09' CSA Basket Journal #19; Volume 2
9/23/2009 2:50pm by Matthew and Allison Mills Neal
CSA Basket Journal #19; Volume 2
September 23rd
What Genus Specie Varieties your basket contains:
1.)Maxibel Hericot Vert and Strike Snap Green Beans
2.)Eggplant...possible varieties of Applegreen (round and tart apple green),
Turkish Orange (round, orange and green striped), Rosita (Plum purple and
oval), Black Opal (dark purple and oval), Louisiana Long Green (long and
light green)
3.)Mixed Radish Bunch of Red Rudolf, Pink Beauty, and French Breakfast
(remember that radishes are great to try sauteed or roasted, if you are one that
does not appreciate them raw)
4.)Mix of Heirloom Tomatoes
5.)Hot Ring O Fire or Cycklon Polish Hot Pepper
6.)Desert King Peach Fleshed Watermelon
7.)Waltham Butternut Winter Squash
8.)Young Batavian Escarole Bunch
9.)Young Crisp Mint Romaine or Olga Romaine Bunch
Good afternoon to everyone as we have now passed into yet another season of Fall! Not a dry fall at all as yes, it is still raining from when we saw everyone last week. It really has been a full week of a lot of rains, so we were fortunate that during our gathering days we did not some how sink into the wet muddy fields. Hopefully by the late weekend we can get some drying days with the great cool front that is suppose to be moving in. It will be most appropriate now that it is Fall, if we could have some blue sky days in the 70's! I hope everyone loved working in your back turtle beans last week, as we as well shelled for a full day so we could have some beans for winter eating.
This week you have a lovely amount of delicious green snap beans. As these are so very fresh and crispy they would be great chopped finely along with a couple of radishes and made into a bean and radish salad tossed with some vinegar and oil and salt and pepper. This raw salad could be served over some of your lettuce greens as well. Or you could blanch the snap beans and create a lettuce leaf and endive salad that could be topped with the blanched green beans and some roasted and sugared nuts and a good olive oil vinaigrette and cheese! The other night I tossed the beans in some olive oil and salt and pepper and roasted them in the oven uncovered for about 20 minutes at 425, and they were just delicious as Matthew and I ate almost a whole pound. They were great served along side a roated sweet fleshed winter squash. I am always combining vegetables in ways according to what we currently have availbale, so here is a tid bit from a book that talks about some different uses for snap beans, as I cannot include every meal that we put together here at the farm ....
"Snap Beans have a long running love afair with toasted almonds, and for some reason anchovies. Italians dredge them in flour and fry them in olive oil until they are crispy and golden brown. In India, they haul out heavy spices for snap beans: turmeric, cumin, cayenne, and mustard amoung them. Eastern Europeans tend to saute them with onions and flavor with herbs, garlic, and nutmeg, and a little beef or chicken stock. In Greece and Bulgaria, they may add tomatoes, carrots, peppers, and thyme to put in a saute pan. "
As you noticed last week, with the addition of the Kale, the fall greens have started making there way into your baskets; so I am sure everyone will be excited with this week's greens of lettuce and endive just as much as I am. Remember that the endive is a bitter green and can be used in many dishes after it is blanched in hot water for about 3 minutes. Your endive is very young so make sure you do not over blanch. Blanched Endive is wonderful in Italian style bean soups served with crusty bread and good cheese. The classic braised endive recipe is wonderful served along side roasted pork and apples if you are one that likes meat.
So to braise the endive, heat oil over medium hight heat. When oil is hot, add the endive and cook for 1 minute until brown, turning them on the other side for about that amount of time too. They'll spit and pop in the hot oil. Then add some lemon juice from one lemon, salt, and about 1-2 tsp of sugar. Turn the endives to coat. Reduce heat to low, put on the lid and simmer for 30 minutes (since you endive is very young you might only do this for 15 minutes)
Also, raw endive is great in salads as well. For example try making a lemon juice, olive oil, parmigianno-reggiano, and salt and pepper dressing to toss with chopped endive, apples, toasted pine nuts, and a hard boiled egg.
This week's sweet melon will be the last of the summer sweet melons, so enjoy till next year! As Matthew and I can eat a whole Melon in the matter of 2 days or less, we generally eat the watermelon in the raw with some salt, but I will share a great salad I made this last week....
Shaved melon, potato, and tomato herbed salad with raw cheddar cheese shavings, which consisted of thickly shaved/diced watermelon (which this process allows one to get the seeds out as you cut, before putting into large salad mixing bowl), boiled fingerling potatoes, diced tomatoes, and a citrus basil pesto (a whole bag of the citrus basil stem and all, a couple to few Tablespoon of olive oil, walnuts, and olive juice, and white wine vinegar, salt, and hot pepper all processed till a nice consistency forms), olive oil, and raw cheddar cheese. Basically after all the chopping, boiling, and processing has been done you can toss all the ingredients together and serve.
Speaking of Fall, here soon we will be announcing our annual Fall Gathering date, so be on the look out for that by e-mail and we will hope that all of you our CSA members will be able to come.
Thanks and we will see you next week.
Allison and Matthew
September 23rd
What Genus Specie Varieties your basket contains:
1.)Maxibel Hericot Vert and Strike Snap Green Beans
2.)Eggplant...possible varieties of Applegreen (round and tart apple green),
Turkish Orange (round, orange and green striped), Rosita (Plum purple and
oval), Black Opal (dark purple and oval), Louisiana Long Green (long and
light green)
3.)Mixed Radish Bunch of Red Rudolf, Pink Beauty, and French Breakfast
(remember that radishes are great to try sauteed or roasted, if you are one that
does not appreciate them raw)
4.)Mix of Heirloom Tomatoes
5.)Hot Ring O Fire or Cycklon Polish Hot Pepper
6.)Desert King Peach Fleshed Watermelon
7.)Waltham Butternut Winter Squash
8.)Young Batavian Escarole Bunch
9.)Young Crisp Mint Romaine or Olga Romaine Bunch
Good afternoon to everyone as we have now passed into yet another season of Fall! Not a dry fall at all as yes, it is still raining from when we saw everyone last week. It really has been a full week of a lot of rains, so we were fortunate that during our gathering days we did not some how sink into the wet muddy fields. Hopefully by the late weekend we can get some drying days with the great cool front that is suppose to be moving in. It will be most appropriate now that it is Fall, if we could have some blue sky days in the 70's! I hope everyone loved working in your back turtle beans last week, as we as well shelled for a full day so we could have some beans for winter eating.
This week you have a lovely amount of delicious green snap beans. As these are so very fresh and crispy they would be great chopped finely along with a couple of radishes and made into a bean and radish salad tossed with some vinegar and oil and salt and pepper. This raw salad could be served over some of your lettuce greens as well. Or you could blanch the snap beans and create a lettuce leaf and endive salad that could be topped with the blanched green beans and some roasted and sugared nuts and a good olive oil vinaigrette and cheese! The other night I tossed the beans in some olive oil and salt and pepper and roasted them in the oven uncovered for about 20 minutes at 425, and they were just delicious as Matthew and I ate almost a whole pound. They were great served along side a roated sweet fleshed winter squash. I am always combining vegetables in ways according to what we currently have availbale, so here is a tid bit from a book that talks about some different uses for snap beans, as I cannot include every meal that we put together here at the farm ....
"Snap Beans have a long running love afair with toasted almonds, and for some reason anchovies. Italians dredge them in flour and fry them in olive oil until they are crispy and golden brown. In India, they haul out heavy spices for snap beans: turmeric, cumin, cayenne, and mustard amoung them. Eastern Europeans tend to saute them with onions and flavor with herbs, garlic, and nutmeg, and a little beef or chicken stock. In Greece and Bulgaria, they may add tomatoes, carrots, peppers, and thyme to put in a saute pan. "
As you noticed last week, with the addition of the Kale, the fall greens have started making there way into your baskets; so I am sure everyone will be excited with this week's greens of lettuce and endive just as much as I am. Remember that the endive is a bitter green and can be used in many dishes after it is blanched in hot water for about 3 minutes. Your endive is very young so make sure you do not over blanch. Blanched Endive is wonderful in Italian style bean soups served with crusty bread and good cheese. The classic braised endive recipe is wonderful served along side roasted pork and apples if you are one that likes meat.
So to braise the endive, heat oil over medium hight heat. When oil is hot, add the endive and cook for 1 minute until brown, turning them on the other side for about that amount of time too. They'll spit and pop in the hot oil. Then add some lemon juice from one lemon, salt, and about 1-2 tsp of sugar. Turn the endives to coat. Reduce heat to low, put on the lid and simmer for 30 minutes (since you endive is very young you might only do this for 15 minutes)
Also, raw endive is great in salads as well. For example try making a lemon juice, olive oil, parmigianno-reggiano, and salt and pepper dressing to toss with chopped endive, apples, toasted pine nuts, and a hard boiled egg.
This week's sweet melon will be the last of the summer sweet melons, so enjoy till next year! As Matthew and I can eat a whole Melon in the matter of 2 days or less, we generally eat the watermelon in the raw with some salt, but I will share a great salad I made this last week....
Shaved melon, potato, and tomato herbed salad with raw cheddar cheese shavings, which consisted of thickly shaved/diced watermelon (which this process allows one to get the seeds out as you cut, before putting into large salad mixing bowl), boiled fingerling potatoes, diced tomatoes, and a citrus basil pesto (a whole bag of the citrus basil stem and all, a couple to few Tablespoon of olive oil, walnuts, and olive juice, and white wine vinegar, salt, and hot pepper all processed till a nice consistency forms), olive oil, and raw cheddar cheese. Basically after all the chopping, boiling, and processing has been done you can toss all the ingredients together and serve.
Speaking of Fall, here soon we will be announcing our annual Fall Gathering date, so be on the look out for that by e-mail and we will hope that all of you our CSA members will be able to come.
Thanks and we will see you next week.
Allison and Matthew
1 Comments »
Dee Dee Sale said,
Allie...Just a reminder to add me to your email list! We are looking forward to a great week of produce! Thank you! DDS