http://www.dropstonefarms.com A tiny farm on Bainbridge Island. Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:19:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A struggling mall in Cleveland converts their food court to a giant greenhouse. http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/03/this-is-good/ For some reason I got all het up to make some sour cream this week. I followed this recipe, because I didn't realize Mother Earth News had one too. But they are pretty much the same. So once I had this sour cream, I froze 3/4 of it but we ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/03/dark-days-week-15-huevos-rancheros/ Our locally-raised pig was slaughtered a couple of weeks ago and was finally butchered and ready to pick up last Saturday. Yay! We put everything into the freezer but kept a package of 2 pork chops out for dinner that night, and grilled them up with my favorite not-very-local marinade ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/02/dark-days-week-14-pork-yay/ Yesterday we spent the day preparing to have mushrooms in the fall. Friends Joanna (who interned at a farm out here last summer) and Jacob came out for the day, bearing safety gear and two giant bags of plugs (basically dowels) inoculated with shiitake mushroom spores from Fungi Perfecti. The first ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/02/growing-shiitakes-step-1/ Local food friends Anne & Ryan hosted a potluck for the Olympics opening ceremony this week, and the assignment was to bring an international dish (because it's the Olympics, you know). I have an affinity with Belgium, having spent a year there on exchange in high school, so I violated ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/02/dark-days-week-13-international-local-eating/ We've been reviewing our successes and not-so-much-successes from last year, and our resources for this year (including personal levels of energy and time available, as well as space), and making some decisions about when and what and how. One thing we know: we're not going to grow produce for sale ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/02/simplifying/ Or maybe this is the point of the challenge: we're tired, we're hungry, there are a bunch of leeks and cabbages in the fridge but we don't have energy to think up what to cook, much less to actually cook it. So we end up making sausage and sauerkraut again, ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/02/dark-days-week-12-is-it-a-cop-out/ While working from home this afternoon, I realized that since it's dark when I get home on weeknights, today was my last chance to go meet our pig -- they are scheduled to meet Farmer George, the butcher, sometime on Saturday. So we called up Rolling Bay Farm, got directions ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/01/pigs/ Oh no, I just found this post that I wrote last Tuesday (so, still late for week 9) and thought I published, but apparently didn't! It was late already so I guess a week and two days late isn't any different from just two days late. --- We were out of town ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/01/belated-dark-days-week-9-doing-the-best-we-can/ Still no pictures, as my small camera is full and I am still too scared of the new big fancy camera. We have been talking for years about making meat loaf, which Garth remembers fondly from his childhood. But his mom used the recipe from the back of the Quaker ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/01/dark-days-week-10-comfort-food-part-2/ I missed a Dark Days meal this week -- not because we weren't eating delicious local food, just that there was no one big meal, and we were out of town for the weekend. We're out this weekend too (and the next, ack) but I may write up a generic ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/01/sitting-this-week-out/ The fridge was full and I was overwhelmed with options ... How to divide up one serving of fried chicken, one serving of pot roast, four leftover egg whites, and 2+ servings of potato parsnip gratin? I was just starting to try to figure out how to decide who gets ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/01/dark-days-week-7-leftovers/ Apparently. The Territorial Seed catalogs arrived today! http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2009/12/time-to-get-busy-planning/ I was home not-quite-sick-but-not-great on Monday, the solstice, so we built a big fire in the fireplace and did our Solstice stockings at noon instead of after work as planned. And we cooked all day, which is what really makes it a holiday, I think. Our pretty Blue Slate hen ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2009/12/dark-days-week-6-solstice/ We were both off our game this week as far as cooking went, so there was a lot of "what's in the freezer? what's in the cupboard?" One of the things in the cupboard was a crockful of homemade sauerkraut, made with cabbage from Laughing Crow Farm, that needed to ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2009/12/dark-days-week-5-sausage-and-sauerkraut/ ... another "part 1" because we eat piles so much, I am pretty sure they'll come up again. Looking for something easy early last week, I fell back on the category of meals that we call "piles." Food piles generally consist of leftover meat if there is any, whatever veggies ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2009/12/belated-dark-days-week-4-piles-part-1/ It's Part 1 because I am sure this won't be our first display of cozy comfort food this winter. My mom often made something she called Swiss steak, which I remember fondly. I was afraid that when I went to find a recipe, her version would be nothing like the canonical ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2009/12/dark-days-week-3-comfort-food-part-1/ Thanksgiving is our main holiday, now, since we started growing food. We had a low-key dinner, with just Garth's folks and one friend, which was exactly what we needed. But we went all out all the same, with a pretty traditional menu that was mostly local and significantly homegrown. We ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2009/12/dark-days-week-2-thanksgiving-dinner/ Too many delicious meals in my blogs today to round up, but I will write ours up soon. Novella Carpenter's non-published op ed on Thanksgiving. Novella is smart and awesome and bad-ass. Thank you, turkeys. Via Kimberly, a fantastic poem: Grace Rafael Jesús González Thanks & blessing be to the Sun & the Earth for this ... http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2009/11/short-thanksgivingharvest-roundup/ [caption id="attachment_727" align="alignnone" width="230" caption="Fortunately, she doesn\'t specify successful or competent farmers so we qualify."][/caption] http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2009/11/happy-thanksgiving-and-youre-welcome-ms-gregoire/