WILD HARE WEEKLY SPRING 6/12
The sweet hen you see is making the most of a delicious Chicken Chicory patch that Mark plants for our youngest hens to enjoy—they’re still too young and far too vulnerable to be out in the field with the number of birds of prey that we coexist with here at the farm, but they seem to enjoy having access to fresh air and leafy greens just as much as their big sisters do. Whether you’re celebrating Easter, Passover, a New Year or another great day to be alive, we’ve got another delicious week of Springtime vegetables and plenty of Pasture-Raised Organic Eggs from those Wild Hare Hens in store this week. Here are a few tips that I share every year that I hope will help you in addition to the recipes that you’ll find after the “read on” jump.

WILD HARE WEEKLY SPRING 5/12
Hi. My name is Katie Green, and I eat beets for breakfast. Oh, I know. It catches the ear all kinds of wrong at first. Wait, what did she just say? Beets? Not only does this woman expect me to actually EAT BEETS, she wants me to eat them for BREAKFAST?! Has this woman lost her ever-loving mind?

Maybe a little, but I would blame running the farm as a whole for that—not just the beets. You see, over the winter I hit a wall, and I realized that I needed to make a much more intentional effort to take better care of myself than I had for the prior four years of keeping this place going strong. This took the form of me “reconnecting with my why,” which a good portion of the time looks like me surrounding myself with a bunker of books, Matilda style. I’m not sure why exactly, but one of the cookbooks that I added to my fortress late last year shook something up for me in a way that I really needed. The book? Dining In by Alison Roman. The saturated photos, super chic flat lighting yet straightforward way in which she presents recipes had me hooked. It isn’t a health food book by any means, but it has done wonders for my heart and our kitchen. It is just my kind of book. The recipes in particular? A simple batch of Vinegar Roasted Beets and another for a savory Granola that has all of the elements of the perfect Everything Bagel minus the bagel. But here’s the kicker, for all of my enthusiasm and inspiration, the people with whom I live do not get excited about eating beets. So, I did what made sense to me at the time—I made it for breakfast, the meal that everyone in the house tends to do their own thing for anyway. And then I roasted up another batch and had it again and again. Since then, I’ve sprinkled Alison Roman’s “Decidedly Not Sweet Granola” on everything from roasted Rutabagas, to Broccoli, to Avocados and Cucumbers. And as a result, I’m starting my day with a batch-cooked (but somehow still indulgent) dish of dietary fiber, iron and all kinds of other nutrients that I don’t have to share with ANYONE else in my house. It is mom/wife/me time heaven, and a meal like this leaves me feeling remarkably good and ready to face whatever shenanigans the farm tosses my way. So that’s my advice. In a funk? Hit the library—and don’t just settle for having breakfast for dinner—eat those veggies for breakfast people—especially the ones your family members don’t love as much as you do. And when you’re ready to please a crowd again, take that Purple Sprouting Broccoli and make them some Smitten Kitchen Broccoli Pizza. Of course, the life-affirming, game-changing, serotonin-inducing recipes I’ve described are linked at the end of this week’s newsletter.

Have a great week!
Katie

WILD HARE WEEKLY SPRING 4/12
There’s no time for fooling around here—the egg count is looking fantastic thanks to our two hardworking flocks of hens. This means that in addition to CSA add-ons, we’ll have eggs for sale by the dozen at our farmstand going forward through the season. If you’ve driven past our farm along River Road, chances are you’ve seen at least one of our two flocks of girls out there doing what they do best—pecking around for bugs and bits of sprouting things, taking their twitchy dust baths in the sunshine and laying truly exceptional eggs. Just one look at those taut orange yolks and you’ll see what a difference living in the open air, scratching around on pasture and having access to quality organic feed from Scratch & Peck, mean for our birds. You might not realize it, but there are more than 600 hens living at our farm. You’re welcome to visit them when you come out, but please be advised that their movable fencing is electrified in order to keep them safe from our local band of coyotes. (They’re more of a brazen acapella group that likes to serenade us every time a siren or train whistle blows, lest we forget their menacing presence).

At any rate, I’m always excited when eggs are abundant again, because they are such a versatile source of protein and go so well with so many of our spring vegetables—particularly those sprouting and flowering broccoli and kale types. Mark has put this incredibly simple and delicious Breakfast Broccoli Bake recipe into the rotation as of late, and that my friends, is the sign of an easy Spring meal. When the farmer can hop off the tractor and whip up a meal from scratch in between hitching implements, he and his recipe are both keepers.

Best,
Katie