On Monday, we spent the overcast and rainy day hauling all 70,000 of our chile starts from our greenhouse down across the street to the farm where they will spend the next 7 days acclimating to life outside. Because next week, it's time to get these chiles in the ground! I'm excited, nervous, and already feeling sore just thinking about the work we have ahead of us this season.
Thanks to everyone who purchased salsas from Sauce Everywhere a few weeks ago. We sold out of the Ají Crisp but still have 5 jars of Salsa Casera on hand. Once we sell out, you can purchase more salsa directly from Sauce Everywhere. If you missed it, these salsas are made with 7 of our Boonville grown chiles down in the Bay Area and are utterly delicious.
As we head into the real start of the growing season, I wanted to say thanks for supporting our small farm. Your purchase of our beans, chiles, olive oil, and strawberry jam ensures that we plant all those things again and have a crop the following year. We're grateful to have folks like you in our nationwide community of people who like to cook delicious food and support small farms in the process. Cheers to a fruitful 2025 growing season here on our farm and also in your home garden if you have one.
7 Ways to Enjoy Spring Produce with our Chiles
Spring is the perfect time to adorn the mostly green spring veggies with chile powder and chiles flakes. I spent last weekend cooking a variety of spring vegetables and feeling quite full (plus exhausted after doing a lot of yard work in the sun). I've put together a list of spring produce, recipes to cook, along with the chile needed for it. I hope you find at least 1 new recipe to try out!
Asparagus: We treated ourselves to a fancy breakfast at home on Sunday with a favorite dish I used to make when I worked at the Boonville Hotel - an asparagus/egg salad. I blanched and seared some asparagus (tossed with salt, olive oil, and Piment d’Ville) and served it with arugula tossed in a mustard vinaigrette, a poached egg, and a piece of toast. I finished it off with a spoonful of Dried Chile Romesco Sauce made with our Whole Dried Espelette Chiles. If the grocery store wouldn’t have been out of prosciutto, this would have had a few slices with it as well.
Snap Peas: I’m quite picky when it comes to a snap pea salad. We ate this version with a mint and tahini-harissa dressing and used Gochugaru chile powder to finish the dish alongside roasted chicken thighs. I really enjoyed it!
|
Broccoli: I’m a fan of roasted broccoli. This recipe for Roasted Broccoli with Lemon and Parmesan is simple but flavorful and I like that it’s doused with parm at the end. It also affirms my decision to always peel and slice the broccoli stems and roast them with the crowns. I have 3 chile recommendations for this one: you could add Calabrian chile flakes to the broccoli before roasting or serving, add a ¼ - ½ teaspoon of Comapeño chile powder to the broccoli before roasting to pair with the citrusy lemon, or swap in Piment d’Ville for the black pepper. We ate this alongside roasted carrots (recipe below) and these Pork Schnitzel Meatballs (can confirm the meatballs were delicious but a bit fussy to prep before frying and I had a tiny meltdown when my timing for the meatballs and roasted veggies wasn’t perfect). I added a teaspoon of Piment d'Ville to the ground pork mixture.
Carrots: While carrots are not one of my favorite vegetables, there are a small number ways I enjoy eating them. In these oven roasted carrots, the combination of Smoky Piment d’Ville and ground cumin make the carrots taste better than any other carrot I can imagine eating. They cook at the same temperature as the broccoli making it an easy second pan to pop in the oven.
|
|
Beets: We’ve got a packed week of evening meetings so I prepped a bunch of things for us to easily throw together hearty salads for dinner (various veggies, quinoa, greens, etc). I decided to make a batch of marinated roasted beets with Yahulica Chile Flakes to add to the salad. I put together this simple recipe for how I make these beets.
Wildcard Recipe - Tortilla Soup with Pasilla Chiles: Spring evenings in Boonville can easily be quite chilly. I made this Tortilla Soup with our Pasilla chiles a few weeks ago and really loved it. I wanted it to be a bit heartier so I browned and simmered a pound of chicken thighs in the broth before adding the hominy (I used a canned version). And while it isn’t heavy on spring vegetables, it was incredibly rich and flavorful without being too heavy.
|
