Saturday, March 30, 2013

Let the 2013 Growing Season Begin!

It has been a busy week on the farm!  We are harvesting out of the greenhouse, which is always a great.  Great to not only be able to once again share our harvest, but to also start enjoying fresh salads and kale.  We are back in kale mode here, eating kale most every day - oh so good!

On Wednesday, Farmer Don was at the Whole Life Center for Health for a Mini Spring Market and to kick off our 2013 Meet the Farmer Events.  He had a great time meeting old and new CSA members and showing off his cooking skills.



We have located a source for some good composted horse manure near the farm, so Farmer Don and Neil have been busy hauling loads of manure back to the farm to mix with our on farm produced chicken manure. This mixture will become a nutrient rich compost to be spread on our fields to increase help maintain and build the health of our soil.  

Thursday was spent doing the final tillage on our pea field and on Friday we finally got our peas planted.  A bit later than our target of planting peas on St. Patrick's day, but still not as late as some years.  For us planting peas marks the official start of our growing season.  



Monday, March 25, 2013

Tomorrow we will be at the Whole Life Center for Health in Drums.  Farmer Don will be featuring our own greenhouse grown kale and salad mix.  Both of these greens were planted last fall and overwintered in our unheated greenhouse.  The cold temperatures of winter has given the kale a wonderful sweet flavor, perfect for a Cajun Kale salad!

If you are in the Drums area tomorrow, stop by and say hello to Farmer Don, taste some Kale salad, buy some greens and learn about our farm and our CSA.




This recipe is a farm favorite.

The original recipe calls for blanching the kale.  We consider this optional and usually just use raw kale for the salad.  If you are using fresh sweet corn, you may want to cook the corn first.  We generally use our own frozen sweet corn and we thaw it but do not cook it prior to use in the salad.



Cajun Kale Salad

4 Ears sweet corn, shucked (or approximately 2 cups thawed frozen corn)
1 Bunch of Kale (approximately 1/2 to 3/4 pound), torn into bite size pieces
1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
1 Green Bell Pepper, diced
1 Small Onion, diced
1 Clove of Garlic, minced (or more!)
1 to 2 teaspoons Cajun Spice Mix or to taste
Sea Salt to taste
2 TBS lemon juice
2 TBS Olive Oil

Cajun Spice Mix
2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Cayenne
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp dried Thyme Leaves
1/4 tsp White Pepper


Directions:
Cook Corn if necessary
Blanch Kale by dropping into boiling water and allowing it to cook for 4 mins.  Immediately remove kale from water and cool in ice water.  When kale is cool, drain it and remove as much water as possible.
Prepare Cajun Spice mix by combining all ingredients in a small bowl.
Toss Kale, corn, red pepper, green pepper, onion, garlic and desired amount of Cajun spice in a large bowl.
Just before serving, whisk together lemon juice and olive oil and toss with vegetables.  Season with salt to taste.







 

Welcome to Dancing Hen Farm's blog!

 This site will most likely be temporary, since in the near future, our new website will be up and running and we are hoping to have a blog feature directly on our website.  But, for now, read and enjoy, as we add notes about the farm, the csa, food, nutrition and life.