Good Eats Newsletter - June 20th, 2012

Welcome to Summer Good Eats!   The first pick-up is this Wednesday June 20th (for most sites) or Thursday June 21st (for Lyndon Center, Newport, St J and Woodstock)     Localvore Members  & Regular Veggie Only Share Members take a LIGHT GREEN BAG   This week your bag will contain:   Mesclun, Head Lettuce; Red and/or Gold Beets; Euro Cucumber; Scallions; Pac Choi; Kohlrabi; Garlic Scapes, Curly Parsley   plus out of the bag... Tomatoes (packed in small paper bags)   Localvore Offerings Include: Elmore Mountain Bread Sweet Rowan Farmers Cheese Sunflower Oil     Small Veggie Only Members take a YELLOW BAG containing:   Mesclun Mix; Red Beets; Zucchini; Euro Cucumber; Pearl Onions or Yellow Storage Onions; Napa Cabbage, Garlic Scapes   SMALL VEGGIE ONLY SHARE MEMBERS - The Yellow Bag is the only item you should pick up tomorrow.   July 4th Week   We will be delivering to MOST sites as normal on Wed July 4th.         The following sites are closed on July 4th :   True Colors/ Montpelier Concept 2/ Morrisville Sweet Clover /Essex   We will deliver shares to these sites on Thurs July 5th         First Meat Share Delivery is July 4th unless your share site is closed, see above     Our Weekly Good Eats Newsletter   Hello Everyone,   Welcome to the Good Eats Summer share.  Thanks for joining us!    And welcome also to the weekly Good Eats Newsletter.  You'll receive this newsletter each Tuesday evening letting you know what to expect in this week's share. We also include storage and use tips, localvore information, recipes and anything else we think you might find interesting or useful. Pete and/or other crew members on the farm 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 in order to give you extremely  fresh produce. Although we try to get the newsletter out just as early as we can, we do like to wait until the share is packed up and finalized. Sometimes there are last minute changes to the contents and we want to make sure that you have the right information to accompany your pick-up. If there are changes to the share that occur after the newsletter has been sent (which happens occasionally), 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 and on our website. It generally gets posted to the web sometime on Wednesday or Thursday. You can also search our archive of recipes, farm stories and share contents at these sites. Please add GoodEats@petesgreens.com to your address book to limit the possibility of having newsletters filtered as spam.   Feel free to contact me anytime with questions or comments about Good Eats.  ~ Amy     Picking Up Your Share Please visit our Delivery Site page for pick up times and locations of pick up sites. If you have any questions about your pick-up please email us. The quickest way to reach me is really by email, but you may leave a message on voice mail at 802.586.2882 x2. Share Pick-Up Instructions! Please review.   Whether you are a seasoned CSA share member or new to Good Eats, it's important to review the pick-up instructions before you head out to pick up your share! Clipboard #1, Find your name on the Names List - Find your name on the pick-up list and check it off.  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 partner's name (only one of you is listed). 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 partner's name, please don't take a share! Call or email us and we'll figure it out. Check your share type on the Names  List. Share types are Localvore, Localvore Vegetarian, Veggie Only, Small Veggie Only, Pete's Pantry or Meat Share. If you are listed incorrectly or have questions, let us know. Clipboard #2, Pick-Up Instructions - Select your items by following the Pick-Up Instructions. These are posted on the second clipboard. Follow the specific item list/instructions to assemble your share. The top section of the pick up list describes what to select for the vegetable portion of the  share. The bottom section of the Pick-Up Instructions lists the localvore (non-vegetable) items that Localvore and Pete's Pantry 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 are packed and delivered to the sites are whole shares. Please note that the first Meat Share pick up is not this week, it is the first Wednesday of every month starting July 4th.       What To Do If You Have a Problem at Pick Up Although 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 site to find that your name (or share partner's name) is not on the list, 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 email us (or call if you can not email) 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 us by Thursday morning. If we have not heard from anyone, by Thursday afternoon our site hosts are instructed to donate leftover food, ensuring that they do not end up with bad food on their hands. If we can not resolve your issue right away, email us to arrange a replacement or substitution.  These will generally come in the next week's delivery.   Storage and Use Tips   Each week I'll give you storage tips if there are veggies in the share some of you may not be familiar with.  Most of these tips are our website too, so please get acquainted with and bookmark the recipe and storage tip section of our website. I am sure you will find it useful.   Beets and Beet Greens - (All members) Our beets are absolutely beautiful right now.  A mix of red and gold beets will go out this week.  Both are delicious.  Right now while we are in full on gorgeous salad season I have been using up all my beets raw.  I have been grating them and placing them in a tupperware early in the week and then sprinkling them into salads all week.   Beet greens I have been tossing into any dishes I am cooking or more often than not, tossing them in my yogurt, banana, carrot, beet greens/chard smoothies. Yum.  Do separate beet greens from the beets and store each separately, loosely wrapped in a plastic bag.    Kohlrabi  - (Regular Veggie/Localvore Bag) The name means cabbage turnip in German and that is a pretty accurate description. It is a member of the cabbage family and its outer skin would attest to that. The greens look more like turnip greens however and the inner bulb can be a bit fibrous, like turnip. Raw, it is crisp, sweet, and clean, strikingly reminiscent of raw broccoli stalks. Cooked, it touts a mild, nutty, cabbage-like flavor that adapts beautifully to many cooking styles. It can be eaten raw and is great in salads and slaws. It can also be boiled, steamed, baked, roasted, etc. The greens may be eaten cooked like turnip greens or any other cooked greens. To prepare the bulb, cut off the leaves and stems. Use a vegetable peeler to pare off the tough outer layer. Or use a chefs knife to slice it off. Dice or shave up the inner bulb according to your recipe. Store loosely wrapped in plastic in the fridge, separate from the greens.   Pac Choi - (Regular Veggie/Localvore Bag) A member of the brassicas family along with cabbage and kale, pac choi (aka bok choy or Chinese cabbage) pac choi packs in nutrition with high scores for vitamins A and C and calcium. Pac Choi is mild enough to be chopped up for a salad, particularly if you give it a quick wilt in a hot pan. It's also great in stir-fries and sautes and in asian soups (and other soups too).  As leaves become more mature they are more often served cooked. Pac Choi has a mild flavor. The leaves taste similar to Swiss chard and the stems (called ribs) are deliciously crispy and can be substituted for celery in recipes. We grow both purple and green varieties. My favorite way to cook it is to halve or quarter it lengthwise (depending on the size), brush it with olive or sunflower oil and throw it on the grill. Prepared this way, it makes an excellent and easy side. Store pac choi loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in your crisper drawer.         Garlic Scapes - (All Members) 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.  You can also make a mild pesto with scapes.             Euro Cucumber Parsley Napa Cabbage   Please share your comments about the veggie info you DON'T find, but wish was there!         Changes to Your Delivery? If you will be away some upcoming week, and need to make changes to your share delivery, let us know at least 1 week before the change. You can have your share donated to the Food Pantry, or you can skip your share delivery and you will retain a credit on your account toward the purchase of your next share.     Localvore Lore   From Elmore Mountain Bread we have a new bread this week: This week's bread is a honey whole wheat loaf mixed by our friend and fellow baker Cory Mast.  We met Cory last summer when he was riding his janky old ten speed around the Northeast checking out the abundance of wood-fired bakeries New England has to offer.  In the fall Cory will be baking at Tabor Bread, a new artisan bakery in Portland, Oregon.  To prepare for this new adventure Cory is hanging with us for the summer to practice his hand with a Turtle Rock wood-fired oven, try out some new recipes, and soak up the goodness of summertime in Vermont.  Cory's got a thing for whole grain breads and this honey whole wheat is a good example of the sort of bread he will be baking at Tabor Bread once he heads back West.  The ingredients are Milanaise Whole Wheat, Milanaise Rye, Milanaise Winter Wheat, Honey, Sea Salt and Sourdough. ~ Blair   And we are featuring a new cheese this week as well!  Farmer Paul Lisai started his grass based dairy Sweet Rowan Farmstead several years ago, working on his herd and and beginning to develop his producs.  He was off to a great start selling small batches of milk that he bottled in a rented creamery when that creamery burned in the Fall of 2011 (he shared that creamery space with Ploughgate, some of you may remember that cheese).  It was a blow, but Paul reorganized and built a creamery on his family farm and was up and running again with the new grass this spring.  Paul milks his small grass fed herd of Randall Lineback cows (a VT heritage breed) and sells his pasteurized milk direct to his customers.  It's great stuff, thick and creamy.  He also makes the farmer cheese that you will receive this week, delicious stuff that we all have been slathering onto sandwiches, crackers and bagels.  Most sites will receive a mix of plain and sundried tomato.  Enjoy!   The organic sunflower oil comes from John Williamson's State Line Farm in Shaftsbury, VT. This is a good all purpose mild flavored oil that you can use wherever a recipe calls for vegetable oil. We will send it in a plastic quart container, but we recommend transferring it to a glass container. If you will not use the oil quickly in your household, it's best to store it in the fridge. This is an unrefined product and it can spoil. In the fridge it will last indefinitely. It may get a little cloudy in your fridge but this is normal and the cloudiness will dissipate as it warms up. John and partner Steve Plummer did not start out with the intention to make sunflower oil for consumption but instead built Vermont's first on farm biodiesel facility pressing oilseeds grown on site to be used as bio fuel. But they are able to press the same seeds to create a very high quality oil for consumption, and we all are lucky beneficiaries. Photo at left of John's fields.     Recipes   Beet Green and Garlic Scape Bruschetta Adapted from a recipe from Epicurious. 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon minced garlic 2 garlic scapes, sliced 8 ounces beet greens, stems removed, leaves sliced 8 1/2-inch slices good crusty bread/or 16 slices of baguette coarse sea salt Lightly brush baguette slices with 3 tablespoons of oil. Arrange in a single layer on baking sheet. Broil on high until lightly golden and toasted, about 1 minute. Remove from oven. Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and scapes and stir 15 seconds. Add greens and sauté until tender, about 3 minutes. Place toasts on platter. Top with greens. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.   Optional (but delicious!) - after toasting the oiled bread slices, add a smear of Sweet Rowan Farmstead cheese before topping with the greens mixture.       Kohlrabi Slaw with Ginger Dressing & Scallions (Serves 2 as a side)   2 kohlrabi bulbs, peeled & julienned 1 large carrot, peeled & julienned 1/2 large cucumber, seeded & julienned 1 large scallion, sliced thin 2 tablespoons rice vinegar Juice of 1 lime 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon mirin 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger 1 pinch salt 1 pinch sugar In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, lime juice, oil, mirin, & ginger. Add salt & sugar to taste. Peel & julienne the kohlrabi, carrot, & cucumber, or use grating blade of food processer. Slice the scallions. Toss all the vegetables together in a large bowl.   Add the dressing to the vegetables and mix all together until the vegetables are coated. Set aside in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Right before serving, sprinkle with a pinch of salt & toss to combine.     Zucchini Garlic Scape Pesto This recipe caught my eye and has been well reviewed.  It calls for more zucchini than you may receive, but don't let that stop you.  The concept is solid.  I hesitate to provide a garlic scape pesto recipe since you won't have loads of scapes to work with, but augmenting with the zuch and with the flavors of each?  it's perfect.   Spread this pesto on bread, or bruschetta, on pasta or rice, or gobble up on its own. 2-3 zucchini or summer squash 1 bunch garlic scapes 1 banana pepper, seeded, diced (you can skip this and use a small pinch of cracked red pepper) 1/3 cup olive oil (more or less) Sea salt, cracked pepper Few mint leaves (optional) (if making pasta, reserve some pasta water and put it in)   Salt zucchini, allow to sit for 20-30 minutes. Use paper towels to absorb moisture. This is not so important if the zucchini are small. For this recipe medium size is preferred, but it truly doesn’t matter. I used all sizes and types in this recipe. Saute all zucchini in olive oil on low heat, until soft, not mushy, but not crunchy. (not stir fry style). In a food processor, add chopped scapes (cut off ends., salt, pepper, banana pepper. Pulse until scapes seem as small as you can get them, adding olive oil a little at a time. Add in cooked zucchini and process. You have to judge here if you need to have more olive oil, or salt, pepper, or cracked red pepper.     Beet and Kohlrabi Latkes with Horseradish Sour Cream Recipe Small veggie only members, could make this with beets and zuch!   Sauce 1/2 cup sour cream 1-1/2 tablespoons prepared horseradish 1 scallion, chopped pinch of salt Latkes: 1 medium-small kohlrabi 1 large or 2 small beets 1 small onion 1 egg, beaten 2-3 tablespoons flour salt and pepper cooking oil Mix sauce ingredients in a bowl. Peel kohlrabi, beets and onion. Coarsely grate the vegetables. Place them in a strainer and press out liquid. Transfer vegetables to a bowl and mix them with egg, flour, and salt and pepper to taste. The mixture should cling together loosely. Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium flame for a few minutes. (Skip this initial heating of the skillet if it is nonstick.) Generously film the bottom of the skillet with cooking oil and let it heat until hot but not smoking. For each latke, spoon 1/3 cup of the mixture into the skillet and press it out flat. Fry latkes until cooked through, 5-7 minutes per side. Serve with sauce. Makes 2-4 servings.