Farm Kitchen Chronicles: Quick and Dirty Meatballs
This recipe is brought to you by an inspiring trip to Michigan.
Two weekends ago, we went to Michigan to visit some farm friends, and visit their farms: three, to be exact. We first visited and had dinner with Tom and Denise from Earth First Farms (who made us the famed chili from their now-closed restaurant, Chicago’s Heartland Cafe). While there, we stocked up on apples and pears at their beautiful u-pick farm, where it was a Saturday and there were only a handful of cars there doing the same (we definitely were not at the Hudson Valley farm anymore, where going apple-picking meant a sea of people and barely moving and you might as well be in Times Square). We then visited Louann, Nate, and Nick and Renee and their kids at Jake’s Country Meats (also beautiful, and doing wonderful and inspiring things out there as always!). And finally, we visited Maxx and Sidney; Sidney worked for our farm in Illinois before starting her own amazing vineyard farm called Stranger Wine Company with her husband, Maxx. They are doing incredible regenerative viniculture things in Michigan now, and we left with them giving us three bottles of their amazing wine: a Rose, a white, and a Pinot Noir. With the white, I made a chicken vesuvio and salad, and with the Pinot Noir, all I could think that I really wanted was: meatballs.