Dropstone Farms

It’s getting brighter. Slowly. And the snow is starting to melt and maybe the hoophouses will uncollapse and the poultry will get to go outside and play. In the meantime, please enjoy the following reminders of summer, when you could wear shorts and dig potatoes out of warm dirt.

Handfuls of potatoes!

Attentive readers will recognize Lord Potato. He was regally delicious.

Also, Mr. Klassy may have laid an egg. Rooster fail.

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So let the sun rise, bring hope where it once was forgotten

Just before noon, the snow started again, and I lit several candles on the hearth and Garth put another log on the fire. We made some bloody marys with homegrown and -canned dilly beans (just you wait, we’ll learn to make vodka someday!) and settled down to open our solstice stockings, which I sewed on Friday. Mine contained a super fancy mechanical pencil, and a delicious-looking German marzipan cake, some CUTE pink moleskine notebooks!!, and a beautiful bottle of Basil Hayden bourbon. Garth’s had a little gym-style whistle for calling the dogs in from the woods, and a small length of dinosaur-fossil-patterned fabric he was coveting at the fabric store but which sold out before we got there, a chunk of British goat cheddar, a cute bamboo rice paddle, a sink drain screen that we hope doesn’t suck, and the Seed Savers catalog that came in the mail this week. Garth’s big present was the welding class that he took in November, and I have some long johns on the way.

This afternoon we will walk the dogs in the snow, visit the chickens, and leaf through the first seed catalog of the year, dreaming about what will be in the next year, and reflecting on what was. And also we will drink some fancy bourbon. Happy new year!

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We had sort of a lull in the meals around here in general, after Thanksgiving. We had a lot of sandwiches and the like. But recently, we have had a few meals that were wonderfully farm-based!

Bean & veggie soup, to counteract the over-meatiness of Thanksgiving

• homegrown Scarlet Emperor beans
• homegrown kale
• homegrown chard
• homegrown carrots
• jar of homegrown tomatoes! first use of a tomato jar
• farmers’ market onion
• farmers’ market garlic
• turkey stock from our farmers’ market Thanksgiving turkey, market onions, homegrown carrot.

Last night, for a dinner party:

Farro risotto with scarlet runner beans
From Lorna Sass’ runner beans with farro risotto and saffron.

• homegrown Scarlet Emperor beans (a variety of scarlet runner bean)
• another farmers’ market onion
• stock made from homegrown pea shells (yes, it worked)
• homegrown rosemary
• Bluebird Grains farro (emmer)
• organic walnuts from the bulk bin
• saffron! which was brought to us as a gift!

The olive oil, wine, parmesan, salt, and pepper were, as always, imported.

It was accompanied by salmon baked on salt and a green bean and almond dish, and then a delicious homemade ricotta cheesecake for dessert. Yes, I mean the ricotta was homemade, not just the cheesecake. No, not by me.

Tonight:

Semi-traditional cassoulet

• homegrown carrots
• homegrown rosemary & thyme
• homegrown leeks
• homegrown chard
• a pint jar of homegrown tomatoes
• yet more farmers’ market onions
• farmers’ market garlic
• dried white beans from the bulk bin
• Beef short ribs from our cow, separated (from each other! not from the fat and other deliciousness! keep all of that.)
• Andouille sausage from Skagit River Ranch
• Bacon from the Bacon of the Month, Garth’s last-year Xmas present

We didn’t so much use a recipe, but here are the steps we did:

1. Soak your beans overnight, or use the quick-soak method, or use canned beans. Drain before using.
2. Preheat oven to ~325-350°.
3. Chop and fry 1-2 slices of bacon in the bottom of your 6-quart cast iron dutch oven. (Did I forget to put that on the ingredient list? Well, you need one.)
4. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon, and plop in your short ribs, flat-side down, to brown. If you have too many for your pot, do it in shifts. Brown both sides. Remove when done.
5. Add your sliced sausage and brown both sides of each slice. Remove.
6. Add chopped onion and leeks. Soften.
7. Add chopped chard stems (use them like celery), carrot medallions, and minced garlic. Cook until chard is soft-ish.
8. Add chopped chard leaves, and make them sort of wilty. Also add the herbs at this stage.
9. In whatever order you want, add all the meats, the drained beans, the jar of tomatoes, 0 to 1 cup of wine, and water to cover. You don’t really need to use stock, as there are plenty of bones and other deliciousnesses in here. Don’t worry if they look to be layered; it will all mix in as you stir and as it boils.
10. Stick it in the oven and cook it until it is done. We left ours at 325° for ~2 hours, and then moved it to the stove top to continue simmering for a few minutes while we heated up some bread in the oven.
11. Don’t over-serve yourself. It is very rich. We only ate half a bowl each (but Garth wants me to note that as I read this to him, he is becoming hungry again!).

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… I can’t wait.

Anyone have any good solstice plans?

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1 (one) Combination brush hook/zombie pacification device
3 (three) six foot lengths of rebar
5 (five) seed starting trays
1 (one) tow rope
3 (three) 25 kg bags of organic layer mash
1 (one) 50# bag of diatomaceous earth

It seems like an interesting life, doesn’t it? It’s dark now (at four-freakin’-thirty) but I’ll post a picture when the sun comes up.

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