Farm Share Info for August 12

Pray for sun. Please. The crops around the farm continue to look healthy, but this recent stretch of cool, cloudy, rainy weather hasn't been encouraging anything to grow. What we really need now is a good stretch of hot, sunny weather to really push everything along. Here's a great example: last week we picked over 50 pounds of zucchini and summer squash from one 50 foot row. This week we only got 18 pounds, or 1/3 as much.

That said, a number of things are cruising along ... if only on momentum: more and more heirloom tomatoes are ripening, our corn is ripening enough that the raccoons have begun to notice, and it looks like we may just have the best winter squash crop we've ever had.

I've done some informal polling of shareholders that I see and have come up with a few general comments which seem to sum up your experience with our CSA so far:

1. You're all very happy with the quality and freshness of the produce.
2. You would like some more greens to eat as salads.
3. Some of you would prefer to receive larger quantities of perhaps fewer kinds of things.
4. At least one of you hates cilantro.

If your feelings aren't expressed above, please let us know!


All shares contain:

• Zucchini, Summer Squash and/or Patti-pan Squash
• Cucumbers
  
• Green Onions
• Garlic
• "Braising Mix" (aka "stir fry" or mustard greens)
• Celery
• Chives
  

"Full" shares also contain:

• more onions, zucchinis, cucumbers and garlic
  
• Thyme
• BASIL!

Veggie Notes

Nothing really new this week.

Recipe Ideas

Technique: Stir Frying
Stir frying is a very simple technique that can turn very simple ingredients into a wonderful meal very quickly. For years, we tried to make stir frys that weren't runny, bland disappointments. Finally, we made a couple of simple adjustments to our technique which results is pretty darn good stir frys every time:

1. Dry the ingredients as much as possible before cooking.
2. Cook ingredients separately and in small batches (a roomy single layer in the pan)
3. Cook over as high a heat as possible. (Remember to be careful when using nonstick pans over high heat; before we got a wok, we only used cast iron.)
4. When all ingredients are cooked and set aside, heat up your stir fry sauce in the pan before adding the ingredients back to the pan. The sauce can be as simple a soy sauce and maple syrup, or -- like the one listed below -- something a bit fancier.
   

Stir Fry Sauce
This recipe is adapted from one in a Betty Crocker cookbook. We tweaked it to make it a little more seasonal and local-friendly, but we also toned the sweetness quite a bit. (As in we reduced the total sweetener to under 25% what the original recipe called for and we still think this is kind of sweet!)

This makes a lot of sauce, something like 2 cups. We often save half of the sauce in the fridge for another night, or for dipping eggrolls or stuffed cabbage leaves. This can also be prepared ahead of time and mixed right into other already cooked ingredients.

2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp Maine maple syrup
2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
1 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup veggie or chicken stock, or just water
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tsp corn starch
hot pepper to taste
1 tbsp Hoisin Sauce or Black Bean Paste (optional)

Combine 1 tbsp of broth/water with corn starch, stir to eliminate clumps and set aside. Combine all other ingredients, bring to a boil and continue to boil until reduced by 1/3 to 1/2. Stir up the corn starch mixture and stir into the sauce. Boil/simmer until the sauce thickens, 1-2 minutes.


As always, we welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or problems.

We hope you enjoy the share!

Farm Share Info for August 5

All shares contain:

• Zucchini, Summer Squash and Patti-pan Squash
• Cucumbers
  
• Cilantro
• Green Onions
• Garlic
• Loose leaf Lettuce (for salad)
• "Braising Mix" (aka "stir fry" or mustard greens)
  

"Full" shares also contain:

• more onions, zucchinis, cucumbers, garlic, lettuce and braising mix
  
• Sage
• Marjoram
• "Italian sprouting" broccoli
  

Veggie Notes

zucchini - We try not to give out really big zukes, with the exception of the light and dark green striped and ribbed ones. These are a variety called "Costata Romanesca" and are widely regarded to actually improve in quality as they get larger. Of course, they can quickly reach sizes over 10 pounds, and all of the squashes we put into the shares this week were positively tiny compared to that.

cucumbers - The whitish/yellowish cucumbers are an heirloom variety that originated not far from here in Livermore Falls, Maine. It's called "Boothby's Blond". The spineless cucumbers are a variety called "Diva" which was developed in Albion, Maine.

cilantro - Some of you will have received a funny looking kind of cilantro with frilly, feathery leaves. It's called "Delfino" and recently won a national award for it's uniqueness and high quality. Aside from the leaves, it's just the same as regular cilantro and can be used just the same.

Italian sprouting broccoli - These little tiny broccolis are delicious and very sweet when raw, especially when chilled. It grows differently than regular broccoli and has taken a little while for us to get used to, but we think we're getting a handle on it now. Please, let us know what you think of it.



As always, we welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or problems.

We hope you enjoy the share!

Farm Share Info for July 29

It's a funny time here on the farm. Busy, as always, but a little lean, too. Our first big flush of spring produce is done (no more napa cabbages, peas, chicories, beets) and we get to catch our breath for a little while before the big summer crops come on. Well, we won't be catching our breath so much as we'll be busy weeding and weeding and planting and weeding and building and mowing and weeding some more.

It may not seem like it to you, but it's been a little bit of a challenge for us to put together the past couple of shares -- mostly due to drought, insufficient fertility and just a little bit of inadequate planning. The drought and fertility I can't really do a whole lot about except know that we can irrigate in the future (with our new irrigation setup) and that the soil tilth and fertility will continue to improve as we continue to work the soil and to cover crop it and add minerals and nutrients. As for the planning, I just underestimated how much of each crop we would need. It's exciting to walk through the market gardens and see all of the different crops, but it's frustrating come harvest day when you pick every last fava bean and still don't have enough to give out. Hypothetically speaking, of course. But of course, this is where we can see the power of crop diversification: with so many different crops planted, there's always something ready to fill in for something that didn't do well. Crop diversification is way better than crop insurance. What can I do about this? What any good farmer would do: learn from it and plant more.

But don't worry! This little shortage only affects our successtional plantings and -- being successtional -- we get a chance to plant more. Better yet, all of the crops that only get planted once (onions, leeks, winter squash, tomatoes, potatoes and such) are about to starting coming in by the bushel. We've been eating the first few cherry tomatoes of the season, some of the big slicing tomatoes are done sizing up and are just waiting to ripen, eggplants are setting fruit, winter squashes are -- as usual -- out of control, corn is tasseling, potatoes are about golf ball size, and you're all getting some early hot peppers this week. All that good stuff yet to come and, since we're just now only 1/4 way through the CSA season, we'll have plenty of time to enjoy it all.

All shares contain:

• "Rainbow" Beets
• Swiss Chard
  
• Zucchini and/or Summer Squash
• Cilantro
• Green Onions
• Hot Peppers
  

"Full" shares also contain:

• more onions, zucchinis and peppers
  
• Fennel
• Thyme
  

Veggie Notes

beets - I can't believe I've forgotten to mention this for two weeks -- in fact, I can't believe that I'd forgotten it at all: beets are really really good when eaten with a little goat cheese. It's by far our favorite way of eating beets. Just roast the beets and then serve them with some chevre -- such as the great stuff available from Kennebec Cheesery at the Thursday farmers market. The sweet, earthiness of the beets is set off nicely by the creamy, tangy, earthiness of the cheese. Try it!

green onions - These are just "premature" onions and can be used like onions or scallions. The green tops can be used too. Kendra's family likes to pack the green tops in a bin of salt, which preserves them. Then they use them to flavor soups and stews over the winter.

fennel - The first time we grew fennel, we were hooked. What a unique, versatile, little veggie! If the licorice flavor is a bit much for you, cooking can help to tame that a bit. Raw, it's crunchy texure is great in anything that calls for celery and it's sweetness and flavor really pair well with fruits: with raisins, say, when grated into some sort of new-age cole slaw or with grapes in one of those chicken salads that have grapes in them or just chop it up and toss it in with some fruit salad. In Italy, apparently, it's sometimes eaten for dessert with orange-flavored goat cheese. When cooked, it again can be used anywhere that celery would be used and that would benefit from a little sweetness. We really like to carmalize it like you would onions: slice it thin and cook it in olive oil over a low flame for 30-40 minutes.

Recipe Ideas

Corn Salsa
Sweet corn is starting to show up at roadside stands in the area and this is a great way to use any ears that you might have leftover. It's also a great way to tide you over until fresh tomato salsa season. To cut the corn off the cob, just stand the [already cooked] ear on end on a cutting board and cut downward to slice off the kernels.

2 cups sweet corn, cooked
1/4 cup red onion, minced
1/4 cup cilantro, minced
minced fresh hot pepper, to taste
salt

Combine corn, onion, cilantro and hot pepper. Season to taste with salt and serve.


As always, we welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or problems.

We hope you enjoy the share!

Chicory, Endive, Escarole and Radicchio

[This is a re-print of a flier we worked up for distribution at farmer's market.]

These bitter, lettuce-like vegetables are delicacies to Europeans but an acquired taste to most Americans, us included. As we went about acquiring that taste, we found the following recipes very helpful.


Chicory with Bacon and Maple Balasamic Dressing
This is an excellent, quick, simple, savory, sweet, tangy, bitter, warm salad. The bacon fat drizzle serves to wilt the chicory slightly, bringing out some of it's latent sweetness. It would also be great with a tangy cheese such as chevre or a good blue.

1 head chicory
4 slices, nitrare-free bacon
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 t Maine maple syrup
3-4 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T minced fresh herbs, such as Basil (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Cut the bacon into 1/2" pieces and cook over low heat until the fat has released and the pieces are just becoming crisp. Meanwhile, rinse and dry the chicory thoroughly, then chop it into 1/2" by 2" strips. Whisk together (or combine in a jar and shake violently) the remaining ingredients to prepare the dressing. When the bacon is ready, place the chicory into a roomy bowl, sprinkle with the bacon bits, then drizzle a generous amount of still very hot bacon fat over the greens. Finally, pour the dressing over everything and serve.


Roasted Radicchio with Gorgonzola and Balsamic Vinegar

1 head radicchio
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar
4-6 oz Gorgonzola, sliced or chunked

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the radicchio into large wedges, about 2" wide. Brush generously with olive oil and place in a baking dish in single layer. Place dish in oven and bake for 20 minutes, turning wedges over midway through. Remove from oven, drizzle with vinegar, top with cheese and return it to the oven until the cheese melts, about 5 mintues.


Steamed Chicories with Pine Nuts and Raisins
This also works very well with other dried fruit & nut combinations: cranberries and almonds or apricots and pecans.

3 T raisins
1 lb chicories
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic
3 T pine nuts
salt and pepper

Soak raisins in boiling water; drain when plump. With a steamer basket, steam chicory just until wilted (2-4 minutes). Heat the oil in a large pan and saute garlic and pine nuts until pine nuts begin to brown (3 minutes). Coarsely chop the wilted greens and add to the pan, stirring to coat with oil. Remove from heat, stir in raisins and season with salt and pepper.

Farm Share Info for July 22

Sorry this is coming in so late -- we topped off another long farm day by cutting some wood to build a shed for Kendra's new wood fired oven and after that we made our first pickles of the season (using the last of the year's garlic scapes and snap peas).

All shares contain:

• "Rainbow" beets
• Endive
• Zucchini and/or Summer Squash
• Celery (a small bunch)
  

"Full" shares also contain:

• more "Rainbow" beets
• a bunch of marjoram and parsley
• Chicory
• shell peas
  

Veggie Notes

beets - As I mentioned last week, remember that the leaves of beets (aka `beet greens') can be eaten like Swiss chard and that the color of the red beets will tend to bleed into the rest of the beets of they're cooked together. If the beets taste bitter, peeling off the skins can rid them of the bitterness.

endive and chicory - Endive has the finely toothed, feathery leaves while the chicory will look more like a head of romaine lettuce. There are many, many kinds of "chicory", but the one you're getting this week is called "Pan de Zucchero", or "Sugar Loaf". Less bitter than most chicories, it's natural sweetness really comes out when it's roasted. See the next post for some more recipes involving chicory.

celery - Baby celery, though not really that useful for the peanut butter and raisin treatment, is still a great seasoning. Just chop it up (leaves and all) an add to any recipe that calls for celery.

Recipe Ideas

Simple Squash Saute
For a long time, we tried to figure out what to do with all of the squash that piled up during the summer. Then we found this recipe and now we have a hard time keeping enough squash around! It's very flexible: use more or less squash, omit the herbs and/or garlic, etc.

2 6” squashes
1 medium onion
½ bunch fresh thyme, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
3-4 tablespoons olive oil or butter
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or more to taste
salt and pepper

Remove stems from squashes and chop into ¼” thick, round slices. Chop the onion (including the top, if it's a fresh onion) into ¼” by 1” pieces. Heat the fat in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the pepper and onion and cook until the onion has softened, about 1-2 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, 30-60 seconds. Add the squash and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper.

Also, be sure to check out the next post for some recipes for chicory and endive. (The roasted radicchio recipes would also work really well with this week's chicory.)


As always, we welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or problems.

We hope you enjoy the share!

Farm Share Info for July 15 [Updated w/ notes & recipe]

All shares contain:

• fresh garlic
  
• collard greens
  
• scallions
• shell peas -- don't eat the pods, just the peas inside
  
• thyme
  

"Full" shares also contain:

• more garlic and peas
• "rainbow" beets
• baby zucchini

Veggie Notes

fresh garlic - This isn't the young, tender stuff we had earlier. As the garlic plant matures, the stem thickens and hardens while the skin around the bulb starts to become tougher. You can still use the entire bulb (wrapper skins and all), but you'll want to trim off the stem perhaps 1/2" above the bulb.

collard greens - Collard greens can be used just like other cooking greens, but they have a more assertive flavor (like that of kale and other brassicas, such as broccoli and cabbage) a more robust texture. Don't believe the old stories of fat, southern grandmas cooking these things all day with pigs feet; we boil them briefly in 1/2-3/4" of lightly salted water in a wide, shallow pan. You could also steam them. We also make a great tomato-based pasta sauce with collards for which I'm having trouble finding a recipe. I'll let you know when I find it.

shell peas - Unlike in previous weeks, these are shell peas and the pod cannot be eaten. I know, I know: it's a lot of work to shell peas, but -- to my tongue -- the convenience of snap peas still doesn't hold a candle to the great flavor of shell peas. While we cook snap peas in all sorts of dishes (stir fries and pastas, notable), we almost never cook shell peas because we always end up eating them all as we're shelling them.

beets - Remember that the leaves of beets (aka `beet greens') can be eaten like Swiss chard. The tend to be a bit more tart, but they're still pretty good. If you want to preserve the distinct colors of the rainbow beets, you should steam them or roast them. If you boil them, they'll all end up kind of red. See below for roasting instructions ... well, not so much instructions as guidelines.

Recipe Ideas

Finding recipes is perhaps the hardest part of writing these newsletters. We've been cooking with fresh, whole foods for so long that we don't really use recipes anymore, instead relying on "techniques" with generous injections of experience-influenced intuition to guide our hand to great meals. To that end, I'll treat one of our most versatile and trustworthy techniques as recipe.

Roasted Vegetables
Roasting is a wicked simple technique that works well for a lot of different vegetables. (And especially well for root vegetables.) Though we generally roast veggies during winter -- when the heat given off from the oven is a welcome boost to the wood stove -- there are a lot of great foods to roast in the summer too. Summer veggies such as beets, carrots, eggplant, peppers and new potatoes -- just to name a few -- respond well to roasting. So, here are our general guidelines for roasting:

You will need:
a vegetable, or vegetables, to roast
salt and pepper
a fat to roast in - bacon fat is best, olive oil is great, and other vegetable oils will work too
a pan to roast in - large enough to accommodate the veggies in a single layer
optional: seasonings such as herbs and/or chili peppers

1. Turn on oven and preheat to 350 or so.
   
2. Clean, trim and chop the veggies into pieces that are approx. the same same size. The size of gaming dice is a good size -- smaller is too much work and too much larger will take forever to cook.
   
3. Toss the veggies with the oil or fat, a good pinch of salt, several turns of the pepper grinder and -- if using -- the seasonings.
4. Spread the chopped, oiled, seasoned vegetables into the roasting pans and place into the oven.

Roasting times will depend upon the vegetable being roasted as well as the size into which it has been chopped. In general 30-45 minutes is a good amount of time to roast. If the veggies are cut smaller or thin, they will cook more quickly; if they are cut large or are spread in the pan thickly, they will cook more slowly. The test for being "done" is that the veggies will be "fork tender", i.e. that they will yield easily to a fork.

Roasted Beets
Using what we've just said, let's roast today's beets:

1. Clean, trim and chop the beets into 1/2" cubes.
2. Chop up about 1/2 of the bunch of thyme.
3. Drizzle the chopped beets w/ olive oil to coat and toss with the chopped thyme and a good pinch of salt and pepper.
4. Spread the beets into a roasting pan -- we used a 9"x9" pan.
5. Place in oven and roast. As I'm writing, the beets have been in for about 45 minutes and are getting close to done. By 1 hour, they should be perfect!

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or problems.

We hope you enjoy the share!

Farm Share Info for July 8

The farm is really looking great during these long, hot, muggy days. It's hard weather to work in, but it's great growing weather for the crops: our popcorn was more or less "knee high by the Fourth of July", as they say; we'll likely have zucchini and summer squash next week, as well as shell peas (hopefully for all shares); and the tomatoes are ... well, they're coming.

All shares contain:

• garlic scapes
• napa cabbage
• swiss chard
• cilantro
  

"Full" shares also contain:

• head lettuce
• another kohlrabi
  
• Italian broccoli
  
• snap peas - the pods are edible w/ the peas
• one share also got a small cauliflower to make up for a rather puny kohlrabi

Veggie Notes

garlic scapes - These are the succulent flower stalks of garlic plants. They can be used just like regular garlic (just chop 'em up) but they really shine on their own when pickled (we chop them into 1" pieces and follow a dilly bean recipe, omitting the requisite garlic and substituting the scapes for the beans) or brushed with olive oil and grilled.

napa cabbage - The napas in this weeks share might seem a little bit daunting, large as they are. When I think of napa cabbage, I tend to think of only one thing: kimchi. Essentially Korean sourkraut, kimchi is a delicious, spicy mix of naturally fermented napa, radish, onion, ginger and -- especially -- chilis. Using the book Wild Fermentation, we made some last week and are eagerly awaiting the results (it takes a week to ferment). If the process of making kimchi is a little too much right now, napas are excellent grated into cole slaw (see recipe below), chopped and stir fried, or used as wrappers for asian inspired stuffed cabbage. Based on the size of this weeks cabbage, you should be able to try a few different things. We probably won't see napas again until the fall.

swiss chard - These leafy greens with rainbow colored stems (actually, they're petioles) are an excellent green for summer, when kale and spinach just ain't good eatin'. The leaves are tender and can be used just like spinach. The petioles can be chopped up and sauted with the leaves, or can be tossed into tuna or chicken salad for a colorful crunch. Chard from the supermarket tends to have a very tart flavor and leave a somewhat gritty feeling in the mouth, but I haven't tasted anything like that in the chard we've eaten this year.

Italian broccoli - Italian, calabrese or "sprouting" broccoli tends to produce many small heads, which have looser "beads" (actually, flower buds) than regular broccoli. The loose, "buddy-ness" of this week's broccoli is somewhat accentuated by the drought we had in May, but it's still pretty darn tasty. We sauted some for tacos last week with garlic, cumin and chili peppers.


Recipe Ideas

"Asian" Cole Slaw
This is based on a fairly common recipe which we got from Clayton's mom and the original can be found on RecipeSource here: http://www.recipesource.com/fgv/salads/18/rec1889.html We liked the idea, so we sort of combined it with another recipe by changing a few things and tweaking couple of ingredients to make it seem a little more authentic and whole foody. It's an excellent potluck, party or picnic dish and it also makes a great, healthy snack. Clayton's mom swears, though, that's it's not the same without the crunchiness of the Ramen...

1 lb   napa cabbage, shredded
1/2 C  carrot, shredded
1/4 C  scallion, finely chopped (or shallot)
1/2 C  sliced or slivered almonds
2 T    rice vinegar (cider or wine vinegar will work, too)
4 T    maple syrup (or sugar)
1/2 C  seasame oil (or peanut or olive oil)
2 ts   sesame seeds, toasted
2 ts   soy sauce
      crushed red pepper to taste

Combine vegetables and almonds and set aside.  Combine remaining
ingredients and set aside.  When ready to serve, pour dressing
over slaw and toss to mix.

Sauted Greens
I mentioned last week that it's easy, tasty and versatile to saute greens. Now I'm finally getting around to giving you an honest recipe for them.

1 big bunch of greens (chard, spinach, kale, collard, kohlrabi or brocolli leaves)
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2-3 T olive oil
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or more to taste

Chop the greens into pieces no bigger than the size of your palm. Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and pepper and cook until fragrant, about 30-60 seconds. Add the greens, stirring and turning them frequently and cook until they've wilted. Depending on your taste, this could be anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes. We prefer them still crunchy so we don't cook them for very long. Splash with some vinegar when serving.


As always, we welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or problems.

We hope you enjoy the share!