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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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.
beautiful piece of meat...
Posted by: Ed Bruske | 01 July 2007 at 04:23 AM