Good Eats Weekly Newsletter - February 8, 2017


This is the LAST WEEK of the Fall/ Winter Share!

This will be your last delivery unless you sign up for the Spring Share!

Sign up by Friday to keep your weekly shares coming all spring long.


Thank you for joining us this Fall!

Localvore Members 
& Full Veggie Only Share Members
take a LIGHT GREEN BAG

This week your bag contains:
Mesclun Mix, Garlic, Red Cabbage, Rainbow Carrots, Chioggia Beets, Celeriac, Peter Wilcox potatoes, and

And OUT of the Bag:
Frozen Tomatoes
Frozen Jalapenos
Please, only take 1 of each



Half Veggie Members
take a YELLOW BAG containing:

Mesclun Mix, Garlic, Rainbow Carrots, Chioggia Beets, Celeriac, and

And OUT of the Bag:
Frozen Corn




Localvore / Pantry Offerings

Lazy Lady Farm Cheese
Amir Hebib Mushrooms
Pete's Greens Pizza Dough
Pete's Greens Pizza Sauce


Our Spring Share starts NEXT WEEK!

Have you signed up yet to keep your shares coming each week??

NOW is the time to sign up for your spring share.

The Spring Share runs February 15 - June 8.


Enjoy all the new veggie arrivals as well as your favorite winter crops. 


Peppers!!!

Around the Farm

Thanks so much for joining us this fall and winter! We were lucky to have mild temps well into December so we could keep growing so many fresh greens. We're busy starting seeds, growing shoots, and prepping our greenhouses for spring planting. Melissa Jacobs, our Crop Manager, shares an update, below, about what to expect this spring.

Please share the news about your Good Eats experience with your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. Word of mouth is the most powerful way to spread the word about Good Eats so we can continue to reach new members. We'll be sending out a survey later this week to gather your feedback to use in helping us plan future fall shares. Thanks for joining us and we hope to see you this spring and summer!

~ Taylar


Around the Greenhouses

We have made it to the middle of winter and we are happily starting to think about spring! The sun peaking out from behind the winter clouds is a good sign that seedlings are starting to grow more quickly.  We have a couple greenhouses planted in greens and we will start seeing the first true leaves in a couple days.  Lettuce, mustards, kale, tatsoi, and arugula should be ready to cut in the next 4 or 5 weeks for CSA mesclun. 

We have some happy tomato seedlings under lights (see picture below) that will be transplanted into our Gutter Connect greenhouse in mid-March and some of the first bunching items, like chard, parsley, and basil, are sprouting in trays.  We will have onions- lots of onions. We start our onions earlier than most farms to help coordinate our space.  We plant more than 800 trays of onions, so it is nice to get a jump on this when there is not a lot of other farm work happening.  We have limited heated greenhouse space in the spring and onions are sturdy enough to hold up to the cold in March so we can move them outdoors with row cover (to protect from cold and wind).  That extra heated greenhouse space will get filled with potted tomato and pepper plants along with all of our first outdoor transplants.

I look forward to updating you on what is growing as signs of spring arrive!

~ Melissa

These little seedlings are the same ones in last week's newsletter! My, how quickly they grow!
Rainbow Chard! So beautiful... so hopeful!

Still time to register for the NOFA Winter Conference!

Join NOFA-VT on February 18th, 19th and 20th in Burlington for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont 35th annual Winter Conference!


As members of NOFA-VT (the group that certifies our farm's produce is Organic), we support the continued education of food eaters and growers. This event is a great chance for farmers, gardeners, homesteaders, and organic food enthusiasts to come together for three days of learning, inspiration, good food, and fellowship. This year’s conference is going to be a big one - with internationally-renowned keynote speakers Dr. Fernando Funes Monzote (from Cuba) and Dr. Vandana Shiva (from India). There are 100+ workshops scheduled, day-long intensives, a Children's Conference, and much more! Find details and register online at www.nofavt.org/conference.

Storage and Use Tips 
Mesclun Mix: Our first shoots are here! In the spring, we add a diverse mix of shoots to the mesclun. The beauty of growing shoots is that seeds come pre-equipped with all the energy and nutrition they need to sprout their first two baby leaves (called cotyledons). If it was planted underneath the soil outdoors, the energy from the seed would be enough to get those first two leaves above the soil and photosynthesizing in order for it to keep growing into an mature plant. Though we do heat and supply light in the small area in which we grow shoots, these little shoots have been running largely on "seed energy". 
Eating shoots has extra benefit to us in that shoots are packed with all of the proteins, carbohydrates, and minerals a growing plant needs and therefore are extremely nutritious despite their tiny size!
This week's mix includes radish & sunflower shoots, spinach, claytonia, and a little bit of lettuce.

Celeriac: Despite its funky looking exterior, inside celeriac (also called celery root) is a creamy interior with a clean taste and wide appeal. Peel away the exterior before using and give the ends a nice clean cut before cooking or using. Store unwashed celeriac in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, where it will keep for several weeks.  Here's how to cut this veggie: I like to take a thin slice off the top so that I can lay it flat. Then I cut the whole thing into 1" wide strips and trim the edges off.  It's tough to peel because it's so uneven so this method works well for me.  Like apples, celeriac will darken if exposed to the air for too long. If you don’t plan to cook it immediately, submerge the celeriac in a bowl of water with lemon juice squeezed in.

Red Cabbage (large shares only): Though very similar in taste to green cabbage, red can have slightly more pronounced peppery notes. It may also tolerate longer cooking cycles without becoming too acidic and "stinky." If alkaline ingredients like eggs are present in your pan when cooking red cabbage, it can turn blue on you. To stop this from happening, add a bit of acid to the pan in the form of lemon juice, vinegar, or wine. Classic braising red cabbage preparations often call for adding a little red wine, cider vinegar or both to the pan during cooking. Apples also make a perfect match with red cabbage. Cabbage can be stored loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for weeks. If the outer leaves wilt or turn spotted, just remove them and use the good leaves below. Once cut, keep the remaining cabbage in a sealed plastic bag in the crisper drawer.


Beets: We have some really gorgeous chioggia beets for both shares this week. Inside, these beets are red and white striped. Beets may be eaten cooked or raw. Try grating some beets early in the week and place in a storage container to use throughout the week in salads. The upside to cooking chioggias is that they don't bleed when cooked! Try roasting them - this caramelizes the sugar in the beets. Cube them and roast with a drizzle of oil at 400F until tender and browning at the edges. If you don't eat right away, cool and toss into a container for later in the week. I love cooking things like beets on the weekends to use throughout the week.

Frozen Tomatoes (large shares only): During our tomato surplus this summer, we put up these summer favorites. Tomatoes freeze very well, and are best used when they are frozen or just off frozen as they are easier to handle this way.  If you run a frozen tomato under warmish water in your hand, the skin will separate and come right off and you can pinch the top and bit of core out at the same time.  Then toss the fleshy tomato into the pan you are cooking in.  If you are looking for chopped tomatoes, just let them thaw a bit and chop away before they completely thaw and are to soft to handle.

Frozen Jalapenos (large shares only): These are perfect for using when you only want a little spice! Pull out a pepper at a time, or half a pepper, when you're ready to cook. They're easy to slice when frozen and can go right into any sauce, on any pizza or nachos, into your stry fry or Mexican dish or eggs, or any other way.
Frozen Corn (small shares): Frozen at the peak of freshness, it is still tender and sweet and really fantastic.  Keep frozen until ready to use, then thaw out before cooking.  Or if you forget to take it out in time you can drop the whole chunk of corn in boiling water.

Need to Skip a Week?

If you're ever not able to pick up your share, please let us know at least one week in advance. We can either skip your share and give you credit, send it the next week, or donate it to the food pantry. It's up to you!

Sorry, we cannot skip a share or change pick-up sites after Monday.
Localvore Lore

It's a PIZZA PARTY! Pete's Greens Pizza Dough and Sauce, Lazy Lady Farm cheese, and Amir Hebib's mushrooms are just the start to your pizza party.

Laini Fondiller is the anything-but Lazy Lady behind her goat farm. Located in Westfield, Laini makes a variety of goat and jersey cow milk cheeses entirely off the grid. Oh My Heart is the perfect Valentine's Day cheese - mild and buttery, soft and scrumptious, eat plain or slice and melt on your pizza.

I'm happy that we have Amir's Shiitake Mushrooms for you this week!  Mushrooms are so temperamental and weather dependent that we never know for sure whether they will work out when we schedule them. Amir started growing mushrooms in a mushroom house behind his home in Colchester in 2005.  He grows shiitakes and oysters and sells them to restaurants and markets in our area as well as at the Burlington Farmers Market (you can find him there every other Saturday... which makes scheduling with him a challenge!). The shiitakes have a deeper flavor, and are hearty, enough so that they can be used in place of ground beef in some recipes. Here's Amir's favorite mushroom recipe: fry some onions, add cut up mushrooms and cook until soft. Add an egg to the pan, cook, and enjoy!

We make the pizza dough at the farm and then freeze it for delivery. Our pizza dough is made with Milainaise organic unbleached Quebec white flour, local canola oil, Maine sea salt and yeast. Use within four to five hours of thawing (probably ready to go the night you pick up share or store in freezer for later use). Coat a smooth surface with flour and cornmeal (just flour also ok) so that the dough does not stick to the surface. Form dough into ball and flatten with heels of palms. Stretch dough with hands or use a rolling pin to form shape of baking pan (I use a cookie sheet so I form it into a square). Once dough is slightly stretched on surface you can stretch dough in the air with hands by making two fists held together with dough on top. Move each hand up, down and out turning the dough clockwise. Each dough can be stretched to a 16" round, for thicker crust make smaller. If you like light fluffy crust I put my baking sheet on the top of my oven while preheating and let rise. Otherwise set aside in neutral area till oven is ready at 425F. Cook 12-14 minutes until crust is golden brown and cheese bubbles.

We also made pizza sauce to go along with the share using our organic tomatoes, onions, canola oil, garlic, oregano, basil, fennel seed, salt, & black pepper. It's pretty yummy and it's coming to you frozen for longer use.  Use on your pizza or of course on pasta too.

Recipes

Scalloped Celeriac and Potatoes
Here’s a variation on a classic that just might be better than the original. Traditionally, scalloped potatoes are cooked in milk or cream; here, however, we cook them in stock, and the result is a more flavorful and delightfully lighter dish. The celeriac adds a brightness that assertively sets the dish apart from its classic cousin. Friend of the Farm.

Serves 6

butter for greasing the baking dish
1 pound celeriac, peeled, halved, sliced about 1/8 inch thick
1 pound baking potatoes, peeled, sliced about 1/8 inch thick
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup grated Gruyère or domestic Swiss cheese, divided
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups chicken, beef, or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a 2-quart baking dish with butter.

Place the celeriac and potatoes in alternating layers in the baking dish, seasoning every few layers with salt and pepper. At about the halfway point, add 1/3 cup cheese in an even layer; sprinkle with the thyme. Continue with the celeriac and potatoes, until you have used all of your slices (don’t go all the way to the top edge; leave a little room to allow the liquid to boil).

Pour the stock over the celeriac and potatoes. Dot with butter. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 15 minutes more. Sprinkle the remaining 2/3 cup cheese over the top layer, add several grindings of fresh pepper, and bake until the cheese turns golden, about 15 minutes.

Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Carrots with Coconut Butter and Lime
This recipe comes from the book "Vegetable Literacy" by Deborah Madison.  It's a great veggie resource filled with interesting facts about all kinds of veggies, as well as wonderful recipes.  This recipe caught my eye as it's so simple yet so delicious.  You should be able to find coconut butter at a co-op or you can make your very own.  Get a bag of shredded unsweetened coconut and blend for about 3-5 minutes until smooth.  If it doesn't come together try adding some coconut oil to make it gel.  Store the butter in a glass jar and use it anywhere you have a recipe that calls for vegetable oil or regular butter.

1 pound carrots, scrubbed and sliced into rounds or on the diagonal 1/2 inch thick
Sea Salt
About 2 tbsp coconut butter
1 lime

In a pot, bring 4 or more cups of water to a boil.  Add the carrots and 1 tsp salt and simmer until the carrots are tender to the touch of a knife tip, about 15 minutes.  Drain well, then return the carrots to the pan for a few minutes to dry in the residual heat.  Add the coconut butter, toss to coat the carrots, and then halve the lime and squeeze over the carrots.  Taste for salt and add more if needed.

Beet and Barley Risotto
I know… risotto takes FOREVER to cook. It is not a dish for the impatient to make! But it’s so good and with barley, it makes a lot! If you don’t have barley, try using rice (Arborio is the traditional risotto rice), freekah, or any other kind of grain. I made this last night using both Chioggia and red beets – such a vibrant color if you use red beets! Maybe a perfect Valentine’s Day dish?

I did find a recipe for making risotto in a crockpot; follow the steps but instead of adding your liquid in slowly, add it at once and let sit for four hours. Then stir in your butter, cheese, and S&P.

3 medium beets, stems removed
6 cups vegetable broth
4 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cups pearl barley
½ cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Tightly wrap beets in foil and roast on a baking sheet until very tender, about 90 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, about 20 minutes.

When beets are cool enough to handle, peel them, discarding stems and root ends, then cut into ½-inch cubes.

Bring the broth to a simmer. Keep at a low simmer, covered (it's important that the broth is hot when making risotto).

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large pan or pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not burnt, about 5 minutes. Add the barley and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add the wine and simmer briskly, stirring constantly, until absorbed, about 1 minute.


Stir in ½ cup broth and simmer briskly, stirring constantly, until broth is absorbed. Continue simmering and adding broth, about ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly and letting each addition be absorbed before adding the next, until barley is just tender and creamy-looking, 25 to 30 minutes.

Stir in the beets and season with salt, and pepper (yes, it will turn hot pink!) and cook, stirring, until heated through.

Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter, then the cheese. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper as needed, and serve.

Ginger-Braised Red Cabbage
This is a great way to enjoy your cabbage!

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 3-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
3 teaspoons brown sugar
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
2 cups water
1 bay leaf
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 head red cabbage (about 2 1/2 lb.), cut into 8 wedges, core intact

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a heavy ovenproof saucepan, heat oil. Cook shallot and ginger over medium heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Add vinegar and brown sugar. Stir in chicken stock, water, and bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper. Add cabbage.

Bring to a boil. Cover; transfer to oven and braise until cabbage is tender, 45 to 50 minutes.

Remove cabbage with a slotted spoon and place on a serving platter; discard bay leaf. Simmer remaining liquid over medium-high heat until reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Spoon sauce over cabbage.

Fast Tomato Sauce
This recipe comes  from Mark Bittman's great book. The recipe calls for canned tomatoes but you can use the frozen ones in your share. Just run each frozen tomato under hot water and the skins will slip from them. Core the tomatoes as needed and then follow the recipe below.

3 Tbs olive oil or butter
1 med onion, chopped
1 24-32 oz can tomatoes drained and chopped
salt and fresh ground pepper
Freshly grated parmesan or other cheese

Heat olive oil in 12" skillet over med-high heat. Add onions and stir 2-3 minutes or until soft. Add tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes break up and the mixture comes together, thickening about 10-15 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Immediately toss with your hot just cooked pasta, garnish with cheese as you desire.

Red Cabbage and Beet Salad

1 red cabbage
2 small red onion, diced
2 red apple, cored and diced
½ lb beets, finely diced
50g walnut piece, roughly chopped
2 large orange
5 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp redcurrant jelly
2 tbsp clear honey
2 tbsp olive oil

Quarter the cabbage, then cut out the white core at the bottom and discard. Finely shred the cabbage and tip into a large mixing bowl with the onions, apples, beets and walnuts. Finely grate over the zest from the oranges.

Cut a little from the top and bottom of each orange, so they sit flat on your work surface. Use a small, serrated knife to cut away the peel and pith in strips down the orange. Holding each orange over a bowl, cut away the segments, letting them and any juice drop into the bowl. Squeeze any juice left in the membranes into the bowl, too. Fish out the segments, roughly chop and add to the salad.

Whisk the red wine vinegar, redcurrant jelly, honey and oil into the orange juice with some seasoning, then stir into the salad. Will keep for 3-4 days in the fridge.
  

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