CSA Newsletter and Recipes 4-22
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Farm News from Brandon
Greetings, CSA members. Brandon writing. To honor
request for laconic newsletters, savor this one because it is short and sweet.
When I returned on Wednesday from a long weekend
in New York City, I noticed that the hawk was out. That is how people in Chicago
talk when the weather turns frigid. As a native South Carolinian, I tend to
mumble "Goracious it's freezin." However you want to say it, all these cold
mornings make for good farming.
I love the crisp air and wearing flannel shirts
again. Who does not like witnessing summer weeds and cover crops burgeon, drop
seed and die? On Friday Natalie and I tilled sunflowers and buckwheat to prepare
fields for upcoming fall planting, which provides countless easy meals for
doves. Tilling is to them what Kellogs is to us. The deer must be worrying about
the recent sweet potato harvest. Devouring the greens for the past couple of
weeks, they have limited time before we dig all the potatoes and begin to cure
them  for you. Curing, basically heating and drying and storing, the harvested
sweet potatoes allows a special enzyme to mature. This enzyme goes berzerk when
you bake a sweet potato, thus the cloying viscous syrup you sometimes find
puddled at the bottom of your oven after baking sweet potatoes.
Also this week, Gretchen volunteered with us and helped plant out
even more fall greens and alliums - lettuce, leeks, green onions. Our sunchokes
look fire-bombed above ground, but beneath are turning sweet as their basic
starches convert to inulin, a less digestible sugar.
The hawk is out. Goracious it's freezin. Any way
you cook it, on cold autumn days there is only one thing I love more than a wet
morning washing bins - hot soup at night. For this week's recipes, I have
included a "Soup & Salad" pairing that utilizes many of the items found in
your share. Like the newsletter, it is sweet, but savory, too. Please enjoy.
Brandon and the Serenbe Farms Crew: Paige, Justin
and Natalie | |
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This week's share:
1 gargantuan sweet potato or 2 smaller ones
1.25 lb eggplant
1 bunch dill
1 bunch other herbs
1 bunch green onions
1 lb red or yellow sweet peppers
1 watermelon
1/4 lb arugula
1 bunch collards
jalapenos
PYO flowers and basil
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Sweet potato soup I had with Mamaw
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I had a version of this
soup with my Mamaw last winter when we drove to North Carolina to do her taxes.
She makes a yearly pilgrimage to High Point because her accountant lives there.
That is pretty old-school, but this soup is not. We shared a bowl then, and you
could make one tonight. The recipe looks long and involved, and in some ways it
is, but each nuance adds to the composite taste, and the time spent making the
soup you will save making the salad it goes with (see below).
1 Sweet potato, baked and scooped out
1 white potato, peeled and cubed
1 medium white onion
1/8 C vegetable oil
4 slices bacon, cut into lardons (I love Benton's
bacon for this soup)
½ jalapeno pepper, minced OR 1 tsp cayenne
pepper
1 T fresh thyme OR 1 tsp dried thyme, chopped
1/8 tsp cinnamon and a grate or two of nutmeg
1 C chicken stock (veggie stock or water will do
in a pinch)
2 C whole milk (Seriously, do not substitute with
2%. I wanted to use cream, but it costs too much).
¼ C green onions, sliced into thin rounds for
garnish
2 T butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat skillet, add oil and bacon lardons. Cook
until crispy, remove and set aside.
Into the bacon grease/oil combo add the onions and
cook until translucent.
Add jalapeno or cayenne, plus some salt and pepper
here.
Add cubed white potato and stock. Simmer until
potatoes are past tender. About ten minutes.
Blend all of the above with the flesh of the sweet
potato until you have a puree. While blending, clean out the pot.
To the cleaned pot, add pureed mixture, cream and
thyme. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust.
To finish and serve, heat soup to a simmer and add
the butter, whisking quickly.
Serve in bowls or coups garnished with green
onions and crispy bacon pieces.
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The Marin County salad
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Marin County, California is
home to my favorite farmers market in the nation. The Whole Foods store there
sources 98% of its produce from local growers. Basically, the vegetables rock so
much that restaurants will serve them unadorned quite often. One of my favorite
pizzerias roasts fava beans in the wood-fired oven and sets them on the counter
for you to eat plain. Their salad, too, is nothing more than fresh lettuces or other greens,
high-quality olive oil and sea salt. Lesson: when the ingredients stand out, the
less work the eater must do.
Ingredients:
Serenbe Farms arugula
Extra virgin olive oil (Not
any store brand please, something good that costs more than $10 a bottle)
Sea salt (Some cool
varieties out there. Play around. I prefer finely ground gray sea salt).
Wash and dry arugula. Break
it into bite-sized pieces.
Combine with olive oil and
sea salt, mix gently.
Serve on a side plate with the soup. | |
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Watermelon
Martinis
Recipe--
Bobby Flay
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Sick of eating your watermelon? Why not drink it? This would be good without the vodka too... Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
5 cups watermelon, seeds removed
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/4 cups vodka
2 ounces melon liqueur, optional
8 lemon twists, for garnish
Directions Push the red meat of your watermelon through a sieve.
Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan and cook until the sugar has completely dissolved. Let cool.
In
a food processor, puree the watermelon flesh. Add a little of the sugar
syrup to sweeten, to taste. Pour the pureed watermelon into 2 empty ice
cube trays and freeze for at least 4 hours.
In
a blender combine the frozen watermelon cubes, more simple syrup, to
taste, lemon juice and vodka, melon liqueur and blend until smooth.
Pour into 8 frozen martini glasses and garnish with a lemon twist.
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Greek
Hand
Pies with
Greens, Dill, and Feta
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Ingredients
1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
Salt
3/8 cup water
1/8 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
3 medium scallions, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3/4 pound greens, such as Swiss chard, kale or collards, stemmed and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup coarsely chopped dill
1/4 cup coarsely chopped mint
1/8 cup coarsely chopped oregano
1/4 cup crumbled feta (1 ounce)
1 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 small egg, lightly beaten
Freshly ground pepper
Vegetable oil, for frying In a large bowl, mix the flour with 1/2 teaspoon of
salt. Make a well in the center and add the water, 1/8 cup of the olive
oil and the vinegar. Mix until the dough comes together; it will be
sticky.
Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and knead until smooth
and no longer tacky, using a pastry scraper to free it from the work
surface. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap; refrigerate for 1 hour.
In a large skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.
Add the scallions and cook over moderate heat until softened, 3
minutes. Add the greens and cook over high heat, stirring, until
wilted, 2 minutes. Stir in the dill, mint and oregano and cook until
wilted, 1 minute. Transfer the contents of the skillet to a colander
and let cool. When the greens are cool enough to handle, squeeze out
any excess liquid.
In a large bowl, combine the greens with the feta,
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and the egg. Season the filling with pinch each of salt and pepper.
Lightly flour a large, rimmed baking sheet. Turn the dough out onto
a lightly floured work surface; cut into 2 equal pieces. Roll each
piece out to a 9-inch round 1/16 inch thick. Using an 8-inch plate as a
template, cut an 8-inch disk from each round. Mound one-fourth of the
filling on the lower half of each disk. Fold the dough over to make a
half-moon; press the edge of the dough to seal. Using a lightly floured
fork, crimp the edges. Transfer the hand pies to the prepared baking
sheet.
In a large skillet, heat 1/4 inch of the vegetable oil over
moderately high heat until shimmering. Add 2 pies and fry,
turning once, until deep golden brown, about 6 minutes. Drain the pies
on paper towels. Serve hot.
Make Ahead
The dough and filling can each be refrigerated, separately, overnight.
Bring the filling to room temperature before assembling.
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