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Happy New Year!

Jan 1st, 2011 by Mike

Hello Friends and Happy New Year from Burns Best Farm!

We have much to share with you in the coming weeks with big plans for 2011.  We are grateful for all of our friend’s support last year and we look forward to seeing you soon.  In the meantime, I’m going to spend a very rainy New Years Day finalizing seed orders and doing some farm planning.  Oh ya, and there will be some football watching, and a grass-fed beef dinner with some excellent collard greens.  Denise found a new recipe for collard greens last week and since you should be eating collard greens today we are going to share it with you.  Here it is:

Ingredients:

2 bunches trimmed and chopped (about a pound)

1 sweet onion sliced

1 cup heavy cream (preferably from our Jersey Cows)

2 tablespoons of butter

Nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon

In a large covered skillet melt the two tablespoons of butter until the foam subsides.  Add the onion and cook on medium heat until the edges of the onions start to caramelized.  Add the collard greens and still until mixed.  Cover and cook for two minutes.  Add the heavy cream and stir to coat all the leaves stirring occasionally until the cream thickens: 5-6 minutes.  Finish with some grated nutmeg and serve immediately.

Recipe from Nourished Kitchen Food Blog.

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Farm Update

Jul 27th, 2010 by Mike

Hello friends.  It has been a while since we updated you on what’s going on here at Burns Best Farm so I thought I’d fill you in on the latest.

Produce update: Suffice to say that we have been so busy picking that we have hardly had time to do much else.  Our blueberry crop has been excellent this year and we are picking the last of the berries.  We planted 6 varieties of cherry tomatoes this year and have been selling them by the pint at the markets.  The various colors make for a nice presentation and the taste is incredible.  We had a lot of various items early on in the year and we are waiting on some of our second plantings to come in.  The last several weeks have been dry and HOT so we have had to run our pump to pull water out of the pond.  This is never ideal and costs money to run but it’s still better than the alternative.

CSA:  We are coming toward the last few weeks of our CSA and we have really enjoyed providing local, fresh, tasty produce to our valuable customers.

Meat Sales: Our grass-fed beef and forested pork continues to fly off the shelf.  We have processed two cows and six Berkshire pigs so far.  The feedback from customers has been excellent and people are coming back for more – good news.  We are building our herd inventory so that we can expand and meet the growing demand for our meats.  Our meats are raised in the woods and pastures on our farm and live an antibiotic free existence.

Chickens: We were planning on expanding our laying flock this month in hopes that by Thanksgiving, the new hens would be laying enough that we could scrape through the winter with our own eggs and then have an abundance by March.  (The hens always slow down or stop laying altogether in winter because we do not artificially light their henhouse.)  Denise found a half-price sale on day-old baby chicks in early July, and so she did what any self-respecting woman does when such a find falls into her lap:  she bought twice as many chicks for the same amount of money!  So all of you who wish we had more eggs only have until next spring to wait.  There will be plenty!

Fall: We look forward to fall and some cooler temperatures but also some good lettuce, kale, broccoli and other cool season crops.  We’ve found some good recipes for fall crops that we will share with you in the weeks to come.

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Radishes: More than salad garnishes

May 19th, 2010 by Denise

I noticed yesterday when I walked through the garden that the radishes are pushing up above the soil, ready to be pulled.  That means we’ll have radishes for sale this weekend at the market in addition to the lettuces and arugula, as well as in the CSA boxes. This is a good time to pull a non-conventional radish recipe out of the file.  Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider is my go-to book for the best information on vegetables and her recipes are great: unusual and trendy but easy to prepare and delicious to eat.

From Ms. Schneider, Radish Top Soup:

Very fresh radish tops from 2 large bunches of table radishes (they taste like mild arugula, to which they are related)

3 medium scallions (green onions)

2 medium floury potatoes (russets)

1 T olive oil

1/2 tsp sugar

About 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth

Salt and white pepper

Nutmeg

8 to 12 red, pink, and/or purple radishes

1.  Discard yellowed radish leaves, if any. Wash greens in several changes of water, lifting out to leave debris behind (radishes can be very muddy). Trim scallions, chop white and light green parts, thin-slice greens. Peel and thin-slice potatoes.

2. Heat oil in medium saucepan over moderate heat. Add radish greens, chopped scallion and potatoes. Toss until leaves wilt. Add sugar and 2 1/2 cups broth.  Simmer, covered, over low heat until potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.

3. Whiz with immersion blender to a smooth puree. (Or transfer to a food processor in small batches and puree until very smooth.)  Return to saucepan and stir in remaining broth, for desired consistency. Season with salt, white pepper and nutmeg.

4. Pare colored skin from radishes and cut into thin strips and/or petal shapes. Slice the white interior part into rounds. Heat soup and ladle into small bowls. Garnish with radish pieces and slices and scallion greens to taste.

Enjoy!

PS:  This book is humongous. It really is an encyclopedia for every vegetable you have ever wanted to learn about, the funky stuff you see in the produce section of the best upscale fresh markets.  500 recipes, 275 photographs. James Beard Award winner.  You need this book.

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Farm Update

May 14th, 2010 by Mike

Burns Best Farm Lettuce

Hello friends of the farm.  It has been a while since we last updated you on what’s going on here at Burns Best Farm.  As you can see from the picture we’ve been busy getting our spring and summer crops in the ground.  So far, we have about 16 different crops planted and we are still adding a few in addition to second and third plantings of some crops.  After thousands of transplants, our hamstrings and backs may be sore but it’s all worth it when you consider the enjoyment of eating the  fresh, Certified Naturally Grown produce that comes from our farm.

We also have a couple of new and exciting products we’ll be offering you throughout the year.  We have added Berkshire pork and grass-fed beef that initially will be sold this summer and then throughout the year as we build our herd.  We currently have Berkshire pork ready for sale and the beef should be ready in early June.  If you want excellent tasting meats, give us a call!

Our CSA subscriptions have tripled this year with repeat customers as well as a new delivery drop in East Cobb/Marietta on Mondays.  We are excited that there has been so much interest in clean, healthy food grown seasonally and picked fresh for your enjoyment.  Thanks for putting your trust in us!

Lastly, our website has gone through a recent update after some problems and issues with the old one.  Unfortunately we lost the posts from our old site so we’ll be adding recipes as the year goes on and new produce becomes available.  Thank you to friends and technical experts for getting this new site up and running.  Suffice it to say, we are better farmers than web masters.

We look forward to seeing you at the farm and at farmers markets this year.  Please drop us an email or visit us to say hello!

Best,  Denise and Mike Burns

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