I like to tease my husband that he is a tree-a-holic. He loves his trees and we have started a new orchard at the farm.  Well, you could call me a recipe-a-holic. I am always printing off recipes from blogs, recipe sites, you name it I print it. Tearing recipes out of magazines is also one of my habits. My problem with all of this is that, unlike the trees my husband orders, I have a bad habit of letting these recipes sit around and gather dust.

This winter I decided to get organized (which would be a whole ‘nother lengthy post) and I went through all of my recipes stacked on my desk. I actually got rid of many but still have tons of them. However, along with my getting organized, I made a vow to cook more of the recipes I run across. So far, so good – I have been making many new dishes – some turned out really well and others not so much.

A couple of months ago, I ran across a Sour Cream Apple Bar recipe on a blog called Culinary in the Desert.  The recipe sounded quite tasty and since the Sour Cream Apple Pie recipe I made last November was a hit. I decided to give these a try.

THE RECIPE:

For the crust

2 cups uncooked quick-cooking oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

For the filling

1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups shredded apple

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk together oats, flour, walnuts, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and allspice. In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

Scoop half of the mixture into a 9″ x 13″ baking pan. Press mixture down over the bottom of the pan to form an even crust. Place into the oven and bake until lightly golden, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together sour cream, sugar, flour, egg, vanilla and apple. Pour filling over the hot, partially baked crust. Crumble remaining crust mixture evenly over the filling and lightly press down to adhere.

Place pan back into the oven and bake until the top is golden and the center is set, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before cutting into bars.

Notes: I didn’t have walnuts so I skipped that in the crust. I used Jonathan apples in order to get the most apple flavor. I didn’t want the apples overpowered by the oatmeal crust.

The Verdict:

Quite good according to my taste testers. However, the only change we would make would be to add more apples. The apple lovers in the house thought that additional apple flavor would make this recipe almost perfect.

1. This is just too sad – Farmers leave strawberries to rot as prices collapse.  The weather in Florida has been crazy this winter. First the tomatoes, now the strawberries.
2. Check out this link to  an interesting new local crop being grown in California.
3. For those of you who like Asian Pears, a new drink has been developed – link here.
4. Can’t get your kids to eat their vegetables? Here’s a story about Dutch researchers who tested children to find out what was there preferred way of eating vegetables. Steamed or boiled vegetables won out over other methods of preparation.
5. Eating healthier is certainly one of the items in the forefront of the news these day, especially given Michelle Obama’s involvement in children’s nutrition issues. It is hard to change the way you eat; expecting overnight change is certainly unrealistic. But baby steps will certainly help. Here is a column about that very issue: Confessions of a Locavore Pretender.
6. A novel idea to help Detroit’s economy: Is urban farming Detroit’s cash cow? Detroit has been on a downhill slide in recent years and much of the city is vacant. This sounds like a good way to add local jobs, produce local food and add dollars to the local economy. One of the proposed farms could be 2,000 acres. Wow!

Enjoy!

In blog posts from previous years, and also on our website, we shyly hinted about the upcoming summer. This year it is so clear that there is no need to hint—UNLESS AN ASTEROID HITS EARTH OR A HUGE VOLCANO ERUPTS OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT AFFECTS THE EARTH THIS SPRING, THE SUMMER IS GOING TO BE ABNORMALLY WARM—I’M AFRAID TO SAY HOT BECAUSE MOI, MOI’S WIFE AND MOST OF THE REST OF US AT MAGICLAND FARMS CAN’T TAKE THE HEAT.  (We spend lots of our time in the hot sun and when you are in the middle of a corn field on a sunny day the temperature is at least 10F warmer than out on a golf course or a lake.) WARM IS FINE,  HOT AIN’T! But there is a definitely possibility that it will be hot. Also, it looks dry except perhaps for those stray tropical systems that recently have drifted over Michigan and brought helpful (and sometimes not so helpful) rain. Why are we so sure about the summer? Simple. Canada has had its warmest winter ever recorded and there is little—if any– snow left up there. It isn’t widely known but, under clear sky conditions, central Canada gets more energy from the sun during May through July than Texas! Without snow and ice the sun keeps heating the ground up and keeps heating it up…. The other reason is that while the Gulf of Mexico is unbelievably cold, the tropical Atlantic is near record high levels.  If it stays that way, watch out for a huge number of whoppers of Hurricanes.  However, it doesn’t seem likely it will stay so abnormally warm during the summer.  If it does…well, sell your insurance stocks quickly! What is likely though is an active Hurricane year and this nearly always means warmer than normal summers over the Great Lakes. This combined with little snow in Canada makes the spring and summer forecast quite easy. Another reason, by the way, for the warm summer is the fading El Nino. This will likely also increase tropical Atlantic activity and which goes along with warmer conditions in Michigan. By the way last year, despite the much cooler than normal June through August temperatures, all our warm crops—watermelon, sweet potatoes, late tomatoes—ripened well. What this means is we really don’t need warmer than normal summers to ripen everything just fine. Normal is just great! Too bad normal is abnormal!

We now have apples, potatoes and onions for sale. We have opened up our storage room and found nice quality apples and onions.  We are selling our apples by the half-bushel and potatoes/onions by the half-peck at nice, low prices.

Prices of our apples of which we have a good quantity:

Jonathans, Empires, Red Delicious — $3.00 a half bushel

Crispin(Mutsu), Northern Spy, Idared — $4.00 a half bushel

Granny Smith, Fuji — $5.00 a half bushel

We also have some smaller quantities of other varieties at reasonable prices.

Prices of Onions:

Red Onions — $3.00 a half-peck (just over five pounds)

Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions — $2.50 a half-peck (just over five pounds)

Prices of Potatoes:

Norkotah Russet — $2.00 a half-peck (just over 7 pounds)

As always, please pull up plastic liner and leave basket.

1. Who can you trust nowadays in the food business? Following up on my rant last week about having to read labels in the grocery store because you never know where something is grown, we now find out that this problem even exists with those items labeled organic. An audit by the Inspector General of the Department of Agriculture reports that inspections that were required to be performed by the National Organic Program (who oversees the organic industry) were never carried out.  This resulted in products being labeled as organic when in fact they weren’t. From the story I read, most of the problem occurred with products grown in foreign countries. Like I said last week, buying food products grown in foreign countries is always a risk as far as I am concerned. We (the powers that be in this country) do not oversee or monitor their growing practices. Who knows what is actually going on in a growing field thousands of miles away? Another reason to buy local! See the full story here.
2. Today is National Agriculture Day, which is designed to recognize both the effort farmers put into producing the food we consume and the important role agriculture plays in our economy – see story here.  For those of you who homeschool, the Agriculture Council of America has a link to a lesson plan that allows students to learn about the relationship between growing/raising things and the natural resources available (PDF file here).
3. Who knew a vegetable peeler could have so many uses? Story here.
4. Did you know that agriculture is Michigan’s second largest industry? According to this story, agriculture accounts for $71.3 billion dollars in economic activity in the state.  I wasn’t aware of this fact: From dairy to cherries, livestock to row crops, hanging baskets to shrimp and trout, conventional and niche farmers here produce upwards of 200 different commodities, making Michigan agriculture the second-most diverse in the nation after California. It is amazing what is produced in Michigan. Did you know that Michigan ranks first in the nation in the production of dry beans, blueberries, tart cherries, pickling cucumbers, geraniums, Niagara grapes, petunias, impatiens, and squash? (Source: 2008 National Agricultural Statistics Report for Michigan) I never realized how much is grown in Michigan, you learn something new every day. **UPDATE** We just got the Sunday Muskegon Chronicle and it has a graphic that illustrates the resources that Michigan has to offer. Here is the link (PDF File). Very interesting!

Enjoy!

1. One of the projects we have been working on lately is repairing  a rotavator so it can maked raised beds. We are planning on growing some of our crops, primarily some tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes and eggplant in these raised beds.  Along with using the raised beds, we also plan to use plastic and trickle irrigation to help these plants along. Growing things using raised beds is really gaining in popularity – you can read a story about raised beds here.
2. I had to laugh when I read this quote; “We stay away from about all fresh nightshades, meaning tomatoes, eggplant, peppers. They’re not local, they’re shipped across the globe, you can drop ‘em out a third floor window and they remain intact, plus they taste lousy.” in this story- link here- I found while surfing the ‘net. The chef quoted was talking about buying produce during the winter months. I laughed because he voiced exactly what I think about tomatoes from the grocery store during the off season months. Happily for us, and our customers, we have already started all of our peppers, eggplant and onion seeds in the basement. About 95% of our tomatoes have been started in flats. So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The Good Lord willing, we’ll have some nice fresh produce this summer.
3. March is National Nutrition Month (who knew?). One of the dieticians from Albert Lea Medical Center wrote an article about how to eat nutritiously (link). Pretty basic tips but well worth reading.
4. A couple of weeks ago, we ran out of the garlic that we grew at the farm this past season. That means buying the granulated variety from the store and boy did I get surprised! I purchased some McCormick garlic from an online retailer and much to my dismay we discovered it was from CHINA!  CHINA! How can that be? Isn’t California the Garlic capital of the world? According to my research, the answer is a big NO, China is. Following that upsetting news, I went to the grocery store to check on the garlic available there and lo and behold, CHINA again! I was frustrated and bound and determined to find some United States garlic. So again I did an internet search and discovered that Spices Etc. sells only California garlic in their granulated and powdered products.  All was well again in my world. Now check out this story - FDA urges stronger safeguards for spices – and you might want to check out the sources of the spices you use. I tell ya, reading labels is a full time job now.  (By the way, we hope to have our famous garlic again this year if all goes well.)

Hope you find these stories interesting!

1. This is an interesting story that provides some insight into the length of time it may take produce to reach your grocery store from the farmer’s field. One of the details in the story tells us that “after 16 days green beans have lost 45 per cent of nutrients, broccoli and cauliflower 25 per cent, garden peas up to 15 per cent and carrots 10 per cent.” After 16 days???? Come down to Magicland Farms to get your produce. I guarantee that you will not find green beans for sale that are 16 days old, let alone a week. Read the full story – Frozen vegetables ‘more nutritious than fresh vegetables’, says report
2. It’s about time small farmers get some support from the government. Locally grown food is the most affordable and nutritious food there is. The government would do well to support the efforts of the small local farmers. Although from my pre-Magicland past working with government programs, I know that they can create a lot of hoops and obstacles that would kill anyone’s interest in getting support of any kind from the government. Hopefully the programs will be simple and useful. USDA Deputy Secretary touts fed support for small farmers
3. You live and die by the weather when you farm. Last year the cool weather combined with the scourge of late blight created tons of problems for farmers all across the Northeast. This year things are starting early down in the Southeast. Hopefully things will improve in their neck of the woods. Tomato Supplies Low Due to Florida Freeze and Wet Weather Hurting Vegetable Farmers in South Georgia
4. Lately it has become what seems to be a full time job doing the grocery shopping. I have become way more conscientious about reading labels that I ever have been. It started out with my aversion to buying food products from China and now it appears that you could end up paying a whole bunch more for a product just because the company decided to relabel it and sell it as a more healthy alternative.  Zero Nutritional Difference Between Campbell’s “Healthy” Tomato Soups And Regular, Just Higher Price .  Stay tuned to this blog because we are going to do our own taste test in the near future and see whether there is any flavor difference that justifies the higher price.
5. RECALL ALERT! I probably should have posted this on top of the list but I am just learning about blogging using Wordpress. So until I get more experienced, I am leaving this post as is. (I lost several versions of this post at various times today due to my ignorance.) Anyway, here are a few stories on food products that have recalls associated with them.  Foods with flavor enhancer HVP recalled due to salmonella contamination, Recalls: McCormick mixes, spinach dips, soup, and More Pepper Recalled in Salmonella Outbreak.

Hope you find these stories useful!

Sorry, just doing some admin work right now. I am trying to hook up the blog to our Facebook fan page as well as our Twitter page. Cross your fingers that this works!