CSA Week 11
This week you MAY have apples, peaches, tomatoes, peppers, onion? corn, squash? beans? lettuce, peppers, eggplant, broccoli? chard? potatoes?
Hopefully you have seen some yellow corn at this point – magical right? There’s a lot going on at the farm and some crops either suddenly ripening and getting by us because of the heat, developing slowly due to the dry heat (yep, every crop reacts differently, OR, suffering hail damage. We got hit pretty hard in one field we rent about a mile from the farm, but overall we were spared. It’s a crap shoot, so we can only hope!
I did a little scouting myself to assess damage from the storms and I can tell you that you may be seeing pak choi, Portuguese kale, Winter Rose radishes, celery, or tomatillos in your future. The tomatillos are a week or so away, so this is an early warning 😉 The celery saw a little disease damage to some of the bases of the stalks. I brought in a head and once I sliced the stalks from the root base, most of the damage was gone. It appears as a little rusty, it is perfectly fine, and our celery is “stringless”, so just cut it up and enjoy!
Don’t forget we grow some odd potatoes…I saw (er, I mean microwaved for 5 minutes and ate for supper) some large dark purple ones in the barn the other day. They are blue/purple inside too! Also watch for red, yellow, fingerlings…..
Recipes
Baba Ghanoush or Baba-ganouj or Caviar d’aubergines
Still on the fence about eggplant? You might not even realize what this was if you had it. Yummy with toasted pitas or as a sandwich/wrap spread. Faith calls this eggplant hummus 😉
- 1 eggplant
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup pure tahini
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
Place eggplant on baking sheet, and make holes in the skin with a fork. Roast it for 30 to 40 minutes, turning occasionally, or until soft. Remove from oven, let cool peel skin off or scoop our pulp.
Place eggplant, lemon juice, tahini, and garlic in an blender/food processor and puree. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
You can grill the eggplant or char it on the stovetop if you like a smokier flavor. This freezes beautifully!
Cream of Celery Soup
- 3 tablespoons butter, divided into 2 Tbsp and 1 Tbsp
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 1/2 cups sliced leeks, white and light green parts only
- 1 large bunch or 2 small bunches celery (5 cups chopped for the soup, 1 1/2 cups diced for the topping)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 teaspoon to 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, to taste
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cream
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Fresh chopped chives or parsley for garnish
Sauté onions, leeks, 5 cups chopped celery: Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a thick-bottomed 4 to 5 quart pot on medium heat. Add the diced onion, the leeks, and 5 cups of the chopped celery. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes until softened. Add the minced garlic and cook for a minute more. Add stock, bay leaves, salt, then simmer: Add the chicken stock and bay leaves to the pot. Taste for salt and add salt. (If you are using unsalted butter and unsalted stock, you will need to add more salt than you expect, if not, maybe just a little salt will be needed.) Increase heat to bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover to maintain a simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes.Braise remaining celery to soften: While the soup is simmering, prepare the extra celery that will be added later to the soup. In a separate small sauté pan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter on medium heat. Add 1 1/2 cups diced celery to the butter.
Ladle 1/2 cup of the simmering stock from the soup pot into the sauté pan. Simmer on low for 5 or 6 minutes to soften the celery. Set aside.
Purée soup: Remove the soup pot from heat, let cool slightly. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Working in batches, purée the soup in a blender, filling the blender no more than a third full at a time (keep your hand on the lid so the hot liquid doesn’t explode). Return the puréed soup to the pot.
Stir in the cream and the braised diced celery.
Taste for salt and add more if needed. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and chopped chives or parsley to serve.
Broccoli Soup
I posted this years ago and just hunted it down in my old WP blog 🙂 Simple and highly adjustable soup! Make it vegetarian or vegan too!!!
ZsaZsa’s Corn ‘Oysters”
~an old New England dish.
- 1 egg beaten
- 1/2 c. milk
- 1/2 C flour
- 1/2 t. baking powder
- kernels scraped from 3 ears of corn
- 1 T. melted butter
Add all the above together-adding milk to make a heavy pancake batter. Melt some butter or bacon fat in a skillet or griddle. Drop batter onto hot pan by serving spoon size dollops. Turn down to Med heat. Brown, turn and brown other side. Serve with applesauce or maple syrup. Make about 8 ‘oysters’
Fresh Summer Corn Chowder
4 ears corn, cut off the cob
1/2 large onion, minced
1 T butter
2 cups diced potatoes
1 cup water
3-4 springs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
4T flour
2 cups milk
In large saucepan, saute onion in butter for 3 mins or until tender. Add the potatoes, water, thyme, salt, pepper and corn. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 mins or until potatoes are tender. In small bowl, whisk flour and milk until smooth, then gradually stir into soup. Bring to a simmer and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Yield: 4 servings.
I thought this recipe looked good Roasted Zucchini and Tomatillo Salsa Verde
Farm Dirt
YES! You are welcome to come to the farm – the New Braintree farm 🙂 I did finally print some maps, not that it helps, but I will leave them on the bench in the house-yard. Please feel free to park wisely in the barnyard or houseyard, or on street where/when safe. Also: wear sensible shoes, pack snacks, pick snacks, avoid the temptation to step over the rows and accidentally damage our/your plants. Also resist the temptation to walk through any vining crops like melons and squashes. It takes more skill thank you might think to tiptoe through harvesting, without stepping on the vines – once crushed, there’s no fixing that once the damage is done. Having said all that, it is a great experience to roam the farm and harvest some extras for yourself…ad it is a great bonus to having a CSA with us. I will send you an official invite to the farm when it is gleaning time (before the killing frost).
I left a head of broccoli in a plastic bag on my counter for two days…as you might imagine, it was quite yellow. Broccoli has a very high rate of respiration and breaks down its own carbohydrates quickly to produce energy. Chlorophyll is used up quickly AND ethylene gas is produced. At room temperature and high humidity, broccoli has a very short shelf life. Broccoli should be stored very cold, in a bag that breathes a little (lest you trap the ethylene in), and not with fruit (big ethylene producers). Other crops that suffer from high respiration rates are, surprise! sweet corn, peas and mushrooms. Crops that suffer quickly from ethylene damage include lettuces (the russet spotting at wounds), spotting and pitting on summer squashes, cucumbers, peppers…. Having said that, it’s not harmful, you can still eat the lettuce, squash, cukes, even the yellow broccoli is technically fine. This damage can happen quickly and it is good to know it is not going to hurt you if it happens…which I hope it does not!
I am looking forward to broccoli and cauliflower in the coming weeks. We have had a bit of a deer issue in two fields (read: herd of deer eating all the leaves off a couple thousand plants), but the pressure seems to be in a couple of fields and we have more growing away from those guys. We love them, but it is tough to share sometimes. If you don’t see broccoli this week – you will definitely be seeing it in weeks to come. We are trying to fill a institutional request for 500lbs this Thursday, but then we’ll be back at it.
Eat well,
Geneviève Stillman
Two more weeks of CSA option!
CSA is going so awesome, why not keep things rolling until Still Life Farm winter CSA begins!!! Add two more weeks to your 16!! (we are on week 10 this week) We are offering an extension to current CSA members of an additional two weeks for $60. That way you will have your winter squash, Brussels sprouts, apples and other fall crops. It’s simple, just complete your purchase for 2 more weeks and we will keep you on your existing list. These two weeks will blend seamlessly filling the gap between our Summer CSA and Still Life Farm’s Winter CSA.
With all the payroll increases, we are increasing the regular 16-week, CSA price to $500…
This is still far more competitive, price-wise, than many other area CSAs, especially when one considers the variety (including fruit) and value of what we so enjoy providing to you.
- 2 week CSA extension + 2021 16-week CSA for $476 (early discount of 15% off both the 16-week CSA and the two week CSA extension (that’s $75 off CSA and $9 off the two extra bags :))
- 2 week CSA extension + Winter CSA for $350
- 2 week CSA extension + Winter CSA + 2021 16-week CSA for $766 ($290 for Winter CSA + early discount of 15% off both the 16-week CSA and the two week CSA extension (that’s $75 off CSA and $9 off the two extra bags :))
- Just interested in the Winter CSA right now? Then sign up directly with Curt and Halley for ease. Still Life Farm Winter CSAl
Coupon 15OFFCSA will be automatically applied at checkout for 2 weeks + Summer CSA (with or without Winter CSA)
Coupon 15OFFEXTRA will be automatically applied at checkout for 2 weeks + Winter CSA
Woot!
Don’t want any more CSA bags this year and not ready to sign up for next year? No worries! We will still be offering our 15% off discount to returning members through November. The early sign up discount offer will go out to members later in October. Also, you can always sign up for Still Life farm Winter CSA or Stillman Quality Meats meat bucks whenever…we just wanted to offer a special deal for right now. The special bundle offer expires October 10.
