It’s time for the Heirloom Tomato Tasting at The Common Market!
Saturday July 21, 2012 11-1pm
Stop in at The Common Market store on Saturday July 21, 2012 between 11-1pm and I will personally serve you a taste of some of our featured varieties of heirlooms. Plus they have a few dishes to try that feature heirlooms, and other tastings throughout the store. Check it out!
Farmer shirts gets dirty, you can imagine. So I freshened up some shirts with a bit of fiber-reactive dyes from Dharma Trading.
This is a great time to indulge in great garlic, when its available fresh and local. Garlic has so many healthy properties, don’t buy irradiated garlic! Get the vibrant stuff if you can. CSA members at House in the Woods get to indulge in excellent garlic. We have plenty to sell to others, as well, so contact me if you want to buy garlic!
CSA member, Debbie, offers up this great way to enjoy lots of garlic.
Wondering what to do with fresh garlic? Heres a recipe thats quite popular at our house. Its very easy and simple.
DEATH BY GARLIC
~ allrecipes
1/2 c. olive oil
10 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes
3 T. chopped fresh parsley
1 lb. penne pasta
1/3 c. grated Romano cheese
Cook pasta according to directions. In a pan, brown garlic in oil. Add salt, pepper and parsley; remove from heat. Toss pasta with garlic mixture and Romano cheese.
The above is the original recipe. We love garlic at house and ten cloves arent enough for us so I used about fifteen of the fresh garlic cloves. I also use a bit more cheese- about half a cup. This recipe is especially tasty with the fresh garlic from House in the Woods. My husband said it was like eating a restaurant.
This recipe would also taste great without the cheese for someone doesnt eat dairy or is a vegan. You can also add in other ingredients. I topped some leftover pasta with chopped fresh tomatoes from the farm for lunch today. Also, Ive eaten it with sautéed chard and I think that zucchini would work well, too.
Debbie
I love when CSA members get involved in the recipe share. Here are some recipes and tips that use lots of CSA crops, from a great cook, Susanna:
A great recipe for Zucchini:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/zucchini-ribbon-salad-recipe/index.html
I am not using any Frisee or Radishes in it though. It’s very good. The manchengo and almonds are really good with the zucchini
This is the Borscht recipe I always use as a starting point :
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/beef-borscht-recipe/index.html
Roasting the beets makes them taste really nice.
And, beef and bacon in a borscht is pretty amazing.
Another beet recipe I used today:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/kathleen-daelemans/apple-and-raw-beet-slaw-recipe2/index.html
apple and beet salad- I think it would be good w/ bbq, sort of like a coleslaw
I made coleslaw today too
shred 1 whole head of cabbage, shred 1 carrot, shred 1 red onion, mayo or miracle whip or a combination of the two- start with 1 cup and go up as desired, 1 tsp. dill, 1/2 tsp caraway seed, 1/2 tsp celery seed, 1/4 tsp fresh pepper, 1/2 tsp sea salt(seasoning amounts are approximate because i don’t actually measure, just close your eyes and think of all the people you love, season with love and it’ll be awesome)
Roasted garlic dip
3 15 oz. cans chickpeas
1 + cup heads of roasted garlic
3 lemons juiced
2 sprigs oregano
sea salt
olive oil
In food processor, puree chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice and oregano leaves. Pour olive oil in while it’s pureeing until it is the consistency you want- probably 1/4 cup or more. Sprinkle with sea sale as it purees. Taste to adjust.
I roasted garlic using whole heads the other week, not the cloves I got from you. I cut off the tops, pour a little olive oil on top, wrap the heads in foil and put them in the oven at 350 for an hour. Squeezed the cloves out and put in a container in the fridge to use as needed. i think if you toss the individual heads with oil and wrap a bunch with foil, you will get similar results, but I haven’t actually done that.
Swiss Chard and Garlic:
Cut swiss chard into pieces about 3 inches wide. Toss with olive oil and chopped garlic. Put in shallow dish, sprinkle with sea salt and fresh pepper. Bake at 350 until wilted. Stir a few times while baking.
Make this with any green that doesn’t require boiling- I’ve made it with spinach and escarole as well. Eat this when you feel a cold coming on and you will get better quickly.
TWO PESTO RECIPES!
Pesto
1/3 cup walnuts [walnuts are the pine-nut-on-a-budget]
3 garlic cloves, peeled
3 cups basil leaves (try thai basil for a lovely rich fragrance)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (drizzle in as the other ingreds blend in)
up to 1/2 tsp salt, to taste
1/3 cup shredded romano cheese (romano is the parmesan-on-a-budget)
Process ingredients in a food processor or blend in a blender until finely minced. Feel free to make this traditional pesto in large batches, because it freezes well for up to 3 months or refrigerate for up to 5 days! I freeze mine in ice cube trays, then pop the cubes into ziploc bags.
ERIC’S VEGAN PESTO SAUCE
This feeds six to eight hearty individuals, half recipe for smaller families.
2 pounds pasta noodles of your choice. I suggest a spiral type like fusilli ,torchietti, maybe even radiatore. These will store the flavor in the folds of the noodle. If someone is a mostly raw eater spiralized cucumber would work fine as noodles also.
For pesto sauce:
Put following in food processor.
(1) gallon bag loosely stuffed with basil leaves.
1/2 pound of walnuts
(1) package (varies 12-14oz.) of firm silken lite tofu
(1) juice of one lemon
(4) Tbsp. Nutritional Yeast
1/4 cup water (add water last if the pesto is very thick, in my case water was necessary)
Cracked pepper to taste
Salt (or salt sub) to taste.
*Pulse Food processor until desired consistency is reached, you may need to use a rubber spatula to get some stubborn bits off the side into the fray of the spinning blades. The consistency I look for is creamy and thick yet not form-able.
We took this immediately from the food processor and mixed with the hot noodles, we used the fusilli (spiral) type because I was sure they fill up with tiny bits and pieces of creamy walnut and basil, this worked very well. Everyone ate until they were full and beyond.
Happy Harvest ~~~ July 6, 2012
Its hot hot and the summer crops are ripening early. You get to enjoy the firsts of a few summer crops this week. There are many choices for this week, we’ll just lay em out for you and you decide. Consider buying extra items if you can’t decide on just 8, we offer the extra items at a great value for organic local produce. We harvested all the garlic this past weekend. No electricity in the house didn’t stop the farmwork.
CSA members select 8 items from the following offerings:
loose garlic–this is the fresh stuff, its not cured, so plan to use it relatively soon (and never irradiated, dipped in solution, sprayed and all the other things they do to grocery store garlic. this is the real stuff! its also a hard-neck variety, which is more fragrant than soft-neck.)
beets–shave em raw over a salad. boil or roast em with zukes and onions in the oven til they are soft, then the skins slip off. great plain or with balsalmic and honey, chilled.
scallions
green peppers
bok choi
cucumbers
zucchini–limited amount and then we rest from zukes until the next plants start producing. in a few weeks. last chance to sautee your zukes or make zucchini bread with the big ones.
cabbage–make cole slaw, kimchi, stuffed cabbage, cabbage and eggs.
kale–for your greens fix. the flavor is getting stronger due to the summer heat. get it while it lasts.
chard
basil
fennel
turnips–not quite as delicate as in the spring, this is best for cooking into fritters or mashed turnips. or try roasting.
heirloom tomatoes–if there are enough ripe ones this early! it may be a little sampling for this first week. Its just the first week of July and there’s tomatoes! Dance in the fields!
japanese eggplant–very limited supply, more coming soon.
jalapenos–limited supply
U-PICK OFFERS– beans, zinnia flower bouquet, sungold cherry tomatoes.
U-pick crops are complementary to CSA members, we encourage you to get into the fields and enjoy the bounty! We know its hot, we harvest for over 4 hours on Fridays to lay out the harvest, so we know its hot. Drink water. Pick some beans.
RECIPE: Roasted veggies, use lots of share items–you could use beets (you can peel em afterward if you want, the skins slip off then), zucchini, turnips, japanese eggplant, green peppers, not the heirloom tomato you need to eat that raw its your first heirloom tomato of the season!, green beans, garlic, the white part of the scallions with a few inches of the green– toss with olive oil and spices, a little salt. include plenty of garlic and some fresh basil. Roast in a casserole dish at 350 degrees until veggies are soft and wrinkly, maybe 40 minutes.
Farm Fan Mail ~~~
We have been loving our items. I have made so many things I never would have made before, and Im making dinner way more than I used to (instead of ordering out). Thanks so much for bringing so much fun to our summer!–Molly, CSA member
Harvest #7 June 29, 2012
SELECT 8 items from the following anticipated harvest items this week. Plus u-pick crops!
Beets
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Cabbage
Fresh garlic! Just picked, loose cloves.
Kale
Chard
Bokchoi
Basil
Scallions
Jalapenos, just a few, not available all day yet
Bell peppers
Kohlrabi–last bin
Turnips–for the turnip lovers, these late season turnips are best cooked
UPICK:
Beans, provider variety
Snap peas, while they last
Flowers, pick a small bouquet of zinnias
We are hanging on to some of the spring crops, while we welcome in some of the summer crops–basil, peppers, garlic. Beets, how I love fresh beets. I boil them til just soft, rinse to cool and slip off their skins. Coarsely chop, splash with balsalmic vinegar and honey, chill. Cucumber and zucchini plants have short lifespans, but we grow several sets of plants. The next set is already planted. Enjoy these crops now, there will be a break before we have a go of them again. Zucchini plants have already slowed down, cucumbers may have another week or so. Are you enjoying these cucumbers?? They have such a sweet crisp flavor. So many people tell me they didn’t know a cucumber could taste like this. I wish I could capture that flavor in words, it is simply the taste of summer.
I think I figured it out. Why people aren’t eating enough veggies anymore. How uninspiring asparagus is unless its picked fresh and eaten same day. How unappealing spinach can be so very overcooked and tired, from frozen or weeks old and well-traveled. How tasteless a tomato in January can be, gassed to ripeness in its travel box. How a cucumber can taste like water, flavorless and hollow. Then switch the scene: picking snap peas off the vine, plump with moisture. Beans that snap. Heirloom tomatoes harvested ripe and distributed to eaters same day and local. Greens that make your mouth water. Romaine lettuce that makes me dream of romano cheese. Red lettuce, succulent and wavy. Beets, bright and fresh and vibrant. Boil til soft, peel, toss them with balsalmic vinegar and honey. Chill. Cucumbers that are naturally sweet and full of flavor. And on and on, veggies that inspire you with wonder and awe as you witness their grow, the field’s bounty, tend the rows, harvest the fruit; veggies that inspire you with craving and motivation to eat. Inspiring. It really is a revelation. –Ilene
We are learning to grab veggies
tear them in half
Enjoy them in their fresh virgin state
This is a revelation
--Michelle Guillette
We are learning to grab veggies
tear them in half
Enjoy them in their fresh virgin state
This is a revelation
by Michelle Guillette, new CSA member