Author Archives: Sarah

A Week of Chicken Dinners

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Our whole Cornish Cross chickens are delicious and big.  I am a huge advocate of leftovers especially in the last few weeks of my pregnancy and probably the first few weeks of new parenthood.  It’s nice to have already prepared meals that just need to be reheated.  But it’s even nicer to have a variety.  Most of these recipes can be found on the recipe page, just use the search box at the top of the page.

Chicken is so versatile, and for just two people a 6 lb bird goes a long way.  Here’s what we did with one bird over 2 weeks.

Meal One:  Defrosted using water bath method.  Cut off breast meat, not including tenders, and made Chicken Pad Thai, enough for dinner and lunch for two people.  Refrigerated the rest of the whole raw bird.

Meal Two:  Roasted Chicken, served with salad and mashed potatoes.  Tom split it up the back so it would cook faster, but it didn’t.

Meal Two point one:  After dinner, we picked the meat off the bone and added the bone with meat we couldn’t get off, and skin and 8 cups of water in the crock pot.  We set it to high and turned it down to low just before bed.  This made stock overnight for future meals.  In the morning, we strain the bones out and put the stock into glass Mason jars with lids and rings, and let it cool before refrigeration.  Stock will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Meal Three:  Chicken Fried Rice.  Using some of the leftover meat, Tom whipped this up.  Enough for dinner and lunch for two.

Meal Four:  Cajun Red Beans and Rice with Chicken.  Using one jar of the stock and some of the remaining chicken, Tom made enough for dinner, and a few lunches.

Meal Five:  Chicken Pizza.  We made spinach garlic pizzas and put chicken on about 1/4 of the 2 pizzas.  This leaves enough leftovers for a few extra meals beyond dinner.

Meal Six:  Chilaquiles, a thick stew of tomato sauce with Mexican spices and chicken served over tortilla chips.  Tom used the rest of the chicken plus 1 cup of stock.  It made enough for dinner plus lunch for two

Meal Seven:  Butternut Squash Soup.  Made with the rest of the chicken stock, Tom counts this as a chicken meal.  We serve it with sautéed greens and grilled cheese typically.

Lamb Burgers

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Tom recently cleaned one of our 2011 lambs (accidental death).  We got around 20 pounds of bone-in meat, such as legs, shoulder, ribs etc.  And another 2 lbs of ground meat which we seasoned.  We cut the meat into small cubes, seasoned it, and let it sit in the fridge overnight.  Then we put it through our meat grinder twice.  From there you can patty and freeze it, which we did with some, or fry it in a skillet.  I served it on top of plain english muffins (see my english muffin recipe and omit raisins), with tzatziki.  Tom says it tasted just like Gyro meat, or Shawarma.

  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 pounds ground lamb
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
  • 1 teaspoon ground dried rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon ground dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1-2 teaspoons sea salt

For tzatziki, I simply peel and seed one medium cucumber, dice and mix with 2 teaspoons of salt and a tablespoon of minced onion.  Let it sit for 5 minutes then squeeze all the *liquid from the cucumbers.  Combine the cucumbers with about 1 cup of yogurt and add a dash of cayenne pepper and cumin, or Tabasco brand hot sauce.

*reserve the liquid and use it to flavor foods.

English Muffins

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Raisin English MuffinsRaisin English Muffin with Butter

We all associate certain foods with memories.  Around winter time/the holidays, my favorite foods are white grapefruit, the family frosted sugar cookies, and raisin english muffins.  My mom for at least one winter of my life, I think year 11, purchased what felt like an endless supply of raisin english muffins and I decided that was my food of choice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I remember curling up on the sofa, it’s snowing, I’m enjoying a buttery muffin, and watching the Rankin/Bass production of Rudolph, probably chasing the muffin with a grapefruit.  Since going gluten free (Food For Life makes a GF raisin english muffin), I haven’t had much of a chance to eat those types of foods.  Refusing to pay nearly a dollar per muffin, I decided to make these at home.  I modified this recipe from The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1935.

1 cup of bread flour
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 scant Tablespoon of instant-rise yeast

Mix together in large mixing bowl or kitchen aid mixer bowl.

1/2 cup scalded milk
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

In a Pyrex 2 cup, scald the milk in the microwave.  Add the cup of water, salt and sugar, stir.  Combine with flour/yeast mixture, beat well.  Let rise to double in bulk, about 30-35 minutes.  Add:

3 Tablespoons of Canola (or other mild flavored) oil
1 cup of bread flour
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of raisins (optional)

Let your kitchen aid knead the dough thoroughly, 5-10 minutes, till the raisins start falling out of the dough.  Let rise till double, another 30 minutes.

The key to a good rise is to boil a pot of water on the stove while the dough is kneading, transfer the covered dough, and the pot of water to your oven.

Sprinkle a work surface with cornmeal and roll out dough till 3/4 inch thick.  Cut out rounds with a cutter, or a clean can from your recycling bin.

Heat a large heavy bottom skillet over medium heat.  Butter well, and fry muffins in pan for 15 minutes, turning several times during cooking.  You want to bake them, but not severely brown the muffins.  If your muffins are getting too brown, turn them more frequently, turn down the heat, or transfer them to the oven at 375 degrees F. for the remaining cook time.  The slower you cook them the fewer the nooks and crannies, but they still taste just as good.  Makes 16.  I like to then toast mine on the top and smother in salted butter.  My mom likes hers with butter cinnamon and sugar.

Easy as Pie-Crust

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I have never been good at making pie crust.  I just don’t have the patience to cut in butter to flour for a really flaky crust.  And I just can’t use hydrogenated oil, no Crisco for me.  Nor do I wish to use lard, unless it were from my own pigs.

But in one of the last issues of Cook’s Country I came across a pie crust recipe that makes a delicious crust good for savory and sweet pies.

1/2 cup sour cream, chilled
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
12 T. unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and chilled

Combine sour cream and egg in bowl.  Process flour and salt in food processor until combined.  Add butter and pulse until only pea size pieces remain, 6-10 pulses.  Add half of sour cream mixture and pulse until combined, 6 pulses.  Add remaining sour cream mixture and pulse until dough begins to form, 6-10 pulses.
Transfer mixture to a lightly floured counter and knead briefly until dough comes together.  Divide dough in half and form each half into 4-inch disk.  Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.
Remove 1 dough disk from refrigerator and let sit for 10 minutes.  Working on lightly floured surface, roll into 12 inch round and transfer to 9 inch pie plate leaving 1/2 inch overhang all around.  Repeat with second dough disk and transfer to parchment lined rimmed baking sheet, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

At this point it’s ready to fill any way you like.  I end up baking most pies at 375 degrees F. for about 45 minutes.

Seasonal Quiche

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Quiche; Leek and Goat Cheese

I love eggs!  You may have heard my joke about the reason I started dating Tom was that he had chickens.  There is nothing better to an egg lover than never having to pay for good eggs again.  Quiche is a great way to make eggs.  It’s a good meal for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  My only regret is that for what you get, it uses relatively few eggs.  But like pizza in the summer, Quiche is a great way to use what you have on hand seasonally.

Start by making the crust, see “Easy as Pie-Crust” recipe.  For Quiche you will be using one crust, the recipe makes two.  Either save the other crust, make two Quiche or use the second crust to make something else (see future post Mixed Berry Pie).

Filling:
4 eggs beaten
2 cups milk
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3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk, if you have a small pie plate
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt

Add to this any combination of sauteed vegetables and  1 1/2 cups shredded cheese, see below for a few ideas.

Cheddar and caramelized onions
Leek and Goat Cheese
Spinach, garlic and Feta
Kale, Red onion and Swiss

Make sure the vegetables have cooled from cooking, and you have pulsed till nearly pureed in your food processor before adding the eggs and milk, and stirring in cheese.  Pour into pie shell and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes, till top is gold and bubbly.  Serves 6, if you have a side dish (like salad and fruit), otherwise, it serves 3.

January Newsletter

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Happy New Year 2012!

Here we are going into year 4 of the farm and year 3 of market production.  Our Winter Market, The Douglass Loop Farmers’ Market, starts up again on January 14th, hours are 10-1.  Tom’s headed to the chicken processor again this Tuesday and we’ll have fresh chicken for that week, including at the market.

Tom and Sarah, plus one

Our high tunnel is still producing lettuce, kale, spinach, and a few other goodies.  Look here for some photos of what we’re growing.  Our chickens are still producing plenty of eggs.  But we will be taking a break from our baking until the spring markets start up in April/May.  We will be offering our standard vanilla and lemon pound cakes, and Challah bread by special order.  If you want to place an order for baked goods, call ahead by Wednesday for the Saturday market.  We will also have our crafts, it’s finally getting cold enough for hats.

Tom and I are still encouraging our customers to support our farm by purchasing “Farm Bucks.”  See our page for more information.  Tom has had trouble finding outside employment compatible with his farming hours, and being in the down season we are having a hard time raising the money needed to sustain the farm and get things geared up for the spring.  Farm Bucks are a way we can get that income we need now, and offer discounts and priority status to our valued customers.  We also still have openings for the “work for your share” program.  With a baby coming soon we’ll need all the help we can get on the farm.

Tom was able to butcher one of our 2011 spring lambs and hopefully soon we’ll be able to offer USDA butchered mutton and lamb.  We still have sheep roving for sale for all you spinners and felters.  And we have rams for sale if you are interested in having your own personal lawn mowers and fleece producers.

Due to mild weather, we have already missed some great Maple sap collection.  If you’d like to help out with collection and cooking of sap, just let us know.

Our Garlic Guru, Debra, has her own Facebook page on her endeavor, The Salt River Garlic Company.  Debra and the Toms have put in a lot of time on the fall planting and hope to have a huge early summer production.

Other miscellaneous things for sale include fire wood, laying hens/stew hens, and we are firing up our incubator again if you are interesting in hatching a flock.

We look forward to farming another year, and hope to exceed your expectations on the delicious bounty of our local, fresh, and chemical free food.

Breakfast Casserole (naturally gluten free)

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I made this to take to a holiday brunch recently and it was a huge hit.  I thought with all the other food we’d be bringing back a lot of leftovers, but with only 10 people we managed to nearly eat it all.  It was that good.  I wanted to add peppers to this but was unsure of the crowd.

You could shred the potatoes yourself to avoid all the additives, but you will have to go through the trouble of washing, peeling, shredding (I use a food processor), and then squeezing all the excess liquid out of the potatoes (see my recipe for potato pancakes), and the shreds will turn brown, but this will not be apparent in the finished product.  I do buy block cheese and shred it in my processor to avoid additives, plus it melts better.

2 lb bag of frozen, shredded Hash Browns *GF get generic, Ore Ida has gluten
1 lb of MSG free pork sausage, we buy locally raised
1 large onion, diced
5 large eggs, we use our chicken eggs
1/2 cup of milk
12 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder

Spread hash browns out on a large cookie sheet and place in the oven on warm while you prep the rest.  In a large skillet over medium high heat brown the sausage and onion.  If there is fat, drain it.  If you use lean sausage you will need to add 2 Tbs. canola oil to brown, and use high heat.

Remove potatoes from oven and set temperature to 350 degrees F.  Transfer the thawed potatoes to a greased lasagne baking dish, combine sausage and onion with potatoes.  Add in 1/2 the shredded cheese.  In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, beat in the milk and spices and pour over potato mixture.  Layer the remaining cheese on top and bake, covered with foil, for 35 minutes.  Remove foil and crank up the heat to 375, bake for another 15 minutes (till cheese begins to bubble and brown slightly).  Remove from oven, let stand for 10 minutes, cut and serve.

Rams for Sale 2012

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We currently have 4 Shetland Rams and need to find homes for them, photos taken in September 2011, none of them are registered.

Calvin, a purebred white horned Shetland Ram born 2008. He is a proven Sire and father of Padraig. Asking $200

Gwyn (foreground), born 4/25/11, from a purebred mioget horned Shetland Ewe and a purebred musket horned Shetland ram. Asking $125

Padraig, a purebred white horned Shetland ram born 2010 from a purebred Ag/Emsket polled Shetland Ewe and a purebred white horned Shetland ram. Asking $125

December Newsletter

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Seasons Greetings

As Thanksgiving rolled by Tom extended a very warm thank you to all of our patrons.  RiverSong Farm continues to grow thanks to you.  We are well into the holiday season and the beginning of the shortest days of the year. Not only are we still farming thanks to you, but we still have food available for you.

Snowflake Ornament

 

You can get our farm fresh goodies at the Douglass Loop Farmers’ Market in the Highlands, the Louisville Pick-Up in Indian Hills, or directly from the Farm.  Read more on our “where to buy” page.  Read on to find out about our special 2012 Farm Bucks program, that you can use at any of those locations.

For a limited time during the Holiday Season we are offering a bulk discount on Egg purchases.  Purchase 2 or 3 dozen and get $1 off, purchase 4 dozen and you’ll get the fifth dozen free!  A great deal for all your baking needs.

Customer Appreciation

Send this newsletter on to a friend or two that you think would appreciate tasty, healthy, and humane food.   If your friend makes a purchase and mentions your name, 25% of their total sale of up to $100, will be credited to you as Farm Bucks.

Seed Ordering for 2012

This month we’ll be placing our seed order with FedCo.  If you’d like to hop on to our order, reduce your cost and eliminate shipping fees call Tom, 502-422-2069 or email, tom@riversongfarm.com

What are Farm Bucks?

An exciting endeavor we are offering this year is Farm Bucks.  Unlike a traditional CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), Farm Bucks allow you to choose what you want to eat, how much, and when you want to eat it.

Farm Bucks aren’t limited to Vegetables only, you can redeem for whatever we sell, wherever we sell it:  Vegetables, Eggs, Meat, Honey, Crafts, etc.—You Choose!  Best of all, unlike a traditional CSA, there is no risk.

With Farm Bucks, you are providing the Farm with Community Support by ensuring income particularly needed to maintain during the winter months, and get things ramped up for Spring.

As an incentive, you will get a little extra to spend when you purchase Farm Bucks, $100 gets you a 5% increase, $250 gets you a 7.5% increase, $500 or more gets you a 10% increase.

You can buy in at any point, but we encourage you to buy in before mid-January so we can begin growing according to the demand.  And you’ll have 2 years to spend your Farm Bucks any way you like.  You’ll never have to worry about having enough cash.

If you are looking for a delicious, eco-friendly, ethical present to give for the Holidays why not RiverSong Farm Bucks?

Will Work for Food?

We have 5 positions available to sign up for a worker share, and earn Farm Bucks or on-the-spot seasonal produce that you pick.  Once every week or two you’ll come to the farm and help out for 4-5 hours and in exchange you get Farm Bucks to spend now or later any way you like, or a Share of that weeks harvest.

Final 2 Market Days in December

If you haven’t yet visited the Douglass Loop Farmers’ Market on Saturdays from 10am-2pm in Louisville on Bardstown Rd. between Douglass Blvd. and Woodbourne, you still have 2 Saturdays left to get farm fresh goodies and crafts.  We have eggs and chicken, lettuce, kale, spinach, tatsoi, cabbage leaves, garlic, and dried tomatoes.  We also have our special seasonal breads; Cranberry Pound Cake, and Cinnamon Spice Pound Cake.  And you can order any of our breads in advance, just email or call by Thursday.  Other vendors have potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, breads, and green house goodies.  Come on by and see us.

Don’t forget to check out our craft table, perfect gifts for the perfect person.  Take a peek at our Craft page to see what’s currently for sale.  For all the spinners and knitters out there we have roving from our Shetland Sheep, $25/lb.  And our largest Ram (Big Daddy Calvin) is also for sale.

Calvin on the loose

You Can Buy Any Day of the Week

If Saturdays don’t work for you, you can get what you need at the Louisville Pick-Up, a private residence close to Saint Matthews in Louisville where we keep chicken and eggs for sale.  We also take special orders to be picked up from that location if you have a hankering for salad or pound cake.  Contact Tom (502-422-2069) for the phone number and location.  We also sell directly from the farm.

We look forward to seeing you in December and the New Year.  Thank you for letting us “live the dream.”  Best Wishes for a Happy and Safe Holiday Season,

Sarah

What Sustainable Means to Me

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The word sustainable gets thrown around a lot these days.  Stop for a minute and think about what it really means.  Or better yet, Webster’s defines Sustainable (in regards to agriculture) “of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.”

We do not use chemicals (synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides) on the land.  We rotate our crops.  We let the land rest.  We minimize tilling to prevent erosion.  We use our hands and non-gasoline powered tools whenever possible.  We don’t grow genetically modified plants.  We do plant heirloom varieties.  We diversify what we do.

That pretty much sums up what we believe our food system should be, and in short our mission.  But the drive for this lifestyle goes beyond producing clean food and keeping our environment clean and the land working.

My whole life I have searched for a sense of purpose, a meaning to my life, and an answer to the question how do I fit into the environment?  When I was younger I had a self loathing of being human because in my mind we are the only species who doesn’t have a symbiotic relationship with our environment, we destroy it.  How do I fix this?  How can I bring children into this environment without making it worse?  The answer for me is grow my own food.

With each passing year that I am fortunate enough to farm for a living I get closer to the kind of person I aspire to be living the kind of life I can feel good about.  I am trying my best to be the change I wish to see.

This doesn’t happen overnight, and there is still plenty of work for me to do.  I still shop at large retailers, though the frequency and dollars spent is vastly less.  I minimize “stuff” in my life and reuse what I already own or quite often what others’ have owned.  The objects in my dwelling are 75 percent give-aways or thrift store finds.  My expenditures are usually within two categories:  Food and Gasoline.  I am always working on how to grow all my own food.  This is my goal.  I wish I could use less gasoline.  Living in the city I was most happy working within 2 miles of where I lived.  But now in the country most everything is at least 10 miles away including work, and my family and friends and largest sales markets are 30 miles away.

But each day I recognize how incredibly fortunate I have been and continue to be.  I was born into a world of choice, opportunity, education, and thankfully intelligence.  It’s hard to compare one generation to the next or even one person to the next, we all have our different battles.  None of us are exempt from being somewhere between more or less fortunate than others.  In my attempt to reconcile this I give back to my community when I can, and I don’t envy what others’ have.  I am always thankful and appreciative of the love and support I receive from family, friends, and patrons.

In a turn-around of how I used to feel when I was younger I now continually attempt to grow my ability for compassion, understanding, non-judgment, and fellowship.  I encourage everyone to grasp every opportunity for learning, developing a greater understanding, and being the change.  After all, what’s the point of living if you aren’t living your best life, and every second is a new beginning to change the life you are living.

-Sarah

Chicken and Stuffing take two: Crockpot style

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So, I braised some heritage chicken in our crock pot today.  Defrosted for 1 hour in a cool water bath, then cut the legs and thighs apart, 4 leg quarters total.  I put them in the crock pot with 5 cups of water, a teaspoon of white vinegar, rosemary, salt and pepper.  My goal was to slowly cook the chicken and make stock at the same time.  It was a success.

I braised 3 hours on high, 3 hours on low then I drained the broth, turned the crock pot off and put the lid back on.  I used the broth to make stuffing, and Butternut squash soup.  Unfortunately, there were no drippings to make gravy, this made Tom sad.  I could have made gravy with chicken fat and just broth, but it wouldn’t have been as flavorful.  Personally I like it better without gravy and the stuffing was definitely better with the half whole wheat bread I had made.  The chicken was a bit dry, but hey I boiled it essentially.  Some gravy would have solved that problem.

Stuffing (Dressing) with Chicken and Gravy

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Tom was so excited about this dinner he didn’t hesitate to ‘come and get it’ when he heard the serving dishes clanking.

The hard part about dressing and gravy is that you need chicken stock, which you cannot make until the chicken is roasted and the meat is off the bones. Unfortunately the chicken is never as good as it is hot out of the oven.

Day One I roasted chicken rubbed with salt, pepper, and rosemary on a bed of sweet potatoes and onions, like I do, then I reserved the juices separately, pulled the meat off the bones and began boiling stock (takes about 3-4 hours). You get 1 quart for a 3 lb chicken, luckily that is what I had because that is what I needed.

Day Two: The Dressing

1 loaf of RiverSong Farm Stuffing Bread, wt. 3/4 lb, cubed and dried  (You can dry it in the oven while you are preheating it to 350, and sauteing the onion and celery.  Just don’t forget and let it get too toasty.)

1/4 cup of butter
1 large onion, diced
2 cups of chopped celery
2 cups of chicken stock
2 eggs
leftover dark chicken meat (I had 2-3 cups)

Preheat oven to 350. I dumped the dried bread cubes into a small lasagna pan and stirred the chicken pieces into it. Meanwhile I sauteed over medium high heat the onion in the butter for 5 minutes before adding the celery and sauteing another 1-2 minutes. Then I turned off the heat and added the chicken stock just till it was liquid again (because real chicken stock has gelatin which makes it gel up in the fridge. I dumped the whole skillet over the cubes and tossed. Then I beat the 2 eggs in a separate bowl, poured over the cubes and tossed again. I did not need to add herbs because they are baked into the bread. Tent with foil and bake in the middle or top of the oven for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15. Serve.

During that last 15 minutes make the gravy.

1/4 cup chicken fat (reserved from roasting)
1/4 cup of flour
Pan drippings + enough stock to equal 2 cups
salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet over medium high heat melt chicken fat and fry the flour for at least 1-2 minutes. You are making a roux. The longer you cook the flour in the fat, the more brown and flavorful it gets, but the less thickening power it will have. Using a flat wisk, slowly pour in the hot drippings and stock stirring to incorporate into flour mixture. Let the gravy boil for a couple of minutes, salt and pepper to taste.

I had enough sweet potatoes from the day before leftover to serve with the meal, and as a precursor Tom had sauteed mixed greens (swiss chard, cabbage leaves, kale) and I had a salad.

Serves 4-6

November Newsletter

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Howdy Y’all!

It’s that time of year again.  The markets have closed and it’s time for us to crunch some numbers to figure out whether or not we will make it to the next market season without having to get supplemental jobs.

But farming stops for no one.  Even with outside jobs, we will continue to provide food throughout the winter.

  • We just had an arrival of 300 chicks, some are meat birds to be USDA processed in January and the rest are laying hens ready to lay in April 2012.
  • We are on the hunt for viable Maples to tap for fall as well as spring sap to make syrup.
  • We’ve picked the last of this season’s peppers and put up at least 15 pounds of roasted peppers in the freezer.  Now to make pickled peppers, pepper relish and hot pepper jelly.
  • Tom has re-erected the high tunnel to protect our winter greens and he is still building cold frames for sale and for our own personal use to extend the growing season.
  • Debra and Tom Sr. are in the process of planting garlic for the 2012 harvest.
  • As for me, I’m going to learn how to spin sheep wool into yarn and possibly how to knit.
  • Speaking of the sheep, it’s breeding season!  In about 5 months we’ll have 4 new bouncing lambs and many more fleece for spinning.  And as early as January we may have mutton for sale.

We are still producing vegetables, chicken, eggs, baked goods, crafts, and we have wool for sale.  Feel free to get in touch with us, you can buy directly from the farm, our St. Matthews pick-up location, or we do have one winter market in Louisville, The Douglass Loop Farmers’ Market which runs through December 17, 2011.  http://douglassloopfarmersmarket.com/

 

Crock Pot Chicken

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Cooking in a crock pot is super easy.  I love being able to start something in the morning when I’m full of energy, set it on low, and come home to dinner.

RiverSong Farm offers two types of birds, Cornish Cross (It’s a cross breed not Cornish game hen, we’ve grown some to a cleaned weight of 16 lbs) and Heritage birds, currently Rhode Island Red.

The Cornish Cross is a young, meaty bird typical of what you find in today’s groceries but ours are free range and grown without chemicals.  You can cook these birds any way you like: Grill, Roast, Fry, etc.

The Heritage bird is the kind of bird your grandparents would have eaten.  It is a slower growing and therefore an older bird at cleaning time, it’s less meaty and ours are extremely free-range (they run around a lot) making the meat more firm, but also more flavorful.  Heritage birds are best cooked slow by braising or in a crock pot.

How To Cook A Crock Pot Chicken:

Take your chicken and rinse it off.  If it is whole make sure there is nothing inside the cavity (neck or innards).  Place your chicken in the crock pot and season the way you like, for me that means salt, black pepper, and rosemary.

Cover and set the Crock pot on low for about 8 hours.  Remember every time you open the lid of the crock you need to add 15 minutes onto your cook time.  Ideally you won’t open the lid.

Check the temperature of your chicken in the thickest part of the meat, your thermometer should read 165 degrees and the juices should run clear.

If you want a side dish consider placing whole vegetables (potatoes, carrots, celery) under the chicken before you cover and cook.

Remove your chicken and serve.  Reserve the juices from the crock pot for gravy or leave them in there to start your stock.

To Make Stock:

Add the bones and skin (if any) and 1 1/2 cups of water for every pre-cooked pound of chicken from dinner.  Set the crock on low after dinner and in the morning you’ll have beautiful additive-free stock.  Strain the stock and pour into sterilized, heated glass jars.  Wipe the rim and adjust clean lids and rings.  The jars will seal themselves from the heat of the stock.  By leaving the fat in the stock, it will rise to the top of the jar and help prolong the life of the stock in your fridge.  Refrigerate and use within 2 weeks.

October Newsletter

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RiverSong Farm will be joining the Douglass Loop Winter market this Saturday, October 8 from 10am-2pm.  The market will run every Saturday until December 17, then pick back up in January.  More information can be found at http://douglassloopfarmersmarket.com/

During the Fall and Winter, RiverSong will provide Eggs, Chicken, Baked Goods, Spinach, Lettuce, Kale, Swiss Chard, Tatsoi, Mache, and our Crafts.  We may also be providing Mutton and Maple Syrup.

Many of you know it’s hard to start a small business.  In an effort to keep our dream alive, Farmer Tom is seeking some off-farm employment.  We hope this does not hinder our ability to provide you with plenty of quality, chemical-free, fresh, local farm goods.

Tucking in for the night.

Farmer Tom will also be speaking at a few events this month.  He will be talking about chicken housing at the “Healthy Foods Local Farms” Conference on Oct. 15, the Bluegrass Bioneers Meeting on Oct. 23, and finally to a second grade class about being a small scale farmer and growing chemical free food.  Due to a schedule conflict we will be leaving early (around 12:30pm) from the Douglass Loop Farmers’ Market on Saturday, October  15.

Our other Farmer’s Markets, Saint Andrew Farmers’ Market on Thursday 3-6:30pm and the Rainbow Blossom Farmers’ Market on Sunday 12-4pm at their St. Matthews location, are open until the end of October.  As always you can buy directly from our farm, just call 502-422-2069 to arrange a time.

We still have 1 year old Rhode Island Red laying Hens for sale, $8 each; perfect for the first time flock or the stew pot.

What does it mean for a gift to be “Green?”

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Tom and I have birthdays 4 days apart.  I love giving gifts, usually whenever, but especially for birthdays.  Since becoming pregnant, and looking forward to another very special birthday, some discussion on “Green” gifts has arisen in my extended household.

For many other gift giving occasions, other than birthdays, you may receive gifts from well meaning, family and acquaintances who do not know you very well.  Mainly I’m referring to wedding presents and baby presents.  It’s in these instances when  a person may receive gifts that they do not need, want, or can even use.  I’m already receiving advice on how to return gifts, some stores won’t take them back unless you have a registry with them.

Let me preface the rest of this article by saying nobody’s perfect.  I can listen to almost everyone play devil’s advocate on the topic of being a responsible consumer, but what it boils down to may be their own guilt or frustration for living in a world that is so far removed from what is necessary that trivial purchases are just that, trivial, with no greater understanding of the concept “vote with your dollars.”  This is the mindset I coined years ago as “A Willful Ignorance.”

Back then, a friend enlightened me on the concept of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  He noted that Recycle was the last step and least important.  The first and most was to reduce the amount of waste you produce.  I consider unused gifts that just sit around your house as waste.  I have witnessed from an outsiders perspective what happens to these gifts.  They might get “re-gifted,” or recycled perhaps to a charity or donation center.  But sometimes they get thrown away.  Useless stuff we don’t need or want, made with toxic chemicals in a foreign country, wasting dollars, the environment, US jobs, and ending up in our landfills to pollute a second time without even being used.

Tom and I have always appreciated cash, or as we like to call it donations, for gifts.  Cash is the ultimate “Green” gift.  It’s easy, maybe a little impersonal, but what’s even less personal is buying a gift for someone who will never use it, has to return it,  but especially re-gifting something they can’t even return.  Spending hours driving around wasting gasoline in a town I don’t live in to return gifts in stores I don’t shop in sounds like torture and totally negates the personality of the gift given.

In my lifetime I have received some truly wonderful gifts.  Things that I wanted or needed or were just my taste.  But…plenty of those gifts had an ethical burden for me.  I aspire to shop locally.  Not just at small time stores owned by real people, but products made in the U.S.  It kills my soul every time I have to buy something from China because it just isn’t made in the U.S. any more.  Not only does this keep jobs out of the U.S. but it supports corporations that make more money by moving plants across the world, paying people around 1/7 th what they would have to pay U.S. employees and then also polluting our environment by shipping the product back to us.  And regulations are less severe in other countries and then you get arsenic in baby formula and toys with lead.

So for me a “Green” gift, if not cash, is one U.S. made, preferably without chemicals, and purchased at a local store.  It has nothing to do with not wrapping gifts.  If you do reuse then you probably have a bag of used gift bags and wrapping paper in your closet, as do I.

Bread Pudding

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So I can’t decide if I love french toast or bread pudding more. But bread pudding is definitely easier to make. The key is to find the bread I mention here in my post. I first had this bread at the Taylorsville Farmers’ Market in Taylorsville, KY. Anna Lee Stokley, better known as “The Bread Lady,” has been making sourdough bread for over 20 years. Her Cinnamon Sourdough Bread is so good you can eat a whole loaf before you even get home, it’s soft, chewy, sweet, and moist. You can make this bread at home and while the rise time will have you waiting 24 hours to bake it, the entire time actually working on the bread is less than an hour for 3-4 good sized loaves. While I am not publishing the recipe on here, you can probably find one on-line, or go buy a loaf from The Bread Lady, she sells out early. Failing that use any bread you like, but you’ll need to add 1/3 cup more sugar, and 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon, and it won’t be as good.

1/2 loaf (4-5 good 1 inch slices) of Cinnamon Sourdough Bread, 1 x 1 inch thick cubed. Let it dry a bit, if you are in a hurry you can toast it lightly in the oven while it’s preheating.

3 eggs
2 cups of milk
1/3 cup of white granulated sugar
dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla extract

I like Raisins! But my Hubs does not, so I leave them out of a lot of things in the hope I can get him to eat it.

Preheat oven to 350. I completely neglected to grease my 8 x 8 x 2 glass baking dish, and nothing bad happened. Evenly spread the cubes in the dish. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs and slowly combine the milk, add the sugar, salt, and Vanilla. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes. Here’s where my recipe becomes unorthodox, I don’t bake it in a water bath. Instead, tent the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour. It won’t be crunchy on the top, but who cares. If you want to serve your bread pudding with a sweet topping, like maple syrup or Bourbon sauce, simply omit the sugar in the egg mixture. A friend of mine has made bread pudding in his enameled iron dutch oven and it works very well. Serves 4.

Lasagne Rolls

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I love this recipe because it is so simple, but not much easier than assembling lasagne the regular way. However, I found the rolls filled up the pan so much better, and was definitely easier to serve, but not necessarily eat. It’s hard to cut a roll with your fork. Usually I put way too much effort into Lasagne using a lot of ingredients. This came out delicious. Even my meat lover husband said “I wish we could have Lasagne every night.”

1 package whole wheat Lasagne noodles
1 16 oz. bag of shredded mozzarella
2 16 oz. containers of cottage cheese
1 32 oz.(quart) jar of tomato sauce
Spinach, sauteed in oil with onions

Cook noodles according to directions, drain and rinse in cool water. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 13x9x2″ lasagna glass baking dish. Lay out noodles and place some cooked spinach, cottage cheese, and mozzarella on each. Roll up and place in glass dish. Pour remaining sauce over all rolls. Sprinkle what fell out during the rolling process on top along with some extra mozzarella. Bake uncovered at 350 for 50 minutes. Let rest for 15 mintues. Makes 18 rolls, serves 6.

Chilies Relleno with Red Enchilada Sauce

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10 Anaheim peppers
Monterey Jack cheese
Sausage

For the Sauce:
1/2 large onion, diced
2 Tbs. oil
2 cups tomato sauce
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. paprika
salt to taste

Corn tortillas (optional)
Sour Cream (optional)

Broil the peppers till the skin turns black, keep turning peppers till all sides are blackened.  Place peppers in a brown paper bag and wait a few minutes.  Slip off skins and make a slice lengthwise in each pepper.  Remove the seeds and membrane, but keep the cap.  Fill with cheese and whatever things you like, in this case browned sausage.  Place in a baking dish in the oven till cheese melts.

On the stove, saute diced onion in oil till translucent, add spices and saute for 1 minute longer, add tomato sauce.

Place each stuffed pepper in a corn tortilla, top with sauce and sour cream.  I actually liked it better without the tortilla.