Lord Help Me, I've Discovered Instagram...

     OK, not really "discovered..." And not really "Instagram..." but I have discovered a free photo editing app that lets me turn my pictures all hipster and junk and I totally went to town on it during our last trip...  I didn't use any camera except my iphone and set out to take some of the hipsteriest pictures of all time.  I won't mention the name of the app.  You probably haven't heard of it.  Just kidding.  It's a free one called BeFunky.  It's not perfect, but it's a fun little beginner thing to mess around with and easy to figure out.  Anyway, I've got some food-related pics from our trip home...

     "Home" is Ashe County, NC.  Right at the corner where Virginia and Tennessee meet.  It's the white breadest, tater eatenist, soda drinkinest place you'll ever want to find.  Where all the vegetables are boiled past recognition and a salad is iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing.  Where the people are hard working, God fearing, friendly, and will give you the shirt off their backs whether they know you or not.  Where the vendors play the music at the farmer's market, the farmers grow food, tend animals, raise kids and have a "real" job, gardeners somehow coax life out of orange dirt, and everybody's Grandma makes the best 'nanner puddin'. Where the Summer smells like fresh dirt before a rain, peep frogs herald Spring, Fall sounds like shuffling leaves and school buses, and Winter tastes like woodsmoke on freshly fallen snow.  A place you should visit precisely because you never knew you wanted to.

    One of my favorite things to do every Summer trip home is to make it to at least one farmer's market.  Besides supporting the local farmers, many of the grocery store are shockingly deficient in healthy staples like whole wheat bread and properly raised eggs and meat.  Fortunately, Ashe County's farmers and bakers are more than sufficient.

     I visited the Ashe Farmer's Market as well as the small Lansing Market this time.  

     We also visited a produce stand that had been known as Buster's for decades, but had been bought and renovated and was renamed "Used to be Buster's" because that's what everyone would call it anyway.  They advertised free range pork and we found locally pastured eggs as well.  It's only been open about a month.  Further into the season, she plans to introduce locally grown produce as well, though now, most of it comes from further down in the state.  I hope she does well, we'll definitely be visiting again on our next trip!



     One of Ashe County's culinary claims to fame is the cheese plant.  It's the only one in operation in North Carolina and it's the best place to get squeaky cheese curds on the entire planet.

  After our visit to the market and the Cheese Plant, we had a nice picnic at the park.

 

     And then I went home and took pictures of mah loot...

During one of the many downpours that came blustering in and left almost apologetically, as they are wont to do during the Summer in the South, the boys and Daddy had lunch at Good Ole Days followed by a crazy colorful ice cream.  They used to serve very good vegetarian pinto beans here, unfortunately they had changed their menu, so I just took pictures.  And I got one of my favorites of the whole trip:

This is a close second.:

These blackberry blossoms were going strong when we got there.  They are huge!  Almost as big as a rose.  And they make delicious berries.  I am sad I won't get a sample this year, but not sad enough to brave NC in July again any time soon...

My brother and his girlfriend came down for part of the time we visited.  We left the kids at home and spent a day hiking in Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia and then hiked two miles on the Appalachian Trail. 

Grayson Highlands famously hosts a herd of wild ponies.  They are decidedly tame and so beautiful.

One of the many vistas on the AT:

We also canoed the New River, though I didn't take any pictures.  Didn't want to chance losing my phone in the river!  We were starving afterward and headed into town to try out a new brewery.  Boondocks Brewing Tap Room and Restaurant has opened recently and is a great addition to the community.

     My husband and I had eaten here before under a different name and were pleased they had kept the old menu, but added the brewery.  Unfortunately, they were completely out of house brewed beer for the day, which our waitress said happens every day!  For my part, it was the best restaurant meal we had.  Solid and good. 

The salad was Ashe County sourced, with the possible exception of the pears.

We got a beer flight to try some of the other area beers.  It is a tap room after all...

This black bean burger is one of the best I've ever had at a restaurant.  I don't know if it's house made, but if it's not, other restaurants need to pick up on this one.

Every kid likes trains, right?  We visited The Ashe County Museum's scale model of the Virginia Creeper that used to wind its way through the Appalachians, so called because of how slowly it made its way pulling heavy loads uphill and around a winding track.

We also spent a fair amount of time just horsing around at the kid's Grandparent's homes.  We are very lucky that both my husband and I's parents live within 15 minutes of eachother.  This is at my family home:

He laid himself down in the mud so this is totally on purpose.  It ruined the shirt, but I think it was worth it...

On the road to my parent's house is a cave which was once, at least seasonally, used by Native Americans.  Pottery shards and arrowheads have been found here and is on the national registry of historic places.  The boys enjoyed exploring until the mosquitoes got the best of them.

My husband's Dad's claim to fame is that he can flip pancakes in the air.  The boys wouldn't let me make them any, but instead waited until Grandpa woke up to see him perform his trick.  It was worth it.

The day we left was rainy again.  It set the mood.

Many hours and thousands of miles later, we were greeted with a lovely welcome home present.

My Grocery List in Ashe:
For pork: Rose Mountain Farm (Available at both the Lansing and Ashe County Farmer;s Markets)
For Bread: Bob's Goodies (Available at both markets)
For Goat Cheese: Heritage Homestead (Available at the Ashe County Farmer's Market only)
For Gifts: Vagabond Images (Beautiful photography available at the Ashe County Farmer's Market)
For Bread, Soap, and Honey: Mathomhouse Farm (Ashe County Farmer's Market)
For Eggs: Bingham Farm, Laurel Springs (Available at Used to Be Buster's)

     We had a lovely visit.  Thank you for indulging me.  And if you'd like to indulge a little bit this Summer, I've got just the thing...

I love these dark chocolate Petit Écolier biscuits by LU for making s'mores.  It's easier than handling separate pieces of chocolate, plus you get dark chocolate, and you get double!  You can find them in most grocery stores and for our family, one box is just the right amount. You don't wind up with an entire box of graham crackers you have to deal with.  Of course, there's the entire bag of marshmallows...

The Prettiest Thing at the Farmer's Market Today...

Because the farmer's market is now in full swing and more than a few people mentioned this series from last year, here again is The Prettiest Thing at the Farmer's Market!

Butter Lettuce from Anthem Farm

~06/23/13~

Heritage Chicken, Organic Potatoes, Garlic Scapes, and Lemon Kale

     As you all know I have an ongoing love affair with my farmer's market.  I plan to do another post soon bragging about the new farmers who have joined the market since last time, but until then, I thought I'd share a meal we had tonight using all farmer's market food!  

     This is a heritage chicken, thus the longer leg and smaller breast.  With heritage birds which haven't been soaked in an anti-microbial water solution, it is important to cook them "low and slow."  Fortunately, the ones I have been buying are also smaller than the other birds I was finding, so they still take about an hour to bake even at 350°.

Roast Chicken
1 Small Heritage Chicken
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 350°.  Pat chicken dry and place in a small oven proof pan.  Season with salt and pepper.  Bake 30 minutes per pound until juices run clear, about an hour.

Roasted Potatoes and Garlic Scapes
4 medium sized baking potatoes, sliced in 1/4 inch slices
1 pound of garlic scapes, cut in 1 inch pieces*
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil

Place potatoes and scapes in a 9X13 inch roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil.  Salt and pepper to taste, then toss with a spoon to combine.  Cover with aluminum foil, bake at 350° for about 60 minutes or until scapes and potatoes are soft, removing foil about half way through.

*The bottom half of the scapes I got were pretty woody, so I had to cut them off.  The thinner the stalk, the more tender it will be, or at least it was in this case.  If you steam your scapes, this is less of an issue than when roasting them.

You can put the pan in at the same time as the chicken, though it may take a little longer for each dish to finish cooking.

Sauteed Kale with Lemon
1 lb Kale, stems removed and roughly chopped
1/3 lemon, juiced
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil

In a large pan, heat a dollop of olive oil then add kale, salt and pepper.  Cook for 5 minutes or so until kale is wilted but not browned.  Dress with the lemon juice.

Review:
     This is a nice, relatively quick meal.  Mostly prep work and shoving stuff in the oven.  My kind of cooking!  My boys loved the chicken and potatoes, but it was a little hard to sell them on the scapes and the kale.  More mature palates will enjoy them, rest assured. 

In Which We Milk a Goat and Make Dessert...

Well, I've managed to drag the goat posts out for another week...  They came back last Friday for a final (for now) visit and left Sunday morning.  While they were here, Mr. Farmer taught my eldest how to milk a goat.  He was so excited.  And I was too excited to run back into the house for the camera, so no pictures.  But I do have some lovely pictures of what I did with the milk!

 But first, a few more before and afters...

The black thing there is my compost bin.  Behind it is a pile of flower pots the previous owners of our house left us.  I knew they were there, but had no idea how many there were!

 We let the goats graze our property line this time.  This is my neighbor's house.  You can see what a good job they did mowing the grass!  (And even though it looks like it in this picture, they did not eat all the branches out of that tree in front of the house.  It's just a different perspective! lol!)

A tunnel of clean.

I didn't have a "before" of this area, but I think it shows a good portion of what they did.  I'm not afraid to go back there anymore!  Well, except now I'm afraid of stepping in the yellow jacket nest we found.  Nature has sharp pointy bits.

I'm amazed by the amount of garbage we found back here.  All kinds of soda and energy drink cans, a rubbermaid container full of what I can only guess is something from the dark and smelly pits of deepest Hell, cinder blocks, part of a car window, an old basketball, and an entire tree that had been sectioned up and left to degrade under the ivy that we had no idea was even there!  We have a lot of clean-up ahead of us now.  Besides all the garbage, it will be up to us to pull the old ivy roots out and keep an eye on any returning stragglers.  I'm going to replant as much of it as I can with native plants that will serve to hold the bank in place better than the ivy did.  Hopefully some that grow food!

 And speaking of food...  One of my favorite plants this time of year is rhubarb.  I have tried repeatedly to grow it with no success, but nevertheless I make my yearly valiant effort. And when it fails, I go to the grocery and buy it.

Kumquats are in season this time of year, too and I've never really had much inclination to buy them before.  But I hit upon the idea of adding them to a dessert with rhubarb and I bought a few to give it a try.

I should have sliced them a little thinner than this.

Having fallen in love with herbs in savory applications, adding them to desserts always seems like a cheeky little twist. I'm sure I'm not nearly as clever as I imagine myself, but adding herbs to unexpected dishes makes me feel like the sharpest knife in the drawer.

And finally to that wonderful goat milk the sweet little doe gave us...  We tried to drink it.  I must say, it's wasn't nearly as "goaty" as other goat milk I've had but my son wouldn't have it and my husband wouldn't even try it, which is pretty rare for him.  I was struck by how salty it was so I decided to make a simple ricotta/farmer's type cheese.

Fresh Goat Cheese
2 C goat milk
3 Tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice

Non-reactive pot (stainless steel)
Cheesecloth
Wooden Spoon
Colander
Bowl

Heat the milk on the stove in a non-reactive pot for a few minutes until it reaches 180-185°.  Remove from heat, add the lemon juice and let sit for 10 minutes to let the curds form.  Line colander with cheese cloth and place over bowl.  Pour milk curds through the cheesecloth, catching all the milk in the bowl.  Tie opposite corners together, then use a wooden spoon to suspend the cheese over the bowl to catch the rest of the draining whey.  Let sit overnight to drain.  In the morning, open it up and sample your delicious, creamy cheese!  You can keep the whey for use in baking.

***

So then I had sliced rhubarb and sliced kumquat and creamy cheese and what did I do with all these delicious ingredients?  I made Herbed Rhubarb Kumquat Crisp, of course!

Herbed Rhubarb Kumquat Crisp
Filling:
2 lbs rhubarb, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 C thinly sliced kumquats
1 C Sucanat
1 tsp finely chopped rosemary
1 tsp finely chopped sage
2 tsp finely chopped thyme, flowers included 

Topping:
1 C oatmeal
1/2 C whole wheat flour
1/4 C Sucanat
1/2 tsp cinnamon
7 tsp softened, salted butter
1/4 C chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°.  In a large bowl, combine rhubarb, kumquats, Sucanat, and herbs.  Let sit while you assemble the topping ingredients.  In a medium bowl, combine oatmeal, flour, Sucanat, and cinnamon.  With your fingers, massage in the butter until well incorporated and clumps form.  Stir in the pecans.  Place filling in a casserole dish or deep dish pie pan and top with oatmeal mixture.  Bake for 30-45 minutes until the rhubarb is soft when pierced with a knife.  Serve warm or chilled with a dollop of goat cheese.

Notes:
If this is a little too sour for your taste, sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream will do the trick.

Review:
This is a nice little dessert, even if the boys weren't convinced, my husband and I loved it!

A Kid'll Eat Ivy, Too!

By way of update, from my earlier post, here's the latest in the goat mower saga!

This little dear is working his way, chest deep, to the choicest leaves.  He is a special type of goat that has very small ears.

He is the first goat my eldest son got to hold.  He said, "He feels like a cloud!" So we named him Cloud.

These pictures are from the day we moved the goats to the second area.  They moved in and started eating like they hadn't eaten in a week.

Pulling her weight.

Our ewe was still sagging with pregnancy when she left.  Poor darling!

It's not cold.  I don't know why they decided to wear winter gloves.  I think they just wanted to look cool.

This little brown one is named K2 (the only one we actually knew the real name of) and was my eldest's favorite.  My youngest loved the little black one here most and named her Little.

 This is the part of the first section easily seen from the driveway before and after.

Further up the bank.

All the brown here used to be green.  Including the fence.

On the other side of the fence, was our second area for clearing.  Believe it or not, these pictures are exactly the same area!

 

Mario on the right, easily walks through an area he'd have been wading through before.

This poor tree has been killed by ivy and will have to come out.

 Part of the dead tree that has already fallen.  Wouldn't believe it was even in that first picture, would you?

I had no idea how wonderful goats were.  Such gentle and sweet little things with so much personality.  My husband and boys all had their favorites.  My favorite was any goat that happened to have a mouthful of green stuff when I looked at her.

 After four days, the sad time finally came to say goodbye.

Cade carried K2 down to the truck.  But we will have another quick visit next week for one last section.  (For now.)

To prepare for our goaty guests, I decided to move a couple of plants.

I had a small group of trilliums blooming that I just love and a few ramps I transplanted from my grocery store last year.  Ramps are a wild leek that grows natively in the Eastern part of the US.  I love them and they are catching on in popularity in this area.  I found out that they like to live near trilliums so I stuck some in the ground near my trillium patch.  I was delighted to see these sprigs appear this Spring.  Now that I've moved them, I hope they come back next year!

Here are some harvested ramps.  They have a strong garlicy/onion flavor.

I paired them with eggs to make this lovely breakfast.

Egg with Asparagus and Ramps

1 egg

2 thin stalks of asparagus, sliced in 1/4 inch pieces

1 ramp, chopped small, leaves included

1 oz feta cheese, crumbled

butter

salt and pepper

Sauté the asparagus in a small amount of butter until it is warmed and starting to soften.  Remove from heat, fry an egg in the same pan a few minutes until it looks the way you like.  Remove from the pan, and heat the ramps for a few seconds to warm them up.  Sprinkle the asparagus, ramps, and feta over the egg and salt and pepper to taste.

Review: 

This egg is terribly quick and delicious.  The feta I found had a mild "goaty" flavor that reminded me of my girls.  I can't wait to see them again next week!

UPDATE:
The goat man is coming back today!  Eeeeeee!  =)