Rhubarb - Step Away from the Strawberries and Get Your Stalk Out of That Pie Plate!

rhubarb recipe, berries whiskey compote, grassfed ricotta

After last week’s CSA share pick-up we had a serious rhubarb explosion going on in our kitchen! Before berries are officially on a roll we’re blessed with this uniquely sweet-tart treat to start off the season. Although usually prepared and eaten much like a fruit, rhubarb is a leafy vegetable. The plant grows up to 3 feet tall with gigantic leaves unfurling in all directions. The red and green speckled wands you find in the market are the leaf stalk of the plant. The leaves themselves are toxic, containing oxalic acid crystals, so don’t try to cook ‘em up if you’re harvesting your own. The root’s popularity in ancient Chinese medicine aided Rhubarb’s migration from Asia to Europe and finally the Americas. Ben Franklin is credited for bringing rhubarb seeds to the North American east coast in 1772, but eating the stalks did not catch on until the early 1800s, when it became a popular ingredient for pie and home made wines. 

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Farm Flows - Understanding Gross and Operating Profit

Image from cover of “Slow Money”, by Woody Tasch.

If you’ve read our first blog post, you probably know that I have a background in finance. Whether I like it or not, numbers are always on my mind. That means I think a lot about Little Seed and how we’ll manage to stay alive in an industry like farming, which is notorious for bedeviling even the most astute financial planners. Probably the most important aspect of our financial plan is understanding our costs and our cash flows. Not just thinking about them, but actually writing (typing) them all down and planning a few years ahead. I can't emphasize how important it is to actually sit down and write it out. Until you do, you won't know what you don't know.

Money management is a complicated (and often sensitive) topic, so I’ll try to keep this particular discussion high level and offer some ideas for
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Nirvana in a Jar - Herbal Infusions

Sage and Mint Herbal Infusion
There are few things more heavenly than to be curled up in an adirondack chair in the shade with the one you love, new friends, and wonderful conversation after a day of moving your body in the sun.  The moment I have in mind is late Saturday afternoon at Lewis Waite Farm.  It was the first truly warm and sunny day of the season after weeks of rain and sitting there and soaking it all in felt like nirvana.  
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