Entries from The Amateur Gourmet tagged with 'Stella Ragsdale'
Cranberry Beans
My first experience with cranberry beans was a failed attempt at a soup (see here) where dried cranberry beans were cooked for an inappropriate amount of time, leading to a texture so unpleasantly undercooked it was like eating unpopped popcorn kernels. The years have passed, but the scars took a while to heal: I wasn't too eager to cook cranberry beans again. Not even fresh ones. That is until I saw a beautiful mound of them at the farmer's market and, knowing I was cooking a dinner for Stella two weeks ago, I said: "What the 'ell!" (I had a British accent.) I bought the beautiful bag of beans you see above....
The War & Peace of Tomatoes
[The Amateur Gourmet is on vacation and, while he's gone, he's asked his friends to cover for him. Our final guest poster is not only a dear friend of Adam's, but she's watching his cat while he's away! Please give a warm welcome to Stella Ragsdale. Stella just got back from spending the summer on a farm in Martha's Vineyard and the tomato you see in the picture below is a tomato Stella picked herself. (She's eating a tomato salad that Adam made for her before he left.) Adam will be back tomorrow from his trip--woohoo!--but he thanks Stella and all his guest posters for keeping his blog (and cat) alive while he was gone. Bring us on home, Stella.] Tomatoes are some of nature's most luscious fruits. But what goes in to growing them? Blood, sweat, and tears. This is Mighty Tomato reporting in from Martha's Vineyard. As a Southerner who has been living in New York City for four years now, I found myself longing for the sun on my back and the feel of the dirt under my feet. So I fled the city this summer and came to Morning Glory Farm where I worked for the Athearns. I am a farm worker. I work in the sun. I work in the hot dirt. If you've never been to Martha's Vineyard, Morning Glory Farm is the premiere farm on the island. Working on a farm is hard work but its also rewarding. And so is the food!...
