.com
