Without question, I believe farmers have always been inventive, creative individuals, perhaps taking on one of the hardest jobs of all – working with the ever-changing conditions of Nature.  It requires a lot of ingenuity.

I have been kicking around farms and gardens since my early restaurant days in Highlands, NC and continue to do so, partially in hopes of some sort of magic “gardening dust” rubbing off on me, maybe helping me to grow my own garden successfully.

Over the past few years, Venessa Campbell and Alex Brown of Full Sun Farms in Big Sandy Mush have humored me and let me visit.  I have always been impressed with the quality of the vegetables they grow.  I was out there this week, enticed by Vanessa’s description of the lunch she fixed. It sounded delicious.  I offered to work for food.

Tuesday and Friday are harvest days, preparing for the Wednesday and Saturday tailgate markets – and those are the days that Vanessa cooks, so I headed out North Turkey Creek through some of the most beautiful mountain valley land in western North Carolina.  I arrived mid-way through the morning’s work, as I had an early business meeting downtown.  Most of the day’s harvest was complete and now it was time to wash and pack the produce.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

The task I was given by Alex was to wash the chioga beets for the CSA boxes and the tailgate on Wednesday. Over the seasons, Vanessa and Alex have collected various contraptions to make their farming task more productive.  As the era of equipping small farms has passed, at least for the moment, much of what they use is refurbished, antique equipment built before either of them were born.  For my assigned job, I was introduced to the Torrent Bunch Washer circa 1940. Two counter rotating brushes, belt-driven by an electric motor and a Rube Goldberg arrangement of two spray nozzles, this small machine would scrub the remaining earth from the mornings pickings.  Alex was clear and direct in his directions of how to wash the beets.  “Don’t press to hard, the motor can overheat, if you push too hard.  Be careful, there is a tendency for the brushes to pull the beets into the machine.  Be sure to get all the dirt off the beets.”  Using it was sort of like working with your grandmother, she knows what she is doing, but she’s not too quick about it.

So, I washed a-bucket-load of beets.  I liked it, very Zen.  At one point, Unnoticed, I caught Alex inspecting my work.  I had to chuckle to myself – I have spent 38 years picking and cleaning vegetables and inspecting others work – to meet my own high standards.  It was wonderful to see someone else as attentive to quality as I have been.  It seems I passed, he said nothing. It is one of those hidden, essential qualities for producing something of value.  Often it is unappreciated, but one of the reasons Full Sun Farms has always produced outstanding vegetables.  This trait would show up many times in the day.

Without question, I believe farmers have always been inventive, creative individuals, perhaps taking on one of the hardest jobs of all – working with the ever-changing conditions of Nature.  It requires a lot of ingenuity. To achieve what they do, which is to run a small, successful family farm, Vanessa and Alex have had to search far and wide for the tools of their trade.  The 1940 “Grandmother” Torrent Bunch Washer was only one example.  The barn area was littered with other, fine examples.  (Somewhere in all of this is the seed of a revival in small equipment manufacturing -as we MUST rebuild our local food systems).   These photos tell that story.

My task almost took until lunchtime.  Checking his watch, “we have five minutes”, Alex directed us to a few tasks, and one was clearing some straw from underneath tomato plants.  At Full Sun, tomatoes are grown in a greenhouse “tunnel”, in order to control moisture on the plants.  Excessive moisture and soil splash back from falling rain is the cause of a late season blight, which essentially kills the tomato plant.  One strategy is to plant them as they do here.  More work, superior product.  Our particular work, just before lunch, was to remove the straw mulch from some plants that inadvertently had some herbicide on them that was affecting the growth of the plants, causing them to spiral in on themselves, leading to destruction of the plant.  Additionally, this straw was suppose to be organic and had apparently slipped by from their source provider.  This done, time for lunch, the reason I was here.

Lunch was delicious, but, surprisingly, it was not about the food.  There were ten of us – Vanessa, Alex, their two daughters; Ada and Bella, Joseph and Joy (who are part of the Full Sun CSA and work 6 shifts on the farm as part of their payment), their 3 interns, Megan, Maggie and myself.

It was a very civilized – we sat together, ate lunch, talked about everything in the world, including farming.  When we finished, everyone pitched in to clean up and then headed off for hour of “private time”, letting the heat of the day pass until mid-afternoon.  I sat outside, while the kids climbed trees – the world slowed down.

I had an inkling about all these implements and recycled devices.  While I was washing the beets, I noticed an old washing machine.  I did wonder what it was doing out here in the barn, knowing full well, in the winter, everythng out here would freeze.  I was about to find out.

We were washing lettuce, filling two large sinks with water.  First we removed the root ends of the plants, discarding any bruised or rotten outer leaves, then a good soak in the first sink to remove the dirt and a final rinse to make sure all the grit had been removed.  (Trust me on this one, getting clean, grit free lettuce is not just a luxury, it is a necessity – too many times at the restaurant we had to reject lettuce that arrived unclean.)  Then the lettuce was allowed to drain on a drain board.  Next, Vanessa told me to me to fill nylon “onion bags” with five handfuls of the salad mix.  She moved over to the washing machine and told me that they had figured out that if they spun these bags on the Polyester Knit Spin Cycle, it was exactly forceful enough, without bruising the lettuce, to remove all the water!  I howled – a giant salad spinner.  So Nick and I proceeded to spin and bag lettuce for Wednesday’s CSA boxes.  

Like almost everything about this farm, and the others like it – returning to small scale, family farms requires making do with what you have or what you can find.  Alex and I discussed the fact that there no longer are small scale, durable farm implements being made, just like the Torrent Brush Washer, or the tractor attachments.  Returning to a rural farming lifestyle, one needs to be a pioneer, indeed, it may be the new frontier – the post-industrial, post-digital world.

Finding the tools to do the work is one thing  - keeping them working is another.  In addition to being able to actually grow something – in and of itself a daunting task – a farmer also must know how to maintain and repair equipment.  This is another dimension of Full Sun Farm, keeping things working.  Full Sun is also a “teaching farm” – each year hiring paid interns to help run the farm.  More important, they are learning how to farm and to keep it going.  I witnessed this exchange of knowledge and skill often.  At one point in the day, Alex was teaching Megan how to change the oil on one of their tractors.  

After preparing the lettuce – it was time to pick blueberries.  And so the afternoon went – until it was time for me to head back to town.

Beyond the exquisite tranquility of Full Sun’s setting in Big Sandy Mush, the relaxed working conditions, the pride and attention to growing food – I came away, again, connected to the food I cook and eat.  Still lingering is a sense of hope, seeing this wonderful family prosper in a way that dollars will never be able to measure.

In the big picture, we are surrounded by a broken food system – virtually every facet: corporate farms struggling to exist through hugh subsidies, chemical inputs, and food transported thousands of miles, to name a few – but here, on this farm, in this region of Western North Carolina, those essential “provisions of nature” are flourishing. The connection to life itself is alive.

“Once we lose touch with the spendthrift aspect of nature’s provisions epitomized by the raising of a crop, we are in danger of losing touch with life itself.”  Honey From A Weed - Patience Gray

-Mark Rosenstein

There is light in food.  This is a Truth – figuratively, literally, metaphorically.

The connection of light to food is simple to trace.  Even post modern molecular gastronomist must concede petro-chemical food at one time was light – sunlight to plant-life to rotten mass buried, subsumed and compressed into crude, then refined back to digestible molecules reassembled.  (A form of alchemy.)

One intention of the alchemist of old was to transform food-light (molecular gastronomy is an example of this).  The intent of a twenty-first century alchemist should be to preserve food-light and to keep that light in the fore of one’s work.  (“Cook” and “chef ” are ranks of Alchemy, as is the Zen “tenzo”.  As the alchemist grows in their practice, cooking remains essential to that practice and hence food-light remains essential).

A rhetorical question: “what does food-light taste like?”

A second rhetorical question: “why preserve food-light, and keep it in the fore?”

One answer to both is illustrated in a small dinner I prepared the other evening.  The occasion was a get together to send the Young Master of the House (a novice in training) off to France for the summer, friends were chaperoning him on his flights, which coincided with theirs.  It was also the occasion to share a special bottle of wine they had given me.

I start with a “recipe” and then some thoughts about it all.

BEEF BRAISED WITH SOUR CHERRIES, GARLIC SCAPES, NEW PURPLE ONIONS, RED WINE AND SPICES.

To be served with an older (20+ years) red Burgundy from Gevrey-Chambertin

Serves 6

Pre-heat oven to 275°F

• 4 pound piece of bone-in chuck roast of beef from Hickory Nut Gap Farms
• salt, pepper
• cooking oil
• 3 pints of fresh sour cherries (picked from my backyard)
• 1 bottle of red wine, pinot noir
• 6 purple new onions, cut into 3 inch pieces or leave whole
• 6 garlic scapes, leave whole
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• one-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled, thinly slice
• 4 allspice berries, whole
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon mace blades

Method: Wash the cherries, place them in a stainless steel sauce pan.  Pour the bottle of wine over the top and bring to a simmer.  Cool until the cherries are completely cooked and soft.  Remove from the heat, allow to cool enough to handle.  Place a strainer over a bowl and pour the cherries into the strainer.  Using a heavy rubber spatula, work all the cherry flesh through the strainer.  You may have to pour some of the wine back over the cherries to do this.  Be sure to scrape the bottom of the strainer, to collect all the flesh.  Discard the seeds.  Reserve the cherry/wine liquid.

In a heavy enamel casserole, over medium-low heat, heat some cooking oil.  Brown together the onion and garlic scapes.  Season with a little salt and pepper.  Remove and reserve.

Next, dry the meat and season well with salt and pepper.  Add some additional cooking oil, turn the heat up slightly.  Brown the chuck roast on both sides.  Remove and set aside.

Add the spices to the pot, cook a few minutes to intensify their flavor.  Add the flour and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  All at once, add the cherry/wine liquid, stir well.  Add the onions, then the meat, finishing with the garlic scapes on top.  Correct the seasoning.  Bring to a simmer.  Cover with a lid and place in the pre-heated oven.

Cook for about 3 hours.  Check occasionally that the liquid is just simmering and not drying out.

When the meat is tender, turn the heat down to serving temperature (below 200° F).

Server with some braised new greens and some sort of simple potato dish.  (I made a potato gratin of potatoes and duck fat).

This beef was served with a 1987 Combe aux Moines, Gevrey-Chambertin.  It was a successful and happy marriage.

Why this meal?

I started out with a few thoughts – what is the occasion of the meal, who are the guests, what do they enjoy, what do we have from the season, what wine are we drinking?  A going away party, dear friends, rich and hearty fare, the cherries from my yard, fresh vegetables from surrounding gardens, a special wine that all of us would enjoy; one’s whose own essence was filled with food-light.

Each of these qualities filled with complexity – a first summer for a young man traveling between families for the summer, a friendship of twelve years that started over food and wine, the first real harvest of cherries from a tree I planted years ago; fruit perfectly tart so not to overwhelm the wine with excessive sugar, the subtle character of the garlic scapes, a wine we were all familiar with; hopefully at the peak – balanced between, youth, middle age and maturity.

My task as cook and alchemist was to bring all this together – to bring the food-light of beef, cherry, wine into the light of farewell and friendship.  This meal will be bound in our collective memory.

The taste of food-light is the deep harmony of grass beef, changing light of old wine – youthful brightness fading; the edge of dusk approaching, clear sharpness of fruit acid creating a chiaroscuro effect, the subtle complexity of spice binding all together – in a word, the taste of food-light is the taste of “alive”.

Not all meals attain such a plateau, nor should they.  However, all meals should contain the intent of this one.

-Mark Rosenstein

Sunday, May 30 I conducted a cooking class at Wake Robin Farms, which was hosted by Gail Lunsford and Steve Bardwell, my bread-making friends.  It was the second time I have had a class there – the first was roasting fresh chicken in their wood-fired oven.

The advertised class lesson was spring lamb from East Fork Farm, owned and operated by Stephen and Dawn Robertson, in Marshall, NC.

My usual approach to this type of event is to see what is in season and plan the menu accordingly.  As we are right at the end of asparagus and strawberry time, they were featured along with East Fork’s lamb.  Like some of my other classes, I was teaching how to plan a menu based on seasonal ingredients.  I call it “having a conversation with food, rather than teaching recipes” – instead, sharing tools, techniques and ingredients.

My “notes” to the class will be at the end.

While I am cooking, I like to photograph the process, but when I am teaching, this is challenging.  So, this morning as I was processing my pictures, I realized I really didn’t have any images of Goat Cheese Terrine with Ginger Pea Sauce, Roasted and Grilled Leg of Lamb Marinated in Mint, Cumin, Coriander and Cardamom or Lemon-Zest Shorbread with Strawberry Mousse, Oven Dried Strawberries, Fresh Strawberries and Strawberry Puree.

At first, I was disappointed – then I looked closer.

What I do have photographs of, turn out to be ones of the real essence of the event – the people who attended and what really happened yesterday for half the afternoon and the good part of the evening. It was a beautiful thing.  In all, twenty-eight people attended, counting Gail, Steve and myself.  There were two couples that came from Tupelo, Mississippi, as well as transplants from England, Louisiana, and San Francisco.  One woman (author, chef and a student of one of my mentors; Irena Chalmers) rounded up six of her friends to spend the day at this beautiful, secluded farm in Madison County.  (The farm has been in Gail’s family for two hundred years!)

The class was a combination of hands on and demonstration, with a meal made of the day’s effort at the end of it all.  Teaching and cooking “on the fly” takes some energy and there were some pauses during class and getting ready for dinner.  It was at those moments I was took my photos.  They are revealing – people who had never met before were taking time to make connections – some of which will no doubt endure.  At other times, friends who had come to the class together, were finding time to continue that friendship.  And for me, there were a number of “students” that were old friends of mine and long term customers of all my restaurants, stretching back to 1972. 

People joined together and drifted apart, worked together preparing the meal and formed new groups.  Interestingly enough, earlier in the day, Steve and I were talking about an exchange he was having with a former baker/bakery owner, who now is cooking as an avocation.  Our mutual friend says he cooks to “nurture, nourish and heal.”  Steve’s own perspective was much different, having more to do with the personal satisfaction of doing something well and the recognition that brought.  The conversations of the day ranged over all topics, food and wine; of course, but at one point, I heard the comment: “this really isn’t about cooking.”  Which is exactly the point.  Food and the table is only the medium for the expression of other things importantly human – things like friendship, sharing experience and knowledge, accomplishment, self-esteem and love.

It is not just about the cooking.

Oh, yes – the menu and the recipes.

Terrine of Goat Cheese with Garlic Chives, Roasted Beet Sauce and Puree of Peas

East Fork Farms Leg of Lamb, Marinated in Mint, Coriander, Cumin and Cardamom

Oven Roasted Spring Vegetables

Charcoal Grilled Vegetables

Strawberry “Fantasy” – Strawberry Mousse, Oven Dried Strawberries, Fresh Strawberries, Strawberry Puree and Lemon Flavored Shortbread

With the exception of grilling the lamb, everything may be prepared in advance.

This first recipe is one I have carried around in my head for 25 years and only recently have I experimented with it.  My dear friend, Darrel Broek, owner of Cafe Maxx in Pompano Beach, held a fund-raising event a long time ago – he was (and still is) on the cutting edge of food and wine in south Florida.  Along with his chef/partner, Oliver Saucy, they brought together a stellar group of America’s chefs, including Todd English of Olives fame.  As a first course to the evenings’ event, Todd served a Parmesan Terrine with Minted Pea sauce.  It was delicious.  He wouldn’t share the recipe, except to say, lots of butter and eggs.  Thanks, Todd.

Well, this recipe is nothing like his, but that dish, was inspiration for my experiments.
This recipe actually has very little butter in it, and only a modest number of egg yolks.  What I am aiming for is a light, creamy terrine that melts in your mouth and says “cheese”.  Essentially, it is a baked bechemel, enhanced with goat cheese, though my initial tests used Romano-Parmigiano.

TERRINE OF GOAT CHEESE WITH GARLIC CHIVES

Yields 2 cups/8 portions

16 grams (1/2 oz.) a-p flour

16 grams (1/2 oz.) butter

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

3/4 tsp. salt

54 grams (2 ounces) fresh goat cheese (if very fresh, drain over night in a piece of cheese cloth hung over a bowl or set it in a wire sieve)

4 egg yolks

2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic chives

a little butter for greasing the mold

Pre-heat oven to 350°F

Method:  In a non-aluminum saucepan, over medium heat, make a roux of the flour and butter.  To do this, heat the butter until melted, then stir in the flour.  Stir to completely mix the two and cook for about 3 minutes.  Do not allow it to take on any color.

Using a wire whisk, stir in the milk and then the heavy cream.  Whisk vigorously, making sure to blend the roux and liquid together into a smooth mixture.  Using a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula, cook the bechamel over medium heat, allowing it to thicken.  Add the salt.  Cook, stirring constantly for 10 minutes.  Remove it from the heat, stir in the goat cheese and then the egg yolks.  Stir in the garlic chives.

Butter a two cup ceramic or glass mold.  Pour the bechamel/goat cheese into the mold.  Set the mold in a baking dish, large enough to come up the sides by about 2/3.  Pour boiling water into the baking dish halfway up the side of  the mold and place in the pre-heated oven.  Bake for approximately fifty minutes, until the terrine has set and the top is a light brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 1 hour.  Your may serve it warm, or unmold it onto a plate, chill it and serve cold.

Serve with a roasted beet sauce and a green pea puree.  Accompany with an excellent loaf of bread.

Roasted Beet Sauce

A simple sauce

Roast some beets.  Peel.  Puree with a little bit of dashi (or chicken stock or water).  Just enough to make a thick sauce.  Pass thru a fine sieve.  Serve on the side

Pea Puree

Shell some fresh peas.  Boil in salted water that has a little ascorbic acid added to it (vitamin C).  Cook until just tender.  Puree with a little salt, some dashi (or chicken stock or water).  Just enough to make a medium puree.  Pass thru a sieve.  Serve on the side.

GRILLED LAMB WITH MINT, CORIANDER, CUMIN AND CARDAMOM

Will graciously serve nine people.

Lamb is one of my favorite meats, but it can be a challenge to cook properly.  It is especially easy to overcook, or for it to be too fatty.  Where the lamb is raised and how old it is can affect the flavor.

This particular recipe does require a bit of butchery skill.  Unfortunately, there are not many places where you can ask the “butcher” to bone or butterfly a leg of lamb for you.  In order to successfully grill a leg of lamb, you need to have the pieces of meat you are grilling to be more or less the same size and thickness, otherwise, the cooking times are difficult to manage and one part of the meat will be properly cooked, while other parts will be underdone or overdone.

There are two methods to achieve the desired result.  Start with a bone-in leg, from which the shank has been removed (if you do this yourself, save it for braising).  The lamb I get from East Fork Farms also has the sirloin removed, which is the piece around the hip.  I like this cut, as I will end of with three equal sized pieces of meat for grilling and it is easier to bone.

The first method is to bone the leg, while it is still raw.  It is far easier to demonstrate this process and too confusing to write – but this is the reason for coming to a class – to see and learn.

The second method is one borrowed from Simon Loftus’ book A Pike In The Basement.  In it there is a recipe for Bulcamp Lamb, which starts off by roasting the whole leg:

“Wrap a medim-sized leg of best lamb in masses of fresh rosemary (tying the bundle with string) and roast in a hot oven for twelve minutes per pound.”

“Remove from the oven and discard rosemary.  Allow to cool until you can handle the warm meat comfortably and then use the fingers (with a little assistance from a sharp knife) to separate the part-roast leg into several sections of different size.  This may sound complicated but is easy once you start.  Discard the bones and trim the meat to remove any fat.”

Originally, I was going to teach this recipe in class, but once I started thinking about it, this recipe is a fall recipe – one for older lamb, the rosemary being such a strong flavor.  Instead, if you first roast the meat, skip the step about wrapping in rosemary.

Once you have the lamb separated into three pieces, then marinate it for at least 4 hours in a combination of olive oil, fresh mint leaves, and coriander, cumin and cardamom all ground together, in equal portion.

When you are ready to grill the meat, build a brisk charcoal fire, remove the meat from the marinade, allow it to drain a bit, season  with black pepper and salt and grill to medium-rare.  Allow the meat to rest for twenty minutes before slicing.  Serve with some yogurt seasoned with the same mix of herb and spice that you used to marinate it.

In the fall, use rosemary.

ROASTING AND GRILLING VEGETABLES

All things seasonal

Asparagus, Spring Onions with their tops, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Baby Turnips, Totsoi

To prepare: Asparagus: grab the stalk by the root end and about 1/3 the way towards the top.  With a quick motion, snap the asparagus – this will remove the tough part of the stalk.  Set aside.  Leave the onions whole.  Cauliflower and Broccoli: cut into small flowerets, about the size of a golf ball.  Set aside.  Turnips: cut the greens from the turnips, reserve.  Cut the turnips in half.  Set aside.  Totsoi:  remove the root end of the stalk with a sharp knife, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, individually toss the vegetables with some good olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  In a very hot oven, in a roasting pan, roast some of the asparagus, some of the onions and all the cauliflower and broccoli, until crispy and browned.  Arrange on a serving platter.  Over the hot grill, grill the remaining vegetables, arrange on a serving platter.

As these are the first vegetables of spring, I do nothing more in terms of seasoning – the idea is to enjoy the new, fresh taste of first emerging produce.

STRAWBERRY FANTASY

Lots of Strawberries (at least 3 pints), what you don’t eat today, will taste good tomorrow

3 pints fresh strawberries – dry one pint the day before

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Special equipment: silicone baking pad – “silpat”

Method: The Day Before: Pre-heat oven to 250°F.  Slice one pint of the strawberries, place a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking pad.  Dry out the strawberries in the oven for about 2 hours, with the oven on, then turn the oven off and let sit overnight.  They should be completely dry and a brilliant ruby red.  Peel them from the baking pad and store at room temperature.  Day Two: Puree one pint of strawberries, flavor with the orange zest. Set aside.

Make Shortbread

Lemon Flavored Shortbread

2 – 9″ pans

1# butter, at room temperature, but not too soft

1 cup light brown sugar

3 cups, sifted, all-purpose flour

1 cup rice flour or corn starch

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest

Method:  Pre-heat oven to 350°F.  Line two nine inch cake pans with a piece of baking paper.  Either by hand or in a mixer with a paddle blade, cream the butter.  Add the sugar and mix thoroughly.  Sift and then measure your all purpose flour.  Sift together the flour and the rice flour or cornstarch.  Add the salt.  In three batches, add the flour to the butter sugar mixture.  Divide into the two cake pans, smooth out evenly, prick all over with a fork and bake for 30 minutes, until a light golden brown.  Allow to cool in the pan for 30 minutes and then turn out.  With a sharp knife cut one of the shortbreads into 8 pieces.  Reserve the other shortbread for later use.

To serve:  Slice the remaining pint of strawberries. In a chilled bowl, (or in a mixer) beat the heavy cream with two tablespoons of powdered sugar.  When stiff, fold in half of the strawberry puree.  Place a piece of shortbread on a plate, garnish with an ample dollop of the strawberry mousse, arrange the fresh and dried strawberries and drizzle with the remaining strawberry puree.  BE SURE to tell your guests that some of the strawberries are indeed DRIED are supposed to be that way.  (In class, I forgot to tell the class this, and some people initially thought they were rotten – however once I pointed out they were intended to be that way – they were delighted by the intense, chewy strawberry essence!)

-Mark Rosenstein

The Menu/Sunday, May 30 – 3 pm ’til 7 pm

• Terrine of Minted Goat Cheese with Butter Pea Sauce
• Rosemary Roasted & Charcoal Grilled East Fork Farm Spring Lamb
• “Bardwell’s Popovers”
• Wood-Oven Roasted Asparagus & Leeks
• Marinated Spring Radishes
• Spring Salad of Arugula, Watercress, Pea Shoots with Lemon Balm & Oil Dressing, Crunchy Salt
• Seeded “Bad Boy” Levain
• Strawberry Fantasy – 21st Century Strawberry Mousse, Dried Strawberries, Marinated  Strawberries & Wood-Oven Scottish Shortbread
• Wines of a delicious flavor served in copious amounts.

Spend a summer afternoon with one of Asheville’s most inspired chefs, Mark Rosenstein and two of the founders of Asheville’s artisan bread revival, Gail Lunsford and Steve Bardwell. Learning to cook leg of lamb in the Bulcamp style and other delicious treats. Restricted to 25 students, you will get hands-on experience with locally raised, organic leg of lamb first roasted in rosemary and then finished on the grill. Seasonal vegetables will be supplied by local farmers for this country-side meal. The preparations will take place in a certified kitchen using the wood-fired brick oven at Wake Robin Farm Breads.

Class materials are organically and locally produced.

At the end of the class, enjoy the fruits of your labor with Gail Lunsford, Steve Bardwell and Chef Rosenstein. Wine and other beverages are included.

The complete charge for the class, dinner, and drinks is $65 per person. Space is strictly limited, so please reserve early. Payment is required by May 24.

Register for class at Wake Robin Farm Breads, email: wakerobinfarmbreads@main.nc.us. Phone: 683-2902 or register online at Class Registration

& Entertaining Weekends

TOURS:  Best of Burgundy, France

The French Broad announces  the summer cooking classes and culinary tours beginning this month.  Saturday’s Kitchen is a 3 hour class based on using the local and seasonal products of Asheville’s farms.  Entertaining Weekends is a 3-day class focusing on menus for entertaining and special meals with an emphasis on food and wine pairings, organizing a menu and using foods of the season.  See a detailed description and pricing for CLASSES here.  The Summer & Fall Calendar is posted here.  Register here for classes.

Calling upon 15 years of living and working in the Burgundy region of France, Alisa and Mark have put together a summer holiday trip to Burgundy July 10 – July 16, 2010.  In  addition to an authentic cultural and gastronomic immersion we also take advantage of being in Burgundy at the same time as “Bastille Day” ( think fabulous fireworks) and the ” 4-14 Festival” a Food & Music festival  in Dijon, Burgundy’s stunning  historic capital. We know this is  very “last minute” – but we couldn’t pass up the sudden availability of a  fabulous gite (French “bed & breakfast”) that an associate of ours just opened in a historic stone -mill house. The trip is small and intimate.  See Alisa’s description of the TOUR here.

Feel free to contact us with any inquiries or questions.

-Mark Rosenstein

A month ago, I went out in the woods with Dustin Raxter, scouting places he collects ramps.  This week, I was in the woods again with Dustin and his father, Ted.  This time, the earth had come alive – ramps, trillium, lily-of-the-valley, branch lettuce, and dozens of other wood-land plants.

Today we were collecting ramps for the last day of ramp “production” at the Smoky Mountain Native Plants Association – where the ramps would be dried and added to their cornmeal product, or powdered and sold as seasonings.  Ramps (“Allium tricoccum”), also called wild leeks, are found growing on rich, wooded slopes in the heart of the Blue Ridge mountains at altitudes greater than 3000′.  Mid-April is prime season.  Our goal today was twenty pounds of ramps.  Yesterday, Dustin and Ted collected 51 pounds, which took eight hours to collect.

Ramps are one of the four favorite Spring greens of the Cherokee.  The other three being sochan, poke sallet and branch lettuce.

Sochan (“Rudbeckia laciniatum”), also known as green-headed coneflower, is one of the most prized spring greens the Cherokees gather. They sometimes call it “sochani.” Closely related to black-eyed Susan (“Rudbeckia hirta”), it grows to 10 feet tall in wet areas and along damp woodland borders.

Poke sallet (“Phytolacca americana”) is also called poke, pokeweed, poke greens, pocan, pigeonberry, and inkberry. It can be found in abundance in open fields and along roadsides.  By various accounts, only young plants should be eaten, after multiple blanchings in boiling water, the older, reddish growth and the roots are poisonous.  In 1969 the song, “Poke Salad Annie”, recorded by Tony Joe White, reached Number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.  I don’t know if it boosted salads of the wild green…

Branch lettuce (“Saxifraga micranthidifolia”) – sometimes called wild lettuce, bear lettuce, or lettuce saxifrage – grows on wet banks and in seepage areas and streams.  On our way in to the ramp patches, we crossed a small stream with an abundant growth and would collect some on the way back out.

All these greens are eaten raw or cooked, the most common method, is “frying them up” in rendered bacon fat – a staple of the mountain kitchen.

My own celebration this time of year is the flavor of “fresh” – after a winter of dull foods numbed by the act of preserving.  A quick mix of these greens, with a little vinegar, salt and pepper is all that is needed – at least for the first week or so.  After the initial thrill of the season’s first wild things, then the urge of creativity can take over.  Here are a few of the recipes I have thought up and tried with ramps and other wild spring things.

Ramps, Smoked Bacon & Branch Lettuce Salad

4 portions

• 2 ounces of bacon, cut into lardons (fat, short “sticks” about 1/4″ x 1/4″ x 1″)
• A healthy bunch of ramps, properly harvested*, cleaned, cut into 1″ lengths
• salt, pepper
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 4 hands-full fresh branch lettuce

Method:  In a heavy iron skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until it renders it’s fat and becomes crispy.  Toss in the ramps and cook for 1 minute, season with salt, pepper and the brown sugar.  Cook another minute.  Add the vinegar, turn off the heat.  Place the branch lettuce in a mixing bowl, toss with the ramp & bacon dressing.  Serve with some corn pone or corn bread sticks.

Mountain Trout Stuffed with Ramps

4 portions

• 4 whole, small fresh trout.  De-boned – having had rib cage and back bone removed
• 2 tablespoons bacon fat or olive oil
• 1 good hand-full of fresh ramps*, cleaned, cut into 1″ pieces, reserve some of the green tops for cooking with potatoes
• 4 hands-full dandelion greens, stems picked, cleaned
• 2  cups of cooked corn grits, fairly soft
• salt, pepper
• 2 more tablespoons of rendered bacon fat or olive oil
• butter
• vinegar

Method:  De-bone the whole trout, leaving them whole.  Season the cavity with salt & pepper.  In a heavy iron skillet (select a skillet large enough to hold all four trout), heat the first two tablespoons of fat over medium heat.  Cook the ramps until lightly browned.  Add the dandelion greens and cook until they are wilted and all the water evaporates.  Season with salt & pepper.  Add the soft corn grits to the mixture, mix well and heat through.  Remove from the heat.

Divide the mixture into four parts and stuff the trout.  Reshape the fish.  Wipe out the skillet.  Over medium heat, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of fat.  Add the trout and cook on the first side, about 4 minutes, until the skin is crispy.  Turn over and cook on the second side until brown and crispy.  Place the trout on four heated dinner plates.  Wipe out the iron skillet, add a healthy knob of butter.  Cook until the butter just begins to brown.  Add a dash of vinegar (or lemon juice) and pour over the fish.

Serve with some very crispy hash browns, seasoned with the green tops of the ramps, cut up.

Corn Grit Loaf with Ramps and Black Walnuts

1 1/2 quart loaf-shaped mold

some oil

Make ahead:

4 cups of corn grits, well seasoned

• 3 ounces smoky bacon, cut into lardons
• 2 hands-full fresh ramps, cleaned and wood grilled
• 1/2 cup black walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup baby turnips, roasted
• turnip greens, from the baby turnips, grilled and drained
• salt and pepper

Method:  First, assemble all the ingredients – cook corn grits to yield 4 cups.  Grill the ramps and the turnip greens  (wash the greens in 3 changes of water and dry well).  To grill them, toss each separately in oil and grill to desired doneness.  Place in a colander to drain.  Cook the bacon until crispy – reserving the rendered fat for another use.  Toss the black walnuts in with the bacon the last minute or two to crisp.  Drain the bacon and nuts in a colander.  Roast the turnips until tender and cut into quarters.  Season everything well.

To assemble – oil the loaf mold.  If you like, line it with a piece of oiled baking paper to facilitate unmolding later.  Heat the grits just until warm and softened.  Place a half-inch layer of grits on the bottom of the mold, then lay in some ramps, turnip greens, bacon and walnuts.  Add more grits and repeat the layering, finishing the top with grits.  Smooth the top and place a piece of oiled baking paper on top.  Place a weight on top.  Refrigerate for at least six hours.

To serve:  Unmold and serve.  You may serve it cold, or I prefer cutting the loaf into slices and cooking it very slowly in some fat until it is crispy on both sides.  Serve with some very finely cut slaw or early spring greens tossed with a little dressing.

-Mark Rosenstein

Scientists wait  for  the day when their hypotheses are confirmed by research. I felt a similar joy when reading the book,  The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner - given to me by a friend.  The book is subtitled “Lessons for living longer from the people who’ve lived the longest.” Apparently “how” we eat has great significance. Three of the nine “lessons” for optimizing your life involve food.

When I opened the book, the first thing to catch my eye was a photograph – it shows Giovanni Scannai, 103, seated at the head of a communal table, surrounded by his extended family.  This image struck me immediately, touching a core value of mine and according to his study – a key to longevity – that of a shared family meal.

After a number of years researching four communities scattered around the world (Barbagia region of Sardinina, Okinawa in Japan, Loma Linda in California, Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica), places he calls “Blue Zones”, Mr. Buettner found a number of practices in common to these people, who’s chance is three times as great as the rest of the world to reach the age of 100.  His book is about “listening to people who live in the world’s Blue Zones.”  He goes on to write, “The world’s healthiest, longest-lived people have many things to teach us about living longer, richer lives.”

After writing an article for National Geographic about the “Secrets of a Long Life”, Buettner’s team continued their research, resulting in his book, which he describes as nine lessons, “a cross-cultural distillation of the world’s best practices in longevity.”

Twelve of his tips from the nine lessons:

• Eat More Slowly
• Focus on Food
• Have a Seat
• Eat Early
• Eat 4 to 6 Vegatable Servings A Day
• Limit Intake of Meat
• Lead with Beans
• Eat Nuts Every Day
• Buy A Case of Quality Red Wine
• Treat Yourself to a “Happy Hour”
• Take it Easy
• Eat less

I would add a thirteenth: Cook For Someone You Love.

This advice is sound and something I strive to practice in my own life, as well as to share through my writing and teaching.  It is no surprise that a third of the habits of people living in the Blue Zones involve food, nor that they closely parallel the core  message of  our “Lessons from an Appalachian Table”.

But advice is one thing, practice is another and when it comes to food, it all comes back to time spent around your own table. One final irresistible tip from the book  ”Enroll in a yoga class”.

Mark's Paris Yoga

-Mark Rosenstein

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread-and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness-
O, Wilderness were Paradise enow!…Omar Khayyam

I have been a chef for 38 years.  Nothing I have done is more difficult than making a great loaf of bread!

Such a simple food – bread.  Four ingredients, flour, water, salt and yeast.  Yet, the variations of these simple, ancient and essential ingredients produces endless results.  When handled with a masterly hand nothing is more satisfying.  Even though I made bread everyday for 38 years, I confess, it was never great.  Now, without other concerns, I can focus attention to perfecting that craft, it might take, perhaps, another 38 years to master.  Hopefully not.

My kitchen is a snow storm of flour dust, the birds in my yard waddle, as I have stuffed them full of stale failures and my neighbors are cringing when they see me walking up the street with a little brown paper bag.  I have wild yeast cultures clinging to cabinets, my drains are clogged with soggy dough.  Bread is becoming my steady diet – toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, parmesan crusted croutons floating in dinner’s soup.  I am determined to make great bread.

Bread making is a humbling craft.

The wisdom of bread making resides in the hands.  Learning the feel of bread, knowing how to shape, and understanding the proper “spring” of a fermented loaf can only be learned by touching.  Nothing is more satisfying than good bread, and nothing is better than good bread you have made yourself.

To that end, I continue my education of wheat – and I will share some of my discoveries for your own experiments.  Making bread is one of those transformational experiences – it connects you with all of history, to agriculture, to the craft guilds of old Europe, and the mysteries of yeast and fermentation.  Making bread by hand, above all, satisfies.

Today, having baked more loaves, it is time to relax – with some liquid bread…cheers

-Mark Rosenstein