CSA Farm Share Week 7

Hello Everyone,

This week you will find in your shares:

Sat. July 12

• Summer Squash
• Green beans
• Parsley
• Cucumbers
• Bunching onions

Tue. July 15

• Summer Squash
• Bunching onions
• Basil - Great for pesto, which has many ways to use than just for pasta: 
  - http://www.thekitchn.com/10-ways-to-use-pesto-beyond-pasta-tips-from-the-kitchn-119782
• Green Beans
• Celery
• Beets  - Anybody interested in making Kvass?  We can provide you with more beets.  I have yet to make it but it's on the list of things to try.  http://nourishedkitchen.com/beet-kvass-recipe/  If you are not already aware, the benefits of consuming fermented foods are pretty amazing.

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!

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

Cucumber parsley salad - http://www.cookthink.com/recipe/16430/Cucumber-Parsley_Salad (onions added to this would be great!)

Around the Farm

 Buckwheat growing where fall crops will be sown.  Will mow and disc within the next couple of weeks.  Fall crops will be direct seeded and transplanted starting around the 1st of August.

In the far field is cucumber, squash, sweet potato, tomatoes, garlic (pulling this week!) and potatoes.

Hulless oats, an experiment this spring.  They appear ready to harvest.

A single oat with it's papery covering that will need to be winnowed away.

CSA Farm Share Week 6

Hello Everyone,

This week you will find in your shares:

Sat. July 5

• Summer Squash
• New Potatoes (red)
• Fennel bulbs
• Carrots (purple,yellow,white)
• Parsley
• Fresh Onions (bulbs with good tops)

Tue. July 8  (new recipes added today)

• Fennel bulbs
• Parsley
• Cucumbers
• Fresh Onions
• Green Beans

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?).  

Recipe Ideas

Quick Pickles (for cukes, beans, onions and other things too) - Here are a few ideas, the combinations of spices, and variates of salt, sugar and vinegar present many options for making pickled food.

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

Cucumber parsley salad - http://www.cookthink.com/recipe/16430/Cucumber-Parsley_Salad (onions added to this would be great!)

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 green onion tops if you like.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/roasted-potato-and-fennel-salad-recipe.html

This Week on the Farm

Lots of stuff to keep up with.

• Harvests for wholesale every week.
• Seeding lettuce mix (need to do it every week)!
• Cultivating the weeds, especially in the summer crop areas (beans, pepper, squash, etc).  Mostly done with hoes, some done by tractor.
• Seeding fall crops in the greenhouse, they will be transplanted in August (kale, cabbage, collards, etc).
• Pounding tomato stakes and stringing up plants.
• Keeping an eye on the garlic, not quite ready to pull yet, soon though.

CSA Farm Share Week 5

Hello Everyone,

This week you will find in your shares:

Sat. June 28

• Summer Squash (just starting to come in)
• Chard
• Head Lettuce
• Carrots
• Dill

Tue. July 1

• Summer Squash
• New Potatoes
• Kale
• Carrots
• Dill

Vegetable Spotlight

Dill > It has been said by some that dill is "the most frequently used herb in Polish cooking.."  In Europe Poles are joined by others in central and eastern countries in their adoration of dill.  Russians are fond of it, along with those from Hungary and Scandinavia.  Interestingly it is little known in Latin countries, in France it appears to be almost foreign.  It was probably used by the Romans, who mixed dill oil in their gladiators food in the belief that it was tonic.  And it may have been for the same reason that dill seed were given to American children a century or two back to chew in church, perhaps to keep them awake during long sermons.  Another, somewhat contradictory bit of information says that may lull some to sleep: To procure sleep - wash the head in a decoction of dill seed, and smell of infrequently.  Some say it also relives gas (carminative).

Recipe Ideas

Dill is a very flexible herb that can be used many ways.  Here are a few:

Bourbon carrots: http://mjskitchen.com/2013/05/bourbon-carrots-four-ways/

Pork scallopini with dill pesto and chickpeas: http://bevcooks.com/2012/08/pork-scallopini-with-dill-pesto-and-chickpeas/

Borscht dish: http://food52.com/recipes/3327-dr-zhivago-borscht

Greek style mac and cheese: http://www.steamykitchen.com/14735-greek-style-mac-n-cheese.html

Afgahn dill rice: http://food52.com/recipes/1887-dill-rice-the-afghani-way-chelo-shibit

Potato and Kale salad with Tahini Dill dressing!!! http://www.emmaslittlekitchen.com/warm-potato-kale-salad-tahini-dill-dressing/

CSA Farm Share Week 4

Hello Everyone,

This week you will find in your shares:

Sat. June 20

• Kale
• Chard
• Fennel
• Cilantro
• Bunching Onions

Tue. June 24

• Head Lettuce
• Carrots
• Fennel
• Cilantro
• Bunching Onions

Down by a little path I fond

 Of mintes full and fennell greene,

 - Chaucer

Fennel has a history measurable in millennia, but does not occupy a prominent place in the hierarchy of foods unfortunately.  In Italy it is considered a vegetable, with emphasis on the bulbs.  But in France it is viewed as an herb.  But actually all parts of Fennel are edible, including stems, flowers and seeds.  The flavor is that of "anise."  Which can also be described as licorice.  The two plants are different, although they belong to the same family (Apiaceae, the carrot/parsley/celery/cilantro family!).

The French put fresh leaves in salads.  The use of fennel as a fish flavorer had found favor in England at least by Elizabethan times, Shakespeare talked of it.

Fennel is found in the Ethiopian seasoning, berbere sauce.  In Greek mythology, Prometheus used the stalk of a fennel plant to steal fire from the demigods.

A manuscript, which dates to around 800 and is in Paris’ Bibliothèque Nationale, contains the following medicinal recipe: Mix the gall of a vulture “with sugar of fennel & horehound & with oil of balsam & Attic honey.” Apply the mixture to hurting eyes each morning “to drive away pain.”

Recipe Ideas

The leafy fronds are best used raw, they don't hold up well to cooking, so think salads, slaws, pesto, or juice them! The layered bulb part is good raw too, but it's also great cooked, here is a very simple recipe for caramelizing fennel.

>http://putneyfarm.com/2012/04/05/caramelized-fennel-the-best-fennel-youll-ever-eat/

And here is one combing both the fennel and cilantro in your share. 

>http://farmerstoyou.com/organicfoodblog/2013/10/11/fennel-apple-celery-salad-with-cilantro-and-lemon/

Fennel Frond Pesto

>http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/fennel-frond-pesto-and-more/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Around the Farm

Buckwheat seed, sown today on the below .28 acre plot.  It was previously fallow since last spring, and sweet yellow clover has been mowed and disced.  This area will be planted to fall crops this year. Buckwheat grows very fast and will be mowed and incorporated into the soil by the end of July.  It is succulent and does not generate a large amount of organic matter, which for our purposes is just fine.

Buckwheat is great because it will "hold" this area till we are ready to plant later this summer, by coming up quickly it shades out annual weeds and some perennials.  Also helps extract phosphorus and attracts honeybees and other beneficial insects.

In the above picture, on the left there is has hulless oats for human and animal consumption.  They are currently in the milk stage.  On the right is an area that had oats, barley and winter peas that I mowed last week.  There are also three different kinds of clovers that will start flourishing now, and then next year come back and flower (biennial).  This area will be fallow for a year.

Gil doing some tractor work.

Below we have parsnips flowering, these were planted last year in a really weedy area and forgotten about, so we didn't harvest any parsnips because of this.  But evidently there were some survivors out there.  Notice the umbrella like flower head.  Parsnips are also in the Apiaceae family, also know as the Umbelliferae family, because the flower heads are somewhat umbrella like.

CSA Farm Share Week 3

Hello Everyone,

This week you will find in your shares:

Sat. June 14

• Baby Lettuce Mix
• Spinach
• Beets (tops are great to eat)
• Peas (last of the season, hope you enjoyed!!)
• Parsley

Tue. June 17

• Baby Lettuce Mix
• Swiss Chard
• Beets
• Parsley
• Radish

"To take parsley away from the cook, would make it almost impossible for him to exercise his art." - Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc d'Antic

The ancient Romans knew of parsley, and Pliny said that sauces and salads should never be without it.  Charlemange ordered it to be planted in his domains in 800 AD.  Most historians agree that there is no written record of parsley in America before 1806.

Our parsley is so mind blowingly fresh and healthy, this is not for garnishing.  *Parsley contains two types of unusual components that provide unique health benefits. The first type is volatile oil components including myristicin, limonene, eugenol, and alpha-thujene. The second type is flavonoids—including apiin, apigenin, crisoeriol, and luteolin.


Parsley's volatile oils—particularly myristicin—have been shown to inhibit tumor formation in animal studies, and particularly, tumor formation in the lungs. Myristicin has also been shown to activate the enzyme glutathione-S-transferase, which helps attach the molecule glutathione to oxidized molecules that would otherwise do damage in the body. The activity of parsley's volatile oils qualifies it as a "chemoprotective" food, and in particular, a food that can help neutralize particular types of carcinogens (like the benzopyrenes that are part of cigarette smoke and charcoal grill smoke).

The flavonoids in parsley—especially luteolin—have been shown to function as antioxidants that combine with highly reactive oxygen-containing molecules (called oxygen radicals) and help prevent oxygen-based damage to cells. In addition, extracts from parsley have been used in animal studies to help increase the antioxidant capacity of the blood.

In addition to its volatile oils and flavonoids, parsley is an excellent source of vitamin C and a good source of vitamin A (notably through its concentration of the pro-vitamin A carotenoid, beta-carotene) *(source: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=100)

We hope you enjoy this often underrated vegetable!

Recipe Ideas

Parsley Humus - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/health/nutrition/no-parsley-left-behind-recipes-for-health.html?_r=0

Parsley Pesto - http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/02/the-secret-ingredient-parsley-spaghetti-with-pesto-recipe.html

Parsley patch (6/13/14)

Beets harvested today. (6/13/14)

CSA Farm Share Week 2

Hello Everyone,

This week you will find in your shares:

Sat. June 7

• Baby Lettuce Mix
• Swiss Chard
• Bunching Onions
• Radish
• Garlic Scapes
• Peas

Tue. June 10

• Baby Lettuce Mix
• Baby Beets (the tops are completely great to use!)
• Bunching Onions
• Kale
• Garlic Scapes
• Peas

The scape of the garlic is the emerging flower stalk of hardneck garlic.  We trim them now to hopefully get a larger bulb of garlic later on.  The scapes can be eaten raw in salads, or used in sautés and any other dish you would normally use garlic.  These are tender, and have a good garlic spice to them.  Sometimes the tips can be tough, these can be used to flavor soups though.  Scapes are considered a delicacy in many countries including China and Korea.  ENJOY!

Here are some recipes you might like:

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Garlic Scape Pesto

About 6 garlic scapes

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 cups of baby lettuce mix

1/4 cup parsley

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Salt and pepper to tast

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Chop the scapes so they will fit in your blender.  Blend briefly.  Add 1/2 cup of the olive oil in a slow steady stream.  And the lettuce and parsley.  Blend until you have a coarse mixture.  While blender is running, gradually add the rest of oil.  Add the sunflower seeds, salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese.  Use about 1 cup of this pesto to coat 1 pound of pasta.  This is also great on bread, crackers, or part of a pizza topping.

Balsamic Beet Greens & Goat Cheese Crostini 

http://whiteonricecouple.com/recipes/beet-greens-goat-cheese-crostini/

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Our baby lettuce mix is harvested one handful at a time, washed, spun dry, then bagged, we never harvest more than two days before delivery.  Ready to serve, it's so fresh it will last at least a week in a cold fridge.  If you notice too much condensation building in the bag over time place lettuce in a bowl, and cover with a moist towel to keep lettuce from drying out too much.

Also you might have noticed a paper in your bags, here is a little about the program we are involved in with Hayley Billingsley at Tech, she is an undergrad working with Dr. Megan O'Rourke in the Horticulture department.

Dear CSA Shareholder,
During this summer’s CSA season, we will be conducting a study to explore positive health impacts of membership.  If you’re over the age of 18 and a member, you’re eligible and we’d appreciate your help! The measures taken will be quick and mostly available at your pick –up and include weight, height, 24-hour dietary recall, and a quick questionnaire at the end of the summer. A scale will be available at pick-up and you can record your weight next to an assigned number for privacy. If you’re selected to participate in dietary recall (which is just a quick recall of what you’d eaten the previous day), you can select a time convenient for you on the Virginia Tech campus. We’ll then provide you with a dietary analysis with comparison to the average American using NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey).
Thank you and we hope to see you soon!"
-Hayley Billingsley
Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise- Dietetics Option
Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

CSA Farm Share Week 1

Hello,

We are excited to be starting the farm shares this week!  You will find in your bag:

• Spinach
• Beet greens or swiss chard
• Kale
• Sugar Snap Peas

All of the vegetables in the share could be put into a salad and eaten raw.  Also they would do well in a sauté (high heat, little fat, uniformly cut ingredients), cooked long enough to just lightly wilt everything. Olive oil, coconut oil, or butter are great options for this use.  We have used all of these greens in omelets and quiches with great success.  Here is a great place to get some ideas on how to use all these greens: http://www.thekitchn.com/chard-kale-and-spinach-what-to-54508

In the next coming weeks you will find more greens (lettuce mix, chard, kale, spinach), beets, carrots, scallions and fennel.  You can expect to see peas again too.

Beans are coming up nicely, winter squash, summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers have been transplanted. You will start seeing some of these things mid-summer, along with herbs such as dill, cilantro and basil.  Sweet potato slips were planted last weekend too.

Pea inspector

Ground prepared for winter squash and pepper transplants.  Winter Rye, Vetch, and Clover were mowed, disced, chisel plowed, and then disced again.  What was left was suitable for transplanting with just some spotty places where tufts of rye are still growing.

Just prior to mowing down sweet yellow clover cover crop, it was almost 6 feet tall!  Late summer crops will be planted here. (cabbage, kale, carrots, beets, etc)

Thanks again for your support.  Have a great week!