A sad lovage story — and snakes!

From Deborah Madison — Blog by Deborah Madison

June 9, 2010

Well, so much for my big, beautiful lovage plant. While I was in Mexico my husband emailed that no matter how much he waters it, it’s turning yellow and limp. True the weather was in the scorching realm, but when I got back I took a look, gave a gentle tug, and the whole wilted plant came up in my hands. Heartbreak.

The hole was a big one — no furry little mole with its flipper feet did this; instead, I suspected a gopher. But in surveying the damage, I had a chance to see how far the roots of the lovage had grown and how tough they were. I took the advice of one of the people who commented on the lovage piece, rescued what leaves I could, then wrapped and froze them. If the medicinal qualities apply to gophers, this one’s going to be one mighty strong beast. And who knows what it’s eating now?

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Driving Through the Desert and Finding Something to Eat

From Deborah Madison — Blog by Deborah Madison

March 24, 2010

I love car trips on back roads but they’re usually a disaster when it comes to food. While we never succumb to fast food or chains, we often eat more enchiladas than we want to. But our recent drive to, from and around Southern Arizona was different. For one, we made motel dinners of sliced apples, crackers and goat Cheddar instead of filling up on mediocre food. We paused for a 4-mile hike in a state park. When stuck in a town with nothing but a steakhouse we made a satisfying albeit unglamorous dinner of a glass of wine and a baked potato. But best, and most unlikely, was a restaurant that our friend Gary Nabhan took us too in Sonita, Arizona, called Canela, which means cinnamon.

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More Good Things About Ohio: A National Park with Farms

From Deborah Madison — Blog by Deborah Madison

February 17, 2010

I don’t usually make this a habit, but I went back to Cleveland last week (Feb. 12), this time to give a talk in the Cuyahoga National Park. What seduced me into making a second winter trip was that this national park has a farmers market, and that alone was pretty compelling. But it got better when I found out that this urban park also has a number of farms in it, (twelve, to date, and plans to add more), and a national park that includes small farms is definitely something to take a look at, even in winter.
Of course, with everything covered in deep drifts of snow, there wasn’t much to see beyond fields lying fallow and some barns and farmhouses. But Beth Knorr, of the Countryside Conservancy, a non-profit that partners with the park to help with such things as negotiating farm leases, kindly drove me around the park and pointed out the old farmhouses, barns and outbuildings that are now being used by farmers. Beth explained that it probably worked out better for the park to have farmers use the land and take care of the properties, then have that be the responsibility of the park, and that is what has happened.
Given that the Cuyahoga National Park is pretty much an urban park, one that is close to Cleveland, maintaining a landscape that includes the human imprint expressed through small, sustainable farms (and the Erie Canal) says a lot about the importance of farming itself and their place in the landscape. The farms are real. The farmers produce all kinds of food and sell it in a number of places, including the park’s farmers’ market.
Among the farming endeavors are Sarah’s Vineyard, which produces wine, Spring Hill Farm & Market featuring vegetables, flowers, eggs, and chickens, and Goatfeather’s Point Farm, a producer of livestock, including goats for ethnic markets and heritage turkeys. There is a u-pick berry farm, farms that feature herbs, lamb, different fruits, and more diversified farms that also feature vegetables. The farmhouses, which were already in the park, have been renovated for these young farmers and their families to use, (for which they pay rent), and there are still more farms available to be leased. All in all, I think this is a tremendously exciting approach to both urban parklands and farming, one that other places might consider.
In addition to seeing the park, I had another opportunity to experience some high quality, very good food, this time at a little restaurant in Hudson called Downtown 140. At the Inn at Brandywine Falls, where I stayed, the morning’s breakfast included omelets made from eggs from the owner’s chickens and homemade bread and jam. Beth gave me a parting gift of some exceptional good goat cheeses from Lake Erie Creamery, which I fiercely defended when going through security, as well as some crumbly, short lavender shortbread cookies from a Hudson bakery.

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Local Roots: Great Food in an Ohio Town

From Deborah Madison — Blog by Deborah Madison

February 8, 2010

Wooster, a small college town about an hour’s drive from Cleveland, has a summer farmers market but nothing happens in the winter. The health food store I visited in search of a lipstick didn’t appear to be championing local foods, but Local Roots Market and Cafe is a new co-op that now fills these gaps. Located in an spacious old store-front that was once the home to farm machinery, there are wooden tables for the various farm products (the farmers need not be there), a cash-register, cold cases, the bakery area and a meeting room fitted out with information on gardens, seed catalogues, pamphlets etc. A group seed order is in the offing, and there is enough space available for future projects, such as a kitchen where people can make jams and other foods for sale. They’ve already shown Food Inc. and held a discussion following the film, something we do at our farmers market in Santa Fe.

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Improving Kale—A Surprising Winter Vegetable Saute

From Deborah Madison — Blog by Deborah Madison

January 22, 2010

I confess that I’m not a huge kale fan even though I know that I should be. I faithfully buy it every week, feed a leaf to my Zebra finches each day who pick at it with enthusiasm, and end up using the rest in a soup. But last night I solved my kale problem by cooking a “refrigerator” dish, which means, putting together what you see in the fridge and thus avoiding a trip to town in the snow.
A friend of mine said of her own blog, that “it’s not one of those ‘what I made for dinner last night’ blogs”, which embarrassed me greatly and made me ask if I had actually done that? (Yes, I have.) Her disdain for what I’m about to do has stayed with me, so maybe I should apologize in advance for telling you what I made for dinner, but when I surprise myself with a successful dish that’s good enough to repeat, I do plan to repeat this, I like to share it.

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Another Taste of Shishitos

From Deborah Madison — Blog by Deborah Madison

September 22, 2009

After all our chatter and exchange about shishito peppers, with a nod or two to the hotter “pardrons”,
I got an e-mail from a new friend who wrote that he was introduced to shishito peppers in Korea. They came as an appetizer to the table in small porcelain dishes, along with a variety of other appetizers. “Be careful,” were the cautionary words of his host, but all went well and he fell in love with these “browned and blistered” pepper.

Sometime later he as invited to a banquet. Shishitos were offered he took a small one—the smallest one, in fact—and popped it in his mouth. “Hardly had to chew it, it was so tender. So it floated down with a sip of Chongha (Korean sake). Immediately the words came to me, ‘Be careful.’”

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Kohlrabi again

From Deborah Madison — Blog by Deborah Madison

May 31, 2009

I just saw the note on kohlrabi and it made me smile because this weird little vegetable is one that seems to show up in every CSA box and no one knows what to do with it. I know because I get a lot of e-mails about how to use this space-age looking critter - that and kale.

But it’s true— it’s delicious raw, very mild and pleasant. I serve it as a crudite with some crunchy salt and that’s that. I’ve found a lot of recipes (mostly from Germany and Austria) that call for stuffing kohlrabi, but I would never do that - it’s just not necessary in order to enjoy it. But it’s also good steamed then tossed with lemon thyme and some butter - again, very simple.

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From Bread to Book

From Deborah Madison — Blog by Deborah Madison

May 17, 2009

Every time I see the my last post about that homey loaf of bread, I feel so guilty because I don’t
think I’ve made bread since. I’m appalled. I fully intended to, really!
What happened?
Spring, for one. It finally got warm and suddenly bread, store bought or home made, didn’t have quite the same appeal that it did when it was cold outside and in.
Also, my new book, came out and took over my life.
But I did want to say that since that last post I’ve become aware of sources of wheat in the US - including Colorado which is pretty much just up the road. When things calm down, I’ll take a closer look and get back to you about US wheat, where it’s grown and where to find it.

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That Homey Loaf of Bread — So Close and Yet So Far

From Deborah Madison — Blog by Deborah Madison

March 13, 2009

Once wasn’t enough. We ate the first loaf of bread, so I made some more. It was fine. No, it was delicious. I’ve now become reacquainted with the sheer goodness of toast with butter and honey and found that it’s good any time of day! (Maybe that’s the problem with bread!)

As I was giving a class at something called the Science Cafe to about 100 high school students that night on food and sustainability, I suddenly thought it might be useful to see where all the ingredients came from in my bread. I’m still kind of reeling from what I found.

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Bread Again

From Deborah Madison — Blog by Deborah Madison

March 6, 2009

In the effort to prune some food costs, I’ve found myself smarting at the standard $4 price for a loaf of bread. It’s been bugging me for weeks. I have friends who are professional bakers in Santa Fe and they have explained how their cost of doing business has soared, along with the price they now pay for flour, so I am sympathetic. Still, my labor is my own and there were those bags of various flours sitting on my shelf, so I decided to roll up my sleeves and go at it.

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