June 27, 2015 - Share # 1!

Pure Michigan!

Greetings 2015 CSA members! Or should we say Greenings CSA members! The copious rainfall has made the greens very happy, and you’ll see that reflected in your share. But berry season might end quickly due to the rain, so enjoy them while you can!

Here’s the rundown on the rest of the box:

Kale

Rainbow Chard – use leaves like spinach; do include the beautiful different colored stems in your soup or stir fry

Lettuce – various varieties

Scallions –  aka green onions

Garlic scapes – the bunch of curly stalks. See newsletter for info.

Beets – eat the greens as well; they are loaded with nutrition!

Snow peas – edible pods

Cilantro – frilly herb full of flavor for soups, sautéed dishes, with beans

Strawberries – probably need no explanation!

Everything does best in a plastic bag in the fridge. The strawberries will be eaten before you have to worry about keeping them! Beets stay crisper if you remove the greens (and store them separately in a plastic bag in the fridge.) 

THE GREAT eSCAPE!

Scape curling out of the plant center

Garlic scapes used to be a novelty but now we sell oodles of the curiously curly vegetables. These versatile additions to your veggie palate can be roasted, added to a stir fry or chopped fresh into salad. We did all of that this week, plus grilled some and pickled some more! Read all about scapes in this MLive archive article by Kim Bayer, Ann Arbor’s best friend to the local food scene. You’ll find some good recipes there as well.

Farm crew member Angie Martin lovin' her garlic scapes!

You can also try a Garlic Scape-Kale Pesto for a nutrient rich veggie sauce. You’ll find that recipe in the Frog Holler Recipe Box, a great resource for seasonal and largely farm-tested veggie dishes. 

This week one of our farm lunches was a variation on Bibimbop, the Korean rice and veggie dish. Along with sautéed garlic scapes and scallions, Emily added a variety of fresh, pickled and preserved veggies to create a tasty and beautiful dish. You can do something similar with your share. Use some of your scapes, scallions, snowpeas and kale and/or chard. You can cook them all or leave some of the veggies raw. Top it all off with your favorite hot sauce and dig in!

 

Nhin's Bibimbop bowl

Eric bunching kale

MEET ERIC TOTARO – SECOND GENERATION CSA!

Eric has been volunteering on the farm these past two weeks. A 2015 graduate of U-M’s Ross School of Business, Eric is heading to San Francisco in July for a position in management consulting with PricewaterhouseCooper. Before he takes this next big step, Eric wanted to “just do what he wanted to do”, and one of those things was to work at Frog Holler!

Eric's parents picking up their share by bicycle in 2012

Eric’s parents, Stephen and Kathleen Totaro, were among our first local members when we started our CSA in 2008. Eric credits his family’s CSA experience with contributing to his interest in organic and sustainably grown food. After seeing what came out of the share box, Eric wanted to know more about how those veggies got into the box. We’re glad he came to Frog Holler to find out!

Eric says his biggest takeaway from this experience is how important teamwork is for a small sustainable farming operation. He was impressed with how much could get done in a day when everyone worked together.

Weeding the carrot patch was not one of his favorite activities (he’s not alone there!) but he found it very satisfying to see the difference when finished! Eric’s experience will be full circle when he packs CSA boxes this week for our first share. Now he really knows how those veggies get in the box! 

The weeded carrot patch - a lot of satisfaction!

And finally, Eric says he learned how much work it takes to grow food sustainably. Well, he came to all that work with positive energy and good humor, and, if this business gig doesn’t fly, he always has a place on the Frog Holler Farm crew! Thanks Eric, and all the best in the future!

 

Some of that teamwork! (Eric with Angie and Joe)

 Thanks everyone - have a great week!

October 11, 2014 - Last share!

BYE BYE!!

From the crew who made it to the end! l. to r. Nhin Luu, Kirstin Pope, Billy King, Kim O'Keefe, Emily Foley, Edwin King, Angie Martin, Paul Burger, Cathy King, Kenny King

And thanks to all of you who made it to the end! We hope you are pleasantly vegeta-belly full and here's your final serving:

CARROTS

POTATOES

ONIONS

PARSLEY - FLAT OR CURLY

RED CABBAGE

NAPA CABBAGE

RADISHES

WINTER SQUASH

SWEET POTATOES

KALE

We will continue to have produce at our market stall, Wednesdays and Saturdays, into November, so hopefully we'll continue to see you. We'll have hardy root crops like carrots and beets, onions, garlic, cabbages, winter squash, sweet potatoes, hardy herbs, lettuce, and of course kale - while supplies last!

Lots of items in your share will keep for a while, but if you're in the mood to use it up - just have a roasting party with a big tray of chunks of carrots, potatoes, onions and radishes - make your radish and carrots pieces a little smaller as they take longer. Sweet potatoes roast nicely cut as "french fries" and seasoned with cumin and cinnamon. Of course winter squash goes into the roasting oven as well.

Then grate some red cabbage, napa cabbage, carrots, and radishes. Add some chopped parsley and perhaps a ginger-sesame dressing for a hearty fall salad. Kale will happily be roasted as chips or shredded as salad - it's easy to get along with!

And there you have it, another share and another CSA season. Thank you for your support and good energy - we have enjoyed seeing you at the market and farm and appreciate your willingness to come along with us on this growing season's adventure. Have a happy and healthy winter and we'll be in touch after the first of the year with info on the 2015 CSA.
 

See you next year - keep eating your kale!:-)

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!

September 27, 2014 - Share #14

The old farm windmill - can you tell what's caught in its blades?

 WHAT'S IN THE BOX:

BEETS

KALE

ARUGULA

SPINACH

RADISHES

CABBAGE

ONION

GARLIC

WINTER SQUASH

POTATOES

DRIED OREGANO



STORAGE TIPS: Remove tops  from beets and radishes and save for stir-fries. Store beets and radishes in plastic in the fridge to maintain crispness. All leafy greens keep best in plastic bags - if you rinse them first be sure to drain them before storing. Cabbage in the fridge unless you want to store it as sauerkraut! (see below) Potatoes, garlic, onions and squash can all keep outside the fridge. The dried oregano is from an early cutting that was bunched and hung in our barn loft for a month. Crumble the leaves, remove any large stems, and store in a small container for use throughout the winter. Oregano goes in many, but especially tomato-based, dishes!





Okay, can you see the frisbee and the tennis ball in the blades? This was the result of a post-workday left-handed frisbee throw contest. The tennis ball was supposed to dislodge the frisbee! We haven't had any strong breezes lately so they are both still there ( and no other items have been added yet!).













RECIPE SUGGESTIONS: Your share once again reflects the weather and the happy cabbage crop!

A traditional and nutritious use for cabbage, and way to preserve it, is to make sauerkraut! Here is an excellent description of sauerkraut's benefits, along with a very accessible method for making a small quantity of sauerkraut in a mason jar. The cabbage in your share should provide just the right amount for a mason jar or two of "kraut" and a lot of good probiotic eating! As the blog says, "when life [or your CSA] gives you cabbage, make sauerkraut"!

 We finished up our winter squash harvest this week and are starting on the sweet potatoes, which turned out to be a little sulky due to the cool summer. The sweet potatoes are curing and should be available in the shares to come. You can wait for them to try out this recipe for Curried Sweet Potato and Quinoa Pilaf. OR, you can do what we did - substitute winter squash for the sweet potatoes! (We also used Michigan apples from the Farmers Market - the fall apple harvest is on!).

From one of our CSA members we received this incredible recipe for "Cheesy Kale Chips". No cheese, but tons of flavor. So if you're looking for a new twist for using your kale, give this one a whirl. We also used the sauce over pasta and had a quick vegan Mac n' Cheese. Delicious!

We appreciate hearing from members and how they are using the veggies in their share. Here is another tip from member Ponda: Winter Squash with Caramelized Onions. You have two of the main ingredients in your share this week, so have at it!

And here's a blast from the past! From the 2010 newsletter: Intern Angie wowed us tonight with tempeh cutlets marinated in tamari and wine, mashed potatoes with garlic and parsley, and mushroom gravy. Get your fresh Michigan mushrooms from Tantre Farm at the Farmers Market! Well, Angie is back with us this year and still cooking amazing dishes. Tantre Farm still has mushrooms at the market and now you can buy fresh, Michigan-made tempeh from our friends at The Brinery - available at the Farmers Market and select stores around town. Let the fall feasting begin!

And another blast from the past - the 2010 newsletter tells us that...Intern Kirstin suggests this flavorful fall salad: Equal parts spinach and arugula, toasted sliced almonds or walnuts, apple chunks, dried cranberries, goat cheese or feta (optional but not really), and dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette. Still sounds delicious, and there's more to come on Kirstin!

We be jammin'! L. to r.: Autumn Olive Jam, Grape Jam, Ground Cherry Jam, Raspberry Jam.

A Farm Jamboree! We have been busy preserving the harvest this week, and here are some of the results! Angie and Kirstin are smiling behind four different jams. The sun was a little bright, but hopefully you can see the beautiful contrasting colors, and the beautiful smiles!









Another day in the kitchen yielded more raspberry jam, Pickled Peppers, "Wonderful Salsa" (it is!), and a Chili sauce. It also yielded good conversation, shared music picks, a toast with the wine that was called for in one of the recipes, and a feeling of proud productivity as those beautiful completed jars started to line up. If you have canned before, you know the satisfying popping sound as the jars seal. And all of ours did!

Kirstin checks to see if the jars have sealed

If  you can't use all of the produce in your share, we hope you are finding ways to preserve the harvest. You'll be glad you did next January! We'll have more tips on food preservation in the next newsletters.




MEET THE INTERNS - KIRSTIN POPE

Kirstin in the Jerusalem Artichoke patch. The "sunchokes" are coming to a stall near you very soon!

Actually, Kirstin needs no introduction to many of you, as she has been contributing to the farm in a myriad of ways since 2010. Kirstin had just returned from two years in Mali with the Peace Corps, and was looking for a farm to learn about growing food. By chance, Kirstin's dear friend from Kalamazoo College was interning at Frog Holler that year and encouraged Kirstin to join her here. Even though it was late in the season, we decided we could take on another crew member, and we're glad we did! 

Kirstin in 2010.

Kirstin grew up in Germany, where her parents taught at an Air Force base. Kirstin's parents then moved to England to teach at a base there, and that's where Kirstin visited them in the winter after her first summer at Frog Holler. Since she worked a partial season in 2010, she decided to see what an entire season felt like in 2011 and returned to the farm in April. Since 2010 Kirstin has continued that pattern of Europe in the winter, Frog Holler in the summer.

Kirstin with Lionel kibbutzing

 Kirstin's artistic ability is evidenced in many places on the farm. Here she is putting the finishing touches on our market sign that was totally redesigned in 2011. Kirstin's patience and skill helped bring it into reality. ( She is patient with cats too!)

Kirstin with brother Kai

 And here is the sign hanging at market!

Among Kirstin's many skills is an ability to drive a stick shift. Because of that, Kirstin was able to drive the pickup to our Wednesday market and so, since 2011, has taken over the main responsibility for managing our stall on Wednesday. Here she is with her younger brother Kai, who visited in 2011. In true big sister fashion, Kirstin made, that is, strongly encouraged her little brother to join her for the 4:30 AM wake-up call!

Kirstin with "Pampas Plume" flowers

One of the ways Kirstin's artistic sensibility has been expressed is through her interest in growing and arranging flowers. Here she is in 2012 with our first small flower bed. For the last two years Kirstin has designed a much larger flower patch and many of you who shop at the market (or come to the farm) have appreciated the beauty that the flower bouquets add to the stall (or to their homes for those who have purchased bouquets!).

Kirstin picking red clover blossoms

 Kirstin's interest in herbs - both wild and cultivated - has been evidenced at our stall by an increasing diversity of herbal choices.

Kirstin diving into the Lemon Grass harvest!

 And in 2013 Kirstin created her own Herbal Tea Blends - all 100% organic and crafted from herbs gathered at Frog Holler Farm. They are available at the Farmers Market or by special order.

Kirstin with Tea Blends and single dried herb tins.

 Actually, if you have seen anything at our stall that looks a bit different or interesting, there's a good chance Kirstin is behind it! From Okra to Ground Cherries to Moringa Leaves to Shiitake mushrooms, Kirstin has enhanced the diversity of our stall through her wide-ranging interests and hard work.

Kirstin soaks logs in the bathtub in the woods to encourage a shiitake mushroom bloom.

Sadly, we are saying goodbye to Kirstin after this season. As she goes off to find other opportunities to grow and learn, we wish her well, knowing that the farm has been positively affected through her dedication and creative pursuits, and knowing that it sure won't be the same in her absence.

Thank you Kirstin - we will miss you!

Kirstin 

 

 

 Have a great week everyone! Just two more shares left - thanks for bringing your boxes back!