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Butternut Harvest

2016 CSA Fall October 8

2016 CSA Fall October 8

  • Bell Peppers
  • Eggplant Medley
  • Yukon Gold Potatoes
  • Baby Ginger
  • Butternut Squash
  • Tomatoes (pick from set)
  • Cucumber
  • Patty Pan Squash
  • Baby Arugula 8×8
  • Hatch type green chilies

2016 CSA Fall October 8:

Ginger-  Make a wonderful cold weather tea with baby ginger leaf steeped in almost boiling water sweetened with honey.

Butternut

Butternut

Winter Squash- Butternut squash this week! In the same family as pumpkin, is often times used in recipes in its place. So if you have recipes you like that call for pumpkin, try this as a substitute.  My favorite “pumpkin pie” is made with butternut instead. Butternut squash lends itself delicious for both sweet and savory dishes.  Used as an ingredient in homemade pasta, for stuffing, or cubed to be roasted, in soups, muffins and breads. If a savory soup or roast is on your mind, consider using  Poultry herbs chopped finely in your dish.  It is easy to cut in half, scoop out the seeds and roast in a bit of water for half an hour… then you can flip it over and dress with pumpkin spices, some fresh grated baby ginger, butter and brown sugar for a decadent treat.  Or stuff with savory greens, herbs, cheese or rice blend and bake the halves for about ½ an hour at 400f.  For a delicious pie, use 1 ½ cups of cooked/pureed squash, 1 cup of sugar/light brown sugar, 3 eggs, ¾ cup evaporated milk or half and half, dash each of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger (insert some fresh grated baby ginger), salt, 2 tbs flour, 1 tbs of melted butter, 1 tsp vanilla combined and poured into a 9” pie crust, and if you like, garnish with pecans (i also like to add crushed pecans into the crust). Bake @350 for 45-50 minutes (or until the top of the pie is set) and allow to cool before cutting.  Yum! Just a quick note on the baby ginger, since you are getting some every week: We wanted to suggest that if it is more than you can use fresh, store it in the freezer and just grate it into your teacup or recipe frozen, it will taste just like it is fresh!

Delicata

2016 CSA Fall October 1st

2016 CSA Fall October 1st

  • Bell Peppers
  • Eggplant Medley
  • Yukon Gold Potatoes
  • Baby Ginger
  • Thai Basil with flowers
  • Delicata Squash
  • Tomatoes (pick from set)
  • Cucumber
  • Patty Pan Squash
  • Baby Arugula 8×8
  • Hatch type green chilies

Delicata squash this week! So versatile and the skin is so thin, you can eat that too.  We cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, (roast seeds for a bonus treat) and bake on a pan with about ½ an inch of water for about half an hour @350. They can also be stuffed and baked…we like to use the toasted seeds as a garnish.  Consider using greens, cheese, and herbs for a yummy stuffing combo. For a quick dish, we like to roast the halves and then garnish with pumpkin and Indian spices like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric, and cardamom.  Simply with brown sugar and butter makes for a nice desert with the custard-like consistency when cooked.

This week we have been enjoying eggplant lasagna-style, substituting the pasta sheets with slices of eggplant instead. Did you know that that you can also dry sliced eggplant and store it like pasta?

To the right is a photo of Chef Anderson’s mixed drinks with Thai Basil. Have you ever tried Thai Basil in an iced coffee? Make a simple syrup of sugar and water and steep your leaves as it cools. Use the syrup in your coffee drink. Hope you get inspired this week! Enjoy!

 

Premium Baby Arugula

2016 CSA Summer September 24

2016 CSA Summer September 24

2016 CSA    Summer September 24

  • Bell Peppers
  • Eggplant Mix
  • Okra
  • Tatsoi 10×10
  • Yukon Gold Potatoes
  • Fresh dug Baby Ginger
  • Tomatoes (pick from set)
  • Gourmet Cucumber
  • Farm Fresh Eggs
  • Baby Arugula 8×8
  • “Hatch” peppers

There are several eggplant varieties for you this week to try. Let us know which one you like best because your vote counts! There are many ways to enjoy eggplant and to save some for after frost, consider making baba ghanoush and popping it into the freezer to savor later. Baba ghanoush is easy to make, as it is essentially cooked eggplant pureed into a dip. A basic core recipe for it is 1 eggplant, 1 lemon, garlic, tahini, and salt. There is a nice recipe at http://minimalistbaker.com/simple-baba-ganoush/.

We have a LOT of fresh eggs right now so we included a dozen in your CSA share this week. If you already get eggs as part of your share, your case will include 2 dozen. We also included a couple of Hatch peppers this week for a spike of flavor classic to the southwest. All of our pepper seed comes certified from the Chile Pepper Institute and none of their seeds are genetically modified. Our farm has taken the Safe Seed Pledge so you can rest assured that none of our products contain gmo material. Although no longer certified, we maintain the original organic growing methods that Mike helped to spearhead decades ago. The tomato house was the very first certified organic greenhouse in the state of Virginia.

Don’t forget that this is the last week of this season’s CSA program and now is the time to sign up for next season. Fill out the back and return to us or go online to sign up today. Delicata coming soon!               To your health & pleasure, always, love, leslie.