Good Eats Newsletter - May 22, 2013

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

This week your bag will contain:
Baby Spinach; Rainbow Chard; Vulcan Lettuce; Chives; Potatoes; Carrots; Celeriac; Yellow Onions

and OUT of the Bag
Frozen Hot Peppers

Localvore Offerings Include:
Elmore Mountain Flax Bread
Chicken OR Veggie Broth
Cellars Landaff Cheese


IMPORTANT! Please take Veggie Broth ONLY
if you are signed up as a
Localvore Vegetarian or a Pete's Pantry Vegetarian.
Otherwise take a chicken broth.
Please check Names list at your pick up site if you are unsure.

Small Veggie Only Members
take a YELLOW BAG
containing:

Baby Spinach; Rainbow Chard; Vulcan Lettuce; Potatoes; Carrots

and OUT of the Bag
Frozen Hot Peppers



Our Farm Stand is Open!
It's not only filled with Pete's Greens veggies, it's loaded with all sorts of localvore items from our favorite producers.  You can also get your veggie starts and flowers there!
Can't get to Craftsbury?  We offer many of these items in our localvore share.  If you're not already a localvore or pantry member, sign up for a summer share!

Only 3 Spring Share deliveries weeks left!

Summer share begins Jun 19th

If you haven't signed up for Summer yet but plan to, please do!  So helpful to us to be able to plan our delivery route in advance and we can only do that if we know we have enough people signed up at each site. 



The Summer Share brings you great value and ease as we deliver you the freshest selection of in season vegetables week after week.


Around the Farm


Top left:  A lush as can be cover crop of rye and vetch. 
Top right: Kevin tilling in the cover crop, prepping land for fall carrots.
Below:  Iris, Lucy the dog, and Tim hanging out at the farmstand this weekend.
Bottom: no space gets left unplanted at the farm!  Mustard greens growing in between the moveable greenhouses.


New Delivery Sites for Summer!
We want to establish a few new CSA pick up sites and have the following locations in mind (not all will get to become sites but hopefully we'll add 3-5).  If you have comments or suggestions about these or other sites, contact us, we want to hear them


Montpelier - got a good downtown site in mind?  We are on hunt for one....

Barre - a few members asking us to reconsider Barre.  Let us know if you would be on board for a Barre site.

St Johnsbury - next week we will move from the St J Natural Provsions to the St J Coop.

Jay - once again looking at establishing a delivery site in Jay. If that's of interest to you, do tell...

Burlington - have a business in mind for a new site in Flynn Ave neighborhood, hoping it works out.

Burlington - we are looking for a new location in the Old North End, all suggestions welcome

S. Burlington - we are looking for 2 locations - the first - South of I-89 off Shelburne Rd; the second location somewhere over in Dorset St Hinesburg Rd neighborhood.




Storage and Use Tips

The Baby Spinach this week is tender and beautiful.  Will make perfect spinach salads, all the while nutritionally fantastic.

Vulcan Head Lettuce - The big red leaf head lettuces this week are called Vulcan.  They are just gorgeous and will make wonderful tender salad or sandwich toppings this week.

Rainbow Chard is a delicious nutritious green, high in Vitamins A, K, and C.  The beautifully colored stems are why it's called rainbow chard!  Chard works great as a spinach substitute but needs to be cooked down a bit longer.  It also works well in soups and stews, or sauteed as a side.
Chives are a real spring treat!  You can use the whole chive, minced up. Stored in a loose bag in the crisper drawer,  they'll keep quite well for a few days.  I like to add cut up chives to my salads for a mild onion flavor.

Celeriac also goes by the name of celery root. It tastes a bit like a cross between celery and jicama, but is mellower than celery. It can be eaten raw or cooked. If eating raw, some cooks suggest plunging the grated celeriac into boiling water for 1 minute to reduce bitterness and then plunging it immediately into cold water to stop it from cooking further. A tip for preparing celeriac - cut the root in large slices about 1 inch thick, then lay each slice flat and cut off the skin as if you were cutting the crust off a pizza. Then continue to process the now unskinned pieces as your recipe dictates. Celeriac should be stored unwashed, loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in your refrigerator.

Yellow Onions - Eating locally year round means saying good bye to some veggies at some time of year and hello to new.  This week we say hello to the chives above, the first of this year's allium crop.  And we say goodbye to our 2012 harvest of yellow onions.  More alliums in the form of chives, scallions etc are coming along and within a few weeks you can expect your first bunched fresh 2013 onions. 

This week's Frozen Jalapenos will add a little spice to your life! To use your peppers thaw in the fridge overnight, remove from package and rinse. Or if you just need a pepper to spice up a dish, just take a single frozen pepper from the bag and chop it while just off frozen and add in to whatever you are making. The seeds and the inner ribs where the seed attaches are the hottest part of the pepper. For a rich and earthy jalapeno flavor without intense heat simply cut peppers open and remove inner ribs and seeds with a pairing knife. This may still give you a bit of spice but not nearly as much as before.

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

Localvore Lore

This week's bread is Elmore Mountain's Flax Bread.  It is made with Milanaise Winter Wheat, Milanaise Rye, Gleason's Whole Wheat, Quebec flax, sourdough, sea salt and water.  I checked out their blog today and learned that they bake their bread in a 6x10 brick oven with a belt loader.  This isn't a typical feature in a wood-fired oven - they usually have a single opening in the front, but Blair and Andrew decided to build a belt so they could bake more bread in a shorter amount of time.  They completely designed the oven and the conveyor belt by themselves - a fine example of some great VT ingenuity!  I'm sure you can all attest to how well the oven is working out for them!

 You will also get Chicken or Veggie Broth. Please be careful selecting your broth!  We leave enough veggie broth at sites for Vegetarian Localvore and Vegetarian Pantry Members.  All others should select Chicken Broth.  Both the Veggie Broth and Chicken Broth is clearly marked on the lids.  If you aren't certain of your share type, please check the names list when you check off at your site.

The chicken broth is made using our own chickens, onions, carrots, celery, fennel, bay leaf, salt & pepper.  The veggie broth is made just from our own veggies and some herbs and salt.  We made them fresh last week but have frozen them for easier travel.  Throw them in the freezer to use later, or they will store for up to a week in the fridge.

Made from thier own high quality Holstein raw cow's milk, Landaff Creamery's Landaff Cheese is a mild, semi-firm cheese with a delicious combination of flavors. Its complexity balances a bright buttermilk tang and savory brown butter notes. The buttery texture comes with a natural, cave-aged rind. It melts beautifully for cooking, and makes a wonderful addition to any cheese plate. Remove cheese from the refrigerator about an hour before you plan to eat it. This will allow the full flavors to be enjoyed. Keep your cheese surfaces protected so they won't dry out. If mold does develop, just trim it off. The natural cave-aged rind is safe to eat.

Landaff Cheese placed third in the Open Class Semi-soft Cheese class at the World Championship Cheese Contest in 2012!  Doug and Deb Erb craft Landaff on their second-generation dairy farm in the White Mountains. Declining milk prices drove the Erbs’ determined pursuit of cheesemaking as a way to revitalize their farm. Doug developed Landaff after study with the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese and time spent making Caerphilly with the Duckett family of Somerset, England.


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.

Recipes

Pasta with Red Chard and Garlic Chips
An easy option for a lazy night in the kitchen.  Good and garlicky.  Subsitute any cooking greens for the chard (spinach, kale, pac choi, whatever you have left in the fridge).  Great use for this week's spinac or chard!

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
6 cloves garlic, cloves peeled and thinly sliced lengthwise though I am sure crosswise would work as well
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup dried currants (optional)
1 bunch red chard and/or spinach, stems and center ribs finely chopped and leaves coarsely chopped separately
1/4 cup water
1/2 pound spaghetti
1/4 cup Kalamata olives, cut into slivers
3 ounces feta, crumbled (1 1/2 cups)

Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers, then cook garlic, stirring, until golden, about 3 minutes. Transfer garlic with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.  Cook onion in oil remaining in skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes.

Stir chard stems into onion mixture with water and 3/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Cook, covered, over medium-high heat until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in chard leaves and cook, covered, until stems and leaves are tender, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 5 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta-cooking water and drain spaghetti.
Toss spaghetti with chard, olives, and 1/2 cup cooking water, adding more cooking water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with feta and garlic chips.

Celeriac Remoulade (Celery Root Salad)
This salad is a refreshing cool coleslaw-like salad. A food processor makes the job of grating the celeriac much faster.
* see tips for preparing celeriac in Storage and Use in the first part of this newsletter

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
1 lb celery root - quartered, peeled, and coarsely grated just before mixing
1/2 tart apple, peeled, cored, julienned
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Combine the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice and parsley in a medium-sized bowl. Fold in the celery root and apple and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.

Sauteed Swiss Chard
I like this recipe because it uses the entire chard- stems and all! 

1 bunch Swiss chard, stems and leaves separated, stems chopped and leaves sliced into 1-inch thick strips
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fill a medium saucepan with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Fill a large bowl with ice water.  Add the chard stems to the boiling water and blanch for 2 to 3 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the stems to the ice bath and let cool completely.  Drain the stems and set aside.

Melt the butter in a medium skillet.  Add the chard leaves, stirring to coat.  Cover and cook until wilted, stirring occasionally.  Add the chard stems, brown sugar, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.

Grown-up Grilled Cheese
This recipe is adapted from the Vermont Farm Table Cookbook by Tracey Medeiros.  Switch up your panini ingredients with whatever you have on hand- pesto, spreads, cheeses, or fresh veggies.  Dare I say add a hot pepper to kick it up a notch further?

1 1/2 tsp unsalted butter, softened
2 slices Flax Bread
3 thin slices sweet onion
Lettuce
1-2 thin slices prosciutto
Freshly ground black pepper
1 slice (3 ounces) Landaff cheese or any other mild raw cow's milk cheese
Coarse grain or Dijon mustard

Preheat a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a panini press.  Spread one side of each slice of bread with butter and place buttered side down on a cutting board.  Layer one side of the bread with the onion, lettuce, and prosciutto.  Season with pepper to taste.  Top with the cheese and the second slice of bread.

Place the sandwich on the grill pan or panini press.  If using a pan, weigh down with a heavy skillet and cook until golden brown and the cheese has melted, 3 to 4 minutes per side.  If using a panini press, grill according to the directions.  Cut the sandwich in half and serve with mustard on the side.


Potato and Chive Soup
If you like spice, this soup would be amazing with hot peppers thrown in!  Celeriac would also be a great addition; add peeled and chopped cubes to boil with the potatoes.

1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
5 cups chicken or veggie broth
2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled, sliced (about 7 cups)
3 large garlic cloves, peeled
2/3 cup half and half
1/2 cup minced fresh chives
Sour cream

Preheat a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add oil and saute the onions until soft.  Add broth, potatoes and garlic cloves into pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cover and simmer until potatoes are very tender, about 25 minutes.

Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return to same pot. Add half and half and bring to simmer. Thin with more broth if soup is too thick. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in chives. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over low heat, stirring frequently.)

Ladle soup into bowls. Top with dollop of sour cream and serve.



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