I finally made it out to the Anselma Mill Farmer’s market this past week to get flour and a few other things. I don’t think all the flour is grown locally, but it’s definitely ground at the mill using the centuries old equipment. It’s really pretty awesome to think that this mill has been around for so long and is still useful today. Here’s a link with more information about the flour, if you’re interested. I also met the woman who runs Pure Blend Tea and came home with the Fruit Boost tea which made one heck of a batch of iced tea. Anyway, onto the ingredients in the meal, starting in the back.
Salad:
Lettuce – Charlestown Farm. Nice and crispy!
Cucumber – Smith’s Produce. I was so psyched to see cucumbers already, I had to bring some home.
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow Farm. It actually made a really great dressing for a simple salad.
Ravioli:
For the ravioi pasta, I used a basic recipe I had found ages ago on the web and have modified a bit. It’s one cup flour (here, there’s 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1/4 cup buckwheat flour), one egg, one teaspoon olive oil, and water to make consistency. I roll it out using the good old KitchenAid pasta roller set which makes the process SO much easier. To form the individual ravioli, I found a form that pasta sheets are laid over, filled, then sealed with a rolling pin. First batch using this was a little off, but the second batch came out perfectly.
Hot Bison Sausage – Backyard Bison. Just the right amount of spice!
Cheese – Birchrun Hills. Used the Equinox cheese inside the ravioli with the sausage.
Flour – Anselma Mill. Used Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
Buckwheat Flour – Anselma Mill. They said this was a new one for them and I heard that adding buckwheat flour into the pasta dough mixture made it different, and it did, in a very good way.
Egg – Mountain View Organics.
Sauce – Homemade. We found a few bags in the freezer left over from our 2008 amazing tomato year.
Spinach – Charlestown Farm. Put a bunch of leaves in the steamer for just a minute.
Non-Local – Spices, Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil.
As a bonus this week, there was also Jam! Two types.
 |
Yellow Cherry Jam A friend and I went to Walnut Springs Farm to pick cherries. I LOVE yellow cherries and when the folks running the booth let me know there were two types available to pick, my eyes must have lit up like I had won the lottery. I immediately knew that they were destined for a batch of jam, and sure enough, three pounds turned into 5 jars of sunny yellow jam. I sort of want to go pick some more, add in a few blueberries, and see if I can make green slime jam because that sounds like fun. |
 |
Black Forest Preserves I did actually pick some red cherries too. Three pounds of those (I came home with about 10 lbs, but did a lot of taste testing while we were there too) became Black Forest Preserves. It’s a recipe out of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and involves cherries and cocoa powder. I have to admit that the chocolate doesn’t really come out in the recipe – the jam just tastes RICH – but it’s destined to be a part of thumbprint cookies when cookie baking season kicks into full gear. |