Wednesday, July 29, 2015

2015 Farm Share Week 10

Hello Everyone,

This week you will find in your shares:

Wed. July 29
  • Asian Eggplant
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Peppers
  • Lettuce
  • Onions
  • Garlic
  • Sage
Sat. August 1
  • Lettuce
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Peppers
  • Onions
  • Garlic
Recipe Idea

Quick Eggplant and Tomato Sauté


Vegetable Spotlight - Pepper


Peppers are native to central and south america, and were carried to Spain in the late 1400’s.  They were actually mis-named by Christopher Columbus.  At that time peppercorns, the fruit of an unrelated plant originating from India, Piper nigrum, was a highly prized condiment; the name "pepper" was at that time applied in Europe to all known spices with a hot and pungent taste and so naturally extended to the newly discovered Capsicum genus

They are members of the Solanaceae, or “nightshade” family, which is an important family of plants that includes: potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant.  Bell peppers are members of the Capsicum genus, but contain no capsaicin(the thing that makes hot peppers hot).  

Some other important members of Solanaceae include a number of ornamental plants such as PetuniaBrowallia and Lycianthes, the source of psychoactive alkaloids, DaturaMandragora (mandrake), and deadly nightshade.

With the exception of tobacco (Nicotianoideae) and petunia (Petunioideae), most of the economically important genera are contained in the subfamily Solanoidea.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

2015 Farm Share Week 9

Hello Everyone,

This week you will find in your shares:

Wed. July 22
  • Potatoes
  • Lettuce
  • Carrots
  • Squash
  • Basil

Sat. July 25

  • Potatoes
  • Lettuce
  • Asian Eggplant!!
  • Cherry Tomatoes!!
  • Squash
  • Basil
  • Sage!!



Basil - According to ancient legend, St.Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, was told in a vision that she would find the True Cross in a place where the air was sweet with perfume; she discovered it under a patch of Basil.  The word basil comes from basilikon, meaning kingly.  In many places custom demanded that the king himself cut the first basil of the season with a golden sickle, iron was too base.

Sweet basil is a native of India, where it is sacred.  It has been used in the kitchen since at least 400 B.C.  when the Greek physician/botanist Chrysippos described it as one of his favorite seasonings.  In the middle ages it worked it’s way northward through France.

We love making pesto with fresh basil.  Remember if you’re using it in a cooked dish, add it at the last minute as heat will destroy it’s flavor, and turn it black.

In France they sometimes make Pistou, or pistou sauce, is a Provençal cold sauce made from cloves of garlic, fresh basil, and olive oil. It is somewhat similar to pesto, although it lacks pine nuts. Some modern versions of the recipe include grated parmesanpecorino or similar hard cheeses. A somewhat similar sauce is Argentine chimichurri made with parsley.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

2015 Farm Share Week 8

Hello Everyone,

This week you will find in your shares:

Wed. July 15
  • Purslane (Grows Wild in the field!!  Portulaca oleracea contains the highest amount of Omega 3 fatty acids of any leafy green vegetable.  Has a nutty, earthy flavor and a mucilaginous quality  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portulaca_oleracea )
  • Squash
  • Cucumbers
  • Chard
  • Onions
Sat. July 18
  • Purslane 
  • Squash
  • Cucumbers
  • Carrots
  • Chard
  • Onions
Recipe Idea


More about purslane:  It tops the list of plants high in vitamin E and an essential omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Purslane provides six times more vitamin E than spinach and seven times more beta carotene than carrots. It’s also rich in vitamin C, magnesium, riboflavin, potassium and phosphorus.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

2015 Farm Share Week 7

Hello Everyone,

This week you will find in your shares:

Wed. July 8
Wed. Sat 11
*small share only

Recipe Ideas

Quick Pickles (for cucumbers, beans, onions and many other things too) - Vinegar, salt, sugar and various spices can create a really large variety of "fresh pack" pickles that are read to eat very soon.  Different vinegars can be experimented with too, I really like apple cider vinegar.   These are not fermented dishes.

http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2013/08/quick-pickles/

http://www.chow.com/recipes/30422-easy-quick-pickles

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-quickpickled-red-onions-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-193247

Vegetable Spotlight - The Curcubitacea

Sometimes known as the "gourd family," the cucurbits contain over one hundred genera.  Some of the most important being:
  • Curcubita - squash, pumpkin, zucchini, some gourds
  • Lagenaria - mostly non edible gourds
  • Citrullus - watermelon
  • Cucumis - cucumber, some melons
  • Lufa - common name also luffa
The curcubitacea family ranks among the highest of plant families for number and percentage of species
used as human food.  Plants of this family were some of the earliest cultivated in both the old and new worlds.
Cucumber by Jean-Baptiste Chardin

The cucumber was once described as having been grown more than three thousand years ago in India, current research pushes that date back even further.  If the translations have been made correctly, then the Romans were fond of them too, and preferred to serve them with honey.  In fact one emperor in particular ordered them to be served at every meal.  They don't enjoy an extremely illustrious career though, perhaps because of their neutral nature.

 A Dr.Johnson (whoever he was?) said they "should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out."  Wow!, well I'll have to disagree strongly, because that sounds quite good, and in fact I believe my lunch today consisted of a similar dish!!

When the Spaniards carried the cucumber to America, it was adopted so enthusiastically by the Pueblo Indians that some authors assumed (erroneously) that it was a native food.



In 1540 or thereabouts, Hernando do Alvarado spending time as a scout in the American Southwest reported that the territory which he had explored grew melons.  This could not have been because melons were old world fruits which did not exist in America at that time.  What were they then?   For the next hundred years there was some confusion among Europeans as to what to call these new found things.  Melon and pumpkin were used interchangeably for a while.

Even Columbus in the account of his first voyage described fields in present day Cuba, "planted with several native plants and with calebazzas."  Callebazzas means basically gourd.

Cabeza de Vaca reported pumpkins growing near Florida's Tampa Bay in 1528, and de Soto in western Florida found pumpkins.

Interestingly we are told that squash was grown in the hanging gardens of Babylon, and that Pliny mentioned it, and that recipes were found in Roman cookbooks.  So why the confusion from the explorers?   Seems to be related to the separate genera found in the New World.

The history is much more nuanced than we have time here to discuss, but the general consensus is this: It appears that squashes and pumpkins are exclusively New World, but gourds belong to the Old World.  And while these gourds were utilitarian at times (carrying water, etc), some were also edible.  But evidently the Old World gourds were not quite a tasty as the New World varieties, de Soto found his Floridian pumpkins to be "better and more flavorful than those of Spain."

Now the squash you will find in your shares now until the end of summer is a subset of Cucurbita Pepo, deemed "summer squash."  There are some winter squashes in this sub set, but most are squashes that we eat while still having tender skin (unlike the winter squashes).  Enjoy the bounty!

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

2015 Farm Share Week 6

Hello Everyone,

This week you will find in your shares:

Wed. July 1

Regular
  • Bunching Onions
  • New Potatoes
  • Beets
  • Fennel
  • Green Beans
Small
  • Bunching Onions
  • New Potatoes
  • Beets
  • Fennel
  • Summer Squash

Sat. July 4


Regular
  • Bunching Onions
  • New Potatoes
  • Summer Squash
  • Cucumbers
  • Green Beans
  • Head Lettuce
  • Fresh Green Garlic!!
Small
  • Bunching Onions
  • New Potatoes
  • Summer Squash
  • Head Lettuce
  • Green Beans
  • Fresh Green Garlic!!


Recipe Ideas

Fennel and green beans - http://www.marthastewart.com/326889/fennel-and-green-beans-with-orange-and-a

Roasted potato and fennel salad -  This recipe calls for 5# of potato and serves up to 12 people, so you might need to reduce proportions by 1/2 or 1/4.  You could replace the chives with the bunching onions if you like.


Vegetable Spotlight


Potato  Native to South America specifically the high Sierra of the Andes, where it had been developed because corn would not grow above 11,000 feet.  The first Europeans probably saw their first potato near Quito Ecuador not much later than 1530, where Pizarro’s men wrote about it in his Chronicle of Peru (1553).  It has been estimated that the potato had been domesticated in Peru since 3000 B.C.  It was these Spaniards that most likely took the potato back to their home land.   The potato enjoys and interesting history from the 16th century on to today, worth looking at more extensively if you were so inclined.  (i.e. how did it get to Ireland?).