CSA June 8, 2011 - SCVWD

Walla Walla-Casey's Onions

What's in the box?
Lettuce, Fava Beans, Golden Beets, Radishes, Tuscan Kale, Peas, Casey's Onions, Eggs and Early Italian Garlic.

And this weeks special gift:  Baked Goods - Lemon Bread, Lemon Nut Bread, Regular Bread or Strawberry Cupcakes. 


 Kale

• Kale can provide you with some special cholesterol-lowering benefits if you will cook it by steaming. Raw kale still has cholesterol-lowering ability - just not as much.
• Kale's risk-lowering benefits for cancer have recently been extended to at least five different types of cancer. These types include cancer of the bladder, breast, colon, ovary, and prostate. 
• Kale is now recognized as providing comprehensive support for the body's detoxification system. New research has shown that the ITCs made from kale's glucosinolates can help regulate detox at a genetic level.



My vitamin K...Korn on the Kob

• Researchers can now identify over 45 different flavonoids in kale. With kaempferol and quercetin heading the list, kale's flavonoids combine both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.

Vegetable gardens in Scotland are called Kaleyards.
Kale has vitamin K.

Bacon & Kale 
    •    6 ounces applewood-smoked bacon, cooked and then finely chopped (you can use vegetarian bacon, but please add oil to the pan, as the vegetarian bacon does not exude fat.)
    •    1 small onion, finely chopped
    •    3 large garlic cloves, lightly crushed
    •    2 bay leaves
    •    1 pound kale, stems and ribs removed, chopped fine
    •    2 to 3 tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
    •    1 to 2 tbsp. cider vinegar
    •    freshly ground black pepper
    •    1 chile, crushed (optional)
 In a 4- to 5-qt. pan over medium heat, cook bacon, stirring, until crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove bacon leaving 5 tbsp. fat in pan; discard the rest.  Add onion, garlic, and bay leaves and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until onion is pale golden, 5 minutes. Toss in kale; cook, stirring, until wilted. Add 1 cup water, half the bacon, 2 tbsp. each soy sauce and vinegar, the pepper, and chile. Simmer, covered, adding water if pan gets dry, until kale is very tender, 60 minutes. Add soy and vinegar to taste.  Serve sprinkled with remaining bacon.

Salad with Buttermilk Dressing

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen (a world of great recipes)

1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons minced shallot
 or a clove of garlic and a T. of finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon sugar


1 sack of lettuce
A few radishes, diced

2 celery ribs, thinly sliced diagonally
Whisk together buttermilk, mayonnaise, vinegar, shallot, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl until sugar has dissolved. Toss lettuce, radishes, and celery with dressing.



A word about chickens or How our chickens get their names. 
Not every chicken has a name, only the ones that stand out.  For example, there's Falcon, a young chicken who thinks it should roost on top of the 12' hen house.

To the right is Dumb Cluck and her baby rooster, Little Pecker.  Now Dumb Cluck got her name because after she hatched her one egg, she jumped out of the box (previously I had to lift her off the nest every morning and evening).  Well the little guy couldn't back up the ramp and into the box.  So Leo was trying to teach him how to use the ramp, when this bird became unhinged and began to cluck alarmingly at Leo.  I came around the corner and heard Leo say, "Listen you Dumb Cluck, I'm trying to help, or shall I leave the Little Pecker out here to get eaten?"

Folded Comb content on her nest

Aerin, this hen is still with a rooster, but not with one that can make the eggs fertile.  She's a good hen, she's laying again...so finally a few eggs for you.

We've been short on eggs for the last few weeks, because several hens all decided to go broody at once.  Leo broke it up, and so we have Folded Comb on a nest.

Her sister, Good Mother Chicken has returned to Georgie's Girls with her 4 new henlings.  And there's a queue waiting for empty brood houses.  I'll only let 2 at at time brood.  They take careful watching over, so they don't forget to get off the nest.

In a few weeks, Dumb Cluck will return with her roosterling to the second flock and then a new hen will take up the broody box.  Little Pecker has to get big enough to not be able to squeeze through the fence.  He's still small enough for the cats to be very interested in him.

You can't change the past, 
but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future

This is the main flock, under the capable direction of Salman Rushdie.  He's the big guy with the white tail.  He's taken one too many rushes at me.  So eventually Little Pecker will take his place.  There's no room on this farm for anyone who bullies the farmer's wife.  He and Leo had words one evening.  Right after Salman put his spurs in my leg.

Salman will go visit Lalo at the Feed Store.  I will trade him for a nice sack of oyster shells when the time comes...