Emma Elementary School Garden
This is a picture of part of the community garden at Emma Elementary. I collected a 5 gallon bucket full of beautiful basil. Aylah and I processed it all last night! We will be making pesto and freezing most of it. We will be using some of the pesto to make pesto pizza for Aylah’s class on Friday! I thought the best way to get kids to eat pesto is by putting it on pizza!
Aylah with her basil!
Contributed by Meghan Tucker
Homemade pork bbq
Nothing quite like slow cooked homemade pork bbq with Farside Farm pork and homegrown tomatoes. Serve it on fresh out of the oven West End Bakery Buns and see what happens!
Aylah's Berry Tart!
Homegrown Mushrooms
Chicken of the Woods mushrooms
Reid found these beautiful chicken of the wood mushrooms out in Madison County on the side of a tree. They taste somewhat similar to chicken and they have a very similar texture. I chopped them up and put them into a strata for a vegetarian friend and she thought there was meat in her strata!
July and August are the best time to look for these types of wild mushrooms in the woods. They are hard to miss because of their bright orange color. The bottom of the mushroom is yellow and they grow in clumps on trees or stumps. As with any wild mushroom make sure you positively identify them before you eat them! Other delicious ways to enjoy are in a “chicken” salad or “chicken” soup. I also served them over homemade goat cheese tortellini with bechamel sauce.
Chicken of the Wood Mushrooms sauteing in a skillet
Grassfed Beef Burger w/Crispy French Fries!
Our neighbors came over the other night and we grilled up some grassfed beef hamburgers. The trick to grassfed beef is to add a little fat! Maybe this defeats the purpose for some people, but the reason I buy grassfed beef is because it is a sustainable (not to mention much more pleasant) way to produce beef. I personally think it can be a little dry and therefore lacking in flavor. Add a little home cured local bacon to that beef and you have a mouthwatering juicy flavorful burger that you don’t have to feel guilty about. We topped ours with homemade goat cheese and farmers market tomato. Vanessa brought some lettuce from her garden and Eric brought over the homemade double deep fried french fries. For dessert there was Blackberry Peach Cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream. I love July in North Carolina!
