CSA Week 6, 2020

CSA Week 6, 2020

You MAY have corn, cucumbers, squashes, blueberries, greens or some sort, tomatoes, bok choy? peaches? peppers?

Are you planning on making pickles or lots of zucchini bread? Something else? Now is the time to get bulk cukes or squash for whatever you are making. Email me what market location you would like to pick up a whole box this week and we will give you the CSA discount!

We are just starting to pick peppers! Sometimes the Hungarian Wax peppers find their way into the CSA  – they are pale green at this stage, turning shades of orange and red later in the season. We tend NOT to put hot peppers into the mix because, well, that should be obvious. BUT, we occasionally will pop a few either mild or very identifiable hots in, ie: Hungarian Wax which are mild, jalapeno which are very easy to id. Here’s your magic decoder ring for peppers I will elaborate on sweet and hot peppers next week.

We grow a variety of Asian greens and it sounds like there might be bok choy happening now.

Bok choy, bok choi, pak choy, pak choi, napa, Chinese cabbage…what’s what? Well, bok/pak choy/choi are the same but different from the napa/Chinese cabbage which are the same. And it’s not even that simple, because there are dozens of specialized varieties within each category. I’m no expert, believe me! Last season I had quite a long conversation through a translator with a lady looking for what I think was a type of choi that must have looked something like some seedlings we had. I was kinda banking on a green stemmed choi. Anyway, when the gentleman translating for her looked up the specific word she was calling the choi, it simply translated as “vegetable”. That brought on giggles from all involved. LOL. I love the Kitazawa Seed catalog for the very purpose of looking stuff up. They offer at least 20 varieties! Directly from them:

“This graceful vegetable with Chinese origins has spread throughout Asia and beyond, developing a wide range of varieties. The most typical Pak Choi features dark green leaves atop white spoon-shaped upright stems. Stems vary considerably in thickness and shape, and in some varieties they are green. One variety produces a rosette of dark green leaves close to the ground. There are specialty pak chois that have frilly leaves to light yellow-green color. The slight mustardy flavor of Pak Choi makes it a delightful addition to stir-fries, soups, noodle and meat dishes, and salads, if the young leaves are used. In China, the coarser leaves are often pickled. Some Chinese cooks also dip the leaves in boiling water and hang them out to dry in the sun for several days. Drying enables this highly perishable vegetable to be stored for winter months. Asian cooks use the entire plant at many stages of development.”

We grow mostly what is categorized as “white stemmed” pak choi including Tatsai and Joi Choi, but we also grow the  “green stemmed” Mei Qing and Tatsoi, and the “red-stemmed” Red Tatsoi, Dahong, and Purple Choi.
YIKES!

Bok Choy

For heaven’s sake, every recipe now features baby bok choy. Well, we do grow the baby, but the full size one is wonderful too and gives you plenty of crispy stalk to enjoy best in a stir fry. Yes, you can just steam it and pile it on rice, or add to your ramen bowl, but my favorite is tossed around quickly in hot oil.

Quickie choy/choi

Heat 1 Tb oil in fry pan, add 2 gloves minced garlic, good pinch of crushed red pepper flakes, a little grated ginger (or use ground at the end), cook a couple minutes, add sliced stalks and cook for few minutes, add chopped greens, a glug glug of soy sauce and a glug (a tsp?) of sesame oil and cook until the greens are wilted. If you are serving with rice, start the choy about 5 minutes before the rice will be done 😉

Baby bok choi is actually a different plant than the regular, it does not mean it was picked young 😉

Squash noodles and cheese – not catchy sounding, but good to eat. Heck, any vehicle for butter or cheese is awesome in my book! I have been making my regular, old-school cheese sauce (you have your own recipe right? make a white sauce, add lots of cheese, season with some cayenne, garlic, pepper…) and 100% squash noodles for mac and cheese these days. No one is missing the pasta. Do not forget the salting and draining process! Below is a recipe concocted last year…kind of cheater sauce with the marscapone. After a fair amount of experimentation, I would add the seasoning to the sauce, skip the pasta, and simply squeeze extra moisture out of the squash, skipping the saute and just bake the squash noodles in the cheese sauce until bubbly. One less pan to clean 🙂

Geve’s Zucchini Mac & Cheese

• 8oz marscapone
• 1 cup milk
• 1 3/4 cup shredded cheddar
• 1/3 cup shredded Italian blend cheese
• 1 lb brown rice fettucine – or use more squash
• 2 really large zucchini (or any summer squash)
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• s&p to taste  (I use my favorite seasoned slat blend)
• 2 T oil
• red pepper flakes
• 2+ cloves garlic, minced

Spiralize the zucchini, or make long noodles with mandoline. Lightly salt and let drain in colander. Cook pasta according to directions on package.
In saucepot, carefully melt marscapone and milk (right, keep stirring, don’t walk away ;)). When thickened, stir in seasonings and other cheeses. Naturally you should taste it now.

Heat oil in large frying pan, add red pepper flakes and garlic, when fragrant (30 seconds) add squash and saute about 5 minutes. Be careful tossing your tender zoodles so they don’t break them apart.

Layer half the pasta in a large casserole, top with squash, then remainder of pasta. Pour sauce over, carefully poking through with knife to make sure sauce is settling throughout. Top with panko. Bake at 400 until bubbly and crumbs are golden, about 25 minutes.

 

 

Veggie chili – super tasty and quick in my InstantPot! Recipe here.

Zsa Zsa’s Corn Oysters
Corn Pesto
Cucumbers
Swiss Chard Fritters

zucchini pizza – this is a little different than the one I posted on FB the other day
Summer Squash Salad with Scallions and Parsley (Real Simple)

The thundershowers have been coming through pretty regularly and some of the once dry fields have fairly large puddles in them and the ponds are full. The Fall tomatoes have been planted and we are picking quite a few main season tomatoes now – AWESOME! Most of the insane planting is done, but we will continue planting the greens and lettuces on about a ten day schedule and there is another crop of brassicas to go in. Blueberry season is upon us and the peaches have begun. Sadly, we don’t have the epic crop we had last year as our beekeeper procrastinated bringing bees over until they were mostly done blooming. A huge disappointment indeed. Those of you with us last year may remember how many weeks of lots of peaches the CSA experienced. The good news is the bees got here in time for the apple bloom, so there should be lots of apples 🙂

The main crop of potatoes is in full bloom and with many varieties having their own unique blossom color it’s pretty! If you are new to our CSA, you might get a chuckle about this story:We have a field directly across the street from our house, right on Rt 67, the main road in town. We had sat down for lunch when we heard the police doing their annual flyover, and over, and over. It seems they mistook our field of potatoes in bloom for pot! I waved to them from our driveway as they hovered over the field for 15 minutes and it was especially amusing when three cruisers rolled up to investigate.The chief looked a little annoyed, but we had a pretty good laugh…still laughing actually.

We are experiencing a little gap for lettuce, but it won’t be for long. Even though we seed a new crop every 10 days, one whole set did not grow at all during the hot dry and it looks like nothing will come of it. There’s more on the way though 🙂

The yard is truly overrun with squirrels and chipmunks. Between them stuffing their faces and the doves just knocking the seed on the ground, the feeders get empties quickly. All the baby squirrels are out of the nests and have literally formed paths in the lawn to the feeder. Never seen that! our Border Collie Jasper has an understanding with them and does not try to chase them until they start running. It’s a fun game. On days when the grand-dogs are here, the birds have much less competition at the feeder, as Spencer and Finn don’t play the same game 😉 I will give Jasper credit…he instantly dispatches any rodents (including the chipmunks) that are released in the house by the cats. So that’s pretty good!

Wildlife – in the house! We have some welcome guests (unlike the ones listed above) with several families of Chimney Swifts and I actually got a recording I hope to post on social media. What we thought was just one pair of Swifts is two or three families and feeding time, which is about every 10-20 minutes, has gotten very loud. The Swifts build their nests down inside the chimney, “glued on” to the side the way the Barn Swallows do in our buildings. All day long I hear a whooshing sound of wings as the adults drop down the chimney, followed by lots of chirping as the young beg for food, and then more whooshing of wings as the parents fly up and out of the chimney. They are remarkable flyers!!! I did not have the chimneys swept this Spring as I normally would have, and now will be waiting a while until the brood is out. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Chimney_Swift/lifehistory

A few of you have messaged me about visiting the farm…which is great. I have not had a moment to create a new farm map so you will have to wander around a bit if you are looking for something in particular. I will try to get on it, but meanwhile, it’s fun to explore, and get vitamin D while you are at it.

 

Eat well,

Geneviève Stillman