SUGARCANE JUICE WITH GINGER AND KEYLIME

The past friday we spent a good part of the afernoon juicing cane.  Its a very good thing for us to do right now because it is when the cane is reaching its peak sugar content.  Jones (80) scrapes and peels.  Cliff (75) splits and feeds.  And young Jonathan (31), with the least experience uses his extraordinary powers (lack of arthritis) to crank and bringeth forth the juice that then brings forth the nutrients necessary to bring life.  Someone once told me that since it has chlorophyl, sugarcane has 3% solar energy.  So its the good sugar.

Then to give this cane more game, Cliffton and I, dug up fresh ginger just before hand.  There is a big difference in the flavor and strength of this ginger in comparison to the pube-lix variety.  We bottled up a good 4 gallons in 30 mins or so of unadulterated sugar crushing action.  This was served saturday at sunset with a slice of key lime while touring the fields.

PLANTAIN CHIPS WITH HEIRLOOM TOMATO SALSA

Plantains are a nice thing to have around.  They are wonderful aesthetically and great to eat so they are one of my favorite things to grow  Just before the guests arrived I sliced my plantains into long thin slices and fried them into chips for our salsa.  I made a yellow perfection salsa with some just picked onions and cilantro for a very mild and sweet salsa.

We need our proteins on the farm so we have an assortment of beans and peas growing.  We have spent hours in the last couple weeks harvesting and freezing fresh beans that will be served in our upcoming farm dinners.  This weekend we made a delicious lima bean soup with some just picked carrots, onions, chayote, roasted black plum tomatoes and fresh pasta.  I threw some fresh parsley on there for the hell of it and there was some smoked paprika in there for the smell of it.

BEET AND STARFRUIT SALAD 

Boiled beets, from a field not a can, are one of the most seductive things in the known universe. They are like a young bosom, firm and tender to the bite.  These are the kinds of ingredients I like to work with.  I served some juicy slices of beets and some babies left whole on a bed of fresh picked lettuce from right downstairs all tossed in a key lime vinaigrette with slices of sweet star fruits and local key west sea salt.

HAND-MADE PENNE WITH A CARROT FENNEL TOMATO SAUCE AND FRESH BASIL

Theres a particular tomato sauce from the region of Genoa, Italy that uses carrots and celery minced very finely and melted into the onions and tomatoes to make a sweet satisfying thick sowce.  Thats what I did in the Homestead region of Florida this weekend except with fennel in place of the celery.  I used Hani’s eggs to make a hand made penne pasta and served that with fresh basil and some optional Parmigiana reggianno.  I also served a trio of sides thats a fancy way of saying three sides:  roasted paris market carrots, sautéed red russian kale, fried ripe plantains.  We did it a family style and a da people a loved it.

BANANA CREAM PIE

When life hands you bananas you have nothing to complain about.  Bananas are one of the most wonderful gifts to humanity and we hoped to share that joy with people this weekend with our banana cream pie for dessert.  Ours is made with a classic buttery pie crust that is thick and baked until lightly golden and layered with thin slices of homegrown bananas, a delicious custard made with local free-range eggs and vanilla bean, more slices of bananas and a fresh hand-whipped cream.

We always enjoy getting these meals together in the kitchen and in the field and it is our honor serving you the supporters of the farm.

Sincerely,

Jonathan

To start the evening we gave tours and served our homemade sorrel drink.  Homegrown sorrel flowers, ginger and sugarcane is a magical combination.  Then once seated in the tiki we started with:

Hani’s chèvre, arugala, beet and starfruit bruschetta

I almost did the same bruschetta two weeks in a row, but this time we found the first beets growing in the fields so I pulled them and shaved them.  They were so purple it stained me good.  The other thing to note is the great pairing of the chèvre and the starfruit which really balances nicely.  As the guests arrive I find myself going through the orchards looking for the sweetest tree-ripe fruit.

fresh sumpter cucumbers tossed in key lime and key west sea salt 

As a chef or farmer or a chefarmer, I am always looking to make my job easier by growing the ingredients myself.  So the next course I literally just picked some cucumbers and some key limes and put them together.  I added a little FL sea salt to fancy it up I mean people are paying me good money to do this.

 winter vegetable soup

bok choy, chayote, turnips, kale, yucca, cabbage, and cilantro

I was pretty overwhelmed with the amount of ingredients that I had this week.  For lack of imagination, I combined almost every vegetable including the first cabbage of the year with some of the fist turnips and first chayote and made a hearty soup for the slightly chilly evening we had.  I thought the boiled yucca was like a nice dumpling in there with all the vegetables.

jackfruit pizza

What can I say that hasn’t been said about this little beauty?  Well a lot actually since not many people know about me or what I’m doing let alone know about this fruit or how to enjoy it.  Lets just say you’ll have to come to the dinner to find out.  I’ll be serving this until my jackfruit reserves run out.  Its winter time so ripe exotic local organic tropical fruits are hard to come by.

hand-made penne pasta with Hani’s eggs, roasted baby Danvers carrots, parmegianno reggianno, smoked buttonwood key west sea salt and parsley butter 

I make pasta.  I’m pretty good at it.  I wish I could say my Italian grandmother taught me how, but I learned in culinary school.  Ingredients are what its all about, so my goat farming neighbor Hani provided me with the most exceptionally fresh orange-yolked un-fridged eggy wegs.  I rolled some pasta and shaped them with the handle of a wooden spoon.  I thinned out a small strip of our heirloom danvers carrots rows to return to the kitchen with perfect carrots the size of the pastas.  I made a parsley butter with fresh picked parsley, organic butter/parm and local artisinal sea salt.  When asked about this dish, Charlie Sheen exclaimed “It was winning”.

 banana cassava cake

This was a total experiment because I could’t find a decent recipe for cassava cake that didn’t use canned evaporated milk or canned condensed milk.  Just the sound of condensed milk could put you in a depression.  So I did what I always do before a big event, I rolled the dice on something I’ve never done before.  I pulled up some fresh yucca and grated it into a bowl.  I added a couple homegrown bananas hanging around, Hani’s eggs, coconut milk, vanilla and some FL brown sugar.  I cracked open a mature green FL coconut and grated the meat in there.  I mixed it up and baked it for some time.  It was a sticky dream come true.  I served it on top of some of our jackfruit preserve for a sweet finish.

Thanks to everyone who came to this weekends farm meal.  We appreciate you for driving out here to the sticks and for supporting a small family farm.

sincerely,

Jonathan

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     Longans are a tropical tree, related to the Lychee and native to Southeast Asia.  They make droopy bunches of round fruits a little smaller than the size of golf balls, and they taste like a combination of honey-dew melon and taro bubble tea. They also have a texture similar to a grape.

     The exciting thing for me when I had my first Longan at age 27, was that I had discovered there were new flavors in the world.  As we move further towards possible global destruction or world peace, it is nice to know that there are still mysteries to explore on the earth.

Here at the farm we have over 60 mature Longan trees so making dried fruit and organic fruit wine are some of the things I have in mind.

Here is an idea that worked out great. We took a classic chocolate chip cookie dough recipe and we farm-ized it.

Ingredients

• 2 cups organic all purpose flower
• 2 local eggs
• 2 sticks organic unsalted butter
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 11 oz white chocolate chips
• 1 cup dried Longans

        The baking of the Longans is a usual dessert in China and the cooking of the fruit, even in this cookie, brings out a caramelized holiday-like flavor.

Its always nice to make a big batch of cookies, bake some and have some dough ready in the fridge.  A warm (heck, even hot) soft cookie like this could cure the deepest depression.

Enjoy with a hot cup of fresh lemongrass tea!

      I want to talk a little bit about the sauce we make on the farm.  I’ve been making this particular sauce for about a year now because scotch bonnets have been very prolific down here.  If you’re not familiar with scotch bonnet peppers, they are the second hottest pepper in the world with over 100,000 scoville units, and they are generally found in the Caribbean and West Africa.

The ripe fresh pepper goes from green to colors ranging in yellow-orange-red.  It is often confused with the habinero since it has a similar hat-shape, however, it has a flavor all of its own.  The variety we grow here at Three Sisters Farm is a yellow bonnet, the seed from which, supposedly has been brought to south FL by someone from the (Bob) Marley family.

When I first landed on Three Sisters, I noticed many bushes of these peppers with bright yellow ornaments hanging in the understory of the bananas.  This crop was grown by Cliffton, a Jamaican farmer who still works with me today.  Every week he was filling up shopping bags full of these peppers and I never knew what he did with them.

In Jamaican cuisine, the scotch bonnet is king.  The flavor is what makes this pepper very special.  Its used in all types of recipes but is definitely a main part of the classic jerk.  Beyond the heat, is a very fruity flavor that can be found no where else.  What I do with the pepper is make a sauce that brings out that fruitiness with the addition of banana vinegar and honey.

I learned how to make banana vinegar from my trips to Costa Rica where I met an old Dole Banana farmer called “Poppy”.  On a tour of his jungle farm during a permaculture program, we got to enjoy a huge feast prepared by him and his wife.  Thanks to all the Costa Rican experiences from Poppy to Punta Mona and the yoga farm, I learned the simple ways of preserving bananas that opened up a new world of flavor.

To Make Banana VInegar:

The other key ingredient which sets our sauce apart from any other sauce is the addition of the honey from the bees on our farm.  With all the avocado, lychee, and longan groves in our 2 mile radius, the bees on our farm make a dark tropical honey that seems to be the perfect fit for the hot sauce.

How to make the sauce:  

1.  Rinse peppers.

2.  With gloves on, break off the stems of the peppers

3.  Bring banana vinegar (or apple cider vinegar) to a slow boil

4.  Add chopped onions, scotch bonnets, and a couple pinches of salt

5.  Bring to a simmer and let cook for 15-30 mins depending on size of batch

6.  puree the entire mixture seeds and all

7.  strain out the pulp and seeds

8.  stir in honey (or sugar to taste)

9.  bottle it up!

Look for our hot sauce when you are dining at the farm.  There is always at least one course where I will put a house bottle on the table.  If you like the sauce and you want to take one home, we have plenty of sauce for sale.  I use it almost everyday on almost everything.  Try it on a fried egg on top of some yucca or just put in on your rice and beans for a lift of flavor.  It is a product I’m proud of and use every day and I’m sure if you like heat you’ll love it too.  I’m not just the CEO of this sauce….I’m also a client.  Your gonna like the way it tastes.  I guarantee it.

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 The idea that you could yank some knobs out of the dirt and have something that could make up the bulk of your dinner is very appealing to.  Year after year, the yucca brings a heap of starch and it continues to be the most reliable and low maintenance crop, with only the dropping of a stick in the ground required to receive the bounty that awaits.  The other exciting revelation is that yucca can be prepared or preserved in countless ways from boiling it and topping it with sour orange mojo, making fries, bammie cakes, dried into flour for gluten-free bread or pasta, or fermented to make a famous beer from centuries past called “Manioc Beer”.   It freezes well out of the ground, and peeling is all thats required before bagging it and putting it away for the wet months while it is growing again.

Cassava is a 9-10 month crop with planting in South Florida beginning in February and continuing up until as late as June but never in May and not to be planted during the wet summer months as the ground is too wet. You can take one stalk of yucca and make many new plants from breaking the stalk into many pieces.  There are different ways to plant the stick, but if you can make a ditch with your finger and put a stick in the ground than you can grow yucca.

Harvesting the giant stalks of yucca is a very enjoyable time that family members love to gather around and watch as the breathtaking brown roots move the earth as they fling out of the ground whipping dirt all over.  The machete chops all the edible roots off the main stem and then the bottom of the plant is cut off (part of yucca that was underground gets composted).  Now the stalks can be leaned under a fruit tree until feb.  The stalk (the seed) can stay alive under the trees with one cut end touching the ground indefinitely.  They will grow right there but won’t bear anything worthwhile unless its divided and planted in a deep bed that is full of soft soil.

Peeling these babies are easier if you do it right after harvesting.  Score the root from top to bottom in a diagonal spiral and the pink/brown layer should ideally remove in one piece.  To cook this bad boy, all you need to do is boil water, salt it, and put the pieces in for 20 mins or so.  When you are using freshly dug roots as opposed to waxed supermarket varieties, it cooks faster!  For frying it, boil it for 10 mins until still firm, then slice into fries and fry.

Here are some hints about growing yucca:

You need irrigation on it from February when its planted until the summer rainy season.  After the rain dies down, the yucca thrives with that little bit of drought, so don’t water it.  This is when the roots are looking for water so they fatten up.  Yucca should always be rotated so we usually follow it up with beans or other above ground crops like callalou.

 If you don’t like fishing, try farming cause its a great catch every time!

Botanical name: Hibiscus sabdariffa

Common names: Rosella, Indian Sorrel, Jamaica Sorrel, Jamaican Sorrel, Red Sorrel, Maleate, Vinagreira, Aced era de Guinea, Cabitutu, Rosa de Jamaica­, Vinuela

Ingredients: Sorrel, ginger, sugar/honey, lime, rum 

     The petals are picked, washed, and put into a bowl or pot where boiling ginger-infused water is poured over.  The flowers are allowed to steep in a covered pot overnight to get the most flavor from them.

If you sniff it, you spoil it!

A Jamaican superstition says don’t put your face in or near the pot no matter how intoxicating the petals aroma may be because any bacteria getting in will botch your batch.  In the morning, the mixture is strained and a small amount of rum is added to help preserve the “wine”.  It can be kept like this for years in the right conditions and it becomes stronger in flavor over time.

     Before serving, a syrup is usually made with some boiling water and sugar or honey with optional lime juice. More rum is added to the desired strength.

  This is a flavor that is found no where else but the hard flower of this native west-Indies bush!

Every family has their own particular method of flavoring, serving, and storing the drink. If one had enough flowers to go around, ideally a holiday batch would be made for this years and an aged batch for next years holiday.

     The spice from the ginger, the tart from the petals, and the honey create a magical combination that both kids and adults will love.  Extra rum for the young children!

To enjoy this drink made from freshly picked petals is a luxury that most people don’t even know they are missing.

     At Three Sisters Farm, we are carrying on a Jamaican tradition by growing two varieties of this amazing shrub, and producing authentic wine that is served with our farm meals.  Our ginger garden will be ready for harvest this December while our large harvest of Sorrel will be ready at the same time.

You can bet we are going to make some high quality super sorrel wine this holiday!

      Come relax and have a glass here at the farm.

 If you’re interested in growing this beautiful flower ask for some seeds and we’ll help you grow it

This pizza was so delicious because it came from one of our favorite varieties of jackfruit that happened to ripen perfectly for this past saturday’s Farm Dinner.  This variety has a serious crunch and lots of thickness and juice.  It has a bright flavor reminiscent of red apples dipped in sugar.  The latex level is low and the fruit is extra large.

How its Made:

First you need a great pizza dough recipe!  My crust is made with half whole wheat and half white bread flour for a higher gluten content which makes a more tender dough.  I use a variation from a recipe from the Tassajara Zen Center which works great.  I roll it pretty thin because I’m a fan of Naples style pizza.  Top it with a light layer of raw crushed tomatoes, sliced jackfruit, chopped mozzarella and transfer it to the stone and bake it up.  Garnish it with some fresh purple basil from the garden and some crushed homegrown black pepper.  

This is a great tropical pizza that pairs well with coconut or some of our homemade sorrel wine.  I can’t wait to put a wood-fire oven on Three Sisters Farm near the Tiki Hut so we can make all sorts of pizzas more efficient!  The farm will be able to pump out a 12 inch pizza every minute and then we can have pizza parties.

Sincerely,

Jonathan

Widely used in Indian cuisine, it is cooked green, or fried in curries. It is also used in China, where they pickle the rind! I personally love to dehydrate it to preserve it. It is so delicious, it is like an all natural, nothing-added fruit snack. If you ever come to Three Sisters Farm for a meal or if you have ever been here before, you will know that I like to use it in many recipes. Sometimes in salads, or I will re-hydrate it and use it in all sorts of entrees.

A lot of chefs get timid when they see these fruits because of his enormity and how much work it takes to actually get to the fruit! In this video, watch me harvest and cut open a Jackfruit!