Blog

General, Recipes

What to do with Bok Choy?

Ally Bee

We grow bok choy every year, and it’s always a conversation starter with customers, but very few end up trying it, so we thought we’d post some recipes to hopefully inspire more bok choy eaters!

My personal favorite way to cook bok choy is to stir fry it with other vegetables. Chances are you’ve eaten bok choy at some point in your life if you’ve ever eaten Chinese food. It’s a popular ingredient in many Chinese and Japanese dishes. Also, fun fact: Chinese cabbage ranks as the #2 most nutrient dense vegetable. Stir fry’s are great because you can literally throw in anything you have in your fridge. I usually add things like broccoli, onions, carrots, and snap peas. This recipe is a simple one that includes mushrooms (which you can also pick up locally at the farmers market!), and gives you the basic flavor profile that you can choose to add extras to.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound baby bok choy
  • 4 teaspoons vegetable oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
  • 5 ounces small fresh mushrooms, such as shiitake, button, beech, or oyster (cut into clumps), rinsed, tough parts of stems trimmed
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
  • 1/8 teaspoon each kosher salt and pepper

Directions

Step 1
Trim bases of bok choy and separate outer leaves from stalks, leaving the smallest inner leaves attached. Rinse and thoroughly dry bok choy in a salad spinner.
Step 2

Heat a wok or large frying pan (not nonstick) over medium-high heat until hot when you wave your hand over the bottom. Add vegetable oil, garlic, and ginger and stir once; then immediately add mushrooms and stir-fry until they just begin to brown, 1 to 2 minutes.

Step 3

Add rice wine and cook 30 seconds. Add bok choy leaves and stalks and cook, tossing with tongs, until beginning to wilt, about 1 minute. The wok may seem crowded, but the leaves wilt quite a bit.

Step 4

Add soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, and pepper; cook, tossing often, until bok choy is tender-crisp, another 1 to 1 1/2 minutes.

 

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If you want to try something a little different, here’s another option: Spicy Bok Choy Slaw. If you like pickling, and like spice, this recipe is for you. All of the veggies for this will also be at our market stand for the next several weeks!

Ingredients

  • 1 head bok choy
  • 1 cucumber, seeded and shredded
  • 3 carrots, shredded
  • 5 jalapeño peppers, seeded and chopped
  • 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup coarse-grain brown mustard
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons agave
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
  • pepper to taste

Directions

Place the shredded bok choy, cucumber and carrots into a large salad bowl. Place the jalapeno peppers into the work bowl of a food processor, then pour in the apple cider vinegar, brown mustard, soy sauce, and agave syrup. Pulse several times, then process for a few seconds to combine. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss. Refrigerate from 1 hour to overnight. Before serving, sprinkle with roasted ginger and black pepper; toss again to serve.

*recipe found here: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/215792/spicy-bok-choy-slaw/

Recipes

Red Curry with Pumpkin and Basil

Ally Bee

Last Fall we ended up with tons of pie pumpkins, and a lot of folks bought them as decorations. But, the truth is, they’re also delicious to eat! We saved one for ourselves and made this delicious curry that I wanted to share for anyone who wants to adventure into pumpkin eating next Fall. Curry is easy to make, and is a hearty and healthy meal. Curry paste is made with warming spices including turmeric, cinnamon, cumin and coriander. You can make your own curry powder or paste if you’d rather not buy it from the store.

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons red curry paste

1 1/2- 2 tablespoons fresh minced ginger root

1 can coconut milk

1 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken broth

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 3/4 cups diced or crushed tomato

1 small pie pumpkin, peeled and de-seeded

1 large sweet potato

1 large baking potato

Handful of fresh basil leaves

Other veggie options to add: cauliflower (our personal favorite!), eggplant, green beans, carrots, really whatever else you have in the fridge. Also, canned or dried beans are a great addition for a vegetarian curry, or chicken for a non-veggie option. Peanuts (unsalted) are also a nice touch.

Directions:

  1. Measure the curry paste, ginger, coconut milk, and broth into a large saucepan and whisk until smooth. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat, and simmer, covered, for 15 mins. After 15 mins stir in soy sauce.
  2. Add all of the vegetables. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered until vegetables are tender, usually about 20 mins. Add whole or diced fresh basil leaves, and serve hot, over rice.

 

General, Yoga

The Yogi Farmer

Ally Bee

If you read Allison’s bio, you saw that she is also a yoga teacher. She is just as passionate about yoga as she is about farming, and is cooking up ideas for ways to tie the two together. Her yoga moniker is Ally Bee Yoga, because, well, she really likes honey bees, and she thought that was more memorable than just her name. Ally Bee-01Her long term goal is to establish a farm yoga retreat on the property, but that will take several years to realize, as it includes renovating our “little house” in a serious way.

In the meantime, she plans to partner with other farms to offer “farm yoga” in the area. After all, whats better than practicing yoga in a beautiful, inspiring outdoor setting? Keep an eye out for announcements, and in the meantime, if this is something you’re interested in, check out her yoga page on Facebook: facebook.com/allybeeyoga

If you, or anyone you know is interested in farm yoga, or a private yoga session with a group in another location, please contact Allison and let her know! She’ll work with you to make something happen.

General, News & Updates

What we’re all about

Ally Bee

We thought we’d take a few moments to introduce ourselves and tell you more about our philosophies that have brought us this far and inspired us to start the farm. Here are our core values and how they relate to our farm operation:

Integrity | Here’s the Webster dictionary definition of the word: “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” Here at Honey Moon Farm we believe that a little honesty goes a long way. How does that translate to our work? We will be honest with ourselves, and honest with you, our customers! We practice full transparency and will be happy to answer any questions about our practices and principals.

Quality | This one probably does not require much explanation, but we’ll say it anyway, we believe in taking care of our land and our soil to produce the highest quality products possible. We take pride in the appearance, taste and nutritional value of our crops and we put only our highest quality products on display.

Sustainability | The word “sustainability” means a lot of different things to many different people! I personally like one of the more standard definitions- the “triple bottom line,”  also known as the 3 P’s- people, planet, profit. Everything that we do, and all the decisions that we make have all 3 “P’s” in mind. We believe that in order to sustain the farm in the long term we need to care for ourselves and all other people we come into contact with, care for our land, and the planet in general, and of course, return enough profit to keep going.

Community building | We believe that farms have a unique ability to play a very important role not only in supporting and bolstering the local economy, but also serving as a community hub, bringing people together around shared interests and values. As we become more established in our community we look forward to building an intentional community around our farm and contributing in any way we can to the health and well-being of our neighbors.

Love | Ah, yes, love! We believe that farming in general is a labor of love, something that one must be incredibly passionate about to succeed in. We treat our plants and animals with love, and care for them compassionately. And, of course, we love our customers, and everyone in our lives that supports us on this journey. Love and gratitude for everything that we have keeps us happy and working hard from day to day.

 

General

Our Humble Beginnings

Ally Bee

For those of you who don’t know it, here’s the brief version of the story of how we came to be farmers in Accident, MD.

We met while both living in Baltimore, and we were married in 2015. Allison had spent her 20’s working for various non-profit organizations and government agencies doing work focused around food and agriculture, which was all inspired by an apprenticeship on an organic farm in Massachusetts (her home state) in 2009. When Allison met Eric they started a garden in their backyard in Baltimore, and Eric became increasingly interested in gardening. Allison always said that her goal was to be a farmer when she grew up, so in the winter of 2017 we decided that it was officially time to trade in our traffic-ridden, fast paced city lives for a sweet, simple life in the country. Eric grew up in Allegany County and always had an itch to move back, so we started looking in the area, and voilà!, in no time we found our perfect slice of earth.

We made the move in late April, with trays of seedlings that we had planted in Baltimore in tow. It’s actually pretty amazing that the plants survived! There was a small garden plot set aside by the previous owners. We expanded it a bit and planted our first seeds and seedlings on the property. The garden was only about 30’x40′. At the time, Allison was commuting to her job in Baltimore and was gone for the majority of the week, every week. Eric was working full time in Frostburg. We tended to the garden really only on nights and weekends, but miraculously, things grew beautifully!

Allison’s job ended suddenly right around the 4th of July.  Time is the most valuable asset when trying to start a farm, and suddenly, we had some time! She reached out to some young farmer friends in the area who were incredibly kind and generous with their time, knowledge and resources and they helped us get started. From July- November we were able to sell at a few farmers markets, and to some restaurants and grocers. We eventually expanded our growing space and added another 50’x50′ plot. So, all things considered, although we got a late start, were brand new to the area, and had almost nothing planned ahead of time, we were really pleased with the amount that we were able to grow and sell in our first “half season.”

Looking forward to the 2018 growing season, we’ve spent the winter pouring over seed catalogs, planning out our bed layout, ordering equipment and supplies and preparing for a fruitful season ahead! The farm will be in “full swing” this spring and we couldn’t be any more excited to officially get growing.