Good Eats Newsletter - July 1, 2009

This Week's Vegetable Share Contains
1.5 lbs Tomatoes; 1 Bunch of Basil; 1 Bunch of Red Bore Kale; 1 Bunch of Carrots; 1 Bunch of Parsley; 1 Bunch of Garlic Scapes; 1 Head of Napa Cabbage; 1 Bunch of Scallions; 1 Bunch of Easter Egg Radishes; 1 Bunch of Dill; plus... some sites will receive Broccoli and others will get Zucchini

Localvore Share Members Also Receive
Elmore Mountain Bread
1 Dozen Deborah's Eggs
Dancing Cow Minuet Cheese
Castleton Crackers

Storage and Use Tips

Napa Cabbage - The flavor of Napa cabbage is somewhat milder and a bit sweeter than that of regular green cabbage. It is delicious raw or cooked, and can be substituted for regular cabbage in most recipes. It is extremely popular in China partly because of its versatility. In Korea it is pickled, salted, and flavored with ginger and chili peppers to make Korea's national dish kim chi. Store in a sealed plastic bag in your refrigerator.

Pete's Greens Video at Seven Days
Last week Seven Days' Eva Sollberger published a video for Seven Days website. Eva visited with Pete and Meg at the farm and talked lots about the local food movement and feeding Vermont. This is a really fun video that also gives a great glimpse of life on the farm. Check it out!

Click here to watch the video!







Summer Share Info
Yes, there are still just a few more Summer Shares still available. Please direct interested friends or family to me or to the website. We will prorate the cost of the remaining share weeks.
Summer Share
Meat Share


Chicken Orders
Good Eats Members may order chickens and have them delivered to their CSA sites. Non members can order and pick up at the farm in Craftsbury. We will also be selling chickens at the Capital City Farmer's Market every Saturday from 9 till 1:00. More information about placing orders may be found on the website.

Pete's Pastured Chicken


Good Eats Members may order chickens and have them delivered to their CSA sites. Non members can order and pick up at the farm in Craftsbury. We will also be selling chickens at the Capital City Farmer's Market every Saturday from 9 till 1:00. More information about placing orders may be found on the website.

Pete's Pastured Chicken




The Good Egg
By Julia Shipley
It’s a Friday in June in the washhouse at Pete’s Greens, and Deborah Rosewolf has just realized she needs to return to the fields and harvest 46 more pounds of spinach. She shoves the last four totes of lettuce, chevril, and kress across the concrete toward the gleaming stainless steel pool filled with water and the first mesclun of the season. As she dumps a tote of golden endive in, the brilliant yellowy lacy leaves brighten the sea of greens. With one hand she nabs imperfect leaves and throws them at the floor, with the other arm she churns through the watery mix. After she gives several swift ballet-like sweeps, assistants begin to lift the washed greens out with pool skimmers and tip them into tall tubs. Deb and Socorro bring in carrots.


When Deborah answered Pete Johnson’s ad for washhouse help, she was only looking for a stop-gap job. She had been working construction jobs for 34 years, driving graders and dozers, and the traveling, sometimes as far as Pennsylvania, was beginning to wear on her. “I wanted something closer to home, ” she says with a grin. But working at Pete’s wasn’t what she would have called her dream job - she wanted to work outside, not in the washhouse, but that was what he needed. So they gave each other a try. “He tested me—he gave me some crappy jobs.” She remembers spending a whole week pressure washing the side of the voluminous barn in the rain. But after showing her perseverance, Pete began to give her more responsibilities, “and I’ve learned a ton!” she says.

One year later, she’s lost 30 pounds keeping up with the brisk pace at Pete’s Greens, her watch dangles from her wrist like a bracelet, and she has gained two titles: Washhouse Manager and the “Egg Lady”
“Pete said if he didn’t find a new home for the chickens he was going to kill them,” Deborah explains. She’s referring to the 100 Rhode Island red hens that Pete purchased as a starter flock to supply eggs for Good Eats, but, dissatisfied with the process of raising hens, decided to de-accession last August. “So I said I’d take em.”

The hens made the move to Deborah’s. When egg production continued to decline as the hens got older, Pete nagged her about committing to a 500 hen replacement flock. “500!…I said, ‘how about two hundred?’” Deborah recalls. Six months later, on a foggy Sunday morning, she introduces me to the three hundred Rhode Island Red- Leg Horn crosses. Some hens prowl the yard outside, some are visiting in clusters, others have just gone in to lay. Inside their long cedar board palace tidy egg laying boxes line the back wall like school lockers. Almost all the materials for the building was recycled, salvaged, or homegrown. They buy chicken grain by the ton, and stack it in the ante room of the hen house where Phillip is polishing this morning’s eggs. They’re getting 170 dozen per week.

In addition to supplying the CSA members, Deb is selling eggs to the local health food stores and restaurants. “You have to pay for yourselves, don’t you girls?” Deb said to the cooing, croaking rusty colored hens pecking and strutting in their yard. When asked, “How long will they lay?” Deb looks away from the flock and states that after two years their production declines so sharply as to make keeping them unprofitable. So when the time comes, these birds will make great stews and pot pies. In the meantime they eat clover and grain, wander in and out of their mansion, and socialize with their sisters. Reflecting on the great changes in her life over the past year, changes begun by applying for a “temporary” job, she grins, “ I always wanted chickens.”

Julia Shipley, who has a whopping flock of ten hens, is a freelance writer and faculty in Sustainable Agriculture at Sterling College.

Localvore Lore
We have eggs again this week from "The Girls". Deborah had her Coming Out Party last weekend to celebrate her entire flock beginning to lay. You'll notice that the eggs are getting a bit more size to them as the hens mature. To go along with your breakfast eggs, Elmore Mountain is baking a flax seed bread this week.

We have a brand new item for the share this week. Castleton Crackers are the creation of Whitney Lamy who has been rolling out and hand cracking crackers in her Castleton, VT kitchen for family and friends for years. Witnessing the evolution of the artisan cheese movement in Vermont, it seemed natural to Whitney to market her artisan crackers to compliment these outstanding cheeses. These are hearty, flavorful, earthy crackers serve as a perfect vehicle for nice cheeses. They are great on their own, but won't overpower a selected cheese. Castleton Crackers come in three flavors: Middlebury Maple, Rutland Rye and Windham Wheat. An avid cook and baker, Whitney has taught cooking classes for years in Massachusetts and Vermont. A past winner of the King Arthur Flour Winterbake cooking contest, Whitney has also been featured in Bon Appetit magazine and is the host of the new cooking show, “What’s Cookin’ Rutland” airing monthly on PEG TV.

And to go along with your crackers, we have a tasty cheese from Dancing Cow. From the Dancing Cow website:

All of our cheese is handmade on the farm from raw cow's milk, un-cooled, that flows directly from the cows in the milking parlor into the cheese vat. Milk, fresh from the cows, arrives at the vat at the perfect temperature to begin the process of making our style of cheese. We make cheese seven days a week during the milking season, roughly from March to December. This rigorous and unique method of crafting cheese using milk exclusively from a single milking and never chilling, storing or heat treating the milk helps us to capture the true flavors of our "Terroir", the taste of this place. Carefully un molded and hand salted, our cheese is prepared for its affinage in the cave, either on our farm or at the Cellars at Jasper Hill. During its time in the cave the cheese is gently turned, brushed or washed until it emerges precisely when its creamy texture and flavor profiles are at their peak.

Menuet is "a tome style cheese that is sweet and nutty with a creamy texture and long, clean, lingering finish. It reminds you that contented cows make great milk and thus great cheese."


Meat Share
I was thinking about summer grilling when I put the share together for this week. Burgers, chops, ribs, and chicken!
Pete's Pastured Chicken - A whole bird for your roasting or grilling pleasure. Pete's chickens are just fantastic. These birds get all the greens they want throughout most of their life. The result is richly flavored, highly nutritious meat. For a really delicious bird, try this... Mince 3-6 cloves of garlic and place in a small bowl. Add 1 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1-2 tsp dried rosemary minced, 1 tsp dried thyme. Mix this together. Lift the skin of the bird at the base of the breast bone and separate from the meat so that you can slide your hand under the skin. Then stuff this mixture on top of the breast meat under the skin.
Greenfield Highland Beef Ground Beef Grass-fed and grass-finished, Janet and Ray's Highland cattle produce a more nutritious beef. Less fat and fewer calories, yet richer in vitamin E, Omega 3's, beta-carotene and more. Highland beef are bred for their ability to thrive on grass and meats from Greenfields live up to this promise. Great burgers!
Country Style Ribs from North Hollow Farm - We sent out country style ribs in the Spring share to rave reviews from members. Located in Randolph, North Hollow farm raises its pigs with access to an outside area. They are working on their "humanely raised" certification. Country style ribs are great, marinated and slow cooked, finishing them off on the grill or under the broiler. You can also cut them up and use them to make chili, stews, or a rustic pasta sauce. Click here to check out a recipe for the ribs in the March 11, newsletter.
Maplewind Farm Pork Chops - Beth Whiting and Bruce Hennessey's farm is in Huntington. Using management intensive grazing they pasture 90 head of cattle, 100 sheep, 40-60 pigs, 400 broiler chickens, 100 layer hens, 50 turkeys, and 9 horses rotated over 80 acres. Wow. They really do an exemplary job of raising all of their animals. ON top of this Beth has several acres of vegetables (that she tills with horses) and is running her own CSA. Their pigs are raised on pasture and supplemented with grain.

Recipes

Stir Fried Napa Cabbage and Carrots
Here's a simple quick recipe that you could serve with brown rice. This is a basic stir fry into which you could sub in broccoli, garlic scapes, some cooked chicken or pork or beef, and garnish with scallions too. From the 75th Anniversary Edition of the Joy of Cooking.

Combine in small bowl:
2.5 TB tamari
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1 TB canola oil (or sunflower)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 TB fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 cups shredded carrots
1 medium Napa Cabbage, thinly sliced
Minced parsley or cilantro

Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add and stir fry the garlic and ginger for a few seconds taking care not to allow the garlic to brown. Add the carrots and stir fry for 3 minutes. Add the cabbage and stir fry until tender, about 3 more minutes. Add the tamari mixture and heat through, stiring to coat the vegetables. Serve garnished with minced parsley or cilantro.

Tuscan White Bean Soup with Rosemary and Kale
This is a classic Northern Italian Dish, simple, flavourful, wholesome, and healthy. Navy beans make a nice substitute if you don't have cannelini. You can also add 1/2 cup of small dried pasta like orzo tp this soup. Serve with a nice crusty bread.
From the Rebar Modern Food Cookbook by Audrey Austerberg & Wanda Urbanowicz

2 cups dried cannellini beans soaked overnight (or 3 cans cooked)
10 cups water
4 Bay leaves
2 tsp + 1 tsp salt
1 TB minced rosemary
1 TB olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
8 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
2-3 medium tomatoes
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 TB balsamic vinegar
1 small bunch of kale
parsley

Drain and rinse the soaked beans and place them in a large pot with Bay leaves, 2 tsp rosemary, and cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until the beans are tender. In the last 15 mins, add 2 tsp salt to the beans.

When beans are tender, heat olive oil in a soup pot and add onion, remaining 1 tsp salt and chile flakes. Saute until onions are lightly golden, then add the garlic and remaining rosemary. Cook several minutes, then add the cooked beans and their cooking liquid (or the canned beans). Bring to a simmer, add the tomatoes and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

Remove the stems from the kale, tear or roughly chop the leaves and rinse well. Add the leaves to the soup and cook until wilted. Season the soup to taste with balsamic vinegar, cracked pepper, and more salt. Garnish with fresh parsley.

Pasta at My House
This is my kind of veggie week. I really never tire of fresh veggies and pasta and fortunately, neither does my family.

4 cloves garlic minced
1 bunch garlic scapes - chopped
2-3 tomatoes chopped
1 zucchini sliced or 1 head and stem of broccoli - stem sliced and florets broken off
1 bunch basil
Olive Oil - 2 TB
salt and pepper
1 lb pasta

Bring pot of salted water to boil on the stove for pasta. Meanwhile prepare the vegetables. When the water comes to a boil add the pasta and cook to al dente according to directions.

Heat Olive oil in a large skillet. Add garlic and garlic scapes the pan and cook for just a minute or two without browning garlic. Add the tomatoes, and simmer a few minutes more. Add the zucchini or broccoli and anything else you'd like to toss in (greens? olives?). Simmer some more until tomatoes have thickened and vegetables are crisp tender. Taste sauce and add salt or pepper to taste.

Drain pasta and mix in the veggie/tomato sauce with the pasta. Add a glug of olive oil if you need to moisten a bit more. Then add chopped basil. Serve with some grated parm and even feta if you'd like.

Herbed Roast Chicken
For a really delicious roasted bird, try this method of flavoring your roast chicken. I have given herb quantities but you can add lots more to even more flavor effect. Leftover chicken sandwiches from birds cooked this way are amazingly good.

3-6 cloves garlic
dried rosemary
dried thyme
salt
black pepper

Rinse your bird well under cold water. After rinsing, salt the skin of the bird and the cavity. Then, mince 3-6 cloves of garlic and place in a small bowl. Add 1 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1-2 tsp dried rosemary minced, 1 tsp dried thyme. Mix this together. Crushed red pepper is great too, but maybe not for the kids. Lift the skin of the bird at the base of the breast bone and separate from the meat so that you can slide your hand under the skin. Then stuff this mixture on top of the breast meat under the skin. Finally brush olive oil onto the skin of the bird and roast in 400 degree oven until done. The herbs add loads of flavor to the already delicious meat!

Good Eats Newsletter - June 24, 2009

First Week Pick Up Results
There were a few problems and shortages last week but in general I thought the first pick up of the new share period went well. There is room for improvement and you will see some attempt on our part to clarify some things for you over the next couple of weeks. Please help us improve the pick up experience for everyone by remembering the following:

1. Check the Weekly Name list for the type of share you are signed up for and then refer to the Pick Up Instructions for that share type.
2. Check off your name at pick up. This helps us tremendously when we have to track down someone who may have forgotten to pick up their share.
3. Follow the Pick Up Instructions for your share type (Vegetable Only, Localvore, Localvore Vegetarian)
4. If you are splitting a share with someone, take only one veggie bag (to split between you and your share partner) each week.

Pick up times and locations are posted on our Pick-Up page.

This Week's Vegetable Share Contains
Mesclun Greens; Head of Lettuce; 1 Bunch of French Breakfast Radishes; 2 Lbs Nicola Potatoes; 1 Bunch of Green Kale; 1 Bunch of Dill; 1 Bunch of Garlic Scapes; 1 Bunch of Beet Greens; 1 Bunch of Scallions; 1 Bunch of Dandelion Greens plus.....

1 European Cucumber -or- Tomatoes
(depending on site location)

Localvore Share Members Also Receive
Red Hen Mixed Northeast Grain Bread
Maple cream from Echo Hill Farm
1 lb Grafton Village Farm Cheddar
plus....

Chicken Stock
~or~
Vegetable Stock (vegetarians only)

Laughing Moon Vegetarians will receive tofu

Problems or Questions?
If you have any questions about your pick up please email me, Amy Skelton. You can also leave a message on voice mail at 802.586.2882 x2, but in nearly all circumstances email will get a quicker response.

We do our best to make sure that every delivery and pick-up goes smoothly, but there are the occasional shortages and disappointments. Should you arrive at your pick-up spot to find that one or more of your items are missing or that some of your produce is in unsatisfactory condition, please let me know right away! If you can call or email me as soon as you discover the problem, I may be able to resolve it the same day or the following day.

Our site hosts have instructions to distribute left over food by Thursday afternoon if we have not heard back from anyone. This assures that they don't end up with bad food on their hands. If you would like to receive an item that you missed at pick-up, you must contact Amy by Thursday morning. If we can't resolve your issue right away, a quick call or email ensures that you will get on the pick list for the following week.

Storage and Use Tips

Garlic Scapes - The curly soon-to-be-flowering-if-we-didn't-pick-them stalks that a garlic plant sends up at this time of year are a short season delicacy. With a mellow green but garlicky flavor, they can be eaten raw or cooked and are delicious added to many dishes. Add to stir fry recipes, pasta dishes, guacamole, salsas, vegetable dishes. They are also good in salads and on bruschetta & pizza and so many more ways.

Dill - The freshly harvested dill in the share today can be used right away or preserved for later use. This is the part of the plant called dill weed, the feathery spring growth. Later on in the season the seed heads of the dill plant will mature There are numerous methods for preserving dill. The easiest is to simply hang the dill for several days in a warm dry place (attic perhaps). You can dry it in your oven if your oven can operate at a low temp of 100°F. You can also freeze the leaves in a plastic bag. Dill perks up soups, salads, casseroles. It pairs really well with cucumbers, potatoes, eggs, beets, fish, salads and sald dressings, tomatoes, yogurt.

Dandelion Greens - These nutrition packed greens can be eaten raw in salads, braised or sauteed, or tossed into dishes calling for greens. The level of bitterness in the greens depends on several factors from the age of the greens to amounts of rainfall and sunlight they have received while they have grown. How to tell? Try a piece! Bitter greens will mellow in flavor with more time in the skillet and are great accompanied by minced onion and garlic, and/or stock or water. Some recipes call for bitter greens to be cooked over low heat for as much as 20 minutes.

Summer Shares Still Available
There are still 10-15 Summer Shares still available. If you know someone who would like to get on board for weekly Good Eats deliveries please direct them to me or to the website. We'll be prorating the cost of the share based on number of share weeks left at the time of sign up.
Summer Share
Meat Share

Pete's Musings
Killing weeds, killing weeds, killing weeds. Sounds violent and it kind of is. Steel is our weapon, steel that is mounted on various cultivating tractors. Knives that slice, baskets that spin weeds out of the ground, shovels that uproot, shanks that rip, tines that bury. This time of year you cannot let off for even a day or two. Weeds grow remarkably fast in June with the long days, ample rain, and a biological desire to set seed. Setting seed means failure for us. The goal is to prevent the set of weed seed so that each year there are fewer weeds to cultivate. The smallest mistake in judgement, planning, or cultivator adjustment means a poor or failed crop or hours and hours of hand weeding. Steve, Matt and I are on weed patrol, creeping around the fields with silly looking contraptions mounted on silly looking tractors, constantly making minor adjustments for a better kill. The reward is beautiful, clean rows of crops and easy harvesting for the pickers. Wish us luck, it is tedious work but sets the stage for a bountiful year. Best ~Pete

Chicken Orders
Beginning this week chicken orders are now being shipped to Good Eats delivery sites most weeks except meat delivery weeks. Good Eats Members may order chickens and have them delivered to their CSA sites. Non members can order and pick up at the farm in Craftsbury. We will also be selling chickens at the Capital City Farmer's Market every Saturday from 9 till 1:00. More information about placing orders may be found on the website.

Pete's Pastured Chicken

Circus Smirkus This Weekend!
Vermont’s acclaimed, non-profit international traveling youth circus kicks off its 22nd annual season at home in Greensboro ! This year's theme is "Smirkus Ever After: A Big Top Fairytale." Performers ages 10 to 18 dazzle with astounding aerials, clever clowning, mind-boggling juggling and amazing acrobatics. The Boston Globe called Smirkus a "treasure." Family Fun magazine said: "One of America's best circuses!" It’s fee, fi, fo fun for the whole family!
JUNE 28: Greensboro, VT
2 shows; 1 & 6 p.m. - Sunday $18/Adult ; $14/Child ; Free for under 2
JULY 1, 2, 3: Essex, VT (Champlain Valley Expo)
2 shows each day; noon & 6:30 p.m. - $18.75/Adult; 15.75/Child
http://smirkus.org/

Localvore 'Lore
Grafton Village Cheese has supplied some of their cheddar for this week's share. We love this Jersey milk cheddar and we are not alone. Grafton's Premium Cheddar made Wine Spectator's top 100 cheeses list . We also love that the cheese company is part of the Grafton based Windham Foundation, whose mission is to promote Vermont's rural communities.

As usual, Red Hen Bakery in Middlesex has baked something special for the share this week. Randy writes:

The bread we have made this week we will call “Mixed Northeast Grain.” It includes Wapsie Valley cornmeal (an old heirloom variety) from Aurora Farms, Ben Gleason’s whole wheat flour, and a quartet of Quebec-grown and milled goodies: steel cut oats, cracked rye, cracked flax, and unbleached wheat flour. This bread is a different take on our Mad River Grain bread which includes all of the above ingredients as well as sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. Currently we can’t get our hands on local sunflower seeds (although I’ve heard that this may change soon) and sesame seeds could never make it in this climate, so for this week’s localvore share we’ve eliminated those seeds and increased the amount of the other toothsome ingredients that are grown here. The corn should come through a little more since we made that the most predominant of the mixed grains. We hope you enjoy this local grain medley!
- Randy

What a treat to have some freshly made maple cream for this week's share! Maple cream is nothing but pure creamed Vermont maple syrup which has been heated, then quickly cooled and then churned. It is great on toast and pancakes, on a peanut butter sandwich or spread as frosting. Randi and Louise Calderwood of Craftsbury produce maple syrup and maple cream with sap from their trees at Echo Hill Farm. In 2006, the Calderwoods increased their sugarbush from 1800 taps to almost 4000. Still a family business, Randi’s 87 year old mother, Fielda, is still actively engaged in syrup production and sales along with the couple’s teenage sons Doug and Andrew. The Calderwoods welcome visitors to the farm during sugaring season to smell the sweet sap boiling in the sugarhouse and see maple syrup being made. A note about storage... Because pure maple cream contains no preservatives it should be kept refrigerated or can be frozen for longer storage life. If separation occurs in a container of maple cream it is normal and will in no way effect the flavor. Simply stir back to it's original consistency.

Recipes

Dandelion Green Salad
This recipe comes from Robin McDermott (by way of the Spring 2009 issue of Edible Green Mountains).

Three strips of bacon
1-2 TB, finely minced shallots (or onion and a small clove garlic)
2 TB good vinegar (cider preferred)
A touch of maple syrup
A little olive oil

dandelion greens chopped
toasted pine nuts

Chop the bacon and cook in a medium sized skillet over medium heat until they releast their fat and become crispy. Add the shallots and cook 5 mins or so until they begin to soften. Next, add 2 TB of vinegar and cook for a few minutes. Add a bit of maple syrup and olive oil. Pour hot dressing over fresh washed greens, toss and garnish with some toasted pine nuts.

Meg's Garlic Scape Smashed Potatoes
Meg can't get enough of smashed Nicola potatoes lately and has been cooking them every which way.
Nicola Potatoes
Garlic Scapes
Butter
Salt
Pepper

Boil or fry potatoes with skins on or off, drain if boiled. In seperate pan cook chopped garlic scapes for a couple minutes with lots of butter. Add salt and pepper and lots of chopped dill at the last moment and stir. Add to potatoes, then half mash the potatoes and garlic dill butter yumminess and serve hot or cold.

Garlic Scape Pesto
There are many recipes for garlic scape pesto and they are all different. That's because pesto is one dish where you can indulge your creativity and personal taste. Experiment!

1 doz. garlic scapes
1/2 cup parsley (or more or less)
1 1/2 cup walnuts (or less)
1/2 – 1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice

Chop or use a food processor or blender to make smooth.
Optional ingredients:
Parmesan to taste
Substitute pine nuts (1/2 cup or more) for the walnuts
Substitute basil for the parsley
You can also make this same basic pesto and add a can of garbanzo beans for a garlic scape pesto hummus. Yum!

Kale-Potato Soup
This is a classic recipe from The New Laurel's Kitchen by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Brian Ruppenthal.

1 large onion, chopped
1 TB butter
1 clove minced garlic
3-4 Nicola potatoes (cut into 1/2 - 1" pieces)
1 bunch of kale, stemmed and chopped
5 cups hot water or stock or combo
1/2 tsp salt, more to taste
black pepper, to taste

In a large sauce pan saute the onion in the butter until softened and slightly golden. About halfway, add the garlic. Add the potatoes and 2 cups of water. Simmer, covered, until potatoes start to soften around the edges. Meanwhile, wash the kale, remove stems, chop and steam them (although you can add them to the potatoes, this will result in a much stronger flavored soup). When the potatoes are really well done, puree half of them with the remaining water or stock and the salt and pepper to taste. Then combine all and heat gently, correcting the consistency by adding hot water or milk. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Dilled Potato and Pickled Cucumber Salad
From Bon Appétit August 2004.

3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 hothouse cucumbers, very thinly sliced
1/4 cup plus 1.5 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

1.5 pounds Nicola potatoes, unpeeled
Additional coarse kosher salt
1/2 cup very thinly sliced white onion or scallions
4 radishes, trimmed, thinly sliced
3/8 cup mayonnaise

Small radishes with green tops

Stir vinegar and 2 teaspoons coarse salt in small bowl until salt dissolves. Place cucumbers and 1/4 cup dill in sealed container. Add vinegar mixture; seal bag. Turn several times to coat. Refrigerate overnight, turning bag occasionally.

Pour cucumber mixture into large sieve set over bowl. Drain at least 1 hour and up to 3 hours. Discard brine.

Cook potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain. Cool potatoes completely. Peel potatoes; quarter lengthwise. Cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place potatoes in large bowl; sprinkle generously with coarse salt and pepper. Add drained cucumbers, onion, sliced radishes, and remaining 1.5 tablespoons dill; toss to blend. Let stand 1 hour. Stir mayonnaise into salad. Season generously with salt and pepper, if desired.

Good Eats Newsletter - June 17, 2009

Important Share Information
Welcome to the new Summer Share! Your first pick-up is tomorrow (Wednesday). If you are unsure of your pick-up times or site location, please visit our website's Pick-Up page. If you have any questions about your pick-up please email Amy Skelton. You can also leave a message on voice mail at 802.586.2882 x2, but in nearly all circumstances email will get a quicker response.


When Picking Up Your Share Please:

* Check off your share name on the pick-up list.
* Note that only one name is listed for the share. Be sure to look for your partner, if you don't find your name.
* Check the share type on the list. Share types are Vegetable Only, Localvore, and Localvore Vegetarian. If you are listed incorrectly, let Amy know via email.
* If you can't find your share name at all, do NOT take a share. Please contact Amy right away and we'll figure it out.
* Pick-up instructions are on a separate clipboard or uinder the weekly name list on same clipboard.
* Follow the specific item list/instructions for the share you have selected to
assemble your share. (Localvore Vegetarian or Localvore or Vegetable Only)
* When splitting your share, coordinate with your share-mate to make sure that you DON'T take double the amount of any items.
* Please Note that the first Meat Share pick up is not this week, it is July 1


This Week's Vegetable Share Contains
Mesclun Greens; Spinach; 1 Bunch Ruby Red Swiss Chard; 1 Bunch Red or Chiogga Beets; 1 Bunch Cilantro; Pac Choi; 1 Quart Soup Base; 1 Pint of Strawberries; 1/2 lb Rhubarb plus.....

1 European Cucumber -or- Tomatoes
(depending on site location)

Localvore Share Members Also Receive
1 Dozen Pullet Eggs
1 Quart Applesauce
2 lbs Early Riser Cornmeal
Elmore Mountain Fresh Herb and Sea Salt Focaccia

What To Do If You Have a Problem
Though we do our best to make sure that every delivery and pick-up goes smoothly, there are the occasional shortages and disappointments. Should you arrive at your pick-up spot to find that one or more of your items are missing or that some of your produce is in unsatisfactory condition, please let us know right away! Our goal is 100% satisfaction. If you can call or email Amy as soon as you discover the problem, she may be able to resolve it the same day. Sometimes, a site host is able to find items a shareholder may have overlooked and the shareholder is able to go back Wednesday evening or Thursday morning to retrieve the items. I've also had shareholders who have mistakenly taken an item call me to see if they can deliver that item to the family who was shorted.

Our site hosts have instructions to distribute left over food by Thursday afternoon if we have not heard back from anyone. This assures that they don't end up with bad food on their hands. If you would like to receive an item that you missed at pick-up, you must contact Amy by Thursday morning.

If we can't resolve your issue right away, a quick call or email ensures that you will get on the pick list for the following week.

Storage and Use Tips
Pak Choi - Also known as Bok Choy or Chinese Cabbage this vegetable is most common in Chinese cuisine. Part of the cabbage family, it packs in nutrition with high scores for vitamins A and C and calcium. Both leaves and stems may be eaten raw or cooked, but leaves, particularly when they are more mature are more often served cooked. To prepare Pac Choi, use a chef's nice to make thin slices across from the bottom of the head up freeing the stalks as you do so. Wash the stalks to remove any trapped silt from between stalks. Although you can cook chopped leaves and stalks together in a dish it is nice to separate them when chopping so that you may toss them into a dish at seperate times allowing stalks to cook a little longer than leaves so that leaves aren't over cooked. Pac Choi should be stored in a plastic bag in the produce drawer of your fridge.

Soup Base - the soup base in the share today should be put in the freezer until you are planning to make a hearty soup. The soup base is made of many kinds of root vegetables and squash and other vegetables on the farm. It is simmered until the vegetables are soft and then the vegetable puree is made. Try adding some next time you make a hearty soup or stew. The soup base is vitamin and mineral packed and will add a depth of flavor to your soup. Thaw the quart container when you plan to make soup, and if you don't use the whole thing, refreeze immediately for next use.

Newsletter Intro
My name is Amy Skelton and I write the Good Eats newsletter each week. It goes out every Tuesday evening with helpful information, farm updates, the week's share contents, storage and use tips, localvore information and recipes. Pete or Meg will often chime in with farm updates, thoughts and pleas for feedback. The picking for the weekly share begins on Monday and the packing of shares is finished late Tuesday afternoon. Though we try to get the newsletter out just as early as we can, we do like to wait until the share is finalized. Sometimes there are last minute changes to the contents and we want to make sure that you've got the right information to go with your pick-up.

If, as happens occasionally, there are changes to the share that occur after the newsletter has been sent, you may receive a follow-up email Tuesday night or Wednesday. If you have any feedback on the newsletter, recipe contributions or just general questions about the CSA, feel free to email me.

We also post each newsletter on our blog at PetesGreens.Blogspot.com. It generally gets posted sometime on Wednesday. There's a good history there for recipes, farm stories and share contents.

Pete's Greens Farmstand is Open!
Busy, busy, busy is the name of the game here on the farm and recently we added to the excitement by opening our farmstand. This is the third year the stand will be open for summer and fall and we are even toying with the idea of operating year round! Our dream is for the farmstand to become a source for truly local products farmed organically or very sustainably. Along with a large selection of our organic veggies including a variety of baby greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, zucchini, basil, herbs, scallions, and a variety of other bunching items and root veggies, we are also offering many of our favorite localvore items. These include fresh baked bread and Focaccia from Elmore Mountain Bread, delivered Wednesday evenings and (soon) Friday evenings. The bread and focaccia are made entirely of local ingredients including all the toppings on the focaccia (many from our farm). We are also offering different cheeses from local cheese makers, egg's from Deb, sunflower oil, tamari, miso, oats and grains of different sorts, popcorn, maple sugar, honey, apple butter, sea salt, dry beans, Cranberry Bob's cranberries...the list goes on. These products are mostly coming from within a 100 mile radius of our farm with the exception of a few products we feel are necessary and still quite local, Maine sea salt for example.

In addition to the localvore products, we are stocking the stand full of different products from our kitchen here. Currently we have Applesauce and a Rainbow Roots Kraut. Pestos and salsas should be making their way on to the shelves soon, and there will be many more creations from the kitchen as the season progresses.

We are soon acquiring a freezer for the farmstand and will be filling it with our Pete's Pastured Chicken. Our chickens live out their days romping around in the grass, climbing and scratching in the compost dirt pile, and nesting in their chicken house which is moved every few days. Later this year we will add our own pork and beef to the farmstand.

This is just the beginning for the farmstand. I think it is crucial for this community and other surrounding communities to have a place to go to purchase local goods and support their local economy. It is important to Pete and me to make this food accessible to everyone. Through our CSA, Farmer’s Market stand, and farmstand, we are selling directly to the people eating our food. Therefore, we are able to control the mark up on our products and charge less. Goods that we purchase for the stand and our CSA are less expensive than in most retail stores because we choose to mark them up only a small amount so that they are affordable for everyone. Some of these products are so very local that many of the producers drop their product off on their way to or from work or it is brought by an employee that lives in our area. We hope our farmstand will become a cornerstone for the community, providing a one stop source for healthy, organic, local food while bringing our community together and supporting other local producers. Hope to see you at the farmstand soon! ~ Meg

Pete's Chicken is Now Available for Order
Finally we are ready to fill orders for Pete's Pastured Chickens! Good Eats Members may order chickens and have them delivered to their CSA site on chicken delivery days. Non Members can order and pick up at the farm in Craftsbury. We will also be selling chickens at the Capital City Farmer's Market every Saturday from 9 till 1:00. More information about placing orders may be found on the website.

Pete's Pastured Chicken

Young Farmer Mixer June 18 at Claire's/Hardwick
On June 18th, The Center for an Agricultural Economy, Vermont Soy, and High Mowing Organic Seeds, and Greenhorns are co-sponsoring a Young Farmer Mixer with The Greenhorns team at Claire's and The Center's office, followed by a bonfire afterward at High Mowing. Please spread the word far and wide so that all the young farmers that you know and work with can be filled with the exciting spirit of like minded people in our state and connect with a national movement. You may know of the Greenhorns - it is an inspiring film project about young farmers in America. Watch the trailer . It is directed by Severine, a 28 year old organic veggie grower from NY who is a force to be reckoned with.

NOFA VT Summer Workshops for Gardeners and Homesteaders
The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont is hosting some great workshops this summer. The first of them is below. For a full list please visit www.nofavt.org

Growing Organic Vegetables in a 10x12 ft Garden Cut Into the Lawn – in 15 Minutes a Day. Join Henry Homeyer, gardening columnist and author of The Vermont Gardener’s Companion, to learn how to convert a 10 ft by 12 ft patch of you lawn into a veggie garden that can produce significant quantities of food with minimal investment in just 15 minute of work a day. The workshop will be outdoors rain or shine.
When - Saturday, June 20 10 am-12 noon
Where - Vermont Technical College Randolph Center
$10 for NOFA members & apprentices, $15 for non-members

Localvore 'Lore
Each week in this section we try to highlight some of the localvore items that folks signed up for the Localvore Share will be receiving at pick-up. We try to mix up what you'll receive each week, so that everyone gets to sample a wide variety of locally grown and produced food items. We do our best to source items from within 100 miles of the farm, directly if at all possible. Though we occasionally wander outside this radius, it's pretty rare. Our 100 miles allows us access to many interesting products from Quebec, New York, New Hampshire, and of course, most of Vermont. This week we have Focaccia from Elmore Mountain Bakery, eggs from Pa Pa Doodles Farm aka Deborah Rosewolf's Happy Hens, Cornmeal from Butterworks Farm, and Applesauce made in Pete's kitchen from apples grown by Champlain Orchards.

Elmore Mountain bakes for the share just about every other week. Andrew and Blair do a fantastic job of sourcing their flour and other ingredients close to home. This just in from Andrew

For this week's share we made a Fresh Herb and Sea Salt Focaccia. The VT made Sunflower oil inspired us as a substitute for Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and allowed us to make our wood-fired focaccia. We added a bunch of fresh herbs to balance the bitterness of the oil, including Pete's parsley and scallions and fresh rosemary and thyme from our garden. The dough is brushed with Sunflower Oil and sprinkled with Maine Sea Salt before being baked in our oven at over 600 degrees. The focaccia is great with cheese, hummus and olives or stuffed with fresh grilled vegetables.

Deborah Rosewolf from Pa Pa Doodles Farm in Craftsbury Common has always had her own hens, but recently she increased the size of her flock in order to supply Good Eats. We were having trouble sourcing enough locally grown, farm fresh and free range eggs for the share and Deborah stepped up to the plate. Her young flock has just begun laying a few weeks ago, so their eggs are small still but will size up fast in the coming weeks. We'll be supplying eggs to the share just about every other week so you will have the opportunity to experience the change in egg size from pullets to mature hens.

Butterworks Farm in Westfield, VT has supplied Early Riser Cornmeal this week. This is an open pollinated variety of organic corn that the Lazors have been growing for years on the farm in an isolated place far from other corn crops to protect it from stray GMO pollen. Jack saves his seed each year for the following year's crop, taking time from harvesting other crops to select the ears from the strongest plants. The corn is freshly ground and should be stored in a cool place - preferably the fridge or your freezer. This is beautiful cornmeal full of rich corn flavor, great for baking or making polenta. The Lazor's have supplied their favorite cornbread recipe below.

Last, Nick was in the kitchen most of the day Monday making applesauce for the share. The apples are grown by from Champlain Orchards in Vergennes. The diverse mix of apples selected for us by Bill Suhr/Champlain Orchards ensures a much more flavorful sauce. Great stuff for kids or adults. The applesauce also stores well in the freezer!

Recipes
I made polenta after I got home last night from the farm with a bag of cornmeal in hand. It's such an easy, homey dish and can be paired with so many other items in the share that I thought it worth focusing on this week. I made mine the old fashioned way, on the stovetop but I like the oven baked version below for the simplicity. When the polenta is finished on the stovetop you end up with cornmeal mush, but as polenta cools it firms up. And if you chill it in the fridge, you can then cut it into all sorts of shapes for later dishes. I love it right out of the pot and every other way as well. I can see a lovely meal of freshly made parmesan polenta served with Simple Swiss Chard posted Jun 10, 2009 at the petesgreens.blogspot.com. Or a Pan Seared Polenta served with a Mesclun Salad with Roasted Beets. Yum.

Oven-Baked Polenta
By Martha Rose Shulman and published in the NYT June 9, 2009
Polenta is traditionally made on the stovetop. The classic recipe is to stir 1 cup of polenta (a coarse grind cornmeal) into 4 cups water boiling water with one tsp of salt addes. Then polenta is simmered and stirred constantly or at very regular intervals until it is a thickened gruel. It takes 50 minutes or so and requires watchfulness. Martha's oven baked method simplifies the process.

1 cup polenta
1 quart water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the polenta, water and salt in a 2-quart baking dish. Stir together, and place in the oven. Bake 50 minutes. Remove from the oven, and stir in the butter. Use a fork or a spatula to stir the polenta well, and return to the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, and stir again. Carefully taste a little bit of the polenta; if the grains are not completely soft, return to the oven for 10 minutes.

Serve right away for soft polenta, or let sit five minutes for a stiffer polenta. Spoon onto a plate. Make a depression in the middle, and serve with the topping of your choice or plain, as a side dish.

Alternatively, for grilling or use in another recipe, allow to chill and stiffen in the baking dish, or scrape into a lightly oiled or buttered bread pan and chill.

Polenta With Parmesan
When you remove the polenta from the oven, stir in 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan. Serve at once. I like to grind a little black pepper over the top.

Grilled Polenta Squares
Prepare a medium grill or heat an electric griddle on medium. Cut the polenta into squares, and brush the squares on both sides with olive oil. Place on the grill or griddle. When grill marks appear or when nicely browned, usually in about two to three minutes, turn and brown the other side. Serve hot.

Pan-Seared Polenta Squares
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, and sear the polenta squares on both sides oil until lightly colored. The surface should be slightly crisp.

Chloe's Pete's Greens Pasta
Chloe is a Good Eats CSA member and wanted to share a recipe for pasta that she has been making with the greens from Good Eats. You could use pac choi, swiss chard or beet greens here.

Ingredients
Olive oil
Chopped garlic (at least 6-8 large cloves or more depending on taste)
anchovies or anchovy paste (or 20 kalamata olives)
1 lb Pasta
1-3 bunches of greens, stemmed if necessary and chopped
Grated parmesan or pecorino cheese or both

Boil a large pot of salted water for the pasta. Add pasta and follow cooking times given for the pasta. During the the last 3-5 minutes add chopped greens to the pasta water.
Drain pasta and greens and combine with the garlic/anchovy (or kalamata) oil. Combine. Serve with grated cheese on top.
Variations -add 1-3 fresh tomatoes to the simmering garlic mixture, or other vegetables. Or add just a few spoonfuls of your favorite marinara. Add fresh basil. Or try adding an egg and some milk or cream to the hot pasta. mmmm.


Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Cornmeal Biscuit Topping
Crunchy cornmeal biscuit tops a classic strawberry and rhubarb filling.
Bon Appétit April 1996

Filling
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups strawberries, hulled, halved
2.5 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices rhubarb


Topping
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk with 1 tsp lemon juice)

For Filling:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix sugar, flour and cloves in large bowl. Add strawberries and rhubarb and toss to coat with sugar mixture. Transfer filling to 10-inch-diameter glass pie dish.

For Topping:
Mix flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually add buttermilk, tossing with fork until moist clumps form (do not overmix). Spoon topping evenly over filling.

Bake until topping is golden brown and filling is tender, about 25 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Good Eats Newsletter - June 10, 2009

This Week's Localvore Share Contains
Mesclun Greens; 2 lbs Nicola Potatoes; 1 Bunch Scallions; 1 Bunch Beet Greens; 1 Bunch of Bright Lights Chard; 1 Bunch Cilantro; 1 Bunch Red Bore Kale; 1 Pint of strawberries and....
Pac Choi -or- Napa Cabbage
Sauerkraut -or- Onion Puree -or- Strawberries

plus...

Vermont Soy Salad Dressing
Deborah's Pullet Eggs
Vermont Soy Artisan Tofu
and Honey Gardens Apitherapy Honey

Hen of the Wood Folks - will finally receive their cucumbers!

This Week is the LAST Spring Share Delivery
This is the last week of the Good Eats Spring Share. I will be sending a survey out to you all later this week. Your participation will help us improve future shares and systems. Please take time to fill it out! Many, many thanks to all of you for being part of the share.

Summer Share Sign Up
I am guessing that by the end of this week we will likely have filled the Vegetable Only and Localvore Shares. I believe there will still be some room in the Meat Share. If you haven't signed up but still plan on joining, send your sign up forms and checks immediately. Shares are filled on a first come, first serve basis. If you do not make it into the share I will let you know.

Vegetable/Localvore - $748 (avg. $44/week)
Vegetable Only - $493 (avg. $29 a week)
Meat Share - $199 (avg. $50 a month)

Pete's Musings
Hi Everybody. Thanks for joining this share period. As I cruised around the farm yesterday enjoying the splendor of spring I tried to really appreciate what we have here.

Six piglets rooting in the mud, feasting on washhouse waste and generally enjoying being pigs. Bright white chickens newly on pasture discovering the wonder of grass, bugs and worms. Strawberries ripening in the bright sun, and tomatoes red nearby in the greenhouse. Amazing foot and half long cucumbers emerging from the greenhouse daily, freed from plants that are already 11 feet tall. Vibrant fields of baby greens in a range of color from the deep green spinach to pale yellow golden endive. Thousands of garlic plants getting ready to sprout scapes and size up their bulbs and potatoes beginning to form new potatoes. A new transplanter that makes life easier for the workers and waters the starts as they are set in the ground so that they can be tranplanted even in the middle of a hot day. It is a dream come true for me to be involved in this diverse operation and to work with the people who hustle all day long to make it happen. Thank you for being our partners in this local food production project. We hope to see you again whether it is in the next share period or perhaps this fall. Best ~Pete

Localvore 'Lore
We have a Vermont Soy double header this week. The Sesame Soy dressing included in the share was created especially for Good Eats. Using fresh mint that Meg picked and delivered to Vermont Soy and combining that with some of their Baked Maple Ginger Tofu, garlic, tamari, toasted sesame oil, sunflower oil, apple cider vinegar and water they have created this light and creamy dressing. Drizzle it onto a salad or into a sandwich or wrap, set it out as a veggie and cracker dip, or apply it as a sauce over pasta or rice (see recipe below). It's truly delicious. All of the ingredients are organic. If you have feedback, please email Vermont Soy, they'd love to hear about it! We also have Vermont Soy's Artisan Tofu this week. This is their original handcrafted tofu made from VT grown, non GMO soybeans.

From Honey Garden's Apiaries in Ferrisburgh we have Todd Hardie's Apitherapy honey. I met Todd in 2000 when I called him to ask about getting started with bees. He has has been a patient teacher in lessons of bees (and life) since then. What honeybees are capable of never ceases to amaze me. The one pound of honey you are receiving today represents the collective flight by the bees of 24,000 miles and their visits to three to nine million flowers. Wow. Honey has antibiotic properties that have long been known, but are only recently being researched and tested. Scientists at Cornell University, Geneva, New York report “Honey has been used as a topical and gastrointestinal remedy for thousands of years, and has recently gained recognition from the medical field. The growth of many microorganisms associated with disease or infection is inhibited by honey.” Researchers recently tested honey collected from certain areas of the world long reputed to have super therapeutic potential. They found that there were antibiotic compounds in flowers the bees in those regions collected from that were then concentrated in their honey. Understanding the healing properties of honey, Honey Gardens has diversified and they produce a number of other products besides honey, including an excellent cough syrup, an immune system boosting tonic made with elderberries, a salve and a throat spray and honey wine (a balm for the soul). From Honey Gardens website:

Apitherapy honey has never been heated or filtered, and thus it retains the beneficial traces of pollen, propolis, and beeswax, which the flowers and bees have provided. These contain healthful minerals, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, and carbohydrates. Honey forms crystals around these particles, which you see on the surface or by holding a jar up to the light. Within a month or so after the fall harvest, Apitherapy honey will crystallize. To soften or re-liquefy honey, place it in a warm place or in warm water.

And still there's more. Finally, we have in our midst a nearby farm capable of producing enough farm fresh, pastured high quality eggs for Good Eats. Our own Deborah Rosewolf has been talking about a "Coming Out Party for the Girls" to celebrate the start of the egg laying of her young flock of hens. The eggs you will receive this week may be smaller than you are used to. These are "pullet eggs", eggs laid by young hens. Hens begin to lay at around 5 months of age and their eggs start small and quickly size up. In the weeks to come the eggs will become larger and larger until we will probably struggle to close the lids on the egg cartons. Yet even with these little eggs, you may come across a double yolker!

Meat Share
Finally we have Pete's chicken again to offer you in the meat share this week! For your grilling pleasure we have North Hollow Farm grass fed and finished rib or Delmonico steaks. From Neil Urie's Bonnieview Farm we have grass fed ground lamb or kabob meat. And from Greenfield Highland Beef we have organic stew beef. All of these meats come from farms who raise their animals on pasture. The benefits of eating grass fed meats are numerous: lower fat, higher CLAs, higher Omega 3s (nearly non existent in animals not on pasture), higher in Vitamins E and A contained in the plants the animals eat. And because feed is not grown, harvested, stored and trucked to feed these animals, grass fed production is better for the enviroment. We are lucky to live in a place where there are so many choices for high quality, conscientiously raised meats.

Recipes

Braised Tofu and Greens in Curried Coconut Milk
Adapted from a recipe in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

3 large onions
1 28 oz can tomatoes
2 TB sunflower oil
salt and black pepper
2 TB garam masala or curry powder
14 oz tofu
2 cups potatoes, 1/2 inch dice
3 cups shredded or chopped greens (kale, pac choi, chard, beet greens)
Cilantro

In a food processor, puree the tomatoes and onion. Put the oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the onion tomato mixture and the potatoes, along with some salt and pepper and the spice mixture, and cook stirring occasionally until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in the greens and the coconut milk and bring to just about a boil (but try not to boil much) and then simmer gently until greens are wilted and tender (Kale will take a bit longer than the others). Serve over rice and garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.

Vermont Soy Sesame Noodles w/ Greens and Cilantro
This is a dinner idea rather than a recipe and quantities of ingredients could vary widely according to taste. I think it could be very good dressed and served cold as well.

1 TB oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 -2 bunches greens (Pac Choi or Kale would be my first choices), stemmed and chopped saving the chopped Pac Choi stems
Asian soba noodles or other pasta (or brown rice)
Vermont Soy Sesame Dressing
3-4 chopped Scallions
2-4 TB Cilantro

Start a pot of water boiling for rice or pasta. Add your rice or pasta and cook according to directions. In the final 10 minutes before your rice or pasta is finished, add oil to a skillet. When hot, add onion and garlic and simmer until soft being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the greens according to which parts need the most cooking time (Pac Choi stems first, kale a few minutes later, and Pac Choi greens last). In last 2 minutes toss in the scallions. Remove from heat. Drain pasta and put back in pot. Add the greens to the pasta (or rice), add Vermont Sesame Soy Dressing and cilantro to taste.

Simple Swiss Chard
This is a simple quick and delicious way to prepare chard or beet greens as a side dish. It will be delightful with Cranberry Bob's Balsamic.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch Swiss chard, stalks discarded, leaves cut into wide ribbons
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil on a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic and cook until tender and aromatic, about 2 minutes. Add the Swiss chard and balsamic vinegar; cook and stir until the chard is wilted and tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Raw Honey Mustard Dressing
From the Honey Gardens website. Makes about ¾ cup of dressing.

1/3 cup raw honey
2 tsp regular yellow mustard
¼ cup oil,
2 T any good vinegar
2 T water and a dash of salt and pepper
Add ¼ tsp dried dill weed
¼ tsp dried thyme

Blend well.

Citrus Herb Marinade
This is the standard steak marinade in our house. The steaks that meat share members will receive tomorrow will be wonderful with this marinade - I'd be preparing it tonight! Citrus really works well to tenderize a piece of meat and this marinade never disappoints. It is quick to prepare and substitutions work out just fine. You can prepare it ahead of time and it can sit in the fridge for up to a week.

Combine and then place with steaks in a ziplock bag or other sealed container.
1/4 cup sunflower oil or olive oil
1.5 TB lemon juice
1.5 TB orange juice
1/3 c parsley (or not, we often don't have it on hand and skip)
1.5 tsp dried thyme
1 crumbled bay leaf
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1/4 - 1/2 tsp black pepper

Grilled Thai Chicken
This is a meal I have made numerous times that always gets rave reviews and the cilantro in today's share made me think of adding it here. It does require a quartered bird, but it's well worth the effort.

1 Chicken - Quartered, skin removed

Marinade:
1 tsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 TB white peppercorns, toasted and ground
15 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup minced cilantro stems (from about 1 large bunch)
1/4 cup soy
2 TB vegetable oil

After toasting and grinding seeds, add other marinade ingredients to food processor and blend until smooth. Add marinade to chicken parts in a ziplock bag or other sealed container. Marinate for 1-8 hours, turning container periodically to coat chicken.

Grill or bake chicken

Serve w/ sweet and sour sauce (yield 1/2 cup):
1 TB dried red chile flakes
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 TB rice vinegar
7 cloves of garlic
Toast chiles until fragrant (1-2 mins). Add salt, sugar, rice vinegar, cook until dissolved. Stir in garlic and remove from heat and cool completely before serving.

Serve with rice and Wilted Asian Greens from the May 6, 2009 newsletter posted on Pete's blog site.

Shepherd's Pie with Carmelized Onions and Cheddar Smash
From Cooking with Shelburne Farms.

For the Carmelized Onions
1.5 TB Olive Oil
1 lb Onions (about 3 medium), thinly sliced crosswise into rounds
1 tsp kosher salt

For the Potato Smash
1.5 lbs potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks
2 garlic cloves, smashed with the flat of a knife
1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 stick butter, cut into 4 pieces

For the Lamb Filling
1/2 TB olive oil
2 medium carrots, scrubbed trimmed and finely diced (about 1.5 cups)
1 lb ground lamb
3/4 tsp fresh thyme minced
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 TB flour
1/2 TB tomato paste (or ketchup)
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup grated cheddar

Make the carmelized onions (up to one week ahead):
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed skillet over medium hear. Add onions and turn heat down to medium low. Sprinkle onions with salt and cook, stirring frequently to make sure they brown evenly, for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and soft. Set aside.

Make the smashed potatoes (up to 24 hours ahead):
Place a colander in a pot large enough to accommodate it, fill pot with water to bottom of colander, add potatoes and garlic cloves and sprinkle them with salt. Cover, set over high heat, and bring water to a boil. Reduce heat to active simmer and steam for 25-30 minutes until they break apart easily when poked. Remove colander from pot, pour water from pot, return potatoes and garlic to the pot. Cover with a clean dish towel and let potatoes dry out for about 5 minutes (but do not let them cool before mashing). Add the butter to the pot and use a potato masher to smash the potatoes and garlic until blended, but not smooth. Set aside.

Make the meat filling and finish pie:
In a large skillet set over med-high heat, heat olive oil until hot. Add diced carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-7 minutes until softened. Add lamb, thyme, and salt and cook, stirring occasionally for 8-10 minutes until the meat is no longer pink. Pour off the fat and discard. Sprinkle flour over the meat and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Then stir in the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes longer. Pour in the stock, along with half of the carmelized onions. Increase the heat to high and simmer until gravy thickens slightly.

Spread lamb into a shallow casserole or baking pan. Spread potatoes on top. Distribute the remaining carmelized onions over the potatoes, and then sprinkle the cheddar in top. Bake until top is golden and crusty, about 20 minutes.

Good Eats Newsletter - June 3, 2009

This Week's Localvore Share Contains
Mesclun Greens; Head of Green or Red Lettuce; 2 lbs Nicola Potatoes; 1 Bunch of Basil; 1 Bunch Sweet Salad Turnips; 1 Bunch of Beet Greens; 1 Bunch of Sorrel; 1 Bunch of Wild Arugula; 1 Bunch of Easter Egg Radishes; 1 Bunch of Pac Choi and

1 Bunch of Parsley -or- Cilantro
1 Bunch of Mizuna -or- Red Giant Mustard
plus

Vermont Cranberry Company Balsamic Vinegar;
Vermont Butter and Cheese Fresh Goat Cheese;
and Elmore Mountain Bread Pizza Dough!

Sites that did not receive European cucumbers last week will get them this week! Except for Hen of the Wood - you folks will get them next week. We promise.

Storage and Use Tips
Beet Greens - The beet greens in your share today are best eaten cooked. They are related to Swiss chard and may be used exactly the same way. I love them sautéed with a bit of oil and vinegar (balsamic or apple cider) and salt & pepper. You can also toss them into most recipes that call for other greens (mustard greens, even spinach). They are milder in flavor than mustard greens, but a bit stronger than spinach. They are delicious. Arugula - Also known as Rocket or Roquette, this is a very popular and versatile green, that can be eaten raw, but also stands up well in the sauté pan. It has a peppery mustardy flavor so some people prefer to tone it down by mixing it with other greens. It blends particularly well with goat cheese and balsamic and olive oil! It is delicious simply sautéed in a pan with olive oil. I toss it on sandwiches to give them pep, and into salads to take it up a notch.

Summer Share The Summer Share is nearly full. We have a bit of room left. If you are hoping to get in for Summer, don't delay much longer! Vegetable/Localvore - $748 (avg. $44/week) Vegetable Only - $493 (avg. $29 a week) Meat Share - $199 (avg. $50 a month)

Farm News Everyone is so busy on the farm these past weeks. Fields that seem like they were just planted yesterday need weeding. And there is still more weeding to be done in greenhouses that looked neat as could be just a couple weeks ago. With the cold nights we have had lately, it's row cover on, row cover off, row cover on, row cover off. Meg is trying to get the farm stand open while tending to chickens and organizing the weekly harvest of all the crops. The wash house crew keep up with Meg preparing the harvested veggies for delivery. Nick is working on improvements to the commercial kitchen. Matt spends his days on the tractor. Steve P. works constantly trying to keep up with all the repair issues that crop up daily. Pete is busy with everything at once.

















It's a heads down and just keep going time of year. But things are coming along. Crops are getting planted daily while others are turned under. The first batch of chickens is finished and another is right behind it. The livestock fencing for the addition of cows and pigs to the farm has just been finished. Pigs have arrived and are happily residing in their new home. Little by little, steadily, there is progress.









Localvore 'Lore
Elmore Mountain Bread has prepared more pizza doughs for this week! I have been dreaming up pizza combinations all week! The dough was frozen in the morning before it went out on delivery. It may thaw a bit before you get it home. If you don't plan to use it right away, put it back in your freezer. When you do intend to use it, it should be thawed in the fridge overnight (8-10 hours), or on the counter for 3-4 hours. It should be close to room temperature when you start to work with it. The dough is made from certified organic Quebec bread flour and whole wheat flour, spring water, organic sea salt and yeast.

Cranberry Bob of the Vermont Cranberry Company was busy bottling a new product for us on Saturday. It's very exciting to have a local source of real balsamic.

Balsamic Vinegar, a traditional Italian Delicacy is a delectable condiment made from wine grapes. We grow the Frontenac variety of wine grape. My balsamic vinegar is made from the Frontenac grape that is used for Boyden Valley Winery' s Ice wine. Once the ice wine is pressed, the remaining juice is used to make vinegar. I ferment and then acetify some of the juice and then the rest is reduced to 40 % of the volume. The reduction is blended with the vinegar and then barrel aged for 2 years. This balsamic is dense, supple and slightly sweet. Perfect for summer grilling or salads.

The Vermont Butter & Cheese Company story actually begins with the mild goats’ milk cheese in the share today. After absorbing cheese making traditions in Brittany as a young woman, company co-founder Allison Hooper returned to Vermont. Soon after her return, she debuted her chèvre at a banquet organized by Bob Reese, then marketing director of the State Agriculture Department. At the time, fresh goat cheese was largely unavailable in Vermont. The positive response she received inspired Allison to team up with Bob to found the Vermont Butter & Cheese Company. The cheese is wonderfully fresh and light. Try spreading it on some crusty bread topped with honey and black pepper. Helpful hint - put some of your goat cheese in the freezer. The result will be a crumbly texture that is easier to put on salads and pizzas.

Recipes

Pizza!
I took a look at what was coming from the fields this week combined with the localvore items and have been dreaming of pizza combination non-stop. Since I was dying to put braised greens on my pizza I have provided a braised greens recipe below using the balsamic. After braising, you could top dress a pizza with some of the combos below (with or without tomato sauce and other cheeses). You might want to squeeze out the greens a bit if they seem very juicy for the pizza. Other tips... Freezing the goat cheese first makes it nice and crumbly for the pizza (and for salads). I like to put my basil just on top of the crust with other stuff on top so that it doesn't get dried out and so that it keeps its aromatics. Or I top dress with chopped basil after the pizza is cooked. If making a pizza without tomato sauce I do like to brush the crust with olive oil first for the added flavor and moisture. If you bake the crust for up to 10 minutes (depending on dough thickness) after brushing and before adding other ingredients, it seals the crust a bit and makes it lovely and crisp.

Braised Greens, Goat Cheese, Basil Pizza (w/ or without tomato and mozz)
Braised Greens, Goat Cheese, Potato (sliced very, very thin) and Rosemary
Arugula, Goat Cheese, Tomato and Basil

Braised Winter Greens w/ Garlic and Balsamic Vinegar
Beet Greens, Mizuna and Kale are ideal for this recipe but some Pac Choi leaves would work in nicely too! From the Rebar Modern Food Cookbook by Audrey Austerberg and Wanda Urbanowicz.

1 large bunch 0f Greens
1 TB olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1/4 tsp red chile flakes
1 TB balsamic vinegar
cracked pepper to taste

Stem and wash the greens. Heat a skillet over medium heat, add oil, then garlic and stir until lightly golden. Add the chiles and greens. Toss with tongs, sprinkle with salt, and cover to allow volume to steam down. Uncover and continue to toss on high heat until greens are wilted. Add vinegar. Remove greens from pan. Return pan to burner. Reduce any remaining juices and drizzle over greens. Crack pepper over the top and serve immediately.
Serves 2

Pizza With Mushrooms, Goat Cheese, Arugula and Walnuts
By Martha Rose Shulman (NYT)

pizza dough
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pound mushrooms, trimmed, cleaned and sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
4 ounces goat cheese
4 walnuts, shelled and chopped
About 1 heaped cup arugula leaves
1/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon walnut oil

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone inside, if available. Roll out the dough to fit a 12- to 14-inch pizza pan.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large, heavy skillet, and add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring, until the mushrooms are tender and moist, four to five minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and remove from the heat.

3. Crumble the goat cheese into a bowl, add the walnuts and lightly toss together.

4. Brush the dough with 2 teaspoons of the remaining olive oil, and top with the mushrooms. Sprinkle on the thyme, and place in the oven. Bake 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle the goat cheese and walnuts over the crust, and return to the oven for five to 10 minutes, until the crust is nicely browned and the cheese has softened. Remove from the heat.

5. Toss the arugula with the remaining teaspoon of olive oil, the balsamic vinegar and the walnut oil. Scatter it over the pizza, and serve.

Mesclun Greens Salad with Goat Cheese and Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette
This is my own concoction - what I'd make with the share as soon as I got through the door with it. The dressing is fantastic - one that I keep in a jar in the fridge always. I can't wait to make it with Cranberry Bob's Balsamic!

Mesclun Greens & Arugula (and/or head lettuce leaves)
Beet Slivers (either roasted or boiled and sliced up)
Radishes or Sweet Salad turnips sliced thin
Toasted walnuts or pecans

Add the above to a bowl in whatever amounts appeal to you, toss with the dressing below, crumble the goat cheese on top and serve.

Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette
It should be strong flavored. If it needs more zip add a bit more garlic, or more black pepper, or more Dijon or all three.

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
3 T maple syrup
1 T Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp garlic
1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper


Balsamic Vinaigrette
Here's a classic balsamic recipe as well.

3⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 clove garlic
1⁄4 cup balsamic vinegar
.5 tbsp. Dijon mustard

Roughly chop garlic; sprinkle with a little salt. Using the side of a knife, scrape garlic into a paste; transfer to a bowl. Add vinegar and mustard; whisk to combine. Slowly drizzle in remaining oil while whisking constantly to form a smooth vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper to taste.


Sorrel & Potato Soup
The recipe below is adapted from a classic French sorrel soup recipe. It is also good cold, particularly with some plain yogurt swirled in. Serves 3 or 4.

1 bunch fresh sorrel
4 cups water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2/3 pound potatoes, cubed
1 large egg
1/4 cup crème fraiche or heavy cream (or more to taste)

Wash the sorrel and de-rib the leaves if necessary. Put it in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, until the sorrel has melted into a purée and nearly all of its liquid has evaporated. Add the water and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook over low heat until the potatoes are cooked through — about fifteen minutes. If you prefer a creamy rather than a chunky soup, put the soup into a blender or food processor and then return to the saucepan. Combine the eggs and crème fraiche in a warmed serving bowl. Mix until well blended. Add a ladle of the potato and sorrel mixture and blend well. Pour in remaining potato and sorrel mixture and serve immediately.

Warm Goat Cheese, Beet and Arugula Sandwiches
Still have beets left from a previous week? Adapted from Gourmet December 1999.
4 servings

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 beets, boiled until soft, peeled and sliced
8 (1/2-inch-thick) bread slices from a round country loaf
6 ounces soft mild goat cheese, softened
4 very thin slices red onion, rings separated
16 large arugula leaves

Preparation

Preheat broiler. Whisk together vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste, then whisk in 2 tablespoons oil. Toss beets with vinaigrette.

Arrange bread on a large baking sheet and brush tops with remaining tablespoon oil. Season with salt and pepper and broil 6 inches from heat 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, or until edges are golden. Remove 4 slices from oven. Turn remaining 4 slices over on baking sheet and spread thickly with goat cheese. Broil 1 minute more and transfer to plates. Top goat cheese with drained beets, onion, arugula, and remaining bread, toasted sides up.

Good Eats Newsletter - May 27, 2009

This Week's Localvore Share Contains
Head of Lettuce; Bag of Mesclun; Bag of Large Leaf Spinach; 1 Napa Cabbage; 1 bunch Scallions; 1 Bunch Sweet Salad Turnips; 1 Bunch Ruby Streaks Mustard; 2 lbs Mixed Beets; Red Hen Potato Bread; a Selection of Butterworks Farm Yogurt; Ploughgate Creamery Willoughby Cheese plus...

1 Bunch Cilantro -or- Parsley;
1 Bunch Kale -or- Bright Lights Chard

Half the sites will receive European cucumbers this week. Those that don't will get them next week.

Storage and Use Tips
Swiss Chard - I love swiss chard. A close relative to beets, the greens look very similar to beet greens. Like other greens, it is packed with the vitamins and minerals that are so hard to get in quantity in other foods. Chard is best eaten cooked. You can use it as a substitute for many recipes that call for spinach or other greens. As a side dish, I like swiss chard perhaps more than spinach. Which is saying a lot since I love spinach. For a quick side dish, try braising it one of two ways. Put a little olive oil or butter, 2 cloves of minced garlic & hald od a minced onion in a saute pan and allow the garlic to cook a bit and soften. Put in the chopped chard and cover tightly and let cook until wilted (if there's not enough moisture add a TB or so of water). Once chard has just wilted, add a sprinkle of red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar or balsamic and black pepper and serve. Or, add a bit of vegetable oil to the pan. Add the clove of minced garlic. Then add the chopped chard and cover and let cook until wilted. Then sprinkle with rice vinegar and a few drops of toasted sesame oil and maybe a teeny bit of soy if you want stronger flavor. Yum.
Napa Cabbage - The flavor of Napa cabbage is somewhat milder and a bit sweeter than that of regular green cabbage. It is delicious raw or cooked, and can be substituted for regular cabbage in most recipes. It is extremely popular in China partly because of its versatility. In Korea it is pickled, salted, and flavored with ginger and chili peppers to make Korea's national dish kim chi. Store in a sealed plastic bag in your refrigerator.

Summer Share
The Summer Share start date fast approaches. Please get your sign up forms in soon. We need to have forms and payment in by June 10th to get you started the first week of the share on June 17th.

Vegetable/Localvore - $748 (avg. $44/week)
Vegetable Only - $493 (avg. $29 a week)
Meat Share - $199 (avg. $50 a month)

Pete's Chickens and the Quest for a Closed Fertility System
We now have batches of chickens here and there around the farm. There are chicks inside and batches of birds on different plots of green outside. The chickens are a relatively new part of the fertility master plan for the farm. Pete has been raising a few chickens the last couple of years, working on the systems involved. This year he is raising enough birds to get closer to the goal of having fertility self sufficiency.













The vegetables grown on the farm pull lots of nutrients from the soil. That fertility must be replaced. In the past that has meant bringing in soil additions from off the farm, like manure and spoiled silage which get composted and then applied. This is an energy intensive system requiring man hours and fuel for trucks and tractors. Now the chickens play a role. When a greenhouse is moved off a plot of aging greens, the chickens get to work. The growing birds are moved onto a plot, pastured in electric chicken netting to protect them from predators, and they feast on the greens and all the all vegetable chicken feed they care to eat. They leave behind a nutrient filled layer of manure that gets tilled back into the soil.


This makes for happy soil and ecstatic chickens. This photo pretty much says it all, a picture of complete chicken contentment. The benefits don't stop with improved soil and happy chickens though. All of the goodness stored in the organic greens and grass is transferred to the meat of the birds, making their meat especially tasty and packed with nutrition. The meat from pastured poultry is significantly higher in Omega 3 fatty acids and Vitamin A. It is also lower in fat. This is very, very healthy meat.
Within the next week or so, we will have chickens ready to order! We'll be sending an email with ordering instructions and will update the website with information as well.



Localvore 'Lore
At the Red Hen Bakery in Middlesex, Randy has created a potato bread for us this week. Randy continues to seek out ways to incorporate more and more local ingredients into the breads he makes.

The potatoes are Yukon Gold potatoes that we get from Foote Brook Farm in Johnson. We roast them in the bread oven and then throw them in the dough, peels and all. The potatoes comprise 40% of the total ingredients in the bread. It’s a great keeper and makes excellent toast as well.

From Craftsbury Common Ploughgate Creamery has just pulled this Willoughby cheese from the Cellars at Jasper Hill for us. The Willoughby is "a silky textured washed rind wheel with smoky notes and overtones reminiscent of spring". This is a cow's milk cheese made from Ayreshire milk that Ploughgate proprietors Princess MacLean and Marisa Mauro buy from Randy Hancock in Newport. Princess and Marisa took over their dairy from some retiring sheep farmers a little over a year ago and since then have been turning out some fantastic cheeses which have been very well received. Previously the two had worked together and separately on several area cheese making farms (Jasper Hill and Bonnieview among them) and learned their craft well enough to head out on their own. Princess has just got some Ayreshire heifers and in a couple years perhaps will be supplying the milk for some of the cheeses. Described as a washed rind cheese, the Willoughby is actually "washed" or painted with honey wine (mead) made by Todd Hardie of Honey Gardens Apiaries in Ferrisburg. The washed rind gives the cheese some of its characteristic flavor. I love all the local connections.

And from Butterworks Farm, we have yogurt again - hooray! For over 25 years Butterworks Farm have been making their yogurt on their farm in Westfield, VT. They have been organic since they began, and are totally self sufficient, growing all the food their cows eat including corn, oats, barley, soybeans, and alfalfa. All of their cows were born on the farm. The yogurts are made with pasteurized, organic skim (for non fat) or whole milk and live acidophilus and other live yogurt cultures. The maple yogurt is sweetened with pure VT maple syrup. The non fat vanilla is flavored with pure vanilla extract and sweetened with maple syrup.

Recipes

Napa Cabbage Picnic Salad Recipe
From www.elise.com "This is a truly great salad for large summer gatherings. Much of it can be made ahead, and then assembled when you are ready to serve." If you still have pac choi in the fridge, use the crunchy white parts of the stems sliced thinly as a substitute for the snow peas and then use the greens in the spinach casserole recipe below! Serves 7-8.
1/3 cup slivered almonds
4 cups (.5 lb) coarsely shredded napa cabbage
6 ounces snow peas, strings removed, rinsed and thinly sliced
2/3 cups thinly sliced salad turnips
2/3 cups thinly sliced scallions (including greens)
2/3 cups lightly packed fresh cilantro leaves
Dressing
1.5 Tbsp rice vinegar (seasoned or unseasoned)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 clove peeled and minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/2 cup mayonnaise

1. Spread almond slivers out in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast in a 350°F oven for 5-10 minutes, until nicely browned. OR toast in stick-free or cast-iron skillet on medium high, stirring frequently until browned. Careful not to burn. Set aside.
2. Combine cabbage, snow peas, radishes, scallions, cilantro in a large bowl. Can make this step a day or two ahead.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the rice vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, ginger, and cayenne until sugar has dissolved. Whisk in the mayonnaise.
4. When ready to serve, gently combine the dressing and almonds with the cabbage mixture.

Spinach-Rice Casserole
Straight from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, 1977. I love this recipe. It's basic but oh so good. When greens are abundant as they are now, I make it a lot. It packs in the greens and brown rice. You can modify the recipe by skipping the cheese & eggs and making it vegan. It's hearty and healthy and the brown rice gives it a great chewy texture. Serves 4 - 6.

4 cups cooked brown rice (2 cups dry makes approx 6 cups cooked rice)
2 lbs. raw, chopped spinach (amount doesn't have to be exact)
(or a combo of spinach bok choy, mustard greens, turnip greens, swiss chard, kale)
2 cloves minced garlic
3 tablespoons butter (or 2 tablespoons olive oil)

4 beaten eggs (or egg substitute)
1 cup milk (skim or whole OK)
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar (less than this works great too)
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons tamari (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt (or more, to taste)
a few dashes each - nutmeg, cayenne (I like a little more than a dash of cayenne)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
paprika

Saute' onions and garlic with the salt in butter (or oil). When onions are soft, add spinach or greens. Cook 2 minutes.

Combine the onion/greens mixture with the brown rice, eggs, milk, cheese, parsley, tamari, nutmeg, cayenne, sunflower seeds, paprika. Spread into buttered casserole and sprinkle on top.
Bake, covered, 25 minutes at 350 degrees F. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes. I like it best when it is a little browned on top.

Sweet Beet Dressed Slaw
Adapted from a Rachel Ray recipe 4 servings

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons
2 small to medium-sized red beets, peeled and grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 heaping tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 heaping tablespoons Honey
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 bunch salad turnips, julienned
1 head Napa cabbage, shredded or
3 bias cut scallions
2 rounded spoonfuls dill pickle relish

Preheat a medium size skillet over medium-high heat with about 3 TB of extra-virgin olive oil. Once you see the oil ripple in the pan add the grated beets, season with some salt and pepper and saute for 2-3 minutes. Then add the cabbage to the same pan and saute another 2-3 minutes until the beets are tender. Transfer the beets & cabbage to a bowl and let them cool down a bit. Add the mustard, vinegar and honey to the beets. Whisk in the remaining extra-virgin olive oil in a slow and steady stream. Add the fresh dill, salad turnips, sliced scallions and relish and toss to combine, taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve now or the next day.

Simple Beet Salad with Onions
I love these oh so simple James Beard recipes that just beg for creativity. I'd probably be inclined to cook the beets a bit as in the above recipe.

Grate scrubbed beets or cut into julienne: toss with chopped scallions and a vinaigrette you make or from a bottle in your fridge. Add toasted nuts and/or a sharp cheese (blue, parmesan, feta). Serve alone or on a bed of mesclun or lettuce.

Mesclun Salad Dressings
Below are two classic simple dressing recipes for mesclun greens that you can whip up quickly. These dressings are versatile enough to go with most anything you can dream up to add to your salad (goat cheese, blue cheese, feta cheese, toasted nuts, sliced apples, pears, roasted beets, celeriac, grated carrots, the list goes on and on and on).


From Gourmet July 2007
3 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon sugar
6 tablespoons olive oil

Whisk together lemon juice, mustard, sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large bowl until salt and sugar are dissolved, then add oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified.

Shallot Vinaigrette
From Gourmet March 2001

1/4 cup finely chopped shallot
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil (preferably French) or safflower oil

Whisk together shallot, mustard, and vinegar. Add oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified, and season with salt and pepper. Just before serving, toss salad greens with just enough dressing to coat.

Good Eats Newsletter - May 20, 2009

This Week's Localvore Share Contains
Green Pac Choi; 2 lbs frozen strawberries; 1 bunch Scallions; 1 bunch Easter Egg Radishes; 1 bunch Cilantro; 3 lbs Norland and Nicola Potatoes; 1 Bag of Baby Spinach; Vt Soy Maple Ginger Baked Tofu; Maine Sea Salt plus:

1 Bunch Sweet Salad Turnips -or- Pink Turnips;
Dandelion Greens -or- Sorrel -or- Red Giant Mustard;
and.....

Depending on the share you've signed up for (check the list at pick-up), you will also receive:

Non-Vegetarian - Pete's Chicken Stock
-OR-
Vegetarian -Pete's Vegetable Stock

Hen of the Wood, Laughing Moon and Adams Court will receive a European Cucumber (to make up for last week!)

Storage and Use Tips

Cilantro - A member of the carrot family and related to parsley, cilantro is the leaves and stems of the coriander plant (the seeds of the same plant are the spice known as coriander). Cilantro has a very pungent odor and is widely used in Mexican, Caribbean and Asian cooking. The leaves and stems can be chopped and added to salads, soups and sauces, and can garnish many meals. I toss cilantro into any Mexican dish I am making, and love it in summer when I have tomatoes to make salsa. If you can't use all your cilantro just yet and wish to save it for a future dish, you can freeze it. Wash and gently dry your cilantro with paper towels. Then either put sprigs loosely in a plastic bag and freeze them. Or lightly chop cilantro, measure by the tablespoon into ice trays, fill remaining space in ice tray with water, and then after cubes are frozen, store in a plastic bag. You can take one out and thaw anytime you need to use it.
Dandelion Greens - Every year I wait anxiously for the dandelions' reappearance. I keep bees and for bees in our area dandelions are an important food source. The bees work all summer to store enough honey for the long winter ahead. In winter and late spring the colonies get lighter and lighter as the bees deplete their honey stores. The very first food sources come from tree buds, but the first big nectar flow comes from the dandelions. If the colonies survive until the dandelions arrive, I can relax knowing that the bees' long lean winter is over. The bees then begin their annual cycle of build up of population and honey stores again.
Dandelion greens are a bonus! Picked young and tender they are similar to turnip, beet or mustard greens. They can be eaten raw in salads when very young, but as they get a bit older they develop more of a bitter tang and then it is best to steam or sauté them. They are delicious sautéed for about 20 minutes with onions and garlic in olive oil, with perhaps a little homemade wine added before they're done. Some people like to cook them with sweet vegetables like sliced carrots and parsnips to reduce any bitterness. Adding a little milk or cream also smoothes out the flavors.
Vegetable Broth and Chicken Broth - This week we have both chicken AND vegetable broth. Nick has been testing broth recipes in the kitchen. The veggie broth was so good that I drank a cup with my lunch last week. Neither broth contains any salt.

Please Use Care at Pick up Sites!
We have had a few more problems than normal at pick up locations lately. We will do our best to make things more clear for you when you pick up. But we need you to be mindful too when you are gathering your goodies. Please read the pick up instructions carefully. Please remember to check your name off the list when you pick up as well. This simple step helps us immensely when we have to solve any pick up mysteries.

Summer Share
There are only 4 weeks until the start of the Summer Share! Don't miss out on your weekly deliveries of fresh organic vegetables and localvore products. The shares always sell out so don't delay in getting your sign up form in!

Vegetable/Localvore - $748 (avg. $44/week)
Vegetable Only - $493 (avg. $29 a week)
Meat Share - $199 (avg. $50 a month)

Meg's Musings
Things are going well here on the farm as we move full speed ahead into the busy season. Last week Steve and Matt moved the last 2 of our 4 moveable greenhouses into their places for growing our hot weather crops. These include tomatoes, eggplant, cucs, zucs, and basil. These crops will grow happily in these unheated cold frames as we try to maintain 80 degrees in them throughout the days. Pete and I roll the sides of the houses up or down depending on weather to help maintain a healthy climate inside for growing. At night the sides get completely rolled down and even though the temperature drops, the houses stay around 5 degrees warmer than the temp outside. These 4 greenhouses will stay in their current position until mid October when we will be moving them from their current positions to the places they were last winter. They will be moving over already growing cold weather hardy crops where they will remain for the winter. From those we will harvest crops deep into the season.

Aside from the greenhouses, we have been busily transplanting corn, kale, brussel sprouts, fennel and numerous other veggies. We have been able to utilize our 'new to us' transplanting equipment and are currently working on planting potatoes. Steve, Matt, and Pete are full throttle ahead with all the prep- ground work, cultivation, post ground work, and appropriate cover cropping. We are all busy, busy, busy.

Last but not least, I wanted to thank my Mom, Carol for gracing the farm with her presence here last week. She came to spend some time with Pete and I and help out here where ever she was needed. Our farmstand gardens are beautiful and weed free with newly planted perennials thanks to my mom. Our headhouse is organized and everything labeled along with others areas tidied around the farm. It was such a joy to have her here and we all can't wait until she comes back. A big thanks to Carol from all of us here on the farm. Your bright energy and hardwork was greatly appreciated.~ Meg

Farm News
Meg just sent her piece above and it's funny how similar her perspective is. It is busy, busy on the farm. May and June are crunch time. So many things needing to go in the ground, chickens growing, land to prep, machinery to fix, compost material to gather, and now with further farm diversification - cattle fencing to install. It's a race against time to get all the plans underway that have been dreamed up through the winter or previous year. At the same time, it's absolutely beautiful. Freshly tilled, rich brown fields are made green (or red if it's kale!) with new plantings.

I marvel at Pete's greenhouse system each time I walk the farm. The greenhouses are on skids and can be hauled via tractor in a horizontal line back and forth across the flat growing fields at Pete's. In a traditional system, the greenhouses stay in one spot, weeds and potential plant pests and diseases have a chance to build up, it is difficult to work the soil, soil additions must be brought into the greenhouse and applied. With the moveable greenhouse system, these issues are minimized. Each section of soil has opportunity to be exposed to the beneficial and cleansing rays of the sun and the air. Once a greenhouse is moved, the plot can be more easily and thoroughly tilled. And chickens provide the fertility for the plots in a completely non-mechanized circular system! More about the chickens in a future newsletter....

With a fixed greenhouse system, plants that are started in the greenhouse (like spinach for example) can overheat as the season progresses. And planting them outside has risk too. If spring is too cool, the plants won't thrive. But here on the farm, the greens can grow happily in the protection of the greenhouse until spring arrives. Then the greenhouse can be moved down one plot, allowing those same plants the benefits of cooler air and direct sunlight. Other more tender, heat loving crops can be started inside the same greenhouse on a new plot of freshly prepared soil. In the photos above, peppers are planted in a greenhouse that has just been moved to a new plot. Kale, lettuce, beets and other greens that were inside 3 days earlier are now basking in the fresh spring air.
On yet another plot the chickens spend their days lounging around gorging on the lush greens left behind by another greenhouse move. This plot will be tilled eventually. But first the chickens get their fill and the land takes in the fertility they leave behind.









Though much of the planting gets done by hand, the quest for efficiency is ongoing. Last week Nick & Matt spent a lot of a day working on getting a new used transplanter functioning. Adjusted correctly it could save a whole lot of time and bending! The first 50 rows that day were planted the old fashioned way - one by one, just as in the greenhouse. The left photo shows just a portion of that field. The tractor planted a row in the time it took to plant 3 or 4 rows by hand.















While new crops are going in, others started in the greenhouses earlier in Spring are now feeding us. Below European cucumbers, pak choi, and spinach bask in the sun.


















I couldn't help but sample a warm, sun filled tomato off the vine. I dream of summer tomatoes pretty much every day. Looking forward to the bounty a few weeks from now.



















Localvore Lore
Vermont Soy Company has been developing new products and we are excited to have a product in the share today that has only been available for a little over 1 month.

Our Baked Maple Ginger Tofu is a delicious sweet and savory tofu that is ready to eat. No preparation needed, simply cut to size and enjoy! Made with the highest quality ingredients, including Vermont Maple Syrup, our Baked Artisan Tofu is delicious on salads, in sandwiches, on crackers, or tossed into your favorite stir-fry.

We have been eating it plain, right out of the package as snack food. It's that good.
Vermont Soy's mission is to source non-GMO organic soybeans from farmers in Vermont for all of their products. To that end, they work collaboratively with High Mowing Seeds, the UVM Extensions Program and local farmers on seed trials to determine the most successful varieties for our area farmers to grow.

And freshly harvested and dried (really - we had to wait an extra day for it to dry more before it could ship!) we have sea salt from the Maine Sea Salt Company. The Cook Family isolates the salt in the same basic way people have done forever.

Our solar greenhouses, known as "salt houses" are filled with fresh seawater from the Gulf of Maine. The seawater evaporates naturally, from the heat of the sun and the drying effects of the wind blowing through the greenhouses. Over a period of time, fleur de sel floats on the pool surface, then grows and sinks to the floor to form the salt bed. When all of the water has evaporated, the sea salt is ready to be packaged as natural Maine Sea Salt™. We do not wash or bleach our salt at any time during the solar production process. Therefore, the nutritious trace minerals naturally occurring in seawater are retained in our products. We also do not use chemicals or drying agents.

Recipes

Cilantro and Potato soup
This is a delicious, satisfying soup. Like most soup recipes, there is lots of room for improvisation here with some options given below.

2 TB olive oil or butter
2 medium onions, finely chopped (or 2 leeks)
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 quart chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
2 medium potatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
salt and pepper
1 pinch red pepper flakes
2/3 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
lime juice

Saute onion and garlic slowly until tender. Add the broth, potatoes. Cook til the potatoes are tender about half an hour. Add most of the cilantro leaving a few tablespoons for garnish. Use an immersion blender or food processor to puree. Serve hot or cold, and garnish with the remaining fresh cilantro. Add a squeeze of fresh lime juice before serving.

Optional: add 1 diced, seeded jalapeno pepper along with the broth and potatoes. Add up to 1/4 cup of cream to soup just before serving. Add a couple chopped scallions to the soup after pureeing.

Asian Spinach Salad w/ Baked Tofu
Adapted from a January 2001 Bon Appetit recipe. Makes 6 servings.

8 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 3-ounce package Asian noodle soup mix (such as Top Ramen), noodles coarsely broken
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 10-ounce bag ready-to-use spinach leaves
1 bunch green onions, chopped
4 oz of diced Baked Maple Ginger Tofu

Whisk 6 tablespoons oil, sugar, vinegar and soy sauce in small bowl to blend. Season dressing with salt and pepper.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add noodles from soup mix (discard soup mix or save for another use). Stir to coat and cook for about 4 minutes. Then add nuts and sesame seeds. Stir until noodles, nuts and seeds are toasted and golden, about 4 more minutes. Pour contents of skillet into large bowl and cool 10 minutes. Add spinach and green onions and tofu to same bowl. Toss with enough dressing to coat. Serve, passing remaining dressing separately.

Cilantro Potato Salad
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse. Serves 5-6.
1 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds potatoes, cooked and halved (unpeeled)
1/3 cup finely minced onions

In a bowl, stir together mayonnaise with cilantro, garlic, salt and 7 turns black pepper. Add potatoes and onions and toss to combine thoroughly; cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours before serving.

Asian Cilantro Dressing for Rice, Noodles, Salads or Meats
This is a very versatile dressing. For a very simple meal, serve this over steamed spinach or sauteed pac choi, rice, and Baked Maple Ginger Tofu.

5 T vegetable oil
1/3 cup packed fresh cilantro with stems
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup tamari soy sauce
1 ounce fresh ginger (about an inch of it?), cut into six 1/4 inch slices
6 large cloves garlic
1 1/2 T ground cumin
1 small jalapeno or other chili (optional)
Combine and blend all ingredients together in a food processor or blender until the chili, garlic, ginger and cilantro are finely chopped.

Chilled Strawberry Cream
A very simple & quick 3 ingredient recipe submitted by Ann Main to Allrecipes.com. Serves 2.

2 cups frozen unsweetened whole strawberries
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream

Place the strawberries and sugar in a blender or food processor; cover and process until finely chopped. In a small mixing bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form. Fold into berries. Pour into serving dishes. Refrigerate or freeze for 25 minutes.

Tip - allowing berries to thaw a bit before blending may save you time fussing with your blender.

Good Eats Newsletter - May 13, 2009

This Week's Localvore Share Contains
Bag of Large Leaf Spinach; Sweet Salad Turnips; European Cucumber*; 1 Head Lettuce; Medium Red Beets; Adirondack Potatoes; 1 Bunch Upland Watercress plus:
1 Bunch Easter Egg Radish -or- French Breakfast Radish;
1 Bunch of Curly Parsley -or- 1 Bunch of Cilantro;
1 Bunch Green Mizuna -or- 1 Bunch Green Wave Mustard -or-1 Bunch Red Giant Mustard -or- 1 Bunch Tatsoi;
1 Bunch Red Russian or Green Kale -or- 1 Bunch Scallions;
Amir's Shitaki or Oyster Mushrooms -or- Deborah's Eggs;
and
Elmore Mountain Bread and Blue Ledge Lake's Edge Cheese

*Hen of the Wood, Laughing Moon and Craftsbury will not receive a cucumber and instead will get theirs next week.

Storage and Use Tips
Watercress - Eaten cooked or raw, watercress has a slight peppery flavor. It has been an important green for centuries long recognized in many cultures for its healthful properties. Wherever Watercress has been reported in history it has been common to simply eat the crisp green sprigs out of hand - old world snack food . Watercress may be eaten raw as in a simple salad with oil and vinegar, or wilted in soups or other dishes. Try it in a classic British sandwich: butter and cream cheese spread on two slices of bread with watercress in between. Liven this simple sandwich up with thinly sliced radishes or cucumbers. Or try one of the several recipes I have included below.

This is another in the superfood group. Watercress is a very powerful antioxidant. A two year study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2007 determined that eating watercress daily can significantly reduce DNA damage to blood cells, which is considered to be an important trigger in the development of cancer. It is brimming with more than 15 essential vitamins and minerals. Gram for gram, it contains more iron than spinach, more vitamin C than oranges and more calcium than milk.
Tatsoi - A dark green Asian salad green that has a spoon like shape, a pleasant and sweet aroma flavor like a mild mustard flavor, similar to bok choi. Tatsoi is generally eaten raw, but may be added to soups at the end of the cooking period.
Radishes - The Easter Egg Radishes have hues of pink, red, purple, violet and white and the flesh is pure white. The French Breakfast are red radishes with an elongated shape. Radishes are related to turnips. Fresh radishes are delightfully crisp and their flavor ranges from mildly peppery to a bit sweet. Toss them into a salad. Sliced thin they make a delightful salad on their own with a drizzle of olive oil, some fresh squeezed lemon juice, and salt. Or try glazed radishes made by placing a 2:2:1 ratio of butter, sugar, white vinegar in a pan and gently cooking until diced or quartered radishes are tender and the liquid evaporates. Season with salt and pepper.

Summer Share is Filling Up!
The summer share has been picking up speed in the last couple of weeks and is starting to fill up now. Please get your sign up forms in soon. As usual, Pete's will have most vegetables ahead of season. We are expecting to have tomatoes by mid June! Don't be left out! Visit the Summer Share page to find out more or to sign-up.

Vegetable/Localvore - $748 (avg. $44/week)
Vegetable Only - $493 (avg. $29 a week)
Meat Share - $199 (avg. $50 a month)

Pete Goes to Washington
Meg, Tom Stearns (High Mowing Seeds), Tim and I had a great time a Pat Leahy's Taste of Vermont Event in DC last week. It was held in the Senate Caucus Room, home to much history including the Anita Hill hearings and JFK's announcement that he was running for president. About 50 Vermont food producers had products and/or people in attendance and it was one big schmooze fest. Apparently these events are a dime a dozen in DC, usually hosted by lobby groups. However, according to many of those in attendance the Taste of Vermont is one of the favorites for attendees for the quality of the food and because politicians and staffers get to hang out with real Vermonters. Tom and I met our congressional delegation and Kathleen Merrigan who is #2 at the USDA. She has a background in sustainable agriculture which is a first for someone so highly ranked at the USDA. She and Bernie Sanders have committed to come to the Hardwick area to tour our operations and see what we are doing to build a local food system. Attempts to tour the White House garden fell short but we made a key contact or two that will allow us to arrange a visit with a bit more notice. All in all the halls of power felt very approachable and it seems we'll be able to have a real voice in Obama's plans for a healthy food system. ~ Pete

Localvore Lore
We knew Amir's mushrooms would end sometime. We had planned to have this be the last week for his beautifully fresh shitake and oyster mushrooms as warmer temperatures signal the end of Amir's growing season. Alas, when Amir picked this morning he did not have enough for the share. Fortunately Deborah's hens have been doing great work and we could supplement those folks who will not get mushrooms with Deb's fantastic eggs!

It's actually an interesting time of year, definitely a change in season with cool weather crops beginning to overlap with warmer weather crops. As such, we have waning amounts of some crops and others are coming on. It's a funny share week with a lot of this -or- that in your shares. I hope it isn't complicated for people. We do our best to give folks similar types of vegetables and herbs.

We have another award winning cheese for you this week from Salisbury, VT. Blue Ledge Farm's Lake's Edge is a mold ripened goat cheese that was named one of 100 Best Cheeses by Wine Spectator and was awarded a 2nd place ribbon by the American Cheese Society. It is wonderfully tart and creamy with a distinctive streak of vegetable ash running through it. Greg Burnhardt and Hannah Sessions milk a mixed herd of Nubian, Alpine and Lamancha goats and milk on average 75 goats 10 months a year. The goats' access to grasses, leaves and fresh air help to produce a milk which is clean and sweet tasting and that comes through in the cheeses the farm produces.

I am looking forward to spreading some of this cheese on a slice of Elmore Mountain's Multigrain Bread. This week's bread is a hearty loaf made with organic wheat and bread flour from Milanaise in Quebec with lots of whole grains including wheat, barley, rye, oats and flax. It is leavened with sourdough. It will be fantastic with the Cheddar Chutney Grilled Cheese Sandwich below!

About the Meat Share
Our share this week contains meats only from grass fed animals. The benefits of grass fed meats are many. Among the most important factors to consider is that the meats are lower in fat and higher in omega-3 fatty acids (the ones in salmon) and conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) both of which help to reduce cholestrerol and chance of heart disease. An Iowa study found that grass fed meats can contain more omega-3s than fish! And grazing animals makes use of land to raise food that would be difficult to farm otherwise. Grass farming methods allow machine free distribution of nutrients resulting in negligible nutrient loss and far less fossil fuel use than other methods of production. This is the direction we hope our world will move to (move back to) in meat production as it is truly the only sustainable method.

All grass fed meats are lower in fat and will cook faster than other meats. Watch carefully to avoid overcooking these meats!

* Korean Style Ribs from North Hollow Farm - Located in Randolph, VT North Hollow Farm raised a mixed breed beef herd. The cattle are entirely grass fed and finished, their winter diet consisting of hay grown on their farm. The korean ribs are a new product for North Hollow and we are excited to be able to provide them to you in the share. I am cooking mine tonight!
* Beef Kabobs from Greenfield Highland Beef - Greenfields raises a purebred herd of Highland Beef Cattle. They show their cattle around the country and their cows place among the best in the country. One of their cows Cinnamon Swirl was the National Grand Champion female in Denver, CO in 2004. Highland beef are bred for their ability to thrive on grass and meats from Greenfields live up to this promise.
* Organic Grass and Mother's Milk Fed Ground Veal from Applecheek Farm - Applecheek's calves are raised seasonally on fresh lush grass and nutrient rich spring and summer milk. This ground veal is moist and lean, with a delicate flavor and texture which make it ideal for pairing with a wide range of seasonings. Note: overworking or overcooking will toughen tender veal.
* Italian Pork Sausages (either Sweet or Hot) - From Maplewind Farm we have Italian Sausages. Maplewind Farm employs management intensive grazing to feed 90 head of cattle, 100 sheep, 40-60 pigs, 400 broiler chickens, 100 layer hens, 50 turkeys, and 9 horses all of whom are rotated over 80 acres. That's no small feat. This is accomplished by moving fencelines - a lot. Their pigs are raised on pasture and supplemented with grain.
* Lamb Steaks - Milk and grass fed lamb from Bonnieview Farm. Several recipes to choose from below.

Recipes

Stir Fried Turnips with Greens
From Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. Serves 4.

3/4 cup orange juice
2 TB soy sauce
3 medium scallions
4 med garlic cloves
1 TB minced ginger
1/2 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 TB plus 1 tsp peanut oil
1.5 lbs Spring Dug Turnips, cut into 3/4" wedges or chunks
5 cups packed, stemmed greens (turnip greens, mustard greens, spinach etc)

Combine orange juice and soy in measuring cup. Place scallions, garlic ginger, red pepper flakes in small bowl. Heat 1 TB oil in large skillet over med high heat until shimmering. Add turnips and stir fry until lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Push turnips to edges of pan, spread garlic mixture in center of pan. Drizzle remaining 1 tsp oil over mixture and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir to combine with turnips. Add orange juice mixture to pan, cover and cook, until turnips are creamy and tender and liquid has reduced to a few tablespoons (2-3 minutes). Add greens, cover and cook until just wilted, about 1 minute. (If the contents of the pan are too soupy, simmer with the cover off to reduce the liquid to a sauce consistency.). Serve immediately.

Cheddar Chutney Grilled Cheese with Green Apple and Watercress
From the Rebar Modern Food Cookbook by Audrey Alsterberg & Wanda Urbanowitz
This is a grown up grilled cheese sandwich which will be great on the multigrain bread from Elmore Mtn.

Multigrain Bread
Butter
Aged cheddar cheese slices
Tart Apple
Watercress, washed, tough stems removed
Onion Chutney

First make the onion chutney below. Then assemble and grill the sandwiches.

Onion Chutney (makes enough for 4 sandwiches)
1 TB butter
2 yellow onions
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp brown sugar
4 TB apple cider
1/4 tsp cracked pepper

Heat Butter in a pan over medium heat and add onions. Stir until translucent. Add salt, chile flakes and coriander and continue to cook for 15 mins. Add remaining ingredients and cook until onions are very soft and creamy.

For each sandwich, butter both sides of two slices of bread. On the unbuttered side of one of the slices, spread dijon mustard and then layer with chutney, apple slices, cheddar and watercress. Heat a griddle and cook sandwiches on both sides until the cheese is melted and bread is crispy and golden.

Watercress and Potato soup
This is a simplified version of the French classic. The fresh bite of watercress adds interest to velvety smooth potato. Submitted by Jill Dupleix to The Times Aug 2007.
Serves 4.

1 quart water
1 tsp sea salt
1.5 lb all-purpose potatoes
1/4 lb watercress leaves, eg, 2 bunches
2/3 cup milk
2 tbsp double cream
A little grated nutmeg
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring the water and salt to the boil. Peel the potatoes and cut into quarters. Cook the potatoes for 20 to 25 minutes until tender. Pick the watercress leaves from the stalks and discard the stalks. When the potatoes are cooked, fish them out of the water (reserving the water) and mash them or put them through a potato ricer. Set aside. Add the watercress to the potato water and simmer gently for five minutes. Fish out the watercress and whizz it, with a little of the liquid, in a blender or liquidiser. Return the watercress and the mashed potatoes to the potato water in the pan, stirring well. Add the milk and reheat gently, stirring. Add the cream, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste, and simmer gently, without boiling, for five minutes. Serve in bowls, with a little extra swirl of cream on top.

Herbed Goat Cheese, Roasted Beet, and Watercress Salad
Adapted from a November 1994 Gourmet recipe. Serves 4. I have had this recipe in and out of the newsletter this week. It calls for goat cheese, but you really should use fresh goat cheese and save the Lake's Edge for a special treat.

1 bunch watercress, coarse stems discarded
2 medium beets, scrubbed and trimmed
1 small red onion sliced thin

For vinaigrette:
.5 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon dried tarragon, crumbled
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

For herbed goat cheese
3/8 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon, crumbled
3/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces soft goat cheese, cut into 4 1/2-inch rounds and chilled, covered

Roasted Beets
Preheat oven to 400°F. Wrap beets tightly in foil and roast in middle of oven 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until tender. Unwrap beets carefully and cool until they can be handled. Discard stems and peel beets. Beets may be prepared up to this point 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Cut each beet into 8 wedges and cover.

Vinaigrette
In a blender blend together mustard, vinegar, tarragon, salt, and pepper. With motor running add oil in a stream and blend until emulsified. Vinaigrette may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered.

Herbed goat cheese:
In a bowl stir together bread crumbs, tarragon, salt, and pepper. Cut each cheese round in half crosswise. Coat each piece of cheese evenly with crumb mixture, pressing gently, and transfer to a baking sheet. Goat cheese may be prepared up to this point 1 day ahead and chilled, covered loosely. Let cheese come to room temperature before proceeding.
Preheat broiler. Broil goat cheese about 2 inches from heat until crumbs are lightly browned, about 2 minutes.

In a bowl toss watercress and onion with half of vinaigrette. Arrange watercress mixture, beets, and goat cheese on 8 salad plates and drizzle remaining vinaigrette over beets.

Grilled Korean-Style Short Ribs
Adapted from a recipe a July 2002 Bon Appétit recipe.

Marinade
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine) or sweet Sherry
3 TB honey or 2 TB sugar
1 TB cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1 TB sesame oil
3 cloves minced garlic
1 green onion, chopped

1 pound Korean-style short ribs

Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl; whisk to blend well. Pour into resealable plastic bag. Add ribs; seal bag. Turn bag over several times to coat ribs evenly. Refrigerate overnight, turning bag occasionally.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat) or broiler. Drain ribs; discard marinade. Grill ribs (or broil) until browned and cooked to medium-rare, about 3 minutes per side. Mound ribs on platter; surround with chopped spinach and serve.

Beef Kabob Marinade
1/2 c. oil
1/3 c. soy sauce
2 tbsp. prepared mustard
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. pepper

Marinate beef for kabobs for several hours, turning occasionally.

Lamb Steaks Two Ways
Recipes submitted to House and Garden in 1956 by James Beard. Both are very simple and delicious methods to prepare lamb.

Lamb Steaks
lamb steaks
garlic
melted butter or oil
salt and pepper

Rub each steak with a cut clove of garlic and brush with melted butter or oil. Grill over coals, turning to brown evenly, until the steaks are nicely browned on the outside but still pink and rare in the middle. Season to taste with salt and pepper as they cook.

Asian Lamb Steaks
lamb steaks
soy sauce
garlic, chopped
ginger, grated

Marinate lamb steaks in soy sauce seasoned with chopped garlic and grated ginger. Let the meat stand in this mixture for 5 to 6 hours and turn it often. Grill as for lamb steaks , brushing with the marinade during cooking. Omit salt and pepper.

Lamb Steaks with Mustard Butter
This one is adapted from a recipe in Dishing Up Vermont by Tracy Medeiros. Serve with mashed potatoes and wilted greens.

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/2 TB mustard, peeled and pressed or minced
1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
1 TB fresh rosemary (or 1 tsp dried)
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 lamb steaks

In a medium bowl cream together butter, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary, and pepper until fluffy. Set aside at room temp. Season the steaks with salt and pepper. Prepare a hot grill. Place on grill and sear for 2-3 minutes. Turn steaks over and cook 7-8 minutes longer until desired doneness is reached. Serve chops on a plate and top with mustard butter. Mmmmmm.

Veal Patties with Mushrooms
These individual meatloaves are incredibly moist and juicy. Adapted from a Feb 2006 recipe in Gourmet. Makes 4 servings

2 slices firm white sandwich bread, coarsely crumbled
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives or parsley
1 lb ground veal
1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs (not seasoned)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
.5 lb oyster or shitake mushrooms, trimmed and diced
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 200°F.

Soak bread in cream in a large bowl 5 minutes. Stir in egg, salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon chives/parsley until blended well. Add veal and mix with your hands until combined well. Form veal mixture into 4 (4-inch) patties. Spread dry bread crumbs on a sheet of wax paper and coat patties all over.

Heat oil with 2 tablespoons butter in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then cook patties, carefully turning over once, until golden brown, firm to the touch, and thermometer inserted into center of each registers 148°F, 8 to 10 minutes total. Transfer patties to an ovenproof platter and keep warm, covered with foil, in oven. Do not clean skillet.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons butter in skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until browned and tender (4-10 minutes, depending on mushroom type). Stir in remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons chives and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve veal patties topped with mushrooms.

Optional - add a little cream and or garlic to mushrooms at end of cooking for a bit more sauce

Good Easts Newsletter - May 6, 2009

This Week's Localvore Share Contains
1 bunch of Sweet Basil; 1 bag Large Leaf Spinach; budding Purple and Green Pac Choi; 2 lbs Spring Dug Parsnips; 3 lbs Adirondack Potatoes; 1 European Greenhouse Cucumber; Head Lettuce; Vt Butter and Cheese Bonnie Bouche cheese; Red Hen Maize Bread and ....

...either 1 bunch of either Ruby Steaks Mustard or Mizuna.

Storage and Use Tips
Sweet Basil - This marvelous herb is a member of the mint family. It is a staple in Mediterranean cooking as well as Thai, Vietnamese, and Laotian. The herb is highly aromatic, or put another way, the oils in basil are highly volatile. Thus, it is best to add the herb near the end of the cooking process, so it will retain its maximum essence and flavor. Basil should be kept refrigerated wrapped in damp paper towels and in a plastic bag or kept stems down in a glass of water with plastic over the leaves for about a week with regular water changing.

In addition to being just plain delicious, basil has numerous health benefits. The essential oils have proven to be an effective antibiotic for a number of antibiotic resistant bacteria strains. The oils in basil also have some amount of anti-inflammatory ability which is being researched at present.

Mustard Greens - Related to kale, cabbage, and collard greens, mustard greens are the peppery leafy greens of the mustard plant. This week everyone will receive either Mizuna or Ruby Steaks Mustard. Mizuna is a Japanese mustard green with dandelion-like jagged edge green leaves with a mild, sweet earthy flavor. It has long been culitaved in Japan, but most likely originated in China. Mizuna makes an excellent salad green, and is frequently found in Mesclun. Ruby Streaks Mustard has a delicate texture and mild, sweet yet mildly pungent mustard flavor. Both greens are tender enough to liven up salads, and stout enough to stand on their own in steamed or stir-fried dishes.

VT Butter and Cheese Co Bonnie Bouche - this cheese came to us in bulk and we had to re-package it in small bags. It is not nearly as pretty as it could be! The shelf life on this cheese will be shorter with the extra handling. Which means you will just have to eat it right up!

Pete's Musings
Meg, Tim and I and Tom Stearns from High Mowing seeds are headed to DC on Thursday for Patrick Leahy's Taste of Vermont event. Apparently it's a big deal that all the Senators and Reps attend because in addition to lovely early spring produce from Pete's Greens, seeds from High Mowing, cheese from Jasper Hill, and tofu from Vermont Soy there are liberal quantities of Vermont beer and ice cream. Then on Friday we will be treated to a private tour of the Capitol. We are still trying to get a tour of Michelle Obama's new White House veggie garden thinking that perhaps we could provide a bit of advice but those plans are not yet confirmed. We're looking forward to a couple days away after an intense month and with another intense month ahead of us. It seems that so many things have to go into the ground at the same time this time of year but we are gaining. Best ~ Pete

Localvore Lore
Great stuff in the share today with many options for wonderful meals this week. We have a traditional goat cheese that will be delicious on its own, as an appetizer, on salads, on pasta dishes, on braised or wilted greens, and in some really scrumptious dishes. We have several greens versatile enough to either headline a salad or add zest to one, yet sturdy enough to be sauteed or braised! We have the first basil of the season (how lucky are we to have basil in May?). We have bread and jam that will be marvelous together (especially if you haven't polished off last week's cream cheese!). And then we have potatoes and parsnips to add substance to your week. The possibilities are endless.

Vermont Butter and Cheese Co has provided us with a handcrafted goat cheese made in the traditional French style. French for “tasty morsel” Bonne Bouche is soft and smooth with a fresh cream & mildly goaty flavor which intensifies with age. Tasty indeed! Remove from the fridge 1 hour before serving and allow to warm to room temperature for best flavor. This cheese would be especially nice with sweet and earthy flavors. VT Butter and Cheese recommends serving with fig paste and candied nuts or drizzled with honey!

Elmore Roots is a nursery in Wolcott that grows and sells nursery stock of pretty much any kind of fruit you can grow in Vermont. They also make fabulous jams from the fruit grown on their farm. Today we have their Plumberry Jam, made with certified organic berries and plums from their farm, sweetened with organic cane juice.

Randy George at Red Hen Bakery has been refining the corn/wheat bread recipe. "This week we are making the maize bread with Nitty Gritty Grains' corn again. We are excited about this bread's potential, but we feel that the ones you received last month did not entirely live up to that potential. So we have made some refinements to our formula to improve it, and we want to give this another whirl. As always, email us with feedback!"

Recipes

Wilted Asian Greens
Adapted from a recipe in the July 2003 issue of Gourmet magazine. You could also substitute Pak Choi in this recipe and it would be great, but you will need to steam the chopped stems a couple minutes and then the leaves til tender. The spinach and Mizuna or Ruby Streaks do not need to be cooked before adding the hot dressing.

1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
8 cups chopped Spinach, tough stems removed (3 oz)
8 cups mizuna or Ruby Streaks mustard (3 oz)

Heat vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and sesame oil in a small saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved (do not let boil). Pour hot dressing over greens in a large bowl and toss well. Serve immediately.

Potatoes, Greens and Goat Cheese Quesadillas
Adapted from the March 2008 issue of Bon Appetite.

1 1/3 cups 1/2-inch cubed Adirondack Potatoes (about 3 medium)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/3 cups (packed) coarsely grated Monterey Jack or Cheddar (5 to 6 ounces)
1 1/3 cups of tomatillo salsa (or your favorite)
4 2/3 cups coarsely chopped stemmed mustard greens/mizuna (from 1 bunch), divided
4 8-inch-diameter flour tortillas
3 ounces chilled fresh goat cheese, coarsely crumbled
Olive oil

Place baking sheet in oven and preheat to 275°F. Steam potatoes until tender, about 8 minutes. Place in large bowl; sprinkle with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Toss to coat. Cool potatoes 15 minutes. Mix in Jack or Cheddar cheese. Meanwhile, blend salsa and 2/3 cup (packed) greens in mini processor until greens are finely chopped.

Arrange tortillas on work surface. Divide remaining greens between bottom half of each. Top greens with potato mixture, then goat cheese and 2 tablespoons salsa mixture for each. Fold plain tortilla halves over filling, pressing to compact. Brush with oil.

Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Place 2 quesadillas, oiled side down, in skillet. Brush tops with oil. Cook until quesadillas are brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to sheet in oven to keep warm. Repeat with remaining 2 quesadillas.
Cut each quesadilla into 3 or 4 wedges. Serve with remaining salsa.

Penne with Wilted Greens, Goat Cheese and Fresh Basil
This is more of a suggestion than a recipe. Substitution opportunities are endless!

1 lb penne pasta (or any shape pasta)
Olive oil
3-6 Cloves garlic, minced
3-8 cups of greens, tough stems removed, greens chopped (spinach, mustard, mizuna, Pac Choi)
1/2 to 1 cup of tomato sauce
Goat cheese
Fresh chopped basil

Put a large pot of salted water on and bring to boil for the pasta. While water is heating, mince the garlic, chop the greens and any other vegetables you have on hand that you'd like to throw in (see options below). Once the veggies are all chopped and prepared and water is boiling, add pasta and cook to al dente (8-12 mins depending on pasta type).

While the pasta is cooking, put a large saute pan over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add 2-3 TB of olive oil and the garlic to the pan and stir to coat and cook for a minute or two. Add the tomato sauce (or fresh tomatos or sun dried tomatoes). Add other optional veggies in order of necessary cooking time and cook until not quite tender. Add the greens and cover pan until greens are just wilted at which time other veggies will now be tender. Remove cover. Drain the pasta, and in a large bowl or in the original pasta pot mix together the pasta and veggies saute and the fresh chopped basil. Serve on plates with crumbled goat cheese and the optional toasted nuts on top.

Optional Ingredients:
2-3 TB Toasted Pine Nuts, Walnuts, Pecans, or Almonds. Toast on a dry skillet (cast iron ideal) on the stovetop over medium heat until they become fragrant. Don't let them burn. Remove from heat to a bowl.

Sundried tomatoes - use just 2-4 as too many can overpower a dish. Soak in hoat water if they are very dry, and once softened, chop/mince them.

Other fresh veggies - 1-2 fresh tomatoes, broccoli, aparagus etc. Add these to the saute as necessary to cook til just tender

Red Beet Risotto with Mustard Greens and Goat Cheese
From the February 2007 issue of Bon Appetite. If you like the sounds of this recipe but hate to use up all of your goat cheese, it would also be delicious with shaved Parmesan substituted for the goat cheese.

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
2 (2 1/2- to 3-inch-diameter) beets, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 1/2 cups chopped white onion
1 cup Arborio rice or medium-grain white rice
3 cups low-salt chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 cups chopped mustard greens/mizuna
4 ounce chilled soft fresh goat cheese, coarsely crumbled

Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add beets and onion. Cover; cook until onion is soft, about 8 minutes. Mix in rice. Add broth and vinegar. Increase heat; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer uncovered until rice and beets are just tender and risotto is creamy, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon into shallow bowls. Sprinkle with greens and cheese.

Simple Mustard Greens Recipe
1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 pound mustard greens, washed and torn into large pieces
2 to 3 Tbsp chicken broth or vegetable broth (vegetarian option)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon dark sesame oil

In a large sauté pan, sauté onions in olive oil over medium heat until the onions begin to brown and caramelize, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook a minute more, until fragrant. Add the mustard greens and broth and cook until the mustard greens are just barely wilted. Toss with sesame oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Cucumber, Goat Cheese, Sun Dried Tomato Appetizer
These are tasty little cucumber morsels made by blending goat cheese with sundrieds and garlic and then squeezing the spread out onto individual cucumber slices.

4 oz goat cheese softened (in microwave for 10-15 seconds)
1/2 TB minced garlic
2-3 sundried tomatoes soaked in 1-2 TB olive oil, and then minced very fine or pureed
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cucumber - peeled and sliced into rounds

Mix the above together. You should have a fairly smooth spread. Put the spread into a plastic bag and cut off a small corner of the bag. Squeeze the spread onto the cucumber slices. For added zest, garnish with finely chopped basil! Yum.

For an even easier dish, simply dice up peeled and seeded cucumbers, add minced garlic, chopped sundried tomatoes soaked in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, crumble the goat cheese on top and some minced basil and dig in.

Good Eats Newsletter - April 29, 2009

This Week's Localvore Share Contains
1 bunch Salad Turnips; Spring Dug Parsnips; Medium Red Beets; European Greenhouse Cucumbers; 2-3 heads of Pac Choi; Mesclun Mix; 1 quart of Pete's Applesauce; 8 oz Champlain Valley Cream Cheese; 1 lb of Butternut Farm Maple Sugar and....

...either 1 bunch of sorrel or 1 bunch of parsley.

Storage and Use Tips
Sorrel - Sorrel is a green leaf vegetable native to Europe. It is also called common sorrel or spinach dock. In appearance sorrel greatly resembles spinach and in taste sorrel can range from comparable to the kiwifruit (or lemons or a combo) to a more acidic tasting older leaf (due to the presence of oxalic acid which increases as the leaves gets older). Young sorrel may be harvested to use in salads, soups or stews. Young sorrel leaves are also excellent when lightly cooked, similar to the taste of cooked chard or spinach. Older sorrel is best for soups and stews where it adds tang and flavor to the dish.

Parsley - Much more than a garnish, parsley has lots to offer. Chopped parsley can be sprinkled on a host of different recipes, including salads, vegetable sautés and grilled fish. Combine chopped parsley, garlic and lemon zest, and use it as a rub for chicken, lamb and beef. Add it to soups and tomato sauces. It is a key flavor ingredient in the mediterranean dish tabouli (I felt compelled to add the recipe below). Parsley is one of those vegetables with huge nutritional benefits, even when using just a couple tablespoons of the minced green. The vitamin content is very high (particularly vitas A, C, K, and folic acid). And what's more, the activity of parsley's volatile oils qualifies it as a "chemoprotective" food, a food that can help neutralize particular types of carcinogens.

Maple Sugar - This form of maple was first developed by Native Americans for its ease of storage and transport. Its has robust maple flavor, low moisture content, and a long shelf life. It is a natural alternative to cane sugar. Store it in a tightly sealed container. If it becomes fused into a maple sugar lump, use a cheese grater to grate it when you use it. See both Lovalvore Lore and the Recipe section for use ideas.

Pete's Musings
Lots happening in the fields. We are gearing up to transplant one by one 250,000 baby onion plants. It is a slow and laborious process but leads to a great crop and there is little work to do with them after the transplanting. Our 3 acre potato field is being prepped today and we'll try out our new potato planter later this week. Outdoor greens are about a week away-I think a new record for earliness on this farm. The crew is shaping up well-we have lots of folks and it is a challenge to keep ahead of them at times. Meg has been a great addition as a field manager running a crew of 2-4 folks while I do the same. I'm able to get my crew started on projects and then run around doing tractor work or all the little things that seem to take me all day to accomplish. I like the response to the question "What did you do today?" "Not sure, but it took me all day.". That is often how I feel and it can be tough to focus on a task and complete it.

We are looking for a very large dump truck to purchase. We have a nice connection with a dairy farm 2 miles away that is willing to give us rotten sileage and sell us manure. Mixed together the two ingredients make great compost but we have to haul most of it ourselves. Our current dumptruck is on it's last legs and Steve has done a great job nursing it the past couple years but it is time for something larger and newer so that we can haul more with each load. These additions of organic materials are the base of our soil and crop health and we appreciate having access to them. ~ Pete

Localvore Lore
Nancy was thinking of you all when she put this share together several weeks ago. It was her plan to have the maple sugar appear in the share with the cream cheese. The idea of course is to spread the cream cheese on your favorite bread, and then sprinkle the maple sugar on top. Yum!

The bread this week is Elmore Mountain's Pain au Levain. It is a sourdough loaf made with bread flour and rye flour from La Meunerie Milanaise in Quebec, whole wheat flour from Butterworks Farm, spring water and sea salt. It is a universal bread that makes delicious sandwiches and toast, is good with strong cheeses, dunked in soup, or enjoyed on its own.

Champlain Valley Creamery in Vergennes has provided their award winning Old Fashion Organic Cream Cheese. This cheese is made from cultured fresh organic cow’s milk and cream using traditional methods. I asked Carleton Yoder to share with us a bit about how he makes this cheese:

We haul organic milk in cans from a dairy in Bridport, we separate the cream and add it to whole milk in the vat. We then vat pasteurize the milk/cream combo, cool and culture for 7 hours. The resulting thick curd is scooped into muslin bags and drained overnite, then pressed lightly in the morning. The cheese is emptied out of the bags and is salted and packed, all by hand. The cheese you are getting was milk on Friday, packed Saturday. The cheese is never reheated to stop the culture, and no stabilizers (like carob, guar or xanthan gums) are ever added. It's very unlike that ubiquitous foil wrapped gummy brick! It has the perfect balance of creaminess and tanginess that is unlike any other cream cheese you’ve ever tasted. It’s great on a bagel, on sandwiches, baked in your favorite dessert or simply on its own.

The Maple Sugar comes from Butternut Mountain Farm in Johnson. We are fortunate to be able to provide it as Butternut is one of only two operations in the US to make maple sugar. Maple sugar is produced simply by boiling all of the water out of the syrup and mixing it into a granulated state. Some cooking tips from Emma Marvin:

Maple sugar is highly versatile. I use it when making chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies in place of the brown sugar and some of the white. I use it on salmon sprinkling maple sugar, ground sea salt and pepper over the top just prior to cooking. It makes a great maple salad dressing! Mix approximately equal parts of olive oil, maple sugar and vinegar (cider or rice wine works well). I’m sure there are infinitely more ways to use maple sugar, but these are just a few of my favorites. We'd love to hear about any recipes you find yourselves using our maple sugar in!


Recipes

Spicy Parsnip Soup
This recipe from www.jamieoliver.com gets numerous rave reviews. Serves 4.

olive oil
knob of butter
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon garam masala
6 parsnips, peeled and chopped into chunks
500 ml milk (full fat or skim)
1 quart vegetable stock
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
optional: 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
optional: a handful of fresh minced cilantro (or parsley!) leaves
crusty bread, to serve

Heat a splash of olive oil and the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and garam masala. Gently fry for around 10 minutes, until the onions are soft and sweet.
Drop in the chopped parsnip and stir together so that everything gets coated in the oil and flavours. Pour in the milk and stock, season well and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes with a lid on. After half an hour, check that the parsnips are cooked by sticking a knife in. If you’re happy, remove them from the heat and carefully whiz up using a hand blender or liquidizer. Taste the soup to see if it needs a little more salt or pepper.

Serve topped with some strips of fresh red chili peppers (or a sprinkle of dry) with a good chunk of crusty bread.

Tip: Use coconut milk instead of regular milk for a twist.

Sorrel Soup
This is a very simple light soup that highlights the fresh, slightly lemony flavor of the sorrel. It's from the Sundays at Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen.

2 c. well-packed, washed and stemmed sorrel leaves
1 medium onion, chopped
3 T. butter
1 T. unbleached white flour
3 c. vegetable stock
2 egg yolks
1 c. milk or half and half
salt and freshly ground black pepper
dash of Tabasco or other hot sauce (optional)

Finely chop the sorrel leaves. In a medium saucepan, sauté the onion in the butter until translucent. Stir in the flour. Mix in the sorrel and cook for a minute or so, just until it wilts. Add the vegetable stock. Bring the soup to a low simmer and cook for about 3 minutes. Beat the egg yolks and milk in a medium mixing bowl. Slowly add 2 c. of the hot soup while stirring constantly. Stir this soup-egg mixture into the soup pot. Reheat the soup gently but don’t let it boil. Add salt, pepper to taste and a dash of Tabasco, if you like.

Tabouli
I had to include this to go along with the parsley. Make sure you give it time to marinate in the fridge! Serves 6.

1 cup bulgur
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice -- and/or lime juice
1 teaspoon garlic -- crushed
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1/2 teaspoon dried mint flakes
1/4 cup olive oil -- (good quality)
fresh black pepper
2 medium tomatoes -- diced
1 cup fresh parsley -- chopped and packed

Optional: 1 cup chopped cucumber and/ or 1/2 cup coarsely grated carrot

Combine bulghar, boiling water, and salt in a bowl. Cover and let stand 15-20 minutes, or until bulghar is chewable. Add lemon juice, garlic, oil, and mint, and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate 2-3 hours (this is important, the bulgher needs to marinate). Just before serving add the vegetables and mix gently. Correct seasonings. Garnish with olives.

Braised Parsnips
1 bunch parsnips
3 tbsp. butter
1 pinch salt, pepper, and nutmeg
Chopped parsley

Clean and scrape parsnips. Slice lengthwise. Melt butter in a skillet; add parsnips and seasonings and cook covered over low heat until tender. Serve garnished with finely chopped parsley.

Carrots - Turnip - Parsnip Dish
5 large carrots, peeled or scrubbed and chopped
1 medium turnip or rutabaga, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 medium parsnip, peeled and cut into small chunks
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons butter or margarine

Prepare vegetables and place them in a large saucepan. Cover with water, bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 30 minutues or until vegetables are tender. Drain well. Add salt, pepper and butter and mash well. Serve as a side vegetable with your meal.

Maple Sugar Bread
This is really quite a decadent sounding loaf, particularly when considering the option of spreading cream cheese on each slice. From the website www.recipeland.com.

Ingredients
1.5 cups of applesauce
1 cup nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts or pecans)
2.5 cups flour, all-purpose
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon ground
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins, seedless, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon butter softened
1/2 cup butter softened
1.5 cups maple sugar (finely grated if necessary)
3 large eggs

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Use teaspoon of butter to coat bottom and sides of a 9x5x3 loaf pan. In a medium sized bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt.
In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup of softened butter and maple sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture in 3 parts alternating with the apple puree in 2 parts, mixing just enough to incorporate the ingredients fully. Then stir in the nuts and raisins. Pour the batter into buttered pan, spreading it and smoothing the top with a spatula, and bake in the middle of the oven for 1 to 1.5 hours, or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cream Soaked White Bread with Maple Sugar
OK, I know this is not exactly healthy fare... I found it on www.saveur.com and I couldn't pass it up. Crunchy Maple sugar, lush pillowy cream, on coarse country white bread ...mmmmm.

3/4 cup heavy cream
4 thick slices of hearty white country bread
4 tbsp. coarsely grated maple sugar

Put cream into a medium bowl, and whisk until slightly thickened. Pour 1/4 cup of the cream over each slice of bread. Sprinkle 1 tbsp. of the maple sugar over the cream. Serve immediately.