Good Eats Weekly Newsletter - June 28, 2017



Localvore Members 
& Regular Veggie Only Share Members
take a LIGHT GREEN/TAN BAG

This week your bag will contain:

Spinach or Mesclun, Head Lettuce, Pearl Onions OR Scallions, Beet Greens, Cilantro, Garlic Scapes

Out of the Bag:
Tomatoes and Strawberries





Half Veggie Only Members
take a YELLOW BAG containing:

Spinach or Mesclun, Lacinato Kale, Garlic Scapes, Cucumber,

Out of the Bag:

Tomatoes and Strawberries




Localvore Offerings Include:

Butterworks Farm Yogurt (pick one flavor)
Golden Crops Organic Oats
Tangletown Farm Eggs


Tell your Neighbors: We are Still Accepting Summer Sign-Ups!

We are still accepting Sign-ups for the Summer Share, so tell your friends!

We will pro-rate the cost of your share when you join late. Pro-rated prices are listed on the signup form.

The first Meat Share is next week! Sign up now to add the Meat Share.
Call for Egg Cartons!

Tangletown Farm and Axel would like to reuse your clean egg cartons! Please bring any extra paper egg cartons (no plastic or styrofoam, just paper, 12-egg cartons please) to your pickup site, stacked with any other cartons for our driver to pick up next week. Thanks!


Around the Farm

Happy end-of-Pollinator Week! Last week I went on a tour around the farm with Pete, Tim (our Wholesale Manager), and Martin (our Waterbury Farm Market Manager). It was very informative and I'll be sharing what I learned with you throughout the next few weeks. One thing I learned about is what our farm is doing to help protect pollinators - a super important part of any farm.

We grow a lot of cover crops - plants that help enrich soil between veggie plantings. Hairy vetch is one crop we grow that not only helps enrich our soil with nitrogen, prevents erosion, increases soil health, and conserves soil moisture but also serves as food and habitat for our bumblebee friends.

Pollinators are important because they transfer critical genetic material between plants, allowing plants to reproduce. Pollinators, including a wide variety of bee species and butterflies, are responsible for 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat! Many species are unfortunately declining rapidly. There's hope we can revive these populations in time. 

Vetch (pictured to the right) is starting to flower across our fields. We also grow crops like buckwheat, clover, and peas that are good for soil and good for bees. So if you see pretty purple flowers in an open field, don't pick them! They're working hard.

You'll notice that your shares look a little different this week than your Friday "sneak peek". Rain hit us hard this weekend so we had to adapt. And unfortunately, I just saw Pete while I was packing up your strawberries into quarts and he wasn't sure if we were going to have a mesclun mix this week or a spinach mix, so it'll be a little bit of a surprise!

~ Taylar

Storage and Use Tips 

Baby Greens - This week's salad greens is either mesclun or baby spinach. The greens are already washed and ready to eat! Leaving the bag sealed until your ready to eat ensures a longer shelf life. Once you open the bag, or if you re-wash the greens, they should be eaten sooner. I often keep greens in my fridge for at least 3 - 5 days, often a week, and they're still good!

Garlic Scapes Garlic Scapes are here!  The tall, curly seed stalks that a garlic plant sends up at this time of year are a short season delicacy. Garlic scapes are trimmed from the garlic plants so that the plant will put energy into fattening the garlic cloves in the ground, not making seed. Garlic scapes have a nice garlic flavor, without the bite of garlic cloves. These scapes are young and tender and they may be eaten raw or cooked. You can chop and add to stir fry recipes, pasta dishes, guacamole, salsas, and vegetable dishes.

Strawberries It's strawberry season! It's a real sign of summer when these sweet juicy berries start drooping on their vines, just begging to be gobbled up. Strawberries are a perennial crop, first cultivated from wild varieties in France in the 18th century. We're excited to be carrying on the tradition by growing them at our farm and working into the CSA share! Strawberry season doesn't last long, but its well worth it!  We're excited to be growing these gems for you on our farm. There are a few main guidelines about keeping strawberries looking and tasting their best at home: keep them in the fridge unless you intend to use them within the day; don't wash them and keep the stems on until you're ready to use them; remove any that start to look sad to keep the rest of the bunch happy. I doubt you'll need these storage tips though, as you might just want to eat them right away! PLEASE, ONLY TAKE 1 QUART.

Beet Greens (full shares):  The tender young 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 sauteed 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, spinach). They are milder in flavor than mustard greens, but a bit stronger than spinach. They are delicious.

Cilantro (full shares): 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 aroma 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.

Tomatoes: PLEASE TAKE 1 BAG OF TOMATOES. We have a variety of tomatoes available right now so you may receive some nice sized red slicers, some heirloom light pinks, or a mix of small sized red, orange, yellow, and pink toms. This week you have nice fixings for a fresh salsa. I can't get enough of them sliced, salted, and served on a hunk of toasted bread. Store tomatoes at room temperature. Best to take them out of the bag as they may ripen faster inside the bag.  


Veggie Storage and Use Tips are on our website too, so please bookmark the recipe and storage tip section.  I am sure you will find it useful.


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 Shelf, or you can skip your share delivery and you will retain a credit on your account toward the purchase of your next share.

Sorry, we cannot make changes to your share after noon on Monday.

Localvore Lore

A breakfast delight this week! Back by popular demand... organic Rolled Oats! These oats come from Golden Crops Mill out of Compton, Quebec - just over the border. Members have been hankering for these oats to be back in the pantry share, and I'm excited they're back! Michel Gaudreau grows quite a few different grains on his farm and also mills grains for organic growers in the area. He has a great operation in a beautiful setting surrounded by his fields - I can verify this because earlier this spring, I drove up to Compton to pick up our year's supply of oats! It was a beautiful sunny day to take the hour-long drive up there. Golden Crops Mill makes many organic grains available locally that we might not have access to otherwise. These are beautiful, clean, organic rolled oats, ideal for oatmeal, granola, cookies, or that fruit crisp topping you're about to make!

Our favorite organic Yogurt! In the last Spring Survey, members wanted more yogurt! Here's the first of it - three types of yogurt from Butterworks Farm in Westfield. Please choose 1 flavor. Jack and Anne Lazor are "Early Giants" of the organic movement in Vermont, having started their dairy and grain farm in the 1970s. You can read more about the Lazor family in a recent Seven Days. The Lazors are facing a tough decision that impacts many of Vermont's farmers - how to transition the family farm to the next generation. In Vermont, 91% of our farmers aged 45 or older do not have anyone younger than them working on the farm. Watch a video about the Lazors here, and plan a visit to their farm for fresh smoothies on August 19 as part of Kingdom Farm and Food Days

Alternatively, we're happy to bring you fresh eggs from a young farmer (and one of Vermont's few women-owned farms), Lila Bennett of Tangletown Farm. Tangletown is located in West Glover and uses a rotational grazing schedule to ensure the hens receive a varied diet. 


Recipes

Garlic Scape Pesto
2 cups of scapes – you’ll have to chop them some in order to measure.
3/4 cup grated parmesan
3/4 cup olive oil
2 T pine nuts

Blend all of the ingredients until smooth, (sometimes I add the pine nuts after blending if I want that crunch) and fold into a pound of cooked, hot pasta. Oh, my! (The recipe may also be used as a dip)

Crostini with Garlic Scape Cream Cheese

8 ounces of cream cheese (you can substitute ricotta if you like)
¼ cup finely diced garlic scapes
1 teaspoon sweet basil, chopped as finely as possible
Salt and pepper to taste
1 baguette
2 to 4 small tomatoes, sliced thinly

Preheat the grill to a low heat.

Slice baguette thinly. Chop the garlic scapes and basil by hand, or use a food processor. Toss the cream cheese in a mixer or food processor, toss in garlic scapes and basil, pulse first, then mix until combined.

Spread the cream cheese mixture over top of the bread slices. Place each one on a rimmed cookie sheet. You could also use a pizza or grilling stone for this recipe.vTop with tomatoes.

Place the cookie sheet on the grill, place the lid down and allow to cook for about 2 to 4 minutes. You just want to toast the bread, and slightly melt the cheese.

Alternately you could grill the bread first then top after. Personally I like the cheese a bit melted.
Remove from grill and plate.

Serve immediately.

Kale Garlic Scape Pistachio Pesto

1 bunch kale, thick stems removed, torn into pieces
1 bunch basil, stems removed
3 tablespoons Garlic Scape Paste
⅓ cup toasted pistachios
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Blanch kale in boiling water for one minute; rinse with cold water, drain and squeeze dry. Place kale, basil, Garlic Scape Pesto and pistachios in food processor bowl; turn processor on and add olive oil until thick paste forms. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Grilled Garlic Scapes
See the full Scallop and Scape recipe here

Garlic Scapes
1 Tbsp olive oil
⅛ tsp salt
fresh cracked pepper to taste

Wind scapes into flat spirals, which you then place on your skewers while maintaining the flat shape of the spiral. The fact that garlic scapes have a natural curl make this process a little easier.

Once skewered, brush the garlic scapes with 1 Tbsp of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill over direct medium heat for 8-10 minutes with the lid closed as much as possible, turning once or twice, until they begin to turn golden-brown. Remove from the grill and set aside.

Scallion Pancakes
This same formula can be used to make pancakes with other members of the onion family, especially shallots and spring onions. I use peanut oil for this recipe, but that's only because I associate it with soy sauce. If you omit the soy -– making these pancakes a perfect accompaniment to braised foods that use European seasonings -- you can use any vegetable oil or even a good olive oil.  Recipe from The New York Times.

Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 bunches scallions or spring onions, about 1 pound
1 egg
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 cup flour
Peanut, canola or olive oil as needed

Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil while you trim the scallions. Roughly chop three bunches, and mince the fourth.  Add the larger portion of scallions to the water, and cook about 5 minutes, or until tender. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. Puree the cooked scallions in a blender, adding just enough of the cooking liquid to allow the machine to do its work.

Mix the puree with the egg and soy, then gently stir in the flour until blended. Add pepper to taste, then the reserved minced scallions. Film a nonstick or well-seasoned skillet with oil, and turn the heat to medium-high. Drop the batter into the pan by the tablespoon or quarter cup, and cook about 2 minutes to a side, or until lightly browned. If necessary, the pancakes can be kept warm in a 200-degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Greens With Garlic and Chile 
Here's a simple classic you can use this week with beet greens, kale or the spinach in the share.

1 bunch (about 1 lb.) greens of your choice 
1 Tbsp. salt (for boiling water) plus more to taste
1 to 2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 to 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 to 3 whole, small dried chiles (such as arbol) or 1 fresh red chile such as fresno, sliced 
Lemon juice (optional but delicious)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, clean greens and cut off any tough stems. Chop greens into fairly large pieces and set aside. Add 1 tbsp. salt and chopped greens to boiling water (except for spinach, you can skip this step if using spinach). Cook until greens wilt, 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on toughness of the greens you're using. Drain and immediately rinse with cold water until cool.

Use your hands to squeeze out as much water as possible from the greens. Set aside. Heat a large frying pan or saute pan over high heat. Add oil, garlic, and chile. Cook, stirring, until fragrant and just starting to turn golden, about 30 seconds. Add greens and stir to combine. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until greens are tender and flavors combine, 3 to 5 minutes. Serve greens hot, warm, or at room temperature.

Strawberry Crisp
This week's share screams strawberry crisp!

1 quart strawberries, sliced if large
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup margarine (or butter)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar

Directions: Combine strawberries and sugar and place in 8" square baking dish.
Mix margarine, oats, flour, and brown sugar until crumbly.

Sprinkle on top of berries. Bake at 375 degrees until brown on top, about 35 minutes.

Scallion & Garlic Scape Tortilla

1 bunch garlic scapes, roughly chopped
1 bunch scallions, biased cut
¼ cup water
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Salt & pepper
2 tbsp. olive oil

Place garlic and scallions in a 10 inch skillet with 1 tsp. oil, 1/4 cup water and a pinch of salt. Cook covered over medium high heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain well. Beat eggs with salt and pepper. Add remaining oil to skillet. When oil is hot, shake skillet to spread greens evenly, add eggs. Cover and cook over medium low heat until top is set.

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.
Quick Oatmeal
2 cups quick oats
3 cups water/milk (2 cups water, 1 cup milk is a nice mix)
1/4 tsp salt
1 TB butter (optional)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and salt to a boil. Slowly, stir the oats and let the water return to a rolling boil. Immediately, reduce heat to a simmer. Stir in the cinnamon and butter and continue to cook on low for 1 minute. Then add the milk and cook for another 2 minutes.

Nova Scotia Oatcakes
Amy and her family spent 4 years in Nova Scotia before moving back To VT. Because of the Scottish heritage there, Scottish oatcakes are popular. Stop at any coffee shop and in place of the ubiquitous biscotti you will nearly always find oatcakes. These lightly sweet, creamy cookies are great to take along as a healthy snack. With some experimentation you could substitute honey for the sugar.... With this recipe, she substitutes 3/4 cup honey for the sugar, reduces the water to approximately 1/2 cup, and increases the baking soda to 1.5 tsp. Serve with topped strawberries!

3 cups quick rolled oats
3 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cup shortening
2/3 – 3/4 cup cold water

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together. Cut in shortening. Add enough water to form a rather stiff, pastry-like dough. Roll 3/8 ” thick and cut into circles. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes on a greased baking sheet.
  

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