Good Eats Newsletter - February 11, 2009

FINAL DELIVERY OF THE PERIOD

This Week's Share Contains

Mix of Sunflower & Radish Shoots; Mixed Colorful Carrots; Daikon Radish; Red & White Beets; Green Cabbage; Shallots; Garlic; Frozen Squash Puree; Butterworks Farm Organic Yogurt; Vermont Soy Maple-Ginger Baked Tofu; Champlain Orchards Apple Cider; Oyster -or- Shiitake Mushrooms from Amir Habib.

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

Carnivore Shares: Pete's Chicken Stock
-OR-
Vegetarian Shares: Rhapsody Tempeh

Storage and Use Tips
Beets - One of our shareholders, Margi Swett came up with an idea for beets that she thought others might like. Here's what she had to say, "I've never eaten many beets and wasn't sure what to do with the variety and abundance I've received. My favorite has been to use them like 'winter tomatoes' in salads. I roast them and cube them and keep 'em in a tupperware container and add to our salads. Lovely color, and great flavor as well." In addition to throwing your pre-roasted beets into salads, they also make an easy addition to rice, soups and casseroles.
Daikon Radish - Great sliced thinly in soups and stir-fries, or grated in slaws and salads, these radishes will keep well wrapped loosely in a plastic bag in your crisper drawer.
Mushrooms - These delicate mushrooms are best used within a few days after pick-up. You will receive shiitake or oyster mushrooms. Remove the stems of shiitake mushrooms before cooking. Save the stems for making a stock. Store mushrooms in the refrigerator in a paper bag.

Share Wrap-up
I can't believe how quickly we have reached the final delivery of the share. THANK YOU to all who have participated this share period. We truly appreciate your support of organic, local agriculture and our farm in particular.

This is the first share period that I've done the localvore buying and deciding what goes into each delivery. It's been a blast designing the shares and finding recipes for everyone to try. We hope that you've enjoyed the contents we've brought to you each week.

To make sure we stay on track, we send out a survey at the end of each share period. Please check your email later this week for yours. We would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to give us your overall feedback on the share. We are always striving to improve and your input keeps us honest.

We hope that most, if not all of you, will be with us next share, along with some new faces. If you decide to skip the Spring Share, we'll keep you on our (less frequent) mailing list to keep you updated with upcoming bulk orders, share announcements and general farm news. Thank you again for being with us this fall and winter! -Nancy

It's Not Too Late to Sign-Up
Next week is our first Spring Share delivery. We can still get you in for the first delivery if your envelope arrives at the farm by this FRIDAY. We'll be sending out confirmations for the Spring Share this weekend or Monday. We are currently enrolling for the following shares:
Spring Share - Feb. 18th thru June 10th
Summer Share - June 17th thru October 7th
Meat Share - One in the spring and one in the summer
Enroll in the Summer Share by April 1st for a FREE Short Sleeve T-shirt!!!

Delivery Changes for the Spring
We have decided to make some changes to our delivery route at the last minute to carry us through at least the spring and summer shares. We are adding Sweet Clover in Essex to our route starting next week, February 18th. Also, this will be our final delivery to NOFA in Richmond. While we appreciate our shareholders in Richmond and cherish our relationship with everyone at NOFA, we don't have enough deliveries along that leg into town to justify the trip. We are busily searching for a spot at the Richmond I89 exit and will announce immediately if and when we find a new home.

Upcoming Classes and Conferences
The Vermont Foodbank’s Salvation Farms Lamoille Valley Gleaning Group is running a number of classes this winter and spring. Pre-registration is required and donations for the Vermont Foodbank are accepted. To register and find directions please email Rebecca Beidler or call her at (802)472-8280.
Sunday February 22, 3-6pm
A Winter Veggie Exploration
Hardwick United Church
This workshop will focus on cooking a variety of simple dishes with root vegetables. Learn what all of those roots are and find out what to do with them! Hands on cooking and tasting included. This class is being taught by Elena Gustavson, Sterling College Kitchen Manager, and former founder and manager of Pete's Greens Good Eats CSA. Find out more...

Saturday March 14, 2-4pm
Seed Ordering and Garden Planning Workshop
VT Foodbank’s Manosh Branch, Wolcott
Now is the time to plan your garden! High Mowing Seeds and Salvation Farms staff will lead you through the process of making small scale garden or container growing plans and assist you with picking vegetable varieties and seed quantities appropriate for your needs. Seeds will be available for purchase at a 10% discount and will benefit the Vermont Foodbank.

Saturday March 28, 4-6pm
Seed Starting with High Mowing Seeds
HMS greenhouse, Wolcott
Think starting seeds is only for commercial growers? Want to brush up on or expand your seed starting skills? Then you should join Salvation Farms and High Mowing Seeds for some hands-on experience starting a variety of seeds for transplant! Many sizes and varieties of seeds will be covered. Help High Mowing Seeds start seeds for their trial garden, and take home some starts of your own! In-depth instruction provided.
NOFA Vermont's Annual Winter Conference
Grow it Here! Innovations Toward Local Food Sovereignty
FEBRUARY 14 &15, 2009
VERMONT TECHNICAL COLLEGE, RANDOLPH, VT
Download the Brochure

Localvore Lore
Wow! We have quite a final share for you this week. It is with much fanfare that we deliver the Vermont Soy Maple-Ginger Baked Tofu. We are getting it before any of the stores for everyone in the share to try. Tim and I sampled it a couple of weeks back and agreed that it's a delicious new offering and we needed to have it in the share!

Vermont Soy has been thinking about doing a baked line of tofu ever since they introduced their firm-style in 2007. Baked tofu, already marinated and cooked, can go directly into recipes, no preparation required.

Jamie Griffith from Vermont Soy was very enthusiastic about developing the baked tofu. It's his recipe that you will be trying this week. According to Sophia Light Smith at Vermont Soy, "We really wanted to flavor the first baked tofu with maple. It's the quintessential Vermont ingredient." In addition to the organic Vermont soybeans and maple syrup, the baked tofu ingredients include wheat-free tamari, maple syrup, garlic powder, and ginger powder.

The Maple-Ginger Baked tofu will be making its way into local stores in mid-March. Vermont Soy also has two more baked tofu varieties on its radar. If you have any suggestions for flavorings, or want to provide feedback on the Maple-Ginger Baked in today's share, please contact Sophia Light Smith at Vermont Soy.

I'm so glad that we were able to get Amir's mushrooms in the share again. We were scheduled to have them in January, but Amir lost his entire crop during the cold snap. On the night that it hit 10-below outside in Colchester, Amir mistakenly turned the thermostat off in his growing environment. When he came back in the next morning, it was in the 20's where the mushrooms were-the coldest it had ever been. It decimated everything and he had to start growing anew at that point. Happily, Amir's new crop of mushrooms grew just fine and he harvested everything he had today and delivered it to the farm.

Everyone will also be receiving a gallon of Champlain Orchards apple cider and a quart of organic yogurt from Butterworks farm. There's a mix of plain and flavors, non-fat and whole milk, at the sites. Please take a look through what's there when you arrive.

For the vegetarians, we scored some Vermont-made tempeh from Rhapsody in Montpelier. In addition to being a tempeh producer, Rhapsody runs a vegan buffet next door to the Savoy Theater. Here's what their website has to say about their tempeh:
Tempeh (pronounced tem-pay) is a traditional cultured soyfood from Indonesia. It is made from whole soybeans that are inoculated with natural spores. The soybeans are then incubated for 24 hours, and the result is tempeh. Because of this natural fermentation process, tempeh is one of the best sources of digestible vegetable protein, carbohydrate, and fat. In addition, it contains B vitamins, zinc, calcium, manganese, magnesium, iron, and fiber.

We make our tempeh in small batches in Montpelier, using local and organically grown beans from Aurora Farms in Charlotte, Vermont. Because we source the beans from a local farmer and oversee the transporting, as well as cleaning and processing them ourselves, we are able to insure that the integrity of the beans is not compromised in the transition from farm to table.
For the carnivores, we have Pete's chicken stock. Jodi has been working hard on our recipe and I'm sure you'll agree that she has done a great job! This week's stock has more chicken flavor and gelatinous consistency than the last batch we gave out. Not only will it make a great base for soups, but should reduce beautifully in pan sauces and gravies.

Enjoy!

Recipes
Cider Pan-glazed Tempeh Recipe
I adapted this recipe from 101cookbooks.com. Heidi Swanson served it over cooked wheat berries and kale. As long as you've got it in the pantry, why not serve it over cooked barley with a bit of sauteed cabbage. Serves 4.

1 cup apple cider
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
2 teaspoons tamari (or soy sauce)
1 1/2 tablespoons mirin
2 teaspoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
roughly 10 ounces of tempeh or extra-firm tofu (not baked)
2 tablespoons olive or sunflower oil

Put the cider in a small bowl. Squeeze the grated ginger over the bow to extract the juices, then discard the pulp. Add the tamari, mirin, and maple syrup, ground coriander, and garlic. Mix together and set aside.

Cut the tempeh (or tofu) into thin-ish, bite-sized pieces, and if working with tofu, pat dry with a paper towel.

Put the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the tempeh and fry for 5 minutes, or until golden underneath. Turn and cook the other side for another 5 minutes, or until golden. Pour the cider mixture into the pan and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced to a lovely thick glaze. Turn the tempeh once more during this time and spoon the sauce over the tofu from time to time.

Serve the tofu drizzled with any remaining sauce.

Miso Soup with Maple-Baked Tofu and Udon Noodles
Quick, satisfying and delicious this recipe easily comes together with the share ingredients after a hectic day at work. Serves 4.

5 oz (150 grams) udon noodles
2 tsp sunflower oil
2 cloves garlic minced
2 shallots sliced thin
1 quart chicken stock
2 carrots sliced thin
2 daikon radish sliced thin
2 cups chopped cabbage
8 oz mushrooms sliced thin
8 oz maple-ginger baked tofu, cubed
2 TB miso diluted in 1/4 cup of hot water
tamari or soy sauce to taste

Boil udon noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse and set aside. Meanwhile,
heat the oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add garlic and shallots, saute for 2 minutes. Add chicken stock, carrots, daikon and cabbage. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add mushrooms and simmer for 10 minutes more. Add noodles and tofu and simmer until heated through. Remove from heat. Stir in miso and tamari. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Squash Cornbread
One of our shareholders, Rich Conte, wrote, "I wanted to share this recipe for squash cornbread I have been using for quite a long time now and we love it. It is a natural considering the great squash and cornmeal you provide." Enjoy!

3/4 cup cornmeal
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup cooked squash puree
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup oil or melted butter
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
1 TB cold butter, cut into tiny pieces

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter an 8" cast iron skillet. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Whisk the egg and oil into the squash puree. Add to the dry ingredients. Mix lightly. Add the corn kernels and mix just until combined. Pour into prepared cast iron pan. Dot with butter. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until tester comes out clean.

Shoot Salad with Chiffonade of Beet and Radish
Adapted from Epicurious.com. To make this a main course salad, sprinkle on cubed baked tofu and serve with squash cornbread. Serves 6 as a first course.

5 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
2 tsp minced shallot
salt and pepper to taste
6 tablespoons olive or sunflower oil
1 tsp sesame oil (optional)
1 pound beets, cooked, chilled, peeled, and grated coarse

2 cups coarsely grated daikon radish
4 cups shoots, rinsed well and spun dry

In a small bowl whisk together the vinegar, shallot and salt and pepper to taste, add the oil in a stream, whisking, and whisk the dressing until it is emulsified. In a bowl toss the beets with one third of the dressing, in another bowl toss the radish with half the remaining dressing, and in a large bowl toss the shoots with the remaining dressing. Arrange the shoots, the beets, and the radish decoratively on 6 salad plates.

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