Category Archives: Cucumbers

Watercress

2016 CSA Fall November 5 Watercress

2016 CSA Fall November 5 Watercress

  • Hatch type peppers
  • Bell peppers
  • Eggplant
  • Sweet Potato
  • Fresh Ginger
  • Butternut Squash
  • Cucumber
  • Patty Pan Squash
  • Watercress
  • Baby Salad Mix
  • Chervil

Well, it looks like we might have the killing frost tonight (Friday night) so do consider storing your eggplant as a dried pasta replacement or maybe baba ganoush frozen for a later date.

A different herb for you to try this week: Chervil. “Chervil is used, particularly in France, to season poultry, seafood, vegetables soups, and sauces. More delicate than parsley, it has a faint taste of licorice or aniseed. Chervil is one of the four traditional French fines herbes, along with tarragon, chives, and parsley, which are essential to French cooking. Unlike the more pungent, robust herbs, thyme, rosemary, etc., which can take prolonged cooking, the fines herbes are added at the last minute, to salads, omelettes, and soups.” (partial quote from Wikipedia page)

Watercress is one of the world’s healthiest foods…from the way we grow the watercress to the way we cut and chill it, great care is given to create the most potentiality for taste and nutrition. Known for being a peppery, dark, leafy green that grows with a wet foot along creeks and ditches, we bring it up off the ground and grow it on benches…it cascades over the sides, looking for more footing.  This herb brought a happy smile to my face whilst i was hiking high in Western New Mexico…the excruciating altitude change had brought on a massive headache and i sought comfort in shaded wet rocks along a creek run. There, nestled calmly and absolutely was the watercress. What a relief to see such a welcome plant from home! I checked up stream and around about, found the land to be in use for cattle, probably a land management deal, and set about getting a clean cut. That cut was just magnificent. With time, water, watercress and rest, i was able to move onward. To your health and pleasure, always, love, leslie.  

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!

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.