Local Bounty

I made a trip to the freezer this morning and once again realized how very blessed we are to have such wonderful food in such abundance.
How wonderful to open the door on the big chest freezer to find such delights - locally grown pork, beef and lamb, venison, oven roasted tomato sauce, sweet corn, edamame, zucchini, sweet peas, rhubarb, blueberries, string beans, shell beans, applesauce, apple cider. Then there are the storage crops - potatoes, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, onions, shallots, winter squash. Add the dried beans, dehydrated tomatoes and peppers, canned salsa, tomatoes, beans ... you get the picture? This is truly a picture of eating locally – even in the dead of winter in northcentral Pennsylvania.
Here's the soup of the day - bird egg beans, butternut squash, shallots, tomatoes, and dried sage – all from our farm along with Wooleylot Farm garlic. Topped with toasted pumpkin seeds and a bit of grated Parmesan, we enjoyed a nutritious and delicious lunch.

Waiting for a simmer to develop

Squash and Bird Egg Bean Soup

In a splash of olive oil, gently saute chopped shallots for a couple of minutes. Sprinkle with sea salt, some freshly-ground pepper and then add a couple of cloves of crushed garlic. Stir for a minute or so to release the flavor. Add a peeled and chopped butternut squash (other varieties of winter squash would work well too), some crushed dried sage, a pint jar of tomatoes and a pouch of frozen bird egg beans. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook until the squash pieces and beans are cooked through. Remove some of the vegetables and some of the liquid and puree with a stick blender. Return to the pot, bring back to a simmer and stir in a handful of freshly-grated Parmesan cheese. Garnish with toasted pumpkin seeds and a little more grated Parmesan.

Midwinter Musings

There's a little more time for reflection in the winter when you live and work on a farm. This reflection takes me in many directions but lately to two old cigar boxes that house Metzger family photos. These faded old photographs, captured by my mother-in-law in the 1940s and 1950s, have a multi-layered story to tell.

The scenes are familiar and yet not so familiar – the old farm house, the new house taking shape across the road, the barn. There are tractors and trucks and wagons. Some of the faces I never knew and some I recognize though time, worry and smiles had carved new angles by the time I came into their lives.  It's a parade of cows, horses, chickens, dogs, cats and even a tame deer. Men and women at work - in the kitchen, in the garden, in the fields, in the barn. The crops - peas, potatoes, cauliflower, hay, green beans. There are birthday celebrations, picnics, holiday dinners, mud pies. The children go off to school, dress up in costumes, play in the snow. The little blue spruce tree in the front of the house that is so often a place to pose in Easter dresses and birthday hats now towers way above the roof tops.

That chubby-cheeked little boy I see in those pictures grew up with a deep attachment to this place on the planet.  Circumstances took him away from this spot and yet brought him back when he needed it most.

We've added our own heritage to this old family farm. Has it really been 38 years that we've lived at this address? Our old memories are recorded on trays of 35mm slides and contact prints from black and white film and shoe boxes of photos in the attic.

Our children surprised us at Christmas with a handcrafted sign that will be planted here on the farm come spring. They collaborated with the artist on the design that reflects the heritage we all share. Perhaps our grandchildren will help dig the post holes and pose with us for a photo that their children will find on a old thumb drive one day.

(More of the photos from the old days can be found on the "Our Farming Heritage" page on this blog. I add photos there as time allows.)