In your share this month:
- Chicken
- Pork Roast
- Breakfast Sausage
- Guanciale (Jowl bacon)
- Top Sirloin
On the Farm
Rain. Nevermind…Hot!
Other Farm News
Spring and early summer is always an abundant period, both in the amount of new growth and in the amount of effort needed to keep up with all of it. Baby goat and lamb season has been over for a couple of months now, but litters of rabbits keep coming, along with lots and lots of baby birds. There are 200 newly hatched broiler chickens that we pick up every five weeks from a hatchery near Corvallis, and in the brooder right now we have about 80 turkeys and 70 ducks, with more duck eggs and guinea fowl eggs in the incubator. The extended spring weather has impacted growth rates some, with our first batch of meat chickens about 15-20% smaller than what we would expect. We’ll see if the slightly more promising forecast will ease that impact on future batches.
On the bright side, we are looking at a great year for grazing, as the soils will be able to remain moist much later into the summer than we’ve seen in quite a while. We are just looking forward to a period of dry weather of at least a couple of weeks in length to allow for haymaking at our rented pasture up the road. The grass there is already 4 feet tall in spots and if the wet weather continues into July, the grass will go to seed and lose much of its nutritional value. But I’m sure normal summer will be here before we know it and we’ll all be longing for the cool days of June!
Recipe – Spaghetti Carbonara from New York Times
Even though we rarely eat pasta, one of our farm volunteers requested this for his birthday recently, and it was so yummy! It uses the guanciale from this month’s share, and is quick and easy to make.
Ingredients
- Salt
- 2 large eggs and 2 large yolks, room temperature
- 1 ounce (about 1/3 packed cup) grated pecorino Romano, plus additional for serving
- 1 ounce (about 1/3 packed cup) grated Parmesan
- Coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 ½ ounces of guanciale, pancetta or bacon, sliced into pieces about ¼” thick by 1/3” square
- 12 ounces spaghetti (about 3/4 box)
PREPARATION
- Place a large pot of lightly salted water (no more than 1 tablespoon salt) over high heat, and bring to a boil. Fill a large bowl with hot water for serving, and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolks and pecorino and Parmesan. Season with a pinch of salt and generous black pepper.
- Set the water to boil. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add the pork, and sauté until the fat just renders, on the edge of crispness but not hard. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Add pasta to the water and boil until a bit firmer than al dente. Just before pasta is ready, reheat guanciale in skillet, if needed. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water, then drain pasta and add to the skillet over low heat. Stir for a minute or so.
- Empty serving bowl of hot water. Dry it and add hot pasta mixture. Stir in cheese mixture, adding some reserved pasta water if needed for creaminess. Serve immediately, dressing it with a bit of additional grated pecorino and pepper.