Share #10, August 20, 2011

Holler Fest is coming! Shirts are in and the crew is psyching up for a great weekend. Hope you can join us!

IN THE BOX:
Watermelon (red or yellow)
Mizuna - new! (green with pointy leaves)
Russian Kale
Asian greens (Asian spinach variety)
Hakurei turnips (white-globed roots with greens)
Beans
Daikon radish (large white long root)
Leek - new!
Celery - new!
Tomatoes
Italian Parsley
Potatoes
Cucumber
Garlic

NOTES FROM THE FARM:

We’re trucking away at the harvest and working on sprucing up the farm for the festival. Sign painting, fixing up the fest grounds, and coordinating galore! Billy, Angie, Kenny, and Chrissy (a.k.a. The Billy King Band) are working on putting together a show that will knock your socks off on Friday night. Hope to see you there!

We are looking for volunteers for the festival, so if you or anyone you know is interested in helping out at the festival, please go to our volunteer page on the hollerfest.com website or come talk to us in person at the market. We love our volunteers and appreciate all of the help they give us in making this beautiful weekend possible!

With the big event coming up next weekend, don’t forget about two fun events happening this Sunday as well. The People’s Food Coop’s Farm Tour Field Day will be stopping at Frog Holler Farm Sunday afternoon in addition to other farms in the area. See where your food comes from! Also on Sunday is the Slow Food Huron Valley’s Picnic Supper at the Farm located at the Waterloo Farm Museum. A delicious feast inspired by the traditions of the 1800s, the menu includes some of your favorite organic veggies from Frog Holler. You might even run into the very same people who bring you your share at market each week, since we’ll be volunteering at the event as well!

NOTES FROM THE FROG HOLLER RECIPE BOX:

New to the box this week is mizuna, leeks, and celery. The leeks are just about begging to be combined with the potatoes in your box, such as in this recipe for leek mashed potatoes. The celery looks a bit different than what you might be used to seeing in the supermarket, but the aroma is unmistakable! Michigan celery is a bit skinnier, but full of flavor. Make the classic kids’ treat ants-on-a-log (celery, peanut butter, and raisins) or add it to a recipe like our gazpacho.

Mizuna is included in a vegan, raw wrap recipe inspired by our friends at the Red Pepper Deli in Northville, Michigan. The deli uses collards for their wraps, but the Russian kale in your box will make an equally delicious and nutritious – and beautiful – wrap that is sure to impress. Our recipe features a vegan pate that is a favorite of intern Kirstin. On it’s own or in the wrap, you will be blown away!

Looking for a fresh way to use the greens in your box? Try a wild green salad that combines the mizuna, kale, and Asian spinach in a simple yet zesty summer dressing. Yummy! Want to step it up a notch? Check at the stall for edible flowers that will add a lovely finishing touch to your dish. Beautiful!

Returning to the box this week is daikon radish. A Japanese vegetable, the name literally means “large root” (dai = large and kon = root). Let the daikon join forces with your hakurei turnips and Asian spinach in a tasty, and incredibly nutritious, miso soup.

Last but not least, as our attention turns to Holler Fest, we wanted to share one of the recipes that we’ll be cooking up next week. Gazpacho, a late summer classic, will be the focus of one of the lunches served next week. This variation will utilize not only some of your delectable tomatoes, but green beans, celery, and cukes to boot. Whether you are serving hundreds or just one, it is sure to be a hit!

Good cooking!

MEET THE INTERNS: ANGIE MARTIN

Angie has been a staple at Frog Holler for the past three seasons. Around market, she can be found working the stall, distributing C.S.A. shares with a smile, or floating around the market networking with other vendors in the community. Around the farm, Angie not only takes a leadership role in farm work, but also keeps a full slate of projects in her free time. A beginner bee keeper, Angie has been the steward for the farm’s two hives, keeping them happy and healthy in their inaugural year.

Making kombucha is another hobby of Angie’s. Keeping the farm well stocked in kombucha, Angie experiments with different recipes and inventive combinations. If you’re interested in making your own kombucha at home, come talk to her at market and pick her brain. She’d love to help!

Angie’s love of farming extends to her personal gardening projects. This year she and Kenny have undertaken an extensive relocation and expansion of the herb garden. Many of the tasty herbs you’ve found in your box this season have come out of this very garden. Working with Slow Food Huron Valley, Angie has raised a number of small patches of heirloom crops, including her very first corn patch. The variety, a “country gentleman” variety of corn, has even provided a bit of huitlacoche, more commonly known as corn smut. A tasty fungus that grows on corn, smut can be made into traditional tacos, as Angie sampled earlier in the week. Delicious!

As Holler Fest nears, Angie morphs into yet another role on the farm – kitchen diva. An avid and experienced cook, Angie helps plan and prepare the feasts that are served from the Frog Holler kitchen throughout the festival. She is particularly excited to try her hand at making BBQ tofu, a farm fave.

Sadly, this season is Angie’s last on the farm (for the time being, at least). At the end of the season, she’ll be moving back to Texas to be with her family. While she is incredibly sad to be leaving her farm friends and family, she is grateful for all that she has learned and the experience she has gained over the past three years. This is not the last of Angie that we’ll see, however, as she is working on a plan that will bring her back to the area to start her own organic farm. Best of luck, Angie!

Have a great week! See y’all at Holler Fest 2011!