Chicken Thistle Farm » vegetable

Last CSA share of July

Andy — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:45:21 +0000

In this week’s share:

Summer's Bounty!

A head of a fresh cabbage – this variety is called Early Green. Nice compact heads full of taste. If you don’t want to use it all at once – they store really well if you cut them in half and store the unused half wrapped in plastic in your crisper drawer.
Onions – so, this summer the risk/reward of the CSA has mostly been all reward… well – for some reason the onions we planted this year have pretty much just stared at us. no matter how much we talk nicely to them (or threaten removal) they have just kinda sat there. So – not huge… but tasty! These are a classic Spanish yellow.
Green Bell Peppers – this is are the variety Ace. A very classic green pepper – there’s a few of them in here… don’t confuse them with the other green pepper!

Kale – a leafy veggie that some people think is too tough to use (nonsense!). The reality is kale can be used in recipes like other greens such as spinach or swiss chard. You can saute it with garlic and olive oil (say “EVOO” with a nasal sound to it) as a side dish or add to pasta with our veggies and meat . It is truly a vitamin-rich green so give it a try. It also stores well so you can keep it in your crisper drawer for quite a while. One of our favorite recipes for kale is a salad recipe we found HERE. Instead of currants consider adding fresh local berries that are now in season like blueberries and raspberries!
Lettuce – this is a bibb lettuce – Buttercrunch to be true to the variety. Very good for the classic summer BLT or a salad!
Cucumber – fresh and burpless. Really. Did you know that some people really do get the burps from cukes because of an enzyme in the skin? This cultivar was bred to NOT have the enzyme in the skin. If you are worried – you can still peel it – but you don’t have to!
Yellow Squash – this lone summer squash is all that has been producing in the field following the really high heat over the last week or so. The fact is most plants need a certain range of temperatures to produce flowers, be pollinated and set fruits. The other summer squash plants have not been reproducing too well with these higher temps… the good news is – they are back at it now that things have cooled off!
Tomatoes – cherry tomatoes and regular (New Girl, Big Boy and Taxi) The cherry tomatoes are the variety BHN or Super Sweet 100 – we think you can tell them apart – find the really sweet ones – those are the Super Sweet! As for the bigger tomatoes – how do you tell them apart? Well – contrary to what you have learned about telling boys and girls apart… the New Girl hybrids have a small “point” on the bottom of the fruit and the Big Boy hybrid has a perfectly smooth and round bottom. You might even notice the colors are a little different if you have two of them next to each other. The Big Boy is new in the share this week because they take a little longer to mature (boy and gil jokes go here). Taxi – that’s the yellow one. A little less acidic of a tomato.
Cilantro – this is the smelly, leafy stuff. (If you are like Andy, who wrote this post, you have the genetics that makes this the most foul green on the planet so don’t feel bad if there’s something in this share you want to throw away – learn why some folks just can’t stand the stuff here)
Hot Peppers – Ancho’s are the short and squat, dark green guys with a gradual taper to the end. They are mild and hot – a certain south of the border flair added to your food. The Anaheim pepper is the longer skinny one – they are usually a little more mild than the Ancho pepper but have less complexity in their taste.

So what can you do this week with all these veggies?
-Our featured recipe this week: Marinated Fresh Cabbage Slaw. Even if you think you aren’t a fan of cabbage – try this! A sweet and sour mixture that is great to bring to summer picnics too!

-Use your freshly picked lettuce and tomatoes to make BLT’s! Yum! (get some local grass fed bacon and real mayo to really make this a summer treat!)

-Obviously, you have the makings of great salads with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, peppers. Go crazy and add some farm fresh free range hard boiled eggs too!

-Kale can be used in recipes like other greens such as spinach or swiss chard. You can saute it with garlic and oil as a side dish or add to pasta with our veggies and meat . It is truly avitamin-rich green so give it a try. It also stores well so you can keep it in your crisper drawer for quite a while. One of our favorite recipes for kale is a salad recipe we found on epicurious.com. Check out the link to that simple recipe HERE. Instead of currants consider adding fresh local berries that are now in season like blueberries and raspberries!

-And finally – consider using your tomatoes, hot peppers and cilantro to make a batch of salsa! Nothing compares to freshly made salsa. Find your favorite recipe online or in your cookbooks and tell us how it turns out on Facebook.

Recipe: Marinated Fresh Cabbage Slaw

Andy — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:15:33 +0000

Here’s an awesome and easy way to get even the most ardent dislikers of fresh cabbage to enjoy the seasons. This slaw goes great with hots and burgers or grass fed pork chops and grilled veggies. Really – it goes great with any summertime fare. Make a batch and enjoy!

Recipe: Marinated Fresh Cabbage Slaw

Ingredients

1 head of cabbage
1 green pepper
1 onion
2 cups sugar
1 TB + 1 tsp sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup oil
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp celery seed
2 tsp salt

Instructions

Chop cabbage, pepper and onions and mix together in a very large bowl. (Preferably one with a lid)
Add the 2 cups of sugar and shake bowl to mix thoroughly.
Combine remaining ingredients in a sauce pan.
Bring mixture to a boil.
Pour immediately over cabbage mixture in large bowl. Do not stir!
Simply cover and refrigerate. Do not uncover for at least 4 hours.
Should be stored in the refrigerator

Quick Notes

(Thanks to Chicken Thistle Farm Facebook Fan Heidi Scott)

Meal type: hors d’oerves

Microformatting by hRecipe.

Recipe: Kohlrabi Ham Bake Recipe

Andy — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:12:36 +0000

Not sure what to do with the funky looking vegetable kohlrabi? Well aside from enjoying it fresh on a salad or sautéed with a little butter and salt it can be a terrific addition to a casserole type dish that everyone in the family can enjoy.

Recipe: Kohlrabi Ham Bake Recipe

Ingredients

3 Tbsp butter
1 large kohlrabi, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
8 ounces thick ham, diced
2 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large skillet, melt the butter on medium heat. Add the diced kohlrabi and gently cook for 8 to 10 minutes.
Beat the egg yolk, and whisk in the heavy cream and milk, flour, nutmeg, salt and pepper until well combined.
Place half of the cooked kohlrabi on the bottom of an oven-proof casserole dish (we used a pie plate) . Layer on the diced ham and parsley. Top with the remaining kohlrabi. Pour the sauce ingredients over the kohlrabi and ham.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Serve immediately.

Quick Notes

To get even more excitement - sprinkle the top with some additional fresh parsley and freshly grated cheese of your choice 5 minutes before done cooking.

(adapted from Simply Recipes)

Meal type: dinner

Microformatting by hRecipe.

A late July CSA share

Andy — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:05:38 +0000

This week’s share contains a bunch of the mid-summer bounty. In here you will find:

Some yellow squash and an heirloom zucchini.
A variety of fresh tomatoes. The yellow ones are called Taxi, the larger red ones are New Girl and the small one are Super Sweet 100. Each has it’s own personality – Kelli is digging the Taxi right now… I have snuck a few early tomatoes off some of the heirloom plants that re not included yet… but I can tell you – when they are… OMG! Enjoy these as a primer!
More colorful Bright Lights Swiss Chard – that was a favorite a few weeks back.
There’s a pair of green peppers and a Hungarian Wax pepper as well.
You will find a bunch of parsley and another bunch of fresh basil to spice up your life!
Finally – there’s an alien egg… some are purple (like the picture above – some are white). Ok – maybe it’s not an alien egg – but the thing that looks like Sputnik… that’s called Kohlrabi – and that’s this weeks feature for the recipe!

Here’s a primer on kohlrabi, raw or cooked it’s delicious – http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/kohlrabi/

So with all that goodness – maybe you need some inspiration. Here’s a few thoughts for the share:

Check out this weeks featured recipe : the kohlrabi ham bake (using kohlrabi and parsley from share)
Use diced kohlrabi pieces in your salads
Grill or saute squash and make a grilled veggie pita topped with cheese
Make a pasta dish with sauteed swiss chard and squash
Make some zucchini bread or muffins (we often add fresh blueberries as well!)
Grill or shred zucchini and freeze it for later
Try this simple zucchini recipe http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sauteed_zucchini_with_gruyere/
Make pesto with your basil. We use this recipe and also follow the directions for freezing some as well http://www.pickyourown.org/pesto.php
Buy some fresh mozzarella and slice it, the tomatoes and some basil - sprinkle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar – fight off family members with a fork.

Grabbing garlic

Andy — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:08:43 +0000

Fresh picked garlic starting to dry

Although this might be giving away a little bit of future CSA shares – that’s OK. Last fall, before we had fully decided on going the CSA route this year for produce production, we decided to make our garlic plantings smaller than in the past – but to try several new varieties. We ended up with 5 different ones and the very first – NY White – came out of the ground Sunday.

It’s not THAT exciting to many people – but to us it’s a clear indication that the season is well underway and it’s time to start thinking about fall crops already. Sure, we have plenty of hot days ahead (yea – the hotter and more humid it is – the happier Andy is) but it still means we are somewhere around the half way mark for the summer growing season. And that means more seeds to be started for yummy cool weather crops.

Once we get all the garlic pulled we will make a decision on which ones we like the best… which is painful the first year… because that means less in the root cellar because the cloves that just came out of the ground this year are what we plant in October to become the full bulbs of next summer.

With that thought – here’s a great sustainability tip: One of the coolest things with garlic though, for anyone growing it… it’s really one of the most sustainable vegetables you can grow. From a single clove you get a bulb of many cloves after one year… from that bulb you get many bulbs – and it can all be raised from that single clove you started with – year after year. It takes very little maintenance in the garden (weeding is about all) and it’s a staple spice for all sorts of great dishes. Even better – it stores well and is easy to dry and turn into your very own powder. Go garlic!

Recipe: Grilled summer vegetable medley

Andy — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:00:00 +0000

When the days get hot like they are now it’s not uncommon to find yourself sitting in a pool of zucchini. The plants are extra prolific in this weather but if you don’t enjoy their bounty when it’s here – suddenly it’s not! Now, I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of zucchini – that was until this recipe.

Grilled summer vegetable medley

summer squash, zucchini, green peppers, banana peppers

Olive Oil

“your own spices” – see below

Directions:

From your CSA share grab some summer squash, zucchini, green peppers and a banana pepper.

Cut into 1 inch pieces and mix in a bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil. Add salt and pepper if that’s all you want.

We place our vegetables in a grill basket and allow them to cook over medium heat until they are tender. This depends on the tenderness you like. Typically we grill the mix for about 15-20 minutes. In the last few minutes of grilling, you can add some fresh or dried herbs. Things like parsley or oregano go great. Another awesome option are some of the McCormick grilling spices that are popular - Montreal Chicken or Steak go GREAT!

This past week we added some Chiavetta’s marinade (in BBQ aisle at Tops or Wegmans) to our veggies mix before grilling. Try it out on the vegetables as well as on some grilled chicken to accompany!

Really the “what to add” part is not at all prescriptive. Take a look around and add whatever sounds great. Sometimes we throw a tomato in there on the grill – in mushes all over everything and is actually kinda like a sauce. You imagination is the limit as far as what you can add… heck – I have even been known to take some fresh local back, start that in the grill basket and then dump the veggies on top… of course, when you are cooking with “meat candy” you loose some of the “health” points – I suppose… but it local and grass fed so I’m OK with that!

Although you may not need to do so this week, you can also grill your veggies and freeze them. We place our grilled squash mix in a food saver bag, vacuum seal and enjoy them over the winter by simply defrosting them, spreading them out on a cookie sheet and heating them up in the oven. We found that Wegman’s sells a bag of these grilled vegetables for $10!!! Seriously – people buy them!

Presenting – this weeks CSA Share!

Andy — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:45:35 +0000

What’s in the box this week?

Let’s start with the obvious in the upper left corner of the picture. That would be a field grown – fresh – just picked ripe red tomato! The variety is New Girl and it’s the earliest tomato we grew this year. Now don’t think this is it – with over 60 plants in the ground this is the proverbial tip of the iceberg in both quantity and taste. That said – savor an enjoy!

On to the summer squash (very much the tip of the iceberg). We have three different varieties in this box – 4 different in the ground. The all yellow one is called Yellow Dixie. The Yellow one with the green tip is Zephyr. And the green variety with ridges is an heirloom called Costa Romanesco. Each one has a slightly different taste. So far we have been VERY impressed with the Costa Romanesco’s flavor and texture.

Nestled in the box you will find another hottish Hungarian Wax Pepper (long and yellowish) but there’s also a couple fresh picked green bell peppers in there as well. Much like the fresh tomato – you can’t match the flavor here with something that travels across the country!

There are some of the last radishes for a while – the heat has basically ended that run. Enjoy them – but don’t worry – they will be back before you know it as days are getting shorter!

Then there’s the lettuce. Three varieties this week with different tastes and textures. A red leaf, a fancy green leaf and romaine (the big flat leaves). For a special treat – make yourself some homemade green goddess dressing using some of the parsley plant you got in the first share, mix the greens together and live the good life!

First Official CSA Share of the Season

Kelli — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:55:13 +0000

With two pre-season deliveries out of the way it’s time for the CSA season to officially get underway. Here’s what to expect in your first official share:

This share offers some freshly grown spinach. The ziploc bag contains a mix of several varieties of spinach that were planted at our CSA planting party in May. Thanks to Hannah, Joseph and Tavi for getting these spinach plants going! Please rinse and dry the plastic bag and return it with your box next week. You can make a fresh spinach salad, steam it and serve with balsamic vinegar or sautee it with garlic and olive oil (if you want to be “food” naughty – make a fresh bacon dressing like Andy likes).

There’s a few more of the Champion radishes hidden in the box. If you think you aren’t a radish person, give them a chance by trying something other than just munching on them fresh with salt – that can often be too much bite for the average person. Try out the radish sandwiches mentioned in last week’s post or try sautéing them or putting them thinly sliced in a salad. Radishes are a good source of vitamin C and so are their greens which you can also sauté.

You will find two different types of peas: larger flatter snow peas and thicker sugar snap peas. As you know from last week’s share, snap peas are excellent to snack on fresh. You will see that our recipe this week is simple: a sour cream and chives dip for the snap peas! So to make sure you can try that if you want, in another small plastic bag, you will find some chives to make the dip for your peas. Last week, one of our CSA members reported that she made this recipe with the snap peas only and the whole family loved it! (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fresh-Green-Peas-and-Sugar-Snap-Peas-in-Sesame-Dressing-109708. ) Try it out yourself and share your recipes with us on our Facebook page.

The snow peas (flatter ones) can also be eaten fresh but they are excellent sautéed or blanched (1 minute in boiling water and then immediately cooled in ice water).

The last item in this weeks share was new to us this year – so this is all of it. It’s and Asian green called bok choy. It’s the green leaves with the white stems. Consider sautéing together the snow peas and the bok choy with olive oil / sesame oil or one of Wegman’s stir fry sauces. Serve over pasta to make a noodle bowl that even the kids will like. We have found that it is best to cut the bok choy leaves from the stems. Sauté the stems in chunks for a few minutes before adding the leaves and the snow peas, then continue cooking for just a minute or two until the leaves wilt.

This past week we made a noodle bowl with some Thai Spice Fettuccine from a local pasta maker – Flour City Pasta. Great Stuff!

Be sure to enjoy this week share. And remember, nothing should ever go to waste. You can easily freeze any of these items. To freeze, simply blanch for one minute, cool, dry and lay out on cookie sheet to freeze individually and quickly. It’s a real treat to enjoy our spring peas over the winter!

Recipe: Fresh sour cream and chive dip

Andy — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:45:24 +0000

Here’s a super simple way to make a fresh tasting dip for sugar snap peas (or other veggies) this time of year.

Sour Cream and Chives Dip for Sugar Snap Peas

1 cup sour cream (we love Organic Valley’s sour cream)

1- 2 TB of chopped chives

Mix together sour cream and chives in a small bowl.

Refrigerate approximately 2-4 hours to allow flavors to blend.

Sprinkle some more chopped chives on top for a pretty look.

Serve with fresh snap peas!

Second (pre-season) CSA share

Andy — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:32:39 +0000

I know I talk about the constant ~~challenges~~ opportunities the weather offers up. This year has been no different. The exceptionally warm weather has pushed the seasons forward. So although we had planned on starting the CSA share deliveries NEXT week -- we are again offering another share of stuff that’s too good to not share THIS week. So that brings the total “extras” for the season that hasn’t even started yet to 2!

Flavor and Freshness

This share offers a head of romaine lettuce. You had better not ruin this with some crummy Caesar dressing -- try making your own -- this is a great version here at Epicurious. This is what we make all the time when there’s fresh lettuce (and the homemade croûtons too!)

There’s some more of the Champion radishes. You can either use the recipe from this week OR another great way to enjoy them is to make radish sandwiches. Super simple and EVERYONE (even the kids) love them. Get yourself a loaf of fresh baguette bread (or bake your own). You will need some salt and some good unsalted butter (organic or grass fed is best) and you might as well get one of these too. Cut the bread into small slices about 1/2″ thick, spread the butter on there, sprinkle with salt and top with several thin slices of radish. Enjoy. (don’t worry -- if you want to try this weeks recipe with the radishes -- there will be more in future shares to make sandwiches with).

There’s more “entertainment value points” awarded in this share in the form of garlic scapes. Again -- you can use this weeks recipe OR use them where you might use garlic, onions or chives for a distinctly different flavor.

In the plastic bag you will find some fresh dill. It gets droopy fast but you can still chop it up and use it and get the fresh taste it offers. If you are not going to play along at home this week with the recipe - it does go great on grilled salmon with a squeeze of lemon!

And last but not least -- Snap Peas. Now -- if you have never had snap peas (or if you have but from the store so they are days old), you are in for a treat. First off -- you don’t shell them like regular peas. You pull the strings off and eat them pod and all. They are sweet! The variety this week is Sugar Sprint -- they are done a little earlier (hence the “sprint” in their name) -- and not quite as sweet. Next week we will be giving you Sugar Snap -- the sweetest of all the snaps. I have a video link here in case you need some assistance in figuring out how to unzip these tasty guys!