Rae lives and farms on Barr Farms with her family. She loves cooking healthy food, trying new things, deep conversations with friends, reading, learning, and playing, especially with her three children.
I love this cornbread recipe because it uses fresh-ground cornmeal we grew, it doesn't have sugar in it, and we eat it with the meal and also for dessert. It's best fresh out of the oven, or at least for same-day eating. I got the recipe from Susanna Lein of Salamander Spring Farm, who also grows her own heirloom cornmeal. We've been growing our own corn variety on this land for about 8 years now. We've dubbed it "Rhodelia Rainbow." It's a blend of two heirloom varieties called "Bloody Butcher" and "Hickory King." Planting and harvest is always a community event, where people from Sustainable Agriculture Louisville come out for a traditional by-hand planting of a "three sisters" patch of this heirloom corn, beans and squash. We plant in May, harvest the corn in October or November, and then have corn to grind into cornmeal all yer long. if you try this, be sure to get a coarsely ground cornmeal. Ours is a combo of white, red and purple kernels that get ground into one delicious cornmeal. For dessert, we add butter and plain yogurt over the warm, fresh from the oven cornbread, and then top with either homemade maple syrup or sorghum.
if you'd like to try it, here's the recipe. Like I said, the basis is from Susanna Lein, but I've changed the process and proportions a little. Here's my version of
Susanna's Cornbread:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a cast iron skillet, melt a stick of butter. Add 2 cups of cornmeal and toast, about 5-10 minutes. Set aside to let cool slightly.
Meanwhile, mix batter: 2 eggs, 1 cup buttermilk (I always use a combo of plain yogurt and either milk or water), 2 t. baking powder, 1 t. salt.
Add batter to cast iron and mix. Pop skillet in hot oven for 2o min. Enjoy while warm.