P I C K L I S T
RADISH - LETTUCE - BEET GREENS - CELERY - BROCCOLI - SPAGHETTI SQUASH - ONIONS - CARROTS - SWEET PEPPER - POTATOES - DECORATIVE GOURD
BREAD: AUBERGINE BREAD
Today we thank this very kind weather for allowing us to move into Fall harvest and farm clean up with real ease. Historically, come November, I am deeply buried in layers with fingers freezing. But not this Fall. Pooh once told me many many moons ago, that everything you do in winter and Fall is 10 times harder and slower then the same task in Summer. There is so much truth in that statement. When the weather drops, farm equipment and trucks take way longer to start, fingers go numb in seconds, and when ice hits, forget about it- it takes 10 years just to walk to the packshed from the greenhouses. However, this Fall hits like a warm cozy blanket.
Fall cleanup to us means pulling irrigation, mowing off plants, and making sure cover crop seed is down. We finished the potato harvest last Saturday and lack of Summer moisture left us with less than half of a crop, our lowest yields per acre in the last 15 years. But the crop that is there looks pretty good. We knew the harvest wasn't going to be great when there were few sets of tiny tubers in August (when we usually think about harvesting). Yesterday the crew planted next year's garlic crop (total allium magic), then went and pulled some decent fall carrots while Allie and I harvested in t-shirts and no gloves for today’s CSA- not bad at all for this time of year. SOAK UP THAT SUN EVERYONE!
And lastly, as mentioned in this morning's email, Our lead kitchen queen Laura, is now taking Thanksgiving PIE orders through her side baking hustle, JUMBO HONEY BUN BAKES! Everything Laura does is pastry gold- you would be a fool not to seek out and indulge in everything she makes.
FOR MORE INFO ON JUMBO HONEY BUN THANKSGIVING PIE ORDERS, HEAD HERE:
Also, great news for PIE pick up,
one of the options is in conjunction with the last Fall CSA on Tuesday, Nov. 22nd 4-6pm at our farmstand
and if you'd rather make your own pie, but still wanna try out and devour all things jumbo honey bun,
then head this Saturday, NOV. 5th, to the Reading Greenhouse ART FAIR, 10am-4pm.
We will be going promptly at 10 for breakie treats, See ya there :)
Pro-tips:
Prep Time 25 mins/ Cook Time 40 mins/ Total Time 1 hr 5 mins/ Servings 4
Lime Peanut Sauce
½ inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 teaspoons hot sauce of your choosing
2 tablespoons peanut butter
½ teaspoon lime zest
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon tamari soy sauce
¼ tsp toasted sesame oil (optional)
½ cup grapeseed oil
Spaghetti Squash Noodle Bowl
1 large spaghetti squash, cut in half lengthwise and seeds scooped out
4 cups thinly sliced kale
4-5 cups broccoli florets
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup chopped toasted nuts (cashews, almonds etc)
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
½ cup chopped cilantro or parsley
sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a blender and blend until fully incorporated. Taste for seasoning and set aside.
Line a baking sheet with parchment and place the squash halves, cut side down, onto the sheet. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the flesh pulls away in easy strands.
While the squash is baking, place the sliced kale in a large bowl and set aside.
Once you’ve taken the squash out of the oven, set a medium saucepan with about an inch of water over medium heat. Bring it to a simmer. Place the broccoli florets into a steamer basket and drop it into the pot, closing the lid on top. Let the broccoli steam for 3-4 minutes, or until tender. Keep warm.
While broccoli is steaming, scrape the spaghetti strands out with a fork into the large bowl with the sliced kale. The heat from the squash should wilt the kale slightly. Pour a big splash of the dressing into the bowl, season with salt and pepper and lightly toss the squash and kale.
Remove broccoli from the heat. Portion the squash and kale into 4 bowls. Top each bowl with the steamed broccoli, red onions, chopped nuts, sesame seeds, chopped herbs and extra sauce.
Equipment
Blender
Recipe Notes
Definitely use the sharpest knife you've got for the spaghetti squash. You don't want to be pulling a stubborn knife out of a half-cut squash.
You could also use tahini, almond butter, or sunflower seed butter in place of the peanut butter
MIREPOIX YOUR CARROTS ONIONS CELERY before you make your soups!!
Mirepoix is the magical combination of carrot-onion-celery. This Is the base of all things delicious- think sauce, stew, soup, stock, etc… These vegetables are diced, cooked for a long time in a fat of your choice on gentle heat without browning- the intention being to sweeten rather than caramelize. Similarly, is Creole version known as the Holy Trinity using onion, celery, and sweet peppers! As we enter soup season- adopting this holy trinity seems appropriate.
Many types of cuisine have a term for this way of building a flavor base with chopped and gently sauteed vegetables. The Italians say soffrito, the French say mirepoix, but we can all agree that it creates a subtle but rich depth of flavor in all kind of soups, braises, and more. Carrot, onion, and celery are the classic players, but there are as many approaches to sweating as there are names. You can chop in a tiny, regular dice or in rougher chunks; you can swap in ingredients on hand in a ratio that tastes right to you. A Manhattan restaurant kitchen I cooked in used fennel in addition to the classics, and cooked each vegetable separately before mixing them together to form a base for a whole array of sauces.
Here are the essential things to keep in mind whenever you're starting a dish with sweating, where the goal is not to make the vegetable flavors assertive individually but rather to set the stage so that starring ingredients added later can shine.
Slow and low heat wins the race. Heat the oil in your pan only enough that it makes the barest sizzle when the vegetables go in, and keep it low. The idea is to soften and flavor the vegetables gradually; they should barely darken in color.
A big pinch of salt draws out moisture quickly and speeds UP the process.
Keep a watchful eye as the mixture cooks; at a certain point it will begin to noticeably darken in color, which will affect flavor. That's not necessarily bad, but depending on the other ingredients in the dish you may want a more delicate or a more intense flavor from the vegetable base.
You'll get much more tenderness and flavor this way vs. adding aromatic vegetables to a soup later. A broth will never go above the temperature of boiling water, whereas low stove heat channeled through a small amount of oil or butter will heat vegetables beyond the boiling point and do more to soften and concentrate their flavor.
It's up to you how long you let your vegetables sweat (or how soon you take mercy on them). But a good handle on the process will go a long way towards letting you consistently reproduce recipes in your own kitchen--and, I suspect, will keep your friends coming back for second bowls of whatever you're cooking up this fall. --Chris Morocco