Good Eats Newsletter - Jun 16, 2010

This Week's Vegetable Share Contains:
2 lbs Nicola Potatoes; 1 Bunch Baby Beets w/Greens; 1 Bunch Bright Lights Chard; 1 Bunch Green Kale; 1 Bunch Curly Parsley; 1 head of Romaine Lettuce plus...

1 Tomato
1 Bunch of Sweet Basil
1 Bag of String Beans -or- Zucchini*

1 Bag Squash Puree (Frozen)

*Hen of the Wood, Laughing Moon, Concept 2 and Johnson will not get the string beans/zucchini and will instead get one of these items next week.


Localvore Offerings Include:

Bonnieview Farm Ewe's Feta Cheese
Pa Pa Doodles Farm Eggs
Pete's Kitchen Hot Sauce
Quebec Organic Steel Cut Oats


Welcome to Good Eats Summer Share!
Your first pick-up is tomorrow (Wednesday).

Picking Up Your Share
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. Though you may leave a message on voice mail at 802.586.2882 x2, email will get a much quicker response.

When Picking Up Your Share Please:
• Clipboard #1 - Check off your name on the pick-up list. The first clipboard contains a list of all share members at your site. Note that only one name is listed for each share. If you can't find your name on the list, look for your share partners name. Checking off your name lets us know who has picked up and is extremely helpful in solving any mysteries at the end of the day. If you can't find your name or your share partners name, please don't take a share! Call or email Amy and we'll figure it out.

• Check your share type on the list. Share types are Localvore, Localvore Vegetarian, and Vegetable Only. If you are listed incorrectly, let Amy know via email.

• Clipboard #2 - Select your items following the Pick-up Instructions. These are posted on the second clipboard. Follow the specific item list/instructions for the share you are signed up for to assemble your share. The top section of the pick up list describes what to select for the vegetable portion of both the Vegetable Only and the Localvore share. The bottom section of the Pick-up Instructions list the items that only the Localvore members should select.

If you are sharing a share with someone - coordinate with your share-mate to make sure that you DON'T take double the amount of any items. All shares at the sites are whole shares.

Please note that the first Meat Share pick up is not this week, it is July 7th.

What To Do If You Have a Problem at Pick Up


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, we may be able to resolve it the same day or the following day. If you would like to receive an item that you missed at pick-up, you must contact Amy by Thursday morning.

If we have not heard from anyone, by Thursday afternoon our site hosts are instructed to donate leftover food, assuring that they don't end up with bad food on their hands.

If we can't resolve your issue right away, contact Amy via email to arrange a replacement or substitution the following week.

Meg's Musings
Welcome to the summer share everyone. We are looking forward to this season with you. We have been busy here on the farm with irrigating, planting, row-covering, pruning, irrigating, cultivating, harvesting and more! In the midst of all of it though, I had a really special experience this week when the whole farm crew took 15 minutes out of their day to wish me a happy birthday. They all sung me Happy Birthday in a mixture of English and Spanish, gave me hugs and handshakes, and we all enjoyed a wonderful coconut carrot cake that our kitchen manager Bill had made. I was really moved by it and it made me think about how blessed we are here, to have such a wonderful crew, and such beautiful land to work together. I'm looking forward to sharing more of what we've got going on at the farm in the coming weeks. Thanks so much for your support. Eat up! ~Meg

Newsletter Intro

Hi Folks,
I write the Good Eats newsletter each week. It goes out every Tuesday evening with farm updates, the week's share contents, storage and use tips, localvore information and recipes and anything else we think you might find interesting or useful. 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. It generally gets posted sometime on Wednesday. There's a good history there for recipes, farm stories and share contents. 


Please add amy@petesgreens.com to your address book to limit the possibility of having newsletters filtered as spam. Feel free to contact me anytime about with questions or comments about Good Eats. ~ Amy

Summer Shares Still Available
The summer share is not quite full. We are continuing to accept members for both Localvore and Vegetable Only shares. If you have friends or neighbors who you think would enjoy weekly deliveries of fresh local food, please direct them to www.petesgreens.com to learn about Good Eats or forward them this email.
Good Eats Summer Shares

Meat Shares Available Too

Once a month, the meat share delivers a selection of sustainably farmed, grass fed meats from Pete's and from other nearby farms that we know and love. All animals grown for the share are grown without use of hormones or chemical dewormers etc. All are raised on pasture (except the trout!) and many raised organically. This is meat grown in a way that is actually good for our environment, providing the needed fertility to compliment other crops grown on these farms. Grass fed meats contain a much higher vitamin concentration and much lower fat content than other meats. These meats are good for body and soul.

Sign-up for the Summer Meat Share (4 Deliveries: Jul 7, Aug 4, Sep 2, Oct 6)


Pete and Bill Attend Chefs Move to Schools Launch
Last Thursday, Pete and our farm chef Bill Allen climbed into one of Pete's little Toyota trucks and drove to DC tobe part of the launch of Michelle Obama's Chefs Move to Schools program. Over 500 chefs gathered on the South Lawn of the White House while Michelle spoke of the role they could play in reducing childhood obesity. The goal of the brand new program is to connect schools with local chefs who will champion healthy foods in a way that gets kids excited and involved. Earlier in the day, the visiting chefs had gathered at the Marriott to hear from others who were actively involved with schools in their communities. Most spoke of the challenges they had faced in changing the meal program from one based largely on prepared foods, to one based on whole foods made from scratch. Pete and Bill were mentioned in an article by Marion Burros about Friday's South Lawn event and the new program.

Pete's Greens plans to cook meals for the Craftsbury schools one day a week beginning in Fall, with the goal being to get kids eating (and liking!) real, whole, local food.



Storage and Use Tips
Swiss Chard and Beet Greens - I love summer's abundance of greens, and Swiss chard just might be at the top of my list. I use it (and other greens somewhat interchangeably) everywhere I can. I chop and add to almost any pasta dish I am making, I just had some for lunch chopped and wilted into a burrito mix of beans I reheated, I add it into scrambled eggs, soups, casseroles, rice dishes, even muffins. Beet Greens can be used in any recipe that calls for Swiss chard. (And many other recipes that calls for other greens). I also love both of these greens on their own as a side dish to a meal. If sautéing your greens, toss the little baby beets in the pan for a few minutes, and then eat them along with the greens. Store loosely wrapped in your crisper drawer.

Green Kale - Young tender kale in your shares this week. We harvest kale from the fields from May through December. It's nice to have it make its reappearance these last couple of weeks. We grow quite a few varieties on the farm and this one is green kale. This time of year, the kale is pretty tender though still stronger in flavor than say, swiss chard or spinach. It holds up really well in cooking, retaining its shape a long while, so is particularly good in sautés and soups. For a simple, healthy side dish, heat some olive oil or sunflower oil, toss in some a couple cloves of minced garlic and heat that until fragrant. Then toss in the freshly washed kale and toss until just wilted. Salt and pepper to your hearts content. Store loosely wrapped in your crisper drawer.

Frozen Squash Puree - We put up bags and bags of Butternut winter squash and pumpkin puree last Fall for Good Eats and its been a delight to have these bags at the ready. Over the weekend I was making a nice in season strawberry rhubarb pie when my 4 yr old daughter started complaining that she only liked pumpkin pie. No problem! I thawed out a bag of puree, dumped it into a blender with eggs, milk and spices and poured the mixture into another crust. It's great in soups, casseroles and baked items and Bill has included a recipe for a savory filo pie that looks delicious. Winter squash puree is one of more nutritious veggies you can put on your plate, packed with beta carotene and other goodness. Store in freezer until you are ready to use.

Check out our Oct 28 blog from to read about the squash puree process
And click here for my go to recipe for pumpkin pie.

Localvore Lore
At Bonnieview Farm just over the hill from Pete's Greens, Neil and Kristin Urie milk their herd of sheep and make some pretty terrific sheep cheese. This week we have their Ewe's Feta, a 2007 American Cheese Society Award winner. I love this cheese and you can nearly always find a container of it in my fridge. I love to crumble a little onto my salads and pasta, and I use it on summer bruschetta and pizzas and in casseroles. The perfect balance of creamy, tart, and tangy, it's great to just nibble on too.

Our Good Eats eggs are laid each day by "the girls" at Pa Pa Doodles Farm. Deb Rosewolf is one of our team at Pete's Greens and a couple of years ago Pete talked her into keeping a flock of hens to supply the CSA (actually he talked her into taking the farm's small flock over to her house). Deb now has 400 hens and supplies eggs 2 weeks out of 4 weeks for the share. Last March, Eva Sollberger visited Deb's Farm and shot a video for the Seven Days Stuck in VT series. Watch it now for a first hand look at where your eggs come from! You'll have to scroll down a bit to find the video...

The steel cut oats in the share today come from just across the border in Quebec, little more than an hour's drive from the farm. At Golden Crops, Michel Gaudreau farms several hundred acres of organic grains, and in his mill he processes and then stores the grains from other organic grain farmers in his area. Once each share period we drive to his mill to pick up grains for Good Eats. Michel is an avid member of the organic movement. The existence of his mill makes it possible for a couple thousand neighboring acres to be farmed organically. His products are beautiful and we are grateful to have such an excellent source or oats, barley, flax, spelt and rye. Steel cut oat make for a pretty fab weekend morning meal. These are oats that require long cooking, but you are rewarded with a nutty, creamy beautiful breakfast. These are the oats I cook when it's a special breakfast day.

Last week Bill pulled our stash of frozen cherry tomatoes from the freezer and whipped up some hot sauce for Good Eats....

Okay. It's time to put all those peppers and cherry tomatoes we froze this past season to use and whip up some hot sauce. Your typical hot sauce has three little ingredients: peppers, vinegar and salt. That's it, and that makes it a breeze to make at home. But we added Pete’s delicious cherry tomatoes to give it another dimension.

Hot sauce is one of the simplest condiments to make. Simply puree the tomatoes and peppers, strain, add the right amount of organic vinegar, salt and crushed red pepper. While ours is mild in comparison, you can make yours as hot as you like dependent on the pepper you choose. The Scoville Scale measures the “heat” of individual peppers. Many of you have enjoyed jalapenos and Scotch bonnets. They are baby food compared to what is out there.

A quick history on Scoville Scale
The heat comes from capsacin, the oil that makes peppers hot. That heat is rated in Scoville units, which tell you how much the pepper must be diluted before you can't taste the heat. For instance, a bell pepper's rating is zero, meaning there's no heat. An Anaheim is anywhere from 500-1500, jalapenos are 2500 to 5000, cayennes are 30,000-50,000, and habaneros are 100,000 to 300,000. That means if you poured a cup full of habanero heat into a large empty swimming pool, you would have to add up to 300,000 more cups of water to it before the heat disappears.

You may ask “Why want something so hot?” Endorphins! When the capsacin hits your tongue, it sends pain signals your brain, which in turn, releases endorphins, causing a mild euphoria. Of course, I'm sure some out there like it just because of the flavor alone. Yeah right!!! Be careful to wear gloves, don’t rub your eyes (or anything else) when working with hot peppers!

I have included a recipe for a spicy, moist fried chicken but this sauce can be used as any condiment, drizzled on eggs, make a dip with sour cream, adds a great kick to guacamole. My favorite is a burger with a fried egg and lots of the sauce in place of the ketchup. Great on potatoes too! ~ Bill

Recipes

Most of the recipes each week are written up by Chef Bill Allen. Those that aren't are usually credited with a source. If you have questions about a recipe or about cooking with something in the share, please contact Bill or Amy.

Savory Squash & Chard Pie

1 pkg. Frozen filo dough
2 lbs. squash puree, completely defrosted, drained through sieve
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons kosher salt
5 tbsp. olive oil, plus extra for brushing the filo
1 tbsp. finely chopped ginger
1 tsp. ground cumin
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ cup fresh cilantro, rough chop
¼ tsp. black pepper
1/3 cup raisins
¼ cup walnut pieces
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bunch chard, large stems removed

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Defrost filo for about one hour prior to start.

Once the puree is completely defrosted and drained, heat oil in a large sauté pan and add onions and cook until translucent. Add puree and cook down until well incorporated and excess liquid is evaporated. Add salt, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, cilantro, pepper, raisins and walnuts and set aside. In another pan, heat some oil and add garlic. just barely cooking. Add chard and wilt. Place chard and garlic mixture in a colander and push excess liquid out.

Brush a 9 x13-inch baking dish with olive oil. Unroll the pastry sheets so that they lie flat. Lay one sheet of filo in the dish crosswise so that it covers about half of the bottom, and half of the sheet hangs over the side facing you. Brush the part that covers the bottom with olive oil. Now lay a second sheet along the right-hand side of the dish, overlapping the first sheet in the middle of the dish and overhanging the side facing you. Brush with olive oil. Repeat with 2 more sheets but this time arranges them in the dish so that they overhang the other long side of the dish (at the top). Continue in the same way until you've used 14 sheets of filo.

Line the bottom of the dish with about half of the chard, using your hands to open up the leaves and spread them out. Spoon the squash mixture on top and gently flatten with the spoon. Cover with the rest of the chard. Fold one of the filo sheets over the filling and brush with oil. Fold the sheet next to it over and brush with oil. Do the same for 2 sheets on the opposing side of the dish. Continue in this way until all of the filo is folded over the filling. Then cover with 2 more sheets of filo, brushing each one.

Put the baking dish in the oven and bake until the pastry is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving, or let cool to room temperature.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

8 oz. Pete’s hot sauce
1 quart buttermilk
1 chicken, quartered
3 cups flour
2 cups corn flakes, crushed
salt & pepper

Oil, for frying

Preheat oven to 325.

In a large bowl, whisk together hot sauce and buttermilk. Place chicken in bowl and coat thoroughly. Marinate for at least 6 hours and up to 24.

In a paper bag, mix flour, corn flakes, salt and pepper. Shake excess marinade off of chicken pieces and place into bag. Close top and give a good shake. Until all chicken is well coated.

In a large, heavy bottom pan, cast iron being the best, put enough oil just to come halfway up the pan and heat. Test the heat by pinching some of the flour mixture in. If it starts to fry and float immediately, you’re there. CAREFULLY add chicken to the pan, legs and thighs first. After a few minutes, add breasts and wings, lowering heat to medium. After 6 Minutes or so, turn chicken pieces over and brown on other side.

Place browned chicken on cookie sheet and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the internal temperature of the thigh is 150 degrees.

***Be very careful when handling hot oil. Let the oil cool completely in the pan before discarding it.

Caesar Salad
In honor of the return of romaine lettuce, I made Caesar salad last night. I thought I'd share the dressing recipe I have used for years which I modified from the 1975 edition of the Joy of Cooking.

Caesar Salad Dressing
Makes 1 cup dressing or enough to dress a couple large heads of romaine.

Put the following into a blender:
4 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp Worcestershire
2-4 anchovy filets (I never have these and instead add 1 scant tsp anchovy sauce or 7-10 kalamata olives)
2 eggs (you can add these raw, but I cook boil my whole eggs for 2 mins and then spoon the lightly cooked egg into the blender)

Blend the above as well as possible, then with blender on low, add in a slow, steady stream:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Add to your liking:
black pepper
more lemon juice

The Salad:
Head of Romaine Lettuce
Croutons
Grated Parmesan
Caesar salad dressing

Chop a head of romaine lettuce, rinse, and salad spin, or put in a colander to dry. (If you don't have a salad spinner and want dry lettuce quickly, you can use the towel spin method which is a good show if you have kids. Just put the washed salad greens onto a clean towel, pull together the corners and then spin in a circle and the water will fly out of the greens into a towel and often do a good job spraying the kitchen too.) Transfer greens to a bowl, add dressing, and toss to coat lettuce well. Add parm and toss again. Plate the salads and top dress with croutons and grated parm to your liking.

Basil Smashed Norland Potatoes
The recipe was supplied by Vt Butter and Cheese. Serves 8.

2 lbs, Red Norland potatoes, washed and cut in half
I bunch basil
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup olive oil
½ sour cream
salt & pepper, to taste

Rinse cut potatoes well and place in a pot with salted water. Bring to boil and when potatoes are knife tender, drain and let dry out a bit. While the potatoes are boiling, heat cream and olive oil in small sauce pan. Add basil and remove from heat.

Return potatoes to pot and mash with potato masher or a large whisk. They are supposed to be chunky so don’t worry about getting every last bit smooth. Add cream mixture and fold in. Dependent on how creamy you like your potatoes, add the sour cream in bits until it is the consistency you like, Correct seasoning.

Kale, Tomato & Potato Frittata

10 of Deb’s eggs
1/4 cup Vermont Cheddar cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 lb. Norland potatoes, rinsed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 bunch kale, stems and inner ribs discarded, leaves coarsely chopped
1 tomato, medium dice

Preheat oven to 350.
Whisk eggs and cheese together in a large bowl.
In a large, non-stick pan, heat 2 tbsp. oil. Add onion and potatoes and cook for 3 minutes. Add kale and sauté until wilted. Add egg mixture and incorporate vegetables and eggs.

Cook over moderate heat for 1 minute. Gently lift the edge of the frittata and
Tilt the pan to allow for the egg to get underneath. When the frittata starts to form, place in the oven and cook for approximately 10 minutes. Tapping on the center with some spring says it is done.

Remove from oven and let sit for 2 minutes. Run a rubber spatula around the edg to loosen the frittata. Place a plate large enough to cover the pan over the pan and CAREFULLY invert it on to the plate. Serve warm with a salad of Pete’s mesclun or arugula

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