Eastside Farm Tales

The Visitation of the Starlings

2011-12-05T22:21:00.000-08:00

The last blog I posted was October 28th...two days before I broke my ankle in New Orleans. HOWEVER, I am going to skip over that story to share the video I shot today.

FarmerChefBuilder Jeff and I started noticing the annual gathering of the starlings over the last few days.Today they came into the backyard, creating a deafening wall of sound. I ran out with the camera and caught some in flight. Enjoy!

A side note about the birds: European Starlings were Introduced as part of a plan to introduce to the U.S. all birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare. They crowd out native birds (bluebirds, titmice, nuthatches, swallows, wrens; sometimes even American kestrels, flickers, acorn woodpeckers) and can destroy crops. *See National Invasive Species Information Center of the USDA.

Southern Trip 2011 - Clarksdale, MS & Delta Divertissement

2011-10-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

To pick up where we left off...we left NOLA on Tuesday morning after a spectacular breakfast at Mother's. We drove across Lake Pontchartrain and then north up to Mississippi. On our way we stopped at various antique stores (didn't find anything there) and then just high-tailed it to our serene place in Clarksdale, Mississippi. I can't put my finger on what makes it so special. Maybe it is the quiet, the stillness, only to be broken by the flock of birds that live in the big bush. I wish I could tell you where it is, but they are getting all the business they can handle.

A Mississippi Delta Bottle Tree in Clarksdale, MS

We went out to dinner at our favorite little place in Clarksdale for Delta Tamales and barbecue pork ribs, Abe's. We had discovered this place and eaten here several times before we heard the story of the owners. They are descendants of Lebanese "peddlers", so named because they sold their wares off of their bicycles.

More Delta Tamales from Abe's with no extra chile or cheese

Delta Tamales from Delta Fast Food in Cleveland, MS

Once in Greenwood I was on a mission to try the famous pie at Crystal Grill. Okay, this seemed like a good idea at the time. Apparently Jeff was still on his tamale quest. The pie was a chocolate meringue and the meringue tasted like toasted marshmallows!

Lunch at the Viking demonstration kitchen was amazing. Made with free range quail by Chef Nick of Giardina's in Greenwood, MS

True Southern Hospitality - A stunning cocktail buffet set up on a blueberry farm.

Pinwheel Pickled Okra and Cream Cheese Sandwiches. Delicious!

We were fed wonderful vegetables grown by and in the garden of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Greenwood.

Progressive Dinner of Chicken and sides

My Dinner plate - Okra, Chicken, Greens

Delta Shrimp and Grits at Delta Bistro, Greenwood

The Southern Foodways Symposium Lunch - Korean/Southern Bento Boxes - Incredible!

My new favorite cheese from Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Southern Trip 2011 - New Orleans & Chef's Collaborative

2011-10-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

We are on our annual trek to The South. We love it here. Phase One: our free days until the Chefs Collaborative Summit '11 begins. Our first full day in New Orleans, LA (NOLA) started with lunch at Napoleon House. The place is dripping with ambiance. Take a look at the walls. I really don't think it has been painted for 75 years! It is a little touristy, but there are locals to give the place an authentic feel. We had a quarter of a muffaletta, the classic New Orleans sandwich with provolone cheese, salami and a great olive mix.

We got out of the "Quarter" as soon as we could (not a big fan of crowds) and went straight to our favorite "rusty/dusty" antique yard right off of Magazine Street in upper Garden District/lower Uptown. We bought the kettle in the picture along with some other cool props and metal crates that we will have to ship home. I don't think we can carry that home in luggage!

Phase Two: We took advantage of the Chef's Collaborative Summit while in NOLA. Little did we know it would include a 3 hour bus ride. (The theme of Gilligan's Island kept floating through my head..."a 3 hour tour".) First stop: a rice farmer who, along with his wife, also raises crawfish in the same rice fields, Frey Crawfish . They are very "green" and sustainable. Above is the photo of the mudbug (crawfish) sorting machine he created.

These are the push boats he had made. The workers push the boat and walk through the rice fields scooping crawfish. The way this used to be done was with a motorized boat which not only was burning fossil fuel, it also destroyed the crawfish due to fuel and oil in the water.

Here is a bag of their crawfish. They explained that the yellow tint is from crawfish fat, which as we all know, fat equals flavor. It just kills me that this is so readily available in stores in Louisiana...but not near us!

Here is one of the Mama Mudbugs just loaded with eggs. She will drop a couple hundred eggs.

We then hopped on the bus and went out to look at the 2nd rice crop. As you can see, they treated us to true Southern Hospitality and supplied ice cold beer.

Our stop at Prejean's in Lafayette was incredible. What you see on my plate: a crawfish pie and crawfish etouffee (smothered crawfish). At the top of the photo you can see Boudin Balls, tasty sausage rice fritters with a creole remoulade sauce.

We stopped at a little grocery/butcher along side the freeway, Don's Specialty Meats, that is most famous for cracklin's, which are not to be confused with fried pork skin. Cracklin's still have a little bit of meat...Most folks I have talked to said that they couldn't help but eat a full pound bag of them on their way home. Fear not...we at a couple of them, and no more. We did, however, buy some local andouille sausage and tasso ham. As you can see from the photo above, I was surprised to find stuffed catfish available, too. Dang...they have some of the most amazing food so readily available.

The collaborative wanted to make sure we were paying attention. What better way to do that? Give us amazing sandwiches (muffaletta & banh mi) from Cochon Butcher . I don't think I have ever had a better banh mi!

I think my favorite part of the conference was the Italian-style hog butchering class at Domenica. We watched the very talented Chef Alon. He lived in Parma, Italy and studied the Italian method of butchery and sausage making/meat curing. It was fascinating to see him cut the pig up in a new way, well, new to us. We also learned about the heritage pig that he raises for the cured meats. I couldn't find my notes but know that it is on
the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy's list. I can't heap enough praise on the class and the meats. They were both incredible!

Phase 3 & 4 - next post!

Where did the Time go?

2011-10-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

If you are wondering why there have been no posts since April, when we began to prepare for planting, I will do what I can to explain...or should I just show pictures of what we have been doing for the last 6 months? Pics it is!

We decided to simplify our lives (yes, can you believe it?) by farming on a smaller plot of land. We had been over-achievers for 3 years by farming on 2 acres. It was too much for us (me, Farmer Jeff and one other very part time person) to farm and maintain that much land/plants.

Tiger, our feral kitty, that has decided he now enjoys being pet, is hunting for gophers and voles. Go Tiger!

Not the normal cash crop grown in Mendocino or Humboldt Counties, rather our tomatoes in the "Green" greenhouse.

This is the first evidence we had that the bees had returned. (What you are seeing is pollen on the "porch")

Tomatoes were late this year. Really late. Our first ripe tomatoes were one month late, around August 15th. We made our traditional first summer pasta with our tomatoes, wild arugula, goat cheese and whole grain pasta. TOTALLY delicious!

We fell in love with Padrones last year and planted even more this year. We ate them every night we were home this summer! We also tried planting shishito peppers, a Japanese-style frying pepper. They were prolific! We will grow them again.

Once we had our first summer pasta, ZinFarmerChef Jeff fired up (literally!) the wood burning oven and made pizzas for us. He was very proud this was a totally home made pizza: he made the crust, grew the tomatoes and basil from seed and made the mozzarella. So amazed by all that he does! ..and yes, the pizza was AMAZING!

Fear not, we are still in love with our chickens! The girls have gotten bolder and now come up on the back deck. The cats inside the house run...those birds are too big! The dogs start barking and when we shush them, they just wander off and go back to sleep! Spoiled Babies!

Our beloved Elder Statesman, Callebaut.

Getting Ready for Planting ...here we Go!

2011-04-18T12:30:00.001-07:00

Soon...like the first of May, we will begin planting!!! Woohoo!!!

Bonnie Jean's Soul Food Cafe in San Diego

2010-12-31T00:11:00.000-08:00

We had a great lunch here the day after Christmas. It was SO Southern and Soulful, we thought we were either in Mississippi or Tennessee. A special shout out of thanks to Miesha, who really made the day so special. AND of course, thanks go to Beth and Chris for introducing us to Bonnie Jean's!

Travels to Phoenix - the cooking show!

2010-11-23T23:15:00.000-08:00

Jeff and I were in Arizona this past weekend for the Sonoma Showcase Festival. (Yes, the name was sold and "Sonoma" is now being sold as a brand. Why didn't we think of this?) We were there to do cooking demonstrations at the event. Their fabulous PR person, Sandy Painter, arranged for us to promote the event by going on 3 different morning news shows.

For the show on Thursday morning, Sonoran Living, Jeff prepared "Dungeness Crab Stuffed Avocado with Mango and Red Chile Dressing", from his cookbook, Down Home to Downtown. While finishing up the first show Jeff was asked if he could prepare some food as props for the news broadcast the next morning out at the event location. Sure...Jeff is an agreeable guy! Since it didn't need to necessarily be what we were demonstrating that weekend, Jeff just ...created some dishes! It was pretty fun walking around the giant grocery store thinking of what food would project both Zin Restaurant's style of food while also staying seasonal AND available.

Jeff came up with three dishes, one of which was Butternut Squash Hash with Applewood Smoked Bacon, using Zin's house bacon, of course! I don't have to be psychic (which I can be on rare occasions!) to know you will want to know what else he served: Wild Mushroom Barley Risotto (which was fantastic!) and Zin smoked Fennel Sausage with Sauteed peppers. Mind you, it was just for a prop, but Jeff made sure it was seasoned properly! We were just to place the food on the plates, set them on a display table and then make ourselves scarce. As it turned out, Jeff was interviewed live on location and did a GREAT job!

At the end of the shoot, Sandy explained she has lost her Saturday morning "cooking guest" and asked us if we could appear on yet another show the next morning! We agreed and after watching everyone devour the squash hash, decided to present that dish. We were supposed to only get 2 minutes of air time but it turned into 5! The only segment available online is the Friday show. Here is the link to that one: Jeff and Susan on ABC 15

For those that have requested it, here is the recipe for the Butternut Squash Hash with Applewood Smoked Bacon. We are making a big batch for dinner Thursday!

Butternut Squash Hash with Applewood Smoked Bacon

By Chef Jeff Mall – Zin Restaurant – Healdsburg, CA

Zinrestaurant.com

1 medium butternut squash – peeled and diced

1 medium yellow onion - peeled and diced

2 slices Applewood Smoked Bacon – diced

1 red bell pepper – diced

2 leaves fresh sage- chopped

2 oz. unsalted butter

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

½ cup chicken broth or stock

Heat large skillet over medium heat and cook bacon until almost crisp.

Drain half of the fat. Add butter.

Add chopped onion, red pepper and sage.

Cook until onions are translucent.

Add butternut squash and toss with ingredients.

Add chicken broth and continue to cook until squash is tender.

Season with kosher salt and black pepper to taste.

Have a wonderful dinner and be sure to express your gratitude each and every day, not just on Thanksgiving!

Sun Studio and other adventures in THE SOUTH

2010-11-10T13:36:00.000-08:00

For all y'all who think they have "done Memphis" by going to Graceland and then to see the ducks swim in the bar fountain at the Peabody Hotel...you have missed out by not going to Sun Studio! We had a BLAST and got to see where Elvis stood when he cut his first "studio" record. The photo above shows that very spot!

We honestly ate ourselves stupid on this trip.

After our day of fried chicken, we ate dried fruit in the car while driving to Brooks Shaw's Country Store at Casey Jones Village, Jackson, TN, a sweet place owned by friends of ours, Clark and Juanita Shaw. Clark's daddy, Brooks, started the store and it has grown into an incredible place to eat home-style cooking and shop for ...Americana! We first learned of their incredible food at a Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium where Clark and Juanita made their famous "Baba's Cracklin' Cornbread" and we ate our weight in cornbread! We mentioned it to Juanita who sent her sister (the one that threw George Harrison out of Carl Perkin's house after Carl's funeral, but that is another story!) to take care of us. Did she EVER!!! Jeff and I were both delivered HOT cornbread along with the hot pockets of joy, fresh fried peach pie! OH LOWDY!!! I could have eaten 10 of them, or died trying! It was revealed that the chef uses dried peaches for the concentrated peach flavor. Whatever he does, it works!!!

Would you believe that all this took place before lunch? We crawled back in the car, with me wondering if I could eat again in the next day, much less in the next hour! That was put to the test when we pulled up at our destination, B.E.Scott's aka Ricky Parker's Whole Hog Barbecue in Lexington, TN. (The link will take you to an interview of Ricky by Southern Foodways Alliance. Ricky wasn't around but his son was and he was kind enough to give us a tour. Don't all tours include dressed pigs? We had an incredible pulled (not chopped - our preference) pork sandwich...and climbed back in the car and drove back to the Country Store.

They had promised us a "soda fountain treat"...which was!!! The fountain has been deemed one of the best 50 ice cream parlors in the US...so we HAD to try it! I had my all time favorite flavor combo of vanilla ice cream, bananas, fudge sauce, whipped cream and salted nuts! YUM!!!

We got ourselves a cup of coffee, some chocolate walnut fudge for the road (yes, I HAVE been doing Weight Watchers for a YEAR!) and drove back to Memphis where a fabulous dinner at Restaurant Iris awaited us! Can you say "FOOD COMA"???

On the Road Again...the annual Southern Pilgrimage

2010-10-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

A plate of pork ribs, barbecue beans and French fries with a plate of the famous BBQ Spaghetti

Our annual trip to "the South" began with lunch at Neely's Bar-b-que in Memphis, TN. We devoured the rib combo plate we got with beans and coleslaw and Jeff helped me to finish my pork and coleslaw sandwich. DELICIOUS! We crawled back to the hotel and took a VERY long nap! Afterwards we went to a little place called Automatic Slims. It was good, not great. Creative, but they couldn't quite pull it off. Close but no cigar!

For breakfast we went to Cockadoo's. They have "cathead" biscuits which means they have biscuits the size of a cat head. They were good, but not remarkable. I am spoiled by the fantastic biscuits at Zin on Sunday nights!

We bit the bullet and finally went to Graceland. It was getting embarrassing that we hadn't gone on all of our trips to Memphis...

For those of you that were born before 1970 should recognize the beautiful white front porch of Graceland. Apparently Priscilla Presley hired 2 guys from Disneyland to help create the mystique and amusement park quality of Graceland. Not a bad thing...It was fun to see!We had to be the youngest on the tour. The average age was about 70! The tour takes you through the main house, to see the kitchen, dining room, racquetball court and the famous underground play rooms. Pretty crazy decorating ideas...

It was sad to see the grave site and realize just how young he was when he passed. It was also amazing to see the level of devotion and fanaticism that still exists for Elvis.

From there we went to lunch at one of the places our friends, Paul and Angela recommended, Uncle Lou's Sweet and Spicy Fried Chicken. It was delicious! Uncle Lou has Homestyle, Sweet and Spicy and HOT Sweet and Spicy. It was SO good!

Not satisfied with eating only one kind of fried chicken, we had it again for dinner, this time it was Gus's Fried Chicken. I promise we don't eat this way every day! Just the week we are in the South! Back to Gus's...Michael Stern of Roadfood said it best:

I'm not sure about Gus's claim to be world famous; but if it is not, it deserves to be. Here is some of the nation's best fried chicken. Each piece, dark and white, is encased in an envelope that vigorously crunches then offers rapturous chew, all the while radiating the ecstatic flavor combo of chicken fat and pepper... (Click on the link to read all that he wrote about Gus's)

All of this crazy eating took place in two days...with 7 to go...and no stretch pants packed. I am in trouble!
If I haven't gone into a food coma, I'll write more tomorrow about the food extravaganza...and the trip to Sun Studios!

We are Back in Business!

2010-08-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

Our farm/garden was featured in Discoveries Magazine, August 2010

Yes, the blog is BACK! After dealing with "technical difficulties" beyond my abilities, I just said phooey and re-titled Eastside Farm Chronicles. I won't whine and tell you how busy we have been...but DANG! We have been busy!

After Farmer Jeff gave me an incubator for Christmas (yes, all his fault!) we have had a dramatic rise in the number of chickens. We also now have a dramatic number of roosters and are offering them to anyone that will take them! I have even considered butchering them and making Coq au Vin, but can't bring myself to do it...yet. It will really depend on how many more sleepless nights we and the neighbors suffer through!

I don't dare try to recap May - almost September. Suffice to say it has been a strange growing season on the farm. We have over 500 tomatoes planted...and the coldest summer in 70 years. Our melons, however, are the best ever, with Crane melons as the current favorite. They are on the Slow Food Ark of Taste along with other things we are growing such as the Jimmy Nardello Sweet Italian Frying Peppers, Petaluma Gold Rush Beans. The rest of what we have planted are heirloom varieties.

We are about to move into the "preserving the harvest" phase of the year. We have peaches to turn into jam, tomatoes to turn into sauce, pears to dehydrate, and lots more to pick! Peppers and pepper roasting will follow.

Thanks for following our journey...more tales to come!