Morning Song Farm News

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Our chickens are a treasured part of Morning Song Farm and are living the Good Life. They spend their days clucking and scratching freely on the farm, and are fed leafy green scraps and fresh fruit. We supplement with locally purchased scratch that is not certified organic, but have just sourced a Certified Organic (by Oregon tilth) soy-free feed. They're joined by our two llamas, Couscou and Dream A Little who together have completely halted the coyote attacks on our pet chickens. Apparently, llamas and canines don't get along, and the coyotes give our llamas a wide and respectful berth. Although everything else on the farm is CCOF Certified Organic, the kids' chicken eggs aren't. (Once a chicken is fed a non organic feed, they must be taken out of the facility if you want your eggs to be certified organic.) But if you are looking for a humanely raised egg source, from chickens fed with a soy-free organic feed; you can't do much better than our eggs. Commercial pro...

The Road Less Traveled, in concert with Morning Song Farm is offering a CSA canning class near the Road's Santa Ana location on Saturday, May 19th, 2012. Road Less Traveled • 125 N. Broadway - C Santa Ana, CA 92701 • (714) 836-8727 Tues-Sat: 11am-6pm Sun: 11am-3pm Delilah and Farmer Donna will post more info as we sort out all the details. Hope you can join us!

Enjoy our fennel, as it has a very short season. Now is the time to dry what you can't use. Either lay out on your kitchen counter, or tie a piece of twine around the end and attach to anything in the kitchen (even a nail) that will allow it to hang to dry. Once dry, crumble into an air tight container for later use. * Toss fresh or dried fennel on the barbeque to infuse its light, sweet taste to veggies, chicken or fish. * Add fresh or dried to salads, dips and dressings * Use in omelettes! * Dry and use as a stomach settling tea, either alone or combined with mint, dried citrus peels, etc. Consider stevia as a tea sweetener.

Click on image to enlarge for easier reading. Most of our mulberry trees are too young to produce much, so there's not a lot of fruit to go around this year. But all larges this week received a small taste of a mix of our three varieties. Two are Pakistani and one is Himylayan, which looks more like a blackberry. You'll note that the Pakistani fruit is sometimes less dark, indeed there's an occassional ripe piece of fruit that is closer to white. The coloration of the fruit is much less uniform than, say, blackberries. There IS a mulberry that is ALL white, but it didn't pass the taste test here; just too sweet and poorly nuanced. My favorite is the Pakistani, either one of the two kinds we grow has its fine points. The smaller, finer version has a sharper taste and aroma, and the fuller version is juicier and sweeter. I love them both. We have added a whole grove of mulberries, and expect to be in real production, this time next year. Can't wait! We had a sprout ro...

Quick tip from Julie Janseen: "I like to clean my lettuce as soon as I get it and have it all ready to eat so that making salads daily is quick and easy. The problem I encountered was drying it off--there is too much for a salad spinner and it is time consuming and wasteful to use paper towels - I am now putting my clean, wet leaves in a mesh laundry bag (Like what you would use for lingerie) and taking it outside and swinging it around until all the water comes off"" Not sure if others will find this helpful, but I thought I wouls share just in case."

So, no more difficult than mashed potatoes, and prepared essentially the same way. You just need to add less butter and salt to your end product because parsnips are more flavorful. Peel and cut your parsnips and boil, just as you would to make mashed potatoes. Be careful not to overcook into mush. Drain, and either use a mixer or a potato masher to puree into a mash. Add salt, pepper, and cilantro garnish. Serve warm.

Ingredients: 2 Tbsp butter 6 green onions 2 Tbsp California Olive Oil 1.5-2 pounds parsnips, peel and chopped 1 teaspoon salt 4 cups chicken stock or vegetarian alternative 2 cups water 2 cups cilantro 1 Tbsp lime juice 3 crushed garlic cloves dash of hot sauce Heat butter, add chopped green onions, cook until soft. Add parsnips and olive oil; salt. Add stock and water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Add cilantro, garlic, hot sauce and puree in a Cuisinart or similar mixer until smooth. Serve. Garnish with freshly ground pepper, a little cilantro or a tiny sprig of rosemary

The thing about parsnips, is they can be used almost like potatoes. They are a tiny bit more fibrous than your typical potato, and certainly more flavorful. I couldn't enjoy a potato without salt and butter, but the parsnip comes with its own flavor package and can be enjoyed without added salt or fat! Try parsnips and you'll be hooked! I used many of the items from our large CSA box this week in this quick concoction. Peel the parsnips, and cut into pieces. They take the longest to cook, so I put them in the stir fry pan first, with the smallest amount of olive oil to prevent sticking. I add crushed garlic, pepper and a dash of hot sauce. Then I dd everything else; the green onion, celery (oops, captured this photo before the celery was in the pan) baby carrots. I toss a sprig of rosemary in towards the end so the rosemary flavor is there, but not overpowering.

Click on image to enlarge for easier viewing. What's new this week are parsnips! Somewhat like potatoes in their versatility, we've included a few ideas this week to enjoy these winter root veggies, see above.

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