Category Archives: Our Farm

greenhouse plastic change

2016 CSA Summer September 17

2016 CSA Summer September 17

  • Bell Peppers
  • Eggplant
  • Okra (thickener for stew)
  • Baby Kale 10×10
  • Yukon Gold Potatoes
  • Fresh dug Baby Ginger
  • Tomatoes (pick from set)
  • Gourmet Cucumber
  • Patty Pan
  • Baby Arugula 8×8

For those who have not seen it, to the right is a top view inside the greens and herb growing house. You can see within the sections as Michael balances on top. Most of the herbs as well as your baby greens, such as the micro lettuce mix and baby arugula, are grown in this house. They are protected and produce very tender and tasty greens. The greenhouses are going all year long while we rotate with the seasons what is in the field. This week with the addition of the arugula, i wanted to include the suggestion of a quiche. The arugula in this form, put into a pie crust with cheese, makes a great dish. You can add other fillings such as onion, bacon/ham, etc. Personally i am always cooking on the fly, maybe there are broken eggs to deal with or the sort, so i don’t have a hard recipe. Reading up on other posted recipes, it seems i use too many eggs and not enough milk, whereas most recipes call for 3 eggs to 1 ½ cups of milk as the base mix for a 9 inch crust, giving a custard like finish upon baking. As you can see below, the egg and arugula bake was done without a pie crust and cooked in a square dish. Cooking for me is improvisation and in this case, became a casserole.            Don’t forget that this is the second to last week of this season’s CSA program and now is the time to sign up for next season’s bounty. Fill out the back and return to us or go online to sign up today. PS: Pumpkins soon!

To your health & pleasure, always, love, leslie.

 

Fresh Baby Ginger

2016 CSA Summer September 10 Ginger

2016 CSA    Summer  September 10th Ginger

  • First Harvest Baby Ginger
  • Bell Peppers
  • Eggplant
  • Okra
  • Yellow Squash
  • Gold Bar Zucchini
  • Tomatoes
  • Gourmet Cucumber
  • Patty Pan Squash
  • Sorrel bunch
  • Beet tops bunch
  • Dill
  • Baby Salad Mix

Woot! It’s the first harvest of the season for our baby ginger! You will find that this ginger is unlike any kind you have bought at a store. It is very aromatic, tender, almost buttery, without the stringyness or toughness that is found in commercial ginger. Keep your ginger wrapped in the refrigerator until ready to use. Yes, we leave the stalks and the leaves on because the whole plant can be utilized in the kitchen. One chef that uses it skewers it into his roast so that as it is cut, little round medalions are embedded throughout. The leaves can be laid out in aluminum foil, glass baking dish or the like and used as a wrap to infuse your meat or veggies. Ginger is a phenomenal digestive aid, anti-microbial, and great tonic for the body. Try cutting some, including rounds of the inner stalk, into stir-fry for a punch of flavor and to enhance wellbeing. We like to brew it into tea and we also grind it with honey, making it easy to add a dollop to hot water for that cup. To your health and your pleasure!

2016csa_summer_sept_10-red-sorrel

2016csa_summer_sept_10-baby-salad-mix clusters

Ginger Harvest

2016 Ginger Harvest

2016 Ginger Harvest

2016 CSA Summer August 20th okra beans

2016 CSA Summer  August 20th okra beans

• Green Beans
• Okra
• Chard
• Lacinato Kale
• Bell Peppers
• Specialty Peppers
• Eggplant
• Dill
• Thai Basil
• Yellow Squash
• Gold Bar Zucchini
• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers

Now into green bean land! There are so many ways to enjoy green beans from tempura (photo from recipegreat.com), casserole (photo preventcancer.aicr.org) to salad (photo delectablyfree.com), but i did not find any recipes using raw green beans, and we do enjoy them raw ourselves. All of the salad recipes called for the beans to be blanched, cooked to the tenderness of your liking.

2016CSA_Summer_Aug 20 green beans tempura

2016CSA_Summer_Aug 20 green beans tempura

But the recipe that really caught my eye was a homemade version of green bean casserole from scratch, from the previously mentioned preventcancer.aicr site, photo above left.  Ingredients: 1 lb of green beans, oil, ½ cup chopped onion, ½ cup panko breadcrumbs, 8 oz chopped mushrooms, 1 clove of chopped garlic, 2tbs of flour, 1 ½ cup milk, salt, pepper and pinch of cayenne. The recipe says to cook the green beans, 5 min, set in oiled baking dish; sauté the onion and mix with the breadcrumbs for topping; then cook the mushrooms 2-3 minutes before finishing with the garlic, add to the green beans in the baking dish; then add a bit of oil and the flour, scraping bits together from the pan and add the milk, stirring vigorously; simmer until thick enough to coat spoon, or until stirring with the spoon creates a wide swath, from 5-7 minutes, and add the seasonings. Mix this with green beans and mushrooms, spreading into an even layer.  Sprinkle with the topping and bake for about 10 minutes or until top is crunchy….Doesn’t that sound good! Much better than casserole from a can J.

 

2016CSA_Summer_Aug 20 green beans growing

2016CSA_Summer_Aug 20 green beans growing