strawberry dressing

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh organic strawberries from any of our farmers
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp organic cane sugar, honey, Beautiful Dreamer from Beautiful Briny Sea or sweetener of your choice
• 1/4 tsp Sea Salt or I use Friends Forever from Beautiful Briny Sea (a sea salt blended with honey)
• 2 tbsp Pecan oil from Oliver Farms

Instructions

1. Mix berries with vinegar and sweetener.

2. Let sit for at least 1 hour.

3. Add salt and pecan oil and liquify in blender or food processor.

4. Refrigerate.

Good on salads, fruit, ice cream, and Greek yogurt.

Sweet Potato Butter

Ingredients

• 6 c diced peeled sweet potatoes

• 2 c diced peeled apples

• 2 c water

• 2/3 c orange juice

• .5 tsp ground nutmeg

• .25 tsp ground cloves

• 1 tbsp + 1.5 tsp cider vinegar

For a sweet butter

• .5 c packed light brown sugar

OR .5 cup honey

• 1.5 tsp cinnamon

For a savory butter

• 1 tsp Kosher Sea Salt

• 2 tbsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp cayenne (or more if you like spicy)

Instructions

1. Put all ingredients (except vinegar) to a 7 quart slow cooker, cover and cook on low for 9-10 hours.

2. Add vinegar and blend with an immersion blender until smooth OR puree in batches through a food processor.

3. This butter can be frozen in tupperware. For individual servings: load up an ice cube tray. Expect to be able to keep in the refrigerator for at least 2-3 weeks.

Imam Bayildi

Ingredients

• 1 medium or large egglplant

• 1 red onion

• at least 4 cloves garlic

• olive oil

• 3–4 large tomatoes

• olive oil

• 1/2 cup water

• 1 tbs honey

• black pepper

Directions

1. Remove the top of the eggplant and halve the eggplant. Make a pocket in each eggplant by slitting them from top to tail, not cutting the whole way through. Peel the skin in alternating strips. Rub them inside and out with salt and set aside for half an hour. This sweats out the bitterness. Rinse the eggplants in cold water, and squeeze the flesh with your thumbs to make the pocket bigger.

2. Meanwhile, make a fresh tomato sauce using the red onion and lots of garlic–both diced. Sautee olive oil until golden brown. Add bit of honey, a twist of black pepper, a generous glug of olive oil, and three or four chopped tomatoes. Cover, and let them simmer for ten minutes or so.

3. Back to the eggplants: squeeze them out and fry in enough olive oil to coat the pan until all sides are golden brown. Set them in an oven safe baking dish, stuff the pockets with a generous heap of tomato sauce, add about 1/2 a cup of water and a big splosh of olive oil, and bake them, covered, in a hot oven for about 45 minutes. If your dish doesn't have a lid, cover with aluminum foil.

4. You can serve them hot; but better still give them time to cool and serve at room temperature. You know how good it is to pick at a cold stew? Same thing.

Blueberry Cole Slaw

Ingredients

1 head of cabbage (Hickory Hill Farm)

1/2 onion (Riverview Farm)

1 carrot, julienned (Woodland Garden)

1 pint blueberries (about 2 cups)

1 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon honey (Moore Farms and Friends)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro or parsley (depending on the growing season)

1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted

Kosher salt

Preparation:

1. Shred the cabbage and thinly slice the onion, preferably using a mandoline on its thinnest setting or a cheese grater works. Combine the cabbage, onion, carrot and blueberries in a large bowl.

2. Add the mayonnaise, vinegar, honey, cilantro or parsley (depending on the season), cumin and 1 tablespoon salt and toss to combine. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 4 hours

Carrot Soup

Jarrett Stieber's creamy carrot soup was a much needed feast of
sunny colors against a rainy afternoon.

Ingredients
2 bunches of baby carrots
1 quart of milk
1 quart of water
1 cup of honey
1 stick of butter
salt and lemon juice to taste

For Garnish
Sparta Imperial Lions Mane and Shiitake (cut into pieces and roast in a 350º oven until they look sexy)
some toasted peanuts
some ground espresso

Directions
1. One of the most convenient things about soup making is how easily you can see how much you'll be making. This recipe should yield enough soup for dinner, but if you need to make a bigger or smaller batch you can just fill up a bigger pot with more of everything and have more soup. This recipe is very easy to make and if you pay attention to the little details, it is extremely delicious and will impress your diners!
2. Take your carrots firstly and cut off the green tops (since the soup is blended, the greens will mix with the orange and you'll end up with a less pretty brown color). DO NOT THROW THE TOPS AWAY, THEY ARE NOT GARBAGE! From here, you can add the carrots (unpeeled and cut into smaller pieces to increase cook time) to a pot with all of the other ingredients and boil vigorously until the carrots are completely tender and mushy but not overcooked to the point of loosing their pretty orange color. The butter will 'break' and be floating at the top. That is ok! It will become friends with the rest of the soup when you put it in the blender.
3. Next, ladle enough of the soup mixture to fill your blend halfway (blend in batches because over stuffing will cause improper blending and the hot liquid will expand too much and teach a scalding lesson on how easy making a mess can be). Blend on high speed for about thirty to forty five seconds (hold the top of the blender down with your hand holding a kitchen towel for safety because the heat may cause it to pop off), until the mixture is very well blended. Should you want to put on your fancy pants, you can even pass this soup through a strainer to take any remaining clumps out and give it that velvety restaurant feel... but after it's blended, it's ready to eat! Taste it and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Garnish the soup with some of your mushrooms, toasted peanut, a good pinch of ground espresso (freshly ground, please... you worked hard on the soup, don't ruin it by sprinkling the top with brown sawdust!) and some of the carrot tops (picked from the stems like you would with parsley or any other herb).

More on Carrot Tops:
The carrot tops can also be used for purees, pesto or soup but I would recommend blanching them in water with a good pinch of baking soda added to it for a minute or two before shocking and pureeing (the alkaline water will preserve the color of the chlorophyll and keep it forest green instead of swamp brown).

Most importantly, eat your soup with ample beer or wine and good company!