Farm-City Day is a great day to bring the whole family to Farmers Market

Farm-City Day is a great day to bring the whole family to Farmers Market

This Saturday is Farm-City Day at the Fairgrounds.  This is a good day to bring your whole family to Farmers Market.  Either before or after you shop for your fresh fruits, veggies, and meats, you can participate in a lot of fun activities in the Veterans Building.  This year’s theme is “Play in the Hay at Farm-City Day!”  Muskingum County is one of the top hay producing counties in the state and you can learn all about it through hands-on activities such as games, contests, and demonstrations.  Other activities will include music, food, a petting zoo, kids crafts, and much more.

            My rain gauge has recorded over four inches of rain the last several days.  This was so greatly needed.  I am glad that I got some fall crops such as lettuce and other greens planted just in time to take advantage of all of this rain.  They are already up and growing. 

            The rain finally made the ground soft enough to dig up a bunch of carrots that had been sitting out in the field for weeks.  I had begun to think I wasn’t going to get them out at all.  I also took time to pull out some of the head-high weeds that have taken over my garden.  I don’t know about you, but this is the time of year when weeds get out of control in my garden; I have just been so busy trying to keep up with harvesting produce that the weeds get way ahead of me. 

In pulling out those monster weeds I made a few discoveries.  For example, I found a whole patch of green beans that was ready and I didn’t even know it.  Also, I had planted basil about three times earlier this season, but the hot dry weather never allowed it to germinate and I finally gave up.  However, I found that some of the basil did indeed come up and once I pulled away the weeds I had many large healthy basil plants that had managed to survive in spite of tremendous neglect. 

            Now that I have all of this basil at my fingertips, I can start making pesto and make enough to put some up in the freezer for the winter months.  Recently, I was having dinner at the farm of my friend Nora Daniel.  She managed to have a whole garden full of basil all summer and served a delicious roast chicken with pesto.   She suggested that the next time she made pesto she was going to use pistachios instead of the traditional pine nuts.  I love pistachios and had never considered using them in pesto.  So, I promptly stole her idea and made a batch of pistachio pesto, which turned out to be lovely.  I don’t usually measure when I make pesto, just dump things in the food processor until it looks the right consistency, but here is an approximate account of what I used.

Pistachio Pesto   

·         2 cups basil leaves, hard stems discarded

·         4-6 cloves garlic, peeled

·         ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese

·         1/3 cup olive oil

·         ¾ cup pistachios, shelled

·         ¼ cup lemon juice

·         Salt and pepper to taste

Add basil, garlic, parmesan, lemon juice, and pistachios to food processor and puree.  Add olive oil until it is a spreadable consistency.  Add salt and pepper to taste.   Pesto can be used in many ways such as on pasta, roast chicken, or pizza.   I toasted slices of bread, spread pesto on each slice, and topped it with chopped fresh tomatoes.