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By deepening our connection to the food system, we  can further connect with each other and the world around us.

Sunny Lemon Balm

8/29/2019

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Last week, I shared a little bit about our mint varieties. Now I’d like to tell you about another of my favorite herbs: lemon balm! It is a member of the family Lamiaceae, as are mint, basil, and many other aromatic herbs. Its flowers attract a plethora of butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. It has a wonderful bright but soft lemony scent and flavor that shines in many of the same ways mint does, in both sweet and savory dishes. You can really use lemon balm anywhere you might use lemon; its flavor is just more subtle, herbaceous, and delicate.

We love infusing water with lemon balm—as with mint, just crunch up a bunch of it in a pitcher of water and keep it in the fridge, replenishing the water as needed. You can also dry it and use it to make tea. It is delicious in a salad dressing, or just chopped and added to a salad. Summer squash sautéed with minced fresh lemon balm, chives, and maybe a little dill makes a fantastic quick side dish, or add some chickpeas for a complete lunch! And it is amazing with fruits or in sweets, like these addictive lemon balm cookies!
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Demolition Week and Mint Madness

8/21/2019

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It’s demolition week here at Dandelion Ridge Farm!

We’ve taken down our tomatillo, tomato, pepper, basil, parsley, and edible flower plants in the high tunnel to prepare for tilling and fall planting. It’s bittersweet to raze the veritable jungle that has been growing and producing abundantly. But the plants are now winding down and it’s time to move on to the tunnel’s next phase: extending our growing season into the fall and winter. It looks so empty in there now! Here is a “before, during, and after” montage of our work!
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Now that we don’t have all the tomatoes, tomatillos, and green beans to harvest, this seems like a good time to talk about herbs! Folks often ask us what to do with the different types of mint we grow. We grow a classic spearmint, good in savory dishes like salad dressings or this delicious fresh pea soup. It is also tasty with berries and other sweets.  We also grow Kentucky Colonel Mint, a versatile type of spearmint with large leaves, classically used in mint juleps and mojitos. It can be used interchangeably with standard spearmint.

Chocolate mint is a type of peppermint with an amazing soft chocolaty aroma and flavor. We use it to make a wonderful infused water: just lightly crush a handful of the herbs to release the oils, then place in a pitcher of water in the fridge. We refill our pitcher with water multiple times over several days before we have to replace the mint. It’s the perfect way to quench your thirst on a hot day! Chocolate mint is exceptional in desserts, as you might imagine! Stay tuned for some recipes on that front!

Mountain Mint is actually not a member of the mint family, but is a close relative that has minty flavor, but also some spicy undertones that some people compare to oregano. I find it to be best in savory dishes like tabbouleh. Or use it fresh or dried to make a tea.

Butterflies love mint as much as we do! (How many can you find?)
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GleanKY to the Rescue!

8/1/2019

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Can you believe it’s August already? We’re still swimming in tomatoes at Dandelion Ridge Farm, and have been struggling to keep up with harvesting and processing them all, so we called in GleanKY for help. GleanKY is a non-profit based in Lexington, KY that tackles hunger and food waste by gleaning excess fruit and vegetables from farms, grocery stores, and farmers’ markets and redistributing this produce to more than 100 local feeding programs. In addition to their grocery store and farmers’ market gleanings, they send volunteer crews to harvest produce from local farms and deliver it to soup kitchens, food banks, and other organizations to help the hungry. We’re enthusiastic supporters of the important work they do! A couple of folks from Glean came out to the farm one morning this week and harvested about 350 pounds of tomatoes and delivered them to recipients in need. It felt good to know that those beautiful tomatoes are going to make a lot of people happy! If you want to know more about GleanKY, including volunteer and donation opportunities, go to gleanky.org.
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