Recently in Harvesting Category

We are excited to offer our second season of weekly produce subscriptions from Burns Best Farm. Due to the success of last year's program, we are gearing up for an expansion in 2010.  Mike has been busy for weeks, starting transplants and planning our crop list and rotational schedule. He got our seeds way back in January and we are thrilled to see new varieties of beans, peppers, and tomatoes arriving in the mail.

We are offering a delivery day into East Cobb/Marietta on Mondays this summer in addition to our on-farm pick-up on Wednesday afternoons in Ringgold. Additionally, we are increasing the season from 10 weeks to 14 weeks of freshly harvested fruits and vegetables.

Here's what a couple of customers said last year abour our CSA:

My husband and I were fans of all of Burns Best's produce, but especially the arugula and heirloom tomatoes.  They were delicious, and so different in taste from the supermarket varieties.  Also, in trying to use everything we received in our CSA bags, we learned to be more creative cooks and incorporate fresher ingredients into what we cooked.  We went the entire duration of the CSA without opening a can or frozen bag of vegetables. -Susan

I must honestly say my wife and I were thrilled with the quality, freshness, taste and value of the produce we received during those ten weeks, and we wished the season could have gone on longer.-Karl

Please send me an email:  contactus@burnsbestfarm.com and tell me that you are interested in buying a subscription.  I will send you the document with details that pertain to your location and pick-up day.  

We are looking forward to serving you this summer.  Please contact me with any questions! 

Last Monday, we took two Berkshire pigs to the slaughterhouse.  This was our first-ever livestock "processing" event and we have been looking forward to it since, oh, last July when we bought the pigs.  It's been fun to watch them grow and root around in the hardwood forested area of the farm.

But honestly, every time I personally looked at the pigs, all I could think about was bacon.  It really was that simple and easy for me.  Bacon. Mmmmm.

The pork cuts and sausage were ready for pick-up on Thursday.  Here's what a freezer full of pork looks like:

  Mike had the processor hold the pork bellies under refrigeration so we could begin the multi-day process of curing and smoking our very first bacon.  He had been studying the methodology by watching YouTube for tips and tricks, and he was ready to put his MaGyver skills into action.

First, he mixed up a brine using a Good Eats recipe from several years back (Scrap Iron Chef).  He placed the pork bellies into food grade plastic tubs and poured the brine over them.  They marinated for 72 hours, with Mike occasionally turning them to make sure they were evenly soaked.

   On Monday morning, he poured off the brine and dried off the bellies.  He inserted the meat hooks and then went outside to make ready the "meat locker":

Larry Holcomb let us borrow an old tall metal locker and Mike configured it with high tensil wire from which to hang the meat.  He rigged up a smoker unit to the back of the locker, connected by a tube that forced the smoke into the bottom of the locker so it would waft up towards the bellies.  He used applewood chips as the smoke medium ( and let me tell you, those things are hard to find. We had to buy them off the internet here because none of the retail stores around here can get them for us! Save yourself the gas and drive time and just order them in for delivery.)

We ran two batches of four belly pieces each.  Each batch smoked for close to 6 hours.  It was helpful that the temperature outside yesterday was in the high 30's with a wind chill factor of about 28 below zero.  (I might be exaggerating on the wind chill by 10 degrees or so.) We could leave the smoke on for hours and not worry about the meat getting into the danger zone above 40 degrees.

I wrapped each piece in plastic film and refrigerated them overnight.  Today, Mike put all of the bellies into the freezer for about an hour to firm them up and then he carved them up into thick-sliced pieces of goodness.

    Here's a few half pieces left from the first round of sampling.  They didn't stick around for long.....and you'll notice that I left the picture large and detailed so you could see the crispy lusciousness for yourself.  Yes, this bacon was the best tasting bacon I have ever eaten.

 All these pictures are copyrighted by Denise Burns. Don't even think about using them without written permission. Not even on your Facebook page.  Oh, our Facebook farm page is here:  Burns Best Farm.  Please join us as a fan and then invite your friends to join.  The Facebook page gets updated a *whole lot* more frequently than this blog does!  I have a feature going called "Heirloom Tomato of the Day" which is motivation for me to "Think Spring" in the middle of all this winter weather that has been turning the ground white.

Really, we didn't plant that much broccoli.  It was a partial tray, maybe 30 plants at the most.  That's not a lot, right?  It takes up so much space in the garden and it takes such a long time to mature, we didn't go all in on broccoli like we did on arugula and lettuces. 

The broccoli plants themselves were huge but the floret crowns were still pretty small by comparison.  I stopped watching them so closely because I figured I had a few weeks and then they'd be ready to cut.

Big mistake.  The florets got really big, really quickly!  I was just out strolling with the camera on Saturday and this is what I found.

There were several heads approximately this size.  A couple of them had started to show  yellow flowers indicating they were about to bolt and go to seed.  Not the best flavor, so I wanted to cut these right away.

So I fired up the steamer pot and got busy with my preservation plan:  steam and freeze.

I added a lemon and a half worth of fresh lemon juice to the boiling water before I lowered the steamer basket into place.  The lemon juice preserves the bright green color but does not alter the taste at all.

  I set the timer for 5 minutes, topped the pot with the tight fitting lid and went back to chopping up the next batch.  When the timer went off, I pulled the steamer basket out and plunged the whole thing into the ice water-filled sink to stop the cooking process immediately.

After the broccoli completely chilled down, I spread it over a towel-covered sheet pan to dry off until I was through with the rest of the steaming.  When the broccoli was as dry as I could get it without smashing it to bits, I transferred it to a parchment paper lined sheet pan and placed it flat into the freezer so the florets would freeze as separately as possible. 

I let the broccoli freeze overnight and then transferred it to a gallon-sized resealable freezer bag.  Mike is bribing me so that I'll make him some creamy broccoli and cheese soup.  I am trying out a new recipe that is Weston A. Price-friendly, and I'll let you know how he likes it! 

We will be at the Marietta Square Market tomorrow morning from 8-12 with lettuce so fresh, it hasn't even been picked yet this morning (red and green varieties that look like flower bouquets), fresh eggs, hot and sweet peppers, and lots of peppery arugula!

Everyone asked about arugula all summer long when it was too hot to grow it, and now that we've had all this cool wet weather, the arugula is bountiful and you won't believe the flavor!

The dry weather and glorious sunshine this week have helped our fall plantings stretch out and grow.  As a result, we have lovely lettuces and arugula that are ready to harvest.  The pepper plants are still loaded with bright red, purple and green sweet and hot peppers, and the okra forest is growing a little slower but still yielding quite nicely.

The hens are also loving this cooler weather and I have several dozen fresh eggs to sell as well.

We will be at the Marietta Square Farmers Market on Saturday, October 3, 8am-12 noon.  Please come by early, before your soccer and football games get underway!  

Last summer marked my first attempt at saving basil seed from my own garden.  It was easy and pretty rewarding, but the true test of whether or not seed saving works is germination the following year. So to hedge our bets, we bought a couple of new varieties this year and planted both the saved seed and the purchased seed close to the greenhouse where we could tend to it easily.

The saved seed germinated beautifully and has grown well, making me both proud and confident that I did it once and can do it again.  The purchased seed also grew into very vigorous plants.

As a result of all this experimentation, I have lots and lots of beautiful basil.  (**See my Marietta Farmers Market special offer at the bottom of this post.)

So with my bountiful harvest, I have been making pesto and freezing it for winter.  I made a couple of batches last year and we really enjoyed it in January and February when there is no fresh basil to be had except at the grocery store for $2.50 for 2 ounces.  I found these Ball #82000 5-Pk. 8-Oz. Plastic Freezer Jars that work perfectly for pesto and they are durable enough that I am using the same jars again this summer (frugality is my friend.)

Here is the super tasty recipe I pinched off the Food Network website (thank you Dave Lieberman):

5 big handfuls basil leaves (about 2 hefty bunches)

1/2 cup pine nuts or 3/4 cup walnuts (I toast them first) 

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

Juice of 1 small lemon

2 cloves garlic, peeled

Kosher salt

About 20 grinds freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Place all ingredients with 1/2 cup of the oil in a blender and blend. Gradually drizzle in the remaining 1/4 cup of oil until pesto is thick and smooth.

Yield: about 1 1/2 cups

I make two batches of this at a time in a blender or a Vitamix and then I pour about 3/4 cup of pesto into each plastic freezer jar.  (You'll note that the larger recipe for Bow Tie Pasta with Chicken and Cherry Tomatoes calls for 3/4 cup, while the pesto recipe makes twice that much.) Two recipes of the pesto filled up five freezer jars when I made pesto on Monday.

Market Special:  If you are one of my Saturday morning Marietta market customers and you'd like a pound of fresh basil for $10 (less than half the price of what you'd pay at the megamart for a similar amount, plus mine's organically grown!), please email me on the left sidebar of the blog and tell me to bring you a bag. A one-pound bag would easily make three batches if you follow the recipe above, which would allow you to put at least 7 servings of pesto in the freezer for a quick-thaw dinner option. 

Sorry for the radio silence.  I had no idea it had been 10 days since my last post.  Besides, I've been filling my spare time with preserving some of what we're growing around here so that we can keep our food bills a little lower this winter (and taste the summer all year long.)

We will be at the Marietta Square Farmers Market tomorrow morning with a fresh crop of lovely ripe tomatoes.  The cherry tomatoes are ripening in larger quantities now, so there should be several pints of Matt's Wild, Gold Rush Currant, Blondkopchen, and Green Doctors available early in the morning.

We also have large slicing tomatoes, cucumbers, purple peppers, a few jalapenos, summer squash (pattypan, Tondo round zucchini, and bi-color Zephry), as well as blueberries.  There might also be a couple dozen eggs, too. The hens like the cooler weather that blew in yesterday.  (By cool, I mean not 95*!)

Please come and see us at the market and drop us a note if you have any canning/freezing/drying/pickiling tips for me.  I can use all the help I can get!

All Content and Photos: Copyright 2009 Burns Best Farm

What do you do with beets in your CSA share?  A couple of menu ideas pop to mind:

Beet Green Gratin, courtesy of Alton Brown at the Food Network website.

Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

3/4 cup crumbled crackers (recommended: Ritz crackers

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the mushrooms and garlic and sweat. Add the beet greens and mix well. Remove pan from heat. Season with salt and pepper.

In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, ricotta, Parmesan cheese, and salt. Combine everything and put into a lightly oiled 9 by 11-inch baking dish. Top with the crumbled crackers and bake for 30 minutes covered. Uncover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

*Burns family note:  we substitute chopped Vidalia onion in this recipe instead of using mushrooms. Shallots would also be nice.  

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Roasted Beets:

This is the way we cook and use beets most frequently.  Cut the stems off the beet, leaving about a quarter inch of the stems attached.  Scrub the beets with a soft brush to remove any excess dirt.  Fold over a sheet of aluminum foil and crimp the sides closed, making a foil package.  Put the scrubbed beets into the package and then fold the top over and crimp closed.

Bake on a tray at *350 for 30 minutes (for small beets) and closer to an hour for large beets. They are done when a sharp knife can be inserted with no firm resistance.  Remove them from the foil and using two paper towels, lightly rub the skin and the top stem area until the shiny beet comes out, ready to be eaten either warm with butter, salt and pepper or chilled and added to a summer salad of mixed greens and arugula, goat cheese and toasted walnuts. (A little viniagrette on this is a lovely addition.)

On the experimental food schedule for this week is arugula pesto.  I've read in a couple of places that arugula makes a nice substitute for basil in a homemade pesto sauce, and since I have plenty of arugula and my basil is still really short, I'm going to try it out for an appetizer this week.

Here's my pesto recipe, courtesy of Dave Lieberman at the Food Network.  I toast the pine nuts for 5 minutes or until they are lightly browned and very fragrant.  If you make the entire bow-tie pasta recipe (the pesto is a recipe-inside-a-recipe), you might want to substitute goat cheese for the feta.  The kids like goat cheese better than feta and it's a small concession to make in order to get them to eat pesto pasta.

(Last year, I made several recipes of this pesto and froze it. We enjoyed fresh summer flavor all winter long and everyone acted like it was a real treat.)

We are perhaps 5 days away from picking the very first cherry tomatoes of the year, a Gold Rush currant tomato that we haven't grown before. I might be wrong; they might not be ripe for another week.  But it is looking like the smaller-sized Gold Rush will beat the Matt's Wild Cherry onto the table (or more precisely, into my mouth).

We'll be selling at the Marietta Square Farmers Market on Saturday, 8-12.  Available this week:

Arugula

Lettuces (Loma, Cherokee Red, Magenta, Buttercrunch and Little Gem)

Radishes

Eggs (just a few...the hens went on strike this week when it got hot!)

Yellow Crookneck Squash

Green Zucchini Squash

Bok Choy Cabbage (see recipes in the post below)

We hope to see you there!