July 4 CSA

I hope everyone had  a good fourth of July!
The box this week contains:  1 red celery, 3lbs red maria potatoes, 1 lb. green beans, 2 lbs. zephyr and patty pan squash, 1 head of garlic, 1 bunch of red torpedo onions, 1 head of green cabbage.  Regular shares also get:  1 bunch beets, 2 lbs. new girl tomatoes, an extra 1/2 lb. beans.

The celery has some blemishes on the leaves that are the result of a huge rain we had sunday night.  You can just cut the leaves away and use the stalks.  It has a stronger flavor than green celery and is great in potatoe salad and any other place you'd use celery but use a smaller amount.
The zephyr and patty pan squashes are both sweeter than zucchini and yelloe squash.  We use them the same way, our favorite being just sauteed with onion, salt and pepper.
The green cabbage is great for cole slaw and also makes good kraut.  There is a great and easy method with good directions in Sandor Katz' book "Wild Fermentation".

Asian Cabbage Slaw (from Farmer John's Cookbook)
serves 2 to 4
2 cups shredded cabbage
1/3 cup shredded carrot
1/2 minced red onion
2 T fresh mint minced
2 T fresh cilantro minced
2 T rice vinegar
2 T peanut oil
1 T rice wine (mirin or sake)
2 tsp. honey
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
salt and pepper

1. combine cabbage, carrot, onion, mint, cilantro in large bowl and toss well.
2. mix vinegar, peanut oil, rice wine, honey, sesame oil in  asmall bowl until well combined.  pour over the cabbage mixture; toss.  season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.

Jesse and Ally washing Red Maria potatoes

Things to look forward to:  canteloupe melons, cherry tomatoes, tomatillos.

June 27 CSA

Boxes this week have:  1 lb. lemon cucumbers, 1 lb. green beans, 1 head purple cabbage, 1 head persian star garlic, 2 sweet onions, zucchini and yellow squash, 1 bunch of carrots.  The regular shares also have: 2 lbs. rose-finn apples fingerling potatoes, 2 lbs. pickling cucumbers, a bag of basil, an extra 1/2 lb. beans.

A few tomatoes are ripening this week so you should see them in your box in 2 weeks!  Next Wed. is July 4 but pick-up will be the same as usual.  Boxes next week will have potatoes, cabbage, squash, long red onions, cucumbers.  We'll put enough taters in for a big bowl of potato salad in case you're doing a fourth of July meal.
Lemon cukes are round and pale yellow and have a slightly tangy flavor.  We find them very refreshing on a hot day just raw and plain.  There is actually some chemical reaction in your body with cucumbers that lowers your body temperature so they should come in handy later this week if it gets as hot as predicted.  They are also a great addition to vegetable salad and good combined with fruits in a salad ( like nectarine, lemon cuke, and sweet onion salad with a balsamic vinegar dressing).  The sweet onions are a variety dating back to 1887 called Ailsa Craig named for an island off the west coast of Scotland.  They are very mild and almost as sweet as vidalias.  Keep them refrigerated. 
Persian Star garlic is one of the new varieties we are growing this year.  It was collected in Uzbekistan by Seed Saver's Exchange and is "a good all around garlic with a pleasant zing".

Those of you who've been in the CSA before have seen this recipe but its a good one and a great way to fix squash.

from The Talisman Italian Cookbook,  Italian Squash Sicilian Style ( zucchini and yellow)

1 lb. squash, sliced thin
2 T olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 1/2 T wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
1 tsp chopped mint leaves

Place squash in skillet with oil and garlic and cook gently until squash is tender.  Add vinegar, salt, sugar, and mint leaves and cook 2 minutes longer.  serves 4.



Garlic just harvested waiting to be tied and hung to dry

We will finish the garlic harvest this afternoon!  2 more varieties to go.  We grew a total of 6 varieties this year for a total harvest of about 1500 lbs.  it will all ahng in the old tobacco drying barn for about 3 weeks with fans on it.  It will then be considered "cured" and we'll cut the tops and clean it and you'll get garlic the rest of the season.

June 20th CSA

     Hi All,  Suddenly the focus is off of the over- wintered and spring crops, and has moved onto the summer.  We are plowing under the broccoli and cauliflower beds and suckering and trellising tomatoes.  The strawberries have been pulled up to make way for leeks for the fall.  We got 2" of rain in under an hour the other night.  We had just turned on the irrigation because we were worried that we weren't going to get the precipitation that was promised, then we got it all at once.  Everything responded well enough, but we had to scramble to drag irrigation away from the creek before it was swept away by the creek.   
    I am sorry we didn't update the blog last week.  Every time I sat down to do it, a small human came and turned the computer off and clapped for herself.
   

Poppy in bloom

June 20 Box Contents:
all boxes have:  2 lbs. yellow crookneck and /or zucchini squash, 2 lbs. cucumbers, 2 lbs. new potatoes (yukon gold and red marias), 1 bulb red chesnok garlic, 1 bunch long red onions, 1 bunch multi-color beets.  full shares also have:  1 head of red cabbage, 1 bunch of baby carrots, 1 head of celery.

Long Red Onions; an Italian heirloom onion

I know its a lot of squash.  If it is more than you think you can eat this week, you can shred it and freeze for making squash bread or fritters later on.  The potatoes need to be refrigerated and will keep a few weeks in there.  The cucumbers we grow are called "pickling" cucumbers but are delicious for all purposes;  even just with some butter and salt on a piece of bread!

If anyone is interested in getting enough cucumbers to make a batch of pickles, we have copius amounts right now and for 2 more weeks.  There are a few options for you.  One would be to get a box of just cukes one week; another to come help us harvest the cukes one day and get 1/2 bushel for your labor; the third option is to purchase a 1/2 bushel for $15 which is a great deal as they cost $35 for non-CSA members.  The same offer is available for squash for canning or freezing.  This week we will harvest cukes Wed. and Fri. mornings and squash Thurs and Fri. mornings around 8am.  Next week cukes will be Sun., Tues, Thurs. and squash will be Mon., Wed., and Fri.  Let us know if you plan to come.

One of our "red Devon" heifers grazing

Sauteed Beet and Potato Hash

from Farmer John's cookbook

serves 4

3 T oil

2 small onions, diced

4 medium potatoes, grated

2 medium beets, peeled, grated (2-3 cups)

2 tsp fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme

2 cloves minced garlic

salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onions; cook and stir until soft and translucent, about 5 mins.

2.  Stir in the potatoes, beets, thyme, and garlic.  Season with salt to taste.  Cook, turning it occasionally until the potatoes and beets are tender and slightly crispy, 15 to 20 minutes.

3. Remove skillet from heat.  Season generously with pepper, and salt to taste.

This is great served with steamed beet greens and if you eat meat, an italian sausage; if you eat soy, seasoned and broiled tofu or tempeh.

 

June 6 CSA

Baby Squash!

 It's June!  So far, June has been cooler than alot of April.  We are not  complaining.  The first lettuce beds have been tilled in to make room for carrots, beets, and edamame soybeans.  We harvested the soft neck garlic and seeded okra, sweet corn, and flour corn.  The tomato plants have small green fruits on them and the huge job of trellising the tomatoes has begun.  We dug the first new potatoes today and you'll see them in your box!

Harvesting greens for your boxes at 6 am in the rain

This weeks' box contains:  1 bunch collards or kale, 1 bunch arugula, 1 bunch red onions,  1 lb. of new potatoes, 3/4 lb. of baby squashes, 1 head of garlic, 1 yellow onion, 1 bunch mixed beets.  Regular shares have 2 lbs of potatoes and 1 &1/4 lbs of squash as well as 1 bunch italian parsley, 1 fennel bulb.

Baby squashes are sweet and delicate in flavor.  I think they are best cut in half lengthwise and sauteed with some onion, salt and pepper.  The new potatoes need to be kept in the refrigerator.  The beets are very sweet right now and need very little dressing.  The garlic is uncured and needs to be used this week.  It does need to be peeled similar to cured garlic but an easier job.  The arugula and garlic make a great pesto combined with olive oil, salt and toasted walnuts.  Have you tried kale or collard "chips"?  Surprisingly good and simple, you tear the leaves into chip size pieces, put them in a bowl and toss with olive oil and salt then place on baking sheets in a single layer and bake at 350 degrees until crispy (about 15 minutes).  If you like nutritional yeast, you can toss some of that in too.  Fennel is celery-like in texture and has a licorice flavor.  You use the bulb part and up the stalk until the leaves begin.  It is delicious raw if you like the flavor and also lends sweetness without much of the licorice flavor to soups, risotto, and pasta sauces.

Washing beets

FAVORITE SPRING BEET SALAD
1 bunch of beets, cut away from the tops
salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar
beet greens cut into thin strips

1. wash beets and place in pot with water covering them.
2. boil until soft; add the greens at the last minute and cook just until soft.
3. pour off hot water and soak in cold until you can handle; peel the beets and cut into wedges.
4. add salt and pepper to taste and 1 - 2 tsp balsamic vinegar.

this is good by itself or added to a lettuce salad.  also great with raw fennel slices added.

CSA May 30 2012

CSA box May 30 includes: 1 bunch of dill, 1 head of napa cabbage, 1 head of romaine lettuce, 1 bunch of scallions, 1 bunch of garlic scapes, 2 lbs combined of cauliflower and broccoli.  The regular boxes also contain: 1/2 lb of spinach, 1 bunch of beets, red and yellow onions, as well as having 1 head of buttercrunch lettuce instead of romaine.

My current favorite salad is the napa cabbage chopped thinly with fresh dill and the typical slaw dressing of mayonnaise, mustard, cider vinegar and salt and pepper.  It is also good with a scallion chopped up and addded.

The purple cauliflower loses its purple when cooked and taste just like the white.  I most enjoy cauliflower divided into small florets and steamed with some butter on it.  It is also a fine addition to a risotto and great roasted or mashed.  It was exciting to harvest enough cauliflower to be able to put it in the CSA boxes!

Purple and white cauliflower and broccoli

Napa Cabbage

As I type this, a soft rain is falling and its really nice to hear and to think about the vegetables soaking it all up.  It had actually gotten pretty dry here and we 've been irrigating so its great to have rain.  The first variety of garlic is ready to harvest and cure.  We hope to get it out of the field this week.  This is about 3 weeks earlier than last year.  The first summer squash will be harvested tomorrow morning and hopefully by next week there will be enough for the boxes.  Cucumbers should be close behind.

Next week's boxes will have beets, broccoli again, maybe peas as well as more lettuce and arugula.

CSA Pickup May 23



PLANTING TOMATOES with the WATERWHEEL TRANSPLANTER
into black bio-degradeable mulch made from corn

Please return your empty wax box, berry pint container, and cloth bags when you come for this weeks' box!
CSA box week of May 23
The box contains:  1 bunch curly kale, 1 bunch swiss chard, 1 bunch arugula, 1 head of romaine lettuce, 1 head of oak leaf lettuce, 1 green kohlrabi, 1 bunch of red scallions, 1 yellow onion, 1 pint strawberries.  The regular shares also get:  1 head of napa cabbage, 1/2 lb. spinach, 1/2 lb cauliflower, and 1 bunch of green garlic.

The arugula still has its roots on to keep it fresh longer.  You'll want to cut them off before eating it.  The yellow onion is a somewhat hot onion.  The green garlic can be cut like onions and used up the stalk until it becomes hard to cut.  It has a milder flavor than cured garlic.  The napa cabbage is an excellent addition to stir-fries and makes a great slaw.
We hope you are in the mood to eat greens this week!  It seems to be what we have.  All the rain has made them grow leaps and bounds!

Chard with Sweet-n-Sour Sauce
1 cup stock or water
1 bunch of chard, stems removed, and leaves torn into small pieces
4 scallions, thinly sliced
salt and black pepper
2 T vinegar
1 T brown sugar
1 T finely chopped or grated ginger
1 tsp red pepper flakes

1. Bring stock or water to a boil  in a large skillet.  Add chard and cook, stirring, until wilted, about 1 min.
2. Drain chard, saving the cooking liquid.  Transfer the chard to indiv. plates and sprinkle with scallions.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3.  Pour reserved cooking liquid back into skillet and bring to a boil over high heat.  Boil it until reduced to 1/3 cup.  Add the vinegar and brown sugar.  Stir in the ginger and red pepper.  Boil for 30 seconds more and remove from heat.  Spoon the mixture over the chard and eat immediately.

This recipe is from Farmer John's Cookbook
It takes about 20 minutes to prepare.

We transplanted all the tomatoes this week which means you should be getting the first ones in your box in mid-late July.  We are using a bio-degradeable mulch made from corn as a weed barrier and to keep soil from splashing up on the plants in the rain.  Our hope is to lessen disease pressure.  We planted several varieties of cherry tomatoes, an early hybrid red tomato called "New Girl" and several heirloom slicing and sauce tomatoes.  We also planted peppers, melons, and eggplant this week.

The boxes next week should have butterhead lettuce, spinach, beets, maybe broccoli.

If you need/ want more info than you're getting via this blog, please email us and we'll try to give you what you're looking for.

1st CSA Pick-up of the 2012!

PURPLE KOHLRABI

 The first box of 2012!  Today we harvested in fog, sun, and rain and got muddy through and through!  All the boxes contain kohlrabi, scallions, collard greens, garlic scapes, cippollini onions, 1 head of red leaf lettuce, 1 head of "bambi" lettuce, and strawberries.  The regular (large) shares also contain 3/4 lb of de cicco broccoli, 1 bunch multi--color beets, and 2 fennel bulbs.
   The kohlrabi has a cabbage-like flavor and is a good addition to any green salad and tuna or chicken salad.  Its also good in soup or added to mashed potatoes.  It does need to be peeled and the greens can be cooked too. Garlic scapes are what would be the flower of the garlic.  We remove them so that the garlic grows a larger bulb.  They have a milder flavor than garlic bulbs and can be used in anything you would put garlic in.   The large onions in your box are a mild, sweet onion and are good raw or used in cooking.  The "bambi" lettuce is a very dense mini-head lettuce that has a romaine flavor.  It is crisp and delicious.  We hope to have strawberries for a couple more weeks and hopefully in more abundance so that you get more. 

GARLIC SCAPES

A RECIPE FOR COLLARD GREENS

1 bunch collards; washed, chopped, and steamed for 5 minutes

1 onions, thinly sliced

olive oil

tamari or soy sauce

cider vinegar

1. saute the onion in olive oil over med. heat for a few minutes

2.  add the steamed collard greens to the skillet and combine well with onions

3.  add 1 tsp of tamari and 1 to 2 tsp cider vinegar

4.  mix well and let saute all together for a minute or 2

BAMBI LETTUCE

ADDIEBELLE WITH TULIPS