Fresh From The Farm

Looking for a fun way to spend a Saturday outdoors while learning more about sustainable agriculture and locally grown food? Garden of Eve Farm is an organic farm harvesting delicious fruits and vegetables in Riverhead, less than an hour away from Sayville. The farm offers a variety of events to the public, including cooking classes for both adults and kids as well as farm tours! I found out about Garden of Eve because we were looking to join a CSA and Garden of Eve offers a Sayville/Bayport share. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and it is a great way to join up with others in your community and support a local farm while enjoying delicious, healthy food. Every other week our share includes a variety of organic veggies and herbs, all farm fresh and in season.

My friend and I took a drive out to the farm a few weeks ago for a cooking class on farm fresh eggs - we learned how to perfectly poach an egg as well as how to make hollandaise sauce and mayonnaise. Everything was so delicious, including the mayonnaise, which was so different from the taste and look of what we normally see bottled up in the grocery store. After the class our group climbed into a hay wagon and went for a tour of the farm. As we drove around we listened to Eve, one of the owners, as she described and pointed out the various foods that were growing while explaining some of their sustainable farming practices. Learning more about where our food comes from and seeing the work involved before it arrives on our table gives a whole new appreciation to our food system.

We received a pound and a half of zucchini from our CSA the other week. I wanted to make a recipe that combined not only the zucchini, but also some fresh basil and dill that were a part of the week’s share. While searching online, I came across a pasta recipe from Food & Wine that incorporated all of the above mentioned things. The few switches I made to the recipe were subbing out whole wheat macaroni noodles for the linguine (though whole wheat linguine or a GF noodle would be tasty, too) and I also prepared the pasta ahead of time and served at room temperature instead of serving hot. The pasta had so much flavor from the fresh herbs and scallions. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did! 

If you are a CSA member or farmers’ market junkie, what are your favorite recipes that incorporate the best of summer’s produce?