Our Independence Day Meal

Here is what we served. I am sorry there are no photos from my camera, which was left back at the farm, but I have added 3 pix from my husband's camera at the end of the post.

• Grilled chicken (from Back Forty Acres in Chelsea, MI)
• Marinade made by blending our garlic scapes with lime juice, apple cider vinegar, and water
• Grilled garlic scapes (yes, yes, oh my - as great or even better than grilled asparagus!)
• Roasted organic Yukon gold potatoes (not local) with snips of our rosemary plant
• Green salad made with locally grown red leaf lettuce (Our Family Farm, Manchester, MI), cabbage (Tantré Farm, Chelsea, MI), sunflower sprouts and fennel (GardenWorks, Ann Arbor, MI)
• Salad dressing made from olive oil and our home-made chive blossom vinegar
• Dessert was Black Raspberry Pudding Cake, made with our own black raspberries picked at the farm plus organic spelt flour (grown in Nashville, MI by the Jennings Brothers)

Recipe - Black Raspberry Pudding Cake

    •    2 cups blackberries (more or less depending on what you picked and ate!)
    •    1 cup all purpose flour (I used organic spelt flour grown in Michigan - Jennings Bros.)
    •    1 tsp. baking powder
    •    1-1/2 cups sugar
    •    1/2 cup lowfat milk
    •    3 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
    •    1 tsp. vanilla extract
    •    1 Tbs. cornstarch
    •    1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place blackberries in the bottom of a buttered 8-inch cake pan or baking dish. Combine flour, baking powder, and half the sugar in a mixing bowl. Add milk, melted butter and vanilla. Using an electric mixer (I just beat by hand with a good wisk), beat until smooth. Spread batter over blackberries. Combine remaining sugar and cornstarch. Sprinkle over batter. Pour boiling water over mixture. Bake 35-40 minutes or until tester comes out clean when inserted in center. 

This recipe serves 8-12 people.

This recipe has so much sugar that the small serving size, i.e. 12 versus 8, was plenty for me. However, my husband and younger son both wanted a second piece and I'm sure would have eaten more if we hadn't been already pleasantly full from our delicious meal. Next time I would try to follow my own rule (!) to cut the sugar in half and see what happens.

The blessing we read before eating this delicious and bountiful meal:

To all else thou hast given us, O Lord,

we ask for but one thing more:

Give us 

grateful hearts.

~~ George Herbert (1593-1633)

I hope you also celebrated some food independence over this holiday weekend!

"Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row"

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

 (Photo from Dick Dyer: Chicken pieces with garlic scape marinade and garlic scapes on the grill)

(Photo from Dick Dyer: Grilled garlic scapes ready to eat!)

(Photo from Dick Dyer: Grilled chicken and garlic scapes, ready to devour!)