Winter Week #6, 2025

What we hope will be in the share this week:

• Green onions

• Celeriac

• Parsley or cilantro or watercress 

• Onions

• Leeks

• Chard or collards  or rapini

• Braising mix with spinach

• Winter squash

• Broccoli sprouting kit

All the best intentions. We changed the pick-up date to accomodate our planned trip to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary and have come up against the first real cold snap of the season. We managed to get some of the crops out of the ground and into the cooler earlier this week. Unfortunately our departure time and the thaw may not give us a chance to get all the other goodies we hoped to include. For sure you will get; leeks, celeriac, broccoli sprouting kit, onions, winter squash. If we can get the cilantro, braising mix and chard we will do it tomorrow morning as soon as we can get out there.

We have been seeding and prepping. The devilish dark eyed juncos are famished and managed to eat 6 flats of sprouting sugar snaps and 8 flats of sprouted wheat. I have reseeded most everything but it is very frustating to keep redoing the same work and not get ahead. I will leave my tomatoes, peppers and cabbage on the hot table and hope they make it until I get home. Jacob is being left in charge of these precious seedlings. Please keep your fingers crossed that with divided attention they will make it.

I went out to feed little Flannel this morning and witnessed one of our new does in labor and about to deliver. She was successful and delivered her kid right onto the hay in 10 degree weather. We were hoping that the remaining 7 does would deliver prior to our trip, but no such luck, they will have to succeed on their own.

The west side Share fair is set for 2/22/2025 from 10 AM to 2 PM at the Helvetia Farm Market just one mile from our farm. Tell you friends and neighbors to come check us out. Luna will be there at the booth, she will have information about the farm share and ceramics and more. Stop by and say Hi and help us get those last few subscribers to round out our subscriptions for 2025.

The Portland Share Fair is on 3/2/2025. I will be back by then and at our booth at the Redd in SE Portland from 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Redd on Salmon , 831 SE Salmon St, Portland, OR 97214, USA . If Flannel is up to it I will take her with me, otherwise you will have to visit her here on the farm.

We have about 3 full shares (6 half shares) left for the 2025 season. If you want to stay with us during the regular growing season please sign up today by paying your deposit right here on the website. We will have limited capacity to honor late comers as Juvencio and I will be handling all the harvests on our own with the help of willing subscribers.

Now here are some recipes to enjoy this week and a guide to growing your own sprouts:

How To Grow Broccoli Sprouts

1. Wash And Soak The Seeds. For a quart-sized Mason jar, use 2 tablespoons of broccoli seeds. ...

2. Rinse, Drain, Repeat. The sprouting process consists of simply rinsing and draining the seeds every 8-12 hours, or two to three times per day. ...

3. Store Sprouts In Darkness. ...

4. Harvest Your Sprouts.

https://www.cleaneatingkitchen.com/broccoli-sprouts-benefits-6-ways-to-eat-them/

Sue’s Favorite Celeriac Soup

Peel celeriac and cut into approx. 1” chunks.  Toss with olive oil and salt and pepper and place on a baking sheet.  Roast at 400-450 degrees until tender and starting to brown.   You could stop here and munch on the celeriac or toss into a salad.  However,  if you want soup,  saute a tsp or so of minced garlic in olive oil until fragrant—if you happen to have leeks they are good in here too—then toss in roasted celeriac and saute for a few minutes well.  Add a few cups of water or stock and a sprig or two of thyme and bring to a boil,  then let it simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Puree in a blender,  food processor or use an immersion blender.  At this point you can add some white wine or lemon juice to brighten the flavors a big.  It's pretty creamy,  but you could always add cream if that’s your thing.

This strategy works pretty well for most winter veggies,  like winter squash,  rutabaga,  turnips,  and sweet potatoes.  You can also try a

ZHUG

Schug (pronounced skoog, sometimes spelled Skug, Zhug, Zhoug) is a Middle Eastern (often used in Yemeni/Israeli cooking) blend of herbs, chilies, and toasted spices: there’s cumin and coriander as well as hot chilies. Because the chilies are seeded, the sauce is not impossibly spicy—it’s, in fact, bright with lemon, and it has a bit of texture thanks to the mass of chilies, garlic, and herbs. Once you make schug once, you will want to put it on everything.

·        1 teaspoon coriander seeds

·        1 teaspoon cumin seeds

·        1/2 cup (or less! see notes above) seeded and roughly chopped fresh hot green chilies, such as serrano (2 to 4)

·        2 to 3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

·        2 cups lightly packed cilantro leaves and stems

·        2 cups lightly packed flat-leaf parsley leaves and stems (rough stems removed)

·        zest from one lemon

·        juice from one lemon, about 3 tablespoons

·        salt and freshly cracked black pepper

·        1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1.    

2.   In a small skillet, toast the cumin and coriander seeds until they smell fragrant and have turned a shade darker in color. Transfer to a spice grinder or crush with a mortar and pestle.

3.   Put the chilies and garlic in a food processor and pulse a few times until they are fairly fine. Add the cilantro, parsley, lemon zest, reserved toasted spiced, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and a few twists of black pepper. Pulse until all is finely chopped into a rough purée. With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil. Stop the processor before the sauce is completely blended and smooth—you want some texture. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning with another 1/2 teaspoon salt (I always do), and pepper and lemon to taste.

Chimichurri Sauce

Original recipe (1X) yields 16 servings

• 1 cup tightly packed chopped parsley leaves

• 1 cup tightly packed chopped cilantro leaves

• ¼ cup red wine vinegar

• ½ onion, coarsely chopped

• 5 cloves garlic

• 1 teaspoon coarse salt

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

1.    Combine parsley, cilantro, red wine vinegar, onion, garlic, salt, oregano, hot pepper flakes, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor; pulse a few times. Pour olive oil in slowly, while pulsing a few more times, until chimichurri is chopped, but not mushy.

2.    Refrigerate until flavors have blended, about 2 hours.

 This one is REALLY. Good—I’ve done it with swiss chard also

Spinach & Cilantro Soup With Tahini & Lemon From Samin Nosrat

• ¼ c. well stirred tahini

• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 1 large garlic clove, finely grated or pounded to a smooth paste

• 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

• For the soup:

• 7 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade

• 12 ounces baby spinach (about 12 packed cups)

• 4 cups roughly chopped cilantro (from 2 large bunches)

• 1/4 cup well-stirred tahini

• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt

• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more as needed

1.     First, make the sauce: With a whisk, combine the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt, cumin, and red-pepper flakes with 2 tablespoons of water in a medium bowl. Whisk until smooth, adding more water as needed to achieve a drizzle-able consistency.

2.     Next, make the soup: Add the stock to a Dutch oven or heavy pot, and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in the spinach, cilantro, tahini, and salt, and return to a boil. Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice.

3.     Use an immersion blender to purée the soup (or transfer to a standard blender and purée, taking care to leave the center of the lid open and covered with a towel as you blend). Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt and lemon, if desired.

4.     Serve the soup immediately and drizzle with the tahini sauce. Cover and refrigerate the remaining soup and sauce for up to 1 week, or freeze the soup for up to 1 month.

Whole Roasted Celeriac

Preheat oven to 375

Place the whole scrubbed but not peeled celeriac on a small parchment-lined baking sheet.  Rub it all over with ! Tbs olive oil and 2 tsp kosher salt.  Roast it for 2-3 hours until a knife inserted into it goes in easily.  Slice into wedges and serve with a drizzle of olive oil and

Squeeze of lemon.