June - Week 4, CSA

News from the Farm Kitchen . . .

Thanks to Mollie Katzen, author of Moosewood Cookbook for tips to sneak more vegetables into your eating plans. Her recent cookbook, Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without, offers several tried and true recipes using both common and the more unusual vegetables.

Her tips include going “taller” on your pizzas and sandwiches: pile the leftover veggies from last nights’ dinner onto a pre-made pizza crust or onto your open-faced sandwich bread. Try stuffing a hollowed-out already baked potato with sauteed, steamed, or grilled vegetables; top with cheese and broil. Add veggies to cooked pasta and season with olive oil, garlic and herbs; may be eaten cold as salad or heated. Add leftover veggies to your scrambled eggs for added punch in the morning!

Other sources of fresh vegetable recipes include Local Flavors: Coooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets by Deborah Madison along with her Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone; Greene on Greens by Bert Greene; books by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, authors of The Silver Palate Cookbook; Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables by Farmer John Peterson and Angelelic Organics; From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce by the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition; and books by Alice Waters, leader of Slow Food and founder of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkley.

Online resources for recipes include the following:
http://www.epicurious.com/
http://www.chow.com/
http://www.101cookbooks.com/
http://www.chocolateandzucchini.com/

Please share any recipes, cooking tips, or recipe sources with us that you find are family favorites using your CSA produce items this summer.

In Your Share . . .

Items will vary depending on your harvest and pickup day and the share size - every share may not have every item listed.

Asparagus
Enjoy this last harvest of fresh asparagus. Try grilling outdoors and serving with balsamic vinegar.

Kohlrabi – organic – new this week!
The alien looking vegetable with leaves coming out of a bulb is the kohlrabi – a member of the brassica family, like broccoli and cabbage. The leaves should be removed and can be cooked with other greens, but most dishes focus on the bulb. You will need to peel the bulb, but this veggie has excellent flavor either raw or cooked. Grate it into salads or thinly slice as a snack -food similar to carrots. We have had several reports that raw kohlrabi is a favorite for kids. The bulb will store well in your refrigerator for several weeks once the leaves are removed.
This highly nutritious vegetable is high in fiber, potassium and calcium while low in calories. Find a recipe below.

Salad Mix – organic
This week’s harvest comes from several varieties including green leaf, red oak leaf and the beautiful Rubin’s Red romaine. While field dirt has been rinsed, you do need to wash well before eating. Try a new recipe below with salad greens and fresh strawberries!

Strawberries - organic
After last season’s Easter weekend freeze-out that caused so much of the KY fruit to be lost for the season, we are pleased with this year’s strawberry yields. A wetter spring does mean less concentrated sugar in the fruit, but we think the flavor has changed over the last four weeks – jam making does not require as much sugar as recipes suggest. If you have extra berries, try rinsing well, hulling the stems, and putting in freezer bags to store for the winter. Even a pint or so makes a nice treat when there is snow on the ground outside.

Spinach - organic
Our next two plantings of fresh spinach are beginning to size up. Enjoy raw in salads or in wraps, add to any pasta or egg recipe, or cook by steaming or sautéing. Just remember how much it shrinks down when cooked. Add a little vinegar when ready to eat.

Swiss Chard - organic
Enjoy your rainbow Swiss chard chopped into ribbons and added to a lettuce salad, or sautéed with the kohlrabi this week.

Green Leaf Lettuce – organic
The Thai Green is an organic variety of the most popular type of green leaf lettuce. Butterheads are an organic variety of a popular type of green leaf lettuce – similar to Bibb lettuce, they have tender leaves with wonderful flavor.

Sugar Snap Peas – organic – new this week!

Snap peas are a sweet indicator of spring in Kentucky. This organic variety, Sugar Sprint, is a stringless snap pea (both the pod and the pea are edible). Eat fresh in salads or lightly sauté in olive oil to bring out the flavor. You may want to quickly blanche in boiling water, then throw into an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Add to your lettuce or pasta salad, or enjoy as a snack or appetizer with your favorite dip.

Recipes to Enjoy . . .

Fresh Strawberry Pie
recipe from a friend of the farm

1 baked and cooled 9-inch pie shell
3 pints fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled
1 cup sugar
½ cup water
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt

1. Cover the bottom of the pie shell with the prettiest berries, arranging them stem-side down.
2. Mash remaining berries (about 1 pint).
3. Put into a medium saucepan. Add sugar, water, cornstarch, and salt.
4. Stir over medium heat until boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 1 minute, stirring, until thickened and clear.
5. Remove from heat. Let cool until barely warm.
6. Pour over berries in pie shell.
7. Refrigerate at least 3 hours or until set.

Basic Method for Cooking Kohlrabi
adapted from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham

1 pound kohlrabi
melted butter
salt
freshly ground pepper
Cut off the tops of the kohlrabi and peel and slice the globes. Cook, uncovered, in boiling, salted water until tender, about 20 –30 minutes (cook less if the kohlrabi is very small). Or, steam on a a rack, over boiling water, covered for about 15 minutes until tender. Drain, toss with melted butter and season to taste.

Option: Kohlrabi au Gratin
Put the cooked, seasoned kohlrabi in a shallow, buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with ½ C freshly grated Parmesan cheese and put under the broiler until the cheese has melted.

Simple Spring Salad with Vanilla Vinaigrette
recipe adapted by Melissa for use at the farm

Vinaigrette:
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp minced chives or green onion
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of salt
Black pepper to taste

Salad:
6 cups spring mix greens
½ cup chopped green onions (green & white parts)
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries or peaches
½ cup sliced almonds

Toast almonds in dry skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often, until golden and fragrant, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat immediately. Let cool.

Whisk together vinaigrette ingredients and transfer to cruet. Set aside.

Place greens in large bowl and drizzle with 2 Tbsp vinaigrette. Divide among 4 salad plates and sprinkle with green onions. Mound strawberries in center of greens and sprinkle with almonds. Drizzle each salad with 1 tsp of vinaigrette and serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.

CSA News, Week 3

News From the Farm . . .

Over the years of growing and selling fresh vegetables, we have learned that unless you are standing in the field eating your produce just seconds after you picked it, good post-harvest handling is necessary to keep fresh veggies fresh. We do everything we can to make sure what goes into your share is in the best possible shape when it leaves the farm. We begin harvest in early mornings picking greens and lettuces first before the sun heats up the plants. Our harvest containers are regularly returned to our packing barn where we hand rinse most items to remove soil, reduce the field heat, and remove any damaged leaves. We use on-farm coolers to chill produce to its preferred temperature. The quicker all this happens, the longer the fresh-life for everything. The quicker you can cool your items after pickup, the better. We all have days when we don’t make it home as early as plan-ned. If so, swirl your greens in a sink of cold water for about 10 min-utes, shake dry, then put in a sealed container in the refrigerator to re-invigorate the slightly wilted leaves. Remember that all greens need to be stored in a closed container in the coolest part of your fridge. Enjoy!

In Your Share . . .

Greens, Cooking – organic
Many folks put greens into the categories of “love it” or “hate it.” If you fall into the latter, you owe it to yourself to try cooking greens again! Some are more common and some unusual, but each has unique flavors that change slightly depending on weather conditions and the season. The nutritional benefit to human health of vitamins, minerals, and folic acid just cannot be duplicated in tablet or capsule forms. Disease prevention is well documented from leafy greens – so experiment a little bit and find a recipe that works for you and your family. We have many recipes for kale, chard, arugula, turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, and more in newsletters over the past years – you can substitute one for the other in most recipes. If all else fails, throw chopped greens into soup, stew, casseroles and add to your holiday backyard barbeque!Today’s harvest is Giant Red Mustard Greens and Tasty Turnip Greens. Both have a pungent, spicy flavor and will cook down to 25% or less of fresh volume if boiled in the country style. Try rough-chopping into smaller pieces and adding to an omelet, quiche, or frittata. Find a recipe below.

Lettuce – organic
This week’s harvest comes from several varieties of tender heads. You will have one of Thai Green, Reine des Glaces Crisphead, or Optima Greenleaf. The Thai resembles the old-time traditional Black Seeded Simpson long grown in Kentucky gardens. The Reine des Glaces has a scalloped, spiky outer edge on the lower leaves resembling the spikes of a crown, leading to its name as Queen of Ice. The Optima is a darker green than the Thai with enjoyable butterhead flavor.

Swiss Chard - organic
This crop is a Rainbow mix of red, pink, white, yellow, orange, and striped color chard. The greens of the chard plant can be prepared like spinach. Large stalks can be cut into bite size pieces and used in any chard recipe – just know they take a little longer to cook than the more tender leaf.For a quick side dish, chop leaves and stems into ribbons and 1 inch chunks. Sauté in olive oil or steam – either way start with stems first, then after 3-4 minutes, add the ribbon leaves.
Enjoy baby leaves added to salad, or add to pasta, quiche, or a frittata – if you choose to steam, it will wilt way down as does spinach!

Strawberries - organic
Yeh, more berries! In our region, strawberry plants produce berries once per year. In other areas like California or South America, mul-tiple climate zones allow for many plant-ings resulting in longer seasons for ripe berries. Some say the tasty flavor is worth our shorter KY season. Enjoy all you can of local organic berries now!

Larger Baskets Only:

Asparagus
We still are getting some asparagus, but the harvest each day is much smaller. Since asparagus must grow its roots for a full year prior to producing the spears we enjoy, now is the time in the season to cut back on harvesting. The asparagus stalk needs to put energy into flowering in order to have a sufficient crop next spring. Enjoy this last treat as the season for asparagus winds down.

Bok Choy - organic
Long viewed as a specialty item, bok choy is becoming better known and well liked as our menus and palates expand. Try a simple stir-fry by sautéing some garlic or onion in olive oil or butter; add the chopped white stalks, then a few minutes later add the chopped green leaves. When wilted, but still crunchy, add a dash of sesame oil. Enjoy as a nice side dish with fresh garden flavor.

Recipes to Enjoy . . .

Strawberry-Blueberry Compote in Red Wine Syrup
adapted, not original farm recipe

1 cup dry red wine
½ cup sugar
½ tsp whole black peppercorns
2 (2 ½-inch) orange rind strips
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
4 cups sliced strawberries
1 cup blueberries

Combine first 6 ingredients in small non-aluminum saucepan. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until liquid is reduced to ½ cup.

Drain mixture in colander over large bowl. Discard solids. Add berries. Toss to coat. Serve warm or chill up to 2 hours. Makes 8 servings.


Spicy Mustard Greens with Cumin
recipe from Bon Appetit – use any of your greens including tops from beets and turnips – may want to halve the recipe since smallish bunch harvested this week.

¼ C extra virgin olive oil
2 med. onions, coarsely chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 T cumin seeds
½ tsp dried crushed red pepper
2 bunches mustard greens, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper
1 T balsamic vinegar

Heat oil in large pot, medium high heat. Add onions & sauté until soft, about 7 min.
Stir in garlic, cumin seeds, and red pepper flakes. Sauté 3 minutes.
Add mustard greens in batches, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook until greens are very tender, 15 minutes or more. Stir frequently.
Season with salt and pepper. Mix in vinegar.
Can be made 3 hours ahead. Serve hot or at room temperature. Recipe can be halved.

Wilted Chard with Onions
from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

1 bunch chard
2 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
salt

Wash and drain chard. Pull the leaves from the ribs. Trim the ends from the ribs and then cut them into thin slices. Cut the leaves into wide ribbons. Heat oil in a heavy pan and add onion. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the chard ribs and continue cooking for 3 minutes. Add the leaves and salt. Cook, stirring now and then, until the leaves are tender. Add a little bit of water if the pan gets dry and the inions begin to stick and brown.

Has Spring Sprung? Week 1

News from the Farm

Welcome to the 2008 season of Elmwood Stock Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture program. Our goal is to provide you clean, tasty, beautiful, special, high quality fresh foods. We hope you enjoy eating fresh from the farm and have fun with the experience of sometimes trying new things!
Seasonal eating is an adventure. As each basket comes, you will be exposed to the new colors and flavors of foods you have never cooked with before, as well as familiar favorites. We have a few tips to help anyone through the adjustment period.
· Take a few minutes to assess your basket – look at the listing at top right to scan the contents - you might choose to utilize the swap basket at your pickup location. When you get home, decide what needs to be eaten fairly soon and what can wait until later in the week. A few minutes now will save you time later and often some items are more perishable than others – we will let you know what keeps well.
· Remember to wash your vegetables. We do not offer the produce ready to eat. Some items are rinsed and cooled before you get them, but this aids in removing dirt and reducing the field temperature – things we do to ensure better post-harvest quality.
· Try to refrigerate as soon as possible. This is the number one way to keep everything fresh. We do have tips to refresh your greens or lettuce; so don’t give up if you are not able to go straight home.
· Keep your newsletters handy (a 3 ring binder or file folder) or revisit our web-blog www.elmwoodstockfarm.blogspot.com. Later in the summer when you might be really busy or another family member gets CSA duty the week you are gone, a quick recipe or description of a new vegetable may be needed.Find recipes that fit your lifestyle from vegetable cookbooks or the internet. We have resources if you need them.

Note: Each week we scout the fields ready to harvest each new produce crop at the peak of ripeness. A few plants will be ready early, then the majority of the crop comes, followed by a few more that ripen a little later. Think of the bell curve.If you do not have an item like the spinach, this week, don’t worry, there is plenty planted and warmer weather will bring a much larger harvest soon. We keep track of what goes into each share every week to make sure everyone shares in the bounty!

In Your Basket

Asparagus
Our late, wet season is not holding back the asparagus. It’s fresh flavor makes it a farm favorite and one of the top veggies each year for CSA shares. You don’t have to cut the end on a long piece – just bend lightly until it breaks naturally. Short stalks may not have to be trimmed if the ends are tender or you may want to lightly peel away the outer skin at the bottom of the stalk. Enjoy raw, boiled, steamed, sautéed, baked, or roasted. To store, put the cut ends in water or wrap in a wet paper towel and place inside a plastic container. Below are some recipes.

Salad Mix - organic
This week find young and tender lettuces to make a fresh salad. If you wash gently, they should store very well in the fridge for several days. After washing, a salad spinner will help remove excess water as lettuce will keep better when not soggy and prevents your dressing from slipping off. This week’s mix includes Ruben’s Red Romaine, Jericho Romaine, and Thai Green varieties.

Garlic Greens - organic
Resembling a green onion, the delicate green garlic can be enjoyed only in the spring before the plant’s energy is put into making a bulb under the ground. Use all of the white and as much of the green as you find tender. You can enjoy any way you would a scallion or green onion: sauté in olive oil; chop in salad or pasta, make pesto, or add to soups. A yummy Alice Waters recipe is below.

Radishes – organic
We hope you like both the look and the taste of the Plum Purple round radishes – a newer variety this season. We also are harvesting the cylinder shaped French Breakfast radish that is actually easier to slice! Enjoy with salad, or dip lightly in salt or favorite cream cheese for a nice healthy snack. The leaves are not so tasty and will wilt quickly, but the radish itself stores well refrigerated.

Only in Larger Baskets:

Spinach – organic
This Bloomsdale variety offers enough for an early small harvest. Add to your lettuce for a week of green salads, or lightly sauté with a green garlic and radish. It wilts dramatically when steamed down to a very little portion!

Strawberries–organic
Our strawberries are planted in two sections of our unheated high tunnel, protected from the pelting rains. After Sunday’s day of storms, we are happy to have a few berries ready to harvest, as they would have been ruined if completely outdoors. We try to only pick the reddest, ripest berries; they should be washed right before eating rather than in advance, and will keep best refrigerated. This is the first week of the berry harvest and we expect to have plenty more once a little sunshine comes our way.

Recipes to Enjoy

New Garlic and Semolina Soup from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.
Semolina, coarsely ground durum wheat, turns simple, homemade chicken broth into a more substantial, silky textured soup.

In a heavy soup pot, bring to a boil:
2 quarts chicken broth
1 herb bouquet, tied with cotton string (a few sprigs of thyme and parsley, and a bay leaf)
Salt

Stirring constantly with a whisk, sprinkle in:
½ cup semolina

Lower the heat and continue stirring until the semolina is suspended in the broth and no longer settles to the bottom, about 5 minutes. Add:
3 green garlic plants (bulbs and stalks), trimmed and finely chopped

Cook at a simmer, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, for 20 minutes. Discard the herb bouquet, taste for salt. Adjust as needed, and serve hot.

[Variation: add cooked, chopped spinach to the bowl when serving.] Makes about two quarts, 4 to 6 servings.

Baked Asparagus with Goat Cheese and Bread-crumbs
from www.calasparagus.com

1½ lb fresh asparagus
2¼ T butter, melted
2 oz fresh white goat cheese, crumbled (¼ C)
½ C fresh breadcrumbs
Coat asparagus spears in 1½ T of the butter, then salt lightly. Arrange in a shallow baking dish large enough to accommodate all the asparagus in a single layer. Evenly distribute cheese over asparagus, then breadcrumbs. Drizzle with remaining butter, and bake at 400 degrees until the asparagus is lightly crisped and the bread-crumbs are browned, about 10 minutes.

Asparagus Vinaigrette
adapted from the food-blog Orangette

1 bunch asparagus, blanched until bright greenSalt2 T lemon juice1 T white wine or champagne vinegar1 T Dijon mustard½ tsp fine sea salt5 T olive oilScant 1/8 t pressed garlic1 hard-boiled egg, finely chopped (optional)Zest of half a lemon (optional) In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, and salt. Add the oil, and whisk well to emulsify. Taste, and if necessary, add a bit more oil. Add the garlic, and whisk to combine.To serve, drizzle the vinaigrette over the asparagus, and top, if you like, with hard-boiled egg. If you choose to use the lemon zest, sprinkle a couple of pinches on top.