Hens on the farm

As much as I wish I did, I don’t live on a farm.  In fact most Americans don’t live on a farm and have become increasingly cut off from the food they consume.  Food comes in boxes or bags.  Meat comes deboned and deskinned.  Many cows are fed grain to fatten them up, and they live in crowded conditions.  Many chickens live their lives in windowless sheds.  They are packed beak to tail in this horrifying shed.  They never see the light of day.  And so on.  And because they are in so much emotional and physical stress from the unnatural diet and crowded conditions, they are more prone to infection, thus the standard feeding of antibiotics.  The products we buy from stores have gone through so much processing that they no longer resemble the food it comes from.  In fact, I’ve taken to calling much of the processed food you’ll find at a supermarket a Food Type Product.  It just doesn’t seem right to call something made with heavy machinery and chemicals food.  It makes me sick.  That stuff isn’t food.

I think we need to get that connection back to the farm.  We need to see vegetables growing in the garden.  We need to see cows out on pasture, and then connect that with the food we eat.  I also believe it is important so that we can know and approve of the conditions in which our food is made.  I want to make sure that the eggs I eat are from chickens who actually spend time foraging outdoors.  Partially because I believe that all animals have the right to be treated with some basic respect, but also because eggs that come from clean conditions, from hens who receive sunlight and are able to forage for bugs and grass and weeds in addition to chicken feed are so much healthier!

In my effort to get closer to the food I eat, I visited one of the farms that provides me with milk, milk, eggs and other homemade or farm grown products.  What I found was nothing short of delightful.

Milk cows on grass

The milk cows were munching on more than an acre of green grass.  They all looked happy and healthy doing what cows do best.  Milk that comes from grass fed cows contains more vitamins A, D and K as well as more omega 3s and a type of fat called CLA.  Vitamins A, D and K are important for bone health and immune system function in addition to other things.  Omega 3s help prevent inflammation, and CLA is an amazing fat, but not talked about much.  It has anti cancer and antioxidant properties.  I find it beautiful that when we treat animals as they are meant to be treated, they provide us with the nutrition we need in the right balances.

The Beef cows also seemed pretty happy munching on their own couple acres of gorgeous green grass.  The meat from grassfed cows also contains more omega 3s and CLA.  It is also a little leaner.  In addition, cows fed grass have the proper digestive track ph.  When cows are fed grain, the ph gets out of whack and nasty bugs, like e. coli which has caused so much sickness, can colonize and in turn, contaminate the meat.  With cows fed grass, what nature has designed them to eat, this does not happen.

The chickens raised for meat were out on pasture in these floorless pens.  I imagine they are similar to the ones Joel Salatin describes on his Polyface Farm.  They are open to the sun except a covered portion for shade or to get out of the rain.  The chickens get to peck at the grass and insects in addition to their feed.  They feel real earth beneath their feet and real sun on their back.  After a few days in any one location, the pens are moved to a new location on fresh grass.  These chickens looked like real chickens.  They didn’t grow too fast for their body to keep up.  They were healthy and able to run around in the pen, just like any natural chicken should.

The laying hens seemed about the happiest of them all.  I didn’t count how many there were, but they had a whole acre to themselves.  There were a few little sheds and converted houses for them to live in, and I saw some go in and out.  Mostly, I watched the hens out in the grass, foraging.  One would find a good spot and make some happy noises.  Each one has as much space to herself as she could possibly want.  Just like milk, pastured eggs contain more omega 3s and vitamins A and D.  You can tell by looking at the yolk – the yolk of a chicken allowed to forage for bugs and grass will be larger and a much deeper shade of orange.   Those hens were treated the way they were meant to be treated, and in return, they give us healthy, nourishing eggs.  What a beautiful relationship.

I also got a tour of the garden.  Rows and rows of rhubarb, broccoli, potatoes, lettuce, everything!  I learned when they planted, how they planted, and what organic tricks they use to discourage pests and weeds.

For lunch I was treated to an amazing meal of chicken, homemade pasta with a cream sauce, salad with ranch dressing, peas, corn, milk, and for dessert, rhubarb pie, cookies or ice cream.  All homemade!

Getting out to the farm was amazing.  I’m so glad I went and I plan on visiting as many of the farms I purchase from as possible.  When food and animals are treated with respect and honoring their biology, the way they were designed to live and eat, not only are we respecting them and giving them a good life, but the food they give to us will nourish us so much more than anything grown on an industrial scale.

A piece of rhubarb buckle

At the farmer’s market I bought a few pounds of rhubarb.  Normally, I would make a crisp, but since I had so much rhubarb, I thought I’d try something else first.  Enter the buckle.

A buckle is a dessert from the colonial times.  It is related to the crisps, cobblers, and brown bettys.    A cake-like batter is made with fresh fruit folded into it, and then a lovely crumble topping it added to the top of the batter just before baking.  It is essentially the marriage of a cake and a crisp.

The buckle turned out very well: a delicious large crumbed cake filled with bits of tart rhubarb and topped with a buttery crumble.  For my recipe I used sucanat for the crumble topping and as half of the sugar in the cake.  Sucanat retains more of the nutrition found in sugar cane, so it isn’t all empty calories like refined white sugar.  It also has a richer flavor, similar to molasses.  It works really well for this type of recipe.  Don’t be fooled though, sugar is still sugar and this is just a treat!

Here is my recipe, inspired by The Washington Post.

Crumble Topping
1/3 cup sucanat or rapadura
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Cake
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
scant 1/2  cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup sucanat or rapadura
2 eggs
¾ cup soured milk, at room temperature (can substitute kefir, yogurt, buttermilk, or fresh milk + lemon juice or vinegar if you do not have raw sour milk)
1 pound rhubarb, trimmed and thinly sliced (about 2 ½ cups, or 5 stalks)

Make the topping first.  Mix all the ingredients together, then put it in the freezer so it won’t melt into the batter when you bake it.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  To make the cake, sift the flour, baking powder, ginger, baking soda and salt together in a large mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, cream the sugars and butter together.  I did this by hand, but a mixer will obviously make it easier.  Add the egg and mix each one in before adding the other.  Then add the soured milk.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mix and then fold in the rhubarb in.  Pour into a greased 9×9 baking dish, sprinkle the frozen crumb topping over the top, and bake for 45-50 minutes.

Radishes at the farmer's market

What do you do with a chicken breast to make it more exciting?  I thought about this last night and decided to make a cream sauce.  The end result was fantastic.  This cream sauce would probably work with fish and vegetables as well.  It is a pretty free form recipe.  Once you’ve made the roux to your liking, everything else is just included in quantities your taste buds see fit.

The roasted radishes are wonderful and extremely easy.  I always thought I didn’t like radishes.  I don’t like their spicy bite.  Then my uncle taught me to roast them.  Roasting them takes the bite away and leaves a sweetness behind.

Finally, I hate kitchen waste, always wanting to stretch my dollar and prevent usable things from ending up in the garbage.  The radishes came with green tops, so they must be eaten as well.  Radish greens, like radishes, have a bit of a bite that is diminished with longer cooking.  If you don’t have radish greens, other spicy greens like mustard could be used in this recipe.

Recipes for all 3 dishes below.

This post is submitted to Real Food Wednesday.

Chicken with Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 small chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups milk
• Tarragon
• Sage
• Thyme
• Salt and pepper
• 1 or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice

In a large frying pan, sear the chicken breasts on both sides.  Reduce heat, cover, and cook on med-low heat, checking and flipping occasionally, as needed, until done.

For the sauce, Melt the butter over medium heat.  When melted, add the flour and stir.  Then add the milk and whisk.  You’ll need to whisk a lot.  The sauce should thicken quickly.  You really can’t take your eyes off this for more than a few minutes.  Don’t let it boil.  Keep whisking.  When you have your desired consistency, add the tarragon, sage and thyme.  Then add salt and pepper to taste.  Just before serving, add a little lemon juice.

To help you time your meal, the sauce will only take 5-10 minutes.  Spoon the sauce over the chicken breast right before serving.  I put a generous portion of sauce on my chicken.

Roasted Radishes

Ingredients:

• Radishes
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Sesame seeds

Cut the radishes into quarters.  Toss with olive oil until coated.  Sprinkle salt and sesame seeds, and place into a baking dish.  To save on cleanup, I usually put the radishes in the baking dish and use that dish to toss with the olive oil. Roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until done.  Simple!

Braised Radish Greens

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch radish greens
• 1 tablespoon bacon grease
• A splash of water
• 3 tablespoons of reduced beef stock

Heat bacon grease in a good braising pot on medium heat until melted.  Add the greens and sautee.  Add a small spash of water and 3 tablespoons of reduced beef stock (glace).  Cover, reduce heat to low, and let it cook for 30 minutes (less for spicier greens, longer for milder greens).  When you have cooked it your desired length, take the lid off, raise the temperature to medium, and let the liquid cook off, while watching it and stiring often.

Cooking Purple Potatoes

It seemed that all at once, I had a number of ingredients that had to be cooked.

At the farmer’s market last week, I picked up a bunch of stinging nettles. The food blogs have been a-flurry about stinging nettles, so I wanted to see what that was all about. (It turns out, I love them.) I also picked up some purple potatoes because they were just so beautiful. And somehow, I found myself with about 3 dozen eggs, and a fridge with little room for them all! Finally, I still had about a quart of soured milk to use. I had to come up with something.

I trolled the food blogs until I found this on Cook Local. It seemed just about perfect, though I would need to make a few modifications. My final recipe left out the onions (because I don’t really like onions), and it added spinach, soured milk, cream, and cottage cheese. It came out wonderfully! The nettles give it a wonderful wild, herby flavor, and the spinach brings familiarity, almost a Florentine type flavor, especially when combined with the farm fresh cottage cheese.

It is a flexible dish, hearty enough for a dinner, but also suitable for a breakfast or brunch. There is a lot of room to play with this one – for a more breakfast style casserole, add bacon or sausage. Use a different kind of cheese instead of cottage. Don’t have nettles? This would also work with kale, chard or all spinach.

This post is submitted to Real Food Wednesday – wild crafted greens, heirloom potatoes, dairy the way our grandparents drank it – these are real foods.

Layering Nettles and Spinach on Purple Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of nettles
• Half a bunch of spinach
• 6 small purple potatoes
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 6 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon of cream
• 1/3 cup soured milk (if you do not have raw, naturally soured milk, you can use yogurt, kefir, buttermilk, or turn fresh milk soured with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice)
• 3/4 cup cottage cheese
• Salt and Pepper

Boil the spinach and nettles until they are soft and turn a bright green. Try not to boil too long, just 3 minutes is about right. Chop them up finely and set aside. Slice the potatoes into thin slices. Melt the butter over medium heat and add the potatoes. Cook until they are nearly done. About 5-10 minutes. Preheat the over to 350 degrees. In a mixing boil, beat the eggs, then add the cream, milk, and cottage cheese. Arrange the cooked potatoes on the bottom of a baking dish. Top them with the chopped spinach and nettles. Then pour the egg mixture over the top. If you like, you can top with little dollops of cottage cheese. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the top, and then bake in the over at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until done.

Finished Gratin Right Out of the Oven

Making Soured Cream of Mushroom Soup

In my effort to use up my soured milk, today I played around in the kitchen and came up with this nourishing and filling soup. I call it soured cream of mushroom soup because instead of using fresh milk or cream, you use soured milk. If you have raw milk at home, you may naturally get soured milk after a week or so. If you don’t have any raw milk, you can use store bought sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, or just sour some regular milk with a bit of white vinegar or lemon juice. This soup is very filling, and the base of beef stock makes it very nutritious as well!

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons ghee (or butter)
• 2.5 overflowing cups of sliced fresh mushrooms (any variety will work)
• 3 cups of beef stock (if you reduce your beef stock down to a demi glaze as I do, you will do about half beef stock and half water)
• 2 slices of sourdough bread
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup soured milk (see possible substitutions above)
• Dash of nutmeg
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sour cream as garnish (optional)

Heat the ghee on medium heat and cook the mushrooms until they are cooked through (about 5-10 minutes). Add the beef stock and bread. You can tear the bread into pieces before you throw it in. If the bread was frozen (as mine was), let it soak up the broth and warm up, and then you can tear it apart while it cooks. Add the wine and let it cook about 5-10 minutes. Then puree the soup and add salt and pepper to taste, and a dash of nutmeg. Reduce the heat to low and let it reduce for 15-20 minutes. Add the soured milk. Don’t let it cook much longer, just another 5 minutes or so, to warm it back up. Serve with a small dollop of sour cream as a garnish.

Soured Milk Chocolate Cake

Most of the milk I consume is raw milk. This means that it has not been pasteurized. I buy it from small farms who keep their cows on grass. I like raw milk for a number of reasons – I like that the vitamins have not been destroyed from the heat of pasteurization (vitamins are added back into pasteurized milk, but why not get the real vitamins inherent in the milk?). Raw milk also contains beneficial enzymes and probiotic bacteria. Plus, I just like the taste better. So there are lots of reasons to drink raw milk.

Fresh raw milk is wonderfully sweet and delicious. At some point, it starts to sour. It differs from batch to batch (since it is a real food, not a food that has been packed full of stabilizers and preservatives, or cooked before refrigeration). But when raw milk starts to sour, it isn’t bad. Sour cream is, well, soured cream. I’ve made cream cheese from soured milk before. When pasteurized milk goes sour, don’t drink it!

Since I don’t want to drink a glass of soured milk or pour it over cereal, the question becomes, what do I do with it? I recently had a full half gallon sour on me since I didn’t drink any for about a week. I couldn’t bear to throw it down the drain, so I had to figure something to do with it. A half gallon is a lot, so I needed several ideas. This was one use for it – a chocolate cake made with soured milk! If you don’t have sour milk, or if you don’t have any raw milk, you can sour regular milk by adding a tablespoon of plain white vinegar or lemon juice to one cup of milk. I imagine that kefir, yogurt, or buttermilk would also work in place of sour milk.

The resulting cake is incredibly moist, light, and fluffy. It is chocolatey and sweet, but not overly so. Make, and enjoy!

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup sucanat, rapadura, or evaporated cane juice crystals
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 2 tablespoons baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups sour milk

Cream the sugars and coconut oil. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, and baking soda. In a 3rd bowl, mix the wet ingredients together. Then alternating between the wet and the dry ingredients, add them to the oil/sugar mixture and mix until combined. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesdays.