Remember that pie I mentioned?  It was delicious, and beautiful, but mostly delicious.

Strawberry Rhubarb Heaven

Pitas

So here are some photos of my latest adventures in breadmaking.  We've been craving some good flatbread; Seth's been making a lot of hummus and other dips.  I found a sourdough based pita recipe online here (been reading a lot of bread blogs as of late) and it came out pretty much perfectly.  Since I usually make quick no knead loaves, kneading this dough was a nice change of pace and really gratifying.  I got this lovely, silky dough that I let rest for just a few hours and then cut into pita-sized pieces.

...rolled them out

...tossed them in a hot oven

And watched them puff up, the most fun part.

Which means they're ready to be pulled out, where they deflate into a disk of delicious, pillowy goodness.

Easier than pie!  

(which, incidentally, I am going to bake right now!  First of the season: strawberry rhubarb.  pictures to follow?)

What's Sarah been up to, anyway?

Guest Blogger!

I've been (erratically) putting my digital camera to work and finally got around to uploading the contents.
Andy and I are still in the process of getting settled on the farm, but we're well into the growing season and have been learning a lot. On the farm there are three greenhouses and a large open field, which we planted only very recently, plus a perennial bed and raspberry bushes!
So far we've mostly just been harvesting salads and kale, in greenhouses or sturdy overwintered varieties. Recently I've found some asparagus growing. Not enough to sell, just enough to snack on in the garden. You have to plant the roots of asparagus at least three years before you want to harvest it, and then it will grow more abundant every season. This is only it's second year, so it is impressive to see it at all. Turns out, raw asparagus is really amazing (at least when pick moments before consumption)!

Each intern-of-sorts is responsible for one of the greenhouses. We all do the work more or less together, but are each responsible for organizing and overseeing a greenhouse.

Some baby arugula in Andy's greenhouse. It looks great here, but now it's too warm
for the arugula to be inside, so just the other day we pulled out what was once
this lovely looking bed. Soon we'll plant green beans and hot peppers here!

More Garden Pictures!
Here's rows of greens poking out I think this was early March?

Around the same time, cauliflower and other type starts
 that we just recently planted outside

Spinach. Currently at least 65% of my diet. 

Inside my greenhouse. You can see here the young lettuce coming up;
along the wall is garlic!

Tying strings for sugar snap peas.
This is maybe the thing I am most excited to eat.

I thought I was tying more strings, but it turned out I was a marionette.

We have also been working on building a cabin to live in for the summer. I did most of the drafting and designing, with help from Fred. We only have the base finished so far, so it's difficult to imagine what it will look like. It's going to be a 10 x 12 foot cabin, with a sleeping loft and 4 windows- one in the loft, two on the back wall and one by the front door. I'm designing a simple water catchment system so that we can have a hand washing sink inside, but otherwise there are very few amenities.

The location is right on the tree line by the property. It is only a short walk from the main house, but completely out of sight. The field is only ever used by hunters, apparently this area is one of the best known elk territories around. I've been daydreaming about waking up to a herd of elk surrounding the cabin!

This is the spot! I've staked out the perimeter and dug holes for the "foundation"

Now that the holes have been filled with gravel, we're compressing it best we can- with a scrap of 4x4
This is also a great shot of our view, facing the same direction that the front porch/loft window will face.

During the tedious job of leveling the building piers. The buckets are full of extra gravel to be put under the low blocks. 

The first real picture of the base! It's built out of old 6x6 beams taken from the reconstruction of the barn. We did mortise and tenon joints to attach the 4x6 beams running width-wise, which we just affixed in place before this was taken. For a bit of extra stability, we're bracing the corners. You can see Fred here setting one in. 

Andy proudly demonstrating the stability of the finished piece!

It might seem a bit like overkill, with the mortise and tenon joints and all, but the idea behind this is that we'll build it in place, but are leaving the possibility for the cabin to be moved later. The long 6x6 beams running the length are just close enough together to fit on a typical trailer. This means that the whole thing has to be a bit stronger than your traditional house. 
We've since set in the floor joists and are about the lay plywood on top of that. Once we do, we'll have a nice, flat 10x12 platform to build the walls on and everything should start falling into place rather quickly. 

I've also been doing an exciting amount of food-making out here. It's been a fun challenge to find new ways to preserve all of the excess we grow. Last week I made a huge batch of kale chips, which have become the new favorite farm snack. 
To make them, I made a thick dressing out of olive oil, lemon juice, tahini, miso, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, and sunflower seeds (that I blended into  a butter-like paste), tossed a gigantic bowl of torn-up kale in it, and then dehydrated it in my snazzy dehydrator. 
We've also been growing tons of spinach. In my greenhouse alone, we've been harvesting about 60 pounds a week, with the total for the farm somewhere around 100 per week. We've been eating as much as possible, and selling what we can, but it has still left us with a decent amount of excess. So I made spanikopita! The recipe I used was especially nice, as it utilized the green onions, parsley, and fresh dill that we have scattered around the garden as well, plus eggs from our chickens. 
If you find yourself wanting to make some of the same, here's what I did:

Saute until soft-

-1/2 cup olive oil
-4 large onions, diced
-2 bunches green onions, diced (incl. 4 inches green)

Add to wilt, cook until no longer "wet"-

-2.5 lbs. fresh spinach, chopped

Let cool, then mix in-

-1/2 cup parsley, chopped
-1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
-1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
-Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
-1/2 lb. feta cheese, crumbled
-4 eggs, lightly beaten
-1/2 lb. ricotta or cottage cheese

 I made a bunch of folded triangles with phyllo dough, but you can also make it as a casserole by topping the mix with several sheets of oiled phyllo. 

These turned out so well, that at the last minute Fred decided to include them in a wedding dinner we catered on Friday. I also made the desserts for this event, which I (of course) failed to photograph, but suffice to say they were a total hit! 

We'll have several catering events throughout the summer, which I am excited to be working on. There's also going to be a wedding on the farm in August, and I'm working on getting my foot in the door to do the cake, perhaps. 

I've been having a lot of fun being involved in the full life cycle of my food. It's been very gratifying planting the seeds, tending to the plants, and ultimately making delicious creations with the product. One of my goals for the summer is to create a comprehensive processing cookbook that utilizes would-be waste on the farm. Documenting is all part of the process. 

Perhaps I'll become a regular presence on here?