Snap Pea & Radish Salad with Burrata – Recipe of the Week!

Posted on by Jay Mendelsohn

Snap Pea & Radish Salad with Burrata

  • 2 French Breakfast Radishes (thinly sliced)
  • 1 pint Snap Peas (halved)
  • 2 C Spring Mix (roughly chopped)
  • ¼ C Mint (fresh leaves, chopped)
  • 1 T Scallions (finely chopped (about ½ scallion))
  • 8 oz Burrata cheese
  • 3 T Olive Oil
  • 1 T Lime Juice
  • 1 pinch Flaky Sea Salt

  1. Gather your ingredients

  2. Let burrata come to room temperature
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine radishes, peas, spring mix, mint, and scallions.
  4. Add olive oil and lime juice to bowl, and toss to coat.
  5. Tear burrata to expose center, and set out on plates. Sprinkle flaky salt on top.
  6. Top burrata with salad.

In mine, I split some of the pea pods open to add to the texture variation!

National Pollinator Week June 22-28, 2020

Posted on by Meghan Buckley

Happy National Pollinator Week! 

National Pollinator Week is an official federal recognition of the importance of pollinators to our ecosystem, sparked particularly by colony collapse of honeybees.  It became an official week in 2007 with unanimous approval by the US Senate.

Some things that you can do to help your local pollinators:

  • Avoid spraying pesticides on your lawn unless necessary – and if so, hire a professional who is knowledgeable about protections for pollinators.
  • Plant clover and native wildflowers in your yard.
    • Clover makes an excellent lawn, if you would like to lessen your lawn maintenance at the same time! It is soft underfoot, green, and grows much slower and tops out much shorter than grass.
  • If you find a swarm of bees, don’t panic! Contact your local beekeepers association, and they will send someone out to get them for you.
  • Contact your legislators to ask them to back H.763 – An Act to protect Massachusetts pollinators!

Remember: No bees, no food!

Snap Pea Panzanella with Grilling Cheese – Recipe of the Week!

Posted on by Jay Mendelsohn

Snap Pea Panzanella with Grilling Cheese

A delicious summer salad with crispy grilling cheese.

  • 2 C Sugar Snap Peas (trimmed)
  • 2 C Spring Mix salad greens (roughly chopped)
  • 2 Scallions (finely chopped)
  • 1 T Mint (finely chopped)
  • ¼ t Garlic (minced)
  • ½ C Olive Oil
  • 1 T White Wine
  • 2 slices Sourdough bread (cut into ½” cubes)
  • 4 oz Grilling Cheese (thickly sliced)
  • 1 pinch Salt

  1. Set out ingredients.

  2. Preheat the oven to 350°.

  3. Toss sourdough with 2T olive oil and salt until coated.
  4. Arrange sourdough on a baking tray and cook approximately 10 minutes, until toasted.
  5. Whisk together wine, 2T olive oil, garlic, and mint in a small bowl. Set aside as dressing.
  6. In a serving bowl, combine snap peas, spring mix, scallions, and toasted sourdough.
  7. In a frying pan, heat remaining 2T of olive oil over medium high heat. Cook grilling cheese approximately 2 minutes per side, until golden.
  8. Allow cheese to slightly cool, combine with salad, add dressing, and serve.

Grilling Cheese comes from Narragansett Creamery. If unavailable, substitute Haloumi. 

Happy Pride Month!

Posted on by Meghan Buckley

June is Pride month, in recognition and support of LGBTQ+ community members and in remembrance of those who came before us and fought for our rights.

Unfortunately, most of the Pride events we would typically attend have been canceled as large gatherings are unsafe due to COVID-19.  Normally, we attend Boston and Providence Pride, and this year I was going to try making some rainbow roses to bring along!

Thank you, during Pride month and at all times of the year, for supporting a queer-owned business.

Snap Pea Risotto with Garlic Scape Butter – Recipe of the Week!

Posted on by Meghan Buckley

 –

Snap Pea Risotto with Garlic Scape Butter

An ode to late spring, this fresh risotto features snap peas and tender garlic scapes.

  • 3 C Chicken Broth
  • 1 C White Wine
  • 1 C Arborio Rice
  • 1/3 C Atwells Gold Cheese (grated)
  • 1 C Sugar Snap Peas (trimmed and cut into ½” pieces)
  • 1/4 C Scallions (chopped)
  • 1 T Olive Oil
  • 2 T Garlic Scape Butter

  1. Set out ingredients

  2. In a medium saucepan, heat chicken broth to medium heat
  3. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat
  4. Add scallions to skillet and cook for 3 minutes
  5. Add rice, stir to combine ensuring rice is coated with oil. Cook for approximately 2 minutes.
  6. Turn the heat on the pan to medium-high, add the wine, and cook, stirring constantly, until the wine is absorbed.
  7. Add one soup ladle of stock from the saucepan to the pan at a time, stirring constantly until absorbed.
  8. Along with the final ladle of stock, add the snap peas. After absorbing this final ladle, the rice should be tender, but still have a crisp exterior. This takes 20-25 minutes.
  9. Remove from heat, and add garlic scape butter and Atwell’s Gold cheese.

To make Garlic Scape Butter, blend 1 stick of butter with 2-3 garlic scapes in a food processor until smooth.

Atwell’s Gold cheese is available from Narragansett Creamery. If unavailable, you can substitute Asiago.

Meet the Ducklings! Three new members of Stargazer Hollow

Posted on by Meghan Buckley
3 ducklings cuddled together on a heating pad in a cardboard box

Today we welcomed three new members to the Stargazer Hollow team — a trio of Indian Runner Ducklings!

3 ducklings cuddled together on a heating pad in a cardboard boxThey are just two days old today, and will live inside with the family until they grow enough of their adult feathers to be ready to swim in the duck pool with our three adults.  I expect this will be sometime around the end of August.

Living on a small farm with limited space for now, we are keeping to a maximum of 6 ducks.  In the future, when we have bought a larger property, we definitely want a big flock! The ducks are delightful to watch, and their eggs are our most popular product at the markets.

All three ducks are likely to lay blue or blue-tinted eggs, once they start laying.  I’d expect their first eggs around the end of September.

Without further ado…

Xena is a black runner duck, like Aurora.

Zelda is a blue runner duck, like Cinder.

Leia is a chocolate runner duck, our first one!

The ducklings took their first trip outside today as well, since it was a nice day.  They explored the herb garden and had a few snacks.

Prosciutto & Spring Greens Crustless Quiche – Recipe of the Week!

Posted on by Jay Mendelsohn

Prosciutto & Spring Greens Crustless Quiche

A farmers market take on the classic "ham and cheese" quiche.

  • 5 Duck Eggs
  • 1 C Spring Mix (roughly chopped)
  • 1 C Scallions (thinly sliced)
  • 1 clove Garlic (minced)
  • 1 C Prosciutto (chopped)
  • ½ C Milk
  • 2 C Gruyere (grated)
  • ½ C Romano Cheese (grated)
  • 1 T Butter

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°

  2. In a large saucepan on medium heat, melt butter and sauté scallions and garlic for 5 minutes, until aromatic and softened
  3. Add spring mix and prosciutto to saucepan, and cook for additional 3 minutes
  4. Beat together eggs, milk, and cheese in a mixing bowl
  5. Mix together vegetables and egg mixture
  6. Pour into oiled pie pan
  7. Bake for 35-40 minutes, test for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center

 

This quiche is a great make-ahead breakfast, as well as being a nice way to use up any extra salad greens at the end of the week.  

We get our milk from a local farm, Crescent Ridge Dairy. If you’re in the greater Boston area, I definitely recommend checking them out for that old-style “milkman” experience!

National Egg Day

Posted on by Meghan Buckley
A basket full of colorful eggs with decorative daisy flowers. In the corner, text that says "National Egg Day".

Yesterday was National Egg Day, according to those fun “unusual holiday” calendars.  A basket full of colorful eggs with decorative daisy flowers. In the corner, text that says "National Egg Day".

We celebrated by gathering up this week’s eggs in a basket to take a picture of their awesome variations.  Our ducks lay eggs with shells that are different colors from each other, which is pretty cool to see! This doesn’t impact the taste or color of the egg itself at all, and is mostly related to the bloom on the egg.

The eggs are also still coming out with some variation in size, since the ducks are young and only recently started laying.  Buttercup is the first duck to lay consistently — basically all “extra large” size white pretty eggs.

We also gave the ducks a bouquet of trimmed arugula flowers as a treat!

In honor of National Egg Day, I’d also like to pass along a recommendation for my ideal method of making scrambled eggs.  Such an easy food, but it’s so easy to make bad scrambled eggs.  Follow these instructions and it’ll be perfect.

 

Radish Risotto – Recipe of the Week!

Posted on by Meghan Buckley

Radish Risotto

  • 12 French Breakfast Radishes (chopped)
  • 1 C Radish Greens (roughly chopped)
  • 6 C Chicken Stock
  • 1 C White Wine
  • 2 C Arborio Rice
  • 1/2 C Parmesan cheese (grated)
  • 3 shallots (diced)
  • 1 clove garlic (minced (about 3/4T))
  • 5 T butter ((or olive oil))
  • 1 dash Lemon Pepper (optional)
  • Fresh Mint (to garnish)

  1. Prepare ingredients and set out so you will not need to step away from the risotto while it cooks.

  2. In a large saucepan, heat the chicken stock to medium temperature. Do not remove from heat during cooking process.

  3. In a large pan over medium heat, melt 3T butter and add the shallots and garlic. Cook until soft and aromatic, approximately 5 minutes.
  4. Add radishes and cook for approximately 2 minutes.
  5. Add rice, stir to combine ensuring rice is coated with butter. Cook for approximately 2 minutes.
  6. Turn the heat on the pan to medium-high, add the wine, and cook, stirring constantly, until the wine is absorbed.

  7. Add one soup ladle of stock from the saucepan to the pan at a time, stirring constantly until absorbed.

  8. Along with the final ladle of stock, add the radish greens. After absorbing this final ladle, the rice should be tender, but still have a crisp exterior. This takes 20-25 minutes.

  9. Remove pan from heat, and stir in parmesan cheese, remaining butter, and 1 dash of lemon pepper.
  10. Serve, adding a few fresh mint leaves on top for garnish.

 

Some quick additional tips for making great risotto:

  1. Have patience! When you are adding each ladle of broth, it’s important to make sure the previous ladle has fully absorbed.
  2. Use tools that work for you.  I really like using a pasta spoon for all this mixing!
  3. Remove the risotto completely from heat before adding final ingredients, particularly cheeses.

Spring Greens Flatbread – Recipe of the Week!

Posted on by Jay Mendelsohn

Spring Greens Flatbread

A quick tasty dinner option using spring mix as the main feature!

  • 1 pre-made pizza crust
  • 3 C spring mix salad greens
  • 1 scallion (finely chopped)
  • ¾ C romano cheese (grated)
  • 3 T olive oil
  • flour or cornmeal (for work surface)

  1. Preheat the oven to 425°

  2. In a frying pan over medium heat, add 1T olive oil, scallions, and spring mix

  3. Stirring occasionally, heat for about 5 minutes to wilt greens

  4. Add flour or cornmeal to your work surface to prevent dough from sticking

  5. Roll out dough to approximately ¼" thickness — imperfection is fine!

  6. Spread remaining olive oil over crust, and add wilted greens + scallion mix and the romano cheese

  7. Bake, ideally on a pizza stone, for 11-12 minutes

  8. Serve immediately for best taste

 

As a note, when we took these photos, we only used 2C greens — we upped the greens to 3C in the recipe since it wasn’t enough!

 

If you’d prefer not to use pre-made dough, a great easy one to make at home is King Arthur’s!