CSA News - August 16

Lakes and Valley CSA news week 8
Delivering to PR and DL August 18, Dilworth and Fargo on August 21, 2008

In your veggie boxes this week:
Raspberries
Zucchini and summer squashes
Basil
Radishes
Mesclun with edible flowers and late, baby peas
Green beans
Cucumbers
Cabbage
Broccoli
Cauliflower—white, orange cheddar or (coming soon) purple Graffiti
Carrots
Tomatoes, cherry and slicing
Flat leaf parsley
Eggs in PR and DL shares
Coming soon—tomatillos
Coming soon—you-pick-em green beans for canning or freezing.

Several of you have asked about ordering beef this fall. We will have no steers ready this fall. Severe drought in 2007 forced us to cull our herd to only brood cows and yearling heifers. But our friend (and former intern) Angela Michieli at Camphill Village Minnesota in Sauk Centre has six steers that will be ready. She farms biodynamically, just as we do. Her steers are presently out on pasture, and will be given the six-week grain finish that marbleizes the meat just right. Last March’s meat customers had her beef, and loved it.

The beef ordering process will be the same—using the forms that will be sent as attachments to a separate email today, reserve either a half or a quarter of beef, custom cut and wrapped. The meat will be delivered in three batches of two steers each, mid-November and December.

We will dry and bag for you now the Calendula blossoms. Their oil content is increasing with the season, and Julie, our resident herbalist, feels an electric dehydrator will ensure successful drying and future storage. Dried, the bright orange flower petals will make a sunny addition to your winter soups and salads.

Speaking of capturing summer in a jar, I hope you are putting up some of your produce. I made a batch of pesto today. Half topped a veggie-rice lunch dish. The rest went into the freezer. I also froze a few bags of broccoli. Little by little, I restock my freezer.

Each week our tomato harvest is increasing. Cherry tomatoes always come first. Our Sungolds are outpacing the red Favoritas because we lost more Favoritas in the Big Freeze. We replanted, of course, and the replacement Favoritas are now flowering like crazy. The pale yellow cherry tomatoes in your veggie boxes are Snow Whites. Very sweet, full tomato flavor, they are open-pollinated and have thin, tender skins.
We re-sowed hybrid determinate tomatoes, rather than heirloom indeterminate, after the Big Freeze. Determinates are bred to not need staking, but have been increasingly susceptible to early wilt and other fungal diseases. We wanted their concentrated fruit set, so we put a five gallon bucket of two-year old compost underneath each transplant. The plants are waist high and bushy now. Tomatoes are forming, and we’re promised more summer weather next week.

The determinate tomatoes claimed a bed we had intended for seed saving. We had already set in the two paste tomato plants that survived the B.F. The mother paste tomato volunteered in the onion bed in 2007. Even with its late start, it ripened fruits. Impressed, I saved the seed and planted it this year. I have no idea what variety it is, but it is a survivor, and worthy of protection.

I am always eager to save seed. Dewane replants his oat and barley seed each year. The oat rust fungus has all but disappeared. One year NDSU tested his oats in the lab, hoping he’d bred a rust-resistant strain over time. It turned out that was not the case, but his fields still show no rust. He feels his biodynamic practices strengthen the plants so they can resist rust. Practice, not breeding. Hmmm.

Arugula self-sows nearly everywhere in the CSA garden now. The resulting plants form giant rosette heads, a feat I have never been able to achieve sowing the seed.

The shell pea we grow is Green Arrow. I have been selecting and saving the seed for thirteen years. We like the snow pea and sugar snap pea more for your veggie shares, so we don’t raise more running feet of Green Arrow for seed, than for eating. The plants have lost none of their original vigor, and have become the foundation stock for Turtle Tree Seeds, the U.S biodynamic seed company.

This year we’re hoping to harvest seed for the first time from our Calabrese open-pollinated broccoli. We harvested florets when the main, hybrid varieties were not yet ready. Now, we’re letting them flower. The bees are ecstatic, for they adore Brassica nectar. I’m not sure what Broccoli honey tastes like, but they are gathering it with the same intensity they show toward the summer squashes.

Seed saving requires time and space, time to do the hand-work and space to separate varieties so they don’t cross-pollinate. Most seed companies are global, raising two crops a year by hybrid farming in South America in our winter. New, genetic modification of seeds (GMO’s) goes one step farther—gene-based controls make them proprietary. Some grain seed now contains what has been labeled a “terminator” gene. The seed cannot be saved and replanted, which will be devastating to peasant farmers in India and Africa. Other seeds are “mated” to a brand of herbicide or fungicide. The promise of this type of seed work is lessen the use of chemicals, but it also concentrates the availability of seed in the hands of one or two companies worldwide.

I hope that we will be able to do more seed saving in the years to come. Seeds can be moved from northern latitudes southward. A longer growing season guarantees time enough to form ripe seed. One has to take much more time—or use extra-ordinary season extenders—to grow a southern crop in Minnesota or North Dakota. Peanuts, anyone?

I took pictures this week for the newsletter with Rachel’s old digital camera. A neophyte with bifocals, I handed the camera to Andrea and, through some sleight-of-hand, transferred them to the soup building computer. She showed me how to resize them, but to be safe, I will attach them in a separate email.

Tomato Bruschetta
2 or 3 large tomatoes, diced
4 large basil leaves, sliced into ribbons
salt and pepper
12 slices French bread, sliced thin
3 cloves garlic, halved and crushed
¼ cup olive oil
Parmesan cheese or Feta cheese

Prepare a medium fire in a gas or charcoal grill, or preheat an oven broiler.
Combine tomatoes and basil in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
Toast bread over the fire or under the broiler until very lightly colored, but still soft. Rub one side of each slice with garlic.

Drizzle each slice with 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Using a slotted spoon, top each slice with a spoonful of tomato. Top with cheese and serve.

Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 cups cherry tomato halves
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh herbs
salt and pepper

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add tomatoes and sauté until heated through, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds. Remove from heat and add herbs. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Tomato Pesto Tarts
2 pounds tomatoes, cored and sliced ¼ inch thick
1 teaspoon salt
2 10-inch homemade or storebought pastry rounds
1 large egg, beaten
½ cup Parmesan cheese
½ cup pesto
½ cup grated mozzarella cheese

Cover a large work surface with a double layer of paper towels. Arrange tomato slices in a single layer on top of the towels. Sprinkle evenly with salt. Let stand 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place pastry rounds on the baking sheet. Brush pastry with beaten egg, leaving a 2-inch border around the edges.
Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese onto both pastries. Spread pesto over that.

Place paper towels over the tomatoes and press firmly to dry. Arrange dried tomato slices on top of the pesto in overlapping circles. Sprinkle mozzarella on top.

Fold up the pastry edges and crimp. Bake 25 to 35 minutes, or until golden. Let stand 5 minutes. Cut into wedges.

Easy Homecanned Salsa
24 cups quartered ripe tomatoes
8 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
2 cups white distilled vinegar
hot peppers to taste
2 onions, chopped finely
1 cup fresh green chile peppers, chopped finely
1 cup sweet bell pepper, chopped finely
salt

Combine tomatoes, garlic, vinegar and hot peppers in a large pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until tomatoes are very soft, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes. Process through a food mill, discarding skins and seeds.

Return to your pot and add onions and peppers. Simmer until salsa has reduced to a nice, thick sauce, about 1 hour. Season with salt.

Ladle hot salsa into clean, hot pint jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Seal. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Let cool undisturbed overnight. Store in a cool, dry place for up to one year.

Tomatillo, the Mexican husk tomato, is small and round, yellowish green like an unripe tomato. It is a native of Peru, was a staple in pre-Columbian cooking and is a member of the Solinacea family. The tomatillo is more closely related to the Gooseberry than the tomato. It is covered in a parchmentlike skin that peels off easily. The fruit can be used raw or cooked, and has flavors of green apple and lemon, with herbal, tart undertones. Cooking tempers the intensity of the flavor. The pulp is high in a pectin-like substance that acts as a natural thickener. Sauces made with tomatillos tend to thicken slightly when refrigerated.

Tomatillos keep for several weeks in the refrigerator. To prepare for cooking, remove the paper husks and rinse off the sticky residue on the skins. Finely diced or pureed raw toamtillos add a fresh, tangy, citrus-like flavor and are often used in Mexican dishes.

Blanched for 5 minutes, the flavor of the tomatillo becomes surprisingly mellow. Roasting under a broiler or grilling brings out more flavor. A recipe with tomatillos will require tasting and adjusting with sugar if the flavor is too tart.

Dry roasting produces a nutty flavor. Place tomatillos in a heavy cast-iron skillet. Turn heat to low. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes, turning occasionally, letting each side take on a rich, burnished gold color before turning.

My sister’s mother-in-law is from Mexico City. An expert cook, she shared her favorite tomatillo recipes with Caroline and me when I visited last May:

Tomatillo Salsa
4 tomatillos
1 jalapeno or serano pepper, seeded and deveined, then chopped
1 large clove garlic, chopped
10 shoots cilantro
oil

Whir cilantro and garlic in a food processor or blender. Add pepper.
Slice tomatillos. Heat a frying pan and add 1 Tablespoon oil. Add a single layer of tomatillo slices and fry on each side until flesh is golden brown and soft. Add to blender and repeat until all tomatillo slices are cooked. Add 1 to 2 Tablespoons water and blend until smooth. Serve with chips. Keeps several days in a sealed jar in the refrigerator.

Tomatillo green sauce
2 mild chile peppers
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 small tomatillos
oil

Slice tomatillos like tomatoes. Heat 1 Tablespoon oil in a frying pan. Arrange a single layer of tomatillo slices in pan and sauté until brown. Turn and cook until brown. Salt slices as they cook. Use a spatula to flatten end slices so they cook well. Put cooked slices into a blender.

Saute chile peppers and garlic in frying pan for 1 minute. Add to blender. Add ¼ to 1/3 cup water and a dash of salt. Blend until smooth. Strain if desired.

Mrs. Gasca recommends serving this sauce over warmed corn tortillas topped with strips of fresh basil and rounds of fresh mozzarella cheese.

Tomatillo and Avocado Dip

3/4 pound fresh tomatillos
4 large garlic cloves
3 ripe avocados
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro sprigs
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
4 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
Preparation
Remove husks and rinse tomatillos under warm water to remove stickiness. Heat a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet or griddle over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and lightly brown tomatillos and garlic in spots all over (do not let burn). Transfer tomatillos and garlic to a plate and cool them to room temperature.
In a food processor, purée tomatillos and garlic until smooth. Halve and pit avocados and scoop into tomatillo mixture. Pulse until coarsely chopped. Stir in cilantro, lime juice, 3 tablespoons onion, and salt and pepper to taste. Garnish dip with remaining tablespoon chopped onion and serve with tortilla chips.

FYI for those following my daughter’s escapades: Rachel (producer), cinematographer Adam and writer/director Steve finished shooting their first feature film in New York City at the end of June. Now titled ‘Happy Birthday Rita,’ the very-low-budget (aka. guerilla) film is a bittersweet May-September love story about an older man unable to move on after his failed relationship with Rita. Each year he bribes a pizza deliveryman to help him celebrate her birthday. One day he inadvertently deletes her last message from his answer machine. Desperate, he hires a young, jaded, East European call girl to re-record Rita’s message. Drawn together by loneliness, they strike up a friendship that frees them to change their lives.

After recuperating from three months of 20-hour workdays, Rachel accepted a temporary job as Assistant Director on a short film to pay her student loans. As of Friday, she (and Adam and Steve) are in seclusion editing Happy Birthday Rita. Her MCAD teacher, Ali Selim (Sweetland), thinks they should enter it in Sundance Film Festival. That deadline is looming. Stay tuned. I am.

CSA News - August 9

Lakes and Valley CSA news Week 7
Delivering to PR and DL August 11. Dilworth and Fargo August 14, 2008

Anne’s cell phone 218-252-5858

In your veggie boxes this week:
Raspberries
Jade and Provider Green beans
new crop baby lettuce with edible flowers
Cheriette Radishes
Blue Wind Broccoli
Early Jersey Wakefield cone-shaped or Alcosa Savoy round cabbage
Ailsa Craig sweet onions
Green and yellow zucchini, yellow crookneck and patty pan summer squashes
Diva and Tyria hoophouse cucumbers
Cilantro and Basil
Cutting celery (dry for winter meals)
Red and gold cherry tomatoes, plus some slicers
Bell or pointed sweet pepper, as we can
Sweet baby Jane or Rainbow early carrots
Swiss chard and kale greens
Cauliflower or beets or bag of snow and sugar snap peas
Calendula flowers (dry petals for sunny winter garnishes)

The garden is overflowing with abundances of produce, enthusiasm and energy. Member Carmen Nodsle and her son Calvin came on Monday to help wash, sort, bag and box veggies. And they delivered the DL share boxes on their way home. Thank you so much! You were great help and stupendous company.

Thank you, as well, Fargo members, who help me carry boxes up to Brigitte’s porch. I really appreciate the help, especially as the boxes get heavier and my time between loading the truck and departure has shrunk to twenty minutes.

It takes thirty-five woman hours twice a week to pick and pack CSA deliveries at this stage of the season. Eight hours are spent delivering the share boxes. Chicken chores of grinding feed, feeding, watering, moving houses, egg gathering and washing add another seven hours per week. Garden weeding, watering and successive planting need thirty-five or more hours. Top those off with tidy-time lawn mowing around and through the raspberries and veggie plots, and….you get the picture. CSA gardening is a full time job for four people.

Several of you have told me that you have friends eager to sign up for the 2009 veggie season. This is very exciting, for we have decided it is time to add a packing shed onto the garden tool building. We laid a foundation of cement blocks ten years ago, when I was stuck on the crazy notion of opening a seasonal restaurant featuring biodynamic produce grown on site. I’d read about such establishments in Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines and was convinced it could work here. Plus, I’d get a real dinner when Dewane and I worked until dark.

That dream never came to fruition, but it evolved into the CSA. Same good food, great contributing cooks. Jennifer Geraedts is one. She offers, “An incredibly easy, yummy way to eat zucchini and squash. Slice it and fry it in maple syrup (nothing else in the pan but maple syrup).”

Dewane and a buddy have been harvesting big Norway pines that were blown down during the tornado in July. Howard will saw them into lumber specifically for the packing shed. We have a local crew lined up next year to erect a 36x 40 foot structure that will shelter us on harvest days from wind and rain, sun and sleet. It will be big enough to add a walk-in cooler someday, and have a gravel floor with a drain for the hundreds of gallons of cooling rinse water we use each week.

Midheaven Farms (our farm) will take out a bank loan for this improvement, and the CSA will pay back the loan over two years. This is how we started the CSA in 2001, by building the tool shed, putting in the big well and purchasing the water reel, hoses and sprinklers.

Which brings me back to your new member referrals. Affording agricultural improvements without mortgaging everything you own is like moving a house. Carefully and systematically, you raise the number of square feet under production, secure and train co-workers, and determine where you want to go. Then you add CSA member shares to balance those decisions, and voilá! Sustainable agriculture.

The overall goal Dewane and I hold is to donate fifteen acres of garden and woods surrounding the garden to the Yggdrasil Land Trust. The land trust would hold the land in perpetuity for CSA food production. Workers and members of the CSA would lease the land for a nominal fee and keep going what we started seven years ago.

Our plan for the rest of our farm is to put a conservation easement on the land that guarantees organic food production on it. Our land is best suited for pasture and hay for beef or dairy cattle, small grains for egg and meat chickens, vegetables and small fruits.

On August 20th, a group of Minnesota legislators will visit the CSA garden as part of a fact-finding tour on local food production organized by Rep. Brita Sailer. I would like to present them with a list of legislative suggestions. I’d love your input. Email me.

So far I have:
1. Funding for low interest loans for infrastructure (processing equipment, coolers, tools, fencing, etc) for CSA and direct local food production and processing.
2. Funding for wind and solar generated electricity for cold season greenhouse production of fresh produce.
3. State purchase of working ag land development rights through full or matching funding.
A new flower in your bag of mesclun is Mexican Mint Marigold. Tiny, pretty golden yellow flowers top aromatic leaves, which are a substitute for French tarragon. We’ll still give you peppery nasturtiums, cucumber-like borage, radishy radishes, and carotene-rich orange calendula. I love it!

Cucumbers

“He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put into phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers.” Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels)

In the 1600’s physicians treated fever victims by having them lie on a bed of sliced cucumbers. Hence the expression, “cool as a cucumber.” As for eating cucumbers, French scholar Louis Lémery, in Treatise of All Sorts Of Foods, recommends cucumbers only for “young Persons of hot and bilious Constitutions.”

The Ancient Sumerians are credited with the earliest human civilization. What we know about them is preserved in the Gilgamesh, a Sumerian cuneiform that is the first known written legend and tells of a great flood in which man was saved by building an ark. In the Gilgamesh, it is mentioned that Sumerian foods included wild cucumbers. The cucumber is believed to be native to the great Indian center of plant origins, which lies between the northern part of the Bay of Bengal and the Himalayas. The cucumber have never been found wild anywhere, but species closely related to it have been found wild in that region of India.

From there the cucumber spread widely. The cucumber was mentioned in the Bible and was grown in North Africa, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor and other areas at the beginning of the Christian era. The Roman emperor Tiberius demanded cucumbers daily, which required farmers to use artificial methods of growing the hot weather crop, including transporting plants around in wheelbarrows to catch the sun’s rays. Charlemagne had cucumbers growing in his gardens in ninth-century France. They were known in England in the early 1300’s,, but the art of growing them was apparently lost there as a result of a long period of war and turmoil. Cucumbers were reintroduced from the Continent some 250 years later.

Columbus planted cucumbers in Haiti in 1494, and possibly on other islands. Explorers who touched Virginia in 1584 mentioned cucumbers. Presumably the Natives’ knowledge of cucumbers had spread after its introduction by Spaniards far to the south.
Cucumbers were grown in Virginia in 1609 and in Massachusetts in 1629.
The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook, by Andrea Chesman

Freezing Broccoli
Boil water in a large pot. Fill a sink or big bowl with cold water, as cold as you have. Cut Broccoli into bite-sized florets, splitting thick stems. Put into the boiling water and blanch for 3 minutes. Remove immediately and plunge into the cold water. When cool, pack into baggies, press to remove air, and twist tie. Put in freezer and clap for joy. You have several winter meals already made.

The gist of freezing vegetables is to halt enzyme activity in the vegetable by blanching. You can tell when it’s heated enough by the color. Broccoli turns dark green. Then you want to stop the blanching to avoid over-cooking the vegetable. So you cool rapidly. The bag and pop in the freezer. The best results come from being quick. Quick from the garden to the stove, quick from stove to sink. Quick from sink to freezer. Taste and nutrition superior.

Small batches don’t take a long time to process. You can eat some of each week’s broccoli and freeze the rest. With a little determination, your CSA season can last all winter.

Cucumbers in sour cream aka Finnish kurkusalaatti

8 cups thinly sliced cucumbers (CSA cucumbers don’t need to be peeled)
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup sour cream
3 Tablespoons white vinegar
3 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon sugar
freshly ground pepper

Combine cucumbers and salt in a colander and toss to coat. Set aside to drain for 30 minutes. Transfer cucumbers to a clean kitchen towel and pat dry.

Mix together remaining ingredients. Add in cucumbers and toss gently. Serve immediately.

---------------------
SUMMER VEGETABLE STEW
---------------------

6 oz. green beans or yellow wax beans
Salted water
2 med. sized tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
1-2 tbsp. mixed fresh herbs such as marjoram, basil, thyme, savory
Narrow strip of lemon rind
1 sm. red or yellow onion, quartered, thinly sliced
crosswise
1 each small red & yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 green or golden patty pan squash, quartered, thinly sliced
2 zucchini halved, sliced
5-6 mushrooms, thinly sliced or quartered
2-3 tbsp. virgin olive oil
About 1/2 c. water
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
Juice of 1/2 lemon, or more to taste
Freshly ground pepper

1. Use tender, small beans and leave them whole or, if
you're using longer ones, cut them into pieces about 3
inches long. Heat a generous amount of salted water to a
boil, add the beans and cook until just tender. Remove them
with a scoop, rinse them briefly, and set them aside.

2. Plunge the tomatoes into the pot for 10 seconds. Remove
the core and slip off the peel. Cut them in half and gently
squeeze out the seeds. Cut into nice-looking pieces.

3. Chop the garlic with half the herbs and the lemon rind
and prepare all the other vegetables.

4. Gently warm the olive oil in a large, wide pan and add
the onion and half the garlic-herb mixture. Cook slowly
over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, for about 3
minutes. Add the peppers, squash and mushrooms. Add half
the water, season lightly with salt, and cook until the
vegetables have begun to soften, about 5 minutes. If the
liquid evaporates, add more water in small increments just
to cover the bottom of the pan.

5. Add the green beans and tomatoes and continue cooking
until they are warm; then stir in the butter, the remaining
herbs and lemon juice. Raise the heat a little to help melt
the butter and shake the pan bake and forth to combine all
the juices. Taste for salt. Add more lemon juice, if
desired and pepper to taste. There should be an herbaceous
sauce at the end, the tender (but not overly so)
vegetables, and a soft perfume of garlic and herbs.

CSA News - August 3

Lakes and Valley CSA news Week 6
Delivering to PR and DL on August 4th, Dilworth and Fargo on August 7th

To reach Anne 218-252-5858

In your veggie boxes this week:
Shallots
Sugar snap and snow peas
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Baby lettuce with flowers
Tomatoes
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Beets
Kohlrabi
Sweet baby Jane carrots
Raspberries
Cilantro
Possibly new radishes

Isabel Allende envisions the future world like this:
"I see a more feminine world, a world where feminine values will be validated, the
same as masculine values are. A more integrated world. I see that in the future,
things that we have lost in the past will be recovered. There's a search for those
things, a search for spirituality, for nature, for the goddess religions, for family
and human bonding. All that has been lost in this industrial era. People are in
desperate need of those things. I don't think the world will destroy itself in a
nuclear cataclysm. On the contrary, we have the capacity to save ourselves and save
the planet, and we will use it."

Photos this week show the garden beehive. Hannah dressed up. Obviously, I did not. Also attached is a photo of the hail event as it occurred at Hannah’s house, a few hundred yards east of the garden, a photo inside the hoophouse, and a cucumber waiting to be picked.

We’ve had a change in the garden. Ken, our longtime friend and co-worker, left to pursue other dreams. Due to the suddenness of his departure, we were short hands last Thursday and did not have enough time to harvest peas for Dilworth and Fargo boxes. We wish him every happiness.

Happily, we have found a new pair of hands. Joining the garden crew is Chris Rousu—aka “Sister Chris” because she is our favorite daughter-in-law’s sister, and because this helps distinguish her from the many other Chris-es in our lives. She’ll come on harvest days during August to allow her present employer time to find a replacement. She has two young, angelically rambunctious sons who actually eat veggies. I’m looking forward to plying them with good, biodynamic veggies. (Garden workers receive produce as part of their pay. This helps us keep a lid on share prices, but limits the pool of potential workers.)

The raspberries ripening this weekend were green and hard when the hail fell two weeks ago. They are, thusly, undamaged. We have berries to put in your boxes this week!

Any member interested in harvesting late-in-its-season spinach for eating or freezing should come ASAP. The garden is now producing so many vegetables that are time-consuming to pick that we have to walk away from Spinach 1.

Heat units have been slow in coming this season, but the zucchini have finally accumulated enough. The plants are thigh-high and brilliant with bright orange blossoms, which our honeybees visit innumerable times each day. (I wonder what zucchini honey tastes like?) Fruit set has shifted into high gear. Get ready for the traditional deluge.

I made a simple supper last night with a patty pan squash, six green beans and an early, hail-punctured green pepper. (News flash: Peppers will be coming in soon.) I sliced the whole patty pan into thin strips, diced the pepper and snapped the beans, then steamed everything in a covered pan until just tender, added butter, salt and pepper. At the table, I added a generous dollop of pesto. It was heavenly. Dewane ate his sans pesto. His loss.

Basic Pesto recipe
3 cups fresh basil leaves
3 to 4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts.
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Mince the first three ingredients in a food processor or blender. Drizzle in olive oil as the machine runs until you have a smooth paste. Transfer into a bowl and add cheese. Season to taste.

Shallots are miniature brown (or red) skinned onions. The flesh is milder than onions. They can be used interchangeably with onions. We’ve been multiplying out shallots for four years, and finally have enough to pass out.

Here is a recipe using shallots:
Sugar snap peas with Shallots
1 Tablespoon butter
1 large shallot, finely minced
2 cups sugar snap peas
¼ teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons broth or water

Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add shallot and sauté 2 to 3 minutes. Add peas, sprinkle with salt, and stir to coat with butter. Add broth, cover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more, until peas are tender-crisp. Serve immediately.

Do you have a favorite zucchini or summer squash recipe? Send it in and I’ll share it with your fellow CSA members.

Here is my recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cake
½ cup cocoa
½ cup oil
½ cup butter
1 and 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
½ cup milk mixed with 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 and ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups zucchini, grated

1. Cream cocoa, oil, butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and milk. Add dry ingredients and zucchini. Pour into oiled 9 X 13 pan.
2. Mix topping of ½ cup chocolate chips. ¼ cup brown sugar and ¼ cup chopped nuts. Sprinkle on top of batter.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until done.

Grilling Summer squash:
Slice zucchini into rounds. Wrap in aluminum foil after dotting with butter and seasoning with salt and pepper. Cook on grill until tender.

Grill directly by slicing zucchini or summer squash lengthwise into 1/8-inch thick strips (big enough so slices don’t fall through the grill). Baby squashes can be cut into cubes, threaded on skewers and grilled.

For a treat, first toss zucchini with ¼ cup olive oil and 2 cloves garlic, minced. Then spread on a baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Grill 4 inches above the coals, 5 to 8 minutes on each side, until well browned.

Summer squash and cheese enchiladas
2 Tablespoons butter
4 Tablespoons unbleached flour
1 teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups milk
2 cups grated cheese
½ teaspoon salt
pepper
1 Tablespoon oil
1 and ½ cups chopped onions
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large bell pepper, chopped
6 cups chopped zucchini
hot peppers, if desired
¼ cup water
16 to 18 corn tortillas
2 cups chopped tomatoes

In a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour, spices to make a thick paste. Add milk, a little at a time, using a wire whisk. Slowly add the cheese, stirring constantly until melted. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onions and garlic and sauté 5 minutes. Add peppers and zucchini, and sauté 2 more minutes. Add ¼ cup water, cover and steam veggies until tender. Remove from heat and drain excess liquid. Gently mix in 2/3 of the cheese sauce to complete the filling.

Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish. To assemble, place two corn tortillas side by side at one end of the pan. They will probably overlap slightly in the middle. Spread a generous amount of filling down the center of the tortillas, then fold over and roll up. Place seam-side down in the pan. Repeat until the pan is filled. Spoon reserved sauce on top and garnish with tomatoes. Bake uncovered 20 to 25 minutes. Serves 8.

Zucchini and Black Bean Dinner
3 to 6 bunching onions, chopped
2 Tablespoons butter
1 zucchini, sliced
1 yellow summer squash, sliced
1 can organic black beans, drained
garlic granules
fresh cilantro, chopped
grated Cheddar cheese

Sauté onions in butter until fragrant. Add zucchini and yellow summer squash. Cover and steam until squash is tender. Add black beans. Sprinkle on garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with cheese. Serves 2

Mexican Colache (Vegetable Medley) with fresh cilantro
2 Tablespoons oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
3 or 4 small summer squashes, cut into quarter-inch slices
1 bell pepper, julienned
2 cups fresh corn kernels
2 tomatoes, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in a deep skillet. Add garlic and onions. Sauté 3 minutes. Add squash and bell pepper and cook for another minute or two. Add corn and chopped tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium–low. Cover and simmer until just tender, about 5 minutes. If vegetables begin to stick, or mixture seems too dry, add a Tablespoon or two of water. Season with salt and pepper. Toss in cilantro. Serve immediately. Serves 6.

Prepare kohlrabi by peeling bulb, then slice thinly. Sauté in butter or bacon fat until tender. Sauté leaves in a little olive oil with garlic after cutting off the center stem.

Kohlrabi with rotini pasta and summer vegetables
½-pound spiral pasta
2 Tablespoons oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
3 or 4 kohlrabi bulbs, coarsely shredded
1 carrot, grated
1 bell pepper, chopped
leaves from 1 sprig of fresh thyme (1/8 teaspoon dried)
½-teaspoon salt
pepper
Parmesan or Asiago cheese

Put on to boil a large pot of water. Boil pasta while you prepare vegetables. Heat oil in heavy skillet and sauté onions and garlic 2 minutes. Add kohlrabi, carrot, bell pepper, thyme, salt and pepper. Continue cooking, stirring often, until veggies are barely tender-crisp. Drain pasta and place in a large, shallow bowl. Heap cooked veggies on top of pasta and sprinkle Parmesan cheese over all. Serves 6.

CSA news July 27

Lakes and Valley CSA news week 5
July 28 delivering to PR & DL, July 31 to Dilworth and Fargo
Anne’s cell number 218-252-5858

In your veggie boxes this week:
Raspberries
Mesclun lettuce with incredible, edible flowers and cherry tomatoes
Broccoli or cauliflower florets
First green beans
Green onions
Toscano and Red Russian Kale leaves mixed with Chard and Arugula for sautéing
kohlrabi
Beets with tops
Peas—snow and sugar snap in 1 bag, shell in another
Cutting celery (tastes like celery, looks like flat-leaf parsley) or Flat leaf parsley
Basil
Hoophouse Cucumber
Green or gold zucchini or patty pan squash or yellow crookneck squash* see attached photos to identity varieties
Fargo members – it’s your turn for eggs

Congratulations! You’ve eaten your way through the first act of the CSA season. Our first stars were a little green, but they smashed records for the number of salads delivered without bolting.

Now we’re transitioning into Act 2, entitled “Variety!” More greens will be attached to something, eg. beets with beet greens. We will harvest mesclun as successive plantings come ready, and are toying with the idea of a salad made with only edible flowers. The blooms are appearing in exponentially increasing numbers. Spinach will encore in September.

Beans, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini and tomatoes grow increasingly plentiful in late July and August. Grill sliced vegetables alongside burgers and buns, or treat yourself to a new cookbook and play in the kitchen. With truly fresh produce, everything you make will look like the pictures.

Then there are the raspberries, ambrosia for both plate and palate. Boyne and Nova ripen now. Both red, Boyne are softer, squishier, perfect for stirring into soft vanilla ice cream. Novas hold together. You can stick them on the tips of your fingers and pop them, one by one, into your mouth. Royalty raspberries come later, deep purple, lusty as a vintage red wine.

With so many things to harvest, we welcome help on delivery days. If you’ve been wanting to work in the garden, now is the time. We start at 7:00 am. Water-resistant footwear and a long-sleeved shirt that you can take off when the sun rises over the east woods are advised. You don’t have to be a CSA member. Call ahead 218-252-5858.

Loren and Andrea Haverinen have local organic pork for sale. Give them a call at
218-564-5480 or go to their website http://customer.wcta.net/theranch

Sautéed Chard and kale
1 bag CSA chard and kale (can add arugula)
1 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut tender stems into pieces and leaves into strips. Heat butter and oil in a skillet. Add stems and sauté for 1 minute. Add leaves, toss to coat, then cover and simmer 3 to 4 minutes. Season to taste.

Kale contains high levels or beta carotene, vitamins A and E, folate, calcium and potassium. Like other brassicas, Kale is rich in bioflavonoids that help protect against cancer.

Summer Quiche
2 cups chopped mixture of chard, kale and summer squash
½ onion, chopped
3 whole eggs
1 egg white
½ cup milk
1 and ½ cups grated Swiss or cheddar cheese
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil
½ teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (1/4 teaspoon dried)

Steam chard, kale and summer squash with onions until tender. Set aside to cool slightly. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Beat eggs thoroughly. Add milk, cheese, salt, pepper and herbs. Stir in cooled, steamed vegetables. Pour mixture into medium-sized oiled casserole dish. Cover. Bake until set, approximately 30 to 40 minutes.

Raspberry Salsa
2 cups fresh raspberries
2 peaches, peeled and finely chopped
½ cup minced red onion
1 or 2 hot peppers, seeded and finely chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey, turbinado or brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients. Refrigerate for at least half an hour to allow flavors to blend. Makes about 2 ½ cups salsa.

We’ve sown cilantro 2 in the bunching onions 1 bed. Hooray for successive sowing!

Cilantro Pesto
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
½ cup fresh parsley leaves
½ cup fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
1 mild hot pepper, toasted, peeled and seeded (optional)
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
2 to 3 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
4 Tablespoons olive oil

Place cilantro, parsley, basil, garlic and optional pepper in food processor. Pulse until well blended. Add salt, cheese and lime juice. While food processor is running, add oil in a steady stream. Allow to process until a thick, smooth paste forms. Makes approximately 2 cups pesto.

Quick Grated Beets
4 medium-sized beets
1 Tablespoon butter or oil
1 to 3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice (to taste)
3 to 6 Tablespoons water or vegetable stock
½ teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper
chopped fresh dill or parsley

Wash, peel and grate beets. Heat butter or oil in a skillet. Add beets and stir to coat. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Cover and cook for approximately 10 minutes. Stir occasionally and add water or stock as needed to prevent scorching. Cook until just tender. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with dill or parsley. Serves 4.


Salad with Eggs, Ham and Tomato Vinaigrette
2 heads csa lettuce
½ cup tomato vinaigrette (see recipe below)
2 hard boiled eggs
2 green onions, thinly sliced
¼ pound Serrano ham, cut in thin strips
¼ cup green or black olives

Tear lettuce into bite-sized pieces and put in salad bowl. Toss with some of the dressing. Arrange on a planter and top with eggs, ham, green onions and olives. Spoon remaining dressing on top. Serves 4

Tomato Vinaigrette:
1 ripe large tomato, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon pimentón dulce (sweet Spanish paprika)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons sherry vinegar
3 Tablespoons olive oil
Combine tomato, paprika, cumin and salt in blender or food processor. Pulse to a purée. With motor running slowly, add vinegar, then oil.

Fattoush (Lebanese tabbouleh)
4 large or 8 small pita breads
3 mdium tomatoes, cut into half-inch dices
½ cup finely diced red onion
6 Tablespoons finely chopped white and green onions
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
½ cup thinly slivered fresh mint
1 to 1-1/2 cups basic citrus dressing (see recipe below)
4 cups loosely packed CSA lettuce, cut into 1-inch wide strips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place pita breads in a baking sheet and bake until dry, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven. When cool enough to handle, break into large, bite-sized pieces.
In a large salad bowl, combine tomatoes, onions, parsley and mint, and toss with half the dressing. When ready to serve, add pita pieces and lettuce, and toss with remaining dressing.

Basic Citrus Dressing: 

Whisk together in a bowl:
1 cup olive oil
½ cup fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste.

Grilled Pizza
Dough:
1 and 1/3 cups lukewarm water
2 Tablespoons oil
1 packet active dry yeast
1 and ½ Tablespoons coarse salt
1 and ½ teaspoons sugar
3 and ¼ cups unbleached flour
Combine water, oil, yeast, salt and sugar in a large bowl (or food processor or blender with dough hook attachment.) Stir in flour and mix until incorporated. Cover with a clean cloth or plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until dough rises and collapses, about 2 hours. Refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Sauce:
1 Tablespoon oil
1 large cloves garlic, minced
1 cup finely chopped fresh tomatoes (about 1 large) or 1 cups strained canned tomatoes
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh oregano (1/2 teaspoon dried)
optional; a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
Heat oil in a small saucepan. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes, oregano and optional pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Cool. Refrigerate if not using immediately in a covered jar for up to 3 days.

Assemble pizza:
Shred 1 cup mozzarella cheese
toppings of your choice

Preheat grill to high. Grease two baking sheets and dust each with 1 Tablespoon cornmeal. Divide dough in half. On a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece of dough into a 12-inch round and pinch a raised lip around the edge. Place rounds on baking sheets and brush with oil. Carefully slide into grill and cook until bottom is firm and “grill-marked,” about 5 minutes. Flip over, and working quickly, top each half with tomato sauce and cheese. Close grill cover and cook until cheese just melts, about 5 minutes more.

We will soon have for you heads of green and red cabbage. 

Here’s a recipe for freezing Cole Slaw:
8 to 10 cups shredded cabbage
1 carrot, grated
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup vinegar
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon mustard seed, optional

Mix cabbage, carrot and salt. Let sit 1 hour. Drain. Combine remaining ingredients and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Cool and stir into drained cabbage. Let sit 1 hour. Mix well and put into freezer containers.

How to freeze cabbage
Cut into coarse shreds or thin wedges. Blanch in boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes. Cool immediately in cold water. Drain, package and freeze. Use in cooked dishes.

CSA Newsletter - July 20

Week 4 July 21 delivery to PR and DL; July 24 delivery to Dilworth and Fargo

No veggie processing at Fargo’s Messiah Lutheran Church this week.

In your CSA boxes this week:

Baby lettuce (mesclun) with radish, nasturtium, vetch, borage, calendula flowers
Heirloom head lettuce
The last of the Napa cabbage
Bunching salad onions
The triumphant culmination of Spinach 1
first yellow zucchini or young patty pan summer squashes OR hoophouse cucumbers
Baby broccoli
Kohlrabi
Basil herb
Cilantro herb
Cherry or Glacier early tomato
Peas—snow and sugar snap
Dinosaur kale and Swiss chard
Arugula that volunteered in the leek bed
Some eggs

The storm hit around seven this morning. Thunder rumbled loud and close. Rain pinged on our steel roof. Dewane turned on the weather radar. “Guess what?” he whispered loudly in my ear. “In the entire state of Minnesota, guess where it’s raining.”

“No,” I muttered, determined to claim fully the only slow morning I’d had in several weeks.

“The only rain in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin?” His voice mimicked the computer man’s. “Over us!”

I appreciated his glee. We’d missed the past few rains, and his oats needed rain to head out. More importantly, rain meant I’d not have to start another intense cycle of watering in the garden.

Then the hail started. I jumped out of bed and ran to the deck.
Dewane was already there. “Nickel size and bigger.” He reported the obvious. “It could miss the garden.”

“Nothing you can do about it,” Dewane said.
“It better rain a bunch,” I retorted. Wind or hail damage without the compensation of rain is unjust.
A mile to the east, the garden was looking fine. Green bean 1 plants were flowering profusely. After harvesting head lettuce and Chinese cabbage, we had planted mesclun 3 and 4, radish 3 and 4, spinach 2 and 3, green beans 3 and 4, bunching onions 2 and cilantro 2. Most had germinated, promising a taste of eternal spring.

I waited for the downpour to end, halfheartedly betting Dewane we’d get half an inch of rain.

We got exactly half an inch, but winning gave me no comfort. I drove to the garden, recalling the year hail flattened my sweet corn. It straightened after a few days. Shredded leaves generated enough energy for new ones to form. We got corn.

Here and there, tomato stalks were bent over, snapped. Cabbage leaves, especially the flat Dutch, have new holes. The biggest zucchini fruit was gouged along its exposed upper side. But the majority of the plants were fine.

Except for the eggplants. They are being attacked by Colorado potato beetles, who have abandoned their namesakes in favor of more exotic quarry. We examine the besieged plants daily. Today, the combined hit of insect and hail conjured an association with starving, wide-eyed Biafran children. I crawled down the rows, gently turning over each battered leaf, squishing adults, larvae and eggs, vowing to fight as long as the plants do.
Our other heat loving plants—squashes, melons and peppers—are still catching up from our late, cold spring, but show great promise.

Of course, the cool-season crops are supremely happy. What bounty! Fabulous salads!
If you are feeling force-fed, we’re doing our job. Your refrigerator shelves are stuffed with bags of mystery greens. Last Thursday, Brigitte von Budde’s helper, Nancy, offered a brilliant suggestion: take pictures. Ken immediately took textbook-quality photos of arugula, Toscano (dinosaur) kale, Red Russian kale and Swiss chard. They are attached to this newsletter.

The next hurdle is cooking greens. Mild, tender leaves “give a nice texture to a salad; no need for anything else other than a vinaigrette,” says Brigitte von Budde. Other greens are not typical Midwestern fare. We welcome our spinaches and lettuces, but often see kale only as a deli display garnish. Southern cuisine embraces collard and turnip greens. Up north, we raise more cold-tolerant kales, chards, and Asian greens. They are highly nutritious, prolific and—once you know how to cook them—delicious.

Our resident Greens Goddess has volunteered to write a Greens Primer, instructions to enable you to eat, freeze and post-thaw cook greens—and enjoy them. Here’s a teaser: blanch (par-boil) excess greens, cool in ice bath and freeze for later use, either in separate bags or serving sizes balled up in a gallon bag. Chop thawed greens and add to stir-fry, veggie dip, soups and casseroles, or saute with garlic.

We put a variety of herbs in your weekly CSA boxes. Once you’ve refilled your dried herb jars, what else can you do with them? Make herb jelly! I’ve enclosed two recipes for Basic Herb jelly as well as suggestions for variations. Herb jelly is delicious on scones or hot biscuits. You can spread it between layers of pound cake. Use as a filling for thumbprint cookies or as a glaze for ham. Melt and pour over baked or steamed vegetables.

Citrus Salad Dressing 4 Servings from Dr. Weir’s healthy eating newsletter
This tart, sweet salad dressing is wonderful on dark, leafy salad greens like romaine or leaf lettuce tossed with orange segments, black olives and red onion slivers.

1/3 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a small jar and shake well. Keeps in the refrigerator 2 days.

Chris Thornbury’s Sour Cucumber Soup (what she did with her winning cucumber)

Peel, slice and salt a cucumber, mix in a small amount of onion, and let sit
unrefrigerated for several hours until limp.

Pour a small bowl of milk.
Salt milk to taste by stirring in the salt - adding a little at a time until it's
tasty to you). Then add small amount of vinegar (just a tiny bit at a time - using a teaspoon until it's tasty to you). Everyone likes it a little bit different. Once you add
the vinegar, it's too late to go back and add more salt, so make sure you do the
salt the way you like it first. Put the bowl of milk in the fridge until you're ready to eat.

Add the cucumbers to the milk, and enjoy each spoonful until gone. The cucumber I won made the best bowl I ever ate.

Cucumber Salsa makes 1 quart (make when CSA cucumbers are plentiful)
2 cups diced cucumber
1 diced young yellow or patty pan zucchini
1 large red tomato
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
¼ teaspoon salt, to taste
juice of 1 lime

In bowl, toss together all ingredients. Serve chilled with salsa or as a topping for a summer soup. Keep refrigerated.

Radish salsa makes about 2 cups
1 white radish
1 red radish
1 purple radish
3 Tablespoons finely diced celery
4 diced cherry tomatoes
1 Tablespoon chopped mint leaves
pinch salt
1 ½ teaspoons lime juice

Wash radishes and remove tops. Dice radishes. Toss with all ingredients. Chill. Tastes even better next day.

Chunky Garden Salsa makes about 2 cups
1 cup fresh corn kernels
1 cup chopped tomato
1/3 cup chipped sweet onion
2 cloves, minced
juice from ½ fresh lime
2/3 cups chopped fresh cilantro
¼ teaspoon salt
sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice

Mix all ingredients and chill. Serve with chips or as a side salad.

Basic Herb Jelly using liquid pectin makes 5 half pints
2 cups water or 2 ½ cups fruit juice
1 cup fresh herbs, finely chopped
1/4 cup lemon juice, fresh or bottled, or cider vinegar
4 cups sugar
optional 1 to 2 drops food coloring
3 ounces liquid pectin

1. Stir together water (or juice) and herbs. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let steep until cooled. Strain, pressing all liquid and flavor out of the herbs.
2. Measure liquid and add enough water to make 2 cups. Combine herb infusion with lemon juice, sugar and optional food coloring.
3. Bring to a boil. Add sugar. As soon as sugar dissolves, stir in pectin. Return to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil for exactly 1 minute. Remove from heat.
4. Skim off foam and pour into clean, sterilized jars. Add a small herb sprig to each jar.
5. Seal with new jar flats and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes. Cool on towels until sealed.

Basic Herb Jelly using powdered pectin makes 4 to 5 half pints
2 cups water
1 ¼ cups fresh herbs, finely chopped
¾ cup lemon juice, fresh or bottled
1 package powdered pectin
4 cups sugar

1. Stir together water and herbs. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cook. Strain.
2. Measure liquid and add enough water to make 2 cups. Combine herb infusion with lemon juice and pectin in a saucepan. Stir well to dissolve powder.
3. Bring to a boil over high heat stirring constantly. Add sugar. Bring back to a full, rolling boil for 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Skim off foam and pour into clean, sterilized jars. Add a small herb sprig to each jar.
5. Seal with new jar flats and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

***possible combinations***
¼ cup each chives, thyme, oregano, basil, tarragon
orange juice and 1 cup loosely packed thyme (serve with cream cheese and crackers)
lemon juice and 1 cup loosely packed rosemary
apple juice and rosemary
cherry juice and thyme
equal parts thyme, marjoram, sage and rosemary (spread on roast turkey sandwiches)
parsley (good with poultry dishes)
dandelion flowers (no green parts) makes a beautiful yellow jelly
horseradish (serve with roast beef)
basil (good with soft cheese and crackers)
lavender and white wine vinegar
cinnamon basil with white wine vinegar
raspberry juice and rosemary
fennel jelly (good on fish and pork)
Hot peppers and garlic (½ cup only for a batch of jelly)
Apple juice and ¾ cup loosely packed sage
Strawberry and tarragon
If you have only dried herbs, use half of what is called for fresh per batch.

Spicy rosemary grape jelly makes 3 half pints
2 cups grape juice
1 cup water
1package powdered pectin
3 ½ cups sugar
¼ teaspoon whole cloves
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary leaves

1. Combine juice and water and heat.
2. Add sugar and bring to a full rolling boil.
3. Add pectin, return to a boil, and add rosemary and cloves. Boil for a full minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Remove from heat and skim off foam.
5. Pour into clean, hot jars. Put on lids and process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Marjoram and lemon jelly
2 cups lemon juice
2 Tablespoons fresh marjoram leaves, tied in cheesecloth
4 cups sugar
½ cup liquid pectin

1. Bring lemon juice to a boil. Add marjoram leaves in cheesecloth. Simmer 20 minutes. Remove marjoram
2. Measure juice and add more juice or water to make 2 cups.
3. Add sugar and bring to a full boil.
4. Add pectin and bring back to a full boil. Boil for 30 seconds.
5. Remove from heat. Skim. Pour into jars to ½ inch from rim. Cover and process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.


Sally's Summer Zucchini Pasta
From The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show (Clarkson Potter, 2008). Copyright 2008 by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift.

10 minutes prep time; 10 minutes stove time. Serves 4 as a main dish.
The pasta can be served hot, or at room temperature. While penne works nicely, there is nothing sacred about using that particular shape.

5 quarts salted water in a 6-quart pot
1 pound small zucchini, about 4 or 5
1 pound imported penne pasta
4 tablespoons good tasting extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes, and more to taste
4 large garlic cloves, coarse chopped
2 cups grape tomatoes halved, or 2 cups fresh tomatoes, rough chopped
1 to 1-1/2 cups feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 tight-packed cup fresh basil leaves, rough chopped
Pan Fried Zucchini Flowers (optional; see recipe below)
1. Have the salted water boiling.

2. Trim off the ends of the zucchini. Cut the squash into matchsticks about the size of the penne.

3. Drop the pasta into the boiling water. In the last 3 minutes of boiling (check pasta package for timing), drop the zucchini into the pot. Boil, stirring often, until the penne are tender but still have a little bite. Scoop out 1 cup of the pasta water and reserve. Immediately drain the pasta and zucchini in a colander.

4. Return the pasta pot to the heat, turning it down to low. Film the bottom of the pot with the olive oil. Add the hot pepper flakes and garlic, and gently saute just until the garlic is fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute.

5. Remove the pot from the heat, add the drained pasta and zucchini, the tomatoes, feta, basil, and as much of the reserved pasta water as necessary to lightly coat the pasta. Gently toss, taste for seasoning, and serve.

CSA Newsletter - July 14

Week 3: PR and DL Monday, July 14;  Dilworth and Fargo, Thursday July 17

In your veggie boxes this coming week:

Mesclun with borage (like cucumber), vetch, nasturtium, calendula, mustard flowers
Assorted head lettuces
Spinach
Napa cabbage
Snow peas, possibly some sugar snap peas
Bunch of salad onions
Arugula greens
Radish greens
Baby turnips
Baby kohlrabi OR a small head of open-pollinated Calabrese broccoli
Baby green or golden zucchini or patty pan summer squash OR early Glacier tomatoes
Basil and lemon balm herb tops

Accolades and high-fives to super-members Bill Steen and Chris Thornbury! Bill mowed deer-alert lines on both sides of the CSA electric fence and relief-station pathways into the woods. He also mowed close to the raspberry bushes, where our tractor’s big brush mower can’t reach.

Chris helped enthusiastically with Monday’s wet bagging and boxing and won (fairly) the first ripe hoophouse cucumber in the spontaneous lottery. A Diva, the precocious fruit was too small to divide. I encouraged her to take her winnings and run.

Raising peas is a labor of love. We love them. You love them. We raise three types. Oriental snow peas are long and flat, completely edible up to the stem. Sugar snap peas are 100% edible pods with yummy plump peas inside. If you don’t like the “string” on the seam, grasp the stem and pull down; the string will peel off. Snap peas are the old-fashioned English pea. Open the pod and pick out the peas. The pod is tough and chewy (as in gum), the nursery pod for the peas.

As one attached photo shows, our pea vines have grown 4 to 5 feet high in less than two months. They are flowering profusely now. The peas will come on fast, then will be done for the season. Never long enough, never in quantities enough. Most CSA’s don’t offer them because they are space and labor intensive, but I can’t imagine a season without peas. Enjoy!

Raspberries are forming now. Another attached photo shows a cluster of berries in their “green” stage.

Patty pan summer squash looks weird, as does kohlrabi. Harvested small, both are delicious sliced into thin wedges and sprinkled with sea salt, or grated into salads. To cook, cut in quarters, rounds or matchsticks, then steam or roast.

This week’s recipes should help you keep up with the greens season. Mild, tender greens like spinach and chard are delicious steamed quickly. High-calcium greens like kale and collards need more aggressive cooking.

Asian, Kale, Radish or Chard greens with crisped bread crumbs
½ cup coarse bread crumbs
1 Tablespoon butter
1 bunch or head of Greens
2 Tablespoons olive or peanut oil, or butter

Saute crumbs in butter in a small skillet until crisp and golden.
Meanwhile, cook greens by bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt per quart of water used. Drop in the greens and cook, uncovered 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the variety of the greens and how you like them. Some people cook even longer. Drain and press out excess moisture, chop, then toss with oil or butter, salt and pepper. Top with toasted bread crumbs.

Basic Steamed Napa Cabbage
Chop entire head, including white base, into strips. Heat a few Tablespoons water or rice wine in a wide skillet. Add cabbage strips and sprinkle with salt. Cook over medium-high heat, turning cabbage with tongs until wilted. Drain, then toss with sesame oil, roasted peanut oil or butter. Garnish with chopped parsley or dill or snipped chives, and toasted sesame seeds.

Cabbage-stuffed Cabbage with Blue cheese
1 large Napa cabbage
1 ½ Tablespoons butter
1 onion or leek, diced
10 juniper berries
1/3 cup cream
8 ½-inch cubes Gorgonzola or Roquefort blue cheese

1. Select 8 large leaves for wrapping.
2. Cut rest of cabbage head into ribbons or squares. Boil until well wilted. Drain and rinse under cool water. Squeeze out excess moisture.
3. Melt butter in large skillet. Add leek or onion dices, juniper and 1 Tablespoon water. Cook until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Add cabbage and cream. Cover pan and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Taste for salt and season with pepper.
4. Blanch or steam 8 wrapping cabbage leaves over boiling water until tender. Cool.
5. Place ½ cup of stuffing mixture in the center of each softened cabbage wrap leaf. Set a cube of blue cheese on top.
6. Roll up each leaf, folding in sides as you go to make a plump, rounded shape.
7. Steam each roll until heated through, about 10 minutes. Serve.

Beet Greens with Potatoes
2 boiling potatoes, scrubbed and chopped
1 bunch baby beet greens
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon pepper flakes

Boil potato cubes until tender. Simmer green in skillet until tender, then drain.
Return skillet to stove. Heat olive oil and sauté garlic and pepper flakes. When you can smell the garlic, add cooked potatoes and greens. If desired, add a diced ripe tomato. Cook over medium heat, mashing potato into greens with a fork to make “hash.” Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle additional olive oil over serving portions.

Creamy New York Deli Coleslaw - serves 3 to . 

Use New York-style—as part of a roast beef on rye sandwich.

1 to 2 heads Chinese cabbage, shredded (6 to 7 cups)
Salt
1/4 teaspoon caraway or celery seeds
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Pepper
1 carrot, peeled and grated

Toss the cabbage with salt and allow to sit in a colander for at least 1 hour, or up to 4 hours. Meanwhile, toast the caraway or celery seeds in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Rinse the cabbage, then pat thoroughly dry with paper towels. Whisk the toasted caraway seeds, mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper together in a bowl large enough to hold the salad. Add the cabbage, carrots, and onion and toss. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving. Season with salt and pepper to taste.



Trees (excerpt) by W. S. Merwin

I am looking at trees
they may be one of the things I will miss
most from the earth
though many of the ones I have seen
already I cannot remember
and though I seldom embrace the ones I see
and have never been able to speak
with one
I listen to them tenderly
their names have never touched them
they have stood round my sleep
and when it was forbidden to climb them
they have carried me in their branches.

CSA Newsletter - July 5

Week 2
Delivering to PR and DL July 7th, and to Dilworth and Fargo July 10th

Anne’s Cell phone 218-252-5858

During WWII, M.F.K. Fisher wrote of food rationing, "When the wolf is at the door one should invite him in and have him for dinner." I wonder if she meant, “Set out another plate” or “Fire up the grill.”

In your veggie boxes this coming week:
Head lettuces
Mesclun with purple vetch, orange nasturtium, yellow pac choi or blue borage flowers
Easter eggs radishes
Spinach
Baby bunching onions
Bag o’ baby beet and turnip greens
Eggs
Mint herbs
Please bring back last week’s veggie box!

Every morning, just before daybreak, a black bird caws loudly outside our bedroom window. He wakes me, and songbirds begin the first movement of their daily symphony. If I drift back to sleep, a woodpecker with a steel beak percussions on the metal roof of our firewood/storage shed. Rat-a-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat.

I hear the snort of the doe urging her twin fawns to take quick bites of young bluestem in the front lawn. They slip into the nearby woods, their spots blending with the mottled morning light.

Cars and trucks whoosh by on the road, people on their way to work or play. I drive the mile to the garden and listen for the big rainbirds rhythmically breaking jets of water gushing from the big blue hose into crop circle rain. The brassica leaves reach up to receive beads of light-enlivened water that drip onto the once-thirsty soil.

The chickens scratch and cackle, peck at their tin feeders for freshly ground oats and barley. They jump up to snatch sweet clover leaves from tall, stiff stems, flap their wings and land with some dignity. Irregular, hard, gray pieces of oyster shells become gizzard grit and calcium for stronger shells. They notice the morning and me.

The breeze picks up, wind at the tops of the trees. The sounds blend into the day, but when I try, I can hear each separately, like a mother listening for the sound of her child on a Ferris wheel.

Stuffed Cabbage Yields 6 rolls
6 large outer Chinese cabbage leaves trimmed of thick bottom stem
1 T. butter
½ cup minced onion
1 stalk celery
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small carrot, diced
¼ cup sunflower seeds
1 cup ricotta cheese (1/2 lb)
½ tart apple, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons raisins or craisins
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1. Heat a pot of water to boiling. Slide trimmed cabbage leaves into the boiling water and simmer about 1 minute. Remove from water and cool. Make sure the cabbage is cooked well enough so the leaves will not break when rolled, but not so well done that they disintegrate.
2. Melt butter in skillet. Add onion, garlic, celery and carrot. Saute for about 10 minutes, then add sunflower seeds. Season with salt and pepper. When vegetables are tender, remove from heat.
3. Place ricotta in a bowl. Add sautéed veggies, apple, raisins, lemon juice and soy sauce. Mix filling well.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
5. Place 3 to 4 Tablespoons filling near the base of each cabbage leaf. Roll firmly, folding in the sides. Arrange rolls in an oblong baking pan. Pour Cashew-Ginger Sauce over them, cover and bake until heated through, about 30 minutes. Serve over rice.

Cashew-Ginger Sauce:
2 cups toasted cashews
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon honey or sugar
2 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
cayenne to taste

Puree everything together in a food processor or blender. Yields 2 ½ cups. Store in a covered jar in the refrigerator.


Asian Coleslaw from Dr. Andrew Weir’s newsletter 4 Servings

Cabbage is chock full of nutrients including vitamin C and indoles, important cancer-fighting compounds. In addition, red cabbage also contains anthocyanins, the purple pigment with strong antioxidant activity commonly found in blueberries. In the winter months, cabbage is an abundant nutritional resource when other fresh produce is either expensive or unavailable. This recipe calls for a lot of salt, but it is used in this dish to soften the cabbage. Then it is thoroughly rinsed off so the recipe doesn't provide too much sodium. This coleslaw is colorful and makes a delightful accompaniment to any meat, fish or vegetarian main dish. The garnish of minced scallions and toasted sesame seeds brings out the flavor of the slaw and adds additional crunch.

Ingredients:
1 medium head cabbage (Chinese, green or red)
1 ½ tablespoons sea salt
2 medium carrots
2 Tablespoons cup minced scallions
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

Dressing:
1/3 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons light brown sugar
3 teaspoons dark-roasted sesame oil

Directions
1. Discard the outer leaves of cabbage. Slice thinly or shred in a food processor. Layer the cabbage in a large bowl with the sea salt. Toss to distribute salt evenly and let sit for 1 hour to soften.
2. Scrub carrots. Cut or grate into thin shreds.
3. Drain cabbage and rinse well in several changes of cold water to remove excess salt. Taste the cabbage; if it is still too salty, rinse it again.
4. Add carrots to the cabbage and mix well.
5. Whisk the rice vinegar, brown sugar and sesame oil together in a small bowl.
6. Pour the dressing over the cabbage, mix well and chill. Garnish with minced scallions and toasted sesame seeds before serving.


Lettuce (Escarole) Soup 2 servings
Perfect for mid-July, when CSA lettuce heads are big, and it’s the day before the next CSA delivery, and you want something other than a salad. Escarole is a bitter European green related to endive.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
1/2 head escarole or lettuce
2 cups reduced-sodium vegetable broth
Freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tsp grated Parmesan cheese (optional), or add leftover pasta, rice or tofu.

Directions
1. In a medium saucepan, bring the reduced-sodium vegetable broth to a boil.
2. Wash the lettuce and shake dry. Coarsely chop and add to the broth.
3. Remove from the heat. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Serve in soup bowls garnished with grated Parmesan cheese.