Serenbe Farms

  CSA Newsletter and Recipes (year)6-(week)24



October 4th, 2011
Farm Update From Maya

 

 As I'm writing this the temperature outside is 48 degrees! The sky has been a brillant blue without a cloud in the sky. It's no wonder fall is my favorite season. This week went smoothly on the farm, but as usual we still have a lot on our to-do list. Our squash, cucumbers, and bush beans have been producing in record amounts. This means we have to devote time everyday to harvesting these items. Speaking of bush beans, we had quite the scare in the bean patch this week. When you pick beans you have to search around the whole plant to make sure you pick all of the beans. On Monday when we were picking beans I was going about my business, lifting up a bean plant when all of a sudden I was face to face with a snake! Of course I jumped out and upon further inspection the snake turned out to be a venomous copperhead. After that incident, we spent most of Wednesday and Thursday mowing the farm. This makes the farm look really great, and also eliminates any hideouts for snakes and mice that chew holes in our irrigation lines.

 

onion
Onions ready to be planted and a mowed farm in the background

 Another exciting event on the farm also occurred this week as well. On Thursday Paige tallied the total of our harvest sheets. We record the quantities of our harvest on these sheets and so far we've harvested over 50,000 lbs of produce! Thats over 10,000 pounds at this time last year. It is so incredible that with soil building over the past years that 5 acres is able to produce so much food. We're not slowing down though, soon we will be planting our onions and garlic which will be harvested next spring. We will also be continuing to cover crop more of the farm to give the land a rest. I hope you all have been enjoying your beautiful and bountiful fall shares! Have a wonderful week.

 

Maya

    

 

The Essentials of CSA Cooking   
I thoroughly enjoy writing about farm operations. I love spending time researching on topics like soil health, successional planting, and plant varieties.  It is a great way to focus on everything I am learning during this apprenticeship. I do have another passion that compliments my love of farming, and that is cooking! I thought I'd use this newsletter to write about some resources I use when cooking.

 

A Book for Culinary Creativity
 
I recently came across this book called The Flavor Bible and I thought it had some interesting ideas that might help with some creativity cooking up your farm food in the kitchen! The book is not a cookbook, but rather a flavor matchmaking book. It consists of charts of any food you could imagine. It has cheese, fish, spices, meats, oils and of course vegetables. Below each food is a list of other foods or flavors that compliment the highlighted food. For example, the highlighted food might be collard greens. It lists common preparation techniques such as boil, braise, steam and stir-fry. Then it lists flavors and foods such as bacon, black-eyed peas, brown butter, Parmesean, garlic, ham hocks, mustard seeds, yellow onions, oregano, red pepper flakes, tomatoes, and cider vinegar. This makes it easy to cook without a recipe. All you have to do is cook the collards using the preparation techniques, with any of the suggested flavors. 
 

 

Food Blogs and Other Websites
 
The internet seems to be the easiest way to gather recipes and new ideas. The web is also a great resource for cooking some of the more foreign vegetables that we provide in our shares, like kohlrabi. Here are some of my go to websites.
www.tastespotting.com I really like this website because of its visual appeal. After a long day at work, I like to go to this website and browse through the pretty pictures till I come across a dish that I'm craving. It also condenses lots of food blog posts onto one site. Many of these recipes come from all over the world. 
www.foodily.com This is a website that Ryan showed me. It's like google for cooking. You can search through its database of recipes by any keyword you need. It also has the nutrition information attached to each recipe. 
www.joythebaker.com This website is more of a baking blog than anything else. However, Joy does cook seasonally and has many dishes that use vegetables from our CSA. I can't wait to try her edamame avocado salad.

 

Traditional Cookbooks
 
When I first started cooking, I don't know what I would have done without my mom's cookbooks. I love cookbooks so much that in college, I'd procrastinate by hiding out in the 3rd floor stacks of the library where they kept all the cookbooks! Now I keep a few for reference that I use often. 
 
Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert 
This cookbook is all about cooking with the seasons. It is organized by season as well as the main vegetables that are in each recipe. The recipes are usually simple and straightforward. The beginning of the book has handy storage information about most vegetables.

 

The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker 
This cookbook is the staple guide for American cuisine. It was originally published in 1931 and has since gone through revisions. The 2006 edition is much healthier than the original. I like it for its food preservation section. It explains how to can and freeze produce.

 

The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen
This cookbook includes simple, easy to follow vegetarian recipes. Most of the meals are light, healthy and a more natural approach to cooking. I also enjoy her book The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Weekly Vegetable Insight -- Kale and Collards

 

Kale is a hardy green that survives during the winter. In fact, after frost kale is usually sweeter. On the farm we grow three different varieties of kale, Red Russian, Lacinato and Curly. Collards have a hearty, chewy texture and a strong flavor that mellows with cooking. 

 

Storage and handling: Remove excess moisture and refrigerate in a loosely sealed plastic bag for up to 4 days. Before eating, wash thoroughly. 

 

Preparation: Remove the tough stalks with a knife. Boil or steam 4-8 minutes. Saute onions in a frying pan, then add raw greens and a few tablespoons of water and cook till tender. 

 

Serving suggestions: Slice or tear kale leaves for a salad. Saute kale and collards with sweet peppers and serve over polenta. Mix leftover greens with mashed potatoes. 

 

Nutrients: Kale has vitamins A, C, K; cancer-preventing compounds sulforaphane isothiocyanate and indoles. Collards have vitamins A, B6, C, K, folate, iron and calcium

 

Recipe: Greens in Peanut Sauce

from cookbook Simply in Season

 

1 medium onion

2-3 cloves garlic

In a large soup pot saute in 1 tablespoon oil.

 

1 medium tomato

Add and simmer 2-4 minutes

 

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Add cook, and stir 2 minutes

 

8 cups kale or collards

1/2 cup water

Add and steam until greens are soft but not mushy. Avoid overcooking. Stir occasionally to coat greens with the spices.

 

2-3 tablespoons chunky peanut butter

1-2 teaspoons hot water

Combine and add to greens at end of cooking time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 
This week's share
(this list is subject to change): 

 

Beans

Cucumbers

Chinese Cabbage

1 bunch sweet turnips

1 head lettuce

1 bunch of curly kale

Sweet potatoes
 
Garlic

A couple tomatoes 

Okra, squash, or eggplant

Herb 
 

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Links
www.serenbefarms.com

www.georgiaorganics.org
www.slowfoodatlanta.org
RECIPES are found here: www.serenbefarms.wordpress.com

 

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