Got scapes? Try Presto Pesto

Scapes growing in the garlic patch at Edible Earthscapes

Here’s an update on a discovery I made last spring:

Wondering what to do with those ‘scapes? You know those curly stalks that shoot up from the garlic before they flower and are ready to harvest? The green stalks taste just like garlic, and rather nippy garlic at that, so of course you can chop ‘em and dice’ em and saute them in butter or olive oil and add to just about any dish.

But there’s something even better you can do with them: make pesto. I stumbled over a recipe in an issue  last spring of Edible Piedmont for Raw Garlic Scape Pesto.

Sounded great, especially since we put pesto on just about everything we eat. Could this be a new easy way to produce my favorite secret sauce?

I was game. I cut Edible Piedmont’s recipe in half for our trial run and threw the following into the blender: 1/4 pound scapes chopped into 1 inch sections, 3/4 cup of olive oil and 1 cup of Parmesan cheese. Hit “blend” and 60 seconds later I had a pint of something tangy that looked like guacomole and tasted every bit as good as my favorite pesto.

Whoa, that was too easy (no pain, no gain and all that), so I threw in a handful of walnuts (pine nuts would probably be just as good), mashed the blend button one more time, and oh-my-god: presto pesto perfecto. I heated it up and tossed it over leftover spinach/feta ravioli.

I was unstoppable at that point, so I had some Swiss chard sauteed in olive oil with a splash of scape presto pesto on the side. All of this took all of about five minutes, my kind of dinner. I’m sure this will be dynamite on bruschetta or garlic bread, just about any kind of pasta, as well as chicken and seafood.

And here’s a tip for freezing: make presto pesto ice cubes in your freezer tray, then wrap them individually and store them in a freezer bag so you can take out as much as you need when you need it throughout the year.

Thanks, Edible Earthscapes, the lovely CSA that first turned me on to ‘scapes,  and Edible Piedmont (we’ve named this version of garlic scape pesto for you:  Edible Presto Pesto).

–Dee Reid

Gulf oil, local shrimp and grits

Whenever I think about what’s happening to the Gulf with the oil spill, I start wondering about the future of shrimp. And whenever I think of shrimp, I can’t help recalling the late great chef Bill Neal, who branded our unique seasonal southern cuisine with  his now famous “shrimp and grits,” long before any of us ever knew what slow food and locavore meant.  At least we still have NC shrimp, Bill’s classic recipe, and his successor Bill Smith at Crook’s Corner to do it up right. Here’s the original recipe in honor of my favorite Chef Bills for persuading me that grits are really great after all, with the right recipe:

Crook’s Corner Shrimp and Grits (4 servings)

1 cup grits

4 cups water or milk

1 cup cheddar cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 teasp. salt

1/8 teasp. white pepper

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/4 teasp. Tabasco sauce

6 slices bacon

peanut oil

1 lb. fresh shrimp, peeled, deveined and rinsed

2 cups white button mushrooms, sliced

1 cup scallions, minced

1 large clove garlic, minced

4 teasp. lemon juice

2 Tablespsoons fresh parsley

Cook grits according to package instructions in milk or water. Turn off heat. Add cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, butter, salt, white pepper, cayenne pepper and Tabasco. Stir until mixed. Set aside and keep warm.

Dice bacon and saute lightly until edges are brown but bacon is not crisp. Remove, drain, set aside.

Add peanut oil to skilled to make a layer about 1/4 inch thick. Pat shrimp dry, add shrimp to hot oil in even layer. Turn as they color. Add mushrooms and saute for about 4 minutes. Add scallions and garlic. heat, stir for 1 minute more. Season with lemon juice, dash of tabasco, salt and pepper to taste and parsley.

Divide grits over four plates. Spoon shrimp on top, sprinkle with bacon, serve immediately.

– Reprinted in the News and Observer from Remembering Bill Neal: Favorite Recipes from a Life in Cooking by Moreton Neal.

*By the way, if you want a regular supply of seafood fresh from the NC coast, you might consider joining the first Community Supported Fishery (CSF) in the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area. It’s called Core Sound Seafood, offering weekly and bi-weekly shares of seafood from Carteret County, delivered to a convenient local location starting in mid-June.

The idea is to connect Down East fishermen to a local, viable market. They have pledged to donate a dollar for every pound of seafood sold to a special assistance fund to help commercial fishing families in times of need. A limited number of shares are still available.

–Dee Reid

Twenty-Five Top Five

By Camille Armantrout

Camille and Bob grow their favorite veggies in containers and a "sunken garden" in an old swimming pool

Earlier this month, Bob and I took a couple of weeks off for our annual road trip north to visit family and friends.  Those 1500 miles on the road in Blanche, our Mercedes 300TD “Hoopty Ride” wagon gave us plenty of time to chew on things.

It wasn’t long before our conversation turned to food and gardening and we remembered Farmer Jason telling us that parsnips were on his top five list so we decided to come up with our own list.  We asked ourselves, “If we could only grow five vegetables which five would we grow?” Here’s what we decided on:

TOP FIVE MUST-HAVE
Beets
Cabbage
Onions
Potatoes
Tomatoes

Beets do double duty, providing greens as well as the sweet beet root. Cabbage is magic and extremely versatile.  Much of the world subsists quite nicely on a diet of beans, rice and cabbage. Nearly every meal in our home begins with an onion.  We both have Irish roots, so potatoes are a must.  Plus they are delicious, satisfying and store well.  Tomatoes are indispensable for TLTs (Tempeh, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches) in the summer and spaghetti sauce in the winter.

Well that only whet our appetite, so we went on to create four more top fives.

TOP FIVE RAW
Butterhead Lettuce
Salad Turnips
Spinach
Sugar Snap Peas
Sweet Red Pepper

TOP FIVE COOKED
Artichokes
Asparagus
Mushrooms
Shishito Peppers
Sweet Corn

TOP FIVE EASIEST TO GROW
Cucumber
Green Onions
Lettuce
Okra
Tomatoes

TOP FIVE DRIED
Black Beans
Chick Peas
Rice
Soybeans
Wheat

We already have more than 25 vegetables and herbs growing in our garden and have yet to add artichokes, cabbage, or sweet corn. And we’d need a bit more acreage to grow enough beans and grain to replace what we currently buy.  Lucky for us our neighbors at Edible Earthscapes are growing black beans and rice.

At the end of the day, it’s fun to make lists and I feel confident that if we were limited, we would live a healthy, happy and sustainable life eating our top 25.

Editor’s comment: What? No rainbow chard? Ok, dear readers, tell us what’s in your top five.

Learning something new every day

By Tami Schwerin

Ruby Rocks

My cute, plump, white haired Grandmother Ruby used to say in her Southern accent, “I learn something new every day!”  We used to make fun of her for that. Now I now find myself saying the same thing.

She grew up on a farm and moved to downtown Raleigh, but Granddaddy Julian still drove out to the farm every morning at 4 to plant and harvest.  He’d bring bushel baskets of vegetables and fruits back to her to can, freeze and cook up.  Again, we took  this for granted and just helped her shell the butter beans on the front porch or assist in her skinny kitchen, where only one person could pass at a time.

We’d all sit down in the big dining room and eat the best home-cooked fresh meals with hot biscuits and butter, jellies and sweet tea.

I suppose her spirit lives on in The Abundance Foundation. We are a non-profit located in Pittsboro and serving central North Carolina.  Our mission is: Building our local foodshed, modeling renewable energy and inspiring community.

We do this through a Sustainable DIY (do it yourself) Workshop Series and tours of our Eco-Industrial Park, and we have really fun events. Coming up we have four workshops that I think Ruby would have been proud of:

May 22: Vermiculture with Brian Rosa and Ben of Carolina Worm Castings

May 29:  No Waste Chocolate Mousee and Hollandaise Sauce (cooking) with John Wasson

June 5, 12, 19 & 26: Building an Outdoor Bread and Pizza Oven with Stonemason Joe Kenlan

June 13:  Seed Saving Magic with Farmer of the Year Doug Jones

Seed Saving with Farmer Doug

If we all become a bit more educated and learn something new every day around issues of local food and renewable energy, and if we have good friends to enjoy meals with, there is really no stopping us from lowering our collective footprints, enjoying our lives and becoming healthier.

I hope you can come join us on this journey into sustainability and adaptation.

–Tami Schwerin is founder and executive director of The Abundance Foundation.

Building NC’s sustainable local food economy

Nancy Creamer, Distinguished Professor of Sustainable and Community-Based Food Systems

We spend about $35 billion a year on food in North Carolina, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  But much of that goes to out-of-state businesses. Building a sustainable local food economy would keep more of our food dollars in state, where it would stimulate economic development and job creation, bolster the viability of local farms and fisheries, and help address diet-related health problems.

A new report published by the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) provides goals and strategies to put us on the fast track to achieving a sustainable local and regional food system.

From Farm to Fork: A Guide to Building North Carolina’s Sustainable Local Food Economy is the result of a yearlong “Farm to Fork” initiative spearheaded by CEFS Director Nancy Creamer, who recently was named the Distinguished Professor of Sustainable and Community-Based Food Systems at N.C. State University.

The initiative involved the active participation of well over 1,000 North Carolinians, and included people and organizations working in agriculture, commercial fishing, community outreach, education, faith, finance, public policy, state and local government, and youth outreach.

The report identifies 11 “game changers” that are actionable within two years and statewide in scope.  One major game changer—the establishment of a statewide food advisory council to engage decision makers in strategic food-systems planning and implementation—has already been accomplished. Other game changers moving forward include:

• expanding local market opportunities by developing a model farm-to-institution program (Fort Braggs’ “Feed the Forces” program) and helping to network direct-marketing initiatives statewide;

• increasing consumer education and outreach (the 10% Campaign, funded by the Golden LEAF Foundation);

• addressing public health and food access disparities by expanding and strengthening N.C.’s SNAP-Ed program; and

• promoting farm-to-school programming through the development of a model farm-to-school pre-service teacher instruction program.

You can read the whole report here.

Opening day of a CSA

By Carol Peppe Hewitt

Carol, Keenan and Mark

Wednesday was an exciting day at the end of the Johnny Burke Road in Pittsboro, NC.  Mark and I had the pleasure of being the very first ever CSA pick-up from Duck Run Farm, owned and run by the multi-talented Keenan McDonald.

In August 2009 Keenan took on the transformation of the old Burke family farm, which we share. She brought in baby pigs to turn over the ground and a wonderful selection of the most beautiful ducks to class up the pond, while she began turning the large room off the breezeway into a certified kitchen. A chicken “tractor” was built and soon filled up with chicks, and a greenhouse sprang up on the crest of the hill.  A shelter and brick oven came next, and when the acres up on the hill were ready, tiny plants soon became long rows of spring vegetables.

We offered use of a tractor, and Keenan came down to help hoist Mark’s very biggest pots off the wheel. Big projects rely on extra hands and we have enjoyed being those for one another.

But mostly we have been her cheering section, arm-chair quarterbacks to her impressive undertaking.  Farming is work, and more work, but one also needs drive, passion, intellect and ingenuity to turn earth and seed into a successful business. Duck Run Farm has all those and more. The spring yield is excellent – the hilltop of kale, chard, spinach, lettuces, bok choy and more are inspiring and selling well on Tuesdays at Fearrington Farmer’s Market, Wednesday evenings at Johnny’s in Carrboro, and Saturdays in Saxapahaw.

Those baby chicks grew to healthy fat birds, and have been processed and now wait in the freezer to be included in the CSA bags.

Baker+Farmer, an apt title, takes the CSA concept to a whole new level as Keenan collaborates with other farmers, a goat dairy, a baker, and even a coffee roaster! Our bag included a tasty piece of garlic-and-chive goat cheese from Small Potatoes Farm, a fat frozen chicken and the most wonderful round loaf of crusty bread by the talented baker Lynette Driver.  That loaf didn’t last long:  We were tearing off large chunks to enjoy while it was still warm as we walked back down the lane to our house.

While we collected our bag about noon many more bags were being delivered to Family Health International and EPA in Research Triangle Park, the School of Government in Chapel Hill and beyond.  In the end sixty bags went out to very lucky customers on this inaugural run.

On May 5^th, 2010 the world of sustainable agriculture took a tiny leap forward. I felt it. I was there. It was wonderful. Keenan has plans for dinner events and music on a stage, so bookmark her site and come and hear the ducks happily quacking down at the pond for yourself.

I’ll be there.  Just eating and dancing and celebrating the way we are making our foodshed and our community the way we really want them to be.

Urban Chicks, Henside the Beltline

Are YOU talkin' to ME?

Okay, let me state this as plainly as possible. If you enjoyed the Piedmont Farm Tour, the Carrboro Urban Farm Tour, or even the Chatham and Orange Studio Art Tours, you are going to love the 5th Annual Tour D’Coop in Raleigh, “Henside the Beltline,” Saturday May 15.

Think about it: This is your chance to visit the creative people raising hens in our fair capital. And it takes all kinds.

There are the artistic coops and the practical Future Farmers of America roosts. The perfect, do-it-yourself-by-the-blueprint ones, and the funky ones.  I promise, there are even Chicken McMansions (hey, it’s Raleigh).

And we haven’t even mentioned the ladies yet. The Parade of Combs presents hens of all feathers, colors, religions and political persuasions. Strutting their stuff, and, uh, showing you what they can do (but it’s so good for the garden).

Moreover, most of the folks energetic enough to raise urban chicks also have amazing gardens and yards, and a great sense of humor. This is your chance to take a peek, ask lots of questions, and dream about building your own chicken coop some day.

Mark your calendar, bring along some food to donate to the Urban Ministries food bank, pack up the kids (they will love this, better than the zoo), but leave the dog at home.

Click here for details about where to pick up a map.

And click here to see how much fun I had last year on the tour.

– Dee Reid

Spring Parsnips – a hard core lesson in letting go

By Camille Armantrout

Sometimes you have to try something just to see how it comes out.  Great cooks and gardeners are fearless, or to quote a gardener, “There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.”

This week Bob and I found ourselves with a couple of pounds of parsnips.  I wasn’t sure what to do with them but decided to give them a chance.  So I went to my computer and found a recipe for “Sweet and Gooey Parsnips,” which involved carmelizing them with nutmeg. Looked promising.

I got right to work, peeling and chopping up the hard, little roots.  I spent enough time with my pile of parsnips to begin seeing pictures in the horizontal lines.  I superimposed the face of a farmer atop one craggy, dirt-stained root in an attempt to visualize the person who grew these pale, pithy wonders.  All it needed was a tiny straw hat!

Meanwhile, farmer Jason of Edible Earthscapes came over and was enjoying some of his home brew on the back porch with Bob.  As the parsnips simmered away in the pan, I walked outside and asked Jason “What do you do with parsnips?”  Bob laughed because he had just asked Jason the same question.

Jason had told Bob that Fall parsnips were one of his top five favorite vegetables and that Spring parsnips with their winter-hardened root cores were only good for the compost pile.

“Great,” I said, “I find this out now!” As I turned to go back inside the house, Bob was already making plans to plant parsnips for Fall harvest.

I checked on my pan of parsnips.  The nutmeg complimented their flavor nicely and some of the pieces had indeed turned sweet and gooey.  Unfortunately, nearly all the gooey parsnip morsels were hiding an inedible, woody core.  Unwilling to throw them on the compost pile just yet, I put them in the refrigerator.

The next day, I decided to turn those parsnips into soup.  Soups are something I’m really good at and this would be a cream of chard/kale soup with pureed parsnips.  I started re-heating the cooked greens and on a whim, added in some acorn squash I’d frozen last fall.  I heated up the parsnips and pressed them through a sieve, leaving all the hard cores behind.  Adding soy milk, I pureed all three vegetables and added a few spices.

Voila!  I had made a big pot of something resembling Baby Food!  Well, there’s no baby in our house and I don’t know anyone who would feed what I made to their child.  My “soup” had bad color, consistency and flavor.  Well, I could thin it down some, I thought, reaching for some vegetable broth.

I was on the verge of chopping up some chives to add in when Bob walked into the kitchen.  Seeing what I was up to he said, “Let it go – it’s enough already!”  Putting the knife down, I picked up the pot of gooey green puree, walked outside and poured it over the compost pile.

Compost piles need to eat, too, throwing good energy after bad is never a good idea and if you are afraid to make mistakes, you will never learn anything.  Knowing when to let go is as important as knowing how to dive in.  And I’ll probably be ready to give parsnips another go in the fall.