Week 7; July 21, 2016

What's in the box? 

New Potatoes
Carrots (medium and large)
beets (small)
green bell peppers
head lettuce
red spring onions
cucumber
summer squash/ zucchini
fresh garlic
broccoli

Notes on the box.

New this week is New Potatoes and bell peppers.  The new potatoes can be stored on your counter.  The skin is very thin and fragile and they should be eaten sooner than later.  If you store them in the fridge for very long the starches will convert to sugars and they will taste sweet, so we suggest storing them on the counter and eating them soon as you can.  Perfect weather for potato salad! Or they are really wonderful roasted. 
Bell peppers should be stored in your crisper.  They are great in stir fry with carrots, onions, and summer squash.  Or chopped into salad or dipped into your favorite veggie dip. 

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

This week we have an aged cheese called Draco.  It's a grana style meaning it's meant for grating.  It's not a good melter, but is nice on top of pasta or grated onto a salad.  We also have some nice whole milk Ricotta.  I'm including a link to a recipe for a zucchini ricotta galette that I highly recommend if you have the time for it! 

 

Recipes.

Zucchini and Ricotta Galette from Smitten Kitchen

Homemade Ranch Dressing Recipe

Broccoli Slaw from Smitten Kitchen

Steamed and Buttered New Potatoes with Herbs
Wash potatoes and cut into halves or quarters depending on size.  Steam for about 12 minutes or until they break apart when pierced with a fork.  Mix in a tablespoon or so of butter and chopped herbs of your choice (parsley is a classic).  Serve right away. 

On the Farm.

There were some serious storms last night that brought down some trees and had our power go out.  Thankfully it was back on by the time we had to milk the cows!  Your veggies would have been pretty late getting delivered if we would have had to milk all the cows by hand this morning! 

It was a wet and muddy week of harvest and today is a hot day!  So goes without saying that you should get your veggies as soon as possible and into the fridge.  Keep yourselves cool and hydrated.  And enjoy salads and some meals without turning on the stove! We are happy that this hot weather will be helping the summer crops ripen.  Tomatoes will be coming soon! 

Turnip Rock Farmer Comment
Week 6; July 13, 2016

What's in the box?  

Green top carrots
Red Romaine lettuce
Red Russian kale
cucumbers
fresh garlic
yellow summer squash/ zucchini
green top beets
green onions
fennel (large and medium shares)

Notes on the box.  

Remember to remove the tops from carrots and beets for best storage. 
The Kale can be used the same as you would a curly kale or lacinato kale, but it is slightly more tender. 
The garlic is fresh!  It was harvested just last week.  The rest of the garlic is currently curing in the barn.  Curing dries down the papery layers of the garlic for storage.  Fresh garlic is a nice treat and a preview of more garlic to come after it's cured.  It's still safe for you to keep on your counter instead of the fridge, but it may not last as long as cured garlic. 

Cosmic Wheel Creamery cheese shares.  

Two aged cheeses this week.  Moon Glow is similar to a Gruyere and Lyra is a young washed rind cheese with a creamy texture.  Both are good melters for cooking.  Hope you enjoy them!  Ricotta is coming next week! 

Recipes.  

Cabbage, Cucumber, and Fennel Salad

Beet and Carrot Bake

On the farm.  

Big Storms on Sunday brought us 2 “ of much needed rain, and made everything green up but also made a fair amount of standing water in the fields.  We have been noticing this pattern of heavy rain falls over the past couple years. So this season we put much of our fields into raised beds. This allows the top of the bed to drain, and dry faster, while the walking paths hold water and stay wet longer. So far, so good, it has definitely saved us some crop loss and helped with seed germination. Every year we look closely at our weak links in our farming practices and try to make them a little stronger.

For those of you who wonder already, what am I going to do this winter for vegetables and farm direct food. Well, look no further than Foxtail farm in Osceola. These pioneers of CSA farming started a Winter only CSA that goes from December-April with deliveries every 3 weeks of fresh and storage vegetables, along with value added items made right on the farm, such as soups, granola, jam, kraut, and tomato sauce. AND! You can still get our farmstead cheese!  (though we don't have the signup for that set up just yet)  I mean you might have to make a trip to the grocery store just to remember what it was like.  Here's a link to their website.  You'll find information about sign-ups there.  The food is magnificent.  Paul and Chris have been mentors for many many many of the local farmers in our area, ourselves included.  Plus you get the fun farmer musings of Dr. Dirt (farmer Paul) in their entertaining and informative newsletter.  

Now for pictures!  This week Otto was on assignment at the farm.  Here's his photos...

Turnip Rock FarmerComment
Week 5; July 7, 2016

What's in the box?  

broccoli and/or cauliflower
cabbage
head lettuce
summer squash/ zucchini (large and medium)
carrots
rainbow chard
scarlet turnips (large and medium)
green onions
fennel (large and medium)

Notes on the box.  

So last week it was looking like we were going to have a break from broccoli and cauliflower, but the plants had other ideas and our next planting decided to jump ahead and put on some heads. And the sideshoots (little broccoli that grows on the plants after the main head has been harvested) looked too good to pass up.  Broccoli and Cauliflower is one that people don't seem to have trouble eating all of from week to week.  And it's super easy to blanch and freeze if you are getting behind on it.  

Carrots and turnips will store best with tops removed.  This will be the last of the scarlet turnips.  Not sure if we will be growing these in the beginning of the season again.  The flavor wasn't as good as they had been in the fall of last season.  They are pretty good braised, though.  Or you can grate them and they add a nice color to coleslaw along with the carrots, especially nice in an asian slaw.

Fennel may be new to some of you.  The bulb is the main edible part and it can be sliced thin and eaten in salads, or it can be roasted or even grilled.  The fronds are edible, too.  I saw a recipe for fennel frond pesto, though I've never tried it.  The stalks can be cooked with the bulb.  My favorite thing to do with the stalks is to chop them and make them into a bread and butter pickle.

Rainbow chard may also be new to some.  It can be used much like spinach for cooking.  The beautifully colored stalks are edible and can be sauted before the leaves since they take longer the cook.  The leaves wilt down super quickly, but the stalks need more time.  Store the chard in a plastic bag in your crisper.   

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

This week we have cheese curds and some Garlic Scape and Dill Quark.  I've been making this flavored quark for the farmers market and people seem to REALLY like it.  I generally like to give CSA members plain cheese so that you can fix it up however you want (I know you are doing a lot of cooking and meal prep!)  But sometimes it's nice to have something that you can just spread onto your cracker and munch away.  I hope you enjoy it!  It was the last of the garlic scapes and the dill came from our friends at Steady Hand Farm.  We planted dill in the greenhouse early in the season, but it was ready before CSA delivery started.  It's good on crackers, as a spread on a sandwich, dabbed onto scrambled eggs or salmon right when they are finished cooking.  

Recipes.

Fennel Slaw
To make dressing mix 1 1/2 tsp sugar, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 tsp spicy or dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp salt.  Slice fennel bulb as thinly as possible starting at the bottom of the bulb. Use a mandolin for slicing if you have one.  You may also slice in stalks.  Mix in one thinly sliced green onion and a tablespoon of minced mint.  Mix with dressing and allow to mainate for at least one hour.  The dressing really balances out the licorice flavor of the fennel, but if you'd like to make it even less pronounced, you can double the dressing and add in some thinly sliced cabbage for a fennel cabbage slaw.  

Spaghetti with Cauliflower and Chard Gremolata  

5 Coleslaw Variations There are about a million different options for coleslaw.  We can't get enough of it during the summer and tend to eat some spin on clowslaw with just about every meal.  Here's a few suggestions to start!  

On the Farm.  

We've put a postcard into your CSA box about our friend and neighbor at Red Clover Apothecary's herbal CSA share.  Nancy at Red Clover does an amazing job and we love her herbal teas, tinctures, and salves.  They are truly some of the best we have found.  If you order an Herbal CSA share, we will deliver it to your drop site along with your veggies. Click on the link  to learn more and to sign up for an herbal CSA share.  

a note to our meat share and eat like a farmer members:  the first delivery will be at the beginning of August.  We got the broiler chickens started later than we had anticipated and they are slow growing , but it will be worth the wait (see pictures below).  The first delivery will include chicken and beef.  

 

Turnip Rock Farmer Comment