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 What's in the Box This Week?
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Greetings!
This week we're trying a new direction with our CSA newsletter, moving away from the old "static" download-able PDF files to a more dynamic and interactive HTML-based e-mail. It's a work in progress, so please let us know if you see areas where we can improve!
We always want to honor the "C" in our CSA program - which stands for "community" - and so we've also started a new real-time survey where you can tell us what you think about the fruit in this week's box. We'll use this feedback to help shape our future fruit foraging...
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SAVE THE DATE!!
Frog Hollow Farm is pleased to announce its
SPRING BLOSSOM FESTIVAL on Sunday, March 7, 2010 at the farm in Brentwood
An invitation and ticket information will follow in next week's CSA newsletter.
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Produce to the People
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The kiwis are back! We've had a few weeks
without our fuzzy little friends, and we're happy to see these seedy,
Vitamin-C-packed treats back in the box. Along with citrus and avocados, kiwis
are a winter-ripening fruit here in California, something we're glad to have
around to enjoy during the long months without fresh local berries and stone
fruits. They also keep very well in cold storage, keeping them available for
months after harvesting.
Looking for a Valentine's Day treat that
looks good and is good for you, too? Try out this week's recipe, a light but
delicious gelatin mold made with fresh orange & blood orange juice. Pour
into heart-shaped molds to make a cute, sweet, and healthy dessert. Or peel and
slice your blood oranges and toss with sliced roasted beets, magenta radicchio,
endive, and frisee for a salad of ruby delights.
Mark your calendars for an interesting
free talk next month at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. On March 2nd at
6:30pm, Kitchen Table Talks will be hooking up with CUESA (Center for Urban
Education about Sustainable Agriculture) to moderate a panel discussion
entitled, "Produce to the People: New Ideas for Local Distribution".
Eating local is an idea that just about everyone agrees with, but is it always
possible? Small farmers often have a hard time finding profitable outlets for
their produce, especially if they're running a bio-diverse farm growing a
little of a lot of things rather than one big mono-crop. For many small organic
farms, selling wholesale to a big produce distributor is a losing proposition.
Organic farming is very hands-on, and can often be a more expensive undertaking
up front (in time, wastage, and labor) than farming conventionally, making the
organic farmer less able to sell produce cheaply. Meanwhile, less-affluent
areas, both urban and rural, often end up relying on a single supermarket or
junk-packed convenience stores.
How can farm-fresh produce become more
affordable and accessible to a greater number of people, and how can more
farmers tap into a diversified network of outlets for their produce? The panel
will include Christine Cherdboonmuang, who works with the Oakland School
District to bring farm-fresh produce directly to parents at 12 Oakland schools;
Melanie Cheng, head of FarmsReach, a new online food marketplace that connects
farmers with commercial buyers; and Grayson James, executive director of
Petaluma Bounty, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing affordable
fresh food to seniors and low-income families. The discussion will be moderated
by Michael Dimock of Roots of Change. For more information, please go to Civil Eats.
We know first-hand how important it is
for local farmers to have a strong distribution network. With a perishable
product like our tree-ripe stone fruit, here at Frog Hollow we've had to build
up a whole web of outlets for our produce. Some of our fruit goes to local
restaurants, some to our shop in the Ferry Building, some to supermarkets like
Whole Foods and Star Grocery. Some is mail-ordered direct to customers around
the country, and some goes to you, in our weekly CSA. In season, we sell at
least a dozen farmers' markets every week all around the Bay Area. We sun-dry
hundreds of pounds of apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, and nectarines. And
finally, we run a commercial kitchen on the farm, where excess produce goes
into pastries, jams, and chutneys. We'll be very interested to hear what kinds
of ideas, questions and answers get raised in this discussion.
-Stephanie J. Rosenbaum |
Recipe of the Week
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Ruby Jelly
"Healthy Jell-O" was what we
called the gelatin desserts my mother made with fruit juices and unflavored
gelatin. While we loved the brilliant, crayon-red cubes of real Jell-O stacked
up in parfait glasses and topped with a squirt of spray-on whipped cream at the
local diner, at home we enjoyed her much more flavorful (if less glamorous)
version. Just about any fresh or bottled fruit juice can be jelled into a quick
and easy dessert, and chopped fresh or frozen fruits can be added for texture.
Or, you can serve the jelly with a medley of peeled fresh citrus slices.
2 1/4-oz envelopes powdered unflavored
gelatin, such as Knox
1/2 cup water
2 cups fresh orange juice
2 cups blood orange juice
2 to 3 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
Sprinkle gelatin over water and let sit
for 1 minute. Gelatin will 'bloom' and mixture will look opaque and wrinkly.
Bring 1 cup of orange juice to a boil.
Pour over gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve. Add sugar and keep stirring
until gelatin is completely dissolved. Stir in remaining 3 cups juice.
Pour mixture into individual cups or
parfait glasses, or into a 1-quart mold or bowl. Chill for at least 8 hours or
overnight. Serve as is, or unmold by dipping container into a bowl of hot water
for a few seconds. Jiggle mold lightly, then invert onto a serving plate.
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