Ingredients

• 4 peaches
• 1 cup fresh ricotta
• honey
• 2 Tablespoons thyme, picked
• extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt

Preparation

Cut the peaches in half and remove the stones. If they are not too soft you can twist the cut peach to get at the stone more easily. Toss the halved peaches with olive oil and honey and place on a sheet tray, cut side down.

Roast in a 400 degree oven until just soft but not mushy, about 10 minutes. Removes peaches from the oven and let cool.

Place peaches on a plate and put a spoonful of ricotta on each half. Drizzle with additional honey and olive oil, a sprinkle of sea salt and a little thyme. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Photo credit: Bob Krasner

Recipe Source

The Diner Journal

]]> http://friendofthefarmer.com/2010/07/recipe-peaches-with-ricotta-honey-and-thyme/feed/ 0 http://friendofthefarmer.com/2010/04/foraging-for-wild-ramps/ http://friendofthefarmer.com/2010/04/foraging-for-wild-ramps/#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:54:11 +0000 David Becker http://friendofthefarmer.com/?p=1906 Wild ramps are a delicate-looking plant that add some serious flavor to salads, pasta, lamb and more. They have a strong garlic flavor, and can be consumed from tip to tip.

With their small white bulb, ramps resemble green onions but the leaves are something else altogether—long, oval, and almost silky, with pointed ends. The little pistil or stem is either red or purple. All in all, one sexy plant. (Forgive me if I wax rhapsodic, but I’m a big, big fan.)

One of the last truly seasonal foods available in North America, wild ramps go by many names including wild leek, ramson, and ail de bois.

Found in forests from South Carolina to Canada, and as far west as Missouri and Minnesota, wild ramps are the first patch of edible green to appear after the snows retreat—and treasured by settler families desperate for any fresh food come winter’s end. Ramps represent a healthy dose of vitamins, a tonic for the blood, and some much needed flavor after a winter subsisting on root vegetables.

If You Can Stand the Excitement . . .

Do a quick search and you will find ramp festivals throughout West Virginia this month. The “Feast of the Ramson” is trumpeted with promotional language that verges on the breathless:

“The excitement is in the air … Just enjoying the West Virginia ramps in the springtime, for me, is what it is all about. Ramps which to this day thrive in the Appalachian Mountains and valleys … There’s nothing quite like Appalachian Ramps.”

According to Ideas in Food, wild ramps are often served at homes in the South fried up with potatoes or scrambled with eggs. In restaurants around the country “they may be pickled and served with fried oysters or soft shell crabs, blanched and sautéed in risottos and pastas, or simply seared and tucked up beside roasted morels and grilled lamb chops.”

If you’re lucky enough to find them in a forest near you their pungent flavor is yours for free. Otherwise you can expect to pay $7 to $20 per pound. Not that you need that much to impress your friends with your foraging expertise. In fact, as with eating a few buds of garlic, you might turn some heads of your own. One Charleston, West Virginia, reporter told of kids being sent home from school after having had ramps for dinner the night before.

Grab a handful while you can. Otherwise—unless your pickling skills are up to snuff—you’ll have to wait another year to take a ride on the wild ramp side.

More Reading

How to Find Wild Ramps

Ramps: A Sign of Spring

That was my initial thought when I tucked into farm-fresh eggs for the first time.  The color of the yolk was a rich almost taxicab yellow. The flavor came at me on so many levels, like the mixed diet that the chicken had eaten.  They even cooked better. Sunny-side-up the egg whites held together rather than spreading out all over the frying pan.

Don’t get me wrong. I thought eggs were an incredible meal before. I just had no idea that fresh eggs—like so much produce—could be so different and better tasting.

Free-Range Eggs: Not the Same as Farm-Fresh

In fact I bought free-range eggs for years, assuming they were better. Then I learned why that label is virtually meaningless. In reality, the USDA allows “the use of the free range egg label for a farm that allows the hen access to the outside for at least 5 minutes per day. It does not mention that the hen even has to get up from the cage and actually go outside.”

Chickens on smaller farms eat all kinds of things. They peck at bugs, grubs and grass, and kitchen scraps.  Usually the farmer tosses in some grain augmented with minerals.

Though I tend to focus on flavor and how the hens are taken care of, some research suggests that pasture-raised eggs provide higher levels of omega-3s and vitamins A, B12, and E, and are lower in fat and cholesterol.

You know you have the real McCoy when you pop open a carton and see eggs of all shapes, sizes and colors.  Egg color refers to breed rather than what they eat. That said, eggs earlier in the season have much stronger flavor because grass and clover are lush and available.

Eggs last for a long time in your refrigerator. Retailers know this, as eggs take a week or two to reach the store and may sit for another month before being purchased. By comparison, I try to use a carton within a week. One chef I met who used to work for David Bouley said they tested the ideal day to use an egg. As I recall, it was at three days old. And that is the basis for more research and feedback from readers.

Sources and More Reading

Eggs from Whippoorwill Farm, Lakeville, CT

NY Times article

Concentrated Sweetness

But don’t start whipping up a stack of flapjacks immediately: just like any other type of farming, turning sap into syrup takes time and work.

First you’ll need a maple at least 10” in diameter. One tap hole can yield five to 15 gallons of sap, though under ideal conditions a tap may yield between 40 and 80 gallons. Depending on its girth, a tree may support up to three tap holes.

Forty gallons of sap boils down to just one gallon of syrup. To accomplish that boiling-down, some Native Americans heated rocks and dropped them into hollowed-out logs filled with sap. Hard work, but think of the reward.

A “Tree Whose Juice Weeps”

In fact at one time maple syrup and sugar were an important part of the North American Indian economy. When impatiently awaiting the bounty of Spring, a happy distraction is welcome; so are the nutrition and much-needed calories.

In 1663 English chemist Robert Boyle described the process this way: “there is in some parts of New England a kind of tree whose juice weeps outs its incision, if it is permitted slowly to exhale away superfluous moisture, doth congeal into a sweet and saccharine substance.”

Tapping a Sugar Maple Tree, Sharon, CT

Verily I say maple syrup rocks.

After tapping your trees you’ll need a hobby-sized evaporator, ideally something you’re going to use outside or in a sugar shack. Boiling 40 gallons down to a single gallon involves a lot of moisture and fuel. A super-sweet sauna of sorts.

Your sap becomes syrup when it reaches 66% sugar content. You’ll know that because you will already own a candy thermometer. Usually, the boiling temperature is 219 degrees Fahrenheit, or 7 degrees above the boiling point of water. Different altitudes can have different temperatures.

Maple Sap Becoming Syrup

Let’s Get Cooking

An excellent source of minerals like calcium, potassium, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, and iron., maple syrup is a true organic product and a great way to sweeten dishes quickly with a far more complex flavor than white or brown sugar.  Go with Grade B and you’ll get that richer flavor for a few bucks less per quart.

If there is still snow on the ground and it hasn’t taken a dingy tone, try this quick dessert I first had in Montreal:

Pour hot syrup on a line of fresh snow. Then use a stick to roll up the syrup. According to one site the French call this the “Tire” dessert or Maple Taffy.

I like Brussels sprouts prepared simply, but they rose to another dimension when I added maple syrup.

Toss the Brussels sprouts in the oven with some olive oil until they’re heading toward crispy. Then it’s over to the stovetop where I add salt, pepper and maple syrup.  Some people like a bit of crispy bacon. The vegetal bitterness of the spouts is perfectly balanced by the other flavors. A family favorite that, after a little experimentation, you’ll do with your eyes closed.

Sweet.

Resources

How to Tap Maple Trees and Make  Syrup

But until recently most incoming chefs didn’t know that there were more than two kinds of potatoes. That changed with the hiring of Paul Wigsten.

You see Paul is a tenth-generation farmer. He is also the full-time produce buyer and farm liaison at the CIA.  With passion and brevity he settles questions—from restaurant owners, consumers and even policymakers—about local-sourced product.

Local Food is Less Expensive

By buying local and working with “the guys I knew I could depend on” Paul has been able to double the amount of produce purchased with the same budget.  But, wait . . . doesn’t local produce cost five to 20% more than produce shipped across the country? It can but, according to Paul, with local fare there is “no trim, no waste. With California you loose 10 to 20% in kitchen prep.”

Local Food Tastes Better

At the CIA every student is required to take a class called product knowledge. Instructors tend to go with more dramatic “flavor profiles.” Red leaf lettuce is subtle. The flavor is not so different but the texture is crisper.  Strawberries and tomatoes not.  “We do a side-by-side comparison of tasting of local vs. Florida vs. California strawberries. It’s not a fair test.  Local wins hands down.”

“Why would you like to have something that was halfway across the country yesterday vs. what was in the field just hours ago? Think of the quality of a freshly dug potato. There is simply no comparison between that potato and what comes out of storage.”

“Even buying local beefsteaks: in late Fall, we will go to Mountain Fresh Farms, a hydroponic grower in Highland, NY. Those tomatoes are vine ripened. But in Florida, they’re packed dead green. They give them a big dose of gas and try to sell them red. “

Local Food is a Movement

According to Paul “the newest trend is an old one. It’s buying local. This is not merely a marketing ploy; it is a growing movement.”

Many CIA students come in with restaurant experience, so they already know the value of buying local. But if they don’t, according to Paul, “students catch on quickly. They come to the cooler to see what is coming in from local farmers.”  Like an artist created a new painting, they need inspiration to create something new. And often it starts with the ingredients found locally and now more and more in the student-run garden on campus. “The difference between now and just three years ago is dramatic. First off all the students fall in love with the area. The CIA’s location in a farm basket makes a big difference. It helps too that for the first time in years we are seeing the number of farms in the area increasing.” So here’s a trend worth watching: newly minted and newly motivated farmers inspire newly minted and newly mtivated chefs in a virtuous and delicious circle.

With a touch of wistfulness Paul notes “we may never go back to a time when America was an agrarian society. But this current economic downturn may prove an unexpected benefit to farmers as people get back to eating basics.”

How can you be assured that you’re getting local? Look for the local farms on the menu. Start by asking your waiter for sources. Go for the local produce over something shipped 3,000 miles. And when you do you’re almost always assured of getting a better meal.

Paul Wigsten family farm, Pleasant Valley, NY

Related Links

Survey Says: American Chefs See Sustainable as Hot Trend

Culinary Institute of America

Paul Wigtsen’s farm