Author Emily Brooks will be signing copies of Connecticut Farmer & Feast at the Winter Farmers' Market at the Norfield Grange in Weston on Saturday, December 17.

Cookbooks are always welcome gifts for the home cook, providing us with new inspiration when we get stuck in a rut. With more home cooks choosing to eat local-in-season, a cookbook that serves up recipes using native ingredients is sure to be a winner. Celery root remoulade, rosemary turnip ratatouille (recipe below!), baked pumpkin, winter day rice, apple soup and carrot bran muffins are a few of the seasonal recipes that author Emily Brooks offers readers in her cookbook, Connecticut Farmer & Feast.

Author Emily Brooks will be signing copies of Connecticut Farmer & Feast at The Winter Farmers Market at Norfield Grange this Saturday, December 17, from 11 am until 1 pm. The Norfield Grange is located at12 Good Hill Road in Weston and there is plenty of free parking.

Connecticut Farmer & Feast introduces readers to Connecticut’s agricultural bounty and those passionate individuals – Connecticut’s farmers and producers – who toil endlessly to bring us our food. The book tells the stories of more than forty of Connecticut’s devoted farmers and artisan food crafters who proudly produce Connecticut’s vegetables, fruits, meats, cheeses, and other food items found at farm stands, farmers’ markets, and top restaurants throughout the Nutmeg State. Emily Brooks tells their stories in elegantly written profiles, showcasing lives rich in both food and history. In addition she includes up to three individually created recipes to feature each producer’s specialty foods. The result is a heartfelt invitation into the lives of Connecticut farmers and the foods they produce through a labor of love.

At the Winter Farmers’ Market at Norfield Grange, families can defy winter while purchasing farm fresh fruits and vegetables, honey, maple syrup, goats milk cheese and yogurt, handmade soap and body products, natural beef and pork, wild-caught seafood, eggs, baked goods, prepared foods, and more. Visit the Crafters’ Corner, and check some items off your last-minute holiday shopping list with beautiful hand-knit hats, hair accessories, boxwood wreaths and trees, live orchids, custom drawings and paintings, and much more. The Market is open every Saturday, from 10am to 2pm (closed Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve) at the Norfield Grange, 12 Good Hill Road in Weston.

About the Author

Emily Brooks is the founder of Edibles Advocate Alliance (ediblesadvocatealliance.org) and the founder and director of Bridges Healthy Cooking School. Brooks nurtures social entrepreneurs who support local agriculture, sustainable farming, and sustainable food systems as a business consultant. She is the creator of Buy Local Connecticut and is a regular local food and sustainability expert on National Public Radio. She lives in Woodbury, Connecticut.

This healthy and flavorful recipe from Connecticut Farmer & Feast was reprinted with permission and is an excellent make-ahead dish when you’re expecting a crowd. It’s also a smart way to prepare several days’ worth of vegetables for a busy family.

Joe Gazy’s Rosemary Turnip Ratatouille

From Gazy Brothers Farm, Oxford, CT

Serves 6-8

Marinade

• 1/3 cup minced rosemary leaves

• 3/4 teaspoon dried lavender

• 3 cloves garlic, sliced

• 2 teaspoons orange zest

• 2 teaspoons sea salt

• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

• 3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 3 Tablespoons fresh orange juice

Vegetables

• 3 pounds carrots, halved and sliced

• 3 pounds turnips, diced to the same size as the carrots

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a mortar and pestle or in a blender, blend the rosemary, lavender, garlic, orange zest, and sea salt to a coarse paste. Transfer to a small bowl and blend in the olive oil, lemon juice, and orange juice.

2. Pour the mixture over carrots and turnips that have been placed in large (16×9 inches) roasting or casserole dish. Toss to combine. (Note: Lots of air space is necessary for browning, so if the vegetables are piled too high and too deep, use two roasting or casserole dishes as needed, baking them together. Use sheet trays if desired.

3. Bake for at least 2 hours, stirring occasionally to rotate the turnips and to ensure browning on all sides. Roast until carrots and turnips have released their juices and are brown and starting to crisp. Serve warm.

Note: This marinade is brilliant with lamb, duck, pork, quail, turkey, or beef. Will marinate up to 3 pounds of food. Marinate meat for at least 12 hours and up to 3 days.

YWCA Greenwich invites you to spend an evening with Terry Walters, a sustainable food advocate, nutritionist and author of Clean Food and Clean Start. Guests will enjoy tastings prepared by Chef Andy Burke from recipes in Walters’ cookbooks. Local, organic ingredients for this menu are provided by Mike’s Organic Delivery. The talk and tasting will be followed by a Q&A session, book sale and signing, and opportunity to visit with the exhibitors.

Date: Thursday, October 20

Time: 6:00-8:00 pm

Tickets: $25 per person

RSVP: Tiffany at YWCA at 203-869-6501, ext. 106 or www.ywcagreenwich.org/terrywalters

By Analiese Paik

Butcher Paul Nessel separates the ham, which is the same cut used to make prosciutto, Italy's famous dry cured ham.

On Saturday, September 17, Ryan Fibiger and Paul Nessel of Saugatuck Craft Butchery deftly butchered a half pig in front of a crowd of very curious adults and children as part of the Slice of Saugatuck Festival. This public demonstration underscored their commitment to transparency in every facet of the business, but also provided the community with a rare glimpse into the origins of our food and the anatomy of a pig. Butt, picnic, tenderloin, loin, hocks, ribs, bacon and even skin for chicharrones were sliced (or sawed in one case), by Nessel before being discussed, wrapped, and stored by the duo in the cooler for the raffle.

Ryan Fibiger shows the crowd the loin, which can be further cut into chops.

In a few weeks, the butcher shop will open and Westporters and real food eaters from miles around will have ample opportunity to watch as steer, pigs, lambs, chickens and maybe even a goat or two enter as whole animals and exit as a premium cuts for the dinner table and lesser-known cut you’ll eventually learn to love. These are whole animal butchers after all, so expect the unexpected but also look forward to discovering pantry staples you’ll covet including lard and stock. Fibiger sang the virtues of leaf lard for home-made pie crusts and smoked hocks for soups.

Each cut was wrapped and stored in the cooler until the 3:00 raffle. Copies of "The Butcher's Guide to Well-Raised Meat" were another raffle prize.

The pig butchered that day was from Joseph Milo Farm in New York, a small family farm that uses sustainable farming practices, raises its livestock on pasture, and never feeds their animals genetically modified feed. After being humanely slaughtered, it was sold whole to the butchers, making it a total of 3 hands that touched the animal before it was raffled off to a few lucky Slice of Saugatuck attendees. Fibiger pointed out that this is the backstory of all the meat and poultry they sell. It’s a simple, old-fashioned one that fell out of favor with the advent of industrial meat production, but is being resurrected thanks to demand by educated and motivated consumers.

Saugatuck Craft Butchery
575 Riverside Ave

Westport, CT 06880

Email: info@craftbutchery.com

Website: http://craftbutchery.com/home/

Treat Farm hosts an antique tractor and farm equipment display by Hayland Farm.

The third annual Orange Open Farms Day will be held on Saturday, August 27th.  The public is invited to visit four farms in Orange between 12:00 and 4:30 pm that day — Buttermilk Lane, Field View Farm, Maple View Farm and Treat Farm.  The purpose of this free ”open house” is to promote local farming and showcase the variety of products and services these farms have to offer the community.  Guests who visit all four locations during the course of the day will be entered into a raffle for a prize contributed by the farms.

Ongoing Orange Open Farms Day Activities:

Buttermilk Lane: farm animal petting zoo, child-friendly vegetable garden

Buttermilk Lane Farm

Field View Farm: ice cream/farm store, visit with the animals in the barnyard

Maple View Farm: visit the petting zoo and horses, play on the playground

Treat Farm: antique tractor & farm equipment display by Hayland Farm, vegetables & flowers for sale, self-guided farm walk including corn maze

Special Events:

4:30 pm: End your day at Field View Farm, where the Hine family has invited the public to observe as they milk their cows.

1:30-3:00 pm: Jeff Wilson of Treat Farm is featured in Emily Brooks’ new book, Connecticut Farmer & Feast.  Author EmilyBrooks will be having a book signing at Treat Farm during Open Farms Day from 1-3 pm. Watch the video to get a quick peek inside this 90-acre family farm that grows vegetables and has a small corn maze for guests to enjoy.

Follow the Orange Open Farms Day event on Facebook (www.facebook.com/orangectfarms) and Twitter @orangectfarms.

More details, including a schedule of events for the day, a map of participating farms, and a Farm Pass (needed to participate in the raffle), can be found by visiting www.orangectfarms.com.

Meet and greet Connecticut Farmer & Feast author Emily Brooks at Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe on Thursday, July 28, at 6:30 pm. Kindly RSVP for this free event by calling 203-292-8190.

In Connecticut Farmer & Feast, author Emily Brooks beautifully profiles the work of close to 50 Connecticut farmers, sharing stories of multi-generational farm families alongside those of first-time farmers. Eggs, milk, cheeses, honey, fruit, produce, meats and poultry from these farms become the ingredients for more than 85 seasonal recipes. Readers will be inspired to shop at farm stands and farmers’ markets in order to savor the fleeting flavors of the summer harvest. Connecticut Farmer & Feast showcases the bounty of all four seasons, perhaps giving us that extra push we need to visit winter farmers’ markets and nourish ourselves with locally grown squash, hardy winter greens, and root vegetables during late fall and winter.

Official Book Trailer:

Fairfield County Farms profiled in Connecticut Farmer & Feast:

• Ambler Farm, Wilton
• Hillard Bloom Shelfish, Norwalk
• Holbrook Farm, Bethel
• Millstone Farm, Wilton
• Sherwood Farm, Easton
• Shortt’s Farm & Garden Center, Sandy Hook
• Sport Hill Farm, Easton

Connecticut Farmer & Feast

A Video Interview with Farmer Patti Popp of Sport Hill Farm in Easton

Event venue: Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe, 39 Unquowa Road,  Fairfield CT 06824. Parking is available on Sanford Street.

By Analiese Paik

The following is a transcript of A Dozen Ways to Eat Green, a talk I was to deliver today at the Gathering of the Vibes as a guest speaker on the Green Vibes Stage at 1:30. Unfortunately, due to the heat advisory, I won’t be presenting today. A Dozen Ways to Eat Green is perfect for any eater – those just learning how unsustainable our food system is and are looking for ways to reduce their “foodprint” and those already making sustainable choices, yet are looking to do more. The choices we make three times a day have a profound impact on our health and the environment, so eat smart and eat green!

• Reduce your food waste.
  

By some estimates 40 percent of the food grown in the country is wasted. That figure includes everything from food left to rot in farmers’ fields, to imperfect food throw out by stores and restaurants, to the leftovers you scrape into your garbage pail after dinner. Here are three ways to cut down on your food waste:

1. Buy less to avoid buying more than you need.
2. Make “Use it or Freeze It” your mantra and use your freezer to save food for another day.
3. Declare “Clean Out the Refrigerator Night” once a week to eat all the leftovers before they go bad.

• Compost your raw food waste.

Start a compost pile right in your backyard. When you throw food waste into the garbage, it winds up in a landfill where it cannot decompose. Instead, it emits methane gas, a greenhouse gas, which contributes to climate change. Collect your egg shells, coffee grinds, vegetable peels, corn cobs and husks in a kitchen composting pail and toss them in the compost pile with grass clippings and leaves. Over a few months’ time, they’ll decompose with the help of worms and turn into compost – gardener’s gold. You won’t need to buy compost when you start your organic garden! Visit Rodale’s web site for some expert composting advice.

• Eat less meat.

Practice Meatless Mondays by eating no meat one day a week. The Environmental Working Group has just released The Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health, a handy online guide to improving your health and the health of the environment through sustainable meat choices. It includes a recommendation to practice Meatless Mondays, citing this quote from real food activist and author Michael Pollan.

“The single most important thing any of us can do to shrink the environmental footprint of our eating is to cut back on our meat eating — doing so has a bigger impact than eating local or organic.” -Michael Pollan, Author and food activist

When you do eat meat, avoid factory farmed beef, poultry, pork and dairy; choose grass-fed, pasture-raised, and organic meat and dairy instead. Approximately 99 percent of the meat sold in restaurants and grocers if from factory farms (CAFOs) where animals are raised in close confinement, fed an unnatural diet of genetically modified (GM) corn and soy, and are routinely treated with antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. Raising animals in this manner might produce cheap meat for the consumer, but what’s rung up at the register doesn’t factor in the true cost to the environment and human health. Don’t fall victim to the illusion of cheap food. The real cost of producing and eating food from the industrial food chain will have to be paid for by generations to come.

Many Connecticut farmers raise livestock on pasture and sell it at farmers’ markets throughout the state, plus a sustainable butcher shop will be opening in Westport soon.

Learn more by about the impact of factory farming on the climate and human health from EWG’s The Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health.

• Choose organic food over conventionally grown.

Choose organic whenever possible to protect the environment and human health. Organic foods and wines are cultivated without the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides so they do not deplete the soil, damage the environment or pose threats to human health. CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) programs are the most economical way to buy fresh, local, organic produce. CSA programs offer consumers a seasonal share in a single farm’s harvest for a fixed price. Each season I publish a guide to CSAs offered by local farms, and each year the list grows.

Processed foods, even those labeled “natural”, commonly contain ingredients made from the “Big Four” genetically-modified (GM) food crops: soybeans, corn, canola and cottonseed, yet they carry no labels declaring “contains GMOs.” The bottle of canola oil innocently sitting in your pantry is likely GM, since eighty percent of the canola grown in the US is genetically modified. Many well-respected members of the sustainable food, agriculture, and science communities believe that GMOs pose threats to human and animal health, the environment, and biodiversity. Choose organic or Non-GMO Project Verified processed foods to avoid GMOs. To learn more about GMOs, please read While You Were Eating on this blog.

• Eat locally with the seasons.

Fresh, local food is delicious, nutritious and in abundant supply at farm stands, farmers’ markets and through CSAs. Buy locally grown food in season to reduce the “food miles” your food has to travel to reach your plate and cut down on food packaging. Fewer food miles translate into reduced use of fossil fuels and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Less packaging means you create less waste. You’ll also be providing a living wage to our farmers, ensuring farmland preservation and our ability to feed ourselves, and encouraging the cultivation of a diversity of species, including heritage and heirloom varietals. Eating locally with the seasons is an investment in the future of our local foodshed.

• Grow some of your own food.

Seeds are very inexpensive, and if you make your own compost, you’ll likely wind up saving money by growing your own. A fantastic source of inspiration and advice for home gardeners is Kitchen Gardeners International, the group behind the campaign to replant a kitchen garden at the White House. Look for gardening workshops and classes, includes those we post, to help you get started. Comstock Ferre & Co., a 200-year-old seed company in Wethersfield, CT, offers a wide variety of heirloom seeds via their catalog, online store, an retail location. Read more about Comstock here.

• Choose organic, Fair Trade coffee, tea, chocolate and sugar.

Fair Trade means farmers are compensated fairly for their work, no child labor is used, and farms employ sustainable growing practices. Organic farming practices don’t rely on synthetic fertilizer and never use synthetic pesticides, herbicides and insecticides. When we choose organic, Fair Trade products, we are rewarding farmers for treating their workers fairly and using sustainable growing practices. These products may cost a little more, but the payoff is priceless.

• Choose sustainable seafood.

Choose sustainable seafood. Download the Sustainable Seafood Guide or iphone app from Seafood Watch and consult it at the fish counter or when ordering in a restaurant. Commit to limiting your consumption to sustainable seafood choices under the Best Choices and Good Alternatives categories. Whenever you eat a sustainable seafood meal, enter it into the app to share your resources with other users.  Whole Foods Markets stores have started using a seafood labeling system for their wild caught products based on Seafood Watch’s ratings to help the consumer at point of purchase. You can learn all about sustainable seafood in an interactive exhibit called Go Fish! at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk.  It’s perfect for adults and children.

• Stop buying disposable bottled water.

Disposable bottled water is one or the most unsustainable beverage choices you can make. Plastic water bottles are made from petroleum and are designed to be used once, resulting in a product that is thousands of times more expensive than tap water and no safer, according to a report by Food & Water Watch. Most of these bottles are not recycled and wind up in landfills and our oceans where they  leach harmful chemicals into the ground and water. There is a floating garbage patch twice the size of Texas in the North Atlantic that is poisoning sea life. Please carry a thermos filled with filtered tap water instead.

• Learn to cook!

Cooking is becoming a lost art. Take some cooking classes and buy a cookbook that teaches you how to cook with the seasons including Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets, Emily Brooks’ Connecticut Farmer & Feast, Michel Nischan’s Sustainably Delicious: Making the World a Better Place One Recipe at a Time, and Harvest to Heat: Cooking with America’s Best Farmers, Chefs and Artisans by Darryl Estrine and Kelly Kochendorfer.

• Start or volunteer at a school or community garden.

School and community gardens are thriving across the country including urban, rooftop, vertical, aquaponic, and hydroponic varieties. Public gardens are revitalizing urban communities and providing food deserts with a source of fresh local food. Creating community while helping to feed yourself and others more sustainably, especially children, is rewarding and laying the groundwork for a more sustainable food future.

• Don’t wait for someone else to fix it.

The food choices you make all day, every day, have small but important impacts. Eat Smart, Eat Green.

Recommended Reading:

• Tomatoland
• Eating Animals
• Righteous Pork Chop
• Diet for a Hot Planet
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
• Omnivore’s Dilemma (and young reader’s version)

Movies:

• Food, Inc.
• FRESH
• Nourish
  
• The Future of Food
• The World According to Monsanto

Bonus Green Food Tips:

• Bring your own bags wherever you shop. Try keeping a soft, collapsible bag in your pocketbook so you always have one handy.

• Reuse grocery store vegetable bags as liners for your kitchen compost pail. You’ll save money on composting supplies and give the bags and second life.

• Use recycled products. Choose from post-consumer recycled aluminum foil and paper products (napkins & paper towels), phosphate-free dish-washing liquid and dishwasher soap, and biodegradable garbage bags.

• Recycle #5 containers and cork at Whole Foods Markets instead of throwing them in the garbage. Whole Foods collects #5s and cork for recycling (feel free to pop in just to drop off your recycling). Recycling costs you nothing but is a huge gift to the environment.

• Use reusable bags instead of single use plastic lunch and snack bags. There are many on the market and they have become so mainstream that they are now available at Linens ‘n Things. Lunch Skins are eco-chic, reusable lunch and snack bags that are cute enough to give as a gift.
  

• Choose organic and biodynamic wines. These so called “natural” wines rely on low impact methods for solving common problems that plague vineyards. For instance, birds of prey are brought in to control for varmints. Organic wines are cultivated without the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides so they do not deplete the soil, damage the environment or pose threats to human health.

VERIA^™ TV AND WHOLE FOODS MARKET^® PARTNER TO “UNLOCK THE TASTE OF SUMMER”

Promotion To Feature Cooking Tour With Star Chef Andrea Beaman

Chef Andrea Beaman is the host of Veria's award-winning cooking show, "Fed Up!"

“Fed Up!” Chef Andrea Beaman will demonstrate the use of seasonal ingredients for summer food preparation at 6 pm in the Educational Kitchen at Whole Foods Market Fairfield on June 28

Veria^™ TV, the leading wellness and healthy lifestyle television network, is partnering with Whole Foods Market’s North Atlantic and Northeast Regions^® to create a two-week June/July promotion titled “Unlock The Taste of Summer.”

Veria and its interactive website, Veria.com, will encourage the online submission of nutritious, easy-to-prepare recipes to win a shopping spree at Whole Foods Market.  All entrants will receive a free e-mail cookbook of summer dishes by the network’s star chef Andrea Beaman, host of Veria’s award-winning cooking show, “Fed Up!” and coupons for a bottle of Honest Tea.

In addition, Veria and Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market are teaming for an ambitious Northeast/North Atlantic promotion involving 20 stores, with chef Beaman making six in-store cooking appearances in Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.  Beaman will demonstrate the use of seasonal ingredients for summer food preparation.

“Veria TV welcomes this new and rewarding partnership with Whole Foods Market, the finest purveyor of all-natural food and products,” says Hal Rosenberg, General Manager of Veria TV.  “Our affiliation with Whole Foods Market re-affirms Veria’s leadership in the growing wellness lifestyle phenomenon in America.”

aaBeaman is a natural foods chef dedicated to alternative healing and green sustainable living.  She is a natural nutritionist and holistic health counselor accredited with the American Association of Drugless Practitioners and has been the guiding force of “Fed Up!” since it premiered on Veria in 2007.  Beaman also is the author of her self-published book, “The Whole Truth,” and her follow-up cookbook, “The Whole Truth Eating and Recipe Guide.”

The national promotion and Beaman’s Whole Foods Market tour will kick off June 20 in Providence, R.I.; followed by stops in New York City (June 21); Cambridge, Mass. (June 25); Glastonbury, Conn. (June 26), Hartford, Conn. (June 27); and Fairfield, Conn. (June 28).

About Veria^™ Media

Veria is the leading media company devoted to showcasing wellness programming and related content in the United States.  Spearheaded by its Veria TV and Veria.com distribution platforms, the privately held company, based in New York City, offers the world’s largest line-up of new first-run, original content connecting viewers to the benefits and joys of living a healthy lifestyle.  The network is primarily available on DISH Network (Channel 218), Verizon FiOS (Channel 162) and Frontier Communications (Channel 162).  Veria.com complements the network by extending the Veria philosophy through online recipes and nutrition, holistic health tips, body-mind conditioning and all-natural products.  As a company, Veria Media is wholly dedicated to the quality and vitality of life.

On Saturday, June 25, Analiese Paik of the Fairfield Green Food Guide made a guest appearance on WTNH’s Good Morning Connecticut Show at 7:49 am to discuss how to capture the fleeting flavors of summer and the newly released cookbook, Connecticut Farmer and Feast.

Watch the video:

Connecticut farm-fresh produce and fruit is filling farm stands, farmers’ markets, green markets, and farm-to-door retailers. It’s the perfect time to enjoy the fleeting flavors of late spring and early summer. Strawberries, rhubarb and garlic scapes are abundant now, but will soon be gone. Here are a few ways to prepare and preserve these local, seasonal favorites.

Strawberries and rhubarb are a magical combination any way you serve them.

Strawberry-rhubarb compote is simple to prepare and delicious hot or cold.

Strawberries and rhubarb are a magical fruit and vegetable combination. Pies, crumbles, compotes and spicy chutneys are favorite ways to enjoy rhubarb. This strawberry-rhubarb compote (fruit cooked in syrup) is prepared very simply and quickly by cooking the rhubarb, which is quite tough and tannic raw, with some sugar, water, and a vanilla bean until tender, about 5-10 minutes minutes, then adding sliced strawberries at the end and cooking them only slightly. The result is a delicious, flavorful, and fragrant strawberry-rhubarb sauce that can be served hot or cold as a pancake, waffle or ice cream topping, spread on toast, or stirred into plain yogurt. It would make a wonderful shortcake topping, no cream necessary. (recipe below)

Fort Hill Farm's organic strawberries were my choice for making this no-cook compote. Some of the berries are so petite they don't need to be sliced.

Millix Farm's spiked strawberry compote contains triple sec and an orange juice reduction.

If you’re looking for a more sophisticated strawberry compote appropriate for adult guests, think of adding some flavored liqueur instead of sugar. Millix Farm Strawberry Compote is a recipe from the just released cookbook Connecticut Farmer and Feast. Author Emily Brooks visited almost 50 CT farms and has profiled each farmer, sharing stories of multi-generational farm families alongside those of first-time farmers. More than 85 seasonal recipes showcase each farm’s products, and in the case of Millix Farm in Willington, it’s strawberries, which are at their peak right now.

In Millix Farm Strawberry Compote Emily Brooks uses Grand Marnier and orange juice, a classic mixed drink combination, to create a decadent dessert appropriate for guests. You can also use triple sec, Frangelico or Amaretto. For the best result, use fresh-squeezed oranges to make the orange sauce. Connecticut Farmer and Feast is available wherever books are sold. We’re giving away a copy of Connecticut Farmer & Feast in our Facebook sweepstakes! Anyone 21 and older who lives in CT can enter the sweepstakes. Click on the Sweepstakes banner at the top of this page to enter or visit the Sweepstakes tab on our Facebook page. Click here to view upcoming book signing events, including several in Fairfield County.

Garlic scapes bundled, just as I received them in my Sport Hill Farm CSA share

Garlic scape pesto is a seasonal treat that can be easily frozen and defrosted for late summer use with tomatoes or a winter pick me up.

Garlic scapes are only available for a very short season and it’s a mistake to pass them over. The scape is the stalk of hard neck garlic and is harvested while young, curly, and flexible so it’s still edible. When the scape straightens, it becomes tough and inedible. Get them now before the season ends! Garlic scapes taste like garlic, but are much milder and add a unique flavor to stir fries, eggs, and soups. I love to buy a large quantity (or just take the plentiful ones in my CSA) and make garlic scape pesto in the food processor, substituting them for basil in a traditional pesto Genovese recipe (recipe below). I then freeze some of it for the winter as a pick me up. The pesto is great simply spread on some good bread, like the #1 artisan bread in Connecticut, The Flaxette from Fairfield Bread Company. It’s a great addition to sandwiches or tossed with pasta. Farmer Patti Popp at Sport Hill Farm in Easton, another farmer profiled in Connecticut Farmer & Feast, likes to add a spoonful or two to yogurt to makes a fresh dip.

Recipes:

Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote

This recipe requires a little time to clean, hull and slice the strawberries and chop the rhubarb. After that, it’s done in 10 minutes. The magical combination of strawberry and rhubarb is one not to miss!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups diced rhubarb , 1/4-1/2 inch dice (4 large or 6 small stalks) (remove all leaves, damaged skin and any soft parts)
• 4 cups hulled and sliced strawberries (keep whole if they’re very small) (about 3 pints)
• 1/2 cup cane sugar
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 vanilla bean (substitute 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract)

Serves a crowd!

Preparation:

Garlic Scape Pesto

Fabulous bounty from Connecticut farms is now available at farm stands, farmers’ markets, green markets, and farm-to-door retailers. It’s the perfect time to celebrate with a new cookbook and we’re giving one away in our Facebook sweepstakes!

In Connecticut Farmer & Feast, author Emily Brooks beautifully profiles the work of close to 50 Connecticut farmers, sharing stories of multi-generational farm families alongside those of first-time farmers. Eggs, milk, cheeses, honey, fruit, produce, meats and poultry from these farms become the ingredients for more than 85 seasonal recipes. Readers will be inspired to shop at farm stands and farmers’ markets in order to savor the fleeting flavors of the summer harvest. Connecticut Farmer & Feast showcases the bounty of all four seasons, perhaps giving us that extra push we need to visit winter farmers’ markets and nourish ourselves with locally grown squash, hardy winter greens, and root vegetables during late fall and winter.

Official Book Trailer:

Fairfield County Farms profiled in Connecticut Farmer & Feast:

• Ambler Farm, Wilton
• Hillard Bloom Shelfish, Norwalk
• Holbrook Farm, Bethel
• Millstone Farm, Wilton
• Sherwood Farm, Easton
• Shortt’s Farm & Garden Center, Sandy Hook
• Sport Hill Farm, Easton

Connecticut Farmer & Feast

A Video Interview with Farmer Patti Popp of Sport Hill Farm in Easton

Published in 2011 by Globe Pequot Press.

You'll leave this demo inspired and empowered to do your own preserving at home.

Always wanted to learn how to can? Now is your chance to master the boiling water method which allows seasonal eaters to preserve their own jams, jellies, salsas, relishes, tomatoes, fruit and more. Join Sherri Brooks Vinton, author of “Put ‘em Up!”, at the gorgeous Sport Hill Farm for one of the four classes she will be offering there on July 30 (rain date July 31) at 9, 11, 1, and 3:00 pm. Come solo or bring some friends.

A light lunch will be served by Cecily Gans of The Main Course Catering, who will also be on hand to serve up and answer your questions about cooking with local foods. $50 per person includes one class, lunch, a small sample to take home and a gorgeous farm view. Class size will be small so sign up today to get a spot. You can send payment to, or drop it off at, Sport Hill Farm or register online using Brown Paper Tickets.

Sport Hill Farm, 596 Sport Hill Road, Easton, CT  06612

Sat. 7/30/11 : A CANNING PARTY (rain date July 31)

Class times: 9, 11, 1, and 3:00 pm

Fee: $50 per person which includes a chance to win a subscription to Edible Nutmeg, the event co-sponsor.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sherri Brooks Vinton in the founder of FarmFriendly LLC, which helps eaters, restaurateurs, and organizations support local agriculture. She is a former governor of Slow Food USA and a member of the Chef’s Collaborative, Women’s Chefs and Restaurateurs, Northeast Organic Farmers Association, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She is the author of The Real Food Revival and lives in Easton, Connecticut. Her Website is sherribrooksvinton.com

ABOUT THE BOOK

Put ‘em Up! A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook, from Drying and Freezing to Canning and Pickling

Put ‘em Up! by Sherri Brooks Vinton moves canning out of Grandma’s kitchen and into the twenty-first century, with recipes for Szechuan Beans, Sweet Pepper Jam, and Berry Bourbon. With detailed information for the most timid beginner, Vinton takes the fear out of canning, and all that encompasses the preserving method. Her step-by-step illustrations and helpful graphics keep first-timers on track.