Down on the Farm

Greenhouse scene

Claire, Waverly and Henry in the greenhouse. The tomato jungle behind them. The tomatoes are starting to turn red!!

CSA Week Three

News from the field:

Strawberries!! The big news from the field has nothing to do with our field. Instead, the strawberries have arrived at our neighbor’s farm, Too Little Farm, in West Barnet. Too Little Farm is a diversified, certified organic farm, run by Elizabeth and Peter Everts, literally about a half a mile from our farm as the crow flies. They were kind enough to let us buy in some of their organic strawberries to distribute to our CSAers. Enjoy!! And check out their pick your own strawberries while they last - 7:30 to 12 noon (or whenever they are picked out).

In the Basket:

Broccoli – The first broccoli of the season! This early variety is light on the stalk with a slightly looser head, so these are almost like broccoli crowns. More flavor, more crunch, better texture, less bitterness. In this hot weather, I am thinking broccoli salad . . .

Zucchini - These early zucchini are harvested small to baby size so they are nice and tender. There will be plenty of time for huge zucchini later in the season, but for now try slicing these in half and steaming them lightly, or simply eating them raw in your salad like a cucumber. More recipe ideas on the back.

Peas!! - Everyone’s peas were late this year because we had snow on the ground so late into April. But now they are coming on. There is a string to take out, but after that you eat the whole thing, pod and all.

Salad fixins – Romaine lettuce, cucumbers.

Scallions - This is the first year we’ve done scallions, let us know what you think.

Scapes - I’ve decided the secret to scapes is char. A customer at Waitsfield market was raving about grilling scapes – brush with olive oil, try not to let them fall through, and let them get the tiniest bit black and enjoy. We don’t have a grill, but I’ve been cutting them into 1 inch length, and sauteing them in butter just till they turn the tiniest bit black. So good. I ate three bunches in one sitting!! Another customer said they’re great frozen whole, as is, then used as you would garlic throughout the year.

Strawberries – Eat today or tomorrow. They won’t keep. It won’t be hard to eat them quickly.

Deborah Madison Zucchini Recipes

I got Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone for Christmas. It is awesome. These two recipes are adapted from it.

Zucchini with scallions

1 pound small zucchini (that’s the amount in the basket this week)
1 tablespoon olive oil, butter, or a mix
4 scallions, including some of the greens, thinly sliced

Halve the zucchini lengthwise or slice ½ inch thick. Heat the oil in a wide skillet, add the zukes, saute over high heat until lightly colored around the edges, about 3 minutes. Add scallions and 2 tablespoons water, then lower the heat, cover, and cook till zucchini is tender. Season with salt and pepper.

Sauteed zucchini with garlic scapes and lemon

1 pound zucchini, thinly sliced or diced into cubes
2 garlic scapes, finely diced
1 ½ tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons basil, marjoram or other herb

Heat the oil, in a wide skillet, add the scapes and saute over medium heat 1-2 minutes. Raise the heat, add the zucchini, saute until heated through. Lower the heat and continue to cook, turning occasionally, until tender and golden around the edges, 8-10 minutes, Season with salt and pepper, toss with the lemon and herbs, serve.

Sign Makeover

Old Shaw Farm has undergone an amazing transformation via its signs. The old signs worked, but they lacked the zest and flavor that I believe our produce, and our crew embodies. So, after hours of careful dedication, I have crafted these signs in the hope that they might provide a better reflection of Old Shaw Farm.
Below are the before and after shots...

Before
Not lookin so hot...

After
Looking quite spiffy...

And this last sign is for the monstrous amounts of tomatoes that will begin ripening in the next week or two...

CSA Week Two

News from the field:

Dry dry dry. Any rain this week will be welcome. When it gets dry the veggies start to slow down a bit, so the broccoli, zucchini, and peas are almost there, but not quite. That means a bounty of early greens and salad! The mesclun is here now, as it the arugula, and garlic scapes too. And there are even a few tomatoes starting to turn red in the greenhouse for the weeks to come. Enjoy!

In the Basket:

Mesclun - Ahh the salad days of summer. Two bags this week to celebrate. Enjoy salads every night, stuff it in your sandwich, try pasta with mesclun (recipe on the blog).

Arugula - This is a peppery, tender green. Italians eat a salad of arugula, shaved parmesan cheese, and fruity extra virgin olive oil. Or sprinkle it over a crisp hot pizza right after taking it out of the oven. We like making it into pesto: Put two cloves of peeled garlic in the food processor, process till it is finely chopped and stuck to the sides of the processing bowl. Stuff the food processor full of arugula, add some olive oil and process, adding oil till you have a very a thick liquid. Add grated parmesan cheese and toasted nuts (we used peanuts because it was all we had but almonds or pine nuts would be more appropriate), toss with hot pasta, top with more grated cheese and enjoy. Waverly ate this up and it was a great way to get a lot of greens into her.

Cucumbers - One long ridged English cucumber, one regular.

Salad turnips - Eat raw with dip, in a salad with the mesclun, as a sandwich layer, or even like an apple.

Chard - I got Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone for Christmas last year, and here’s what she suggests for chard: slice the leaves off the stems, wash them well, coarsely chop. Drop them into boiling water, cook till tender, drain, press out excess moisture with the back of a spoon, toss with extra virgin olive oil or butter, salt and pepper. Or turn the cooked, drained greens into a skillet in which you’ve heated olive oil with a crushed garlic and a pinch or two of red pepper flakes.

Garlic scapes - Scapes have a bright, springy flavor with a coarse, tough texture. So the trick is figuring out a way to soften them without losing their flavor or making them mushy. We usually just puree them (raw) in the food processor with olive oil and then use that base in various ways – thinned with olive oil to make a dipping sauce for crusty bread, add cheese and nuts for pesto, tossed with potatoes for roasting, add vinegar and oil for salad dressing, etc. My friend Chris finds that way to be too gritty, and he’s come up with more elegant uses; recipes are here. Thanks Chris!! If anyone else has recipes to share, please do!!!

Chris' Garlic Scape Recipes

Scape Sprinkles
Blanch scapes in boiling water about 3 minutes and then shock in iced water to set the color. Dice fine, then scatter on salad or pizza, add to sautés briefly as a garnish, and so on.

Scapes for soup
Chop scapes 1/2-inch long, saute in butter for 2-3 minutes – until bright green, and add to simmering soup about 20 minutes before serving.

Garlic Scape Potato Cake
Sauté finely-diced scapes in butter, then add a few tablespoons of water and boil it off. Shred some potatoes in your Cuisinart or mandoline, squeeze out as much water as you can, and then toss with an egg, a few tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper, and the scapes.

Heat a large nonstick or cast iron pan over high heat, add oil and wait until it smokes, then spread the potato mixture on top. Turn heat down to medium and cook until the bottom is brown. Dot the top with lots of butter, then bake at 425 degrees until golden. Put a plate over the top and turn the pan upside-down. Serve in wedges.

Garlic Scape Vichyssoise
8 garlic scapes, coarsely chopped
1 small onion, sliced
1 Tb butter
3 medium potatoes unpeeled and cubed
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
½ Tb salt (omit if using canned stock)
1 cup milk
1 cup cream (divided)
Arugula and chives (chopped fine), and black or white pepper, for serving

Sauté scapes and onion in butter until limp, 5-8 minutes. Add potato, stock, and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer rapidly, uncovered, 35 minutes, until potato is very tender. Fill blend half full (to avoid splattering), blend till very smooth – 3-4 minutes. Repeat until all blended. Strain into the saucepan through a wire-mesh strainer, add milk and half the cream, and bring slowly almost to a boil, stirring often and scraping the bottom to avoid scorching. Remove from heat and stir in remaining cream. Add salt. Cover and chill thoroughly. To serve, put some chopped arugula in the bottom of each bowl, ladle on the soup, add a dash of white vinegar, garnish with chives and pepper.

CSA Week One

News from the field:

Welcome to the 2007 CSA season!!

These are “the green weeks”, particularly this year, meaning that you will be seeing green in your basket for a couple of weeks. Although the spring has been warm and wet, the late winter got us off to a late start. It is hard to remember now, but we got 8 inches of snow on April 24th!

We usually have our peas and potatoes planted by that date, so we were slow getting things into the field this year. Luckily, we built two unheated hoophouse last fall, which means that we have head lettuce and some other goodies for you this week.

The baskets will brighten up in a few weeks when our greenhouse tomatoes start, and when stuff from the field starts coming along. But until then, enjoy the fresh green veggies!

In the Basket:

Lettuce - Everyone gets two heads including red romaine, which is an especially tender romaine. Caesar salad anyone?

Radishes - Some bright color for your basket and some spice for your palate. Crunch.

Salad turnips - When you grab a bunch of these, your first thought may be, “What the . . .?” These are an Asian variety of turnip grown specifically for raw eating, like a radish. We like them sliced up in salad or eaten in chunks dipped in dressing. The greens are good – and good for you – gently cooked then seasoned with sesame oil and tamari.

Cucumbers - An early treat from the greenhouse!

Chard - One of the more versatile cooking greens, equally great in Italian frittatas and Middle Eastern cumin and lemony lentil or chickpea soups or casseroles. Also good for stuffing or wrapping around salmon filets.

Baby bok choy - A mild and tender Asian green for stir fry or steaming. We like to slice it in half lengthwise and braise it in a little broth with ginger then drizzle with soy sauce.

Napa cabbage - We like doing this as a cole slaw. Because it is ruffled, it comes out “fluffier” than regular cole slaw. Also, because it is so tender, you should add the dressing only just before serving. Check out Chris’s soup recipe on the back!!

Chris’ Italian Cabbage Soup

An excellent soup for those cool, rainy evenings. If you make it with olive oil, it is completely vegetarian. The bread and cheese are optional but make the soup especially satisfying. Serves 4, or 2 as a meal. By CSAer Chris Lehrich.

1 thick slice of bacon OR 3 Tb olive oil
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1 head Napa cabbage
salt and pepper
6 cups water
4 slices flavorful white bread (sourdough, French, Italian, etc.)
Cheese (Cheddar, Gruyère, Parmesan, Romano, Emmenthal are all good)
one oven-proof bowl per person

Dice bacon fine, if using. Dice onion, carrot, and celery. Core cabbage and set the cabbage aside, but dice the core except for the root part.

In a 3-4 quart pot over medium-low heat, cook the bacon until golden-brown, then pour off all but 3 tablespoons fat, leaving bacon in the pot OR heat oil over medium-low heat. Add onion, carrot, celery, and diced cabbage core and cook gently 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until starting to brown.

Slice cabbage crosswise into thin strips and add to pot with a generous sprinkle of salt. Stir and cook 10 minutes.

Add water and bring to a boil over high heat. Pepper generously, lower heat, cover, and simmer 1 hour. Correct seasoning and simmer uncovered while preparing to serve.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Toast the bread slices and place one in the bottom of each bowl (or two slices if serving as a meal). Ladle soup over toast, then shave or grate a layer of cheese on top. Bake until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

CSA Freakout!

We have 50 CSAers. Ya baby!! First year we had one (unofficial) one, second year twelve, last year thirty, this year fifty. We are at capacity and have even had to turn people away. More it has been just strictly enforcing the June 1 signup deadline, but still.

Peter is pretty much in charge of production, and I am in charge of accounting and marketing, more or less. So for me when we hit 50, I was dancing around the house happily chanting C.S.A! C.S.A! Peter on the other hand is feeling the pressure. He's all nervous about being able to deliver the quality and quantity for the CSA. I know he will. I definitely don't want to worry the CSAers, it will be great. But its like rehearsal night jitters around here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the CSAers for bringing in the new members. Thanks for letting us quote you or use your photo, thanks for posting and passing out flyers, and thanks a bunch for putting in a good word for us with your friends and family and neighbors. Thank you!!!!!

First baskets next week!!!

New price signs

Claire painted some new price signs on smoother pieces of wood than we had been using, and they are much more legible. They still float around in the baskets of veggies, which is less than ideal, but I can't figure out a better solution.