October 4, 2014 - Share #15

The finished painting from Dorothy Ann!

The beginning of Dorothy Ann's painting

Remember in Newsletter #11 when neighbor/artist/CSA member Dorothy Ann stopped by to paint a scene at the farm? She dropped off the finished version last week and what a glorious colorful celebration of our barn and cluster of sheds and outbuildings! Thank you Dorothy Ann for showing this work-a-day area in a whole new light!
















And remember the windmill photo last week's newsletter with the frisbee and tennis ball stuck in the blades? Intern Nhin dispatched them handily this week!

Oops!

WHAT'S IN THE BOX: For some of you, this is your last share - enjoy!

LETTUCE

RADISHES

BEETS

CARROTS

POTATOES

SWEET POTATOES - NEW!

ONION - ONE SWEET SPANISH, ONE YELLOW STORAGE (DARKER & SMALLER)

KALE

CELERIAC - ROUGH-SKINNED, GNARLY, DOWNRIGHT UGLY - AND DELICIOUS!

STORAGE AND PREPARATION TIPS:
Last week we mentioned that some ideas for preserving veggies would be in this newsletter. Actually, almost all of your share will store quite nicely - either in the fridge (beets, carrots, celeriac, sweet potatoes) or out of the fridge (potatoes, onions). Lettuce and radishes should be consumed within the next few days - and who wouldn't? The lettuce and radishes are especially happy and tender during these moist fall days. If you want to keep the radishes around a little longer, remove the greens and store them in plastic in the fridge. And don't forget how rich and creamy radishes turn when they are roasted! (You may want to halve or quarter the larger radishes for quicker and more even roasting.)

Sweet potatoes usually store unrefrigerated, but we have shared our harvest with numerous small burrowing munchers, so we suggest refrigerating since we had to make some strategic cuts - lots of good eating there despite the cosmetic damage. If you didn't get around to it last week, you can try this Curried Quinoa Sweet Potato dish - no need to substitute winter squash!

But if you want to put something in the freezer from this share, tear or cut the kale from its ribs and drop the pieces into a largish pot of boiling water. This will stop the enzymatic process that decays vegetables. After two minutes or so - you may see the kale turn a different shade of green - use a strainer to remove the leaves and plunge immediately into cold water. This keeps the kale from getting overcooked and mushy. Drain your kale well, bag it up and place in the freezer for a January surprise!

Okay, there are many reasons to join a CSA, and hopefully, as we reach the end of our CSA season, you feel good about your reasons for joining. Perhaps you wanted to support local farmers - thank you! Perhaps you liked the idea of eating fresh and local, allowing your palate to align with the changes of the growing season - we hope you enjoyed that! Perhaps you wanted to increase your veggie intake by subscribing to a weekly or bi-weekly share fresh from the farm - we hope it worked! Or, perhaps you wanted to increase your vegetable range, exploring and discovering new varieties that you might not have selected on your own - enter celeriac!

Celeriac, or celery root, with its inhospitable-looking knobby skin and lack of appreciation in this country, often languishes on grocers' shelves. But celeriac is a diamond in the rough, or rather, a rich, creamy, celery/parsley-flavored root vegetable - delicious in soups and revered in France!

 Due to celeriac's rough skin, it is suggested to peel it with a paring knife rather than a peeler. After peeling the skin can quickly darken, so toss your cubes or slices into lemon water before continuing with your recipe.

You can roast celeriac in a simple dish, such as Roasted Celery Root and Carrots. A traditional way to use celeriac is in soup - simply add the cubes to a soup you are making that calls for celery, or jump in with both feet and prepare a Celery Root Soup.  (The recipe comes from a blog written by a fellow living, and cooking, in Paris - lots of colorful food info!)

Although the classic way to prepare celeriac is a French remoulade, this Scandinavian Celery Root and Beet Salad reflects the use of root crops in the northern lands where storage vegetables were vital to surviving the long winter.

Celeriac, or celery root, is high in potassium, fiber, and Vitamin C. It is low in calories and carbohydrates compared to other root vegetables - only 5-6% starch by weight, making it a good potato substitute in lower-calorie recipes.

For those of you who already know this ugly duckling of the vegetable world, enjoy it your favorite way! For those who are just making the acquaintance, may it be the start of a healthy relationship, and you can thank your CSA for introducing you!

Spinach-Feta-Mushroom Quiche. You could use cooked kale instead!

FOOD AT THE FARM: We eat well

 at the farm, we just do. The food is fresh, the cooks are inspired, and the appetites are hearty! But some lunches rise to even greater heights, and this week we were served a Vegetable Quiche by Kirstin that was filled with fresh greens, our own wine cap mushrooms, eggs from the farm chicks, and all matter of melt-in-your-mouth goodness. It was hard to go back to work after that!

Frog Holler salad mix with yummy toppings

 Accompanying the quiche was our farm salad mix, with toppings of sliced farm pears, sliced steamed beets, chopped toasted almonds, and feta cheese.

 A garden vegetable soup from Kim rounded out this meal and then we all rolled out the door!





 

MUSIC AT THE FARM: When we featured intern Kim O'Keefe in Newsletter #3, we didn't mention that among her many talents, she is also an accomplished harpist. A casual recording she made found its way to Cathy King's yoga class, where she played it for the closing relaxation, and, after class, was besieged with requests for the music! So this week Kim made more copies, and Angie took some lovely photos of Kim with her harp, back in the farm woods. The result is "Summer Shadows", a CD of Celtic harp music played by Kim O'Keefe, with some original compositions by Kim, and some original arrangements of music you might not expect to hear played on a harp. We made some extra copies and they will be available at the stall or by request. You might even get an autograph!



Have a great week and it's a good time to see if you have any boxes piling up! Those who are picking up for the last time may want to bring bags to transfer your produce into. Thank you!