a chicken.  And make some sweet potato-apple casserole.  I was ready to post this yesterday, but our server was down – sorry folks!

So, here we go!  How fun.  I’d like to talk about ingredients a lot more soon, but let me say briefly that the quality of your chicken (and your sweet potatoes and apples) is the most important thing here.  If you don’t already buy local, pasture-raised meat, today is the day to try it.  You’re going to get at least two meals (probably three) out of this bird, and it is more than worth it.  Meat raised humanely and with proper feed tastes amazing, is better for your body, and better for the planet.  What more could you want?

Ingredients needed:

1 roasting chicken

2 large or 4 smaller sweet potatoes

2 large apples

2 tbsp butter

salt

To begin – turn your oven on to 450 degrees F.  (If your chicken was frozen, put it in the fridge to defrost the night before, or a warm water bath in your sink if you’re crunched for time).  I learned to make a perfect roast chicken from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon, and I of course recommend learning it from the master himself. While the oven is getting truly hot,  scrub your sweet potatoes and prick them a few times with a fork, then place on a baking sheet.  (No foil necessary.  Also, if your sweet potatoes are truly fat, you may want to cut them in half so they cook faster.)  Pop the sweet potato pan in the oven and set a 30 minute timer.

After fifteen minutes, take out your chicken from the fridge.  Check for any neck or giblets in the body cavity (if there are any, save them for your chicken stock – yum!), rinse the bird, and let dry a minute (Keller dries it off with paper towels I think, but I don’t use paper towels).  Or goal here is a chicken with awesomely crispy skin – so no basting or butter.  Place a cast iron pan big enough to comfortably fit your chicken into the oven to warm up.  Cast iron is my favorite for all kinds of cooking, and it works very well for this.

Deviating from Keller’s instructions, I almost always add some vegetables to the pan to roast in the chicken juices (I really really recommend this – you have a main and a side dish in one, and cooking in the juices is magical).  I add any combination of root veggies (chopped into pieces), greens such as kale, onions (quartered), shallots (quartered), and garlic (whole cloves with the skin on).  Here, I have kale, carrots, onion, and turnips.  Place your vegetables(if desired)  in the bottom of the pan (no oil or fat necessary), then sit your chicken on top, and salt.  Keller describes this as “raining” salt, instead of rubbing it into the skin.  I use about 1 tsp sea salt on each side (top and bottom), and I like the rain method – pinch the salt in your fingers, hold your hand about 6 inches above the bird, and drizzle the salt while moving your hand back and forth.  Voila.  You should still see some salt crystals even after the chicken is baked.

(yes, there is one little feather sticking out!  funny how noticeable it is in these photos, but I didn’t notice it while I was cooking)

You’re ready to go in the oven!  I like to cook my chicken breast side down, and I don’t bother tying the legs together (I don’t find that it makes a difference in cooking).  Pop that bird in, and take out your sweet potatoes (they will be partly baked, but not totally squishy).  Set a 45 minute timer to check the chicken.  (Depending on how big your chicken is, it will take between 30 minutes for a very small [5 pound] bird, to 1 hour or more for a big bird [8 pounds or bigger].  One tool I really recommend is a probe thermometer that you can insert into meat – this will instantly turn you into a much better meat cook!  For chicken, the technical “safe” temperature is 165 degrees F at the deepest part of the chicken – we prefer 175 degrees F, and you should not see any pink juices running out.  Test a few spots to be sure.)

(sadly, this photo in my dim kitchen does not do the golden color justice – you’ll have to see it for yourself!)

While your sweet potatoes cool, cut your apples into quarters, take out the cores, and cut them into fat slices.  Butter a small casserole dish (a medium pot would work, too).  When the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut those into half-inch thick slices.  (I leave the skins on, you can take them off if you like.)  Put one layer of sweet potatoes on the bottom of your pan, sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt.

Top with a layer of apple slices and add a few dots of butter.  Continue until you’ve used up your apples and sweet potatoes, ending with sweet potatoes on top.  Sprinkle on a bit of cinnamon if you like, but please – don’t add sugar!  Or at least, promise to try it first without additional sugar.   This dish really does not need it.  (Total credit for the casserole goes to my mother, by the way – thanks Mom!  I loved this dish as a child and still do – I eat an embarrassing amount of it every time I make it, hot or cold the next day!)  Now, put your casserole into the oven (uncovered is fine), and go relax.  When you check your chicken, take the casserole out, too (test to be sure the sweet potatoes are totally tender).  Bon Appetit!

And don’t forget to save your chicken carcass – every last scrap, and the drippings from the pan, to make some chicken stock.  Put it into the freezer if you don’t have time to do it soon.  Or, like Ella, stand in your kitchen and try to lick every last drop of chicken goodness from the pan.  Clothing optional.  Oh, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post them here, or email me.

A quick note on your oil questions – Canola is a vegetable product, but a new, industrial one.  I use butter always.  I love it, I don’t believe fats are scary, and I can get it locally.  I only use oil in salad dressings, and I use either olive oil (imported, and therefore scarce for us) or nut oils like walnut or almond.  We might get one of these and press our own!  More about canola can be found here, for more on fats being awesome, check out Nicole’s post, or read Nourishing Traditions or In Defense of Food.  Great questions!

Today, I’m so excited to bring you an interview with Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain CSA member and wonderful foodie blogger Elspeth, who can be found at Diary of a Locavore.  Elspeth, you may remember, did a really sweet interview with me last winter when she came out to get her share for her radio show, and her site is a great resource for locavores in the MA area, or anyone looking for delicious seasonal inspiration. As you’ll see from the interview below, she’s definitely a woman after my own foodie heart – take fresh veggies, throw in oven, add salt, and feast – exactly what you’ll find at our house this fall and winter, too!

Welcome Elspeth!  I’ve been dying to make the Butternut Squash Brownies you shared last year ever since I saw the recipe, and I’m really excited that butternut squash season is here at last!  What foods are you most been looking forward to this autumn?

I always look forward to fall, mostly because I feel like it’s the time of year when the biggest diversity of foods are available all at once. I like the fact that in September and October you can still hold on to the last of summer—tomatoes, melons, corn—but start working in cabbages and root vegetables, too. I always get ridiculously excited about celeriac—I am a big fan of celery remoulade—and right now, I’m also pretty into fennel. I love making big batches of roasted root vegetables—this is my go-to dish when it starts to get cold. I take whatever’s in the fridge—maybe fennel and potatoes or butternut squash and beets and celeriac—and toss it with some big chunks of onion and garlic, a drizzle of olive oil, and some assorted fresh herbs and salt and pepper and voila! Dinner is on the table.

You’re clearly a very passionate foodie – tell us what led you to becoming a locavore?
I first got into local foods when I was 16. I attended a high school semester program on an organic farm, and part of our schooling was to do chores and help out with the animals and planting. At the start of every meal, someone got up and read a poem or said a blessing, and then announced what on our tables was from the farm. That connection really got to me, and when I graduated from college and started cooking at home, buying locally seemed like one of the biggest things I could do to help out environmentally. For me it was the simplest first step—the only way I could imagine starting to tackle what I see as the huge social and environmental crisis in our country that has arisen from losing our connection with the land and people around us. Food is still my biggest focus, and I believe it’s at the heart of family and community, but I’ve also started branching out and started learning about eco-friendly and locally made make-up, clothing, yarn, etc. I guess for me buying and growing local food feels like the biggest, most crucial step in a life-long learning process centered around trying to recreate sustainability and community.

We’ve joyfully watched the local foods scene explode in the past few years here in Massachusetts.  Local meats, cheeses . . . what’s your biggest challenge as a local eater?  What’s your favorite part?

I think right now dairy is a huge challenge for people looking to eat locally. We get our milk through a raw-milk farm about an hour and a half away, as part of a coop. A different family drives each week to pick up the milk for everyone, and recently we also started getting butter and cream. It works, but it’s totally crazy. I really wish we had the option to buy locally produced raw milk, cream, and butter at the store, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

Grains also used to be a big challenge for us, but thanks to you guys, that’s changing! We still buy all-purpose flour at the store, but otherwise the CSA has more than met our needs. Thank you!

My favorite part of eating locally has always been the vegetables. My husband is sort of puzzled by me as an eater, because although I’ll eat meat, I rarely buy it and hardly ever cook it. He usually organizes the protein department—for me all the beauty and creativity of cooking is in produce. I love the variety and the seasonality of what you find in the markets, and the feeling that you have to use it while it’s here. Baking is another inspiration—there is nothing like a perfect pie, or chewy cookie, or a dense, moist cake.

Tell me a bit about your photos – you take pictures in film, and then do you scan them for the blog?

Almost all of the photos on my blog are taken with either a Minolta Instant Pro polaroid camera with 1200 Spectra film or a Pentax K1000 with 35 mm film. I am head over heels in love with polaroid—the colors, the blur, the perfectly square white frame. The pentax is better for bigger shots, and gives you a lot more freedom. I tend to use that more for long term projects, as I have to drive 20 minutes and wait an hour to get the film developed. The polaroids in combination with my scanner are perfect for daily shots.

One last question – What is your favorite simple, nourishing meal?

I think I’d have to say a salad. My mother has always made what she called “dinner salads”—big bowls of greens topped with all kinds of veggies, crumbled cheese of some sort, homemade croutons, and some kind of meat. We have adopted the tradition and always have some kind of greens either in the garden or from the farmers’ market in the fridge. My favorites are spinach and arugula, and I was pleased to learn the other day that arugula is one of the only greens rich in omega 3 fatty acids—so a good pick. Depending on the season, veggie toppings will be fresh veggies or things we’ve roasted or pickled. For cheese, I love feta but can’t find it locally, but we often use Great Hill blue cheese (made in Marion, MA). I make croutons with herbs, garlic, and olive oil out of stale whole-wheat bread, and we usually try to make one meat or seafood dish a week. Sliced steak or chicken is great as a topping, as are scallops. If we don’t have any meat or fish on hand, olives and eggs make a great addition. For a dressing, we usually just do a simple red wine or balsamic vinaigrette, and that’s it!

Thank you so much for joining us here Elspeth!  Happy Monday everyone, and I’ll see you soon to roast a simple, beautiful chicken.

So grateful to all of you who came out to our Open Farm Day last Sunday – we had an amazing time hosting more than 50 people!!  Kids got to thresh beans with our awesome farm partner Seth, we disced the field with Cole our draft horse, showed our grain trials, and shared lots of yummy local foods of course!  A huge thank you to NE Sustainable Agricultural Research & Education, whose generous grant to us this year made the Open Farm Day possible, and helps to bring this space here, too!

(last photo by CSA member Bernard Brennan – thanks Bernard!)

Friends, I’m going to take a break for a few days – this week has been extra challenging with my little one, and I need all the spare moments I can get.  Gratitude to you for understanding, and I’m so excited to be back soon and work in the kitchen with you!

Blessings on your weekend.

I never, ever used to plan my menus before last year.  I was way too creative, too talented, too cool to be hemmed in by something as fuddy duddy as a menu plan.  Right?

Before having a baby, this non-plan worked out sort of well.  Running to the grocery store to get ingredients in the midst of preparing a meal, eating at whatever hour food was ready – these weren’t a huge deal.  No one cried or threw tantrums (or if we did, they’ve thankfully been lost in memory).  Everything changed for me in the kitchen after I had Ella.  I did not have enough spare brain to create a dinner plan a la minute.  I had a baby who hated the car with a passion, so forget about driving to the store (not to mention that we had become passionate environmentalists – the gas!).  We were local food advocates with CSA shares and a garden, so trying to prepare to use that week’s vegetables was important.  Menu planning was begging for me to give it a chance, but I still resisted (I am very, very stubborn, what can I say?) until I saw Meg’s post. A creative person using a set menu?  The same dishes over and over?  It opened up the door for me, and I stuck a toe through, then jumped.

As you can see, my menu is not as beautiful as Meg’s.  I make one each week, on Sunday night – mine has to change a bit, because the veggies in the garden change, the veggies in our share with The Kitchen Garden change, and the meat that comes in our share from Chestnut Farms change.  I am considering a more set meal rotation this winter, when our root veggie share starts, and I do know pretty much what each week will bring, at least in vegetables. (Also, now that I’ve been doing this almost a year, I’m pretty excited to be able to look back at last year’s menus for inspiration!)

I am now a menu planning lover.  This saves my life (sanity), again and again.  I write down the meals in this little book, and it sits on my kitchen counter.  Each night I (hopefully) check it, to see if I need to soak beans or grains, or put meat in the fridge to defrost.  When I know what I’m making, that’s one last question nagging at the back of my mind all day (and one less last-minute panic attack).  I can start in the morning if I need to (or want to) and do a little at a time – chop an extra onion at breakfast, start the crock pot at snack time, etc . . .

So – before we jump into making chicken stock, bread, and more, make a plan for two days next week.  You (my meat-eating readers) are going to roast a chicken, and the next day (or next cooking day) you’re going to make chicken stock and have incredible chicken soup for dinner.  For my vegetarian friends, put a nourishing vegetable soup on your calender.

By the way, there’s menu planning inspiration to be had all over the place.  Also, you can check out this old post on preparing foods ahead, when you have a little one  (or other circumstances) who doesn’t want to give you any time in the kitchen.

Here’s last week’s menu: (I’m in the midst of changing my days a bit, to accomadate more soup, so things are in a bit of flux, you’ll see)

Monday: “Pasta” night – chicken soup with spelt and roasted butternut squash on the side

Tuesday:  Soup with meat -Black Bean soup with Tomatoes and Kale, with a ham hock

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: Casserole – Apple Sweet Potato Casserole, Porkchops, Garlicky Kale

Friday: Shabbat, Pot Roast with lots of veggies, Fried Green Tomatoes, fresh bread

Saturday: Soup, Broccoli Potato Soup

Sunday: pizza with veggies and cheese

We spent yesterday getting ready for our Open Farm Day.  As I get ready to take you on some nourishing culinary adventures, I hope you will take a few moments to get ready, too.  Let me preface this by saying that you may think I’m totally nuts or silly, and that’s ok.  I don’t mind.  This may make sense to you right away, or maybe not for years, or not ever.

Let us start by examining not our cabinets, but our minds and hearts.  We tell ourselves all sorts of stories while we are in the grocery store or stepping in to the kitchen.  Usually these are unconcious and unplanned, and many of them sound like this:

Why do I have to do all the cooking?

I deserve a treat.  I deserve a night off.

I don’t mind cooking, but I don’t want to have to clean up, too.

I’m not a good cook.

I can’t imagine making everything from scratch.  It’s so much faster and cheaper, I’ll just buy it.

I don’t have time for this.

My family won’t eat “healthy” food.

I don’t know what to make and it’s already dinnertime!  Screw it, I’ll just call for pizza.

Do these sound familiar?  They sure sound familiar to me.  Don’t let negative thoughts stop you before you can even start.  When you see these thoughts arising, try to notice them.  They are just thoughts.  Isn’t that funny?  We give our thoughts a lot of power over us and our actions, but they are truly just vapor.  They come and go.  This week, the next time you notice these thoughts arising in you, notice them, let them pass, and then try on their opposite.  See how you feel.

Time is big.  I have plenty of time.

Eating at home is a treat.

Cooking imperfectly still nourishes my family.

Cooking with love cannot be bought.

It is a blessing to nourish my family.

I am so lucky that I get to cook.

Today, I will make one dish from scratch.

The kitchen is the heart of my home, and I deserve a beautiful clean heart and kitchen.

And so, let us begin.  Sometimes, readers or customers will say to us, “You’ve really got it figured out.  You’re there.”  For one thing, this isn’t true.  I still can’t make a decent batch of crackers, and for some reason, I still haven’t tried making my own tortillas (we just do without these two things for now).  More importantly, this is a crippling mid set, to think that someone else “gets it” and you don’t.  We are all on a journey, on a spectrum.  You may be currently eating all pre-prepared food, or you may be working to get those last pre-made items out of your kitchen.  We all want what’s best for our families.  It’s all the same journey.  Don’t stop before you’ve begun.

*What wonderful comments from all of you, dear readers, on yesterday’s posts.  Replies are on the way – I would be delighted to make some chicken stock together, and some bread.  Let’s talk about nourishing your family (and yourself!) without driving yourself nuts.  Let’s walk this path together.*

The best antidote to feeling frightened at the state of the world – feeling gratitude for this world.

Gratitude for an incredible, perfect fall day – crisp, breezy, still warmed by the sun.

Gratitude for the incredible autumnal light, bending low across the skies.

Gratitude for the stars in the black night, and the Milky Way spilling across it all.

Gratitude for family – my dad visiting, my own sweet ones I share my days with.

Gratitude to be here, and be part of it all.  Thinking of this:

Labore est Orare

I have hoped, yes, to become
prayer in work.

Before sunrise,
when the bears and birds
are still sleeping, I do not
say matins.  I light the ovens.
Lord, I do not know
where to find you, or how
to do your work.
I raise these loaves,
I labor, arms laden
with sacks of flour,
for a heart scrubbed clean
of these trespasses.

It has not worked yet.
Perhaps a garden,
rock grit and bloom.
The digging, the heavy
earth, the harvest
like a blessing.

(c) Adrie Lester 2005

What is food?  What is not food?  Do you know the difference?  Do you know what you’re eating?  Do you know what your children are eating?

It’s 8 pm now – our whole family woke up (for no particular reason) at 3:30 am and was at the bakery by 5 am, so I should be sleeping now.  But,  I need to tell you this, because I love you.

Ella and I took a rare trip to Whole Foods today to recycle some CFL lightbulbs (a very lovely service they offer).  While we were there, she (of course) wanted to get some food.  She choose some pineapple chunks and a sushi roll.  I got some soup and I wanted a roll to eat with it.  We went to the bakery section, and I wasn’t expecting to be scared to eat what was there (our Whole Foods does most of their baking on site).  But the ingredient list on the rolls was more than ten ingredients long. When I reached “dough conditioner” I stopped reading, and walked away.

Dough conditioner is not food.  Natural flavoring is not food.

Sodium nitrate, natural stabilizers, pesticides, chemical fertilizer, petroleum, msg, are not food.

Even “foods” like canola oil, corn syrup, soy lecithin, and vitamins are not food.  If you need a factory to produce your “food,” be highly suspicious.  Vegetables grown on soil that is essentially dead, with fertilizer added on top (even if it’s “organic”), are not food in my book.  I’m certainly not the first person to say this, or the most eloquent, but clearly, we desperately still need to be having this conversation.

I forget sometimes what an unusual diet our family eats.  (I even forget sometimes how crucial it is to eat this way – and then, if we eat industrial food more than once or twice a week, we all immediately get sick, and I quickly remember that feeding my family well is my most important job.  Feeding my community well is a very close second.).  I forget sometimes, that other bakeries use things in their bread and pastries like caramel coloring, corny syrup, dough conditioner,  preservatives, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C).  I forget that in grocery stores “whole wheat bread” contains less whole wheat flour than our white loaf.

At Wheatberry, our breads contain four things:  Organic flour (50% whole wheat), sourdough starter (i.e. flour, water, and wild yeasts), water, and salt.  The breads with toppings also have that topping (sesame french has sesame seeds on top).

This is the way humans have always made and eaten bread, which is exactly why we make it that way – it’s what our bodies know how to digest.

It can be very challenging in the context of the bakery, or in our everyday lives, to convey this information sometimes.  How do you tell people what makes your food real food?  People are so inundated by signs that they don’t really read them anymore.  They’re so used to products being greenwashed and prostituted that they (rightly) don’t believe half of what they’re told. We aren’t perfect by any means – we work with local grain growers, but we can’t use all local grains in our products yet.  You’ll never ever see corn syrup in any of our products, but we can’t afford to charge the prices that organic butter would require.  We use 90% local organic vegetables from small, fantastic farmers (including ourselves), but we buy olives from Divina, a big organic company.

This is, I suppose, just a plea to try and know what you’re eating.  If you need more info, I’ll be happy to talk about this more.  There are also many wonderful resources out there: Michael Pollan’s books including In Defense of Food and Food Rules, Terry Walter’s Clean Food, Nina Planck’s Real Food, Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions, the documentary Food Inc, and more.

My favorite rule of thumb (from Pollan) is this, and it will take you far: If your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, don’t eat it. Please, please, read the ingredient list.  Your health is sacred and precious, and while it feels very hard to change at first, it can be done, it is far easier to be truly healthy than sick, and you have only amazing rewards to reap.

We are still learning, too, and we began by growing three tomato plants one summer.  That’s all.

What’s your favorite food rule?

Simple Shawl with undyed wool from Cranberry Moon Farm.

Fan and Feather Shawl from the book Folk Shawls, with luxurious lambs wool from Barberic Farm (handspun “in the grease”).

Two Socks at once from Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks.

.

New to me – embroidery (it will be a clock!) from Meg‘s awesome book Sew Liberated.

Getting all our grain trials labeled and ready for display at our Open Farm Day this Sunday (1-4 pm at 114 Wendell Rd in Shutesbury!).  Who needs a living room, right?

Fall Menu, from last week:

Monday – leftovers

Tuesday – “Pasta” Lasagna, with layered wheatberries, fast tomato sauce, and goat cheese

Wednesday – “Roots and Red” Porkchops, Mashed Potatoes, Baked Beets, Harvest Bread (the Michaelmas Loaf from All Year Round – we made ours with hazelnuts, flax seeds, and apple chunks)

Thursday – Casserole, Cassoulet with Flageolet beans, local sausage, local bacon, carrots from the garden, thyme.

Friday – Shabbat, Roast Chicken with Endive, Polenta, Heirloom Tomato Salad

Saturday – Soup, Rustic Cabbage, Potato, White Bean Soup

Sunday – Grilled Pizza with Veggies (this week was sliced heirloom tomatoes, goat cheese, shiitake mushrooms, and pea shoots)

Bon Appetit everyone!  As you may notice, I’m pretty excited that the cool weather has returned – my menus will shift a bit to reflect that with soup, soup, and more soup!  Yummy.  Soup is, in my humble opinion, a mother’s best friend (ok, everyone‘s best friend).  It can simmer all day, it can use so many ingredients that may need a home, it only tastes better the next day for lunch.  What more could you want from dinner?

(Ella’s finished leaf stencil shirt, as requested)

And speaking of friends – check out these lovely posts on natural healing for your family at home.  Kyrie, Chelsea, and our dear friend and neighbor Sarah all have great tips on some very safe, easy things any of us can do to help our families at home as cold and flu season begins.

One of my favorite easy tools is to add astragalus root and nettles to soups or stews, and let them simmer their goodness right into the broth.  (Note: don’t use astragalus if you or a family member already has a fever, as it is very warming.)  Also, we *love* slippery elm balls at our house – the best soother for sore throats ever.  Take slippery elm powder and add just enough honey to make a paste – roll into balls, and dry in a low oven (200 degrees) if you want them firmer for storage.  Use as needed for scratchy/irritated throats and coughs.

Good health to you all!