Harvest Box & Beer Weekly Recipe Contest

Harvest Box & Beer Recipe Contest

My friend turned me on to this great, little organic farm here. The Rutiz Family Farms is located in Arroyo Grande, CA .  Not only do they have a nice selection of local organic produce, they have a weekly harvest box program that does not require a subscription, just order midweek for pick up on Friday.  If you live locally, check it out at www.rutizfarms.com.  We are fortunate to live on the central coast of California where we have a farmer’s market daily in one of the surrounding towns.  We have access to locally grown, fresh fruits and veggies 365 days a year.  In addition to what is available to purchase, I do grow my own, but we get enough frost that I won’t have any home grown veggies until summer.

As I cleaned my vegetables, Eric was putting a 5 gallon keg of Firestone Walker’s Honey Blonde Ale in to the kegerator.  Firestone is about 50 miles north of us. Across the country there is a growing trend to buy local.  

I picked up my last week and the veggies are wonderful.  As I cleaned my vegetables, Eric was putting a 5 gallon keg of Firestone Walker’s Honey Blonde Ale in to the kegerator.  Wondering what I should make with my bounty spurred idea of a Harvest Box & Beer contest.  Each week on Thursday, I will post the content of the harvest box.  Submit your recipe entries by Sunday.  The recipes must contain at least 1 ingredient from the harvest box (more points go to using more ingredients from the box) and use craft beer in the recipe or include a craft beer pairing.  All beers must be produced in the USA for now.   Simplicity is the key, we are looking for dishes anyone could prepare with little extra shopping or effort.   Dishes may include meat.   Yes, there will be prizes awarded each week.

What makes a winner – TASTE, TASTE, TASTE.

Link to enter contest: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MBSQTL5

Produce in the Harvest Box this week:
4/15/11

artichokes
broccoli
a bunch of green "spring" garlic
snap peas
a bag of salad mix
a bunch of carrots
tomatoes from the Salton Sea
a basket of "Jerry's Berries" strawberries

I look forward to seeing what you all come up with.  Good luck and Cheers!

Beer and Horse Cookies

You might be asking “How can these two go together?”  When you brew beer, a byproduct is spent grain.  Spent grain consists of malt and grain husks that remain after brewing.  It is often used for livestock feed, making bread, growing mushrooms or just composted.  It is very palatable and maintains nutritional value.  So the other day I decided that rather than composting our leftover grain, I should make homemade horse cookies.  After reviewing traditional horse treat recipes I set out to create my own.

If you are a homebrewer, you know that you have a lot of grain.  Eric was brewing a 10 gallon batch of California steam beer, so I had 25 lbs. of wet grain at my disposal to play with.  I will say the first batch was edible, my horse loved them, but the texture and moisture level was not quite right.  The second batch I added some oatmeal to compensate for the wet grain and that helped dry out the cookies.

Here is the final recipe:

Spent Grain Horse Cookies

8 cups spent grain
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup molasses
1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup canola oil

Roll dough into a ball, flatten and place on a baking sheet.  The cookies should be about 1 -1 ½  inches in diameter.  I used parchment paper as I prefer to use it when baking cookies.  Bake at 350’ for 20 minutes, turn over & bake for 15 -20 minutes. Makes approximately 90 cookies.   Let cool and then serve.

These also work well for dog treats, just make them a bit smaller.  Unless you are brewing with corn, they are perfect for animals with allergies to corn.  We live on the central coast of California, where it is foggy and damp at night.  With this in mind, I baked the cookies so they were fairly crisp and dry in hopes that they will store well.

After tasting these horse treats (ok so I prefer to taste the food I feed my animals and these were good), I am ready to create more recipes designed for human consumption.

 

I would love to hear what you make with your spent grain.  I have seen a lot of bread recipes online, does anyone cook something a little more exotic with their grain?

Dunbar Brewing, Santa Margarita, CA

5/28/10

Whether you are a local or just passing through the area, plan on stopping by the Dunbar Brewing in Santa Margarita, California.  The town of Santa Margarita is about 10 minutes north of San Luis Obispo off of highway 101.  It is a quaint town with a population of less than 3000.  There are a couple of places to eat, a handful of shops, wine tasting and of course Dunbar Brewing.  

You would miss Dunbar if you weren’t seriously looking for it.  Look for the black and white sandwich sign in front of Ancient Peaks Wine Tasting.  Dunbar is located in a new building on the west end of town, behind Ancient Peak Winery’s tasting room, but in the same building. 

Chris Chambers owner, brewer and host has been brewing and selling beers on the Central Coast for years.  Previously he had a larger place in Los Osos.  Chris has taken his experience of over 13 years of brewing to create his dream.   I would have to classify the place as a micro-pub specializing in Irish style beer.  He makes 3 barrel batches and they are only sold at his place.  No bottling, no growlers, you must stop in to try his artisan beers. From the conversation we had, you can tell he is passionate about the quality of beer he serves.  

 We played hooky the other day and took a field trip to check out Dunbar Brewing.  The day we were there, he had the following on tap:

Dunbar Brown Porter
Dunbar Oatmeal Stout
Sierra Nevada Summerfest
Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale
Dogfish Head 90 min. IPA

Although he does not sell flights, he was very generous allowing us to taste before we picked the pint for the afternoon.  I had the Dunbar Brown Porter, while Eric had the Sierra Nevada Summerfest (Eric isn’t a big fan of porters and stouts).   Great tasting beers brewed on site, a nice clean establishment, an impressive selection of craft beers and a very informative host made it worth the trip.  I definitely recommend the place.     

Dunbar Brewing, SANTA MARGARITA
22720-A El Camino Real, Santa Margarita
(805) 704-9050

Link to Dunbar's Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/people/Dunbar-Brewing/100000164755392