Archive for the 'farms and farming' Category
Life is a bowl of…
May 26th, 2009by Lisa
All of a sudden, it seems, the stone fruit is in the market. We have peaches, plums, apricots–and big, sloping piles of bright red cherries. The cherry season is short, and very sweet. And while we have a cherry pitter, and sometimes use it (ice cream, tarts, once in a red wine reduction for [...]
Car-what? Cardoons.
May 5th, 2009by Caroline
Learning to eat isn’t just for the kids in our house. Recently we’ve taken to picking up a bi-weekly “mystery box” from a local farmer. She comes to the city to make restaurant deliveries, and makes her extra produce available to those who are willing to pick up an unpredictable assortment. The benefit to [...]
Simple.
May 1st, 2009by Lisa
In 1854 Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Our life is frittered away by detail” and called for “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a milion count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. ”
It’s good advice [...]
Dessert, (urban) homestead style
November 18th, 2008by Lisa
Unlike Caroline, I don’t bake a lot. We were joking the other day about our families and how although we have many things in common, there are some major differences. The fact that we eat meat for one. The fact–as she joked–that I’m going “going urban homestead.” I demurred, but she’s not entirely wrong.
This [...]
Peppers, The Prequel
November 7th, 2008By Lisa
The padrone-eating incident (now updated with pictures) was not without precedent.
One of our family staples, especially when it’s high pepper season, is dish of roasted red peppers bathed in olive oil, with capers, garlic, and anchovies.
Before you stop reading at “anchovy,” please consider this: a mysterious alchemy occurs when the peppers meet anchovies and [...]
Some Like ‘em Hot, a Pepper Conundrum
November 6th, 2008By Lisa
Most of the time, we want our kids to eat what we eat, right? And most of the time, we work really hard to get them to eat what we put on the table, right?
It’s been our general philosophy that the kids eat what we eat. End of story. In our home, this has [...]
Berries
September 19th, 2008posted by Caroline
At home, I am a miser with berries. I haven’t quite gotten over the sticker shock when I pick up a basket of organic berries. But I fork over the money, thinking of the farmers who will use the income to pay their employees a decent wage, feed their children, buy health insurance.
Still, [...]