Week 4 CSA

Expect greens, greens, and more greens. And the last of the garlic scapes!

If you're like us, you've got more jars of jellies in your pantry than you know what to do with. Try combining the jelly with peanut butter (or cashew or almond butter), add a little water to loosen, apple cider vinegar and lemon to taste, add a couple good squirts of Bragg's amino acids, and a healthy drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in your blender and process it until it's smooth. It makes for a sweet, creamy dressing that will impress your friends and use up those homemade jellies!

You'll also be receiving a head of cabbage from Eddie Ray in Smithville. They're organically grown and a great size for a small family or couple. If you'd like to make kraut, let us know, and we'd be happy to provide you with beautiful cabbage from our farmer friends.

The season's first cabbages marks kraut making time! Homemade sauerkraut is nothing like the mushy stuff in a can from the store. Store-bought kraut has been heated to make it shelf stable, which completely destroys all the health benefits of this fermented food.

Fermentation, which makes nutrients easier to absorb during digestion, occurs when sugars in food are broken down, resulting in lactic acid, which lowers the pH (raising the acidity) of food below the growth range of dangerous bacteria, preserving the food and all its nutrients without refrigeration.

Lactic fermented foods add good bacteria to your stomach. An entire ecosystem of bacteria inside each of us is responsible for actually breaking down food we eat into forms that can be absorbed by our bodies.

Fermented foods help balance your body's pH. The good bacteria absolutely vital for digestive health cannot thrive in an acidified environment. A standard Westernized diet high in animal proteins, processed fats, and sugars leaves our bodies chronically acidified.

Fermentation can be carried out on your kitchen counter. All it requires is finely shredding your cabbage or other vegetables and packing them down with salt in a ceramic or glass vessel to release the juices, which mix with the salt to create a brine that covers the vegetables. Cover and let the vessel sit a few days to a few months, until it acquires the flavor you desire. 

Properly prepared, fermented foods are as delicious as they are nutritious. Local author, Sandor Katz, is internationally known for his fermentation skills and knowledge. His book, Wild Fermentation: the flavor, nutrition, and craft of live-culture food, is a great introduction to fermentation. It's available at the Liberty Library in the old high school building in Liberty.

Week 3 shares

Salads, salads, and stir-fry! TWO heads of lettuce, in addition to the last of the Asian greens, some very spicy mustards bunched with the season's last watercress, leeks, onions, carrots, and GARLIC SCAPES! These succulent treats will probably only be around for another share or two, so be sure to get creative and savor them!





There are lots of recipes available online suggesting creative uses for scapes.


Here's one for Northern Bean and Garlic Scape Dip (and the website I lifted the picture from)

Garlic Scape Pesto

And a collection of recipes

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 Today we have a couple gluten-intolerant Wwoofers over, so I made a big bowl of egg salad and served it on top of the "farmer food" lettuce... which is what we call the stuff that's too ugly to put in your shares! It still makes a beautiful salad.

Don't forget to use the ribs from you greens to add a fun crunch to stuff like egg salad.

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 This is the first year we've harvested the tops of the bolting chard. I think I'm in love. They're so tender and delicious, and to boot, they cook up really quickly in a stir-fry.

When in doubt, chop it up, throw it in a pan with some rice, try some seasonings like soy, ginger, and garlic or cumin, coriander, and a little curry powder, and you've got yourself a quick, healthy, flavorful meal. Experiment with adding exotic ingredients like coconut milk simmered with lemongrass to keep it exciting!

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You'll find a variety of little edible flowers and herbs. The light purple poofs of small flowers are chive blossoms, the yellow are kale flowers, white flowers are arugula, and the dark purple is sage. Sprinkle them over a big pile of lettuce for a salad prettier than a picture!

Week 2 Shares

You'll find the same mix of fresh produce as last week, with the addition of some other goodies, like baby carrots and hardneck garlic scapes.


You can just chop up those greens, heat up some coconut or extra virgin olive oil, and toss everything in a saute pan. Add some grated or finely chopped fresh ginger, soy sauce, and a little black pepper for a simple, fast dish with lots of flavor. Serve with fast-cooking Basmati rice, quinoa, or pearl couscous to round out the meal and have dinner ready in under 30 minutes! (Take that Rachael Ray!)

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 One of my favorite things to do with chard is add it to tomato sauce. Add the chopped greens just a few minutes before serving. It pairs very well with the acidity and tang of the tomatoes.

I use chard and kale ribs in place of celery to add crunch in pretty much everything, from deviled eggs to tuna salad.

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A favorite go-to fast meal here on the farm is to make a giant salad for dinner. I'll top it with a couple boiled eggs, some chopped bacon, and dress it with a sweet lemon dressing. The dressing isn't terribly healthy; lemon juice to sugar at a 1:1 ration with a healthy drizzle of olive oil. But oh my GOODNESS it's delicious... and I figure if you're having salad for dinner, you can afford to splurge on the dressing. My mother taught me that recipe, and her mother taught her.


Part of the fun of CSA and seasonal eating is thoroughly enjoying produce when it's available. We just straight up refuse to buy lettuce in the store (SO inferior), so when it's not in the garden, we don't eat salads. But when the lettuce looks as beautiful as it does now, we eat it for lunch, snacks, and dinner, and sometimes even breakfast.

Soon enough it'll be 100 degrees and tomato season; the lettuce will have bolted and be bitter. Enjoy these beautiful greens while they're here! Experiment, and you never know when you'll taste your new favorite food!

1st Week Share

The first shares this year include lettuce, Asian greens, kale, chard, mustards, mint, fresh herbs, garlic scapes, leeks, and giant Egyptian Walking onions. Use the white part of the onion like you would a regular bulb onion and the green part like a scallion. The curly parts at the top are more spicy than the rest of the onion. Leeks are a little sweeter and less pungent. They're great in stirfry, eggs... and everything else, really. Garlic scapes are one of the joys of CSA eating, as you'll never find them in the grocery store. They have the flavor of raw garlic and the texture of a fresh green bean. Use them raw, in soups and stews, or in sautes and stirfry.



If you're not sure how to use all those greens, you can always just chop them up and toss them with your lettuce to make a robust, colorful salad. Or add them to a stirfry with the garlic scapes and onions, then season with ginger, a little honey, and some soy sauce.


One of CSA members asked us, "Where are all the holes in your greens?!" Well, you'll find them aplenty in the Asian greens.






 
 Here are some links about how to use fresh herbs: Oregano and Thyme, Mint, and this Guide to Fresh Herbs. Included this week are oregano, thyme, and a chive blossoms. Just sprinkle the blossoms over your fresh salads. They have a mildly sweet flavor followed by that familiar chive pungency.

Try putting a sprig of mint in your water glass for a light, refreshing flavor. By far though, my favorite way to use mint is in mojitos...


For more ideas and recipes, visit our Greens Guide. Experiment and enjoy!