I would like to recommend a book to those of you that might be interested in a more personal glimpse into sustainable agriculture in Illinois.

'The Seasons on Henry's Farm' by Terra Bockman is a beautifully written, week by week description of the work and joy that goes into growing the kind of produce we received from farmer Vicki. (Henry is a neighbor of Vicki's). It makes you both inspired and tired!

It is available from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Seasons-Henrys-Farm-Year-Sustainable/dp/1572841036/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263841191&sr=1-1

and probably other places as well.

Chunky apple sauce

Wash, peel and cut up apples. Add in cut up pears and plums (both with their skins) if you have any on hand. Put cut up fruit in a glass bowl and cover with saran wrap. Cook in the microwave on the 'fresh vegetable' setting.

Don't add water or sugar - the fruit are great just as they are. (If you add plums, you'll have lovely patches of purple.)

My plan for this week's box includes soup - which is what the weather calls for. Since we will have beets, I will take full advantage and make curried vegetable beet soup. I'll saute an onion, some garlic, and sliced carrots and beets. I will peel and grate the turnip and add it into the mix. I will season it with about a tablespoon of coriander, a tsp of cumin, and a dash of cayenne pepper. After these have simmered for a bit, I'll add about 6 cups of vegetable stock and let it come to a boil. I'll turn it down and let everything cook for about 20 minutes and then I'll add a handful of pearl barely. Once these are cooked, I'm in business.

I will take the cabbage and use half for cole slaw. I will use the other half and make a stir fry with an onion, garlic, sliced mushrooms, and cabbage. I will serve this over rice with some fish.

Lastly - I hope that I get another kuri squash. It tastes like chestnut to me. I will wash it, slash it in a couple of places vertically and then bake it at 350 for about an hour. I'll let it cool so I can handle it. I'll cut it in half and scoop out the seeds and such. I will then cut 1/2 inch slices and lay these on a greased cookie sheet. I'll spay it with olive oil and sprinkle with salt before tossing it under the broiler for a couple of minutes. I will then turn them and spray with a bit more oil and cook the other side. Oh dear - so good!

Game Plan for Fall Week 3

There was a great article in The New York Times' Dining section today with 101 recipe ideas that use everything in this week's box, and probably anything you've got hanging around from previous weeks as well.
Happy cooking and Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall CSA - Week 3

Friday and Saturday my guys ran the chisel plow and the drill and got all the field chiseled and planted. What a nice thing! I got home from market and the job was done. The weather helped, giving them an open door. Their ambition kept them out Friday night until ten, running on lights and then back at it first thing Saturday. At one point Friday night one 4020 had its lights go out. It is pretty hard to drive a field in the dark. Rather than quit, Jay went in, opened up the dash and rewired the lights. Then after that little intermission he was back out in the field drilling away.


Now we have rain to moisten the seed and perhaps we will get some germination and root spread to hold the soil over the winter. I still want to plant a few crops to overwinter for early germination next spring, and my guess is I will get the job done if the weather continues to hold. Hot darn!


According to the weather man the temps are going to plummet around Thanksgiving. That means the fall root harvest is a major GO! for us. So while we take our one week break on delivery during the Thanksgiving week, we will be out harvesting roots and more roots. The brussels sprouts can stay out even if it gets cold, so those I do not have to worry about. But, those roots . . . it is either cover them with lots of mulch or pull 'em up. Mostly, we will pull them up.


This weekend the deer decided to add lettuces to their menu. Now Bambi is no longer cute. They literally shredded them, devouring them down to the ground. Some were salvaged, but when Bambi adds a new item for his salad, the people don't get too many left overs.


Your box
Sweet potatoes
Red onion
Spanish onion
Brussels sprouts
Apples - Jonagold this week. Tasty (might throw in a few other varieties for fun, so if you get a different looking apple it is from past week's left overs)
Red kabocha squash
Pie pumpkin
Hakurei turnips
Carrots (last time on the greens, so if you have not tried Tuscan Carrot Top Soup, here is your last opportunity for 09)

This Week's Plan

I love fall produce not only because it makes for very home-y foods they are all gifts from the farm waiting to be stored or frozen for the winter.

Here's a link and a Video for the newcomer to our Box. Everyone please welcome Kuri Squash!



and a brief description from BoingBoing.

One of my favorite apple desserts is to bake them with rosemary. I place them quartered, in some water with butter and and a few whole sprigs of rosemary until they are just a bit softer and serve drained.

Enjoy!

What Should I Expect From My CSA

This week's guest post comes to us from Madeline Guzman, newsletter coordinator and member of Hazon CSA in Rockville, MA.



Tikvat Israel has now experienced almost three seasons of CSA produce.  For most of us, being part of a CSA has been a new experience. The reaction to participating in our CSA has ranged from ecstatic to greatly disappointing.  Those who have enjoyed the experience are
signing up for the next season.  Those of us less pleased are either dropping out or giving the CSA “another chance”. This has led me to think about what each of us is expecting of a CSA.  If one comes into this experience expecting a delivery of the “right” quantity of vegetables in perfect size, shape, and flavor that are most enjoyed by your family, you may be disappointed.  If one comes into this experience learning to accept what the land produces, one might be amazed by what the earth (and our farmer) have to offer. 

As our summer CSA season drew to a close, I reflected on the responses to the produce received by our members.  I’m not sure everyone fully appreciates the meaning of a CSA. To me, it means the shared responsibility for bringing fresh food to our table.  In conjunction with my CSA membership (and inspired by Danny Bachman), my husband and I started a vegetable garden.  Like the experiences of both Danny and Pam Stegall, our CSA farmer, not all has gone according to plan. Some of our produce came out unlike what we expected, some better than expected, and a few crops were even a total loss.  The results in my own vegetable garden were probably a mini-experience of what Pam feels throughout her growing season. The difference is that her commitment is to many more people than my own.

True, CSA produce is not perfect. The pesticides and fungicides used on conventional produce do not protect organic produce. Sometimes this means being very careful to wash away animal pests or cut away a damaged portion of a vegetable.  Like us, animal pests (and even bacteria and fungus) find our veggies tasty!  We need to be a bit gentler and forgiving of what the earth produces.  
 
One particular Hazon CSA in Tenafly NJ, has been hit particularly hard this year. When Steve Golden (Tenafly’s site coordinator) visited the farm, he saw first hand the inexplicable fact that the beets did not grow, despite being planted in the best soil of that particular field.  Indeed, the other rootcrops – turnips, carrots and radishes – did not really produce.  So too the arugula, as well as the broccoli – which looks like it had some leaf disease which limited its growth.  Not to mention the horrible late blight that killed all of our tomatoes and those in neighboring Rockland County and throughout the Northeast. 

Crestfallen, Ted (another one of our famers) brought us the few cherry tomatoes which were not completely rotting in the field even though they too were infected (if you left it on your counter to ripen, as we did, the blight overtook the little fellow overnight). We all sympathize with the Stephens who will now have to pull up all the myriad tomato plants and burn them.  What a great shame – so much painstaking care and tending going up in smoke.  Thankfully, the squash did much better, although the green zucchini harvest was only a fraction of what we would have had if the season were “normal”.  That goes for the first planting of cucumbers and string beans.  All in all, the spring/summer harvest has been a devastating experience for the Stephens family. (excerpted from The Jew and the Carrot blog, “A Difficult Summer: A Letter from the Tuv Ha’aretz in Tenafly” by Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster)

Reading afterward about the support provided to the devastated farming family in this situation was heartwarming. My point is simply that CSA members are literally sharing the successes and failures of farm life. So, dear members, thank you for thinking hard before you commit yourselves to this practice and immersing yourselves in it completely once you have.

Pumpkin and Porcini Soup

This delicious soup recipe comes from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. It calls for canned pumpkin, but check out this video tutorial on steaming and pureeing your own pumpkin for use in recipes. Using fresh pumpkin adds water, which can be tricky when baking a pie, but just perfect when making soup. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4-6 servings:
1/2 C broken dried porcini mushrooms (about 3/4 ounce)
2 C boiling water
2 large onions, mined (about 3 cups)
2 T vegetable oil, olive oil, or butter
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 C chopped fresh mushrooms
1 t fresh thyme (1/2 t dried)
1 1/2 T fresh sage (2 t dried)
dash of nutmeg
1/4 C Marsala or dry sherry
1 T soy sauce
1 C unsweetened apple juice and 1 C water, or 2 C vegetable stock
4 C pureed cooked pumpkin
salt and ground pepper to taste
1 C milk or half-and-half (optional)

Preparation:

• Break up any large pieces of porcini. Pour the boiling water over the porcini and set aside to soak.
• In a soup pot on medium heat, saute onions in the oil until softened.
• Add garlic, fresh mushrooms, thyme, sage, and saute until mushrooms are soft.
• Then add nutmeg, Marsala, and soy sauce, apple juice, water or stock and heat almost to a boil.
• Stir in the pumpkin.
• Remove the pumpkin from the soaking water with slotted spoon and add them to the soup. Pour the soaking water through a coffee filter or paper towel to remove any grit, then add to the soup.
• Add salt and pepper to taste and the milk/cream if you like.

*This recipe would also be delicious using a combination of pumpkin and winter squash.

Summer CSA Week 20

Life in St Anne has gotten colder. I don't mind in some respects, but in the arena of work I do mind. It is just so much more difficult to get any task accomplished. What we can do in a half hour in the summer takes us an hour in the cold. I have heat in both working areas so the guys can warm up, but that does not help when out in the field. I was out just before dawn today trying to get a jump start on the picking before they guys arrived. I had on thick gloves to keep my fingers warm. But, then I could not move my fingers easily. Then came the debate: cold fingers or decreased flexibility? Decreased flexibility won out. I kept the gloves on. My guys, though, would have decided opposite me and gotten rid of the gloves so they could work better.

The field is drying out some now, but I am really hoping for a bit of warmth. We has many crops out in the field that need some sun and warmth to finish out. Everything is growing as if it is November, rather than October. The weatherman agrees with my plants in that the temps are November temps, unseasonably cool. But, that has been the case for all on 2009, so why expect anything different?

We have a greenhouse due to be delivered the end of October for November construction, so I hope we get some moderation. It will increase our growing space by 1020 square feet. In the spring that will be nice.

Your box

Red onion - finally got a quantity of these babies cured and cleaned.

Butternut Squash

Pie Pumpkin
Boc choi

Kale

Carrots

Red leaf lettuce

Apples - these are an apple pear cross called Golden Russets. They are known for their crispy texture and sweet flavor.

Miscellaneous addition of extra new item or item that is in the box already. If you have any questions on what an item is, let me know.

okay -change of plan! I was lucky enough to have a head of cabbage in my box so here's what I'll do:

this recipe is from the ny times

Cabbage Minestrone

Despite having just a few ingredients, the flavors of this minestrone are no less complex than my summer minestrones that have a lot of different vegetables in them. Cabbage sweetens a broth as it simmers gently (and no, it won't smell like boiled cabbage).

1 heaped cup chick peas, washed and picked over, soaked for 6 hours or overnight in 1 quart water

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

Salt to taste

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 (28-ounce) can tomatoes, seeded and chopped, with juice

1 1/2 pounds cabbage, outer leaves removed, cored and coarsely chopped (about 1 medium cabbage)

2 1/2 quarts water

A bouquet garni made with 1 Parmesan rind, a bay leaf, and a few sprigs each parsley and thyme

Freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup elbow macaroni or small shells

Freshly grated Parmesan for serving

1. Drain the chick peas and set aside. Heat the oil over medium heat in a heavy soup pot and add the onion, carrot, and celery. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring often, until the mixture is fragrant and the vegetables tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in half the minced garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute or so, until the garlic begins to smell fragrant. Add the tomatoes and their liquid and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 10 minutes, until the tomatoes have cooked down a bit. Add the cabbage, stir together for a minute, then add the drained chick peas, 2 quarts water, and the bouquet garni. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer 1 hour, or until the beans are just about tender.

2. Add the remaining garlic and salt to taste, cover and continue to simmer another 30 minutes to an hour, until the beans are thoroughly cooked and the soup very fragrant. Add a cup more water if it seems too thick. Add pepper, taste and adjust salt. Remove the bouquet garni.

3. Add the pasta and cook until the pasta is cooked al dente, 5 to 10 minutes. Serve, passing the Parmesan at the table for sprinkling.

Yield: Serves 6 to 8

Advance preparation: The soup may be made a day ahead through Step 2 and refrigerated. Bring back to a simmer and proceed with the recipe. It keeps for a few days in the refrigerator.

Approximate Nutritional Information per Serving (based on 6 Servings): 183 calories; total fat: 5.2g; saturated fat: 0.7g; cholesterol: 0mg; sodium: 413 mg; total carbohydrates: 30.6g; dietary fiber: 7.6g; sugars 9.3g; protein: 5.8g; vitamin A 47 percent recommended daily allowance (RDA) based on a 2,000 calorie diet; vitamin C 92 percent RDA; calcium 9 percent RDA; iron 10 percent RDA. (Nutritional information provided by calorie-count.com)