CSA Newsletter and Recipes 4-2
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Farm News from Brandon
Welcome to the second
week of harvest. My name is Brandon Dyches, and I arrived at Serenbe three
months ago. I met many of you at the farm pickup last Tuesday and look forward
to meeting others of you at the Atlanta this week. It's my turn to drive the truck. If you missed me this past week, know that I was busy cutting a few
hundred 1.5" lengths of irrigation mainline in order to make adorable and yet
functional little collars to slip around the base of our tomato plants and
protect them from cutworms. On Wednesday, we did this and have seen no signs of
cutworms since then. A special thanks to Justin for engineering the design and
to Stephanie for helping us collar up.
Also this week, we
harvested for the Hil and CSA. I'm especially fond of harvest because if I close
my eyes and think hard enough, I can remember my chef days. Nothing like a sharp
knife and doing some articulate and loving knife-work to beautiful vegetables.
We also transplanted several hundred eggplant seedlings, potted up tomatoes and
peppers and eggplant, weeded and mulched our new grapevines and berry plants,
and installed round stakes in the cherry tomatoes.
 This afternoon farmer
Natalie and I spent several hours with Colorado potato beetles. I must have
squished a few thousand of these guys. If you have never tried to exterminate
Colorado potato beetles from several hundred bed feet of heirloom potatoes, I
can tell you from recent experience that this is no small task. The yellow eggs
you I could barely see, the blood red larvae seemed to squirt in my eyes, and
the mature adults cut my hands and emitted a distinct and chitinous crunch. I'd
rather eat peach ice cream, personally. That said, I felt a great sense of
accomplishment looking back at a completed bed and seeing the effects of our
diligence. That is the nature of this work. Because we do not use pesticides or
chemicals to control pest, we most often use our hands. It is tactile,
difficult, slow, systematic, sustainable and extremely gratifying.
For the last section
of the newsletter, I want to share with you a soup, a salad and a story.
Soups and salads mean a great deal to me and are, in
fact, a main reason I started this sustainable farming gig in the first place.
Two years ago, I flew out to San Francisco for a vacation and to visit my
college roommate and great friend, Tyler. "Come see me," he said. So I did.
After one week in S.F. we had visited food store meccas such as Buy Rite,
Rainbow Grocery and the Ferry Building. We had eaten at Boulette's Larder, Cyrus
and Chez Panisse. After my first taste of the classic French preparation,
cassoulet, at Chez Panisse. In his strong and sure voice, Tyler looked at me and
said, "You should cook here."
So I did. The maitre d heard that comment, gave me
his card, and one week later I was cooking in one of the best restaurants in the
world. I only staged for one day, but was hooked. Several weeks and many phone
conversations, interviews and emails later, I landed a job with a "San Francisco
Chronicle Rising Star Chef" Chris Kronner of Slow Club. He was opening a small
place in the Dogpatch and needed a Pantry Chef.1 He and I sat down
for a few meals and talked food. At some point it was clear that a) I had very
little practical experience in professional kitchens and b) I had the palate and
ambition to at least compose a salad and plate a soup. One of those salads and
one of those soups I list below. They are delicious and easy to prepare with
ingredients from this week's share.
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For the last section
of the newsletter, I want to share with you a soup, a salad and a story.
  Soups and salads mean a great deal to
 me and are, in
fact, a main reason I started this sustainable farming gig in the first place.
Two years ago, I flew out to San Francisco for a vacation and to visit my
college roommate and great friend, Tyler. "Come see me," he said. So I did.
After one week in S.F. we had visited food store meccas such as Buy Rite,
Rainbow Grocery and the Ferry Building. We had eaten at Boulette's Larder, Cyrus
and Chez Panisse. After my first taste of the classic French preparation,
cassoulet, at Chez Panisse. In his strong and sure voice, Tyler looked at me and
said, "You should cook here."
So I did. The maitre d heard that comment, gave me
his card, and one week later I was cooking in one of the best restaurants in the
world. I only staged for one day, but was hooked. Several weeks and many phone
conversations, interviews and emails later, I landed a job with a "San Francisco
Chronicle Rising Star Chef" Chris Kronner of Slow Club. He was opening a small
place in the Dogpatch and needed a Pantry Chef.1 He and I sat down
for a few meals and talked food. At some point it was clear that a) I had very
little practical experience in professional kitchens and b) I had the palate and
ambition to at least compose a salad and plate a soup. One of those salads and
one of those soups I list below. They are delicious and easy to prepare with
ingredients from this week's share.
1 Pantry Chef is sort of the equivalent of the Garde Mangier position of the
standard French brigade hierarchy of cooking, yet the P.C. Almost always lacks
gnarly skills like ice sculpting, charcuterie making, and the ability to tourne
a radish into some sort of flower. You'll hear both names used for a similar
position, and I'm forever confused. Basically, at this restaurant I was sort of
a culinary factotum. I picked up salads, soups, fry station, some first courses
and dessert plating.
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This week's share:
1 bunch kale
1 bag spinach and beet green mix
1 head lettuce or lettuce mix
1 bunch Swiss chard
2 onion flower stalks
1 stalk of green garlic
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch Chinese cabbage or bok choi
1 'surprise' item
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Links
www.serenbefarms.com
Our website is back up and running!
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Brandon's Bio
I'm Brandon Dyches,
one of this year's farm interns. I'd like to take this chance to introduce
myself and tell you the story of how I came to Serenbe.
I arrived at Serenbe
in February to begin my first job as a full-time farmer. Previously, I won some
pretty big awards playing the French horn, went and got a Yankee education at
Yale, taught English in Venezuela, cooked professionally in San Francisco, and
worked at a greenhouse in Charleston. This history seems desultory at best. But
it is not. It makes sense to me, and I'd love to talk to you about it sometime.
When I tell people my
story, many of them say, "You have an interesting trajectory!" That makes me
feel like a missile. I told my friend Andrew this story, and he said, "You are a
polymath." That makes me feel like a farmer.
Indeed, farmers are
persons of great or varied learning. After logging hundreds of flight hours with
farm boss Paige, visiting half a dozen other sustainable farms in Georgia,
getting to know farmer Natalie, and pursuing a rigorous if tiring course of
private study, I have come to believe that farmers are some of the most
intelligent, mindful, kind, and savvy people on this planet. At Serenbe we
strive to become masters of many trades in order that we might master one: to
grow for you an insanely beautiful cast of vegetables. If the crew and I can do
at least that, we will all be very happy this year.
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Spinach,
bacon
lardons,
shaved
radish,
sieved egg
and green garlic tarragon cream dressing
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I made this salad and
iterations of it thousands of times at Serpentine, a farm-to-table restaurant in
San Francisco california. San Francisco is the mecca of the composed salad, and
I'm happy to share this one with you. It's the first I made at the restaurant,
and like all of our food, this salad is a touch edgy and still refined.
Ingredients:
1/3# spinach or other
salad green, washed and dried
A few strips of
bacon
3 radishes
Two hard boiled eggs,
cooled
Salt
Place bacon in freezer
for about 15 minutes to harden it slightly. This step makes it easier to dice
later.
Separate the hard
boiled eggs into yolks and whites. Pass the whites, then the yolks, through a
tamis or sieve and reserve in separate containers. If you do not have a tamiz or
sieve, purchase one. Or simply chop the eggs finely.
Saute the bacon until
sort of chewy, but sort of crispy. Somewhere in between is nice. Reserve these.
With a mandoline,
slice thin disks of radish. Reserve.
You are now ready to
compose this salad. In a stainless steel mixing bowl, place spinach or other
greens, dress lightly with garlic tarragon cream, and salt to taste. Toss
lightly with your hands, taste, then arrange on a plate. Garnish with sieved
egg, bacon lardons, and shaved radishes. Green Garlic Tarragon Cream
Dressing:
2 T aioli or
mayonaise
1 T dijon
mustard
2 T honey
½ C vegetable
oil
1 stalk green garlic
¼ C white wine or
champagne vinegar
1 bunch fresh
tarragon, or 1 T dried
½ C heavy
cream
salt to
taste
Roast garlic bulb
slowly in the oil. I usually make large batches of this "garlic confit," which
you may want to do as well. The idea is to have ½ C of garlic infused oil and
softened garlic as well.
While the garlic
cooks, mince the tarragon
In a blender, combine
vinegar, aioli and dijon mustard and blend on high.
Add the garlic
that has been cooked slowly in the oil.
Add ½ C garlic infused
oil in a slow and steady stream. The dressing will begin to emulsify and
thicken.
In a bowl, whisk the
cream until it is thick and foamy, but not peaked.
Fold the emulsified
dressing into the cream little by little. Correct for salt, vinegar and honey.
You want the dressing to taste strongly of garlic, have an acidic tang, and
subtle sweetness.
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Potato Leek Soup vs.
Vichysoise
(this is a classic...
the ingredients
will be in a future share, so hold onto this recipe!)
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Here's a classic that
we also made at Serpentine. During potato season that year, the weather was
inconsistent. Sometimes foggy and cold, at other times too warm for comfort. At
least when your in a kitchen. On Mondays we made an enormous batch of soup and
offered it warm or cold. If warm, potato leek soup. If cold, vichysoise. Same
soup, different temperature. The weather then reminded me of the great Mark
Twain quotation: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San
Francisco." Serenbe leeks this week remind me of then, and the magic of soup at
any degree.
Ingredients:
12 oz.
Leeks
3 T butter
1 oz. Flour
4 ¼ C milk
7/8 C cream
2/3 oz. Salt (or to
taste)
knock of butter or
crème fraiche to finish
Remove only the very
ends of the leek greens. This step will render a vivid, bright green soup. Cut
the leeks into very thin rounds. Braise gently in butter for about 15 minutes,
stirring from time to time and adding water if needed.
When the leeks are
soft, sprinkle with flour and stir a bit to cook the flour without
coloring.
Dilute with half of the milk. Once it reaches a boil,
add the salt.
Simmer gently for 15 minutes or until leeks are
cooked.
Puree contents in a blender or food processor, taking
care with the hot liquid.
Pass through a tamis if you have it. Important for
suave soops.
Dilute with the rest of the milk, stir over heat
until boiling.
Finish with a knock of butter or crème fraiche.
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White
Bean
Pasta
with
Kale,
Collards,
or Chard
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serves 4
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 bulb green garlic, or 4
cloves regular garlic
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 can cannelloni beans, rinsed and
drained
1 lb. Kale (or other greens),
stems discarded and leaves shredded
½ cup vegetable or chicken broth
1 lb. pasta (bowties, penne, or
other short pasta)
1 ½ cups fresh parmesan or romano,
shredded
salt and pepper to taste
Begin heating a large pot of water
for the pasta
Heat the oil over medium low heat
in a large saucepan. Sauté the garlic
and hot pepper flakes in the oil until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in the beans, kale, and broth. Cover and simmer until the kale is partially
wilted and almost tender, 5 to 8 minutes.
When the water boils, cook the pasta until al
dente. Reserve one cup of the pasta
water and drain the pasta. Return the
pasta to the pot, add the kale mixture, and toss well. Add as much of the reserved water as needed
to moisten the pasta. Add 1 cup of the
Parmesan, season with salt and pepper, and toss well. |
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