CSA Newsletter and Recipes 4-30
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Our last fall CSA share is next week, December 8th.
Registration for 2010 is now open! You'll have until January 15th to reserve your spot with a deposit before we open up the shares to the public. Pick up a registration form at CSA distribution tonight.
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Farm News From Paige-
 It's starting to get a little chilly. I usually judge our weather by a couple of things...how we feel after coming in from washing produce and how the farm looks when we arrive. Today the farm was glistening with frost and well, it's hard to feel my fingers as I type...good signs that winter is on its way. Using obvious signs to relay the weather reminds me of the Georgia Weather Peanut that our lovely regular volunteer Stephanie gave me as a gag gift last year. The placard beneath the hanging peanut (which the squirrels have recently consumed) reads: if this peanut is wet, it's raining; if this peanut is white, it's snowing; if this peanut feels cold, it's cold out; if this peanut is sweating, it's hot. I love it with or without the hanging peanut. It reminds me the powers of observing the present.
Today I'll write about farm record keeping. I've mentioned that I absolutely love the diversity that this job provides. Where else can you spend all morning picking teeny weeds out of carrot beds and then spend the afternoon balancing the books and writing expense reports? There is a great deal of organization that comes into play on the farm. Everything from planning, to bookkeeping, to ordering seeds and amendments, to hiring labor, to scheduling the day for maximum productivity.
There are many different ways that farmers operate. There is group A (myself included) that like to take an intellectual approach to the farming systems and make sure that everything on paper works out. This type may carry around a clipboard filled with soil tests, farm maps, fertility plans, planting schedule, and day planner. Then there is group B who rely on nature and intuition to make most decisions on the farm. I love that both groups need each others skills to make farming work...after all nature's plan trumps all other plans on the farm. Fortunately those in group A find it much easier to become certified organic as record keeping and clear plans play a large role in the certification process.
So, there are several concrete ways that we record what we do on the farm. First, we enter our daily tasks into our day planner. This may read:
harvested radishes
weeded carrots
seeded beets in field #4: amended with compost, granite dust, and boron
added new layer of greenhouse plastic to greenhouse
potted up onions
cleaned out tool shed
This information is helpful for our organic certification inspection. During the inspection, they ask me to trace back something that I've put in the CSA shares or sold at a market. I must tell them how much we sold it for, what field it came from, what day it was harvested, planting in the field, planted in the greenhouse. We must tell them the history of the square foot of earth that the vegetable grew in. What fertilizers, manures, cover crops have been used there over the past three years. What other crops have been grown there...and on and on. Luckily by having field numbers and lots of plans and records to show them, we can put this information together in a reasonably short time.
We keep up with our annual soil tests. By having a clear map and sampling area, we can compare each of our 8 soil samples to see how our soil is improving from year to year.
Most other records that we keep are in an Excel database/spreadsheet format. (I knew my engineering degree would pay off!)
We enter the dates that we plant (whether transplanting or direct seeding) into our spreadsheet. This information is useful for next year's planning. (Notes in the margin may state: need to start lettuces and onions sooner.)
Then there are our harvest records. Believe it or not, we weigh everything that we harvest out of the fields. We have a printed spreadsheet that lists each veggie that we grow. We weigh the full bins of say, broccoli. We know that each standardized bin weighs a certain amount. We subtract out the bin's weight and viola, we know how much weight of broccoli we've harvested for the week. Each sheet holds a week's worth of harvest information. Every month or so, I'll enter all the data from the harvest sheets and tabulate the total for the weeks and the sum to date. For instance, up until 2 weeks ago, our harvest total was 41,818 lbs. That's a lot of food! We use these harvest records to see what vegetables did best during what periods of time or to see when we could plant more to make the shares more complete.
I also use Excel for our budgeting and keeping track of our incomes and expenses.
Each of these records help us judge overall how well we've done in a year, how the farm is growing, how our harvests and soils compare to previous years, and give us ideas how we can improve in the following years.
Now I know we've asked you to do rain dances and anti-rain dances before. Tonight I'd love for you to do the anti-deer dance as we've seen a multitude of deer tracks since the Thanksgiving holidays. The hunting season has them afoot and the lack of fall forage has them feasting on our newly planted strawberries (for next year), our lettuces, chard, and quite a bit more. Now I'm back to the farm to work out these faults in our fence. Take that you 4-legged foe.
Cheers!
Paige | |
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This week's share:
1/3 lb arugula
1/4 lb spicy salad mix (or use for cooking)
1 bunch/head broccoli
1 bu radish
1-1.5 lb sunchokes
1 bu parsley
1 bu other herb
1 bu greens (collards or chard)
2 kohlrabi
2 bulbs garlic
hot peppers |
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Calo Verde--
Portugese Green Soup
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Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch collard greens, kale, or chard center stems cut away, leaves thinly sliced
1 pound fully cooked spicy sausage (such as linguiça, andouille, or hot links), cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
5 3/4 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 3/4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, diced (try substituting sunchokes!)
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
Method
Heat olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and
garlic. Sauté until onion is soft and golden , about 5 minutes. Add
collard greens and sauté until wilted, about 4 minutes. Add sausage and
sauté 5 minutes. Add broth and potatoes. Simmer soup uncovered until
potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Transfer 2 cups soup (without
sausage) to processor. Blend until smooth; return to pot of soup and
bring to simmer. Mix in crushed red pepper. Season with salt and black
pepper.
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Kohlrabi soup
If you didn't get kohlrabi in the choice you can substitute your turnips. Or save this recipe for next week when we'll be harvesting more kohlrabi!
1 large or 2 small kohlrabi washed peeled and chopped into small cubes
butter
1 large white onion minced
3-4 c chicken broth
1 c heavy cream
herbs to season [chives, parsley, dill]
salt and pepper
cooked chopped bacon or soy baco-bits for topping
Heat a few tablespoons of butter in a large pot. Add kohlrabi and onion once the buttter is hot. Add garlic here if desired. Cook until onion is clear and tender. Add chicken stock and cook until kolrabi are tender. Process with immersion blender or use food processor to make smooth. Add cream slowly and stir to ensure proper consistency. Add herbs, salt and pepper. Server with bacon bits or sour cream. |
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Jerusalem Artichoke and Potato Au Gratin (from the Food Network--Emeril Lagasse)
Ingredients
6 Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices (about 3/4 pound)
2 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch slices (about 1 1/4 pounds)
Salt
Black pepper
Cayenne
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup milk
1 cup dried fine bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Essence, recipe follows
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Place
the Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes in a mixing bowl and season with
the salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Mix in 2 tablespoons of the olive
oil and toss to coat.
Butter the
bottom and sides of a 2 quart baking dish. Put half of the
artichoke-potato mixture in the bottom of the pan, then sprinkle with
1/4 cup of the chopped onions, 1 teaspoon of the chopped garlic, and
1/4 cup of the cheese and the flour. Top this with the remaining
artichoke-potato mixture. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup onions, 1
teaspoon garlic, and 1/2 cup cheese. Pour the milk over the mixture.
In
a bowl, mix together the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil with the
bread crumbs, parsley and season with Essence. Spread this topping
evenly over the mixture. Bake for 1 hour, or until the potatoes are
tender.
Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.
Yield: about 2/3 cup
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Lemon Chicken with Jerusalem Artichokes Recipe
Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 1 hour Ingredients:
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 fresh lemons
2 Tablespoons olive oil, divided use
4 chicken thighs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon ground saffron
1/2 pound Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes), peeled
10 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
Hot, cooked rice Preparation:
Finely grate 1 teaspoon of zest from the lemon and set aside. Juice both of the lemons (discarding pulp) and set aside.
Place a large, deep, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle chicken thighs on both sides with salt and pepper. Place skin-side down in the hot pan and quickly brown them, turning only once. Remove to a plate and keep warm.
Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, remaining tablespoon of olive oil, chicken broth, and saffron to the skillet. Bring to a boil, stirring to loosen any browned bits. Add Jerusalem artichokes, and garlic cloves. Return chicken to the skillet, along with any accumulated juices.
Reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes, until chicken and sunchokes are tender. Stir in cream and thyme leaves. Taste and adjust seasoning, if need be. Return to a simmer and cook an additional 10 minutes.
Serve over cooked rice and sprinkle with pine nuts to garnish.
This is a great sounding recipe from about.com.
Sunchoke pickles
Paige and I made some pickles and they turned out nicely.
Prep Time: 30 minutes Cook Time: 5 minutes Ingredients:
2-1/2 pounds Jerusalem artichokes
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 pound cauliflower (optional)
Pickling salt
4 cups cider vinegar
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons celery seeds
1-1/2 teaspoons turmeric
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1-1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 large green pepper
1 large red pepper
1 large onion Preparation:
Peel and cut the Jerusalem artichokes into 1/2-inch chunks and drop into water acidulated with lemon juice. Cut up the head of cauliflower, break flowerets into 1/2-inch pieces, and peel and cut the stems into 1/2-inch cubes. Crisp the vegetables in a brine solution made this way: Cover the chokes and cauliflower with water to see how much water you need, then drain the vegetables, saving the water, and mix into it 1/3 cup pickling salt per quart. Place the vegetables in this brine and soak for 24 hours.
Combine the vinegars, water, sugar, celery seeds, turmeric, mustard seeds, and dry mustard in a stainless steel or enameled saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve sugar, reduce heat, and let simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
While the brine is simmering, coarsely chop the peppers and onion. Drain the chokes and cauliflower, rinse them well to remove salt, and drain again. Combine chokes, cauliflower, peppers, and onion and pack into clean hot jars, following manufacturer's directions. Ladle in hot brine, a bit at a time, making sure it runs through the vegetables. (Putting a long, sterilized skewer in the jar and moving it around helps the syrup flow through the vegetables.) Fill to 1/8 inch of the jar top, seal, and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Set pickles in a cool place for at least 1 week before serving.
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