Posts Tagged ‘vegetables’

• Small Size, Big Flavor

  Date: 06.09.2010 | Category: Real Food | Response: 0

  You can bike, walk or even ride your skateboard to your local farmers’ market this weekend. There’s no need to bring the truck–local vegetables are so tiny right now they’ll all fit into one handy basket. Check out Half Pint Farm at Vermont’s Burlington Farmer’s Market this Saturday and you’ll see that their carrots are small enough to slide into your back pocket. The turnips are no bigger than ping-pong balls. Their radishes are the size of shooter marbles. But what these babies lack in size they more than make up for in utter sweetness.

  If you don’t gobble up these vegetable gems within the first hour of coming home, consider roasting them for an easy side dish alongside roast chicken or lamb. A simple, juicy roast Pete’s Pastured Chicken (available at the Pete’s Greens Farm Stand in Crafstbury) should provide ample meat for a dinner as well as sandwiches the next day. All you’ll need to complete the meal is a fine loaf of olive bread or a pain au levain from Red Hen Bakery and couple of your favorite Vermont cheeses.

  Itty-Bitty Roasted Vegetables
  from the FarmPlate Kitchen

  Those “baby” carrots sold in sealed plastic bags at the supermarket aren’t babies at all. They’re tough and tired oldsters that have been trimmed and whittled to a uniform length. Look for true baby carrots with their green tops still attached.

  1 pound baby carrots, green tops trimmed to ½ inch
  1 pound tiny turnips, trimmed and quartered
  8 ounces baby radishes, sliced in half
  2 tablespoons olive oil
  ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  A generous grinding of black pepper
  8 to 10 thin asparagus spears, ends trimmed, spears cut into 2-inch lengths
  1 shallot, minced
  1 tablespoon rice vinegar or other mild vinegar
  1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
  1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
  1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
  Crumbled Vermont Creamery goat’s milk feta (optional)

  Preheat oven to 450ºF. Line a baking sheet with sides with parchment paper.

  Combine the carrots, turnips and radishes in a mixing bowl. Add the oil, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon of water and toss to coat. Transfer the vegetables to the prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, stirring once or twice. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Add the sliced asparagus and shallots and sprinkle with the vinegar. Toss to mix and return the pan to the oven. Roast for 10 minutes more.

  Transfer the roasted vegetables to a serving bowl, sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs and toss. If you like, sprinkle with a little crumbled feta.

  Serves 4 to 6

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• Pete Johnson: Year-Round Farmer and Innovator

  Date: 01.29.2010 | Category: Farmer Beat | Response: 0

  Spring is only three weeks away–at least for the savvy Vermonters who’ve already signed up for their Spring Localvore Share from Pete’s Greens’ Good Eats CSA.

  Pete Johnson, the Pete in Pete’s Greens, is a rock star among New England organic famers, and his year-round CSA concept is spreading across the country. By growing salad greens in unheated, movable greenhouses on his 230-acre farm in Craftsbury, Johnson has made fresh local produce a cold-season reality here. Johnson is one of “a critical mass of new, innovative farmers” at the heart of “a massive wave of change,” says Dave Rogers, national policy director of NOFA (the Northeast Organic Farmers Association).

  The Spring Localvore Share begins on February 17 and runs through the first week in June. Good Eats CSA members pick up their weekly share at the farm or at one of 15 convenient pickup locations across northern Vermont. Members can look forward to a wide variety of roots, potatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage, celeriac, kohlrabi and other storage crops from the PG cellars plus shoots, sprouts and mesclun that are growing outside throughout the colder months. Frozen vegetables that were harvested and frozen at their peak of freshness last summer augment the fresh veggies. Tomatoes, spinach and braising greens, frozen squash puree and pesto are just a few of the sun-kissed delicacies on ice. By May and June, a wider variety of fresh grown crops will be available—pac choi, baby beets, turnips, scallions, Asian greens and many more.

  In addition to flavor-packed vegetables, share members also receive a wide variety of localvore staples from more than 30 producers in Vermont and southern Quebec. Offerings can include artisan breads, eggs, cheeses, organic Vermont flours, oats, cornmeal and other local grains, cooking oils, vinegars, sweeteners, miso, tamari and other basics.

  CSA members may also opt for a meat share, which features meats grown on the farm and meats and fish (yes! fresh trout!) from local producers. All meats are pastured and grass fed where applicable, and all are sustainably and naturally raised. Many products are certified organic.

  For more information about the farm or to find a CSA sign-up form, click here.

  For more images from Pete’s Greens, check out FarmPlate’s flickr gallery (Pete’s, too!).

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• White House Chef Wins Super Chef Battle

  Date: 01.04.2010 | Category: News Feed | Response: 0

  Cristeta Comerford, the first woman and first Filipino-American to be named White House Executive Chef, put another feather in her chef’s hat on Sunday night by winning Iron Chef America’s Super Chef Battle. With help from her teammate Bobby Flay, Comerford took down cooking show royalty Emeril Lagasse and Mario Batali.

  After working as an assistant chef during the Clinton administration, Comerford was appointed to the prestigious role of White House Executive Chef in 2005 by former First Lady Laura Bush and was reappointed to the position by First Lady Michelle Obama, who appreciated Comerford’s dedication to healthy cooking.

  Comerford is the first White House chef to compete on the Food Network’s cook-off show, Iron Chef America. The show challenges professional chefs to incorporate a “secret ingredient” into a five-course meal in one hour.

  Michelle Obama was a special guest on Sunday’s show, introducing the “secret ingredient” as vegetables from the White House Garden. The much-acclaimed garden has been an instrumental part of Mrs. Obama’s initiative to promote the benefits of eating healthy food while supporting sustainable agriculture and local foods year-round.

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• Bountiful Harvest at 1600 Pennsylvania

  Date: 11.03.2009 | Category: News Feed | Response: 0

  Michelle Obama is reaping the fruits of her labors.

  Last Thursday, the First Lady- with help from DC fifth graders- harvested sweet potatoes, carrots, fennel, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, broccoli and turnips from her backyard vegetable garden.

  Since its first planting in March, the White House kitchen garden has yielded over 740 pounds of vegetables, and cost a mere $180 to plant, reports the Washington Post.

  Produce from the garden has been donated to Miriam’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen that provides fresh food for the homeless in Washington, DC.

  The White House Organic Farm Project (aka The WHOFarm) “began as a non-partisan, petition-based initiative to respectfully request that our 44th President oversee the planting of an organic farm on the grounds of The White House.”

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