I started Honest Farm and this blog to talk to people about good, honest food raised by small farmers in a way that sustains the land. Too many food sites I’ve visited, purportedly about sustainable food and the green lifestyle, seem too focused on products for my taste — and pricey ones at that — and the celebrities who buy them. Is that really what caring about the environment is all about? 

Since the fresh spinach recall I’ve developed a deep hankering for the green stuff. It’s like being on a diet, once something is forbidden you develop an irrational craving for it.

But there are many healthy greens you can use instead in a fresh salad or as a cooked green. I am not that crazy about fresh spinach salads, unless they have a hot bacon dressing on them (!). The leaves feel a bit chalky and squeaky on my teeth and it doesn’t have the peppery bite I prefer in a salad green. Instead of spinach, and high on the antioxidant meter, you can use arugula or — the most potent tonic of all — fresh watercress.

Blanch your corn before freezing. Please.

The last few weeks I’ve been hurrying to, as my mother says, "put up" as much of the wonderful summer vegetables and fruits as possible. I get very sad once the garden begins to die out but surveying my freezer full of home grown vegetables and the lined up jars of tomatoes, pickles and jams, gives me an incredible sense of achievement. I can’t wait to show it off to guests. Look what I did on my summer vacation!

Not surprisingly, there are more cases of spinach-related E. coli cases reported by the CDC this evening. I think it could grow higher as those who are already ill are diagnosed and test results are completed. In Kentucky, the number of cases has gone from 4 to 6 today.

Here’s is the latest from the CDC’s website, http://www.cdc.gov/foodborne/ecolispinach/

"As of 1 PM (ET) September 18, 2006, Monday, 114 persons infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported to CDC from 21 states.

Yesterday one of my regular customers came by to purchase tomatoes and chard. She was on her way out of town, she said, to see her daughter who had been diagnosed with the same strain of E. coli linked to tainted spinach from California. "She’s going to be fine," she said, and was home recupperating.

I have included an article below from today’s New York Times on the latest on the outbreak.

This is a good fresh from the farm stand recipe from Honest Farm that appeared in a recent edition of the Lexington Herald Leader for your dining pleasure. We’re enjoying our last fresh string beans this week, as well as lots of peppers and the lingering heirloom tomatoes.

Thanks to everyone who came to the Midway Fall Festival yesterday to support their local farmer (there were only a couple of us there amongs the "Bloomin’ Onions" and funnel cakes. And we certainly had our share of fried foods. We sold out of most that we brought but if I had brought along my Fry Daddy I’m sure we could have battered up and fried the remaining vegetables (fried being a theme of the festival) and sold them for a pretty profit.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Swiss Chard Pasta

Serves 6