Today is my first post as a part of a small group of bloggers called, Lazy Susan. It is a group of women photographers that not only have picture making in common, but a love of food as well. The concept is based on a 10 on 10 project, beginning at one blog and clicking through each one until you’ve viewed everyone’s recipe, based the monthly theme. I hope you’ll enjoy the beautiful blogs of these creative women as they share their recipes.
April’s theme, inspired by Earth Day, was to share vegetarian/vegan recipes sporting local produce. When I heard the theme I could not believe my luck, vegetarian AND local? Sign me up. The growing season here in Nebraska is just getting underway, although with a mild winter and early spring it seems to be slightly ahead of schedule. Our farmers’ markets don’t really get going until April, but doesn’t mean finding local mission impossible. After much thought, I landed on making a spring minestrone. With veggies like asparagus, leeks, peas and garlic it not only boasts a beautiful spring green for color, but has a clean fresh taste that matches the season too.
A couple of hints for making this soup…be sure to rinse the leeks well. They tend to hold sand and dirt deep within and the last thing you want is a gritty soup. Also, when chopping them, remove the dark green leaves toward the top, you only want the lighter green and white. This part of the leek is more tender and flavorful.
Spring Minestrone
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 leeks, rinsed well and chopped
8-10 stalks of asparagus, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 cup peas or edamame (fresh or frozen)
2 cups artechokes (frozen or canned, not marinated), roughly chopped
6 cups vegetable stock
1 cup whole wheat spaghetti, broken into 1 inch pieces
Kosher salt and pepper
Parsley Pesto or Parmesan cheese for garnish
In a large pot, over medium heat warm the olive oil. Add in garlic, leeks and asparagus. Saute until leeks are tender and asparagus is vibrant green color. Pour in vegetable stock. Add spaghetti pieces and chopped artichokes. Bring to a simmer for 10 minutes, adjust to taste with salt and pepper. Add peas or edamame and continue to simmer another 5 minutes.
To serve, top with parsley pesto or parmesan cheese along with a crusty sourdough roll or whole wheat baguette on the side.
Next up is Sara Tegman’s Fresh Veggie Eggs Benedict. Be sure to follow all the links to see everyone’s take on this month’s theme.
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Yesterday I spent the morning at Rhizosphere Farm. It had been 10 days since I had last visited. During that time we’d had rain and lots of beautiful sunshine. Pulling into the drive I could see evidence of growth in the fields. The bright hues of salad greens and radishes could be seen in contrast to the dark soil. Seeds I had watched Terra sow were sprouting up, reaching for the warmth of the sun.
The seedlings in the greenhouse are growing too and being transplanted to bigger, 4 inch pots as they are quickly outgrowing their current flats. Just outside the greenhouse sorrel is ready for the picking. I even got to try some for the first time and loved it’s tart flavor.
Potato planting was on the agenda for the day…yukons, desiree, purple majesty and fingerlings. I didn’t really know a thing about the process of planting potatoes and had been looking forward to seeing how it was done.
Terra invited a few friends to help with the planting process, extra hands making the job go more quickly. She gave us a demo on how the planting should be done and everyone got to work.
Each potato is planted approximately 4 inches deep, cut side down, 12 inches apart. There soon became a rhythm of dropping, measuring and planting working down the tilled rows. I even planted a few fingerlings myself. I’d been dying to get my hands into that gorgeous black soil, it felt as beautiful as it looked.
As the potatoes grow, they will need to go back through for hilling. It’s the process of covering the above ground part of the plant with dirt, keeping it underground to promote growth. This will be done several times during the growing season to each individual plant.
My time at the farm ended as everyone broke for lunch. Heading to the trucks their conversations turned from potato planting to the tomatoes that needed to be transplanted that afternoon. The plants have outgrown their current flats and are ready to be moved to 4 inch pots.
It has become very clear to me, in just two visits to this beautiful farm, that when you are growing food, the work is rarely ever done.
To see last week’s visit and more about this project click here.
If you are local, and interested in participating in Rhizosphere Farm’s 2012 CSA, contact Terra here and she will email you the information about this year’s program.
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I’m not exactly sure what to call these bars. The recipe inspiration came from a King Arthur Flour recipe, there they are called ‘Granola Brownie Bars’. Except that when I went to make them I didn’t have granola and wasn’t really feeling the brownie portion of the title either. Then it dawned on me that with the 2 cups of mix-ins this recipe calls for it’s almost like making your own granola within the bars. Okay, that makes sense…moving on.
Lately, I’ve been drawn more and more to recipes that have the ability to be morphed to whatever I might have in my pantry. Something, that if made often, can be changed, so my ever hungry boys don’t tire of them quickly. Within these bars are 2 cups of mix-ins that are completely up to you. Dried fruit, chocolate chips, chopped nuts, coconut, sunflower seeds, even granola or crispy rice cereal. The proportions and ingredients can be different each and every time. For the bars pictured here I used 1 cup dark chocolate chips, 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut, and 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts.
Granola Cookie Bars
adapted from King Arthur Flour
1/2 cup room temperature butter
1 cup maple syrup (or 1 1/4 cup brown sugar)
1 tablespoon ground flax + 3 tablespoons water, whipped to egg yolk consistency
1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups of mix-ins (chocolate chips, dried fruit, coconut, sunflower seeds, chopped nuts, granola)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper or foil.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and maple syrup (or brown sugar, if using). Add in flax/water mixture and vanilla. Beat until well combined, scraping bowl between additions if necessary.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Mix into the butter mixture until evenly combined.
Stir in the combination of mix-ins you’ve chosen. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, and smooth out the top.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden and edges begin to pull away from the pan. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack. Once the bars have cooled, use the parchment or foil to lift them out of the pan onto a cutting board. Cut into bars for serving.
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As I sit here writing this morning my head is swirling as I look back on this last week and the weekend ahead. It’s been a good week, very good in fact, but this spring weather has me pleasantly out of sorts. I’ve needed to write a ‘to-do’ list each day just to stay on track. A few days of warm spring rain, turned into sunshine and our world is now awash in color. The trees pale green and the brightness of blooming daffodils are pleasantly distracting. I find myself wanting to abandon all that needs to be done and just sit on my front steps, feeling the warm sunshine kiss my cheeks.
The boys have been outside too, much to their hearts content. After games of ’21′ and shooting countless hoops they come inside, cheeks pink from exertion, eyes twinkling, asking for popsicles and ice water to cool them off. Although it feels early to be making such things (I keep asking myself, is this really March, in Nebraska), we’ve indulged anyway.
Since it’s Meyer lemon season I couldn’t resist the idea of enjoying their sweet, fragrant flavor in a sorbet. It is light and sweet and I love the yellow-orange flecks of color added from the zest.
Meyer Lemon Sorbet
from bhg
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon Meyer lemon zest
1 cup Meyer lemon (or regular lemon juice)
In a small saucepan, bring sugar and the water to boiling, stirring to dissolve sugar. Stir in the 1 tablespoon lemon zest and the lemon juice. Pour lemon mixture into the bowl of a 1-quart ice cream maker. Freeze according to ice cream maker’s instructions (approximately 25-30 minutes). Transfer to a container; ripen in freezer for 4 hours. Let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes before serving.
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A little over a year ago, shortly after starting this blog, I watched a creative LIVE session that featured Penny De Los Santos. In one particular part of the presentation she talked about the importance of having personal projects. That each of us, as photographers, should create a project of our own to fuel our creativity, feed the passion within and continue our growth as artists. Something about what she said resonated with me. I wrote it down in the notes I was taking, in caps and underlined. I loved the idea of a personal project, but what could I do?
Fast forward a couple months to spring and the beginning of my favorite part of the year…the growing season. In the midst of taking pictures of our garden and trips to the farmers’ market it dawned on me what my project should be. In the years since changing the way we eat I have developed a passion for food that I never could have imagined having. I love reading about how what we eat impacts our earth, our bodies and our communities. Why wouldn’t I want to take that one step further by photographing it?
That’s where Rhizosphere Farm comes in. Located in the river valley of eastern Nebraska they are a small, but growing organic farm. Heading into their fourth year they have agreed to let me document the growing season of their land. My objectives for this project are to share the love and labor that goes into producing food, to tell more people about Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) and how we can all benefit from supporting them. I want to document the days of a working farm in beautiful images and share recipes from the bounty it produces.
I could not be more excited about this project and hope you’ll follow along to see the workings of the farm and the people that run it, as the growing season unfolds. Maybe you’ll even be inspired to find your own local grower to support.
For those that are local and interested in participating in Rhizosphere Farm’s CSA, they still have a few spots available. Just email them at rhizospherefarm@gmail.com and Terra will send you information about this year’s program.
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15 comments
This soup screams spring and I love the burst of green. It looks healthy and super satisfying for this time of year when many of us are trying to eat a little lighter!!
My secret love affair with leeks may have some competition. leeks with asparagus?! swoon.
this looks delish!
the photos are beautiful as always… and the recipe looks delicious! thanks for sharing!
This looks so fresh! Is the bread homemade as well? It looks great!
This looks delicious, I could eat it now for breakfast LOL.
You are welcome to join in my food blogger event THE SOUP KITCHEN, here all bloggers are welcome, hope to see you participate soon.
Gorgeous photos, and this soup looks wonderful. Looks so fresh and delicious. Can’t wait to try this after my next run to the farmer’s market.
So colourful and fresh. Beautiful photos. I love asparagus & leeks – this soup looks delicious!
Thanks Courtney!
Thanks Deb!
Thanks Brooke! I didn’t make the bread myself, but it was delicious.
Thanks Laura!
Amanda, I have a serious love for leeks too. Combine them with asparagus and it is even better.
Kelley, it is wonderfully light. I think it looks like spring too.
this looks delicious. such a yummy spring soup. and your farm to table photos are wonderful. looks as though you are truly enjoying spring!! hope you’re well. xo