Box # 3

Contents

Parsley

Cucumbers

Kohlrabi

Lettuce, mixed types

Onions, Young

Sugar Snap Peas

Swiss Chard

Swiss Chard

Swiss Chard tastes very good when sauteed. I add a tablespoon of cane sugar and 2 slices of lemon to neutralize the bitterness. 

Chicken Parmesan noodles with Swiss chard in a white wine reduction.

Veggie Fact of the week: 

• Chard leaves contain at least 13 different polyphenol antioxidants.
• One of them inhibits an enzymes activity to break down carbohydrates and with that the blood sugar levels are kept under control.

Corn on the cob and two kinds of cucumber salad. The one on the right is a yogurt based salad. On the left Panzanella salad. This salad was something I wanted to make for a while. Not sure why it took me so long. It was so good and so simple to make. I caramelized the onions and used toasted bread. I think it was fine. The toasted bread soaked up the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and all the spices. 

This is a similar recipe:

http://italian.food.com/recipe/panzanella-104900

Box # 2

Contents of this week
Basil Plant
Basil, Bunched
Cucumber
Garlic
Kohlrabi
Lettuce: Red Leaf, Green Romaine, Red Boston
Radishes, Bunched
Sugar Snap Peas
Zucchini

It is too hot to cook, but i did manage to make a couple things.

Hot Dogs. Topped it with a cheesy kohlrabi sour cream sauce and some spinach leaves.

I made a pizza, with pesto sauce, yellow tomato, zucchini and feta cheese topping.
I roasted the beet at the same time as the Pizza was hanging out in the oven. Saved energy and avoided an extra heat source.

I made a sandwich with the the sliced beet, some feta cheese and a sunny side up egg. Strange combo, but so good!

The Pesto sauce recipe came from the CSA Newsletter:


Basil Pesto
makes approx. 2 cups pesto
In the bowl of a food processor, put:
2 cups, packed, fresh basil leaves, washed and spun/dried
4 medium cloves garlic, chopped coarsely
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly-ground pepper
1/4 cup almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, etc.
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Process all ingredients just until uniform in size. Add more salt, pepper, etc. to suit your taste. You can also freeze this pesto, altho the flavor and texture are better if you leave out the cheese.

I used half for cooking right away and froze the other half. I used the fresh garlic from the veggie box. What a difference that made! It is milder and sweeter.

One of my favorite things this week had to be the sugar snap peas. So sweet and fresh. They taste like summer. No need to steam or fry these. They are best eaten raw.

Veggie fact of the week:

• Sugar Snaps contain Vitamin K and B6. Both are keeping your bones healthy. 
• They are also very low in calories and kind of fun to eat!

This webpage explains where peas came from and what their nutritious value is:
http://www.holisticbirds.com/pages/peas0601.htm
Who knew peas contain a chemical that interferes with estrogen and testosterone!

 I wanted to share this pea recipe i made last easter and will make again. Found on the food network webpage:

Creamy Spring Peas with Pancetta

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/creamy-spring-peas-with-pancetta-recipe/index.html

Vegetannual

A Vegetannual. Imagine one plant growing all kinds of veggies. This is an average timeline they would be ready to be harvested.

Here is a link to an interactive Vegetannual: http://www.vegetannual.org/

A little Spinach

I think the easiest way to prepare spinach, besides eating it raw in a salad, is sauteed. Chopped up and thrown into a pan with some water and salt and olive oil. Pair it up with caramelized onions and wrapped it in a corn tortilla with chicken sausage and sour cream. Quick dinner and if you line it up right you only dirty one pan.

Zuchini, Zuchini, Zuchini.

Raw, fried, baked. So good for you. My daughter calls them 'Tinis'. So I will call this creation
'Tini Cakes' in honor of her and because I am thankful that she liked them.

Served with a little sour cream and some of the leppard lettuce from Box 1.

Here is the recipe:
1 large Zucchini
1 onion, the ratio to the zucchini is about 1 part onion to 5 parts zucchini
1 garlic clove (or more...depending on what your plans for later are)
Salt      
Grate the zucchini, onion and garlic and mix with salt. Let drain for a good half hour. Put the mix in a towel and squeeze even more water out. Good work out for your arms.

While the zucchini mix drains make the rest of the dough mix
4 eggs
about a cup of flour ( this recipe called for spelled flour. I used whole wheat and it was fine)
I added some spelled flakes, but that is optional
1 cup of cheese grated or cut in small cubes
I also added a little bit of parmesan and about 1/4 cup of milk

Mix the dough together and let sit for 15 min. Add both mixtures together.

Instead of frying I baked the cakes in the oven at 400 degrees until golden. This recipe suggested serving it with a garlic dip. I didn't have yoghurt, but this sounds really good:

about 1 1/2 cups of yoghurt. Drain in a colander lined with a towel for 30 minutes.
2-3 cloves of garlic smushed (thats a word right?)
mixed with the drained yoghurt, add a little salt to taste. Let stand for an hour.

I found this recipe in my Hildegard von Bingen recipe book. For those of you who are not familiar with her: She was a nun in Germany. Lived around 1100 and is known for her visions and healing power.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen

According to her, zucchinis are much easier to digest than cucumbers. They contain a good amount of folate, potassium and vitamin A and are low in calories. Well, unless you pair them with sour cream and cheese....

Box # 1

I picked up the first box this week. So exciting. Like a little box of treasures. It included:

Parsley Plant

Beets:  Red

Lettuce:  Leopard, Green Romaine, Red Leaf

               Green Leaf,  Winter Density

Onions, Young White & Red

Radishes

Spinach, Bunched

Zucchini

Now, what to do with it? 

I will try to include the recipe given in the CSA newsletter. This week it happens to be one of my favorite things: Roasted beets. 

Roasted Beets

In a medium bowl, put:           

            1  Tbsp.  olive oil

            ½  tsp.  salt

            ¼  tsp.  freshly-ground pepper

Remove stems and leaves from the beets and reserve for another use.  Cut off the root and scrub clean.  Cut beets into largish chunks and put into bowl.  Do NOT peel, as it provides better flavor.  Toss with oil, salt & pepper until all beets are evenly coated.  Put the oiled beets into a pan with sides, and bake in a 400 degree oven for 30-60 minutes, or until they’re done enough for a fork or knife to go in and out easily.  Serve hot, or cool and cut up into salads.  Roasted beets make a great snack.  Use the stems and leaves cut up into salads.

(Thank you Terry)

This is were the roasted beets ended up at. Very happy. Mingling with some goat cheese, walnuts and mixed greens.

Veggie Fact of the week:
Beets are rich in Vitamin C, folic acid and iron.
They may lower blood pressure.
Red Beets have been used as natural dye, even as hair dye (Not a big surprise to anyone who has ever cooked one).

Read up on your beets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_beet
25 facts about beets (maybe 25 more, than you wanted to know)
http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/25-facts-about-beets.html

Certified Organic

This year I will be getting my vegetables from Full Harvest Farm located just north of Hartford.
Chuck and Terry are the owners and grow certified organic produce. No dull tasting and pesticide covered greens for us this season.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You can read up on it, as well as on Full Harvest Farm on the links provided. Basically, the community supports the farmer in advance and in return gets a share of their harvest every week.

The best thing is, that I am getting it by a workers share. What that means is, that I will be working 4 hours every week on the West Bend Farmers market to receive a family size share of CSA.
Twist my arm. The market is beautiful. It is the second biggest farmers market in Wisconsin. When I get there at 7.30 am in the morning the air is so fresh and only enhanced by the produce and the smell of  scones and other goodies baked by a little restaurant close by.

One more thing. This blog is for me to remember what works and what doesn't. I am doing this to be able to look it up next year, but I wanted to share this experience.
I am not entirely sure about the whole concept of the blog yet. I hope it will just unfold itself.
Also, I have never been the best writer. I write like i talk.... just thought I'd mention.

For more information on Full Harvest Farm:
http://www.fullharvestfarm.com/home.html
CSA Information can be found here:
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/