April 10, 2013 CSA - Water folk

What's in the box?

First Artichokes of the season

Asparagus, Beets, Turnips, Braising Greens, Radishes, Blood Oranges, Spring Onions, Old Garlic - Use it up!  Corn Flour,  Herbs - I'll do a tutorial on these later under a special post, Lilacs, Dry Beans and this weeks special gift:  Zuke Relish.  Two of you even got artichokes - mind the thorns, after all they are only thistles.

Remember, if you have a bag, you may not have received some of these items. 

This is probably the last week for asparagus, now it must rest till next spring.  Leo and I are going to try and compost it heavily this winter, to see if we can delay it till the CSA actually starts!

Asparagus going to Fern

Asparagus Cream


Makes 1 ½ cups
1 lb asparagus, snapped where they naturally bend (save the stems for asparagus stock)

2 ½ cups chicken stock or vege stock

2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

½ teaspoon lemon juice

Salt to taste
Pour the chicken stock in a low pan and add the asparagus. Poach the asparagus, uncovered, until they are tender, about 5 minutes. Allow to cool in the stock. Drain the asparagus but retain the stock.
Place the asparagus in a food processor with ½ cup of the stock. Add the garlic, lemon juice and salt to taste. Process to a smooth puree. (Add more lemon juice if you like.)
Spoon the cream into a small freezer container and freeze for up to 8 months. To defrost, place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, or place in a bowl of water on the counter. Do not leave at room temperature for more than four hours.  I stole this recipe from one of my favorite chefs, Eugenia Bone.  Please, give this a try on ravioli!  Oh yum!  

 Lots of life waiting to be planted

Braising Greens

Wash!  Use in Soup or Stir Fry. Add a little garlic to oil, add greens chopped in 1 inch pieces, cook 3 minutes.  Remove the mid ribs to get a better cooked green.  Leo and I used to go to sell at a farmer's market, where there was a marvelous vendor with the most interesting produce.  Every time I asked her how something was used, she would say, Stir Fry or Soup!  About 10 years later, Leo and I figured out that her entire diet consisted of Stir Fry and Soup.  The greens of turnips and beets can be used this same way.

Potatoes and Garlic

How about that Wind?

Shesh, It's too windy to plant, till or do anything other than water.  The roof blew off the chicken house.  Last year it flung itself on the barn roof.  This year it only landed in the field.  So until it calms down out there, I will have to content myself with continuing to plant things in trays in the green house.  That way, we'll try not to get behind.  Above, eggplant, peppers, herbs, flowers all waiting their chance for a piece of soil.  On the other side of this sprout house is all the squash you can imagine, after delivering today, I will start melons to trays as well.  Thankfully, not as many as last year.  Now that the trials are over.  If you tried to read the December trial and couldn't I fixed it today.  For some reason after the "Blogger" updates, they all came out backwards!

The rose that ate San Martin  

Once upon a time, a man took his son to the nursery to buy something for the boy's mother for Mother's Day.  The selected a wee miniature stick of a rose, and came home and planted it for her.

20 years went by, and the little bitty thing is eating the barn.  Note how the back of the barn is starting to fold under the weight of her.  Now you know why Leo will not let me plant any more vines.  I suspect in another 20 years, this rose will have swallowed the barn, the house, and probably me as well.    Right now she's in glorious bloom and smells like apples.  Alas the wind is frying flowers left and right.  Poor lilacs! 

Beth stopping to enjoy the morning.

Coming soon....spring garlic, so use that old stuff up. 

Have a great week.

Locavores CSA April 1, 2013

Locavores - you folks that are within a couple of miles of the farm

What's in the box:  

Onions, Tomatoes, Cabbages & Favas

Purple Passion Asparagus, Joan Rutabagas, Hamburg Parsley Rooted Turnips, Braising Greens, Blood Oranges, Last year's Garlic, Chioggia Beets, Corn Meal and; Painted Lady Runner Beans,  Eggs, Herbs and Lilacs.  If you had a bag, some of these things may not have been included.

This weeks Special Gift:  Salsa

Corn Meal

There is exactly 1 cup of corn meal in your box.

This is an ancient flour corn from Italy called Rostrato per Dentato, from the San Daniele del Friuli area.   Basically there are 4 types of corn, Flint, Dent, Sweet and Flour.  Of these Flour is my favorite as I find it the most versatile in the kitchen.  Flour corn is for baking.  Flint corn is for boiling (think grits and polenta).  Sweet corn is for eating raw or making chicas out of.

The only corn we don't grow is Dent, which is for feeding animals.  Our chickens like sweet corn best.

It won't be long before your receive flint corn.  Each year when we grow corn, it takes a lot of work to process.  Flint and Flour corn need to be hung to make sure that they are completely dry.  This process can take 2 to 3 months depending on how quickly we get rain in September/October.

After the corn is dry, we take it off the hull.  We use the cobs and husks to bbq with all winter.  They are stored in old feed sacks until we use them all up.  We also use up all the old hulls from the dry beans the same way.  The ashes are then sprinkled on the farm.

To shell the corn, we take a large tray of corn with the husks removed to a table outside, this is a messy process and corn gets flung every which way.   Each ear has to be inspected.  If there is any mold, it must be removed.  By hand we remove some of the tops and middles for seed for future years.  We put the cobs one at a time in the Ol' CS Bell Sheller and turn the crank.

Sheller

The corn comes off the cob and then the sheller ejects the cob.  We collect the corn into a large box.  From there I transfer all of the corn to freezer bags and store it till the week we are going to grind it.  On Sunday night, Zack took a sack out of the freezer and took it to the CS Bell Grinder, another hand crank instrument and gives it one pass through the Grinder.   The Grinder is mounted permanently to table in the barn, because it gets uses pretty frequently.  The Bell won't make corn flour and mostly is just used to crack the corn into smaller pieces.

From there, the corn comes into the kitchen and I grind it the night before you get it.  The nutrients get lost quickly, so use it or freeze.  The flavor is best the very first week it is ground.

To use corn flour, simply substitute one cup of regular flour in any "baking" recipe, pancakes and waffles count too.

Cornmeal Cookies Zaletti.


Broccoli for Seed

About 50 cookies

3/4 cup (90g) dried currants, or finely chopped sour cherries or raisins

2 tablespoons (20g) flour

5 1/2 ounces (155g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons (120g) sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups (210g) flour

1 cup (140g) corn meal, regular

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

Artichokes coming soon

1. Toss the dried fruit and the 2 tablespoons (20g) of flour together in a small bowl and set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or by hand, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, about one minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla, beating until incorporated.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the 1 1/2 cups (210g) flour, corn meal, baking powder, and salt.
4. Mix the dry ingredients into the beaten butter mixture until incorporated, than stir in the dried fruit.
5. Form the dough into a rectangle 4- by 7-inches (10 by 18 cm), wrap in plastic, and chill the dough for about an hour, or until it’s firm enough to handle.
6. Divide the dough in two, lengthwise, and roll each piece of dough on a lightly floured surface into a smooth cylinder 7-inches (18cm) long. Wrap the cylinders and freeze until ready to bake.
(If you prefer to bake the cookies right away, pinch of pieces of dough about the size of a small walnut, and roll into balls. Place them evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheet and press them down gently with your hands to flatten them partially.)
7. To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 325ºF. (170 ºC)
8. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
9. Slice the cookies into 1/4-inch (.75cm) slices and place them evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheets. (The dough is easier to slice when frozen, but if it’s too firm or crumbles when you cut it, let it sit out on the counter until it reaches a good consistency.)
10. Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking, until the cookies are very light brown on top. Remove the oven and let cool completely.

Sweet corn is already in the ground this year.  And I look forward to seeing it in late June.  Have a great week.