From Truckey’s oven, this bread is moist, flavorful, and very autumnal.  All ingredients available at Local Harvest Grocery.

Dry

31/2 cups wheat flour (can mix with white if you’d like)

3 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cloves

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Wet

4 eggs

fresh ginger (grate about 1 inch of ginger root)

2/3 cup water

1 can Organic Pumpkin (available at Local Harvest Grocery)

1 cup oil

Bake 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees.  Muffins would be about 20 minutes

I’m going to add fresh cranberries and maybe walnuts to mine. Yum.

Sarah and her son pick up their delicious, fresh turkey from Local Harvest Grocery.

Hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is a month away. Local Harvest Grocery is offering fresh, Broadbreasted Turkeys from Farrar Out Farm.  The turkeys are $3.49/lb. You can choose the size range of 14-17lb or 18-22lb turkeys.   A $25 deposit is required to hold your turkey.  A Turkey Pick-Up Night is scheduled for November 22nd.  Last year’s was really fun and created a wonderful sense of community. 

We have 100 turkeys total available for sale and already we’ve sold about 25. If you want to sample the turkey, we are smoking at least one turkey a week at our cafe and serving it in our dinner menu.  I enjoyed a few slices last week and found it to be very flavorful and moist!

Farrar Out Farm is a small family farm located about 90 miles south of St. Louis. This husband and wife team has a passion for cooking and eating great food. They started their farm venture because they realized in order to eat the freshest, healthiest food available they needed to raise it themselves.  The Truempers raise certified naturally grown produce, pasture raised Berkshire pigs, eggs, chicken, ducks, geese, broadbreast, and heritage breed turkeys.

With Farm Aid in town this weekend, there are alot of great things going on for the local food community (see below for some info on those). One thing you might not have heard about is a public event co-sponsored by the Missouri Rural Crisis Center called “A Farmer/Urban Connection,” which will run from 5:00 – 6:30pm on Saturday, October 3 at the First Presbyterian Church at 7200 Delmar Blvd. The event will discuss a number of challenges and opportunities facing family farm agriculture and how the public can help create a vibrant family farm food system. Please register at www.farmaid.org/RSVP.

Also, going on this Farm Aid weekend:

Homegrown Country Fair at the Tower Grover Farmers Market – Saturday, October 3rd, 10am-2:30pm
Farm Aid Farmer Cook-off at the Taste of St. Louis – Saturday, October 3rd, 11:00am-12:15pm
Farm Aid Eve at Blueberry Hill – Saturday, October 3rd, 7:30pm

- Brian DeSmet

KNOW YOUR FOOD CELEBRATION and ANNIVERSARY PARTIES

September 16-20, 2009

Two years call for a celebration!        

Local Harvest Grocery, est. 2007       Local Harvest Café, est. 2008

 September 16-19^th we will feature two “Know Your Farmer” dinners per evening. 

Make your reservation now for 6:00 or 8:00 p.m. seatings.  314.772.8815 

3 courses for $25 vegetarian  $30omnivore

Wine and beer pairings available

 September 20^th join us for a BBQ and party on the patio from 3:00-8:00 p.m.

Good music, great food and lots of Schlafly!

Menu Hints below (menu may change slightly depending on produce availability)

September 16

Kakao Chocolate/Goshen Coffee
Chocolate espresso square served with ginger soup
Fresh greens with espresso vinaigrette and chocolate shavings
Lamb braised in coffee and bittersweet chocolate / spicy chili with fresh cornbread

September 17

Companion Bread Co./Centennial Farms
Pretzel wrapped sausages with house made mustard / pretzels with house made mustard
Black pepper goat cheese salad with apple butter vinaigrette
Pork meatballs with applesauce and sweet potato stratta / sweet potato stratta with apple chutney

September 18

City Seeds/Prairie Grass Farms/Edwards’ Farm
Lamb meatballs with crowder peas /crowder peas with mushroom ragout
Green bean and pecan salad
Braised lamb on fresh greens / late summer veggie roast on fresh greens

September 19

Double star/Missouri Grass-fed beef
Beef shepard’s pie/veggie shepard’s pie
Lentil salad with squash, peppers, and tomato mint dressing
Smoked beef trio with three sauces /veggie gratin with herb dressing

Last fall I wrote a post about the wonderful and engaging Edwards family and their farm in Illinois.  A year later I’m happy to say I still think they are wonderful and engaging and I still find their produce delicious!  Ethan, who is the youngest son of Marie and Clark, sent me the family recipe for sauerkraut. You can meet Ethan, Marie and Clark on Sept. 18th as they are some of the featured farmers for that night’s “Know Your Farmer” dinner during our KNOW YOUR FOOD CELEBRATION.   I promise you’ll love it!

Here it is:

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Here’s the recipe just as it came to me from my grandma, Ida Knobeloch, in 1984.  It has some ambiguities that I’ll comment on at the end, but thought I’d copy the recipe just as I got it.

Sauerkraut Recipefrom Home Advisor Catherine Huss, Belleville

Sauerkraut is a good source of vitamin C.  32 calories per cup.

Sterilize jars before beginning to prevent bacteria from getting into cabbage. Clean the cabbage by removing all outside blemishes, but do not wash the heads.  Bacteria in the inner leaves are needed for proper fermentation.

Cut heads in half or quarters and cut as you like.  2 one quart jars will hold 3 1/2 lbs. of cabbage.  To this amount add 2 1/2 tablespoons salt, 1 teaspoon sugar if desired.

Salt draws out the cabbage juice so it can ferment.  It helps control fermentation by favoring the right kind of bacteria and discourages the kind that might cause the kraut to spoil.

Put the lid on the jar firmly enough to keep the air out.  Set the jar in a pan so the juice can leak out during fermentation.  Keep sauerkraut at room temperature (72 degrees). If too much juice leaks out, add boiling hot weak salt solution (2 tablespoons salt to 1 qt water). Tighten lids again.

Kraut will be ready to eat from 2 weeks to 10 weeks.  Depends on how sour you like it.

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Notes from Ethan:

–I do wash the outside of the cabbage, but I don’t wash it after it is shredded.

–I use an antique kraut cutter to cut the cabbage (photo attached), but any vegetable grater that doesn’t cut the cabbage in too small of pieces should be ok.  You don’t want it pulverized like some slaw is.

–It should be canning salt.  I also don’t know why the sugar is optional.  I’ve always used it.  Grandma said the sugar helps feed the fermentation.

–The instructions are silent about actually packing the jars. I let the cabbage sit a few minutes after I mix up the salt and sugar with it, just to get a little moisture to be drawn out of the cabbage. I put in about 2 inches of cabbage in each jar at a time, and then use some sort of tamper to compress the cabbage.  You can apply a lot of pressure.  You want to press it enough so that the liquid that forms comes up more or less to cover the cabbage.  Repeat until you fill the jar to about 1/2 inch from the top.  you should press until there’s moisture up to the top of the jar.

–Tighten the jars only enough to close them, not to make a tight seal like you would for regular canning.  As the fermentation starts, liquid is going to bubble up out of the jars, so you’ll want to have them in a plastic or non-corrosive pan to catch the juice.  (It won’t be some huge quantity, but enough that you want to contain it.  I have old style zinc canning lids with red rubber rings which work really well.  Unfortunately, you can’t really buy those anymore, except on eBay most likely.  I think you can just use regular two-piece canning lids, although if I were doing this without my zinc lids, I might be tempted to do it in a large pickle jar with a lid with a rubber sealing ring  inside.  You’re never going to boil or pressure seal these, so it doesn’t have to be such a perfect sealing job.

–Do check to make sure that the cabbage at the top of the jars doesn’t go dry.  If it does, add that salt solution.  I usually have to do this just once or maybe twice during the fermentation.  It usually needs to be done about 10 days or so into the process.  It isn’t critical to worry about.  It won’t hurt anything if you the water is low for a couple days.

–I think the two week completion date is way too optimistic.  I usually wait 7-8 weeks.  The cabbage will start out very bright green and will gradually become white or creamy colored.  The green color will be almost entirely gone when it is ready.  Then tighten the lids as tight as you can.  This will stop any new oxygen to get into the jars, and so eventually, the fermentation will stop.  You can leave these at room temperature for a month or more.  I usually put the jars in the refrigerator at this point and it will keep almost indefinitely.  I’ve kept some for more than two years like that.

Anyway, good luck!

Ethan

Mouth watering tomato salad

On Tuesday, August 25th, we had one of our monthly “Know Your Farmer” dinners – featuring the lovely produce of Earthdance Farms.

That night we heard from Molly Rockamann (founder of Earthdance), as well as watched a short film on the history of the Mueller Farm (the land in which Earthdance is now located).

Then everyone enjoyed a four course meal:

-purple tomatillo soup, with or without chicken (from Earthdance: purple tomatillos and jalapenos)

-tomato salad with genovese basil and flowers (from ED: heirloom tomatoes, basil, nasturium, bachelor buttons, and borage)

-omnivore: chicken milenese with wild argula pesto and veggie lasagne (from ED: wild argula, crocknecks, zucchini, basil)

vegetarian: squash samosa and veggie biryani (from ED: crocknecks, zucchini, swiss chard, jalapenos, tomatoes)

-melon sorbet with strawberries and sweet cinnamon basil pesto (from ED: moon and stars melon, white wonder melon, strawberries, cinnamon basil)

I hope you can join us for our KNOW YOUR FOOD CELEBRATION in September honoring our anniversaries (one year for the cafe and two years for Local Harvest Grocery.) 

Sept. 16-19 we will host two “Know Your Farmer” dinners per evening-6 and 8 p.m. seatings by reservation.  At least two farmers or food producers will be on hand to talk with diners and enjoy a fantastic meal prepared using fresh, local foods.  $25 vegetarian and $30 for omnivore. Wine and beer pairings are an optional addition.

On Sept. 20th we will host a big “Anniversary BBQ” at the cafe featuring live music, great food and lots of Schlafly. 

For reservations for any of the farm dinners call 314.772-8815.

As patrons and employees of Local Harvest, we all know how important local, healthy food is. We also know that many people do not have regular access to such food. On September 7, Slow Food USA is holding a national day of action called “Time for Lunch” to get real food in schools and “with the goal of creating a world in which everyone can enjoy food that is good, clean, and fair.”

Slow Food St. Louis will be hosting a local event at the Schlafly Bottleworks on Sept. 7 from 11am-1pm. If you’d like to help volunteer for the event, including helping to promote it before the event, please contact kelly at slowfoodstl.org.

- Brian DeSmet

Thought our customers and supporters would be interested in this article in the St. Louis Beacon about hog farming. I’ve written about Patchwork Farms before and this article touches on what this group of farmers in rural Missouri is doing to save family farming.  This article also gives a great overview of how CAFO’s operate and the problems associated with them.  http://www.stlbeacon.org/economy/farmers_struggle_to_make_ends_meat_

Last night I ate alone.  My son was asleep, my hubby was out, the radio was off, the computer was closed, the dog was quiet and I intentionally didn’t pick up the Sauce Magazine on the table even though I really wanted to. Tonight, I thought, I will really taste my food.

The meal was simple.  A grilled cheese sandwich with thick slices of fresh tomato from the garden, Mangia pesto, Companion Bread and Morningland Dairy sharp cheddar. The sandwich was perfectly browned and the cheese melted just right. 

I cut the sandwich in half and stared at the layers for awhile.  I was happy that I could still see the separateness of each ingredient.  The white of the cheese, the slightly cooked, but still firm tomato, and the pesto which was dripping its aromatic green oil over the rest of the sandwich.  I was ready.

The sandwich met all my expectations. I appreciated how warming it  melded the flavors together into summer goodness. I savored each bite. And at the end of the meal I felt truly satisfied. 

I wish I could say that I took time everyday to really savor  my entire meal.  This little exercise reminded me that I need to put away the newspapers more  often. I need to be more quiet while I eat–perhaps even in the company of others. That I need to finish one bite before I take the next. That I can take time to really enjoy what I’m putting into my mouth.

Yep, the “slow food” movement would be proud.

Yours in taking a minute,

Maddie

not for the faint of heart

I have the honor of buying extra produce from Tower Grove Farmers’ Market for Local Harvest Grocery. I can’t believe someone did not snap up this huge and beautiful Cherokee Purple last Saturday at Spikenard Farm’s stall. Folks were probably intimidated, as it was larger than my two fists put together. It was so intimidating that no one bought it at the store, either. Though it was a great showpiece, its window of opportunity was drawing to an end: tomatoes need to be appreciated at their peak. I was going to send it over to Local Harvest Cafe so they could share the wealth, but then I decided that I couldn’t resist and bought it for myself.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the beautiful bounty that comes our way. It is a pleasure to work with the local farmers and be surrounded by their healthy produce. But there comes a point when it is time to stop looking and start eating. And eat we did! Both my man-friend and our neighbor did a double-take on this one. We divided it up and ate it like an apple, juice dripping down our chins. My man-friend doesn’t even normally like raw tomatoes, but he said with awe that it tasted like the essence of Tomato…If you want to impress someone, bring them an heirloom tomato! (just for reference, that’s a teaspoon, next to the half of the fruit that i remembered to photograph just in time)

Anne