Nourish Your Body, Excite Your Taste Buds, and Give Back to the Earth
We are clearing out the freezers for another batch of pork coming in and have an abundance of pork chops! Usually $11/lb, we are selling packs of 2 bone-in chops each for $10. Each package is roughly 1.2-1.6 lbs and usually sells for $16! You can find some listed at the discounted rate this weekend online at the Clemson Area Food Exchange or hop by the farm (call/text/email first) and pick some up…we’ll be here all weekend! Get em’ while they last!
Need some recipe inspiration?
This is a meal you would expect on your plate at a nice restaurant, and I want to show you how EASY it is to prepare it at home! We’ve been fortunate with local radicchio recently, and this recipe is a stellar way to let this cool-weather crop shine. While it is mostly commonly known as that cheerful “red and white crunchy stuff” in salad mixes, radicchio is a delightful green and a lovely addition to meals in its own right. Bitter, yes, but with the right counter-flavors, it is exquisite. It’s great roasted or grilled to bring out the sweetness. For this dish, the bitterness pairs perfectly with creamy risotto. It’s a perfect cook-at-home special occasion meal. Treat yourself or your partner to a delicious, locally sourced fancy dish!
To serve: We served this with pork chops – recipe here (pan seared instead of grilled), but you could serve with a big steak, roasted chicken, pan seared trout and even some beautiful mushrooms or tofu for my plant based friends. Check out original recipe that inspired my version for some plant based variations you might find helpful, too!
Ingredients:
Instructions:
This has been a standard for Farmer B and I for years. Originally based off this recipe , I have adapted and simplified it over the years, to suite our needs and likes. My kids enjoy this dish as much as we do (don’t worry, the alcohol from the whiskey cooks off entirely!), I mean, who doesn’t like pork chops and mushrooms in a creamy sauce over mashed potatoes. Truly a stick to your ribs, comfort food night!
In this recipe, I pair it with some seasonal rutabaga available from a neighboring local farm. Rutabaga’s are in the brassica family (brassica napus which is a cross between a cabbage and turnip), so do have some bitterness to them, but they’re also a root vegetable and can have some of that sweetness if you know how to prepare them right! I do a 50/50 split with rutabaga and Yukon gold potatoes to achieve a similar but slightly different taste and feel to your normal mashed potato side.
I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we do!
For the Pork Chops
Rosemary Rutabaga Mash
Directions:
1. Season pork chops with salt, pepper and fresh thyme leaves on both sides. Let sit while you prep your ingredients.
2. In a large pot, boil rutabaga and potatoes until fork tender, about 25 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a small wide saucepan, brown the butter. On medium, let the butter melt and then continue cooking. It will start foaming and then milk solids will drop to the bottom and the butter will start to smell nutty and delicious. This takes about 5 to 10 minutes depending on your heat. Keep a watch and don’t let it burn! Once it’s browned and smelling great, remove from heat and drop the rosemary springs and garlic cloves in — they will sizzle. Swirl to combine and set aside to let the rosemary and garlic infuse into the butter.
4. Heat oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium- high heat. Brown the pork chops for three minutes on each side to create a nice, brown crust. Remove from the pan and set onto a plate. Cover with foil. Set aside. This is the initial step to create flavor, but you will complete the cooking later.
5. Turn the heat down a bit to medium, and melt butter in the same cast iron skillet used for the chops. Add the onions and mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper. Sauté for about eight minutes, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms release some liquid and onions are well-cooked and browning.
6. Turn the heat back up to high and deglaze the pan with the whiskey, scraping up any bits on the bottom of the pan. After about a minute and the alcohol has cooked off, turn the heat to low. There should still be some liquid, you don’t want it to evaporate entirely. Add the sour cream and stir to combine. Taste to adjust your seasonings, and when you’re satisfied, place your pork chops and any accumulated liquid back in your pan. Cover with foil and let it cook on your lowest setting while you finish your mashed rutabaga.
7. Strain the rutabaga and potatoes, and place back in the same pot. Discard the rosemary and garlic from the browned butter and add any remaining butter to the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper and start to mash. If you need more liquid, slowly add only a splash of milk/cream. Rutabagas have a higher water content than potatoes so you’ll find you don’t need as much liquid when mashing them. Keep mashing to desired consistency and taste as you go.
8. Test your pork chops to ensure they’re done cooking. If you’re a temp person, you’re looking for an internal 145 degrees, and if you’re a feeling kinda person you can test by pressing for firmness to your liking.
9. Load your plate with mashed rutabaga, top with a pork chop and a heart helping of the creamy mushrooms and onions. We served it with a Caesar salad!
We are stocked with pork right now! We realize how busy this season can be and know that sometimes it’s just easier and more convenient to buy from the grocery. So, in an effort to make things easy and accessible for all, we’re offering a pork sampler pack with discounts and various options for pickup and delivery! Here’s how it will work:
The possibilities are endless as to how to use them up! Here are some awesome ideas of how to use pork for this holiday season!
Can’t wait to see what you’ll create with yours!
As always – thanks for choosing to support our little family farm this holiday season. It means the world to us!
This article was first featured in the Clemson Area Food Exchange newsletter
Baby Hakurei turnips are in full force right now. They are easy to grow and have a shorter window to maturity than a traditional turnip, making them an appealing crop for fall, winter, and spring. They are great as a cover crop, helping loosen and prepare beds for summer crops and recover after them.
If you’re thinking, “I don’t like turnips!” Then you might try these. The roots are smaller, sweeter, and less turnip-y than the average purple topped traditional ones. Because of their shorter growing window, the greens reap the same benefit and are not as bitter and bug infested either!
Roasting the roots, enhances the natural sweetness and worked with the slightly bitter greens, they are truly delicious. This makes an excellent side for supper or a great little farmers lunch. Either way, you should try this super-simple way to introduce tender baby turnips and greens into your repertoire!
Ingredients:
2 bunches of baby Hakurei turnips with their greens
2 TB neutral oil
Salt and pepper
½ small onion, sliced or chopped
2 slices thick cut bacon, jowl or fatback chopped into small pieces
1 TB apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Remove the greens from the roots. Wash roots to remove any dirt and slice greens into ribbons and wash.
3. Cut turnips in half or fourths if large. On a baking sheet, toss with oil, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat, set aside.
4. Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, add chopped bacon/fatback and render until crispy. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes until translucent. Reduce heat to low, add greens to the skillet, stirring until wilted, 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, add lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Taste and add more seasonings, as needed.
5. Serve the roasted turnips over the greens!
This recipe first appeared on the CAFE newsletter in April 2020
Recipe and words by Amanda Callahan, edited by Ellie Sharp
The “bowl” has become one of the easiest, tastiest and most versatile ways to get a satisfying dinner on the table. You can customize a bowl menu to your family’s taste — Asian, Mexican, Mediterranean — and the combinations within each profile are endless. I try to prepare everything in one pan for easy cleanup. And, if you plan ahead and chop ingredients ahead of time, this meal is usually ready in about 30 minutes. Provided here is my Here’s a super-simple take on an Asian-style bowl.
First, start with a protein base. I like to use ground pork (pictured), but any ground meat will work well. Chicken and turkey are lovely! If you don’t have ground meat, use finely chopped or sliced chicken breast. I haven’t tried meat substitutes like crumbled soy, “scrambled” tofu or Beyond beef products, but I imagine even they would soak up the delicious Asian flavored sauce, too.
Asian greens are superb AND in season right now — perfect for this dish! Varieties like mizuna, and bok choy are ideal, but feel free to experiment with what you like or want to try. Kale is a good option as is a 50/50 mix of spinach and dandelion greens. Endive, mustard and arugula will all be delicious, too. If you prefer to stick with an old favorite, you can use classic cabbage.
A final note on seasonings: this is a great chance to use that bottle of Asian sauce or seasoning you bought for that one recipe that one time and is now hiding in the back of the fridge or pantry. Mirin, hoisin, and miso would all be exquisite. This recipe is just a template for basic Asian flavors using standard pantry ingredients. But go wild and experiment with what you’ve got! I have a bottle of pickle wine (!?!?). It definitely makes it into my Asian bowls.
I just can’t get enough of the amazing local mushrooms currently available and those are the next essential ingredient in my bowls. Any mushroom will do! Don’t like mushrooms? You can use a umami, flavor packed substitution such as frozen shelled edamame or cook broccoli, green beans, or asparagus over high heat with soy sauce until crisped on the edges. In the summertime, eggplant is my favorite to include.
Ingredients:
Directions:
* I use a super high quality mushroom flavored soy sauce that is found in Asian grocery stores. The best local grocery substitute will be tamari. However, if all you have is soy sauce, you may find you need to use more with a bit more sweetener, too. You might also find that your meat won’t be dark and sticky like mine pictured. If you like that texture/flavor profile, you might find that adding some hoisin sauce will do that trick as well!
Callywood Farms 