Week 11; August 18, 2016

What's in the box? 

Sweet Corn
Sweet Onions
Sweet Peppers/ Bell Peppers
Zucchini / Summer Squash
Green Top Beets (medium and large)
Salad Turnips
Bunched Arugula
Salad Mix
Basil
Tomatoes
Garlic
 

Notes on the box.

Greens and roots are edible on beets and turnips.  Remove greens from roots for best storage.  Store both greens and roots in plastic bags in the fridge. 
Arugula should be stored in a plastic bag in the fridge.  Peppers, Zuchinni, Sweet onions, and Sweet Corn should all be stored in the fridge. 
Tomatoes and garlic should be stored outside of the fridge.  If you have tomatoes you are planning on cooking with or that are getting over ripe, they can go in the fridge, but texture and flavor will not be as great for fresh eating. 
Basil can be stored in a glass of water on your counter top, (as you would cut flowers).  OR you can place it in an ziploc style bag and store in the warmer part (top shelf or door) of your fridge. 

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

Feta this week!  And a young version of the Circle of the Sun aged cheese.  This one is aged 75 days and is quite sweet and mild.  The rinds of our cheese are natural and edible (no coating with plastics or waxes), but often the rind does not enhance the flavor of texture of the cheese so a lot of times we don't recommend eating it.  This rind is pretty tender and has a mild flavor, so feel free to taste it or if cooking with it, you don't need to cut it off when grating the cheese. 

Recipes.

This week on the farm, Aimee made BLTs with Arugula and pesto.  They were AMAZING! 

Creamy Corn Pasta With Basil from NYT Recipe calls for scallions, but I think sweet onion would be a really nice substitute

Corn Salad with Tomatoes and Feta from NYT

Summer Fresh Corn and Zuchinni Chowder

On the Farm.

We couldn't fit all the tomatoes we harvested into the CSA boxes this week.  So we left boxes of just tomatoes at drop sites (sorry, we couldn't leave them at our co-op drop sites) for you to help yourself to.  These are first come first serve. 

Next week will be the final week of sweet corn!  Next week will also see cantaloupe in the boxes!  Yay!  Tomatoes will begin their wind down.  The wet weather has us seeing a lot of the usual tomato diseases in the fields. 

This week is the last week that Hannah is working with us as she is headed back to school.  She is studying dairy science and hopes to establish a farmstead creamery at her family farm in central WI.  She has been an amazing worker,  a farmer through and through!  We will really miss her!  She got to help out with pulling mozzarella quite a few times and is a wiz in the vegetable fields.  She's had a great attitude and been a ton of fun to work with.  We (and the cows) will miss you, Hannah!  Looking forward to seeing your future in agriculture.  Please come back to visit and eat cheese soon!

Thanks for everything, Hannah!!

Thanks for everything, Hannah!!

Turnip Rock FarmerComment
Week 10; August 11, 2016

What's in the box? 

mint
new potatoes
tomatoes! and heirloom tomaotes
bell peppers
summer squash/ zuchinni
sweet onions
broccoli
sweet corn
braising mix/ baby kale
green top beets (large and medium)
watermelon
 

Notes on the box.

Please note:  veggies are hydro-cooled and rinsed, but we suggest doing a final wash at home before eating to remove any remaining dirt. 

Store potatoes and Tomatoes outside of the fridge.  Watermelon doesn't have to be stored in the fridge. Everything else can be stored in the fridge. 
This year, like last year, we had a disease in our watermelon (and cucumbers this season).  So unfortunately this looks like it will be all for watermelon.  We test the melons for readiness based on a few clues from the plant (checking tendrils to see if they have dried) but the disease affects the plants and so sometimes some of the melons that we thought to be ripe may not actually be.  It's a big disappointment to have another bad melon season this year.  We moved to a raised bed system after last season hoping that would help, but it didn't.  We will be looking into different varieties of melons and hopefully find one that is naturally more resistant to this disease and will do better in our soil for next season.  The good news is that the cantaloupe is looking nice! 
For beets, some folks got a variety called Cylendra that is a longer tapered beet.  We really like how easy it is to peel.  Other people got golden beets.  The beet greens are edible and can be used in place of chard or spinach in recipes.  Remove tops from beets and store in a plastic bag in your crisper.
Sweet corn should be stored in the husk in your fridge.  The sooner you eat it, the better!  The sugars start to turn to starch after it's picked, so eat soon for the best flavor. 
Sweet onions are not cured and should be kept in your fridge.  They are so nice and mild.  Perfect for potato salad, piled onto hamburgers or BLTs, or if you are Otto or Sadie, you can eat the whole thing like an apple! 
Store tomatoes with stem side facing down on your counter.  The flavor and texture changes if you store them in the fridge, so we suggest storing on your counter.  If you don't get to some of them and they start getting too ripe, I will usually put those tomatoes in the fridge and use them for cooking.  

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

With all the tomatoes this week, I had to try pulling fresh mozzarella for everyone.  Enjoy it ASAP.  We like it very simply sliced and eaten with sliced tomato with a drizzle of good olive oil and maybe some balsamic vinegar and salt.  Fresh basil is nice if you have it around.
The aged cheese this week is Deneb with is our Gouda style.  It is aged 9 months and has a natural rind (gouda is usually waxed).  We made the summer squash pizza from last weeks blog and used the Deneb in that recipe and it was quite good. 

Recipes.

Watermelon Mint Sorbet
Seed, cube, and freeze your watermelon.  When it is frozen, put it in your blender or food processor with the juice of 1-2 limes (you can add the zest, too) and a few sprigs of mint.  Blend, scoop, and serve!

Corn, Bacon, and Parmesan Pasta from Smitten Kitchen

Roasted Beet Hummus

On the Farm.

A HUGE THANK YOU to Haley's mom Diane! She has been working with us all week!  So generous and adventurous.  She's done an awesome job keeping up with the crew, even in the heat! We now know where Haley gets her strength, great attitude, and all around lovliness! 

Turnip Rock FarmerComment
Week 9; August 4, 2016

What's in the box? 

Sweet Corn! 
New Potatoes
Broccoli
Bell Peppers
Zucchini/ Summer Squash
Tomatoes!
head lettuce
carrots
sweet onions
 

Notes on the box.

Nice box of Summer favorites! 
Remove tops from carrots before storing.  These guys got pretty big.  Nice for cutting up and dipping into hummus or grating for salad or carrots cake.  Some shares got purple carrots, but we had pretty poor gemination on them, so there weren't enough for all. 
Sweet corn should be stored in the husk in your fridge.  The sooner you eat it, the better!  The sugars start to turn to starch after it's picked, so eat soon for the best flavor. 
Sweet onions are not cured and should be kept in your fridge.  They are so nice and mild.  Perfect for potato salad, piled onto hamburgers or BLTs, or if you are Otto or Sadie, you can eat the whole thing like an apple! 
Store tomatoes with stem side facing down on your counter.  The flavor and texture changes if you store them in the fridge, so we suggest storing on your counter.  If you don't get to some of them and they start getting too ripe, I will usually put those tomatoes in the fridge and use them for cooking. 
 

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

Fresh cheese curds!  Perfect snack for a hot day.  Or you can add them to salads or put some into a soup at the end as a nice cheesy garnish.  Or go classic and fry em up!  To get the squeak back, let them warm up. 
Moonglow is our alpine style cheese.  It's so beautiful and golden.  Nice for cooking, but also wonderful on its own. 

Recipes.

Liberty's Carrot Salad
fresh carrots grated (about a pound)
1 handful finely chopped parsley (or carrot tops)
1/2 sweet onion finely chopped
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2-3 pinches Red pepper flakes
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste Kosher or coarse sea salt

Herbed Pasta with Sauteed Summer Vegetables
Dice sweet onion, bell peppers, and summer squash or zucchini and sautee in butter until tender in an oven safe pan.  Once tender, top veggies with cheese of your choice (cheese curds, mozzarella, grated cheese) and put in broiler until cheese is melted and slightly browned.
While your veggies are cooking, make your pasta.  Put a handful of herbs of your choice (basil, parsley, oregano, mint) into food processor or blender with one clove garlic, some olive oil, lemon juice, and a little salt.  Puree.  Mix blended herbs into warm pasta.  Put veggies on top of the pasta. 

Tonight's dinner here at the farm. The Moonglow cheese is going to be really nice with it!   Summer Squash Pizza from Smitten Kitchen

Grilled Corn and Cheddar Quinoa Salad

 

On the Farm

Today is the first delivery of meat for our Eat Like a Farmer and meat share members.  Your Meat Share is in a large box with an insulated box liner.  Feel free to bring the whole box home, but please bring it back to your drop site next week so that we can pick it up and reuse it.  The box liners aren't cheap! 
Try to pick up your meat share ASAP after we drop it off and send the email to get it into the freezer.  Please email or call if you have any questions or issues. 
The chicken in the shares are a slower growing and more flavorful breed called Freedom Rangers or French Rangers.  They are great foragers and have much fewer health issues than the standard chicken which is called a Cornish Cross.  The freedom rangers don't have the giant breast and they grow quite a bit slower, but the flavor is quite a bit better.  I suggest roasting at least one of them as simply as possible with just some garlic, lemon, salt and pepper and butter or oil rubbed on the skin so that you can enjoy the flavor of this type of chicken.  We hope you enjoy the first meat delivery!  The next one will be pork in late October. 

Next weeks boxes will have more of the same sorts of summer goodness.  No lettuce or carrots next week, though.  But beets will be included and and maybe melons will be ripe!
 

Turnip Rock FarmerComment