Dishes:
-Spinach omelette
-Asparagus soup -also onions, potato, white wine, oregano, and herbs de provence (yogurt at finish)
-Radish and goat cheese sandwich -also brown butter sauteed green garlic and crushed almonds
Farmers’ market ingredients:
-spinach
-green garlic
-radish
-goat cheese
-asparagus
-Russian rye bread
-oregano
All fresh and tasty.
As simple as fresh greens are, I never get sick of them. I was pleasantly surprised by the slight spicy kick of these mustard greens from Kadoorie Farm. A quick toss in the frying pan with some onion, garlic, salt and pepper and you have a healthy side dish.
don't let mundane appearances fool you!
Kadoorie Farm is accessible by public transportation and is only an hour outside of Hong Kong. It seems like a nature preserve where the organization is trying to exemplify responsible mountainside farming practices. It is so much more than an organic farm. Along with the chubby pig below, there were photo-perfect views after every set of stairs…good motivation. AND, it was only 1.50USD admission!
Also, I had the most delicious banana of my life. It had a hearty texture and tasted slightly like an apple, not pithy at all.
what?
The fog set the mood.
Mountainside farming
Thanks to Groupon, I bought a discounted box of fresh produce from Irv and Shelly’s community supported agriculture (CSA). Typically, for $31, a produce starved urbanite can have farm fresh ingredients delivered to home.
http://www.freshpicks.com/cms/
I patiently waited to use my coupon until mid-January when grocery store produce came only from Southeast Asia and Latin America. Irv and Shelly’s occasionally has to order from CA, but otherwise they are sourced by local greenhouses and indoor hydroponic farms.
On the advent of my box arrival, several friends and I had a cooking party. Here are the collaborative results:
Irv and Shelly's produce doublebox
Aravinda's blood orange carrot salad
Carmelized onion, goat cheese and arugula pizza, Sauteed crimini mushrooms!
I love this TED talk by Dan Barber. His point is to work with nature instead of manipulating it. He argues against disturbing the natural relationships in order to maximize taste for the long term.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_barber_how_i_fell_in_love_with_a_fish.html
Marty and his Crop Mob visitors
Marty and Kris own and run their organic, sustainable farm with great passion and ambition. They supply restaurant chefs in Chicago and head up many community education initiatives. I would volunteer again in a heartbeat. The day was sunny and 80 degrees, the work was novel and the company was fun.
www.350.org hosted the event to focus on climate change. I joined the group through a Slow Food Chicago newsletter.
