Next Farmer to Table Video and Peach & Goat Cheese Salad

Here's comes a fun talk with my friend and fellow cook Gena Knox. We filmed in her fun garden then took some greens from the garden and made a salad. Here's the video of our chat and the recipe for next week's video with the salad. I wanted y'all to have it so you could make it with all these fabulous, fresh peaches coming in now!

Enjoy y'all!

Athens- Part 1 from Dynes Media on Vimeo.

Peach and Goat Cheese Salad
Dressing

• Juice of one lemon
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• ¼ teaspoon of cracked black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon of Nature’s seasoning
• ½ cup of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of finely chopped Rosemary

Combine all ingredients in a lidded mason jar. Shake and pour!

Salad

• 1 package of 50/50 spring mix (Butter lettuce is also delicious with this as are small heads of Bibb lettuce served individually!)
• Handful of basil
• Handful of mint
• 2 peaches (sliced)
• ½ log of goat's cheese
• 1 teaspoon of honey

Drizzle honey over goat’s cheese in a small bowl. Combine salad greens, mint, basil, and peaches in a salad bowl. Crumble honey goat’s cheese on top of salad mixture. Dress with lemon vinaigrette, toss, enjoy!

Farmers Note: A piece of poached salmon or grilled chicken makes this a complete meal!

Hydrangeas

It's time to start thinking about my favorite summer flower: the hydrangea. In the past, I've done a lot of writing about hydrangeas, and so I decided to jump into hydrangea plantin' time with a few short videos. Have a look and tell us what you're doing with YOUR hydrangeas this year!


Hydrangea Blue: This Farmer's Favorite Spring Hue from James Farmer on Vimeo.




Hydrangeas: From Pot to Plot from James Farmer on Vimeo.


As always, thanks to Room Eleven Media for producing this videos!

Roasted Supper

I don’t have to tell ya’ll its hot as a pepper sprout out there. It’s uncomfortably warm and unattractively hot – unattractive sweating mind you – yet in exchange for the persistent perspiration and heat, we get summer produce. Fair enough… fair enough. 

Since it is literally roasting outdoors, I thought I’d use the same technique in the kitchen. I roast everything. Fruit, vegetables, meats… there is something so fabulous about charring and caramelizing the sugars and serving up these dishes that are easy, pretty, and sometimes, unexpectedly divine (namely roasted cauliflower… you’ll be enthralled with the goodness!)

We eat chicken and rice in some form or fashion often. I’m always trying to interject seasonal savoir faire into the dish and this time of year is perfect for my Vidalia Onion Risotto with Braised Basil Chicken.  Basically, follow the directions for risotto (I love the Rice Select products) and be sure to use good chicken stock for the liquid. Water and bouillon cubes makes a quick stock and throw in some thyme and basil for summer flair.

Brown the onions first… this is the start of nearly every savory dish this Farmer makes. Mimi does and Mrs. Mary does… need I reinvent the wheel? If you have never fallen for a TV infomercial gimmick, I’m sorry; for there is one that is great! The Vidalia Chop Wizard and its counterparts – it really makes chopping onions a less tearful event. Yet, try slicing the onions super thin with a mandolin and voila! You’ll have the perfectly thin browned onions for your risotto, squash, corn, succotash, gumbo, jambalaya, soup, peas, beans, salads, etc etc etc… this is a fun tool! Brown your onions for your risotto and your braised chicken and you’ll have a flavor base full of depth and richness.

Braising is another fabulous cooking method and by utilizing this method with chicken, wine, seasoning, and fresh herbs, you’ll surely have happy campers at your table. If you have very thin chicken cutlets, just brown them with the onions and add some wine. So easy and delicious! The sweetness of thyme and basil infiltrate into the dish and liven up the bolder flavors with summer herbal zest.

We’ve had a mess of squash this summer and though cooking it down in browned onion in the iron skillet is bar none Southern fabulousness, a twist is to roast thinly sliced rounds of squash. Olive oil, salt and pepper… that is all you need for roasting veggies. A hot oven (400-450) will roast your squash or what have you until golden greatness and desired crispiness. I like a bit of char – the beauty of roasting is that crisp and tenderness combo. YUM!

With distinct flavors abounding in this meal, something lighter and clean to gully down was completely apropos. My cucumber salad with the same herbs I had used in the other dishes carried the flavor and made for the perfect garden to table pairing. Again, my mandolin came into action, for these cucumbers were delicately thin and decadently delicious. Dissolving a bit of sugar in the vinegar in the microwave with the herbs too infuses other flavor accoutrements into this salad’s dressing. Ice down the dish and the textural delight of warm and cold dishes is simply divine.

Though it is so hot, match the heat with your kitchen’s own firepower! From this Farmer’s garden and kitchen – roast on this summer!

Plum Crazy for Wild Plums

Growing up with a farm in Hawkinsville, a self taught education was at hand with each season offering a learning curve and lesson of that time of year’s particular offering. One of the indigenous floras that always brought an exciting reward was wild plums.

Often calling them “hog plums,” since the beasts would often beat you to the punch, these sweet and sour little fruits make for a delicious summer delicacy in several fashions – jelly, jam, conserve, fritter, or crunch. Nothing easier than fresh picked fruit mixed with a few ingredients and served with ice cream – delish!

In early spring, bright pink to white blossoms cover gray sticks of wild plum bushes across the Deep South. Striking against a newly blue spring sky or a gray sky of a lingering winter, these blossoms are the first sign of a summer treat. Several varieties and species can be found across the region and harvest can begin as early as June and extend well into the summer.

Past the beauty of their floral stems, the plums begin as a gorgeous green and can be enjoyed from their tartest of tart green stage or allowed to sweeten on the bush, turning a beautiful array of, well, plum colored shades from apricot colored, to red, to purples, and even pinks and yellows. Having a mix of the plums’ color and ripeness in a dish adds texture and flavor. Plus, they are just beautiful on their own in a dish or bowl as a seasonal decoration, bring the garden indoors to enjoy aesthetically.

If wild plums are not at your fingertips, then find some delicious specimens from your local farmer, garden market, or fruit stand. You can always mix them with blackberries and peaches for “summer basket” cobbler or tart. Try pairing some deep amethyst and aubergine colored plums with hydrangeas and blackberries for a gorgeous summer tableau…you just can’t beat the easy garden elegance of bowls and jars and even pitchers of the season’s best. Experiment with plum relishes and jellies as parings with pork or chicken glazes…a stuffed pork loin or chop with plums and pecans – yum yum yum! From this Farmer’s garden, I hope you find your niche with wild plums or garden fresh plums for a taste of one of the summer’s best fruits – just plum delicious ya’ll!

Farmer’s Wild Plum Crunch

• 2 cups of small wild plums, washed, pitted, and split in two
• Half a cup of brown sugar…more or less depending on sweetness of the plum
• 1 Tablespoon of local honey
• Juice and zest of half a lemon
• Half a cup of all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

***combine the above ingredients in a bowl and then pour into a buttered baking dish.

For the topping

• 1 heaping cup of old fashioned oats
• ¾ cup of pecan pieces
• ¼ cup of brown sugar
• ¾ a stick of cold butter, cubed
• ½ a teaspoon of salt

***combine the above ingredients in the in the mixer, hand mixer or your hands themselves. Spread over the plum mixture and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until bubbly…serve a la mode!

Summer Veggie Salsa…a Great Dip Too!

Can you believe how many tomatoes and peppers a small plot of earth and few plants can produce? Wowza!

If your garden is like mine and those of my neighbors and friends, you are finding that those four little tomato plants you planted last spring are now producing on the vine way too many tomatoes for you to eat by yourself! Just how many banana peppers can one family consume, anyways? With a plethora of produce at our green thumbs (or farmer’s market) disposal, a salsa is an easy way to stay ahead, preserve, and split the bounty coming in by the bushels!

Share and share alike with this garden amalgamation of the freshest ingredients and flavors…trust this Farmer, you’ll want to keep a batch of this recipe on hand as a salad dressing, marinade, and relish for grilled chicken and pork. The versatility and flexibility of this dish is one of the best attributes, aside from the fantastic flavor. If you have peaches on hand, throw some in for a fruitier feel…if you have watermelon and mint a plenty, make a salsa from them! Master the basics of salsa - fresh fruits and veggies, delicious herbs, and a dash seasoning – and you’ll be dancing the salsa as well as eating it! Here is the basis of this Farmer’s Garden Salsa.

• Tomatoes! Right off the vine! Green and red mixed together gives this recipe a super balance of texture and flavor. Try some heirloom varieties for amazing depth of flavor and visual delight. Each ingredient plays off the other, making this salsa a classic combo to be cherished for years to come.

• Tomatoes and onions, tomatoes and basil, tomatoes and peppers…like any of those combos? Or all the above? Then you’ll love this salsa. Combine a fresh Vidalia, some banana peppers (or the pepper of your choice or your garden’s offering), and some fresh basil and the base of your salsa is set…now on to the zip and zap that makes this salsa really dance!

• Rice wine vinegar…I love the touch of Asian flavor from this wonderful vinegar…red wine and apple cider work well too. This Farmer’s favorite, white balsamic, would be all too apropos as well. Add the vinegar to your salsa base and continue to season with some fresh cracked pepper, salt, and a pinch of cumin. The sweet, tangy, and smoky moves of the salsa dance are now becoming evident in your dish!

• To highlight the freshness of the ingredients, the juice and zest of a lime and lemon add a citrus floral note and keep our salsa kickin’! Last but not least is garlic…minced fresh garlic…need I say more?

• Once you’ve combined all your veggies, herbs, and seasonings, bring it to a slight boil, add a dash of sugar, and then chill or serve warm! I’m telling you, you and yours will adore this dish any way you choose to serve it. Jar or can it and share with friends and family and preserve some for a winter day when you need a reminder of the summer garden! From this Farmer’s garden and table, Ole!

Farmer’s Garden Salsa

• 6 small fresh tomatoes or four medium…size depending on what you have
• 1 Large Vidalia Onion
• 2-4 Large banana peppers…I like more Banana peppers so I use 4
• 4-5 peaches pitted, peeled, and chopped…add these for a fruity twist…delicious with or without!
• Zest and juice of 1 lime
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• ½ cup of seasoned Nakano rice vinegar
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• ½ teaspoon of cracked black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of cumin…or to taste…more smoky flavor add more
• 1 teaspoon of sugar….to taste…if peaches and tomatoes are sweet then less
• 4 teaspoons of minced garlic
• Garnish with julienned strips of basil or cilantro***

***for a sweeter salsa, use basil instead of cumin…for a more savory, use cumin and cilantro

Pulse and blend everything together except sugar.

Bring to a quick boil and add sugar…stir so sugar dissolves

Allow to cool and serve…how easy is that!? Enjoy!

Peaches and Blackberries…To Everything there is a Season

A major aspect of the garden living lifestyle is the understanding of each season’s produce. In a culture where summertime fruits are available in winter, I feel that a true garden lifestyle is marked by the gardener’s knowledge of “in season” produce for the freshest garden experience possible. Having an understanding and knowledge of your garden and the land’s timely bounty is a must for garden living, for the rewards of this understanding are delicious. For this Farmer, knowing when peaches, blackberries, and other seasonal delights are at their finest is a memorable stopping point on the garden living journey.

As a Georgia boy, I have grown up under the shade of pecan groves and amidst the rows of peach fields. In fact, the Peach County line is only a stone’s throw from my home. Growing up on a farm lent the opportunity for an education with nature as professor, learning in relation to the seasonal and native crops perennially noting the time of year.

Each season is marked by its produce in my mind, a marking that has imprinted itself into a garden living mindset and thus lifestyle. I know we’ll have blackberries in late spring and summer, followed by peaches, watermelons and wild plums, muscadines and scuppernongs in late summer and into fall and finally pecans in the year’s latter months. From the brambles and briars yielding scores of deep purple blackberries to the fields laden with peaches, I have come to rely and respect nature’s bounty for its simplicity, its flavor, and beauty.

Meals and tables will be adorned with dishes themed with the seasonal offerings from our fields and gardens. Cobblers, sauces, jams and jellies, conserves, crumbles and chutneys will grace our tables and tongues with seasonal splendor. Peaches and blackberries, ever so versatile, will comply with any of the above delicacies and are my favorite summer delights.

Bowls of peaches or blackberries are strikingly elegant and simply beautiful. Tiny boughs of blackberry tucked into arrangements or alone in a jelly jar make for delightful bouquets. Yet, one of the most intriguing and attractive elements these fruits offer is their color combination and thus visual complement.

Peachy pink fuzz, delicately orange, bodes for a contrast with the richness of aubergine, a depth of purple beyond grape or amethyst. Thrown together in a cobbler or together as salad, the two make for a salient display of nature’s beauty. A garden lifestyle is enhanced with combination of fruits from the garden or local fields as sustenance and décor, thus making them a mainstay for your table and home.

Though an entire peach orchard may not suit your garden, seek out your local grower and brush up on the different varieties of peaches. White Peaches are succulent and sweet. Their “season” marks one of my favorite weeks of year. Lighter colored skin and “meat,” these champagne tinted peaches are more so floral tasting than “peachy” and are totally interchangeable with their yellowy flesh cousins in recipes. These peaches are just stunning and simply elegant in a dish and a highlight during peach season.

As for blackberries, a garden can boast a blackberry patch with ease. Many newer varieties are more fastigiated or columnar in growth, not crawling all over the garden. Cultivars from ‘Black Butte’ to ‘Black Satin’ have become readily available to gardeners and growers alike. Yet, discovering a favorite patch at the edge of a wood or along a fencerow may be my favorite method for blackberry cultivation. Picking blackberries with my sisters in the early summer is a welcomed memory, especially knowing that the fruits from our forages would be Mimi’s Blackberry Jam or Blackberry sauce for fried pies and fritters.

Garden living, whether the plot is yours or that of a friend, is a life enriched by nature’s bounty. Let alone a source of sustenance, fruits from the garden provide beautiful reminders - in silver bowls, earthen dishes, and baskets alike – of the season on our tabletops. Arrangements brimming with blackberry stems or branches of peach blossoms can be quite elegant and a welcome invitation for garden living. Take note of your surroundings and enrich your home, table, and garden with the lovely specimens nature provides – especially when the specimens can be turned in to jelly and cobblers!