Good Eats Weekly Newsletter - March 13, 2019

In Your Share This Week: FANCY/ LOCALVORE (PURPLE) Mesclun, Shoots, Spinach, Cilantro, Beets, Russet Potatoes, Sunchokes, and Radicchio EVERYDAY STANDARD (YELLOW) Mesclun, Spinach, Beets, Yellow Onions, Russet Potatoes, and Out of the Bag: Frozen Squash Pantry/ Localvore Items Vermont Fresh Foods makes this fettucine specially for us! It's made with either an organic white flour from Quebec or flour from Norwich's King Arthur Flour. Vermont Fresh Foods has been producing fresh pasta, ravioli, and sauces since 1992. Fresh pasta is a simple pleasure and cooks in just a couple minutes. It makes a wonderful, quick, and easy meal topped with fresh veggies. Try throwing in some spinach along with the pasta and pesto. Pete's Greens Sweet Basil Pesto: Last summer we grew a lot of basil and stockpiled pesto for Good Eats. This pesto contains our own basil blended with olive oil, romano and parmesan cheese, sunflower seeds, garlic, lemon juice and salt. It is tasty slathered on bread or added to pasta with grated cheese on top. If you like yours garlicky - add some minced fresh garlic to your cooked pasta before mixing the pesto with the pasta. The pesto will come to you frozen. To use, simply thaw and eat as is or add to your dishes. It will keep in your fridge a couple weeks, but if you won't use the entire tub right away, just throw it back in the freezer! It keeps really well.  Eggs! Cheese Share: Weybridge Cheese is aged at the Cellars at Jasper Hill in Greensboro. Patty and Roger Scholten manage a small herd of Dutch Belt cows in the rolling landscape of Weybridge, VT. Organic, high quality milk production has helped the Scholtens survive a competitive milk market; farmstead cheese is now a strategy for the business to thrive into the next generation.  Their Weybridge cheese is an organic, lactic set cheese with a delicate bloomy rind. The lightly aged style is meant to showcase the Scholtens’ rich and complex Dutch Belt milk. The thin rind surrounds a delicate creamline, showing a toasty, mushroom flavor in pleasant contrast to the bright acidity of the dense, milky core. The small medallion format appeals to any occasion - a snack for two or a garnish for a larger spread. Weybridge’s rich, milky flavor makes it an ideal breakfast cheese alongside berry preserves and freshly baked bread. Classic beverage pairings include dry, bubbly white, sparkling apple cider or a crisp German pilsner. Around the Farm It seems like every time a little bit of spring comes, it gets batted down by another snow squall! The warm, sunny days late last week worked wonders on our greenhouse crops and have some nice greens for you this week and coming up. We run our greenhouses year round, heating them in winter and opening them up to natural light and heat come spring. You'll hear us talking a lot about soil and sun grown veggies over the next several months. Part of our ethos here at Pete's Greens is that our veggies are all soil and sun grown! Why does this matter? Because stewardship of the land, water, and air are really important to us. As we lay out our planting and harvesting schedule, we plan out how to rotate our crops and grow better soil along with better crop yields. This means we rotate where we plant things from year to year, letting fields lay fallow or cover cropping them according to what kind of enrichment they need. Each field is a little bit different. Some fields may need more nitrogen while others need potassium. Some need to have a little less of one mineral and a little more of another. In some places, adding wood ash is a benefit and in others, it's planting a tree buffer. The non-veggie crops that we plant provide something back to the soil to keep it healthy, which in turn means better tasting veggies, less water runoff, and more biological diversity. We believe that veggies are best when grown in soil -- aided by natural sunlight and the photosynthetic process. This might be more labor intensive but not as dependent on machines, energy, or fertilizers as other growing processes, like hydroponics. This keeps our farm part of an ecological system that is greater than us, and that will eventually outlive all of us! ~ Taylar Storage Tips and Recipes Every week we'll send you snapshots of veggies in your share. You can always find more recipes and storage info on our blog and website. Mesclun: This week's mix includes green mizuna, claytonia, shoots, spinach, and cress - a very green mix! We recommend washing your greens before eating and use within a week. Cilantro: A member of the carrot family and related to parsley, 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 odor 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. I toss cilantro into any Mexican dish I am making, and love it in summer when I have tomatoes to make salsa. If you can't use all your cilantro just yet and wish to save it for a future dish, you can freeze it. Wash and gently dry your cilantro with paper towels. Then either put sprigs loosely in a plastic bag and freeze them. Or lightly chop cilantro, measure by the tablespoon into ice trays, fill remaining space in ice tray with water, and then after cubes are frozen, store in a plastic bag. You can take one out and thaw anytime you need to use it. Beets: This week we have red, chioggia, or gold beets, or a mix! Chioggias are the red skinned/ striped flesh beets and gold beets are gold on the inside and outside. Radicchio: This lettuce relative is actually a chicory, which has a bitter punch of flavor. Radicchio makes a great addition to salads for a pop of color and a contrast in flavor. You can also use the leaves as a base for hors d'oeuvres, or sauté them for a side dish. Pairs well with full-flavored cheeses, balsamic vinegar, and honey. Try chopping it finely and soaking in water to tame the bite! Sunchokes: You might know of this plant as a beautiful yellow flower on tall stalks that blooms in summer. The tubrous roots, which appear in your shares, are also edible. Eat with or without the skin, and prepare as you would potatoes: roast, saute, bake, boil, or steam. They can be stored for a few weeks in your fridge. Recipes Sunchoke and Potato Gratin This recipe comes from a blog whose writer first tried sunchokes in their CSA basket. If you're new to them too, this sounds like a great family-friendly way to try them out! 1 garlic clove 10 sunchokes (about golf-ball sized), sliced thin 2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin 2 shallots, sliced thin 1/4 cup milk 1 cup grated fontina cheese salt and pepper Preparation Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9×9 ceramic dish with cooking spray. Cut the garlic clove in half and rub the cut sides onto the dish. Discard garlic. Layer the potatoes evenly in the dish covering the entire bottom. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Layer the sunchokes evenly covering the potatoes. Sprinkle the sliced shallots on top of the sunchokes – and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Pour milk all over the vegetables. Sprinkle with the fontina cheese. Cover the dish with tin foil and bake for about 45 minutes. Take the cover off and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Make sure the sunchokes are soft – if not cook a little longer. Simple Roasted Sunchokes .5 pound sunchokes, sliced into half-inch rounds .5 pound potatoes or carrots, sliced into half inch rounds 2 Tablespoons oil 1 TB lemon juice Sprinkle with dried Rosemary or thyme Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the sunchokes with the oil & lemon juice. Sprinkle with the herbs. Bake in a shallow gratin dish with the herbs for thirty to forty-five minutes or until done. (Pierce them with the tip of a knife. They should be mostly tender but offer some resistance. Don’t let them get mushy.) Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately. Cilantro and Potato soup This is a delicious, satisfying soup. Like most soup recipes, there is lots of room for improvisation here with some options given below. 2 TB olive oil or butter 2 medium onions, finely chopped (or 2 leeks) 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 quart chicken broth (or vegetable broth) 2 medium potatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped salt and pepper 1 pinch red pepper flakes 2/3 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped lime juice Saute onion and garlic slowly until tender. Add the broth, potatoes. Cook til the potatoes are tender about half an hour. Add most of the cilantro leaving a few tablespoons for garnish. Use an immersion blender or food processor to puree. Serve hot or cold, and garnish with the remaining fresh cilantro. Add a squeeze of fresh lime juice before serving. Optional: add 1 diced, seeded jalapeno pepper along with the broth and potatoes. Add up to 1/4 cup of cream to soup just before serving. Add a couple chopped scallions to the soup after pureeing. Roasted Beet, Shoot and Sprout Salad Serve this salad with a slice of the focaccia on the side for a light lunch or dinner, or serve it as an accompaniment for a heartier meal. Serves 4. 1 TB apple cider or white wine vinegar 1 TB minced shallot (optional) sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste 1/4 tsp sweet paprika pinch cayenne pepper (optional) 1/8 tsp ground cumin 1 TB freshly squeezed lemon juice 6 TB sunflower or extra virgin olive oil 4 small to medium roasted beets, chopped in 1/2" pieces*  2 cups mixed sunflower and radish shoots 1 cup sprouted beans 1/4 cup crumbled feta 1 TB toasted pine nuts To make the dressing, combine the first 8 ingredients in a food processor. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. Toss together the beets, shoots, and sprouts. Sprinkle with cheese and pine nuts. Drizzle with desired amount of dressing.  Glenn's Roasted Beet Salad This recipe comes to you from a CSA member who loves beets! If you have a great recipe or unique way that you enjoy your veggies please let us know. I love hearing from our members! 2 medium beets, peeled and cubed 4oz goat or feta cheese 1/2 med red onion, chopped 1 handful dried cranberries or raisins 1 handful toasted walnuts or pecans 3-4 cups Lettuce (mixed lettuces or spinach works too) Dressing: 1/2 cup Olive Oil 1/4 cup cider vinegar 2 tbsp Mayonnaise 2 tbsp Honey 1tsp crushed garlic Toss the beet cubes in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 350 for 30 mins - 1 hour. Stir them every 15 mins until they are roasted and a little crispy on the edges. Cool. Combine dressing ingredients. Combine salad ingredients with the beets except the nuts in a separate bowl. Need to Skip a Week? You can donate your share to the food shelf, receive a second share the following week, or receive a credit on your account. We ask for one week's notice. Sorry, no changes to the week's delivery after 8 am on Monday of that week. EMAIL TAYLAR TO SKIP A DELIVERY Questions? Contact Taylar, goodeats@petesgreens.com