Lindencroft Farm's CSA Dinner, and "One's on the Way"

Pictured here: a porchetta from Severino's Community Butcher, expertly prepared by Chris LeVeque, who works at the butcher shop.

Over a week since my last post: all I can say is "All work and no play make me a dull girl."

Last Sunday afternoon, Linda and Steven Butler threw open their gates and their doors, and hosted an amazing meal for the members of their CSA at Lindencroft Farm. I guess I am an honorary member, because my little family got to attend.

As you can tell by the photo here, no effort was spared to make a beautiful, bountiful meal, and I was a fool not to beg for a plate of leftovers. Damn.

Chris, along with Bridget Butler, the daughter of Linda and Steven, prepared multiple courses that started with hors d'oeuvres under an awning up the hill from their house, where the one-acre farm is located within high deer fencing. The perimeter of the farm is lined with flower beds: pictured here are Bachelor Buttons.

The afternoon was leisurely and pleasant, and I got to hang with some old friends and new.

The original idea of the dinner had been to demonstrate simple ways to prepare the variety of produce that is included in each weekly share. But with Chris and Bridget both having culinary training, that idea quickly dissipated as ambitions and delight overcame simplicity. Really, when you have all this great stuff, have some fun!

Normally, I'd have been scrawling notes like a madwoman, but I had other priorities. When a young couple showed up with a baby who was exactly a month old that day, I offered to hold her while they ate.

There is nothing as tranquilizing as holding a baby, so I let it sink it for about a half an hour.

Here is the menu that Chris and Bridget prepared:

Beets in lettuce cups filled with pistachio and goat cheese

Dried peaches with Lambchopper cheese from Cypress

Crostinis topped with goat cheese and fire roasted pepper tapenade

Crudites with chipotle sauce, miso vinaigrette, Green Goddess dressing

Herb-and-apple brined rotisserie chicken

Spit-roasted porchetta with herb stuffing

Braised fennel with citrus

Chard with lardo

Roasted asparagus with strawberries and black tea vinaigrette

Orzo salad with curry, nectarine, and fresh cherries

Beer sausages, chile-apple blood sausages, pork and goat chorizo, all from Justin

Beet salad with tarragon and champagne vinegar dressing

Kohlrabi with bacon salad

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There were also several desserts prepared by Chris's  mother, Margie, who provides the CSA with fresh eggs from her chickens.

It was a perfect, perfect summer afternoon.

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EXCITING NEWS from my farmer friend, the beautiful Jasmine Roohani. (No, that is not Jasmine holding the sunflowers. It's Bob: her Bob, not mine.)

If you've been reading this blog from the beginning, one of my earliest farm visits was to Everett Family Farm, back in the spring of 2005. Then Jasmine farmed with her friend, Kirsten Roehler, and both of them asked me to emphasize the fact that they were straight and single and, frankly, looking for love. It was pretty funny, because being that we are in liberal Santa Cruz, there were lots of assumptions that the two were honeybunnies, and so we went about setting the record straight.

Not too many weeks later, I was visiting their booth at the farmers market, and a soft-spoken, handsome man lingered to chat. I assumed he knew them, but it turned out to be the first meeting for Jasmine and Bob. They had a karmic connection with Bob's dog, who'd been abandoned with his littermate across the street from Everett Family Farm. Bob took Butch, and the other dog went with Jasmine's friends, who had farmed there before Jasmine and Kirstin arrived.

A few weeks after that, I saw them strolling through Trader Joe's, obviously wildly in love, and wow! That was a lovely surprise. And engagement ensued, and plans were set for early next year.

But now, early next year, Bob and Jasmine are awaiting "Cashew," as their unborn child is nicknamed, and they will be marrying in August.

ANOTHER BABY: You might know Todd and Jordan [pictured on the left, here, with Cate Geyer of Windmill Farms, at the Santa Cruz farmers market] Champagne (yes, that is her real name, if you happen to have had the bubbly, it is not eponymous), who created Happy Girl Kitchen out of their experience with Happy Boy Farms. Jordan's talents at canning are local legend—maybe you've read about them in 7x7 magazine?

Baby due in October: a little brother or sister for their beautiful little boy, Ry, who is pictured here. (People think Ry and Logan look like brothers, and you won't get an argument from me!)

So: everybody's happy about all this good stuff.

Especially me. Our family motto?

GIVE ME THE DAMN BABY.

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That's all for now.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Families with babies and families without babies are sorry for each other.”
Edgar Watson Howe

Thanks for visiting.

Comments

[Ed Bruske]

beautiful piece of meat...