weeks 5, 6, 7

It's so easy to get behind! It's so nice to get caught up.

July 7, 2011 week 7

Lettuce Carrots Beets
Bell Pepper Patty Pan Garlic
FIRST Tomato Wax Beans
herb bag: Sorrel Basil Cutting Celery

It’s our seventh week of the main season deliveries, and it happens to fall on the seventh day of the seventh month of the year. That feels lucky!

We hope you all had a fun Independence Day. We enjoyed time with family and friends, and Lulah enjoyed the fireworks just as much as Levon DIDN’T enjoy them. The raw blueberry pie was incredible. If you want to learn to make one, ask us for the recipe, or scan through the blog. I’m fairly sure it’s posted in there somewhere.

New item in your herb bag this week is Cutting Celery. This little green herb has all flavor of a celery stick in a small sprig of green. Not so handy for dipping peanut butter, but great in soup stocks, potato salads, and green salads. Our parsley took a hit in the last big rain, so it could be awhile before we have larger quantities of those greens to share. Cutting celery is abundant now.

Tomatoes are on the verge. The gardens on the hill have never looked better. Paul and Branden have worked hard to get the squash, corn, melons, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes and onions laid out and tucked into mulch. There are loads of fuzzy young cantaloupes, miniature watermelons, and thousands of green tomatoes. This week is a particularly precious time, because even though everything is green and lush and beautiful, it's still small enough to maneuver around the gardens. Soon, the tomato vines will close in and picking tomatoes will be like a trip into the primeval tomato jungle. Walking through the squashes and melons will be a tip toe dance around intertwining vines and blooms, and the sweet potatoes will be a solid carpet of beautiful ropy vines and leaves. Everything is growing strong and it won’t be long before we’ll be in full harvest up there. Corn will be late this year, but here come the peppers…

Peppers have a funny way of setting a great big fruit early in the season, right smack dab in the middle of the plant. That first pepper can grow quite large and actually lodge itself in the plant’s branches, making it difficult to harvest. These peppers you’re receiving today are those first big peppers. We picked them out to make room for the others to grow larger. There’ll be more soon.

This is the end of carrots for awhile. We're sad to see them go. It's been a lovely harvest. We'll have more later in the season. Beets are here, and we know they're not everyone's favorite vegetable, so we'd like to give you some information about why and how to love them. Unique pigment antioxidants present in beets have been found to offer protection against coronary artery disease and stroke, lower cholesterol levels in the body and have anti-aging effects. Beets are a great source of B vitamins, have more iron than spinach (step back Pop-eye!), and are also an excellent source of calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, copper, and natural sodium. A quick online search, also yielded this, um, interesting tidbit:

“Dandruff: Mix a little vinegar to a small cup of beets juice. Massage it into the scalp with your fingertips and leave on for about an hour, then rinse. Do this daily till dandruff clears up. Warning: you will smell awful during this hour! “

Nutritional information is motivational, but recipes are probably more useful:

Beet Roesti with Rosemary (from Mark Bittman)
Makes 4 servings Time: 20 minutes
An almost unbelievably sweet and wonderful side dish. The sugar in the beets caramelizes, and the flavors of the rosemary, beets, and butter meld beautifully.
· 1 to 1 1/2 pounds beets · 1 teaspoon coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
· 1 teaspoon salt · 1/4 cup flour
· 2 tablespoons butter
1. Trim the beets and peel them as you would potatoes; grate them in a food processor or by hand. Begin preheating a medium to large non-stick or well-seasoned skillet over medium heat.
2. Toss the grated beets in a bowl with the rosemary and salt, then add about half the flour; toss well, add the rest of the flour, then toss again.
3. Place the butter in the skillet and heat until it begins to turn nut-brown. Scrape the beet mixture into the skillet, shape it into a nice circle, and press it down with a spatula. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the bottom of the beet cake is nicely crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Slide the cake out onto a plate, top with another plate, invert the two plates, and slide the cake back into the pan. Continue to cook, adjusting the heat if necessary, until the second side is browned. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Roasted Beets, Italian style
Trim off the tops must 1/4 inch or so above the root. Rinse. Wrap all the beets together in a double-thickness of aluminum foil, crimping the edges together to seal tightly. Roast in a 400ºF oven until tender, 1-2 hours. Remove from the oven. When cool enough to handle, peel the beets (the skin will pull away) and slice into thin rounds or half rounds. Just before serving, dress with good-quality red wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper. Serve warm or room temperature. Especially nice after lamb dishes.
Roasted Beets can also be used in fancier salads. Try combining them with orange sections and watercress or lamb's lettuce -- or with walnuts and goat cheese – or with sliced red onions and fresh herbs – in a sherry vinegar dressing.

Quick and Easy Beans
Cook beans in a 4-quart pot of boiling salted water until just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain in a colander, then immediately toss in a large bowl with either:

1 Tbsp. honey, ¾ tsp. Grated lemon zest, and ¼ tsp. salt
OR
3 Tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil, juice of one lemon, 2 minced cloves of garlic, and salt and pepper.

This week, we hope to pull onions and dig potatoes. Cucumbers will be fattening up, and the tomatoes will pink up. Summer crops are upon us.

Have a great week, and please remember to send us your blueberry orders.
Thank you for your good eating.

Paul, Coree, Lulah, Levon and Branden

“The old agriculture of the 19th and 20th century is dying, and consumers can hasten that death, and they should. They are, after all, the walking wounded, offended by the chemical amateur. The consumer cannot hide in an organic garden or sleep in a subway or ignorance. Consumers will get lean agriculture when they demand it, casting their demands in knowledgeable terms and nailing those terms to the market door.” ~ Charles Walters, A Voice Eco- Agriculture, 1975


June 30, 2011 week 6

Lettuce Lacinato Kale Carrots Beets
Red Onion Garlic Chard Wax Beans
herb bag: Sorrel Basil Green Onions

Is it my imagination or was June SO fast? We are happy to see the sun shine again these days. By our estimations, we've had at least 7 ½ inches of rain in the past ten days. Monday night's finale thunderstorm was a light show to put most firework displays to shame. There was no sleeping through it, and Branden was tempted to bail out of his tent house. The gardens are still too wet to cultivate and we can't mulch or plant until after we cultivate. The to-do list has gotten pretty darn long! We'll hit the ground running on Friday morning.

Food ripens and grows, no matter what the weather. The first picking of green, (actually, yellow) beans was a little thin. We're aiming for more next week. Summer squashes have not enjoyed the rain, but persist in blooming, as do the cucumbers. There are spiny baby cucumbers all over the vines. Lulah has eaten about three not-quite-ripe tomatoes in the garden now. Soon, so soon, those best loved garden fruits will be rolling in. This week's sunshine will bring big growth.

In the meantime – here's to beets and carrots. Make your holiday weekend colorful by using these bright veggies. We like to grate beets on a salad. (You might have noticed already, but we'll put almost anything on a salad. We hope you will try too.) They turn whatever they come into contact with a delightful bright pink (it's especially delightful if you have a young daughter :)). They are great baked in foil, just like a white potato, and if you're doing some grilling this weekend – check out these tips for Grilled Beets, a great addition to a grilled veggie platter:
Heat the grill to medium-hot – you should be able to hold your hand about an inch over the cooking grate for about 2 seconds.
Peel and slice beets.
Brush beets with olive or vegetable oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt.
Place beets on grill. If using a gas grill, cover. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, turn, and cook until beets are tender and grill-marked, another 8 to 10 minutes.
Serve beets hot, warm, or at room temperature. Drizzle with additional olive oil for serving, if you like. This is also a great time to use any nut oils - toasted walnut oil or hazelnut oil in particular - since they are delicious on grilled beets.

Reminder - any oil you use can be easily infused with garlic and/or basil or any other herb you choose, simply by crushing the herb or spice and mixing it with the oil. The longer it soaks in the oil the better, and if you're infusing for more than a few hours, please move the container to the fridge.

Another good thing to do with beets:
Beet Raita
3 cups raw beets, grated 1 bay leaf 1 Tbsp sunflower oil
½ tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp sea salt 1 Tbsp honey or maple syrup
2 cups yogurt
Steam beets over 1 inch of water in a saucepan for 2 to 3 minutes. Heat oil in a small skillet; add mustard seeds and crumled bay leaf. When mustard seeds pop, take skillet off heat. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Chill if desired. Enjoy as a garnish with bread, soup rice or vegetables.

These pretty little kale tops are the end of the brassica family in the garden until Fall. Some will mourn their loss and others rejoice. Here at home we do a little of both. Leaving a good space between the Spring and Fall cabbage family plantings helps reduce the caterpillar population, and leaves us with better garden rotation options.

Here's a nice soup, from Laurel's Kitchen, to use your kale. You could probably use chard in this as well. I probably would not use them both together.

Potato Kale Soup
1 onion 1 tbsp oil/fat
1 clove garlic 2 large potatoes
1 large bunch kale 5 cups hot water or stock
1/2 tsp salt or to taste black pepper

Sautee onion in fat until slightly golden. Add potatoes and 2 cups water. Simmer, covered, until potaotes start to soften at the edges. Meantime wash kale(soak in a sink or bowl of water. Remove stems...chop fine and steam. (don't cook with the potatoes...the flavor will be too strong.)
When the potatoes are well done, puree half of them with remaining water and salt an pepper (consider using miso instead of salt here). Combine all and heat gently (do not boil). Correcting consistency by adding hot water or milk. Makes about 6 cups.

In coming weeks, we hope to grub some white potatoes, pick more beans, and ripe tomatoes, and bring some cucumbers to town.

We hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend, and look forward to seeing you next week!

Your Gardeners
at Red Springs Family Farm

PS – There are still shares available – pass the word along to your friends. Also, basket up for grabs next week – if someone wants a sample.


June 23, 2011 week 5

Lettuce Chinese Cabbage Carrots Broccoli Red Onion Fresh Garlic
herb bag: Sorrel Basil Shiso
Green Coriander Anise Hyssop Echinacea flowers

Amazing how fast we can oscillate between praying for rain and begging for it to stop! Oh well. All seeds planted are sprouting well now. So are the millions of weeds we will be pulling and hoeing when the garden soil dries enough to walk upon again. We prefer to not even walk in the garden when the soil is this wet. Good garden soil teems with microscopic life, and when the soil is wet, that life is all the more fragile. Our heavy steps have a heavy price.

These lovely red onions came from Lulah's hands to your kitchen. We were up on the hill making the most of a few sunny hours on Tuesday. The garlic harvest needed to happen before the next rain, which seemed emenent. Lulah looked at the onion bed and noticed that the red onions' tops were laying down. We confirmed her suspicion that they were ready to come out of the ground, and she harvested all the bent onions, laid them in piles, and carried them to the tractor all by herself. Purple is one of her favorite colors, which made the job a real joy for her.

These red salad onions are not cured. They should be stored in a plastic bag in your refrigerator and eaten within a week or two. Here's a basic Greek Salad to use a red onion in:

1 large head Lettuce 1/2 half red onion, sliced
1 English Cucumber, sliced 1 cup Kalamata olives
1 cup Greek Feta, crumbled

Dressing: 1/2 cup olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp dried oregano 1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper

1. Place lettuce in a large bowl.
2. Mix dressing ingredients in a bottle and give it a good shake.
3. Toss lettuce with about 1/2 the dressing.
4. Place remaining salad ingredients on top of lettuce, and drizzle with some more dressing.
(Recommendation from the farm kitchen – use thinly sliced tender broccoli stalks and small florets instead of cucumbers, which won't be ready for another couple weeks.)

It's such splendid work to grow garlic. In the midst of the garlic harvest, I remembered that Paul went up to plant the garlic 8 months ago, last October, when I was just getting the feeling of going into labor with Levon. Tuesday, Levon fell asleep in the stroller, giving his Momma a rare and wonderful opportunity to work unencumbered in the garden. The garlic is beautiful. Fresh garlic is something you can't ordinarily buy in a grocery store. The clove skins are not dry - the bulb is on the whole juicier than most garlic. Enjoy. You'll be getting a bulb each week, but this new fresh garlic is special.

Shiso, or Perilla, is a new one in your herb bag this week. Looking on wikipedia, I find this:
“ Perilla is traditionally used in Chinese medicine and has been shown to stimulate interferon activity and thus, the body's immune system. It is used to ease the symptoms of the common cold. It is fried in oil with garlic or ginger in the wok, and eaten as a dish with meals. “

We like to slice it thin on salads. Shiso grows as a weed in our garden, a very beautiful and tasty weed. You may have seen it used as a garnish in Japanese restaraunts. We can get a chuckle by asking the sushi chef what s/he pays for that garnish. What kind of farm income could we generate by selling our weeds?!

This will be the last of the broccoli until Fall. The cold snap did the broccoli good. We think you'll find this week's selection slightly superior to last week. We experimented with an open pollinated variety this spring, and we have been pleased. Broccoli, in general, has been highly hybridized to perform under particular conditions in a very specific time frame. The hybrid broccolis sometimes don't go all the way to flower! They turn yellow but dont' bloom, which seems strange, at least. The open pollinated variety behaves more like a natural broccoli, seems to keep more tender stalks, and we hope you find the flavor agreeable as well.

Chinese Cabbages are not our usual spring garden fare. They enjoy one great advantage over their western relatives (broccoli, head cabbages, kale, etc.) in that the cabbage lopers aren't attracted to them. Unfortunately, the flea beetles do enjoy them, and the recent soggy conditions have made life all the better for those bugs. The damage is primarily aesthetic. These cabbages are tender enough to cut fine in salads. If you want to stir fry them, they need only a short time in a hot pan.

Carrots are beginning to be damaged by the excessive rain. The root bottoms suffer in our low hollow – high water table. We'll hope that things dry out this week and give them a chance to recover. Here's our favorite carrot salad recipe:

12 medium carrots, grated 1 cup fresh pineapple, drained and chopped
½ cup raisins ½ cup roasted pecans
1 Tbsp parsley (optional) ¾ cup basic dressing (below)
Mix well and chill.

Basic Dressing:
1 tsp Dijon type mustard 2 Tbsp. Plus a bit wine vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp flax oil

Dip a fork into the ja of mustard and transfer about 1 tsp to a small bowl. Add vinegar and mix around. Add olive oil in a thi stream, stirring all the while with the fork, until oil is well mixed or emulsified Add flax oil and use immediately.

COMING SOON – new potatoes, beets, green beans. We don't know when the first tomatoes will ripen but we sure look forward to that day!

FARM BUSINESS – if you are paying on the quarterly payment plan, this is your last week paid for. Please bring a check next week, if you didn't already this week. Thank you!

Thank you for your good eating. Happy Summer!

VIII When I rise up, let me rise up joyful, like a bird.
When I fall, let me fall without regret, like a leaf.
~ Wendell Berry, Prayers and Saying of the Mad Farmer

weeks 3 and 4

Red Springs Family Farm
June 16, 2011 week 4

Lettuce Lacinato Kale Kohlrabi
Carrots Broccoli Red Onion
Green Coriander Sorrel Basil & Mint

Beautiful! What a break! We’ve enjoyed the cold snap, and the good soaking rain yesterday, and the garden has too. The summer transplanting is almost complete and now with a good hoeing and a little more mulch, the summer crops will be “laid by” as they say ‘round here. Early tomatoes are swelling, but still green. They’re setting a tremendous number of blooms (exciting news for future harvests). Squashes, peppers, and eggplants are also blooming, and will be set to grow as we emerge from these wonderful cool days.

Today you’re getting the first handful of carrots, the first bulbed onions, and their yummy greens, and a little taste of fresh basil. The broccoli is just a bite. It falls short of what we had hoped for, and is nowhere near the perfection of a good autumn broccoli, but it’s a sincere reflection of the temperature fluctuations and growing conditions of the season so far. Tall and willowy, reaching for the sky, going to bloom before it makes a full head. We’ll be glad to pull out the remaining stalks and leaves (the chickens will turn them into good eggs) and give the space to another vegetable. Enjoy this special taste of broccoli.

The broccoli isn’t the only thing aiming for the sky down in the hollow. Lulah’s feet seem to touch the sky as she pumps herself up on the swingset, and lettuce has been bolting skyward as well, so we’re moving on into the summer lettuce selection of crunchy sweet butterheads. We like to dress our salads with a pinch of salt, a splash of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and nutritional yeast. The garlic will be out of the ground shortly, and then the salads will really sing!

Both the broccoli and the kale could use a good soaking before you cook them. Put a generous pinch of salt in your soaking water and it will cause any remaining cabbage lopers (green caterpillars) to float to the top of the bowl. It’s nicer to find them in the rinse water than on your plate!

As a matter of full disclosure – we do use an organically approved caterpillar killing spray (Dipel) on the cabbage family vegetables. It is based on bacillus thuringiensis (BT for short) – a naturally occurring soil-born bacteria that kills caterpillars, and has been used to do so since the 1920’s. Its effect is very targeted, and it is deactivated by sunlight, so it is active for a very short period of time. We use it only on a need-to basis. If we didn’t, there would rarely be kale, collard, broccoli, or kohlrabi to enjoy. Rest assured, we are extremists about what we use in the garden and this is the only pesticide, fungicide or herbicide that we use. We rinse these well and eat them without reservation. Any organic food you buy in the grocery store has certainly been sprayed with BT or some other variety of organic approved chemicals, and conventional produce has been treated with what the organic board did not approve, which can be some really poisonous stuff.

BT has gotten some bad press lately because it’s being used in Genetic Modification – particularly in potatoes, corn, and cotton – and due to that strange technology, the bacteria is now showing up in human blood stream samples. This is, in our opinion, one of the many potential ill effects of short term thinking in the world of modern agri-business (we don’t believe that sort of science can aptly be called ‘culture’).

Enough of that! How about a Broccoli Tofu Stir Fry?

Prepare: 1 ½ cups broccoli
2 carrots, thinly sliced 1 ½ cups kohlrabi, peeled, cut to 1 inch cubes
Drop vegetables into 2 cups boiling water. Boil for 2 minutes, drain, reserve cooking liquid.

Add to liquid for sauce: 2 Tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp garlic powder ½ tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp sugar 1 Tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot

In a large skillet or wok, cook a few minutes: 3 Tbsp. oil and 2 onions, cut into thin wedges.

Add the drained veggies to the onions, stir. Add 2 cups tofu, cut in 1 inch cubes.
Stir in the sauce and cook until sauce is bubbly. Serve on hot rice.

You could vary the vegetables used in this stir fry quite abit and still have great results. The greens would be just fine in here, and probably would not need the 2 minute blanch.
(adapted from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook)

If you’re wondering what to do with sorrel – try this recipe. We put some finely sliced sorrel into a chicken soup (along with green coriander seed) to a very nice effect. You don’t have 2-3 cups of sorrel in your herb bag, but you could mix in some kale or even broccoli to bulk it up.

Sorrel and Goat Cheese Quiche
2-3 cups sorrel, coarsely chopped a few scallions, chopped
3-4 ounces goat cheese (chevre) 3 eggs
1½ cups milk ¼ teaspoon salt
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread goat cheese (or any strong flavored cheese) in the bottom of a piecrust. Cover with chopped sorrel and scallions. Beat eggs, salt and milk together. Pour over greens. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until top is golden brown.
Source: A Luna Circle Farm original recipe

Next week, we’ll likely pull more carrots, maybe beets, and hopefully the Chinese cabbages will be full enough to share.

Thank you for participating in our CSA. We know that the increasing speed of the world does not lend itself to cooking meals from scratch at home, and we commend you for continuing to value authentic and high quality food. Please feel free to contact us with questions about your basket’s contents – we want to encourage you to eat well and enjoy your share of the harvest. If you’d like to help spread the word about our farm and its service, please look us up at localharvest.org and drop a good word on our page there. By the time tomato season begins, we will have WAAAY too much food around here, and the local harvest site is a nice way to get our name out to the surrounding community. We appreciate your support.

Have a lovely weekend.

“…Lightning, then the rain-laughter. Dark earth receives that clear and grows a trunk. Melon and cucumber come dragging along on pilgrimage. You have to be to be blessed! Pumpkin begins climbing a rope! Where did he learn that? Grass, thorns, a hundred thousand ants and snakes, everything is looking for food. Don’t you hear the noise?...” ~ excerpt of Rumi

Red Springs Family Farm
June 9, 2011 week 3

Lettuce Rainbow Lights Chard Kohlrabi
Baby beet greens Mizuna Sorrel
Green Coriander Anise Hyssop Day Lilies

The gardens are looking better all the time. Paul and Branden are sweating it out for the love of good food. Sunday brought us a sweet little downpour. We were grateful for that ¼ inch of rain. The newly transplanted sweet potatoes were grateful too. Thanks to a little help from some friends, the tomatoes are all mulched and caged up and setting loads of little green fruits. Branden went to visit a neighboring farm’s interns and brought back a “crop mob” for an afternoon of work on the hill. Six folks with hoes and pitchforks sure can accomplish a lot of work in a short time! The home table was full of lively discussion, swapping travel plans and college stories over a late dinner of scrambled eggs and homemade tortillas. We all slept well that night.

There is no doubt that summer is here. Besides the little rain over the weekend, the days have been clear and hot hot hot. The cold creek is our best refuge and we enjoy it often. Please feel free to come out for a splash. In the meantime, stay hydrated. Here’s how Paul maintains:
One quart of good water dash of sea salt dollop of sorghum or molasses
Stir these three together and drink as needed. Don’t add ice or refrigerate. This is a homemade electrolyte drink. It hits the belly easier than water, and is very satisfying in this deep heat.

I know that most of you don’t eat your day lilies, but please remember that they are safe and lovely on a salad. Throw the anise hyssop flowers on too and you’ll have a veritable masterpiece of flavor and color in one bowl. Even if you don’t put the lilies on a plate – you might enjoy them in a vase. Each flower only lasts one day, but if you persist to pluck them off, you’ll be amazed at how many of even the smallest buds will burst into bloom for you over time.

The little purple aliens are back! These are kohlrabi. They’re fun. We like to eat kohlrabi grated in a salad. We put it in a teriyaki stir fry a couple nights ago. It’s just fine peeled and eaten like an apple, straight out of the lunchbox. We have not actually tried this recipe, but have used kohlrabi in slaw-like (what is coleslaw but kohlslaw anyway?) fashions and this sounds like a winner:

KOHLRABI & APPLE SLAW with CREAMY COLESLAW DRESSING
Makes 4 cups

DRESSING
1/4 cup cream 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon good mustard 1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt & pepper to taste - go easy here Fresh mint, chopped
1 pound fresh kohlrabi, trimmed, peeled, grated or cut into batons with a Benriner
2 apples, peeled, grated or cut into batons (try to keep equivalent volumes of kohlrabi:apple)

Whisk cream into light pillows - this takes a minute or so, no need to get out a mixer. Stir in remaining dressing ingredients, the kohlrabi and apple. Serve immediately.

The feathery little leaves in your herb bag this week are chervil, the symbol of sincerity. It does not love our clayey soils and excess heat, so we’re sending it in a little early, just in case. Here’s some more details: “Often referred to as the “gourmet’s parsley,” chervil tastes mildly of licorice combined with pepper imparting certain freshness to a dish. Fresh or dried, it is a bright green and quite delicate and should be added to a dish at the end of cooking. Chervil has a tendency to enhance the flavors of other herbs when used in combinations. The most notable case is fines herbes, the French blend of at least three herbs, ground fine, where one herb is almost always chervil.” It is a good partner with your kohlrabi, and is said to be a natural companion to carrots. With luck, the chervil will live to be picked again when the carrots are ready (which will be pretty soon!).

Since the broccoli isn’t behaving in the heat (who would?), we’re sending this beautiful chard. We need to speak a kind word about chard stems now. There were times in the late winter and early spring when chard stems were an important food item in our home. They are very good. I’ve used them as a vegetable in pasta salads, quiche, and stir fry. They need more cooking than the leaves, but not much. They’re best enjoyed with a little texture remaining. That said, here’s a deluxe chard leaf recipe from a beautiful cookbook. Go to it!

Lasagne with Chard, Ricotta, and Walnuts from Local Flavors by Deborah Madison
1 cup walnuts sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 lbs chard leaves 2 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for the dish
3 large cloves minced garlic 1/3 cup white wine
1 cup whole milk ricotta 1 cup fresh grated parmesan
2 4 oz balls mozzarella, grated 1 ¼ cup milk
1 8 oz box no-boil lasagna noodles

1. Bring 2 gallons of water to a boil for chard and pasta. Pre-heat oven to 400, then toast the walnuts in a shallow pan until pale gold and fragrant. Chop finely and set aside.
2. When the water boils add 1 tbsp salt and the chard. Cook about 5 minutes, even if the water doesn’t return to a boil. Scoop the chard into a colander; press out and reserve water. Chop chard.
3. Heat oil in a wide skillet and add 2/3 of the garlic, then the chard. Cook over med-high heat, turning frequently for several minutes, then add the wine and allow to cook down. Turn off heat.
4. Combine ricotta, parmesan, all but ¾ cup mozzarella, and remaining garlic. Stir in 1/3 cup of the chard cooking water, then add the chard. Mix, taste for salt, and season with pepper.
5. Bring the water back to a boil. Lightly oil a 9X13 dish. Drizzle ¼ cup milk over the dish.
6. Drop 3 pieces of instant pasta into the water and boil for 1 minute. Remove them and fit them in the baking dish. Sprinkle with ¼ cup walnuts. Repeat twice more with the pasta, milk, cheese mixture, and ¼ cup of the walnuts. When you get to the last layer, add the remaining milk, mozzarella, and walnuts. Place 4 toothpicks in the pasta to make a tent, then cover with foil, and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes longer or until lightly browned on top. Let sit for 10 minutes, then cut into portions and serve.

We know that it’s summer vacation time for a lot of you. Please remember to take care of your baskets over your vacation. When you can’t make a pick up, we ask first that you find someone to pick up for you while you’re gone. If you can’t find someone, please give us AMPLE notice (preferably one week, but a few days at least is helpful) so we can try to fill in the gap. we can also arrange to donate your unused share to a shelter, if we have enough advanced notice to arrange the pick up. Thanks.

Have a great weekend – stay cool enough – and enjoy the harvest!
With love from Red Springs Family Farm

“It is wrong to think that bodily health is compatible with spiritual confusion or cultural disorder,
or with polluted air and water or impoverished soil.” – Wendell Berry

Gobo and Miso

So here are a couple good links for our more unusual items in the basket this week:

http://www.harmonyvalleyfarm.com/recipes/Burdock%20promo.pdf

and

http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/miso-soup-for-the-soul/

I'll put them on FB as well. The Chelsea Green link has a very nicely explained recipe for miso soup - and a fun piece about harvesting seaweed - something we've never tried to grow on the farm here!

week 2

Red Springs Family Farm
June 2, 2011 week 2

Lettuce Yokatta Na Garlic Scapes
Baby beet greens Green Onions
Sorrel Oregano Mint Miso
Mizuna Gobo (Burdock) Green Coriander

What a week! The stormy weather pattern broke and summer came rushing in. The heat has arrived. Paul and Branden have worked pedal to the metal each day, transplanting hundreds of eggplants, peppers and squashes. The corn seed made it into the ground, and another round of beans, too. The peas aren't looking good, so we're taking them out and planting the cucumbers on their trellis. Early spring crops don't like this heat. It wears a body out too. The guys have been coming out of the garden parched and sweaty and we've been spending time in the creek as often as possible.

Our spring broccoli planting may yield us some decent heads and side shoots in the next couple weeks. It won't be the same spread as the Fall broccoli last year (if you missed it – it was an amazing broccoli crop), but spring broccoli is always a gamble.

We're including some basic information about salad greens and herbs this week – care, handling, storage, and enjoyments all included.

Storage and Handling of Lettuce and Tender Greens
This category includes all lettuces, and most of the greens we send.
Store unwashed greens in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. To store lettuce or greens mix that you've washed and dried, roll the leaves loosely in a kitchen towel, put the towel in a plastic bag,a nd place the package in the vegetable crisper bin. Wet greens will spoil quikly, so make sure they are truly dry before refrigerating them. If you have a salad spinner, wash and spin the greens before refrigerating them. It is preferable to eat cut greens withing three or four days, and use lettuce within a week.

Salad greens bruise easily, so be sure to handle them gently. For lettuce, slice the head at its base with a s harp knife and let th leaves fall open. Discard damaged or leather outer leaves and tear large leaves into bite size pieces. Both lettuce and tender greens can be washed by swishing them around in a basin of cold water. If a lot of dirt collects in the water, wash them a second time. Dry in a salad spinner (great investment if you love salads), or place them loosely in a mesh bag or thin towel, then go outside and swing the bundle around your head.

Yokatta Na is back. It's in the bag with the beet greens. Judging by the feedback from your surveys last year, you either loved Yokatta Na or didn't care for it at all. We stand by this plant. Please, give it another try. Though it does not LOOK like spinach, we've found that it acts very much like spinach when cooked. We also have enjoyed it sliced thin in salads.

In your herb bag this week, you'll find more sorrel (bright green arrow shaped leaves) and mizuna (white veins and deeply lobed), which are both green in a salad mix, as well as mint, and oregano. On the side, there are green onions, garlic scapes, and tiny little green corianders, just a taste. They add a flavorfull burst into a pot of chili or soup.

Herb Teas, or Tisanes
For about 6 cups, take a good handful of fresh herbs. Give them a good rinse and pluck any unattractive leaves off the stems. Place them in a teapot and cover with boiling water. Let steep for 5 minutes, or longer if the tea does not seem very aromatic yet, sweeten with honey if desired, then pour into glasses or teacups. For iced tea, make the tisane, then chill well. Pour over ice and add a sprig of fresh herb to the glass.

Native to northern China and Siberia, burdock, or Gobo is more commonly cultivated in Japan where it has been an important vegetable since the 10th century. It is considered a delicacy in Southeast Asia. The root was valued by ancient folk healers as a blood purifier and strengthener, a tonic after sickness, and a relief medicine for arthritis. It is also highly valued for its medicinal uses for skin diseases. Burdock root extracts have been shown to destroy bacteria and fungus cultures, and also show strong cancer fighting properties. Steeping fresh burdock shavings in boiling water produces a tea which is thought to help with indigestion, strengthening and toning the stomach, cleansing the liver and clearing acne.

We love Gobo best in Miso Soup. If you've never been exposed to miso – here's your chance. Our good friend Crazy Owl made lots of miso and we have become stewards of a portion of his last batch. Store it in the fridge; it only improves with age. One teaspoon stirred into a cup of hot (not boiling) water makes a healthful and tasty soup/tea. Miso can be added to almost any soup as a salt substitute and taste enhancer, but only add it at the end, when the soup is no longer boiling. Gobo is a nutty rooty taste and should be added early on in the soup-making process. I will post a more detailed recipe on our blog soon.

Here's a different recipe for Gobo:
Stir Fried Carrots and Burdock with Sesame Seeds
1-2 Gobo roots 3 carrots (sorry they're not quite ready)
2 Tbsp mirin 2 Tbsp soy sauce
3 tsp white sesame seeds 2 tsp light oil
2 tsp roasted sesame oil
1.Scrub the burdock roots with a stiff brush under running water to wash away the soil. Thinly slice them on the diagonal then slice into matchsticks. Put them in a bowl of cold water until they're all sliced, then parboil for 1 minute. Drain.
2.Peel carrots and slice into matchsticks. Combine the mirin and soy sauce. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet until golden, then immediately pour them onto a plate to stop the cooking.
3.Heat a wok or skillet, add the oils and swirl around the pan. When the pan is hot, add the burdock and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add ¼ cup water, cover, and steam for 5 minutes. Add the carrots and stir fry 2-3 minutes longer. Pour in soy sauce and mirin and continue to stir-fry until the vegetables are nicley glazed, af ew more minutes. Toss with sesame seeds and serve hot or at room temp.

Next week, we look forward to bringing you broccoli and chard. Get your anchovies ready – it's time for Romaine lettuce. Have a great week and enjoy your greens!

~with love from Red Springs Family Farm

“Friendship is a basket of bread from which to eat for years to come. Good loaves fragrant and warm miraculously multiplied; the basket never empty and the bread never stale.” - Catherine de Vinck

week 1

Red Springs Family Farm
May 26, 2011 week 1

Lettuce Spinach Garlic Scapes
Baby beet greens Flowering Cilantro
Sorrel Oregano Green Onions
Dandelion Lacinato Kale Myrtle cowpeas

photo this week: Paul's view from the tractor as he mowed down the lush tall cover crop.

Welcome to the new season! Thank you for joining us.
We're so glad to get started. It was a long winter, but we were grateful for some down time to get to know our new boy Levon (LEE-von) and adjust to being a family of four.

Warning: There is quite a quantity of soil on your veggies this week. If you had been in our garden during last night’s storm, you’d be wet and muddy too. We’ve dashed off the worst of it, and hope you will use your rinse water to keep some houseplants alive – there are some wonderful organic soil nutrients in that dirt!

It's been hard NOT to talk about the weather this spring. We're certainly living in the drama of it all. We're grateful that the floods haven't been quite as bad as they could have been. The spinach has stayed alive and green long enough for a delivery. The jury is still out on whether the peas will be worth their row space, but everything else is holding up amazing well, all things considered. As it is each year in a garden, we can promise you there will be both some bumper crops, and some bumper flops (sorry, I'm a sucker for an easy rhyme). We just do our best to keep our hand on that plow and hold on. It’s pouring as I finish this newsletter – we’re grateful that there was a break in the rain while the harvest was happening.

Good news on the farm this season is that we have help. Branden is joining us to work and learn how we do things for the season. We’re excited to work with him, and hope you will enjoy his company at the market.

In your basket: Everything this week can be eaten raw! Black-Seeded Simpson and Deertongue lettuces. In the small herb bag you’ll find baby beet greens, a few sorrel leaves (bright green and lemony tasting) and some fresh oregano(actually wonderful in a salad, or chopped fresh into a dressing). The larger bag of greens can either be cooked or eaten in salad - spinach (rinse it twice cause it grows so close to the ground), kale (rainbow lacinato – thick meaty leaves, some have purple veins), and dandelion greens (parboil these if you want to cook them, they’re VERY bitter, and VERY good for you). Alongside, you have garlic scapes, green onions, and flowering cilantro.

Fresh Coriander (Cilantro) Chutney
1 bunch (¼ lb) fresh coriander leaves and stems ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup grated coconut (dried shredded is fine) ¼ cup water
2 Tbsp. Fresh ginger root, chopped 1 tsp. Honey
1 tsp. Sea salt ¼ tsp. Fresh ground black pepper

Blend lemon juice, water and fresh coriander until coriander is chopped. Add remaining ingredients and blend until it is like a paste. Cover and store in the refrigerator for up to one week.


Cowpeas are a good bean. Black eyed peas are the most famous cow pea, but we like these Myrtles. We sampled them from our favorite heirloom seed company several years ago and liked them well enough to save seed. They improve each year and provide us loads of beautiful buff beans. Cowpeas are quick to cook. We soak them and sprout them briefly before cooking, but you don't have to. You can have them for dinner after work if you put them on to soak in the morning before you leave the house. Change the water when you get home and cook them up. Throw in a garlic scape, some cumin, and maybe even a dash of hot pepper. Wait to salt them until the beans are tender. Then, if you want something flavorfull and simple, proceed with the recipe below...

Myrtle “Fool”
(adapted from a favorite Lebanese cookbook, which titles the original recipe: Breakfast Fava Beans)

Cooked recipe Myrtle Cowpeas
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil juice of two lemons
1 clove garlic or one scape, minced salt to taste
½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley (cilantro might be ok here)
garnishes: sliced tomato, sliced cucumber, fresh radishes, black olives, mint leaves

Mix olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and salt. Drain the beans and pour them into a serving bowl. Pour the olive oil mixture and chopped parsley over them and combine well. Arrange garnishes and enjoy.

Garlic scapes are the flowering heads of garlic plants. Garlic is planted in the Fall. It grows abit before the freezes come, then goes dormant. Come Spring, the plant rejuvenates and sends up this lovely curly-cue swan's head of a seed stalk. We cut it off while it's still tender to send the growing forces back down into the root (to make nicer bulbs under the ground), and these garlicky green tendrils are a result of that harvest. Come the end of June, we'll have nice fresh garlic to share. Until then – scapes are a treat. Use them as you would use fresh garlic, and if that stymies you, try thinking of them as Scallions, like this...

Scallion (or Scape) and Potato Patties (great for using up leftovers)
1 Tbsp. Butter 1 cup chopped scallions or garlic scapes
2 eggs 1 ½ cups cold mashed potatoes
¼ cup dried bread crumbs ½ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. The the foam subsides, add the scallions; sate until tender, 3-5 minutes.
2. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Add sauteed scallions, mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, salt, nutmeg, and pepper. Stir until well combined.
3. Place a baking pan in the oven and preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
4. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Shape the scallion and potato mixture into manageable patties. Saute the patties in the skillet turning them once, until they are golden brown on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer the cooked patties to the baking pan in the oven to keep them warm while you saute the next batch. Serve warm.

So fun to be back in the season with you! We’ll see you next week.
Enjoy your greens.

Your gardeners,
Paul, Coree, Lulah,and Levon

waiting for the sun

Hello! We're so glad it's spring. It's been a busy time. We're squeezing garden work between rains, and doing our best to enjoy the rain in between severe weather warnings.

Long days remind us of what summer has in store. The days we've already spent hoeing the garden are like a warm up for the summer work out.

We feel fortunate to have so much already in the ground. We're just waiting for the sun to come help it grow. We do anticipate making the first delivery by the end of this month - May.

April showers they were, yes? We're looking forward to the May flowers. We've seen loads of Mayapples in the woods and field outskirts this year. Such beautiful delicate flowers - such delicious fruit, if you can find them before the deer and other wild thing do!

Enough ferocious storms, we say. Let's get on with greens and beans and squash. The tomato plants are sitting in a sheltered low-tunnel in front of the greenhouse. I havent got a photo of that yet, will have to do so.

Six turkey chicks are gracing the southern side yard with their sweet peeps. What better Easter gift could we have received? They sure are cute. One hen is still setting on a clutch of eggs, so we're hopeful that there might be MORE to come.

In the garden now: chard, kale, broccoli, cabbage (chinese and head cabbage), onions, potatoes, lettuce, sorrel, spinach, peas, beets, carrots, radishes, green beans, parsley, herbs herbs herbs, and what else? Ah, blooming cilantro. Since our kale went to flower, we've been eating cilantro as if it was spinach. So far so good.

Levon has three teeth now and can scoot like an inchworm just about anywhere he wants to go. He's making it clear that he'd rather be walking, but this mode of transportation will do for the meantime. Lulah, on the other hand, spends her days in a full out RUN. Every night finds her with a fine patina of mud at least as high as the knees. It's good to be a farm kid as the weather warms up.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone in town again. Enjoy the photos...

Peace be with you all.

week 27

Red Springs Family Farm
December 2, 2010 week 27

Lettuce Broccoli Garlic Kale
Butternut Tatsoi Daikon Radish
Herb bag: Arugula Parsley Cilantro Dill

We have to wait until the veggies thaw to harvest them these days. And we were alarmed to find the broccoli quite frozen this morning. We ate some to see how it was – and wow, was it ever yummy. So, it’s probably best to eat it up quickly. Depending on how the side shoots survive the cold, this could be the last week of broccoli.

The cold weather will begin to change the garden now. Dill plants are still alive, but getting lower to the ground. All the growth is slowing down substantially. We still have some monstrous Chinese cabbages to bring to town, and more beautiful varieties of kale to share. Green is the color of the season!

Daikon radishes… what are they about? Not your average radishes, that’s for sure! The taste is milder, so they can be used as you would any other root vegetable. They’re plenty good sliced into salad, and also stir-fried. Here’s a recipe to give you some basic guidelines – modify as needed:

Stir-Fried Daikon Serves 4
2 tablespoons peanut oil 1/4 cup sliced scallions
1 medium daikon, thinly sliced (about 3 cups) 10–12 red radishes, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons water 2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon hot chili oil to taste (optional)

1. Heat the peanut oil in a wok over high heat. Add the scallions; stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the daikon and red radishes; stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the water and continue stir-frying until all the water has all evaporated.

The other wonderful thing to do with Daikon is brine it. We like to make a simple radish relish. Grate the daikon, salt it, and pack it into a jar quite tightly. If the juices don’t completely cover the grated radish, then stir up a brine (2 Tbsp salt to one quart of water) and make the water cover the daikon. Leave loosely covered (let it breathe, but keep bugs out) on a room temperature counter for three days. Cover more tightly and refrigerate. Enjoy with hearty bean dishes and spicy meats. It’s got lactobacillus, a healthy living bacteria (like yoghurt) that helps keep digestion healthy (and has been part of the human diet for centuries, if not millenia).

Brining, or fermentation, is also how sauerkraut and kimchi are made. Turnips are also wonderful fermented. We’ll tell you more about that later. You can find fermentation information and resources at Sandor Katz’s website: www.wildfermentation.com. Check it out.

Please forgive the lateness of our newsletter. Levon was having the sort of day that six week old babies have from time to time – one that leaves little room for a mother to do more than tend to a baby. Enjoy your weekend – stay warm – we’ll see you later!

With best regards,
Paul, Coree, Lulah and Levon