The Pauley Principle: farm markets

Welcome to The Pauley Principle!

The Pauli Principle, named for Wolfgang Pauli, deals with atoms and electron-sharing that results in new, stronger bonds. Think 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen, a shared delectable (!) electron and VOILA! Water!

Similarly, when you prepare whole food to share with family and friends, especially foods you've grown, something amazing happens. Meals become tastier and healthier. Your soul, not just your stomach, becomes fulfilled. You live life more abundantly as a result. During a shared meal, the bonds that people create grow stronger and become something new: GREATER than the sum of the parts! I give you The Pauley Principle.

Showing posts with label farm markets. Show all posts

Friday, January 27, 2012

To Market, To Market...Which Way Do We Go?

With our gardening, chickens, and Christmas trees, Chris and I are approaching the crossroads. Flip a penny, turn left! Flip a penny, turn right! I think I'm going to the nearest class that is presented by a more knowledgeable OTHER.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture and the OSU Extension Offices both offer classes on growing and marketing farm produce. I've signed up for a couple of sessions this spring. One I'm excited about is at a winery where I'll be attending Fruit and Vegetable School. Last year we found out grapes and berries come with their own unique pests and fungi. Cringe!

So far, we've only grown our fruits and veggies to consume at home and share with friends and family but *sometimes* the yield exceeds all expectations, like with our pumpkins, butternut squash and zucchini! Too many for us to eat, can, freeze or even find people to hand them to. Luckily, I've learned to appreciate the many ways to prepare butternut squash, a leader in supplying nutrients! YAY!!!

I eat so many squash and pumpkin blossoms, that I didn't expect to have a large harvest. Here, I was preparing to stuff pumpkin blossoms with cheese. Mozzarella is nice, but hot pepper cheese is even better!

Fried with an egg/cornmeal batter--YUM!!!

There are several different ways to direct market your own farm produce here in Ohio:

a Farmers' Market
a Farm Market
a Pick-Your-Own farm
a Roadside Market
a Christmas Tree Farm.

Chris and I had attended Christmas Tree College last year. That was fun! There are little white spider mites that like to invade pine trees. We actually had an attack of them! Luckily, I think all but one infected tree survived. It's worth the time and money when you learn what to watch out for and then how to deal with it. Our trees are still very young and not yet ready to leave the farm.

Supplementing your groceries with farm fresh veggies is not only a delicious choice but so, SO, frugal and nutritious!

Recently, I called the Ohio Department of Agriculture. We're weighing the benefits of becoming a member farm with the local Farmers' Market or setting up our own Farm Market. Which way do we go? A Farmers' Market is a congregation of producers that set up in a convenient place for consumers. A Farm Market is usually set up at the farm location with just the one farm producer. We're almost there at the crossroads with our fruits, veggies, eggs and eventual trees, and I'm about to turn on the turn signal.

Which way to turn???

Give Yourself the Fast Food Alternative: 1, 2, 3 makes 4 and More

For many people, late night ballgames, church, work and other events make fast food too convenient to resist, but what's in that stuff? I can't begin to answer. Big franchises such as Taco Bell say the 63% or so that isn't beef is made up of "the secret ingredient". If we consume their food, don't we have a right to know what that secret is? And more importantly, what's it doing to our bodies? My plan is worth the effort since meals eaten at home with the family benefit our physical and mental health.

Here's an alternative and my answer to Rachael Ray's A Week in a Day. I call it 1,2, 3 Makes 4 and More. On the fifth day, Friday, make a quick and easy pizza.
In one day, you can make a roast, a hearty soup, and a one-dish casserole to get you through most of the work week.
Meal 1: the roast with salad and a veggie.
Meal 2: the soup served with warm bread or in a bread bowl.
Meal 3: the casserole with a salad.
Meal 4: soup from Meal 2 served with sandwiches using the roast, Meal 1.
Meal 5: homemade pizza.

Plan meals and shop for it. Then take a few hours to prepare the entrees ahead. Start with a roast seasoned to taste. I'm talking real meat. While that's slow cooking, start chopping veggies and meat for a good, hearty soup, one that will be a meal in itself. Get it started and simmering away and then begin a one-pot meal that takes a little more attention.

This week my plan is Day 1, a slow roasted ham with salad and mashed potatoes; Day 2, minestrone; and Day 3, shepherd's pie. I'm making mashed potatoes for two days (meals 1 and 3) at one time on my cooking day. The fourth meal will be ham sandwiches with minestrone. Salads and breads round out the meals for the week. Fruits with cheese make a quick and good-for-you dessert. A truly delicious recipe for shepherd's pie is in my blog.

Be good to you. Be good to others. On days 6 and 7, change it up by going out, having a pot luck with friends and family or grilling out. Remember, live your life abundantly.

About Venison

Venison should taste really delicious! No kidding. It is my favorite meat, except for crab.

Some things to consider though:
*If you wouldn't think of eating a bull, then don't eat a deer that had huge antlers or was in rut. I don't. It affects the flavor and tenderness of the meat.
*Replace the deer fat with beef fat for your ground meat for an 80/20 ratio. Deer fat tends to be slightly bitter and leaves that thick coating in your mouth that, although edible, is not palatable.
*For roasts, sear with butter and olive oil. These impart a wonderful flavor.
*For sausage, use pork shoulder, at a ration of about 3 parts ground venison with 1 part ground pork shoulder.
*Venison by nature is a lean red meat. A good young deer processed properly will give you many delicious meals.
*Anything you would do with beef, except ribs, you can do with venison. Look for my recipe for Shepherd's Pie. Use either beef or venison. Enjoy, share, and live abundantly.

Plan Now for Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is cooked down from sap that you gather from sugar maple trees. There are no other ingredients, not even water. And it's incredibly good. On the market, maple syrups will often have corn syrup, gluten, color and other additives which can stretch profitability and decrease the steaming time required. Since it takes 35-45 gallons of the thin slightly sweet sap to make a gallon of pure maple syrup, doing it the old-fashioned way takes time but the result is pure YUM!

If you have the opportunity to tap into maple trees and decide you'd like to give this a try, plan ahead. If you steam off the sap inside your kitchen, it can strip your wall-paper! Been there, done that, at our old farmhouse. If you cook it down outside with a gas turkey fryer, the cost can end up being around $8 a pint. We began cooking over a wood fire a few years ago, using a tripod and kettle. Oh, and a large firewood supply. Whatever method you choose, proceed slowly and with caution.

Gather your supplies. We use food safe plastic jugs, buckets, and little water line spouts. Maple syrup production houses will collect into stainless steel vats using long water lines but we simply gather the jugs, pour into buckets and bring it to the kettle twice daily. I buy little pint jugs to store it in. Very fresh, very pure. Start tapping the trees when daytime temperatures are going to be above freezing but nights are still very cold. In Ohio, the sap will be running fast sometime in February.

Try my cousin Stephanie Krupla's recipe for Sticky Bun Tea Ring and you'll want to search for maple trees you can tap into yourself!