CSA Share Week 22 (The last week of the season! Is this
possible? Wow!): From our farm to
your table this week…
Greens: Bok Choy, Kale, or Swiss chard
Green TomatoesGreens: Bok Choy, Kale, or Swiss chard
Onions
Peppers
Sweet Potatoes
Winter squash (various)
Tips for using &/or preserving your produce…
Greens
It’s like the return of an old friend when fall greens are ready to harvest. We didn’t learn until AFTER I emailed you last week that the fall lettuce had been drowned by recent rains. Please accept my apologies for writing to you about lettuce then having Ford deliver greens! This week, I can say with confidence that greens are wonderful too! Depending on which variety you select / what is available, you will receive Bok Choy, Kale or Swiss chard. We posted some of our favorite recipes for each of these earlier this year. Here are some links to those posts:
Green Tomatoes
Chef Joseph Smith serves up our green tomatoes as fried green tomato sandwiches in his café, Joseph’s, on 4th Street here in London. Although I’ve yet to try one, they sound so delicious that I’m determined to try to make one at home. You can keep it vegetarian OR, if you’re feeling adventurous, you might like adding a couple slices of bacon and serve them up on toasted sourdough bread. With an order of Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries you’ll have a hearty, home-grown meal that will feel pretty healthy even if there was a little frying involved.
Roasted wedges of onion, stir-fried slices and caramelized slivers of onion will add excellent flavor to fall greens as well as whipped potatoes and winter squash. If you’ve saved up a few bulbs already, perhaps you would enjoy a French onion soup?
I didn’t know these beauties were still in the field or they might not have found their way into your CSA boxes this week! (….shh, don’t tell Ford I said that.) These are one of the last real summer crops to linger into cool weather. Enjoy them fresh while they last, or use them to add flavor to warm casseroles, fajitas, and homemade chili.
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are so good that it’s hard to make a bad dish using them. …although, I have, on occasion. Here are a few of our favorites: Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries, whipped sweet potatoes with applesauce (make the potatoes as you would white mashed potatoes, but add applesauce), and, my personal favorite, sweet potato pie. I will be forever grateful to a friend of mine who shared this recipe at a Thanksgiving potluck years ago. I’ve been enjoying it every Thanksgiving since. Although it is a rich pie, it is not floating in butter or topped with sugary nuts and marshmallows. This one really tastes like sweet potatoes, and I love it!
Sweet potatoes are so good that it’s hard to make a bad dish using them. …although, I have, on occasion. Here are a few of our favorites: Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries, whipped sweet potatoes with applesauce (make the potatoes as you would white mashed potatoes, but add applesauce), and, my personal favorite, sweet potato pie. I will be forever grateful to a friend of mine who shared this recipe at a Thanksgiving potluck years ago. I’ve been enjoying it every Thanksgiving since. Although it is a rich pie, it is not floating in butter or topped with sugary nuts and marshmallows. This one really tastes like sweet potatoes, and I love it!
Gwen’s
Sweet Potato Pie
3 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch
squares
1.5 cups sugar
1.5 cups whole milk or 1 12oz can evaporated milk
2 eggs
1.5 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick of butter
Dash of cinnamon
Pre-heat oven to 400oF.
Boil sweet potatoes until very tender. They should easily mash with a fork.
Pre-heat oven to 400oF.
Boil sweet potatoes until very tender. They should easily mash with a fork.
Beat the potatoes with a mixer on medium speed and
stop to remove and discard any fibrous strings.
While the potatoes are still warm, add butter and continue
mixing.
Add remaining ingredients and continue mixing until
the batter has a nice, smooth consistency.
You can pour the batter into your favorite unbaked
pie crust or omit the crust entirely and pour the batter directly into a
greased 9 or 10 inch pie pan. (This recipe makes a very thick pie in a
9-inch pan, but I like it that way, it looks impressive!)
Sprinkle the top of the pie with a dash of cinnamon
and bake for 50-60 minutes. (A knife
inserted in the middle of the pie should come out clean when it’s done.)
Cool for at least 1 hour before cutting and serving.
Winter squash
Did you know that canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie fillings are often made with winter squash? Just this week I baked some butternut squash using the method described last week (LINK) but without the brown sugar and butter. It is so sweet, creamy and delicious all by itself! The texture is much smoother than pumpkin – perhaps that’s why it’s used commercially as a pumpkin replacement. Unlike pumpkin, there’s no need to puree roasted butternut squash in a food processor after it bakes because it lacks the fibrous texture of pumpkin and falls apart on its own. This quality also makes it great for savory fall soups and risotto. Here’s a very simple, delicious way to enjoy butternut, and other winter squashes without letting the squash get lost in butter and sugar: Butternut Squash Soufflé.
Did you know that canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie fillings are often made with winter squash? Just this week I baked some butternut squash using the method described last week (LINK) but without the brown sugar and butter. It is so sweet, creamy and delicious all by itself! The texture is much smoother than pumpkin – perhaps that’s why it’s used commercially as a pumpkin replacement. Unlike pumpkin, there’s no need to puree roasted butternut squash in a food processor after it bakes because it lacks the fibrous texture of pumpkin and falls apart on its own. This quality also makes it great for savory fall soups and risotto. Here’s a very simple, delicious way to enjoy butternut, and other winter squashes without letting the squash get lost in butter and sugar: Butternut Squash Soufflé.
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
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