Morning Song Farm News

Dill is among my favorite herbs...this from the woman who considers pickles a main dish. Anyway, I enjoy growing, harvesting and really just handling dill in general. Here's a ridiculously simple dip that I often use: 1. One container of organic sour cream (the only easy way to avoid ingesting the GMO rbst used in sour cream production ....which is used to inhumanely increase production...is to purchase organic sour cream. Consumers can purchase conventional milk labeled as being produced without rbst, but currently, we cannot purchase other dairy products conventionally with confidence; so be aware. 2. Dash of salt 3. Sprigs of dill 4. Combine in a Cuisinart and pulse until smooth. Serve chilled with a few sprigs to decorate your dish.

Morning Song Farm offers macadamia tours to the wholesale tour industry, and our signature "welcome to the farm" treat is a macadamia muffin that many have asked the recipe for. It's been perfected over the years, and I share it here: Ingredients: 2 large eggs 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1 cup mashed banana 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 2 and 2/3 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour 1 cup of heavy cream 1 cup crushed macadamias 1/3 cup pureed raisons 1/2 cup hemp hearts Preheat oven to 350. Procedure: Cuisinart raisins and sugar and set aside. Don't try to puree the raisins later, as it doesn't work. Combine eggs, sugar/raisin mix, and oil, beat together. Then blend in banana and vanilla. Set aside. Combine all the rest of the dry ingredients. Combine the raisin/sugar/eggs with dry ingredients, and then add cream and nuts. Carefully spoon...

It's a rare week that goes by when we don't get the "cannabis question", most disconcertingly... by strangers knocking on my front door. Friends and unknowns alike: just because I know how to grow sprouts, avocados and well...a whole lot of edibles...doesn't mean I'm WHATSOEVER interested in breaking federal law or have even the first degree of technical knowledge of how to grow medical marijuana; which is a highly specialized crop. Check out Robert Duncan's story below. As a farmer, I never bought the subterfuge that it is legally safe to be involved in the cannabis business in California, and no one bothering to become informed should, either. Many farmers believed the current administration's promise that state laws would be honored in regards to marijuana legalization. That promise, however truly heartfelt...has not played out in the real world.  The problem can't be blamed on President Obama personally; this blog isn't an indictment of Pr...

Here's an issue that I've brought up from time to time: just how organic are foods coming from foreign nations that are labeled as "organic?" Metal-contaminated soils and water sources do not affect organic certification. The certified organic label addresses intentional inputs like fertilizer and pest management practices. Farming on contaminated soils does not disqualify a farm from labeling their harvests "organic." A FOOD CHAIN RADIO RELEASE FROM METROFARM.COM Our math problem:  If 20% of China’s farmland, and 90% of its surface water, are contaminated with toxic heavy metals, and if 1/3 of the organic food we import is from China, then… How much of the organic food we eat in the U.S. is contaminated with China’s toxic heavy metals?   This Saturday at 9am Pacific, the Food Chain Radio show with Michael Olson hosts Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch, for a conversation about the organic foods we eat from China. Topics...

Green beans for all our friends, and favas for Large shares, only. Lots of avocados, probably dancing on the edge of getting complaints about too many avocados this year. On the other hand, limes are hard to come by..despite our 200-tree count grove, it has been a particularly bad year for limes. Which might account for the ridiculous price for them in the store. Wholesale price for limes (if we had any) is over a hundred dollars a carton. The wind and fires out here are consuming are attention. Once again, just as we were scheduled to harvest our mulberries, they were blown to the ground.Unlike blackberries, mulberries fall off in your hand when they're ready to pick. That makes picking easy, but accidentally knocking off dozens of berries while reaching for that just-of-of-reach-really- big one..also easy. So when the winds pick up, it's over. Mulberry mulch for the whole grove. :/ This may be why mulberries haven't become mainstream yet.

One of my favorite side dishes at Vietnamese restaurants is the vegetable-stuffed rolls that are wrapped in rice/tapioca skins. It never occurred to me I could make them myself until recently when I thought I'd give it a try. Ok...it takes some practice, but it's worth the effort of a few failed "logs" because these things are so tasty! Rice paper (see image) is sold in a dry, paper-like form in most grocery stores. You dip each sheet individually in a bowl of warm water, and the inedible rice paper sheet miraculously  turns into the flexible, tender skin that you recognize at once. I just couldn't believe that the dry form could ever turn into anything edible...I thought maybe the ones I'd purchased were old. They come out of the package brittle and plastic-like. A quick dip in warm water, though, and they're ready to stretch over whatever you choose to stuff them with. I put everything in the center, fold opposite edges in first, then just roll, dip and ...

Our Pakistani mulberries continue to offer up sparse yields after losing the early harvests to the high winds of April. This week, only large shares will see the unusual fruit. We're hoping to be able to offer everyone tastes next week, weather permitting. You'll note a clamshell this week of an odd succulent vegetable: that's our purslane. Grown for its nutritional value as well as its satisfying "crunch," this year's leaves seem to be more "lemony" that last year's. The stalks are just as tasty as the leaves. I've included a couple recipe ideas for this hard-to-find veggie this week.