Author: Mark Bothwell

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Foraging

I can’t decide whether foraging food or growing food is more satisfying. Our horse pastures sprout meadow mushrooms this time of year, and this year the crop has been huuuuuuge.

A few of these will become a side-dish for steak tonight. The rest go into our dehydrator.

Agaricus campestrina

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Farming Aptitude Test

Multiple choice (chose all correct answers).

You need to remove this 100′ row of exhausted summer squash plants to plant a fall crop of radishes and salad greens. To accomplish this task you will need:

summer squash
Summer Squash
  1. A stout pair of gloves
  2. A cool cloudy day
  3. A helicopter with grappling cable
  4. Patience

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Viscaina (Biscayne) sauce

The choricero pepper is the essential ingredient of Basque (Spanish) chorizo, and of the red mother sauce of Basque cooking, salsa viscaina. The sauce can be made from fresh peppers, or dried peppers rehydrated in hot water.

Use it as a sauce for grilled fish, or baked potatoes.

Ingredients

  • 2 onions (preferably red) thinly sliced
  • 6 choricero peppers, thinly sliced
  • 1 garlic clove, smashed and diced
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 slice of dry bread
  • 2 cups of stock (vegetable, chicken, or fish stock)
  • 1 tsp salt

Procedure

  • Saute onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent.
  • Add sliced peppers and continue to saute (about 5 minutes)
  • Add stock and salt, simmer 30 minutes
  • Add bread slice and pcuree with immersion blender, blender, or food processor.

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We have been certified

No, not certified insane. Certified by the Real Organic Project.

Although High & Dry Farm has been certified organic for several years now, we, like many farmers, have been disturbed that the USDA allows organic certification of farming practices such as hydroponic farming, and raising livestock on barren lots deceptively designated as “pasture”. Certification by the Real Organic Project means that farming practices conform to what any reasonable person would identify as organic, i.e, crops grown in soil, without use of artificial chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, and livestock raised under humane conditions including access to real pasture. So there is organic, and there is real organic. We are both.