Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Artisan Grilled Bread

Amber has made this bread for our workers a few times now. A delicious recipe; so we decided to share! A beautiful, delicious, and perfect addition to any summertime meal!

For a Printer Friendly Version send us an email at: harvesthousefarm@gmail.com!!! We'll send you a recipe card!



Start with just about any sturdy bread dough recipe--I like to use a pizza dough. These grilled breads are fantastic for summer pizzas made right on the grill!

1 T Honey (or Sugar)
1 c Warm water
1T Active Dry Yeast (Sometimes I use the Instant Bread Machine Yeast, it all works!)
2 ½-3 cups Flour-- Start with 2 1/2 c and add more as needed!
1T Olive Oil
1 tsp Salt
Mix the honey and yeast into the warm water. Give it a good wisk and let it sit for a minute. It should be kinda milky and frothy looking after a minute or two. If not you might not have the right temp water, you can start over. (Or just carry on! :) the bread will still be delicious just heavier!)
At this point if you want any dried herbs for flavoring add them to the warm water as well! (ie. basil flakes, rosemary, chili flakes, or anything else you love!
Add the flour, salt, and olive oil. Mix it with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to come together. At this point feel free to add anything else to your dough that you might like! (ie. cheddar cheese, chopped spinach, or roasted garlic)--Experiment with amounts, you can add quite a bit of things like spinach without having too much of an effect on the dough. Plus it gives it a great green color!
Dump it out onto a floured counter once things are incorporated and give it a good kneading. 5 minutes or so. The dough should be fairly stiff. If it is really sticky keep adding flour. Not too much kneading! I go for a pretty minimalist input dough, it's nice and easy that way!
Shape the dough into a ball and set in a bowl with just a little olive oil. Roll it around to coat the surface--this will help keep a crust from forming on it while it rises. Loosely cover it with a kitchen towel or saran and let it sit for 30min-2 hours. If you are preparing the dough to be used a little later throw it in a ziplock and put it in the fridge at this point. Before you make you bread a bit later pull the dough out and set it in a warm place to rise a while. You can keep this dough in your fridge for a few days if you don't use it right away!
Like I said earlier if something doesn't seem right, (like it's not rising much) KEEP GOING with it! I promise you it will still be fantastically delicious!
Start up your grill at this point! If you are using charcoal it should be at a fairly hot temp, on a gas grill I usually go between medium and high.
Once you dough has risen for a while punch it down and cut the dough ball into small chunks. --tennis ball size-ish?... Flour your counter or sprinkle it with a little cornmeal and roll the chunks into flats using a rolling pin. The flats should be approximately 1/4 inch thick, but a little thicker or thinner is just fine.
Give the flats a tiny brush of olive oil and set them onto the hot grill. You will be able to tell the hot spots because the dough will start to bubble as it cooks. They only need 3-5 minutes on each side depending on how hot your grill is set. When the first sides have browned (you'll get great grill marks!), brush the tops with a little olive oil and flip them over. If you are making grilled pizza's this is the point when you put your toppings on-- maybe a dab of pesto, a sprinkle of cheese, and some grilled sweet peppers? yum!! If not, just grill the second side the same as the first!











And Ta-Dah!! You have just made Artisan Grilled Bread! Serve them fresh with your meal or keep some in the fridge to eat with Hummus or to use for a sandwich later!
This recipe has been adapted from Olivelle's "Caramalized Garlic Pizza Dough". Check them out for more great recipes and food items! They are a locally owned Bozeman store with the highest quality products and most knowledgeable employees! www.olivelle.com



Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Joys and Frustrations of Farming






Our favorite farm tractor this morning...










Our favorite farm tractor this afternoon...



As it goes with any type of farming, it is all subject to the cooperation of the weather.  After a wet spring and a fairly slow start on most veggies in the garden, a hail storm has lightened it's load here on the farm today.  Most of the leafy greens are shredded, the greenhouse has some damage, and everything is a little beaten down.  Thankfully our hail ranged from pea to golf ball with a majority being about ping pong ball sized.  Some places in Bozeman had tennis ball size hail so we made out alright with out ping pong balls. 
I just documented farm progress this morning... and I re-documented again this afternoon after the hail came through about 4 o'clock.

We had a great spinach harvest this morning before the storm. 8 1/2 pounds in the first batch and another 4 pounds later on.






Here are some before and after pictures:

Hail didn't go through the plastic, but it stretched and welted quite a bit.





Not only did it hail, but it was raining ridiculous amounts at the same time! Notice all the extra standing water...






















Green beans didn't do so well with the hail...














The green house had some major hail dents, but it only pierced the plastic in a few places so things inside we untouched for the most part.

Jasmine surveys the damage.

And as always the sunshine after the storm:

 
A few flowers survived... From my count only two from the flower bed...

The only red tomato in the entire garden managed to survive... even though it lives on the most beat up plant around. (A transplant to the garden from Dylan and Tim. It was started at their house on Montana St.)
A spider rebuilds its delicate web in the flower garden after the storm.

4th of July

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Breaking Ground April 22, 2009

I'm a little late posting this, but just over a year ago, on April 22, a beautiful, bright, spring day, not unlike this year's Mother's Day, two teams of horses, Harry and Sophie, and Blue and Bell, pranced and danced their way across the tender young grasses sprouting in the field, dragging heavy plows behind them, their drivers bumping and bouncing uncomfortably on the solid metal seat, carving out the very first row of what is now the Harvest House Farm's large garden.  Here are the pictures of the horses breaking ground.










Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year turned out to be a wonderful bright Sunday.  With all the cold blustery weather lately, it was so nice to have just one day of blue skies, and the wind even died down to a strong breeze... how wonderful!  So, we took advantage of the beautiful afternoon to help Lori put the greenhouse together.  Caution, this post is picture intensive!
The greenhouse frame March 3.

A farm volunteer installing the end panels.


Volunteer Dylan cleaning some plastic.

The resident rooster struttin' his stuff.

Shaun helping measure the greenhouse.

Then to measure the plastic...


We folded the plastic accordion style and pulled it into position.


We then borrowed a couple tennis balls from the dogs and a climbing rope from a volunteer...


... and pulled the plastic over.  One rope on each end, one in the middle, one person on each end of the greenhouse keeping the plastic pulled tight to the ends, and Dylan running around inside helping push the plastic over.


The dogs, from left to right, Jefe, Jasmine, Harvey, and Suka, waiting patiently to have their tennis balls back.


Once the plastic was up and over, we used 'wiggle wire' to hold the ends in place.


We then screwed boards to the outside to hold the sides in place.  The bottom portion of plastic will be able to roll up for ventilation.


Shaun trying out the finished greenhouse.




In other farm news... Some really beautiful tulips have started to bloom by the house.  Three different colors, red yellow and orange!


Other volunteers have started replacing the worn fence rails.


Old rails...


... new rails.


And to start off the growing season with high hopes, we took a moment to compare this years developing pumpkin crop to the last of the previous season's.


Huge thanks to all the volunteers who had their hands on the greenhouse and Happy Mother's Day!


Monday, April 26, 2010

Garlic or Barley?

April has really warmed up and plants in the ground are starting to grow.  The garlic came up nicely, but the mulch sprouted right along with it!  To save the garlic, with the help of one of the farm's volunteers (thanks Tim!), we lifted the mulch and turned it, uprooting the barley in the process.

 Sprouting mulch on the left, garlic with turned mulch on the right.

The garden soil has been tilled (thanks Mick!), and it's still a little early, but we decided to take advantage of the warm days to plant some seeds.  It's good to plant potatoes on a full moon (which happens tonight), so the potatoes are in, as well as some peas, spinach, parsnips, carrots, and red beets.  It's early, but don't worry... We have frost cloth and row covers!  You know... for that third week of May... half of June... and July 4th!
Tilled garden space.

As part of the Farm's environmental quality improvement program, we have been busy planting trees for a new windbreak.  Over 900 seedlings from the state nursery will be planted in four rows around the perimeter of the property, eventually providing valuable foraging and nesting habitat for bug eating birds, and helpful insects like bees.  
One of the farm volunteers planting a Blue Spruce.


Stay tuned for more farm news!



Wednesday, April 14, 2010

April's Seedlings

I do believe spring has sprung, however, we continue to get inches upon inches of snow dumped on us, usually followed almost immediately by a warm, sunny day, melt-off, and mud, mud, mud.  Really, this is not ideal weather for planting, but it is still early, and this weather is typical of spring time in Montana.

While the family is playing somewhere tropical waiting for the weather to clear, life at the farm just can't wait.  Seeds are started indoors and are really starting to take off.  As soon as the warm days decide to stay and the ground dries out enough, these little green things will be growing strong and ready to plant, lending themselves to (hopefully!) a bountiful summer harvest!
 New onion soldiers still wearing their little black helmets.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

WoW! Time for Lori and her hardworking Volunteer to Go to Work

WOW - time for Lori and her hard working volunteers to start working with the earth getting ready for another fabulous season of awesome veggies from Harvest House Farm - I can't wait to use all this fresh locally grown food this summer - stay tuned and I will post recipes using local sustainable food grown right here on the farm............enjoy mud season!!!!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Fabulous February Frost

ebruary is the time to start seeding onions and organizing details while waiting for the warmer weather. These beautiful frost patterns were an early morning delight on the windows of the cold frame where a few hardy greens have wintered over.