Rockin’ Birkie in the Kitchen
It’s a-hummin in the kitchen with Kara and Chef Ray buzzing about, carrying steaming trays of cooked einkorn wheatberries and black rice. I pull the walk-in cooler door open for the next oncoming tray for chilling while I attempt to tie my shoes for the morning’s activities. Look where you’re going, there’s hot food coming through!
The kitchen is warm and steamy, pungent with the scent of chopped fresh vegetables like carrots, onions, broccoli, leeks, boiling baby red potatoes, and steaming wild rice. There’s nothing quite like walking into a kitchen at full blast—especially at Farmstead. No fryer to clutter up the smells of crisp stems and fresh ancient grains. Just real food, prepared by folks who care about using the best ingredients.
This week is a special pilot project for us. Traditionally, Birkie week is quiet, with an occasional skier foraying out to the farm. But this year we thought, well, folks in the area (skier or traffic avoiders alike) all need to eat, and the restaurant scene as well as the grocery store can be mayhem—long lines, crowded, noisy. Some of these people might be looking for something fresh, local, and farm-to-table, but would rather enjoy this food in the comfort of their cabin or lake-home. It would be like having a chef home for dinner, without the fuss or mess in the kitchen! What if we came forward with an offering that would be synergetic with such hopes—creating easy to pick-up meal options made right here at the farm.
Of course, the weather has not been particularly cooperative for the hopeful skiers, but the work goes on in the kitchen. Kara was able to secure a delivery from Albert Organics (a fresh foods distributer from the Twin Cities) to bring a delivery of organic avocados, carrots, apples, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, mushrooms, and more to augment our fresh aquaponics greens in the salads and entrees. Extras are packaged and available for sale at Farmstead, so you can also enjoy organic bananas, Fiji apples, creamline milk, sheep’s milk yogurt, buttermilk, and more without having to go all the way into town!
But back to the kitchen. I can now smell onions sautéing, hear the clatter of pans and bowls. We’re having so much fun in the kitchen cooking up fresh, local, and organic meals that we’ve decided to extend a special offer to our readers! This week through Sunday, bring in the offer below during our business hours (9 am to 5 pm) to get $5 off your purchase of $50 or more of these Birkie week meals! Check out the offering for a list of the menu, including fresh salads, delicious entrees, and comforting soup. Enjoy them right away, pop a few in the freezer for later, and taste a little of the summer, even in February.
We appreciate your participation in this pilot project of making ready-to-eat items from the farm, and we’d love to hear your feedback on them too! Here’s to your good health this Birkie week, and we’ll see you down on the farm sometime.
