The Weekly Bushel, Week 20, 2009
LotFotL Community Farm
The Weekly Bushel #20
October is here, and it's cold
Last Gathering of 2009!
This Saturday is a harvest festival at Michael Fields. The event runs from 10-2pm. After that, at about 5pm, we'll be getting together at the north farm in the shed for one last pot luck. Tours will be available. We'll also be sure to warm up around a rather large bonfire, weather permitting. As always, I'll provide beverages of all sorts. If you plan to attend, please bring a dish to pass, silverware, bowls, plates, and cups for you and your family. RSVP please. We only had one member attend our last pot luck. It is a lot of work for us to set up for these, and if no one plans on coming, we'll drink the beer ourselves, and skip setting up. Hopefully, we'll see you there!
address:
W2857 county rd. ES. East Troy, wi 53120
Another week begins
Maybe it's just me, but I woke up this morning and was really cold. Really cold. Man, I asked for this in a way, with all that "I can't wait for winter" crap, so I'll live with it. As it is with many decisions, the grass is always green in the future, and dead once your walking on it in the present. Ok, it's not that cold, yet.
Lots of good produce for you this week. We're saying goodbye to tomatoes. We have more, but I'm just too thoroughly disappointed in them to pass them out anymore. But with tomatoes saying goodbye, we get to say hello to many things we haven't been able to give out for a while.
Garlic
It is garlic planting season, garlic number crunching season, garlic ground prep season, and garlic bulb splitting season, so I thought I'd tell you a bit about garlic. Garlic is a unique crop in how it is planted, and in how we decide to distribute it. First off, it is very expensive for us to purchase as seed. This last year, we spent about $500 on garlic seed. That bought us 3 varieties of seed garlic, one of which never made it through winter. We got about twice as much garlic as we planted from the beds that survived. After 2 distributions, we're left with about 100lb. of garlic to plant or distribute. Garlic planting should happen in fall, a few weeks before the ground freezes up. You basically plant one clove, and it becomes one bulb. Because of the vast expense of seed, and the ability of garlic to act like a perennial in a sense: always developing seedstock at harvest time, the typical CSA farmer grows out a seed set over a few years. It is a laborious crop, one that is hard to sell to wholesale accounts. It also feels like a bad market crop. Whenever you're selling something for less than $1, it's hard to see how you can capture enough capital in the long term to make it profitable, if even a push, especially at a market with less than 2,000 people attending. But, and this is the most important thing, garlic is the absolute best thing mother nature has ever created (besides maybe Alf the cat eating space dog). Heirloom, hardneck varieties of garlic simply ooze with oils. The smell of garlic simmering in a pan, to me anyway, is the sign of a home, of good food awaiting, and comfort. its medicinal properties are reknowned. For example, one remedy for lymes disease is vast amounts of garlic, and I'm pretty sure nothing else.
So, while garlic has not been in abundance this year, rest assurred that the sacrifices of this year will be rewarded in 2010.
The Food!
This week brings a CSA farewell to tomatoes. My very biggest disappointment of the year, we grew upwards of 40 different types of tomatoes in 2009, only in the end to give out 6-8 different types, and poor exemplars of their breeds at that. Nothing we could have done to make this better frankly, aside from summarily spraying organic fungicides and copper on the plants, and even that may not have been very successful. Cold summers multiply the diseases of tomatoes, making those that are typically tolerable, downright lethal. Better luck for all of us tomato lovers in 2010!
The coolness of this time of year has been deeply celebrated by spinach, which will make its presence largely felt in this week's share. We're also getting back into some herbs that we haven't had for a while, namely cilantro and dill. We'll hold the cilantro this week. Frost may be in the cards tomorrow evening. If that happens, peppers and eggplant will likely go away in the weeks that follow. Carrots, big fat ones, will likely be in next week's box. Broccoli is 1-2 weeks out yet.
This week's share
* cauliflower or cabbage-pretty sure we'll have enough cauliflower. Just in case, we'll sub cabbage if need be
* Bok Choy-large red varieties this week
* dill
* cherry bomb or jalapeno peppers
* red bell peppers
* deer tongue or mottistone speckled lettuce
* garlic-asian tempest, carpathian, or german red
* onions-assorted reds and yellows
* spinach-amazing how this cooks down. big bags this week
* kohlrabi-itsy bitsy kohlrabi's. peel and eat like an apple or shred and fry up like hash browns.
* mustards-my personal favorite cooking green. so flavorful. Steam, saute, or add to soup
* baby beets-many more weeks of beets to come
Fixins
What to do with mustard greens?
from the worlds healthiest foods . org
A Few Quick Serving Ideas:
Young mustard greens make great additions to salads.
Serve healthy sautéed mustard greens with walnuts and lemon juice.
Adding chopped mustard greens to a pasta salad gives it a little kick. One of our favorite combinations is chopped tomatoes, pine nuts, goat cheese, pasta and mustard greens tossed with a little olive oil.
For a simple meal with a southern flair, serve cooked mustard greens with beans and rice.
Healthy sauté mustard greens, sweet potatoes and tempeh and serve alongside your favorite grain.
Easy Dill Dip Couldn't be easier, and tastes great with chopped veggies, crackers and chips!
Easy Dill Dip
2 cups of mayonaise
2 cups sour cream
1 tablespoon of dill weed
salt, to taste
garlic powder, to taste
In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise and sour cream together, until well blended. Add the dill, salt and garlic powder, to taste. Blend well. Tastes great chilled.
http://dailydishrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/05/easy-dill-dip.html
Red Pepper, Tomato, and Garlic Soup
http://www.recipezaar.com/red-pepper-tomato-and-garlic-soup-391248
Ingredients
4 red peppers, deseeded and halved
2 onions, cut into quarters
2 roma tomatoes, halved lengthwise
8 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh oregano
8 fresh basil leaves, torn
5 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
salt and black pepper
fresh basil leaf, shredded to garnish
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Place the peppers, onions, tomatoes and garlic in a large, shallow roasting tin.
Pour over 2 tbs of the oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 40 minutes, until tender and tinged brown at the edges.
Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Peel the skin off the peppers and tomatoes, then roughly chop with the onions; squeeze the garlic flesh out of the skins.
Heat the remaining oil in a large pan, add the roasted vegetables, garlic and herbs. Add the broth then cover and simmer for 25 minutes.
Remove the thyme, bay leaf and oregano from the pan. Allow the soup to cool slightly, then sieve of puree until smooth. Return to the pan, adjust the seasoning and re-heat gently.
Pour the soup into bowls and add a few basil shreds to each one.
Thanks for reading, and happy eating!
Sincerely,
tim huth
LotFotL Community Farm
Save $25 Existing CSA members, save $25 off your 2010 CSA membership by signing up for the 2010 season before January 1st, 2010.
Offer Expires: 1/1/2010
