• Microgreens!
• Chervil
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Sage
• Sorrel Pesto
• Papaya
• Ginger
• Turmeric

Sorrel Pesto for The last fall CSA for 2017 and preparing for the Winter CSA starting next weekend! It is that time of year where the refrigerator is filled with leftovers and there are yet a few more parties to host or attend, so try some of our most nutritious and flavorful microgreens, as they are a super food that saves space and time, besides landing a fabulous presentation. The popular herbs included can make bartending for your friends and family even more fun and delicious. Try mudddling (pressing and crushing to release aroma) an herb like thyme below your ice and top with alcohol or juice.  To your health and your pleasure, always, leslie

• Beet Greens
• Baby Salad Mix
• Field Arugula
• 2 Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Dill
• Thai Basil
• Thyme
• Micro Color Mix
• Collard Greens
• Basil Pesto­­

Basil pesto is a heavy lifter for us.. it lightens and brightens the way. The best anti-depressant in my book, in the form of good food. There are many greens in this week’s offering that are good and nutritious additions to the likes quiche or omlettes, heck! just a quick scramble of eggs with your handful of arugula and you have yourself a delicious hot breakfast… arugula is another heavy lifter: “ARUGULA!” we say sometimes like tugboats in a fog…pushing onward, it knows the way. Flavor, sure it is yummy! But the benefits…it just makes itself so easy to munch on whether in a salad, a steak dinner, a lasagna, or a quick egg dish. Sprinkle fresh leaves on top as a garnish so as to appreciate the velvet of the leaf and fresh flavor. A new take on eating collard greens:  Crazy Cajun wraps…Baba Yaga rolls…whatever you call them, they are an easy and quick way to enjoy your collards this week.  We took grated ginger, ham, onion, sweet peppers & cardamom,  sprinkled this chopped blend with balsamic then wrapped this in a collard leaf and fastend it with a toothpick. Finished by pouring olive oil around and over top a bit…cooked for 15 mins @ 350..then sat for 5 in cooling oven. The collard bunch can be chopped up for a classic southern dish…fry up some onion in butter, add water (and a meat, such as ham or bacon, Virginia style, or you can use leftover bone like we did in Louisiana. Cook in your pot; add seasoning if you like, and put in your chopped collards. Cover and cook until tender. Personally, i do not prefer over-cooking as is custom. The timing is up to you.  Tomato and basil pesto sandwiches, pasta, pizzas. Cucumber cocktails…spring rolls of microgreens. And thyme! a very helpful herb…any leftover can be frozen or dried for later use. To your health and your pleasure! J

• Fresh Dug Ginger
• Delicata Squash
• Field Arugula
• Tatsoi Heads
• Bay Laurel branches
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Pineapple Sage
• Lemon
• Kumquats
• Premium Tomatoes
• Arugula Pesto

2016 CSA Fall December 17th: Citrus! this week in your CSA share… when exploring your lemon, please consider using the peel as a zest touch on dishes and in tea. All of your herbs can be used to add a subtle nuance to your teapot and would combine just fine with the lemon, but i especially recommend it to enhance a tea made with the pineapple sage. The kumquats are traditionally eaten whole, peel included. The bay laurel branches can embellish your décor, be stored fresh in the fridge (covered) for weeks on end, or hung up to dry to keep for the next year. The leaf is used whole in cooking but removed before eating as it is not of a good texture. However, if ground into a fine powder, ingesting it is just fine! Bay Laurel is categorized as an Underutilized Species and is the distinguishing ingredient in Aleppo soap. A compound it contains inhibits human melanoma in vitro. And lastly, pesto! Besides tossing a tablespoon with fresh pasta and tomatoes or smearing it on pizza topped with your arugula greens, it makes a great dip and salad dressing. Try adding a dollop to plain unflavored yogurt for a ranch dressing replacement. Whip into some eggs for a quiche with chopped arugula and topped with thin slices of tomato…there is a Mom whose child likes to eat it straight from the container using tortilla chips!  You can pop your pesto container back into the freezer for super long term storage, just let it sit out for about 20 minutes to defrost a bit(warm water works, too) and scrape around the edge for your dish and return back to the freezer. To your health and your pleasure, always! 

• Mixed Field Greens
• Field Arugula
• Baby Sorrel
• Watercress Box
• Chives
• Rose Geranium
• Mint
• Butternut Squash
• Basil
• Milk Thistle Pesto

Milk Thistle

Milk Thistle Pesto

Milk Thistle

As spring gears up, so do the greens…and the greenhouses, of things we plant and some we wildcraft, such as Milk Thistle, which is included in your CSA share this week in the form of pesto.  This plant has long been known to have healthy properties, containing silymarin, and “has no equivalent in the pharmaceutical drug world”; for over 2,000 years it has been revered as a protector of the liver. “In fact, in cases of poisoning with Amanita mushrooms, which destroy the liver, milk thistle is the only treatment option. It has been so dramatically effective that the treatment has never been disputed, even by the traditional medical community.” See the website http://www.herbwisdom.com/herb-milk-thistle.html for the quoted material and more information.  In the cyclical pattern that we make the pesto of milk thistle, which is generally in spring and in fall, it is savored as a seasonal tonic.  You will find milk thistle in stores as high priced extracts, or supplement pills and tablets, especially of the seed, to economic dried preparation of the plant for tea.  The same healing properties that the seeds are touted so much about are present throughout the entire plant.  Then add the benefit of being able to include it in the diet as a freshly harvested herb by eating the pesto.  If hiking or would like to nibble from environments that you consider clean to harvest from, the leaf can be folded along its spine, aligning up the thorns on the edges of the leaf and trimmed to be eaten; the leaf can be used as a rolled up treat or as a wrap in a meal. As a pesto, it can be incorporated into your diet in classic fashions such as topping pasta or spreading on pizza or tried as a sandwich spread for a new twist.  Hope you all have a blessed week!

• Rainbow Chard
• Baby Salad Mix 8×8
• Baby Arugula 8×8
• Baby Green Sorrel
• Flat Parsley
• Dill
• Cilantro
• Mint
• Poultry Herb Blend
• Butternut Squash
• Chickweed Pesto

Im so grateful that my Dad would take us camping and my Mom would teach us about picking the right kind of berries…this budded a fascination with what was edible out in the “wild”. And the wild was everywhere, even the city. My favorite plant drawing of my Dad’s is of a dandelion, coming up out of New Orleans’ pavement. Noticing the wild in the yard or sitting on electric lines wasn’t too hard in such a lush city as ours, but this backyard connection to the environment stayed with me throughout all my journeys. One plant epitomizes a thread in the tapestry of those experiences: Chickweed. Once i started studying plants with handbooks, Chickweed was a plant that seemed to thrive just about anywhere in my world, and i would find it hiking high in the mountains or strolling along a valley stream. Noticing it is still important to me as i regularly chomp on this stuff while working and use it for skin irritations or injury. Stellaria Media is the scientific name of this useful ally and crisp low-lying green. It has a demure white flower in the shape of a small bursting star. It is rich in vitamins and nutrients and carried some of the surviving Native peoples on the Trail of Tears being that it grows up twice a year, even under the snow! This strong plant is considered a weed by many, but maybe these folks don’t know how useful it is. Stellaria is the plant that healed our Sunny Girl when she was a kitten, having an abscess from a sting or a bite to the neck. This precious herb gives so much; i like to use it from the inside out. So this week, from our garden in the middle of winter, we bring you fresh ground Chickweed Pesto! Try this with a white fish or chicken and your sorrel for a yummy meal. The pesto can be used to turn your butternut squash into a savory treat by cubing the peeled flesh and rolling the squash in dobs of pesto, then roasting it.
The Chard, beautiful colorful and nutritious! Try this as a quick pan fry with walnuts. i like to use my cast iron skillet for just about everything…a little olive oil, adding nuts to roast a bit and then the greens at the end.

 Chickweed

Chickweed

Chickweed

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

• ·        Basil Pesto
• ·        Red Kale
• ·        Field Arugula
• ·        Baby Sorrel
• ·        Poultry Herb Mix
• ·        Cilantro
• ·        Dill
• ·        Bay Laurel
• ·        Flat Parsley
• ·        2 Butternut Squash
• ·        Sweet Potatoes

Remember Dec 19 is the last CSA for the Fall Season and CSA winter 2016 will Begin First Saturday in January

Basil pesto is our classic, long-time favorite…try using it as a spread for grilled cheese with tomato or a dollop on some pasta or pizza. Also great for a quick pan sear of beef strips to prepare for a steak salad,

Basil Pesto

venison crustinis

which is grand over wilted arugula greens or the baby sorrel. The basil pesto is special. The original. The One. Sunny anti-depressant, old world memories, and a paste for everything all rolled into one. Sea salt, virgin olive oil, and the finest walnuts marry in processing, preserved, originally with lemon. Pine nuts are nice, but the walnut is strong. This healing mixture can even be used as a poultice.

The Kale can be chopped up for a classic southern dish…fry up some onion in butter, add water and a meat, such as ham or bacon, Virginia style, or you can use leftover bone like we did in Louisiana. Leftovers recycled are how we live. Cook in your pot; add seasoning if you like, and put in your chopped kale. Cover and cook until tender. Personally, i do not prefer over-cooking as is custom. The timing is up to you.

Parsley made a splash, big time, this week as a helper when i poisoned myself with aloe. Sunny Grrl went to the hospital with suspected kidney failure. In a panic and without doctor’s lab results, i tried to entice thirst by rubbing her sore and infected teeth with the soft center of the aloe leaf. To show her it was ok as she got tired of the teeth-brushing, i ripped the rest of the leaf and bit and sucked it. Oops. Latex. Allergic. Good to find out, hell on your kidneys and the stomach and intestines. Trust me, don’t go there. So both Sunny and i had lots of parsley this week as well as fresh harvested milk thistle leaf. Both of us fully recovered quickly. Turns out her kidneys are fine. Anemia was the lab finding, plus need for elder care. Tonight everybody had liver. And parsley. Great for that medicine cabinet in your kitchen. To your health and your pleasure! J

Chickweed pesto healthy and fresh taste like spring!

What is Chickweed?

Other names: Stellaria media, starweed, mouse ear, satinflower, tongue grass

Chickweed is a plant native to Europe. It grows across North America as a common weed. The parts used medicinally are the leaves, stems and flowers.

Chickweed has been used in folk medicine for skin conditions, indigestion and a variety of other conditions, such as cough, rhematoid arthritis, psoriasis, stomach ulcers and as a blood tonic/cleanser. We have some customers that use it for reducing benign swelling or lumps.

Chickweed should not be used internally by pregnant or nursing women or children without the advice of a physician.

Chickweed, like many fresh succulent winter greens, contains nitrate. Do not consume excessive quantities repeatedly over time. If you are sensitive to nitrate poisoning check with your health care practitioner. Symptoms may include weakness, headache, fainting, bluish fingers and lips and dizziness.

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Seasonal Fresh Milk Thistle Pesto

Milk Thistle Pesto a real fall treat!