Frittatas and Quiches are a wonderful way to easily incorporate local foods into your meals at any point during the season, but I find they're particularly useful during months when there is slightly less diversity than during peak season. Make ahead or make and eat right away. Ingredients for a Basic Frittata:
Farmer Becca's frittata variation (but really, choose your own adventure and use what you've got!):
Instructions
I'm from Pittsburgh, home of the six time Super Bowl Champions the Pittsburgh Steelers (although not this year). I'm pretty suer that if you're from Western Pennsylvania, rooting for the Steelers is genetically hard-wired. And of course, along with football games, and especially the Super Bowl, we get to enjoy time with family and friends, ridiculous commercials and party food. If you've followed football at all this year, you'll know that Steelers fans had quite a few disappointments, and so I've turned my attention from the actual game to the amazing opportunity for farm-to-table foods to ease my sorrows. It doesn't take much to turn basic party foods to into next level munchies: upping the quality of ingredients is the simplest solution. Below are some recipes we're considering for our Super Bowl get-together, but instead of sourcing ingredients from the store, we're hitting up the Farmers Market the day before to grab what's available. *Note: A lot of these recipes call for boneless skinless chicken breast. We sub our bone-in, skin on chicken breast instead (tenders included!). They are incredibly easy to de-bone, and have a lot of meat on them.
There is absolutely nothing that can elevate a meal in a simple way like homemade chicken broth. I never used to make my own broth-- because I always thought, "who has the time?". But after I made my first batch a few winters ago, I couldn't go back. I use it to replace water when cooking rice, I add it to skillet meals, and of course, using it in soups is now a go-to. Below you'll find a few easy recipes to help you get started.
Recipes: Need to order some chicken frames or feet to make broth?
Check out our free farm-to-door delivery option or pre-order for market here. It's the time of year where, as farmers, we find ourselves with a little bit of extra time indoors. We love to learn new things and experience different perspectives-- and some youtube channels provide the perfect outlet to do just that. Here are Farmer Bill's top 3 favorite youtube channels:
1. Captain Kleeman While not a farming youtube channel, this channel is farming adjacent. Captain Kleeman describes his channel as "A nothing fancy, "run what ya brung" and build what you need channel that shows all the mistakes and lessons learned along the way." 2. Watch Wes Work Farmer Bill really loves to watch Watch Wes Work (say that five times fast!). This channel is all about fixing and building things, mostly mechanical. He's whitty and does a great job illustrating how he fixes mechanical (and other issues). This is great for folks who like to better understand why things don't work. 3. Country Life Vlog This vlog is an amazing peak into local food and sustainability from a whole different perspective (and country: Azerbaijan!). They love to share what they "do at countryside" while they "engage with nature and make the most out of village life." Chicken & biscuits is one of my all time favorite cold weather comfort foods. It's also one of my favorite ways to use up some chicken (or turkey!) leftovers, without feeling like we're eating chicken several meals in a row. This is less of a "recipe" or more of a game plan-- so play around and see what works for you.
For the Chicken & Gravy:
For the Biscuits: I've used several different biscuit recipes in the past (and sometimes plain ol' Bisquick). Biscuits are super easy, and don't require many ingredients. Feel free to use any biscuit recipe you prefer.
It's the time of year where, as farmers, we find ourselves with a little bit of extra time indoors. We love to learn new things and experience different perspectives-- and some youtube channels provide the perfect outlet to do just that. Here are my top 3 favorite youtube channels:
1. The Farmers Table: Real Food. Seasonal Eating. Farm to Fork. This channel is fairly new, but is turning into a great resource for simple, farm-to-fork meals. Jess does a great job of explaining her recipes, her cooking techniques and even delves into topics like how to cook on a budget and what cookware she uses. 2. Just a Few Acres Farm Just a Few Acres Farm is located in Lansing, NY (not too far!) and is run by Pete & Hilary Larson. I've known Pete and Hilary since their first few years of farming when they were vending at smaller markets, and have had the pleasure of watching their farm grow over the years. Pete does a great a job sharing daily farm life, as well as tractor maintenance and restoration 2. Super Serious Farmer It's pretty amazing that we live in an age where we can so easily learn about someone else's experiences from across the globe. In this youtube channel, The Super Serious Farmer shares his farming experiences from the UK, which while similar in many ways, is actually quite a bit different from farming in the US. It may not be February 14th, but love is in the air. And “love,” is a pretty important piece of the puzzle on the farm. It may be risqué to talk about in many social circles, but farmers don't often shy away from discussing the basic realities of life. . . Without sex on the farm, there would be -gasp- no more bacon. That's why, this week, our Large Black Hog boar (affectionately named Hagrid), got to move in with his girlfriends. He immediately took action and began romancing the sows, until one sow in particular decided it was time. We witnessed the act, marked it on the calendar, and now we wait: “three months, three weeks and three days” (yes, that really is the gestation length for pigs) until more "bacon seeds” are born. Even after Hagrid has done his duty, romance season isn't over: our goats are already out there, wagging their tails and yelling to each other from across the fence. We've told our buck, Bohanan, to be prepared, because it'll be his turn next. Update: The market is on for June 4th! Our market manager recieved the following email from Councilwomen Sue Messina, "The Vestal Town Board did not realize that you were sent a notice stating that the Farmer's Market was canceled on June 4. That is not correct information. The Farmer's Market was NOT canceled by the Vestal Town Board. It was the hope of the Town Board that the Farmer's Market could be held at Front Street Days on Saturday, June 4, as part of a community event that brings many of all ages to one place to celebrate the beginning of the summer. The committee felt that the wide variety of items available at the Farmer's Market would add more depth to the Town community event. The invitation was extended, but was not meant to be an ultimatum. If any of the group is interested in being part of Front Street days, they are certainly welcome. I'm glad you reached out so that we could resolve this issue!" From the outside looking in, any farmers market may seem simple to organize, providing a pleasant Saturday outing for someone looking to grab a cup of coffee, a delicious pastry and maybe some local produce. In reality, markets are often complex to organize, and even more challenging to maintain. Without store fronts, many local farmers depend upon these market days to connect with new customers, and continue to get our (often) perishable goods to our regulars. A lack of this weekly income, especially early in the season when we have a lot of cash out and not a lot of product to harvest, can mean we won’t meet our payment for our weekly feed bill, or we have to put off our own grocery shopping trip for another week or two. Recently, the Town of Vestal Board members made the decision to cancel the Vestal Farmers’ Market on Saturday, June 4th 2022, without consulting any of the vendors participating. An email to the Vestal Farmers’ Market Manager from Jason Ellis, town councilman, stated “the town board decided that we did not want the two events [Vestal Farmers Market and Front Street Days] to conflict with each other. We have gone to great lengths over the past years supporting the market. Including purchasing a banner out of our own pockets to advertise your event. I think one Saturday is not a big ask for the farmers market to participate with the town.” Mr. Ellis, had you actually spoken with the farmers, you would know that this IS a big ask. While we appreciate that the town would like market vendors to participate in Front Street Days, doing so would absolutely be detrimental to our business. From our past experience, we can definitively tell you that most people do not grocery shop at special events. Carrying around thawing frozen meat (no matter how delicious it will be) and quickly wilting produce while browsing other wares is not appealing. Ask any farmer who sells at the Ithaca Market during peak “festival” season. We’re incredibly disappointed in the lack of understanding and support the Vestal Town Board has shown the farmers market, the farmers market vendors and especially the farmers market customers. The Vestal Farmers Market is not an “event”, but rather a weekly grocery market. During covid, markets were deemed “essential” and they should continue to be treated as such. Without consistently supporting our local food system, local food will not be available when it becomes necessary. Please reach out to the Vestal Town Board to express your concerns and disappointment for their decision and lack of support for the market. Supervisor W. John Schaffer jschaffer@vestalny.com Councilwoman Patty Fitzgerald pfitzgerald@vestalny.com Councilwoman Sue Messina smessina@vestalny.com Councilman Stephen Donnelly sdonnelly@vestalny.com Councilman Jason Ellis jellis@vestalny.com For those of you who have had the opportunity to visit the farm at any point in the past year, you’ve probably heard either Bill or I wax poetic about our future farm fences. . . and you may have wondered why we’ve been so excited and enthusiastic about something so simple. A fence's only purpose is to keep animals (or people) where they’re supposed to be, right? Not on our farm. While fencing the perimeter of our pastures will help us to keep things where they’re intended to be, the new fencing will also serve as a tremendous tool that will allow us to increase our regenerative agriculture practices through better pasture management and soil building. In the past we’ve done our best to rotationally graze our livestock, but there’s always room for improvement. When we rotationally graze, we hope to emulate nature by mimicking natural herd behaviors. Rather than keeping livestock in one location too long, we move them frequently, not allowing them to eat down to the soil, but leaving some of the plant behind to encourage regrowth. If managed correctly, these grasses help to feed the soils, retaining moisture and providing natural habitat for native insects, birds and other animals. So how does this all apply to our farm? In our north pasture we’ll be able to utilize the exterior fence to create interior paddocks to more easily rotate our poultry and goats, allowing them access high quality forage and stay protected from our thriving coyote population. In our south pasture we’ll have the ability to create permanent interior paddocks for our pigs, allowing us to rotate them more frequently and to reseed and rest pastures behind them. Not only will this new fence provide us with the tools to better manage rotational grazing, but it also allows us to be quicker and more efficient while doing so. We’re lucky to have the opportunity to work with Tioga County Soil & Water Conservation District to install fencing and a water system, dig new vernal pools, and plant hundreds of native trees & shrubs along the wetland. TCSWCD works with farmers (and other landowners) to implement best practices and manage natural resource concerns. We’ve been working with them for the last two years to implement this project in a way that will benefit both our farm business and the surrounding natural community-- and we can’t wait to see the difference it will make. Although their expertise and technical advice often goes unseen by the general public, it has a tremendous impact throughout the Tioga County community-- and on our farm in particular. Want to learn more? Feel free to reach out via email! |
About BeccaBecca grew up exploring the fields & forests of Western PA, and now farms in fields & forests of Central NY with her partner. Categories
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