Cooking with Peggy at Madison Creek Farms

Peggy Lynn Marchetti

Saturday morning cooking workshops at Madison Creek Farms are so much fun. Peggy Marchetti (Loretta Lynn’s daughter) and her husband Mark run this wonderful organic farm right here in Goodlettsville. Beds of brilliant dahlias, cosmos, sunflowers and zinnias add splashes of color to the dozens of raised beds filled with herbs and vegetables. The little outdoor Pavilion Market showcases Peggy’s fresh homemade blueberry and blackberry pies, home baked bread and a variety of preserves.

Blueberry & Plum Pie

During the summer Madison Creek Farms offers a series of cooking workshops in the Farmhouse Kitchen, and last weekend it was Cooking with Herbs. To an eager audience of around 20, Peggy held court in her delightfully spacious kitchen.

She began with making pesto, and into the blender went bundles of fresh cut basil, several cloves of garlic, toasted walnuts (pine nuts are a more expensive alternative), olive oil, parmesan cheese, and a generous squeeze of lemon. Folk soon lined up at her large wooden kitchen table to spoon the pesto on crackers and sample.



Several eggplants were sliced and placed on a baking tray to roast in the oven – destined for panini. While spaghetti boiled on the stove, Peggy sautéed several cloves of garlic and a small diced onion in a big skillet for the beginnings of a very flavorful tomato jam.

Heirloom Tomato Jam

She then added plump Brandywine heirloom tomatoes, jalapeno pepper, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, water, and fresh chopped basil, letting the mixture gradually reduce down to about half.

Love that apron!

Once the spaghetti was cooked and drained, Peggy added a generous spoonful of pesto, a drizzle of olive oil and a handful of halved cherry tomatoes – and voila! An absolutely delicious pasta dish.

Joel Arnold, Sous Chef for the Day

By this stage everyone’s mouths were watering, and the atmosphere had mellowed to that of friends visiting in a farmhouse kitchen. Exactly how Peggy liked it! This is the true ambiance of Madison Creek Farms. While we were in the kitchen learning how to cook up delectable dishes using their farm produce, Mark was taking care of customers to the farm market who had come to buy preserves, fresh baked bread and pies, organic vegetables and herbs, and pick their own cut flowers from beds flamboyant with color.

Panini ready to eat

Peggy is quite remarkable in her ability to multi-task and has the energy of a 20-year-old. Her vibrancy rubs off on everyone, and we are all keen to be rubbed in this same genie-juice. She whisks the roasted eggplant out of the oven and spreads the slices on crusty bread brushed with pesto. Adds shredded Italian cheese, a heaped spoonful of tomato jam straight from the skillet, and a handful of fresh arugula. We quickly lined up to sample the spoils of the morning’s gourmet cooking class. We shall definitely return!

Time to sample the spoils!

Peggy’s recipes are listed below. Visit her website at www.madisoncreekfarms.com for more details of this wonderful organic farm, and become a follower of her blog at www.thefemalefarmer.com



Heirloom Tomato Jam

2 tbs olive oil
1 diced small onion
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
3 tsp brown sugar
4 cups chopped tomatoes
2 minced garlic cloves
1 chopped jalapeno pepper
chopped fresh basil
¼ cup water


Pesto

1 bunch of fresh basil
½ cup toasted walnuts or pine nuts
3 cloves garlic
½ cup olive oil (approx)
¼ cup parmesan cheese

First Wedding at Ghost Gums!

Photo:DonWrightDesigns.com

What a thrill to have our very first wedding at Ghost Gums on the Ridge on July 3rd! Skylar - the son of my very special friends Julie & Scott – and his fiancée Suzy, had chosen Ghost Gums as their place of choice for both wedding and reception. It was a busy time getting the place ready before I left for two weeks in Italy, but Skylar and Suzy house-sat while I was gone, completing many of the preparations.


And then what an eventful week! I returned home from Italy after midnight Sunday, June 27th. On Tuesday night Skylar was admitted to Hendersonville Hospital for an emergency appendectomy! Would the wedding have to be delayed, we wondered? Well, don’t ever underestimate the power of love. This young man was motivated! Nothing was going to stop him from marrying his bride that coming Saturday! He bounced back from that surgery like nothing had happened.

Very early Wednesday morning a huge 50ft limb broke off a hackberry tree and fell across the driveway at Ghost Gums. The driveway was passable – but it would definitely be in the way for the wedding! An email for help went out, and Thursday evening friends David and son Davey Sandgren came by after a long hard day installing awnings in 100 deg heat – and in no time at all, that tree was cut up, the brush hauled off to the burn pile, and logs piled on the wood heap (that’s an Australian term, for the uninitiated). Wow, those guys were awesome!

Friday afternoon Ghost Gums was a hive of activity, folk cutting grass, weedeating, pressure washing, setting out tables and chairs and dance floor and lights. Then it was the wedding rehearsal under the spreading walnut tree out in the field. The wedding party and family – in which I was graciously included – in their transformed mode after all the work, gathered at Chef’s Market Café and Take Away in Goodlettsville for a wonderful rehearsal dinner. If you have never eaten at Chef’s you are missing an incredible experience. The Mediterranean atmosphere and fresh food is second to none (www.chefsmarket.com). The restaurant is owned by friends Jim and Cheryl Hagy, and their personal touch, passion, and dedication has set them apart.

Photo:DonWrightDesigns.com

Saturday July 3rd was the wedding day. Early afternoon Ghost Gums was overflowing with the wedding party, dressed and ready for photographs. Bride, groom, five lovely ladies, five handsome men, the parents and grandparents of the bride and groom. Blue sky and sunshine gave way to some innocent sprinkles that developed rapidly into a tropical downpour. Friends called. It wasn’t raining anywhere else! From 2:30-4:30pm the skies opened up and the rain fell in torrents. No-one panicked. The bride and groom took it in stride. Tennessee is notorious for pop-up thunderstorms. We knew it would pass.

And God was good - as He always is. The rain stopped, and an ethereal mist hovered down the treeline in the back field, adding atmosphere to the wedding photos. We all dried off the tables and chairs, set everything out, and at 7:00pm Skylar and Suzy shared their vows and pledged their troth.

They would have danced all night if they could -see Skylar and Suzy in stunning action below!

Let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Photo credits to Rick Banning, Dayle Fergusson & Don Wright (www.donwrightdesigns.com)

Photo: DonWrightDesigns.com

Photo:DonWrightDesigns.com

Photo:DonWrightDesigns.com

The poem Skylar and Suzy printed on their wedding order of service captures the love they share.

Photo:DonWrightDesigns.com

You and I

Have so much love,

That it

Burns like a fire,

In which we bake a lump of clay

Molded into a figure of you

And a figure of me.

Then we take both of them,

And break them into pieces,

And mix the pieces with water,

And mold again a figure of you,

And a figure of me.

I am in your clay.

You are in my clay.

In life we share a single quilt.

In death we will share one coffin.

- Kuan Tao-sheng

Photo:DonWrightDesigns.com

Blessings on the newly married couple as they begin a new life in Colorado. We raise our glass in Bill’s inimitable toast -To Whatever Comes Next! And indeed it will be good.

Mystery of Life

Approaching a full moon, and once again there is magic to be found in these evenings. The frustrations are forgotten and in their place a curious peace wrapped me in its embrace last night as I sat in the gazebo enjoying the night chorus of tree frogs. A quiet peacefulness inside my head, as though I was floating on a breeze, weightless, so totally relaxed. No earthly idea where such a peace had mysteriously come from. But it was delicious, and I savored it, for the first time in my life appreciating such a state of calm. Perhaps someone had offered up a prayer for me.

And then the discovery. Something soft as I brushed past the post holding one of the deck lamps. I retrieved a flashlight to see what I had touched, and beheld the wonder of a cicada emerging from its crispy brown shell. Suspended in half life. Was it alive? A slight movement of a tiny, fragile leg. I watched, mesmerized. Another quiver. I held my breath, caught in the mystery of life unfolding, transforming.

Gradually, an invisible life force silently pulsed energy into this new creation. Minutes stretched unhurried. A slight breeze rustled the leaves overhead. Almost imperceptibly the creature pushed its soft body out of the shell, soft wrinkled wings unfolding tentatively, hanging limp. Claws clasped the neck of the dry shell, while it straddled its former home, pausing to allow the warm night air to harden its vulnerable new body.

Instinctively the cicada turned its wings in slow motion, strengthened from the struggle, now air drying and growing rigid, delicate filigreed lacewings.

I wondered at the bravery I was witnessing. Pushing onward into an unknown world, leaving the security of its protective shell that had kept it hidden safe underground for several years. Tux lay sprawled on a nearby chair. Didn’t the innocent creature hanging on the post know this cat had crunched cicadas in his feline jaws for many a summer evening’s snack? Did it know that soon it would enter a dimension unimaginable in its freedom? That after years of solitary silence it would sing joyously in a loud chorus of hundreds? It had been given wings. It could fly!

Entranced, I marveled at God’s intricate design of all His creation. The night had come bearing gifts.

Silver Linings

There are days when you kick against the obstacles and frustrations. It's hot and steamy, after a long day's work; the hose keeps jumping out of the bucket, as you water your parched dry garden; the dog insists on lying right in front of the back door, and the mosquitoes are biting your bare arms. The replacement pump you just bought for the tiny fountain is too powerful - another trip to Lowes! The weedeater that's taken several days to try and fix still doesn't work, and then you snap the fine plastic tubing for the fuel line and you're screwed for one more day (or two).  My cool has gone, and I kick the weedeater with a few choice words, now suddenly angry that Bill dared to leave me to manage all this chaos on my own. It's a good thing no-one is here to witness this tantrum. And then, in one brief turn of my head, God captures my gaze heavenward, and the frustration snap freezes and slides off like melting ice.

Wow! Wispy cirrus clouds paint the sky in feathered brush strokes, and jets blaze silver trails, straight as an arrow, wings glinting in the sun. I stand in awe at this spectacular sky, feet planted in the open field, reminded instantly of all the reasons I wanted to fly. Silently thanking Bill for opening up this world to me, where we chased the clouds and soared with eagles, and watched the earth and sky turn as we played in unrestrained abandon in our sleek fiberglass sailplanes. I am no longer earthbound. One glance, and I'm up there, free as a bird.