Final Week CSA 2013!!

Hi everyone,

I can't believe it's the last week of vegetables! Despite a tough first month, we ended up having a pretty good season overall, and it has to be a record for us to be giving out tomatoes on Halloween! 

I hope you enjoyed your experience as a member of our CSA- we really appreciate you joining with us for another adventurous year of growing vegetables organically. You are the people who make farming on a small, sustainable scale possible and we want to say Thank You!

We'll be sending out an email in a month or so about sign up for next season- if you enjoyed your membership, please tell your friends and neighbors. Most of our marketing is by word-of-mouth, so feel free to let people know about the farm. 

So here's the final list:

Yellow and Red-skinned Potatoes

Savoy Cabbage (use like regular, but here's a little page about cooking with Savoy)

Assorted Onions

Carrots

Sweet Peppers

Tomatoes

Butternut Squash (tan skin)

Buttercup Squash (green, warty skin)

We wish you all the very best and hope you and your families have a wonderful, happy, healthy winter.   Eat good food and take care!

~Sarah for Lucky Moon Farm

Here's a recipe from the Moosewood for using some cabbage:

Caribbean Vegetable Stew- serves 4, takes 35 minutes to prepare

2 cups chopped onions

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 cups chopped cabbage

1 fresh chile, minced, or 1/4 tsp cayenne powder

1 Tbsp grated ginger root

2 cups water (or replace 1/2 cup of the water with a 1/2 cup of coconut milk for a richer flavor)

3 cups diced sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2-1/4 inch cubes

salt to taste

2 cups chopped tomatoes (undrained)

2 cups sliced okra (or sweet peppers)

3 Tbsp lime juice

2 Tbsp chopped cilantro

In a soup pot, saute the onions in the oil on medium heat for 4 or 5 minutes. Add the cabbage and the chile or cayenne and continue to sauté, stirring often, until the onions are translucent, about 8 minutes. 

Add the ginger and water, cover the pot and bring to a boil. Stir in the sweet potatoes, sprinkle with salt, and simmer for 5 or 6 minutes, until the potatoes are barely tender. Add the tomatoes, okra and lime juice. Simmer until all the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in the chopped cilantro and add salt to taste. 

If you like, sprinkle with chopped peanuts and serve over rice or with some crusty bread. 

And another version from somewhere else warm:

Tunisian Vegetable Stew- serves 4, takes 30 minutes

1 1/2 cups thinly sliced onions

2 Tbsp olive oil

3 cups thinly sliced cabbage

dash of salt

1 large green bell pepper, cut into thin strips

2 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp cinnamon

sprinkle of cayenne to taste

3 cups undrained chopped tomatoes (canned or fresh) (28 oz can)

1 1/2 cups drained cooked chickpeas (16 oz can)

1/3 cup raisins or currants (optional)

1 Tbsp lemon juice

salt to taste

In a large skillet, saute the onions in the oil for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the cabbage, sprinkle with salt and continue to saute for at least 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the bell pepper, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon and cayenne to the skillet and saute for another minute or so. Stir in the tomatoes, chickpeas and optional currants or raisins and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes until the vegetables are just tender. Add the lemon juice and salt to taste.

 Top with feta and sliced almonds, if you like. 

Serve over couscous or any grain of your choice. 

Week 21- 1 more to go!

 

Hi everyone,
So we're down to the penultimate week of veggies! Hard to believe- but the freezing wind and rain and hail have made it a little easier to accept. :>) But despite the cold weather, we have some nice veggies for you this week.

Here's what's in your bags:
Leeks
Acorn Squash and/or Delicata Squash
Kale
Tomatoes
Kennebec White Potatoes
Green Peppers
Eggplant

Lots of great things to cook with these- here are a few ideas for the potatoes and leeks-
A classic Potato Leek Soup recipe:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/potato_leek_soup/

Or baked in a Potatoe Leel Gratin:
http://localfoods.about.com/od/winter/r/potleekgrati.htm

And a flexible recipe that can use the leeks, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and potatoes:
A Turkish vegetable casserole called Turlu Turlu. Sue made it and it was a big success. The flavors only got better with time!
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/turlu-turlu

Week 20- 2 more to go!

Hi everyone,
The season is really starting to wind down now. But the late fall veggies are some of my very favorites. I love potatoes, winter squash, carrots for roasting, leeks, cabbage, cauliflower... the list goes on. As I get all my onions cleaned and my garlic braided and my winter squash washed and stored, I feel secure and ready for another winter. I assume this satisfaction at stashing a bunch of food for the cold months is a feeling left over from a time when the grocery store wasn't just a short drive or walk away. But it is nice to know there's plenty of food in the house ready to be used for many meals with family and friends. It makes winter something to look forward to, really, instead of dreading it.

But enough philosophizing. In your bags this week you have:
Yellow potatoes
White onion
Garlic
Cooking (Pie) pumpkin
Kohlrabi or Cauliflower or Broccoli
Rainbow carrots (yellow, white, pink, orange and reddish- they're all carrots and all very tasty!)
Red or green cabbage
Tomatoes

If you're not sure about kohlrabi or what to do with it, check out this article. It has a bunch of recipes and cooking instructions- note the kohlrabi and celery root puree, if you still have your celeriac (aka celery root) from last week. 

 

And don't be shy about cooking that pumpkin!

Treat it just the same as any other winter squash- cut off the top, cut it in half (the skin isn't very tough so it cuts pretty easily) and scoop out the seeds. Feel free to save these for roasting, if you like. The I put the two halves cut-side down on a cookie sheet or broiler pan. Bake in the over for an hour or so at 350. Cook longer if you need to, it varies quite a bit. But the end goal is for the pumpkin to be quite soft when poked with a fork.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Then just scrape the soft flesh off the rind, whip with a fork in a bowl, and it's pumpkin puree, ready to cook with or freeze once it's cooled off. It freezes really well, so I usually cook my pumpkins right away and freeze it to use in pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, pumpkin cookies or pumpkin pancakes (my favorite!). You probably don't want to let it sit around until Thanksgiving. It might last, but pumpkins aren't usually the best keepers, so better use it before you lose it!

Happy Cooking, everyone!

Best,
Sarah
for Lucky Moon Farm

Lucky Moon CSA Week 18

Hey everyone-
Sorry for the lapse in posts. What with all the work it takes to grow your veggies, there hasn't been much time for anything else.

But in your bags this week:

Shallots (like onions, but fancier :>)
Beets
Delicata Winter Squash (cooks fast, and you can eat the skin- yum!)
Sweet Peppers
Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Yellow Satina Potatoes
Beans or Cauliflower
Salad Mix
Eggplant

The Satina potatoes are just about my favorite- smooth, creamy, great for baking or mashing- they're great.

 And the Delicata squash are really nice. They have great flavor- you can cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, and bake it in the oven at 350 for 20-30 mins until soft. Then a little butter and salt, and you've got a very tasty treat. 

I tried this new recipe the other day out of my Joy of Cooking book:
Cauliflower and Potato Curry- wow!

1) Cut a cauliflower head into florets and boil for 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Peel and cut into 1/2 cubes two medium potatoes. Boil for 5 minutes in the cauliflower water, then drain and rinse under cold water to stop them from cooking. Set aside with the cauliflower.
2) Chop a medium onion and add to 1/4 cup of oil heating in a dutch oven or deep skillet with a lid. Saute the onions for a few minutes. Meanwhile, in a food processor, mince 1 peeled, cored, sliced apple, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 hot peppers and 1 Tbsp shredded ginger (or add powered ginger later). Add the minced mixture to the onions and cook until the onions are getting soft.
3) Add 3 Tbsp of curry powder, 1 tsp salt (ginger if you need to) and 1 Tbsp flour and continue sauté-ing for 3 minutes, stirring, to brown the curry and flour slightly.
4) Add 1 15 oz can of coconut milk and 1/2 cup of broth or water. Stir, then add the potatoes and cauliflower back to the dutch oven. Add 1 can of chickpeas. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes. Add more broth if it seems too dry. Add peas or spinach at the end if you'd like something green.
5) Serve over rice, sprinkled with golden raisins and chopped cashews. (optional)