Spring is coming! I heard baby birds chirping when I woke up on Thursday.

Good Sunday to everyone!  I missed an update last week due to being a designated driver for my friend Annie and her 10 family members.  It was quite fun despite my being the only sober one in the group because they’re all characters and it was nice to be a part of a family reunion where you could tell everyone genuinely loves each other.  Makes me miss my family a bit (thanks Mom for reminding me to update the blog!).

My other excuse for skipping the blog was that I was injured for about a week and a half and pretty bummed about not being able to log or drive horses.  I thought I had broken a rib because it was painful to take deep breaths, cough, sneeze, and move my left arm in certain ways.  Alas, I am almost a hundred percent and so I logged on Wednesday and drove horses on Thursday.  I was exhausted but happy by the time Saturday rolled around.

Speaking of Saturday, the last two markets, we have been selling apples from Amy’s aunt and uncle’s local orchards.  They have been kept in controlled atmosphere storage (Amy explained that the apples are placed in a refrigeration unit where the air is removed and replaced with nitrogen, helping slow the aging of the apples) and are soooo delicious.  We’ve sold New England Granny Smith, Empire, Golden Delicious, Jona Gold, and Macintosh apples.  Each is good in its own little way and is a good dessert after a long day.  I’ve grown a better appreciation of apples and am increasingly composing myself of apples through copious consumption.

Another cool thing I was privileged to be a part of was a market meeting where we voted on whether to accept new applicants for booths in the market space.  The meeting was quite informal with applicants just stating what they were planning to sell and how in front of the current vendors.  After all applicants were done presenting, answering questions, and perhaps providing samples, we voted for each one; keeping in mind the economic well-being of each vendor, potential competition, and diversity within the market.  It was pretty quick and painless after a long day at the Brunswick Winter Market.

One of my favorite parts of market is the sense of community you get from just being there week in and week out.  Most of the vendors are nice enough to give other vendors (such as myself) some goodies that they don’t feel like bringing home like bread, cookies, brownies, and leftover cheese (shout-out to Britney at Swallowtail Farm and Creamery!).  I got many this week.  Another aspect of market that reinforces this sense of community is the great willingness to barter rather than just straight buy from each other.  People will always accept food for services or products; I really like that about the food world.  One might say it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Well, that’s all I got for now.  Go out there and support your local farmer even if it means trying unknown foods!  You never know what you’ll like.  You should also check out the Buckwheat Blossom Farm blog, which I have linked here and also on the right side somewhere à.  Amy has some excellent recipes for winter veggies and recently published a little bio and picture of me doing a farm-like activity.  It’s worth the extra few clicks to see my then month old Fu Man Chu ‘stache.  Peace out homies.

Rich’s Quick and Easy Winter Farm Breakfast Recipe (RQEWFBR for those of you who like acronyms)

I’ve been trying to find some quick and creative ways to use veggies in meals and recently have become a fan of trying root crops in my eggs to give them an added dimension of flavor and richness.  For those of you who are light breakfasters (a real word according to Microsoft), this is nice.  Most mornings I additionally have two pieces of buttered/honeyed toast, and quick oats (oatmeal) with honey, raisins, and cinnamon.  If I’m feeling really hungry, I make a few piece of Jeff’s salted, smoked bacon.  Ooooh man, the bacon. 

·       Bacon (made delicious and sliced)

·       Half a small turnip roughly chopped

·       A small carrot roughly chopped

·       Minced garlic (who doesn’t love garlic?)

·       Two eggs

If you’re having bacon, you should cook that first so you can use the fat to cook your turnips, carrots and garlic.  This sounds like a lot of fat, but I need it and it just adds a bunch of flavor. 

Once the bacon is done, turn the heat down to medium-low and throw on the chopped turnips and carrots.  Stir occasionally until they start to brown a little.  Add the garlic and stir frequently until it’s fragrant; about 30 seconds.  Crack the eggs right on top of the veggies and break the yolk with your spatula as if you were making scrambled eggs.  This shouldn’t take longer than a couple minutes.  Butter your toast, cinnamon your oatmeal, chow down.  You like?