How to make it seasonal:

A brief guide for hacking recipes to make them seasonal and farmy!

Recipes are a great source of inspiration but should rarely ever be a blueprint for your meal. They give us great info on combining flavors and textures, new techniques, and exposure to other cultures and cuisines. But really, its more fun to learn the basics and make your meals personal! So here is my guide to hacking recipes to make them seasonal and add your own spin.

1. Swap it out. 
Vegetables, cheeses, meats, and grains can usually be swapped. Here are some simple rules for the swaps. Know your greens. If the recipe calls for spinach or lettuce, try it with kale, arugula, or rainbow chard. Replace tomatoes with roasted peppers. Roots for roots. Try and use things with similar cooking times and flavor profiles.

2. Remember, salt, fat, acid, heat. 
The book Salt. Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat is a great book for nailing the basics. Heres an excerpt I love, “Season food with the proper amount of salt at the proper moment; choose the optimal medium of fat to convey the flavor of your ingredients; balance and animate those ingredients with acid; apply the right type and quantity of heat for the proper amount of time—do all this and you will turn out vibrant and beautiful food, with or without a recipe.”

Using this in practice: does it feel like your food is missing something? Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is a great foundation to come back too.

3. Make it yours. 
Have you ever walked into a kitchen of someone cooking and it smells like their food? When my roommate is cooking the hot pan always smells of sautéing fresh minced garlic, white onion, and fresh oregano, for every meal he makes. Here, you can bet if i’m cooking it will be garnished with flaky sea salt and if they’re in season, sliced green onions. There are things we all do, all the time, that makes the food we cook ours. Put your spin on recipes. Use your favorite ingredients. Know when it needs a dash of paprika, a splash of white wine, or a garnish of mint.

We’re all chefs. Innovators. Eaters. Indulgers. Creatives. Learn the basics, sauté, deglaze, sear, braise, marinate. Then make it yours. Use recipes for inspiration and education. You’ve got this!

Full Diet Updates:

– We have turkeys for y’all! They are available only on first come first serve, and they are included in your weekly price. However, they do contribute to your weekly meat pounds. Because they are averaging 15lbs, they will likely take up two weeks of meat for most of you. Keep this in mind when planning for November!

– We need jars and LIDS! Lids aren’t coming back with the jars and it’s making it very difficult to be prepared in the store!

– Strawberry Moon had her calf! This means so much milk is coming in. If you missed a week of milk, please be sure to check in with us to get more.

– Wow, customer appreciation day was a hoot! Thank you to everyone who came. We love hanging out with y’all!