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 This is a delicious beef barley soup because it uses oxtails or beef shanks. The marrow from the bones enriches the soup making it very rich and flavorful – the perfect soup for a cold day. It’s adapted from Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That by Ina Garten.
1 tablespoon good olive oil
2 – 3 lbs beef oxtails or shanks
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chopped leeks (2 leeks)
2 cups diced (1/2 inch) carrots (4 carrots)
1 cup chopped yellow onion
1 cup diced (1/2 inch) celery (2 stalks)
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
3 bay leaves
10 cups canned beef broth
1 cup pearl barley
Heat the olive oil in a [...]
Continue reading Rich Beef Barley Soup
 On our farm website, the first statement on the welcome page is “we’re a small, 10 acre farm in Northeast Ohio that believes locally grown, real foods are important” – but just why is locally grown food important?
It’s Fresher – locally grown foods are usually purchased by the consumer within 24 hours of harvest. Produce shipped across the country isn’t nearly that fresh.
Taste – locally grown food can be harvested at its peak; and produce picked and consumed at the height of ripeness tastes so much better!
Nutrition – nutritional values start declining in food immediately after harvest, so locally grown food is more nutritional because it’s fresh. The nutritional [...]
Continue reading Reasons to Buy Food Locally
 At Bramblestone Farm, we keep both Golden Buff and Buckeye chickens; but, people often ask why we bother with Buckeyes – they don’t lay as large an egg or as frequently as the Golden Buffs, so why do we keep them?
Well, Buckeye chickens are an old breed developed to thrive in Ohio’s weather; and were once very popular backyard birds. However, with the demise of the backyard flock during the 20th century, Buckeyes became endangered (less than 72 known breeding birds in 2003). Then in 2005, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) began a program to recover the breed’s original characteristics [...]
Continue reading About Buckeye Chickens
 This pot pie is terrific made with homegrown heritage* chicken, but it’s also delicious made using store-bought chicken breasts. It’s really a thick chicken stew covered with a puff pastry, so it’s very easy to do too. It’s quickly become one of our favorite ways to eat heritage chicken because it’s got so much real chicken flavor.
*Heritage chickens are traditional chicken breeds that are raised over a longer period of tme than today’s factory raised chickens, and therefore develop more flavor (see Heritage Birds for Real Chicken Flavor).
2 whole heritage roasting chickens (app. 4 lbs. each) or 3 whole, bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
5 cups chicken stock [...]
Continue reading Heritage Chicken Pot Pie
 This is wonderfully flavorful; yet it seems light, perfect for springtime. You can serve Panna Cotta with just about any sweet or fruit topping; it doesn’t need to be strawberries - but the strawberries in balsamic are terrific with it. You’ve got to try it, it doesn’t look all that sensational, but it’s delicious!
Panna Cotta is an old Italian dessert, and I think this recipe was originally from Mario Batali; however, the idea for serving it with balsamic strawberries comes from the Barefoot Contessa At Home cookbook by Ina Garten.
1 packet unflavored gelatin (2 tsps)
3 cups heavy cream
2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean
3/4 [...]
Continue reading Panna Cotta w/Balsamic Strawberries
 I think this was the predecessor to catsup, and it’s much better. Catsup seems kind of bland to me – but boy do I like this stuff. We first tried it on hamburgers (and it completely ruined any chance catsup had of getting on my hamburger again). If using fresh tomatoes, make sure they’re big, bold, high flavor tomatoes – don’t bother with insipid hybrids. It’s good on pork, beef, grilled onions, roasted vegetables, and I’m wondering about a cracker with goat cheese. Anyway, I found it at “The Splendid Table” ” blog (see Favorite Links) under Sweet and Piquant Tomato Jam. I also [...]
Continue reading Tomato Jam
This year I planned to grow only heirloom tomatoes (Brandywine, Green Zebra, and Eggyolk), but in a crazed moment (what if the heirlooms don’t produce this year?) I picked up some Early Girl transplants at the garden center. So, I have two orange tomatoes ripening in the garden right now, Brandywine and Early Girl.
The Early Girl tomatoes (picture on the right) look beautiful – deep orange, blemish-free, uniformly round, and you expect they’ll be delicious. The Brandywine tomatoes are not so pretty (the picture on the left). They’re deeply ribbed, often cracked, and randomly shaped. Folks that haven’t experienced heirloom tomatoes go straight for the Early Girls.
But beauty doesn’t create a great [...]
Continue reading A Tale of Two Tomatoes
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