Farro Salad with Grapes, Goat Cheese and Tarragon Vinaigrette

December 2033. I thought about something this month that I'd been circling around without landing on: the question of what the land is and what it will be after me. Not in a morbid way—I was forty-six and in good health and had no particular reason to be thinking about that end of things—but in the practical way of someone who has built something and wants to understand its continuity correctly.

The food forest is now eleven years old and would produce without intervention for decades. The garden is established enough that Kai could run it. The house is here. The barn is here. The teaching practice is here in the curriculum, which is now two and a half years old and has had four cohorts and will have more. The traditional foods work is distributed—Madison is carrying it, the curriculum students are carrying it, Lily's book is carrying it, the Elohi Foods network is carrying it. The welding instruction is distributed—Ely is carrying it, the students are carrying it.

What I built is not mine anymore in the way that Danny's teaching was never just his anymore after he gave it to me. You build a thing and you give it away and the giving is the whole point. The land will stay. The practice will continue. The table will have room. That's what you build toward when you're building toward anything worth building.

Made grape dumplings at Christmas—the purple soup, as River and Wren together called them. Six-year-old Wren and thirteen-year-old River in the kitchen eating purple soup and agreeing that this was the best thing I made. Maybe they're right. Maybe the simplest things are always right.

River and Wren settled something I’d been overthinking when they named those grape dumplings “purple soup” and declared them the best thing I make — not the ferments, not the slow braises, not anything labored over. It made me want to keep that grape energy going into the new year in a form I could bring to a table full of people without much fuss. This farro salad with grapes, goat cheese, and tarragon vinaigrette is exactly that kind of dish: the grape does the sweet work, the goat cheese does the rich work, and the farro holds it all together the way good land holds everything built on top of it.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups semi-pearled farro
3 cups water or vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
2 cups red or purple seedless grapes, halved
4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup toasted walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
1 small shallot, finely minced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Cook the farro. Rinse farro under cold water. Combine with water or broth and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Cook uncovered for 25–30 minutes, until farro is tender but still has a pleasant chew. Drain any excess liquid and spread on a sheet pan to cool to room temperature.
Make the tarragon vinaigrette. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, and minced shallot. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking continuously until the vinaigrette is emulsified. Stir in the chopped tarragon. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Combine the salad. In a large bowl, toss the cooled farro with about two-thirds of the vinaigrette until evenly coated. Add the halved grapes, parsley, and half the crumbled goat cheese. Toss gently to combine.
Finish and serve. Transfer to a serving platter or bowl. Scatter the remaining goat cheese and the toasted nuts over the top. Drizzle with remaining vinaigrette as desired. Serve at room temperature or lightly chilled.

Nutrition (per serving)

Farro Salad with Grapes, Goat Cheese and Tarragon Vinaigrette — The Purple Soup Wisdom of Keeping It Simple