CSA Share for 2013 Week Seven

I really loved the variety in our share this week, and we even got some delicious fruit!  In our share this week:

• arugula
• kale/swiss chard
• mizuna
• lettuce
• green beans
• cucumbers
• zucchini/summer squash
• cabbage
• peaches
• apples

How right Farmer Anne is when she says in our newsletter that some members are excited to see the arugula back this week.  I admit I was not a fan at all when I joined our CSA 15 years ago, but now it’s one of my favorites.  The turning point for me was when she wrote in a 2011 newsletter to cook some arugula and cherry tomatoes in olive oil, add hot penne pasta, cheese (I use feta), and lemon juice (see photo above).  I’ve been in love with arugula ever since.  Thanks, Anne!

I’m extra-psyched about the arugula this year because not long ago, I discovered my favorite pizza while eating out one night:  Prosciutto and Fig Pizza with Arugula.  I’ve found an online recipe here, but there are lots of variations out there, so take a look and give it a try.  (You could also make it simpler by adapting it to my Tortilla Pizza recipe.)

CSA Share for 2013 Week Six

What a pickup week it is…those were heavy bags!  In our share this week:

• lettuce
• mizuna
• garlic
• swiss chard
• beets
• summer squash
• sweet corn
• lots of extras

If you happened to grab some Chinese cabbage from the extras, this Inside-Out Dumplings recipe is fantastic.  It calls for bok choi, but I think substituting Chinese cabbage would work very well.

Every year it seems every gardener gets an abundance of zucchini and summer squash.  I just wash and dice them up, put them in the blender (I have a Magic Bullet type blender), add just enough water so the mixture will blend, and then pour 2-cup batches into ziploc baggies.  I then freeze these and take them out one at a time for making Zucchini Brownies (recipe from a 2007 farm newsletter).  I’ve been making these ever since I read that “vintage” newsletter, and they are GOOD.  Since it’s so easy to blend and freeze the zucchini and summer squash, it’s a great way to use them all up, and those baggies will last all winter long.

(Image courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

CSA Share for 2013 Week Four

I love those BIG bunches of greens!  So so healthy for you.  And isn’t that colorful chard gorgeous?  In our share this week:

• swiss chard
• beets
• kale
• cucumbers
• basil

If you are wondering what to do with the giant bunches of greens we are getting, try what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks.  I take all my greens (kale, collards, beet greens), rinse them, then saute them all together in a large pot with olive oil till tender; this really reduces their volume.  I then let them cool a bit, add the other ingredients called for in this Kale Salad recipe, and put it all in a container in the fridge.  Then, over the coming week, it’s easy to add a bit of this mixture each day atop Tortilla Pizza, in any type of stir-fry, into burritos or sandwich wraps,  and over pasta.  The big advantage is that you wash, cook, and prepare it once and then you’re done, plus it frees up space in your veggie drawer.

If you know you won’t get to the cooked-down greens this week, just cook them down, let them cool, then throw them in a freezer bag.  They’ll be waiting for you in the fall or winter.

(Top image courtesy of flickr)

CSA Share for 2012 Week Nine

With all this lovely basil we’re getting, don’t forget to keep making that basil pesto and then freezing it.  You’ll be happy you did come wintertime.  In our share this week:

• basil
• swiss chard
• cucumbers
• bell pepper
• kohlrabi
• beets
• potatoes
• corn
• tomato

I thought a mid-summer collection of recipes for this week’s veggies would be helpful.  I haven’t tried any of these, so let me know what you think.  I found these over at the Mayo Clinic’s website, where they have lots of recipes and healthy living tips.

Peppers:  Pasta Salad with Mixed Vegetables.  This recipe calls for several of our farmshare veggies including garlic, onions, zucchini, and basil.  You could even throw in some of the sweet corn.  It calls for green and red bell peppers, but you could omit the red bells until they start coming in.

Cucumbers:  Cucumber Pineapple Salad.  Never had these two foods together!  I wonder if it’s good…

Beets:  Beet Walnut Salad.  In addition to beets, this recipe calls for some of our greens.

Potatoes:  Potato Soup with Apples and Brie Cheese.  Save this one till later on when the weather turns a bit cooler.  Doesn’t this one sound delicious?

(Image courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

CSA Share for 2012 Week Eight

the beach of Tropea

Aren’t those Tropea onions beautiful?  See my post from last year for info on and ideas for these onions, and check out wikipedia for more images.   In our share this week:

• lettuce
• swiss chard
• Tropea onions
• cucumbers
• beets
• corn
• garlic
• basil
• sweet corn

Farmer Anne mentioned in our newsletter that, despite all the recipes you can find online, she still likes looking through cookbooks; I certainly am with her on that one.  And I also agree with her that the Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks are fantastic.  Currently, Moosewood has published 12 cookbooks and have another one coming out soon.  I’m sure you can find some of them at your library, or you can buy them right from the Moosewood website.  One of my favorites is Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health, which has a fantastic Oatmeal Cookies recipe.

But until you track down some great cookbooks, these recipes featuring Tropea onions should hold you over:

• Spaghetti with Tropea Onions
• Grilled Sweet Tropea Onions
• Bruschetta with Tuna Loin, Tropea Onion, and Black Olive
• Lidia’s Sweet Onion/Tomato Soup

Happy cooking, and happy eating!

CSA Share for 2012 Week Seven

Even if I know how to prepare my veggies, sometimes I just need a little inspiration.  Reading cookbooks usually does that for me, and this week I found a beautiful new cookbook at the library:  The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila.  I especially like Alana’s writeups before each recipe which make each one special.  I’ll be sure to try her Hummus and her Nut Butter recipes, but I’ll wait till winter to make her Lentil Soup.

In our share this week:

• garlic
• basil
• lettuce
• swiss chard
• cabbage
• Chinese cabbage
• cucumbers
• potatoes

Basil and Garlic:  My family looooooves basil pesto, so the big bunch of basil was a welcome sight.  I thought I had my pesto recipe down-pat, and had been using walnuts instead of pine nuts for years (see my Arugula Pesto recipe post, and simply replace the called-for arugula with basil).  But then my husband was talking to a friend recently who recommended trying pecans as a pine nut replacement instead of walnuts; they’re still half the price of pine nuts but give the pesto a smoother taste than walnuts.  If you’d like to try it, here’s an actual Basil Pecan Pesto recipe.

Cucumbers and Cherry Tomatoes:  Now that the cherry tomatoes are really kicking in, try simply cutting them in half and mixing with diced-up cucumbers, then tossing with olive oil, balsamic, feta cheese, and a little fresh-ground pepper.  This is even better if left to sit for a bit.

Chinese Cabbage:  This is perfect for one of my favorite recipes:  Ellie Krieger’s Chop Suey.   As I mentioned in my previous post from a few weeks ago, I like to replace the called-for wonton skins with chow mein noodles.

CSA Share for 2012 Week Five

I was thinking yesterday that it sure seems easy for me to wander up our farm’s path and load up my veggie bags, but I do try and remember that our farmers combine their experience, expertise, good judgement, and a lot of hard work to produce our absolutely outstanding produce.  THANK YOU, guys!!  In our share this week:

• lettuce
• swiss chard
• mizuna
• red cabbage
• summer squash/zucchini
• cucumbers
• golden beets
• broccoli

Since there were extras of summer squash, it’s time to share with you my favorite way to enjoy zucchini:  Zucchini Brownies.  I posted over a year ago on these, in which I link to an old farm newsletter from 2007.   Also in the post is a link linking to another post which links to an old newsletter containing a member’s recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (it takes some clicking around, but it’ll be worth it!).  🙂

If you don’t feel you can get to your cabbage right away, try freezing it using these tips and see what you think.  Speaking of freezing things, I posted last year on freezing cucumbers and when I took them out months later, they were DELICIOUS.  And, if you have tons of garlic scapes still in your veggie drawer like I do, just mince them up, throw ’em in a bag, and freeze.

(Image courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

CSA Share for 2012 Week Three

I took this picture of our farm’s cherry tomato plants in case anyone missed getting a good look at them.  There are RED ones in there, and it’s not even July yet.  How about that?!  Even though they’re not ready for us to pick, it won’t be long now.

In our share this week:

• swiss chard
• collards
• lettuce
• beets
• cabbage

I think the focus should be on the cabbage this week, since they are REALLY large.  I’m going to try as many coleslaw recipes as I can, starting with Mom’s Coleslaw, No-Mayo Coleslaw, and Haitian Coleslaw.  Also, I’m going to try our green cabbage instead of the napa cabbage in this chop suey recipe from Ellie Krieger that I’ve made many times (another substitution I usually make is chow mein noodles in place of the wonton skins).  Whatever you do, just make sure to eat all your cabbage, since it’s high in Vitamin C, can help prevent/reduce inflammation, and has a chemical that can block the growth of cancer cells and boost DNA repair in cells.

If you have kids or just want some brain exercise, try this classic Wolf, Goat, and Cabbage game.  Also, while looking for cabbage trivia online, I came across this website of Kindergarten teacher Cherie Stihler who lives in Fairbanks, Alaska.  One of the first books she wrote was The Giant Cabbage – An Alaska Folktale, and her website is filled with cabbage-y fun, such as puzzles, recipes, and trivia.  Check it out!

CSA Share for 2011 Week Twelve

Check out the new search feature over at the Bear Hill Farm CSA website!   I’ll be using this handy tool a lot in the future, when I want to quickly find recipes that I vaguely remember seeing printed in old newsletters.  LOVE it!

In our share this week:

• kale
• swiss chard
• carrots
• Tropea onions
• summer squash
• tomatoes
• garlic

Whenever I have medical questions that I’m researching, and since I’m a native Minnesotan, I usually head over to the Mayo Clinic website.  They have hundreds of healthy recipes on the site, and so I thought I’d share some of the results of my recipe-surfing with you (one for each veggie in this week’s share):

Kale:  Braised Kale with Cherry Tomatoes

Swiss Chard:  Fettuccine with Swiss Chard and Mushrooms

Carrots:   Baby Minted Carrots

Tropea Onions:  Lentils with Wild Rice and Crispy Onions

Summer Squash:   Steamed Summer Squash with Warm Leek Vinaigrette

Tomatoes:   Lima Bean Ragout with Tomatoes and Thyme

Garlic:   Grilled Portobello Mushrooms with Thyme and Garlic

Happy, healthy eating to you!

CSA Share for 2011 Week Ten

I loved that one hot pepper!  Somehow, getting just the one made it more “savorable.”  Or maybe, after reading the newsletter, we sensed and appreciated its survivalist nature. 😉

In our share this week:

• kale
• lettuce
• swiss chard
• cucumber
• summer squash
• Tropea onions
• tomatoes
• garlic
• and a hot pepper

Ahhhh, Tropea onions.  I’m excited for members who are getting their first taste of these sweet treats.  As Farmer Anne says, they do need to be cooked to bring forth their sweetness.  Some interesting reading on Tropea onions can be found here, where this Italian guy (actually, a first-generation Italian-American living right here in Massachusetts) states that in Tropea, Italy, you can find red onion marmalade, and even red onion gelato!  So, after some searching, I did find a Tropea onion marmalade recipe here.  I haven’t tried it, but let me know if you do.

By the way, I have been diligently pureeing my zucchini and summer squash, pouring them in one-cup portions in a ziploc bag, and storing them in my freezer.  This will simplify my winter-time baking of these delicious and somewhat healthy Zucchini Brownies.  The recipe actually calls for two cups of grated zucchini, but since I always make half-batches, I freeze in one-cup portions, and I find that pureeing (rather than grating) the zucchini in a blender is easier and works just as well.  If your blender is a bit stubborn getting started on the zucchini, start with just a few chunks and a little bit of water, and when those get going, slowly add the remaining chunks.