Soffritto Sister Diaries | A Prairie Farm Corps Reunion in Pictures

Once again, the Prairie Farm Corps lit me up! 

Terri and I were so excited to come for a day and help prep for their annual Celebration Dinner - Terri made several vinaigrettes and a gorgeous hand chopped pesto with the students while I made two batches of homemade ice cream and prepped a bunch of ice cream starters for later freezing + churning.

Veronica, your Celebration Dinner kitchen team rocked out an epic feast and it was crazy fun to help you prep for it all. I am in awe of each one of you and the beautiful spread you shared with your friends and family to honor the incredible Summer you created together. 

Thank you Eric, Veronica, Amanda, Natalie, Shannon, Miya, Karina and Natalie for always inspiring me to cook with more vege and for rocking out a group of incredible students who will continue "waterfalling" out the importance of organic farming and the love of cooking from scratch!

Nurture the soil - Nurture the food - Nurture the soul - Nurture the community

I get goosebumps just thinking about how many people each one of you will inspire after you tell them about your Summer on the farm. We may never know how far and wide our impact will go... so keep sharing and passing down your favorite recipes and the skills you learned!

The Lake County Food Revolution = YOU!

To the mullies we go,

xoxoL

Part 5 | #FoodRevontheFarm + The Kitchen Notebook

Dear Terri and Prairie Farm Corps crew,

It is so weird having you all gone. These are my favorite pictures from our celebration dinner cooking marathon and my last day with you guys harvesting vegetables for the Libertyville Farmer's Market.

Now that we have cooked and dug in the mud together, I just want to do it over and over again.

So that's what I have done. Made some videos so we can relive our Summer together whenever we want! HA! I dreamt of making these videos when I started meeting with Eric and Erin over a year ago in the yellow farmhouse. 

...Terri, how many times have we said "we've known each other from a past life"!?  

A JOFR Ambassador Avalanche | Terri + Lindsey Connect Continents 

I could write for days upon days about our 8 weeks together. Terri, I'm looking forward to writing more about the favorite recipes we cooked (I'm going to make these dishes with my kids!) over the next year from The Kitchen Notebook. It'll surely be something to keep us warm when the weather turns cold:) 

OH Crew, what fun we had cooking and eating together! Here is my mini film, made around music in hopes of capturing the magic that grew in each of us. It's my gift to each of the Prairie Farm Corps crew members, for the Liberty Prairie Foundation and for everyone around the globe who is inspired... 

to gather more often at our family tables together,

to cook more often from scratch,
and

to spread farm to table food education.

Prairie Farm Corps 2015 

I give HUGE big love to each and everyone one of the crew. I miss you dearly and I'll be thinking of our Summer together every time I cook, for you are now part of my connected and wonderfully cooked life.

To the mullies we go...

xoxoL

ps

Thank you Food Revolution for the honor of hosting the first #FoodRevTakeOver on Instagram. We had a blast sharing it all with YOU!

Part 4 | #FoodRevontheFarm - The Kitchen Notebook

7.8 | Part IV - Food Revolution Wednesday

.Potato salad with pickled onions and black olives

.Charred cipollini onions

.Salted kohlrabi pickles (we made them for the next day!)

.Lindsey's Crab n Veggie Cakes

."Fagiolini sotto eceto" - Green beans marinated in vinegar salad

.Sweet polenta lemon-vinegar blueberry cake

"I started making my mother's recipes when I moved out on my own - sometimes because I felt homesick - other times to carry on the Summer tradition. My brother did the same with his family. My children in turn know all about potato salad and marinated green beans as the beginning and the essence of Summer and of shared time together. In the spirit of the holidays and simple Summer picnics this week's menu give potato salad center stage."

-Terri Salminen (Find her beautiful Jamie Magazine blog here - Just cut/paste to google translate  or let your browser do the work!)

***

Dear Terri,

This is so funny writing to you today, as you're HERE next door, also writing to furiously catch up as I am right now. It's been wonderfully busy with you so far. I can hardly believe my luck in life as I have you, my dear friend, in.the.flesh working right alongside me. The air crackles as I teach and learn with you. Can you feel it?

I don't want to think about being in the kitchen without you now that I have you beside me. 

Here is my much belated week 4 recap, the last week before you arrived to the mullies and to the Prairie Farm Corps team. 

I don't know if I will find the time to write to you again here (while we're working together) as I want to soak you in like french toast. In the meantime, let's have tons of fun taking over the Food Revolution's Instagram page together! We must capture and savor every moment. 

#FoodRevTakeover

Maple - Vinegar marinade making.

Mia loves making dessert and she certainly rocked making your sweet polenta lemon-vanilla blueberry cake. We decided her future cake shop will be called, "Make Mia Cake".

Kiyan prepared this entire pan of spuds for your epic potato salad. 

We are working hard to make our "cat's claw" muscle memory Terri!

After tearing up over onion cutting, Kiyan and I try the freezer trick for our poor eyes. It sorta kinda helped.

Rainbow chard from the farm is so beautiful. Kiyan is a pro now at removing the leaves from the ribs.

Such beautiful work Mia!!

I could not have been more excited to teach them how to make my crab n veggie cakes. Natalie you formed some lovely patties my dear. Baking them is absolutely the way to go. I fried them first and we all decided to give baking a go. I may never fry up my cakies again!

I am so proud of the presentations this kitchen crew made for our crew at lunch time. It makes me so happy to watch them read through your kitchen notebook for reference and then teach the rest of the students a thing or two of what they have learned in the kitchen. 

Mia LOVES roasted onions now - clapping my hands and jumping up and down!

Fresh rosemary on a cake!? Yeseerrrreeeeee bob! Absolutely brilliant and delicious!

There's no more talking to you on the line! YOU'RE HERE!!! I have so much to write about now that we have taken a billion pictures from our first week together. I don't want to miss out on one second though. I know I'll have time after you leave. I am desperate for this next week to last longer than the first... I have fallen in love with you and our Prairie Farm Corps crew. 

ps

Leslie, Natalie, Mia and Kiyan made this gorgeous foraged mulberry icecream + Epic Chocolate Beet Cake last Thursday. Isn't it gorgeous!!? We must have the kids keep picking these while they are still good and freeze them for our celebration dinner in August. Summer please slow down!