Farming at Midnight Sun Farm and Sculpting Soybeans

Today I farmed at Midnight Sun Farm.  Audra and I were helping out with weeding the kale.  The kale looks so beautiful and clean of weeds!

Audra, myself, and Nick.  Check out Audra's Tumblr here where she shares her experiences with a new career in urban agriculture.  She is awesome!

Myself, Nick and Becky.

I started sculpting soybeans for my second piece that will be outside in the Monet Garden for Chicago's Twelve at the Garfield Park Conservatory.

Once they are completely dry, they will be painted.

Rhubarb!

This is rhubarb from Montalbano Farms that I
bought from Glenwood Sunday Market.  I had 
never tried it before but my Grammy told me she
use to cook it with strawberries.  So I found a 
Strawberry and Rhubarb Sauce recipe.

Here is the rhubarb cut up and covered in
cinnamon and sugar!  I placed this in the oven for
30 minutes.

After the rhubarb baked for 30 minutes, I added 

the halved strawberries. 

The Strawberry and Rhubarb Sauce tasted 

AMAZING and we served it cold over vanilla ice

cream.

But of course, before we had dessert we had real 

food.  :0 ) I made Mashed Sweet Potato with 
Coconut Milk.  Super yummy!  A lovely day of 

cooking. 

Minestrone!

Jacob and I created a really tasty Minestrone that I'd like to share. We had it for a second time last night along with freshly squeezed lemonade and agave nectar.

Minestrone

about 6 servings

-1 medium carrot chopped

-1 medium red potato chopped

-4 cloves of garlic minced

-1 TBS minced shallot

-1 handful of green beans chopped

-32 oz (4 cups) of tomato soup (We use Organic Imagine Creamy Tomato Soup)

-5 cups of veggie broth (I like to use "Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base" so I can control how much salt I want, I usually do 5 cups of water but only 4 tsp of the base)

1 can of red kidney beans

1 7oz bag of tiny pasta letters or stars! They are so cute :0 )

2 tsp of dry basil

4 cups of chopped kale (depends on how much you love kale)

In a large pot heat about a TBS of oil. Add the carrot, potato, garlic, and shallot. Once the potato seems semi-soft (about 7-10min) add the green beans. Heat for 5 minutes. Add tomato soup, veggie broth, beans, pasta, and basil. Simmer till pasta is soft. Make sure to stir often so the letters don't stick to the bottom of the pan. Once pasta is soft, add the kale. Cook for a minute then turn of heat and serve!

Eat a Romanesco!

Here is a tiny update on the second corn I am sewing. I have finished this piece today and have another one to do before I can say I have two pieces of corn done. They take a very long time but it is very relaxing sewing each kernel on.

This is a Romanesco Cauliflower. He was super yummy with horseradish hummus. It is so mesmerizing to follow the pattern of this vegetable.

Last Thursday, Chicago Artist Resource hosted "Public Art: How to do Art in Public Spaces" at the Chicago Cultural Center. I went to educate myself for Potluck: Chicago's project we will be doing in February, and because I have an idea for Version 12. It is a festival where creative people will "open and remix" twelve temporary spaces for the month of May in Bridgeport. Their "plans include opening up a used bookstore, a nightly performance space in a church, a home brewing club kitchen, a department store/gallery showcasing all locally manufactured small batch and artisanal products, nomadic collaborative restaurants, and community kitchens, parking lot flea markets, a neighborhood tourism bureau, and a rotating exhibition space for artist and designers."

I want to propose a public art piece that would produce food as well so that people could take from the piece. Kale and Chard to be exact! I want to draw up some ideas and see if this could actually be possible and then hopefully find some people who would be interested in joining me and making this idea stronger.

I can't wait for summer. I want to farm!

Fall Foods!

mmm mmm fall!

This is an heirloom variety of an acorn squash. It is a Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Acorn Squash. Winter squash is amazing. There are many odd looking varieties. I cut this winter squash in half, took out the seeds, placed the cut side down on a pan with some water and put in the oven for 15-30 minutes at 350 degrees until I could put a fork through it. I like to fill the hole with butter. Some people do brown sugar and butter.

Look at these many different varieties of apples! 7 different kinds actually. Can't remember any of the names only the gala. I wanted to try a gala that wasn't from New Zealand and I swear it was crisper and sweeter because it was local. These apples were all so different and yummy. I got these from the market in front of the Contemporary Art Museum. It is open from 7am to 3pm on Tuesdays. They had about 20 varieties of apple to choose from, each with a tag to describe the taste. It is hard to choose.

Carnival Acorn Squash and green tomatoes! I never tried green tomatoes until I got them in my CSA a couple of weeks ago. They are so tasty when fried! I sliced them 1/4 inch thick, dipped them in a mixture of flour, paprika, salt, onion powder, and pepper, then dipped em in soymilk, then in a mixture of bread crumbs and panko bread crumbs and fried em up. Get yourself some green tomatoes.

Kale! I made "cheezy" kale chips. I discarded the stems and cut the leaves into bite size pieces then tossed them with some canola oil, salt, and nutritional yeast (has a cheesy flavor and very nutritious, hence the name) and put them in the oven for 15 minutes at 375 degrees, flipping them around every 5 minutes until they were crunchy. They are really good.

Looks like I will be volunteering at the Glenwood Sunday Winter Market this year! I am really excited to be more involved with the market. Now I must get back to sewing.