Commonground

The whole Blue Bell Farm crew was up at the Commonground Country Fair this weekend!  We attended workshops on solar heating, soil chemistry, tree felling, poultry health and more!  Saw some beautiful blue ribbon veggies in the exhibition hall,...and thought that we should have entered some Blue Bell produce to the competition.  We also volunteered at the info booth, parking cars and a late night kitchen shift.  Blue Bell purchased a new weeding tool that is sure to make life easier (in theory, we'll do a full report soon enough) and we got the fair special on some technical manuals. We ran into a number of good friends who we always seem to see at the fair, and said hello to the fellow Journey Persons.  There were amazing crafters, and an array of delicious veggies at the farmers market.  Of course, I forgot to pack the camera, so I have no pictures to show for it.  But rest assured, it was beautiful as always.  Minus a misty saturday morning I suppose, but that kept things moving nice and slow.  It's easy to get overwhelmed at such an event, but I think we all got fired up for the last push of work into the fall season.  It was good to be back on the farm today to affirm for ourselves that we too were growing delicious, beautiful veggies.  But also a reminder that for all those pretty things on display there was a tremendous amount of hard work going on behind the scenes.

Best thing I saw at the fair?  A donkey jumping competition.


Whatcha Eatin?

Edamame Appetizer

Bring a few cups of water to a boil
Drop in Edamame pods
Simmer 5-8 min
Pour through colander to retrieve pods
Sprinkle with salt
Squeeze pods to pop the seeds right into your mouth!

Potato Leek Soup
from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen

3 fist sized potatoes
3 cups cleaned, chopped leek
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
4 Tbs. Butter
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 C stock or water
3 cups milk
optional: snippets of fresh herbs, thyme, chives, marjoram, basil

Scrub potatoes and cut them into 1 inch chunks.  Place them in a saucepan with the leeks, celery, carrot and butter.  Add salt.  Cook the vegetables, stirring over medium heat, until the butter is melted and all the particles are coated (5 min)

Add the stock or water, bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook until the potatoes are soft (20-30min).  Check the moisture level occasionally.  You may need to add a little extra tock or water if it gets too low.

When the potatoes are tender, remove the pan from the heat and puree it's contents in the milk (use a blender, or food processor itted with the steel blade).  Make sure the mixture is utterly smooth.  Return it to the sacuepan.

Add optional herbs (or not). grin in some black pepper.  Taste to see if it wants more salt.

Heat the soup gently, covered until just hot.  Try not to let it boil.  Serve right away.

(we have made a chunky version of this where we forgo the blender, it can be a bit scary blending hot liquids...)

Tomato Soup
specifically "Variation on a Cream of Tomato III"
also from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen

Sick of fresh tomatoes?  Chop em up for a soup!  Tomato soup can be as simple, or as complex as you want, this recipe is somewhere in the middle, and uses your potatoes too.

1 Tbs. butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup thinly sliced potatoes
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stalk chopped celery
1/2 tsp. dill weed
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. thyme
2 1/2 cups pureed, cooked tomatoes
1 tsp. honey
1 1/2 cups milk

Place butter, onion, potatoes, garlic, salt and celery in a large saucepan.  Cover and cook over very low heat, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender.  If necessary, add a little water or stock to avoid sticking.

Add all remaining ingredients, except milk (have the milk out so it can come to room temperature).  Cover and simmer about 30 min).

Add milk just before serving, heat gently.