SWF BLOG
Happy Holidays from Salt Water Farm
Wishing you and yours a memorable holiday season and a great year ahead. Hope to see you at Salt Water Farm in 2012.
-Irene, Ladleah, Annemarie, Abigale and the Salt Water Farm team
SWF BLOG
Pig Butchering at Salt Water Farm
On Saturday, November 12th, Salt Water Farm hosted butcher Craig Linke for a pig butchering seminar where he demonstrated how to break down a carcass and create classic recipes. We started with a 185-pound Tamworth/Large Black hog, raised at David’s Folly Farm in Blue Hill.
Craig covered the basics on equipment, knife skills and where different cuts of pork come from. He also demonstrated seam butchery and shared techniques and recipes such as fresh sausage, pancetta, guanciale, rillets and coppa. The class ended in a lovely meal of jowl bacon and duck egg salad, grits topped with a ham steak and apple cider-braised kielbasa, and a simply roasted apple with fresh cream and maple syrup.
Craig has worked in the livestock processing industry for over 25 years. He has a plan in place for a new, USDA-inspected livestock processing facility in Maine. His dream is to build a business that provides humane, professional animal processing for farms and delivers affordable meats for the state of Maine. Visit his website at http://www.mainestock.com.
We will continue to host butchering classes with Craig: lamb in the spring and pigs in the fall.
All photos by Irene Yadao.
SWF BLOG
Sausage Making at Salt Water Farm
For our November Moon Supper, we make Alsatian style sausages with our German Porkert meat grinder and sausage stuffer. This has become an annual tradition and it always puts us in a silly state of mind. For the second year in a row, Bob and Mia Sewall from Sewall’s Organic Apple Orchard joined us at the table and Bob shared with us his history of farming apples in Maine, the variety of products that apples produce, their versatility and health benefits. And one of our guests visiting from Massachusetts brought a small keg of an absolutely delicious IPA. It was a good night at the farm. and The menu for the supper was as follows:
A Taste of
Pork Rillets, Apple Butter, Crostini
First
French Onion Soup, Gruyere Thyme
Second
Frisse, Pricilla Apples, Local Bacon, A Duck Egg, Dijon Vinaigrette
Main
Seared Alsatian Sausage, Braised Red Cabbage, Onion and Apples
To Finish
Roast Jonathan Apples with Maple Syrup, Cream and Salted Butter
SWF BLOG
Afar Magazine
Over the summer we had the pleasure of spending time with writer Michael Sanders. Michael attended one of our three-day workshops, where he learned the basics of cooking and gardening — chicken butchery, canning, and bread baking among other things.
He wrote about Salt Water Farm and his workshop experience for Afar magazine. The magazine, the article, and Tara Donne‘s stunning photography are exceptional. Thank you, Michael. And thank you to Tara, who captured the joy of what we do, as well as the special magic of Maine. Check out Michael’s article here.
All photos by Tara Donne
SWF BLOG
Tutti a Tavola, 2011
Mimma and Franca, two of the delightful sisters who comprise the Tutti a Tavola destination cooking school in Tuscany, joined us once again to share a few recipes from their kitchen.
It was a joy having them at Salt Water Farm, where they offered a menu of arancini, chick pea soup, a delectable prosciutto-wrapped meatloaf, a vibrant insalata of green beans and shallots, and a chocolate-amaretti-rum dessert.
Thank you to Mimma and Franca, whose passion for cooking is not confined to recipes and ingredients, but is informed by a boundless warmth for those with whom they share a table. See you again next year.
SWF BLOG
Pop Tech 2011
For the second year in a row, Salt Water Farm had the wonderful opportunity to participate in Pop Tech, a convergence of great ideas and great minds held every year in Camden. This year’s theme, “The World Rebalancing,” featured talks from a wide range of thinkers, including comedian/musician Reggie Watts; Australian choreographer Gideon Obarzanek; human rights activist Unity Dow, who became the first female high court judge in Botswana; and intellectual historian Nils Gilman.
Annemarie and Ladleah taught bread baking and cheesemaking to 20 Pop Tech-ers. Ladleah gave an impassioned lecture urging attendees to think about the political, spiritual and physical implications of our food choices and food sources.
Ladleah also talked of the special joy of creating your own starter, capturing the yeast of your own specific environment (the terroir of Lincolnvile vs. terroir of Manhattan), and incorporating it into a loaf of bread that will taste unlike any other.
Attendees got their hands dough-y. Heavy cream was shaken until it yielded butter. Milk was transformed into cheese. And at the end, a feast was shared.
SWF BLOG, Website
Susan Loomis
On August 5th and 6th, Salt Water Farm welcomed Susan Loomis (from “On Rue Tatin” in Normany, France) for a three part cooking class, where she taught 10 students from across the country how to prepare elegant, seasonally inspired meals. We began Friday morning with a golden beet cannelloni followed by a trio of tomatoes and a fresh pork loin with ginger, yogurt and cilantro sauce. The students carefully prepared each dish and while they sat around the Salt Water Farm table to eat, they shared with one another observations about the recipes and the unique combination of flavors in the meal. On Friday night, students regrouped for an evening feast of aromatically stuffed (pine nuts, parsley, currants and anchovies) leg of lamb, a crisp green beans salad and a delectable chocolate mousse. Susan provided a wonderful selection of locally produced cheese, after writing an article for Culture Magazine about the tradition of cheese making in Maine. On Saturday morning, the class gathered at the Camden Farmer’s Market, where Susan guided us through stands of squash blossoms, summer berries, cured meats and freshly baked breads and then we headed back to the farm to prepare lunch. For our final meal, we shared poached eggs on summer Maine-grown corn and a Normany Seafood Stew made of haddock, mussels and a fennel and cream base. It was such a pleasure to have Susan back at Salt Water Farm for two wonderful days of inspired food, incredible stories, and good friends.
SWF BLOG
La Boqueria
An assortment of ham at La Boqueria
Iberico Ham
Eggs of all shapes and sizes
Langoustine
Don't mess with the fish ladies
Bacalao: Salt Cod
Razor Clams
Fruits, Chilies and Vegtables
