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Weekly Greetings CSAers!
Hopefully everyone had a great weekend and are looking forward to another great week of CSA shares and going back to work (ok, well at least the CSA share part). This week you are going to find an alien looking squash in your shares, this is a Yugoslavian Finger Squash. These are an heirloom variety squash originally from Baltimore, Maryland...wait that doesn't sound correct?! So, let's try again, these are actually an old world variety from Yugoslavia, and we have had fun growing them this season. There is not much to be found in regards to recipes and preparation tips, so to the best of our knowledge you will want to cook them like a summer squash with the thin skin on them. If any of you stumble upon a great recipe or way of preparing them please let us know. This is the fun part of growing for a CSA, for there are many, many varieties of vegetables that were once grown regularly but have since fell into a select few seed catalogs and backyard gardens. Grocery stores don't feel that you would choose these in your weekly shopping. Well, I guess in this case you did not select them either, but we have and we would love to get your feedback on what you thought of them.
Thans to the open fall we have been enjoying, we are still able to harvest some of the summer crops like herbs, green onions and broccoli, but pretty soon we will be into the Brussels sprouts, leeks and other fall veggies.
Fir fruit shares this week we are working with a variety of the smaller orchards that we have gotten to know. These smaller orchards have a hard time getting accessing markets for their harvests, thus is is hard to sell what they work so hard to grow. The beautiful thing about a CSA is that we and you can help these smaller orchards by developing a new more personal market for them. Since we are working with numerous orchards the contents of the fruit share may change throughout the week. We are planning on a variety of apples, but the actual varieties will change depending on their daily harvests. Enjoy the apples of fall!
This weeks shares may look something like this:
Single Share: Cauliflower, spinach, green onions, lettuce, red feather kale, spaghetti squash, Russet potatoes, broccoli, Yugoslavian finger squash.
Couple Share: Cauliflower, spinach, parsley, green onions, lettuce, cabbage, kale, Russet potatoes, broccoli, gold hubbard squash, Yugoslavian finger squash.
Family Share: Cauliflower, spinach, cilantro, green onions, lettuce, cabbage, kale, Russet potatoes, broccoli, blue hubbard squash, Yugoslavian finger squash.
Single Fruit Share: One bag of mixed fruit (Golden Delicious apples, Jonagold apples, and Jonathan apples)
Double Fruit Share: Two bags of mixed fruit (Golden Delicious apples, Jonagold apples, and Jonathan apples)
Bread Share: Kalamata Olive
Mouco Cheese Share (one round per share): ColoRouge
Haystack Goat Cheese Share (one log per share): Dill and Garlic
Windsor Dairy Cheese: Colona
Contents of the box may vary depending on weather, timing of the harvest and the whim of the farmer!
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Winter Shares!
If you are dreading heading back to the grocery stores this winter, we have a solution for you--Winter Shares! There are quite a few differences between our winter and summer share program, so read on. We don't offer as many options in regards to pickup locations, but we still try to have at least one in each area of the towns/cities we deliver to in the Front Range. Due to winter weather we do not offer winter shares to any of our Mountain Communities (I70 corridor and west of the Divide) or Wyoming (with the exception of Cheyenne).
Winter share deliveries begin the week of December 12th and continue through the week of June 4, 2012 for weekly deliveries.
Head over to our website to preview the list of winter pick up locations.
Questions? Call the CSA team at (970) 568-7654 or reply to this email.
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Learn to Prepare Apples!
It's apple season! Colorado produces delicious apples of many varieties every year, from Fujis to Cameos to the popular Honeycrisps. Have you ever found yourself wondering how to enjoy local apples all year long without buying another refrigerator? Join us in Colorado Springs and learn to make the most of this versatile fruit!
Chickens in the Kitchen is honored to have talented local Chef Hethyr Pletsch of Everyday Gourmet lead us through two inspired yet simple recipes. You will learn to make applesauce the way you like it and also to make your own apple butter. You will also learn to safely can these recipes, making them easy to store and available to eat all year long! Everyone will take a jar of the fruits of our labor home.
Are you wondering how to bring an abundance of local apples to your home without picking them yourself? Grant Family Farms is sponsoring this autumn event and will be available to explain how you can have local apples (and other produce) delivered every week!
Join us on October 25 at 6PM at the Gotta Love It Kitchen! The cost is $25 per person. Email: Bonnie@HungryChickenHomestead.com or call 727-580-3415 to sign up!
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Member Emails
"We are so pleased with our CSA with you. The summer share was our first try and it has been wonderful. Our children are excited and actually cheer when I pull the fruits and vegetables out of the crates. The eggs are fantastic, and again the natural inconsistency of shape and color is all the more exciting for our kids. It's like Christmas every week. We have been able to introduce new foods to our table that otherwise, we may not have purchased at a store that have become favorite staples now. Your items suppliment our garden, so the shares are a perfect size, although who wouldn't want more! Thanks again. :)"
"We've really enjoyed our fruit, veggie and egg shares this year. It is our first time with a CSA and we've found the quality and taste to be fantastic! My 7 year old had a golden delicious apple right out of the bag when we picked them up and it was so juicy that it was running down his chin. He said it was the best apple he's ever eaten! "
"I particularly would like to send an "atta boy" about GF eggs. I'm going on my 3rd year as a member. The first year we came up for the Spring event, and took the farm tour. I didn't have an egg share when we took the tour, but I was so enamored by the egg production set up at GF, seeing all of the happy chickens running around, and hearing you talk about their diet and how they live that I went home, and signed up for eggs that day. I have been an egg share holder ever since, and even though they may be a little more expensive than store bought eggs, it's worth more than every penny having seen with my own two eyes that my eggs come from happy, healthy chickens.
Everyone's efforts at GF don't go by the wayside in my home - before dinner we say thank to Grant Family Farms instead of grace!"
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Recipes
 We want your recipes! If you have a recipe that has been in your family, or one you just created and would like to share it with us and the greater CSA community, we would love if you would send it to us. We are building a recipe resource for the CSA for members to use when looking for things to to with their weekly shares. If you have a recipe you would like to share, please send it to Howdy@grantfarms.com |
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Parmesan Spinach Cakes
1 bunch fresh spinach
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese, or low-fat cottage cheese
1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
2 large eggs, beaten
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
Preheat oven to 400 F. Pulse spinach in three batches in a food processor until finely chopped. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add ricotta (or cottage cheese), Parmesan, eggs, garlic, salt and pepper; stir to combine.
Coat 8 cups of the muffin pan with cooking spray. Divide the spinach mixture among the 8 cups (they will be full). Bake the cakes until set, about 20 minutes. Let stand in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen the edges with a knife and turn out onto a clean cutting board or large plate. Serve warm, sprinkled with more Parmesan, if desired.
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Who's Your Farmer?
Your CSA Team
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Hubbard Squash Recipes
Are you wondering what to do with that hubbard squash you received in your share? Well if so, you are not alone. Many of us are familiar with acorn, butternut and spaghetti squash, but this large hubbard squash has us a bit perplexed. Below is a link to an article on hubbard squash, its uses and recipes for cooking it. Enjoy!
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Apple and Cheese Pancakes
4 eggs, separated
1 cup cottage cheese
1 cup grated apples
3/4 cup flour
1 tbs honey
1 tbs chopped almonds
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
Cooking spray, as needed
Combine all ingredients except egg whites in a large bowl. Beat egg whites in a separate medium bowl; fold into large bowl.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat; coat with cooking spray. Drop batter in 1/4 cup spoonfuls onto skillet; cook until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes total. Serve warm.
*Note - you can finish topped off with some applesauce.
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Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower w/ Lemon and Garlic
1 head broccoli broken into 1-inch florets, stalks peeled and thinly sliced
1 head cauliflower broken into florets
3 tbs olive oil
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 lemons, thinly sliced
Coarse salt and ground pepper
Preheat oven to 475 degrees. On two rimmed baking sheets, toss broccoli and cauliflower with oil, garlic, and lemons; season with salt and pepper. Roast until vegetables are browned and tender, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating sheets from top to bottom and tossing vegetables once halfway through.
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Back To The Start
Farming has changed and is continuing to, both in good ways and in bad. Farmers typically do not have much control in all the directions they take, for the retailers and thus consumers dictate much of the trends. It has been lately that consumers have helped farmers move in a more beneficial direction in both regards to the food they grow and raise and the way they do it. Check out the link below for a cool video that helps explain this. Your support in CSAs, farmer's markets and all local food helps us all!
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"Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon."
~Doug Larson
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