- Salad mix or head lettuce (the mix is a little bitter, it is over- wintered escarole, soak in ice water for 15 minutes)
- Parsley or cilantro
- Purple sprouting broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Kale
- Shallots or onions
- Spinach or chard
- Arugula
Welcome to the beginning of 2021 season. Juvencio and I Began our CSA in the year 2000 making this hour 22nd year farming in this fashion. We have improved in many areas but we never cease to learn from our experiences farming our land, and working with nature.
This time of year is alway tricky with huge swings in temperature from a low of 28 degrees this morning to over 90 degrees in the hoop houses by late afternoon. The plants and the farmers get all sorts of mixed messages making growing challenging. Many of you have home gardens that you fill with one planting of lettuce or spinach and then warm weather crops like tomatoes and peppers. We do the same but on a continual basis, weekly planting lettuce, spinach, broccoli, moving from under cover hoop houses to our field. I have been tempted by warm days to get those tomatoes and peppers into the hoop house, but the nights are frigid and will damage them. I am hopeful with the warming weather this week, tomatoes can be planted at least in the hoop house. We are entering crunch time where crops stack up waiting for transplant and the perfect climate for each of them.
We battle the 10 plagues of farming adding a new plague each year it seems. Global warming has brought new pests from warmer climates and we try to adapt to them, or just learn to live with them. Gophers and moles are making us suffer this year as are birds of all types. Red winged black birds, white crowned sparrows, house sparrows, song sparrows fly through our hoop houses tearing at the leaves of our tender crops. The neighborhood bald eagle was perched in our giant walnut yesterday waiting for a chicken to escape from the coop.
We will do our best to complete our part of the bargain, grow you and your family the best produce we can. We know you will do your best to eat what we produce. To that end we will provide some ideas on a weekly basis for how to use your bounty. Sue Kass, founding member and author of the greens primer has been helping me out since COVID and writing me up some recipes to share with you. Our website has quite a catalog of recipes for you to choose from. Many of them are family favorites, easy ways to use your veggies every week. We encourage you to rise to the challenge of new vegetables. Spring is notorious for bitter greens. A great salad dressing or a long soak in ice water can help diminish the bitter.
Some of my favorite memories of kids learning to love veggies are from our subscribers. I remember Ana sitting in her car seat as a toddler eating the whole bunch of purple sprouting broccoli. The ABC kids love the cherry tomatoes and each picking their favorite color of tomato. Children learn from watching adults and those around them. We hope you will enjoy the season with them.
Here are some recipes to enjoy this week:
Chile Crisp
This pandemic condiment darling is actually really easy to make, especially if you start accumulating shallots and garlic. It is wonderful drizzled on any of your steamed or sauteed greens, farm fresh eggs or stir frys.
About 2 cups—keeps for several months in the fridge.
4 small shallots, thinly sliced
2 heads of garlic, cloves peeled and thinly sliced
1 1/2 c vegetable oil
2 3” cinnamon sticks
6 star anise pods
1 2” piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 c crushed red pepper flakes
2Tbs soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
Bring shallots, garlic, oil, cinnamon and star anise to a simmer in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Cook, reducing heat to maintain a genlte simmer and stirring occasionally, until garlic and shallots are brown and crisp—20-25 minutes. (Go slow—you want to drive out all the moisture before they brown)
Mix remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Set a fine strainer over the bowl and strain the shallot mixture over—let the shallots and garlic cool in the sieve so they get crispy before stirring back into the chile oil . Keep chilled in tightly covered jar.
Zhug
This Yemeni condiment is a great way to use cilantro before it turns black and slimy! Its great on any veggies, or with eggs, or spreadon bread in a sandwhich..
Makes 1 cup—keeps well for several weeks in fridge
2 tsp whole black peppercorns
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp cardomom seeds
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2-4 serrano chiles, thinly sliced
1-2 tsp kosher salt
3 c. tightly packed roughly chopped cilantro leaves and stems
1 1/2 c. tightly packed roughly chopped parsley leaves/stems
1/2 c EVOO
In a small dry saucepan toast peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and cardamom over medium heat, shaking pan occasionally, until slightly toasted/fragrant.
Transfer to mortar and pestle or small food processor or coffee/spice grinder and grind until coarse powder. Add garlic, Chile, salt and a tablespoon of the oil and grind until a coarse paste forms, then gradually add in the greens while you grind or pound, then gradually drizzle in oil and grind/pulse/pound until consistency of applesauce, then let stand 10 minutes prior to using.
Roasted Cauliflower with Feta, Almonds and Olives
4 servings, 20-30 minutes
1 medium cauliflower, broken into large bite-sized florets
3 Tbs olive oil
1/4 c. roughly chopped almonds (could use filberts or pine nuts)
2 0z crumbled feta
1/2 c. pitted roughly chopped green or kalamata olives
1 lemon, very thinly sliced
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste
2 Tbs chopped parsley.
Heat over to 425. In large bowl, toss the cauliflower and lemon slices with the olive oil, season w/salt, eppper, and pinch red pepper flakes. Spread evenly onto a sheet pan and roast until crisp and golden, about 20-30 minuters with a stir or two half way.
Meanwhile, toast the nuts in a skillet over medium heat until lightly toasted and remove from heat.
Once cauliflower is toasted, Combine with the other ingredients in a large bowl; season to taste w/extra salt or lemon juice as desires. This makes a meal if serves over brown rice or faro.
Spiced Chickpea Salad with Tahini and Greens
4 main-course servings
This is great prepared with greens such as arugula, chard, spinach, kale, or any combo of those. It’s a very filling main-course salad, especially if you serve it over faro or brown rice.
For the chickpeas:
2 15 oz cans of chickpeas, drained (or 4 c cooked chickpeas)
3/4 c EVOO
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp paprika (sweet or smoked)
Salt/pepper
For the tahini sauce:
1/3 c tahini
juice of one lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
Salad:
10 oz kale/chard/spinach or other greens, washed, stemmed and coarsely chopped
Handful roughly chopped parsley
handfull roughly chopped mint
Optional” sliced cucumber and or tomato
Heat oven to 425. Pour chickpeans into a small baking dish so they are crowded in a thick layer. Pour in olive oil until chickpeas are just covered.
Add spices and stir gently to combine. Bake until oil is bobbling and they are reddish brown andstarting to crisp (35-40 minutes). Set aside to cool.
Make the tahini sauce: whisk lemon and garlic into tahini. Slowly mix in warm water, 1 Tb at a time until creamy pourable sauce. Add salt/pepper/more lemon to taste.
Place greens in a large frying pan and drizzle very lightly with EVOO; stir until wilted and tender (when I make this I don’t cook the greens—just chop a bit more finely and “massage” with a bit of EVOO)
When ready to serve mix the chickpeas and their cooking oil with the greens and the chopped herbs. Mound into 4 shallow bowls, scatter with cukes and/or tomatoes if desired, and drizzle thickly with tahini sauce.
what to do with purple sprouting broccoli
This beautiful springtime treat is delicious steamed and tossed with a little sesame oil and soy sauce (or with chile crisp); you can also toss with a little bit of oil and salt and roast at 425 until starting to crisp; or chop into bite-sized pieces, leaves and stems included, to stir fry.
Sue’s Greens Primer 2.0
If this is your first year of a CSA, the volume of greens can be a bit daunting. Not only are there all those glorious salad greens, but sometimes you get “braising greens mix,” and then you get things like chard, kale, collard greens and mustard..and then there are all those vegetables that come with their own greens—beets greens, broccoli and cauliflower leaves, radish greens, turnip greens—all of which are delicious and nutritious. The
Sue’s Greens Primer has some basic tips on how to prepare/store/save those yummy greens. I have to tell you that my 20 year old daughter who hates vegetables, hates to cook, and lives in an “efficiency” apartment with 2 burners cooks herself “Beans and Greens” on a regular basis!!
So—read the Greens Primer first, and then here are some additional tips and recipes:
Tip: Swiss Chard stems. Swiss chard comes with beautiful stems, either creamy white or glorious rainbow colored. Separate the stems from the leaves. You can either slice the stems very finely and saute until tender and THEN add the greens and saute, or you can cut the stems into 1-2” chunks, boil in water until tender, drain and then puree with a bit of garlic, lemon and some tahini as sort of a humus/baba ghanouj dip.
Kale and collard stems: particularly in the early part of the season, when things are cooler, these stems are quite succulent and sweet, so you do not need to discard—just chop very finely and saute for a few minutes before you add the more tender leaves.
My 2 favorite recipes for any greens 2021:
Provencal Greens Soup
This is so wonderful and delicious, especially if you purchased farm fresh eggs!
Serves 4
6 cups (or so) coarsely chopped greens
2 leeks, washed and thinly sliced
2-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Salt, pepper
2 Tbs olive oil
6 c. water or broth
2 eggs.
4 thick slices of good bread, toasted
1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan
Heat the oil in a soup pot over medim heat, then saute the leeks until tender. Add the garlic and cook a minute or two more. Stir in the chopped greens until wilted. Add the water or broth and simmer about 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Beat the eggs well in a small bowl. Gradually beat in about 1/2 c of the hot soup broth, a tablespoon at a time, so that the eggs heat through but don’t curdle. Turn the soup down to low heat and stir in the egg mixture and heat through.
In eat bowl place a chunk of toasted bread, cover with grated cheese, and then slowly pour the soup over.
Greens with Farro, Pine Nuts and Tahini Sauce
3 c. cooked farro (Trader Jopped coe’s has a par-cooked that cooks up faster; you can also get it bulk at Winco; or use brown rice)
8 oz finely chopped greens—kale, chard, arugula or mustard
1/2 c EVOO
freshly ground pepper
juice of one lemon (more to taste)
1/4 c tahini
1 tsp maple syrup in individual bowls,
1 clove minced or pressed garlic
1/2 c pine nuts, toasted
Mix the greens, 1/2 of the lemon juice, farro and 1/4 c EVOO together in a bowl. In a separate small bowl make the tahini sauce: stir together the tahini, remaining 1/4 c EVOO, remaining 1/2 lemon juice, maple syrup and garlic. Add 2 Tbs warm water, stir well and then add more warm water by the tablespoonful until sauce is thick but pourable.
When ready to serve, spoon the greens and grains into individual bowls, drizzle the tahini sauce over and sprinkle with pine nuts.