July 29, 2013 Locavores CSA

Bachelor's buttons & Sunflowers

What's in the box?
Yukon Gold Potatoes, Creamgold Onions, Garlic of Kazakhstan,  Zukes and cukes, Sweet Corn - Sugar Buns.    Eat the corn FIRST!  First of the tomatoes,  NZ Spinach, Beets,  Bell Peppers,  and Tomatillos.

If you got a box, you also got green beans.

And for those of you who have been with me for more than one year,  a special gift - Elderberry Syrup.

And this week everyone got relish,  so I highly recommend something easy for dinner that you can slather with relish and serve corn with.

Oh yes, there is more corn

Corn
Why do I always say eat the corn first?  Well, once it's picked the sugar starts converting to starch.  If you let it sit in the fridge for a week, you might as well make corn chowder out of it. 

CORN CHOWDER
1 onion, chopped
1 pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 c. stock
3 potatoes, diced
Kernels from 2 ears of corn
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet, saute onion, and  pepper in butter until onion is translucent. Add potatoes and stock;  cover & simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15-20 minutes.  Add milk and corn simmer another 5 minutes.  Sprinkle with your favor herbs and season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Melons are coming

Tomatillos
Remember after removing the husk to wash thoroughly.  Lots of saponin on outside of them.  They are lovely to wash your hands in.  Rinse until you don't get any bubbles left.  We use them like tomatoes, in salads - pastas - with meat.  We are very fond of Chili Verde, and tomatillo enchiladas.

Last year I got to taste tomatillos, onions and lime juice on grilled chicken and it was yummy! And this is everyone's favorite recipe:



 
Café Azul Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa
1/3 pound tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and quartered

1/4 pound fresh jalapeño chilies, rinsed, stemmed, seeded, and halved

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/2 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 firm-ripe avocado (about 1/2 lb.), peeled and diced

1/2 cup minced onion

1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons lime juice

Salt

1. In a blender or food processor, whirl tomatillos, chilies, garlic, and cilantro until coarsely puréed. Pour into a bowl.
2. Stir in olive oil, avocado, and onion. Add lime juice and salt to taste. 




So, get chips on the way home.


I've been testing the grapes regularly, and I think that we'll have them in a few weeks.  Well August is just around the corner...scarey no?  Time to plant again.  Leo and I just got those spuds out of the field on Sunday evening and I love Yukon Golds.  Yes I'm a potato girl from way back.  No, this isn't me, but wasn't she a dish.  Now I gotta go listen to "All that meat and No Potatoes."  Fats Waller!  Have a great week.  Look at those beautiful spuds!

Mer Folk CSA 7/24/2013

Now that's an onion.  Mill Creek Onions!  Bigger than softballs!

What's in the box?
Purple Majesty Potatoes, Rossa Lunga di Firenze Torpedo Onions, Garlic of Kazakhstan,  Zukes and cukes, Sweet Corn - White Out.    Eat the corn FIRST!  First of the tomatoes,   (More on these later) NZ Spinach, Beets, First of the Bell Peppers, and either French Filet Beans or Tomatillos.

If you got a box - you got tomatillos and Green Beans

Living Food
And this week by special request, we have LIVE cucumbers.  Yes, fermented Deli Dills, just like Grandma used to make.  These MUST be refrigerated.  They are at their best now and for a month or so.  They are alive and will continue to ferment.  So they can be lively when opening the lid.  Let me know what you think.

And one more special gift:

Corn!

If you have been with our CSA for longer than this season, you also received Elderberry Syrup.

Black elderberry has been used medicinally for hundreds of years for  treating the flu, alleviating allergies, and boosting overall respiratory health.  That said, we put ours on pancakes, because who does not love pancakes on Sunday?   Leo of course did give us all elderberry last year when the cold season started.  It's the year of the elderberry and everyone will get elderberry jam sometime in the coming weeks.    And for the record, Elderberry Jam is fantastic on Saltines!


Jars
Thanks to those of you who have sent me jars.  I'm out again.  All 10 cases of jars are full, so scope around and send me your empties, raid the attic for jars you don't use.  Keep me in mind if you see a box of pints or half pints at a garage sale.

In the field
On Sunday, Leo and I harvested storage onions, both Mill Creek and Cream Gold.  Cream Gold is a

favorite onion in NZ, and can really store a long time.  We'll have one more round of torpedo onions, before any of these go out.  The giant onions shown above, will not be going out, I'm cutting them and putting them in the dehydrator for fall.

Squash and melons are coming right along, no thanks to squash bugs.  I don't think we'll have many more zukes after this week.  They are taking out a vine a week.  Somewhere I know an 8 year old is thanking me.  It's still a long ways away from hot peppers and eggplant (and salsa), but the bells are just starting to trickle in.

Planting for fall, yes it's time to start new seeds.  I'm really ticked off at the gopher who ate ALL of the Swiss Chard, so I'm going to plant more.  This Saturday I'll start more seeds to trays for the fall season.  

Tomatoes
This year, we have Dar Jones of Alabama to thank for tomatoes.  This week we have the first of the Picardy and Lynnwood.  Dar recommended all kinds of tomatoes to me and I planted 19 kinds.  As more start to come in, I'll take some photos so you can figure out which ones you like (and let me know!)  Thank you Dar!  If you got a bag, you got Sungold Cherry Tomatoes.

Have a great week.  Eat pickles.

Locavores CSA - July 15, 2013

Acur Cucumber

What's in the box?
Purple Majesty Potatoes, Rossa Lunga di Firenze Torpedo Onions, Garlic of Kazakhstan,  Zukes and cukes, Sweet Corn - Mystique.    Don't let it linger too long in the fridge.  First of the tomatillos,  Paris Carrots, NZ Spinach, Beets and French Filet Green Beans. 

If you got a box - Flowers, Sungold Cherry Tomatoes and Strawberries.

Living Food
And this week by special request, we have LIVE cucumbers.  Yes, fermented Deli Dills, just like Grandma used to make.  These MUST be refrigerated.  They are at their best now and for a month or so.  They are alive and will continue to ferment.  So they can be lively when opening the lid. 

Romanesco Zukes

(If by chance you did not get a jar, you will get one soon).

On the Farm
Tomatoes will be here soon.  There will be another batch of corn.  Can you believe it's already middle of July?  My how time flies.  I keep hoping to run into the apple vendor, but so far, no sign of him at the farmer's market.  Every year I get organic apples from Watsonville to make the apple butter, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

There's so much to do still, that I'm just going to say,  have a nice week.

Dill Pickles

What's in the box?
Purple Majesty Potatoes, Rossa Lunga di Firenze Torpedo Onions, Garlic of Kazakhstan,  Zukes - the pale one is Romanesco and the 2 tone one is Jade Numbat, the curly one is Trombone,  the white one is Bianco de Sicilia, Sweet Corn - Mystique.  (I hope you've already eaten it!)  Don't let it linger too long in the fridge.

Also, French Filet Green Beans, eggs, cucumbers - Armenian Acur Cukes, White wonder, Carosella - fuzzy,  Delicatesse  2 tone green, and lemon - little round, Butter Lettuce  and if you got a box -  Sungold Cherry Tomatoes.

This week's special gift is dill pickles. Okay, don't open them till August!  They need to cure

ickle me pickle me tickle me too.

Pickle Mania
It's been a piclish sort of week.  I've made relish, b&b pickles, zippy zuke relish, and I have a batch of half cinnamon moons on.  I know, sounds odd, but really I hope they'll be great.  I've been making pickles since I was just a spud.  My dad and mom were really pickle lovers and I spent hours as a teenager learning to can.   I still have and use my dad's quart jars.

But this jar on the left is my first departure from my standard canned dills.  These will be full fermented deli style kosher dills.  Leo and I are experimenting with fermented food.  For those of you who haven't spent much time with these, they are loaded with pro-biotics that help your gut flora.  I dunno about you, but my doctor has a thing about nuking my stomach with anti-biotics.  So, we'll see how these go.  They should be salty and sour if done correctly.

Remember when you get these (a few weeks from now), they MUST go in the fridge.  Eat them within a month.  These have required a major investment in time and equipment.  I had to get the Fido jars at Sur La Table and then the evil gophers ate all my dill, so Leo and I went all over hunting dill.  Finally found it in a field and paid the farmer to pick us a batch.  Whew!  It took all of us to make this happen.  Beth picked cukes, Zack washed them, Leo packed them and I cut salted and spiced them. 

Now, back to the farm, I have corn to pick!

Have a great week.