Some simple recipe ideas

Simple squash recipe: I throw it in, thinly sliced, with penne pasta 3 minutes before the pasta is done boiling.  Drain pasta and squash and then add olive oil, 1/4 cup parsley, 2tbs basil, 1/2 cup ricotta, 1/4 parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste.

Simple, divine, beets recipe:  I chop them up into big cubes (1.5 inches).  For 3 or 4 beets.  Drizzle to coat them-- 2 Tbs balsamic, 1tbs olive oil and a little salt.  Roast in a covered dish at 375-400 for 40 minutes or so--they're done when soft when pricked with a fork.

Also, a couple recipe(s) deal with a couple of salad ideas for broccoli/cauliflower taken from Recipes from Americas Small Farms by Joanne Lamb Hayes and Lori Stein.

First, steam/boil or prepare the broccoli however you desire until crisp/tender. (until bright green, if chopped 3-5 minutes, steamed). Recipes for 1.5 lbs broccoli/Cauli

then, a few choices:
Sesame:
whisk 2tbs of: soy sauce, rice wine vineagar, sesame oil and honey
toast 1/2 cup sesame seeds in a skillet.  Mix broccoli, sauce, and 1/2 of sesame seeds.  Marinate at 30 minutes-2 hours.  Transfer to serving dish, sprinkle remaining seeds on top.

Pasta or Wild Rice:
Mix 2 cups pasta or wild rice with the broccoli, add 1/2 cup sauteed mushrooms.  Dress with a vinaigrette or mayonnaise.  Season with your choice of fresh hers, green onions (scallions), salt and pepper.  Add pine nuts if desired.

Walnut, Raisins and Red Onion:
Mix 1/2 mayo or plain yogurt, 3Tbs sugar, and 1tbs cider vinegar until blended.  (best if you can refrigerate this overnight, but who can plan that far ahead?).  Toss with broccoli, 1/4 of: chopped walnuts, raisins, and red onion.

Enjoy!

Weather Report

Yesterday we wrapped up our third week of the CSA, which is hard to believe.  All day was hot and muggy alternating with torrential dowpours, it (the weather underground) says that we got an inch of rain before it turned into a beautiful night.

A few people asked how the weather effects us: "very directly" is the short answer.  As I was sitting at my table handing out veggies (yeah for peas!) I was noticing some differences over last year for example: this weeks share seemed about one item short to me, and I realized that item would have been broccoli or beets (both of which are ready next week).  The broccoli at least is a pretty clear example of how we deal with the weather, and how that isn't always as straight-forward as you might think.  Normally I "remay" the broccoli.  Remay is this white fabric that lets light and water thru, but not bugs, and acts as a blanket, keeping things three-4 degrees warmer underneath.  Well, that's good. speeds up the growth of the plant, less stressed without the bugs, but broccoli in particular can "button up" (lots of fun quoted terms in this post, huh), making the head unusable, if it gets a temperature spike, so after much consternation, I decided it was going to be a spring of temp spikes and left it off.  Hence, we have broccoli, but a week late.

The warmth and rain (we are two inches above the average for the month) are going to have some great consequences.  Potatoes thus far are looking like they want to be crop of the year, with tomatoes not far behind.  Onions also look to be a bumper crop like we haven't seen in years.  Also carrots just a few weeks away, so, lots in our future.

Pics from the Farm

 All of these pictures of from Jessyloo, who, if you haven't met yet, I am sure you will.  First, the flowering potato plant, and we all just think of it for food, quite pretty.










next up is this wonderful view of the hilled potatoes.  really shows how high up we try to get the dirt on the plants.  This year I hilled twice, as opposed to once in other years, both to try and get a few extra tubers, and to keep them clean (you can kinda see how flipping up all that dirt on them would smother the weeds and also cut them up from the ground surrounding them

here, an earlier shocking view of just how weedy the potatoes were before the hoe-athon, and the effects of the hoe-athon, side by side.

All of this is to say, we are looking forward to a nice potato crop.  no need to jinx it, but at this point all looks good.

on a non-potato note one of many squash blossoms.  Which I think means squash certainly within two to three weeks, probably on the earlier side of that.

and one contemplative end of the day one.


Thanks Jessyloo for the photos, I did finally get another camera so more of the flowers at the farm are on their way.

Sauteed Peas and Scallions, Garlic Scape Pesto...

Today I have a simple recipe that, I must confess, haven't tried, but am excited to this week: sauteed peas and scallions.  And a garlic scape pesto recipe, if you still have them kicking around...  The recipes will get heartier as we get more into summer and enjoying the bounty.  

Sauteed Peas and Scallions:

1 bunch scallions, washed and trimmed
2 teaspoons olive oil
16 ounces frozen or fresh shelled peas (2 cups)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon or ½ teaspoon dried tarragon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Slice the scallions in half lengthwise and then crosswise into ½-inch pieces.
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add the scallions and saute until soft, about 4 minutes.
Stir in the peas, cover the pan and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook until the peas are tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the tarragon and season with salt and pepper.


I figure last week's recipe should work for the chard, and I did have a radish recipe request.  They're great to add a little "zing" to just about anything:  chicken salad,  mixed into plain yogurt for on a baked potato, throw them in a stir fry...  I'll also try to throw in another greens recipe next week.  (You can never have too many of those as I find the greens just keep coming.)


Also, I mentioned cilantro and dill last week, and I got a wonderful reply from Jessyloo, one of our farmers this year at Open Heart.  She made a wonderful post on her blog all about those herbs.  Feel free to peruse:  http://herbaloo.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/musings-from-the-field-cilantro-dill/


And, lastly, if you still have those fabulous garlic scapes floating around, here is another recipe I'm excited to try:

Garlic Scape and Almond Pesto (found on the web somewhere, but lost the link.  Oops.  Let me know if you find it):

Makes about 1 cup

10 garlic scapes, finely chopped

1/3 to 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan (to taste and texture)

1/3 cup slivered almonds (you could toast them lightly, if you'd like)

About 1/2 cup olive oil

Sea salt

Put the scapes, 1/3 cup of the cheese, almonds and half the olive oil in the bowl of a food processor (or use a blender or a mortar and pestle).  Whir to chop and blend all the ingredients and then add the remainder of the oil and, if you want, more cheese.  If you like the texture, stop; if you'd like it a little thinner, add some more oil.  Season with salt.

If you're not going to use the pesto immediately, press a piece of plastic against the surface to keep it from oxidizing. The pesto can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days or packed airtight and frozen for a couple of months, by which time tomatoes should be at their juiciest.

What to do with those Greens?

And I apologize for the lack of napa cabbage last time!  If any of you have buttermilk languishing in your fridge, I would suggest simple buttermilk pancakes, as you wouldn't want to waste it.  Supposedly, it's incredibly good for your digestive and immune systems, packed with vitamins, low fat, and tasty in recipes to boot.  Alas, I'm not the pancake maker in the household and wouldn't trust my judgement on a good recipe.  

Today is just a simple greens recipe, that will work with any greens, and just requires one "strange" ingredient: Oyster Sauce.

Greens with Garlic and Oyster Sauce--Madhur Jaffrey

12 oz greens

3 garlic cloves

1 tbs oyster sauce

2 tsp crushed yellow bean sauce or soy sauce (I used soy)

2 tbs any kind of stock or water (don't you just love choice?)

3 tbs. veggie oil

Seperate and trim greens.

Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil.

Drop in greens and boil rapidly for a few minutes, just until tender (diff greens take diff times)

Drain and plunge in cold water immediately.  Drain well.

Finely chop garlic.  Set aside.   If you wanted to use the garlic scapes, they are much milder than the garlic, but so tasty so I would just chop a whole bunch of them and throw them in instead. (Otherwise, they're great diced into a salad).

Combine oyster sauce, bean or soy sauce and stock in small bowl.

Set a wok, or saute pan, to high heat.  Add oil.  Once hot, saute garlic until golden, thrown in greens, stir for a minute,.  Add stock, cook on high heat for a minute and then pour out extra liquid into serving dish.  Give the greens a final stir, then lift out and lay out over the liquid in the dish.  Serve immediately.

Enjoy!  Nothing like cooked greens...

As far as the dill and cilantro go... well, dill is so tasty chopped and sprinkled on anything.  I love it on simple buttered bread.  Or with blue cheese in salad.  And the cilantro goes into my my guacomole (avocados, onion, garlic, olive oil and cilantro.)

Recipe time!

Hi, I'm Carin Lilly, a member of Open Heart farm for the past few years, which has been great. Heirloom tomatoes, anyone?  Anyhow, at the end of last year I mentioned to Josh that I thought it would be fun to email out recipes along with the list of the following week's veggies, and he followed up on that conversation... 

And, so, now, that is what I'm doing, and I'm excited for the season to begin!  I am positive that there are many of you who are much more seasoned in the kitchen than me, and may have tons of wonderful recipes (No pressure on me whatsoever. Nope.)  My goal is to just make it a tiny bit easier to use up some of the veggies we get each week in a yummy way by eliminating the step of searching for a suitable recipe.  I will be gleaning from Alice Waters and Deborah Madison, my favorite ladies, some Asian cuisine cookbooks, and my own stash of recipes from who knows where, as well as some internet sites...  

So, without further ado, 
Next week's veggies and recipe:

Spinach

2 heads of lettuce

Radishes

Napa cabbage

and a potted herb 

Napa cabbage slaw with buttermilk/blue cheese dressing:

(adapted from Epicurious.com)

1/2 cup frothy buttermilk

2 tbs mayo (try olive oil if mayo is not something you're interested in)

2 tbs cider vinegar

2 tbs shallot (or onion and garlic if you don't have it)

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup blue cheese crumbled

1/2 tsp salt 

1/4 tsp pepper

3 tbs finely chopped chives

4 cups Napa cabbage, cored and sliced thinly

6 radishes, diced

2 celery ribs, thinly sliced

Whisk together buttermilk, mayo, cider vinegar, shallot, sugar, blue cheese, salt and pepper until sugar has dissolved, then add chives.

Toss cabbage, radishes and celery with dressing.   And enjoy!

Oh, and also, I'm in charge of planning a potluck party... We were thinking late summer, early fall.  Stayed tuned for details as they figure themselves out.  That's it for now. Happy eating local food!  

All is well

We've been getting some rain the past few days, just a week or so before our CSA starts.  It looks like we will have all the standard stuff for a first week of a Vermont CSA, even though this hasn't been the most standard spring.  The field is looking the best it has in years, in part because the dry weather has allowed us to get in there and hoe, and in part because Jessyloo is such a darn good hoer (is that a word?).

My Camera is fixed, so eventually pictures will return to the blog, in fact, maybe today is a good day to take one of the first cosmos.  There are about five, and the sooner they get cut the sooner there will be ten, twenty one hundred etc.

A bit of a late start today, off to hand weed our second bed of carrots.  By the way, here is a link to Jessyloo's blog, she's in to the medicinal/spiritual qualities of all plants and will occasionally be writing about the healing properties of he vegetables we are growing, so check it out.

also by the way, we are full for this year, but feel free to contact us re: the waitlist for next year.