This isn’t really a recipe. I made this yesterday and  it was so  incredibly good I had to share. I thinly sliced 1/2 pounds of (cleaned and trimmed) Brussel sprouts, and let a heavy bottomed skillet get really hot(over a medium/high  heat), added olive oil(you can also use bacon fat or lard) and then cooked them quickly until they were a bit soft. I then seasoned them with a dash of sea salt and served them immediately! Enjoy!

I’m in the midst of organizing my photos because I am going to be working with a print maker. I am extremely excited, and wanted to share some photos from our farm. One of my favorite things about taking photos is how it makes me intimately aware of  the rhythms of seasons.

Every season is blessed with its own set of brilliant natural colors. Granted, there might be more grey days in an Upstate New York Winter, but winter isn’t without its unique beauty. Azure skies and golden sunsets over snow white pastures are one of winter’s gifts, and maybe their rarity makes them that much more special. With spring, a medley of greens greets us: chartreuse and emerald greens burst from dormant tree branches and grasses become vigorous and green again.

I received a lot of thoughtful responses to my blog post the other day, many from vegetarians who feel that the “less meat campaigns” are more about having people cook more, and helping people see that meat is not the only source of protein. I can’t argue with that at all, and because pastured and local meat is very expensive, “less meat, but better meat” is possibly the only way conscious carnivores can incorporate meat into their diet. However, eat less meat campaigns are dangerously simplistic and many promote the fallacy that animal fats are bad for us, which directly conflicts with sustainability (animals come whole with fat). I am also not convinced that eating a diet that includes meat is worse for the environment than one that omits it.

Humans have depended on, and eaten animals, for as long as we have been human. Have we always done this sustainably? Maybe not; we hunted the mastodon to extinction after all.  However, there are many historical examples of meat eating being part of a sustainable system. Before refrigeration, in rural America farmers raised pigs together so that there was fresh meat available year round. One farmer would raise a pig and then they would gather to slaughter and butcher the pig and share and preserve the meat.  Then a few months later the next farmer would host the pig slaughter when the meat and lard ran out, and so on and so forth. They fed the pigs scraps, whey and waste from their gardens.  People ate a lot of pork and lard, more than we consume now.  I would also venture to say that this way of raising pigs was not only economical, but highly sustainable.

In Albany, New York pigs where part of urban life too, serving as sources of protein and helping to clean the city of garbage. There are funny historical accounts of pigs running into Catholic cathedrals to the frustration of local priests—I guess having an over-excited pig could ruin the solemnity of mass.  Ha!  In 1849, the Albany Common Council received reports that there were “hogs running the streets at large number of 4,000.” Now, the idea of pigs running loose in the streets of Brooklyn is somewhat preposterous, but the point is that generations before us had a closer relationship with the animals they ate and even the poor enjoyed eating meat.

In England, “cottage pigs” helped rural and urban people maintain self-sufficiency, providing them with meat and extra income. Like the farmers in rural America, they fed the pig scraps and waste, keeping it in a sty close to the home. The pig wasn’t a pet, but in a time when pets weren’t common, a pig was a source of joy for the family, and the sty was a place where the family socialized.  There are numerous accounts of families scratching their pigs (pigs love this) and children playing with the family pig.  Fredrich Engels wrote, “The English love their pigs as the Arab his horse, with the difference that he sells it when it is fat enough to kill. Otherwise he eats and sleeps with it, his children play with it, ride upon it and roll in the dirt with it, as any one may see a thousand times repeated in all the great towns of England.”  In 19th-century London, pigs outnumbered Londoners 3 to 1 in North Kensington and for many were an important source of food.  A survey of rural English families in 1837 showed that 4 out of 10 were raising pigs for their own personal consumption.

Many rural families still carry on the tradition of “feeding out a pig” and many more supplement their diets with hunted wild game. It is as cultural as it is economic. It is part of life. When your relationship with meat is more immediate it is hard to see it as an abstract negative; it is part of life and beautifully complex. Is it practical to ask more Americans to raise their own pigs? Maybe not, but for those seeking a closer relationship with their food it wouldn’t be the craziest of ideas.

Many CSA’s, which stand for Community Supported Agriculture, are accepting memberships but it is still early so you have plenty of time to decide whether a CSA is for you.  CSA’s have many benefits, but possibly the most significant is  the convenience it provides the farmer and consumer.  For those interested in local, organic produce it can be the best alternative in neighborhoods where there aren’t many markets. For me, it provides consistency and I will admit I find it hard to go to the farmers market every week because my schedule is so erratic. Admittingly, a CSA isn’t for everyone and the biggest barrier is that you have to be willing to cook and work with vegetables you might have never seen before.

Below are some pros and cons to help you decide if a CSA is a good fit for you and your family.

Pros
1) Access to fresh, seasonal and organic produce at a reasonable price. Having access to high quality produce in NYC is a real blessing. Each share is filled to the brim with gorgeous seasonal vegetables, it is almost like having a garden. I find the element of surprise fun as well.
2) You are helping a local farm stay in business. The CSA model ensures that farmers receive a fair wage and can invest in his or her farm. There are risks, like after hurricane Irene when some farms were decimated and shares were prematurely ended. However, the community component of a CSA is my favorite part, it makes the vegetables more enjoyable knowing they come from a farm you are directly supporting.
3) Cooking is fun! Because each share is different you have to get creative. I look forward to each weeks share because it means I have new vegetables to “play” with.
4) Piece of mind. A CSA takes the stress out of finding healthy, nutrient dense vegetables. You know the farmer and you know that each vegetable is not only seasonal, it is also at it’s peak ripeness. It takes the anxiety out of buying vegetable.

Cons
1) Missing a drop-off. Traveling or commitments  can cause you miss a drop-off, but if you have a friend or relative who can pick it up for you, it is great way to introduce them to a CSA. I give my share to my sisters when I am away and they have loved it so much that they are joining one for themselves this year.
2) You have to cook! Yes, this is a pro and a con. The vegetables come whole and unprocessed so you have to learn to cook, sometimes with unfamiliar vegetables or even vegetables you think you do not like. However, many love the challenge and added health benefits of eating a diversity of fresh organic vegetables. You might even be introduced to a new favorite you never knew existed.
3) Food waste. It can become stressful if you find yourself falling behind on utilizing all of your CSA. If you are a single person, or a couple who enjoys eating out a lot sharing the CSA with a neighbor is advisable. Also, don’t be shy about giving away vegetables you don’t think you will use. People love the offer and it introduces them to your local CSA.
4) Cost. CSA’s are a big upfront fee, usually over 500 dollars, but because it stretches out over 28 weeks, each share averages around 25 dollars, which means that you save money in the end. Truthfully, you will only save money if you utilize  the CSA. Sharing it might be the best way to start out to see if it is a good fit for your family!

To find a CSA close to you check out these websites and organizations: Pure Catskills, Just Food, Local Harvest and Farmigo.

This was first published on Jux by me!

Grass-fed Steaks and burgers from Spring Lake Farm

In an interesting blog post by Bittman he writes about how we are actually eating less meat than ever before. This is a fact that many anti-meat activists don’t like to acknowledge. And it is true, we are eating less meat, particularly less red meat than ever before, all the while we are seeing an epidemic raise in obesity and diabetes. While pork and goat are the world’s most consumed meats, we eat mostly white chicken breast. Unfortunately,  the chicken industry is by far one of the most consolidated industries in agriculture with a devastating environmental record; not to mention how economically unfair it is to contract growers. In contrast, the beef industry still sources most of its calves from small ranchers where animals are allowed to express their natural “cowness.”

Now my point is not to just eat more meat, but I think the anti-meat, and in particular, the anti-red meat movement, has had a deleterious effect on our health, environment and most importantly, our waistlines. One of the reasons we eat so much chicken is because it has been touted as healthy. The fact that mozzarella cheese has become “America’s most popular cheese,” looks like a bellwether to me. We are eating more pizza and processed cheese topped concoctions. Back when I had TV, I watched an episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution(video clip) where he visits a family that is suffering from extreme obesity, a look into their diets showed an obscene amount of prepackaged processed food and lots of carbohydrates and cheese. I was wondering where the meat was and the fresh vegetables? Maybe hidden somewhere deep in all the processed food, filled with unhealthy fats, deeply processed soy products, cheese of dubious origins and lot’s of carbohydrates in the form of pizza dough and large gallons of sodas?  Meat and vegetable products made up only a small portion of the food they were consuming.

Calorie counting nutritionists like Marian Nestle like to espouse the notion that all calories are equal and nutrients are just nutrients, that soy milk is equal to cow’s milk, and a slice of bread is equal to meat in terms of it’s effect on your waist line. I don’t agree (more on this later).

Has our obsession with demonizing animal products like lard and red meat actually hurt our health? I have to say, yes. Now, this might not be the anti-meat activists fault, many vegetarians I know are excellent cooks and know how to eat healthily, but maybe the anti-meat message has done more harm than good. In a country where sound bites carry from sea to shining sea it seems the anti-meat message has been corrupted into don’t eat meat but “eat more of everything else and don’t forget to put cheese on it!”

Farmer Ken Jaffe, has written more about the study here.

This study paints an ugly picture of the impact fracking could have on New York’s grasslands. I am stunned by the results. Shouldn’t we be conducting more studies that can provide scientific evidence whether fracking poses a threat to our food supply and fragile local food system?  Do you want to eat food that has been raised on land that is fracked?

Surprisingly, creating an outside fire in the middle of the winter is a wonderful way to entrain a group of friends or family, you just have to make sure the fire is big enough. There is nothing as compelling as an open fire, and when shared along with good friends, it is one of my favorite activities.

There is something cathartic about fire, and it is a perfect way to reflect on the year and what is to come. For New Years, we usually do a big Scandinavian brunch, with a smorgasbord of cold delicacies like smoked salmon, grav lax, sardines, pickled herring along with homemade mayo, our hard-boiled eggs and generous cheese plates.

I am not really one to pledge New Year’s resolutions. I prefer to wait till spring to make changes, however I do have something things on my mind that I think will help me focus. Do you have any resolutions?

Happy New Year!

I didn’t have a iron but you get the idea…

Have you noticed that things look a little different around here? My sister redesigned this site on word press. Isn’t it gorgeous? She also got me these gorgeous cake plates for Christmas! Aren’t sisters the best? Thank you, Melkorka!

Speaking of the holidays, I didn’t do much cooking or baking to prepare for Christmas for this year, usually I at least bake something or have a small holiday party but for some reason this year it didn’t happen. Maybe it is because our kitchen is a bit small and baking is something I am never inclined to do anyways. Truthfully, I am not really a natural baker. My sister, who went to architectural school is a natural at it, and is an amazing baker, but I definitely do not have her flare for it. However, I get immense joy from baking because it is always surprised by the outcome. I baked that? It also fills one with a sense of accomplishment, and for some reason baking this cake had a healing effect on me. The holidays are so hectic, it really was a zen experience to bake this cake. Odd I know, but cooking has that effect on me, it calms me and makes me feel good.

After reading Sassy Radish’s(one of my favorite bloggers) post on “the perfect apple cake” back in September, I had been wanting to create a gluten free version of the cake ever since. The original recipe is from Merrill Stubbs from food 52. I love how easy the recipe is and how elegant it is. We had a bumper crop of apples this year, actually all of New York State did, and I have a freezer full of homemade apple sauce from our own tree, so this is going to be a go to cake in our home this winter. It is extremely sweet, so I might make it without the glaze for a weekday treat for my husband after work.

If you were going to a dinner party with a gluten free friend or relative this would make for the perfect dessert— it is a very easy gluten free baking undertaking!

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