Two Small Farms

What's in the Box week of August 6th, 7th, and 8th

2008-08-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

Hello, CSA blog/recipe fans. I admit I've not 'used' the blog this year so far. I'm sticking to both the website and the email newsletter for now. And, I'm wondering if the blog could be a recipe-only resource for CSA members: both our own and any others out there. Gardeners too, of course!

I could also just make posts that are single-vegetable specific for easier searching, I might try that too later this weekend.

So: I'm sending this post out today with a list of what will likely be in our boxes this next week, August 6th, 7th, and 8th. Please reply back in comments or directly to me: julia@mariquita.com if you have recipes or ideas on how to use this box. Thank you!!

Also one other tiny disclaimer: if you are a current Two Small Farms CSA member, the below list might change, depends on what the fields decide between now and harvest!!

Let me know your thoughts.

From Mariquita Farm

1. Mystery (Cranberry beans, squash, tomatoes, OR eggplant)
2. Armenian cucumber
3. Lacinato Kale x 1 bunch
4. Chioggia Beets
5. Carrots x 1 bunch (Parisian round or yellow)

And from High Ground Organics

1. Scallions
2. Strawberry/ OR mystery
3. Lettuce
4. Red Cabbage

February 2008 Winter Newsletter #425

2008-02-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

Winter Reading

I’m a farmer, so when the fields are muddy and the tractors are parked I like to snuggle up on the couch with my most recent copy of Vogue Magazine. Sure, I get the agricultural trade journals, like the Ag Alert and the CAFF newsletter, but Jeffery Steingarten only writes for Vogue. Food is the lens through which I look at the world, and Mr. Steingarten is one of my favorite food writers. He must take evil glee in writing about food for a magazine that caters to size one women. For those of you who don’t read Vogue, The Man Who Ate Everything is great collection of his essays. To further my professional development I read all kinds of books about food and cooking, but sometimes the best food writing shows up in books that aren’t about food at all.

Right now I’m working my way through The French Revolution, by Thomas Carlyle. This is a “no-food” book. If it had been written now, instead of in 1833, the chapter I’m reading now might have been titled “The Women Who Had Nothing to Eat,” or “French Women Can’t Get Fat.” As Carlyle relates, generations of appalling Royal French agricultural policy combined with a freak August hailstorm that destroyed the nation’s grain crop to bring France to the brink of famine. Meanwhile, a Popular Assembly convenes at the Palace to create a new constitution for the nation. Day by day, legislators discuss the Rights of Man. Month by month the nation’s remaining grain reserves of are drawn down. To remind their leaders that “those with food have many problems, but those without it have only one,” the women of Paris rise up and storm Versaille. When they encounter bodyguards at the gates the women are turned back, but not before wounding two soldiers and killing one warhorse. They cook the horse. A day later, they penetrate to the Assembly as it debates criminal law. “What is the use of Penal Code?” the women shout. “The thing we want is Bread.”

But women don’t want to live off of bread alone. Culture evolves when there’s enough food available that people can chew their meals slowly and ruminate on what life means. Charles Darwin is so famous for his speculations concerning the origins of species that his food writing came as a surprise to me. In The Voyage of the Beagle , Darwin recounts stumbling over fossilized mastodon skulls on the Pampas and he ruminates on the implications of the shark’s teeth he finds imbedded in rocks high up in the Andes, but he also focuses his considerable forensic powers on his dinner plate. One night Darwin finds himself eating a jaguar. Jeffery Steingarten has yet to eat a jaguar. Another night, in the Falkland Islands, Darwin watches a gaucho catch a wild cow with a lariat and roast chunks of fresh beef over coals in a platter of it’s own skin. “If any worthy alderman had supped with us that evening,” Darwin writes, “’carne con cuero,’” without doubt, would soon have been celebrated in London!”

Jeffery Steingarten might try to test Darwin’s theory by hiring gauchos to capture a wild cow and prepare carne con cuero at a sophisticated supper club before discovering that there are no wild cows in London. Mr. Steingarten frequently makes fun of his skyscraping, cosmopolitan urbanity. But prior to reading The Voyage of the Beagle I‘d always thought of Darwin purely as an explorer of remote wilderness worlds. It turns out that even by 1836, when Darwin sailed on the Beagle, South America had already been profoundly changed by agriculture. In the Parana River delta Darwin describes vast, thorny thickets of wild peach and orange trees resulting from colonial orchards gone to seed. On the Pampas Darwin encounters thickets of feral cardoon over five hundred square miles in extension, and he reflects on the role that careless livestock husbandry has played in the degradation of the environment. It’s interesting to see articles in the food press these days that challenge the choices we consumers make when we feed ourselves, but Darwin was there first. In 1836, the environmental ethics of food production was true terra incognita.

Then there’s Beatrix Potter, the gentle storyteller of ordered English landscapes. In The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, Beatrix Potter uses the soporific effects of lettuce as the dramatic device by which Farmer McGregor catches six bunnies. Before I flipped the third page I knew things wouldn’t go well for Farmer McGregor, but as a lettuce grower he had my sympathy. I put the Potter book down and turned to my copy of The Oxford Companion to Food, to learn more about the pharmacological properties of lettuce.

I learned that in the beginning there was Lactuca serriola, or wild lettuce, which grew on rocky or disturbed ground across Asia, North Africa, and Europe. In the spring wild lettuces are tender, with a bitter flavor that isn’t unpalatable if you’re starving. The plant earned a reputation as a somniferous herb. One variety of wild lettuce worked well enough as a relaxant to pick up the common name “wild opium.” The garden varieties of lettuce we know now as Lactuca sativa are cultivars improved from Lactuca serriola ruthless selection and assiduous cultivation on the part of farmers. It’s only in senescence that our lush, full-headed garden lettuces begin to look like their wild lettuce cousins, with long, tough, bitter leaves. And it’s only as it nears the bitter end of its life that Lactuca sativa retains any somniferous qualities. Sure enough, on page 23 of The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies there’s a picture of the bunnies nibbling on the lettuces, and Beatrix Potter shows the plants very far gone to seed. No wonder the Flopsy Bunnies got stoned. Don’t worry about the lettuces we’re sowing for you. When we harvest them, they’ll be young and tender. It’s a mark of how much lettuce has been changed that an herb once valued for inducing a dream-state can now be extolled as an invigorating salad green.

In the end, the Flopsy Bunnies are saved by a mouse. Beatrix Potter is no Steingarten, Carlyle, or Darwin. By lulling young readers with a drowsy tale of lettuce and bunnies, she makes the night comfy. But even for farmers like me, who might resent the fictional breaks she gives to varmints, there are reasons to admire Beatrix Potter. Carlyle and Darwin drew their readers’ attention to the dire consequences of shortsighted agricultural policy, but Beatrix Potter did something about it. She invested her earnings from her animal tales in farmland. She knew the best way to preserve the countryside is by protecting working farms, so that consumers can eat fresh, local food, farmers and farm workers remain gainfully employed, and the landscape is well husbanded. When Beatrix Potter passed away she passed her properties on to the National Trust, and today the land the Flopsy Bunnies paid for lies at the heart of England’s Lake Country National Park. I’m looking forward to a day when it’s in vogue for everyone who eats to take farming as seriously as Beatrix Potter did, and I see Community Supported Agriculture programs like the Two Small Farms CSA as a step in that direction. Thank you for your support.

copyright 2008 Andy Griffin

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simple sign up form
Pick Up Site List (updated!)
Meet Shelley (includes cute baby goat photo)

Our CSA season starts March 19th, 20th, and 21st. We start deliveries in just 6 weeks. We'll be sending out real paper mailings with addressed envelopes in about a week, you can wait for that reminder too. Let us know if you DON'T want a postal reminder, saying 'no postal mail this time please' by Friday Feb. 8th. thank you.

Two Small Farms Employment: We're looking for two drivers for our 2008 season. Must be reliable, on time, and have an excellent driving record (you need to show your dmv print out), (no special drivers license needed) 20-30 hours a week, Tues-Friday, or Wed-Thursday; some lifting involved. pay = $13-$14 depending on experience. Located in Watsonville
contact Jeanne or Steve via email or phone: csa@highgroundorganics.com or 831 786 0286

Two Small Farms Newsetter #424

2008-01-21T09:26:00.000-08:00

1. Planting Apples and Pears
2. Signing up for 2008
3. Pick up site info
4. Employment at 2SF
5. Ladybug Letter: computer theft!
6. Thanks to 101 Cookbooks and Heidi
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Planting Apples and Pears by Stephen

For a time around the turn of the last century the Pajaro Valley was considered the largest apple growing district in the United States. By some accounts the valley floor from Corralitos to Aromas was nearly carpeted with trees. The town of Watsonville itself was dominated by apple packing sheds, apple driers, and juice and vinegar factories.

By the middle of the century, as vast plantings in Washington and Oregon came into production, the tide had turned. Because there are fewer problems with apple diseases and insects, land and water are cheap and plentiful, and the apples themselves attain better color and size in the Pacific Northwest, growers in the Pajaro Valley couldn’t compete. Strawberries, vegetables, and floral crops eventually replaced the apples and the majority of orchards were removed—pushed over by bulldozers and set alight in enormous piles.

And so it raised a few eyebrows when I announced this year that we’ll be bucking that trend by planting apples and pears here at our home farm. But to me it makes perfect sense.

With the help of my friend Freddy Menge, a tireless advocate of rare and forgotten apples, we grafted over 25 varieties onto trees that had been planted several years ago as a demonstration orchard at the Redman House site where we lease land. Last season we let them fruit for the first time, and tasting some of the varieties was a revelation to me. That the selection available to us in supermarkets has been narrowed down to half a dozen or so varieties is certainly based on factors other than flavor because these apples had the most complex, juicy, delicious flavor of any I had ever tried.

It occurred to me that through the CSA we had the perfect venue for selling these rare but delicious apples—apples that are difficult or impossible to find elsewhere. We are always looking for ways to offer a wider variety of fruit to our customers. So this year we have decided to plant four of our favorite varieties from that demonstration orchard along with 6 different varieties of pears here at our home farm.

One of the apple varieties we’ll be planting is Hudson’s Golden Gem—first introduced in the 1930s. It is clear that its appearance alone has limited its popularity. While wholesale markets demand bright colors and shiny skins, the Golden Gem has a dull, rough, russetted skin and a brownish yellow color. Underneath that skin, however, is a sweet, crisp, pear-like flesh unlike anything I have ever tried. The other three apples are Rubinettes, Waltannas (named after a couple named Walt and Anna), and Jonagolds (the one newer variety we like a lot).

We’re also excited about planting pears. Of the six pear varieties we have chosen, three are French butter pears (Hardy Beurré, Beurré Superfine, Easter Beurré). The others are called Harrows Delight, Warren, and Seckel. Seckels are an American variety, developed near Philadelphia at the end of the 18th century. They’re small and not suited for long distance traveling, but are fine textured, juicy, and syrupy—a perfect CSA fruit.

Putting some of our steeper hillside slopes into perennial plantings makes perfect sense from a land management standpoint as well. Planting annual vegetables on these hillsides requires extensive tillage, taxing our equipment and tractor drivers and exposing the soil to erosion. When the orchard is established we will plant grass between the tree rows. The grass will provide protective cover and only require a mowing pass or two each year.

We’re awaiting our first delivery of trees this week, and will be keeping our crew busy during the next month planting root stock and grafting on the varieties from scion wood we’ve been collecting. It feels good to be doing our part to preserve Watsonville’s orcharding heritage.

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2. Signing up for 2008

If you intend to sign up for
Two Small Farms Vegetable
CSA Boxes in 2008 please
tell us now. If you're able to send a check now, that's great. For those that prefer to wait until Feb/early March to send your check, no problem, we're just putting out an early call for those that want to send $ now. Thanks much.

simple sign up form

Pick Up Site List

Returning Member Form

Make checks out to Two
Small Farms and send to:

Two Small Farms
PO Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077-2065

prices: 9 weeks: $180; 9 weeks with flowers: $234
36 weeks full season with discount: $691; full season with flowers with discount: $898 4 weeks (new members only): $80; 4 weeks with flowers: $104

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3. We are seeking pick up site hosts for: Carmel (mouth of the valley preferred), Seaside, and Santa Cruz Westside. Call Shelley in the office if you're interested or would just like further info.

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4. Two Small Farms Employment:

We hired Zelda's replacement: She's the amazing Shelley Kadota! Welcome to Shelley. Zelda continues to be part of our farms: she's currently helping Stephen with some on farm planting projects. You may occasionally see her at the Sunday Mountain View Farmers market too.

We're looking for two drivers for our 2008 season. Must be reliable, on time, and have an excellent driving record (you need to show your dmv print out), (no special drivers license needed) 20-30 hours a week, Tues-Friday, or Wed-Thursday; some lifting involved. pay = $13-$14 depending on experience. Located in Watsonville

contact Jeanne or Steve via email or phone: csa@highgroundorganics.com or 831 786 0286

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5. Ladybug Letter Signup

Note: Some of you enjoy getting Andy's Ladybug Letter as well as this newsletter. There are different articles posted there: it's Andy's Writing Venue. In late November the Mariquita Farm Main computer was stolen and we lost well over 1000 names on our mailing list. (I was backing up incorrectly, I'm smarter about it now, and we didn't lose any of Andy's writings or any photos! phew.) Please consider signing up again or trying it out for the first time, thank you! The latest article Andy wrote was a slightly snotty piece that outlined what he thinks newspaper food sections SHOULD write about in 2008.

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6. Thanks to Heidi of 101 Cookbooks for writing sweet things about our farm AND a great cabbage soup recipe to boot. Read her post.

It's worth visiting just to see her remarkable food photography. It's takes Heidi to make cabbage soup look fabulous! -julia

Two Small Farms Dec. Winter Newsletter #423

2007-12-05T15:33:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our Winter Newsletter. Below find recipes for butternutsquash and carrots, job postings, events, and where to find ourproduce during the winter.

Where can you find your vegetables in the winter? 4 places:

1) Yuletide Boxes (week before Christmas)

2) San Francisco Mariquita Mystery Thursdays

3) Sunday Mt. View market: High Ground

4) Watsonville Redmond House Fri, Sat and Sundays

Andy’s Writing Blog

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Holiday Gift Certificates and December Yuletide Boxes: You can ordergift certificates anytime. Email or call our office for info. Gift Certificates can be purchased for 4, 9 or 36 weeks for 2008. Wecan email you a gift certificate you can print up so you havesomething to wrap up if you like.

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Job Announcements:

CSA Administrator-40 hours a week m-f- located in Watsonville/Corralitos- $12-15/hour, doe- Organizational, office and computer skills essential; knowledge ofvegetables and cooking a plus;- Job begins mid jan.- This job involves a lot of contact with customers via phone andemail.- contact Julia at csa@mariquita.com. please attach resumes in an email. Thank you.

Driver Jobs

We're looking for two drivers for our 2008 season. Must be reliable,on time, and have an excellent driving record (you need to show yourdmv print out), (no special drivers license needed) 20-30 hours aweek, Tues-Friday, or Wed-Thursday; some lifting involved. pay =$13-$14 depending on experience. Located in Watsonville contact Jeanne or Steve via email or phone:csa@highgroundorganics.com or 831 786 0286

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Here are some adorable letters from a field trip with a local school. (it's the one Andy and Julia's kids currently attend.) These letterswere written to 'farmer Andy' by first and second graders from Mt. Madonna School. One little girl 'wishes she knew our son' and another boy wants Andy to have all the gold in the world. (I'm linking to the photos of the letters via my flickr account due to some computer changes we're making that are taking longer than expected.)

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Winter Habitat Restoration at High Ground Organics Farm

Come celebrate the winter rains & the New Year by planting thousands ofnative grasses and wildflowers in order to restore the farm edges to adiverse and thriving habitat. We will work from 10 am - 12:30 pm followed by a potluck lunch, a farm tour and bird watching. Sat. Dec.29, 2007 & Sat. Jan. 12, 2007 Call Laura Kummerer at #831-761-8694 for directions & information.

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Butternut Squash Risotto Recipe from my friend Elise at Simply Recipes, the photo alone is worthpondering making this recipe. Maybe you still have a butternut squashsitting in your kitchen! I have a few winter squashies waiting to becooked outside my kitchen door –Julia

If you want the simplest preparation for your lingering butternut butare not a frequent squash-cooker: cut it in half, remove seeds, andbake it in a glass dish cut sides down until it’s soft all the waythrough. THEN you can puree all the meat (remove from the skin first) for pumpkin bread and pie. You can make soup. And when you pull the two halves out of the oven: you can serve onewith butter, salt and pepper with dinner. One side dish done! Sweet, savory, healthy.

Cumin Colored Carrots

2 pounds carrots: many colors, 2 colors, or all

orange juice and zest from one lemon or orange

2 tablespoons walnut or olive oil (I used a fresh bottle of walnutoil and it was divine)

S & P to taste

1 teaspoon cumin powder

Freshly chopped parsley or cilantro

Whisk together the citrus juice, zest, salt, pepper, cumin and oil.Julienne carrots on a mandolin or other grater. If you've got sharpknives and the skill julienne the carrots with just your knives andknowledge. Pour dressing over carrots. Stir in parsley or cilantro, orjust use it as garnish for the top if presentation matters to yourtable.

Two Farms Newsletter #422

2007-11-14T13:01:00.000-08:00

November 14, 2007

Table of Contents:

1) In your box this week

2) A Mysterious Vegetable

3) Last Week of Delivery for 2007! ... and gift certificates are available

4) Yuletide Mystery box

5) Upcoming Habitat Restoration Events at High Ground Organics Farm

6) Redman House Farm Stand Open Weekends Through the Winter

7) Photos
8) Recipes
9) Which Farm?
10) Unsubscribe
11) Two Small Farms Contact Information
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1) In your box this week: Potatoes, Butternut Squash, Bok Choy, White Carrots, Orange Carrots, Soup Celery, Leeks, Beets OR Turnips, and a mystery item.

This week's vegetable list: We try to have it updated by Monday night, sometimes by Mon. am

How to store this week's bounty: all but the butternut squash should go in the fridge in plastic bags. All winter squash should be stored in a dry, cool, and dark place. Both the turnip and beet greens can be used as you might other cooking greens such as chard or kale. They are best if used within a day or two.

Soup Celery, also known as cutting celery, is an herb that in our house we use in many places where celery flavor is sought after: sauteed with onions as a soup base for instance. It's leaves can also be used raw in a salad: a classic lettuce salad, a rice or pasta salad, etc. It has a true celery flavor and as long as that flavor doesn't disrupt the rest of the dish, cutting celery leaves can be used in most places Italian parsley is used.

The white carrots are best for roasting, but the orange can be eaten raw in salads or cooked
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2) A Mysterious Vegetable by CSA member Will Juncosa (submitted earlier this summer)

When I opened my bag of Two Small Farms fresh organic delights two weeks ago, right on the top was the weirdest vegetable I have ever seen. Resembling a green cauliflower, instead of a tree like solid canopy, it had curving cones made of opposing logarithmic spirals that would appear undeniably psychedelic to anyone who was young and crazy in the 1960’s. Even my pet cockatiel looked at it apprehensively for a while before cautiously approaching it for a nibble.

My first thought was, "What’s going to happen to me when I eat this thing?" The next thought was, "Where do these guys get these ‘mystery’ vegetables from anyway?" Then, thankfully, reason and the irresistible urge to figure things out kicked in. It’s an Italian heirloom, Broccoli Romanesc o, and the 3 dimensional ‘Fibonacci fractal’ style logarithmically spiraling cones have a sound scientific explanation.

The spirals are formed according to the Fibonacci sequence, a numerical series that starts with 1,1 with each subsequent number being formed by the sum of the previous two (1+1=2, 2+1=3, 3+2=5, 5+3=8…yielding the series: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13 etc. ad infinitum). Many plants have leaves that spiral around their branches in proportions corresponding to numbers of this sequence. Scientists have created logarithmic spirals based on the Fibonacci sequence by letting droplets of a magnetized liquid fall in a bowl of silicone oil that was magnetized around the rim. The droplets organized themselves into the same pattern seen in the mystery vegetable as well as in sunflowers, daisies, artichokes pineapples, many other plants and even spiral galaxies.

Apparently, a plant growth hormone called auxin behaves like the magnetized droplets, and creates ‘primordia’ that develop into the plant structures that make up the spirals. If you don’t believe me and think I’m living in a 1960’s psychedelic haze, you can read an article on this subject in Science News, Vol. 172, July 21, 2007. In the meantime, I’ll just be quiet and eat my vegetables, no matter how mysterious they are.

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Thanks to Will for writing up this piece. For fans of Andy's writing, be sure to sign up for email alerts of his blog postings, he will continue 2-4 times a month throughout the winter

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3) The Last Week of 2007!

Our last week for delivering veggies is THIS WEEK - November 14/15/16. A big thanks to all our members and our hosts! It's been a wonderful year and we thank you for sharing it with us. We will be sending out a newsletter in February with the details and info on the 2008 season. Or check our website.
Gift certificates are available for those who are already in the gift giving mindset! Any increments are available, but the most popular is the 4 week trial - $80 for just the veggies, or $104 includes veggies plus flowers.

To contact us, 831-786-0625 or csa@twosmallfarms.com. Two Small Farms, PO Box 2065, Watsonville, CA 95077.

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4) Yuletide CSA box

A one time only, "Yuletide" box is being offered for the week before Christmas. The cost is $25 and all boxes must be prepaid by check. We will only be delivering to a few pick up sites. You must be able to pick up the box on the scheduled day and within in the scheduled time frame.

Tuesday, December 18th: Los Gatos (Blossom Hill), and San Jose (downtown)

Wednesday, December 19th: Palo Alto Ross Road, Stanford West Apts., and San Francisco Folsom Street

Thursday, December 20th: Santa Cruz High Street, and Monterey (pick up site Unitarian Church)

The content of the boxes will be "mysteries" but most likely will include winter squash, potatoes, carrots, cooking greens, fennel, leeks, and more. Contact Zelda to confirm: 831-786-0625, csa@twosmallfarms.com; and mail in your check to Two Small Farms, PO Box 2065, Watsonville, CA 95077.
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5) Upcoming Habitat Restoration Events at High Ground Organics Farm

As High Ground farm slows down for the winter months to rest and replenish itself, the plants and animals of the wetland and grassland surrounding it are abounding with life. You are invited to continue your connection with the farm by joining in on our volunteer habitat restoration days throughout the winter. Laura K. is planning two volunteer opportunities in November and will have planting days in December, January and February. The November dates and details are listed below. Check your e-newsletters for specific planting days in December, January and February.

Please call Laura Kummerer (831)761-8694 for more details!

NOVEMBER RESTORATION EVENTS:
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 18, 2007 (10am-1pm)-Come help tend the myriad of native grasses and sedges we planted last year to provide wildlife habitat and a buffer between the farm fields and the wetland. We will work together from 10-12:30 and share a potluck lunch and nature walk after.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 24, 2007 (9am-2pm)-Come help remove a colony of invasive grasses that are crowding out a healthy stand of native coastal prairie bunch grasses. After the invasive grasses are removed we will spread out a mixture of native grass seeds so that they can germinate in the winter rains and re-colonize their ground. We will work together with a group of Boy Scouts during this event from 9-12 with a pot-luck lunch and bird watching and than return to plant seeds in the afternoon.
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6) Redman House Farm Stand Open Weekends Through the Winter

Operated by High Ground Organics in Watsonville, just off of Hwy 1 and the Riverside Drive exit. It will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am to 5 pm throughout the winter (closed the Friday after Thanksgiving). They will also be offering some of Mariquita Farm items as well.
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7) Photos:

Soup Celery

Leeks

Butternut Squash

Bok Choy

Turnips

Photo Gallery

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8) Recipes

Spicy Tofu and Greens Soup, Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special

For the Stock...
2 cups (peeled if you like) and sliced carrots
2 cups thinly sliced onions
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley (try substituting some of the soup celery??)
8 garlic cloves, sliced
8 thin slices of fresh ginger root
1 to 2 dried chilies, sliced in half, or use 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes
8 cups water

For the Soup...
1 cake of firm tofu, about 12 oz
1 TBS grated fresh ginger root
4 garlic cloves, minced and pressed
1 to 2 dried chiles, sliced in half, or use 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes
1 TBS canola or peanut oil
2 TBS plus 1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup julienned carrots
2 cups shredded greens such as bok choy, beet or turnip greens
A few drops of dark sesame oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 375. Place the stock ingredients in a large soup pot, cover, and bring to a boil on medium heat. Lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the tofu into small, bite-sized cubes and set aside in a baking dish. Combine the ginger, garlic, chiles, oil and 2 Tablespoons of the soy sauce in a heavy skillet, saute for a few seconds, and then add to the tofu. Gently toss the tofu until evenly coated. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring twice to roast evenly. Remove the chili halves if using.

Strain the stock into another soup pot. Add the baked tofu and the carrots and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the shredded greens. When the soup returns to a simmer, remove from the heat and add the sesame oil and the remaining 1/4 cup of soy sauce. Serve immediately, scattering freshly sliced scallions into each bowl.

Crystal City Bok Choi, More Recipes from a Kitchen Garden, Renee Shepherd and Fran Raboff

1 large bok choi
2 TBS olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp dry mustard
1 TBS soy sauce
1tsp rice vinegar
1 TBS sake or dry sherry
3 scallions, finely chopped
2 TBS finely chopped parsley
Sal and pepper to taste
2 TBS toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Cut bok choi stalks into 1 inch lengths. Shred green tops and reserve. In a large skillet, heat oil, add garlic and onions and stir fry until softened. Stir in bok choi stalks, mustard, and soy sauce and stir fry until bok choi is tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in the shredded green tops, vinegar, sake or sherry, scallions, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook 2 more minutes. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.
Butternut Squash with Spicy Cranberry Sauce, Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special, serves 8

1 large butternut squash
1 TBS canola oil
Dash of Salt and black pepper
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
2 celery stalks
1 crisp green apple

For the Dressing....
6 oz fresh cranberries, (or if fresh are unavailable, use frozen. add the still frozen cranberries to the saucepan and stir several times until the dressing comes to a boil; or use canned whole cranberries and their juice, omit the sugar and water in the recipe and simmer uncovered).
1/2 tsp freshly grated orange peel
Juice of 1 orange plus water to make 1 cup
1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar, to taste
1 jalapeno or other chile, stemmed, seeded and minced

Preheat oven to 400. Peel and seed the butternut squash and cut it into 1 inch cubes. Place the cubes in a bowl, drizzle them with the oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss well to coat evenly. Spread the squash on an un-oiled baking sheet and roast for about 45 minutes, stirring twice during roasting. Spread the chopped walnuts on an end of the baking sheet for the last 5 minutes of roasting. The finished squash should be soft and lightly browned and the walnuts fragrant. Reserve the walnuts.

While the squash roasts, rinse the cranberries and discard any that are soft or discolored (if using fresh). Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a partially covered non-reactive sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook at a low boil for 5 minutes. Stir well, mashing any unpopped cranberries. Remove form the heat and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together the roasted squash and the dressing. Refrigerate until cooled to room temperature. Mince the celery, core and dice the apple, and stir them into the salad. Add the reserved walnuts and chill for about 20 minutes before serving.

ROASTED BEETS

Just cut them into chunks and roast them with olive oil, S & P until they are tender.

Roasted Beets with Curry Dressing, adapted from Delicious TV, serves 6

6 medium beets roasted
Olive oil
Salt
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 TBS yogurt
2 TBS Mayo (regular or vegan)
4 tsp curry powder
3 TBS fresh lemon juice
10 TBS olive oil
4 TBS chopped cutting celery or cilantro

Preheat oven to 375. Wash, trim and wrap beets individually in foil. Place in a shallow pan and roast until tender. A sharp kitchen paring knife should pierce through the foil easily. Set aside to cool. Mix dressing by combining all ingredients except oil. When all ingredients are smooth, whisk in the oil and set aside. Many people don't prepare fresh beets because of the staining juices. Wearing laytex or vinyl gloves will protect your hands and preparing on a covered surface will protect your cutting board. I often roast beets without wrapping and use them skin included. However, this is an alternative method. Whatever method you use, it is well worth the effort! Unwrap the beets, and rub away skin. Slice into wedges and set into your dish. Spoon curry over the beets and serve at room temperature.

Roasted Turnips in Wine, adapted from Peggy's Biodynamic Garden

1 bunch turnips, peeled and cubed, greens reserved for another use
1 cup red wine
1/4 cup honey
2 Tablespoons butter

Place turnips in saucepan; add remaining ingredients and enough water to barely cover. (You may also add other root vegetables: carrots, parsnips, etc.) Simmer until tender. Pour into baking dish and bake at 350 degrees 1/2 hour. Serve with rice or chicken. 2-3 servings.

Turnip Tips, adapted from "From Asparagus to Zucchini"

*Eat turnips raw. Slice or thickly julienne and add to vegetable platter or eat alone with or without dip.
*Grate raw into salads.
*Bake turnips alone for 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees, basted with oil, or bake along with other seasonal roots.
*Cook turnips with roasting meats.
*Mash or scallop turnips, just like you would potatoes.
* Dice turnips into soups or stews, and julienne into stir fries.
Turnip Greens Meal

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Garlic cloves, minced
1 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 Tablespoon Red Raspberry vinegar (I would use cider vinegar if no raspberry is available...)
1 large red onion, sliced
1 can black beans
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 large potato, cubed (I would substitute a couple of the turnips...)
Cleaned greens from one bunch of turnips.

Put all ingredients in a large pot, in the order listed. Bring mixture to boiling point, stir, lower heat to simmer, cover and cook for 15 or 20 minutes, or until potato is tender. Serve with a chilled fruit and yogurt accompaniment.
Baked Squash with Rosemary and Honey, More Recipes from a Kitchen Garden, Renee Shepherd and Fran Raboff

1 medium to large butternut squash, cleaned and cut into 6 pieces
2 TBS softened butter
2 TBS honey
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 375. Place squash skin side up in a greased baking pan and bake 35 minutes, until softened. Turn Squash over. Combine butter with honey and
rosemary and spread about 2 teaspoons of the mixture over each squash piece. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes longer, until squash is bubbly.

More Recipes

Bok Choy

Soup Celery

Winter Squash recipes
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9) Which Farm?

>From High Ground: Leeks, Bok Choy, Orange Carrots, Beets, Baby Turnips, Mystery
>From Mariquita: Potatoes, Butternut Squash, Soup Celery, White Carrots
__________________________________________

10) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main blog
page: http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

__________________________________

11) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
831-786-0625
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

Two Farms Newsletter #421

2007-11-06T12:10:00.001-08:00

November 7, 2007

Table of Contents

1) In your box this week
2) Sunchokes or Jerusalem Artichokes?
3) 2007 Season drawing to an end... and extra boxes for next week and gift certificates are available
4) Yuletide Mystery box
5) Redman House Farm Stand Open Weekends Through the Winter
5) Benefit dinner for the Ventana Wilderness Alliance on Nov. 11th
6) Photos
7) Recipes
8) Which Farm?
9) Unsubscribe
10) Two Small Farms Contact Information
11) Farm Bill Article written by Michael Pollan for the New York Times
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1) In your box this week: Potatoes, Yellow Carrots, Tatsoi, Celery, a Winter Squash (either Thelma Sanders, similar to acorn OR Delicata), either a head of lettuce OR Salad Mix, Sunchokes (also known as Jerusalem Artichokes), and a mystery item.

This week's vegetable list: We try to have it updated by Monday night, sometimes by Mon. am

How to store this week's bounty: all but the winter squash should go in the fridge in plastic bags. All winter squash should be stored in a dry, cool, and dark place.

Also: for all of you interested in the Farm Bill, we (Jeanne, Julia, Zelda, and by association, Steve and Andy too) liked what Michael Pollan wrote about the farm bill in his op ed piece in the NYT. It's LONG, so it's pasted in as the last item in this email: #11
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2) Sunchokes/Jerusalem Artichokes by Andy

The Jerusalem artichokes in my fields aren’t artichokes, and they’re not from Jerusalem. So what are they?

Scientists call Jerusalem artichokes Helianthus tuberosa. Helios is Greek for sun, and anthus means flower, so the Jerusalem artichoke is a sunflower that makes a tuber. A tuber is an enlarged, subterranean stem, not a root, with buds that can send out roots, other stems, or leaves. Botanists will tell you that plants evolve a tuberous habit to survive harsh environmental conditions. A tuberous plant can survive freezing weather or blazing drought because its tubers are protected under an insulating blanket of soil. When rain finally does come and temperatures favor growth, the underground tubers are stimulated to sprout stems and greenery, and the plant grows again. If conditions get hot and dry again, or freezing cold, the life force of the plant retreats from the foliage back down the stems into the tubers that nest protected in the soil.

The sugars and proteins the tuberous plant stores in their tissues make many of them valuable crops for people. The potato, for example, is a tuberous member of the Solanaceae, from the Andes, where hot days and cold nights make survival a constant challenge. Potatoes are agriculture’s most commercial tuber, but many other plant families have contributed tuberous crops to agriculture. Anu, or Tropaeolum tuberosum, is an edible tuberous nasturtium, also from the Andes. The yam, Dioscorea alata, is a sweet tuber from Africa.

The French explorer Champlain encountered Indians encountered in North America cooking the tubers of a sprawling Helianthus with yellow flowers, and he took some samples back to Europe. The Italians dubbed the new plants “ girasole articocco.” The Italian verb girar means to turn, and sole means sun. Sunflowers turn on their stems during the day so that they’re always tracking the sun, facing east at dawn and facing west in the evening. The English, showing the sensitivity for nuance and the spiritual touch that’s made them such an influence in the Middle East, heard the Italian girasole as “Jerusalem,” and named the plants “Jerusalem artichokes.”

There is some sense to calling the Helianthus tuberosa an “artichoke,” since the flesh of the tuber tastes faintly of artichoke, and both sunflowers and artichoke are members of the Compositae. Plants in the Compositae are distinguished by their flower heads, which are composed of many independent florets fused into one apparent common flower head. The open face of a sunflower crawls with bees because it is really the face of a community, not an individual, and the bees visit every tiny flower as they go about harvesting nectar.

But where the common garden sunflower makes one huge head, the Jerusalem artichoke is multi-branched, and makes many small flowers. Helianthus tuberosa produce seeds, but many of the seeds are sterile. The Jerusalem artichoke propagates itself by spreading its tubers underground. In a garden setting, Jerusalem artichokes can quickly morph from a crop into a weed if the gardener doesn’t remove every last piece of tuber from the soil. I’m not worried about Jerusalem artichoke weeds infesting my field, because the tubers we don’t harvest the gophers will.

After they flower, Jerusalem artichoke plants die back. As the stalks wither they take on a hard, fibrous character. Some of the plants are fourteen feet high. It’s easy to cut the dry stalks down with machetes, but trying to incorporate the tough, woody stems back into the soil would be like trying to plough acres of hemp door mats under, so we pile the stalks into piles after harvest and burn them. We was the soil from the tubers and bag them for shipment or storage. Jerusalem artichokes are popular with restaurants in the winter because they make rich soups and gratins. Some people enjoy them sliced thin and served raw. The texture of raw Jerusalem artichoke is similar to the water chestnut.

There are tons of tubers to dig up and we don’t have enough space in our refrigerator to store them all, but storage won’t be a problem. By their very nature, tubers store well in the ground, so we will leave the Jerusalem artichokes in the soil and dig them up as needed. We’ll dig up the tubers we don’t sell right before they re-sprout in late February, and plant them out in a new patch of ground for our 2008 crop. What is a Jerusalem artichoke? It’s a starchy, flavorful and versatile Native American crop that’s easy to grow, pretty to look at, simple to store, and cheap to plant.

copyright 2007 Andy Griffin
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3) The 2007 Season is Drawing to an End!

Our last week for delivering veggies is NEXT WEEK - November 14/15/16. If you are not signed up for next week and would like to be, call or email Zelda at the office by next Monday, November 12th and mail in your payment. (one week is $20 veg only, or $26 veg plus flowers).

EXTRA BOXES are available for next week. If you would like to receive two (or more) boxes instead of your usual one, give us a call or email. There will be plenty of things in next weeks box that will keep much longer than a week, so be thinking ahead to your upcoming feasts. Availability is limited so contact us sooner than later. The cost is $20 per extra box and payment can be mailed to our PO Box.

Gift certificates are available (to be used during the 2008 season) for those who are already in the gift giving mindset! Any increments are available, but the most popular is the 4 week trial - $80 for just the veggies, or $104 includes veggies plus flowers.

To contact us, 831-786-0625 or csa@twosmallfarms.com. Two Small Farms, PO Box 2065, Watsonville, CA 95077.

_______________________________________

4) Yuletide CSA box

A one time only, "Yuletide" box is being offered for the week before Christmas. All boxes must be prepaid, by check. Cost will be $25. We will only be delivering to one pick up site in each general area. You must be able to pick up the box on the scheduled day and within in the scheduled time frame: 5-7pm. These are dependent on weather: the farmers say: yes! to this idea unless there is incredibly horrible weather.

Los Gatos: Tuesday, December 18th
Palo Alto: Wednesday, December 19th
Santa Cruz: Thursday, December 20th
San Jose: Friday, December 21st

The content of the boxes will be "mysteries" but most likely will include winter squash, potatoes, carrots, cooking greens, fennel, leeks, and more. Contact Zelda to confirm:
831-786-0625, csa@twosmallfarms.com; and mail in your check to Two Small Farms, PO Box 2065, Watsonville, CA 95077.
____________________________________

5) Redman House Farm Stand Open Weekends Through the Winter

Operated by High Ground Organics in Watsonville, just off of Hwy 1 and the Riverside Drive exit. It will be open on the weekends through the winter. They will also be offering some of Mariquita Farm items as well.
____________________________________

5) Benefit Dinner

Ventana Wilderness Alliance is a favorite charity of many of us here at Two Small Farms. The benefit event is this Sunday, November 11th starting at 5:30 pm in Monterey at Stokes Restaurant and Bar. It is $65 per person which includes tax and tip but not beverages. For more info, go to our web page .You can call or email Zelda at the office to make your reservation: 831-786-0625, csa@twosmallfarms.com

_________________________________

6) Photos:

Sunchokes

Sunchoke Preparation Photo Essay

Tatsoi

Yellow Carrots

Photo Gallery
_______________________________

7) Recipes

Roasted Sunchokes, from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian

8 Sunchokes
A little vegetable oil for rubbing on the sunchokes
Butter, salt and black pepper (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Scrub the sunschokes well to remove all the dirt. Pat them dry, rub with oil and then put them in a single layer on a baking tray. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until just tender. Prick with the point of a knife to check. The whole sunchoke will just begin to give a little. Serve immediately. To eat, cut in half and dot with butter and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper if desired.

Sunchokes! note from julia

I photographed them, then peeled some, scrubbed others, and had 1.5 # of sunchokes so I decided to to a quick cooking of them. I found a great recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. I found that peeling the 'chokes was easiest with a sharp paring knife. Scrubbing them was also easy, you can decide which you prefer. It might depend on what you want your final dish to look like. A rustic saute that will be sprinkled with seeds and parsley doesn't really need the pure white of peeled sunchokes; a creamy white soup might want the roots to be peeled.

Sauteed Sunchokes with Sunflower Seeds

adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

1 1/2 pounds sunchokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes), sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
2 tablespoons sunflower seed oil, or other high heat oil such as peanut or grapeseed S & P to taste
3 Tablespoons sunflower seeds, toasted
2 Tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped thyme

Saute the sunchokes in the oil in a large skillet over high heat until lightly browned and tender but still a bit crisp. Taste them as they cook; they

can be done in 5 minutes or as many as 10 minutes. Season to taste with S & P, add the sunflower seeds, parsley, and thyme, and toss well.

Serves 4-6.

Sunchoke Gratin, adapted from Marcela Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

1 pound sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes)
Salt
An oven-to-table baking dish
Butter for smearing and dotting the baking dish
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel the sunchokes and drop them in salted, boiling water. Cook them until they feel tender, but not mushy when prodded with a fork. Ten minutes after the water returns to a boil, check them frequently because they tend to go from very firm to very soft in a brief span of time. Drain when done, and as soon as they are cool enough to handle, cut them into 1/2-inch slices.

Smear the bottom of a baking dish with butter, then place the sunchoke slices in it, arranging them so they overlap slightly, roof tile fashion. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and the grated Parmesan, dot with butter and place the dish on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven. Bake until a light golden crust begins to form on top. Allow to settle for a few minutes out of the oven before serving. Yield: 4 servings

Sunchoke Salad Sandwich (makes 3), adapted from Too Many Chefs blog

8-12 oz. cleaned scrubbed sunchokes
1 celery rib, diced fine
1/2 red bell pepper, diced fine
1/2 small red onion, diced fine
1 cup clean baby spinach leaves
1 red tomato, sliced into 6 slices, plus top and bottom trimming
"Enough" mayonnaise or Vegan substitute - about 3 tablespoons or so.
Salt and pepper to taste
6 slices hearty wheat bread

Scrub the sunchokes very well. You don't have to peel them if you are sure you've removed all the dirt. I used a plastic dobie pad I'd microwaved briefly. You may peel them if you wish, but you'll need more sunchokes to make up for the loss of the mass of the peel. Grate the sunchokes into a medium bowl. Squeeze the water out of the sunchokes with your fists after they've been grated and drain. Ok, you could wrap them in a paper towel before squeezing, but it's not nearly as satisfying as going bareback.

Add the celery, bell pepper, and onion. Mix well. Add some of the mayonnaise and mix until the whole is thoroughly moist, but not soupy. It should look like a slightly dry tuna salad. If still to dry, continue to add mayo until it reaches the consistency you desire. Taste and adjust seasonings. Toast bread. Lay down a few spinach leaves on a slice of toast, just enough to protect the bread from the mayo in the salad. Spread as much as you wish of the salad (up to a 1/3 of the total) on top of the layer of spinach. Top with two slices of tomato, and 1/3 cup of spinach. Add the second slice of bread, cut diagonally and serve. Repeat with rest of ingredients to make three sandwiches.

Acorn (or Thelma Sanders) Squash Soup, Soup: A Way of Life, Barbara Kafka

1 Thelma Sanders squash, halved, peeled, seeded and cut into 2 inch chunks
4 cups chicken broth
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 ground turmeric
1/4 cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground mace
3 cloves garlic, smashed, peeled, and very finely chopped
1 cup buttermilk (try regular milk with splash of lemon juice if you don't have buttermilk handy)
2 to 3 tsp kosher salt, or less
Black pepper to taste

In medium saucepan, bring the squash and stock to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Strain the soup and reserve the liquid. In a food processor, puree the solids with 1 cup of the reserved liquid.

In medium saucepan, warm the oil over low heat. Stir in the spices and cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes, or until aromatic. Stir in the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the puree and 1 cup of reserved liquid. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the buttermilk, salt and pepper. (There should be about 1 1/2 cups cooking liquid left over, use in other soups you may be cooking this week).

Julia's winter squash/pumpkin preparations: "I put cut up pieces (large ones) already seeded into my crock pot for 2 or so hours on high. When a fork can easily pierce the squash/pumpkin pieces, I remove it and scrape the flesh into my food processor and whirl a bit. Then I freeze in 1 and 2 cup increments. Soup and pie are obvious and delicious choices, I also put 1 cup of this puree into nearly every batch of muffins, waffles, cookies, pancakes, biscuits etc. that I make. I just take an existing recipe and add my cup of squash puree. It nearly always works, and my kids are none the wiser. "

Some thoughts about celery, from D. Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone: "Celery used to be served at almost every meal, presented in a relish tray or celery vase. It is still enjoyed mainly raw, as a crudites and in salads, where it's crispness is appreciated. But it's also ubiquitous in soups and stocks and appears frequently in stuffing’s and stir fries. Cooking softens its tendency to be a little bossy."

Celery Roquefort Soup, Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special

2 TBS butter
1 cup diced onion
2 cups diced celery
1 cup water
2 cups milk
4 oz Roquefort or Blue Cheese
8 oz Neufchatel or cream cheese
Salt and black pepper to taste

In a soup pot, melt the butter on medium heat. Add the onions and celery, cover and cook, stirring frequently, until soft but not browned, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the water, cover and bring to a simmer.

In a blender, combine the milk, both cheeses and puree until very smooth. Stir the puree into the soup and add salt and pepper to taste. Reheat gently and serve hot.

Tatsoi Wilted in Mustard Dressing, Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, Elizabeth Schneider

4 small tatsoi heads (about 1 pound)
2 medium green onions
2 TBS lemon juice
1tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
3 TBS olive oil

Trim tatsoi bases to separate leaves and rinse. Cut apart the bulbs from the green parts of the green onions. Mince the bulbs and thin slice the greens. Combine the bulbs with the lemon juice, mustard and salt, stirring to dissolve the salt. Blend in the oil.

Pour dressing into a very wide skillet over moderate heat. Add tatsoi and turn to coat with dressing (tongs are most efficient). Cook until leaves almost wilt but stems retain a crunch, about 2 minutes. Add scallion greens and toss. Arrange tatsoi on a rectangular plate and pour over any dressing that remains in the pan. Serves 4 as a side dish.

Butternut Squash Spice Cake submitted by Eve Lynch, csa member
Ingredients
1 small butternut squash
2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar or whipped cream (optional)

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Cut squash in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Place the squash halves, cut side up, on a baking pan, then cover with foil and bake until tender when pierced with a fork, 20 to 30 minutes. Uncover and let sit until cool enough to handle, then use a spoon to scoop out the cooked squash from the peel. Mash with a fork. Measure out 1 cup of the squash and set aside any remaining for future use (see Notes).

2. Turn oven down to 325°. Butter an 8- by 8-in. baking pan and set aside.

3. In a small bowl, combine flour, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and pepper. Set aside.

4. With a mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until smooth and a bit fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

5. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir to combine. Stir in the cup of mashed squash. Add remaining flour mixture and stir just enough to combine. Pour batter into prepared baking pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Serve plain or with a dusting of powdered sugar or a dollop of whipped cream.

Note: Nutritional analysis is per serving.

Yield
Makes 8 servings

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 417(30% from fat); FAT 14g (sat 8g); PROTEIN 6.9g; CHOLESTEROL 85mg; SODIUM 401mg; FIBER 5.3g; CARBOHYDRATE 70g

Sunset, OCTOBER 2006

Stir-Fried Shrimp with Tatsoi, adapted from Greens Glorious Greens, Johnna Albi - found in Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, Elizabeth Schneider

Cut apart tatsoi head, keeping leaf stalks whole; rinse thoroughly. Heat wok. Add light sesame oil and minced garlic and ginger. Toss in peeled, deveined, medium shrimp and stir- fry to just turn pink. Transfer to a bowl. Add more oil, garlic and ginger, then red bell pepper julienne, minced scallions, and toss. Add tastoi and stir-fry to barely wilted. Transfer to bowl. Blend tamari, mirin, Asian sesame oil, and vegetable or seafood stock, and arrowroot. Stir in wok until clear. Add shrimp and tatsoi and toss to combine.

More Recipes at:

Celery recipes

Sunchokes recipes

Tatsoi recipes

Winter Squash recipes
____________________________________

8) Which Farm?

>From High Ground: Lettuce, Salad Mix, Winter Squash, Mystery
From Mariquita: Potatoes, Sunchokes, Yellow Carrots, Tatsoi
__________________________________________

9) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter
out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main blog
page: http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

__________________________________

10) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
831-786-0625
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

---------------------

11) NYT
November 4, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Weed It and Reap
By MICHAEL POLLAN

Berkeley, Calif.

FOR Americans who have been looking to Congress to reform the food system, these past few weeks have been, well, the best of times and the worst of times. A new politics has sprouted up around the farm bill, traditionally a parochial piece of legislation thrashed out in private between the various agricultural interests (wheat growers versus corn growers; meatpackers versus ranchers) without a whole lot of input or attention from mere eaters.

Not this year. The eaters have spoken, much to the consternation of farm-state legislators who have fought hard - and at least so far with success - to preserve the status quo.

Americans have begun to ask why the farm bill is subsidizing high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils at a time when rates of diabetes and obesity among children are soaring, or why the farm bill is underwriting factory farming (with subsidized grain) when feedlot wastes are polluting the countryside and, all too often, the meat supply. For the first time, the public health community has raised its voice in support of overturning farm policies that subsidize precisely the wrong kind of calories (added fat and added sugar), helping to make Twinkies cheaper than carrots and Coca-Cola competitive with water. Also for the first time, the international development community has weighed in on the debate, arguing that subsidized American exports are hobbling cotton farmers in Nigeria and corn farmers in Mexico.

On Capitol Hill, hearings on the farm bill have been packed, and newspapers like The San Francisco Chronicle are covering the legislation as closely as The Des Moines Register, bringing an unprecedented level of attention to what has long been one of the most obscure and least sexy pieces of legislation in Congress.
Sensing the winds of reform at his back, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, told a reporter in
July: "This is not just a farm bill. It's a food bill, and Americans who eat want a stake in it."

Right now, that stake is looking more like a toothpick. Americans who eat have little to celebrate in the bill that Mr. Harkin is expected to bring to the floor this week. Like the House bill passed in July, the Senate product is very much a farm bill in the tradition- al let-them-eat-high-fructose-corn-syrup mold.

For starters, the Old Guard on both agriculture committees has managed to preserve the entire hoary contraption of direct payments, countercyclical payments and loan deficiency payments that subsidize the five big commodity crops - corn, wheat, rice, soybeans and cotton
- to the tune of $42 billion over five years.

The Old Guard has also managed to add a $5 billion "permanent disaster" program (excuse me, but isn't a permanent disaster a contradiction in terms?) to help farmers in the High Plains struggling to grow crops in a drought-prone region that, as the chronic need for disaster aid suggests, might not be the best place to grow crops.

When you consider that farm income is at record levels (thanks to the ethanol boom, itself fueled by another set of federal subsidies); that the World Trade Organization has ruled that several of these subsidies are illegal; that the federal government is broke and the president is threatening a veto, bringing forth a $288 billion farm bill that guarantees billions in payments to commodity farmers seems impressively defiant.

How could this have happened? For starters, farm bill critics did a far better job demonizing subsidies, and depicting commodity farmers as welfare queens, than they did proposing alternative - and politically appealing - forms of farm support. And then the farm lobby did what it has always done: bought off its critics with "programs." For that reason "Americans who eat" can expect some nutritious crumbs from the farm bill, just enough to ensure that reform-minded legislators will hold their noses and support it.

It's an old story: the "hunger lobby" gets its food stamps so long as the farm lobby can have its subsidies. Similar, if less lavish, terms are now being offered to the public health and environmental "interests" to get them on board. That's why there's more money in this farm bill for nutrition programs and, for the first time, about
$2 billion to support "specialty crops" - farm-bill-speak for the kind of food people actually eat. (Since California grows most of the nation's specialty crops, this was the price for the state delegation's support. Cheap indeed!)

There's also money for the environment: an additional $4 billion in the Senate bill to protect wetlands and grasslands and reward farmers for environmental stewardship, and billions in the House bill for environmental cleanup. There's an important provision in both bills that will make it easier for schools to buy food from local farmers.
And there's money to promote farmers' markets and otherwise support the local food movement.

But as important as these programs are, they are just programs - mere fleas on the elephant in the room. The name of that elephant is the commodity title, the all-important subsidy section of the bill. It dictates the rules of the entire food system. As long as the commodity title remains untouched, the way we eat will remain unchanged.

The explanation for this is straightforward. We would not need all these nutrition programs if the commodity title didn't do such a good job making junk food and fast food so ubiquitous and cheap. Food stamps are crucial, surely, but they will be spent on processed rather than real food as long as the commodity title makes calories of fat and sugar the best deal in the supermarket. We would not need all these conservation programs if the commodity title, by paying farmers by the bushel, didn't encourage them to maximize production with agrochemicals and plant their farms with just one crop fence row to fence row.

And the government would not need to pay feedlots to clean up the water or upgrade their manure pits if subsidized grain didn't make rearing animals on feedlots more economical than keeping them on farms. Why does the farm bill pay feedlots to install waste treatment systems rather than simply pay ranchers to keep their animals on grass, where the soil would be only too happy to treat their waste at no cost?

However many worthwhile programs get tacked onto the farm bill to buy off its critics, they won't bring meaningful reform to the American food system until the subsidies are addressed - until the underlying rules of the food game are rewritten. This is a conversation that the Old Guard on the agriculture committees simply does not want to have, at least not with us.

But its defiance on the subsidy question may actually be a sign of weakness, for one detects a note of defensiveness creeping into the rhetoric. "I know people on the outside can sit and complain about this," Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, told The San Francisco Chronicle last summer. "But frankly most of those people have no clue what they're talking about. Most people in the city have no concept of what's going on here."

It seems more likely that, this time around, people in the city and all across the country know exactly what's going on - they just don't like it.

Mr. Peterson's farm bill passed the House by the smallest margin in years, and might have been picked apart on the floor if Representative Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, hadn't leapt to its defense.

(She claimed to be helping freshmen Democrats from rural districts.)

But Senate rules are different, and Mr. Harkin's bill will be challenged on the floor and very possibly improved. One sensible amendment that Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, and Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, are expected to introduce would put a $250,000 cap on the payments any one farmer can receive in a year. This would free roughly $1 billion for other purposes (like food stamps and conservation) and slow the consolidation of farms in the Midwest.

A more radical alternative proposed by Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, and Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, would scrap the current subsidy system and replace it with a form of free government revenue insurance for all American farmers and ranchers, including the ones who grow actual food. Commodity farmers would receive a payment only when their income dropped more than 15 percent as the result of bad weather or price collapse. The $20 billion saved under this plan, called the Fresh Act, would go to conservation and nutrition programs, as well as to deficit reduction.

What finally emerges from Congress depends on exactly who is paying closest attention next week on the Senate floor and then later in the conference committee. We know the American Farm Bureau will be on the case, defending the commodity title on behalf of those who benefit from it most: the biggest commodity farmers, the corporations who sell them chemicals and equipment and, most of all, the buyers of cheap agricultural commodities - companies like Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Coca-Cola and McDonald's.

In the past that alliance could have passed a farm bill like this one without breaking a sweat. But the politics of food have changed, and probably for good. If the eaters and all the other "people on the outside" make themselves heard, we just might end up with something that looks less like a farm bill and more like the food bill a poorly fed America so badly needs.

Michael Pollan, a contributing writer at The Times Magazine and a professor of journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, is the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and the forthcoming "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto."

The New York Times Website

Two Small Farms Newsletter #420

2007-10-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

October 31, 2007
Table of Contents:

1) In your box this week
2) Experiment
3) 2007 Season drawing to an end!
4) San Diego CSA farm hit hard
5) Benefit Dinners: Ventana Wilderness Alliance in Monterey on November 11th
6) Photos
7) Recipes
8) Which Farm?
9) Unsubscribe
10) Two Small Farms Contact Information

1) In your box this week: Butternut Squash, Escarole, Mizuna, Purple Carrots, Fennel, Leeks, Lettuce, and two mystery items

This week's vegetable list: We try to have it updated by Monday night, sometimes by Mon. am

How to store this week's bounty: all but the butternut squash should go in the fridge in plastic bags. The butternut squash should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place.

Mizuna is a mustard green and can be used in most recipes calling for cooking greens. I like to throw roughly chopped mizuna into many soups: chicken soup, miso soup, potato soup etc. It's also good lightly steamed then tucked into quesadillas for a quick and nutritious meal. (For a lower fat meal, make sure those cheese slices are thin.) Mizuna leaves are great torn into a green salad or tossed into stir fry or fried rice. I've seen mizuna steamed and then served under broiled fish.

Escarole is a crunchy green with a bit more heft than lettuce, and it makes a great salad: on it's own simply dressed or tossed with 10 other things to make a grand main course salad. In my heart though I'm a cooked greens fan, always. I like escarole cooked up with garlic in my Standard Cooked Greens Recipe: garlic, oil, heat, cleaned cooking greens: apply together and you have a great side dish or taco stuffing--- Julia......
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2) Experiment, a letter from Andy

The only time that an experiment is a failure is when it is organized so poorly that nothing can be learned. To keep the C.S.A. program interesting for both you and me, I experiment with new crops every year. And the results are in. I'm pleased to announce that my winter squash experiment was a success, and I've learned why two of the three new breeds of squash that I grew this year will never be suitable to deliver to you.

Every experiment starts with a control, against which the results can be compared. In your share box this week you are receiving a Butternut squash, which served as the control squash for my experiment. Butternut squash is a known quantity; they grow vigorously, set fruit reliably, and the fruits are sweet and long-lasting. In fact, one year I had a Butternut squash sitting on my counter from the previous year's harvest the day I began the new harvest. We cooked it, and it was great! Butternut squash is a Cucurbita moschata cultivar. The question I asked myself was, "Are there other squash from the Cucurbita moschata group that might taste even better than the Butternut?" So I bought seed for the Zuccha Piena di Napoli, the Zucchetta Rampicante, and the Zuccha Rugosa, three Italian heirloom squash that can be considered kissing cousins of the Butternut.
Photo 1. is a family portrait of the different breeds of Cucurbita moschata. You can see the family resemblance. If the Piena di Napoli was tan, instead of green, it would resemble a gigantic Butternut. If the Rugosa was smooth-skinned, rather than rough-skinned and ribbed, it would exactly resemble a Butternut, and if the neck on the Rampicante was short and fat, instead of long and skinny, it too, would look like a Butternut. In the field, because these are all heirloom , open-pollinated breeds, we sometimes find tan Piena di Napoli, smooth Rugosa, and stumpy-necked Rampicante.

Photo 2. Here is a cute picture of Caitlin holding a Piena di Napoli. It is obvious why this squash will never work for our C.S.A. deliveries. Caitlin is strong, but each of the squash she is holding weighs thirty pounds, and there are some in the pile that weigh over forty pounds. Since I harvested a ton of these squash I'm looking for restaurants that might want to buy them.

Photo 3. Here we see the goats and donkeys eating the Zucchetta Rampicante. The Rampicante are inappropriate for C.S.A. deliveries on two counts. First, the are long and funny shaped. They're interesting to look at, but they don't fit in the box. Also, sad to say, they taste bland. The goats like them though. That's good, because I've got two tons of them to get rid of. I'm told that squash seeds have anthelmintic properties- that is, they're useful in expelling stomach worms. Since the Barber Pole worm is an insidious threat to goats, I just may have grown my goats an organic antidote. Imagine being able to feed your kids at home medicine they would fight over! (ps, Sweet Pea the young donkey is 1 year old today, Oct. 30th. She is perplexed by the rolling squash in this photo. Her mom and the goats knew what to do though!)

Photo 4. My fall squash display in my yard is dramatic. The experiment was a success, and Julia and I have really been enjoying the Rugosa.

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3) The 2007 Season is Drawing to an End!

Our last week for delivering veggies is the week of November 14/15/16. Your last scheduled delivery is noted next to your name on the sign in sheet at your pick up site. If you are not signed up for our last two weeks and would like to be, call or email Zelda at the office by next Monday, November 5th and mail in your payment. (two weeks is $40 veg only, or $52 veg plus flowers). Office line and email are: 831-786-0625 or csa@twosmallfarms.com

Also, if you have an outstanding balance, please send in your payment to our PO Box 2065 in Watsonville, CA 95077.

______________________________________________________________________

4) San Diego "Be Wise" Farm hit hard

A long-time San Diego organic farmer lost their home and a large part of their farmland went up in the flames from the wildfires. We are collaborating with a couple other local CSA farms and taking donations. If interested, mail checks payable directly to Be Wise Ranch 9018 Artesian Rd. San Diego, CA 92127 (Note: these are not tax deductable, it's just you trusting Bill the farmer that he will get every penny to the employees who are in need, with no strings attached. We're certain there are great non-profits doing great work where your donations can be claimed on taxes such as Habitat for Humanity and the Red Cross. )

Further details on their story

_______________________________

5) Benefit Dinners:

Ventana Wilderness Alliance is a favorite charity of many of us here at Two Small Farms. The benefit event is Sunday, November 11th starting at 5:45 pm in Monterey at Stokes Restaurant and Bar. It is $65 per person which includes tax and tip but not beverages. For more info, go to our web page. You can call or email Zelda at the office to make your reservation: 831-786-0625, csa@twosmallfarms.com

Also, on November 15th, The Valley of Heart's Delight project in Palo Alto is presenting its second annual 100-Mile Thanksgiving Celebration - an evening of food, fun, and discussion. Two Small Farms will be just two of the farms donating vegetables for the meal. Eat Thanksgiving dishes prepared with organic and locally grown food, and discuss what's involved in preparing a Thanksgiving dinner from food grown from within 100 miles of Palo Alto. The event is held at Conexions, 1023 Corporation Way in Palo Alto on Thursday, November 15 from 7 pm to 9 pm. Cost is $40 or $35 for Conexions members, seniors and low-income. Pre-registration is required. For more information and for registration, contact Susan Stansbury at sstansbury@conexions.org , call (650) 938-9300 (x11) or register on-line.

_____________________________

6) Photos:

Butternut Squash

Escarole

Fennel

Leeks

Purple Carrots

Mizuna (this photo is courtesy of The Village Voice....) I'll try to get our own mizuna photo up on the website soon. -julia

Photo Gallery

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7) Recipes
Julia's winter squash/pumpkin preparations:

I put cut up pieces (large ones) already seeded into my crock pot for 2 or so hours on high. When a fork can easily pierce the squash/pumpkin pieces, I remove it and scrape the flesh into my food processor and whirl a bit. Then I freeze in 1 and 2 cup increments. Soup and pie are obvious and delicious choices, I also put 1 cup of this puree into nearly every batch of muffins, waffles, cookies, pancakes, biscuits etc. that I make. I just take an existing recipe and add my cup of squash puree. It nearly always works, and my kids are none the wiser.
Tagliolini con la Zucca (Pumpkin Pasta), adapted from the Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces by Diane Seed

1 pound fresh pasta or less of dried (she calls for tagliolini, I used whole wheat thin spaghetti) 3# piece of pumpkin (or about 1 butternut squash? I used a whole mess of yummy puree I'd made from a butternut squash.)
4 Tablespoons butter (I used olive oil, butter would likely be divine here.)
1 leek (I used 2 leeks) well chopped
1 stick celery well chopped
Chicken stock
S & P to taste
Grated Nutmeg to taste
2/3 cup heavy cream (I used whole milk)
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Melt half the butter and add the chopped leek and celery. Peel the pumpkin (or butternut!) and remove seeds and any stringy fibers. (none in these puppies, don't worry.) Cut the pumpkin into thin slices. (or skip the peeling/cutting and roast and puree the whole thing like I did. see notes above for that option.)

Add pumpkin in slices or as a puree to leek and celery and stir for a few minutes. Add a little stock and cover. Cook for about 20 minutes or until the pumpkin slices are cooked through. OR cook for a shorter while if using the puree. Add more stock from time to time if necessary to keep moist. Check the seasoning and add S & P and nutmeg to taste. Process in a food processor (I used my stick blender!). Return to the pan to keep warm.

Cook the pasta according to directions, and avoid overcooking. Fresh pasta will only need a few minutes, so add the cream to the sauce as soon as you have thrown the pasta into the boiling water. Drain the pasta and place in a heated dish. Stir in the freshly grated cheese and then the pumpkin sauce. Mix well, add the rest of the butter, and serve at once.
Mizuna is a mustard green and can be used in most recipes calling for cooking greens. I like to throw roughly chopped mizuna into many soups: chicken soup, miso soup, potato soup etc. It's also good lightly steamed then tucked into quesadillas for a quick and nutritious meal. (For a lower fat meal, make sure those cheese slices are thin.) Mizuna leaves are great torn into a green salad or tossed into stir fry or fried rice. I've seen mizuna steamed and then served under broiled fish.
Hot Garlic Dressing over Greens, Gourmet
1/3 cup olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 1/2 lb greens (such as beet, mizuna, and mustard)

Heat oil and garlic in a small saucepan over moderate heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in vinegar and immediately pour over greens. Season with salt and pepper and toss well. Serve right away.

Escarole:
I'm a fan of escarole. It's a crunchy green with a bit more heft than lettuce, and it makes a great salad: on it's own simply dressed or tossed with 10 other things to make a grand main course salad. In my heart though I'm a cooked greens fan, always. I like escarole cooked up with garlic in my Standard Cooked Greens Recipe: garlic, oil, heat, cleaned cooking greens: apply together and you have a great side dish or taco stuffing--- Julia......
Julia's Escarole Sausage Dinner Soup

Up to a pound of sausage of just about any kind (half a pound, even a quarter pound is fine for the flavor, you could also use 2-4 slices bacon here, and of course this is easily skipped for a vegetarian version.)
1-2 onions or leeks cleaned and diced
2-6 garlic cloves minced or roughly chopped
1-2 cups cooked beans (white, pinto, garbanzo.... yes, it's fine to use a can of beans!)
1 can diced tomatoes (about 2 cups or 15 oz.)
2 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)
Parmesan rind, if available
2-5 cups cleaned chopped escarole or other cooking green such as chard, mizuna, kale, spinach...

Brown the sausage, drain off excess fat if there's lots, then remove the sausage for just a bit. Add the onions to brown in the sausage drippings and cook until translucent then add the garlic and cook for a few seconds more. Then quickly add the beans and tomatoes and broth and parmesan rind. Add the sausage back and bring the pot to a low boil. Then add the cooking greens and cook through. (3-4 minutes for escarole, less for young spinach, more for kale or collards....) Serve.
Italian Wedding Soup with Quinoa and Escarole, from CSA member Alexis

For the Soup:
1 large turnip, diced
1 large head of escarole, chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup parmesan
2 large handfuls fresh basil, chiffonade
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
8 cans chicken broth
3/4 cup quinoa
1 lb meatballs (recipe below)

In a large stock pot sauté the onions and garlic over low heat until caramelized. Add the turnips and caramelize a bit. Add the broth and bring to a boil and add the escarole and quinoa. When the escarole is soft, and the quinoa chewy, drop the meatballs in one by one. Cover and simmer for 10 more minutes. Add the eggs and parmesan like egg drop soup, stirring as it is poured in.

Meatballs for soup:
1/2 cup ricotta
1/4 cup ground flax seed
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
1 TBS oregano
1 TBS dried parsley
1 pound ground beef or turkey

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Roll into balls of 1/2 in diameter and drop into boiling soup.
Warm Escarole Salad with Shiitake Mushrooms and Pancetta, Bon Appetit

5 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 1/4-inch-thick slice pancetta, chopped
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon brandy
1 large head escarole, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 8 cups)

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and sauté until tender, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Using slotted spoon, transfer mushrooms to paper towels; reserve mushrooms. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add pancetta and sauté until crisp, about 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat. Using slotted spoon, transfer pancetta to paper towels to drain; reserve pancetta. Carefully whisk vinegar into drippings in same skillet. Bring to simmer over medium heat, scraping up any browned bits. Add Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, mustard and 3 tablespoons oil, then brandy. Bring to simmer. Place escarole in large bowl; pour warm vinaigrette over. Toss to coat. Mix in reserved mushrooms and pancetta. Season with salt and pepper.
Hungarian Fennel with Mushrooms, More Recipes from a Kitchen Garden, Shepherd and Raboff

2 TBS olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots (or 1 leek) finely chopped
3 fennel bulbs, trimmed and cut into thin slices
1/2 cup water
2 tsp lemon juice
1 TBS butter
1 pound mushrooms, stems removed and quartered
3/4 cup low fat sour cream
2 TBS fresh fennel tops, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Garnish: 1 tsp fresh paprika and 1/4 cup chopped parsley

In a large skillet heat oil and add garlic and shallots. Saute until softened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add fennel, water and lemon juice. Cover and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes until fennel is tender-crisp. If any liquid is remaining in skillet, cook uncovered until absorbed. Add butter to skillet, then stir in mushrooms and saute until they are soft. Add sour cream and fennel tops. Cook until just heated through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle paprika and parsley over the top before serving. Serves 4 to 6; serve over rice for a complete meal or alone as a side dish.
Leek, Fennel and Poppy Seed Tart, Bon Appetit

3 1/2 cups thinly sliced leeks (white and pale green parts only; about 3 leeks)
1 large fennel bulb, trimmed, cut into 8 wedges, then cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1 cup whole milk
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
**other cooks suggest splashing in some white wine or broth in place of some of the milk

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17 1/4-ounce package), thawed
2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 450°F. Toss leeks, fennel and 3 tablespoons butter in roasting pan. Roast vegetables until tender, stirring occasionally, about 35 minutes. Cool. Reduce oven temperature to 425°F. Whisk milk and yolks in small bowl. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour; whisk 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk mixture. Bring to simmer, whisking constantly; continue to whisk until sauce thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in 1/4 cup cheese. Mix in vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.

Roll out pastry on floured surface to 12-inch square. Transfer pastry to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang. Fill pastry with vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup cheese and poppy seeds. Bake until crust is deep golden, about 25 minutes. Serve warm.

Fennel Cakes - Peasant Style, from the epicureantable.com, Patricia Conant - Makes about 6-8, enough as a light lunch or dinner for two

1 bunch fennel fronds (+- 200 g. or what will fit tightly encircled with your index finger to the thumb)
1 beaten egg
A little broth (vegetable or other)
50 g. dried white bread (or whatever is on hand) 50 g. grated hard cheese such as pecorino, parmesan or mature Manchego Black pepper Minced wild garlic (optional - see note below)

Gather young fronds, avoiding the very thick, tougher stems. Lay all in one direction in a basket. If you can gather some of the tender, light green hearts, lay these separately. Once home, rinse gently in a large bowl of water a few times. Parboil in unsalted water for about15 minutes (or until the thickest stems crush easily), adding the fennel hearts at the last 5 minutes. Or steam them until tender. This step is necessary as the fennel stems can be quite hard. In the meantime, tear or cut the bread into small pieces and moisten with a little broth, taking care not to wet them too much. Just enough so that they are no longer hard. Drain (or remove with tongs to keep stems in one direction) and rinse gently with cold water. Drain again and lay in a cloth towel and pat gently to dry somewhat. Starting from the ends of the stems, mince finely as if chopping chives.

With a fork, mash the bread somewhat, season with a little pepper and blend in the beaten egg. Add the cheese and the minced fennel, stirring well with a fork to blend. Take a rounded tablespoon and form to a cake. If it doesn't hold, add a little more beaten egg. The mass should not be too dry nor very wet. Fry in a little olive oil until lightly browned on both sides. Drain and serve if you like as I prefer with a little room temperature yogurt to which I have added a little minced garlic. Note: serve these with poached, scrambled egg or a plain omelette or with smoked salmon, fresh salmon or perch filets. You can also add the minced garlic to the minced fennel together or in the yoghurt sauce. Both are delicious.
Variation: don't have enough fennel? Make up the rest with minced parsley, however do not blanch the parsley leaves but do blanch the stems at the last 5 minutes of blanching the fennel fronds. Also, a cooked potato can replace part of the bread. These cakes will taste somewhat differently, but also delicious! Dill alone, or other tender herbs such as chervil mixed with parsley leaves make very tasty herb patties. In this case, no parboiling is necessary. I just lightly steam them for a minute or so to wilt before continuing the recipe.

More Recipes at:

Escarole recipes

Winter Squash recipes

A-Z list of recipe links

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8) Which Farm?

>From High Ground: Fennel, Leeks, Lettuce, Mystery (cauliflower,
>radishes, zucchinis, or berries)
From Mariquita: Butternut Squash, Escarole, Mizuna, Purple Carrots, Mystery (summery things)

__________________________________________

9) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main blog

page: http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

__________________________________

10) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
831-786-0625
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

Two Farms Newsletter #419

2007-10-23T11:48:00.001-07:00

October 24, 2007

Table of Contents:

1) In your box this week
2) The New “It” Root
3) Benefit Dinners: Ventana Wilderness Alliance in Monterey on November 11th; and Valley of Heart's Delight in Palo Alto on November 15
4) Photos
5) Recipes
6) Which Farm?
7) Unsubscribe
8) Two Small Farms Contact Information

1) In your box this week: Sibley Winter Squash (photo is above), Potatoes, Salad Mix OR Lettuce, Tomatoes, Watermelon Radishes, Cauliflower OR Poblano Peppers (these are spicy), and a mystery item.

This week's vegetable list: We try to have it updated by Monday night, sometimes by Mon. am

How to store this week's bounty: all but the winter squash and tomatoes should go in the fridge as soon as you arrive home, in plastic. The radish greens can be used as
well. The tomatoes can be stored on your counter. The winter squash should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place.
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2) The New “It” Root by Andy Griffin

Vegetables go through their trends and fashions just like women’s shoes do. Sometimes I’ll come across a vegetable that is so easy to grow, so flavorful to eat, so versatile in the kitchen, so convenient to store for long periods of time, and so beautiful to look at that I can scarcely understand why it isn’t more commonly used or universally appreciated. Maybe it’s a question of timing. Or maybe it’s all in the name.

When some people hear the name “Watermelon radish” their fears get the best of them and they panic that in a secret laboratory behind a cyclone fence with concertina wire a mad scientist has woven together strands of DNA from a watermelon and a Cherry Belle radish. The hellish result?— Tiny watermelons that grow under the dirt and are sold by the bunch, or even worse, thirty-five pound radishes that are full of seeds.

The truth? Yes, while it is true that there are scientists who play Sorcerer’s Apprentice with fruits and vegetables, the Watermelon radish is a traditional Asian vegetable once known as the “Red Meat daikon.” With a name like “red meat” you can understand why producers have tried to ‘reposition” this antique vegetable with a new name that resonates with vegetarian consumers. I do not lie when I say that I have been approached twice in Farmers Markets by consumers alarmed that have not only the Dr. Frankensteins of this world had made a vegetable alloy of the radish and a beef steer BUT that I was crass enough to sell it.

Creating the perfect name for a food product is an art. The “watermelon” in “Watermelon radish” is an allusion to the radish’s red heart and green outer skin. The name is also a wink at the large size of the Watermelon radish’s root. Watermelon radishes are supposed to be large, compared to American salad radishes. While Watermelon radishes can easily be shredded raw into salads or sliced into chips or sticks for service as a dip delivery vehicles, they were once grown large, topped, and stored in root cellars to be used throughout the winter in soups, stews, and stir fry. Tiny Watermelon radishes harvested the size of Safeway radishes haven’t had enough time in the ground to develop their characteristic red heart.

Large-rooted radishes, like the immense white daikons, are still common in Asian cuisine, but they’ve passed out of vogue in European cookery, to be replaced by a plethora of little red or white, or red and white salad radishes. Once consumers in the West counted on the Black Spanish radish to hold over for winter recipes, along with a host of large German radishes, but they’ve faded into being mere curiosities adorning the seed catalogues for gardeners. I’ve grown the Black Spanish radish, but I much prefer the Watermelon radish for its mild flavor, its crispy texture, and its lovely red flesh.

Growing Watermelon radish couldn’t be easier. We plant the seeds in late Summer and cloak the field with a woven fiberglass floating rowcover called Agribon. The fabric, which is reusable and recyclable, is translucent and almost weightless. The Agribon acts as a barrier to keep the cabbage fly off the emerging plants so that we aren’t plagued by root maggots at harvest. When the plants grow tall we move the row cover to another planting. The plants are thinned to two inches apart on the line to allow the roots space to develop, and the rest is just watering and waiting.

When the roots of the Watermelon radish are red at the heart we harvest them by bunches. If you’re in touch with your thrifty peasant roots you can remove the radish greens and cook them as you would turnip greens. The roots can be bagged and refrigerated for use another day, or even another week. Properly stripped of their foliage and stored in a cool place, Watermelon radishes can keep for a long time. I hope you enjoy the Watermelon radishes in your harvest shares as much as my wife, Julia, does. They’re so nice that they just might be the next “it” root.

copyright 2007 Andy Griffin

watermelon radish

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3) Benefit Dinners:

Ventana Wilderness Alliance is a favorite charity of many of us here at Two Small Farms. The benefit event is Sunday, November 11th starting at 5:45 pm in Monterey at Stokes Restaurant and Bar. It is $65 per person which includes tax and tip but not beverages. For more info, go to our web page
You can call or email Zelda at the office to make your reservation: 831-786-0625, csa@twosmallfarms.com

An Event put on by our fabulous Palo Alto Pick Up Site Host Susan: November 15th, The Valley of Heart’s Delight project in Palo Alto is presenting its second annual 100-Mile Thanksgiving Celebration - an evening of food, fun, and discussion. Two Small Farms will be just two of the farms donating vegetables for the meal. Eat Thanksgiving dishes prepared with organic and locally grown food, and discuss what’s involved in preparing a Thanksgiving dinner from food grown from within 100 miles of Palo Alto. The event is held at Conexions, 1023 Corporation Way in Palo Alto on Thursday, November 15 from 7 pm to 9 pm. Cost is $40 or $35 for Conexions members, seniors and low-income. Pre-registration is required. For more information and for registration, contact Susan Stansbury at sstansbury@conexions.org , call (650) 938-9300 (x11) or register on-line at www.conexions.org/vhd/thanksgiving

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4) Photos:

Sibley Winter Squash

Poblano Peppers

Watermelon Radishes

Photo Gallery
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5) Recipes from Zelda, Alexis, Marla and Julia

Julia's winter squash/pumpkin preparations:

I put cut up pieces (large ones) already seeded into my crock pot for 2 or so hours on high. When a fork can easily pierce the squash/pumpkin pieces, I remove it and
scrape the flesh into my food processor and whirl a bit. Then I freeze in 1 and 2 cup increments. Soup and pie are obvious and delicious choices, I also put 1 cup of this
puree into nearly every batch of muffins, waffles, cookies, pancakes, biscuits etc. that I make. I just take an existing recipe and add my cup of squash puree. It nearly
always works, and my kids are none the wiser.

Roasted Hard-To-Peel Winter Squash
adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

For those squash that don't peel well: three options:

1 (2-3#) acorn or other winter squash, or 2-3 smaller ones, washed
2 Tablespoons butter or olive oil, more or less
S & P to taste
Maple Syrup or brown sugar (optional)
1-2 garlic cloves, cut (optional)

preheat oven to 400 degrees

Option 1:

Cut the squash(es) in half an dscrape out the strings and seeds. In each half, put some butter, salt, pepper, and sweetner, if desired. Place in a baking pan open side up, and bake until a fork pierces the flesh easily, about 1 hour, depending on thickness of squash. Serve.

Option 2:

Cut the squash(es) in half an dscrape out the strings and seeds. Sprinkle each half with S & P, and rub with a little garlic if you like. Brush a baking sheet with olive oil and place the squash, open side down, on the sheet. Bake until tender, about 1 hour. Serve.

Option 3:

Cut the squash(es) in large slices, each about 1 inch thick. Place them on al ightly greased baking sheet and sprinkle with S & P. Dot with butter or brush with olive oil. Bake until tender, 30-45 minutes.

Here's a recipe for this week's box. This is one of my favorite side dishes of all time:

Cheesy Cauliflower Puree
-1 head cauliflower, cut in large chunks
-1 and 1/2 cups shredded cheese (any kind, but a sharp white cheddar works well)
-1/3 cup half and half
-1 tb butter
-salt and pepper to taste

Boil the cauliflower in salted water until fork tender and drain. Add the cauliflower back to the pot with the rest of the ingredients (except cheese) and puree with an immersion blender until smooth. Stir in the cheese and season with salt and pepper. Serve as you would mashed potatoes.

Thanks!
Alexis / SeeUsEat.com\

Winter Squash and Chicken Stew, Bon Appetit

2 teaspoons olive oil
6 chicken thighs, skin removed

1 1/3 cups chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups peeled winter squash, cut in 1 inch pieces
2 cups potatoes, cut in 1 inch pieces
1 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
2 cups diced tomatoes with liquid
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in soup pot over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to the oil. Sauté until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer to plate. Heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in same pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until golden, about 5 minutes. Add curry powder, cumin, and
cinnamon; stir 1 minute. Return chicken to pot. Add squash, potatoes, broth and tomatoes. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Uncover and simmer until chicken and potatoes
are cooked through and liquid is slightly reduced, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with cilantro.

Quinoa with Moroccan Winter Squash Stew, Bon Appetit
For the Stew:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons Hungarian sweet paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Pinch of saffron
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 cups carrots, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint, divided

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until soft, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add garlic; stir 1 minute. Mix in paprika and next 8 ingredients. Add 1 cup water, tomatoes, and lemon juice. Bring to boil. Add squash and carrots. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally,
about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir in half of cilantro and half of mint. This can be prepared 1 day ahead, but don't add the cilantro and mint until
reheating.

For the Quinoa
1 cup quinoa
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped peeled carrot
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 cups water

Rinse quinoa; drain. Melt butter with oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and carrot. Cover; cook until vegetables begin to brown, stirring often, about 10
minutes. Add garlic, salt, and turmeric; sauté 1 minute. Add quinoa; stir 1 minute. Add 2 cups water. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low. Cover; simmer until liquid is
absorbed and quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes. Spoon quinoa onto platter, forming well in center. Spoon stew into well. Sprinkle remaining herbs over.

Squash Soup from CSA member, Marla

1-2 onions, sauteed
baked squash (about 6 cups)
(chicken) stock or water
curry powder (or other spices)
(salt&pepper)
cream to taste (optional)

Use the stock/water to help puree the squash and sauteed onions. Season with plenty of curry powder (shake it on and stir it in, and repeat, for about 2-3 t. worth) or other
spices. Warm gently, do not boil if you have cream in it. Sometimes instead of curry powder, I use another "curry" I adopted from a recipe called Indian style chicken that is
really good with winter squash: equal parts cinnamon, cumin, coriander, ginger, (pepper), and a double-part cardamom. Cooked cubes of squash added to onions
sauteed in butter with liberal amounts of this home-made curry mix is truly delicious. It is sort of a side-dish, non-puree version of the above soup.

Beijing Radish Salad
This can be made with watermelon radishes or other types...

1 bunch watermelon radishes or one medium daikon radish
2 tablespoons rice or balsamic vinegar (or a combination)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Wash and julienne radishes. They can be peeled or not as you like. I often use a mandoline to do the julienne-ing, or you can grate them. Mix together the rest of the ingredients and dress the radishes with the dressing.

Julia’s simplest radish salad: 2 ways

1 bunch radishes, greens removed and set aside for another use radishes washed
2 Teaspoons sesame oil or olive oil
3 teaspoons rice vinegar or lemon juice
Salt and pepper
dash soy sauce if using the sesame oil
chopped parsley or toasted sesame seeds for garnish

slice the radishes pretty thin, then toss with the dressing ingredients. I make this salad often when I have radishes at hand.

IDEAS for Watermelon radishes:

ok, mostly just one idea: they are GREAT eaten raw. You can make them into slices or like carrot sticks and snack on them. They can be grated into a grain salad or a green salad. They can also be cooked like turnips, in most any turnip recipe. -julia

Skillet Potatoes with Olives and Lemon
1/4 cup green olives
1 pound fingerling potatoes, peeled if desired, then halved lengthwise
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 (3- by 1-inch) strips lemon zest, removed with a vegetable peeler
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup water
1/4 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Lemon wedges

Smash olives with flat side of a large knife, then discard pits and chop olives. Toss potatoes with olives, oil, zest, cumin, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a
10-inch heavy skillet, then add water and bring to a boil. Cover skillet and boil over medium heat until potatoes are tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove lid and cook, stirring,
until water is evaporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve sprinkled with parsley.

Butter Browned Cauliflower with Lemon and Almonds, from Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider

1 medium to large cauliflower
1/3 cup sliced blanched almonds
1 TBS butter
1TBS corn or canola oil
1 lemon, scrubbed
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch white pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Cut off cauliflower leaves and rinse the head. With stem end up, slice large clusters of florets from the central stalk. Cut these into 1/4 inch slices (some will crumble). Peel remaining stalks and slice very thin (about 7 to 8 cups in all). Spread almonds in wide pan over moderate heat. Cook, shaking occasionally, until golden, about 5 minutes; remove from pan. Add 1/2 tablespoon each butter and oil to pan and tip to coat. Add half the cauliflower and cook, flipping the pieces a few times to brown lightly and evenly, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat if necessary to prevent burning. Scoop into dish. Repeat with remaining cauliflower, butter and oil.

Meanwhile, grate enough zest from lemon to equal 3/4 teaspoon. Squeeze 2 Tablespoons juice, mix with water, sugar, salt, pepper and nutmeg. When second batch of cauliflower has finished cooking, add in the first batch along with the lemon juice mixture. Lower heat, cover, and cook until cauliflower is just tender, about 2 minutes. Uncover, add zest and raise heat. Toss gently until liquid evaporates. Season, add almonds and serve.

Cheesy Cauliflower Puree, from CSA member Alexis
1 head cauliflower, cut in large chunks
1 and 1/2 cups shredded cheese (any kind, but a sharp white cheddar works well)
1/3 cup half and half
1 TBS butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil the cauliflower in salted water until fork tender and drain. Add the cauliflower back to the pot with the rest of the ingredients (except cheese) and puree with an immersion blender until smooth. Stir in the cheese and season with salt and pepper. Serve as you would mashed potatoes.

Stuffed Poblanos - -similar to a dish served at Pajaro Street Grill in Salinas, from CSA member Angela U

Make a mixture of 2 parts grated sharp cheddar cheese, ~1 part raisins, coarsely chopped and `1 part slivered almonds. Cut generous caps off the stem end of poblano peppers, remove core, seeds and ribs, leaving peppers whole. Fill peppers with the cheese mixture and reattach "lids" with toothpicks. Broil or grill, turning to char all sides. Makes a great light dinner with a salad and maybe some rice. (If you cook them under a broiler, line the pan with foil for easier clean-up.)

Los Chiles Rellenos

8 poblano chiles
8 pieces of a good melting cheese
1.5-2 pound ripe tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, skinned
1 onion, skinned, quartered
S & P to taste
4 eggs, separated
flour

makes 8 chiles rellenos

Wash and lightly dry 8 poblano chiles that are about the size of your fist or a bit larger. Put them whole under the broiler and roast, turning with tongs, until quite dark on most sides. Remove from oven and place in paper bag for 5 minutes. Take them out of the bag and skin them, trying to leave them whole as best you can, then let them cool down. Meanwhile make the tomato sauce:

Tomato sauce to go on the rellenos:

yes, you could doctor up a canned tomato sauce with garlic and pepper.... but this is what Jane did:

She blanched about 15 early girl tomatoes for about 15 seconds each, then skinned and seeded them. Next she put them in a blender with 4 skinned garlic cloves and one onion, quartered. She did several grinds of fresh black pepper and about 1/2 t salt (you may want more). After blending, I took her mostly raw sauce and cooked it over a medium high flame in a large, deep frying pan and let the sauce cook down a bit, about 15 minutes. (after coming to a strong simmer I turned the heat way down, but left the pan uncovered. The sauce was done. I put it in a large pyrex cup, ready to reheat at the moment the rellenos were ready to serve...

Slit each chile with a small whole, then attempt to remove some of the seeds, keeping the chile whole if possible. Stuff the roasted chiles with the cheese pieces. Don’t worry if some of your peppers aren’t completely whole, I just wrapped the frayed pieces around the cheese, and you couldn’t tell those chiles from the truly intact ones once they were on the plate.

With the roasted chiles and tomato sauce ready, you can start on the egg whites. Whip egg whites (I used my kitchen aid mixer) & 2 T flour until soft peaks are becoming a bit stiffer. Fold in 2 of the egg yolks (you can do as you please with the other two, you won’t need them for this recipe) with a rubber spatula, taking care not to disturb the egg white mass more than necessary.

Dredge stuffed chiles in flour (I put about 1/2 a cup in a saucer for this task), then thoroughly coat with the egg white stuff. Fry in hot oil until golden brown, turning at least once to cook all sides. Serve immediately with a couple of spoons of tomato sauce served over the relleno. Divine!!

Natalie's Gingered Baked Carrots

I first sliced the carrots and turnips and roasted them in a glass baking dish with a little bit of butter at about 400 degrees. After 10 minutes in the oven, I sprinkled fresh
chopped ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil over the veggies, added a little bit of water to the pan, and kept them in the oven for another 15 minutes. When I took them out,
I sprinkled them with chopped herbs from the CSA box. They were very tasty and very easy to prepare!

Spicy Carrot Salad

2 lbs. carrots
1 TBS lemon juice
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup olive oil
2 TBS red wine vinegar
2 TBS chopped cilantro

Peel carrots and cut into julienne -- quick work with a Japanese mandolin. Mash the garlic clove with the salt, mix it with the vinegar, lemon juice, and cayenne. Whisk in the
olive oil. Taste for seasoning and add more acid, salt or cayenne if needed. Toss with the carrots and cilantro.

More Recipes at:

Tomato recipes

Radish Recipes

Winter Squash recipes

Spicy Chile Recipes

____________________________________

6) Which Farm?

>From High Ground: Sibley winter squash, salad mix, 2 mysteries
From Mariquita: Tomatoes, potatoes, cauliflower, poblano peppers, watermelon radishes
__________________________________________

7) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter
out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main blog
page: http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

__________________________________

8) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
831-786-0625
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

Two Farms Newsletter #418

2007-10-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

October 15, 2007

____________________________________

Table of Contents:

1) In your box this week
2) The Ventana Wilderness
3) Benefit Dinner in Monterey on Nov. 11th for the Ventana Wilderness
Alliance
4) Photos
5) Recipes
6) Which Farm?
7) Unsubscribe
____________________________________

1) In your box this week:  Delicata Winter Squash, Turnips OR Carrots,
Lacinato Kale, Parsley Root, Tomatoes, Cilantro, mystery item from
Stephen, a mystery item from Andy, and avocados from our neighbor/friend
Steve Marsili

The avocados are one of those things we wanted to put in the box as a
fun extra - an early thank you for a great 2007 season!

This week's vegetable list: We try to have it updated by Monday night,
sometimes by Mon. am

How to store this week's bounty: turnips, parsley root, cilantro, kale
and mystery items go in the fridge as soon as you arrive home, in
plastic.  The turnip greens can be used as well.  The tomatoes and avocados
can be stored on your counter.  The delicata winter squash should be
stored in a cool, dry, dark place.

Parsley Root info:  Clip greens from root upon receiving the vegetable
and save leaves (bagged) to use as parsley and the root (bagged so as
to not wilt) to be used like a little parsnip. This is a parsley, not a
parsnip, so the flavor of the root isn't parsnipy but the texture is
reminiscent of its bigger, more famous cousin.  For cooking grate into
salads, chop into stews, or roast with other vegetables such as beets,
onions, and potato cubes. Mash with mashed potatoes.
_____________________________________________________________________

2) Two Small Farms is hosting a benefit dinner to honor Jon Libby (our
CSA driver) and the Ventana Wilderness Alliance on November 11th at
Stokes Restaurant and Bar in Monterey.

Ventana means "window" in Spanish. The Ventana Wilderness Area is a
250,000 acre roadless area in the Monterey Division of the Los Padres
National Forest, taking in the rugged heart of the Santa Lucia Mountains.
The Santa Lucia mountains may lack the verdant alpine meadows and
sculptured ski slopes of the Sierra Nevada, but they make up for it with
plenty of loose rocks, precipitous cliffs, spiky yuccas, scratchy brush,
and rattlesnakes. Ironically, when the first Spanish galleons sailed up
the Pacific coast exploring the route that would carry them to Manila,
these mountains were white with snow so the sailors named them la Sierra
Nevada, or "the snowy mountains." I grew up on the northern edge of
the Santa Lucia and these mountains are still my favorite place in the
world.

Five rivers flow from the Ventana-the Carmel, the Little Sur, the Big
Sur, the Arroyo Seco, and the San Antonio. The tallest mountain in the
Santa Lucia Range is 6,000 ft high Junipero Serra peak, but the most
unusually shaped mountain in the wilderness is the Ventana Double Cone.
Before the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, an immense slab of rock
spanned the curious square notch in the ridge line that lies between the
twin peaks of the Double Cone, creating a ventana or "window" on the
horizon. The earthquake caused this gigantic rock to fall into the gap
below and shatter, but the notch and the name remains.

The Spanish left a legend of a fabulous gold strike in the Santa Lucia
Mountains. If you stand on the right spot on the right mountain, so
goes the myth, you can spy the site of the gold deposit by looking through
the ventana as if you were aiming through the sights of a rifle. I
don't want to mine for gold, especially in the middle of these beautiful
mountains, but I like the story. For me, the Santa Lucia mountains are a
window into different world. There's the past to see here, in the
abandoned homestead ranches of the early American settlers and the almost
forgotten village sites of the Esselen Indians. And the quiet that a
person can find here gives me the calm I need to think about the future.
In the modern era quiet is a real treasure.

Jon Libby has worked for us for two seasons, delivering the Two Small
Farms weekly share boxes to San Francisco, the Peninsula, and the
Monterey Bay Area. I can't tell you how grateful Stephen, Jeanne, Zelda,
Julia, and I are for the help he has given us. Jon's enthusiasm, his
consistency, and his attention to detail have made our lives so much easier.
We wanted to do something to show our appreciation for all that he has
done, and it occurred to us that he would like an event that draws
attention to and benefits the Ventana Wilderness Alliance. Jon is past
president of the VWA and a persistent, dedicated activist for wilderness.

The VWA is a volunteer organization that promotes the well being of the
Ventana Wilderness through clean-up projects, back-country trail
maintenance, public outreach and lobbying efforts. The Los Padres National
Forest is like every other public institution-charged with a broad
mandate, but given insufficient funds to get the job done. The VWA does what
it can to fill in the gaps by doing work the Forest Service can't
afford to do. And because the Forest Service is subject to the pressures of
various interest groups, the VWA speaks up on behalf of the public for
wilderness values.

My father, James Griffin, was a botanist who did a lot of research in
the Santa Lucia Mountains. As a kid, I helped him by hauling his tools
and notebooks on lengthy hikes through the Los Padres National Forest. I
have a copy of a letter that my father wrote to Jon Libby, thanking
him for the work that the VWA had done to re-open a trail in the Ventana
that he needed to reach some of his research sites. So before Jon
helped me, he helped my father.

Stokes Restaurant is the obvious place to have a benefit dinner. Chef
Brandon has supported our farm for years, and he bought produce from us
even before we started the CSA. Jon has been delivering produce to
Stokes Restaurant as he's gone about making the CSA deliveries, and he's
struck up a friendship with Brandon. "Every time I go in their kitchen it
always smells so good," he says. When I go, I remember Brandon's
mother, who was a frequent market shopper at our stall at the Ferry Plaza
Farmers Market before she passed away. If she saw vegetables on display
at our booth that she hadn't seen on his menu she'd call him up and chew
him out. Say what you will about marketing strategies, but I'll say
there's no better way to get a chef's business than to get his mother on
your side.

Brandon is used to working with whatever vegetables Stephen and I have
available, so I'm sure the meal will be great. Brandon also does his
own charcuterie, so I've raised two pigs for this meal. I bought two
organic feeder piglets a while ago from Jean and Bob at Deep Roots Ranch.
Bob and Jean have their own milk CSA that Julia and I belong to, and
they raise poultry and pigs too. The pigs are an heirloom breed called
Gloucester Old Spot. I've been fattening them on vegetables and letting
them range over several acres at our home ranch to root and graze. If the
two pigs knew that they were going to "benefit" the Ventana Wilderness
Alliance they might not eat all my leftover heirloom tomatoes and
French Fingerling potatoes so fast, but that's life. They do seem to be
enjoying themselves now. Please consider joining us to thank Jon Libby and
The Ventana Wilderness Alliance for all they've done. All proceeds go
to the Ventana Wilderness Alliance.            

copyright 2007 Andy Griffin

photos on this webpage

details below:
______________________________________________________________________

3) Ventana Wilderness Alliance Benefit Dinner:

VWA is a favorite charity of many of us here at Two Small Farms.  The
benefit event is Sunday, November 11th starting at 5:45 pm in Monterey
at Stokes Restaurant and Bar.  It is $65 per person which includes tax
and tip but not beverages.  For more info, go to our web page.  You can
call or email Zelda at the office to make your reservation: 831-786-0625,
csa@twosmallfarms.com

_____________________________________________________________________


4) Photos:

Parsley Root: NO PHOTO, sorry about that! they are small roots with
genuine parsley attached. -julia

Turnips

Cilantro

Lacinato Kale

Delicata Winter Squash

Photo Gallery
_____________________________________

5) Recipes

Parsley Root info:

Clip greens from root upon receiving the vegetable and save leaves
(bagged) to use as parsley and the root (bagged so as to not wilt) to be
used like a little parsnip. This is a parsley, not a parsnip, so the
flavor of the root isn't parsnipy but the texture is reminiscent of its
bigger, more famous cousin. For cooking grate into salads, chop into
stews, or roast with other vegetables such as beets, onions, and potato
cubes. Mash with mashed potatoes.

Potato and Parsley Root Soup, from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone,
Deborah Madison

1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled
2 parsley roots, scrubbed
1 1/2 Tbs butter or olive oil
6 shallots or 1 onion, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cups parsley (use the tops of the root, and mix in cilantro if
needed)
Salt and pepper
6 cups water or veg or chicken stock
1/3 cup cream or additional water

Quarter the potatoes lengthwise and thinly slice.  Grate the parsley
roots.  Melt the butter in a soup pot and add the potatoes, parsley
roots, shallots, and bay leaves.  Cook over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes,
stirring occasionally.  Raise the heat, add the wine, and let it reduce
until syrupy.  Add 1 1/2 cups of the chopped parsley, 1 1/2 tsp salt,
the water or stock, and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer,
partially covered, until the potatoes have broken apart, about 30
minutes.  Stir in the cream and remaining parsley and heat through.  Taste for
salt and season with pepper.  Remove the bay leaves and serve.

Greens (Kale) with Tomatoes and Asiago, from Vegetarian Cooking for
 Everyone, Deborah Madison

1 large bunch kale, stems removed and leaves cut into large pieces
2 Tbs olive oil
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, peeled and diced
Several pinches dried oregano
Grated Asiago

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 1 tsp salt per quart of
water.  Drop in kale and simmer for about 5 minutes (or longer, depending
on how you like them).  Drain and put them in a wide skillet with the
oil, garlic and tomatoes.  Season with oregano and cook over high heat
until the tomatoes are heated through.  Serve with cheese grated over
the top.

Autumn Minestrone, from Mooswood Restaurant's "Daily Special"

2 tablespoons canola or other vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 1/2 cups peeled and cubed winter squash
2 celery stalks, diced
1/2 cup peeled and diced carrots
2 1/2 cups cubed potatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
6 cups water
4 cups chopped kale
1 1/2 cups cooked or canned cannellini beans (15-ounce can, drained)

Warm the oil in a large soup pot on medium heat. Add the onions and
garlic, and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the squash, celery, carrots,
potatoes, oregano, salt, pepper, and water and cook for 10 minutes or until
the potatoes are almost done. Add the kale and beans and simmer for
another 5 to 7 minutes, until the kale is tender and the beans are hot.
Serve immediately.  Serves 6 to 8.

Cannellini Beans and Kale Ragout, from Bon Appetit

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
4 1 1/2-inch-thick slices Italian bread, crusts removed, each slice
quartered
1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (or try with the
parsley tops of the sparsely root)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
5 cups (packed) thinly sliced kale (about 1 large bunch)
1 14 1/2-ounce can vegetable broth
6 to 7 paste tomatoes (San Marzano), peeled and chopped
1, 15-ounce can cannellini (white kidney beans), drained

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add
bread and 1 teaspoon thyme; cook until bread is golden on both sides,
turning with tongs, about 2 minutes total. Transfer croutons to bowl;
sprinkle with salt and pepper.   Add remaining 4 tablespoons oil, garlic,
and crushed red pepper to same pot; sauté over medium heat 30 seconds.
Add kale and broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover,
and simmer until kale wilts, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice,
beans, and remaining 1 tablespoon thyme. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper. Ladle ragout into shallow bowls. Top with
croutons and serve.

Delicata Squash with Roasted Mushrooms and Parsley, from Gourmet,
November 2004

6 tablespoons olive oil (based on the reviews of the website, many
cooks used a little less oil and had a great turnout)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (from the parsley root) or fresh
thyme if you have it
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 lb delicata squash (about 3 medium), halved lengthwise, seeded, and
cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide slices
2 lb mixed fresh mushrooms such as cremini, shiitake, and oyster,
trimmed (stems discarded if using shiitakes) and halved (quartered if large)

Stir together oil, fresh herbs, salt, and pepper. Toss squash with 2
tablespoons herb oil in a shallow baking pan (1/2 to 1 inch deep) and
arrange in 1 layer. Toss mushrooms with remaining 1/4 cup herb oil in
another shallow baking pan (1/2 to 1 inch deep) and arrange in 1 layer.
Roast squash and mushrooms, stirring occasionally and switching position
of pans halfway through roasting, until vegetables are tender and liquid
mushrooms give off is evaporated, 25 to 30 minutes.

Delicata Creamy Squash Soup, from AllRecipes.com

3 delicata squash, halved lengthwise and seeded (if you have some of
your Rugosa squash leftover from last week, you can add some of it to
fill out the recipe)
1 onion, chopped
3 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons butter
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Place the squash, cut sides down, in a
baking dish. Add 1/8 inch water in baking dish, cover with foil and bake
35-40 minutes or until tender. Cool. In a large saucepan, melt butter.
Add onion and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until onion is
softened but not brown.  Scrape the squash out of the flesh and add to
onions. Add the stock and heavy cream. Cook over moderate heat,
stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes.  Puree the soup in a blender or food
processor. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Fresh Tomato Soup with Cilantro, from the Cooking Light Cookbook
1 cup sliced onion
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup thinly sliced celery
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 to 1/4 tsp black pepper
4 cups peeled and coarsely chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup water (depending on how thick or thin you like your soup)
2 cups chicken or veg broth
2 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onion, celery
and garlic; saute for 4 minutes or until tender.  Add the cumin, salt
and pepper; cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly.  Add tomato, water
and broth, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10
minutes.  Place 2 1/2 cups of the tomato mixture in a blender and process
until smooth.  Return tomato puree to the pan and stir well.  Stir in
chopped cilantro.  Serve warm or chilled. Yields 6 cups.

Roasted Turnips in Wine, adapted from Peggy's Biodynamic Garden

1 bunch turnips, peeled and cubed, greens reserved for another use
1 cup red wine
1/4 cup honey
2 Tablespoons butter

Place turnips in saucepan; add remaining ingredients and enough water
to barely cover. (You may also add other root vegetables: carrots,
parsnips, etc.) Simmer until tender. Pour into baking dish and bake at 350
degrees 1/2 hour. Serve with rice or chicken. 2-3 servings.

Turnip Greens Meal

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Garlic cloves, minced
1 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 Tablespoon Red Raspberry vinegar (I would use cider vinegar if no
raspberry is available...)
1 large red onion, sliced
1 can black beans
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 large potato, cubed (I would substitute a couple of the turnips...)
Cleaned greens from one bunch of turnips.

Put all ingredients in a large pot, in the order listed. Bring mixture
to boiling point, stir, lower heat to simmer, cover and cook for 15 or
20 minutes, or until potato is tender. Serve with a chilled fruit and
yogurt accompaniment.

Turnip Tips  adapted from "From Asparagus to Zucchini"

*Eat turnips raw. Slice or thickly julienne and add to vegetable
platter or eat alone with or without dip.
*Grate raw into salads.
*Bake turnips alone for 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees, basted with oil,
or bake along with other seasonal roots.
*Cook turnips with roasting meats.
*Mash or scallop turnips, just like you would potatoes.
* Dice turnips into soups or stews, and julienne into stir fries.

Chunky Guacamole, from Cook's Illustrated, May/June 1999

3 medium sized avocados
2 TBS minced onion
1medium garlic clove, minced
1 small jalapeno, minced (about 1 tsp)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin (optional)
2 Tbs juice from 1 lime

Halve one avocado, remove pit and scoop flesh into medium bowl.  Mash
flesh lightly with onion, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, salt, and cumin
with tines of a fork until just combined.  Halve and pit remaining two
avocados and cube up the flesh.  Add the cubed avocado to the mashed
mixture.  Sprinkle lime juice over the mix entire contents of bowl lightly
with fork until combined but still chunky.  Adjust seasoning with salt
if necessary and serve.  Can be covered with plastic wrap, pressed
directly onto surface of mixture and refrigerated up to one day.  Reurn
guacamole to room temperature before serving.  Also, you could add diced
tomato as well.

EXPERIMENT WITH CILANTRO, Fine Cooking Magazine

- Garnish tomato-, carrot- or coconut-milk-based soups with chopped
fresh cilantro.
- Serve iced tea or freshly squeezed juice with a splash of lime juice
and sprigs of cilantro.
- Make a flavorful dip from chopped tomato, cilantro, cucumber, green
chiles, and plain yogurt.
- Try making pesto using cilantro in place of basil.
- Rub chicken or fish with chopped cilantro, ginger, and black pepper
before grilling.
- Sprinkle chopped cilantro and chopped cashews or slivered almonds
over cooked rice or couscous.
- Add cilantro to your favorite gazpacho or salsa recipe.
-- add it to any beans or soup, stems included, then remove as you
would a bay leaf

Bob's Fabulous Yummy Marinade, from a Kitchen Garden
This marinade can be used to marinate tofu and meats, as a sauce for
noodles or rice, and as a dressing for a green salad.

5 TBS vegetable oil
1/3 cup packed fresh cilantro
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup tamari/soy sauce
1 oz. fresh ginger (about an inch?) cut into 6, quarter inch slices
6 large cloves garlic
1 1/2 TBS ground cumin
1 small jalapeno or other chile

Combine and blend all ingredients together in a food processor or
blender until the chile, garlic, ginger and cilantro are finely chopped.

More Recipes at:

Cilantro recipes:
http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/cilantro.html

Kale recipes:
http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/kale.html

Tomato recipes:
http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/tomatoes.html

Turnip recipes:
http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/turnips.html

Winter Sqash recipes:
http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/winter%20squash.html
____________________________________

6) Which Farm?

>From High Ground:  delicata winter squash, turnips, carrots, cilantro,
mystery
From Mariquita: Tomatoes, lacinato kale, parsley root, mystery
>From Steve Marsilisi:  Avocados

__________________________________________

7) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have
to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links!
(I send this newsletter out as plain text so more folks with
differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for
email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main blog page:
http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

__________________________________

8) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
831-786-0625
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

Two Farms Newsletter #417

2007-10-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

October 9, 2007
___________________

Table of Contents:

1) In your box this week
2) Global Perspective
3) Benefit Dinner in Monterey on Nov. 11th for the Ventana Wilderness Alliance
4) Photos
5) Recipes
6) Which Farm?
7) Unsubscribe
8) Two Small Farms Contact Information
__________________

1) In your box this week: Tomatoes, Romaine Lettuce, Leeks, Fennel, Fingerling Potatoes, Rugosa Winter Squash (an Italian variety of winter squash, similar to a butternut), mystery item from Stephen

This week's vegetable list: We try to have it updated by Monday night, sometimes by Mon. am:

How to store this week's bounty: all - except the tomatoes and winter squash - go in the fridge as soon as you arrive home.

__________________________________

2) Global Perspective by Andy

I hardly bother to listen to the weather reports anymore. From the middle of April until the middle of September the weather is nearly always the same here in central California, and by October, when the weather finally starts to get interesting again, I have my friend Martin to rely on for information.

Martin is a farmer too, and he used to have the same need to keep up with the weather reports. He farmed along Pomponio Creek, up the San Mateo Coast, where the wind blows strong off the cold Pacific and the storms hit hard. Eventually, the endless rains of an El Niño system kept Martin’s fields wet so late into the spring that he couldn’t get planted in time and he went out of business. After a hiatus spent working in restaurants, Martin got back into farming, but this time he started farming inside greenhouses down in Chualar, south of Salinas. Greenhouses don’t just provide warmth and shelter from the wind for the crops inside, they also protect the farmer from the dire consequences of a wet spring.

But if Martin no longer needs to follow the weather as closely as he once did, following the weather had become a habit and a passion for him, and he keeps up with every system that develops, from the Malaysian archipelago to the Gulf of Alaska. Growing crops in a greenhouse has many advantages over working in the open under the sky, but I suspect that Martin misses the thrill that open air farmers feel when they look heavenward and wonder if their best efforts are going to be washed away. So Martin watches the weather channel, he follows the storms on computer, and he keeps an eye on the sky outside. When changes are brewing a thousand miles out over the Pacific he calls me. It makes him uneasy that I’m too distracted with the superficial day to day details of farming and family to inform myself of what’s headed my way. I suspect he even feels I’m tempting fate by paying so little attention to the weather gods.

This Monday Martin called, me from Paris, France, to tell me about the satellite photos of storm systems lined up across the Pacific like folks buying bus tickets, all bound for California. Martin likes to keep a global perspective. He had an opportunity to travel to Europe— or maybe it’s more correct to say he “created” an opportunity by not having kids— and he spent three weeks traveling across the south of France and the length of Italy, observing the heirloom vegetables that he and I like to cultivate, growing in their ancestral Mediterranean farm fields.

I was able to bring Martin up to date on the precise meteorological conditions on his farm here that prevailed here by looking out my pick-up truck window and adding in some wind to approximate Chualar’s typical brisk ambiance. And I was able to tell him that I’m as ready as I can be for what ever nature throws my way. The hard squash have been taken in from the fields, the seed beds for the next wave of fall planting have been prepared, and our remaining onions are safely under cover. Our first wave of fava beans have been planted for early spring harvest, and I’m already making seed orders for next spring’s planting schedule. When Martin gets back from Europe today he will in all likelihood discover that summer is over along the Central Coast for 2007, and he missed the last golden days, but that’s just what he gets for traveling to Italy, and sipping wine along the Adriatic Sea.

copyright 2007 Andy Griffin

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3) Ventana Wilderness Alliance Benefit Dinner: VWA is a favorite charity of many of us here at Two Small Farms: Sunday Nov. 11th starting at 5:45 pm in Monterey at Stokes Restaurant and Bar: $65/person includes tax and tip but not beverage. For more info, go to our web page or call or email Zelda at the office to make your reservation: 831-786-0625, csa@twosmallfarms.com
____________________________________

4) Photos:

Tomatoes

Fennel

Leeks

Rugosa Winter Squash

Photo Gallery

________________________________

5) Recipes from Roxanne, Nina, Rhonda, Ilene, Alice, Alexis and Zelda
Roasted Tomato Soup, from Monterey CSA member, Ilene

"This soup is so incredibly delish and so very easy. Everything can be adjusted to fit what you have on hand -- and then it can even be frozen! I made two batches with last week's plum tomotoes; we ate one and froze the other."

2 lbs of tomatoes, washed, hulled and halved
1 onion, sliced
5 cloves of garlic (peeled)
Some olive oil
1 cup (more or less) of vegetable or chicken broth

Place the halved tomatoes, cut side down, into a greased 12x9 pan. Place the onion slices and garlic cloves on top of them. Drizzle with olive oil. Roast at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Place half of the roasted goodies into a blender. Add about half the broth and puree. Pour into a saucepan. Repeat with the other half. Warm gently in the saucepan until the deisred temperature. Serve, dotted with homemade croutons or drizzled with sour cream.

Roxanne from Capitola has been roasting the tomatoes per instructions from Alice Waters:
Rinse and trim stem end off.
Make a shallow slit lengthwise with tip of your knife (so they don't explode)
Use a pyrex type baking dish with 2" sides
Place them on their sides as tightly as possible in 1 layer
Drizzle a little olive oil and a sprinkle of salt

"If you're really busy, roast/bake VERY slowly 200-225F for 3-4 hours. If you can watch more closely, 350-375F will cook them in 45min to 60min. When cool enough to handle, run thru food processor or blender. This will produce a sauce thicker than commercial tomato sauce, but looser than tomato paste. I freeze them in 1 cup size portions, perfect for 2 medium pizzas, 1# pasta, most tomato based stews, beans, soups. The real beauty of these tomatoes is the wonderful texture and flavor they have without much cooking or additional ingredients needed. YIELD: 1 bag of 2-3 lbs tomatoes make 3-4 cups of sauce."

Nina in San Carlos has been making this tomato soup recipe, loosely adapted from a couple of recipes from Martha Stewart Living:

Tomato Soup, serves 2
1 t olive oil
1 t butter
1 clove garlic, minced
6 scallions, sliced (or other onion)
1 c chicken broth
2 lbs. tomatoes, peeled and chopped (to peel, cut out core, place in boiling water for about 30 seconds, then move to a bowl of ice water, the peel should slip right off)
2 sprigs fresh oregano
S&P (to taste)
1/2 t sugar (more or less depending on sweetness of tomatoes)

In a saucepan, saute garlic and scallions/onions in olive oil and melted butter. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, & oregano. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 45 minutes. Mash with potato masher if pieces are too big. You can puree it if you like but it was really nice kind of chunky. Add S&P and sugar to taste. Enjoy!

Penne with Garlicky Winter Squash, Jeanne Lemlin, Foodnetwork

1/4 cup olive oil
4 cups diced (1/2-inch) winter squash
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
6 sage leaves, minced or 1/4 teaspoon powdered sage
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound uncooked penne
Grated Parmesan

Bring a large quantity of water to a boil in a stockpot. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Toss in the squash and saute 5 minutes, or until it begins to get golden. Sprinkle in the garlic and saute 2 minutes. Pour in the 1/4 cup water, nutmeg, sage, parsley, salt and pepper, and cover the pan. Cook the squash until tender, about 5 minutes more. Cook the penne until al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain thoroughly in a colander and return to the pot. Spoon on the squash mixture and toss gently. Serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan and pass more at the table.

Butternut Squash Soup, submitted from CSA member Alice. Recipe courtesy of Gourmet Magazine

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 1/4 pounds)
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger, optional
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups chicken broth
1-2 cups water, as needed
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream for garnish

Cut squash in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Arrange the halves cut side down in roasting pan that has been sprayed with nonstick vegetable oil spray. Bake squash in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until very tender. Set aside to cool. When the squash is completely cool, scoop the flesh from the skin. While the squash is baking, cook the onion and the ginger in the butter in a saucepan, over moderately low heat, for 5 minutes or until the onion is softened. Add the broth and simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, covered. Add the squash pulp to the sauce pan. Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor, in batches, and puree until smooth. Add enough water to achieve the desired consistency, and salt and pepper to taste. Return the soup to the sauce pan and cook over moderate heat until it is hot. Garnish each portion with the heaping teaspoon of low-fat sour cream.

Pumpkin or Winter Squash Puree, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone Deborah Madison

Easy, versatile and useful, leftovers can fill ravioli, turn into a soup, or be added to muffins, breads, biscuits, and waffles. Preheat oven to 375 F. Halve, seed, and bake 3 pounds pumpkin or winter squash until tender, approx. 30 - 40 mins. Scrape the flesh away from the skin, then beat until smooth with a large wooden spoon. This should be easy unless the squash is stringy, in which case, use a food processor or food mill. Stir in butter to taste and season with salt and pepper. Makes about 2 cups. To enrich the puree, grate Gruyére, Fountain, or Emmenthaler into it. Flavor with extra virgin olive oil, or dark sesame oil, or mix in sautéed onions.

Nina in San Carlos also suggests the Simply Recipes, for some good and easy recipes, including this one:
POTATO LEEK SOUP, this recipe can be prepared in 40 minutes or less.

3 large leeks, cut lengthwise, separate, clean. Use only the white and pale green parts, chop.
2 Tbsp butter
2 cups water
2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegetarian option)
2 lbs potatoes, peeled, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
Salt & Pepper
Marjoram - dash
Tabasco sauce or other red chili sauce

Cook leeks in butter with salt and pepper in a medium sized sauce pan. Cover pan, cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Check often. Do not brown leeks! Browning will give leeks a burnt taste. Add water, broth, and potatoes. Cook for 20 minutes. Scoop about half of the soup mixture into a blender, puree and return to pan. Add dash of marjoram and chili sauce to taste - about 1/4 teaspoon. Serves 4-6.

Leek and Fennel Mashed Potatoes, Gourment, Decemeber 2001

2 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only), quartered lengthwise, then finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 lb yellow-fleshed potatoes such as Yukon Gold
1 medium fennel bulb (sometimes called anise; 1 1/4 lb), stalks trimmed flush with bulb, bulb halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
1/3 cup low-sodium fat-free chicken broth
2/3 cup 1% milk, heated
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Special equipment: a potato ricer, or a food mill fitted with medium disk

Wash leeks in a bowl of water, then lift into a sieve to drain. Cook leeks with 1/4 teaspoon salt in 1 teaspoon butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes, then transfer to a bowl. Reserve skillet.

Peel and quarter potatoes, then cover with salted cold water by 1 inch in a 4-quart saucepan and simmer until tender, 20 to 25 minutes. While potatoes are simmering, cook fennel with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt in remaining teaspoon butter in skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add broth and simmer, covered, until tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain potatoes and force through ricer or food mill back into saucepan. Stir in milk, leeks, fennel, and pepper. Can be made 1 day ahead and reheated - this lets the flavors develop.

Linguini with Spicy Leeks and Tomatoes, adapted from Bon Appetit, June 2007

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp. fennel seed (or try substituting with 1 tsp, more or less, of finely chopped fennel leaves)
2 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only), split lengthwise, sliced crosswise
1 1/4 pounds plum tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
12 ounces linguine
1 1/4 cup reserved pasta water
1 3/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add next 2 ingredients; sauté 1 minute. Add leeks; sauté until beginning to soften, about 4 minutes. Add diced tomatoes; stir 1 minute. Add wine and vinegar; bring to boil. Add fennel leaves and stir in, cover and cook until tomatoes break down, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain, reserving 1 1/4 cups pasta cooking liquid. Add pasta, 1/2 cup reserved pasta liquid, and 3/4 cup cheese to sauce in skillet. Toss over medium-high heat until sauce coats pasta, adding more liquid by 1/4 cupfuls if dry. Season with salt and pepper. Serve, passing 1 cup cheese separately.

Fennel: popular as a vegetable in Italy, it can be thinly sliced and eaten plain or as part of a vegetable platter. It is often served with just salt and olive oil as a simple appetizer or salad course. It can be chopped up into salad as celery, and indeed used almost anywhere celery is used. I once saw it added to chili -it was delicious. It was a popular herb in the ancient world of the Greeks and Romans. A recipe from Columella, a Spaniard who served in the Roman army in Syria in AD 60: "Mix fennel with toasted sesame, anise, and cumin then mix that with pureed dried fig and wrap in fig leaves and then store in jars to preserve." (From Spencers The Vegetable Book)

Fennel is high is vitamins A and E, calcium and potassium. Fennel and ginger make a good digestive tea. (Steep the fresh leaves with a bit of sliced ginger for 5 minutes in boiling water.)

SOME FENNEL IDEAS from The Victory Garden Cookbook

Sprinkle chopped fennel leaves on hot baked oysters or clams.

Add cooked fennel to omelets, quiches, stuffings or sauces.

Add stalks to stocks for their flavor.

Add sliced sauteed fennel to fish chowders.

Cook fennel in your favorite tomato sauce.

Place stalks and leaves on barbeque coals as they do in France. The fennel scent permeates the grilled food.

Slice steamed or blanched fennel, cover with a vinaigrette and serve chilled.

Chop raw fennel and add to tuna fish sandwiches.

Slice fennel thin and layer with raw potatoes, cream and cheese to make a potato au gratin.

Two recipes from CSA member Alexis:

Fennel-Turnip Soup
A tasty, smooth, creamy soup without the use of starches or cream.

4 turnips, roughly chopped
2 small fennel bulbs (green parts too), roughly chopped
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled
4 cans chicken stock
Pepper to taste

Sautee onions in a bit of olive oil until soft. Add turnips, garlic and fennel and sautee a few more minutes. Add chicken stock and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until veggies are fork tender, about 20 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender (or a regular blender or food processor). Strain though a fine sieve and serve.

Strawberry Fennel Salad

1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 pint strawberries, halved and thinly sliced
1/4 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
A couple squeezes of fresh lemon juice

Toss all ingredients and serve.

Leek recipes

Fennel recipes

Potato recipes

Tomato recipes

Winter Sqash recipes
____________________________________

6) Which Farm?

>From High Ground: Fennel, leeks, romaine lettuce, mystery
>From Mariquita: Tomatoes, potatoes, rugosa winter squash

__________________________________________

7) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main blog page:
http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

__________________________________

8) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
831-786-0625
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

newsletter #416 and what's in the box for week of 10/10

2007-10-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hello, CSA folks: I apologize for the lateness of posting the newsletter from 10/3/07. It's below. before that, I'll put in what's coming in the box for THIS week: (this may change, check the website for updates) -julia

Leeks, Romaine Lettuce, Butternut "Rugosa", San Marzano Tomatoes, Fennel, Stephen's Mystery (likely artichokes or strawberries), French Fingerling Potatoes

Two Farms Newsletter #416
October 3rd, 2007
____________________________________

Table of Contents:

1) In your box this week
2) Watch This
3) Tomato Time
4) High Ground Restoration Project
5) Photos
6) Recipes
7) Which Farm?
8) Unsubscribe
9) Two Small Farms Contact Information
__________________________________________

1) In your box this week: Tomatoes, Eggplant, Cabbage, Celery, Lettuce, Red Beets, Stephen's Mystery, Hungarian Wax Peppers (SPICY) - yes we really have them this week!

This week's vegetable list: I try to have it updated by Monday night, sometimes by Mon. am:

How to store this week's bounty: all - except the tomatoes and winter squash - go in the fridge as soon as you arrive home. Top the greens off the beets and store in plastic bag in refrigerator, but they are best used within a day or so. Saute them up just as you might chard or spinach - garlic and lemon juice and olive oil.

_______________________________________

2) Watch This! from Andy

It's a gross generalization to suggest that all Mexicans enjoy hot sauce. It's imprecise to confound heat with spiciness. And it's absolutely wrong to confound Mexican food with Spanish cooking. But chiles and ignorance have gone together like cookies and milk for 415 years.

Columbus made the first and biggest mistake when he made landfall on an island somewhere in the Caribbean in 1492. He'd promised his investors that he'd find a shortcut to India and gain them an advantage in the spice trade against the odious Muslims and Portuguese, so the Carib people he encountered became "Indians," and the spicy fruit they used to flavor food with became pimiento, which means pepper in Spanish. (That little red piece of "pimento" that plugs the hole in a cocktail olive reminds the politically conscious drinker of this historic travesty.)

We don't know for sure exactly which kind of pepper Columbus first tasted. Plant taxonomists file chile peppers under the family name Capsicum, but there are five major subgroups: Capsicum annum, from Mexico, the American Southwest and Central America, Capsicum baccatum, from Andean South America, Capsicum chinense, from Tropical America and the Caribbean, Capsicum frutescens, from Tropical America, and Capsicum pubescens, from Andean South America. Each of these catagories of plants display characteristics which make them botanically unique, but one thing they have in common is that they don't resemble the black pepper, or Piper nigrum, that Columbus was looking for.

Even the active chemical ingredient that makes chile peppers spicy is different than that of black pepper. Chile peppers are "hot" because they contain varying amounts of capsaicin. The capsaicin is concentrated in the seeds and connective tissue that holds the seeds to the walls of the pepper fruits. It's more articulate to speak of capsaicin being spicy than being "hot," but heat does play a role in the spiciness of a chile. Concentrations of capsaicin are measured in units called Scovilles— the more Scovilles the more "heat." The Scoville count in a pepper is mostly a question of variety, but hot peppers grown in hot climates will often pack more heat than they would have had they been grown in a cool climate.

Capsaicin is good for our bodies ( in moderation ) and even sold in a pill form for people who want to be healthy without eating flavorful food. If you don't like the "burn" of the chile on your tongue, you can remove the seeds and ribs of the pepper before you cook with it, and that will moderate the impact. If you find yourself suffering from a chile burn don't drink beer, drink milk, or eat bread. The spice in black pepper is a volatile oil called piperine, and while it is also a healthy compound ( in moderation ) it is chemically unrelated to capsaicin and it produces different effects in the body

The real Indians and the other inhabitants of tropical Southeast Asia weren't fooled by the impostor peppers, but they weren't too proud to accept a flavorful new vegetable either. Spanish Galleons making the annual run from Callao to Manila tucked American peppers into their cargos of Peruvian gold, and soon chile peppers became an integral part of a number of Asian cuisines. Some forms of peppers, like the violently spicy Habanero, were at first so associated with Chinese cooking that early botanists mistakenly took them to be indigenous to Asia, and named them Capsicum chinense. From Muslim Asia the cultivation of capsicum peppers made its way into Muslim Europe. The Ottoman Empire dominated Hungary at the time, which is why Hungarians enjoy spicy paprika today.

Anybody who confounds Mexican food with Spanish food has clearly not spent enough time in either country. The Spanish may have "discovered" chile peppers, but they have not chosen to base many recipes of their recipes around the spicier members of that clan. Instead, they have focused in on thick walled, sweet, meaty Capsicum annum varieties like pimentos and Bell peppers. Because many Americans don't share my enthusiasm for spicy peppers, I choose to mostly grow sweet peppers.

Gildardo España, from Oaxaca, has worked with me for twelve years now, and he doesn't care for extremely spicy food, so he's happy enough to harvest the sweet, mild Bell peppers, Cubanelles, and Bullhorn peppers that I grow.. But my driver, Don Gerardo, from Michoacan, prefers heartier fare, and he's always disappointed with the pepper varieties I chose. He brings a bag of "real" chiles to work, Capsicum pubescens var. Peron cult. Manzano amarillo, so he has something to munch on when he eats his tacos. Ka-boom! Can you spell napalm?

Don Gera is a great guy, and he always offers me a chili or two to eat with my tacos, but ever since my first bite of one of his chile Manzanos I've turned him down. He's not offended. "To each their own," he knows, and besides, I'm a gringo, so he's not going to sweat it if I don't eat spicy food. I actually do like spicy food, it's just that I don't have the palate or the plumbing to keep up with Don Gera. I enjoy talking to Don Gera, and I can't help but contrast him with another fellow I knew, years ago, when I worked at Star Route Farm in Bolinas.

I speak Spanish competently now, but that wasn't always the case, and when I worked at Star Route Farm I was only just learning. The Mexican guys there were real gentlemen (except for one jerk) and they helped me a lot with my vocabulary and syntax. By way of returning the favor, I'd often buy fruits and vegetables at wholesale prices for them when I delivered the farm's produce to the produce terminal down on Jerrold Street in San Francisco. One morning I found myself at Greenleaf Produce, just after dawn.

A salesman pointed to a box of tiny, sharp red, orange and green chiles. "Why don't you take these chiles home for the guys? They're free. I can't sell them."

"Sure," I said.

"Or maybe not," he said. "These are Chinese chiles. They're too hot."

"No," I said. "I'll take them."

When I got home the guys were already gathered around the campfire, drinking Budweiser and making dinner. There were only two beers left. They offered me one, and I took it.

"What did you bring?" they asked.

I showed them the banana box full of tortillas, a case of papayas, and a huge sack of tomatillos.

"Muy bien!"

"And these Chinese chiles," I said.

"What do you mean, "Chinese chile?" asked the jerk. "Mexicans invented chiles, not the pinche Chinese!" He was always taking advantage of my ignorance by calling me derogatory names in Spanish that I couldn't understand, and I didn't like it.

"Sí, sí," I replied. "Son chiles chinos! Son muy bravos! Even the Chinese don't eat these chiles!"

"Then what are they good for," he asked.

"They're too picante to eat straight, so the Chinese use them to flavor oil, and the food takes up the spice from the oil," I said.

"The Chinese are a bunch of rice-eating pansies," he said.

"Really?" I said. Then I saw one of the guys take the last beer. "The guy that gave these to me told me they were too spicy for Mexicans."

"He's a pussy too. Watch this!"

And we all watched as he threw three Chinese chiles into his mouth. He swallowed, and grinned, and then his face turned red. He reached for a beer, but they were all gone. He stood up, startled, and started coughing. Then he ran down to the creek and tried to puke the chiles up. It must have hurt, digesting those three chile, but it probably hurt worse to hear his companions choking with delight.

"Pendejo! Ha, ha, ha!" The evening rang out with laughter.

It's sad, but ignorance, stupidity, and foolishness know no boundaries.

copyright 2007 Andy Griffin

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3) Tomatoes! We can sell 20# of San Marzano 'paste' tomatoes as an 'extra'. These are 20 pound boxes for $29 delivered to your pick up site. Contact Zelda in the office to order. 831-786-0625 or reply to this email.
__________________________________

4) RESTORATION EVENT AT HIGH GROUND ORGANICS FARM

THIS SATURDAY OCTOBER 6, 2007 from 10am-1pm: Come join us in transforming a hillside dominated by invasive weeds into a thriving habitat of native grasses, sedges and wildflowers. We will work from 10-12 and than share a potluck lunch and nature walk to enjoy the beautiful fall colors of the wetland.

Contact Laura at (831)761-8694 for more details. Find directions to the farm at our website: twosmallfarms.com

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5) Photos:

Tomatoes

Hungarian Wax Peppers

Eggplant

Photo Gallery
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6) Recipes from Julia and Andrew

From Chef Andrew Cohen...

I make a gratin with eggplant and tomatoes that is always well received. Dice up an onion and saute in oil with some S&P. Pre-heat the oven to 400F, rub a gratin dish vigorously with a garlic clove, allow to dry, then lightly oil. While the onions cook, cut eggplant into 1/2"-3/4" slices. Do the same with an equal volume of firm tomatoes. Mince a few cloves of garlic and add to the onions. When they are soft and have some color, load them into the bottom of the of the dish. Starting with eggplant, lay in a row across the dish, then lay in a row of tomatoes with at least a 50% overlap. Continue the length of the dish. Drizzle with olive oil, or brush for a more even distribution. Salt and pepper, then sprinkle with herbs. You could add basil leaves between the layers of tomato and eggplant if you wish. Laying them in will help keep them from drying out and will allow the flavor to better permeate. Otherwise, just scatter herbs such as oregano or sage over the top, and bake in the middle of the oven until the eggplant is golden and the tomatoes are melting. You could grate some cheese on if you wished, or scatter some breadcrumbs tossed in oil and seasoned in the last 10 minutes. The dish is excellent both hot or at room temp. I have even stuffed it into a sandwich (you need sturdy bread for this) with arugula and fresh mozzarella.

Eggplant Pulp Facts from Recipes from America's Small Farms
"No one ever said eggplant pulp was pretty, but it's a beautiful base for spreads and salads. To make it, just puncture a large eggplant in a few places and wrap it loosely in aluminum foil. Place it in a 400 degree oven until it's soft and mushy it's usually ready in about an hour, but longer baking won't hurt it. Let it cool completely, then scrape all the flesh off the skin. You'll get about 1 ½ cups of pulp from a medium eggplant. Add whatever other vegetables and herbs you like the eggplant's mild taste and pleasant texture blends and binds other ingredients."

Indian-Spiced Eggplant, Gourmet

2 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 medium eggplants (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

In a small bowl, combine the garam masala, coriander, and turmeric; in a measuring cup, stir together water, sugar, and vinegar. Cut eggplant into 2-inch pieces. Heat the butter in a large, heavy nonstick skillet over moderate heat. Add the spices and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add eggplant and salt and toss to coat with the spice mixture. Stir vinegar mixture and add to eggplant mixture. Simmer mixture, covered, without stirring, 10 minutes, or until eggplant is just tender. Uncover skillet and cook eggplant mixture at a rapid simmer, without stirring, until liquid is almost evaporated and eggplant is slightly charred (but not burned) on bottom, about 15 minutes.
Remove skillet from heat and let eggplant stand, covered, 5 minutes. Transfer the eggplant to a serving bowl, sprinkle with cilantro, and serve with rice.

Curried Rice Pilaf with Cabbage and Bacon, Bon Appetit, May 2006

4 bacon slices, chopped
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, diced, divided
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups low-salt chicken broth
3 cups chopped green cabbage
1 cup chopped seeded roma tomatoes
1 cup chopped green onions

Cook bacon in large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels. Add 4 tablespoons butter to drippings in skillet; melt. Add onion, garlic, and ginger. Sauté over medium-high heat 5 minutes. Add rice, curry powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir 1 minute. Add broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium. Stir, cover, and simmer until broth is absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt remaining butter in large pot over medium-high heat. Add cabbage; sauté 3 minutes. Mix in tomatoes and green onions. Season with salt and pepper. Stir rice mixture into cabbage. Makes 6 to 8 side-dish servings. (notes from some cooks who tried this already: added the bacon back in to the finished dish; can use less butter)

Chicken Meatball Soup with Cabbage, from: Cooking From the Heart, Mary Sue Milliken

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch fresh cilantro, leaves chopped
1 TBS salt
1 1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
1 pound ground chicken (dark preferred)
1 large egg, beaten
2/3 cups bread crumbs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
4 medium carrots, diced
1/4 head green cabbage, thinly sliced
1 to 2 Hungarian Wax Peppers, stemmed, seeded and julienned (or to taste!)
3 medium roma tomatoes, diced
10 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups cooked rice or small pasta such as orzo - optional
3 TBS white vinegar

Combine the garlic, cilantro, 1 tsp each of salt and pepper, the chicken, and egg in a mixing bowl. Stir in the bread crumbs. Roll the mixture between your palms into walnut-size balls. Place them on a tray, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a large stockpot over high heat. Add the onion, carrots, 2 more teaspoons of salt, and the rest of the peppers. Saute for 3 minutes. Add the cabbage, wax peppers, and tomatoes and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are soft, about 3 minutes. Pour in the chicken stock and bringto a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer, uncovered for 15 minutes.

Heat the remaining oil in a medium skillet over medium heat until hot (nearly smoking). Add the chilled meatballs in batches, shaking the pan to prevent sticking. Brown the meatballs on all sides, and transfer them with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Add the cooked meatballs to the simmering soup and cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes. For a heartier version, add the rice or pasta if desired. Stir in the vinegar. Serves 6.

Beets with Mint and Yogurt, from World Vegetarian, Madhur Jaffrey

1 medium beet or 2 smaller ones, boiled or roasted in foil
2 cups plain yogurt
3/4 to 1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
2 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I like to use olive oil)
3 small garlic cloves, peeled (or 1 large garlic clove, cut lengthwise into 3 sections)

Peel the cooked beet and grate it coarsely. Put the yogurt in a bowl and beat it lightly with a fork or a whisk until it is smooth and creamy. Add the salt, pepper to taste, and cayenne, if using. Mix. Add the mint and beet. Mix gently. Put the oil and garlic in a small frying pan and set over medium-high heat. The garlic will eventually begin to sizzle. Press down on the garlic with a spatula and let it sizzle some more, turning the pieces once or twice, until they turn a medium brown. Now pour the flavored oil and garlic into the bowl with the yogurt and mix. Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish.

Roasted Beets, from posting on Chowhound.com

Roasting beets concentrates their earthy sweetness, transforming them into intense mouthfuls of deliciousness that play well with lots of other tastes and textures. And all kinds of great salads are possible. To roast beets, cut off any greens (good eating in their own right) and scrub bulbs clean. Wrap them tightly in foil (or put them in a covered roasting pan or casserole) and roast until tender when pierced with a knife (around an hour at 350F, depending on size). When cool, skins will peel off very easily (wear powder-free latex or vinyl gloves, or hold them with a paper towel, to avoid staining your hands).

A range of fruits and vegetables complement roast beets in various ways. Some match their soft texture and/or sweetness (avocado, oranges, mangoes) and others lend textural contrast (endive, raw fennel). Other popular additions to beets salads are nuts and soft, salty cheeses (goat, blue, feta). Most suggest using light dressings on beet salads; walnut and olive oils are good bases. For something a bit different, mix beets with yogurt, a little garlic, and fresh dill

Rockin' Celery Boats, Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello

12 celery stalks, peeled
1/2 cup pecans
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon melted butter
Pinch cayenne pepper
Pinch sea salt
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 red jalapenos (or use your hungarian wax peppers!), seeded

Cut the celery into 4-inch-long pieces, then slice off a thin edge at the rounded part of the stalk to help them lie flat while stuffing. Place them in a bowl of ice water and refrigerate until ready to stuff. In a bowl, toss the pecans with the honey, butter, cayenne and salt, making sure the nuts are well coated. Spread on a baking sheet, bake until nuts are toasted, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool completely. Chop pecans coarsely in a food processor. Add the cream cheese and process until smooth. Remove celery from the refrigerator, drain and dry well. Scrape cream cheese/nut mixture out of the food processor into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Fill each celery boat with a generous amount of the mixture. Cut the pepper into thick strips, and then cut each strip in half at an angle. This should look like a sail. Garnish each of your celery boats with its red jalapeno sail.

Harissa

Harissa is hot pepper sauce from North Africa
It can be served with vegetables, rice dishes, couscous.... etc.

1/2 pound fresh hot chilies, roasted and peeled
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon paprika
1 ts. salt
1 1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
olive oil
Place the roasted, peeled chiles in a processor and chop until coarsely ground. Add the other ingredients (except oil) and process until smooth.

Ten Minute Stir Fried Chicken with Nuts
adapted from The Minimalist Cooks at Home by Mark Bittman

1 Tablespoon peanut or vegetable oil
2 cups mildly spicy pepper strips, onion slices, or a combination of the two
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 cup halved walnuts, whole cashews, or other nuts
3 Tablespoons hoisin sauce

1) Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet and heat on high for one minute. Add the veggies in a single layer and cook, undisturbed, until they begin to char a little on the bottom, about one minute. Stir and cook one minute more.

2) Add the chicken and stir once or twice. Cook one minute until the bottom begins to char. Cook and stir another minute or two, then check a chicken piece to make sure it’s done. Lower heat to medium.

3) Stir in the nuts and the hoisin sauce. Cook about 15 seconds then add 2 T water. Cook, stirring, until it’s bubbly and glazes all the chicken and veggies. Serve with rice.

I enjoy your recipes. Here is another recipe for stuffed chiles that I
have been using for years. I usually use a mix of fresh red and green
jalapenos for a festive look at Thanksgiving dinners. When refrigerated
overnight, the oil in the tuna and mayonnaise mellows the heat so that
even gringos like me can eat them. I have even been able to eat stuffed
habaneros. They have a wonderful flavor.

1 small can tuna - drained - preferably packed in oil - (hard for me to
find these days)
1 TBs grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp minced oregano
1 tsp minced basil
pinch of thyme
some minced garlic
lemon juice to taste
S&P to taste
Enough mayonnaise to moisten well

Mash and mix well

I like to slice fresh chiles lengthwise leaving a piece of stem on each
half to use as a handle. I also remove the seeds and ribs.

Stuff each half with the mixture, cover with saran wrap and refridgerate
overnight for milder taste.

Regards,

Ralph R.

Stuffed Pepper Sandwiches, as told to Andy by a market shopper. Andy is sorry he forgot who gave this recipe...

Some hungarian wax or jalapeno chiles
Some Mexican cheese (you could try a few different kinds....)
A baguette, sliced lengthwise

Slice the tops of the peppers and stuff them with the cheese. Roast these stuffed peppers under the broiler until the peppers look a little scorched and soft. Put these stuffed, just-roasted peppers in the baguette and eat like a sandwich.

Some things you can do with spicy peppers: The peppers should be roasted and peeled first:

Chop them up and bake them in corn bread.

Stuff them with a filling of shredded chicken, chiles, raisins, olives, walnuts and rice. Top with sour cream or Mexican ‘crema.’

Slice them up and fold them in quesadillas with a good anejo mexican cheese.

Stuff with rice that’s been doctored any number of ways: onions and garlic, shredded hard cheese, etc.

Use them to make goulash.

Julia’s Loose Pico De Gallo Recipe

Chop and mix and eat fresh the following items:

Roasted spicy chiles
yellow onions
scallions
tomatoes
cilantro
avocados diced
fresh garlic (extra well minced
salt and pepper to taste
Fresh lime or lemon juice

MEXICAN FONDUE
adapted from Recipes from a Kitchen Garden, Shepherd & Raboff

1 15-oz. can refried beans
1/2 lb. cheddar cheese, grated
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. minced scallion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1-2 hungarian waxed peppers, seeded and chopped
3/4 cup beer at room temperature

Combine all ingredients except beer in a heavy saucepan. Heat,
stirring, until mixture is heated through, 10 to 15 minutes. Add beer
gradually, stirring. Transfer to a fondue pot.
Accompany with tortilla chips or fresh vegetables for dipping. Makes
about 3 cups.

Spicy Tortilla Soup

6 tortillas, cut into strips
2 onions, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
cooking oil
3 hungarian wax peppers, chopped
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 tomatoes, chopped
cut up cooked chicken, or tofu cubes, optional
S & P to taste
2-4 T cilantro, chopped
2 avocados, sliced just before serving

Saute onions, and tortilla pieces in a couple of tablespoons of cooking oil. (Olive oil is fine.) Cook over medium high heat until all are limp and cooked through. Add garlic and jalapeños then cook another couple of minutes. Add broth and bring to a low simmer, add the tomatoes, S & P, and chicken/tofu if using. Serve with fresh cook avo. pieces at the bottom of the bowl, garnish with cilantro.

Beet recipes

Cabbage recipes

Celery recipes

Eggplant recipes

Spicy Chile recipes

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7) Which Farm?

From High Ground: Cabbage, Celery, Lettuce, Delicata Winter Squash, Flowers.
From Mariquita: Tomatoes, eggplant, Red Beets, Hungarian Wax peppers

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8) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main blog page:
http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

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9) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
831-786-0625
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

Two Small Farms Newsetter 415

2007-09-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

Two Farms Newsletter #415
September 26, 2007
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Table of Contents:

1) In your box this week
2) Trick Or Treat? — Celebrity Pumpkins From History
3) High Ground Restoration Project
4) Photos
5) Recipes
6) Which Farm?
7) Unsubscribe
8) Two Small Farms Contact Information

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1) In your box this week: Green Beans, Scallions, Tomatoes, Mystery from Stephen, Potatoes, Sugar Pie Pumpkin, Spinach OR Rapini

This week's vegetable list: I try to have it updated by Monday night, sometimes by Mon. am

How to store this week's bounty: all (except tomatoes and pumpkin) in the fridge as soon as you arrive home. The pumpkin can be used for any pumpkin/winter squash recipe(s): pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, etc. It can also be carved, of course! recipes are below.

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2) Trick Or Treat? — Celebrity Pumpkins From History from Andy

Cinderella's magic coach may the most famous pumpkin in history but we shouldn't forget Peter's squash.

Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater
Had a wife but couldn't keep her;
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.

This nursery rhyme, with its dark overtones of spousal abuse and an obscure symbolic link between pumpkins and failed romance, presents an interesting counterpoint to the Cinderella myth. For Cinderella, a pumpkin became the vehicle that carried her to marital bliss, yet for Peter's wife a pumpkin is a prison. As a pumpkin farmer, I'm unqualified to draw a psychiatrist's conclusions from these two stories, but hollowed out gourds have a long and honorable history of being used as vessels to carry water and food stuffs, so it's no surprise they should also be filled with romance, myth and contradiction.

The only pumpkin that grows large enough to hold a wandering wife is the pink shelled, yellow fleshed pumpkin from the Cucurbita maxima called "Atlantic Giant." The Atlantic Giant pumpkin is the kind that wins all the giant pumpkin contests, and many specimens have weighed well over five hundred pounds. My copy of The Real Mother Goose, first published in 1916, has an illustration for Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater that shows a girl, barely old enough to be Jerry Lee Lewis' wife, glaring balefully out from a huge pale pumpkin. The artist captured the fat, corky, round stem characteristic of fruits in the Cucurbita maxima, and the Atlantic Giant's rampant habit is authentically rendered as well.

In the past, large pumpkins like Atlantic Giant were used as cattle feed. The high carotene content that gives pumpkin flesh its typical yellow color is nutritious and gives butter that comes from cows fattened on pumpkins a pleasing yellow color. Now that the development of alfalfa bales, alfalfa cubes, silage and a whole industry of enriched cattle feeds has rendered the pumpkin obsolete on the dairy farm, milk processors tint their butter with dyes where yellow colored butters are demanded by the market.

Today, even the canned "pumpkin" for pies is rarely rendered from the round, orange, hard-shelled winter squash most people think of as pumpkins. Other squash varieties, like Butternut, that have a heavier yield, are canned instead, and pie eaters are none the wiser. Because of changing social mores the pumpkin has largely disappeared from the rural scene except as a seasonal ornamental crop or a fetish crop for obsessive gardeners anxious to prove that "bigger is better." Even the ornamental role of pumpkins as seasonal ornaments is under attack. Some merchandisers are attempting to replace the lovely, perishable jack o' lantern pumpkins with orange polyethylene bags that have black triangular shaped eyes printed on them. These convenient faux orange plastic bag "pumpkins" can be stuffed with garbage the day after Halloween and set out on the curb. They will never rot.

Pies, no matter what they're made of, came to America from Europe, just like the Halloween tradition. I've heard horror stories over the years about homemade pumpkin pies that turned out stringy, watery, and tasteless. The idea has grown up that only some pumpkins are edible. There's truth to this idea today, now that breeders select for ornamental qualities only as they create new cultivars for the seasonal market, but the Native Americans who first developed pumpkins as a crop ate them all, and at all stages of their development.

The thick, fat pumpkin seeds are rich in nutritious oils and some of them would have been saved to toast over the fire for a tasty meal during the long, cold winters on the east coast. Pumpkin seeds are still an essential ingredient in traditional Mexican mole sauces. Pumpkin seeds would have been sprouted too, giving people starving for fresh vegetables a bite of greenery in the late winter or early spring. After the year's crop had been planted out and the pumpkin vines began creeping across the earth, the first golden flowers could be eaten in salads followed by the little green developing fruits.
The pumpkin is a close cousin to the zucchini, and its fruits were picked green and tender to be eaten raw by the Native Americans. Our English word "squash", in fact, comes to us from the Naragansett word asquutasquash, meaning "uncooked." Ironically, the English word "pumpkin" comes to us from the ancient Greek word for "cooked." "Pumpkin" is an English corruption of the French word pompion which in Old French had been pompon, and earlier popon. The early French speakers were simply putting a gallic twist on the Latin word pepon which was a cognate of a Greek word which meant cooked. It remains true of the squash that we have come to call pumpkins that to be enjoyed at their maturity they must be cooked. The Latin pepon survives in the botanical Latin name Cucurbita pepo for one of the many groups within the Cucurbita family.

Nowadays writers use the word pumpkin imprecisely to describe hard squash that are either reminiscent of the jack o' lantern pumpkin in color or in shape. Some pumpkins like the white Lumina pumpkins are pumpkin shaped and pumpkin sized but come from the Cucurbita maxima, like Hubbard squash. Tan colored pumpkins like the Long Island Cheese pumpkin belong to Cucurbita moschata, as do butternut squash. The long and the short of it is that every pumpkin is a squash to a botanist but not every squash is a pumpkin to a chef.

Confusion reigns over the pumpkin patch because there are two types of pumpkin in the Cucurbita pepo which look awfully similar taste a lot different. The New England Sugar Pie pumpkin is a small, heavy, round orange pumpkin with a nice flavor. The Connecticut field pumpkin is a larger orange squash, somewhat oblong in shape, that superficially looks a pie pumpkin but has no sweetness to its flesh. The Indians on the east coast developed the Connecticut field pumpkin for the production of edible seeds, not pies. Later, this common pumpkin variety was "improved" into myriad ornamental jack o' lantern cultivars.

The most celebrated Connecticut field pumpkin is probably the one that the Headless Horseman threw at Ichabod Crane in The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow. True, Washington Irving doesn't specifically mention the breed of the pumpkin that he describes laying shattered on the road near Ichabod Crane's abandoned hat. And yes, Sleepy Hollow is in New York, not Connecticut, but the Connecticut field pumpkins were a standard animal fodder crop along the eastern seaboard. But who cares, anyway? Writers who cover celebrities are rarely held to a high standard of proof, so if an academic one day proves that Irving intended readers to imagine a Kentucky field pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) you're not going to sue me.

Then there's the pumpkin that made Richard Nixon a household name. I refer to the "Pumpkin Papers." Nowadays the press would call the whole affair "Pumpkingate." To tell the story briefly, in 1948 Whittaker Chambers accused Alger Hiss of being a communist. Then he hid the microfilmed evidence inside a hollowed out pumpkin on his farm. In due course, the House Un-American Activities Committee got a subpoena, searched his pumpkin patch and confiscated the pumpkin.

Going back to Cinderella, illustrated editions of the fairy tale often picture her riding to the dance in a ribbed, heirloom French Cucurbita maxima type pumpkin called le Rouge Vif d'Etamples. Cinderella's coach was red. Rouge means red, and vif means vivid. California Congressman Nixon said that Alger Hiss was a "red." Nixon got a hold of the pumpkin papers and used them to fan his fame. You might say that Nixon rode into history on a pumpkin, just like Cinderella. Blurry black and white photos of Whittaker Chamber's infamous pumpkin taken by newspaper reporters at his Maryland farm show a squash with the longer, irregular five sided, stem of a Connecticut field pumpkin— Cucurbita pepo, the jack o' lantern.... It's fitting, somehow.

"Trick or treat!" Richard Nixon said to America.

You know how that fairy tale ended.

copyright 2007 Andy Griffin

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3) Restoration Event at High Ground Organics

SATURDAY OCTOBER 6, 2007 from 10am-1pm: Come join us in transforming a hillside dominated by invasive weeds into a thriving habitat of native grasses, sedges and wildflowers. We will work from 10-12 and than share a potluck lunch and nature walk to enjoy the beautiful fall colors of the wetland. Contact Laura at (831)761-8694 for more details. Find directions to the farm at our website: twosmallfarms.com

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4) Photos:

Pumpkins

Spinach

Rapini

Photo Gallery

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5) Recipes from Roxanne, Gail, Anne and Julia

Quinoa Chowder with Spinach, Feta, and Scallions
adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed well in a fine sieve
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 hungarian wax chile, seeded and finely chopped (or half a pepper if you don't want it quite as spicy)
1 teaspoon ground cumin or to taste
S & P to taste
1/2 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch dice
1 bunch scallions, including an inch of the greens, thinly sliced into rounds
1 bunch finely sliced spinach leaves
1/4 pound feta cheese, finely diced or crumbled
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1 hard cooked egg, chopped

Put the quinoa and 2 quarts water in a pot, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. While it's cooking, dice the vegetables and cheese. Drain, saving the liquid. Measure the liquid and add water to make 6 cups if needed.

Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and chile. Cook for about 30 seconds, giving it a quick stir. Add the cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, and the potatoes and cook for a few mintues, stirring frequently. Don't let the garlic brown. Add the quinoa water and half the scallions and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Add the quinoa, spinach, and remaining scallions and simmer for 3 minutes more. Turn off the heat and stir in the feta and cilantro. Season the soup with pepper and garnish with the chopped egg.

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Hi Julia --

I'm a relatively new CSA member -- just joined a few weeks ago -- and I am absolutely loving the wonderful produce! I have searched all summer for perfect tomatoes at my normal haunts (Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, various other places) and yours are just wonderful.

I've enjoyed coming up with delicious vegetable dishes using the CSA bounty -- mashed potatoes with the Godzilla Fingerling potatoes (and saved the potato water and made some delicious potato bread), leek- potato soup with the incredible leeks (gosh, those were amazing leeks), lots of great salads, strawberry shortcake, etc.

The very first week of veggies, I had to learn how to cook the baby artichokes, so I went on to Epicurious and found this recipe that uses both tomatoes and artichokes

which I made with ~ 1 1/2 lb of salmon in a 13x9 pan. I didn't bother with blanching the garlic, and I braised the baby artichokes instead of deep-fat-frying them. I had Zatar in my spice rack, so I used it, but I would think it would have been as good with another spice blend.
The funny part is that the recipe looks involved but it really isn't -- I think it took me about 30 minutes from pulling the fish out of the fridge to putting it on the table.

Anyways, this week, with the pumpkin -- yay! so excited about the pumpkin! -- we'll do toasted pumpkin seeds and probably a pumpkin pudding (which, in our house, is pumpkin pie without the crust.)

Can't wait -- Anne

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from Roxanne in Capitola:

Things I won't make unless I have the BEST vine ripened tomatoes (like yours):
Tabouli, Panzanella, Pico de gallo, and the following uncooked pasta sauce from Marcella Hazan - SPAGHETTI COL SUGO DI ERBE E POMODORO CRUDO

She heats the olive oil until smoking hot, then pours it into the tomatoes, herbs before tossing it with the hot pasta.
Just had some homemade Tomato Juice (drippings from the tomatoes I've been roasting to put away in the freezer bags for winter). Delicious!

20 pounds done,,,,,,,,,,,,,,20 pounds to go.
Thanks for all your hard work, I'll be thinking of you as we use them.
Ciao!

Here's a delicious recipe I made this week with the eggplant, onion, and tomato. I hope I'm sending it to the correct address. I thought it might be a good recipe for the newsletter. It is from the LeLeche League Cookbook.

GROUND BEEF AND EGGPLANT SKILLET

1 lb. ground beef
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 eggplant, peeled and cubed
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, sliced
2 C. tomatoes
1 C. tomato sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
dash of pepper
1 t. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 C. brown rice, cooked

Brown beef and garlic. Add eggplant; stir and cook 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice. May be made ahead and reheated. -submitted by Gail Davies

Leeky Chicken

This recipe is a great basic technique, and you can alter ingredients at will. This works for chicken, pork chops and fish. Steak and lamb, too (substitute beef stock, not chicken). In addition to leeks, fennel, onions, garlic, shallots, etc. can all be used individually or together. Fruits such as pears, apples, etc. can be added; for example with pork chops I use sweet onions and apples and add cinnamon to the chops. Season at will as well: thyme, rosemary, etc. on the meats add great flavor.

2 or 3 leeks, white to light green parts only, sliced, cleaned

1-2 T olive oil

boneless, skinless chicken breasts

S&P plus other spices to taste (poultry seasoning, sage, thyme are great)

1 box (~4 cups) low sodium chicken broth

Heat olive oil in a large/12" skillet, and sauté leeks on medium high heat until soft and brown (about 5-8 minutes). Best flavor comes from really letting them caramelize. Push leeks to edge of pan and add a little more olive oil. Salt, pepper and season chicken and place in center of skillet. Brown on both sides, about 3-4 minutes each side. Add chicken broth and cover until chicken is cooked through, about 5-8 minutes more. Remove lid and reduce liquid until it is the consistency of maple syrup; about 5-10 minutes. To Serve: put chicken on a bed of rice, pasta (orzo is great) or mashed potatoes, and pour pan sauce on top.

Here are a few of my favorite pumpkin recipes, they have likely shown up in this newsletter before. -julia

Julia's Perfect Pumpkin Pie

First the pumpkin:

Preheat oven to 350. Cut and remove seeds from one medium sugar pie pumpkin, or 2 small ones. Bake in glass dish cut side down for at least 45 minutes, or until a fork easily pierces the entire wall of the pumpkin.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Next the crust:

For best results use a 9 inch pie plate and have foil and beans or pie weights available

4 tablespoons EACH cold unsalted butter and shortening, cut into pieces
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
3-6 tablespoons ice cold water

In a food processor, whirl the dry ingredients together, then drop the butter and shortening pieces into the processor and pulse a few times until the mixture looks crumbly and there are no lumps larger than peas.

Mix above mixture in a mixing bowl with 3 tablespoons of the cold water. Add water a 1/2 tablespoon at a time and mix until the dough is pliable and releases from the sides, but isn't too sticky. After 3 Tablespoons or so it's easiest to use your hands to bring the crumbs into a dough. Don't wash the food processor yet.

Refrigerate in waxed paper as a thick disk for at least 1/2 an hour while you prepare the filling. After about 30 minutes, roll out dough until it's about 13 inches in diameter. Fold it over, and place into a 10 inch pie plate. Trim edge to about 1/2 an inch beyond the end of the pie plate, tuck in crust and pinch the edge into a design. Lightly place some aluminum foil or parchment paper onto crust, then put in some pie weights to cover the bottom (or dried beans) This step helps to make the perfect pie shell. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

FILLING:

2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon each ground cloves and nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup half and half
4 large eggs

In the bowl of the food processor, remove any large clumps from the making of the crust, and add the pulp from the pumpkins, discarding the skin and any renegade seeds. Whirl the pumpkin until thoroughly pureed. Measure out 2 cups of the pumpkin, and reserve the rest for another use. (See soup recipe or add about a cup to any pancake or cookie recipe.)

In the bowl of the food processor, mix the pumpkin with the spices and the brown sugar. Remove to a saucepan, and heat until it's lightly bubbling. In the bowl of the food processor, whirl the eggs with the half and half until mixed, then add gently to the warm pumpkin mixture. Cook for 2 or 3 more minutes, stirring a few times. Pour warm pumpkin mixture into the warm pie shell, and bake for about 25 minutes, or until center is still slightly wobbly. Cool on a rack for at least an hour. Enjoy with whipped cream or ice cream.

LAURA’S GLAZED PUMPKIN GINGER BARS
Adapted from Recipes from a Kitchen Garden by Shepherd and Raboff

1 3/4 cup unbleached flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup cooked, pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup chopped candied ginger

GLAZE:
1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp. grated lemon zest
3 to 4 tbsp. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 10x15-inch baking pan. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy then add brown sugar, beating until fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, and pumpkin, beating well. Add dry ingredients, mixing until batter is smooth. Stir in nuts and candied ginger. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until cake pulls away from sides of pan.

Combine confectioners’ sugar with lemon zest. Add lemon juice gradually to confectioners’ sugar, adding just enough to give the proper consistency for spreading. Spread on the warm bars. When cool, cut into diamonds or squares and store covered for a day to let flavors blend before serving. Makes 4 dozen.

Simple Pumpkin Bread

2 cups mashed/pureed pumpkin or winter squash

Mix and make a well in the center:

3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups sugar

Add to the center along with the pumpkin and stir just until all is mixed in:

1 cup oil
4 eggs
2/3 cup water

Pour into 1 large and 2 small oiled bread pans (or muffin tins). Bake at 350 for one hour. (Or less for muffins.)

New Zealand Pumpkin Soup
3# sugar pumpkin, cut up and peeled
2 medium onions, cut up and peeled
2 cloves garlic
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup white wine
S & P to taste

Cook all ingredients together until pumpkin is tender. Put through a food processor,
heat and serve with 2-3 Tbs. heavy cream swirled in each bowl. Garnish with grated nutmeg or fresh ginger or chives, enjoy.

Spinach Recipes

Artichoke Recipes

Rapini Recipes

Pumpkin Recipes

More Recipes

____________________________________

6) Which Farm?

From High Ground: Scallions, Beans, Spinach, Mystery, Flowers.
From Mariquita: Tomatoes, Pumpkin, Chiles, Potatoes

__________________________________________

7) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old

newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled

computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main

blog page:
http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

__________________________________

8) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
831-786-0625
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

Two Farms Newsletter #414

2007-09-18T19:37:00.001-07:00

September 17, 2007

Table of Contents:

1) In your box this week
2) Thelma Sanders
3) Renewal Time
4) Sunday Tomato/Pumpkin Upick! Sept. 23rd
5) Photos (photo to the left is of Red Friarelli
peppers: they are sweet not spicy.)
6) Recipes
7) Which Farm?
8) Unsubscribe
9) Two Small Farms Contact Information

1) In your box this week: Eggplant, Tropea Onions, Tomatoes, Red Chard,
Sweet Red Friarelli Peppers, mystery from Stephen (berries or
cauliflower or artichokes), Lettuce with a bunch of arugula (Wed), Salad mix
(Thurs & Fri),

This week's vegetable list: I try to have it updated by Monday night,
sometimes by Mon. aml

How to store this week's bounty: all (except tomatoes and onions) in
the fridge as soon as you arrive home. The Red Friarelli Peppers are
SWEET: they can be chopped into salad, confetti rice, great for sauteing
but not for 'roasting and peeling'. They aren't spicy, really and truly.

_______________________________

2)  Cookbooks, Today from Julia

Two weeks ago I talked about cookbooks from my past. Today some of the
cookbooks I go to most frequently include: The New Joy of Cooking, How
to Cook Everything, The Best Recipe, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone,
*Not* Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook, and one that has lasted from
then to now:
Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking. Some Vegetable
cookbooks that I look at at least once a week if not more often include:
Recipes from a Kitchen Garden, Chez Panisse Vegetables, and The Victory
Garden Cookbook. There are so many great cookbooks out there, I'm
likely forgetting a few that are so obvious that I can't even see them. I
do know that what's different about my life today from 20 years ago is
that I have WAY better ingredients at hand and far less time to fuss
over new and complicated recipes. Andy (he's my husband) loves to read
cookbooks by Marcella Hazan, and the Oliveto-ish cookbook "Cooking By
Hand", and the classic Zuni Cookbook by Judy Rogers. These are all great,
and I might actually attempt a few of their recipes... in 10 years when
I get to experience emptly nest syndrome. For now I'll be perusing the
"Ten Minute Cuisine" type books.

So on that note: This week I'll include recipes from a few of the above
books, especially for chard and eggplant!

Note to fans of Andy's literary endevours, he posted a lengthy, great
article.

Let the Recipes Begin!

My own gazpacho:

2-3 pounds tomatoes, peeled (easily done if given a 15 second boiling
water bath) a few red peppers, friarelli are great
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 garlic cloves, peeled (smashed if you like)
1/4 cup vinegar, red wine or sometimes I use rice vinegar, even though
it's not traditional pinch chile flakes if you like a kick to your
gazpacho
1 cucumber if available. (Andy lost most of his cucumber crop so this
year my gazapacho is sans cuke) S & P to taste

Roughly chop everything and mix. Then let sit for 1-2 hours to let the
flavors meld. Also possible: use a food processor for each item and
only use the pulse button, being careful not to over process any
ingredient. Some folks blend bread into their gazpacho, some drizzle a great
olive oil on at the end...
it's one of 'those' recipes where there are as many variations as there
are home cooks making it!

Cold Eggplant, Dressed with Yogurt
adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking

1 large or 2 smaller eggplants
1 cup plain yogurt
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon olive oil

Prepare steamer and start the water boiling. Peel and cube eggplants;
put into steamer and cover: steam 10-20 minutes or until eggplant cubes
are cooked through.
Remove the eggplant from the steamer. Put in a bowl and mash coarsely.
Allow to cool. Beat the yogurt with a fork or whisk until smooth and
creamy. Pour this over the eggplant. Add S & P. Mix and adjust
seasonings. Sprinkle paprika ove the top and then dribble some oil over the
paprika.

Tomato Jam
adapted from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Henspenger

2 pounds ripe tomatoes
4 cups sugar
1 1.75 or 2 ounce box of powdered pectin (optional) grated zest of 2
lemons grated zest of 2 oranges
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 chunk fresh ginger, about 4 inches long, peeled and grated
2 cinnamon sticks

1. Peel, seed and slice or roughly chop tomatoes. Combine tomatoes with
the sugar, pectin if using, citrus zests, lemon juice, ginger, and
cinnamon sticks in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours,
stirring twice during cooking.

2. Remove lid. Turn the cooker to high, and cook 2-4 hours longer,
until the jam reaches the desired consistency. Discard the cinnamon sticks.


3. Ladle the warm jam into clean spring top glass jars (or use screw
tops with new lids); let stand until cool. Store, covered, in the
refrigerator for up to
4 months. This can also be frozen: many modern canning jars are also
freezer jars. Serve with cream cheese and whole grain bread or scones.

Confetti Rice: I got an idea to make a 'sopa' style rice but with the
red friarellis instead of tomatoes. Here's the recipe with a photo

more recipes below in section #6

________________________________________________

3) A Few Reminders on CSA Etiquette

We appreciate that most of you are very considerate of our hosts
when you pick up your boxes each week, but sometimes details get lost,
confused, or forgotten, so here's a little refresher on Pick-up Site
Etiquette. Our ability to deliver our fresh vegetables and berries to you
each week is completely dependent on our hosts. We greatly value their
input and work that they do, so we need to make sure that we are not
burdening them unduly.

It is your responsibility to flatten out your box and leave it in a
pile with the others. This is important because there is limited space for
empty boxes. When flattened and stacked in one pile, they take up less
space and it keeps things easily accessible for other members who
arrive to pick up their veggies. (Please accomplish this without tearing
the tabs on the boxes; they cost over $1 each and we can't use them again
if the tabs are ripped. Squeeze the tabs so they come out easily.)

Don't leave your trash at the pick up site.

Check off your name on the sign in sheet, so we know who has picked up
in case of a problem.

Check off your name on the flower sign-in sheet if you get flowers.

Arrive on the delivery day and within the time frame set for your
pick-up site. Two Small Farms only guarantees a box for you on the delivery
day - this is when the produce is still fresh, and we want to respect
the privacy and lives of our hosts. The host is under no obligation or
expectation to hold vegetables through another day. If they do, it is
out of their graciousness and is not to be abused.

Thank you.
______________________________

4) Tomato/Pumpkin Upick this Sunday, Sept. 23rd 9am to 1pm

This Sunday is our Tomato/Pumpkin/Weird Squash Upick day at Mariquita
Farm in Hollister on SUNDAY Sept. 23rd. 9am to 1pm. join us! Tomatoes
are 50 cents a pound. Bring a friend. We'll also have a Pumpkin Patch!
Directions and more information

Tomatoes! We can sell 20# of San Marzano 'paste' tomatoes as an
'extra'. 20# boxes are $29 delivered to your

pick up site. Contact Zelda in the office to order. 831 786 0625 or
csa@twosmallfarms.com

What one bulk tomato buyer did with her tomatoes: a nice photo gallery
of a canning project

and another blog entry about tomatoes from our friend and SF customer
Marcus Rector

_______________________________________

5) Photos:

Sweet (not spicy) Red Friarelli Peppers

Photo Gallery

_____________________________________

6) Recipes and What Nina will do with the box!

Here is my plan for this week's box, from Nina in San Carlos

Using Chard, Peppers, Onion: Frittata with sauteed chard, sweet
peppers, onion (or leek from last week), seasoned with thyme, marjoram, s&p,
topped with grated parmesan cheese.

Using Eggplant: Baba Ghanoush, using Julia's informal recipe. I mix it
in the food processor, and instead of tahini use almond butter and
toasted sesame seeds. Very delicious! Use as dip for pita chips.

Using Tomatoes, Onion, Lettuce: Greek Salad with chopped tomatoes,
thinly sliced onions, chopped Kalamata olives, chopped cucumber (peeled and
seeded), and crumbled feta cheese with olive oil, balsamic vinegar,
and S&P. Can serve as is or over a bed of lettuce.

If I get berries, I'll wash them and serve them sliced for dessert.

If I get cauliflower, I'll roast it and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

If I get artichokes, I'll try this dip/spread:

Artichoke Dip/Spread

Very loosely adapted from The Maui Vegetarian; I found a site that
listed some of the ingredients and will improvise to make my own.

Use whatever amounts appeal to you!

Artichoke hearts, steamed until very soft
Onions, chopped
Garlic, minced
Sweet Peppers, stems trimmed and chopped
Spicy Chili Pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped
Lemon Juice
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Cashew pieces

Cut the artichokes in half, remove the choke, and steam until the
hearts are very soft. Place hearts in bowl of food processor. Sauté the
onions, garlic, sweet peppers, and chili peppers in a bit of olive oil
until soft. Add to hearts with lemon juice, olive oil, and S&P. Process
until desired consistency. Toast cashew pieces over medium heat in a
small frying pan. Sprinkle on top for a garnish or mix in. Use as a dip for
pita chips, spread on toast, or add to a sandwich. Enjoy!

in case you still have squash around: from Alice Englander:

Butternut Squash Soup
Recipe courtesy of Gourmet Magazine )

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 1/4 pounds)
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger, optional
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups chicken broth
1-2 cups water, as needed
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream for garnish

Cut squash in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Arrange the
halves cut side down in roasting pan that has been sprayed with nonstick
vegetable oil spray. Bake squash in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until
very tender. Set aside to cool. When the squash is completely cool,
scoop the flesh from the skin. While the squash is baking, cook the onion
and the ginger in the butter in a saucepan, over moderately low heat,
for 5 minutes or until the onion is softened, Add the broth and simmer
the mixture for 10 minutes, covered. Add the squash pulp to the sauce
pan. Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor, in batches, and
puree until smooth. Add enough water to achieve the desired
consistency, and salt and pepper to taste. Return the soup to the sauce pan and
cook over moderate heat until it is hot. Garnish each portion with the
heaping teaspoon of low-fat sour cream.

Fish Peperonata

Saute a whole mess of red friarelli peppers and some onions and garlic
in some olive oil with S & P over medium heat for 20-30 minutes or
until cooked through and starting to brown just a little.

cook the fish like you know you're supposed to: in a pan over high heat
until barely cooked through then serve with the peppers. OR place the
cooked peppers in a glass baking dish and place the fish on top then
bake, making sure to remove the pan and serve before the fish is cooked
too much.

Eggplant "Caviar"
adapted from Entertaining 1-2-3 by Rozanne Gold recipe can be doubled
easily

1 medium eggplant (about 1 pound)
3 tablespoons prepared black olive tapenade
1 tablespoon freshly sqeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Put eggplant on baking sheet and prick with fork. Bake for 1 hour. Cut
eggplant in half. Scoop out flesh and mash in bowl with tepenade and
lemon juice. Add salt, if desired, and black pepper to taste. Mix well
and chill.

Chard and Tomatoes
from Too Many Tomatoes, Squash, and Other Good Things by L. Landau and
L. Myers

2 T olive oil
1 onion, diced (or ½ bunch scallions, chopped, including at least have
the green part)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 large tomatoes (or equivalent with different sized tomatoes), peeled
and diced
1/2 cup cooked ham (optional)
2 cups cooked chard (easy to blanch: just immerse roughly chopped
leaves in boiling water for 1-2 minutes)
butter
S & P
Nutmeg
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until golden. Stir in the
tomatoes, ham if using, and chard and heat until bubbly. Add butter,
Salt and Pepper and nutmeg to taste. (This dish can be kept 'lighter' by
skipping the ham and the butter!) Serve, sprinkling with the parmesan
cheese.

Chard-Tomato Peasant Pasta
recipe told by Martin to Julia

1 bunch Erbette Chard, cleaned, stems removed, and very roughly chopped
(can be in fairly large pieces)
olive oil
garlic cloves, peeled and chopped (3?)
4-5 medium sized ripe tomatoes, chopped
fresh pasta, we used Cafferata's fresh spaghetti
splash of white wine or squeeze of lemon
S & P

**note: have tongs or other utensil to fish cooked chard out of the
water so you can boil the pasta in the same water. another note: save a
little pasta water for the final dish....

Bring one large pot of water to boil, then add a couple of teaspoons of
salt. Add chard pieces to the water and cook until blanched, 2 minutes
or so. Fish out the chard with tongs or strainer. Add pasta to water
to cook if using dried pasta...

Meantime, cook the garlic in the oil in a large saute pan for 1 minute
over medium or medium high heat until softening a little, make sure it
doesn't burn. Add blanched chard & chopped tomatoes. Cook for 5-7
minutes. Cook up the pasta now if you're using fresh pasta.

Now the fun part: toss everything together, with a splash of white wine
or lemon juice, and add a little of the pasta water to make everything
a tad soupy. Adjust seasoning (add S & P to taste) and EAT.

pepper recipes

chard recipes

Salad Dressings

Eggplant Recipes

More Recipes

____________________________________

7) Which Farm?

From High Ground: Lettuce/Salad, mystery, Flowers.
From Mariquita: Tomatoes, Peppers, Onions, Chard, eggplant

__________________________________________

8) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have
to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old

newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter out as
plain text so more folks with differently-abled

computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates
to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main

blog page:
http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

__________________________________

9) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
831-786-0625
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

Two Farms Newsletter #413

2007-09-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

September 12, 200
_________________________

1) In your box this week
2) Thelma Sanders
3) Renewal Time
4) Sunday Tomato/Pumpkin Upick! Sept. 23rd
5) Photos
6) Recipes
7) Which Farm?
8) Unsubscribe
9) Two Small Farms Contact Information

________________________________________

1) In your box this week: Tomatoes, Sweet Peppers, Leeks, Thelma Sanders Winter Squash, Potatoes, Stephen Mystery, Lettuce

This week's vegetable list: I try to have it updated by Monday night, sometimes by Mon. am

How to store this week's bounty: all (except tomatoes and squash) in the fridge as soon as you arrive home.

The tomatoes and winter squash can be stored at room temperature. Potatoes in the fridge, use them within the week if possible.

____________________________________

2) Thelma Sanders Lives, by Stephen

Hard, or winter, squash are one ofmy favorite things to grow. Because we only plant a single seed line on our 64" beds, as opposed to 8 seed lines when we plant some of our high density crops like radishes or baby spinach, they are easy to plant and cultivate on our steep hillsides. And because they aren't as fussy about soil fertility as some of the other things we grow, we can usually get a good crop by adding little more than the over-winter cover crop that we incorporate before planting in spring. Because the plants grow quickly and shade out most weeds with their broad leaves, controlling weeds in squash is also much easier than in other crops.

In addition to these practical reasons for liking hard squash, I also love to eat them. Halved and baked or cubed and steamed they make a quick, easy and satisfying addition to any meal. But they also lend themselves to more elaborate preparations, like pureed soups and sauces, pies and even filling for ravioli.

The term "winter squash" can throw people off because they are actually grown in spring and summer. However, because they keep well and in some cases their flavor actually improves in storage they are usually consumed in fall and winter-hence the term "winter." The squash that people commonly consume falls into one of five species in the Cucurbitaceae family. In general, summer squashes are those that are picked and eaten in their immature stage-when their skin is still tender and their seeds still small and undeveloped. Winter squash conversely is harvested after it has formed a tough skin, fully developed seeds and the plant that bore them has died and dried up.

For the most part varieties have been developed for either one purpose or the other. Summer squash tend to grow on more upright, "bush" type plants, chosen for ease of picking when planted in straight rows. They are generally picked 3 times per week over a month or more. Winter squash on the other hand tend to set on long sprawling vines that intermingle with their neighbors to form a dense impenetrable mat-practical only for a one time harvest after the vines have died away. In Latin America , however, some varieties are used for both, picking young fruit for use as "summer squash" and allowing others to develop fully into hard squashes.

You may remember that last year we planted a trial of over 80 varieties of hard squash and pumpkins. Of those, we found six or seven varieties we really liked. This year we planted a few of these on a much larger scale. One of our very favorites, the Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato is in your box this week. This is a true heirloom variety of acorn squash first domesticated by Native Americans. It was cultivated by Thelma Sanders, a home gardener from Adair County , Missouri and the seeds were passed along by friends and neighbors. What we liked best about this squash, in addition to the fact that it grew vigorously and yielded heavily, is its eating qualities. Its thick, moist, golden flesh is sweet and totally nonstringy. And the entire squash is truly edible, unlike other acorn types which have been bred with a skin tough enough to withstand the rigors of harvest and long distance shipping. Thelma Sanders' skin cooks up very tender and doesn't need to be peeled away. The seeds are also easily removed and are delicious toasted with a little salt.

In a few weeks you'll get another type of heirloom hard squash, called Sibley. This one is a completely different species (cucurbita maxima vs. the Thelma Sanders' cucurbita pepo) and is in the banana squash group. It keeps extremely well, has a dry flesh, and very rich delicate flavor which gets better with storage. It was released originally in 1887, but had been all but forgotten until obtained from an old woman in Iowa who had grown it for more than 50 years. We loved both of these squashes and want to help keep these wonderful heirloom varieties alive for future generations.

______________________________________________________________________

3) Renewal time is coming!

This week, September 12/13/14 is the last paid share of the current session. The final 9 weeks starts the week of September 19/20/21. Cost is $180 or $234 with flowers. You can mail a check to

Two Small Farms, PO Box 2065
Watsonville , CA 95077

Please contact Zelda at the office: csa@twosmallfarms.com or 831-786-0265 to confirm you want to continue.

______________________________________________________________________

4) Tomato/Pumpkin Upick on Sunday, Sept. 23rd

CHANGED DATE: Andy and Julia of Mariquita Farm will have a Tomato/Pumpkin/Weird Squash Upick on SUNDAY Sept. 23rd. 9am to 1pm. join us!

http://www.mariquita.com/events/tomatopick82007.htm

Tomatoes! We can sell 20# of San Marzano 'paste' tomatoes as an 'extra'. 20# boxes are $29 delivered to your
pick up site. Contact Zelda in the office to order. 831 786 0625 or reply to this email.

_____________________________________________________________________

5) Photos:

Leeks

acorn squash: (this is a photo of Andy's 'regular' acorn squash from a few years ago, I don't know what the Thelma Sanders look like! maybe similar?? I've not yet received my box! -julia)

Photo Gallery

________________________________________

6) Recipes

Roasted Acorn Squash and Carrot Puree

adapted from Entertaining 1-2-3 by Rozanne Gold

2 pounds acorn squash (give or take!)
1 pound carrots (ditto: give or take)
1/4 cup apple butter

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Cut off rind with a small sharp knife (or leave in tact! the Thelma Sanders variety doesn't need to be peeled.) Cut up squash into 1 inch cubes.

Peel carrots and cut into 1 inch pieces. Mix squash and carrots with 2 tablespoons apple butter, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and freshly ground black pepper. PLace mixture on a baking sheet big enough to accommodate vegetables in one layer. Add 3 Tablespoons water and cover with foil.

Bake for 1 hour. Remove foil. Add 1/4 cup water and bake for 20 minutes more. Transfer vegetables to food processor and process until very smooth. This must be done in several batches.

Transfer to medium pot. Add remaining apple butter (2-3 tablespoons?) and S & P to taste. Reheat gently before serving. Can be made ahead!

Steamed Halibut with Leek Fondue

adapted from Entertaining 1-2-3 by Rozanne Gold

1 1/4 pound leeks
7 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 1-inch-thick halibut steaks (about 12 ounces each)

Remove all the dark green parts from leeks. Discard. Wash leeks well, making sure to remove any dirt between the leaves. Pat dry.

Slice only the white parts of leeks paper-thin. Melt butter in medium pot. Add leeks, 6 tablespoons water, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of black pepper. Bring to a quick boil, then lower heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 25 minutes.

Add 1/4 cup water, cover, and cook for 10 minutes more. Leeks shouldbe very soft and form a fondue, which means 'melted'. Set aside.

Season halibut lightly with salt and white pepper. Place in large flat steamer, osteam in 2 large non stick skillets in 1/2 inch water. Steam over medium heat for 7-10 minutes until barely opaque, be careful not to overcook.

Gently reheat leek fondue. Add salt to taste. Pour over hot fish. Serve immediately. Pass a peppermill around.

Simplest Winter Squash from Julia:

bake, steam, boil, or even 'crock pot' the squash: I ususally remove the stem, cut in half, remove seeds, then cook. THEN you can just eat the flesh, or puree and make pumpkin bread (pumpkin is a squash!), season and serve as a side dish, make a soup, etc.

Classic Acorn Squash from Simply Recipes Elise's original post with a nice photo:

1 Acorn squash
1 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
2 teaspoons Maple Syrup
Dash of Salt
1 Preheat oven to 400°F.

2 Using a strong chef's knife, and perhaps a rubber mallet to help, cut the acorn squash in half, lengthwise, from stem to end. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff in the center of each half. Score the insides of each half several times with a sharp knife. Place each half in a baking pan, cut side up. Add about a 1/4 inch of water to the bottom of the baking pan so that the skins don't burn and the squash doesn't get dried out.

3 Coat the inside of each half with 1/2 a Tbsp of butter. Add a dash of salt if you are using unsalted butter. Add a Tbsp of brown sugar to the cavity of each half. Dribble on a teaspoon of maple syrup to each half.

4 Bake in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until the squash is very soft and the tops are browned. Do not undercook. When finished, remove from oven and let cool a little before serving. Spoon any buttery sugar sauce that has not already been absorbed by the squash over the exposed areas.

Serves 2 to 4, depending on how much squash you like to eat.

ROASTED ACORN SQUASH WITH CHILE VINAIGRETTE

Julia's note: I'm not from the East Coast and I do love winter squash: but not sweet, 'classic' winter squash with maple syrup etc. I'll save the syrup for my waffles. This recipe intrigues me: I plan to try it this weekend. Let me (or the blog) know if you try it. Say yes to savory, spicy squash recipes!

Makes 4 servings.

ingredients

2 (1 1/2 - to 1 3/4-lb) acorn squash
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
1 to 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh hot red chile, including seeds
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

preparation

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 450°F. Halve squash lengthwise, then cut off and discard stem ends. Scoop out seeds and cut squash lengthwise into 3/4-inch-wide wedges. Toss squash with black pepper, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 2 tablespoons oil in a bowl, then arrange, cut sides down, in 2 large shallow baking pans. Roast squash, switching position of pans halfway through roasting, until squash is tender and undersides of wedges are golden brown, 25 to 35 minutes.

While squash roasts, mince garlic and mash to a paste with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Transfer paste to a small bowl and whisk in lime juice, chile (to taste), cilantro, and remaining 1/4 cup oil until combined. Transfer squash, browned sides up, to a platter and drizzle with vinaigrette.

Aromatic Leek and Potato Soup

4 large boiling potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 large leeks, cut in half, cleaned, and sliced into long, thin strips
4 cups (1 quart) water
1 cup buttermilk, or 1 cup low fat or nonfat plain yogurt, whisked until light and thin

Garnish:

S & P to taste
1 cup minced fresh herbs: parsley, chives, cilantro, chervil, dill, or a mixture

In a large saucepan, combine the potatoes, leeks, and water. Bring to a boil over med-high heat, cover, and turn the heat down to med-low. Simmer until the potatoes are tender enough to cut with a spoon, and the leeks are equally soft. This should take about 40 minutes. In a blender or food processor (or julia's favorite: with an immersion blender!), puree the vegetables in the cooking water, doing this in batches if necessary, then return to the saucepan if you're not using an immersion blender. Add the buttermilk or yogurt, and heat hte soup slowly over low heat, uncovered, until just warmed through. Season with S & P, and serve warm, sprinkled with the fresh herbs. Or, chill the soup, covered, and serve it cold. Serves 4. Per serving: 260 calories using non fat yogurt, fat .7 grams, protein 6.2 grams. I don't know the fiber.

Leeks Braised in Red Wine

adapted from Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop

6 medium leeks
2 tablespoons butter
salt
about 2 cups red wine
1 bay leaf
8 black peppercorns
1 teaspoon fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried

1. Trim and discard the dark green tops and tough outer leaves from the leeks. Remove the roots along with a very thin slice of the nearby white part. Halve the leeks lengthwise and wash them under cold, running water. Gently spread apart but do not separate the inner layers to remove all traces of soil. If the leeks are particularly sandy, soak them in several changes of clean water.

2. Melt the butter in a large saute pan set over medium heat. Add the leeks, piling them up in two layers. Season with salt to taste. Add the 2 cups wine and the bay leaf, peppercorns, and thyme. The wine should just reach the bottom of the top layer of leeks. If not, add more wine.

3. Bring the wine to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the leeks are tender, 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the leeks.

4. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the leeks to a serving platter and cover with foil to keep warm. Turn the heat to high and boil the sauce until it becomes syrupy and redues to about 1/4 cup, about 10 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaf and peppercorns. Add back any accumulated juices on the platter with the leeks and reduce the sauce again if necessary. Adjust the seasonings in the sauce and then drizzle it over the leeks. Serve immediately.

pepper recipes

More Recipes

____________________________________

7) Which Farm?

>From High Ground: Winter Squash, Leeks, mystery, Flowers.

>From Mariquita: Tomatoes, Peppers, Potatoes

Lakeside Organics: Lettuce

__________________________________________

8) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old

newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled

computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main

blog page:

http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

__________________________________

9) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms

Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics

Organically Grown Vegetables

831-786-0625

P.O. Box 2065

Watsonville, CA 95077

csa@twosmallfarms.com

http://www.twosmallfarms.com

http://www.mariquita.com

http://www.highgroundorganics.com

In the box week of Sept. 12th

2007-09-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

In the box this week: 9/12-9/14

Leeks

Tomatoes

Potatoes: "Godzilla Fingerlings"

Sweet Peppers

Winter Squash

mystery from Stephen (berries or cauliflower?)

lettuce?

note: The Mariquita Farm Tomato/Pumpkin/Weird Squash upick is changed from sat. to SUNDAY Sept. 23rd due to Andy and Julia's family committments.

Two Farms Newsletter #412

2007-09-04T12:29:00.001-07:00

**Corn Note: This is organic corn: many ears likely have a worm, that's organic corn! Just chop the end off with a large knife and the corn is perfect to eat! Eat it as soon as possible: it's tastier sooner. -zelda and julia

September 4, 2007

Table of Contents:

1) In your box this week
2) A Few Historical Recipes
3) Renewal Time
4) Tomato Time
5) Photos
6) Recipes
7) Which Farm?
8) Unsubscribe
9) Two Small Farms Contact Information

____________________________________

1) In your box this week: Tomatoes, Tomatillos, Radishes, Rapini OR Spinach, Eggplant OR Onions, two mysteries

How to store this week's bounty: all (except tomatoes and tomatillos) in the fridge as soon as you arrive home.

The tomatoes can be stored at room temperature.

_________________________________________

2) A Few Historical Recipes from Julia

I started reading cookbooks like novels when I used to babysit, starting at about age 11. Before that I loved looking through my children's cookbooks that I received for birthday presents. Not much has changed. In college I was the one pouring through Mollie Katzen's now-classic Moosewood Cookbook and Enchanted Broccoli Forest.

In honor of those days I have some recipes from those cookbooks. More about cookbooks in two or three weeks.... If you're a fan of Andy's writing, make sure to sign up for his writing blog. We update it 2-4 times a month...

Italian Eggplant Salad
adapted from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen

1 eggplant (about 1 pound)
1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 cup minced onion
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 Tablespoon salt
1 stalk celery, minced
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
3-4 fresh leaves basil, minced
1/2 cup minced green olives
fresh-ground black pepper
1/4 cup finely minced parsley

Optional:
2-3 Tablespoons capers
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

1) Cut the eggplant into small (1/2 inch) cubes. Steam the cubes in a vegetable steamer over boiling water, until they are tender (15-20 minutes). Prepare the other ingredients while the eggplant steams.

2) In 2 Tablespoons of the olive oil, saute the onions and garlic with salt, until the onions begin to soften (5 minutes). Add the celery, and saute another 5 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes, and cook a few minutes more.

Remove from heat, and transfer to a large bowl.

3) Add all remaining ingredients to the bowl, including the steamed eggplant (you don't need to cool it first). Mix well, and chill.

note: this salad is exceptional the day after it's made, so it can marinate thoroughly

Cauliflower Cheese Pie with Grated Potato Crust

julia's note: this crust is a GREAT alternative to a buttery-flour crust for most quiche/vegetable pie type dishes. I also make a mashed potato crust for quiche... that I learned in college from one of these two Mollie books!

Crust:

2 cups, packed, grated raw potato
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup grated onion

Heat the oven to 400 degrees
Set the freshly-grated potato in a colander over a bowl. Salt it and leave it for 10 minutes. Then squeeze out the excess water (which can be used as for soup stock) and add it to the remaining ingredients. Pat it into a well-oiled 9 inch pie pan, building up the sides of the crust with lightly-floured fingers. Bake for 40-45 minutes - until browned. After the first 30 minutes brush (or spray) the crust with a little oil to crispen it.

Turn down oven to 375 degrees

Filling:

1 heaping, packed cup grated cheddar cheese
1 head cauliflower, broken into small flowerets
1 medium clove crushed garlic
1 cup chopped onion
3 Tablespoons butter
dash of dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil or 2 tablespoons fresh, chopped basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs beaten together with:
1/4 cup milk
black pepper to tasted
paprika

Saute onions in butter for 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Add herbs and cauliflower and cook, covered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Spread half the cheese into the baked crust, then the saute, then the rest of the cheese. Pour the custard over and dust with paprika. Bake 35-40 minutes - until set.

Going way back: here's a book that was published in 1967, and I had a copy in my book collection by 1970: I was 5 years old. I'm including a recipe with tomatoes for obvious reasons, but what I remember loving to make was their version of baked Alaska, which included a meringue, and using a very hot oven for 3 minutes so the ice cream didn't melt. The drama was quite fun at age 5!

Eggs in Tomatoes
from My Learn to Cook Book by Ursula Sedgwick, illustrated by Martin Mayhew

you will need:

bread crumbs
S & P
butter
eggs
tomatoes (one for each person)

small pointed knife
oven proof dish

1) Turn on the oven and set at 350 degrees.
2) Cut off the top of each of the tomatoes.
3) Scoop out the insides with a spoon.
4) Put the tomatoes into the ovenproof dish.
5) Sprinkle salt and pepper into the tomatoes.
6) Crack and egg on the edge of the dish and drop it into the first tomato. Repeat, until you have dropped an egg

into each tomato.
7) Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.
8) Sprinkle with bread crumbs and top with a small piece of butter.
9) Bake until the white of the egg is firm (about 10 minutes). Serve quickly.

more recipes below in section #6

______________________________________________________________________

3) Renewal time is coming!

Next week, September 12/13/14 is the last paid share of the current session. The final 9 weeks starts the week of September 19/20/21. Cost is $180 or $234 with flowers. You can mail a check to Two Small Farms, PO Box 2065, Watsonville, CA 95077. Please contact Zelda at the office: csa@twosmallfarms.com or 831-786-0265 to

confirm you want to continue.

______________________________________________________________________

4) Tomatoes! We can sell 20# of San Marzano 'paste' tomatoes as an 'extra'. 20# boxes are $29 delivered to your pick up site. Contact Zelda in the office to order. 831 786 0625 or reply to this email.

Also: another tomato upick at Mariquita Farm on Sept. 22nd.

___________________________________

5) Photos:

tomatillos

Rapini Greens

Photo Gallery
________________________________________

6) Recipes from Jennifer, Jeanne and Julia

What I would do with this week’s box, from Jeanne Byrne, of High Ground Organics. (Stephen's wife...) I’ll cook the rapini (broccoli raab) or spinach with garlic and red pepper flakes. Saute the garlic and pepper flakes in olive oil for a few minutes, add the washed, chopped greens and some course sea salt to the pot with a little water, lower the heat, cover, and cook until the greens are soft. This will take longer for the rapini than spinach.

Make sure there’s enough water that it doesn’t burn.

If I get cauliflower as the mystery, I’ll make potato cauliflower curry in my pressure cooker. This is an easy quick recipe if you have a pressure cooker and it’s really good. (Recipe below.) Otherwise I will parboil the potatoes

(boil until just barely soft when pricked with a fork; don’t overcook), cut them to similar sizes, then toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary (and maybe onion wedges) and roast them in the oven at 400 until done. OR if I have large potatoes, I’ll make “potato chips.” Slice them with a mandoline, spray with olive oil spray, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook on a greased baking sheet at 400 until slightly crisp. (One daughter likes them crispy, the other likes them still soft.) They need to be eaten right out of the oven to be good, which usually happens anyway.

I’ll make tomatillo salsa with one of Julia’s recipes and serve it with tortillas. I’ll make a Chinese radish salad with thinly sliced radishes and green or red pepper if I have one around. For dressing, use 2 TBS vinegar, 4 tsp. soy sauce, 1 TBS sugar. Mix well and toss. If I get an eggplant I will slice, salt, and coat it with olive oil, broil it, and chop to add to tomato sauce for pasta, or toss cold with sliced tomatoes and a simple vinaigrette dressing. Any remaining tomatoes we will eat on sandwiches and salads.

Cauliflower-Potato Curry, from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure, by Lorna J. Sass

1 large head cauliflower
2 tsp. safflower or canola oil
2 tsp. whole cumin seeds
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
2 TBS tomato paste
2 TBS mild curry powder
1 tsp. ground coriander seeds
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt, or to taste
Pinch of cayenne
1 1/2 lb. thin-skinned potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/4 minced fresh coriander (optional)

Cut the cauliflower into florets about 2 inches wide across the top. Set aside. Heat the oil in the cooker. Sizzle the cumin seeds over medium-high heat just until they begin to pop, 5–10 seconds. Turn off the heat and add the coconut milk (stand back to avoid sputtering oil) and tomato paste. While stirring with a fork, sprinkle in the curry powder, coriander, cinnamon, salt, and cayenne. Bring to the boil. Set the potatoes and red bell pepper in the liquid and place the cauliflower florets on top.

Lock the lid in place. Over high heat, bring to high pressure. Lower the heat just enough to maintain high pressure and cook for 3 minutes. Reduce the pressure with a quick-release method. Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow any excess steam to escape. If the potatoes are not quite done, replace (but do not lock) the lid and let them cook for a few more minutes in the residual heat.

Stir well to combine the cauliflower and the potatoes. While stirring, the cauliflower will break up into small pieces and amalgamate with the cooking liquid to create a thick sauce. Mix in the coriander (if using)

before serving.

2 tomatillo salsa recipes:

Tomatillo Salsa
2 pounds Fresh tomatillos
1 cup Onion -- chopped
1 Or 2 hot peppers, cored Seeded and chopped.
1 cup Fresh cilantro -- minced
1/4 cup Fresh lime juice
1-2 cloves garlic
salt to taste
Remove husks from tomatillos, wash throughly, dry and halve or quarter. Combine tomatillos, onions, chiles, and garlic in a non-reactive pan. Over med-high heat bring to boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 20 mins. Cool a little or a lot then put into blender with cilantro and lime juice, blend away, salt to taste, and you have some GREAT salsa verde Mexicano.

SWISS CHARD WITH BEETS, GOAT CHEESE, AND RAISINS
submitted Jennifer Levey; originally published in Bon Appetit

I made this recipe last week with the beets and chard from the previous week. It was a bit time intesive, but fantastic and I highly recommend it.

SWISS CHARD WITH BEETS, GOAT CHEESE, AND RAISINS
1 1/2 pounds red beets (about 3 large)

4 pounds Swiss chard

1/4 cup olive oil
1 large red onion, halved lengthwise, cut thinly crosswise
3/4 cup sliced green onions (about 3)
5 garlic cloves, chopped
2 jalapeño chiles, thinly sliced crosswise with seeds
3 14 1/2-ounce cans diced tomatoes in juice, drained
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons golden raisins

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 51/2-ounce log soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled

2 tablespoons pine nuts
Preheat oven to 400°F. Wrap beets individually in foil. Roast until beets are tender, about 1 hour. Cool. Peel beets, then cut into 1/2-inch cubes. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover; chill.)

Fold Swiss chard leaves in half lengthwise and cut stalks away from leaves. Cut leaves coarsely into 1-inch pieces. Slice stalks thinly crosswise. Reserve stalks and leaves separately. Cook chopped leaves in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 1 minute. Drain and reserve.

Heat oil in heavy large pot over high heat. Add sliced stalks; sauté until starting to soften, about 8 minutes.

Add onion and next 3 ingredients; sauté 3 minutes. Add drained tomatoes and 1 cup raisins. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until vegetables are soft, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.

Add chard leaves to pot; stir to heat through. Remove from heat; add lime juice and stir to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer chard mixture to large platter. Sprinkle with beets, goat cheese, pine nuts, and remaining 2 tablespoons raisins. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Bon Appétit
December 2005

Ways to use Tomatillos:

Before using, peel off the husks and rinse to remove the sticky residue. Other than peeling off the husk, do not peel the green skin.

Tomatillos are traditionally used in three ways — raw, boiled/blanched, or roasted/grilled:

Raw - Uncooked tomatillos add a fresh, tangy citrus-like flavor and are often used raw in Mexican table sauces. Finely dice or puree them.

Blanching - Mellows the flavor. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the whole tomatillos (husks removed and rinsed) and boil for about 5 minutes, until soft. Drain and crush or puree as directed in a sauce recipe.

Fire roasting - Leaving slightly blackened skins on enriches a sauce with a smoky, woodsy flavor. Can roast under the broiler, with a propane torch, or over an open flame such as a grill or a gas burner. Make sure the heat is quite hot, otherwise the tomatillos will turn mushy before being charred.

Dry roasting - Produces an earthy, nutty flavor. Place the tomatillos in a heavy skillet (preferably cast-iron). Turn heat to low. Roast for about 20 to 30 minutes, turning occasionally, letting each side take on a rich, burnished golden color before turning.

Punchy Tomatillo-Tomato Relish adapted from Chutneys and Relishes by Lorraine Bodger

Chop cleaned tomatillos. Combine with pullped, seeded, and diced plum tomatoes, minced spicy chile (such as hungarian, jalapeño, or anaheim), and red onion, chopped cilantro, and garlic. Add lime juice, tequila, and salt. Serve with grilled fish, burgers, chicken, or traditional Mexican fare.

Julia’s informal baba ganoush

Pulp from 1 or 2 pounds roasted eggplants
juice from one lemon, or 1-2 tablespoons rice vinegar
3-5 tablespoons tahini(toasted sesame paste)
2-3 finely chopped cloves garlic
small amount smashed up roasted pine nuts, optional
salt and pepper

Mix everything up together, you may need to mash the eggplant pulp together with a fork. You can add olive oil to make it smoother (and tastier.)

Eggplant with Hot Garlice Sauce (Adapted from Pei Mei's Chinese Cooking)

4-6 Chinese or Japanese eggplants

1 t chopped fresh ginger
1 T chopped fresh garlic
1 T Hot bean paste
2 T soy sauce
1 t sugar
1 t salt
1/2 cup soup stock or water
1 T chopped green onion

Cut eggplant into finger sized pieces-cut lengthwise, then into quarters etc.
Saute with some water in a non-stick pan/wok, until soft.
When soft, remove from pan.
On low heat, cook garlic, ginger, and hot bean paste for a minute, then add
salt, sugar, soysauce and stock/water. Return eggplant to the pan and cook for
about five minutes until garlic is soft and a sauce forms. If sauce is too
thin, thicken with 1t corn starch mixed with 2t water.

Serve over white/brown rice.

ORANGE AND RADISH SALAD WITH CINNAMON VINAIGRETTE

Vinaigrette
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cumin
1/8 teaspoon Ground Red Pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt

Combine all of the above.

For the salad use your favorite greens. Toss with orange slices and thinly sliced radishes. Top with lightly toasted sliced almonds.

BROCCOLI RAAB W/CARMELIZED ONIONS
Pasta e Verdura, Jack Bishop

1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 large onion (about 1 lb.), thinly sliced
1 bunch broccoli raab
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 lb. pasta (linguine or other long, thin shape)

Saute onions over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden
brown, about 20 minutes. If the onions start to burn, lower the heat.
They should be richly colored to bring out their sweetness.

Meanwhile, bring several quarts of water to a boil ina medium sauce
pan. Roughly chop the greens and stem and boil in the hot water and
cook for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Add the garlic to the pan with the onions and cook for 1 minute. Add
the broccoli raab, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally,
until the broccoli raab is tender, about 5 minutes. Taste for salt and
pepper and adjust seasonings if necessary.

While preparing the sauce, cook and drain the pasta, making sure that
some liquid still clings to the noodles. Toss the hot pasta with the
broccoli raab sauce. Mix well and transfer portions to warm pasta
bowls. Drizzle each bowl with olive oil to taste and serve immediately.

BROCCOLI RAAB WITH SPAGHETTINI
The Victory Garden Cookbook, Marian Morash

1 bunch broccoli raab
1 sweet bell pepper (optional)
1/2 lb. spaghettini
1tbsp. chopped garlic
6 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups water or chicken stock
2 tbsp. butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Parmesan cheese

Wash and peel broccoli raab, and cut into 2-3 inch pieces; set aside.
Peel the pepper, and thinly slice. Break spaghettini into 2-3-inch
pieces. In a large saute pan, cook garlic in oil for 1 minute. Add
pepper, cook slightly, and stir in raab, spaghettini, and water or
stock. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, for
approximately 10 minutes, adding additional water if necessary. When
broccoli raab is tender, and spaghetiini cooked, remove the cover,
reduce any pan liquids, and stir in butter. Season to taste and serve
with Parmesan cheese. Serves 4.

____________________________________

7) Which Farm?

>From High Ground: Radishes, rapini, spinach, one mystery, Flowers.
>From Mariquita: Tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplant, onions, one mystery

__________________________________________

8) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main

__________________________________

9) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
831-786-0625
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

in the box week of Sept. 5th

2007-09-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Tomatoes

Potatoes or mystery

Tomatillos

Radishes

Rapini OR Spinach

mystery from Stephen

Onions OR Eggplant

two small farms newsletter #411

2007-08-29T15:59:00.001-07:00

August 27th 2007

1) In your box this week
2) SEEING A GRASSLAND WITH NEW EYES
3) Tomato Time
4) Photos
5) Recipes
6) Which Farm?
7) Unsubscribe
8) Two Small Farms Contact Information
________________________________

1) In your box this week: Basil, Cilantro, Potatoes, Steve's mystery: berries or romanesco, Sweet red peppers, Tomatoes (wed San Marzano, & Friday Heirlooms), Cabbage OR Summer Squash, Andy's Mystery: eggplant, summer squash, or onions

How to store this week's bounty: all (except tomatoes and possibly basil) in the fridge as soon as you arrive home. The tomatoes can be stored at room temperature. Basil? Try it in the door of your fridge, or on your table in water like a bouquet of flowers, or just make pesto.

Notes: last week's spinach in the end had some damage to it so Steve decided to sub in his rapini and chard for the cooking greens. Sorry about any confusion.
________________________________

2) SEEING A GRASSLAND WITH NEW EYES

By: Laura Kummerer
Grassland Restorationist at High Ground Organics

As the grassland at High Ground Organics Farm hunkers down in to the brown and gold colors of summer dormancy, I begin to reflect on our first year of restoring this grassland through rotational grazing. From a distance the impact of the rotation of cows and goats across this land is striking. The tangle of six foot tall radish, thistle and invasive grasses that engulfed the grassland last year have now been transformed in to a field of neatly clipped weeds interspersed with an abundant spray of California Poppies and the fuzzy leaves of the native Hill Morning Glory. The weeds still dominate the landscape, however, and the bunch grasses and wildflowers are only very slowly showing signs of rebirth. But as I peer out at the grassland with hope, I am reminded how deep change on a landscape is one of subtle shifts. In order to observe this change on a yearly basis, we are required to train our eyes to look very closely to catch the shifts amidst the vastness.

I realize that grasslands themselves are entities that most of us only see from a distance. But if we step in to this backdrop of grass, we would see that grasslands, like anything else in life looked at closely, are composed of an infinite intricacy of interactions between roots and bacteria and soil and insects and an incredible myriad of plant and animal species. I would like to introduce you to a few of the grasses and wildflowers that I have watched change this year so you can “see” the intricacies of our grassland and take stock with me in the subtle shifts that are occurring in the restoring of a landscape.

One of my favorite grasses growing in the grassland is the unassuming California Oat Grass (Danthonia californica). The best way to get to know this beautiful bunch grass is with your bare feet. Your toes can feel the tenacious substance in these grassy mounds that have persevered for possibly a thousand years. These grasses are lush and beautiful in mid spring, but my favorite part of them are the cute little tufts of hair that they have on their leaf blades. It is in early summer during seed production that these plants reveal their true uniqueness. Not only do they create seed at the top of their flower heads like all other grasses, but they hide a neat line of seed away in a tight roll between their leaf and their stem. These hidden away seeds may be left unnoticed by the myriads of animals that love the sweet taste of the oat grass. It may very well be this hidden away seed that has allowed this plant to keep birthing itself against all odds in the small spaces of soil cleared away by the grazers this year.

Another plant that resides in the grassland and was in abundance this year in response to the grazing is a flower in the Evening Primrose family called Sun Cups (Camissonia ovata). It is a joy to walk out on the grassland when the sun cups are in full bloom. They create puddles of yellow all around that look as if the sun is glowing on the earth instead of up in the sky. This plant grows low to the ground and is one of the first flowers to peak out in the early spring. When it emerges during the winter rains it first sends out large leaves tinged with magenta to smash down the annual grasses near by, giving it the sunlight it needs to produce its cheery yellow flowers. These abundant leaves are not only integral to the plant but were gathered extensively by the Ohlone Indians of the coast for salad greens. In late summer the flowers and leaves of this plant dry up and fade away so it takes a practiced eye to find the seed the sun cups form deep down almost below the soil level. Although it is always hard for me to find the seed, I rest assured knowing that the native ants who play the primary role dispersing sun cup seed are more astute than I in locating this bounty.

The final and most special symbol of change for me this year out on the grassland was the first appearance of a bulb plant in the Lily family called Brodiaea elegans. In mid July it caught me by surprise poking its vibrant blue flower above ground in an area that had been recently grazed. The plant does not have a common name in our language but had a myriad of names given to it by indigenous groups throughout California. The Yokut Indians called one special gathering place of these bulbs “kawachu” meaning “place of the grassnuts”. It is reported that these gathering areas grew as thick as grasses, creating the appearance of blue lakes covering the grassland. The bulb of this plant was a staple protein source for California Indian Tribes. Maybe the reason we don’t have a common name for this regal plant in our language is that this bulb along with a whole line of other bulb species were the first to disappear or decline in response to the plowing and other intensive land management practices introduced by the Europeans in the 1700’s. The bulbs that still remain today are now sparsely scattered throughout grasslands and often are choked out by weeds.

The fact that these three plants were able to gain ground this year give me hope that the continued use of rotational grazing coupled with other management strategies will allow us to uncover more and more of the richness that lies buried beneath the weeds and years of neglect on this land. Hopefully, in the years to come our eyes will be able to witness stands of bunch grasses, lupines, clovers bulbs and tarweeds gain a stronger foothold, slowly adding to the complexity of the grassland ecosystem.

photo of a suncup with ant friend

Photo of Brodiaea Elegans

Photo of Danthonia Ca var americana

Please Come Out and See The Grassland For Yourself…
You can join us on monthly restoration parties or come lend a hand on Tuesdays and Fridays during the week!

TUESDAYS-We work from 9-1pm. in weeding, tending animals and collecting seed
FRIDAYS-We are planting up native grasses, sedges and rushes in the green house to prepare them for winter plantings

Saturday October 6th, 2007 (10-1)-Join us in sharing a potluck lunch and preparing the grassland for winter planting.

The directions out to High Ground Organics Farm can be found at www.twosmallfarms.com. Contact Laura Kummerer (831)761-8694 for more details about grassland restoration opportunities.
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3) Tomatoes! We can sell 20# of San Marzano 'paste' tomatoes as an 'extra'. 20# boxes are $29 delivered to your pick up site. Contact Zelda in the office to order. 831 786 0625 or reply to this email.

Also: another tomato upick at Mariquita Farm on Sept. 22nd. This last Saturday was a success. thanks to all who visited and enthused about the day.
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4) Photos:

cilantro

Romanesco: (a type of cauliflower)

Photo Gallery

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5) Recipes from Terri, Gudrun, and Julia

Thai Marinated Striped Bass - (note any white fish works fine here,
bass is amazing though)
3 Tbsp Fish Sauce
2 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 (6oz) striped bass fillets

Combine first 4 ingredients in ziploc, add fish; marinate in
refrigerator for at least 20 minutes. Remove fish from marinade,
reserve marinade. Heat a large nonstick pan coated with cooking spray
over medium-high heat. Add fish, cook 4 minutes on each side or until
fish flakes easily. Remove fish from pan. Add marinade to pan, bring
to a boil. Cook 30 seconds, serve with fish.

--------------------------------------

Shrimp and Corn Cakes - Kao Pood Tod

4 ears corn kernels, cut from the cob(2 cups)
1 cup finely chopped shrimp
2 Tbsp finely minced shallot
2 Tbsp finely minced garlic
2 Tbsp finely minced cilantro root
2 Tbsp red curry paste, more to taste
1 Tbsp sugar, more if corn is not very sweet
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/3 cup tempura batter mix or all purpose flour, more as needed
1 tsp salt
2 tsp shrimp paste
1-2 whole eggs, beaten, adding one at a time and checking consistency
4 cups vegetable oil for frying

Combine all ingredients except the oil and mix well. The texture
should be like cookie dough, holding together as patties. Add more
batter mix or eggs as needed. Do not put too much liquid.

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or wok to 375 degrees. With damp
hands, form a heaping Tbsp of batter into a flat, round patty and drop
in hot oil. Lightly aerate the batter by jabbing it with a fork.
Repeat the process until cakes loosely fill pan. Cook for 2 to 3
minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove from pan and drain on
paper towels. Serve with cucumber sauce.

Cucumber Dipping Sauce
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups thinly sliced english cucumber
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 cup thinly sliced red pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced thai chiles
1/4 cup rice vinegar or lime juice
1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts
1/4 tsp salt, more to taste
cilantro for garnish
In a small pot over medium heat, combine 1/8 cup water, the fish sauce
and sugar. Cook and stir until the mixture is reduced into thin syrup.
Remove from the heat and let cool.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the syrup and combine well. Serve
as a sauce to the shrimp cakes.

----------------------------------

Chicken and Leeks (in case you still have leeks from last week!)

6 chicken thighs
2 TBS olive oil
salt & pepper
cumin
paprika
3 leeks, sliced diagonally into 1 inch slices, cleaned well
3 garlic cloves or 1/4 cup chopped shallots
3/4 cup white wine
1 TBS dried basil (could also use tarragon, I think)
1 14oz can diced tomatoes, without salt

Sprinkle S&P, cumin and paprika on chicken thighs. Brown on both sides in the oil in a dutch oven. Remove to plate. Add leeks and garlic or shallots to pan, saute for 3 minutes, until limp. Add white wine, basil and tomatoes. Bring to boil. Add back in the chicken and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer 15-20 minutes, until the rest of dinner is done. Especially good served with cooked pasta.

-Gudrun

Since both Steve and Andy are planning on using summer squash in the box this week (on different days, you should only have it from one farm or the other, or not at all...) here are some new (to me) summer squash recipes:

Mom's Summer Squash Recipe
from simply recipes dot com

Filed under Low Carb, Quick, Seasonal Favorites: Summer, Side Dish, Vegetable, Vegetarian, Wheat-free

summer-squash.jpg

Preparation time: 20 minutes.

My mother is the only person I have ever known who can make summer squash taste this good. Often this time of year gardens are overflowing with zucchini and summer squash. This quick and easy recipe is a great way to use up some of the bounty. Note that summer squash varies in tenderness, sometimes you need to cook them a little longer, sometmes a little less.

2 lbs squash and/or zucchini, sliced
1 green bell pepper, seeds removed, sliced
2 smallish tomatoes or one large tomato, peeled and cut into wedges
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and sliced
1 clove of garlic, chopped
Olive oil
5 or 6 slices of cheese - jack or cheddar
Basil, either dry or chopped fresh
Salt and pepper

1 Put onion, garlic, squash, bell pepper into a large saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Put on high heat and brown the vegetables slightly to develop flavor. As you are browning, sprinkle either dried basil or chopped fresh basil on the vegetables. When vegetables are slightly browned, remove from heat, add the slices of cheese, and cover the pan.

2 In a separate stick-free fry pan, put the tomatoes and cook at medium hi heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want to let the juice from the tomatoes evaporate some. After 5 minutes, add the tomatoes to the rest of the vegetables and stir. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

Sauteed Summer Squash

This super easy and quick recipe helps use up the excess summer garden produce.
by Normaone

time to make 20 min 10 min prep

2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
1/4 cup butter
1 large shallot, sliced thin
1 lb zucchini, sliced into 1/3 inch rounds
1 lb summer squash, sliced into 1/3 inch rounds

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter.
2. Add garlic, tarragon and onion and saute 2 minutes.
3. Add both squashes and saute 8 minutes until just crisp tender.
4. Season.

Summer Squash Salad Recipe

Evie suspected that when I tried her summer squash salad recipe that I would have to eat my words (no pun intended) regarding my mom being the only one who could prepare squash well. Well, I have eaten my words, and this fabulous salad as well. This is a lovely way to prepare summer squash or zucchini - thinly sliced, marinated briefly with mint in olive oil and lemon juice, tossed with toasted pine nuts, and served with shaved Parmesan. I have made one small adjustment to Evie's original recipe, by increasing the amount of olive oil and lemon juice recommended. I found I needed more to adequately coat all of the squash.

4 small zucchini or mixed yellow and green summer squash (1 lb total)
1/3 cup loosely packed mint leaves
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Pepper to taste
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (1 oz.)
Grana Padano, Parmesan or Asagio cheese for shavings
Fresh mint sprigs for garnish

1 If you are starting with raw pine nuts, toast them first. Heat a small skillet on medium high heat. Add the pine nuts. Stir gently as the pine nuts start to brown. When slightly browned, remove from heat and let cool.

2 Slice the squash into paper-thin slices using a mandoline or other slicer. Set aside in a bowl.

3 Stack the mint leaves, roll them together lengthwise and slice crosswise to make very thin slivers. Add to squash in bowl.

4 Combine the oil and lemon juice in a small bowl and whisk together. Whisk in the salt and pepper and pour the dressing over the contents of the bowl. Add the pine nuts and toss all together, gently, but thoroughly. Let mixture stand for at least 10 minutes to soften the squash and develop the flavors.

5 Transfer salad to serving dish or to four individual salad plates. Garnish with shavings of cheese made with a vegetable peeler and a few sprigs of fresh mint.

Serves 4.

Many thanks to Chef Evie Lieb for yet another wonderful recipe!

Marinated Zucchini and Summer Squash
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound zucchini (about 3 large), trimmed and sliced diagonally about 1/4-inch thick
1 pound yellow crookneck squash (about 3 large), trimmed and sliced diagonally about 1/4-inch thick

Whisk the vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, and thyme in a large bowl to blend. Season with salt and pepper. Gradually whisk in the oil. Spoon 3 tablespoons of the marinade into a small bowl. Cover and set aside. Add the zucchini and yellow squash to the remaining marinade in the large bowl and toss to coat. Transfer the mixture to a 13 by 9 by 2-inch glass baking dish. Cover and marinate at room temperature at least 3 hours or cover and refrigerate up to 1 day.

Prepare the barbecue for medium-high

Becky Luigart-Stayner
Grandma Salazar's Albóndigas Soup

Traci Des Jardins has fond memories of her grandmother's recipe for this soup and has reinterpreted it for her menu at Mijita. Chilling the meatballs for 20 minutes helps them hold their shape when cooked. Albóndigas (ahl-bon-dee-gas) is Spanish for meatballs.

1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup short-grain rice
Cooking spray
2 cups chopped onion, divided
1 (1-ounce) slice white bread
1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro, divided
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 pound lean ground pork
1/2 pound ground sirloin
2 large egg whites
1 cup chopped carrot
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup chopped seeded peeled tomato (about 8 ounces)
4 cups (1 [32-ounce] carton) fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 cups chopped zucchini
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pour water over rice, and let stand 20 minutes. Drain.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 1/2 cup onion to pan; cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.

Place bread in a food processor; pulse 10 times or until coarse crumbs measure 1 1/4 cups. Combine rice, cooked onion, breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup cilantro, cumin, 1/4 teaspoon salt, oregano, pork, sirloin, and egg whites, stirring well. Shape mixture into 29 (1-inch) meatballs. Chill for 20 minutes.

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 10 meatballs, and cook 6 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove meatballs from pan; drain well on paper towels. Wipe drippings from pan with a paper towel. Repeat procedure with cooking spray and remaining meatballs. Return pan to heat. Coat with cooking spray. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups onion, carrot, and garlic to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add tomato to pan, stirring to combine. Stir in broth; bring mixture to a boil. Add meatballs and mint to pan. Reduce heat, and simmer 35 minutes. Add zucchini, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to pan. Cook 10 minutes. Garnish with remaining 1/4 cup cilantro.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 1 cup soup and 1 1/2 teaspoons cilantro)

CALORIES 181 (21% from fat); FAT 4.4g (sat 1.6g,mono 0.6g,poly 0.3g); PROTEIN 15.5g; CHOLESTEROL 36mg; CALCIUM 43mg; SODIUM 500mg; FIBER 2.9g; IRON 1.9mg; CARBOHYDRATE 20.4g

Cooking Light, MAY 2005
heat. Grill the vegetables until they are crisp-tender and brown, turning occasionally, about 8 minutes. Transfer the vegetables to a platter. Drizzle with the reserved marinade and serve hot or at room temperature.

california vegetable and chickpea chili Other | October 1997

Only native Californians like two wine-making friends of mine in Salinas can regularly throw together a vegetable chili such as this utilizing their almost year-round abundance of fresh vegetables and herbs. For those of us with seasonal gardens, various substitutions often have to be made (canned tomatoes, dried herbs, and the like), but such is the availability almost everywhere today of certain fresh produce even in the coldest months that no imaginative cook should have much trouble concocting a very tasty vegetable and bean chili according to this basic recipe. One advantage, by the way, of using a 28-ounce can of tomatoes with their juices instead of the fresh is that most likely you won't have to add any water to keep the chili slightly soupy.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 medium-size onions, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 medium-size yellow squash or zucchini, scrubbed, ends trimmed, and chopped
Two 32-ounce cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano leaves, or 1/2 teaspoon dried, crumbled
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves, or 1/2 teaspoon dried, crumbled
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste
4 large, ripe tomatoes, chopped and juices retained
1 1/2 cups tomato juice
preparation
In a large, heavy pot, heat the oil over moderate heat, then add the onions, celery, bell pepper, and garlic, and cook, stirring, till softened, about 2 minutes. Add the squash and cook, stirring, 3 minutes longer to soften. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Reduce the heat to a low simmer, cover, and cook for 1 hour, adding a little water if the stew begins to get too thick.

Epicurious.com

More Recipes:
http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/index.html
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6) Which Farm?

From High Ground: cilantro, potatoes, cabbage, summer squash, romanesco, berries, Flowers.
From Mariquita: Tomatoes, summer squash, basil, corn, eggplant, onions

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7) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main blog page:
http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

__________________________________

8) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
831-786-0625
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

Coming in the box August 29th - 31st

2007-08-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

In the box this week:

Cilantro (this photo is of cilantro)
Basil
Potatoes
Cabbage OR Summer Squash
Tomatoes
Steve's Mystery
Andy's Mystery
Sweet Corn (!?)

If you're inspired to send me what you would do with this week's box, please do email me. Here's a couple of recipes I already received from Terri F. and one from Gudrun:

A couple of Thai dishes for you.

A great use for cilantro, so easy and truly an amazing dish:

Thai Marinated Striped Bass - (note any white fish works fine here,
bass is amazing though)
3 Tbsp Fish Sauce
2 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 (6oz) striped bass fillets

Combine first 4 ingredients in ziploc, add fish; marinate in
refrigerator for at least 20 minutes. Remove fish from marinade,
reserve marinade. Heat a large nonstick pan coated with cooking spray
over medium-high heat. Add fish, cook 4 minutes on each side or until
fish flakes easily. Remove fish from pan. Add marinade to pan, bring
to a boil. Cook 30 seconds, serve with fish.

--------------------------------------

Shrimp and Corn Cakes - Kao Pood Tod

4 ears corn kernels, cut from the cob(2 cups)
1 cup finely chopped shrimp
2 Tbsp finely minced shallot
2 Tbsp finely minced garlic
2 Tbsp finely minced cilantro root
2 Tbsp red curry paste, more to taste
1 Tbsp sugar, more if corn is not very sweet
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/3 cup tempura batter mix or all purpose flour, more as needed
1 tsp salt
2 tsp shrimp paste
1-2 whole eggs, beaten, adding one at a time and checking consistency
4 cups vegetable oil for frying

Combine all ingredients except the oil and mix well. The texture
should be like cookie dough, holding together as patties. Add more
batter mix or eggs as needed. Do not put too much liquid.

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or wok to 375 degrees. With damp
hands, form a heaping Tbsp of batter into a flat, round patty and drop
in hot oil. Lightly aerate the batter by jabbing it with a fork.
Repeat the process until cakes loosely fill pan. Cook for 2 to 3
minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove from pan and drain on
paper towels. Serve with cucumber sauce.

Cucumber Dipping Sauce
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups thinly sliced english cucumber
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 cup thinly sliced red pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced thai chiles
1/4 cup rice vinegar or lime juice
1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts
1/4 tsp salt, more to taste
cilantro for garnish
In a small pot over medium heat, combine 1/8 cup water, the fish sauce
and sugar. Cook and stir until the mixture is reduced into thin syrup.
Remove from the heat and let cool.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the syrup and combine well. Serve
as a sauce to the shrimp cakes.

----------------------------------

Chicken and Leeks

6 chicken thighs
2 TBS olive oil
salt & pepper
cumin
paprika
3 leeks, sliced diagonally into 1 inch slices, cleaned well
3 garlic cloves or 1/4 cup chopped shallots
3/4 cup white wine
1 TBS dried basil (could also use tarragon, I think)
1 14oz can diced tomatoes, without salt

Sprinkle S&P, cumin and paprika on chicken thighs. Brown on both sides in the oil in a dutch oven. Remove to plate. Add leeks and garlic or shallots to pan, saute for 3 minutes, until limp. Add white wine, basil and tomatoes. Bring to boil. Add back in the chicken and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer 15-20 minutes, until the rest of dinner is done. Especially good served with cooked pasta.

-Gudrun

Two Farms Newsletter #410

2007-08-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

August 22nd 2007

1) In your box this week
2) Countdown
3) Tomato U-Pick/Santa Cruz Host Needed
4) Photos
5) Recipes
6) Which Farm?
7) Unsubscribe
8) Two Small Farms Contact Information

In your box this week: tomatoes, sweet peppers, cutting celery, rapini or chard, red beets, Steve's mystery, leeks

The tomato ID photo is above: from left to right: Cherokee Purple, German Striped, Green Zebra, Tangerine, San Marzano (a sauce type)

My suggestions for using these: the heirloom bags: a Caprese salad! recipe(s) below in the recipe section. San Marzanos: a simple tomato sauce, or roast them in the oven, this is a great side dish or chop them up as their own pasta sauce.

This week's vegetable list: I try to have it updated by Monday night, sometimes by Mon. am

How to store this week's bounty: all (except tomatoes) in the fridge as soon as you arrive home. The tomatoes can be stored at room temperature.
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2) Countdown from Andy

Thrust is what a rocket needs to overcome the force of gravity and propel itself into space— lots of thrust. To reach escape velocity rockets burn liquid oxygen and nitrogen . I’m not sure what kind of fuel the chefs we sell vegetables to in San Francisco could burn to get out of the City— maybe a mixture of time and caffeine. There’s a powerful force field in that town that keeps chefs orbiting their stoves. They have access to the caffeine— it’s the time to mix it with that they lack.

It takes ninety minutes to reach our farm from San Francisco, driving at legal speeds, and some chefs with a lot of thrust have made it. Tiny Maes, for one, when he was cooking at Rose Pistola, came down one afternoon. Quite by accident he picked the hottest day of the decade. The heat was radiating off the rows in waves so thick we could have surfed them if we’d had asbestos boards.

“Man,” Tiny said. “I can’t believe you work in this every day.”

“We don’t,” I said. “The afternoon is the hottest part of the day, so we start at six and get most of the harvesting done by noon.” That seemed incredible to Tiny, because he’s a night owl.

Joseph Manzare from Zuppa has come down a couple of times. It probably only took him fifty minutes, but Joseph has a lot of escape velocity. He loaded his car up with produce and was moaning that he didn’t have a pick-up truck. But then he has three restaurants. He wanted lunch, so we went down the road to Dunneville and got tri-tip sandwiches. There’s no “ville” in Dunneville, just the corner market. Their tri-tip sandwiches are good, and there’s plenty of cold drinks. I wished that I’d of known Joseph was coming, because then I would have stopped on the way to the farm from home and gotten some tamales at Marshall’s Store in Aromas. I don’t live at the farm. I rent the land I farm and I live thirty four miles away in Watsonville.

Bruce Hill from Picco came down with his friend James Ormsby, who was cooking at Plumpjack Café then. They had to get back in time for dinner prep, so they couldn’t stay all day. I taught them how to pick pimientos de Padrón, which are these tiny little Spanish peppers that taste so good when they’re toasted up in a little olive oil and sprinkled with salt. Just to make things fun I whipped out a camp stove, some olive oil, and some sea salt, and I had two of the best chefs in San Francisco frying Padrón peppers for me in the shade. They had a lot of fun too, rushing straight from the plant to the pan— their only regret was that we didn’t have glasses of cool dry golden sherry to sip.

This weekend all of you are invited down for a u-pick, and you ought to learn from the chefs. Come down in the morning while the temperatures are still mild and it’s comfortable to work, Bring a big enough car so that you can haul off all you need, and by all means bring a stove, a pan, some olive oil, and some sea salt, because besides tomatoes we’re going to have Padrón peppers. I believe that ours will be the first and only Padrón u-pick to have ever happened in the U.S. Plus, our bee-keeper, neighbor and friend Greg will be there with fresh honey and answers to your questions about bees, and there will be a miniature farmers market under the tree with some of the potatoes we’re growing in a field next door. Prepare for lift off. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-t0mato U-pick!

Tomato Upick: this Saturday August 25th, 2007 9am to 2pm. Tomatoes that you pick are 50 cents a pound. Bring clothes to protect you from the sun; bring drinking water; bring shoes that can stand a bit of dirt or even mud.

directions to Hollister

_________________________________

3) Tomato U-pick

August 25th: Tomato Upick at Mariquita Farm in Hollister in the morning: 9am to 2pm. We will also have Padron Peppers at this Tomato Upick Day! Also available: Bee keeping demonstration and honey for sale with Greg the Bee Man, other produce for harvest and sale, farm tours with plenty of Q and A with Andy and Julia; mud puddles, a mini farmers market, Two Small Farms T-shirts, and more.

Directions to our Hollister Field:
101 South or North to Highway 25 East on 25 towards Hollister until the intersection with Shore Rd.
Left on Shore Rd. Head north on Shore Rd. to the intersection with San Felipe Rd.
Left on San Felipe Rd. and go a mile or so. The entrance to the farm will be on your left just AFTER a beautiful old two-story Victorian home which is located at 7210 San Felipe Rd.

**Please do not go in the yard of the Victorian. The farm entrance is just after the home. Please drive very very slowly on the dirt driveway to help keep down dust and also to protect your car from holes in the road. There will likely be a sign out by the starting time for the event on the farm gate.

**Our farm is not open to the public except during posted upick and other event hours. thanks for understanding: we're a busy working farm and not set up for 6 or 7 days a week of meeting and greeting the public.

Host Needed for Live Oak/Opal Cliffs area of Santa Cruz

Our wonderful hosts at the current location will be moving in September and we are looking for a new location. If you are interested, contact Zelda in the CSA office at csa@twosmallfarms.com or 831-786-0625 for more info.
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4) Photos

Cutting Celery (aka Smallage or Soup Celery)

Spinach

Peppers (all peppers this week will be sweet, no spicy ones.)

Photo Gallery
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5) Recipes

Cutting Celery

Cutting celery is an actual celery, just without the enlarged stalk. It seems even more aromatic than regular celery and has fine celery flavor. Cutting celery looks like flat-leafed parsley, but is loaded with celery flavor. In Holland it is used to flavor soups and stews. It can also be chopped up and thrown into a green salad. It looks lots like Italian parsley, It can be used in many places that Italian parsley is used.

We’ve used cutting celery where we would the common, fat celery stalks of our childhood. We chop up the leaves to flavor stocks, soups and also fried rice. I like to throw fresh leaves into a green salad, along with parsley and arugula. I've been known to substitute it successfully for cilantro in Asian noodle dishes and for Italian Parsley in many different dishes.

Julia's Celery Soup

Take a bunch of smallage (soup celery) and wash it. Roughly chop and set aside. Chop 2 leeks and sautee briefly in butter or olive oil. Add one cubed raw potato if you like. Add the entire bunch of roughly chopped smallage (cutting celery). Add 4 cups of vegetable or chicken broth. Cook for 15-20 minutes on medium heat. Puree with immersible blender or food processor. Thin with milk if you like. Season to taste with S & P.

Tomatoes

Here's a great tomato tart recipe from our friend Heidi at 101 Cookbooks

Julia's Daily Caprese Salad

Chop 1 or more ripe heirloom tomatoes. Add chopped fresh basil if available. Add some cubed fresh mozzarella. Drizzle with a little olive oil, season to taste with S and P, and eat.

Elise's Tomato Basil Salad from Simply Recipes

Gringa Sopa, julia's recipe

"Sopa" is what we know as ‘Spanish rice' here in the US. The traditional Mexican sopa you see here in Watsonville is barely pink, usually made with just a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste, rice, oil, and "knorr swisa", or powdered chicken bouillon. I like to make my own version of sopa, with more tomatoes and no bouillon. Here's my recipe:

2 cups tomatoes, peeled, seeded, quartered and then pureed in the blender. (I've been known to leave the seeds and skins on....)
3 Tablespoons cooking oil
3 medium/large cipolline or other onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups raw rice
2 3/4 cups boiling water

Cook the onion in the oil in a large dutch oven with a lid that fits well until it's soft but not too brown. Add garlic and rice, cook another couple of minutes. Add tomatoes and salt, stir well, then add the water and cover and cook, covered, over low heat for 20 or so minutes.

Roasted Beets with Curry Dressing
adapted from Delicious TV

Servings: 6

6 medium beets roasted
Olive oil
Salt

2 cloves garlic crushed
2 Tbl yogurt
2 Tbl Mayo (regular or vegan)
4 tsp curry powder
3 Tbl fresh lemon juice
10 tbl olive oil
4 Tbl chopped cutting celery or cilantro
Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Wash, trim and wrap beets individually in foil. Place in a shallow pan and roast until tender. A sharp kitchen paring knife should pierce through the foil easily. Set aside to cool. Mix dressing by combining all ingredients except oil. When all ingredients are smooth, whisk in the oil and set aside. Many people don’t prepare fresh beets because of the staining juices. Wearing laytex or vinyl gloves will protect your hands and preparing on a covered surface will protect your cutting board. I often roast beets without wrapping and use them skin included. However, this is an alternative method. Whatever method you use, it is well worth the effort!

Unwrap the beets, and rub away skin. Slice into wedges and set into your dish. Spoon curry over the beets and serve at room temperature.

Chickpea and Spinach soup
(Chickpea is another name for Garbanzo)
adapted from a recipe by Shakti

2 tbsp olive oil
4 crushed garlic cloves
1 chopped leek or onion
1tsp ground cumin
2 tsp coriander powder
3 big potatoes peeld and chopped
16oz can chick peas, drained
5 cups vegetable stock
1tbsp corn starch
2/3 cups heavy cream or half and half
2 tbsp sesame seed paste
1 bunch spinach, washed and roughly chopped
red chile powder
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil and cook the garlic and onion until soft. Stir the cumin and coriander and cook. Add the stock and the potatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer. Add the chick peas and simmer until both are soft. Blend the sesasme seed paste, cream and the corn starch. Add the chile powder and mix into the soup. Add the spinach and bring to a boil. Keep stirring. Simmer for 5 minutes, add the salt and pepper and serve.

Sausage-Leek Soup
serves 6

1/2 pound smoked sausage
1/4 olive oil or butter
3 cups cleaned, chopped leeks
3 tablespoons chopped herbal celery or parsley
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup milk or half and half
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
S & P to taste

Slice or cut the sausage into thin slices. Heat oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add the sausage, heat and stir for 3-4 minutes add the chopped leeks, heat and stir for 5 minutes. Add the celery/parsley, stir add the chicken broth bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat and puree with a hand blender or in a food processor. Return to the pot and place over a low flame; stir in milk and gradually stir in the grated cheese. Season to taste with S & P and serve hot.

Multi Pepper Salad with Fontina
adapted from From the Cook's Garden by Ellen Ogden

1.5 pounds Sweet peppers, roasted and cut into 1/4 inch strips
12 black olives, such as kalamata, pitted and coarsely chopped
6 ounces Fontina cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 1.5 cups)
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon finely chopped cutting celery OR tarragon OR parsley
1/4 cup best extra virgin olive oil
S & P to taste

Combine the peppers, olives, and cheese. Mix the cream, lemon juice, mustard, and herb in a small bowl. Gradually whisk in the oil. Season with the S & P. Pour over the peppers and mix. Serve immediately.

Creamy Beet Soup with Pistachio Mousse
adapted from From the Cook's Garden by Ellen Ogden

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch beets, peeled and cubed
1 small onion or leek, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1.5 cups white wine
2 cups apple cider or juice
dash of ground allspice
1 stick of cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1 pint sour cream or yogurt
S & P to taste

Pistachio Mousse

1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup chopped pistachio nuts, slightly toasted
8 sprigs fresh chervil or 4 sprigs fresh tarragon
4 fresh mint leaves
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the beets and onions and cook, stirring often, until the onions soften, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add the wine and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until the wine is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the apple juice, spices, and return to the boil. Reduce heat to medium low and cover. Cook until the beets are tender, about 45 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaf. Stir in the sourcream or yogurt.

Transfer to a bowl and cool. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours.

Meanwhile make the pistachio mousse. Process all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth. Transfer to bowl, cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serve the soup cold, seasoning with the salt and pepper and garnishing each bowl with a spoonful of the mousse.

Risotto with Spinach and Leeks
submitted by Dee Doyle, adapted from Cooking Light March 2001

6 servings

5 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/4 cup white wine
3 cups coarsely chopped spinach
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
6 lemon wedges

Bring broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan (do not boil). Keep warm over low heat.

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks, saute 4 minutes or until tender. Add rice; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in wine cook 1 minute or until the liquid is nearly absorbed stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low; stir in spinach. Add broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly until each portion of the broth is absorbed before adding the next portion (about 25 minutes). Stir in cheese and pepper. Serve with lemon wedges.

VEGETABLE AND LEEK SOUP

1 cup chopped white and pale green part of leek, washed well
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, snow peas, turnips, fava beans, green beans, etc. (pick one)
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup sour cream

In a saucepan cook the leek and the garlic in the butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until the leek is softened, add the chosen vegetable, the broth, and 1/2 cup water, and simmer the mixture, covered, until the vegetable is tender. Puree two thirds of the mixture in a blender until it is very smooth, stir the puree into the mixture remaining in the pan, and whisk in the sour cream and salt and pepper to taste. Cook the soup over moderately low heat until it is heated through, but do not let it boil.

a quote from Tom Robbins:
"The beet is the most intense of vegetables The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious."

More Recipes
____________________________________

6) Which Farm?

From High Ground: Spinach, Leeks, Beets, Mystery, Flowers.
From Mariquita: Tomatoes, Peppers, Cutting Celery

__________________________________________

7) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main blog page:
http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

__________________________________

8) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
831-786-0625
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

In The box for week of August 22nd - 24th

2007-08-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

This week!

Sweet Peppers

Tomatoes

Steve's Mystery: romanesco, berries, or?

Spinach

Red Beets with great greens

Leeks

Cutting Celery also called smallage: a note on cutting celery: it is related to celery and is often called wild celery. In our kitchen we mostly use it like parsley. It gives vegetable soup, minestrone, potato salad, tuna salad, etc a nice herbal celery flavor. The photo above is of German holding a bunch of herbal celery.

Here are a couple of recipes I found today for the newsletter. I'm enjoying this cookbook from the library: From the Cook's Garden: Recipes for Cooks Who Like to Garden, Gardeners Who Like to Cook, and Everyone Who Wishes They Had a Garden.

Multi Pepper Salad with Fontina
adapted from From the Cook's Garden by Ellen Ogden

1.5 pounds Sweet peppers, roasted and cut into 1/4 inch strips
12 black olives, such as kalamata, pitted and coarsely chopped
6 ounces Fontina cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 1.5 cups)
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon finely chopped cutting celery OR tarragon OR parsley
1/4 cup best extra virgin olive oil
S & P to taste

Combine the peppers, olives, and cheese. Mix the cream, lemon juice, mustard, and herb in a small bowl. Gradually whisk in the oil. Season with the S & P. Pour over the peppers and mix. Serve immediately.
Creamy Beet Soup with Pistachio Mousse
adapted from From the Cook's Garden by Ellen Ogden

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch beets, peeled and cubed
1 small onion or leek, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1.5 cups white wine
2 cups apple cider or juice
dash of ground allspice
1 stick of cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1 pint sour cream or yogurt
S & P to taste

Pistachio Mousse

1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup chopped pistachio nuts, slightly toasted
8 sprigs fresh chervil or 4 sprigs fresh tarragon
4 fresh mint leaves
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the beets and onions and cook, stirring often, until the onions soften, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add the wine and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until the wine is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the apple juice, spices, and return to the boil. Reduce heat to medium low and cover. Cook until the beets are tender, about 45 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaf. Stir in the sourcream or yogurt.

Transfer to a bowl and cool. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours.

Meanwhile make the pistachio mousse. Process all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth. Transfer to bowl, cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serve the soup cold, seasoning with the salt and pepper and garnishing each bowl with a spoonful of the mousse.

Two Small Farms Newsletter #409

2007-08-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

August 16th 2007

In your box this week:

tomatoes
basil
potatoes
salad -or- romaine lettuce
onions
radishes -or- fennel
a Mariquita Mystery (summer squash/cukes or?)
High Ground Mystery (strawberries or artichokes)

How to store this week’s bounty: all in the fridge as soon as you arrive home, except for the tomatoes and basil. The tomatoes can be stored at room temperature. The basil: it shouldn’t get too cold so it won’t work in many parts of most fridges. It *may* keep in your vegetable drawer, or better yet the door of the fridge (which is often a tad warmer than the rest of the fridge.). Or on your counter. Or just make pesto within the first day: you’ll be fine.
___________

In The Shade Of The Ghost Pine
by Andy Griffin

Classic pesto is an emulsion of basil, pignoli, or pine nuts, olive oil, and Pecorino cheese. Opinions differ as to whether the olive oil can be augmented (or adulterated ) with butter for added creaminess, whether the sharpness of the sheep-milk cheese ought to be moderated (or cut ) with a mellower cow- milk cheese, like Parmesan, and whether there ought to be parsley and garlic in the blend. Nobody worth listening to disputes the necessity of the pine nuts for the best pesto.

Pesto is called "pesto," not "blendo," because it was traditionally made by hand in a mortar and pestle. Like most people these days, my wife, Julia, makes pesto in a food processor, and I eat it without complaint. I’ve been known to gripe about cleaning all the various paddles, blades and rubber rings that fall out of the food processor, but Julia doesn’t take me seriously. She knows my objections to electric blenders are irrational.

We don’t use my favorite kitchen utensils. Those would be the Indian grinding stones (photo above) I’ve unearthed over the years while working on different farms. I also have a modern, machine-ground stone mortar and pestle that was a gift from some Mexican farm workers I lived and worked with twenty five years ago on a ranch in Marin county, and I do use that occasionally.

These men weren’t legal to drive, and the farm was an hour from the city, so I bought them bulk tortillas, dry beans, and chiles when I delivered the farm’s produce to San Francisco. They cooked over an open fire, and we all gathered around the coals to share dinner. For lack of a comal, which is a flat griddle for cooking tortillas, they toasted their tortillas in an old hubcap laid on top of the coals.

When the guys finally made it to la pulga, or flea market, in Santa Rosa, they bought a proper comal, they bought me a mortar and pestle, or molcajete y mano. "Here’s a new one," they said, laughing. They found my fascination with the old, dirty grinding bowls and pestles we dug up in the field amusing.

The meals we shared weren’t much more than tortillas, beans, and barbecued chicken backs, with home-made salsa in the molcajete to spice things up. The food was always simple, but sharing dinner with them was never a grind.

Recently, I had an opportunity to take a trip to an area called The Indians, tucked away on the eastern side of the Santa Lucia Mountains in southern Monterey County. The region is characterized by massive sandstone formations that jut from the earth. I found numerous bedrock mortar holes left in the sandstone by the Salinan Indians.

This area is called The Indians because it was a last redoubt of the Salinan tribe. Following Mexico’s declaration of independence from Spain, the mission system collapsed. The Indian acolytes who’d been at Mission San Antonio, near Jolon, fled back into mountains around 1835, and took refuge in the sandstone rocks. The oak trees nearby gave the Salinans acorns for meal, and pine trees were a source of rich pine nuts. Pine nuts contain up to 31% protein— more than
any other nut— and unless they’ve been shelled, they keep well without going rancid.

The Italian Stone pine, Pinus pinea, is the standard commercial source for pignoli, and it’s been cultivated for its nuts for more than 6000 years. The pine the Salinan Indians depended on is Pinus sabiniana, also called Gray pine, Ghost pine, or Digger pine. These pines are sparsely cloaked in gray-green needles, and they cast scant shade. They can survive on only 10 inches of rain a year. Gray pines are usually multi-branched, and they lean at crazy, drunken angles out of the brushy stony slopes that support them.

The American settlers didn’t value Pinus sabiniana because its wood is coarse, twisted, and prone to splitting, and they didn’t value the Native Californians. Salinan Indians survived by foraging for wild foods. They dug in the earth for edible roots, and they dug into rotten logs for edible grubs. To the forty-niners, who dug into earth for gold and cut down the straight, tall Ponderosa pines for lumber to reinforce their mine shafts, the Indians were "diggers," and the "useless" pines that supported them were "Digger pines."

Since "Digger pine" is a pejorative— think nigger with a "d"— scientists discourage the use of this derogatory common name in favor of the colorless "Gray pine." I prefer the equally unscientific name Ghost pine, because it evokes a spirit of times past.

On my trip I took some photos of the bedrock mortars, and I gathered a handful of pine nuts to take home I’ll make my kids crack the tough shells to help build their character, and they’ll think I’m nuts. But to make a perfectly balanced pesto, there’s nothing like the resinous sweetness of pine nuts to serve as such a perfect foil for the unctuous richness of the olive oil and the spicy fragrance of the basil. Besides, pine nuts have always had a significance that went beyond flavor.

The pineal gland is buried at the geographical center of the cranium. It was named by the ancients from the Latin pinea, meaning pine nut, which it presumably resembles. The pineal gland is a tiny organ of mysterious function, identified by various authorities as the "third eye," or the "sixth chakra."

Pine nuts are shaped like human eyes, so their identification with a gland that promises "inner vision" makes "magical sense." I don’t know if it’s magic, but when I eat pine nuts, they help me taste the past.

Andy’s Photo essay

the photo essay includes the following images:

1. Last redoubt

2. The Indian Rocks

3. Ghost Pine

4. Sandstone counter top

5. Outdoor kitchen

____________________________________________

Events

August 25th: Tomato Upick at Mariquita Farm in Hollister in the morning: 9am to 2pm. We know we’ll have plenty of tomatoes by then. We will also have Padron Peppers at this Tomato Upick Day! Also available: Bee keeping demonstration and honey for sale with Greg the Bee Man, other produce for harvest and sale, farm tours with plenty of Q and A with Andy and Julia; mud puddles, and more. Join us!

Strawberry Upick this Saturday August 18th $1.20/lb. Check in at the Redman House Farmstand first to pick up your empty flat(s). From Hwy 1, take Riverside Drive (Hwy 129) exit. Go west off the exit (toward the ocean). Turn right at the stop sign at Lee Rd. Pass the Chevron stations and turn into the farmstand parking area.

___________________________________

Photos:

Basil

fennel

Photo Gallery

______________________________________

Recipes from Pat and Julia

Fresh Basil Vinaigrette
adapted from Cook's Country April/May 2007

3/4 cups olive oil
2 cups chopped fresh basil
1 onion (small) or shallot or 3 green onions, peeled, roots removed
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Heat 1/4 cup oil with 1 cup basil in medium saucepan over medium heat until basil turns bright green and small bubbles appear, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off heat and let steep 5 minutes.

Whirl onion, garlic, vinegar, water, S & P, and mustard in blender or food processor until garlic and onion are finely chopped, about 15 seconds. With blender running, slowly add remaining oil and sttped basil oil and continue to process until dressing is smooth and emulsified, about 15 seconds. Pack remaining 1 cup basil into blender and process until dressing is smooth, about 15 seconds.

similar recipe to use up thyme from last week: just in case you still have some!:

Thyme-Mustard Vinaigrette
adapted from Cook's Country April/May 2007

3/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme
2 green onions or 1 shallot, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
2 tablespoon whole-grain or other 'fancy' mustard

Heat 1/4 cup oil with 1 tablespoon thyme in med. saucepan over medium heat until thyme turns bright green and small bubbles appear, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off heat and steep 5 minutes.

Process onions, garlic, vinegar, S & P, mustard, and remaining thyme in blender until garlic and shallot are finely chopped, about 15 seconds. With blender running, slowly add reminaing oil and steeped thyme oil and continue to process until dressing is smooth and emulsified, about 15 seconds.

Caprese Salad

serves 4
12 ounces mozzarella cheese, fresh, in slices
12 each basil leaves, fresh
1 pound tomatoes, fresh,
1 cup olive oil, extra-virgin
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Rinse & cut tomatoes into thin slices, this is a good time to sharpen up your knives a bit. If you have a 'steel' use that. it helps!

In four medium-size salad dishes, alternate the cheese slices, basil and tomato slices, overlapping slightly.

Divide the olives evenly and arrange them at the centre of each dish.

Spoon the oil over each serving, letting it to form a pool like a sauce.

Season with salt and pepper, cover and let stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving

Pat Lerman's Current Favorite Artichoke Preparation:
Here's my latest favorite artichoke recipe.

Peel the stem and slice off the top inch of the artichoke. Pull off and discard (yes, I know it sounds wasteful) all the meaty outer leaves leaving the soft inner leaves. Slice the artichoke in half lengthwise and, using a paring knife or grapefruit knife, remove the fuzzy inner "choke" and the inner leaves that are attached to the choke.

Cut each half in half again lengthwise and roll in fresh lemon or lime juice or sherry vinegar (for flavor and to keep the artichokes from oxidizing).

Sprinkle with a little sugar and salt and add a finely minced clove of garlic. Keep the artichokes in a bowl in this marinade until you are ready to cook them.

Heat some olive oil in a skillet. Add the artichokes and sauté with a medium heat. When they start to brown, add a couple of tablespoons of water, cover the pan and turn off the heat. Let the pan stand until the stems have become fork-tender. Remove the cover and reduce the liquid over heat until it's syrupy.

Serve the artichokes warm or at room temperature. They are great on a platter of roasted small potatoes, braised onions and other vegetables.

-Pat

Bread-and-Butter Radishes
adapted from a recipe I saw at Chowhound.com

Makes: 1 3/4 cup

1 bunch red radishes (about 13 radishes)
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon yellow or brown mustard seed
1/4 teaspoon whole coriander seed
1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 dried bay leaf

Instructions

1. Rinse radishes and remove their leafy tops. Holding the stem end, thinly slice radishes with a mandolin or a sharp knife. When you get close to the stem, stop slicing and discard the end. Place radishes in a heatproof, nonreactive bowl, and set in the refrigerator while making the brine.
2. Combine red wine vinegar, sugar, water, salt, mustard seed, coriander seed, peppercorns, and bay leaf in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally until sugar is dissolved.
3. Remove from heat and let pickling brine cool for about 5 minutes. Remove radishes from the refrigerator and pour brine over them. Let cool at room temperature for 20 minutes; cover and refrigerate. Use to top burgers, sandwiches, or anything else that needs a little tarting up.

Mango and Radish Salad
adapted from Belgian Recipes

Serves 4

1 large ripe mango (cubed)
12 chopped radishes
juice from 1 lemon
3 tbsp of olive oil
Tabasco to taste
3 tbsp of chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp of crushed pink peppercorns

Place the mango and radishes in a bowl. Mix the lemon juice and oil in a beaker and season with the salt and a few drops of Tabasco. Stir in the cilantro and peppercorns. Stir the dressing into the mango and radish mixture. Place in the fridge for 2 hours before serving.

Really tasty with grilled fish or chicken.

Unfried French Fries
adapted from In the Kitchen with Rosie by Rosie Daley

2 pounds potatoes
oil cooking spray
2 egg whites
1 tablespoon cajun spice or chile powder or curry powder....

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Slice each potato into 1/4 inch ovals lengthwise then each oval into matchsticks. Coat a baking sheet with 3 sprays of the oil spray. Combine egg whites and spice in a bowl. Add the potato sticks and mix to coat. Pour the coated potatoes onto the sprayed baking sheet (I use a jelly roll pan) and spread them out into a single layer, leaving a little space in between. Place baking sheet on the bottom shelf of the oven. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the fries are crispy, turning them every 6 to 8 minutes with a spatula so that they brown evenly. Serve immediately.

Julia's Potato Salad
Serves 6–8

2 pounds new or fingerling potatoes, cut into rough 1 inch pieces and cooked til tender
1 tablespoon rice or cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 onion minced
1 small head fennel or celery stalk, cut into small dice (optional)
2-4 radishes, diced
1/4 cup sweet pickle (not relish), cut into small dice (optional)
small-medium handful washed and chopped arugula leaves
1 cup mayonnaise (homemade makes this dish sublime)
3 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard
1 generous bunch minced fresh parsley

Layer warm potato pieces in medium bowl; sprinkle with vinegar, salt, and pepper as you go. Refrigerate while preparing remaining ingredients. 2. Mix in

remaining ingredients; refrigerate until ready to serve.

ITALIAN FENNEL SALAD

Thinly slice 1 medium-size fennel bulb and 1 unpeeled orange. Arrange - alternating and overlapping or however you like - on two salad plates. Strew with half a dozen salt-cured or Kalamata olives, sprinkle each plate with 1/2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, a few drops of fresh lemon juice, a tsp. of finely chopped fennel leaves, salt and freshly ground white pepper. Serve at once or let the ingredients mingle an hour or so. Serves 2.

The Kitchen Garden Cookbook, Sylvia Thompson

PREPARING FENNEL

Baking: First, braise the fennel for about 5 minutes. Transfer to a baking dish and add just 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. Cover tightly and bake at 350

degrees until just tender and beginning to brown. If desired, uncover toward the end to allow any excess liquid to evaporate, then sprinkle with breadcrumbs

and grated Parmesan cheese, and brown under the broiler before serving. Cooking time: about 1 hour.

Braising: Braise fennel in broth, tomato sauce, vermouth or sherry (diluted 1-to-1 with water); add lemon zest, garlic, or onion for extra flavor. Braised

fennel is delicious hot, warm, or chilled. Place fennel slices, or halved or quartered small fennel bulbs, in a sauce pan and add just enough boiling

liquied to barely cover the vegetable. Simmer uncovered, turning occasionally, until the fennel is tender, adding more liquid if necessary. Cooking time:

25 to 40 minutes.

Sauteing: Cut fennel into slivers and heat in a small amount of stock, tossing and stirring it frequently. For extra flavor, cook chopped onion and garlic

along with fennel. A sprinkling of lemon juice and zest makes a nice finishing touch. Cooking time: 10 to 15 minutes.

Steaming: Fennel steamed until crisp-tender can be covered with your favorite sauce or marinated in a vinaigrette, chilled, and served as a salad. To steam

it, place whole or halved bulbs in a vegetable steamer and cook over boiling water until just tender. Cooking time: 20 to 30 minutes.

The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition, Shelden Margen, M.D.

More Recipes

____________________________________

6) Which Farm?

From High Ground: Lettuce/Salad, potatoes, radishes, fennel, Berries, Arichokes, Flowers
From Mariquita: Tomatoes, Basil, Onions, M-Quita mystery

__________________________________________

7) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter

Two Small Farms Blog

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don’t have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this

newsletter out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small

Farms Blog on the main blog page:
http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/
__________________________________

8) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
831-786-0625
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com

In the box for week of August 15th

2007-08-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

In the box this week: Basil, Red Onions, Mystery, Tomatoes, Salad, Berries OR Artichokes, Potatoes, Radishes

This is a likely list, Steve and Andy will check the fields again next week. I post here as early as I'm able in case any of you have recipes you want to share for the newsletter and/or a 'what I'd do with the box' blurb. thank you!

Julia

Two Small Farms Newsletter #408

2007-08-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

August 8th 2007

Table of Contents:

1) In your box this week
2) Party Animals
3) August Events
4) Photos
5) Recipes
6) Which Farm?
7) Unsubscribe
8) Two Small Farms Contact Information
______________________________________

1) In your box this week: Potatoes, thyme, green onions, cabbage for Wed and celery for Thurs/Fri, 2 heads of lettuce (romaine and/or red leaf), either cubanelle or poblano peppers, and Two mystery items (one might be strawberries or broccoli; the other might be cucumbers, Tomatoes, Summer Squash, or Broccoli di cicco. Why are Steve and Andy 'invoking' the mystery option? The berry fields and tomato patch are being fickle, it happens in farming, same with the cucumbers! Thanks for your patience.)

This week's vegetable list: I try to have it updated by Monday night, sometimes by Mon. am

How to store this week's bounty: all in the fridge as soon as you arrive home, including the potatoes which are "new" potatoes. A new potato is not a small potato but rather it's a fresh potato harvested from a green, growing potato plant. A somewhat scuffed, frayed appearance to the potato skin is a frequent consequence of harvesting such tender spuds and is unavoidable because the skin has not yet hardened. New potatoes wilt and must be treated like green vegetables and stored in a bag in the fridge.

_________________________________________________

2) Party Animals by Andy Griffin

Growing vegetables is my business, but raising farm animals is my hobby. I've got sheep and goats, but my special pets are my two donkeys, Primavera, a six year old jennet, and her nine-month old foal, Sweetpea. In the evenings, when the scandals and stresses of running a small business can be put to rest for the day, I enjoy taking my donkeys for a walk around our home ranch. Sometimes my daughter, Lena, helps me brush them until their coats are glossy.

You can tell when donkeys are relaxed and happy because they hang their heads in contentment and close their eyes. When Prima is being groomed, her lower lip hangs down as if she's beginning to melt. Sweetpea likes to be brushed too, but as she's young and energetic, she's often impatient to go on her walk. When she and I do go walking, I have to pay attention, because she's only half-trained. At nine-months, Sweetpea already weighs 400 pounds, and she is strong in both body and spirit.

The other evening, Lena was helping me with Sweetpea, and she took a turn at leading her around the barnyard. I explained to Lena that managing a donkey is a question of will - donkeys are stronger than we are, and their big ears serve as radars to pick up even the slightest tremor in our self-confidence - then I handed Lena the lead rope.

A covey of quail flew up from the grass at the edge of the corral with a flurry of wings, and Sweetpea took advantage of the surprise to lunge in terror. Lena lost hold of the halter rope instantly, and Sweetpea proceeded to race around the pen, bucking and snorting, with the lead-rope dragging behind her like a purple snake. When Sweetpea calmed down, I picked up the rope.

I was a surprised at how easily Sweetpea had been able to break free - my daughter doesn't scare easily - but then I remembered a traumatic incident involving a donkey in Lena's early childhood.

When Lena was three, she had her first experience of a Mexican style birthday. It was a picnic at Palm Beach in Watsonville for her friend Saiya. Saiya isn't Mexicana - her mother, Senai, is Japanese and her father, Mark, is German - but they'd met in Paraguay when they both worked for the United Nations. Spanish and English are their common languages. Watsonville is overwhelmingly Hispanic, so it was natural that little Saiya would adapt to local birthday customs.

Mark went to Happy Burro Market out on the edge of town, and selected a bright piñata from the display that hung from the ceiling above the brooms and mops. He could have chosen a chartreuse and orange Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle piñata, or a blue and red Spiderman piñata. But Saiya was more interested in animals than action heroes, so he picked out a classic donkey piñata, and bought enough candy to fill its round belly.

Mark and his brother hung the donkey from the overhanging branch of a eucalyptus tree in the middle of the picnic grounds that lie behind the beach. The piñata swayed gently in the breeze. The gray crepe paper strips that made up the donkey's coat were nicely set off by the animal's cream colored nose and belly. Black crepe paper made for a pretty mane and tail. The piñata donkey was dressed with a colorful paper saddle of red, yellow, green, and blue, and it even wore a little straw sombrero. Saiya, who was turning four, loved the piñata, and so did her five young guests, Lena, Lydia, Maija, Anwen, and Iliana. There were no brothers present.

When the time came to hit the donkey with a stick, it was difficult, because it was so beautiful. But the violence had to be done. The piñata always comes before the presents, and most importantly, before the cake. These little girls had never beaten a piñata before. When her papa handed Saiya a stout, dry stick he'd picked up from underneath the eucalyptus tree, she looked confused. He showed her how to swing it. Because the girls were so young, the parents present decided to forgo the typical custom of blind-folding the children when they struck at the piñata.

Saiya was the birthday princess, but she was a gracious hostess, so she let Lena go first. Lena missed the piñata on her first swing, and only grazed it with the stick on her second. On her third attempt, she struck a solid blow across the ribs of the donkey, and she turned to me with big eyes for a sign of approval. Lena had hit the piñata hard enough for it to swing in an arc on the end of its rope, but not so hard as to crack it. The donkey made a half turn in the air and came back at Lena like a pendulum, kicking her in the back of the head, and knocking her face-flat in the sand.

The other little girls didn't have much luck either. It was the first party I'd ever been to where it looked like the piñata was going to win. The little gray donkey with the straw sombrero raged at the end of its tether like a rodeo bronco, and one girl after another bit the dust. Finally, Saiya begged her Uncle to do the deed. While the girls covered their eyes, he took up the stick and delivered a mighty whack to the paper donkey. The piñata's belly finally tore open, spraying a rooster tail of brightly wrapped candies across the white beach.

The girls swarmed the sand like baboons, and minutes later, when they trooped off to the picnic table for the ceremonial unwrapping of the birthday presents, there was nothing left for the seagulls but a couple of pieces of red and silver foil that smelled like chocolate kisses. I guess the moral of the story is that no matter how sweet and lovely a donkey may appear, you always want to be careful when you're around the business end of an ass.

copyright 2007 Andy Griffin

Drawing by Andy's Daughter Lena of Sweet pea the Teen-Aged Donkey Bucking with joy

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3) Events

Strawberry U-Picks Summer Saturdays

Come pick your own berries at High Ground Organics in Watsonville, Saturdays 10 am to 1 pm, for the rest August. $1.20/lb. Check in at the Redman House Farmstand first to pick up your empty flat(s). From Hwy 1, take Riverside Drive (Hwy 129) exit. Go west off the exit (toward the ocean). Turn right at the stop sign at Lee Rd. Pass the Chevron stations and turn into the farmstand parking area.

August 25th: Tomato Upick at Mariquita Farm in Hollister in the morning: 9am to 2pm. We know we'll have plenty of tomatoes by then. We will also have Padron Peppers at this Tomato Upick Day!

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4) Photos:

Thyme

Peppers & Chiles

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5) Recipes from Zelda and Julia

We call this week's potatoes "Godzilla Fingerlings" since they're so big. They are a great, smooth, waxy potato that are perfect for potato salad or home fries, or just about any other potato use. My son mashed some last week and they were also tasty, but then again he used too much butter, so what can go wrong!? -julia

Some ideas for potato salad adapted from Ellen Ogden's From the Cook's Garden

- For best results, make potato salad with low-starch, waxy potatoes, especially red skinned types or fingerlings. High starch baking potatoes will be mealy and crumbly in a salad.

- Don't overcook potatoes for salad. Stick the potatoes with a sharp knife, and if tender, remove from the heat. Try to catch the potatoes just before the skins split, or they could end up mushy. Dress the potatoes while still warm to absorb the dressing.

-To retain the best flavor and nutrients, do not peel the potatoes.

-Potatoes can take a lot of seasoning, especially salt. Keep in mind that the potatoes will taste different once they have cooled. Keep tasting and season to taste.

NEW POTATO SALAD WITH SAUTEED ONION VINAIGRETTE
from Bon Appetit June 1997

2 1/4 pounds thin-skinned potatoes
1 1/2 tablespoons dry white wine
3 teaspoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
8 radishes, trimmed, thinly sliced
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (or thyme!)
1 large cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, thinly sliced ( I would omit this during this cooler season...)

Cook potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until tender when pierced with fork, about 15 minutes or longer. Drain. Cool potatoes until lukewarm. Cut potatoes in salad sized pieces. Place in large bowl. Sprinkle wine over potatoes. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onions and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add vinegar, mustard and sugar to skillet and stir to blend. Pour over potatoes and toss to coat. Add radishes, green onions, parsley and remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil and toss to blend. Season salad to taste with salt and pepper.

New Potatoes with Green Garlic

Amounts are flexible: Steam or boil truly new potatoes until they are barely done, it takes less time than 'regular' potatoes because they are so fresh. Heat some oil or butter in a frying pan big enough to easily accommodate the potatoes. Add some (I use quite a bit) chopped green garlic and another herb such as rosemary or thyme if you like. Add potatoes and cook for a little while until the potatoes begin to brown, eat them up when they look like they are ready. You can add salt and pepper if you like.

Cabbage and Potato Pancakes (from Simplicity - from a Monastery Kitchen)

1/2 head small green cabbage
4 large potatoes, peeled and grated
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
2 eggs
3/4 c milk
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
a small bunch of parsley (or thyme!), chopped
8 TBS vegetable or olive oil

Quarter the cabbage and steam it for about 6-7 minutes. Drain and chop the cabbage finely. Place chopped cabbage, grated potatoes, and chopped onion in a big bowl. Mash them thoroughly with a masher and mix them well with a spatula. In a separate deep bowl beat the eggs. Add the milk and beat some more. Add the cabbage-potato-onion mixture. Add some salt and pepper and the chopped parsley. Mix all the ingredients together until thoroughly blended. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 250. To make the pancakes use a crepe pan or nonstick skillet. In the pan heat about 1 tablespoon of oil (each time) to low-med and pour in about one eighth of the potato mixture. Flatten the mixture evenly with a spatula and cook over medium heat until the pancake turns brown at the bottom. Turn the pancake over carefully and continue cooking the other side. When the pancake is done, slide it carefully onto an ovenproof platter. Repeat the process until all the pancakes are done. Keep the pancakes in the warm oven until ready to serve.

Thyme - a Few Quick Serving Ideas:
- Add thyme to your favorite pasta sauce recipe.
- Fresh thyme adds a wonderful fragrance to omelets and scrambled eggs.
- Hearty beans such as kidney beans, pinto beans and black beans taste exceptionally good when seasoned with thyme.
- When poaching fish, place some sprigs of thyme on top of the fish and in the poaching liquid.
- Season soups and stocks by adding fresh thyme.

Celery and Apple Salad Dijon, Gourmet September 1993

2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon minced fresh tarragon leaves or 1/4 teaspoon dried, crumbled
4 ribs of celery, cut into 1 1/2-inch matchsticks, plus celery leaves for garnish
1 crisp tart apple, cut into 1 1/2-inch matchsticks

In a bowl whisk together the mayonnaise, the mustard, the vinegar, the sugar, the tarragon, and salt and pepper to taste until the dressing is smooth and add the celery and the apple. Toss the salad and serve it garnished with the celery leaves. Serves 2.

Goat cheese with Thyme and Lemon, Bon Appétit, July 2007

1 (5.5-ounce) log soft mild goat cheese
1 teaspoon cracked peppercorns
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 small garlic clove, pressed (optional) Sliced baguette (toasted, if desired)

Place cheese on plate; using plastic wrap as aid, shape into 5-inch round. Sprinkle with salt, peppercorns, and thyme, and press into cheese. Mix olive oil, lemon peel, and garlic, if desired, in small bowl. Pour over cheese. Serve with baguette.

Cabbage and Apple Slaw with toasted pecans, Gourmet, December 1998

1/2 Granny Smith apple
1/2 small head cabbage
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup pecans
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives (or use the green parts of your green onions)

Cut apple into 1/2-inch cubes and very thinly slice enough cabbage to measure 3 cups. In a bowl toss together apple, cabbage, lemon juice, and salt to taste. Chop pecans. In a small skillet toast pecans in butter over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant. Sprinkle sugar and salt to taste over pecans and cook, stirring frequently, until pecans are coated, about 1 minute. Remove skillet from heat and cool pecans slightly. Add pecans with butter in skillet and chives to cabbage mixture and toss to combine well. Season slaw with salt. Serves 2

Recipe Links:

Cabbage

Celery

Peppers (not spicy)

Spicy Chiles

Potatoes

Onions

Strawberries

Salad Dressings

Thyme

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6) Which Farm?

>From High Ground: Lettuce, green onions, cabbage, celery, one mystery,
>Flowers From Mariquita: Peppers, thyme, potatoes, mystery
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7) Unsubscribe/Subscribe From/To This Newsletter http://www.mariquita.com/news/newsletter.signup.html

BLOG ADVANTAGES: I can change mistakes after I post them. I don't have to subscribe/unsubscribe folks. Old newsletters easily accessed. Links! (I send this newsletter out as plain text so more folks with differently-abled computer systems can easily read it.) You can sign up for email updates to the Two Small Farms Blog on the main blog page:
http://twosmallfarms.blogspot.com/

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8) Two Small Farms Contact Information

Two Small Farms
Mariquita Farm/High Ground Organics
Organically Grown Vegetables
831-786-0625
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077
csa@twosmallfarms.com
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
http://www.mariquita.com
http://www.highgroundorganics.com