CSA Newsletter - August 1, 2020

All good things must come to an end.....

Cale leaves the patch with the last crate of potatoes - but they aren't over for your shares!

Actually (although they never complained!) the crew probably didn't mind the end of potato-digging. Besides, they had to get ready for the next harvest, which is NOW APPEARING IN YOUR SHARE:

TOMATOES: 

Does this answer the age-old question: are tomatoes a fruit or a vegetable?

The rest of your share is full of familiar favorites:

CUCUMBER(S) - enjoy the last munch for a while; our patch has taken a pause

KALE - no pause for kale! 

This week we had lightly massaged kale salad with sesame seeds and cucumber chunks, dressed with a simple vinaigrette. Very refreshing!

 

CARROTS - Paleo Carrot Cake anyone? See below!

Photo by CSA member Sarah N.

BROCCOLI - easy to freeze - and that's what we did this week

Broccoli florets ready for blanching

We learned something about broccoli stems this week - see below!

GREEN/YELLOW BEANS - would go nicely with pasta and potatoes - see photo directly below 

POTATOES - see directly above and then directly below!

This classic Genovese method of preparing pasta with pesto includes cubes of potato and pieces of green bean, all cooked together in the pasta pot until tender.

GARLIC - classic ingredient in pesto, and so much more


SWEET BASIL - this has been a great growing year for basil, and thus we are making lots of....

Here's a batch of our frozen pesto. Doesn't look like much but so versatile to have around. Like for Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Garlic Pesto!

BONUS SQUASH!

STORAGE TIPS: Almost everything can benefit from refrigeration, including the potatoes and garlic, since they are freshly dug. HOWEVER, we suggest putting the tomatoes on the counter to ripen a bit more. A warm day or two will bring their flavor to a full bloom! Reminder that carrots stay crisper if they are stored without their tops. All other veggies benefit from a quick dunk, drain and storage in a plastic bag or veggie-keeper bag. 

NOTES FROM THE FARM:

Ah, tomatoes at last! Seems like ours have been a long time coming, while other local farms have been featuring their tomatoes on Instagram and Facebook for a few weeks. In thinking about why we are on the late side, we realized that we have a whole separate operation in the spring that ties up our greenhouse, hoophouse, and time. And that would be the organic seedlings that we have grown for area gardeners since the early nineties.

This spring, with the farmer's market closed and so much uncertainty about where basics would come from, many folks decided to garden. We were fortunate to have a family member who set up the Square Online Ordering system for our seedlings, and we started to field hundreds of orders - the first ones in early April were being filled while snow was coming down. The A2 Farmer's Market eventually opened and we were able to take the seedling orders to the market for delivery.

Edwin with over 200 individual seedling orders on their way to market

The crew good-naturedly joined in the effort as it became clear we needed a system to fill myriad different orders. We commandeered a hoophouse (that could have been used to plant early tomatoes), filled it with oodles of plant starts, called ourselves The Plantazon Fulfillment Center, and went to town! 

So while we can't post and boast about our early tomatoes, we hope we have helped to give bragging rights to hundreds of area gardeners. For after all, what is more "food secure" than your own backyard? 

And in honor of our tomatoes' first appearance in your share, we offer this song by Joe Reilly: "Hello, Little Tomato"! Many of you know that we are also a music farm and have hosted our farm, food and music festival, Holler Fest, for thirteen years. We had to cancel this year, and were sorry that we couldn't feature all the wonderful local musical talent in this area. Joe Reilly played at the first Holler Fest and every Fest since. He recently shared this clip from his Main Stage set in 2013. Joe is a very cool, creative, compassionate, adult and child-friendly musical talent and only Joe could pull off a beat-boxing rap song to a tomato! Check it out, but warning, it's very catchy! (Billy King - who had a lot to do with growing your tomatoes - on bass).

COOKING NOTES FROM MEMBERS AND THE FARM:

As promised, (see above), here's the link for the Paleo Carrot Cake shared with us by CSA member Sarah. The frosting was from a vegan "cream cheese" recipe and it was a big hit with her visiting family. (The carrot cake recipe is from the book Paleo Sweets by Kelsey Ale.)

And long-time CSA member Sharon shared this recipe for Farmers Market Breakfast Bread - a delicious way to turn some of your share veggies into a nourishing treat! Sharon used a combination of carrots, beets and zucchini/summer squash.

What have you been cooking with your share veggies? We would love to hear!

We were inspired to make soup stock this week with a fridge cleanout - some veggies were looking a bit tired but still had a lot to contribute! If you're getting a little behind on your share veggies, do consider making a soup stock. 

Pretty in its own way

We used carrot pieces and peels, purslane, garlic scape stems, broccoli leaves, an onion, and basil leaves. We also started to add the broccoli stalks when we came across a recipe for Dairy-Free Broccoli Stem Soup with 41 five-star reviews! Well, we had to find out what that was about and discovered a whole community of cooks who prefer the broccoli stems to the florets! Yes, we made the soup; yes it was very simple and delicious; yes we are now believers!

We would stress that we are talking about stems from fresh, local seasonal broccoli. Stalks from one of those huge heads you might buy in the grocery store in the winter are best used as a doorstop! Or you would have to determinedly peel them to arrive at the more tender center. Not an issue with summer stems from the farm. (P.S. The Broccoli Stem Soup called for chicken broth, but we, just a tad smugly, simply reached into the pot on the back burner where our  homemade soup stock was simmering and scooped out the required amount. Maybe that's why the soup was so good!?)

It's officially August - a time when we usually start looking back on summer and forward to fall. But this year presents so many unknowns - school, work, activities - all present questions with no clear answers. We too feel the uncertainty for the future yet have many traditional tasks at this time that represent an assumption, a hope, a faith that there is still good reason to plant: we set 2000 cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and kohlrabi seedlings this week for late fall crops; to harvest - we started the onion harvest and huge solid pungent globes are pouring from the field (stay tuned for next week); to pick - we prepared to decamp to Bean Patch #2 as the first patch wound down; to order - it's time to order our seed garlic to be planted this fall for next year's crop; to put by - freezing veggies, drying herbs and making pickles, getting our canning equipment in order.

We feel for all of you who are wrestling with unknowns at this time and hope that, for the next ten weeks, we can offer a steady assurance that Mother Nature still provides and that we'll do our best to represent for her. Thank you for putting your trust in us!

Have a great week everyone!

CSA Newsletter - July 25, 2020

Tubs of spuds - Crates of 'tates!

and you know this means: IN YOUR SHARE THIS WEEK:

POTATOES - FRESHLY DUG!

Milan (with basket) , Keegen, Edwin, Cale digging, Ashleh gathering

LEEKS

BROCCOLI

Broccoli salad anyone?

KALE - CURLY

Best for Kale Chips!

COLLARDS

Also do double duty as veggie mask

BEANS!

A green bean scene

CUCUMBERS

In large numbers!

CARROTS

Would you care at all for...?

LETTUCE

Let us have salad!

RECIPE TIPS: So much good food it's hard to know where to start! One place to start could be the Frog Holler Recipe Box. This is a (often share box oriented) recipe blog that we published in our early CSA days. The link will take you to the last recipe published in 2016 (!) for Zucchini doggy biscuits. That's for when you have really run out of ideas for preparing zucchini - you're not there yet are you? Although who says the pooches can't use a little veggie love?

Some recipes we noted from the Recipe Box that pertain to this week's share are Broccoli Salad, Green Bean Salad, Potato Salad WITH Green Beans (we used veggie broth)  and Creamy Sesame Greens. There are lots more - have a look around!

KALE - we're repeating this recipe for Kale Chips that may have been missed in last week's newsletter. It's easy to get Kale Chips really wrong; this link will practically guarantee a crisp and tasty result!

CARROT TOPS - a friend who saw our carrot top feature in last week's newsletter  shared that her nutritionist had recently advised her to get carrot tops into her diet!

COLLARDS - We served Collard Wraps at Holler Fest one year! P. 64 in the Frog Holler recipe book.

FREEZING BEANS - Here's how we freeze beans on the farm:
1. Fill large pot with water and put on medium-high burner.
2. Fill a large bowl with cold water.
3. Take large batch of beans and sit down in front of television.
4. Watch rerun of Star Trek's "The Next Generation".
5. While watching, break stem ends off of beans and snap in halves or thirds.
6. When show is over, rinse and drain beans. Water should be boiling by now.
7. Add a good amount of beans to boiling water. When beans turn bright green, (around 3 minutes) remove beans with a strainer.
8. Plunge beans into bowl of cold water to stop their cooking.
9. When beans are thoroughly cooled, remove from water and drain.
10. Place drained beans into quart baggies and freeze.
11. See if it's time for Deep Space Nine.

Milan and Keegen just drew the winning name!

AND THE WINNER IS...the winner of the first ever CSA Beans Crossword Puzzle is Bi-Weekly CSA member Sara Samuel!! Due to technical difficulties we could not award Sara a bouquet but she will receive a coupon for a half-pound of the Frog Holler Farm signature salad mix - and of course bragging rights. Stay tuned for more fun and informative CSA puzzles and word games. And prizes! Thanks everyone who entered and solved the puzzle!



NOTES FROM THE FARM - Cycles and circles - we seem to complete one harvesting project and find it's time to start another. Just as we finished digging, bundling and hanging the Garlic,

Ashleh digging garlic, Cale gathering

we headed to the Bean patch.

Keegen, Cale and Ashleh picking beans

We finished epic sessions of cleaning scallions

Cale and Ashleh cleaning scallions

So we could parlay that time into potato digging!

 

Keegen, Edwin, Cale dig. Ashleh gathers.

But there are some constants in the changing of our harvest tasks - specifically the hardy crew members who start and finish, start and finish, start and finish each produce project. So let's...

MEET THE INTERNS: ASHLEH WORDEN 

Ashleh grew up in a small town near Lansing, graduated from Grand Valley with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Art, met her partner Cale at a music festival in northern Michigan (Wheatland Traditional Arts Festival), now lives in Adrian, and luckily for us, her journey brought her first to Holler Fest and then to the Frog Holler Farm crew.

Ashleh and Cale signed on last year and returned this year for another full season. We keep them pretty busy, but in the winter months Ashleh, who is a silversmith, has time to make her beautiful jewelry. Below are some examples with Ashleh's comments.

Ashleh says, "I like the stones used in these pieces and two of them are my favorite designs that I've been making for a few years."

The stone in this pendant is Cherry Creek Jasper.

This is one of many turtle rings that I’ve made, originally inspired by a turtle ring my mom found when I was a kid. Turtles remind me to take in my surroundings, to be present and to honor the earth. The stone is Imperial Jasper.

This pendant is a part of my “Hands of Transformation” series which aims to illustrate how creativity is sometimes elusive and appears in ways you might not expect. At the same time it requires that we show up and put in the work in order to receive. This pendant was crafted in the spring at the beginning of social distancing when I decided I wanted to transform the strained closeness with loved ones into hope for the future. The stone is Fire Agate.

You can see more of Asleh's beautiful creations, as well as Cale's unique hand-carved wooden spoons, at their Etsy shop, accessed by  Caveandcanopy.com. All pictured are available.

As you can see, Ashleh does a lot of finely detailed work (which makes her an awesome weeder!). Ashleh's craft is often painstaking and time-consuming, and she says she enjoys being drawn deep down into that world of minute particulars (which also makes her an awesome weeder!).

And while Ashleh is working long hours at creating her beautiful and functional craft, she listens to a lot of podcasts! We asked for some of her favorites and she mentioned "For the Wild podcast because of the way it uses many voices to story tell and weave human-connectedness with nature. It critiques the status quo while teaching and giving hope for a way forward."

Ashleh also suggested "Ologies with Alie Ward because she delves into topics in a fun way that quells my curiosity in random science topics." Thanks Ashleh for those interesting suggestions!

We do shamelessly exploit the talents of our crew and so, when we learned how artistically oriented Ashleh was, we asked her to make lots of signs for us for last year's Holler Fest as well as this year's farm sign. For those of you who come to the farm for your share, Ashleh's handiwork beckons you in the drive!

We are very fortunate for the crew who pass this way, giving us their time, their hands, their dedication, and their unique gifts. Ashleh is an exceptional example of a multi-faceted crew member and her artist's eye, along with her thoughtful and steady presence, has contributed to the farm in myriad ways. We'll let Ashleh have the last word with this poem that she wrote during last year's season:

when I pull weeds,

Ashleh in the carrot patch

I see the fields as an archive


of blessings from killdeer + woodpeckers on dewy summer mornings.


I think of the tired hands that tended before,


of the thoughtful meals prepared + bellies filled.


I hear the wellspring of worries like


“will the garden grow” or “am I doing enough”


put to rest by the resounding answer from


land that desperately wants to be alive

Thank you Ashleh!

Have a great week everyone!

CSA Newsletter, July 18, 2020

Keegen, Cale and Ashleh in a sea of beans, and that can only mean...

IN YOUR SHARE THIS WEEK ARE:

GREEN BEANS!

Do you know how many idioms there are for beans? After reading the newsletter you will!

ZUCCHINI/SUMMER SQUASH

Our Summer squash is called Zephyr. Do you know why?

CUCUMBERS - NEW!

Are you keeping as cool as?

KALE - TUSCAN (AKA DINOSAUR KALE)

Have you massaged your kale today?

CARROTS

Can you eat carrot tops? That is the question...

RAINBOW CHARD - MULTICOLORED STEMS

Roy G. Biv?

LETTUCE

Green leaf?

Or Red Crisphead?

GARLIC

A kitchen staple - no questions asked!

BASIL

Pesto anyone?

STORAGE TIPS: Quick dunk, rinse and store in plastic or veggie-keeper bag. Out of necessity we have been refrigerating basil and it's working pretty well. Garlic can stay on the counter for up to a week and then refrigerate. Carrots keep their crispness if stored without the tops - so what to do with the tops?.....

RECIPE IDEAS: Last week we reported that there have been concerns about carrot top toxicity due to the presence of alkaloids and nitrates to which some people can be sensitive. CARROT TOPS are not inherently toxic to most of us unless we eat them by the wheelbarrow-full. And you won't find a wheelbarrow-full in your share - at least not yet! ;-)

We revisited the "carrot top controversy" after a customer at the stall took great pains to describe to us how she blanched the carrot tops and regularly added them to her salad. Hailing from Europe, where apparently carrot tops are traditionally consumed without concerns, this customer convinced us to be more open-minded about including the carrot tops in our cooking. A quick Google search brought many recipes for Carrot Top Pesto. We particularly like the linked recipe because it uses your carrots and your carrot tops and your garlic and your basil! 

And although from China, not from Europe, this recipe for "The Genius Salad Green You're Probably Throwing Away (No, It's Not Poisonous)" will give you a good idea and photo of what carrot greens in salad might look like. After every market we have a big crate of carrot tops because so many customers tell us to "take the tops off, please"! Another vendor takes them for her chickens but now we have some other ideas. (We'll share with the chickens!)

The question about KALE in the kale photo caption was not a mistake. "Massaged Kale" used to sound like a slightly uncomfortable approach to this trending vegetable. Perhaps someone's desperate attempt to to wrestle these seemingly ubiquitous greens into manageable submission? But that was then! Now you can find versions of Massaged Kale at every pot luck, varying from the lightly touched Kale Salad to a robust, dark green vegetative mass, recipient of a Kale Swedish Massage! 

Massaged Kale is just that, hands-on squeezing and kneading of raw kale, along with salt and a little olive oil, until the fibrous structure breaks down and becomes more tender and digestible. Massaging kale also reduces the volume, so that your large bunch of kale suddenly becomes a small bowl of salad! Dressings and add-ons are endless - check out the link, try a few Frog Holler favorites (page 28 in your recipe book), do a little experimenting, and find what works for you. If you have a favorite, let us know and we will share!

And if you like the idea of roughing up your KALE , try this Super Green Vegan Kale Pesto. The author says you can use carrot tops to sub for parsley!

Veggies starting to add up? If your vegetable volume is getting ahead of you and some veggie members of last week's shipment are looking a little tired, turn them into your own soup stock. It's also a good way to use parts of the vegetable that you wouldn't ordinarily cook, so nothing gets wasted. We made some soup stock this week using the ends of garlic scapes, some onion sprouts, kale stems, parsley and basil stems, mushroom stems, and (of course) carrot tops! The aroma in the house was wonderful and the stock will be strained and frozen in ice cube trays to simply pop out a cube or two when needed. We generally let vegetable trimmings accumulate for a while, tossing them into a plastic bag in the freezer until we have enough to flavor a stock. 

BEANS - Not much to say yet about the summer's first bean harvest - except that it won't be its last! Our backs are getting stronger as we spend hours bowing down in harvest homage to the mighty bean! Time spent in the bean patch has given this newsletter's author time to consider the many ways that bean imagery has settled into our everyday vocabulary. More than you might think! And you can discover how many bean sayings there are with this fun little diversion: Bean There Done That. Feel free to email if you're stumped for an answer. :-)

NOTES FROM THE FARM: The garlic harvest documented in last week's newsletter is almost complete, literally "hanging from the rafters" in our pole barn. 

Cale and Keegen with garlic party decorations!

And although the crew is generally hard-working, all tasks ground to a halt this week as they tried to solve the puzzle! How did you do? Send us a screenshot of your completed puzzle and enter the drawing to win a beautiful organic Frog Holler flower bouquet to be added to your next share. Entries close next Thursday. 

Have a great week everyone and happy solving!

CSA Newsletter July 11, 2020

Cheers for Garlic!

This hot week was garlic-digging time and the crew went at it with digging forks and good spirit! 

And now IN YOUR SHARE YOU HAVE:

GARLIC!

Garlic posing with her cousins in the Lily family

CARROTS! new this week!

Bunched below - ready for bunching above!

BEETS! new!

Many shares have red and golden beets

 SCALLIONS - not new, but not much longer

Ashleh still smiling after a long hot day!

KALE - curly

The best kale for kale chips!

CHARD - rainbow chard, multi-colored stems

Edible art!

KOHLRABI 

Peel then slice for a hummus dipper

ZUCCHINI/SUMMER SQUASH - easily identifiable!

DILL

Getting ready to pick a long row of dill!

STORAGE TIPS: Beets and carrots store best with the greens removed. But save those beet greens - they are loaded with vitamins and minerals - more than the beets themselves. Toss them into a stir-fry, cook on their own as a side dish, or even blend some into a smoothie for a nutrition boost. It's tempting to use those carrot greens as well, but read up on the potential toxicity here first.

Everything else does fine with a quick dunk, dried and put in a plastic or vegetable-keeper bag for the fridge.

Dill freezes easily and retains its flavor better than when dried. After rinsing and drying, chop the dill, place in small plastic bag and into the freezer. 

RECIPE IDEAS:

GARLIC Seeds of Wisdom - Cook fresh garlic quickly over high heat for a sharp, pungent flavor. Cook it slowly over low heat for a soft, warm taste. Or serve it minced and raw for a real bite. *

With those suggestions in mind, we can "cook fresh garlic quickly over high heat" with our Simple Summer Squash Saute, p. 69 in Recipes from the Holler, your Frog Holler recipe book. Uses your zucchini, garlic, scallions and even dill if you're inclined!

To cook garlic slowly, try roasting the whole head to achieve a soft, creamy, caramelized result. 

And as for "minced and raw for a real bite" there's always hummus, p. 84 in your Frog Holler recipe book or click the link.  Lately, however, we have been roasting garlic before adding it to hummus. It softens the bite and adds a bit more complexity to the garlic element.

For BEETS we would be remiss if we didn't point you to Kazakhstan Beet Caviar in your Frog Holler recipe book, p. 83. It also calls for garlic - you decide if you want a real bite or if you want to roast first. There are many ways to appreciate this unique approach to beets - on crackers, as a side dish - and the recipe really did come from an intern who stayed in Kazakhstan. You can probably find variations on the web. 

KALE - is kale "over"? A response from one of our favorite food blogs, Oh She Glows:

I know some people are eager to claim that kale is “over” due to its popularity in recent years, but seeing as it’s still rated number #1 (along with Mustard/Turnip/Collard Greens) on the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI), I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon. At least not in my diet. Kale for life!

Hopefully that inspires you to appreciate the kale that will appear in just about every share this summer! For a change from stir-fry, an excellent Kale Chips recipe is linked in the caption for Kale. 

CARROTS - First carrots of the season? Have a munch! Or pair them with your kohlrabi and hummus for a nice color-contrasting dipping experience! Gingered Carrots, p. 73 in the Frog Holler recipe book, are also a favorite way to prepare.

*https://joansbolton.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/garlic-the-stinking-rose/

NOTES FROM THE FARM: the week of the "stinking rose'!

Garlic has been called the stinking rose for nearly a century, thanks to a French writer and physician, Henri Leclerc, who in 1918 roughly translated garlic’s ancient Greek name, scorodon, to skaion rodon, and then to rose puante, or stinking rose. *

Although garlic is in the Lily family (along with tulips and, of course, lilies), roses are not in the Lily family. But the "stinking rose" nickname has been affectionately embraced by garlic lovers; there is even  a popular California restaurant named "The Stinking Rose" and renowned for including garlic in every dish. (now temporarily closed )

Garlic, like many garden crops, requires patience and delayed gratification. We plan and we plant; we weed and we wait. Garlic, however, might win the delayed gratification prize, requiring planting in the year before harvest!

Since Cale and Ashleh were on the team right to the end last year, here they are planting the garlic last November, along with their helpful friend Kirk, and the King bros.

A sunny day in November

And now Cale and Ashleh get to dig that garlic on a sunny day in July!

Ashleh digs while Cale gathers the loosened garlic bulbs

Next step is to bundle and hang the garlic for drying. It's still not ready!

Cale, Ashleh and Milan bundle the garlic for hanging. Photo taken from atop the scaffolding where we hang the bundles high in the rafters of the pole barn.

Garlic must dry and cure to become the helpful culinary addition to meals throughout the winter. So why do you have garlic in your share now? We knew you couldn't wait! And we have enough garlic to dry and store as well as harvest and share. Use fresh garlic just as you would dried garlic; you can keep it on your counter if you use it in a week - otherwise refrigerate.

Well, a "stinking rose" by any other name would smell as ...pungent, earthy and filed with possibilities!

We hope you enjoyed this little garlic adventure and that you enjoy your garlic! 

 

And there's more to harvest!

Have a great week everyone - thanks for bringing your boxes back!