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Archive for February, 2010

CSA share: week 12

Posted in csa, photo, tagged on February 19, 2010|

CSA share: week 12

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Talking potatoes on BlogTalkRadio

Posted in agritourism, events, food, media, tagged , , on February 18, 2010|

Robert Barnum, the Cantankerous Chef, will be interviewed “live on the air” by Nancy Ancrum and Robbie Bell about his upcoming Potato Pandemonium dinner held at Possum Trot Tropical Fruit Nursery.

Click over to Join Us At The Table, their show on BlogTalkRadio, this Saturday morning at 9:30 am to hear the interview live. It should be a lively conversation, as Robert is quite passionate about the creative spin he gives potato dishes featured in the Pandemonium dinner. [Note: you can play and/or download the show. Robert’s interview is about 11 minutes in from the start.]

Reminder: Saturday Feb. 20th is also the last day to register for the dinner, so don’t dawdle or you’ll miss out on something amazing!

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Hope springs forth

Posted in farm, fruits, photo, vegetables, tagged on February 13, 2010|

The heirloom tomatoes available at market are winding down. They will be very scarce for weeks, assuming there won’t be patchy frost tonight, which still has potential to damage weakened plants.

Weeks later, you can still see signs of freeze damage at Bee Heaven Farm — and signs of recovery.

Tomatoes blooming after the freeze

The heirloom tomatoes vary in damage. Some varieties are all but destroyed by the freeze. The ones with blackened, shriveled leaves are not coming back. A few varieties are re-growing leaves and still have fruit ripening on the vines. And some look positively fluffy with their green leaves and are blooming again. The quantity and quality of the second bloom tomatoes remains to be seen. If they’re just as nice as the ones we’ve had so far, expect more heirloom tomatoes at market, just not right away, perhaps in a couple months. “Hope springs forth!” Margie said.

Purple Pod heirloom beans blooming after the freeze.

The heirloom beans have been all but decimated. One variety with purplish stems, known as Purple Pod, re-grew leaves and looks a lot better than a week or two after the freeze. It’s even putting out a few, shy blooms. The question is, will those blooms set and grow beans. And if they grow, how big and what shape are they going to be in? All of that is doubtful because they have a big problem with mildew. “The leaves are all frozen out and the plants are more vulnerable to everything,” Margie explained to me.

This is the lasting, almost hidden freeze damage that takes weeks to emerge. The Gold of Bacau beans aren’t coming back very well at all, and the few pods that have grown since the freeze are small and misshapen, nothing you would want to buy at the market or find in your CSA box.

Freeze damaged Gold of Bacau beans.

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CSA share: week 11

Posted in Uncategorized on February 12, 2010|

CSA share: week 11

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One potato, two potato

Posted in agritourism, chef, events, food, photo, vegetables, tagged , , on February 10, 2010| 4 Comments »

Potato heaven

Robert Barnum called the other day to tell me about his preps for the upcoming Potato Pandemonium dinner. He has two refrigerators bulging with potatoes, both the one in the kitchen and the one on the front porch. Not everybody has a frig on the front porch brimming with spuds, so this I had to see for myself. Yup, the porch frig held at least four onion sacks stuffed with spuds, and the kitchen frig held another two full sacks.

The kitchen table held an overflow of potatoes in several buckets, which were sorted by shape and color — dark skinned that look purplish-blue-black inside, red skinned that are red inside, golden ones, and delicate fingerling potatoes. Not sure how many pounds that adds up to, but it looks like it should be enough for 30 guests. Robert explained the spuds were gleaned from a nearby field. There’s nothing wrong with the tubers; they’re perfectly good to eat, and would otherwise be plowed under.

Multicolor chips just out of the fry pot

Robert mentioned he browsed through his extensive collection of cook books for inspiration, but the actual dish will be his version. “All these recipes come out of my head,” he explained. “Some of these have never been done, or done the way I plan to do it.” He offered a test batch of Potato Salad with Carambola Relish, which had a tropical and tangy dressing, no typical mayo here. Bubbling in a pot of oil were Multicolored Chips, and sure enough some potatoes are really red inside, looked like small chioggia beets. Ultimately each dish will be interpreted with his signature flair — tropical ingredients straight from his grove, and food cooked over a wood fired grill.

If you’ve never been out to Possum Trot Tropical Fruit Nursery, it’s a unique corner of Redland, not to be missed. Intrigued? Here’s the link to register for the Pandemonium.

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