Part of the fun of cooking with vegetables is getting to try out new ingredient combinations. This week, my mom found a great website that offers ideas about which spices and herbs to pair with many kinds of vegetables:
http://www.salescene.com/herbvegi
In the following recipe, my mother combined carrots and cumin at the suggestion of this site:
Scrub and trim carrots, and steam until tender. Toss with butter or margarine, a pinch of salt, and serve with a dusting of cumin (about 1/4 tsp). Serve warm or hot.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
NICK’S FARM REPORT
Happy Fathers’ Day!
June 18, 2010
Well, June has certainly been a wet month so far! It seems like not a day goes by without some kind of precipitation forecast. We get all the breaking weather news from my dad, an avid follower of Tom Skilling and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (two sources that I highly recommend if you are interested in getting more in touch with local weather this summer). This year I have been especially struck with how strongly we are affected by the weather, both as farmers, and in general. While rain might mean a day of harvesting in jackets for us, it could mean flooding in Oklahoma or in farms in southern Illinois. As a small farm, growing a variety of crops helps us to combat uncertainties in the weather by ensuring that at least a few of the vegetables we are growing like the forecast – whatever it may be!
In other news, we attended our first farmers’ market of the season last Sunday! We will be selling vegetables at the Glenwood Sunday Market in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood every Sunday through mid-October. The market went very well, and we were so excited to meet so many local residents who were enthusiastic about buying local, organic vegetables. We fell especially lucky to have had such strong support from our CSA community early in the season, which allowed us to make many of the purchases necessary to get the farm off the ground. It is very special to be able to share what we produce with two such amazing communities.
In the CSA Bag This Week:
Baby Carrots
Cilantro
Bunching Leeks
Kohlrabi
Mixed Mustard
Baby Swiss Chard
Lettuce
Reminder
When you pick up your share next week, please remember to bring your red bags back so we can re-use them!
Tips and Suggestions from our kitchen:
This week’s share features a few exotic types of vegetables – some that you may know, and others that you may have never seen before:
Leeks
I like to think of the leek as a sophisticated onion. Leeks have a more subdued and subtle flavor than onions do, and go well in egg dishes, especially quiches. Leeks are also lovely sautéed with greens like chard or mustard, as in the basic greens recipe from our first newsletter.
Cilantro
Appearing in everything from Mexican to Indian to Russian cuisine, cilantro is a versatile herb. If you taste closely, you can tell it is related to celery and parsley. Cilantro often appears as an accompaniment to spicy dishes like curries and tacos, either simply chopped or as an ingredient in condiments like guacamole, salsa, or chutney.
Kohlrabi
Although it looks like something from outer space, kohlrabi is related to broccoli. The entire plant is edible, and the leaves can be eaten as with other greens, but are tough and require a longer cooking time. To eat the bulb, simply peel it, slice it, and enjoy the crunchy texture and refreshing flavor! We love kohlrabi slices with salt and lime juice or in salads. Remove the leaves, and store the kohlrabi whole until you plan to eat it, as I have noticed that it can develop somewhat of a bitter aftertaste if eaten several days after it is cut.
In addition to the suggestions below, kohlrabi and carrots will bring crunch and color to a tossed salad. Here are a few dressing recipes that we enjoy:
Cilantro Dressing
(from recipes.epicurean.com)
¼ c lime juice
¼ c olive oil
1 clove garlic (if desired)
½ tsp red pepper or chili powder
½ tsp ground cumin
3 tbs chopped cilantro
Chopped jalapeno (to taste, if you like spicy things)
Mix all ingredients and shake well!
Goddess Dressing
(similar to Annie’s Goddess Dressing; from www.recipezaar.com)
2 tsp olive oil
¼ c toasted sesame oil
½ c tahini
1 tbs red wine vinegar
¼ c water
3 small leeks
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs plus 1 tsp soy sauce
3 garlic cloves
2 tsp sesame seeds
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Combine in food processor and blend until mixed Add water to adjust consistency, and increase soy sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Newsletter - June 11
NICK’S FARM REPORT
Cultivate!
June 11, 2010
Hello! Hope everyone is doing well, and enjoying a break from the warm weather. Now that all of the tomato and pepper plants are in the ground, we have been focusing on cultivation. Between the time that we plant our seedlings and sow our seeds and the time that we actually harvest, we work to ensure that the plants are provided with an optimal growing environment.
Most of our cultivation energy goes into controlling the weeds which compete with our vegetable plants for sun, water and nutrients. Because we follow organic growing practices, we use hand-weeding or mowing rather than herbicides to control unwanted weeds. We also use physical barriers, like mulch, to discourage weed growth in between the plants.
Cultivation also includes tasks like trellising cucumbers, staking tomatoes, and hilling potatoes. Each plant grows differently, which makes our farm fields look like a 3-D patchwork quilt!
On another note, you may have noticed that the mushrooms in this week’s share that hail from another farm. Often, CSA farms will spend a certain amount of share money to “buy in” products that we do not grow on the farm. It gives us a chance to provide you with more variety, while also allowing us to support other small, local food producers.
In the CSA Bag This Week:
Spinach
Red Ace Beet Greens
Lettuce (Butterhead or Black Seeded Simpson)
Mushrooms (from River Valley Farm in WI)
Bok Choi
Bunching Onions
Salad Days
We take advantage of the cool weather in the spring to grow tons of greens. Tossed with vinaigrette dressing, a greens salad can be an elegant accompaniment to any meal!
Simple vinaigrette: Combine 1/4 cup vinegar or lemon juice, 3/4 cup olive oil, 1 T sesame oil, 1 T prepared mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Add thinly chopped green onions, herbs, or garlic as desired. Remember to wash and dry the greens thoroughly before using, as dressing will not stick to wet leaves.
If you want to go beyond the basics, try serving strips of grilled meat (chicken, steak or fish) or tofu on a bed of greens. You can also add protein to a salad by including vinaigrette-marinated chickpeas or other firm legumes.
Tips and Suggestions from our kitchen:
This week’s CSA share features more delicious spring greens, along with a new green: bok choi. Boc choi (or pac choi or Chinese cabbage), is a crunchy and refreshing member of the Brassica family, along with broccoli and cabbage. The whole head is edible.
Bok choi is often found in stir-fries, but can also be eaten raw in salads. It is excellent when chopped into thin strips, tossed with sesame oil, rice-wine vinegar and cold rice noodles, and topped with chopped peanuts or toasted sesame seeds. We also hear that bok choi and sliced strawberries dressed with vinaigrette are a yummy combination for those who enjoy fruit in savory salads.
To use bok choi in a stir-fry with green onions and mushrooms:
Heat cooking oil in a large skillet or wok on medium heat. Wash and chop bok choi into pieces, separating the white stalks from the green leaves. Add bok choi stalks, chopped green onion, and sliced mushrooms (and chopped ginger and garlic, if desired) to the skillet, add ½ t salt, and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Combine 2 T soy sauce, 1 T water or stock, 1 t lemon juice, and 1 t brown sugar. Add bok choi greens and soy sauce mixture to the skillet, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1-2 minutes, until the greens are wilted. Serve over rice.
Mushrooms and green onions can also be added to our basic greens recipe from last week to liven things up a bit:
Slice 3-4 green onions and about 1 cup mushrooms thinly, and sauté in a heavy duty frying pan in olive or sesame oil until soft (3-4 min). Add washed, chopped spinach or beet greens and cook until wilted (3-4 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste.
This spinach/greens/mushroom concoction is very versatile. Try mixing it with shredded cheese and use it as a filling for omelettes, tacos, or enchiladas. Sautéed greens and mushrooms can also be tossed with orzo or bow-tie pasta, lemon juice, and feta cheese and served hot or cold as a yummy pasta salad.
Cultivate!
June 11, 2010
Hello! Hope everyone is doing well, and enjoying a break from the warm weather. Now that all of the tomato and pepper plants are in the ground, we have been focusing on cultivation. Between the time that we plant our seedlings and sow our seeds and the time that we actually harvest, we work to ensure that the plants are provided with an optimal growing environment.
Most of our cultivation energy goes into controlling the weeds which compete with our vegetable plants for sun, water and nutrients. Because we follow organic growing practices, we use hand-weeding or mowing rather than herbicides to control unwanted weeds. We also use physical barriers, like mulch, to discourage weed growth in between the plants.
Cultivation also includes tasks like trellising cucumbers, staking tomatoes, and hilling potatoes. Each plant grows differently, which makes our farm fields look like a 3-D patchwork quilt!
On another note, you may have noticed that the mushrooms in this week’s share that hail from another farm. Often, CSA farms will spend a certain amount of share money to “buy in” products that we do not grow on the farm. It gives us a chance to provide you with more variety, while also allowing us to support other small, local food producers.
In the CSA Bag This Week:
Spinach
Red Ace Beet Greens
Lettuce (Butterhead or Black Seeded Simpson)
Mushrooms (from River Valley Farm in WI)
Bok Choi
Bunching Onions
Salad Days
We take advantage of the cool weather in the spring to grow tons of greens. Tossed with vinaigrette dressing, a greens salad can be an elegant accompaniment to any meal!
Simple vinaigrette: Combine 1/4 cup vinegar or lemon juice, 3/4 cup olive oil, 1 T sesame oil, 1 T prepared mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Add thinly chopped green onions, herbs, or garlic as desired. Remember to wash and dry the greens thoroughly before using, as dressing will not stick to wet leaves.
If you want to go beyond the basics, try serving strips of grilled meat (chicken, steak or fish) or tofu on a bed of greens. You can also add protein to a salad by including vinaigrette-marinated chickpeas or other firm legumes.
Tips and Suggestions from our kitchen:
This week’s CSA share features more delicious spring greens, along with a new green: bok choi. Boc choi (or pac choi or Chinese cabbage), is a crunchy and refreshing member of the Brassica family, along with broccoli and cabbage. The whole head is edible.
Bok choi is often found in stir-fries, but can also be eaten raw in salads. It is excellent when chopped into thin strips, tossed with sesame oil, rice-wine vinegar and cold rice noodles, and topped with chopped peanuts or toasted sesame seeds. We also hear that bok choi and sliced strawberries dressed with vinaigrette are a yummy combination for those who enjoy fruit in savory salads.
To use bok choi in a stir-fry with green onions and mushrooms:
Heat cooking oil in a large skillet or wok on medium heat. Wash and chop bok choi into pieces, separating the white stalks from the green leaves. Add bok choi stalks, chopped green onion, and sliced mushrooms (and chopped ginger and garlic, if desired) to the skillet, add ½ t salt, and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Combine 2 T soy sauce, 1 T water or stock, 1 t lemon juice, and 1 t brown sugar. Add bok choi greens and soy sauce mixture to the skillet, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1-2 minutes, until the greens are wilted. Serve over rice.
Mushrooms and green onions can also be added to our basic greens recipe from last week to liven things up a bit:
Slice 3-4 green onions and about 1 cup mushrooms thinly, and sauté in a heavy duty frying pan in olive or sesame oil until soft (3-4 min). Add washed, chopped spinach or beet greens and cook until wilted (3-4 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste.
This spinach/greens/mushroom concoction is very versatile. Try mixing it with shredded cheese and use it as a filling for omelettes, tacos, or enchiladas. Sautéed greens and mushrooms can also be tossed with orzo or bow-tie pasta, lemon juice, and feta cheese and served hot or cold as a yummy pasta salad.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Freezing Greens
So! It is the Monday following your first weekend of the CSA, and hopefully you've been enjoying all the kale, spinach, beet greens and lettuce you can eat. But let's be honest. There might still be some greens left over, and perhaps you are thinking, "Gee, I wish there was some way we could save these greens for later."
Luckily, there is a fast and easy way to preserve greens like kale, chard, spinach and mustard. Greens freeze VERY well, and with a little preparation you can fill your freezer with packets of greens that will make your day in January!
I wash and chop the greens into roughly 1-2 inch square pieces, removing any tough stems. I then plunge the greens into boiling water for the following periods:
Beet greens, kale, chard, mustard greens, turnip greens, spinach..... 2 minutes
Collards........................... 3 minutes
(If you have a pasta pot with a built in strainer, that makes the job super easy.)
As soon as the cooking time is up, plunge the greens into cold (preferably ice) water to stop the cooking process. Drain VERY well, and pack into storage containers (I use quart ziplock bags). Cool completely, label, and freeze! It is not only delightful, but quite convenient to pull a bag of parboiled greens out of the freezer for use in soups, stews, stir-fry, or for braising or sauteeing. The thawed greens will require less cooking than they did when fresh, but, as always, cook to your tenderness preference.
I cannot recommend this practice enough as a way of preserving excess greens for the times when there are none available!
Luckily, there is a fast and easy way to preserve greens like kale, chard, spinach and mustard. Greens freeze VERY well, and with a little preparation you can fill your freezer with packets of greens that will make your day in January!
HOW TO DO IT
I wash and chop the greens into roughly 1-2 inch square pieces, removing any tough stems. I then plunge the greens into boiling water for the following periods:
Beet greens, kale, chard, mustard greens, turnip greens, spinach..... 2 minutes
Collards........................... 3 minutes
(If you have a pasta pot with a built in strainer, that makes the job super easy.)
As soon as the cooking time is up, plunge the greens into cold (preferably ice) water to stop the cooking process. Drain VERY well, and pack into storage containers (I use quart ziplock bags). Cool completely, label, and freeze! It is not only delightful, but quite convenient to pull a bag of parboiled greens out of the freezer for use in soups, stews, stir-fry, or for braising or sauteeing. The thawed greens will require less cooking than they did when fresh, but, as always, cook to your tenderness preference.
I cannot recommend this practice enough as a way of preserving excess greens for the times when there are none available!
Newsletter - June 4
NICK’S FARM REPORT
Welcome! The season begins….
June 4, 2010
Hi Folks, this is the first of twenty newsletters you will be receiving this season as a reminder, update, and heads-up for your CSA subscription with Midnight Sun Organic Farm. We are very excited to bring our produce to you, our CSA customers, and we look forward to an abundant growing season.
First, we would like to extend a big thank-you to Bria and Todd at Earthly Goods in Gurnee for helping our farm make the connection to so many in our community, and for providing a pick-up space for our produce shares. For those of you not getting your share at Earthly Goods, they are a great place to pick up your health supplements, gluten-free grocery, and they have a full-service juice bar. Check them out at www.earthlygoods.com!
So, it’s already been a hot one, as you probably noticed, and the garden is just thriving as a result. The lettuce and mustards are ahead of schedule, the peas and beans are making the scene, and the tomatoes, cucumbers and squash are loving it in the field.
In the CSA Bag This Week:
Spinach
Bulls Blood Beet Greens
Mustard Mix
Asparagus
Red and green kale
Arugula
Cherry Belle radishes
How the CSA works
As a reminder, this year’s CSA share will run weekly for 20 weeks, from June 4th through October 15th. Each week, your share will be available for pickup at the location you specified when you signed up. Please make sure you come and get your share, or, if you are unable to do so, that you arrange for a friend to do so, as we cannot offer refunds for unclaimed shares. Your shares will be packed in a re-useable tote bag. When you pick up your share next week, please remember to bring your bag back so we can re-use it!
Pick-Up Locations:
- Earthly Goods:
- On-farm pick-up:
Tips and Suggestions from our kitchen:
During the final months of winter, we spend a lot of time looking forward to eating fresh greens. Greens are among the first produce available in the spring, as they grow fast and thrive in the colder spring and, later, fall weather. Thus, the first few share bags will be fairly greens-intensive.
All of the greens you will receive can be eaten raw, as in a salad or side, and we recommend that you try this at least once, so that you can experience the wide range of tastes the garden offers! Many greens, such as kale, beet greens, mustard, and spinach are also excellent braised or sautéed. From a nutritional viewpoint, when preparing greens it is good to have an acidic condiment in the recipe, such as vinegar or lemon juice. This is because the acid is believed to help your body absorb the iron and vitamin A in the greens, of which they are an excellent source.
Here is a good basic recipe which can be applied to any of the above greens:
Heat olive oil or sesame oil in a large, heavy duty frying pan or skillet on medium heat. Wash greens well, chop coarsely, and add to skillet. Cook, turning twice a minute, until greens are wilted (about 3 minutes for spinach, beets and mustard greens, and 5-7 minutes for kale). If you prefer very tender greens, continue cooking until greens are as tender as desired. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Soy sauce, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, or white wine (1-2 tbs) can be added to the pan just before the greens to liven things up. You can also add cubed tofu, toasted sesame seeds or pine nuts, or crumbled goat or feta cheese once the greens are done cooking. Enjoy!
Also included in your bag this week is asparagus from Sandhill Organics, a neighbor farm in Prairie Crossing. We LOVE asparagus all ways, but especially when it is brushed with oil, seasoned, and grilled until tender. Here, also, is a great recipe from Sarah Post, a farmer we worked for a couple seasons ago:
“Mom just gave me a recipe for an asparagus salad; it's my new favorite. Cut aspargus into 1" pieces, blanch in boiling water for one minute and then immediately dunk in cold water to stop it cooking. Drain. Dress with 1 TBS tamari, 1 TBS toasted sesame oil, and 1 TBS sugar. Toss with a small handful of dry roasted sesame seeds. Chill. Enjoy! So good.”
This salad is also great with the addition of raw, thinly sliced radishes.
Please contact us with any questions or concerns!
Midnight Sun Organic Farm
815-354-3227
midnightsunfarms@gmail.com
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