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Feeding the soul

Features | Thu, 10/22/2009 - 10:52 am | Read 2713 | Commented 1 | Emailed 3

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AMITY — When Sarah Danforth bought the first three goats for her Amity farm, she thought they’d be as simple to keep as the chickens she’d already adopted. And if she hadn’t picked wild goats, that might have proven the case.

Instead, the three ran off. She didn’t see them again for two months.

“You just love seeing $300 run the other direction,” she said.

Even when the goats did return, they were so wild they wouldn’t eat as long as she was in the barn with them.
That was back in 2005, the year Danforth bought the Art Farm.

Today, she has a herd of seven goats. And the milk from two of them is enough for nearly all the dairy products she makes on the farm.

The Art Farm is Danforth’s foray into independent small farming.

She bought the property and fixed up the 1916-vintage farmhouse. Today she runs a community supported agriculture program with 14 clients.

In a CSA program, a farmer grows produce and harvests it. The fruit, vegetables and herbs are packed in crates or boxes — or red Igloo coolers at the Art Farm — to be picked up or delivered to clients’ homes.

Danforth has her clients fill out questionnaires detailing allergies, likes and dislikes. She bills them monthly.

The produce is harvested all summer. The mix varies from week to week, depending on what happens to ripen. Danforth said she tries to grow unusual varieties of familiar plants, such as tomatoes.

“I just grew up in a very veggie family,” she said, recalling a childhood in which she would help harvest six distinct kinds of cucumbers and learned to distinguish them all.

The variety of food she grew up with made its way into her garden, and the Igloo coolers. But she includes identification of the vegetables for her clients, in case they don’t recognize a small, round, yellow fruit as a tomato.

She also adds items that aren’t grown in her two-acre garden. In every box, she adds a “farm goody,” such as butter, goat cheese, soap, jam, lip balm, recipes and greeting cards featuring photos of the farm’s chickens or flowers.

“Creating something out of what you grow is kind of the fun part,” she said. “The clients like those more than the veggies most of the time, I think.”

Springing from the recipes she includes with the produce was the “Amity Farmhouse Cookbook,” which Danforth published in September. The book contains mostly vegetarian recipes, categorized by season.

The recipes all use something from the farm, and were originally written to help clients know what to do with potentially daunting bunches of kale or an esoteric variety of squash.

Danforth filled a notebook full of recipes that she tried, modified, changed, tried again and ultimately kept or threw out. The best recipes were the ones she passed on to clients.

Eventually, the recipes evolved into books. The first two editions were typed on a home computer and bound at Kinko’s, one in 2000 and the other in 2007.

The 2009 edition is the first to be professionally bound. She is selling it through Amazon.com.

Creating the book, and all the photographs of food between its covers, came naturally to Danforth.

She said her entire family has creative talent. Nearly all her relatives are musicians, dancers, painters and photographers, she said.

Danforth’s love of farming also stems from her family.

Her grandparents farmed near Beaverton until it was taken over by condominium developers and Tri-Met. She spent her summers on their farm, where she learned to garden and raise produce.

When she attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York, Danforth found she missed farming. She would break into the college greenhouses at night and garden in the flower beds.

Upon returning to Oregon, she began a CSA program near Beaverton. Then she took on the Art Farm in 2005.
The experience has been fulfilling, she said.

Not only has she filled her farm with friends — seven goats, eight cats and at least 10 chickens — but she has created friendships with her CSA clients in the course of feeding them.

“The direct buyer relationship is really what the CSA program is about,” Danforth said.

Recipes

Pumpkin Sage Pasta

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
16 fresh sage leaves, cut into thin ribbons
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup sour cream
10 ounces ziti or rigatoni pasta

Boil pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain when done cooking. While your pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large skillet and add the onions. Saute onions over medium heat until lightly caramelized, 8-10 minutes. Add the heavy cream, pumpkin, cheese, sage, salt and pepper. Simmer over medium-low heat until thickened, 10-12 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. Mix into the cooked pasta and serve immediately. Serves 3-4.

Huevos Rancheros

4 large eggs
2 12-inch flour tortillas
1 can black beans, well drained
1/2 cup sharp cheese, shredded
4 tablespoons your favorite salsa
2 tablespoons sour cream
Preheat oven to 425 F. Gently fold tortilla into a half-moon shape. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Spread a thin layer of black beans inside the tortilla moons.
Fry eggs two-at-a-time in a small buttered skillet until they are between over-easy and over-medium. Place eggs two-at-a-time on the folded tortillas and cover each with half of the shredded cheese. Bake until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 minutes. Be careful not to overcook them — you want the yolks to be a little runny.
Transfer each tortilla to a plate, top with two tablespoons of salsa and one tablespoon sour cream on each and serve. Serves two people.

Sarah Danforth
“Amity Farmhouse Cookbook”

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