Shallots in a Quick Greek Pasta Salad

A healthy salad seasoned with shallots that will spice up your taste buds. You can add optional rib eye steak or chicken breast to make it a meal. When I made this I used what I had on hand and added red bell peppers and fresh tomatoes at the very end so they didn't get mushy.

Ingredients:

• 8 onces whole wheat penne pasta
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 pound shopped shallots (Petersens)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes diced (Petersens)
• 1/2 cup sliced black olives (optional)
• 1 cup chopped fresh spinach (Petersens)
• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper (Petersens)
• 1 teaspoon basil pesto (I made extra and froze some from this summer)
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup pine nuts or sun flower seeds
• Optional: Rib Eye Steak or Free Range Chicken Breast

Directions:

• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes until al dente. Drain and toss with olive oil, keep warm.
• Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium heat. Saute shallots and garlic. Stir in soy sauce, and cook a few seconds longer.
• Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the sun-dried tomatoes, olives, spinach, basil, feta cheese, and pine nuts. Toss with pasta in a large bowl and serve.
• Add optional rib eye steak or free range chicken breast.

Market Menu for Saturday, December 7, 2013

We will have the following items at the market for Saturday, December 7, 2013. We are at the fair ground for winter market this week.  (New items are in Bold Print)

Salsa - Brandywine, Cherry Tomatoe, Roasted Roma, Hot'n'Sweet, Jalapeno Jelly (yum)
Brussels Sprouts
Pumpkins - Decorating, Cinderella
Winter Squash - We have a 1 or 2 week supply remaining
     Acorn, Spaghetti, Delicata, Orange Hubbard, Butternut, Buttercup, Orange Kuri, Kubotcha
Pie Pumpkins - New England Pie, Winter Luxury
Red Onions
Garlic (We ran out of garlic last week, but shallots are a good substitute, see "shallot week posts")
SHALLOTS
Leeks
Sweet Spanish Onions
Chipolini Onions
Kale - Regular
Dried egg plant
Cipotle Smoked Peppers
Smoked Sun Dried Tomatoes
Sun Dried Tomatoes
Lisa's Soap

Shallot, Carrot, and Parmesan Fritters

Shallot, carrot and parmesan fritters are a delightful start to any meal. They are smaller more bite sized, but remind me a lot of apple fritters, with a deliciously different flavor. The extra egg and tablespoon of baking powder make a very light fritter. Shallots and carrots are in good supply at our farmers market booth year around.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 - 1/2 lb shallots, diced
• 1 cup grated carrots, use our candy carrots for a sweeter fritter
• 1 1/2 cup flour, this does not have to be a wheat flour
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp fresh chopped thyme
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 2 large free range eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/4 tsp black pepper, fresh ground
• coconut oil for frying

Instructions:

• Saute shallots with butter over medium heat until golden and sweet, that should take about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat, then cool to room temperature. Combine dry ingredients and wisk in the egg and milk and mix until smooth. Stir in the shallot mixture, cheese and pepper. Adjust flour to a thick consistency.
• Heat oil to 350F. Scoop the batter in tablespoon quantities into the hot oil and cook until golden, about 1-2 minutes. Drain to paper towels and keep warm while you cook the remiaing batter. Season and serve.

Optional Dipping Sauces:

• Combine 1/4 cup of raspberry jam with 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar and 1 teaspoon dark sesame oil. Mix together.
• Combine 1/4 cup of jalapeno jam with 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and 1 teaspoon olive oil. Mix together.
• Combine 1/4 cup poblano relish, 1/4 cup raspberry jam and Greek yogurt.  Mix together. This was my favorite and what I used when I made fritters.
• The fritters would also be great with a sugar glaze or powdered sugar.

What is a Shallot and How to Select a Good One?

Welcome to shallot week. This week on the blog we will describe shallots and their uses.

Shallots are a member of the allium family. The allium family contains some very popular root crops like onions, garlic and leeks. Shallots are often seen as a small mild onion, but they are really their own species.

They are started early in the spring from shallots saved from the previous year.

Shallot History

They originate in the mediterranean area. Botanically they are named Allium ascalonicum, this name comes from the city of Ascalon in Palestine, where they originated. Historians think the De Soto brought shallots to the new world during is exploration of the Louisiana territories. The shallot is popular in French cooking.

How to Select Shallots.

Shallots have golden brown scales that cover the light purple layers of firm crunchy flesh. Select shallots that are firm, large, and heavy for their size. Avoid shallots that are sprouting as they are  more bitter.

How to Store Shallots

Shallots keep extremely well and we often sell the last of our shallots almost a year after they are harvested. Many of the shallots have two lobes surrounded by a common wrap of scales. These are often large and easy to peel and use. They are the preferred selection in the fall and winter. The single lobe shallots keep longer however and though smaller are the ones that we save to plant in the spring.

What Do Shallots Taste Like

Shallots have less of a sulfer and bitter taste than onions. They have a onion taste with a hint of garlic. As cooked, they are sweeter and have a great flavor.

When to Use Shallots

Because they are milder, shallots are often used when they are going to be used raw. Shallots are also great with vegetables that are mild in themselves and can benefit from the seasoning effect of an allium but might be too strong if garlic is used. When cooked slowly shallots have a melt in your mouth sweetness. Because of this sweetness shallots are the darling of chefs and gourmet cooks at home.

Remember to remove the papery scales from the outside of the shallot before cooking.

We will have shallots and onions from fall to spring this year,

Benchmarking, Beyond the Theory

In the last post on benchmarking, we found that benchmarking is the process of seeking out those best practices that will lead to the superior performance on the farm. We also learned the Benchmarking method includes the following steps:

1. Know your operation. Know the strengths and weaknesses of your farm
2. Know your competitors and industry leaders.
3. Choose to incorporate the best.
4. Gain superiority by using best practices.

But how do you benchmark? 

Let me make some suggestions.

The Japanese sent droves of teams to the US to look for best practices in US industries. Farmers can do the same thing, investigate the best farms in your industry and area. Don't be shy they will usually be happy to spend some time with you. Especially if they aren't in your market area. Polyface Farm home of Joel Salatin hosts large tour groups each summer and you can get the whole story on their operation. But I think the real gems are the unpublished backroads of the farms around you. I would start at the local farmers market with a farm that is doing a great job and ask if you can pay them a visit. 

Look across other industries for best practices. Processing and manufacturing industries have often developed technologies that are useful on the farm. Medicine can also be a treasure trove of ideas. GPS technology started in the military and is now used pervasively in agriculture to map soil types, fertility and yields. 

Read, read and read some more. I have found ideas in diverse areas such as ancient history (fertile dark soils that sequester carbon in Central America formed by mixing biochar and compost from thousands of years ago), sea biology (minerals from kelp and algae from the sea), hydrology (water use), engineering (many technologies), military (GPS), optics (refractometers), the list is endless. Read other peoples blogs.

Organics seminars, classes and trade shows such as MOSES (Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services) are great ways to benchmark with peers and get a great deal of information and a very short period of time. This is the largest organic trade show in the nation and it is about an hour from where we live.

Use your experience, your training, the best practices you have found, to create your own manifest destiny and other farmers will want to benchmark with your farm. 

Don't rush it, It sometimes takes years of digging, learning and searching to connect the dots in agriculture. An observation one year may only be clear years later when you read the next book or take that next class. 

Sounds like fun to me.

Benchmarking on the Farm

Benchmarking is the process of seeking out those best practices that will lead to the superior performance on the farm. The Japanese term dantotsu means seeking to be the "best of the best". Benchmarking is a positive, proactive, structured process which leads to changing approaches and competitive advantages.

"We have always done it that way" is simply not sufficient and extrapolation from the past may lead to poor future results. New practices and methods have to be uncovered and the best of these have to be combined to provide a competitive advantage. The practice of widely searching for new ideas for methods, practices and processes not limited to farming is called benchmarking.

The basic steps to benchmarking are:

1. Know your operation. Know the strengths and weaknesses of your farm
2. Know your competitors and industry leaders.
3. Choose to incorporate the best.
4. Gain superiority by using best practices.

For more information see: Benchmarking by Robert C. Camp

Holistic Mnagement - What is it You Really Want

Holistic Management, A New Framework for Decision Making, by Alan Savory

A Book Summary

In this summary of Holistic Management I quote freely from Alan Savory's book but summarize the main points. Kind of a Cliff Notes version. Don't be put off by the focus on grazing and agriculture. This is great stuff for managing your family or business.

Forming a Holistic Goal: What is it You Really Want?

Start with a statement of purpose that reflects in a very few words what you were formed to do.

A quality of life statement expresses how you want your life to be in the whole you have defined based on what you value the most. It expresses the reason you are doing what you are doing, what you are about, and what you want to become. It includes your short term needs and long term mission. Things like economic well being, relationships, challenge, growth, purpose and contribution.

Forms of production are the things you will have to produce some of which will be products derived from your resource base, others will be derived solely from the creativity and skills of the decision makers. Each of the needs in the quality of life statement will have to be met by some form of production. You must ensure that what is produced meets your stated purpose.

Future resource base must describe how it must be many years from now to sustain what you have to produce to create the quality of life you want. This 100 to 500 years from now. Consider the people, how we must be far into the future. The land, arising from almost every transaction there is an effect on the land that is experienced months or years later that is far removed fro the original transaction. Create a statement you can test decisions against. Typically this includes how fundamental processes work in any environment such as, water cycle, mineral cycle, community dynamics, and energy flow. You may also want to describe the community you want to live in or work in and the services available to your community.

Holistic Management - What Are You Managing

Holistic Management, A New Framework for Decision Making, by Alan Savory

A Book Summary

In this summary of Holistic Management I quote freely from Alan Savory's book but summarize the main points. Kind of a Cliff Notes version. Don't be put off by the focus on grazing and agriculture. This is great stuff for managing your family or business.

Defining the Whole: What Are You Managing?

The holistic goal is the driving force in Holistic Management and will guide every significant decision you make. Before you can begin, you first have to define the whole your management encompasses. A minimum whole at which point Holistic Management becomes impossible would include the people involved in management, the resources they have available and the money on hand.

Holistic Management - Predator Prey and Timing

Holistic Management, A New Framework for Decision Making, by Alan Savory

A Book Summary

In this summary of Holistic Management I quote freely from Alan Savory's book but summarize the main points. Kind of a Cliff Notes version. Don't be put off by the focus on grazing and agriculture. This is great stuff for managing your family or business.

The Predator Prey Connection

The third key insight is that in brittle environments, relatively high numbers of large, herding animals, concentrated and moving as they naturally do in the presence of pack-hunting predators, are vital to maintain the health of the lands we thought they destroyed. Acceptance of this insight will help to reverse damage humankind has inflicted on the more brittle environments. Overgrazing is not in fact a function of animal numbers.

Timing is Everything

The identification of the brittleness scale and the role of herding animals and their predators in maintaining the health of brittle environments has shown why these environments were prone to desertification. This is the fourth key insight.

Holistic Management - The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

Holistic Management, A New Framework for Decision Making, by Alan Savory

A Book Summary

In this summary of Holistic Management I quote freely from Alan Savory's book but summarize the main points. Kind of a Cliff Notes version. Don't be put off by the focus on grazing and agriculture. This is great stuff for managing your family or business.

The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

No whole, be it a family, a business, a community, or a nation, can be managed without looking inward to the lesser wholes that combine to form it, and outward to the greater wholes of which it is a member. As a society we have had good success managing mechanical systems that can be viewed in isolation. We have had ever increasing problems with large environments and systems that are non-mechanical. Frequently, advice that appears sound from a specialists point of view (such as an engineer or economist) proves unsound holistically in a particular situation. A new generation must be trained to think holistically for themselves and then weigh and select expertise that really fits the case. Only the whole is the reality.

Viewing Environments in a Whole New Way

The second insight overturns the belief that all environments respond in the same way to the same influences. They don't. Specifically the old belief that all land should be rested or left undisturbed in order to reverse deterioration has proven wrong. Rest only works in a nonbrittle environment, rest in a brittle environment damages it.

This second insight raises the question of how grazing animals might provide the disturbance necessary to the health of a brittle environment, without overgrazing.