We don’t make Indian food as often as we’d like, so for this installment of “Cooking with kid” I decided to address my goals of culinary diversity by tackling koftas (spiced meatballs). Although ground meat has already been featured in Burgers and Tacos, it’s a practical way to use less-than-ideal cuts, and we always enjoy the results. This meal ended up being the most stressful to prepare of the entire series to date, but the end result was nice. Perhaps I’ll tell the full story in a different post, but for now here’s the simple version.
Natural events, November 2015
November was mostly warm with a couple of wet spells, including a short-lived first snowfall. At times we wonder if we’ll run out of new & interesting discoveries or photographic opportunities for these monthly posts, but so far there’s always plenty to find or learn on our walks around the farm’s landscape. Read on for November’s spiders, fungi, parasitic plants, and more.
Natural events, October 2015
October was warm and dry, continuing in the pattern of September. The first two-thirds of the month brought 0.11″ of rain, and given the last rainfall of > 0.5″ had been all the way back on September 12, things were getting pretty crackly. Thankfully, the last nine days of the month gave us about an inch and a third with a gentle, soaking delivery. We technically saw the first frost crystals on October 3, but a killing frost was slower to come. The morning of October 15th brought the first crop-damaging frost (on a night that had been forecast above 45 until a few hours before dark). The next two nights, which had been forecast as clear and in the 30s, didn’t yield a single ice crystal, and instead we woke to dense cloud cover. Such is weather.
Sumac is about as reliable as it gets in offering a nice show of fall color. Fragrant Sumac on the right. Some of our maples put on nice shows of color, as well. Continue reading
Cooking with kid: Hocks in groundnut stew
This is the time of year to use meat as a condiment to vegetables. Produce is abundant, but as cooler weather sets in, hearty soups and stews begin to to return to our menu. So, for my most recent “cooking with kid” meal, I decided to use one of Eric’s favorite tricks: add meat to a beloved vegetarian recipe. (By the way, check out our new “Cooking with Kid” index page to learn more about this Joanna-cooks-a-goat project.)
Natural events, September 2015
September was warm and dry, with less than an inch of rain for the entire month. The contrast with our deluge-inal spring is startling; it will seem very strange if this long dry spell ends up drawing the annual precipitation average back toward “normal”. One thing about Missouri weather, it’s a textbook lesson in the danger of relying on averages for accurate information about a system.
Monarch caterpillars were present, though we saw fewer caterpillars than last year, in spite of allowing lots of Common Milkweed to grow for their benefit. I (Joanna) found the Hermit Sphinx (Sphinx eremitus) caterpillar on wild bergamot while pulling snakeroot in a goat paddock. The black spot did an impressively good job of making this look like an empty, hollowed out shell of plant or animal origin, perhaps a form of mimicry to convince predators that there’s nothing to eat here. It almost tricked me, but a second look convinced me this was a caterpillar worth bringing back to the house for ID and a picture. Since it eats mint family plants, I decided to keep it in a jar with some munchies from the herb garden. Turns out that the specimen had been visited by a parasitoid wasp, perhaps Cotesia congregata? Interestingly, the Hermit Sphinx’s relatives, the tomato-eating Tobacco Hornworms have been minimally present this year. Perhaps we can thank parasitoids for that?
When habitat and harvest collide
This post also appeared in the October 2015 issue of the Columbia Audubon Society’s newsletter, The Chat, which Eric edits.
Red-bellied Woodpeckers used to be one of our favorite local birds. Colorful and flamboyant, they enliven our feeder in winter and patrol our woods in summer. We love how they chase Blue Jays away from the birdseed yet leave smaller birds alone, how they sidle along our porch railing with heads cocked, how they stash food in the woods through a conveyor belt of looping flights. Their brash and distinctive calls enrich our soundscape year-round. While conducting timber stand improvements in our woods, we’ve left abundant dead snags to support the woodpecker population. Then came the great fruit massacre of 2015.
Sorghum syrup, part of Missouri’s agricultural and culinary heritage
The September issue of Feast Magazine includes a feature story by Eric, which begins
What would you do without sugar?
This was a very real question for Missourians and their neighbors in the late 1850s. In the years leading up to the Civil War, Northerners became increasingly concerned with finding a source of domestic sweetener that wasn’t linked to the South, where sugar was produced and shipped up the Mississippi River. The answer was found in a new use for an old crop: sorghum syrup. You can still taste this piece of regional history today through the work of sorghum syrup producers across the Midwest, including Sandhill Farm, a certified organic producer in northeastern Missouri.
You can read the full story online in two formats, either as straight web text or the full magazine layout (with photography). This was a fun story to work on, highlighting a common ingredient in our kitchen and a farm we like and respect.
This story was born from a conversation with Stan Hildebrand of Sandhill Farm, who told us that they produced 500-800 gallons of sorghum syrup per year, and sold it as far away as Asia. On one hand, that’s a victory for international trade, but on the other, it struck us as odd that a local producer would NEED to market their product that far away. After all, our own two-person household uses a gallon of sorghum per year, and if even a fraction of Columbia residents (much less St Louis or Missouri residents) matched even a fraction of our consumption, Sandhill would sell out locally in no time. Sorghum syrup could, should, be a bigger part of the local-foods picture than it is. So we set out to learn more, and tell the story of this unique product and its Missouri roots. Continue reading
Natural events, August 2015
The remarkable thing about August was the pleasant stretch of weather late in the month, with highs not exceeding the low 80s and lows not exceeding the mid 60s. We enjoyed many lovely August dinners on the porch, amazed by the comfortable temperature and low humidity. Typically, Missouri August comes with amazing food and miserable weather, so to enjoy eating August food in pleasant weather outdoors was a delight! Precipitation moderated in August (in comparison to the soggy months preceding it), though the month managed to give us both too little and too much rain. The bulk of the month’s rain came in a 2.89” one-morning dump, with the rest of the month contributing only about three-quarters of an inch, for a grand total of 3.67”. All in all, not a bad month, given what this state is capable of serving up. We haven’t hit 100ºF all summer (and we’re hoping it stays that way).
Which of these things is not like the others? The answer is below the break (along with many more photos).
Buy Chert Hollow garlic at World Harvest in 2015!
This year, our diverse culinary garlic will primarily be available at World Harvest Foods, an international grocery in south Columbia, near the intersection of Nifong and Providence. Look for the display opposite the cheese counter. We grow a dozen varieties, of which about 5 will be available at any given time; stop by regularly to experience the full diversity! If you are interested in a bulk purchase, please contact us directly and we’ll put together your order for pickup at the store.
2015 varieties and ID codes
Each garlic head sold at World Harvest is labeled with an ID code to help you keep track of varieties at home. The table below relates these codes to the variety and its culinary properties.
| Hardneck Varieties | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Robust & exciting flavors. Heads structured with cloves arranged around a stiff central stalk; cloves generally large and fairly uniform in size. | |||
| Variety | ID code | Approx clove count | Description |
| Bogatyr | BOGA | 3-7 | A good general-purpose garlic. Hot raw flavor, rich when roasted or cooked. |
| Brickey | BRIC | 8-10 | A family heirloom from a market customer. Delicious sautéd, spicy hot when raw. |
| Georgian Crystal | CRYST | 5-7 | A really nice roaster, sweet & rich. Intense raw flavor. Big cloves for the garlic lover. |
| Georgian Fire | FIRE | 4-6 | A delight for lovers of spicy food. Adds a zing to salsa or gazpacho. |
| German Extra Hardy | GEXH | 3-6 | Excellent for roasting, as the cloves produce a complex sweet flavor under high heat. |
| Russian Giant | RUGI | 4-6 | Large cloves are a garlic lover’s delight. Carries some spicy heat raw or roasted. |
| Samarkand | SAMAR | 9-11 | Peppery and distinct, both sweet and hot. Medium cloves for all-purpose use. |
| Shvelisi | SHV | 10-12 | A “just-right” general-purpose garlic, with moderate clove size and quantity. |
| Siberian | SIBER | 4-8 | Robust and rich when cooked, an ideal garlic to feature. Our favorite. |
| Softneck Varieties | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic garlic flavor. Heads structured with layers of cloves, which vary in size within a head but are generally smaller than hardnecks. | |||
| Variety | ID code | Approx clove count | Description |
| Chet’s Italian Red | CHET | 12-18 | Rich flavor when used raw; ideal for dressings and pesto. |
| Lorz Italian | LORZ | 9-16 | Some zing when raw, but minimal aftertaste. A Slow Food Ark of Taste variety. |
| Tochliavri | TOCH | 10-18 | Recommended for all uses. Spiciest of the softnecks. Excellent roasted, sweet & well rounded. |
Advice on choosing garlic varieties:
Any garlic variety can be used in any culinary situation calling for garlic. No need to fret, for example, if you bought a variety suggested for roasting if you decide to saute; just use it! Chances are the results will be delicious.
However, matching the right garlic to the right use can yield some spectacular results. Here’s a cheat sheet of some of our favorites:
- Favorite roasters: Georgian Crystal, Tochliavri, German Extra Hardy
- Favorite sauteed: Siberian is a standout, but all are excellent
- Favorite raw, if minimal aftertaste desired: any of the softnecks, but especially Chet’s Italian Red
- Favorite raw, if spicy flavors desired (in salsa, for example): Georgian Fire, Russian Giant
Most importantly, have fun exploring the possibilities!
More information
- Our growing methods: We strive for the highest standards of ecological & sustainable farming. Please see the farm management and/or crop management pages to learn more about our principles and practices.
- General information about our garlic crop, with handling and storage info.
- 2010 Columbia Tribune article about our garlic, A Heady Challenge, by Marcia Vanderlip
- A few simple garlic recipes, including our favorite way to turn Siberian into a knock-your-socks-off garlic butter
Cooking with kid: Ground-meat burgers & tacos
This installment of “cooking with kid” features American-style comfort food, but with the unusual-in-America comfort of knowing the source of the ground meat down to the name of the animal. That animal is Crystal, the goat kid featured in this learning-to-cook-goat blog series.