Category Archives: winter greens

2017 CSA Fall November 25th Butternut

2017 CSA Fall November 25th Butternut

  • Watercress 8×8
  • Red Sorrel 8×8
  • Green Sorrel 8×8
  • Chervil bag
  • Mint bag
  • Beet Top bunch
  • Anaheim/Hatch peppers
  • 2 Butternut Squash
  • Acorn Squash
  • Lemon Verbena bag
  • Rose Geranium bag
  • Tatsoi 8×8
  • Ginger*

For all you Red Sorrel fans, a great addition to a cleansing part of diet: and a chance to have an almost Dr. Seuss colored meal: chop sorrel in Cuisinart and combine either savory or sweet to obtain juice or soup or just a nice dye for a meal, makes a great addition to an apple salad with walnut and raisins …to go with a purple sweet potato pie! Winter Squash- Butternut squash this week! In the same family as pumpkin, is often 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, 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, turmeric (insert some fresh grated baby ginger and turmeric, about an inch square), salt, 2 tbsp. flour, 1 tbsp. 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! To your health and pleasure, always, love Leslie.

 

CSA_10_21_17

2017 CSA Fall October 21, 2017 Sorrel Winter Squash Peppers

Sorrel Winter Squash Peppers

Sorrel is a leaf vegetable that is tart and tangy. This green can be eaten raw or cooked. Worldwide it can be found as the main ingredient in sorrel soups, served warm or chilled. There are curry recipes that include sorrel. It is very popular to combine with cream as a sauce. A simple sauce can be made to top off fish, chicken, potatoes, and other veggies. Here is a simple recipe to make use of all of your sorrel and ½ a cup of cream. Heat a skillet and melt butter. Chop your sorrel as large or as fine as you like and add to heat, just wilting the leaves. Pour in your cream and when it approaches a boil, reduce until the cream sauce coats the back of a spoon. Slather this on your cooked meat or veggies. Sorrel makes a yummy pesto which is also great for fish and potatoes. The onions included in your share this week go well as a pan roasted start for soup and you can utilize your garlic by making pesto. Try combining sorrel sauce with a garnish of sliced tomatoes for a nice twist. More rare are recipes combining fruits such as strawberries or peaches with sorrel. It adds a punch to smoothies and is a welcome addition to salads. I like to cut it into a salad of apples with nuts. When the peaches come, I want to try a recipe suggestion from whiteonricecouple.com: peach and sorrel salad, which is torn sorrel leaves topped with peaches and dressed with a vinaigrette salad dressing of honey, grapeseed oil, balsamic vinegar and vanilla. Yum!
Our sorrel won in an international cooking competition when the Inn at Little Washington took it to France with them. We hope you will enjoy a little extra zing this week in your meal preparations! Bon appétit!


 

Rose Scented Geranium

2017 CSA Winter February 11th

2017 CSA Winter February 11th

  • Bag of Arugula
  • Bag of Field Mix
  • Papaya
  • Tomatoes
  • Second Tomatoes
  • Chervil
  • Rose Geranium
  • Potatoes
  • Red Rib Sorrel
  • Green Sorrel

For a special treat, use your rose geranium to infuse tea, syrup, creamy goodies or dressings..or try Rosy Outlook Cake: Preheat oven to 350 F  degrees.Grease a glass 9″x9″ baking pan and press a sprinkle of chopped geranium, and a few decorative leaves onto the bottom of the greased pan. In medium bowl, mix 1 1/3 cups flour, 2/3 cup sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. In another bowl, combine 2/3 cup milk, 1/3 cup softened butter, two room temperature eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, and the rest of the shredded rose geranium leaves. Beat with a hand mixer on medium until well blended. Add the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend on medium for about one minute. Pour mixed batter gently into greased pan, on top of leaves and bits. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool 10-15 minutes and then invert cake onto a plate. Cool completely before cutting. A doily, leaf or wide loop lace can be used as a stencil for decorating with powdered sugar, see photo at above right, as offered to my guests at the 1804 Inn at Barboursville back in the day. Hope you are inspired! Have a lovely week.