Tid-bits From the Farm (Loon Organics)

by Laura Frerichs, Tastemaker in Residence

Our family is on the cusp of another farming season, the annual cycle starting anew, and the promise of a season stretches out before us.  The mild winter has been amazingly productive for our farm projects--we insulated several hand-built cabins for our seasonal farm employees, re-built a cultivating tractor, finalized our growing plans, hired our farm team, and grew spinach all winter long in our unheated hoop house! We have just a few more weeks to get everything in place before the seeds hit the soil in the greenhouse and it is go time.

For an extra burst of inspiration and connection, Adam, Eli (our three-year-old), and I will head to the largest organic farming conference in the nation this week: the MOSES Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, WI. Over 3,000 people (clad in their plaid shirts) will gather for education, conversation, and motivation to push this local, organic farming movement forward and bring that spark back to our farms and communities across the land. This is Eli's 3rd consecutive MOSES conference so far, and it is one of his favorite family vacations that we take together. (I mean, they do have unlimited organic cheese curds and chocolate milk at the snack table. So there's that.)  We look forward to sharing some of that inspiration with you all here!

Here is what has been gracing our table lately:

We grow a lot of cherry tomatoes on the farm in the summer, and dehydrate them when they are in abundance. This spread is one of my favorite ways yet to use the tomatoes that we dry, and it makes any sandwich ten times more interesting in winter.

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Sun-Dried Tomato Spread

http://www.scordo.com/2013/01/sun-dried-tomato-spread.html

We recently watched the movie "Hundred Foot Journey" and were inspired by all the beautiful Indian food and cooking scenes. We have been making this Aloo Gobi dish, topped with lots of cilantro pesto we froze last summer as well.  Love the warm spices on a subzero day!

Aloo Gobi (Punjabi-Style Cauliflower and Potatoes with Ginger) 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aloo-gobipunjabi-style-cauliflower-and-potatoes-with-ginger-recipe.html