Earth Dance Farms

My family has been participating members of a CSA farm for the last 3 years. Each summer the Farmer of Earth Dance Farms organizes a camping weekend where you can go to the the farm and camp on his property. My family went this weekend. We camped over night Saturday and left on Sunday.

The farm is full of crops and there are dogs, cats, chickens, and horses roaming around. While we were there my brother and I had so much fun feeding the chickens, and grooming and feeding the horses. We even had the chance to ride one of the horses right at sunset. He was an Icelandic Horse named Oddie.

Another highlight for me was having the opportunity to roam around the crops and see what the Farmer was about to harvest. My brother got to pick raspberries with someone we met this weekend. We also saw corn, butternut squash, pumpkins, melons, beets, herbs and tomatoes all almost ready to be harvested. I can't believe that these crops will be arriving in our boxes during the next few weeks.

Saturday night ended with the group making Hobo Dinners over the fire. We put cut up vegetables that grew on the farm and hamburger meat, along with herbs, salt, and pepper into the foil packets. Our dinner was so yummy!! The fresh corn that was harvested that day topped off the meal.

My favorite part of the weekend was when my brother and I had the opportunity to ride the tractor with the Farmer. It was so nice of him to take us out for a "spin." He even let me tumble the compost. I'll never forget being able to do this just before we left the farm.

Each week during the months of June through November, my family loves picking up our box of produce from the Earth Dance Farm delivery. We enjoy making meals with the fresh ingredients. Many of my postings this summer have been made with ingredients from the farm.

Norm and Lori thanks for such a great weekend!!!

Tagliatelle with fresh corn pesto

Me and my mom have been getting so much corn, yummy corn this summer so she thought she would make a corn pesto. I thought it was so good I had to post it on my blog. This is a must before summer ends!




Tagliatelle with Fresh Corn Pesto
4 bacon slices, cut lengthwise in half, then crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
4 cups fresh corn kernels (cut from about 6 large ears)
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese plus additional for serving
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
8 ounces tagliatelle or fettuccine
3/4 cup coarsely torn fresh basil leaves, divided

Cook bacon in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp and brown, stirring often. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon drippings from skillet. Add corn, garlic, 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper to drippings in skillet. Sauté over medium-high heat until corn is just tender but not brown, about 4 minutes. Transfer 1 1/2 cups corn kernels to small bowl and reserve. Scrape remaining corn mixture into processor. Add 1/2 cup Parmesan and pine nuts. With machine running, add olive oil through feed tube and blend until pesto is almost smooth. Set pesto aside.

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1 1/2 cups pasta cooking liquid. Return pasta to pot. Add corn pesto, reserved corn kernels, and 1/2 cup basil leaves. Toss pasta mixture over medium heat until warmed through, adding reserved pasta cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls to thin to desired consistency, 2 to 3 minutes. Season pasta to taste with salt and pepper.

Transfer pasta to large shallow bowl. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup basil leaves and reserved bacon. Serve pasta, passing additional grated Parmesan alongside.

"Mama Roth's, no wait, Uncle Will's Baby Back Ribs"

My friend Kerry served these ribs at a neighborhood gathering. I thought they were amazing.

1. Get leanest looking slab of baby back ribs.
2. Line cookie sheet with foil, set oven at 375.
3. Sprinkle Stubb's original rub all over front and back of slabs, then put in oven for a couple of hours. Just watch them carefully, then brush Stubbs original sauce on front for the last 10 minutes in the oven. Take them out and brush more sauce on them.

Farming

I want you guys to know that I have started a little farm in my friend's backyard. We started planting in April and now we are harvesting the crops. Yesterday was the first day of harvesting. We harvested some sweet corn, tomatoes, and a Minnesota Midget melon. Here is a picture of the produce we picked.