2013 CSA Share Week 2

From our farm to your table this week…

Item	How to Store it	How long will it last?
beans, dried	cool, dry, dark place	months
oregano	unwashed, in fridge, in sealed container or plastic bag	~1-2 weeks
lettuce	washed & thoroughly dried (my preference) or unwashed, in fridge, sealed in container or plastic bag	~2 weeks
sweet potatoes	cool, dry, dark place	~2-4 more weeks, they’ve been in storage all winter
bok choy	washed & thoroughly dried (my preference) or unwashed, in fridge, sealed in container or plastic bag	~2 weeks
tomatoes	at room temp	~1 week

More information…
Dried Beans
You’ll find more of the same little round Mississippi Silver hull beans in your share this week.  If you didn’t cook up the beans in your first share, you can combine the two for a BIG pot of beans or a hearty stew.  One CSA member says she made a soup with the beans, sage, sweet potatoes, and rosemary, adding onion, basil, salt, pepper, ground turkey, and some of her own frozen tomatoes & green beans.  Doesn’t that sound delicious?!?!  Thanks April – for sharing the great idea for a healthy one-pot meal!
Here’s the link to the basic recipe we shared last week for cooking up the beans.

Oregano

Last year Ford and I established a raised bed for perennial herbs.  We hope you enjoyed using fresh sage last week.  This week, we’d like to introduce you to the distinct flavor of fresh oregano.  Oregano is a popular, well-known herb.   You may have used the dry version many times in your own homemade Italian dishes.  Only in the last year have I enjoyed the intense flavor from using these herbs fresh.  I’m always looking for creative ways for us to use the crops that we have on hand and, although I haven’t tried this one yet, I’m looking forward to experimenting with this recipe from Real Simple for Rigatoni with Sweet Potato, Oregano, and Parmesan.  If you don’t think you’ll have time to use the oregano while it’s fresh, you can dry it for short term storage just by hanging it upside down in your kitchen.  If you’d like to keep it for several weeks, it would be best to follow guidelines like those in Janet Bachand Chadwick’s food preservation guide called The Busy Person’s Guide to Preserving Food. She recommends drying the leaves in a food dehydrator at 110^oF for 4-8 hours (check the manufacturer’s instruction on your dehydrator just to be sure) or in a conventional oven at 110 ^oF for 6-8 hours, or outdoors out of direct sunlight for 8-12 hours.

Lettuce
This week you’ll find big leaves of fresh green lettuce that are excellent for salads or layered in sandwiches.  You’ll notice a slightly stronger, sharper flavor than typical supermarket lettuce, as is the case with many home-grown products.  You may prefer to shred this large leaf lettuce into ribbons or chop it finely and mix with other greens if you prefer milder salad greens.

Sweet potatoes
This will probably be the last time you see sweet potatoes in the share until the end of the CSA season in September or October.  There are so many ways to enjoy them!  If you’ve never tried just roasting them in olive oil and fresh herbs, now would be a great time to try.  My favorite herb for roasted sweet potatoes is rosemary.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary

2-4 medium sweet potatoes

1-2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 Tablespoons fresh herbs such as rosemary or thyme

Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 400^oF.
Thoroughly scrub sweet potatoes and pat dry.

Using a sharp knife, remove any small holes or imperfections in the skin and peel if desired.

Slice potatoes into long, thin wedges.  You should get about 4-6 wedges from a medium potato.

Toss potatoes with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper and spread evenly on a baking sheet.
Bake for 30-45 minutes depending on desired texture and thickness of potato wedges.  Turn the potatoes once in the middle so they get nice and brown on two sides.
Bok choy
We hope you enjoyed the bok choy you received last week.  This green is a very reliable spring crop so you’ll probably see it once or twice more before the weather gets really hot.  In hot weather, lettuces and greens produce flowers and acquire a bitter taste.  Typically, you’ll only see these crops in spring, early summer, and fall.

Tomatoes
Tomato picking in the greenhouse is one of our son Finley’s favorite farm chores these days.  It is a delight to go out and harvest dozens of firm, ripe, juicy tomatoes this time of year.  When grown exclusively outdoors in our geographic area, tomato plants do not produce ripe fruit until around early July, so we hope you’re as excited as we are to be enjoying them now!  This week I’ve eaten lots of them in sandwiches, with creamy cheeses, and finely diced in guacamole.

As always, please feel free to contact me for clarification, further information, or to share your own adventures in cooking local, USDA-certified organic produce.  amanda.waterstrat@gmail.com

2013 CSA Week 1

From our farm to your table this week…

Item	How to Store it	How long will it last?
beans, dried	cool, dry, dark place	months
sage	unwashed, in fridge, in sealed container or plastic bag	~1-2 weeks
strawberries	unwashed, in fridge, in sealed container or plastic bag,	~2-5 days
sweet potatoes	cool, dry, dark place	~2-4 more weeks, they’ve been in storage all winter
tatsoi	washed & thoroughly dried (my preference) or unwashed, in fridge, sealed in container or plastic bag	~2 weeks
tomatoes	at room temp	~1 week

More information…
Dried Beans

This year we’re very excited to offer you our first crop of organic, dried beans. (Some folks call them hull beans, some folks call them Southern peas.)  Mississippi Silver hull beans (also known as cowpeas or crowder peas), are a nutty, flavorful bean that originated in Africa and gained popularity in the South.  They look like a slightly larger, darker version of black-eyed peas.  As with most dried beans or peas, they require a good “lookover,” a soak, and a boil followed by a long, steady simmer on the stove until the beans are tender.  Step-by-step instructions are provided below in green highlighting.

Options: If you’re in the mood for a hearty bean stew, add lots of garlic, onion, diced tomatoes and your favorite seasonings and serve with warm cornbread as we did in the photo below.  If you’d prefer to eat them in a cold salad for a big Memorial Day gathering, try this fresh recipe for Texas Cavier from Tasty Kitchen. Just substitute your cooked Mississippi Silver beans for the black-eyed peas.

 

Mississippi Silver Beans – Basic Instructions

“Lookover”
Spread your beans out on a smooth flat surface like your dining table or a large countertop and carefully sort them, discarding any small bits of hull, peas with holes, or debris. 

Wash & Soak
Rinse the beans thoroughly in a large bowl then cover in water and soak overnight or 6-8hours. 

Cook

Add beans to a large dutch oven or sturdy pot and pour enough water to cover the beans by about 2 inches.  Probably about 3-4 cups water per cup of beans.  Bring the beans to a rolling bowl then turn down the heat to simmer and continue to simmer and stir for 1.5-2 hours.  Check the beans periodicallyand add water if necessary. You may also add seasonings such as herbs, salt, pepper, onions, garlic or meat like ham or bacon for seasoning at this point.

Sage

This herb is popular in fall harvest meals and Thanksgiving stuffings but it also makes a WONDERFUL addition to savory soups, stews, and meat.  If you like making sweet potato soufflé, or very soft, creamy baked sweet potatoes, try adding a bit of finely minced sage leaves on top with a sprinkle of brown sugar and a bit of butter.  Delicious!!

 Strawberries Rinse, eat, and enjoy!

 Sweet potatoes These were harvested right around the time that the 2012 CSA season came to a close.  We’ve been enjoying them all winter.  Bake, them, throw them on the grill, or, if you prefer a lighter option, you can use them as a crunchy salad topping!  Just cut them into long thin strips, lightly coat them in olive oil, toss with salt and pepper, and roast for 20-30 minutes at 425-450oF, turning once after 10-15 minutes.  They are great along with toasted walnuts & feta or crumbled goat cheese on top of a fresh bed of greens.  In the photo at right, we paired this salad with a butternut squash soufflé.  It was delicious!

Tatsoi AND Bok choy
Both tatsoi and bok choy are Asian greens and although their leaves bear some similarities, they vary significantly in size and intensity of flavor. 

Tatsoi has small, spoon-shaped, tender leaves that grow in a rosette atop thin, pale green stems.  Both stems and leaves are delicious raw in salads or lightly steamed or sautéed.   I like to think of it as spinach with a spicy kick! Bok choy has much longer, wider, dark green leaves on sturdy, white, crisp stalks. Both stems and leaves are edible, but the leaves have a strong flavor which means bok choy is best steamed, boiled, or finely chopped in a slaw like the Bok Choy Apple Salad recipe below.

Bok Choy Apple Salad     1 large head bok choy

     2 large or 4 small apples (sweet & crunchyarebest)

     1/2 cup sliced almonds

     ½ cup raisins

     1/4 cup olive oil

     1/4 cup cider vinegar

     2 tablespoons soy sauce

     1-2 Tablespoons sugar

            

     Rinse bok choy and separate stems.  Clean thoroughly – dirt likes to hide out down at the bottom of those long white stems! 
Layer the leaves in stems in one tall stack then chop off the stems and dice them into ¼ thick pieces.  Roll the leaves up tightly into a log shape and slice into fine ribbons.

     Toss chopped bok choy with remaining dry ingredients except sugar.

 

     Combine remaining ingredients and whisk vigorously.  Pour over salad, stir and enjoy!

 

This will last 3-5 days in the fridge. 

 

Tomatoes

Long, long ago (in February of this year) Ford started some tomato plants in the greenhouse and just in the last two weeks, we’ve begun harvesting bright, beautiful, red tomatoes.  If you’re a tomato purist, perhaps you withheld entirely from the winter tomatoes in the supermarket because you knew they only bear the resemblance of a tomato but lack the flavor and texture that characterize the beautiful fruit.  The tomatoes we’ll harvest from the field later in the summer will have even more flavor, but for now, enjoy the best tomato you’ve had in several months!

 As always, please feel free to contact me for clarification, further information, or to share your own adventures in cooking local, USDA-certified organic produce.  amanda.waterstrat@gmail.com