2013 CSA Share Week 19

From our farm to your table this week…

Item	How to Store it	How long will it last?
Acorn Squash	Room temperature	Several months
Apples	In fridge	Several weeks
Butternut Squash	Room temperature	Several months
Green Beans	green beans: unwashed in fridge	green beans: 3-4 days
onions	room temperature, in a ventilated container, in a cool, dry, dark area	several weeks
Potatoes non-organic	room temperature, in a ventilated container, in a cool, dry, dark area	Several weeks
Sweet Potatoes	room temperature, in a ventilated container, in a cool, dry, dark area	Several weeks
Tomatoes red for Thursday pickup, green for Saturday	at room temp	~1 week
Yellow squash OR zucchini	Unwashed in fridge	1-2 weeks

Tips for storing and enjoying the produce in your weekly share

This week, your baskets are screaming – “hearty vegetable soup!”  With a wide variety of late summer and fall produce, there are many familiar dishes that come to mind as well as mix-and-match combinations that would make for excellent soups, stews, pasta dishes, and casseroles.  The options are almost endless, enjoy!

2013 CSA Week 18

From our farm to your table this week…

Item	How to Store it	How long will it last?
Acorn Squash	Room temperature	Several months
Butternut Squash	Room temperature	Several months
Green Beans	green beans: unwashed in fridge	green beans: 3-4 days
Sweet Peppers, regular & mini	unwashed, in fridge	2-3 weeks
Potatoes non-orgnanic	room temperature, in a ventilated container, in a cool, dry, dark area	Several weeks
Sweet Potatoes	room temperature, in a ventilated container, in a cool, dry, dark area	Several weeks
Tomatoes	at room temp	~1 week

Tips for storing and enjoying the produce in your weekly share

 

There are a variety of delicious soups and stews you can make with your squashes and sweet potatoes, as well as hearty autumn pasta dishes and risottos.  You’ll find a few links for such recipes below.

from Cooking light: http://www.cookinglight.com/food/in-season/winter-squash-recipes-00412000073413/

Sweet potato recipes from Southern Living: http://www.southernliving.com/food/entertaining/10-sweet-potato-recipes-00417000075762/page19.html

Great winter squash recipes from the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/?s=squash&submit=

Another favorite of mine, sweet mini peppers, are a highlight of your veggie selection this week.  Rather than chopping them up as a wood traditional bell peppers, I love to fill these sweet crunchy mini peppers with hummus or an easy homemade cream cheese filling with toasted pecans and Worcestershire sauce.  Yum!

2013 CSA Week 17

From our farm to your table this week…

Item	How to Store it	How long will it last?
Apples non-organic	in fridge	Several weeks
Butternut Squash	Room temperature	Several months
Onions	room temperature, in a ventilated container, in a cool, dry, dark area	several weeks
Potatoes non-orgnanic	room temperature, in a ventilated container, in a cool, dry, dark area	Several weeks
Sweet corn – non-organic	shucked (my preference) or with husks on in the coldest part of your fridge (usually the bottom vegetable crisper)	Enjoy as soon as possible – fresh corn is much sweeter when fresh than when stored
Tomatoes Yellow squash or zucchini	at room temp unwashed in fridge	~1 week 1-2 weeks

Tips for storing and enjoying the produce in your weekly share

This week you’re really beginning to see a transition from summer to fall crops.  A few summer items like tomatoes, yellow squash & zucchini remain, but they won’t be around for long.  I would recommend enjoying them fresh in light salads or very lightly cooked because it will be many months before we enjoy these vegetables at their best again.   

One new item this week, butternut squash, has become the basis for several of our favorite fall meals.   It is excellent baked and enjoyed as a side dish with a bit of butter and/or brown sugar, but there are many other excellent ways to use butternut squash.  The smooth, creamy texture of butternut squash makes it a wonderful base for soups, risotto, and soufflés.  Below you’ll a few of our favorite fall recipes that use items you’ll in the share for this week and here’s a link to a recipe I’d love to try that combines butternut squash with apples and pecans, yum! Honey Roasted Butternut Squash with Apples & Pecans.

Potato-Corn Chowder
2-3 cups, peeled, cubed white potatoes
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
16 oz chicken broth (or enough to cover up your potatoes in the crockpot, add a little water if you have to)
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
2 cups fresh corn kernels

1-2 cups sliced sausage, cooked
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup finely shredded sharp cheddar or Monterey jack cheese

Combine first 4 ingredients (through broth) in a large crockpot.  .
Turn on low for 8-10 hours or high for 6-8 hours.
During last hour, whisk together flour and milk to thicken and add milk mixture, corn, sausage.

Stir thoroughly, salt and pepper to taste, then serve, topping with shredded cheese, if desired.

Butternut Squash Soufflé with Sage
*adapted from Southern Living 2007

1 large squash, baked

3 large eggs

½ cup sour cream or plain yogurt

¼ cup sugar

2 Tablespoons butter
¼ cup flour
1 Tbsp fresh sage, minced
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg.

Preheat oven to 350^oF.
Grease an 8” square baking dish and set aside.
Combine all ingredients in a food processor in the order listed above.
Pour into prepared dish and bake 55-60 minutes or until set.

Butternut Squash and Chicken Curry Stew
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed1 small onion, finely diced
1-2 lbs chicken breast, cut into 1-inch chunks
24-32 ounces organic chicken broth, low sodium (depends on how thick you like your stew) 
1 large or two small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes
3/4 cup orange juice 
2 tsp yellow curry powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp brown sugar
½ cup raisins 

-Heat olive oil over medium heat in a Dutch oven.  Cook onions and garlic until slightly browned then add chicken and cook thoroughly but don’t let it get dry or burn.
-Pour broth over chicken, and then add butternut squash.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for about 45 minutes to 1 hour (or turn it on low and leave it for a LONG time).  
-When the squash is very tender and a few pieces have fallen apart, remove ½ cup of the liquid and combine with remaining ingredients in a small bowl.  Whisk together thoroughly and return to the Dutch oven. 
-Continue to simmer for about 20 minutes, remove from heat and serve.
Optional- stirring in 1-2 cups of chopped kale, tatsoi, or spinach when you add the cubed squash is a great way to boost the nutritional value of this stew and it’s delicious.  

2013 CSA Week 16

From our farm to your table this week…

Item	How to Store it	How long will it last?
Basil	DO NOT WASH; store in an UNCLOSED CONTAINER in fridge OR snip the bottom of the stalks & immerse in water as you would with fresh cut flowers	1-2 weeks
Green Beans	unwashed in fridge	3-4 days
Melon	room temperature	1 week
Spaghetti squash	room temperature	2-4 weeks
Sweet corn – non-organic	shucked (my preference) or with husks on in the coldest part of your fridge (usually the bottom vegetable crisper)	Enjoy as soon as possible – fresh corn is much sweeter when fresh than when stored
Tomatoes   Yellow squash or zucchini	at room temp   unwashed in fridge	~1 week   ~1-2 weeks

 

Tips for storing and enjoying the produce in your weekly share

 

You have many summer favorites once again: green beans, melons, corn, tomatoes and yellow squash or zucchini.  You also have one summer favorite that you haven’t seen in a while – fresh basil, along with a winter squash, so I’ll share a few tips for those items this week.

 

Basil

Fresh basil is real a treat to savor now before the first frost (probably just over 1 month away) puts the basil plants to rest until next summer.  If your tastes have already shifted to fall flavors, you can always dry the basil and save the dried leaves for winter soups, stews, and pasta dishes.  Here’s a link to an old post on our blog about drying and storing basil: Storing Basil.

 

Spaghetti Squash

Just this week I realized that we sent your first spaghetti squash of the season a couple weeks ago without any recipes for this new item!  Ooops!  The good news is there are LOTS of great recipes out there and you probably already found some.  …but just in case, I’ll direct you to a few good resources for spaghetti squash.  Over the years I’ve learned that there seem to be two broad categories of recipes for spaghetti squash: the “make it like spaghetti” versions and “this is NOT spaghetti” varieties.  I enjoy both approaches.  One of my favorite recipe websites, the Tasty Kitchen, has a great list of recipes for this veggie so first I’ll direct you to that list HERE, and then I’d like to point out three specific recipes from the list.

Creamy, cheesy, Spaghetti Squash Gratin gets great reviews and looks like an excellent option.  Another recipe, Creamy Spaghetti Squash with Fresh Tomato Sauce is a more traditional pasta-like preparation and it’s a great way to use the fresh tomatoes and basil in your share for the week, just replace the grape tomatoes in the recipe with the regular ones in your share.  You could also easily add finely diced yellow squash if you want to add one more veggie to this dish. 

Lastly, because it’s fun to make dishes that have a surprise vegetable tucked inside, I’ll direct you to a recipe for pancakes made with spaghetti squash!  If you’re feeling adventurous, or if you don’t particularly like spaghetti squash, try Spaghetti Squash Pancakes.  It will be fun and you’ll hardly even know the spaghetti squash is in there!  …but you’ll feel so healthy! 

2013 CSA Week 15

From our farm to your table this week…

Item	How to Store it	How long will it last?
Acorn Squash	room temperature or slightly cooler in a dry, dark place	~2 months
Eggplant Saturday only	room temperature	3-4 days
Melon	room temperature	1 week
Green Beans	unwashed in fridge	3-4 days
Peppers	unwashed in fridge	1 week
Sweet corn – non-organic	shucked (my preference) or with husks on in the coldest part of your fridge (usually the bottom vegetable crisper)	Enjoy as soon as possible – fresh corn is much sweeter when fresh than when stored
Tomatoes	at room temp	~1 week

 

 

Tips for storing and enjoying the produce in your weekly share

 

New items this week…

 

Acorn Squash

This week marks the beginning of one of the major highlights of the harvest season.  We are now enjoying the first winter squashes of the year and acorn squash just happens to be my favorite!  I love it stuffed with delicious grains and fruit or sliced into rings or wedges, basted in a citrus glaze and baked.  It is an amazing vegetable.  It also happens to be the only winter squash we grow with a skin that’s thin and tender enough to be eaten.  Some folks still pass on the skin, but a well baked/roasted acorn squash has firm, crisp skin and soft orange flesh and I think they make a great pair!  Here a couple of my favorite ways to enjoy acorn squash, skin and all: #1) Acorn Squash Rings Glazed with Maple & Orange and #2) a homemade recipe below for Stuffed Acorn Squash with items that are usually available at the same time in late summer/early fall – acorn squash and fresh pears!

Stuffed Acorn Squash – 6 servings

3 small to medium acorn squash
3-4 cups brown rice, cooked
1.5 cups toasted walnuts, broken into small pieces
2 cups orange or pear juice
1 cup pears, peeled & chopped into small squares
½ to 2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 Tbsp REAL butter
1.5 cups raisins
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Wash acorn squash remove stem or stem end and cut in half from the pointed end to the flat, stem-end.
Remove seeds and any stringy flesh inside.
Place cut-side down in a baking dish with about ½ inch of water and bake for 1 hour.
In the meantime cook your rice if you don’t have prepared rice on hand.  (I like to make big batches of rice then store it in the freezer for quicker meal preparations.) Set aside.
Toast walnuts in oven or microwave and set aside.Combine remaining ingredients and bring to a boil on the stove while stirring frequently with a whisk.  (You don’t want the raisins to stick and burn.  You want them plump and juicy!)  Reduce heat but continue stirring until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture has thickened slightly.Remove baked acorn squash from oven, remove any excess water from squash and pan.Arrange squash, cut-side up, on a lightly greased cookie sheet or baking dish.Combine the rice, walnuts and all but 3/4 cup of the liquid portion of the juice mixture.  Stir until ingredients are evenly distributed then fill the acorn squash. Now put the stuffed squash back in the oven for an additional 20 minutes to let all the flavors blend.In the meantime, return the ¾ cup remaining juice mixture to the stove and bring it to a boil, stirring constantly.  Allow it to get just a bit thicker but don’t let it turn into a sticky syrup.Remove stuffed squash from oven and drizzle with remaining juice mixture.Serve immediately!This is great alone but a light salad of fall lettuce & greens balances out this hearty, vegetarian main dish.

 Familiar Favorites

This week our dear friend and CSA member Tifany, shared a wonderful recipe that uses both tomatoes and corn.  It’s quick, simple and received a lot of great reviews online!  You can find the recipe at this link: Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes & Corn. Thanks Tifany!