Please plan to join us on Thursday, June 28th for a really wonderful evening.  Joe, the farming genius of Paper Crane Farm and Tara, the baking wizard from Smoke Signals Bread, will be our guests.  I took all the produce pictures this morning at the City Market. Chanterelles!  Wow!!!!  Brendan, our chef, has a really interesting meal planned (see the following articles for the menu.)

 

"Bagna Cauda" is an Italian starter.  A "hot bath" of olive oil and butter and, well who really CARES what else it has (right?) is served along with fresh vegetables for dipping.

 

In our dinner with Paper Crane Farm, the fresh dipping vegetables will be things like their baby sweet turnips, cauliflower, and tri-colored carrots. 

 

We make dinners to go Monday through Friday.

 

Call 252-1500 by noon or so and then come pick up your dinners between 3 and 7, when we close. Add a salad for 3.25 or bread for 1.25.

 

Monday,  June 18

Curry-roasted Bone-in Chicken with Cucumber Raita 8.25

 

Tuesday, June 19

Spinach Cheese Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce 7.25

 

Wednesday, June 20

Flank Steak with Caramelized Onions and Potato Gratin 9.50 (GF)

 

Thursday, June 21

Local Pork Chops with Thyme and Shallot Pan Sauce 11.75

 

Friday, June 22

Salmon Piccata with Spinach Sauté 9.50

 

Monday, June 25  

Chicken Parmesan 8.25

 

Tuesday, June 26

Shrimp and Vegetable Skewers with Tarragon Sauce 9.25

 

Wednesday, June 27  

Dijon-Honey Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Beets and Carrots 8.75

 

Thursday, June 28

Swedish Meatballs with Dill Noodles 7.95

 

Friday, June 29

Casseroles for the next two weeks:

 

Wednesday, June 20

Chicken Pot Pie with Fried Green Tomato Crust

Whole: 35 Half: 17.50

 

Wednesday, June 27

Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese

Whole: 32 Half: 16

 

 

Lasagnas for the next two weeks:

 

Friday, June 22

Herbed Meatball and Creamy Tomato Sauce Lasagna

Whole: 45 Half: 22.50

 

Friday, June 29

Parmesan Fried Zucchini and Summer Squash Lasagna

 

Brendan is going to grill Paper Crane Romaine and will serve it with  roasted beets (THESE beauties), a green garlic vinaigrette and Meadow Creek cow's milk cheese. 

 

No, you will not be eating lavender or honey but this little girl called to me this morning at my house so here she is.

 

Brendan is planning to make a Provencal-inspired "Bariguole."  Traditionally this is a braised artichoke dish. In our version the feature will be Roasted North Carolina fish, probably a Black Grouper or Fresh Snapper. 

 

We'll end this meal with a Red Velvet Cake served with Meadow Cove Farms' Black Raspberry Sauce.  The cake is a chocolaty bliss cake and with these berries you'll sail out of here on a wonderful sweet cloud.

 

NOW are you convinced? 

 

Joe, by the way, got his training from some of my favorite local farms.  He adheres to bio-dynamic principals, planting with intention, taking care of the land in a deeply deliberate way.  Rudolf Steiner, the German educator, provided the ideals which became The Waldorf Schools and also the philosophy behind bio-dynamic farming in which everything matters and how everything is done matters.  Steiner studied bees too and his thoughts inform my beekeeping intentions.  This makes me feel close to Joe and his produce.  You need look no further than these glorious photographs to understand what I mean.

 

And Tara, as I mentioned last week, came here from Vermont where she baked at Red Hen Baking, a fabulous little bakery in an out of the way spot.  Who could think that they could support themselves, being where they were? Turns out they are wildly successful.  Tara brings her baking gifts to us now.  She was our sweets baker for some time before stepping out, baking first for Farm and Sparrow and now on her own.

 

 

I’ve spent this morning doing my favorite thing – going to a market.  I’m planning a trip and will be away next weekend, hence this newsletter for the next two weeks.  I have still not figured out how to take a photograph on my iPhone, transfer it to my iPad without first sending it to my computer (not an iMachine, incidentally, and not portable either) where I download it to iTunes and then move it to my iSomething-or-other.  I know the technology and a much simpler technique exists but darned if I know how to do it.  I think it has to do with the iCloud and THAT makes me feel like I am in a big fog. 

 

Sheesh! 

 

ANYWAY – since I’m taking myself away for a little bit, I thought I’d just take the very low-tech approach here and plan to skip a newsletter.  Dig? 

 

In the meantime, PLEASE plan to come to our dinner with Joe and Tara from Paper Crane and Smoke Signals Bread. 

 

One of the first times I did a meal featuring all local food I made lunch for Terry Tempest Williams, who was here speaking to students at Warren Wilson College. My friend Donna was the garden manager at Warren Wilson and I asked her to tell me the names of all the things I was serving, the names of all the students who had worked on growing and harvesting the meal’s ingredients, and also the planting dates.

 

By the time I finished telling our guests all these names and dates, all of us were almost in tears just thinking about what it took to bring that meal to our table.  I think it is really easy to be dismissive of a plate full of lettuce or a farmstand with a display of carrots.  But just to think about the farmer is heart-stopping to me.  If it rains I head inside to read a book, tucked into my dog and a warm blanket.  A farmer, who planted seeds days and weeks and months before, has no such luxury.  A hot day is not a time for a bike ride or a visit to a pond but probably is when the farmer is out weeding, smoothing, coaxing.  Sure Joe has chosen to be a farmer.  No one is forcing him. But here he is, growing Chanterelles (who grows Chanterelles that YOU know?) and these lovely wisps of this and that. What enormous fortune this brings us all.

 

Brendan is a low-key fellow, not given to superlatives unless they are really warranted. He raves about Joe and Tara.  This, to me, is the highest praise that could be given.  And once again it confirms for me that this matters a whole lot to me, to my heart.  This is why I still do this work.  This is what we mean when we talk about taking care of the Earth.  Brendan and Tara and Joe and you and all of us believe this and that is why all of us live our lives this way.  Know what I’m sayin?

 

I'm still training and still riding and still raising funds for Livestrong.  On Wednesday, June 27th I will be at the French Broad Market (right across the street from my shop) from 3-5, cooking things from all the farmers.

 

Folks from Livestrong at the YMCA will be with me to share information about this really important program for cancer survivors.  Please do stop by our tent when you are shopping. 

 

Just to give you a food hint, I know I plan to let you taste pulled duck rolls in rainbow chard with a Thai dipping sauce; sugar snap peas with a honeyed vinaigrette; and maybe a preview of the Bagna Cauda from the Dinner and Conversations with Paper Crane Farm's meal.  Sound good?  See you there.