Share 2, June 26, 2010

In the box:

Curly Kale
Scallions
Beets - new!
Radishes
Garlic Scapes
Spinach
Sweet Basil - new!
Purslane - !
Strawberries - last time :-(
Salad Mix or Red Bibb/Parsley

Well, the only item that might need some explaining is Purslane, which probably looks suspiciously like a weed. But we call them "wild plants" now and find that these sturdy volunteers offer high amounts of vitamins and minerals. Purslane is known for containing alpha-linoleic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid we usually get in fish or flaxseed oil. Purslane is also a source of calcium, potassium, iron, essential amino acids, and vitamins E, C and A.

Purslane’s leaves are tender and succulent; its flavor has been described as peppery cucumber. Experiment with it and see what you think!

For a flavorful salad, toss raw purslane with other lettuces, like arugula, butter lettuce, spinach, mache or romaine. Add a lightly sweet and tart dressing, such as honey mustard.
• Enhance ordinary mayonnaise-based salads — chicken, egg, tuna, shrimp and turkey — by replacing celery with chopped purslane sprigs and stems.
• Use purslane in sandwiches instead of lettuce.
• Raw purslane makes an attractive garnish.
• In recipes that call for watercress, try purslane instead.
• Stir purslane into soups and stews, just as you would use spinach.
• To cook, steam purslane for one to two minutes. Or sauté it in a hot pan with olive oil until it’s lightly wilted. Serve as a side dish.

You can see there are many way to enjoy purslane, and maybe you'll discover new ones. Let us know! And if you need more, just look out in your garden. Purslane loves to show up in the garden rows right about now, and this is the time of summer when purslane is at its succulent best!

Here is a tasty recipe using garlic scapes and spinach - from Diana Dyer, MS, RD, the new Ann Arbor garlic maven!

Spinach and Scape Frittata

3 Tbsp. olive oil

10 eggs

1 cup (1/2 lb.) chopped raw spinach

1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley or basil
1/2 c. finely chopped garlic scapes
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350°.

In a large bowl mix all ingredients except oil and scapes. Heat oil in a 10-inch ovenproof skillet on the stove. Add the scapes and saute until tender on medium heat for about five minutes. Pour egg mixture in skillet with garlic and cook over low for three minutes. Place in oven and bake uncovered for 10 minutes or until top is set. Cut into wedges and serve warm. Serves 6 generously. A half recipe can be made if desired.

And another recipe we enjoyed around the Frog Holler table this week:

Chickpea with Spinach Soup
modified from Food and Wine Cookbook 2001, serves 8

4 c. cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1/4 c. olive oil
2-3 scallions with greens, chopped
3-6 garlic scapes, chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1-2 quarts water or vegetable broth or soup stock
1/2 lb. spinach, chopped - (your share spinach stems are tender!)
salt to taste
2 T. fresh seasonal herbs - optional but tasty - maybe the basil?

Heat olive oil and saute chopped scallions over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until soft. Add garlic, bay leaves, salt, red pepper flakes and cook for two minutes. Add the water or broth and bring to boil. Add the chickpeas and cook over medium heat until very tender, about ten minutes or more. Remove the bay leaves. Add the spinach and cook a few minutes to wilt. Puree with a hand-held blender in the saucepan or in batches in the blender or food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Notes: Using two quarts of liquid made a thin soup. Reduce liquid or thicken with cooked grains or a roux.

Coming up soon:

Sunday, July 4 - Welcoming Summer Party

2:00 PM - CSA work party

4:00 PM - Games, farm tours, swimming

6:00 PM - Potluck

8:00 PM - Music

Campers welcome - Yoga in the Barn on Monday morning

If you're coming to weed, bring a hat and gloves, if you have 'em. Last year's member weeders (pictured above) cleaned up the new strawberry patch, and we all enjoyed the fruits of their labors this year. Thanks a bunch! (If you think you're coming out for the work party, we would love to know in advance.)

Salad Share vs. Non-Salad Share

In the early 90's, Cathy King kept reading about a mixture of salad greens gaining popularity in California and called "mesclun". Frog Holler Farm was already known for its steady supply of lettuce and cooking greens at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market, but Cathy was intrigued by the idea of this mixture and she ordered some seeds. It was complicated to grow so many varieties and make them mature evenly, but once Ken King applied his engineering skills to growing the 15-20 different salad items, a system was formed and the Frog Holler salad mix was born!

We called the mix "mesclun" in those early days, but nobody could pronounce it (including us) and the name encouraged too many bad jokes. The name"mesclun" actually comes from Provencal (Southern France) and literally means mixture. French gardeners would gather all the greens that were coming up in the early spring and make their first salad "mixture" from what was available.

Long before plastic clamshells of "baby greens" appeared in every corner store, the King family was serving up their signature mixture of leafy greens, savory herbs and edible flowers at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market. Now we simply call it Frog Holler Salad Mix , and if you haven't seen it before, look in the little glass bowl (okay it's a fishbowl) on the corner of the table.

Some things to know about the mix is that it is always always made the day before market.
Since 1995, we have stayed with a winning formula of 3-5 different lettuce varieties, along with endive and radicchio, many different flavorful herbs including sorrel, arugula, bronze fennel, chives, chinese leeks, parsley, purslane (!), and edible flowers. The blend of ingredients will change with the seasons - a leafier mix in the spring, more flowers in the summer, more hearty crunch in the fall. The lettuce is passed through three rinses before coming to market and keeps best if spun dry before refrigerating (if you have any left to keep!). Other than that, it's ready to enjoy!

So...salad share vs. non-salad share - what's the difference? "Salad share" members get 1/2 pound of our salad mix with every box. Non-salad share members do not get the mix, but will get a little more salad items to make their own salad with. Everyone gets the same amount of cooking vegetables.

Some week when we make a lot of mix, we'll put some in every share so all can sample this unique and special treat. It will be difficult to go back to the clamshell!
Frog Holler Salad Mix

Share 1, June 19, 2010

Greetings all, and thanks for being part of the 2010 Frog Holler CSA. Here’s what’s in the box this week:

1. Red Salad Bowl Lettuce and

Red Romaine or Salad mix

2. Red Russian Kale

3. Spinach

4. Scallions

5. French Breakfast Radishes

6. Broccoli

7. Garlic Scapes

8. Rhubarb

9. Strawberries!

Notes on the box:

1. Red Romaine – a new variety with a twisty style but the same good romaine crunch and flavor. Red Salad Bowl – an old-fashioned colorful leaf lettuce.

2. Red Russian Kale – heirloom variety, introduced to Canada in the 19th century by Russian traders. Also called “summer kale”. Excellent kale flavor and nutrition.

5. French Breakfast Radishes – slice them onto a sandwich of dense (Mill Pond!) bread slathered with good quality butter. Voila!

6. Garlic Scapes – the curly flower stem that garlic produces before the bulbs mature. Simply chop and add to a

ny dish enhanced by a light fresh garlic flavor.

Here is a good garlic scape recipe from Dick and Diana Dyer, the new garlic farmers in town! More delicious recipes and food wisdom at Diana’s blog:

www.dianadyer.com

Garlic Scape Pesto

Ingredients:

1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes) cut into ¼-inch slices

1/3 cup walnuts or pine nuts (toasting these adds a nice twist)

3/4 cup olive oil

1/4 - 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

black pepper to taste

Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and grind until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. Transfer mix to a mixing bowl. Add parmesan, salt and pepper to taste. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Or transfer to an ice-cube tray and freeze to be defrosted and used one cube at a time at your leisure. The latter approach makes scape pesto available even in mid-winter, when its use can make a scrumptious dish.

Not to miss

Sunday, July 4 - Welcoming Summer Party

2:00 PM - CSA work party

4:00 PM - Games and farm tours

6:00 PM - Potluck

8:00 PM - Music

Angust 20-22

Holler Fest

Ah Strawberries...

So sweet and so short-lived! These little red gems delight our senses for a few weeks in June, worthy heralds of the summer fruit season in Michigan.

If you are a seven to nine-year-old reading this, then 53 per cent of you have chosen strawberries as your favorite fruit! If you are Madame Tallien from the court of Napoleon reading this, then you are about to take your bath made from the juice

of fresh strawberries (22 pounds worth!). If you are a Frog Holler CSA member reading this, then you might be snacking on a few berries from your share as you read. And who could blame you?

Now the dark side of strawberries is that they are one of the most heavily sprayed fruits. Up from No. 6 in 2009, strawberries rank No. 3 on the 2010 Dirty Dozen list (12 Foods to Eat Organic). Why? 59 pesticides have been detected in residue on strawberries. (Read more: www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods)

Strawberries’ vulnerability to weather extremes contributes to their short lifespan and also to their susceptibility to damage. Rainy spells (such as we have had this month) can cause the berries to soften and rot in the fields. To counteract this, commercial strawberry growers apply heavy doses of fungicides, which are absorbed readily by the juicy berries. Yuck!

The good news is that Frog Holler strawberries are never sprayed! You may find an occasional soft spot on them, and we may lose a few to the rainy weather, but we rest better knowing that you can reach right into that basket and have another one, with no threat to your health. So keep snacking! And if there are any left, try this recipe:

Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote

Take your share bunch of rhubarb, chop into one-inch chunks and simmer with the strawberries you haven’t already eaten (maybe you have a half-pint left?), along with ½ c. sugar and ¼ c. orange juice. It will cook fairly quickly,

but will thicken a bit if you simmer it carefully for 15 minutes. Serve warm over french toast, pancakes or ice cream sundaes! Serve cool over pound cake or granola. Enjoy!

Meet Your Farm – some history

Drive 45 minutes west and slightly south of Ann Arbor and you will find yourself among many lakes and gently rolling hills – an area of southeast Michigan dubbed the “Irish Hills”. There you will also find Frog Holler Farm, with 120 acres of those rolling hills, along with many wooded sections and a large pond at the center. It’s a pretty piece of land.

From the 1940’s to 1972, the land was owned by Dr. Robert and Cora Lees Gesell. Dr. Gesell was a professor of physiology and Chairman of the Physiology Dept. at U-M Medical School in the 40’s and 50’s. Mrs.Gesell was an ardent conservationist and when she decided to sell Frog holler after the death of Dr. Gesell, asked that the new owners continue to care for the land and animals and to “forever call the land Frog Holler”. This was the Gesells’ pet name for the land, no doubt inspired by the frog chorus that emanates from the “hollers” between the hills (or perhaps by the frogs that holler!).

Dr. Gesell shocked his colleagues in 1952 when he delivered a paper calling for the humane treatment of animals in laboratories and the cessation of vivisection in the name of scientific research. He also enlisted his daughter, Christine Stevens, to “do something for the plight of animals in laboratories”. Christine did more than “something”; she was known as the “Mother of the Animal Protection Movement” and was instrumental in passage of the A

nimal Welfare Act, The Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Humane Slaughter Act, the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act and the Wild Bird Conservation Act. Christine, who passed away in 2002, was also founder of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL).

Although we never met any of these extraordinary individuals, we continue to draw inspiration from their dedication to fairness and justice for the land and all its inhabitants.

By gardening organically, we do our best to respect the land and the complex interweaving of plants, insects, birds, and animals that creates a healthy ecosystem. And of course we call the land Frog Holler!