An Interview with Powerhouse Juice 

Located opposite of the brick wall, Powerhouse Juice brings fresh, delicious, locally sourced organic juices to the Medford Famers Market and beyond. 

They have a storefront in Mill No.5, and you can see them at their website at http://www.powerhousejuice.com/

Kate M interviewed the owner and founder, Heather, on June 16th.

K: How long has PowerHouse Juice been running?

”We started last May, so a little over a year now."

K: How did the company get started?

Heather: ”I have always wanted to start my own business. I did a lot of juicing at home and have always loved food, so it just sort of started."

K: What is your favorite part of being an entrepreneur?

Heather: ”Hmm. Let's see. It's a lot of work! Once you see growth, and you see people reacting to what you do, it just makes you want to do more. The emotional payoff is really good."

K: How did you get the flavors right?

Heather: ”We are always trying new things and a lot of trial and error. We are constantly trying to improve our juices and come up with new ones."

K: How much would you say the company has grown since it started, and what are your goals for growing in the future?

Heather: ”Last year we were selling at 7 farmers markets, and now we are selling at 18. We also sell at Mill no. 5 in Lowell, which is really cool and I highly recommend checking it out. I would love to get a bigger storefront in the next 2-3 years."

K: How many people are working for PowerHouse Juice? 

Heather: ”Just me and my Husband. I started it with working full time, and then he started helping. We are now working together."

K: What do you do with the pulp?

Heather: ”Aha! We give it to a pig farm. The farm is called Burnshirt farm in [MA somewhere] so all parts of the plants are used. Nothing goes to waste.”

K: What good about juices?

Heather: ”The average American gets very little fruits and vegetables, so juice is like a multivitamin. You get all those nutrients in one juice."

How to Make a Raw Kale Salad 

Kale is abundant in farmers markets. It’s easy to grow and has a growing season that lasts all summer and into fall. But the leaves of this nutrient rich plaint can be very tough and bitter. So what do we do? 

Here a way to eat kale raw while having it be delicious. This recipe is fairly easy and can be quite fun as well! The secret to this recipe is to massage the raw kale leafs in olive oil with your hands for 5 minutes. It can be a little messy, but if you have a wet rag on hand and dive into it, it can be quite enjoyable. I found the 5 minutes as a nice time to reflect on my day.  

For the dressing, I would recommend using your favorite recipe or bottled salad dressing. 

I used a mixture of lemon, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and a touch of honey to taste. 

It is really important to let sit for at least 30 min before serving. At first I got discouraged, thinking I messed up my salad dressing. But when I ate it again that evening, it tasted really good. So have patience and no fear!  

Ingredients: 

• 1 Bunch kale 
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• Pickled carrots from the provisos recipe chopped
• Fresh strawberries chopped 
• Tomato chopped
• Craisins or rasins  
• Toasted sunflower seeds 
• Fresh cheese like goat cheese (not pictured)

Method: 

1—Wash kale and either rip or chop the leaves away from the stems. (The stems are inedible raw. Way too fibrous and tough. But there are ways to put every part of the kale to use! For some gourmet ideas, look here: http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/not-bad-kale-stems. Keep your eyes out for a pickled kale stem recipe! If it passes the test that is.)

2—Rip leaves into bite sized pieces and place in a large bowl and drizzle the Tablespoon of olive oil over. 

3—Put your hands in the kale bowl and start kneading and massaging. If you have ever made bread before or seen someone do it, basically do the same motions with the kale. Grab fistfuls and squeeze, and then push down around in the bowl. After about a minute the dark green color will form and the kale will start to take on a velvety texture. Keep going for the full 5 minutes to get the kale to the point where its soft and tender enough to eat. 

4—Add dressing. Chop tomato, carrots, and strawberries and add along with the raisins/craisins, seeds, and cheese. Toss to combine.

5—Let salad sit, or chill, for at least 30 minutes before serving. Salad topping have a tendency of wanting to sink to the bottom of the bowl, so be aware of this when preparing to serve.

Enjoy!

Recipe and photos by Kate Mitchell  

Pickled Carrots 

Pickling: yes you can do it at home with things already in your pantry! 

Not only is this a great way of lengthening the freshness of vegetables like carrots and cucumber, but it can also give flavor and spark to whatever food the pickles are added to.   

This recipe is a little labor intensive, but I say the results are worth it. The biggest trick is to be carful with the hot pickling liquid. It will smell strong, so I recommend preparing this recipe on a day where the windows can be left open for a little bit. The carrots may not taste great immediately after they cool, but have no fear: after about 24 hours they will turn into the tastiest things ever. Maybe a slight exaggeration there, but I found them to be very very good. They make great additions and enhance the taste of salads, main dishes, soups, sandwiches. They can even be eaten straight from the container. 

Once pickled, the carrots can stay in the fridge at least a month without going bad. I just finished off the batch I made 3 weeks ago and they were still as crisp and flavorful as they were the day after I made them.

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch carrots (about 5 medium carrots)
• 2/3 cup Apple cider vinegar 
• 1 Cup water
• 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon salt 
• 2 Tablespoons honey 
• 2 teaspoons minced dill or basle 
• 1 Large or two small garlic cloves minced  

Method:

1—Wash carrots and separate form stems. Save stems for adding to salads or to make veggie broth. 

2—Cut carrots into 3 inch long by 1/2 wide slivers

3—Blanch carrots by carefully placing them in boiling water for one minutes then draining in a colander under cold water. This step is optional, but I found the benched carrots had a better texture. They felt a little crisper and easier to eat. 

4—Bring the next 4 ingredients to a boil, then bring down and simmer for 2 minutes.

5—Place carrots a large jar/tall/large food container and poor the pickling mixture over them. 

Careful of the steam! I you get a face full of it it will not be pleasant thanks to the vinegar.

6—Let the carrots and the liquid sit until it becomes cool. Then place in the refrigerator for at least a day to let the sharpness of the vinegar to weaken and the sweetness develop. 

Now you can add them to whatever you want, or eat them straight! 

Enjoy!

Photo and recipe by Kate Mitchell

Hakurei Turnip Salad 

Think you don't like turnips? Give these guys a try! Hakurei turnips are smaller, crisper and much sweeter then regular turnips and have a wonderful delicate, earthy flavor. The leaves are also delectable; both tender and mild. This crop is nearing the end of its season, so act fast if you have not gotten a bunch of these already! 

One can eat these turnips either cooked like the recipe here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/glazed-hakurei-turnips-368274, or raw like the salad below. 

This recipe follows a basic salad structure and can be changed to fit your personal preferences. 

I added, and would recommend adding, about a 50/50 ratio of turnip leafs to other greens to give the salad more body. I used a mix of equal parts baby kale and claytonia (a tender, mild green) from Good Roots Farm. 

Salad:

• 1 Bunch (about 6 bulbs) hakurei turnips diced 
• The stems and leaves from said bunch, torn into bite sized pieces 
• 2 Good handfuls of a slightly bitter green, like baby kale
• 2 Good handfuls of a tender, sweet green, such as claytonia 
• About 1/4 cup chopped raisins (I liked having the smaller pieces)
• 1 Medium apple chopped 
• 1/4 Of a toasted nut or seed (I used sunflower seeds)

Dressing:

• 1+1/2 Tablespoon olive oil 
• 1+1/2 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar 
• Good drizzle honey (very important!)
• 2 teaspoons onion powder 
• Sprinkle salt
• Sprinkle pepper 

Method: 

1— Combine all dressing ingredients in the bottom of a large bowl and whisk until conbined. I like to make the dressing in the bottom of the same bowl as my salad so one: it helps coat the all the ingredients evenly, and two: one less thing to clean!

2—Wash all vegetable ingredients. Tear turnip greens into bite sized pieces and chop turnips into bite sized pieces as well

3—Toss all salad ingredients in the bowl with the dressing, using two utensils to evenly coat.

4—I recommend letting the salad sit for about 30 minutes to an hour before serving to let the flavors meld. Salads like these almost always taste better after sitting for a bit. Serve as a side salad or with a protein and grain to make a complete meal.

Enjoy!

Photos and recipe by Kate Mitchell 

An Interview With Brigham Farm  

Always located in the same lower left corner, Brigham Farm supplies fresh and local produce and plants from daises to turnips and kale. 

Located on Route 117 in Concord, MA, check them out on their website at: http://www.brighamfarmconcord.com/ 

Last time I visited, I got a rhubarb stalk and some fresh dill. Both delicious. The rhubarb is wonderfully thick and substantial, and is the rhubarb pictured in the Really Wonderful Rhubarb in the post below. 

Kate Mitchell, the one writing this now, interviewed Chip Poutasse, the current owner of the farm, on June 9th.

K: How long has this farm been established?

Chip:“Since 1820. The founder of the farm, John Brigham, was originally a wheelwright [wheel maker] 

At first it started as a substance farm. Two generations later, our grandfather became a cash farmer growing rhubarb and tomatoes.

My step father rented 100 acres and sold sweet corn in a big way.”

K: What do you enjoy about working with the farm? 

Chip: ”Well, it's kind of like being married. There are some good things about it, and some not good things about it. You keep doing it until you go broke. I’m hooked. I'm probably the last farmer in my generation, but my son wants to grow grapes. Maybe he will be hooked too."

K: What is one thing that makes this farm cool? 

Chip: "Our speciality is sweet corn, which will be in the market in late July-till early October. People come to us specifically for it. We also grow our neighbors tomatoes on our land and help sell them at our stand. When we come to the market we make it like a co-op.”

K:I know it's early in season, what types of things are the most popular right now?

Chip: “Strawberries berries sell out quickly. [I got to the stand at 5pm and they were already gone!]”

K: What produce have you personally been enjoying recently and why?

Chip:"I like it all. I like salads, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce…”

K: Do you have a go to produce dish? What is it? 

Chip:"It all depends on the season. I know how to boil things, how to roast them. What I do is I ask the customers how they prepare what they buy. They all have different ways. I've heard 5 different ways of cooking rhubarb . What way do you like it?” I like it in the way prepared in the post down below! 

K: What do you feel about the future of framing?

Chip:"I grew up in the 50s, and saw a lot of the local farmers get displaced by food shipped in from California. The food there grows easier and is a lot cheaper, so I can expect it will get more difficult for local farmers to do well. I think farmers markets support local food in New England, so I hope that continues.”

K: What makes local food important?

Chip:"Well its fresher. If it's grown here, and people work here. Our farm has been the first job to over 500 teenagers. Its tough to make a living, but it's a good start for some people. It's also the factor that having locally grown food, people get a sense of how food is grown. They can come visit the farm and show kids how carrots grow. It's helpful for them. It keeps them grounded."

Photos by Kate Mitchell 

Really Wonderful Rhubarb 

It’s Rhubarb season! But what do we do with those long, fibrous, sour stalks? 

Here is my favorite way to use it: make a versatile sort of fruity sauce/compote that can be used with meats as a condiment, mixed with yogurt and oats (or just with yogurt as pictured here) for a quick breakfast/dessert parfait, or as an ice cream topping for a treat. The method here may look long, but is actually is quite simple! I just added tips and tricks along with the instructions. 

Ingredients:

• 1 large stalk rhubarb (or enough to make 1 heaping cup chopped)
• 1/2 medium apple 
• 2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 Tablespoons chopped raisins 
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1/4 cup water 
• About 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon   
• Ginger (optional) 
• Lemon juice (optional)

Yield: about 1 cup 

Time: 15 minutes prep + clean up, 25-40 min cooking time 

Method: 

1—Chop rhubarb and apple into 1 inch by 1 inch pieces. No need to peel the apple. Chop raisins into smaller pieces so that there is more raisin in each bite without being overpowering.

2—Add all ingredients save for the vanilla (and ginger if using) into a small pot. The amount of sugar is up to you. Personally I like to use as little as possible and found that two tablespoons was good enough. Though I would say that is the minimum for this recipe. 

3—Set the pot to medium-high heat until there is an aggressive boil. Then lower the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the rhubarb has completely broken down and the apple pieces appear “puffy” and barely hold their shape.

This happened to me after about 25 minutes of cooking. (The above photo is what it looked like about 5 minutes from being done minutes before being done)

I was preparing something else and cleaning up as I went, so the time flew by. Once the desired consistency is reached, add the vanilla+ginger and take off the heat. Add more sugar/lemon juice/vanilla if desired. Cation when tasting as this dish can get very hot.

4—Let cool completely and then put in the refrigerator. I found this compote tasted much better the second day after the flavors had a chance to mellow and blend. 

Hope you enjoy :)  

-Photos and recipe by Kate Mitchell