Summer Newsletter
Week 20
Greetings!

 

Well, many of our farmers had their first frost this past Sunday morning.  We had a very clear sky overnight and south of the lake farmers saw temperatures as low as 27 degrees.  Brr!  

 

This week we'll start to see a change in ingredients.  We are happy this week to be able to feature cherry tomatoes one last time.  Jonas has his in a high-tunnel so they were protected from the frost, but we are going to clear out his tunnel this week before it gets much colder! 

 

It's amazing how fast things change this time of year.  None of the farmers were expecting the surprise frost and then it just happened.  For us, we are preparing for the change of seasons by stocking up on our winter storage crops for the Winter Season and starting our fall harvest of pork and beef and the last of the chickens for the winter season.  Wow, that comes fast!  

 

I am also very excited this week about our linguine.  The girls down at Wholesome Valley Farm had some irregular shaped butternut squash.  We decided to roast them in the oven and puree the flesh.  We then provided this to Ohio City Pasta with some whole spelt flour.  They created a recipe for a custom pasta for us.  
 

We hope you enjoy these last three weeks of the summer season.  Don't forget to signup for the winter season as well, which starts the week of Nov 3, immediately after the summer season.  

 

Thanks

Trevor 

Trevor's Corner

Canal Junction Flat Rock Cheese.  

I'm really excited about this week's cheese.  The Flat Rock is an "abondance" style cheese.  It is a cheese traditionally made in the foothills of the Alps along the Swiss/French border by monks.  I wasn't familiar with this style cheese until Brian (the cheesemaker) brought me a sample of his last year. 

While the abondance style cheese is usually made with milk from abondance cattle, Brian is making his with milk from another unique French cow - the Normande.  Normande genetics are very rare in the US and Brian and his family have worked hard to add Normande genetics to their herd.  Why?  Because the animals are extremely hardy, great on grass, and provide excellent milk with high butterfat and the right proteins for Brian's old world style cheeses.  

Brian is also a committed grazer.  His cattle are 100% grassfed year round, including hay and sprouted seeds in the winter.  The latter, the sprouted grains, is essentially a carpet of grass grown inside in a hydroponic system.  As the barley sprouts it looks like grass.  When it is about 8 inches tall, they take the mat of barley sprouts outside and chop it up and mix it in with the hay.  The cows love it and get great energy from it.  

I hope you enjoy this cheese as much as I do.  It is quite nutty and earthy, and with it's firm texture, it also grates quite well.  
  

 

Cabbage Mania.  We have 5 seats left for tonight's cabbage mania and Parker is already at it today cooking up a storm.  Please join us for a tasty and informative cooking class.

 

Full details and registration can be found here:  Cabbage Mania Registration

 

Winter Season Registration OPEN.  We had our first frost this past weekend and winter is on it's way.  Our farmers are getting ready with cold hearty crops like brussel sprouts and cauliflower, storage crops like potatoes and onions and winter squash, and frozen veggies like corn and beans.  

 

Our Winter Season registration is now open.  Details and registration below.  If you have any questions, please write back or ask the greeter at the back of the truck.  

 

More details and registration here:  Winter Season Info and Registration  


 

Salmon Pickup this week.  We Just a reminder that if you pre-ordered pieces of salmon or cases for the October delivery the delivery is this week.  You should have already received a confirmation email with further directions.  If you ordered for the October delivery and did not receive a confirmation email (or have questions), please contact us by Tuesday at midnight.  Please email [email protected] 


 

If you have not ordered salmon as part of the Wild Salmon Co buying club, please do so before it sells out.  We have a few cases and pieces available for the November delivery.  Orders can be placed at http://csalogin.freshforkmarket.com 
 

What's In The Bag?
Small Omnivore 
1 lb butternut squash and sage spelt flour linguine
8 oz "Flat Rock" abondance style cheese
1 bunch white radishes
1 bunch swiss chard
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 onion
1 head green cabbage
1 head broccoli
1 spaghetti squash

Small Vegetarian
Same as small omnivore.  

Small Vegan
Small Omnivore minus the cheese and pasta, Add:
1 quarter peck gala apples
1 half gallon apple cider
1 head cauliflower
6 ears sweet corn

Large Omnivore
1 lb butternut squash and sage spelt flour linguine
8 oz "Flat Rock" abondance style cheese
1 bunch white radishes
1 bunch swiss chard
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 onion
1 head green cabbage
1 head broccoli
1 spaghetti squash
1 pack kielbasa links (1.25#)
1 sleeve mixed lettuce
1 half gallon apple cider
1 quarter peck gala apples


Large Vegetarian
1 lb butternut squash and sage spelt flour linguine
8 oz "Flat Rock" abondance style cheese
1 bunch white radishes
1 bunch swiss chard
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 onion
1 head green cabbage
1 head broccoli
1 spaghetti squash
1 head cauliflower
6 ears sweet corn
1 sleeve mixed lettuce
1 half gallon apple cider
1 quarter peck gala apples
Recipes
Hearty Potato Soup with Chard and Spicy Sausage

Ingredients 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 leek, white and light green parts only, thinly chopped (alternatively, you can substitute sweet onion or shallot)

1 large carrot, �" dice

1 rib celery, �" dice

3 cloves garlic finely chopped

Leaves from 1 sprig fresh rosemary, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

6 medium white potatoes (about 2 #) peeled and diced into 1" cubes

7 cups stock or water

1 cup heavy cream

1 head chard, washed, de-stemmed and rough-chopped

4 spicy or smoked sausages (try Kielbasa or Andouille for smoked meats, or cook fresh sausage like the Beer Brats)

 

This recipe requires a couple of pans at once, but it's worth it. Turn your oven on to 375 and put your sausages in an oven safe skillet with about an inch of water and put them in. Roast the sausages until done (depends on sausage).

 

On the stovetop, have two pans ready to go-- a large, heavy bottomed pan (like a dutch oven), and a smaller sauce pan. In the larger pan, heat the butter over medium heat. When melted, add in leeks and cook till soft, about 5-7 min. Add a little water if they start to brown too quickly. Meanwhile, heat up stock in your other pot over medium heat.

 

To the leek-pan, add the carrot, celery, garlic, rosemary and salt, and saute about 10 minutes or until soft and fragrant. Add potatoes and stock. Cook on medium-high until potatoes are fork-tender, about 20 minutes.

 

Turn off heat, add heavy cream and puree in blender or with immersion blender. If it needs a little extra kick, stir in a splash of apple-cider vinegar. Mix in chard and stir with a wooden spoon until it's soft, and take the piping hot sausages out of the oven (allow to rest 5 minutes to retain moisture) to serve on the side. Goes great with a beer and some crusty bread. 


Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients

Spaghetti squash, cut in half and seeded. Wash and reserve seeds. 

1 large handful of chard, de-stemmed and chopped.  

1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half (or 1.5 cups any tomato, chopped) 

1 tablespoon butter

Olive/Sunflower oil

2 shallots, sliced in half-moons (or thinly sliced onion)

1 cup grated Flat Rock cheese 

1 tsp smoked paprika

Honey

Salt & Pepper

 

Preheat oven to 400F. Roast the squash pieces cut side down, surrounded by a half inch of water, for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat up some butter in a pan, and lightly saute shallot and chard. Add tomatoes and half of the cheese to the pan and stir to mix.

 

Take the squash out of the oven, but keep the heat on. Drain the water, flip the squash right-side up so they're ready to be filled. Lightly salt & pepper.

 

Fill up the squash (as if it is a bowl since you scooped out the seed cavity) with your chard mixture from the skillet, and splash a little oil on top.

 

Distribute the rest of the grated cheese over the squash pieces, and return them to oven.  Roast for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. 

 

When you have about 15 minutes left on the squash, get to work on your reserved seeds. In a small pan, spread 'em out and toss with the smoked paprika, and a little salt, and pepper. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes, and if all goes well remove them at the same time as the squash halves. Sprinkle seeds on top of squash.  For extra character, drizzle lightly with maybe honey or even balsamic vinegar.  Season with salt.  Serve right away to hungry guests.

 

Note:  cook time on squash will vary depending on how big your squash is.  Adjust cook time accordingly.  Your squash should be tender to the touch on the outside indicating that the squash is fully cooked throughout the flesh.   


Linguine with Garlicky Broccoli Pesto

Ingredients

1 head of broccoli, leaves removed

1/2 cup nuts, toasted in a dry pan till fragrant (try walnuts, almonds, or pine nuts) 

1 cup finely grated Flat Rock cheese (use a microplane if you have one)

1 whole head of garlic 

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Quarter teaspoon of fine-grain sea salt

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil or sunflower oil

1 large handful of spinach, chard, or kale, torn to bite-size pieces 

Enough linguine to feed everybody 

� cup heavy cream

 

Make a double batch of this pesto and it'll keep in the fridge for a couple of days. Works great with pasta, mixed into soup, or even mixed into greek yogurt as a veggie dip. For now, though, let's talk pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil, and turn oven to 375. 

 

Cut off top of garlic head, drizzle with oil, wrap in aluminum foil and roast for 20 minutes. 

 

Cut broccoli florets from stems and chop into small florets. Peel the stems with a vegetable peeler and chop them into �" dice. This is very important.  Why waste the stem?  Let's cook them!

 

Steam the broccoli over the boiling water with a steamer basket for 4 min, or if you don't have one just dunk them in the boiling water for a quick par-boil, about 3 minutes, or until just tender and bright green. Remove the broccoli and set aside, and add pasta to water and cook until al dente. Reserve a cup of pasta cooking water and set it aside too, and drain pasta.

 

In a blender, or in a pot if using an immersion blender, add broccoli, oil, lemon juice, half of the grated cheese, the roasted garlic (if you want a super intense flavor, in lieu of the roasted, use 2 minced raw cloves), the toasted nuts and the salt. Throw in some ground black pepper for fun. Add in the cream and a little bit of the pasta cooking water at a time (save at least �-�) and blend in bursts until smooth and creamy. Taste, adjust seasoning. 

 

Add the pesto back to the pot with the drained linguine and the rest of the pasta water (from the cup you reserved...not all the water you boiled the pasta in). Cook over medium-high for a few minutes (tossing regularly), coating all the noodles. Stir in chard and the rest of the cheese (save a little to dust the top of each plate), mix with a wooden spoon, and serve.


 
Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Cream Sauce

Ingredients

1 head of cabbage

2-3 tablespoons butter

Salt and Pepper

Dried Thyme (to season, maybe 1/4 teaspoon to half teaspoon)

2 cups (packed) of blanched, shredded cabbage

1 to 2 lbs potatoes, cooked and mashed (depending on how many you want to make)

A combination of as many of these ingredients as you have:

2 carrots, peeled and shredded

1 onion, minced

1 stalk celery, minced

1/2 bulb fennel, shredded

1 turnip, peeled and shredded

1 medium kohlrabi, minced and shredded

 

Remove the core and peel off 12 to 14 leaves as described in the cabbage highlight on the right-hand feature section of this email. 

 

After leaves are removed from the cabbage, drop the remaining half head of cabbage into ice water.  Lay the 12 to 14 leaves you pealed off on a paper towel and pat dry.  Set aside.  Remove the remaining cabbage head from the ice water bath.  

 

Sweat (see note below) in butter the combination of vegetables that you have chosen to use (this is the fennel, celery, carrots, etc).  Shred the remaining head of cabbage by removing the core, quartering the cabbage, and cross-cutting slices of cabbage into thin strips.  Add shredded cabbage to sweating vegetables.  Keep the pan covered and toss the vegetables often.  They should soften but not be thoroughly cooked.  

 

Sweating:  To sweat vegetables, mince them very small.  In butter over very low heat, cook the vegetables.  Cover the veggies with a buttered piece of parchment paper.  Put a lid on the pan.  Cook very slowly. This may take an hour or so.  

 

Continue recipe:  Cool the sweated vegetables and season with salt and pepper and a little dried thyme.  You can do these portions of the recipe the day before actually preparing the cabbage rolls. 

 

To make the cabbage rolls, lay the leaves on the cutting board and remove the thick rib using a sharp knife.  Stir the sweated vegetables into mashed potatoes.  Place a mound of vegetable and mashed potato mixture in the cabbage and roll together.  

 

 For cream sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons minced onion
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup milk and 1 cup cream

Melt the butter in a small heavy bottom pan.  Add the onion and flour and cook over medium-low heat for 3 to 4 minutes.  Stir continually with a whisk.  

Add the milk and cream.  Raise the heat to high and continue whisking.  When the sauce thickens, lower the heat to medium-low and continue cooking for another 4 to 5 minutes.  Season the sauce with salt and pepper.  

To finish cabbage rolls. 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a rectangular baking pan, arrange the cabbage rolls, packed tightly together.  Pour cream mixture over top of them.  Optional:  top with chopped parsley and/or partially cooked bacon pieces (not vegetarian).  

Bake in oven for 25 to 30 minutes, depending on size of cabbage roll.  Sauce should thicken some more.  Serve hot.  
In This Issue
Links
Social Media
Stay Connected with us!  

      

 

 

 

 

 

You can get our blog posts delivered to your email address, too. Just fill in your address below.


Cabbage - Parker's Tips for Stuffed Cabbage and safe coring.  

Coring Cabbage: It is important to safely core the cabbage.  With a chef's knife, square up the bottom of the cabbage by cutting off the "stem" where the head connects to the plant/roots.  Place the head on the square up bottom and cut down through the middle from above.

For stuffed cabbage leaves, don't cut the head in half.  Start by removing the stem as described above.  Turn the cabbage over to expose the core rea.  With a sharp pairing knife, cut around the core with the point of the knife pointing into the core and up into the cabbage approx 2 inches.  Cut around the core.  Your goal is to remove a cone shaped piece of cabbage.

Removing the cabbage leaves:  To remove the leaves, plunge the head of cabbage core side down into a large pot of boiling water.  Be careful not to fill the pot to high and overflow the boiling water with the cabbage.

After 4 or 5 minutes, use tongs or a fork to carefully peal back the now softened cabbage leaves.  Drop the leaves into a bowl of ice water.  Continue removing the leaves until only half the head of cabbage remains.  Remove this smaller, center portion of cabbage and save for another use.

To make cabbage rolls, lay a cabbage leaf on the cutting board.  WIth a sharp knife, remove 2 to 3 inches of the thick, firm rib in the middle.  This will make them easier to roll around the filling.   

Fresh Fork Market | 800-861-8582 | [email protected] | http://www.freshforkmarket.com
PO Box 609612
Cleveland, OH 44109