welcome
Greetings from the farm!
it’s a beautiful June day, with weather that I imagine would be comparable to that “California weather” us East coast/midwesterners so often hear about. It is sunny, warm, no humidity and a slight breeze. Perfect!
We’ve been doing a lot of work around the farm sprucing up the back yard, moving fence, spreading NINE tons of river rock and brush hogging (it’s like mowing the lawn for big fields). We couldn’t have done most of this without the Covid restrictions. In one liefe changeing day in March, 2020, every one of our non-farm obligations was eliminated so we have had a lot of time to complete projects. In addition to the changes made due to Covid, we’ve also been busy growing and changing due to Erik’s accident.
For those if you new to the farm, our main farmer is my husband, Erik. I affectionately refer to him as #FarmerErik. On December 29, our 18th wedding anniversary, he fell off our sunroom porch roof and shattered his tibia, losing three inches of bone. Because of the damage and risk of infection, he was hospitalized for an entire month. He had seven surgeries during that time (I chronicled our lives on Instagram) and had a final surgery on April 28. He was one of the first “elective” surgeries permitted in Pennsylvania during the pandemic.
During Erik’s recovery, I was forced to become more active in our business and when the realities of the Covid quarantines hit, I knew that if we were struggling to find the staples we needed, other families were struggling too. So I did some research and managed to find a grocery store supplier who would deliver to our farm. My hope was to get 11 other families interested in buying a produce box so it would be worth it. Turns out my hunch ws right and lots of people were struggling to get produce. The produce boxes have been a big hit, but I’ve gotten a lot of feedback that while you love them, you don’t always know what to do with everything in the box.
That leads us to this blog. I’ll use this space to chronicle the adventures on our farm, but also offer meal suggestions and recipes for familiies looking for simple and healthy options, all while using the ingredients in our produce boxes and meal starter kits. I designed both to be a simple way for busy families to get what they need to feed their family without spending precious time in the grocery store.
You may have seen on our Instagram account, the recipe for Mojo Marinade. I used it with pork shoulder (often referred to as a pork butt) and I doubled the recipe so I had leftovers. Since I have spent the last two days pressure wasing our decks, I used the lefover pork for a second meal Tuesday night for Pork Carnitas with Lime Cilantro Slaw. This was a great option for us because Erik and our youngest son and foodie, Whit, were able to make it without me. Whitaker is ten and LOVES food and to help cook. He simply heated up the pork in a skillet while Erik put together the slaw with a simple bag of pre-mixed slaw and this dressing:
CILANTRO LIME SLAW DRESSING:
3 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 Tablespoon Rice Wine Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/3 cup Olive Oil
Simply whisk all the ingredients together, pour over the slaw and refrigerate for 1/2 an hour so the slaw absorbs the flavor. Erik ended up adding some onion to his portion, but kept it out of the main bowl because the kids don’t care for onion. It was the perfect meal after a busy day!
Come back and visit soon,
❤️Jennie