In 2012, my mom Helen and I (Anna) self-published a cookbook called Farm Food of all the family recipes we serve to our guests at Palmquist Farm.
Now, it’s 2020, and we find ourselves faced with a global pandemic brought on by COVID-19. Like many of you, we had to make the difficult decision to close our doors for the safety of our family, guests, and staff.
We are disoriented by this new reality. We imagine you feel the same as we all try to come to grips with shuttered businesses, layoffs, social distancing, and sheltering-in-place.
If you’ve been to The Farm, you know it is a community and a gathering place. We eat our meals together at communal tables. At 6am, you can find locals and guests drinking coffee at the kitchen table with my father Jim and sharing stories.
We wondered how we could keep this spirit alive through this time of distance. How can we stay connected to our community of guests, family, and friends?
Perhaps, the answer is through food, through those farm meals, the ones where you sat down at the beginning of the meal with people you had just met and then stood up at the end of the meal as fast friends.
While we can’t sit down together at the same table and have Helen cook for us, I believe that through the sharing of the farm’s recipes, we can still connect. Many of us will be confined to our homes. Many of our favorite restaurants are closed. Some of us have been asked to shelter in place, only going out for groceries or emergencies. The time has come for us to learn how to eat at home again (myself included).
For me, cooking is a way to slow down, and re-orient to touch, taste, and smell. It’s something I can do when everything else is so out of my control. Cooking is an activity you can get your partner, roommates, or the kids involved with. A homemade meal can offer a bit of comfort to yourself and those around you during these uncertain times. My hope is that these recipes can bring you some of the same joy and comfort that they do when Helen makes them for you on The Farm.
The recipes we’ll be sharing are simple, made with easy-to-find ingredients (hopefully). They are the ones I grew up with. They were passed down from great grandma to Grandma Toinie and then to Helen and me. The ones that have been made for countless farm hands, friends, and guests over the past 100 years or so. They are that kind of home-cooked farm food that’s been lost in some ways. It’s hearty, simple comfort cooking that any level of cook can make. None of these recipes are technical. You only need to be willing and curious. They just require a little love. And plenty of granulated garlic.
We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. In the meantime, let’s cook something tasty together!