Tuesday, August 28, 2012

August 30th Harvest List

Potential Harvest for August 30th

Hold onto your hats. It looks like the Edamame are ready! Yippee!

We have a bumper crop of Green Beans. Premium quality. Get extra to freeze.

Mucho Tomato. Last week we picked 29 boxes. Maybe more this week.

Really good Sweet Corn.

Cut Flowers!

Eggplant in abundance and Green, Red and Hot Peppers.

Salad Mix. 

Herbs.

Cabbage, Napa Cabbage, Kohlrabi, and some Broccoli.

Carrots, Beets, Onions, Scallions, Garlic, Potatoes.

Cucumbers, Summer Squash and Zucchini.






Melon Sorbet Recipe

Okay. The first thing you need to do is develop a long term romantic relationship with someone. This is the step of this recipe that might take the longest. Months or years. If you want to hasten things along and get your sorbet sooner, you can send flowers occasionally and listen well to your potential partner. When you meet his or her family, make an effort. Go get a haircut. Wear clothing without visible stains. Don't cuss. If the option presents itself, ask your partner to go on long walks on the beach or around a lake. At some point in one of the many walks, artfully bring up to possibility of a ceremony and a party to celebrate your partnership. Make it seem like his or her idea. Once the idea is planted and bears fruit, suggest registering for gifts at a place that sells fancy Cuisinart-type ice cream makers. Drop hints to choice family members about how much you like homemade ice cream. When you receive your ice cream maker, feel satisfied with yourself for a job well done. Then go to the Land School market on a Thursday and get a cantaloupe and some mint. Go to the co-op and purchase some limes and frozen fruit (alternatively grow your own dwarf lime tree which you bring into the house every winter and pick wild fruit and freeze it yourself).

Now you are ready to make the sorbet. Remove the seeds from a ripe (smell it!) cantaloupe and cut the flesh off of the rind. Put the chunks into a food processor or bowl. Take some fresh mint and chop coarsely and add that. Then squeeze the juice from 2 or 3 limes into your food processor or bowl. Add some frozen fruit of your choice (blueberries, blackberries, cherries) - not so much that you overpower the melon, just for flavor and color. Then think about adding other flavor modifiers like chopped ginger, honey, cinnamon, fennel, rum, or tequila (remember, unlike in cooking, the alcohol is retained in sorbet so just use a small amount to make it taste fancy and mysterious). Food process (or use an immersion blender in the bowl) until liquefied. Add the liquid to your ice cream maker, press "on" and then check for consistency every five or ten minutes. Once it reaches the point you want, serve immediately, garnished with fresh mint and fresh berries. Eat it all, because this sorbet will turn to a solid brick of ice in your refrigerator.

Note: if you are already happily coupled in a celebrated relationship and do not have an ice cream maker, first, what were you thinking? And second, an alternative is to plant the seeds for such an event in the minds of family and friends. Then when they receive the ice cream maker, ask to borrow it. Keep it indefinitely. Problem solved.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Expected Harvest August 23rd plus useful ideas for using produce

 Greeting vegetable lovers!

Here is the harvest list Thursday August 23rd: 

Kohlrabi is new this week!
Also Napa Cabbage. Time to make Kim Chi.
We will be lucky to find sweet corn. If we do, it will be very young. Much more next week.
Watermelon. also some cantaloupe.
Mountains of tomatoes - take home a whole box to can or freeze or squeeze.
Lettuce Mix.
Flower Bouquets.  Laura has outdone herself this week!
Carrots and Beets.
Chard, Cabbage and Kale
There might be a few green beans. We are between plantings. Same for Broccoli. 
Basil, cilantro, dill, parsley.
Onions, garlic, scallions.
Zucchini, summer squash, and cucumbers. These are finishing up soon.
Peppers, Hot Peppers, Eggplant. Ready for the grill.
Maybe potatoes.

Idea #1: Put whole tomatoes on the grill and add sticks to the fire in order to fire-roast them on orange flames. Then slip the blackened skins off, core, and then chop for salsa. Do the same for hot peppers and bell peppers. Add onions, garlic, lime and fresh cilantro.

Idea #2: Cut eggplant into slabs about 1/2 inch thick. Put the eggplant steaks into a gallon sized plastic bag and then add olive oil and herbs and salt. Marinate for a while and then put the slabs on the grill. 

Idea # 3: Get several watermelons. Cut the melon off the rind and place the chunks in a colander. Position the colander over a bowl and then use clean hands to squeeze all the juice out. Serve watermelon juice chilled. 

Idea #4: Refrigerator pickles. Any recipe.

Idea #5: Small batch sauerkraut. Ratio of 3 tablespoons of non-iodized salt to 5 pounds of fine-chopped cabbage. Cover to exclude air (can use a weighted plate or plastic bag filled with briny water. 

Idea #6: Take a quart jar and fill it three-quarters with water. add some melted butter. Dunk your hot sweet corn and watch as a thin layer of butter adheres to the surface of the corn.

Idea #7: Make pesto with out adding the cheese. Pack into ice cube trays. When frozen, remove from the trays and store the cubes in a freezer bag. When you want fresh pesto, just take out the number of cubes you need and add freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago. 

Idea #8: Get as many colors of heirloom tomatoes as you can find. Slice into wedges and artfully display on a plate with basil leaves. Drizzle with good olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with freshly ground salt.

Idea #9: Kale chips. I just had some at a friends house. I am still waiting for the recipe.

Idea #10: Go to a tree or bush in your yard or neighborhood. Discreetly cut a bunch of green twigs about a foot long each. Ash works well. Use a sharp knife to smooth out and sharpen your sticks. Use the sticks for rustic skewers for meat and veggie kabobs. Laugh at the people who buy their skewers in the store.


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Kraut Photos

Finely chop the cabbage

Use a scale to weigh the chopped cabbage. Add the salt and mix with your hands.

Dump the salted cabbage into the pail or crock.

Remember to discard brown and outer leaves.

Do this project with friends.

Chicken of the Woods









Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Anticipated Harvest August 9th


Do not forget. This Thursday from 4 to 6 pm at Lake Country School. There will be another abundant week of produce and flowers.

Also, if you are looking for something fun to do Thursday, we could use a few extra hands on the harvest. Come on out between 9 am and 10 am and be ready to pick, pick, pick. 

Tomorrow we are looking forward to the following harvest:

Sweet Corn
Salad Mix
Broccoli
Cabbage
Green Beans
Cut Flowers
Tomatoes
Peppers
Hot Peppers
Eggplant
Herbs: Basil, Cilantro, Parsley, Dill (other herbs by request - send us an email)
Onions
Garlic
Scallions
Beets
Carrots
Kale
Chard
Cucumbers
Zucchini

and there will be a some Watermelon!!!!

And Yukon Gold Potatoes!


Saturday, August 4, 2012

A good food day

Food Diary for August 3rd, 2012:

When people are on a diet, the often first thing they do is create a food diary. One of the goals is to get them to notice all of the junk food they are mindlessly eating. I can also see that it might be a little harder to eat fifteen cookies if you know it is going into the food diary.

After yesterday, I was struck with the number and variety of fresh, local food experiences that I packed into one day without even trying. We have been thinking about abundance and generosity as a model for living, as opposed to scarcity and deprivation. Where did the pervasive feeling of scarcity come from? If with look at nature we find fantastic abundance everywhere.

1. My day started (as it does most days) with organic steel cut oats, cooked slow and then garnished with frozen blueberries that we picked at our friends' farm (and some Earth Balance fake butter). Yum. Also a cup of yerba mate tea.

2. A friend, Maddy, was over to work with us in the morning. Maddy works at North Creek Community Farm, a nearby CSA. When I brought her to the greenhouse behind the farmhouse, we sampled some of the strawberries (intense flavor) and the middle eastern cucumbers (sweet, like a melon). I also had to sample the plums from the trees by the long barn (one tree will be ready in the next few days).

3. We worked through the morning, and one of our work experiences was putting the extra basil from Thursday's market into our solar dehydrator. We smelled and tasted the basil as we picked off the leaves. Aaaah.

4. Lunch was fun.
     a. Jen had prepared a cucumber salad with a red pepper from the hoophouse and a little jalapeno, dressed with ume plum vinegar.
     b. She had also started some wild rice (gift from friends that we have been saving) in the rice cooker.
     c. I harvested some okra, tomatillos, another jalapeno, an onion, and some fresh cilantro. I fried the okra in local sunflower oil and some curry spices. I made a fresh tomatillo salsa in the food processor (tomatillos, juice from one lime, a little onion, half the jalapeno, salt, and a bunch of cilantro). Yum.
      d. Laura and Maddy went and got leftovers from the Homestead kitchen. Last week we hosted 30 Montessori teachers for a week of teacher-training. Anne cooked, and she used the week as an opportunity to showcase the use of fresh local ingredients.
             1. There was smoked chicken (Donna's chicken that she had raised at her place), which Laura and Maddy converted into a chicken salad using fresh garden herbs from our greenhouse containers.
             2. Also present was heirloom tomato gazpacho. A mix of our second-quality tomatoes and Maddy's farm's that she herself had picked earlier in the week.
             3. Sauteed zucchini.
             4. Cole slaw with fresh summer cabbage - red and green.
             5. Homemade ice cream that Anne had made from local ingredients. Rich like custard.

5. I did snack on some of those awesome yellow corn chips made in Minnesota that they sell at the co-op - while watching some Olympics coverage. Sadly, the bag was almost empty.

6. In the early evening, I harvested some corn on my way in from the potato field. The youngest, tenderest corn we have ready. Bodacious. I also grabbed the cabbage and green beans that were left over from Thursday's market. After a brief consult with the book Wild Fermentation, I shredded the cabbage and combined it with sea salt and packed it into our crock. I did four cabbages and it yielded 8 pounds of shredded cabbage. Sauerkraut is on the way!

7. Then Jen and I picked through the green beans and removed the stems from about 4 pounds of beans. While I was finishing the beans she got the steamer ready (to blanch the beans before freezing) and the corn ready and also made a surprise meal. She took the chicken-of-the-woods mushroom that she had found earlier in the week and combined it with some onions and a green pepper that she had cooked to caramelization. Added into that was some leftover organic black rice (wow!) and a cilantro/parsley/lime sauce that Laura had made on Wednesday. Oh, and a New Glaurus Moon Man beer.

A typical summer food day on the farm.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Recipes Cucumber Salad and Zucchini Carpaccio

Thanks Kristyn!

Cucumber Salad
1 cucumber, halved, seeded and thinly sliced (use 2 if small)
4 radishes thinly sliced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons fresh dill
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Toss all ingredients together and serve.

Great little salad with fish, chicken or turkey burgers.

Real Simple, April 2012 Issue

Zucchini Carpaccio
2 zucchini (about 1 1/2 total)
1- 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (dill, chives, parsley, chervil)
1 leek, white part only sliced paper thin
1/2 to 1 cup of cheese (can use goat, ricotta or parmesan)
Kosher Salt and Pepper

Slice zucchini with a mandolin either length-wise to make planks or in thin rounds (smaller zucchini look really nice length-wise, but if you have a big zucchini the rounds work better).  Sprinkle zucchini lightly with salt and pepper.  In a small bowl, whisk olive oil and lemon juice and a little more salt and pepper to make a nice vinaigrette (add a little more olive oil if too tart).  Drizzle vinaigrette over the zucchini.  Sprinkle sliced leek and chopped herbs over the top.  Let chill in fridge for about 10 minutes.  Then sprinkle with cheese.  You can add a little mint to garnish if you have it.

These flavors all seem so simple, but put together this is a really lovely, light, yet elegant summer side.  It is a staple in our house.  It can be made ahead of time.  The flavors just continue to meld.  Kids like it too especially with parmesan.  The original recipe calls for ricotta.

A take on Carpaccio of Raw Zucchini
Tyler Florence
Eat This Book

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Anticipated Harvest For August 2nd

Hi Folks!

It is starting to come in.

Here is what we have on tap...

Cucumbers. Lots of cucumbers.
Ditto Zucchini.
Green Beans.
Lettuce mix? Let us have some.
Cut Flowers. Boku.
Beets.
Carrots.
Onions and Scallions.
Garlic.
Potatoes.
Kale and Chard.
SWEET CORN!
Herbs, including basil bunches and pesto-sized bags.
Eggplant and Peppers (a few)
Tomatillo? Maybe.
Cabbage? I think so.
Broccoli. Mayhaps.
Tomatoes. Limited supply members only.