Crispy, Crunch Kale Chips

You’ve been getting fresh kale all season long. Have you tried crispy, crunchy kale chips yet? We know, they sound kind of weird and granola-y, but trust us, they’re tasty, especially if you crave the crunch of potato chips, but are trying to eat healthy.

We’ve tried making kale chips several ways, and have had the best outcome following Smitten Kitchen’s technique of removing the tough stems, cutting the kale into bite-sized pieces, tossing them with olive oil, spreading them on a baking sheet and baking them. Follow the link for the complete recipe. Just try them, at least once. They may change your life, or at least your eating habits.

See the Farm First-Hand

Want to see Edible Old Dominion for yourself? Want to know you helped get the next perfectly ripe vegetable you receive ready to enjoy? Volunteer on the farm! Because we're a small farm just getting started, the help of people like you makes a big difference. We are always looking for individuals to help us during the week. Sorry 9-to-5-ers, but we generally need people during normal business hours. You don't need to be the Incredible Hulk, just willing to get your hands dirty in the field. Just drop us a line or let us know you'd like to help when you pick up your CSA bag. Your time will be greatly appreciated.

Recycle!

In case you haven’t noticed, we are all about recycling here at Edible Old Dominion. We catch all the rainwater that falls off any structure on our farm and reuse it in the fields.

We get the coffee grounds that Blanchard’s has left after the South of the James Market each week and use them to fertilize our fields.

You can help us recycle too! Feel free to bring us your egg crates, the ones you got from us or other crates you’ve used, and we’ll re-use them for our chicken eggs. Thanks for helping us use fewer materials!

Farm Update: Tomatoes, Greens, Squash and Beans

In the next two weeks, we’ll finally finish planting tomatoes. Yay! We will have somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 tomato plants this year and they’ll include big, beautiful red tomatoes, along with some delicious heirlooms.

We just purchased more lettuce seeds, so get those salad recipes ready. We’re planting lots of Italian salad blends, which have more radicchio than American blends, so your greens will have more bite. They’ll taste great with balsamic vinaigrettes or other dresses that balance the bite with sweetness.

The squash and beans are growing well. We’ll have plenty coming in a few weeks. In fact, we have 800 feet of beans that should be ready in two to three weeks.

We’ll also be planting sunflowers in the next few days, so soon we’ll have cut flowers for CSA Members and for sale at the markets.

We’ll also be planting okra soon. This nutritious green is easy to grow in Richmond’s hot climate.

This year we’re planting lots of melon seeds directly in the ground on a very well developed piece of land. Later in the season we’ll have Sugar Babies, which are like small, round, dark watermelons; Asian Watermelons, which are rounder, smoother and even more flavorful than Sugar Babies; and some other fun varieties for you to try.

We’ll also be planting about 100 hot pepper plants this year. Those of you from last year will remember that we planted a lot more hot peppers, about 1,200 plants, but this year we’re trying to diversify our crop a little more. There will still be plenty of hot peppers to spice up your summer, though. We’ll also have sweet peppers.

Making Great Eggs

Our farm-fresh eggs are quite delicious, but they taste even better when they’re cooked just right. Although lots of people eat eggs for breakfast every day, very few of us have success every time. It’s hard to get the yolk just right, or keep those scrambled eggs from getting dry. Here are a few tips for making eggs just like the short-order-cook at your favorite diner.

Scrambled Eggs:

First off, when you beat your eggs for scrambling, make sure you beat them enough. A few stirs won’t do the trick. Stir your eggs until they’re frothy and evenly colored. You want air to mix with the protein for fluffy eggs. Try to whisk in a tilted wheel motion in order to get more air into the mix. You can use just eggs, but Alton Brown adds 1 Tablespoon of milk per egg, and some salt. Next you want to heat a pan over medium-low heat and melt a pad of butter in it (sorry calorie-counters!). Once the butter is melted, add the eggs to the pan. You might even want to turn the heat down to low so the eggs don’t cook too fast. Let the eggs rest until they first start to set. Once this happens, use a nonstick spatula or wooden spoon to gently push the eggs toward the center, while tilting the skillet with your other hand to keep the runny parts touching the heat. Keep gently stirring until you reach your desired type of scrambled, soft or hard.

Sunny Side Up Eggs

We’ve been told the key to this is using low heat. If the pan is too hot, the white will cook before the yolk has a chance to set. Put your pan on low or medium low and add butter. Once the butter melts, crack the egg into the pan and cook until the white and yolk reach your desired consistency. To ensure the yolk gets cooked, you can also start with a higher heat, medium or medium hot and cook the egg for 1 minute covered, then remove it from the heat and allow it to sit for 3 to 5 minutes until the white around the yolk turns opaque. True chefs don’t consider this a sunny side up egg because it’s been cooked covered, but its an easy way to make sure the yolk is cooked.

Over Easy

For this one we’ll defer to The Incredible Edible Egg. The egg experts here use a high-low method. They also provide suggestions for over medium and over hard.

Also try the steam-basted method at the bottom of the Incredible Edible Egg Page. The finished product will be similar to sunny side up eggs, but with a slightly more cooked yolk.

Poaching

For the perfect poached egg, try the great Martha Stewart’s technique. She knows her stuff. Enough said.

* Chef’s tip: If your whites are spreading out when you add your eggs to the pan, add about 1 tsp. of vinegar. It will help to pull the whites together.

For Kids

Martha’s also got a great recipe for Scrambled Egg in the Hole. Lots of people save and toast the cutout of the bread that Martha says to discard and toast it, then serve it on top of the egg in the center of the bread. We’ve seen this served to kids as “top hats” or “toads in the hole.” Either way, it’s a fun way to serve toast with a surprise in the center.

We love our members!

http://theloushe.typepad.com/spark/2010/05/swiss-chard-a-la-jess.html

Our lettuce may not be pretty, but it tastes darn good.

We've been planting lots of lettuce out at the farm, and you'll be getting plenty of leafy green goodness in a month or so. While it's growing, we thought we'd take a second to tell you a bit about our lettuce.

Whether you normally wander the grocery store of the farmers' market, you've probably noticed two kinds of lettuce. The big, beautiful heads of lettuce that look green, delicious and like they're screaming to come home with you, and the individual leaf lettuces that are often sold in bunches, bags or boxes. At Edible Old Dominion we mostly grow leaf lettuces. When leaf lettuce grows, sunlight touches every part of the leaf, making for a bold, consistent flavor. When head lettuce grows, the sun often doesn't touch the bottom of the leaves, making for inconsistent flavor that's often milder or bitterer at the base. Therefore, we stick with leaf lettuces like arugula and mesclun mix. We feel like the end product is better.

We don't use any pesticides here at Edible Old Dominion, and leaf lettuces are very attractive to flea beetles. These little bugs like to snack on our leaves as they grow, and they take tiny bites out of our lettuces. The little bugs don't have any impact on the deliciousness of our greens, but their pesky snacking leaves tiny holes in our lettuces, making them less attractive than your average commercially grown green.

So, what this boils down to is that when you get your lettuce from Edible Old Dominion, it may not be as pretty as those big, green heads of lettuce you see elsewhere, but the flavor will shine above the rest. Plus, you'll know it's organic. We can't wait for all our lettuces to be ready!

At Market: Turnips

You full-share CSA-ers got fresh turnips last week, and this week everyone will get some! There may even be some to sell. The great thing about these starchy roots is their high fiber content. You can use them in place of potatoes and up your fiber count for the day. Turnips also have a sweeter flavor than potatoes.

The other great thing about turnips is that you get two veggies in one. You can cook the greens and the root.

Like potatoes, you can steam, sauté or fry turnip roots. You can even peel them, chop them up and eat them raw. If you want to get a bit fancy with your turnips, try a Turnip Gratin. It’s sure to please turnip lovers and those who aren’t so sure about these slightly out-of-the-ordinary veggies. In the mood for something simpler? How about Simple Roasted Turnips? They make a great side dish or snack.

Now, on to the greens. They are similar to collard greens, but more tender with a slightly bitter flavor. Use them any way you would other bitter greens. If you’re planning to cook them in a quick manner such as Gina’s Turnip Greens, make sure to remove the tough center stem. If you’re planning to cook them for a long time, like in Gumbo Z’herbes, you can leave the stem intact.

We got Goats!

Plenty of much-needed rain was a great excuse to tear ourselves away from planting and go pick up a couple of new friends. A quick hop over to Chatham, Va. garnered us two new farm members, Dolly and Mocha.

Dolly is a purebred Oberhaslis goat and Mocha is a Nubian x Boer x Oberhaslis mix. Both goats came from Griffin's Ark where they were just weened. Neither goat will be producing milk this year.

As with our planting choices, we enjoy having a variety of animals on the farm to increase bio diversity and make the most of the space we have. Mocha and Dolly are share the one-acre pasture between fields two and three with Buster, our farm dog, and a chicken tractor full of Rhode Island Red Hens. (Chicken tractors are the mobile coops we keep our chickens in. We move the coops around the farm so the chickens continue to live on fresh grass and our soil is continually fertilized.) If left vacant, this pasture would grow brush and provide a habitat for rabbits, skunks, and ground hogs who love our vegetables just as much as our customers do. With the addition of livestock, not only do we cut back on pests, but we are also able to enrich the soil around our fields. We are glad to have these new members of our farm team and look forward to adding to our herd over time.

Farm Update: Carrots, Goats, Leeks and Berries

The season is off to a great start and we've got lots more in the works for you.

Carrots: The inconsistent weather and rain has been rough on the carrots. When moisture reaches the core of the carrots, it causes them to expand, which causes the carrots to tear themselves open. We're hoping to have some happy, whole carrots ready for you soon.

Greens: The bits of hot weather have sent the broccoli rabe to flower and have killed the last bits of last year's lettuce, meaning we're going to have to grow some more for you. You'll be getting plenty of greens all summer long.

Goats: Two goats will be joining us on the farm this week! These Alpine-mix dairy goats won't be ready for milking for a few years, but they'll help to diversify the farm and make the soil richer.

Leeks: We've just planted about 700 leeks and we've got 2,000 more that need to go in the ground. So get ready, these mellow spring onions will be arriving later in the season!

Strawberries: Hopefully our fresh, juicy strawberries will be ready in June. The plants have flowers on them, which means berries should be coming soon!

Other veggies coming soon include radishes, turnips, and lots of tomatoes. Just last week we put 1,500 tomato plants in the ground. There'll be Italian Red Pears, Great Whites, and a wide variety of heirloom cherries for you to try.

We'll see you at the market!

At Market & How to Stir Fry

This week you’ll be getting more greens, onions and some bok choy. This Chinese cabbage is low in calories and sodium and is high in vitamins A and C. It lends itself to Asian cooking like this simple Bok Choy recipe from Steamy Kitchen. The recipe also has tips on prepping Bok Choy for cooking.

Speaking of Asian cooking, a stir-fry is a great way to use bok choy and many of the other vegetables you’ll be receiving this season. Here are some tips to make sure your stir-fry turns out right.

Stir-fry tips

- Having wok is great, but if you don’t, just choose a large flat-bottomed pan that will allow lots of your ingredients to make contact with the heat at the same time.

- Use an oil with a high smoke temperature like peanut, canola or grapeseed oil.

- Always make sure the pan is thoroughly heated before adding anything to it. You can throw a few drops of water onto the pan and see if they sizzle to make sure the pan is hot enough.

- One of the keys to stir-frying is being able to throw your ingredients into the pan quickly, so mise in place is important. Have all your ingredients chopped and nearby before you start cooking. Also, do your best to cut all your ingredients into similarly sized pieces. This will allow them to cook in the same time frame.

- If you’re adding a protein (beef, chicken, shrimp, pork, tofu), cook it in the pan without the vegetables and then set it aside. If the pan looks crowded, divide the meat in half and cook it in two batches. Add the meat back into the pan when your vegetables are almost finished cooking to allow the flavors to blend.

- As you start cooking the vegetables, add harder, starchier vegetables first as they’ll take longer to cook.

- Another key to achieving a perfect stir-fry is to keep it moving. Continually stir your vegetables.

- If you’re new to stir-frying, try cooking a few ingredients at a time, setting them aside and then bringing everything together for the final few minutes of cooking. This makes it easier to manage.

- For an easy step-by-step stir-fry guide and a few simple stir-fry sauces, check out this article from Bon Appetit.

First day of South of the James Market! We are in space #26. Orange Trees, Rosemary, Eggs, and Greens!