The Foodist: Potatoes Lyonnaise
Not gonna lie, this is one of my all-time favorite Rick meals at Mezzacello, The Foodist: Lyonnaise Potatoes. It is similar to his fantastic potator galette, but hot, crispy, smooth and loaded with flavor. He cooks it in a cast iron pan to really get that crispy maillard reactionand then finishes it in the oven that I replaced after I destroyed his old oven.
This is equally good reheated, although it can get greasy. Serve it for a brunch with a poached duck egg or as an appetizer with fresh goat cheese and a toothpick. This will be a crowd pleaser, fresh herbs are best, but dried will work.
The Foodist: Parmesan Chicken Tenderloins
This is the recipe for The Foodist: Parmesan Chicken Tenderloins and it is a banger! Your whole family is going to love this (even kids!). It is also super easy to reuse leftovers as it heats up perfectly.
It is also perfect for serving as a cocktail part or even fundraiser, as it is easy and cheap to make and holds up well. Serve it with toothpicks and a marinara or dijon and mayonnaise mustard sauce.
Bio Technology at Mezzacello
This is a quick gallery of all the bio automation and programming at Mezzacello Urban Farm. If it has "Bio" in the name, you'll find it here!
The Foodist: Homemade Rosemary Lasagna
I decided that I wanted to try to make a lasagna as much from scratch as was possible. I made the tomato sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, and cottage cheeses, and homemade lasagna noodles. The tomatoes and herbs came straight from the garden and the canning pantry. It was so good.
From Waste To Taste
This is a blog p[ost about how we create animal feed at Mezzacello Urban Farm from slightly dehydrated edible weeds and assorted corn, hay, seeds, wheat germ, oils, and molasses. When all of this blended it is mixed with 1/3 it’s mass of water. This is then blended together into a paste, The paste is then extruded, left to dry and voila! Feed!
The Foodist: Three Homemade Cheeses
These three cheeses are so easy to make, and so worth it to make it yourself. In terms of cost, it makes great sense to make these yourself. Point of fact, to buy these at a store is $18 but just $5 to buy the milk, lemon and vinegar - through in $3 for the heavy cream for the cottage cheese. Now you are in business!
Black Soldier Flies Production Capstone
Today at Mezzacello, I am joined by a high school intern named Ismail. Ismail is interested in finding a solution to curb hunger and provide nutrients to the needy people in developing nations. This is the perfect opportunity for me to work with a keen young mind and an international pioneer in Kenya!
The Foodist: Zingy Peas and Great Northern Bean Bowl
This soup is a delightful, tasty, and filling surprise. It is full of nutrients and flavor, and the tile is right on with the zing! supplied with fresh peas, ginger, and lemon. The leeks, garlic, miso, and butter beans create a rich, crunchy, and flavorful broth that makes for a delicious and luxurious mouthfeel.
The Foodist: Mezzacello Tortilla, Egg, Chives, Cheese, and Salsa Frittata
This was a fun experiment in sustainability and frugality! For $1.60 (including electricity to run the oven for 15 minutes, I made this delicious frittata this morning. It is very tasty and feeds a lot of people.
The Foodist: Oatmeal With Blueberry, Nutmeg, and Cinnamon Compote
Wake up to a yummy morning with this simple oatmeal, blueberry, and cinnamon baked compote. The combination of hearty oats and baked sachets of compote filling is a home run. The sachets can be baked ahead of time and frozen until needed.
The Foodist: Mezzacello Sausage and CheeseTortellini Soup
On cold windy winter nights we love to experiment with old standards in new ways. Rick merged the sausage balls from his version of wedding soup with a version of cheese tortellini soup. What’s more is that this recipe is comprised of 70% leftover veggies from other meals and sealed vegetables harvested last summer. Leftovers after this go to the rabbits.
A Machine for Life and a Molecule Meet on a Farm
On LinkedIn today, I shared a post about how Mezzacello Urban Farm is a machine for life. I went on to elaborate that the potager gardens looked like a Chlorophyll molecule. Here, I have superimposed a diagram of the atom over the potager, through the pond, embracing the biodome and the Narnia outdoor lab, and ending up at the mouth of the pollinator garden. This is the story of how A Machine for Life and a Molecule Meet on a Farm.
The Foodist: Sustainable Spare Fruits and Veggies Smoothy
This is a secondary recipe from Rick’s Sausage and Cheese Tortellini Soup. The beauty of this is that it uses just five ingredients, a strainer, a blender, some epsom salt, drywall dust, and niacin tablets and Voila! Freeze the leftover ground tailings mix in the salt, gypsum, and niacin and freeze them into cubes. Then you have rabbit treats for the Rabbits. ZERO Waste and a very healthy drink.
The Sustainability Tax
Sustainability is not cheap or easy. It requires innovation, commitment, passion and sacrifice. That last one is what I call the Sustainability Tax. We paid it and are willing to teach or consult.
Mezzacello Sustainable Infrastructure Models
This is Mezzacello Urban Farm’s love letter to sustainability. This map is blank because we build our infrastructure atop these ecologies. In this blog we will be looking at the ecologies and advanced systems that all blend together to make Mezzacello Urban Farm systemically and ecologically sustainable.
Environmental and Climate Justice Outreach at Pickerington North HS
Today I was able to visit with Mr. Philpott’s AP Biology and Environmental Science classes and the Roots Environmental Club. We reviewed the way we can use environmental testing tools to conduct a survey of their school. It was chilly, but the data was hot!
The Mezzacello MENTERNS Tetrahedron of Character
This week is session two of my training regimen for the 2025 Mezzacello Urban Farm MENTERNS program. The MenTern (Mentor + Intern) program is a training camp that teaches young students innovative ways to build character, confidence, and mastery of their actions, intentions, and impacts. This is one tool I use to achieve that.
Language and the Power of Reframing
This lesson started out as a lesson in learning how to look at data and systems from new perspectives and turned into a mad lib of data synthesis. This was actually a great deal of fun and it is a new tool I will be using with students. The game is called “Coin Purse” for maximum absurdity and permission to be creative with language and the power of reframing.
Sustainability In Nature
In this class we gave each DNA strand (table) a beneficial mutation that would benefit the entire species (class). But one table’s mutation was bad for the other. The challenge was to optimize and use reason and democracy to decide what represented optimal sustainability in nature.
Recycle, Reuse, Reduce In Action
We worked today on a design challenge to encourage kids working with animals to be more aware of the necessity for hand washing, cleaning gloves, and being aware of potential pathogen vectors. Eight teams worked over four periods to design a solution that would help us all be better prepared and protected as we continue to explore sustainability and livestock. See what happened when kids put Recycle, Reuse, Reduce in Action.