Seacoast Eat Local

Here’s another recipe for all of those beet enthusiasts over at our Facebook page. With only 4 to 5 ingredients, this one for Beet and Tahini Dip lets the flavor as well as color of the beets shine. It’s adapted from the cookbook “Eating Local” by Janet Fletcher and, served with pita chips or nutty homemade wheat crackers, adds a colorful note to a holiday gathering. The lemon juice helps to balance the flavor of the tahini; I’d like to try substituting local cider vinegar the next time I make this.

Beet and Tahini Dip

1 pound red beets (about 3 medium)

1 clove garlic, sliced

¼ cup tahini, stirred well to blend

3 – 4 tablespoons lemon juice, or to taste (optional)

Salt, to taste

- Preheat oven to 400°F. Wash beets, place in baking dish, and add water to depth of ¼ inch. Cover tightly and bake until knife pierces them easily, 45 to 60 minutes. After beets are cool, peel and cut into quarters.

- Put beets and garlic in food processor, and puree until smooth. Transfer to bowl and stir in tahini. Add lemon juice gradually, to taste. Season with salt to taste.

- Dip will keep, refrigerated, up to one week.

Tips for roasting beets >

And for you beet fans who are also Totally Local Latke obsessed — all the necessary ingredients can now be locally sourced at our Winter Farmers’ Markets — here’s Cumin-Scented Beet Latkes and Beet and Carrot Latkes as well.

From the most recent edition of the Rye Eats Local Newsletter comes an update on the Goss Farm work:

The Local Food movement is alive and well in Rye.  We have successful summer and winter farmers’ markets, a school community garden at the Rye Junior High, and now we have the Goss Farm restoration to add to the resurgent agricultural movement in Rye. 

For more than two years a task force of the Rye Energy Committee has been meeting with hopes of establishing a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in Rye.  With the town’s purchase of the Goss property, land has finally been made available.

 

As many of you know, the Goss Farm was purchased with Rye Conservation Commission funds with a matching grant from the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) which is part of the United States Department of Agriculture. The grant stipulates that the land be used for agricultural purposes.

 

Recently, the Rye Energy task force known as the Goss Farm Task Force was moved under the umbrella of the Rye Conservation Commission to streamline efforts on the Goss property.

 

This fall, the Rockingham County Conservation District was awarded additional funds from the NH State Conservation Committee (Moose Plate) Grants to amend the soils on the Goss property and to control invasive species, a critical first step in getting the land ready for farming.  Work is also needed on the barn and the Conservation Commission is pursuing funding for that purpose.

 

It is our hope to have a CSA up and running on the Goss property by spring of 2012.  The CSA will start small, with approximately two acres under cultivation.  We welcome input from the community on how a CSA might best suit the needs of the residents of Rye.

 

We are currently searching for a farmer/manager for the CSA. We are also looking for reasonably priced rental property in Rye where the farmer could live.  If you have any questions or know of a farmer or rental property in town please contact Mimi White @ 964-6586, mimiwhite@earthlink.net. 

 

The CSA is one component of what will happen on the farm.  The Goss property is also being considered as a site for community gardens, a farm stand, a restored apple orchard, blueberry bushes and other community agricultural activities.

 

Sally King, Annette Lee, Mel Low, Roger Philbrick, Tracy Ritzo, Mimi White, Steve White and Brandon Smith advisor, the Goss Farm Task Force.