WPFF addendum: From farm to table!

Holy Mother of God Almighty! I nearly forgot one of the most important pieces to my latest, ever so authoritative, report from When Pigs Fly Farm -- the dish on my latest WPFF dish: Grilled Scape and Fennel Frittata. This comes in tribute to my bronze fennel plants, which came down this weekend before they went to seed, which would have required some serious Fennel Family Planning without this intervention. Read into this what you will.

I did harvest and dry a truckload of fennel fronds, which I'll use like dill in the months to come (tried some on grilled salmon last night, as a matter of fact -- the verdict: Yum).

Anyway, here's what I threw together a couple weeks ago with my first harvest of fresh fennel fronds -- any version will work. It's a nice, light summer supper if I do say so myself.

7.26.11 Whoops! Left out the star of the show. Mea culpa!


WPFF Grilled Scape and Fennel Frittata

1 Yukon gold potato, cubed
1 garlic chicken sausage (or more if you're feeling sausage-y), meat removed from casing
Half a sweet onion, chopped
1/2 c (or whatever) leftover grilled scapes,* chopped

* Scapes: The long, curly tops of garlic. Yes. People harvest these, they are weird-looking and they are delicious! No. You won't find them at the grocery store. Check your area farmers markets.

2 gloves garlic, minced
2 T fresh finely chopped fennel fronds (or 1 T if using dried)
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese (most any other cheese probably would be fine, though), divided
5 eggs, beaten well
2 T extra virgin olive olive
Salt and pepper
3 T Panko breadcrumbs

Combine 1/4 c parmesan with the Panko bredcrumbs and set aside.

Heat a large overproof skillet and add olive oil. Heat oil till warm and "ripply." Add potatoes and brown. Once potatoes are slightly browned and becoming tender, add crumbled chicken sausage meat, onion and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes and add chopped scapes and fennel. Cook till potatoes and meat are done, stirring frequently so things don't scorch. Much.

Combined 1/4 cup grated cheese and eggs, season with salt and pepper, and add to potato-meat mixture. Let eggs set for 1-2  minutes, then start loosening the cooked edges so the liquidy egg is evenly distributed. Repeat the edge-loosening step until the eggs are cooked evenly through. Once they appear to be firm and set, turn on the oven broiler to medium-high or thereabouts.

Top with cheese-Panko mixture and place about 2 inches under the broiler. Broil till mixture forms a lovely golden "crust." Said frittata can be served warm or at room temperature.

The news from When Pigs Fly Farm

News flash: Radishes are the new rock stars of InstaPlants. I planted these little fellas last Saturday and had sprouts by Tuesday.


Whoa. That's what I call an InstaPlant of the highest order.

Radishes = InstaGratification. I guess that's why they're so entertaining -- for me and hundreds of first graders around the world, that is.

Carrots, on the other hand, have to be the vegetable kingdom's number one underachiever. These are the blokes I planted at the end of March/early April.

Pretty underwhelming, yes? Agreed, we had a little run-in with some voracious slugs, and yes, I know, our frigid, wet spring hasn't helped, but still. . . . but, Carrots, pick it up the pace here, would you? There are salad plates awaitin'.

I harvested the last of the mesclun this weekend, and will give romaine (the earlier victim of bastardly birds in cahoots with the voracious slugs) another chance. Yes, I know. It's a cool weather lettuce and, theoretically (note the operative word theoretically), we're heading into the warmest part of the summer, but I say, improvise.

Tiny blooms are forming on the fennel, which means it's getting close to going to seed. This is bronze fennel -- it doesn't produced the classic fennel bulb, but instead is used for its leaves and appearance. I pulled one plant this weekend and chopped up the leaves for seasoning.

The faint but heady scent of licorice lingered in my kitchen all afternoon. I think there's a grilled scape-feta-sundried tomato frittata in our near future.

The rest of the boys will need to go pretty soon otherwise we will have "The Fennel Plants That Devoured When Pigs Fly Farm" blockbuster on our hands.

I've saved the biggest WPFF news for the last: Forget the corn tassels. We now have ears of corn. Yep. You heard it here: My little patch of heaven at When Pigs Fly Farm has ears of corn. No tomatoes, but ears of corn.

Please.

Hold your applause till the end.

P.S. Farmer Jim has been busy as a WPFF Bee regarding all things composting. Stay tuned for a report next week!

The news from When Pigs Fly Farm

The news is -- the weather's been crap. Cold, damp and dank. I've been amassing packets of seeds -- not to mention two heirloom tomato plants -- with nowhere to go.

Oh, wait a minute. That was LAST week's report.

Well, my friends, not much has changed. We've had freezing temperatures, rain, snow, wind. . . and, yes, you've heard it here, graupel.

What is graupel you might ask? My factoid BFF Wikipedia defines graupel as "supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake." How sweet.

(As a kid, we called it corn snow. I like that better.)

No matter how you shovel it, graupel is white precipitation, aka, snow. Something that should be long gone at the end of April. Even my tulips, typically very enthusiastic early bloomers, are having a hard time embracing this year's spring-that-never-was awakening.

But back to WPFF. I put fennel (courtesy of a friend at work) in the ground last Sunday.

And then it snowed.

Although carrots are still MIA, I have microscopic sightings of arugula and romaine lettuce -- as does Farmer Jim.

And then it snowed.

And, yes, those ARE tomato plants in my dining room. I think they've now taken root.