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Sauteed Veggies

This is a use-what-you-have sort of dish. I cook to a pot based on the number of people eating. I vary the veggies according to what I have and according to the dislikes of those I am serving. Some veggies retain their shape well when sauteed – broccoli, cauliflower, beets – and some shrink considerably – many greens – and some are somewhere in between – beans, pod peas, squash, cabbage, onions, garlic.

I use a cast iron Dutch oven. I put oil in the bottom and let it start to warm. I add my firm veggies and put some oil on top. Then I stir or toss the veggies and the oil. Next I cover it with the lid and let it sit for a minute or two. Then I add the next batch of veggies, again adding some oil on top, stirring and tossing. Once again I cover it and let it sit another minute or two. And finally I repeat with the greens. Once the lidded pot starts steaming, I put the heat to low, letting it sit for 4-5 minutes in between stirrings. When the solids are finally soft, then I serve this. It may be over rice or just a side of meat and potatoes. And the veggies still taste good the next day, though we don’t usually have many that last that long. Here is a printable form of this meal.

Veggie Meal

This is a use-what-you-have sort of meal. I cook to a pot based on the number of people eating. I vary the veggies according to what I have and according to the likes and dislikes of those I am serving.
Print Recipe

Equipment

  • Pot with a lid

Ingredients
  

  • Olive oil, or whatever your fat of choice is
  • Firm veggies – ones retain their shape well when sauteed Beets, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, celery
  • Mid firm veggies – ones that will soften some Stems of the greens, pod peas, beans, onions, squash, tomatoes, corn
  • Wilting veggies – tend to be the greens Spinach, Swiss chard, beet greens, bok choy, tatsoi, garlic
  • Any already cooked veggies Canned veggies, leftovers

Instructions
 

  • Cut the veggies into bite size pieces.
  • Put oil in the bottom of the pan and let it start to warm over high to medium high heat.
  • Add the firm veggies and put some oil on top. Stir or toss the veggies and the oil. Cover with a lid and let sit a minute or two.
  • Add the mid-firm veggies and put some oil on top. Stir or toss the veggies and the oil. Cover with a lid and let sit a minute or two.
  • Add the wilting veggies and put some oil on top. Stir or toss the veggies and the oil. Cover with a lid and let sit a minute or two.
  • Stir in or toss any cooked veggies or leftovers. Cover and watch for the pot to steam. Turn the heat to low, stirring every 4-5 minutes until the veggies are all soft. Take off heat and serve.

Notes

We serve this over rice or as a side with meat and potatoes. These veggies tend to taste good the next day as well. OR if you have enough left over, you can freeze them for a meal another day.
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Cooking Smoked Pork Chops

About 10 years ago one of my meat customers asked me for smoked pork chops. I had never heard of them, but sure enough my butcher could make smoked chops. So we started getting some of our pork chops smoked.

Smoked chops taste like smoked ham slices. The smoking and brine is the same. The consistency of the meat is more like regular chops. So you have a smaller piece of meat with a smoked flavor. If you don’t want to use all 3 at once, just thaw the meat enough to take one chop off and then refreeze the rest.

Our frozen pork chops, smoked and fresh (unsmoked), come 3 in a package. These fit on a skillet and pan fry nicely. I cook them over medium heat for about 4 minutes on a side, covering them with a lid.

Once that side is browned, I turn them for 4 minutes on the other side again covering them. Once that 4 minutes is done, I watch the fat and cook it maybe another minute or two on each side.

Finally, when they seem to be done, we turn off the heat and eat them. This would go well with steamed veggies and a lettuce salad.

Other ways to use these is to cook them over potatoes either in the crockpot or in the oven. The flavor from the meat goes down and flavors the potatoes and makes it all a good meal. In this crockpot recipe you could substitute it for the beef steak giving the dish a smoked ham flavor. All in all, smoked chops add good flavoring to dinner dishes.

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Ragweed Update

Here is a more mature ragweed. It flowers on a long stem. And because the flower is green, it blends in better with other plants.

The flower reminds me of plantain, which also has a green flower. However, plantain is flat to the ground with the flower up above, maybe up 6 inches, where ragweed is more like a small bush and can come up 1 1/2 to 2 feet.

Other posts about ragweed can be found here and here.

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August Views from the Farm

Here are recent views from the farm…

  • Taj Mahal with chicken leaving
  • Bee on knapweed
  • Yorek checking things out
  • Pippen, a new to us steer
  • Volunteer squash plant
  • Meat birds in pen
  • Sow watching us
  • Tomato plant
  • Pesch and her kids
  • Baby chicks in brooder
  • Bee on chicory
  • Meatbirds in field
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Weeds of the Season

Here are some weeds we recently sighted around the property. All are fun to observe, but two, ragweed and wild parsnip, we are especially careful around.

This is young RAGWEED. It has a small unobtrusive flower that causes a lot of allergy issues this time of year.

To see more mature RAGWEED, go here.

The blue flowers of CHICORY open in the sun and heat and close in the cool and rain. This is abundant throughout our fields this year.

MILKWEED is the plant of choice for monarch butterflies to lay eggs on. The larva then eat the leaves until it is large enough to form a chrysalis, from which the monarch will emerge. Note the milkweed pods forming near the bottom of the stalk.

WILD PARSNIP is here much of the summer. The sap can cause blisters and a skin reaction. It has a yellow flower that sort of resembles the dillweed flower.

MULLEIN is a large weed with velvety soft leaves. The spiky top gets lots of pretty yellow flowers.

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July Veggies

Various veggies continue to grow. Lots of water, sun, and heat all work together to make them grow. Of course they are not the only things growing. Weeds or unintended plants also grow. With drier weather this week we hope to get into some of the beds and convert the unintended plants to mulch.

  • Bean plants
  • Potato plants
  • Greens
  • Onion bed

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Harvesting Garlic

Your garlic has been growing well, perhaps looks a bit weedy like this patch either because of weather, life, or both. But when is the right time to harvest it?

Garlic has layered leaves that wrap around the stem and the head of garlic. They receive the sunlight which is converted to the energy the plant needs to grow. As the plant ages, these leaves turn brown and die. The part that is around the head of garlic becomes the wrappers for the stored garlic.

The leaves will die from the bottom up. So we look for the plant to start browning, but to also still have 3-4 leaves at the top that are still green. Then we dig them up, shake off the dirt, and prep them to cure.

We have bunched the garlic, hung the bunches in a dark place, and let them cure for a month or so. But we have also found that we can cut the tops off and let them cure in the dark for a month or so on these bread trays. The outer wrappings will easily come off and the inner ones will protect the garlic through the winter.

And hopefully come mid-August you (and we) will have garlic that looks something like this!

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Red Russian Kale – a Biennial

(Note: while we grow red Russian kale, we do not always have it available to sell.)

Some red Russian kale seed spilled on the driveway several years ago. The plant has come back and produced nice foliage. Note how the leaves are water repellent – the water beads on the leaves.

This year the kale flowered and now has a large supply of these lovely seed pods. Probably we will let them dry and save them for seed for the coming year.

Some interesting things to note:

We think of kale as a small leaf with thin stems, something that we could try to eat raw and that would certainly cook up quickly either sauteed or boiled.

But look at the stout woody stem that is at the base of the seed podded plant. Quite stout and woody!

The seeds are also quite small.

But one of those generated this plant that has lots of seed pods each with probably 5-12 seeds in it. Quite the plant!

Biennial, annual, and perennial differences:

  • A biennial is a plant that flowers and makes seeds in the 2nd year, not the first year. The brassicas, like broccoli or cabbage, or the beets, like Swiss chard or early wonder tall top beets, are biennials.
  • An annual flowers and makes seeds in the first year. Spinach or squashes are annuals.
  • Self-sowing annuals also distribute the seeds which then come up the next year even though they weren’t planted on purpose. Cilantro and dillweed are like this.
  • A perennial comes up every year. It may also make seeds, but the mother plant comes up whether it goes to seed or not. Rhubarb and asparagus are perennials.

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Tell Me About Your…Pork

Pork is the name of meat that comes from pigs.

All of our pigs are raised outdoors year round, having a shelter to minimize the weather. They are fed organic grains grown by Gianforte Farm of Cazenovia. They are supplemented with day old produce from a local organic grocery store and occasional overflow from a local food pantry.

And as the seasons permit they are moved to different paddocks eating the brush, grass and local vegetation.

In the past year we have begun raising our own pigs from farrowing to finishing, from birth to processing. The Bros have a boar and two sows. Each sow gives two litters a year and from these litters we raise 3 piglets twice a year. Most of the pork we are currently selling and all we are currently raising started on our farm.

We aim to raise our pigs to 250-300 lb. They get this size by 7 months and then we have them processed by Kelly Meats in Taberg, a USDA-inspected facility. They cut and vacuum pack the meat into the normal chops, steaks and roasts. They use some of the ground meat to make sweet Italian, hot Italian and breakfast sausage. And they smoke some of the hams, chops and bacon. You end up with well-raised, tasty pork. Local food grown for you!

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2021 Hay

With the rain this spring and the heat of June, hay fields have grown and hay has been collected.

The Bros got around 200 bales from our property with the baling help of a neighbor. And then we bought the rest of our hay from the same neighbor off the wagon. (From his fields he mows, rakes, bales it into a wagon, then brings it to our farm where we stack it. Off of the wagon means it doesn’t stop at his barn first.)

It is good to have a nice green hay ready for the cows and goats when grass is no longer available.