I am excited to see growing things popping up everywhere! It is amazing to be seeing the beginnings of the fruits of our labors thus far!

From the top, left to right: apricot tree, chestnut tree, yellow raspberry bush, wild strawberries, currants

Bottom, right to left: elderberry bush, Roberto planting the first potato, (top)potato and bean field (75 feet of each), (bottom)blueberry flowers, lettuces, Jenn playing in the trenches

And the peeps? Growing by leaps and bounds in just their first week of life! We already had to upgrade their living quarters!

Top, from left to right: Peeps new digs, peeps at one week old, (top) peeps, (bottom) Rhode Island Red eating her first mosquito – GOOD GIRL!

Bottom, from left to right: Not our chicks, but our resident birds bundles of fluffy joy, Arwen – the fastest developer, she may be a he, and if so shall be re-named Elrond, (top) a Barred Rock at one week, (bottom)Penguino a Silver Laced Wyandotte at one week, a Rhode Island Red looking pretty!

Hope everyone has a great weekend doing whatever you love to do best!

From Chicks to Chickpeas! Well I am finally back with a recipe. In fact I have many to share with you over the coming weeks. I have been cooking a lot since we moved. I mean it is hard not to when there is so much beautiful food available. However, as you can see from my most recent posts, I have been a little busy, and not really in front of my computer as much. Which is actually good in many respects. Also, I have so many other things to share with all of you, besides the food I am making, so sometimes it is hard to know what to post first! Ah, the life of a food blogger is so darn tough

We have obviously been very busy lately and due to that, it has been good to prepare some quick foods, that you can just grab a handful of when you make a mad dash back into the house from the garden for a forgotten item or two. This is one of those snacks – packed with protein, completely healthy, crunchy and delicious. Such a satisfying snack on so many levels. I have seen roasted chick peas out in the blogosphere many times before and have always sworn to myself make them soon. Recently I was inspired by Cook Local’s version which reminded me, I needed to make them!

I always tend to have soaked, partially cooked and then frozen chick peas in the freezer. They are one of my favorite beans, and basically as convenient as canned beans when prepared ahead like this. One of my tricks of making your own convenience foods, saving time and money, and the taste? About a million times better.

I really wanted to use Ras el Hanout – translated to mean “head of the shop” – as in the best spices, to spice half of the roasted chickpeas. I hadn’t used my mortar and pestle in a while, and really was looking forward to toasting all the aromatic spices beforehand in my cast iron skillet. This is my version of aromatherapy. So I dry fried my Ras el Hanout, and then added some coriander, cumin and blood orange salt from D’Italia to create my spice mix for batch one.

The second batch, I was looking for something a little more Southwestern. I absolutely adore the Mexican mole spice and lime coconut salt from The Spice and Tea Exchange. So decided to combine them and add in a little Calabrese hot pepper powder that I got from Sausage Debauchery.

Both versions turned out really well, and in the end I actually mixed the two up, and they complimented each other beautifully. So if you are looking for a quick, delicious and satisfying snack that packs a crunch AND that you can spice up any way you like, this is the treat for you!

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups al dente cooked chickpeas
3 TBS olive oil
Salt and seasonings of your choice

Ras el Hanout Spiced Chickpeas

2 heaping tsp of Ras el Hanout spice mix
1 TBS ground coriander
1 TBS ground cumin
blood orange sea salt to taste

Mexican Mole Spiced Chickpeas

2 TBS Mexican mole spice mix
¼ tsp Calabrese hot pepper powder
Lime coconut salt to taste

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 400 F. In a large bowl, mix chickpeas with olive oil to coat then mix with spices.
Spread spiced chickpeas in a single layer on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and roast for 30-35 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the chickpeas are golden brown! Enjoy!

We have PEEPS! Now it is really starting to feel like a homestead around here!

Not that it hasn’t been homesteady all along. I mean we have been working on our garden for the past several weeks, and that is actually really going well. This past weekend we planted spinach, chard, mache, 2 kinds of carrots, 2 kinds of beets, 3 types of onions, nasturtiums, green peas, lettuces, turnips and radishes. Also sage, rosemary and dill – oh and the ever present marigolds. Garden gems for the organic gardener! Not to mention blueberry, raspberries, elderberry, lingonberry and currant bushes. As well as apricot and chestnut trees. We also have tomatoes, peppers and eggplants growing inside right now. We are doing a companion planting garden, and are really excited to see the tops of beets already emerging, as well as onion starters sprouting and either radishes or turnips starting in less than a week. My stepdaughters were here last weekend and even got in on the action. Thanks Rachel and Gwen!

I joked on facebook earlier that today I connected with my Irish roots earlier, by digging 75 feet worth of potato trenches by hand. Good hard work that will hopefully yield hundreds of heirloom varieties – over 8 different kinds. Those will be going in the ground tomorrow. Then this weekend the hot plants – tomatoes, peppers, cukes and melons. Probably squashes if we can squeeze them in.

It has been non-stop work since we got here 6 weeks ago. But it is so nice to see how much we have accomplished – all for an important end -FOOD.

But today was the day I have really been waiting for!!!  My first livestock! A recent passion that has just been growing since we got out to the country. I placed my order for peeps 4 weeks ago – just weeks after arriving. I was not  messing around. I got 3 different varieties – Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks and Silver Laced Wyandottes (which I was told not to expect, so I only ordered 2) I ended up getting all, including the Wyandottes, but not the rooster I had ordered. We were expecting them tomorrow, but they arrived a day early. So we spent a rushed hour putting the final touches their brooder, where they will stay for the next 3-4 weeks, until it is consistently warm enough for them to be outside in their coop that we have yet to build. Just another project to do here on the farm!

When you get peeps, you have to show them how to drink water by dipping their beaks into the water. When we got them home, they enjoyed the first water and food of their lives, having been born yesterday morning, immediately packed into boxes and shipped out. So we really are raising them by hand. Such a privilege. I hope they enjoy their life at Thistlemoon Meadows!

I have been wanting to sit down and write this post for days now. As I type this, we are experiencing our first rain in about a week, which means I can take time from the fevered pace I have been working at, enjoy a cup of teeccino (yes, I have finally made the commitment to quit coffee) and get typing! All the while out lovely little seedlings and plants are getting a nice watering!

Although it has been 2 weeks since I enjoyed this meal, the memories are still fresh in my mind. Maybe that is because Bistro Sauce is part of The Vermont Fresh Network, or maybe that is coincidental. I rather think not. Every single eatery I have been to from fine dining to order-at-the-counter places that are part of the Fresh Network have all been memorable.

I really must repeat what I have said before, Vermont is really ahead of the curve when it comes to local eating and the extremely important relationship between farmers and chefs. Without farms we would have no food. Vermont gets that, as do most Vermonters. Gosh, I love my new home state.

(photo courtesy of CrankyCakes)

So to end our fabulous first Foodie Tour of Burlington ( if you missed the first leg of the tour, you can catch up here ) and to celebrate Restaurant Week, Cheryl took us to Bistro Sauce to meet up with Lara, who we had met earlier to kick off Restaurant Week, at one of my all time favorite places, Applecheek Farm .

(photo courtesy of CrankyCakes)

We were really hot when we arrived from a day out in the sunshine, so we started with a local beer at the bar. I had nice and refreshing Switchback which also happened to go really well with my first course – a delicious baby greens salad with pears, aged cheddar and candied hazelnuts. Roberto had the olive plate with grilled bread and the ladies had the Caesar salad with anchovies. Everyone was pleased with their choices.

(grilled olive plate, brandade, baby greens salad, pork shoulder)

The next course was my absolute favorite – Brandade. It was a smoked haddock and potaotes mashed and then fried in a crispy crust, served with remoulade and greens. On top was a beautiful deep fried wild leek, or ramp. The smoked fish and potatoes had the perfect creamy consistency inside to juxtapose the crispy outer coating and the flavor was deep and delicious. Everyone else got the risotto with wild mushrooms and fiddleheads. It was good too, but I was so happy I chose the Brandade.

Third course was pork – Vermont pork shoulder laid on top of garlic mashed potatoes and local spring veggies with a pepita romesco sauce and jus. We all got the same course. Cheryl had some intel that this was the best dish in the course, and we all went for it, not regretting a single bite. The pork was absolutely tender, the potatoes perfect and the sauces divine. Very good course.

For dessert, we all decided to go light with homemade ice cream or sorbet. I went for the bay leaf. I remember how amazing this bay leaf custard was and knew this was a taste I would love. Roberto got vanilla bean, which he felt was not very impressive. Cheryl went for, I believe mango…but the craziest choice, was the cucumber sorbet that Lara opted for. It was totally refreshing.

(photo courtesy of CrankyCakes)

All in all it was a very nice night. For $25 per person, I also believe it was very much a steal. We had a 6 PM reservation, and by 7 PM, the place was packed full of happy diners with smiles on their faces. I would say it was a successful event for Bistro Sauce and a great evening for foodies!

(photos courtesy of Nourished Kitchen)

There is still a few more days to sign up for the Nourished Kitchen e-course! If you ever wanted to learn how to make your own cheese, yogurt or soft drinks at home, this is the course for you! If you want to learn how to shop farmers markets and make awesome seasonal, organic and local foods using the freshest and most nutrient-dense foods for you and your family, without breaking the bank – this course is for you! If you read my blog and wonder how the heck I have time to make all this stuff, and wish you could, this is the course for you! If you care about the foods you put into your body and want to make a commitment to REAL FOOD today -     Please sign up today and start your own Food Revolution!

photo courtesy of CrankyCakes

So we have been here officially on the homestead for less than a month, and already I have had the great opportunity to meet some awesome people, as well as reacquaint myself with some that we have met on previous trips to the area. I have certainly learned that people in Vermont love good food, and care about where their food comes from, they also care about their fellow Vermonters.

Vermont has just come off Restaurant Week . It is a big deal here – participating restaurants offer special, prix-fixe menus showcasing their chefs’ greatest dishes. Those menus will feature discounted, three-course “tasting-style” dinners (e.g. appetizer, entreé and dessert) priced at $15, $25 or $35 per person. 10% of the proceeds from event admissions, sponsorships and restaurant participation fees will be donated to Vermont Foodbank.

(Inside Sugar Snap, checking out the produce at City Market, with Cheryl outside of Sugar Snap and City Market!)

To celebrate Restaurant Week and all the fine food that Vermont has to offer, Burlington resident, fellow food blogger, Vermont Fresh Networker and all around Vermont local food expert Cheryl from Cranky Cakes offered to take Roberto and I to all her favorite foodie spots in and around Burlington, ending with dinner at Bistro Sauce in Shelburne, a participant in Restaurant Week, which I will talk about in an upcoming post . We were in for quite a day!

We started the tour off at Cheryl’s Residence, Burlington Co-Housing. It is such an interesting place, the grounds are full of acres and acres perfect for wildcrafting and gardening. She took us on a tour of the grounds where plants, berry bushes, and everything in between are growing, all over the place. Her partner Greg told us that at the height of summer, it likens to a real life Hobbiton with everyone outside working the grounds. All they need are some livestock running around, and I can totally see it!

But the tour must go on, so we headed out in Cheryl’s car. Car conversations revolved around food in the front seat, while in the backseat between Roberto and Greg, major comic drawing and illustrator geekness abounded. It was the perfect arrangement! Geeks unite!

photo courtest of CrankyCakes

Our first stop on the tour was Sugar Snap – an awesome little takeout joint, serving lunch and dinner. Situated right at the beginning of Burlington’s REAL Food Hub, The Intervale . Before hitting the ‘Vale, we needed to fortify ourselves. We hadn’t had lunch yet, so I went with half of their secret recipe chicken salad sandwich on sourdough. Roberto had the Dark and Stormy – ham, mustard sauteed portabellos, on a delicious roll. Cheryl and Greg shared goat cheese quiche. It was a very good start to the tour.

We took a drive through the Intervale, home to many of Burlington’s small farms and community gardens. It was once full of cows, then became more of an industrial center, but is now finding it’s roots again in the natural world. This is where Cheryl and Greg’s CSA, Intervale Community Farm (the second largest CSA in Vermont) is located. The Intervale has a lot of interesting events throughout the year, including Slow Food tastings on Thursdays…sounds like another reason to go to Burlington.

After that we drove through the Old North End, home to many ethnic restaurants and groceries – everything from Middle Eastern and African to Himalayan. This part of town is also home to the Sustainability Academy , in partnership with Shelburne Farms , is the nation’s first K-5 magnet school with a sustainability theme. From their website: “The goal of the Academy is to prepare students to be responsible citizens and agents for change, in their community and beyond. The Academy is an international model for using sustainability as a lens for place-based education and service learning. We maintain the highest expectations for academic and personal growth for all of our students and embrace the rich economic and cultural diversity of our community”. WOW. If I could only go back in time to be a student there!!!

(Roberto and Greg chatting it up in Bulk Foods – but likely not ABOUT bulk foods….Photo courtesy of CrankyCakes)

From the North End we headed to City Market a fabulous co-op full of local, organic and fair trade foods. Kind of like a Whole Foods, but owned by the community – even better in my book! I got some lovely and tasty souvenirs, including cheese from Doe’s Leap. Doe’s Leap, who recently broke my heart. It is a sad tale, indeed.  They advertised a most incredible internship opportunty on their website-  teaching interns about raising goats, goat healthcare, artisan cheesemaking and training herd dogs – all the things I want to learn. But unfortunately they are not offering the program anymore. BOOHOO!!! So I drowned my sorrows in goat cheese from their farm, instead.

I was also able to get some lovely local non-GMO cornmeal from Butterworks Farms, and some black turtle beans from another local farm, both in City Market’s extensive Bulk Food section! After all the shopping efforts, we needed a pick me up, so we left with some amazing Serchan’s Potato salad – a Nepali potato salad, made by one of Cheryl’s neighbors…of course! I swear she knows everyone who has anything to do with good food in Burlington!

(Lambs at Shelburne Farms, a delicious pit stop at August First, Red Wagon Plants, and Sicilian donkeys at Shelburne Farms)

We drove into downtown Burlington for a stop at August First, one of Cheryl’s favorite bakeries. We had been hearing about how wonderful their breads are, from Cheryl and Greg all day, so we were lucky enough to get the LAST baguette of the day to taste. We were lucky enough that they were already out of iced coffee, since the owner Phil then had to improvise by giving us a shot of delicious espresso, that we filled halfway with filtered water and then topped off with cream. YUM. I told him he should always do iced coffee this way. I put a drizzle of honey in mine and it was so good. We decided to catch our breath on their beautiful outdoor patio with the iced coffees and a chocolate, apricot and hazelnut scone, which was out of this world. The name August First comes from the traditional date for the early European harvest festival called Lammas, which celebrates the annual wheat harvest. Way cool.

At this point Greg had to leave the tour to go back home and draw…ah, the life of an artist…so the three of us dropped him off and continued on our way. First stop, plant heaven – Red Wagon Plants , purveyors of heirloom and specialty plants. It was perfect, since Roberto, this family’s resident gardener, had been wanting to go there anyway! We met the fabulous owner, Julie, and then took a tour of their greenhouses looking at all the beautiful flowers, and smelling the best chocolate mint ever! Going back there this weekend to get some for our garden, because we can’t stop talking about it!!!

(photo courtesy of CrankyCakes)

Then we walked over to the neighbors, Family Cow Farmstand , a raw milk farm. They sell their milk to the community and also have home dairy making courses. They had two sweet calves in the barn that after a bit of coaxing came up to sniff and lick us. Their tongues were a bit like a cat’s tongue – a little rough. But their fur was soft and thick. We spent a few minutes checking out their beautiful views and breathing in the fresh farm air.

(The Intervale, view driving through Shelburne Farms, The “Barn” at Shelburne Farms, The Inn at Shelburne Farms)

Our last stop before dinner was Shelburne Farms . This is truly an incredible place, and if you come to visit, a definite stop on our tour of Northern Vermont. I think at this point Cheryl was realizing what a lover of farm animals I am, so she knew that no matter how tight our time was, we had to make this stop.

(photo courtesy of CrankyCakes)

Shelburne Farms is an amazing place that we literally just touched the surface of. Our main focus on this trip was the animals – cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens and donkeys. We met some really cute friends along the way . So cute that if we had brought our truck, I might have had to smuggle! Shelburne Farms offers cheese tours, wagon rides, snowshoeing in the winter, hiking trails in the summer, a sugar shack, a farm store, a farm eats stand and even an Inn – where you can stay or enjoy a rather swanky meal. I will certainly enjoy going there time and again.

I hope you enjoyed the first leg of the tour with me. Join me next time for dinner at Bistro Sauce in Shelburne. If you still want more, and believe me, you so do, you can check out Cheryl’s take on the day here, at Cranky Cakes. She has a great blog!

As a blogger, aspiring to bring my readers better food, more interesting stories, and drool-worthy photos of my creations, I look to other bloggers who do what I want to do, but do it better. They are like virtual mentors whose posts I pour over, and get excited about when I see them in my inbox. They are the bloggers whose nearly every recipe ends up in my “to make” box.

One of these bloggers is Jenny from Nourished Kitchen.  To me, she is a marvel – she makes delicious, nutrient dense foods, using practices our great grandparents did – making fermented vegetables, cultured dairy products, and using real butter, full fat raw milk and real bacon! While raising a family AND managing her local farmers market! I have been working to eat more and more this way over the past months, and I always look to Jenny’s delicious blog for inspiration. She is a wealth of information and really one of the most gracious bloggers I have been in contact with.

So it is with excitement that I am announcing her awesome e-course! After hearing over and over again from her readers a need for a simple, but thorough way to better incorporate local foods and back-to-basics, traditional cooking into their kitchens, she began work on this e-course. Through this interactive 12-week program Jenny will show you the ropes to making delicious , good for you food that won’t break your back, or your budget, that is usually local, organic and in season. This is the time to start your own Food Revolution, faithful readers! If you aren’t convinced, take a look at these amazing dishes:

Are you drooling yet? If so, here are the details on the e-course! Don’t forget Class begins June 1, 2010, and registration closes on May 31st!!! So you need to act fast!

What You’ll Get

• 12 Comprehensive, Multi-media Online Classes
• Video Tutorials Teaching You How to Cook Real Food
• Digital Workbook to Take Notes & Develop Your Own Recipes
• Charts Outlining Seasonally Available Foods
• Fact Sheets and Handy Tips Analyzing the Value of Real Food
• Online Discussion Forum for Members Only
• Menu Planning Tips & Sample Meal Plans
• Sample Shopping Lists and Equipment Recommendations
• SPECIAL BONUS: Discouts & Coupons from Companies I Trust

Get in now!

You’ll Learn How to:

• Shop for whole, unrefined local foods in season.
• Maximize nutrition and minimize cost.
• Plan meals that will help you stick to your food budget.
• Bake organic whole grain bread for a fraction of the cost of store-bought.
• Save a mint making homemade yogurt, cheese and pickles.
• Make use of cheaper cuts of meat with slow cooking.
• Make healthy homemade soda for just pennies a gallon.

The Lesson Overview

Lesson #1: What is Real Food & Where to Find It
Lesson #2: Eat Whole Grain
Lesson #3: Homemade Sourdough Bread
Lesson #4: Homemade Salad Dressings
Lesson #5: Prepare Seasonal Vegetables
Lesson #6: Make Real Pickles
Lesson #7: Roasted & Slow-cooked Meats
Lesson #8: Stocks, Broths & Soups
Lesson #9: Easy Homemade Yogurt & Cheese
Lesson #10: Soda & Soft Drink Alternatives
Lesson #11: Naturally Sweet Desserts
Lesson #12: Menus & Meal Planning

Check out Jenny’s eCourse here, watch a promo video, and find out how to register.  Class begins June 1, 2010, and registration closes May 31st!!! Every weekly course is at your leisure, at your own computer screen, and they’re all supported by a forum where you can ask Jenny and other participants questions.  There are limited spaces available.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Nourished Kitchen’s online eCourse, so I will be earning a commission from any sales made after clicking a link in this post.  This e-course it taking the blogosphere by storm, with many affiliates, so if you’re going to sign up for Jenny’s course (and you’re not one of her faithful readers), it would be appreciated to start here with my link.

HELLO COMPOST!

Life has been extremely busy here on the homestead. If you are following my facebook updates, you know I have been up to my ears (almost) in dirt. I have learned in these few short weeks, that spring is the busiest time of the year in the country. If you are in the North Country, you are trying to get your gardens, fruit/nut tree groves and berry patches started for the summer, while dodging rain storms, and on occasion even snow storms! Here at Thistlemoon Meadows, it is no exception. All of this while trying to settle into a new place. We have been spending as many sunny days as we can outdoors, and if there isn’t enough of those to do what we need to accomplish, we go out in the rain – and if you can believe it, the snow storm is actually a blessing from Mother Nature, as it allows us time to go indoors and take care of household needs. It has been several years since I have really enjoyed the dichotomies that make up spring and it has been amazing – when you are working with things that grow, it kind of all makes sense. Nature is amazing that way.

(The Culture Club (this is not how I normally have my “lab” set up. If you are culturing more than one kind of culture they need to sit a few feet apart from each other, but I asked them all to gather together for  photo).

Our house is not a home unless I have set up my cultures, lovingly termed my “science lab” in the kitchen. On any given day I have sourdough starter, kefir, some kind of sour milk either viili or buttermilk, yogurt and sometimes cheese culturing. Plus I usually have various kinds of grains and legumes soaking and fermenting. It is this life sustaining and nourishing foods that get our bodies through all the hard work that comes with setting up and maintaining a homestead. And our chickens haven’t even arrived yet!

FIDDLEHEADS!

So to celebrate spring in all her glory, on one warm and beautiful day, we decided to have our first barbecue of the season. We had been to the local market earlier in the day and picked up a prized local wildfood – fiddlehead ferns. These ferns can only be harvested for about 2 weeks in the early spring, in Northern climes, like New England, and Canada. Fiddleheads are harvested early in the season before the frond has opened and reached its full height – they are named fiddleheads as they bear resemblance to the curled ornamentation on the end of a stringed instrument, such as a fiddle. Since I am a fiddlehead, it seemed like a food I should try. It is not suggested that you eat fiddleheads raw, as they have a bitterness to them before cooked, that can lead to stomach upset. I was told they taste a bit like asparagus, so I decided to just toss them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and cook them on the grill, on top of foil – kind of like broiled asparagus, which is my favorite way to prepare it. Although truth be told, if asparagus ceased to exist, I wouldn’t miss it.

For this meal I wanted to cook everything on the grill. Steak is best when grilled, and we had also gotten a beautiful skirt steak from a local farm. I lightly drizzled olive oil on it, and then dressed it up with fresh herbs – cilantro, thyme and basil.

To accompany this meal, I decided to make poutine on the grill, sans gravy, which I guess really makes this potatoes and cheese curds – but it was light and perfect with this menu. I cooked both white potatoes and sweet potatoes on the grill in foil packets for about 40 minutes. For the last 15 minutes,I opened the packets so the potatoes could brown, and then put the cheese curds on top, turned off the grill and closed the grill lid for about 5 minutes.

(Spring Foods Dinner)

It was a wonderful evening outside listening to the night sounds – frogs, birds and eventually even a guitar and…you guessed it, a fiddle.