Born in Halletesville, TX (10 miles outside Shiner, TX), Lick Honest Ice Creams Owner, Anthony Sobotik, was always fascinated by food.

He painstakingly perfected 30 flavors of ice cream over a year, experimenting with recipes from old family cookbooks and determined to focus on locally sourced ingredients. Flavors like Grapefruit Ginger, Roasted Beets with Fresh Mint and Homemade Eggnog with Brandy really showcase what local farmers have to offer.

“We use low-temperature pasteurized milk from Texas Daily Harvest and fruits and veggies from local farms,” he explained. “All the bowls and spoons are also bio-compostable.”

When it came to cones, Sobotik didn’t want a store-bought feel. “The edges aren’t perfect. Ours are more light, more delicate,” he said. Though most Lick Ice Creams don’t use eggs (there are also always a few dairy-free, vegan options) there are seasonal flavors (like Egg Nog) that do. Vital Farms eggs add an extra richness, courtesy of our South Austin, pasture-raised hens.

Visit Lick Ice Creams at 2032 South Lamar in Austin, TX to try their incredibly crisp, flavorful cones and super fresh, unique ice creams.

(We love this for breakfast with a side of fruit, or lunch/dinner with a small salad. Enjoy!)

Serves 6

To prepare: Gather your veggies & eggs and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Hundreds of pounds of cabbage

As of May 2011, 46 million, or 1 in 7 Americans are currently on food stamps. These astounding numbers go to show that food security is a real problem for a growing number of Americans.

Yesterday we took a tour of the Capital Area Food Bank, accompanied by John Turner, Senior Director of Marketing and Branding, Justin Spencer, Food Resource Manager, and Lisa Goddard, Online Marketing Director.

We learned that the food bank warehouse holds 25.3 millions lbs of food at any time, 365 days a year! Their refrigerated trucks can hold up to 40,000 lbs of food at a time. The food bank serves 48,000 people a week, (28,000 of those served are children). The food bank purchases 15 percent of their food stores, while 85 percent is donated.

Turner, Spencer and Goddard stressed that food safety is number one; many members in the community they serve do not have health benefits. Many are children or elderly, and are thus more vulnerable to food-bourne illness.

The organization has donation agreements with HEB, Target and Wal-Mart, as well as local farms (like Vital Farms) and the Sustainable Food Center’s Farmer’s Markets. Turner said organizations like HEB and Wal-Mart were paying to have food nearing its sell-by date shipped to landfills. Last year, the food bank rescued over 4.3 million pounds of food from organizations like these. Turner said there is a big difference between a sell-by date and a use-by date; many foods are often still tasty and edible after the sell-by date.

Corn

The food bank also has four nutritionists on staff, who teach workshops to children and adults about how to make healthy food choices (even with limited means) and to modify typical recipes in a healthy way. There is also a small teaching garden to the south of the building.

“Hunger is a symptom of many other things that we cannot control,” Turner said. Unemployment, the economy, poverty and lack of education all play a part in contributing to food insecurity.

When asked about boxes full of sodas and junk food mixed in with potatoes, onions, whole-grain cereal and vegetables, the

staff explained that in order to receive food from some large organizations, like Coca-Cola, who also bottle juice and water, they must also accept some of their sodas. They do understand that, “It’s not just about the volume of food, it’s also about what you put in your body,” Turner said.

Food inventory at the food bank is ranked on a level of 1, 2 or 3, with one being the highest level of nutrition, and donations to pantries or individuals are meant to contain 80% of food ranked at a level 1 and 2 and 20% of level 3 food products are allowed.

The food bank is open 6 days a week. Last year, they welcomed 16,000+ volunteers, which meant they didn’t have to hire the equivalent of 44 full-time staff members. They always welcome new volunteers, corporate groups, families and children as young as eight are welcome to come and help to make a difference.

Capital Area Food Bank and the Blanton Museum of Art are hosting a film screening of the Award-Winning Documentary Dive! on Thursday September 15 from 6-8pm. Tickets are free!

La Condesa’s Bourbon Vanilla Ice Cream (Yield: About 1 QT)

Ingredients: 1 ¼ c. Milk, 1 ¾ c. Cream, ¾ c. Sugar, 1 Vanilla Bean (Pop the bean and scrape out the pulp), 1 Pinch Salt, 7 Vital Farms egg yolks, (Finish with a splash of bourbon if you like).

You will also need: A stainless steel bowl. A whisk. A wooden spoon or rubber spatula. A strainer. A cooking or candy thermometer. A large bowl or bin to make an ice bath. An ice cream machine.

1. Scald milk and cream with half the sugar. 2. Whisk egg yolks in a stainless steel bowl. When dairy starts to bubble, add remaining sugar to yolks and whisk! 3. Temper (add) a portion of the dairy into the yolks, whisking. Be careful not to scramble the egg yolks. 4. Return all ingredients to a saucepan on the stove, stirring with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Cook on low to 160 degrees. Strain. 5. Cool in an ice bath. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Add a splash of vanilla extract and bourbon, if using. 6. Store in a refrigerator overnight. 7. Spin according to your ice cream machine’s instructions.

(Tip from Laura: Ice cream requires lots of straining, especially if you have an infusion competing with the base. You want your base to be as smooth as possible. Laura recommends getting creative with infusions: nuts, herbs, liquors, whatever strikes your fancy.)

La Condesa changes their standard menu every few months, but specials change everyday or every few days. Sawicki says it can be difficult to plan pastry specials for a large restaurant when the seasons in Central Texas are so short. “If this were a 25 seat restaurant, a totally locally sourced menu would be no problem, but we have 150 seats,” Sawicki said.

Sweet potatoes and pecans are available year-round but berries, herbs and certain fruits can be harder to come by. However, the restaurant supports many local vegetable farmers, orchards and local meat producers; the fruit pie is always made from locally sourced ingredients, and the cheesecake is made with local Pure Luck Farms goat cheese. Sawicki says she really likes how golden, yummy and rich the Vital Farms egg yolks are. “You can tell the chickens ate well,” she said.

The restaurant also has a very strict composting system in place, as well as a water filtration system and pressurized water taps on all faucets. Sawicki says she doesn’t produce any waste besides egg flats and milk cartons. (She uses about 6 gallons of Organic Daily Harvest Milk a day). “On an emotional level we are practicing what we preach and encouraging other restaurants to do the same. I haven’t worked in a restaurant that wasn’t environmentally conscious in 6 years,” she said. “I am totally floored that there is still a lack of education.”

Sawicki and her team of cooks work extremely hard to produce food of the highest quality at one of Austin’s best restaurants. (She arrives every morning at 6am and will leave at 6pm on a good day, though usually closer to 8 or 9pm). Sawicki, Executive Chef Rene Ortiz and their fellow cooks’ dedication has paid off; since opening in 2009, the restaurant was nominated for the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in the US in 2010, arguably one of the most respected awards in the culinary world.

A year later, the main room still crackles with color, massive art sculptures and modern light fixtures (take a look at the American Institute of Architects’ nominated décor here) and the chefs all seem relaxed and happy to be at work.

“What’s a better way to build community than through food?” Sawicki said.

“Pad Thai is a famous dish in the U.S. and around the world except Thailand. There is nothing wrong with it. I love it and Thai people love it. It’s just not one of the dishes you see everywhere like you would in the US. It’s almost considered a specialty, you have to hunt for it and you have to know where to go to get it. Here is my theory why it is so popular everywhere. Thai cooking is a cooking of balance. There are five flavors present in Thai cuisine: spicy, sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Pad Thai is a great example of Thai food that has all the five flavors. So, whatever flavor you like, Pad Thai is likely to satisfy your palate.” – Jam Sanitchat

Ingredients

2 handfuls of dried thin rice stick (about half a pack of 16 oz dry medium size rice stick noodles)
2 tablespoon palm sugar
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoon tamarind water (see notes below)
2 tablespoons fish sauce (substitute with soy sauce and soy bean paste for the same amount for vegetarian)
2 small bunch Chinese chives/leeks (you can substitute green onions but it won’t taste the same but it will give a little color to your Pad Thai)
2 teaspoon oil
1 red shallot, minced
2 Vital Farms eggs!
4 oz extra firm tofu, cut into small cubes and deep fry (We drained and sliced the tofu, then covered it in a kitchen towel and set some canned food on top. This helps remove some water to help in the frying process).
4 shrimp, peeled and deveined (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of salted radish, chopped (this is salted daikon, the white raddish. You can skip it if you can’t find it. It usually comes in a plastic bag whole or in a tub already minced)
pinch of roasted Thai chili flakes (see notes below) or substitute red pepper flakes. It won’t be as spicy but will work fine.
2 handfuls of bean sprouts
2 tablespoons of crushed roasted peanuts
lime wedges

Soak noodles in tap water for about an hour until soft. To check the noodles if they are ready, bend a noodle and if it breaks without any force, it’s ready. If not, you have to soak a little longer. Mix palm sugar, white sugar, tamarind water and fish sauce and simmer until dissolved. Chopped Chinese chives into small lengths about 2 inches.

Heat a wok or big pot (Dutch Oven is my favorite, or a big saute pan will do) over medium heat until very hot, add oil and wait until the oil is hot and fry shallots until fragrant and colored. Crack in eggs and scramble. Mix in tofu (and shrimp if using), chili flakes and radish. Stir fry until the tofu is thoroughly heated up and then add noodles. Stir-fry for a while until the noodle is softer and change color. Add the prepared sauce and a pinch of chili flakes. Stir for a few moments. Finally, add most of the bean sprouts and Chinese chives and cook for another 30 seconds. The noodles should be a little sweet, sour and salty.

When served, top the noodles with crushed peanut, fresh Chinese chives, bean sprouts, a wedge or two of lime and chili flakes(if want it a little hotter).

Home to hens, not droids.

“Each pen consists of…a mobile chicken unit (MCU) that looks like a galvanized, very South Austin version of the Jawa Sandcrawler droid factory where Luke Skywalker purchased C-3PO and, reluctantly, R2-D2. The MCU is the coop where the hens nest.

“”The object is to allow the birds to live as natural an existence as possible,’ [Robert] Kraft continues. ‘There are downsides to that: they have to sleep outside in the cold, but it’s not anything they can’t adapt to. They sleep in big groups and their body heat keeps them warm. The electric fences keep ninety-five percent of the predators away.’”

This winter has been incredibly rainy and cold for this part of Texas. While this bodes well for the condition of the pasture in the coming spring, it can be a little trying when you work outdoors. You just come to accept being muddy, cold and wet all the time as a normal state of affairs, and console yourself with memories of the 107 degree temperatures of last summer’s drought.

Hens dressed for winter

A lot of people ask me if the cold weather is bad for the hens, since they live mostly outside. They actually do quite well in the cold, as long as they have a way to stay dry and sheltered. They are, after all, birds, and the forests and meadows all around the farm are full of thousands of birds who seem to survive each winter, even when temperatures dip into the teens, as they did last month. Birds are provided with excellent insulation in the form of feathers, which we actually use to make winter clothing and sleeping bags.

Each of our flocks has a mobile coop in which they spend their nights, and where they can shelter in inclement weather. These trailers provide the essential protection from precipitation and wind that they need to get through the winter.  On colder nights, they huddle together for warmth. When I make my rounds of the flocks at night, if I stand in the doorway of their trailer, I can feel the heat radiating from the sleeping hens.

Mobile chicken units give shelter and trap heat

Chickens get into trouble when they are exposed to a bad combination of elements, such as wind and cold, or cold and wet, or wind, cold and wet. In these conditions they are unable to retain their body heat, and can die from simple hypothermia. It is very important to make sure that the flocks have plenty of places to go to get out of the wind and rain. As with everything else in pasture-raising, if you give the birds the resources that they need, they will figure out how to use them.

Generally speaking if the temperatures do not dip into the twenties and teens regularly, and the winters aren’t too harsh where you are, you shouldn’t have too much trouble keeping your flocks on pasture in the colder months. As long as they are properly provided for, a cold, sunny day on pasture will always beat a warm day in a cage.

]]> http://vitalfarms.com/2010/02/cold-chicken/feed/ 1 http://vitalfarms.com/2010/01/vital-farms-delivery-on-the-austin-food-journal/ http://vitalfarms.com/2010/01/vital-farms-delivery-on-the-austin-food-journal/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:58:58 +0000 admin http://vitalfarms.com/?p=170 http://www.austinfoodjournal.com/?p=3796 "My wife and I were just talking about how great it would be to have eggs and milk delivered to our house. But, decided that someone probably passed some law that makes it..."]]> Our thanks to the Austin Food Journal for mentioning us in their post about their trip to the downtown Austin Farmers’ Market: http://www.austinfoodjournal.com/?p=3796

“My wife and I were just talking about how great it would be to have eggs and milk delivered to our house. But, decided that someone probably passed some law that makes it illegal. They must have. Everything cool is illegal. Sure enough I was wrong. Carrie Kelley, of Vital Farms, said their eggs ($5 dozen) are home delivered by Greenlings Organic Delivery. Or, you can purchase Vital eggs at the Saturday market, Whole Foods, Wheatsville, Farm to Market, Peoples Pharmacy, Boggy Creek Farm, Cissi, Whip In, Ashai Imports, Space Station Mir and the interior Congo. OK, I made those last two up, but it seems you can get Vital eggs just about anywhere. Right on.”

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