FarmChef

Late spring garden check in. Yay! My garden is coming along.

Aren’t these King Tut purple peas so beautiful? From “One of the most historical peas known, this particular variety is said to have been taken from the tomb of famed Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, or King Tut. The story is, his servants planted and harvested these peas to help provide for his afterlife. Though some claim to have debunked the story, Lynn McKee’s family tradition asserts that her father received the seeds found in the boy King’s tomb, where they had been undisturbed for nearly 5,000 years until Howard Carter found the tomb on Nov. 4, 1922. From there, as the legend goes, the seeds were taken to England where they were propagated and shared with friends.” Check out their website for more of the story.

Fava bean farinata. On our trip to Italy this past fall we bought a bunch of dried fava beans at the farmers market in Puglia where our dear friend lives. She said to wait to prepare them until her olive oil comes in. Her delicious olive oil from their recent harvest came in, so it’s time to cook them up.

In Puglia one of the traditional ways of cooking the fava beans is to boil (with a potato to make it less bitter if you want that) and purée. Then serve with sautéed bitter greens, hot chili flakes and a bunch of olive oil. While that is super tasty, we tried it a little different tonight.

I made farinata (chickpea flatbread that Amanda taught me how to make) and topped it with a layer of crème fraiche then the fava purée. From there we topped it with chive and blossoms, prosciutto, parsley, wood sorrel, pickled onions, Parmesan, and doused it in her delicious olive oil. It was the perfect spring meal.

If anyone is interested in getting any of Amanda’s perfectly spicy in the back of your throat olive oil DM me.

Yayayaya!!

📣 Breaking news: BIG wins for farm to school! 👏
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Yesterday, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service announced the updated nutrition standards for schools, early care and education sites, and out of school programs. The new rules contain major wins for farm to school, including a measure to simplify local purchasing that National Farm to School Network has long championed!
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Under the new rules, child nutrition programs will now be able to use 🥕 “locally grown,” 🐓 “locally raised,” or 🎣 “locally caught” as a specific requirement for unprocessed or minimally processed food items.
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Basically, this removes a lot of the complexity that child nutrition programs had to navigate in order to purchase local food. School cafeterias and child care programs can now purchase local foods more easily!
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Thank you to all of our Partners and community members who contributed to NFSN’s comments on the proposed version of this rule in Spring 2023. Your advocacy has made a difference!

View the full rule summary here: https://bit.ly/3xT9OFG