Saturday cooking thread?
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It was semi thawed. It blended a little, but the bits of gristle go round the blender. Not great. I think I can make this work with some effort but much easier I think to just buy a meatgrinder. Been meaning to anyway,
I’m gonna let it sit in the freezer for like 30 min and then try making it a hit smaller, perhaps dice by hand even. Then start mixing the patties. Ugh got to clean the pan as well pfff
Edit deleted a joke in bad taste
Turned out decent-ish. The fat bits are a tad too large but kneading all of them smaller took ages so this is what I was satisfied with.
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Well this is the first one. But now I’m stuffed. I need a partner or someone to feed all the food to. Always end up wasting a bunch.
Burger sauce (jalapeno, tomato, garlic, mustard, drop of ketchup, little mayo), tomato slice on top, then the patty, then a bit of hard cheese, burger sauce, bun.
Second one, a bit simpler.
Reheated the pan, toasted the buns in the beef fat while the patty warmed up with some soft cheese on it. Then just a little bit of burgersauce on the bottom bun and a thin slice of tomato on the soft cheese.
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Oh dmn, that’s a lot of work. Props for doing all that, wow!
“Farm share”, as in you have like an actual farm garden you get parts of produce from? Nice.
It’s so nice having everything prepped and ready to go. Now is kinda harvest season though I guess. Although depends on where you are and the produce I guess.
It’s called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). One of the main problems farmers face is financing because they have to invest in so many things up front - not just the land, but every year they have to pay up front for seed, fertilizer, equipment, labor, etc - and then they have to hope for a good harvest in order to repay their loans. And the harvest has to be “just right” – too much of a crop means everyone has too much of it and prices drop; too little of a crop and there’s still a limit to how much you can charge so you lose money. A CSA avoids all that uncertainty.
The farmer figures out how much money they need to make that year, for all their farm expenses, plus an emergency fund, plus money for retirement, etc. Then he figures out how many roughly-3/4-bushel shares his farm can produce on a weekly basis. Money-needed divided by number-of-shares is the price for which he sells the shares to the general public. Shares usually go on sale in January, so the farmer has money up-front for the entire growing season, and can focus exclusively on growing crops.
In return, the share-buyer is guaranteed a box of produce every week during the growing season. If it’s a great year for crops, you’ll get extra; if it’s a poor year, you’ll get less - but prices at the supermarker would have increased anyway. There are lots of variations - some places also have 10-week shares, or offer smaller shares, or offer a small number of shares where you can work on the farm for like 4 hours a week in exchange for a share, that kind of thing. Some places also have fruit or nut trees, or team up with other local producers to also carry their items – eggs, milk, cheese, honey, mushrooms, whatever.
One of the nice things about this model is that it strongly favors small, local farms over big conglomerates; another nice thing is that both the farmer and the share-buyer are guaranteed that the farm will still be in business next year. And it helps build and maintain communities, and the share-buyer is much more in-tune with the natural growing season.
I pick up my share and do the PYO on Thursday, and figure out what to make. Friday after work I pick up any extra needed ingredients from the grocery store. Friday night, I watch tv and clean, peel, slice, dice, etc. Then I cook for about 2 hours on Saturday morning - this week took longer because it’s peak harvest season right now, but I was still only there for about 3 hours (it really helps when everything is already prepped beforehand!) I eat about half of what I make each week and store the other half for the winter.
This week’s farm share included onions; regular and a mixture of hot peppers; cherry, canning, and heirloom tomatoes (for some reason slicing tomatoes aren’t doing well this year); eggplant; zucchini (I forgot to mention the zucchini boats!); cabbage; carrots; 3-4 types of green leafy things; a watermelon; a canteloupe; a large bunch of lemon basil; and early garlic. There were also a few early potatoes (I haven’t done anything with them yet, I’ll probably use them next week in a larger dish) and the last of the beets for the year (which I don’t like and gave to my beet-loving neighbor).
This week’s pick-your-own included many more tomatoes, ground cherries (I’ll make a tart with them later today once the dishes are done and I have energy again), the last of the blackberries, various herbs, and flowers - I grabbed some sunflowers and also made a mixed bouquet for a friend who’s ill. The peaches and mushrooms came in from a couple of other local producers: I had to pay for the mushrooms, but the peaches were “free” as I’d also bought a fruit add-on for my share: I got blueberries last month, next month I’ll get apples, and then a couple extra pumpkins in October (I make pumpkin pie filling, then freeze it flat in ziplocs. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, I buy empty pie shells and make homemade pumpkin pies.)
Oh! something else I forgot to mention is that the produce you get in stores goes from the farm to a middle-man who processes it and sells it to supermarket chains, which send it to a distribution center, which ships it to the store, which eventually puts it out on the floor. All that takes time and cuts down on the shelf-life of the produce you eventually get. With a farm share, the produce was picked within the last 24 hours, so everything stays fresh longer - my heads of lettuce last like 3 weeks.
[continued, sorry, just two more paragraphs, I swear!]
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Stores also have to worry about shelf-life and damage in transit, so they tend to buy stuff that’s under-ripe to varying degrees; farm shares pick at the peak of ripeness, so it tastes better. Plus, they’ll generally grow different varieties that you don’t get in stores because those varieties don’t travel well through the collection-and-distribution system, so you get to try things you didn’t know existed: my last farm had paw-paws before they became famous again, and my current farm (we had to move) has 14 different types of basil.
So, err, um … yeah, sorry. I love farm shares and CSAs, in case you couldn’t tell, lol. I generally either split a share with a friend, or I get a 10-week share. My current share is a 10-week share for $450 a year. I know that sounds like a lot up front, but it takes care of like 90% of my vegetable needs for the entire year, and it ensures that I’m eating my veggies!
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Second one, a bit simpler.
Reheated the pan, toasted the buns in the beef fat while the patty warmed up with some soft cheese on it. Then just a little bit of burgersauce on the bottom bun and a thin slice of tomato on the soft cheese.
Third one. Any thoughts on the doneness? I’m a bit colour blind and I aimed for medium. I do have a thermometer but still.
Also I remembered while doing the burgers that one should cook horse to 75C. It was frozen for weeks but that’s not considered safe enough anymore afaik. (doesn’t kill trichinosis)
But I just thought fuck it. Although I do remember the horrifying picture with the guy with the worms.
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Sound nice, really. Here in the Nordics I suffer from produce that’s been plucked too early. Farmer’s markets are good though.
I’m somewhat jealous to be honest, I’d like to participate in something like that. I do a little bit of cooking a sometimes preserving a little but eh, depression gets the best of me and cooking is the most I achieve most times.
Cooking for the whole day is nice though, with a little bit of wine on the side, lol. Then sitting down every now and then when something just needs waiting.
Thanks for sharing.
I don’t think 450 a year sounds too bad tbh, especially when you use a lot of it. If you weigh it against a single person’s needs like calorifically, then sure, yeah, but if you weigh the quality and quantity and the joy from good food? Doesn’t sound that much.
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Sound nice, really. Here in the Nordics I suffer from produce that’s been plucked too early. Farmer’s markets are good though.
I’m somewhat jealous to be honest, I’d like to participate in something like that. I do a little bit of cooking a sometimes preserving a little but eh, depression gets the best of me and cooking is the most I achieve most times.
Cooking for the whole day is nice though, with a little bit of wine on the side, lol. Then sitting down every now and then when something just needs waiting.
Thanks for sharing.
I don’t think 450 a year sounds too bad tbh, especially when you use a lot of it. If you weigh it against a single person’s needs like calorifically, then sure, yeah, but if you weigh the quality and quantity and the joy from good food? Doesn’t sound that much.
I’m sorry about the depression; I very much understand that!
Try googling “csa [your country]” or “community supported agriculture [your country]”. I did a very quick search on each of the three Nordics, and they each have some efforts underway. For example
Norway, 2023: “NIBIO researcher Anna Birgitte Milford has analysed the response forms from 390 cooperative owners in 45 different CSAs in Norway.”
Finland: has at least one CSA called Rekola Farm (they’ve been operating for over 50 years), and there’s apparently a Finnish CSA umbrella association. Their posts are mostly in Finnish so I don’t understand many of the details, but the group is called Suomen Kumppanuusmaataloudet ry, and they seem to have a decent-but-not-overwhelming Facebook group going.
Sweden: andelsjordbruksverige.se says “It is estimated that around 100 CSA farms exist in Sweden today although there are no official statistics.”
Anyway … I don’t know if any of the farms are anywhere near you (though check: some places have local drop-off locations, or will bring it to the farmers market), I don’t know if the price will work for you, I don’t know if you’ll decide it’s too much effort. But there may be options near you.
If you do decide to get a share, you might see if you know anyone who might split it with you. The first year or so can be overwhelming.
Whatever you decide, I hope you have a wonderful life, with much joy and less depression
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Wonderful, thanks for the tips.
I’ll keep it in mind.
It’s a bit far, but we’re I to move to Tampere, then it’d be close.
I’m hoping for a change of life in the coming year so if I get a decent apartment and whatnot and cook again, I might get one.
Thank you. For the link and the care.
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thanks for the great writeup i’m going to look into this in my area.
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Third one. Any thoughts on the doneness? I’m a bit colour blind and I aimed for medium. I do have a thermometer but still.
Also I remembered while doing the burgers that one should cook horse to 75C. It was frozen for weeks but that’s not considered safe enough anymore afaik. (doesn’t kill trichinosis)
But I just thought fuck it. Although I do remember the horrifying picture with the guy with the worms.
Fourth
I thought to try a double patty of smaller smash type, seems maybe better actually, and at least the pattys were fully cooked.
This one was perhaps the best yeah
