Pete's Musings
We hope you join our rapidly approaching spring share! The bounty coming your way
includes tender baby sweet salad turnips, succulent chard, super sweet overwintered kale, the old Vermonter's favorite beet greens,  crunchy
napa cabbage, mild and sweet head lettuce, sweet stored carrots
followed by new spring tunnel carrots, flavorful and nutritious
greenhouse celery, baby beets in all colors, long tender euro cukes (my
favorite spring veggie), greens of every shape, size, color and flavor,
sweet crunchy pac choi, everybody's favorite spring kohlrabi, scallions
and baby onions, baby zukes, and of course plenty of potatoes, cabbage,
and other stored crops from last fall's epic harvest.
Fresh Greens end of March Last Year
There
are many exciting things happening at Pete's Greens these days. We have
our best crew ever with lots of young folks stepping up and taking on
leadership roles. We're buying the neighboring farm which will give us
more crop land and the possibility of using the new barn for raising
lots of critters for meat and manure (more to follow on this
development). We're in the midst of a careful 6 month long analysis of
the business that will lead to a better understanding of our strengths
and weaknesses. We appreciate your support and are excited to see what
the year to come will bring. ~ Pete
In the washhouse today, left to right:
Cori Jean, Greg, Dan, Todd, Andrew, Annie, Melissa & Iris with Isaac in the background, and Molly.
Missing
from the photo: Pete (busy somewhere!), Amy (writing this now), Tim
(taking the photo), Sara (doing Good Eats Spring share data entry!),
Steve & Kevin (working on equipment), Deb (in the kitchen).
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Spring Share Starts NEXT week February 20th
**** THERE'S STILL TIME TO JOIN! ****
PAYMENT CHECKS MUST BE RECEIVED AT THE FARM BY THE WEEKEND
IN ORDER FOR YOUR SHARE TO BEGIN FEB 20TH
local goodness that supports your health and community.
 We
will continue to grow shoots and and winter salad greens through the
early months of the share while also providing you with the diversity of
storage crops you have come to expect. By April you can expect a wide
variety of fresh spring greens, from mesclun and baby spinach and
arugula to pac choi, chard and various varieties of Asian greens. Also
in April, winter storage crops give way to fresh spring onions, baby
beets, scallions, spring turnips and by May and June, many more
vegetables are added to the list. We'll continue to supply you with our
frozen summer veggies too until the variety of crops increase later on
in the shares. As always, we will continue to bring you a variety of
localvore items.
Please visit the Spring Share page for more info.
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Storage and Use Tips
Salad Greens Mix - this week our salad mix is spinach and sunflower shoots, with a bit of radish and pea shoots mixed in. Enjoy!
Goldball Turnips- Goldball Turnips
are yellow turnips that tend to have a long tail rather than a round
shape, they are creamy yellow on the inside. Store in a plastic bag in
your crisper drawer indefinitely. They are great boiled and mashed with
butter and caramelized onions, or eaten raw such as in the cous-cous
recipe below.
Valentine Radishes - a special treat for you, just in
time for Valentines Day! These Asian radishes are also known as Beauty
Heart or Watermelon. The exterior of this radish is quite nondescript,
they look just like a plain greenish whitish turnip. And they can also
be quite large, even softball size which is not what comes to mind when
one imagines a radish. But cut into one, and they reveal a distinctive
bright pink interior . Sweet, with just a hint of a radish bite,
valentines are great in salads, slaw, or as crudites. You can also add
to soups, or saute thinly sliced or shredded radish in butter with a
pinch of salt. Cook lightly without browning. A stunning bright pink
addition to any meal! Store valentine radishes loosely wrapped in a
plastic bag in your crisper drawer.
Frozen Green or Red Peppers - Our
frozen veggies are grown on our farm, come in from the field and go
straight into the freezer. Our peppers are washed, chopped, bagged and
frozen within hours of harvest. Frozen peppers won't be crisp like fresh peppers but retain all the flavor and yummy summer goodness.
To use them, simply remove package from the freezer, slice open bag,
and then either thaw and add to your dish, or chop just what you need
frozen and toss directly into your skillet frozen. If you use the
latter method, you can toss unused frozen back into the freezer for
later use. (This is how I use all the frozebn veggies).
We also have Frozen Eggplant -or- Frozen Stir Fry Veggies this week. Green Bag people will take one or the other of these.
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Localvore Lore
Blair and Andrew are shaping loaves of their Elmore Mountain Country French Bread
for Good Eats today. One of our favorite loaves, crusty on the
outside, but soft and chewy and flavorful on the inside, they bake this
loaf with Ben Gleason's Snake River Sifted Flour, Quebec Milanaise
Winter Blend, Quebec Milanaise Rye, sourdough culture and sea salt.
 For this final week of the share, we have special new Vermont honey from Tim McFarline,
a beekeeper from Benson, VT. Tim's honey is raw, and has never been
heated so it retains all vitality and enzymes. We keep bees on the farm
and winters in Vermont are challenging. The bees head into winter in
hives packed with honey and pollen which they need to keep themselves
fed through the cold months. The bees form a ball inside the colony,
with their queen in the middle and their gently buzzing activity keeps
the whole cluster of bees warm enough to survive. This bee cluster
moves through the hive, and the bees eat their stored honey as they move
across the frames. They don't go outside unless there is a special
sunny day with temps near 40-50, then they might slip out for a brief
flight that will allow them to eliminate wastes. Sometimes the bees
make it just fine into February and March but if April is long and cold,
the bees can starve in the spring while they await the first polllen
available on the budding trees. Sad when this happens. Our job as
beekeepers is to make sure the bees go into winter with colonies full of
honey, to wrap the colonies with an insulating layer to help the bees
keep heat in, and to check on them in spring, often feeding them to get
them through to first pollen. It's gratifying when the bees make it
through to another season. We are grateful for the bees without whom
our crops could not be pollinated.
And brought to you by Deb's hens at Pa Pa Doodles Farm, the last Fall/Winter delivery of Farm Fresh Eggs.
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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 I can stop your share delivery and you will retain a
credit on your account toward the purchase of your next share.
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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't 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 Friday 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 the following week.
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Recipes
Sweet and Sour Radish Salad
This is a beautifully colored salad to serve for Valentines Day!
2 cups thinly shredded watermelon radish (about 2 medium)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs white vinegar
1 tbs sugar
Peel
the radishes and shred into 1/8'' thickness. Put into a bowl and add
the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and marinate in refrigerator for
about 20 minutes or so. Enjoy!
Kitchen Sink Cous-Cous Salad
This is an easy salad to put together using any vegetables in your fridge. This could also be made with quinoa.
Cous-Cous or quinoa
Beets
Turnips
Radishes
Herbs
Drizzle of Olive Oil
1 Lemon
Cook
cous-cous or quinoa according to package directions, let cool. Finely
chop or slice vegetables in your fridge, such as beets, radishes,
turnips. Finely chop herbs. Mix cous-cous, vegetables, and herbs.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to your liking. Drizzle with olive oil to
hold salad together. Squeeze the juice from one lemon and
refrigerate.
Carrots and Turnips Au Gratin
This
is a delicious variation on au gratin that features something besides
potatoes. I sometimes substitute rutabaga for the turnips or parnips
for the carrots.
1-1/2 lbs carrots, peeled and sliced
1-1/4 lbs turnips, peeled and sliced
1 can (10-3/4oz) cream of celery soup, undiluted
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tbs butter, melted
Place
carrots and turnips in a large saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a
boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered for 5-7 minutes or until
crisp-tender.
Meanwhile,
in a small saucepan, combine the soup, milk, and pepper. Bring to a
boil; remove from the heat. Stir in cheese until melted. Drain
vegetables; transfer to an 11-in x 7-in baking dish coated with cooking
spray. Pour sauce over the vegetables.
Combine
bread crumbs and butter; sprinkle over top. Bake, uncovered, at 400
for 15-20 minutes or until vegetables are tender and crumbs are golden
brown.
Mes
Mexican Corn and jJalapeno Soup
Vegetable Stew
Veg
Vegetable Stew
Here's
a delicious stew recipe that you can follow exactly as written below or
improvise. Swap in any veggies you've got laying around, use up your
frozen veggies, or even throw it all into the crockpot for about 4-6
hours on low, or until potatoes are tender.
1 onion, chopped
1 tbs garlic
1 bag frozen eggplant, thawed, OR 1 bag frozen stir fry mix, thawed
1 red pepper, chopped or use some of your thawed frozen peppers
1 zucchini
6 potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
3 tomatoes cut into chunks
1 chili pepper, chopped
1 tsp rosemary
1 tbs red wine vinegar
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup frozen peas
2 tbs parsley, chopped
Preheat
oven to 350. Combine all ingredients in a large casserole dish except
for peas and parsley; stir well to combine. Bake for about 1 hour or
until potatoes are tender, stirring once or twice during cooking.
When the potatoes are tender, add the peas and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and stir in chopped parsley.
Honey Roasted Carrots
Simple, easy and delicious.
6-8 carrots, peeled
3tbs olive oil
1/4 cup honey
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat
oven to 350. Place the whole carrots into a baking dish, and drizzle
with olive oil. Mix until the carrots are completely covered with oil.
Pour on the honey, then season to taste with salt and pepper; mix until
evenly coated.
Bake in the oven until just tender, or to your desired tenderness, 40 minutes to 1 hour.
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