Morning Song Farm News

This week we're putting a little something in large shares that at first glance fails to impress. It's the weird looking lemon thing with a little hat on top. That's our Pakistani Sweet Lemon. Although the juice of the fruit is usable, it's not very sour. Where the jewel of this fruit lies is in the skin. The peel will impart a scented-geranium flavor and aroma to baked goods and more. Here's how to use it easily: grate the entire fruit usign a potato peeler, sharp knife or cheese grater. Throw in your Cuisinart or high speed blender (I use a Vitamix) and add sugar. Blend. Let sit overnight in the fridge. Then use in baked goods, lemonade or salad dressing. It makes a killer sugar cookie additive. Another easy use: grate and mix with lime juice, (you can use the juice of the Sweet Lemon, too), good quality olive oil, salt, little rosemary, a little bit of water (I actually use ice) and blend. It's a salad dressing with ingredients that appreciative guests have...

The family-wide debate over the worthiness of owning a goat herd continues, with strong partisan leaders in opposing camps. Frankie, at 18, sees the herd as never-intended-to-be-eaten-meat-on hooves and has zero interest in their finer attributes. He lives in fear of the day one of them jumps on his micro-managed clean-beyond-belief fire engine red Mustang. That would just do him in. Enough so, that if he can't get opposing counsel to see his point of view, he is up for relocating the herd to somewhere, over there. As in on the other side of the farm. Or the planet. Or perhaps as a reasonable compromise, someone else's farm. "You could visit, often, mom." He has, however, finally prevailed in his long held belief that Lance and Boo Boo should conduct their "mommy and me" time, not in our living room. Now in Lance's defense, Boo Boo is Lance's little mental health provider, and he likes hanging out with her away from the rest of the herd in peace. ...

D.I.Y. Cookbook The New Year is upon us, and I’ve chosen this year to officially begin a renewed effort to make healthy choices. Yes, I live on an organic farm and grow organic fruit, veggies, herbs and macadamias, so like most of our farm customers, that’s not the weak link. Oh no. The area that has troubled me for quite some time, and why a new workbook called: D.I.Y Cookbook has captured my attention, is this: everything else that goes into my farm kitchen isn’t as thoroughly vetted. Check out the ingredient labels on your chips, crackers, candies, muffins, breads, and more. I know there’s a load of diets and health recommendations out there that suggest wiping those items off the menu entirely, but here on planet earth I’m running a household with two teenagers and a busy schedule; so ridding my larder of those items isn’t going to happen anytime soon. I want an alternative we can all live with! Born of a farming necessity, I’ve always been a D.I.Y. advocate, and D.I.Y. Co...

Better Than Tater Tots! Here's the thing about Kabocha squash, it's so creamy when cooked, it has a banana-like consistency, which is why it's the best squash ever to use in smoothies if you find yourself with left overs. Refrigerate, and use the next morning in lieu of bananas! I think the Kabocha is the sweetest, most complex flavored squash, so don't let it's inconsistent size, warty exterior or blotchy skin fool you. Even the word "squash," does it injustice. We should change the name for sure. Certainly small children are not impressed, indeed are instantly turned off by the moniker, "squash." As in I'll sit at the table until morning before I eat the miserable squash, mom. So the following recipe does away with the S word entirely, and uses only Kabocha .  Don't think of it as squash, think of it as a new fruit of the vine that is totally cutting edge. The very cool thing about Kabocha is that the skin is edible, so you don...