True Love and Homegrown Tomatoes

Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes,
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes?
Only two things that money can't buy-
That's true love and homegrown tomatoes.

-Guy Clark, American songwriter

This week the Northeast Kingdom Farm to Table Project is pleased to once again feature Joe’s Brook Farm of Barnet, Vermont, who will be providing Juniper’s Restaurant with fresh tomatoes and assorted seasonal vegetables.

It is the second week of September, and my garden continues to produce mind-boggling amounts of zucchini. Luckily, the tomatoes are catching up, and their glowing red sweet acidity is a perfect visual and gustatory (word of the day: relating to the sense of taste) complement to cool, green zucchini.

The recipes in this week’s post are inspired by the harvest of my garden, particularly by the sweet cherry tomatoes coming in by the dozen. I’ve included some tomato laden main dishes as well as side-dishes of other seasonal vegetables.

Here's to True Love and Homegrown Tomatoes!

Main Dishes

Salmon Provençal
A recipe given to me by my grandmother, I made this seasonal salmon recipe the other night and served it with quinoa pilaf (a tasty and nutritious grain from South America), zucchini spears in a maple-soy marinade, and spicy sweet chilled beet soup.
Yields 4 servings


Sauce
4 cups diced, deseeded tomatoes (any size or variety)
¼-½ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar
½ cup minced shallots
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoons lemon zest
½ cup chopped fresh basil
optional: ¼ cup chopped fresh herbs (thyme, oregano, chives, etc.)
sea salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste

Salmon
four 6-8 oz. salmon filets
olive oil
sea salt & black pepper to taste
lemon wedges

1. Combine ingredients for the sauce in a medium, non-reactive bowl, three hours to two days ahead of time. Mix well, cover and put in the fridge to marinate.
2. Preheat the oven to broil.
3. Brush the salmon filets with olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste. Place filets skin side down (if using filets with skin) onto an oiled piece of aluminum foil on a baking sheet.
4. Place salmon in the broiler about 5-6 inches under heat. Broil for 7-8 minutes until salmon is firm to the touch and opaque pink in the middle.
5. Spoon a generous amount of the sauce onto individual dinner plates. Place salmon filet on top of sauce, spoon more sauce on top. Serve with lemon wedges



Baked Stuffed Zucchini with Beef, Broccoli & Tomatoes
My mom’s recipe, I made this dish for a Labor Day Weekend potluck. It transports well and tastes great hot or cold. A vegetarian version can be made by substituting spinach, garden vegetables, and/or soft cheese for the hamburger meat. To satisfy the carnivore, replace or augment the sliced tomatoes on top with fried bacon.
Yields 4 servings


2 large (10-12 inches) zucchini

Stuffing Mixture
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1½ cups chopped fresh seasonal vegetables: I used broccoli and diced cherry tomatoes
¾ lb. ground beef: I used all-natural Belted Galloway beef from Meadowview Farm on Darling Hill
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
sea salt & black pepper to taste
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water

shredded Vermont cheddar cheese
thinly sliced fresh tomato

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Halve zucchini lengthwise. Scoop out seeds to create 4 “zucchini boats”.
3. Poke several holes into the zucchini with a fork. Place onto an oiled baking sheet and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
4. Heat olive oil on medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan.
5. Cook onions until soft, then add garlic. Sauté until garlic is aromatic.
6. Stir in ground beef, mixing well with the vegetables. Cook thoroughly until brown.
7. Add seasonal vegetables in order of the length of time they take to cook to tenderness: add broccoli just after the onions and before the garlic; add tomatoes after the hamburger has browned.
8. Boil the water in a separate medium saucepan. Stir in quinoa, lower heat to medium. Cook covered for around 15 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is fluffy. Stir into stuffing mixture.
9. Fill the zucchini, mounding stuffing slightly above the edge of the “boat”. Top zucchini with cheddar cheese and bake for a further 20 minutes, adding sliced tomatoes on the top for the final 10 minutes.
10. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and cool for 10 minutes.

Side Dishes

Quinoa Pilaf
Most boxes have easy directions on the side.
Yields 4 servings

2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup minced onions
1 clove minced garlic
2 cups water or chicken broth
1 cup quinoa
¼ cup fresh chopped parsley
2 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Heat olive oil on medium low heat in a medium-sized saucepan.
2. Cook onions until soft, then add garlic. Sauté until garlic is aromatic.
3. Add water or broth, cover and turn up heat to high to bring water to a boil.
4. Stir in quinoa, lower heat to medium. Cook covered for around 15 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is fluffy.
5. Stir in parsley and lemon juice, serve hot or cold.


Zucchini Spears in Maple-Soy Marinade
My own invention.
Yields 4 servings

Sauce
¼ cup pure Vermont maple syrup-what else?
¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
¼ cup olive oil
black pepper to taste

2 medium (8-10 inches) zucchini

1. Combine maple syrup, soy sauce, olive oil, and pepper.
2. Cut zucchini into 4-5 inch spears.
3. Marinate zucchini in sauce for 20 minutes or more.
4. Cook zucchini in your favorite manner: broiled, grilled, or sautéed until cooked through.


Spicy Sweet Chilled Beet Soup
My own invention.
Yields 4 servings

2 cups diced beets (any variety)
1 cup diced red potatoes
8 tablespoons butter
¼ cup pure Vermont Maple syrup
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, add more to taste
sea salt & black pepper to taste
4 cups milk
sour cream
¼ cup chopped fresh herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, chives, etc.)

1. Steam beets and potatoes until tender enough to separate with a fork. Mash well.
2. Add butter, maple syrup, cayenne, salt, pepper and milk. Blend well.
3. Chill until cold. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, sprinkle with fresh herbs.

Joe's Brook Farm

The Special
This week we are pleased to feature organically grown tomatoes and assorted seasonal vegetables from Joe’s Brook Farm of Barnet, Vermont. All this week, Chef Casey Graham will use Joe’s Brook Farm products in main dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads. Be sure to ask your server about tonight’s Farm to Table Special!

The Farm
Joe’s Brook Farm is an organic vegetable farm in Barnet, located south of St. Johnsbury in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, eggs and specialty items to 10 local members and they attend weekly farmer’s markets in Lyndonville (Fridays from 3-7pm), St. Johnsbury (Saturdays from 9am-1pm), and Danville (Wednesday mornings). They also provide produce to several local fine restaurants.

www.joesbrookfarm.com


It is good to know and be friendly with your neighbors. The connections you make with the people in your community have a real impact on the quality of daily life, especially when you live in a sparsely populated area like the NEK (Northeast Kingdom). The most important connection you can make when you are trying to be a “localvore” – one who eats only or mostly food that is produced locally - is the one you make with your local farmer. So it is good to have neighbors like Mary Houde-Skovsted and her husband Eric of Joe’s Brook Farm, because they provide members of their community with beautiful, organic vegetables, and keep their land healthy, active, and undeveloped in the tradition of the small family farm. As it turns, out, I am technically a neighbor-once-removed of Mary and Eric, who attended Middlebury college with my real life next-door neighbor. It is a typical kind of connection in this NEK of the woods.

I am visiting Joe’s Brook Farm in Barnet, about 8 miles past St. Johnsbury on Route 5. It is a muggy July morning during this third week of uncharacteristically hot weather here in the Kingdom. At the famous red round barn in Barnet, I make a right on Joe’s Brook Road, pass Brook Hill Road and pull into to the 19th century farmhouse on the left. Across the street sits the barn, sagging back slightly from the road. Eventually the barn will become a farm stand with help from a historic restoration grant from the state. The land drops off sharply behind the barn to the fertile floodplain of Joe’s Brook.


I meet Mary at the farmhouse and we walk behind the barn to the rows of lush vegetables below, discussing our mutual friend and the small world we live in. Mary points out her portable greenhouse, which moves along a rail system that allows it to house cold weather crops like spinach until they can survive outdoors, then moves to shelter warmer weather crops like tomatoes. One of Mary’s neighbors and the former owner of the farm, Stewart Hoyt, stops by looking for plant starters. Stewart is a carpenter and artist, and created the beautiful statue of the man that overlooks Mary’s garden (could this be Joe of Joe’s Brook?). The main greenhouses where Mary grows her tomatoes are on a plot of land that includes the home, sugarhouse and garden of the late Airie Lindsay, one of the founders of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA). Airie’s daughter and son-in-law now lease the land to Mary and Eric and also donated their tractor and farm truck to the fledgling farmers. It's all about connections.


I am setting up the camera for our interview when Mary comments that these farm visits I’m doing must be starting to blur into each other. I have to admit that in certain ways, yes, they are. Whether they raise animals, vegetables, or make syrup there seem to be only a few reasons why people choose to be natural and organic farmers in northern Vermont: they love the area, they feel strongly about protecting the environment, and they are passionate about good, fresh food and want to share it with others. But how did they get to where they are now? That part of the story is always unique and interesting.

We interrupt this article for a brief Northeast Kingdom moment:
Mary and I are talking and walking through the garden when the frantic barking of her huge dog Maddy brings our attention to the large bull moose who has just arrived in the next field over.

Okay, now we can move on.

Mary is from Barnet and grew up about 2 miles away on a dairy farm, the eleventh of twelve siblings. She met Eric in college. The couple moved to the Northeast Kingdom in 2007 and bought their farm. This year is their first doing a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), providing weekly shares of vegetables, eggs, and specialty items like maple syrup to 10 local members, and they attend weekly farmer’s markets in Lyndonville, St. Johnsbury, and Danville. Growing up, Mary did not want the life of a dairy farmer, but vegetables had their appeal. “I grew up down the road and my mom always had a big garden, and we always ate out of the garden,” she says. Her early exposure to homegrown food influenced her shopping habits in college and ultimately her views on our national food system and choice of career. “I think everyone should have the chance to buy fresh local food and see what it tastes like, because to me, that’s real food,” she explains.

Since purchasing the farm, Mary has devoted herself full time to the endeavor and has witnessed a surge in the demand for local, organic foods. She is excited to be a part of a community of farmers who are working together to promote the local foods movement. “There are a lot of opportunities for more education,” Mary says. “I think we all realize that we’re not in competition with each other, we’re in competition with Price Chopper and California, the bigger guys, and if we can all just be on the same page, and be friends, and share our techniques, then we can get much further standing together.” Mary is also appreciative of work that the state is doing to promote small vegetable farms. The Vermont NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) is an organization that traditionally provides aid to dairy farms, and they recently began offering an opportunity for local vegetable growers to obtain free large greenhouses. The program stipulates that the greenhouses cannot have heat or electricity, but the structures alone will allow farmers to grow cold weather crops far later in the season.

Joe’s Brook Farm currently grows everything from spinach, broccoli and tomatoes to pak choi, fennel and ground cherries. They will soon offer strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, and will have maple syrup in the spring. I ask Mary how she is eating her vegetables at the moment. “I like tomatoes raw, with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil,” she says. “You can’t underestimate good olive oil because that adds a lot to any dish. I’ve been eating a lot of gazpacho in this heat.” Good idea. I drive away with plans to jump in Joe’s Brook, make gazpacho, and visit my nextdoor neighbor to tell her about the new connection I’ve made.

www.joesbrookfarm.com