CSA week 2

6 days late due to family wedding and so many shenanigans, my deepest apologies everyone!

Pick List:

sweet potatoes - kale - hot pepper - tomatoes - onion - garlic - brussel sprouts - corn -

pumpkin - ginger - eggs

KITCHEN LIST:

BIG BREAD

HOT PEPPER MUSTARD

forgo the fancy vegetable photoshoot this week due to lack of time, so instead i present you a photo of roy eating the freshest big bread from week 2’s pick up.

forgo the fancy vegetable photoshoot this week due to lack of time, so instead i present you a photo of roy eating the freshest big bread from week 2’s pick up.

Here we go FALL CSA week 2!

Writing from a warm office on this very wet and dreary Monday.  I could be picking right now, but have chosen to look ahead to the next few days to harvest.  All I can say is, Thank goodness for Tuesday and the sun that will shine. We are expecting a hard frost this coming week- Thursday and Friday night the lows will dip into the high 20’s, potentially decimating our peppers and eggplants and field tomatoes… To be perfectly candid with you all, I’m not mad about it.  

There comes a time in the season when it finally feels good to walk away from a crop and say, “farewell dear friend, see you again next year”- that’s pretty much where I am at right now.  

That said, we still have so much in the ground that will not be affected negatively by the cold.  In fact many of the crops will sweeten up with the frost- broccoli, brussels, and all the other brassicas are among those vegetables that will thrive in the colder elements… to a point of course.

Also, our new pack shed is really proving itself.  As the potatoes, carrots, and beets, are dug and sorted, they are then stacked- three Bins high- in the cooler.  It’s pretty impressive. Currently, the forklift is one of the most valuable members of the crew. Bottomline, we welcome the frost as there is plenty of food in the field and coolers to feed us all well into January.  


TIPS - TRICKS - RECIPES

Fire Cider

½ cup grated fresh horseradish root

  • ½ cup or more fresh chopped onions

  • ¼ cup or more chopped garlic

  • ¼ cup or more grated ginger

  • Chopped fresh or dried cayenne pepper ‘to taste’. Can be whole or powdered.  ‘ To Taste’ means should be hot, but not so hot you can’t tolerate it. Better to make it a little milder than to hot; you can always add more pepper later if necessary.

  • Optional ingredients; Turmeric, Echinacea, cinnamon, etc.

  1. Place herbs in a half-gallon canning jar and cover with enough raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar to cover the herbs by at least three to four inches.  Cover tightly with a tight fitting lid.

  2. Place jar in a warm place and let for three to four weeks.  Best to shake every day to help in the maceration process.

  3. After three to four weeks, strain out the herbs, and reserve the liquid.

  4. Add honey ‘to taste’.  Warm the honey first so it mixes in well.  “To Taste’ means your Fire Cider should taste hot, spicy, and sweet.  “A little bit of honey helps the medicine go down……”

  5. Rebottle and enjoy!  Fire Cider will keep for several months unrefrigerated if stored in a cool pantry.   But it’s better to store in the refrigerator if you’ve room.

A small shot glass daily serves as an excellent tonic Or take teaspoons if you feel a cold coming on.

Take it more frequently if necessary to help your immune system do battle.

serves: 3-4

notes: Use regular potatoes if you like and any kind of greens that strike your fancy. This soup is rather easy going.

1 tbsp grapeseed or coconut oil

1 small onion, diced

5-6 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed

1/3 cup french/brown lentils, rinsed + picked over

1 medium sweet potato, cut into 1/2-1 inch dice (peeling is optional)

5 cups vegetable stock (or 1 veggie bouillon cube + 5 cups water)

4-5 cups of roughly cut, sturdy greens (mustard greens, kale, cabbage, collards)

juice of 1/2 a lemon

salt + pepper

Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until they are quite soft, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the lentils and diced sweet potato and stir them about to coat in the oil. Season with salt and pepper.

 

Add the stock to the pot and bring to a boil, stirring the pot here and there. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook until the sweet potatoes/lentils are just soft, about 15 minutes. Add the greens and give the pot a stir. Allow them to wilt just slightly. Add the lemon juice, taste for seasoning and serve the greens soup hot with chili flakes, drizzles of extra virgin olive oil and whatever else you like.

GINGER!!

I am completely and totally in love with this crop.  If you are not planning on using in the next 5 days, put it in a plastic freezer safe bag, and stick it in your freezer.  From there you can take it out and grate or chop into whatever meal/potion you are making. The beauty of this ginger is that it is tender enough to eat fresh.  I plan on making a ton of fire cider with it and perhaps another batch of kimchi. I’m also a big fan of cutting into slivers and throwing it in a broth. These days, we’ve been making weekly batches of chicken soup with big chunks of carrots, onions, garlic and ginger thrown in for the broth.  Other ideas for ginger include: juicing, boiled for tea, and one of my all time favorites: CARROT-GINGER-MISO DRESSING- Go ahead and give that a google, you will not be disappointed. Smittenkitchen.com has an excellent recipe for that.