So yes. it has indeed been awhile.  Ive been working on a farm for the past 2 months, living a totally different lifestyle than a cook would tend to lead. Up at 5:50am, out at 7 work till 1-ish, lunch, work till 6. In bed at, im embarassed to say, 9 or 10. Repeat. Saturday is easily my favorite day of the week because I get to go to the market and sell all the stuff Ive been planting, watering and growing. Rather, helping grow.  So yes, Ive been super busy and updates are at hand. This will be one for the books.

I took a quick weekend trip to Manhattan and ate at Greys Papaya, Artisanal (for champagne and cheese alone), Gramercy Tavern,  Magnolia bakery and Balthazar.  Everything was amazing especially at Balthazar and  Gramercy; Ive never had a bad meal there (Gramercy). This time was no different, but there was DILL on 5 out of 7 dishes. Weird. A little repetetive, but all in all delicious.

So back to farming. Why: Because I couldn’t find a job in NYC or DC, and Id love to grow some produce for my restaurant in the future, and know how to do it right. Where: Argyle, NY (30 min. north of Saratoga Springs).  Pleasant Valley Farm is the name, and we’re Naturally Certified. Same as USDA organic, but without all the fees and bs.

Right now, we are harvesting lettuce heads, scallions, last of the strawberries, beginning/middle of peas, swiss chard, yellow squash, zucchini, garlic scapes, green beans, cucumbers, and about 15 different herbs.  Tomatoes are coming along; we’ve got about 500+ plants.  We have over 800 winter squash plants and as many leeks and more onions than both.  Ill get a photo of me on the transplanter called a waterwheel, where i sit and plant tons of plants in a fraction of time that it would take to transplant by hand. Lots of learning here, and tons of great produce.

Apologies for the lack of posts. I moved and am working in upstate NY on an (uncertified) organic farm, and have been really friggin busy. Ill have some posts in the near future, but for now, i gotta run. Harvest day, which means 20ea 5 gal. buckets of spinach, 5 crates of chard, 75# of rhubarb, 100 pints of strawberries, 450 heads of lettuce, 150 bunches of radishes, and many bunches of cut herbs.  Sometimes I miss being a cook and waking up at 10am.

There’s a dairy in MD called Firefly Farms. I met them at our farmers market, and bought a nice pyramid shaped blue cheese, “Mountain Top Bleu”. Words fail me.

This week, I went back and bought a pice of the “Cabra La Mancha”, a Spanish-style semi-firm cheese. Amazing. Check these people out, and if you’re in MD, go get some.

Bread is a very important thing. Many turns-of-phrase have been created around this food, which obviously translates into importance. I mean, when the name of a foodstuff is used instead of the word “money”,  you know its important. Okay, enough bs.

So I’ve been playing around with baking my own bread for over a year now, and have had varying levels of success. I have been more successful recently though, mostly due to an amazing book. Peter Reinhart knows his stuff, and after reading this book cover to cover many times, I know much more about proper bread baking. Just look at my most recent loaf of sourdough:

I know. It was ridiculously good. Get the book and start making good bread.

There are a ton of violets behind my apartment, so recalling delicious violet ice cream I had a Mugaritz, I thought I’d make a violet syrup.  After harvesting a quart of violets, which took forever, I steeped them for 24hrs in water, then reduced a simple syrup with the extract. I now have violet syrup.

Utilization. That’s what you’ll hear in good kitchens everywhere. Whether it’s an expensive, rare ingredient, or an everyday chicken carcass, utilization is key.  After being on a farm for a month, i can tell you, nothing goes to waste.  Eggs that hens lay outside of the boxes go to the pigs or dogs because we’re not sure when they were laid.  If there’s leftover water in my glass, it goes into a plant somewhere, not the sink. Even the water in the shower, before it heats up, gets saved and used elsewhere…

This, however, is much more delicious than shower water, and very seasonal.

Ramps.

Everyone thinks ramps should be pickled. Yes, they’re good pickled. But cant we move away from the old pickle (which I enjoy) to something new and a little bolder?

About 2 weeks ago I scored 2# of ramps.

So, now to utilize.

Butter (tops, the leftover puree from making oil) and pickle (bulbs), Oil (tops – initial use of half the tops) and confit (bulbs – not shown), Pasta dough (tops):

Coincidentally, Alex just did ramp top cavatelli. This is straight up pasta dough, which is very different than his. Ravioli, paparadelle, and tortellini are all in the cards.  I just made a puree of the tops which I incorporated into a now-modified recipe.  I let the puree hang overnight to leech excess water, and used the excess ramp “water” in the dough.  Ill use the rest in a sauce.  I suppose if I wanted to be really soignee, Id make a “ramp explosion” a la Alinea. But I wont go there – perhaps for obvious reasons. I’ve still got ramp bulbs that I haven’t utilized in some form of quasi-preservation, so if anyone has any suggestions, im all ears.

Ice cream. This place is tiny, and what you imagine you’d find in a small town. I waited half an hour for ice cream, which is something I haven’t done since Swensens in San Fran.  Chocolate-Peanut Butter was worth it.

Garlic Mustard greens. They grow wild here all over the place. I was introduced to them by my boss, and will probably take some home everyday (just in case you’re reading, Julie.) They taste like half of a good vinaigrette (being….. mustard and garlic). Amazing raw, or folded into anything hot.

Spanish Chorizo.  I can almost taste the pilsner urquell and tortilla espanola.  I read thru Ruhlmans Charcuterie book and Bertolli’s Cooking by Hand to get an idea of what I would need and how to make a successful product.  After 4 weeks, they not only look gorgeous, but taste insanely good.  The smell of them drying out is reason enough to make it.  I advise anyone with any culinary balls to make some and see. Next is spicy soppressata, which is already hanging.

Sometimes you just need a cookie. But when you dont feel like baking, and have a little time, ice cream is the answer.  Oatmeal raisin ice cream, to be exact.  Tastes like a cookie, but is just damn good ice cream.