Greetings all you fine farm followers! Over the weekend we participated in the Upstate Farm Tour here in SC. Well over 250 folks visited our farm and bake shop. We are so very, very thankful for each and everyone of you. We trust you learned something and that perhaps even been inspired to do something to contribute to better food in your life. We will officially open the Bake Shop June 18, 2018. Given the response over the weekend I need to replenish my supplies and get on a schedule of baking. Many of you folks have asked for specific items and I am working on a page on this website to put each item and its price with a small description. Hopefully that will keep everyone more informed. Please put your contact information in a message so that I can respond appropriately to everyone and keep better track of each inquiry I get. We are always open to suggestion here so please feel free to give feedback where appropriate. Many have asked if I can teach a class or perhaps speak at some function they attend. Like everything in our lives we evaluate each situation as they are brought on the scene of life. We want what we say or teach to matter so before I commit to anything I want to make sure it will be useful and filled with good instruction and exhortation. Thank you all again for all your kindness. It is appreciated! We think that opening the store from 8-5 Mon-Sat. is a good beginning! So Lord willing we will see you then! Enjoy your day!
Farm Store Bake Shop progress!
Greetings from the Didaskalos Farm! The hired electrical work has been done. Inspections finished and we have our own account with the electric Co-op for the store now. Woohoo! Now my Farmer husband will finish the harder job in my opinion of the inside electrical work and then we can get busy on set up and design! Exciting times here! I had to take a week away due to a personal situation in our family but I am back on the Farm getting down to business. I am very encouraged by the amount of visitors to our farm website. Hopefully as we get better at website management you all will come back often. Please let us know what things we can write about that might be of interest. Till next time enjoy folks you only get one opportunity!
Week in review!
Greetings! So this was the first official week the website has been live. Hopefully it will improve and folks will find real valuable information here and help they might need. The new electrical panel was installed in the Farm Store Cottage Bake Shop. That is progress! Need to get that inspected so we can call the power company to get the building a meter of its own. My true desire is provide awesome, clean food. Save time for all you busy mothers, singles who just don't have time and all you 50 somethings like me who just enjoy the talents and blessings of others. So I will be baking some BREAD this week! This next weekend is Easter Sunday or as I call it Resurrection Sunday. Great time of reflection on what I am privileged to enjoy at the hand of Another. Made some decisions this week to take this farm in a slightly different direction. I am going to scale down some of my animal numbers to increase in others. There are some seriously hard choices we must make but I know this is the right direction for now. I truly believe when we invest in others we will reap a reward in ways not just monetary. So these changes are about others as well as my dear family. Not sure what I could write about that would interest you all but please feel free to send me suggestions. I love to read so I am always looking for ways to do that.
Welcome to Didaskalos Farm!
This is our first "official" farm blog post. So I thought it fitting that we just give you all a little bit of information so we can help all this make sense. I know on our "who we are" introduction we told you a little bit about ourselves and our journey to this place. That being said I wanted to give some more in depth information so that we can sort of get to know each other. We all have such limited time to spare in this fast paced world so I promise this post though a bit lengthy will not be the norm. So first I want you to know what our farm name means. Didaskalos means "teacher" in Greek. It is a fitting name since this is a farm of many things but teaching is what we do best. So I humbly submit to you that I will endeavor by God's grace to be just that, "a teacher" of good things here on this website. It is not a political place, no hate speech or intolerance will be allowed. We desire a safe place to express ideas that are moral and wholesome to the benefit of a better society. To be a blessing and not a curse. To express love and encouragement. To give ideas and solutions to all or any that will open up their minds to receive the good we want to impart. We will discuss, food, farm and family. We will demonstrate courage and patience. We hope to lead you on to real life workable solutions to live better. We have no platform and we desire to not make a name for ourselves. We already have a Name which we follow so we will live in the reflection of that. So let me end this introductory post with a great recipe that I make very often. It is one of my most asked for products besides my artisan breads. SCONES! Yes with a lovely cup of organic Early Grey tea! So here goes. Oh and we do have organic culinary lavender here on the farm. Not a whole lot but lavender nonetheless and only a small amount is needed. It has a very strong flavor so use it sparingly in a recipe. We will be sure to let you know when the farm is fragrant with it! I use this as a basic scone recipe. You can combine it with many fruits and herb combos.
Orange Cranberry Einkorn Scone
1/4 cup sugar (50gm) + 1 tbsp for dusting, zest of 1 large organic orange (about 1 tbsp.), 3 cups einkorn AP flour (360 gm) or 31/2 cups of whole grain flour (336 gm) or 4 cups (336 gm) sprouted einkorn flour. Plus a little bit more for dusting. 1 tbsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp. fine sea salt, 10 tbsp. cold, unsalted butter (140 gm) cut into 1/4" cubes, 1 cup dried organic cranberries, 3/4 cup (180 gm) plus 2 tsp. heavy grass fed cream cold.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a small bowl combine the 1 tbsp of sugar with the 1/4 tsp pf the orange zest and set aside. Save the remaining for the scone mix. Mix together the flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Work in the butter with your fingers till the mixture resembles coarse meal but still large enough pieces of butter remain. Add the cranberries. Mix well. In a small bowl put the 3/4 cup of heavy cream and mix in the remaining orange zest. Pour the cream mixture into the dry and work it in with your fingers. Squeeze the dough through your fingers till it holds together. Knead the ball of dough about 5 times until the flour is absorbed. Remember einkorn absorbs fats and liquids slower than conventional wheat flours. So the dough will be shaggy. Roll out your dough on a piece of parchment paper till about an 8-9" inch round. Score the scones with either a knife or pizza cutter into 8 or 12 triangles. Brush the scones with the remaining cream and sprinkle the orange zest sugar mixture over the top. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly golden. Do not over bake. Let cool for about 15 minutes. Then slice and either serve warm or cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to three days (they won't last that long trust me!). Serve with a wonderful organic cup of Earl Grey tea. My favorite brand is Two Leaves and a Bud. This recipe is a tried and true recipe from my very loved Einkorn Cookbook written by Carla Bartalucci.