I mentioned in a previous post that we’re nearing the finish line to offer our farmhouse for vacation rentals to our CSA membership. We have planned on welcoming our first guests starting the weekend of October 3rd. Price for CSA members is $250 a night, two night minimum, with a $100 cleaning fee which includes bed linens. I’m working on an activities book that guests can make reservations from, prior to their arrival. There’s a local Swedish and Deep Tissue Massuese that will come out to the farm with her table. Ever the diligent farmer, I have voluntered to submit to a massage this weekend to see if I should include her in my activities book. I’ll let you know! There’s also several wine tours, cheese tasting, olive oil tasting, ballooning over the wine country of Temecula (which is just one exit north) and antiquing. I also thought I’d try to reach my old spinning teacher, Lila Sturges, to see if she’d come out by appointment and give an individual class to guests that wanted to learn how to spin our llama fiber. The farmhouse has a spinning wheel, so Lila would only have to bring her know-how. There’s several casinos a short drive from the farm, so some of you might enjoy that. Also the Lawrence Welk Resort is just down the 15 from the farm, and I’ll include showdates and times in my activity book, as well.
August 7, 2008 - Morning Song Farm
That Parsley Isn’t Plate Decoration!
Many of my adventuresome supporters must have rolled their eyes when they saw the parsley in their baskets this week. But wait! Hear me out! I too, remember being told not to eat the Denny’s plate parsley as a child. It wasn’t to be consumed, it was just there to class the plate up a little. The logic escaped me then, and the value of parsley has been in question ever since.
But several people have said how they enjoy cooking with parsley, and the seed catalogs claim it’s easy to grow (true) so I thought we’d enjoy trying it out. Of course numerous thumbs’ down will affect next year’s seed buying forays, so don’t hold back if you hated it.
But first just try this recipe, which is so easy it hardly counts as a recipe. I made 2 cups of a brown rice (no bleached rice in my kitchen which really is a kissing cousin of the zero value Twinkie and Ding Dong). I chopped off the woody stem ends of the entire bunch of parsley and put half in the cuisinart and chopped. Then I did the other half. Don’t do all at once or you end up with parsley pesto, which is a different deal altogether. I then combined the cooked rice, one crushed clove of garlic, )okay the truth is I used 3, but I could live on garlic, so maybe most of you are going to want just one) all the parsley, a little salt to taste and some walnuts. I drizzled a little (maybe 2 teaspoons) of a really good olive oil from Temecula Olive Oil Company and chilled. That’s it. Even if you don’t serve it for dinner, you can keep it in the refrigerator for an amazing, nutritional snack. I prefer it served cold.
Here’s the pick ticket for this week:
Parsley
Kale (that’s the heavy duty looking green thing) It can be chopped up and cooked just like spinach
Lettuce Head
Beans
Avocados
Asian Pears
Cherry Tomatoes; red and yellow
Swiss Chard
Beets in large baskets only
Baby lettuce in large baskets only
Mint
Basil
Peaches (I think I should grow more of this particular tree; they aren’t super pretty, but sure are good!)
Limes
Heirloom Cukes
Jalapenos