Author: Debbie

Diane Roark: Cadron Crest Orchard {Foodie Friday}

If you landed here looking for a fun family activity, or you simply want to pick fresh fruit in Arkansas, I am thankful you found this post. Cadron Crest Orchard is a great place to take your family apple or peach picking. My name is Diane Roark. I blog about easy recipes at Recipes For Our Daily Bread, and family fun travel ideas at Our American Travels.

Cadron Crest Orchard

 

Last year we had to find another place to pick fresh, delicious Arkansas peaches. We lived across the street from Collins Round Mountain Orchard. Unfortunately, they sold the land last year to a developer which meant no more peach picking. Fortunate for us we found another terrific place, Cadron Crest Orchard. Cadron Crest Orchard is a unique farm in Guy, Arkansas. They grow fresh Apples, Peaches, Strawberries, Watermelon, grapes, watermelon, tomatoes, sweet corn and cantaloupe that I saw. If you are looking for something else, you can call them at the number below for more information or see their Facebook page here. They are open May through September where you can walk through rows and rows of beautiful peach or apple trees. You can pick your fruit and vegetables fresh from the farm to your table.

Cadron Creek Orchard

Nothing is better than eating fresh farm fruit and vegetables except for eating the fresh farm fruits and vegetables you picked. It is super fun for the entire family. We race around the orchard trying to see who can spot the prettiest piece of fruit. A little family competition fills our basket of fresh fruit in no time.

What did we pick from Cadron Creek Orchard?

We have picked fresh peaches and apples at Cadron Creek Orchard. They had tons of beautiful apples and peaches just waiting to be picked. When you arrive at the orchard, they tell you exactly what they are picking and where to go. They even give you a basket to fill.

Cadron Crest Orchard Peaches

What did we do with all our fresh peaches?

I am from the south which means I love sweet ice tea. What makes sweet ice tea even better is peach syrup. Which I made plenty of with the peaches we picked. I also made peach fritters and slow cooker peach butter.

And, of course, everybody’s favorite – Peach Ice Cream

Fresh-Peach-Ice-Cream-2

 

If you are looking for a great place to pick fresh fruit in Arkansas, give Cadron Crest Orchard a try.

Cadron Crest Orchard – 86 Mode Road, Guy, AR 72061. Phone: 501-679-3243

Recipes For Our Daily Bread is my personal blog written and edited by me, Diane Roark.  I am passionate about family, food, travel, and my new love of photography.  I enjoy using my blogs to interact with others discussing these things.  My goal is to ENCOURAGE others by helping put dinner on the table with easy recipes.  I also have a travel blog Our American Travels where I write about Family Fun Travels in America.

Blessings,

Diane Roark
 
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diane roark

Matt McClure’s Buttermilk Cornbread with Sorghum Butter

matt mcclure

We are extremely fortunate that Executive Chef Matt McClure of Bentonville’s 21C Museum Hotel The Hive Restaurant will be one of our featured speakers at the Foodie Friday pre conference of Megaphone Summit 2016 to be held at the absolutely beautiful Pratt Place Inn and Barn in Fayetteville.

Pratt Place Inn Veranda

Those of you who had the privilege to enjoy Matt’s presentation at the 2014 Foodie Friday session held at NWACC will remember what a joy he was. And I’m sure many of you have continued to enjoy his okratouille and chicken recipes he shared with us that day.

Matt was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, where his passion for food was ignited by hunting, fishing and his grandmother’s cooking. Following a stint at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, he settled in Boston working at a number of restaurants including Troquet, Harvest and No. 9 Park.

Eager to get back to his home state to reconnect with the ingredients and foodways of his childhood, Matt returned to Little Rock where he worked under Lee Richardson former Executive Chef at Ashley’s (now One Eleven) in the Capital Hotel, developing strong relationships with local farmers and producers and rediscovering the agricultural resources of his home state.

In 2012, Matt joined the opening team of The Hive, located at 21C Museum Hotel Bentonville. At The Hive, the restaurant’s menus showcase the unique culinary identity of Arkansas. McClure’s cooking pays homage to the High South, highlighting ingredients such as black walnuts, freshly milled corn meal, hickory smoked hams, peaches, melons and sweet onions and demonstrates Matt’s longstanding commitment to support local farmers and purveyors. (Courtesy The Hive).

In 2013, Garden & Gun, featured The Hive in it’s Feb/Mar edition.showcases the refined, country cuisine of the High South, focusing on the local ingredients of Northwest Arkansas and the region’s traditional methods of cooking.  Matt was a James Beard Award semi-finalist for the “Best Chef: South” award in both 2014 and 2015, and was awarded Food & Wine Magazine’s “The People’s Best New Chef” award for the Midwest in 2015. He is also an active member of the Southern Foodways Alliance. 

Upon dining at The Hive, you will be served Matt’s Buttermilk Corn Bread along with a dish of sorghum butter. I just happened to get lucky and received a copy of his recipe. The sorghum butter recipe is from Anson Mills. While it may not be Matt’s recipe, it’s pretty darn close.

matt's buttermilk cornbread

I suppose you’ll just have to make it at home and then visit The Hive in order to make your own taste comparison.

In the meantime, go get yourself registered for Foodie Friday. I’m eager to see your smiling faces and am so excited to be sharing our amazing line up of speakers for you.

Details on the agenda and speakers will be coming in a couple of weeks. Just a head’s up 

  • Our Foodie Friday day will START at 10 a.m. this year.
  • We will be serving box lunches. 

You’re welcome:)

buttermilk cornbread matt mcclure with sorghum butter

Jessica Bauer: Homegrown Stir Fry {Foodie Friday}

StirFry1

We eat a lot of veggies in the summertime.

From the abundance of tomatoes and okra in our yard to the neighbors who knock on our door with a bag full of squash to the local farmer’s markets brimming with gorgeous homegrown edibles, we stay stocked. Summer is my favorite season for many reasons, but the meals that come with it rank high. The recipes from my own garden usually include two steps: slice and eat. Sometimes this recipe is reduced to pick and eat (a little dirt won’t hurt).

StirFry2

Our bunch has grown a backyard garden for six summers and we have learned so much with our hands in the dirt. The best thing about our veggie patch, however, is that we work it together. The boys love planting and three-year-old Nora is the best cucumber picker I know. It’s a great family project to teach your kids where food comes from and encourage them to eat fresh!

On this Foodie Friday, however, I think I’ll go beyond a plate of sliced heirloom tomatoes (although we both know that’s a meal in itself). I’m sharing one of my husband’s specialties that’s served regularly around here. It’s a one-pan wonder that only requires a little chopping as prep work. It’s Jonathan’s Famous Stir-Fry and it incorporates veggies from all over town.

StirFry3

He whipped this up recently and included a garden pepper, the neighbor’s yellow squash, and sugar snap peas frozen fresh. Read on for an easy recipe that the whole family will love. Use whatever crispy, crunchy veggies are growing in your area and change it up regularly for new flavors every time. We like to sub shrimp for the chicken sometimes. Make it your own and enjoy!

 Jessica Bauer

BIO:

Jessica Bauer is a small-town girl raising her bunch in southwest Arkansas. Her cast of characters includes a husband of 10 years, three mostly sweet kids, and 11 chickens. She blogs about them all at Life With the Bauer Bunch. Stop by to check out the good, the bad, and the funny in motherhood.

 

 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Blog: www.thebauerbunch.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebauerbunch

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebauerbunch

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessicabauer84

Lyndi Fultz: Let’s Celebrate Our Community’s Summer Gardens

This photo is ridiculous.

crazy garden lyndi fultz

It is a perfect snapshot of someone who lives in an idealist-thinking world with dreams of how things SHOULD be and a head full of sunshine, happy aspirations, and an imagination of butterflies singing throughout the hills and saying, “hey, come over here, this garden is magnificent! This garden is the Garden of Eden all over again!”

I am that dreamer.

That ridiculous photo captures good intentions and good will. I HAD good intentions to install raised garden beds in our backyard this year… after the deck was repaired… and a lower deck was built… plus a new sidewalk constructed… and then I would know EXACTLY where to put those buggers. I HAD good intentions to use these tomato plants as good will. How? They were going to be a gift of love for those friends and family members who weren’t able to pull it all together this year. Our Foodie Friday gal pal Debbie Arnold was the one who shared those awesome seeds in the first place. I couldn’t let her down, right?

Instead… they grew and grew and grew and grew some more. Every day they are stretching their wings and reaching for the sky. And every day I think, “man… I should put them in the car and bring them to someone before it is too late.”

Reality check.

It’s too late.

But it is NOT too late for us to share our community gardens with each other. I love seeing your instagram photos of your kids holding that giant squash and your proud blog posts of freshly created recipes with YOUR bounty. I am so proud of you!

And then I got to thinking… we have a community garden of sorts, a virtual community garden.

So, keep sharing.

Keep growing.

Keep reading and commenting and reaching for the sky.

May your garden be blessed with a zillion butterflies.

Lyndi Fultz

Arkansas Women Blogger member Lyndi Fultz writes about living and eating well inspired by life in beautiful Northwest Arkansas at nwafoodie. Much of her blogging inspiration comes from this gem of a place, which she refers to as the proverbial land of milk-and- honey. She doesn’t think you have to live in the big city to be a foodie. All you have to do is explore your own backyard. Light-hearted and approachable, nwafoodie is conversational with a healthy and simplistic approach to eating well.

http://nwafoodie.com

Jeanetta Darley: Eating My Garden {Foodie Friday}

My garden has exploded! 

My garden has exploded

Well not actually that would be quite a mess and a very odd geological event.  But I’ve got vegetables galore.  I’m juggling multiple varieties of tomatoes, squashes and cucumbers, peppers of the rainbow, okra, and peas.  So many peas.

And I love it.

I love taking the time and effort to grow my own food.  I reap the benefits both taste and health-wise.  There are so many more tasty varieties of vegetables that never see the produce section of the grocery store.  The range in flavors and colors abounds.  I also get to make sure that I have the varieties my family will eat the most.  And when you grow your own food you are in control of what goes in, on, and around that plant as it grows. 

An abundance in the garden

Here are some quick and easy ways to use the abundance of your backyard.

  • Add fresh tomatoes to your spaghetti sauce or chili.
  • Thinly slice cucumbers and squash to make easy refrigerator pickles.
  • Dry or freeze peppers for later use.
  • Okra is a great addition to curry or to throw on the grill.

Here’s a great recipe for those all those zucchini that grow bigger than your forearm before you know it.

An armload of zucchini

 

 

Jeanetta is an Jeanetta Darley sidebar photoartist, blogger, and sometimes homesteader.  She’s addicted to coffee, her garden, and chickens. You can see her art and read more stories at JeanettaDarley.com.  Or follow her on social media @jeanettadarley