|
|
|
|
Tremendous Twenty-One
(Not Quite the Last Week)
Hello Members and welcome to Week 21. We've nearly reached the end of the 2011 growing season - I can hardly believe it. This is the last week of our internship program, also hard to believe! That means Libby and I will put out next week's share with just the two of us - luckily most of the clean-up work is done around here so we can focus all of our energy on the harvest. I'd like to take this moment also to acknowledge the hard work of my crew - especially last Thursday and Friday while I was out of town. I was in Minnesota celebrating a family event and in my absence the crew did two difficult jobs: completing the tear-down of the infrastructure for the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers, and harvesting all 400 row feet of our parsnip crop. This was in addition to several other tasks. They sure do work hard to grow all of this delicious food!!
Not much else to report under the heading of Farm News, we just continue to clean things up around the farm and bring in the crops that are still left in the field. We've got a lot of food to leave you with in these last two weeks! There's a bit of a game to be played in the remaining 4-6 weeks, trying to evenly dole out the storage crops (like onions and squash) and what's left in the field (like greens, root veggies, leeks etc) - I wanted to keep the boxes full but also ensure we'd have plenty for the whole remaining season. Now we're down to the last couple weeks and there appears to be plenty to go around! Which I think is a good problem to have.
Before we get to this week's box, here's my best guess for the contents of the last and final box of the regular 2012 season: onions (red and yellow), butternut squash, carrots, leeks, garlic, shallots, parsnips, potatoes, cabbage, rutabaga, radicchio, arugula and dill.
| |
|
What's In the Box and Where Does It Go?
Crop Fridge? Notes
Butternut Squash No (This should keep for
several months at 55-65 degrees.)
Yellow Onions No onions, garlic, shallots in a bag together
Red Onions No
Garlic No
Shallots No See note
Parsnips (bagged) Yes
Potatoes (bagged) No Yukon Gold
Beets (bagged) No mix of Red/Golden/Chioggia
Celeriac Yes
Carrots Yes
Leeks Yes Tadorna variety
Brussels Sprouts Yes on the stalk!
Fennel Yes
Turnips Yes Golden, not salad. Edible tops!!
Cilantro Yes keeps best in a glass of water with the bag over the top
Salad Mix Yes
So, a few new items this week:
Shallots - For those of you unfamiliar with the shallot, it is related (of course) to the onion, but is a separate species. It is often defined as being more mild in flavor than an onion, and with a hint of garlic flavor. I absolutely love cooking with them, and find that they store better than onions into the winter. You can use them in place of an onion (or alongside it) in any recipe - but my favorite use for them is in a vinaigrette. They are in the same bag as the red/yellow onions and the garlic, but are not as round as the onions. Recipe to follow.
Parsnips - This is a farmer favorite for sure. Cousin to the carrot, though you wouldn't want to snack on it raw. Parsnips are perfect for roasting, in fact I had some for lunch just today. Also they make a delicious puree, are fabulous in soups and wonderful pan fried with butter. Recipe to follow.
Turnips - These Golden Turnips are the regular style turnip that most of us are used to, as opposed to those wacky "fresh eating" turnips I've been pushing all season. These are great for roasting, souping or mashing up with potatoes for a different nutrient profile. Also, regarding the turnip greens they are reportedly one of the world's healthiest veggies. They are high in vitamins E, K, A and C, and are a great source of folate, magnesium, calcium, protein, iron and fiber. Just de-stem and chop them like you would kale or chard and cook like any other green. Yum!
Celeriac (from last week's newsletter) OK, so just for a beginner's reference, it is a close relative of the familiar celery, and a member of the Apiaceae or Umbelliferae family, as are fennel, carrots, dill, cilantro and parsnips. It is also called "celery root", but if you dig up a celery plant you will NOT find a celeriac bulb, just as the top of a celeriac bulb is not made up of celery stalks. (Though it does resemble them somewhat, as you can see from the specimen in your box.) Celeriac is wonderful mashed, pureed, roasted with other veggies, made into "oven fries" like potatoes, raw in a remoulade sauce (some say this is the French answer to coleslaw), or made into a soup.
A note on the beets - Some of you will notice a few friendly nibbles taken out of your beets. We are still working on fencing off all of our tiny parcels that are outside our largest parcel (which is completely fenced in.) This year's fall beets were all grown in an area totally open to the deer, who love beet greens (they have eaten nearly all of the tops) and also the beets themselves. So, we topped them, and tossed out the more "chewed" roots and this was what remained. So apologies for the "already sampled" beets in your bag, but we didn't want to do without them completely!
|
|
Thanksgiving Shares - Don't Miss Your Chance!
We are now selling shares for the Thanksgiving Day box - sort of the
Wellspring version of a Winter Share Delivery. It will include a variety of fall veggies, amounting to many pounds of food, such as winter squash, perhaps a pie pumpkin, beets, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, leeks, shallots, rutabaga, celeriac, parsnips, brussels sprouts, turnips and frost-sweetened kale. There will also be some traditional Thanksgiving additions that we don't grow here on the farm, like Wisconsin cranberries and Riveredge Nature Center (our Woodland Harvest Permaculture Partner) maple syrup. If not used for Thanksgiving, many of the veggies will continue to keep for you in the fridge into December!
| |
|
Wellspring CSA 2012 Shares
|
For the 2012 season Wellspring CSA is offering a 20-week share. Share prices will be as follows:
Full Share - $495 (payable in full (cash, check, credit card or four installments of $123.75 each with final payment received by Jan. 31)
and Half Share - $305 (payable in four installments of $76.25 each with final payment received by Jan. 31).
We anticipate selling out much faster this season than in previous years, and we'd like to make sure our current and treasured shareholders have the first opportunity to sign-up for next season. So we're opening the season sign-ups to you for two weeks (until Nov. 3rd) before we add signups from the general public. Believe it or not, we've already got five new people waiting to sign up! And as usual, we love your feedback so we will soon be sending out another survey soon to get your input on what you loved and what you weren't so crazy about.
If you have friends that want to join our CSA, advise them that they can get on a waiting list now and on Nov. 4 those will be the first names added as space is available after current member sign-up. Have them register on-line and we will hold them in the order that they arrive and add them as space provides. You may register by mail or phone or by visiting our website.
Purchase 2012 CSA here |
|
|
Recipes
First I wanted to be sure to include my favorite squash soup recipe. This one is fairly popular so you might be familiar with it, but if you're not be sure to try it out!! Everyone I've ever served it to has absolutely loved it. There are lots of variations out there, but this is my personal favorite! Here is the link in case you haven't been to the World's Healthiest Food's recipe section yet...
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=recipe&dbid=33
Golden Squash Soup
Directions:
Chop onion and garlic and let sit for 5-10 minutes to enhance their health-promoting benefits.
Peel and cut squash.
Heat 1 TBS broth in medium soup pot. Healthy Sauté onion in broth over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until translucent.
Add garlic and ginger, and continue to sauté for another minute. Add turmeric and curry powder, and mix well. Add squash and broth, and mix. Bring to a boil on high heat. Once it comes to a boil reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered until squash is tender, about 10 minutes.
Place in blender and blend with coconut milk. Make sure you blend in batches filling blender only half full. Start on low speed, so hot soup does not erupt and burn you. Blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Thin with a little broth if needed. Season to taste with salt and white pepper. Reheat, and add cilantro.
Buttered Turnips from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
"Turnips have quite a bit of internal moisture and can be cooked without any water at all. This recipe works well with large or small turnips. Peel the turnips if they need it and cut them into medium pieces. Smaller turnips can be left whole or just cut in half. Put them in a heavy pan with a big pinch of salt and a large pat of butter. Cover and cook the turnips until tender over medium heat, stirring every now and then. If the pan starts to brown, turn down the heat. Serce them as is, or mash them with a touch of fresh butter. Turnips can also be sliced and cooked uncovered over higher heat to brown them on purpose; they are delicious caramelized like this. Keep an eye on them to make sure that they don't brown so much that the flavor becomes bitter."
Best vinaigrette from the Brain of Farmer Alissa:
I use a ratio of 2:1 olive oil to vinegar. Some people, like the famous Alice Waters, recommend a ratio of 4:1 oil to vinegar. This is a decision you as a cook must decide for yourself. Depending on how powerful I want the dressing to be I use either balsamic vinegar (most powerful), apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar. I often use combinations of two.
Start by pouring the vinegar (however many tablespoons you've decided) into a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt and some fresh ground pepper and whisk it all up together until the salt dissolves. Finely chop a small shallot (or half a shallot, again depending on your tastes and vinegar amount) and add to the vinegar. If you have some type of fresh herb on hand - I use anything from parsley to thyme to marjoram to cilantro, depending - finely chop that also and whisk it in. I also highly recommend a bit of quality mustard - fine or course ground - whisked in at this point as well. Just a teaspoon or so. Then slowly whisk in the olive oil, a bit at a time. Adjust the seasonings, adding more vinegar, oil, salt, etc to your liking.
Potato and Celeriac Gratin, adapted from The Art Of Simple Foods by Alice Waters
Ingredients:
Butter
2 large yellow potatoes
1 medium celeriac bulb
salt and fresh ground pepper
1 cup milk
Rub a 9 by 12 inch gratin dish (or just a baking pan) with butter. Peel and slice potatoes and celeriac root about 1/16th inch thick, or as thin as you can make them with what you've got on hand. (The thinner they are sliced the less likely the potatoes are to curl up at the ends.) Make a layer of potato slices in the dish, overlapping them slightly, like shingles. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add a layer of celeriac slices and season. Continue to alternate slices until the potatoes are used up. You should have 2 to 3 layers. Carefully pour the milk over the potatoes. The liquid should come up to the bottom of the top layer of potatoes/celeriac. Add more if necessary. Generously dot the top of the veggies with three tablespoons of butter, cut into pieces. Bake in a 350 degree oven until browned and bubbling, about 1 hour. Halfway through baking, take the gratin dish out of the oven and press the veggies flat with a metal spatula to keep the top moist. Return to the oven and keep checking. The grain is done when the potatoes are soft and the top is golden brown.
Roasted Parsnip "Fries" from the Brain of Farmer Alissa
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Trim the tops off your parsnips and cut each parsnip lengthwise in half and in half again. Place in a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil to evenly coat the slices. Then season with salt and fresh ground pepper. Put slices in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, tossing the parsnips halfway through the baking process.
Also, treasure trove of parsnip recipes here:
http://www.marthastewart.com/275724/parsnip-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide#/281967
And this one with turnips and parsnips and maple syrup is a must try: http://www.marthastewart.com/275724/parsnip-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide#/261824
As always, Thanks for Reading and Happy Cooking and Eating! Alissa
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
