William Coperthwaite: “A Handmade Life”
Posted: July 10, 2011 Filed under: Art & Healing, Gallery - Quotes, What is an Art Farm Leave a comment“I want to live in a society where people are intoxicated with the joy of making things.”
Rosemary & Garlic Sea Salts
Posted: July 8, 2011 Filed under: In the Kitchen 3 CommentsA very gifted culinary friend introduced us to Celtic Sea Salts a while back in Chicago. We’ve been big fans ever since. She made several varieties but the rosemary/garlic blend (we call rosie salts) is what we use regularly. Once per year I purchase a 5 lb bag of the coarse, light grey salt from http://www.celticseasalt.com – about $21.
As needed, I put 3 or so cups of salt in a food processor with 5-6 fresh rosemary sprigs (leaves picked from stem) and 4-5 garlic cloves, smashed with skins removed. Pulse but do not blend.
You then spread the contents onto a cookie/baking sheet and let air dry overnight as the mixture will be damp. You will pulse salt mixture again the next day, several times. Let air dry a second night.
According to the source, you may store it in a ceramic or glass container with a loose lid to allow the salts to breathe. I have a small jar right by stove always filled and ready for cooking. We use these salts for garlic bread, salads, and in general cooking. The flavor is superb.
John Medina’s “Brain Rules for Baby”
Posted: July 6, 2011 Filed under: Chronicles of a First Time Parent, Gallery - Quotes 2 CommentsThe brain’s day job is not for learning
First, I need to correct a misconception. Many well-meaning moms and dads think their child’s brain is interested in learning. That is not accurate. The brain is not interested in learning. The brain is interested in surviving. Every ability in our intellectual tool kit was engineered to escape extinction. Learning only exists to serve the requirements of this primal goal. It is a happy coincidence that our intellectual tools can do double duty in the classroom, conferring on us the ability to create spreadsheets and speak French. But that’s not the brain’s day job. That is an incidental byproduct of a much deeper force: the gnawing, clawing desire to live to the next day. We do not survive so that we can learn. We learn so that we can survive.
This overarching goal predicts many things, and here’s the most important: If you want a well-educated child, you must create an environment of safety. When the brain’s safety needs are met, it will allow its neurons to moonlight in algebra classes. When safety needs are not met, algebra goes out the window.
Anger Management
Posted: July 5, 2011 Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent 1 CommentWell, at 2 years old, there seems to be something of a daily roller-coaster ride between cuddling in mama’s arms, and running as fast as she can towards the busy street (despite my screams for her to stop). Have mercy. I’ve come to expect the split personality – “no I don’t want that, take it away” followed immediately by “it’s MINE, you cannot have it”.
She is a passionate one, bellowing out her thoughts with such fervor, someone in earshot might think she’s protesting. Her fury has the same intensity. We’ve started a mini collection of drums and noise makers to go to when we “need to bang” on something. When she is having a moment, I suggest she choose a drum to “bang on until you feel better”. I act it out sporting a mad face. Between my looking silly impersonating a mad toddler, her feelings being acknowledged, and an outlet being offered, the drums haven’t been needed to diffuse the situation (yet).
4th of July with Pastrami Smoked Turkey
Posted: July 4, 2011 Filed under: In the Kitchen 3 Comments“Turkey?!?” I gasped when the idea of a 4 July BBQ was tossed around. But as a practical matter it made sense. With the fields beginning to show abundance, this is a time to make space in the chest freezer. Farmer Martha had a bird stashed away and so why not?
And then again, Benjamin Franklin had argued for the turkey as the symbol of the United States: “For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. …For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true and original Native of America…He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a Red Coat on.”
So maybe turkey really does belong on the 4 July menu, but roasting was out of the question. This is grill season. Smoking the whole bird seemed a savory solution and – never having tried anything like this before – I adapted two recipes from Steven Raichlen’s “Barbecue! Bible”.
Not being sure the weight of the bird, I mixed up a pastrami dry rub by taking:
6 Tablespoons coriander seeds
Toast them and then grind coarsely in a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder, and combine with:
6 Tablespoons cracked black peppercorns
12 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon yellow mustard seeds, toasted
1 Tablespoon ground ancho chili
1/2 Cup kosher salt
1/2 Cup brown sugar
1/2 Cup sweet paprika
2 Tablespoons ground ginger
Mix the ingredients well, and then cover the bird completely, including beneath the skin on the breast, with the rub. Wrap the turkey and let it cure for 24 hours.
Before smoking, mix up an injector sauce using:
1/2 Cup chicken broth
3 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Teaspoon of the pastrami rub
Put everything in a sauce pan and heat just until the butter melts. Then using a kitchen syringe, inject the turkey at the drumsticks, thighs, and three or four places on both breasts.
I don’t have a smoker, and in a fit of frugality years ago I purchased the 18.5″ Weber Grill instead of the larger model. Today, the size really made a problem as the bird just was too big for the indirect smoking set-up. The bird was too close to the coals
and the top wouldn’t fit. So I tried to adapt with foil.
The apple wood smoke was intense and the air flow too great. The temperature roared. After 45 minutes I opened the lid and the side closest to the flames was getting charred. Egads! I finished it in the oven at 350 degrees for about one and one-half hours, until the internal temp was 175.
I am hoping that the injector sauce helped keep it from drying out but I won’t know how it all turned out until the picnic.
Strawberry Ice Cream
Posted: July 4, 2011 Filed under: Child Centered Activities, In the Kitchen 1 Comment
This recipe comes from Alice Waters’ “The Art of Simple Food” and makes about 1 quart. In a small bowl, whisk briefly, just enough to break up:
3 egg yolks
Measure into a heavy-bottomed pot:
3/4 Cup half-and-half
1/2 Cup sugar
Heat the half-and-half over a medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. When hot, whisk a little of the half-and-half into the egg yolks – this is called “tempering” the eggs – and then whisk the warmed yolks back into the hot mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Do not let it boil. Remove from the heat (you can strain it, but I never bother) and add:
3/4 Cup heavy cream
Cover the mixture and chill. Meanwhile, wash, dry and hull:
3 Cups fresh picked strawberries
Mash, and then add:
1/4 Cup sugar
A dash of lemon juice
Let the strawberries macerate in their own juices, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has melted. Add the berries to the cold cream mixture and flavor with:
A couple drop of pure vanilla extract
A pinch of salt
Chill thoroughly, then freeze in an ice-cream maker.
This recipe will work with any berries, and you could add or substitute peaches and nectarines.
“…the softly focused gaze of Pissarro…”
Posted: July 2, 2011 Filed under: Art & Healing, Farming off the Farm, What is an Art Farm 1 Comment
Late June
Posted: June 29, 2011 Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Farming off the Farm, Little Green Thumbs 1 Comment
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy: “A Figure of Speech or a Figure of Thought?”
Posted: June 27, 2011 Filed under: Gallery - Quotes, What is an Art Farm Leave a comment“Plato, for example, remarks that ‘the expert, who is intent upon the best when he speaks, will surely not speak at random, but with an end in view; he is just like all those other artists, the painters, builders, ship-wrights, etc.’ and again, ‘the productions of all arts are kinds of poetry, and their craftsmen are all poets,’ in the broad sense of the word. ‘Demiurge’ (demiourgos) and ‘technician’ (technitnes) are the ordinary Greek words for ‘artist’ (artifex), and under these headings Plato includes not only poets, painters, and musicians, but also archers, weavers, embroiderers, potters, carpenters, sculptors, farmers, doctors, hunters, and above all those whose art is government, only making a distinction between creation (demiourgia) and mere labor (cheirourgia), art (techne) and artless industry (atechnos tribe). All these artists, insofar as they are musical and therefore wise and good, and insofar as they are in possession of the art (evtechnos, cf. entheos) and governed by it, are infallible. The primary meaning of the word sophia, ‘wisdom’ is that of ‘skill,’ just as Sanskrit kausalam is ‘skill’ of any kind, whether in making, doing, or knowing.”
Wicked and Wonderful Strawberry Pie
Posted: June 26, 2011 Filed under: Child Centered Activities, In the Kitchen 1 Comment
Back in the corn-belt, the measure of a strong crop was corn “knee high by fourth of July.” In these parts, folks measure and mark by the ripening fruits and this is the time for strawberries. June’s full moon was, after all, the Strawberry Moon. Along the coast, the berries have come ripe and the fields opened this morning. By chance, we were the first ones to arrive and picked about 6 quarts. E ate handfuls and was very happy.
About one hour inland the berries were ripe almost two weeks ago. Farmer Martha has gone picking several times. On one trip she hauled out 48 pounds. By her permission, we are posting this recipe for a quick and easy summer treat. The strawberry filling comes from her memory, while the nut crust comes from Martha Stewart’s “Pies & Tarts.”
For the crust, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, butter a pie pan and into a food processor put:
5 oz toasted almonds
Pulse until they are finely chopped, but not to the point of almond butter. Then combine in a bowl:
2T + 2t granulated sugar
1.5 Cup All Purpose Flour
Add the flour-sugar mixture into the processor and pulse, and then pour into the processor, through the top:
½ Cup unsalted butter, melted
Pulse just until the dough comes together. Then roll out the dough, nip and tuck to fit into the buttered pan, and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let it cool.
Into the cooled crust slice lots of berries, until the crust is about, say, one-half full. If you like, add in some ripe mangoes. In the processor, combine and macerate:
a good handful or two or three of fresh strawberries,
1/3 Cup granulated sugar (or to taste)
3T corn starch
Put all this into a saucepan and heat until it thickens, stirring often. Pour the macerated berries over the sliced berries and chill.
an Art Farm 