Green Split Pea Salad

Jim and Christina Sesby's started this farm
about ten years ago They have four milkers and sell the raw milk and cream to the locals. The milk is gorgeous; sweet and rich with flavor. Jim and Christina are crusaders for raw milk. The state agencies and the Dairy Board are of the opinion that raw milk is a health hazard. But, that is just not true. These cows are clean, the milk room is practically spotless, and the milk is handled with the utmost of care. Milk from a normal dairy is often contaminated; why bother with cleanliness when the milk is going to be pasteurized anyway. Really the lack of support for this product is another example of big business and there lobbies stealing our democracy. But its not a total loss with people like the Sesby's working hard for us to eat well.

Projects abound around here. Christina is experimenting with making cheese. There will be some piggies coming soon, which entails learning some curing and chacuterie, hopefully. Right now we have some pork bellies to cure and smoke for bacon next week. And soon, the chicks and little turkeys will be arriving (meat birds).

I killed a baby goat yesterday. One of my projects. We're having a potluck here for the producers of a film called "Good Earth" and for our local Slow Food organization. I thought a whole animal on the bar-b-que would be awesome and a great learning experience for me. It was really important for me to do the slaughtering. Christina was there to help me through the whole process, really holding my hand. I used a knife. It was quick. I got blood all over my jeans. We tied it up in the barn were we gutted and skinned it. The killing was intense for me. My mother just passed away and I had, for the first time in my life, an extremity of emotion that I had never felt before. It was like being on drugs at times. The killing of the goat brought me back to that place. It wasn't reliving my mothers death, but the emotions had an equivalency. It's clarity I felt the most; a sense of connectedness. The kid has a hanging wieght , of probably around, twenty or twenty-five pounds. I only paid fifty dollars for it. A pretty good deal. Why isn't this more normal? People do this all the time, but most aren't born here. A cabbie in Seattle, from Eritrea, told me he goes to a farm for all his meat and kills it himself; a taco vendor in Portland told me the same; a man named Octavio came to Quail Croft (my other internship and were I procured the kid) for his "cabrito" (the tiniest milk fed kid he could find). There is a community of people out there that are more intimately connected to there meat, and, I guess, I am part of that community now.

Anyways, that goat is for another meal. This week I wanted to cook over an open fire to practice for the goat. I built a fire pit. I stacked up some rocks in a circle and then I layed a grate over the center; quite easy and cheaper than a Weber. We did a whole turkey that I brined and then put a spice rub on. It turned out real nice. Also, we had leeks braised in chicken broth, a split pea salad, and fresh bread with butter. Although the turkey was very good, we've all had bar-b-que, I thought the salad was a bit different, so here it is.

Split Peas and Miner's Lettuce with Egg and Yogurt Dressing

This recipe uses miners lettuce which I foraged and is, I believe, pretty hard to find in the produce aisle, pea shoots would be really good, actually, probably better than the lettuce, but I had a patch on the farm, so use it, right. I didn't record the exact measurements, but cooking is not a recipe and one has to know techniques and how to adjust. The ideas good; make yours better.

3 cups green split peas
a few big handfuls of miner's lettuce about equal part lettuce to peas
4 hard boiled eggs (for a small egg 8 min in simmering water)
1/4 cup fresh goat cheese ((I used the Quail Croft Cheese which I had a hand in making)
1/2 cup sliced leek

dressing
2 egg yolks
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp whole grain mustard
1 bunch chives
1/2 cup mint
1 1/2 cups yogurt

1)Saute the aromatics and then add the split peas, cover with water and cook until tender but not mush
2)Let the split peas cool which gives you time to make the dressing by combining the egg yolks, mustard, vinegar and herbs in a blender and pulsing until very smooth, then slowly add the yogurt to make creamy dressing. Pass it through a chinoise or a fine meshed strainer. It wont be super thick, kind of like cream consistency.
3)Dress the peas and greens and don't forget to season with salt and pepper
4)Finish by sprinkling some goat cheese and topping with hard boiled egg
5)Some bacon would make this perfect

Again, this tasted pretty good. I hope this is a fairly accurate recipe. If there is any interest in publishing these I will be sure to make these right. For now just trust your gut instinct.