Peppers, Peppers, and more Peppers! A story by Jim Pfitzer
Peppers, Peppers, and more Peppers!
Along with the chilling temperatures and turning leaves that make autumn my favorite season for all things out of doors, the final harvest of fall is hard to beat. Greens have come back, winter squash is on the counter ready for being turned into hot soups, and sweet potatoes are abundant. It is a great time to experiment with cooking.
Fortunately for me, while on the road the past three weeks, my hosts have shared my passion for local, fresh, healthy food. They have opened their gardens and CSA shares, and taken me to their local farmers markets. With the bounty, we have made some delicious soups and simple pasta dishes. We have enjoyed stirfries and mixed greens seasoned every which way.
With all the variety in the meals we have prepared, there have been a couple of ingredients that seem to end up everywhere. The first I expect, as I rarely cook anything without it, and firmly believe that there are two things one can never get enough of: love and garlic. The second, however, is an ingredient I rarely focus on, but when they are in season seem to make it into everything: sweet peppers.
Along with the last tomatoes in Minnesota, peppers were chopped and minced into delicious salsa, and roasted and slow-cooked into pasta sauce. Diced with onions and garlic they flavored our greens. When I wanted a snack in Wisconsin, a ripe sweet pepper sliced with cheese and crackers or eaten alone fit the bill.
In short, my culinary season has thus far been if not defined by, at least dominated by peppers.
And it isn’t just pepper season in he Land-of-the-windchill-factor. Peppers are in season here to, and there are more to come. With the advancing cold, peppers will need to be harvested, so to prepare us, here some ideas for large quantities of sweet peppers:
From Mtnlaurel.com comes a recipe for
Southern Appalachian Chow-chow.
Note that the ratios of cabbage, onion, and peppers are arbitrary. Use them in the amounts you have, and have some fun with it!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sweet onions chopped fine
2 quarts shredded cabbage
1/2 cup chopped bell peppers
2 Tablespoons salt
2 cups vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons celery seeds
2 teaspoons mustard seed
Combine chopped vegetables and sprinkle with salt. Let stand 4 to 6 hours in the refrigerator. Drain well.
Combine the following vinegar, sugar, mustard, turmeric, ginger, celery seeds, and mustard seed and simmer 10 minutes. Use a pot large enough to put the vegetable mix in later.
Add vegetables to vinegar-sugar-spice mixture and simmer another 10 minutes. Bring to a boil. Then pack, boiling hot, into clean, heated canning jars, leaving only a 1/8 inch head space. Place canning lids and rings on jars and tighten. I usually turn the jars upside down so that all the heat is on the seals. I don’t turn them back upright until the jars are completely cool.
This recipe doesn’t have to sit before it’s ready to eat. After it cools, you can start tasting it. You won’t be able to tell where the cabbage starts and the onions end. The flavors blend together perfectly.
And from the Falmouth Farmers Market in Rhode Island, comes this recipe for Pickled Sweet Peppers!
Makes about 4 pints (recipe may safely be halved)
4 pounds red or green sweet peppers, or a combination
3 cups distilled white vinegar
2 cups water
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
Remove the stems, seeds and ribs from the peppers, and cut into 1-inch strips. Bring the vinegar, water and salt to a boil in a large nonreactive pot. Add the peppers and return to a boil, stirring to ensure all of the peppers are heated through.
To refrigerate: Ladle into bowls or jars. Cool, cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks.
To can: Use the boiling-water method. Ladle into half-pint or pint canning jars. Cover the peppers with ¼ inch liquid and leave ¼ inch headspace. Screw on lids. Process for 10 minutes. Store in a cool dark place for up to one year.
And finally, if you want to save your peppers for later, visit Inmykitchengarden.blogspot.com for easy tips on freezing peppers!
Soup Season! A story (and recipe) by Jim Pfitzer
Soup Season!
An Easy (and Delicious) Meal…
I received a text from my host in Minneapolis yesterday afternoon informing that she would be later than planned by an hour or so.
“Shall I make supper?”
“Sure!”
My offer came without much (any) thought. Tracy had been out of town for a week prior to my arrival, so I was pretty certain there would be little in the way of fresh foods other than the handful of things we had picked up together the day before at the Whole Foods.
I rummaged through cabinets, making a mental inventory of my findings. A box of organic chicken broth sat next to a back of dried Northern Beans. With highs in the forties this week, hot soup sounded perfect! I would not have time to soak the beans overnight as I prefer, so I did a quick two-minute boil, then set them off the heat to soak for an hour.
In the spice cabinet I found rubbed sage and rosemary, in a bowl on the counter a yellow onion and a head of garlic, and from the fridge a couple carrots, a bunch of parsley, some lime juice, and the magic for my creation: Link 41 bacon I brought with me from home!
I went back to my computer for about an hour then jumped into action. I cooked the bacon to a slight crisp and removed it from the skillet, poured off half of the grease into the old fashioned aluminum grease can with which I travel, leaving enough for cooking the onions and carrots, then drizzled a tablespoon or so over Riker’s food. (Nothing makes a better friend out of a standard poodle than bacon grease!)
Since I was now getting into the real work, I retrieved a Bancreagie Peated Scotch Ale from the fridge and got down to business. (If you don’t know this Minnesota beer, look for it! Medium malty flavor, peaty smoke overtones, great head, and just a hint of wheat in a beer that one would expect to be much heavier than it is. Delightful!)
I put the beans back on the burner, added the chicken broth and turned up the heat. Meanwhile, I chopped the bacon into ¼” latitudinal strips. When the beans and broth neared a boil, I turned it back down to simmer and added the bacon. I then diced up the onion and added it to the remaining bacon grease. While the onions softened, I chopped up the carrots, adding them when the onions were nearly translucent.
Before the carrots became too soft, I dumped the contents of my skillet into the soup, shook in a little rosemary and sage, and retired to the couch for some writing and the rest of my beer. A half hour later, the kitchen smelled wonderful, but I wasn’t finished. Knowing I wouldn’t be turning the heat back up, I diced up a huge garlic clove, the equivalent of four or five average cloves (making me wonder what the hell they feed their garlic in Minnesota) and added it.
I went ahead and chopped up a fat handful of cilantro and left it on the counter with the limejuice for later, then gave the broth a taste. The bacon gave the soup a nice subtle saltiness, leaving no need for more, but I did add a modest dash of black pepper before getting back to my writing.
When the beans were soft enough to enjoy, I threw in the cilantro and limejuice-I’m guessing the equivalent of one juicy lime-and let it simmer for another 20 minutes or so. Served with a simple salad and a second beer, this soup was perfect for an early winterish day.
After supper and conversation, we ended the evening with a Caol Ila 12 Year Islay Single Malt Scotch that brought the smokiness of the bacon right back and complimented the Bancreagie perfectly.
From opening the bag of beans to serving, total cooking time was about 2 ½ hours, but actual work time probably wasn’t more than 30 minutes–an easy feat. As the temps drop, give it a try. Your family and guests will love it and I’m pretty sure it will make great leftovers too!
Be a Farmer for a Day!
Crabtree Farms invites you to help with a big planting day next Tuesday, October 25th!
We will be planting our garlic and would love to have some help from anyone that is interested. Invite your friends if they would want to play in the dirt!
We plan to start at 9am and will work until it’s done! We will also have a potluck lunch to follow with roasted meat provided by Crabtree farms (don’t worry veggies and vegans we will have alternate options!).
Please email Jennie if you’re interested in helping
. Thank you!
Thoughts From the River, A story by Jim Pfitzer
Thoughts From the River
I don’t see these friends often. Most of them I only visit with for about twenty-four hours each fall when we gather for an overnight paddle on the Wisconsin River between Baraboo and Madison, WI. All men, all paddling solo canoes, the 12-15 of us make quite a caravan on the river. We begin around 4:00 in the afternoon and most years we paddle through the sunset and continue for a while after dark until we come to a sandbar where we camp for the night. The next morning after breakfast, we continue down river for several hours before taking out and having a late lunch at a roadside restaurant or tavern.
Each year presents its challenges. Two years ago was the snowy trip with nighttime temps in the low teens and daytime highs that felt nearly the same. Due some warm-weather paddlers on that trip, we cut it short. Last year, high, fast water forced camping into the woods and caused three folks to dump their boats and swim. This year the biggest hurdle was a ferocious upstream wind. Gusts were without question over thirty miles and hour and some estimated them to be forty. The river appeared to be flowing backwards! We ended up paddling upstream on the first day, then back down on the second. The jury is still out on which direction was more difficult.
For me, two of the highlights of the trip are the potluck meals we prepare evening and morning in camp. Some of the all-star entrees have included homemade tamales, beef and garden fresh veggies wrapped in foil with all the right seasonings and cooked over the fire, cocoa encrusted goat cheese on artisan crackers, stone-ground grits slow cooked in a cast iron Dutch oven, and homemade biscuits baked in a fireside reflector oven. My contribution this year was Italian sausage from Chattanooga’s own Link 41 which we grilled over the fire then diced and added to the grits.
Over breakfast, I thought about the food, the visits, and the stories and memories we share on these trips, and I realized what really makes them special. For this brief time, we form a community without phones or internet, without automobiles and fossil fuels, without television or radio, without calendars telling us where to be or clocks reminding us when. We take very few processed foods. We cook in camp, over a fire, and eat whenever it is ready. We do things slowly, deliberately, and intentionally; each contributes something and all receive a bounty. Most of the foods we eat can be traced back to personal gardens, local farmers markets, and CSA’s around the country.
Nothing about our trip is fast–we travel by canoe, we cook over a fire, we tell stories, and when needed, we take care of each other. We reach our destination right on time because we are on no schedule, our food is delicious and nutritious because it is made from the best ingredients and prepared with love, our visits are priceless because they are without agenda, and nobody is disappointed because there are no expectations. We haul each other’s boats, set up each other’s tents, serve each other meals. We are a community because we choose to be.
When we came off the river and stopped at a little tavern for lunch this year, we were told that we would not be served. There were too many of us. “You will ruin our afternoon,” they said. We left confused by the notion that giving them business and that serving someone could have such an affect. We went somewhere else and were greeted with a smile, treated warmly, served lovingly. We were all pleased to have been kicked out of the first place and took our time eating, sharing stories, visiting-extending our slowness as long as we could. When we handed our server a wad of cash-the biggest tip I have ever seen-as we left, I thought she might cry, and we felt great.
When you pick up your box of food this week, consider how you might slow down a bit in your enjoyment. Set aside an evening to visit with a friend over preparation of a meal, then take your time eating. Take the time to appreciate what you have and with whom you share it. It is amazing how, when we deliberately slow down, time seems to slow with us! We have a choice in the matter. We can get caught up in the current flowing around us and race on with the pack, or we can slow down, eddy out, pull up on a sand bar with friends, and watch the world go by for a while. Give the latter a try. You might be surprised what you find.
The Peaceful Farmer, A story by Jim Pfitzer
The Peaceful Farmer
When Lia Carchietta left school in Pennsylvania for Tennessee, her intention was not to finish her education so she could work five days a week, eight hours a day, laboring on a farm for no pay, but that is what she is doing and she couldn’t be happier about it.
| Happily Washing Greens at Crabtree |
She was washing greens in an outdoor sink when farm manager Jennie Bartoletti introduced us. Lia was enjoying her work so much, I half expected to conduct our interview there, standing in the gravel, my notebook splashed with water. Had it not been for Jennie’s suggestion that we find a more comfortable place in the kitchen, that is most likely what would have happened.
Although Lia’s aspirations extend well beyond her days at Crabtree Farms, she does not expect her future work to be any easier or require fewer hours. Quite the contrary, in fact. As she gains valuable farm experience, Lia is waiting for an answer from the Peace Corps.
When she first started college in PA, Lia planned on going into veterinary medicine, but when her father was transferred to Chattanooga and she followed, more than just her geography changed. Upon transfer to the University of Tennessee, Lia joined Sigma Alpha, a sorority for women in agriculture. She added a minor in food and agriculture business and found a real passion there.
When asked how the younger sister of a hairdresser ended up being so passionate about farming, Lia laughed. “I’m a little different,” she admitted. “My sisters have that Jersey attitude. People don’t believe I’m from there.”
Lia says she loves Chattanooga. “I get along with the people…and there’s agriculture and mountains!” She added that maybe when she is old and gray, if her parents are still here, she might come back to the Scenic City, but first she has some work to do.
The Peace Corp application process is a long one, and Lia hopes to be accepted and on her way in early 2012. Based on what she has learned thus far, she expects to go to Asia and work in agricultural economics, but she is well aware that the Corps decides where and what their people do. “You never know, they could change plans and send me to Africa…sometimes people get to their village and get a completely different job. You have to be open to anything.”
A position in agricultural economics would have this twenty-five-year-old advising farmers about how to better serve their markets and make a living out of farming, but Lia hopes to land in a more labor intensive job. “I love coming here and working outside,” she says with a big smile.
And after the Peace Corp? “I might go into environmental studies,” she says thoughtfully. “My main goal is to work with third world people…help families become sustainable with the resources they have.”
Throughout our chat, Lia stressed that she hasn’t been accepted in the Peace Corp yet, and although I couldn’t imagine a rejection, I asked her what she would do if they did say “no.” Her answer came quickly and with clarity. “I will apply again and try to work on a farm.” Either way, this passionate young woman seems poised and ready to make a big difference wherever she lands.
Pig Roast 2011, A story by Jim Pfitzer
Pig Roast 2011
Or, Free Beer For the Children
(No, the children don’t get the beer, the children just get the benefits of the beer.)
Okay, I can see that this headline is not going well… just read the article!
In his book Ravens In Winter Bernd Heinrich wrote, “There is no greater pleasure than eating roasted moose while sitting under a spruce and contemplating ravens.” I often quote Heinrich to express my delight in the simple, quiet, solo times, and to remind myself how important those experiences are. But my friends will tell you that I also often repeat my own words: “There is a reason there are more than one of us on the planet,” and let’s face it, sometimes we need to be out in the open, eating our meat in public, conversing with old friends, meeting new ones, and scaring away the ravens with great music. I can think of no greater reason for there being more than one of us on the planet than The Crabtree Farms Pig Roast 2011.
This year’s roast promises to be loads of fun and delicious with music from The Dismembered Tennesseans and The New Binkley Brothers, healthy local food prepared by Greenlife Grocery, and of course mounds of slow-roasted BBQ! To wash it all down and help get your feet shuffling to all that great music, Chattanooga Brewing Company is throwing in Free Beer! And of course for the vegetarians, vegans, pigaphobes, Californians, and Martians there will be plenty of non-pig food on hand as well.
And for those who fancy themselves to be BBQ chefs, there will be a Hittin’ the Sauce Contest! Amateurs and professionals, backyard saucers, restaurateurs, individuals, and teams will be competing to win fabulous prizes including a feature in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Sauces will be judged in a blind taste test by those in attendance at the Pig Roast. In other words, you get to decide the winners! The deadline for entering your sauce has passed, but now is the time to scope the competition and begin working on your own recipe for next year!
As easy as you may be enticed by music, food, beer, and sauce to buy a dozen tickets to the roast for you and all your cousins, there is a more important reason to come out to the farm next weekend: your ticket purchase supports Crabtree’s much-needed Community Education Programs and Services. Throughout the school year, children visit the farm, often getting their first 
ever, genuine farm experience. At Crabtree they might learn where their food comes from or how to make a salad. They may get to see how mushrooms grow or hear an inspiring farm story. Or make a farm journal. Or do a farm-related craft project. They might even get to pick their own blackberries! And none of that can happen without raising some funds, so buy your ticket now!
The Pig Roast kicks off at 6pm on October 8th.
Supper is from 7:15-8:30pm
The Roast will Rock ’til Dark!