Baby Kale, Radish Sprouts, Mustard Flowers, Olive Oil and Vinegar

Brendan Davison’s Compost Pile Salad

NOTES

Brendan is better suited than anyone to making my favorite category of salad, a jardinière, or, “a walk in the garden” salad.  This is a chance operation, one that cannot be premeditated or replicated. You pick what you find, or the salad picks you. Of course, this is far more idyllic if done in your own kitchen garden (or microgreen farm), but you can do this at your local green market as well. Just look for young greens are in their prime, strive for a range of textures and flavors, some spicy some mild, some earthy some delicate. We added some sassafras leaves, which taste like root beer and were a wonderful surprise in the salad. If you can find these, buy them!

INSTRUCTIONS

Remove any tough or stringy stems from greens, and discard. Rinse greens gently (if necessary) and gently dry. I do everything humanly possible not to fully wash and spin microgreens, as they are tender and easily bruised beyond repair.

Pick flowers from stems and set aside. Do not wash these!

Toss greens with olive oil and vinegar, season with salt and pepper. Toss flowers on top just before serving.

RECIPE

DIFFICULTY

EASY

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SERVES

2

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PREP TIME

5 MINS

Salad

  • cup  
    radish sprouts
  • 1  
    cup 
    baby aruglua
  • cup 
    baby mustard greens
  • 1/4 
    cup 
    torn sassafras leaves
  • cup  
    mixed edible flowers

Dressing

  • tbs 
    olive oil
  • 1/2 
     
    lemon
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    sea salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Remove any tough or stringy stems from greens, and discard. Rinse greens gently (if necessary) and gently dry. I do everything humanly possible not to fully wash and spin microgreens, as they are tender and easily bruised beyond repair.

Pick flowers from stems and set aside. Do not wash these!

Toss greens with olive oil and vinegar, season with salt and pepper. Toss flowers on top just before serving.

Brendan Davison and I are a match made in heaven — he’s my supplier, my hook-up, my dealer. Because of him, I think I know what it’s like to celebrate Christmas, waking up to find stacks of presents with your name on the box.  Before I ever met Brendan in person, he sent 5 flats of Goodwater Farms living microgreens to my doorstep. Last week alone he gifted me 10 flats for my events; these intensely flavored delicate greens adorned nearly every dish I made, like salad jewelry. So impressed by both his generosity and the intensity of the flavor of his goods, I knew I had to drive out to his farm in Long Island and check out his operation (turns out its nearly impossible to convince an East Hampton based farmer to drive into the city for drinks in the summer).

Upon my arrival Brendan exclaimed, “the President is here!” (which of course, I loved). We walked the greenhouse, sampling flat after flat of teeny carrot tops, shiso, holy basil and amaranth. A tiny cucumber sprout packs the flavor of an entire cucumber fruit it one bite. My mind was reeling. We talked technique, and nerded out on our favorite unusual herbs, and then we made a bee-line to the main attraction — the compost pile. When you grow microgreens for a living, your compost pile is an ecosystem all its own. Each day, Brendan tosses thousands of sprouted seeds into the pile of soil so fertile the sprouts just keep coming. As soon as I saw this, I knew we had to make our salad from this treasure trove.

Look for Goodwater Farms microgreens in Whole Foods or contact Brendan for wholesale orders.

Brendan Davison in his own words

Julia: What do you do when you are not growing microgreens?

Brendan: I grow to surf!

JS: You take special orders from chefs, who request that you grow specific greens for them in advance. What are some of the more challenging things you have been asked to grow, and was there anything that was just impossible to cultivate?

BD: Yes working with chefs is my time to be creative. The hardest seed to find has been Sheep’s Sorrel. Mountain Mint and Wasabi Arugula have been almost impossibile to grow and of course everyone wants them!

JS: Is growing microgreens more or less efficient than traditional farming?

BD: It is so efficient because of the controlled environment.

JS: Tell me about your imminent expansion. How will that change your daily routine?

BD: We are moving to a 34 acre farm in Bridgehampton that will allow us to quadruple our production right away and allow us to keep expanding.

JS: How often do you raid the compost pile to make a meal?

BD: Ha! You loved the Pile salad! We grab from it daily.

JS: What’s it like farming in the Hamptons? There is no place I would rather be!  Is there some degree of dissonance with the vacation weekender vibes down there, or is life a beach for you 24/7?

BD: The weekenders to me are like animals in a zoo, they are fascinating to watch!