The Gourmet Healer- Healthy Spices

Angie King is back this month with more healthy tips for cooking with your CSA food.  I included her bio again, just in case you missed her November post on healthy oils.  Enjoy.

The Gourmet Healer, aka: Angie King, MS, RD, LD, lives, works and plays in Albuquerque and the surrounding area. The focus of her private practice, Gourmet Healer, is to empower individuals and families to take part in their own healing process by using Food As Medicine together with lifestyle and other therapies.  Passionate about delicious food that serves the senses, the soul and the cells, Angie facilitates healing by teaching classes and workshops, producing a free monthly e-health letter, providing Integrative Nutrition Therapy to individuals and speaking to groups interested in changing their lives, starting with the foods they eat. Angie earned her Master of Science in Nutrition as well as the credentials of Registered Dietitian and Licensed Dietitian from the University of New Mexico. She also works part time for the UNM School of Medicine Nephrology Division as an outpatient Pediatric Clinical Nutritionist.  She is the proud mom of a vibrant, 10 year-old daughter who keeps her on her toes and laughing.

December Tips: Healthy Spices

What if there were ways to prevent or treat illnesses like cancer, arthritis, asthma, heart disease or diabetes other than just the pharmacy?  What if in addition to optimal health, these solutions could bring you pleasure and were easy to use? Wish no more. This is reality.

The answer is in your spice rack and perhaps even in your own back yard or window sill.

Not sure how or where to start when it comes to cooking with herbs and spices?  Read on for a brief introduction to a few of my favorites and for tips on how to begin summoning your own inner Gourmet Healer.

Basil is a highly anti-inflammatory herb which is used in a wide variety of cuisines including Italian, Thai and Vietnamese.  It has cooling properties for those with excess heat, and gram for gram,  its anti-inflammatory properties surpass even those of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs).  Think Ibuprofen.  Regular enjoyment of basil can be helpful in decreasing systemic inflammation as well as fighting minor aches and pains and even major arthritis. Have basil regularly in the form of pesto, which can be added to soups, sauces, pasta/rice salads, sandwiches, pizza and toast. Enjoy its whole leaves in green and caprese salads or as a topping for spicy soups!

Turmeric is an anti-inflammatory spice, which comes from the Curcuma root.  It has heating properties, energetically speaking, and it is used most commonly in Indian/Asian curries. Turmeric fights and prevents many diseases including Heart Disease, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis and numerous Cancers, including Childhood Leukemia and Breast Cancer.   Use it with black pepper and get anti-Alzheimer’s action. It has even been shown effective in correcting the genetically altered mechanism responsible for Cystic Fibrosis. Enjoy it often in curries and in the recipe below to get the benefits.

Cilantro is another cooling herb that is used in both Latin and Asian cuisine.  Like Basil, it is a great balancing agent in spicy dishes.   Cilantro has been found to be a powerful antibiotic agent, meaning that it kills bacteria, particularly Salmonella, a common foodborne illness. Going into a questionable food safety situation, say, when travelling?  Ask for extra Cilantro! For that matter, basil, hot peppers, horseradish and wasabi are helpful as well.

Cumin Seeds are loaded with flavor as well as healing properties. Use it to flavor up Latin and Tex-Mex dishes (cumin is what makes “taco seasoning” seem so miraculous), as well as Middle Eastern (think hummus) and Indian dishes.  Cumin has been shown to improve digestion by increasing production of digestive enzymes by the pancreas and has anti-cancer properties due to its high level of antioxidants.

Getting Started

Herbs and Spices are easy to use.  It just takes a willingness to learn and to try new things.  Dining out at ethnic spots and eateries with creative menus can give you a basic understanding of what herbs and spices typically go together.  Use community cooking classes, public television or The Food Network to further sharpen your skills. Worried about buying a bottle of a spice you are not sure you’ll use again?  Buy a small amount to try from the bulk spice section.  Problem solved!

Recipe For Success
Try this Gourmet Healer original recipe: Spiced Asparagus Fries.  It’s a delicious and EASY way to enjoy asparagus (rich in folate and B vitamins for heart health and emotional health)  as well as turmeric, cumin and coriander. I like to challenge those (kids included) who say they don’t like asparagus with this one, and I always win!

Until next time, enjoy your food and enjoy your life!

Blessings and Good Health,

The Gourmet Healer
Angie King, MS, RD, LD
gourmethealer@gmail.com
Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

References

1. www.whfoods.org
2. Shoba G, Joy D, Joseph T, Majeed M, Rajendran R, Srinivas PS. Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers. Planta Med. 1998 May;64(4):353-6.

Steve’s Weekly Update for Dec 17

Dear members,

This is the final distribution of December and 2009.  Remember that we skip two weeks at Christmas and New Years.

This week’s Mesa Top Farm story is about our Ayrshire breed preservation project.  I met Jim Miller in 2005.  At the time he owned of Mountain Grove Dairy, the oldest dairy in New Mexico.  There will be another blog post today that is a report that I wrote in 2007 about Jim’s work.  Back then I could not find a “high altitude dairy partner” in New Mexico, so I moved the herd to Southern Colorado, first to Quintana Farms in San Luis, then to Twin Mountain Milk House in South Fork.  I have been bringing the offspring back to Mesa Top and raising them here.  Now it looks like it is time for the herd to move home.

As part of my value chain development work, I have helped Old Windmill Dairy develop a working relationship with Sun Song Dairy, a goat dairy nearby them in Estancia.  Now we have found a small cow dairy also nearby to them called Milk Maid Farms.  Now 4 farms will be working together to supply milk to the Old Windmill Cheese plant.  Later this spring we should have New Mexico made, ayrshire milk cheese again.

Meanwhile, we after the first of the year we will start offering the cheese from Twin Mountain Milk House, the last stop for the herd in Colorado.  The farmstead, artisanal, raw milk cheddars are sure to be a big hit.  Watch for them on the special order list.

This week in produce we have another round of Garn-n-hers spinach and joi choi.  PLEASE to not worry if you still have your choi from last week.  TAKE ANOTHER:  These nutrient dense, sustainably raised crops store very well in your refrigerator.  We also have arugula, which can be lightly cooked if you don’t want to use in salad.

We have big bags of potatoes for you, reduced in price to make up for the sad condition of the last potato delivery.

We also have a healthy delivery of butternut squash.  This is also an item that stores very well, and cooks up fine even if the skin has a little bit of wrinkling to it.

We have the last Shiroz apples and quince.  In 2010 we will be switching to fruit from Arizona and Texas.

You may notice that I keep commenting on storage, storage, storage and it is true that most of what we are distributing will store for a long time at this time of year.  I heard that some members were skipping their onions because they still had some from the previous distribution.  I can imagine that this might happen with carrots too.  Consider that all of the root crops that you are receiving now were harvested at the same time and will store real well.  Carrots and potatoes like to be cool and dry.  Carrots and beets like to be kept in higher humidity, so plastic bags of washed carrots or beets kept in the veggie crisper of your refrigerator will last for at least a couple months.

Happy holidays to all, and we’ll catch you again in 2010!

Thank you for your support

Steve Warshawer

Ayrshire Breed Preservation Project

Photo by Tom Engel

Steve has provided background on the Mesa Top Farm Ayrshire breed preservation project.  The story below describes the work of  Jim Miller.  At the time Steve met him in 2005, he owned of Mountain Grove Dairy, the oldest dairy in New Mexico.   Back then Steve could not find a “high altitude dairy partner” in New Mexico, so he moved the herd to Southern Colorado, first to Quintana Farms in San Luis, then to Twin Mountain Milk House in South Fork.  Since then, Steve has been bringing the offspring back to Mesa Top and raising them.

EDM Report Grass Fed Dairying

December 2007

In 1917 Price Martin Miller homesteaded his ranch on the high Plains of Lincoln County, near Ancho NM. He began dairying immediately with the arrival of a herd of the best Holstein cows from Wisconsin.   In those days, dairy and beef cattle lived on pasture and were fed a small amount of grain to help train them to come into the milking parlor.  At that time the beef and dairy industries were grass and pasture based and were essentially organic.  There were no worries about widespread diseases and there were no public health scares associated with the dairy or beef industries.

At first the dairy sent its cream by rail from Ancho to the Maryland Creamery in Hutchinson, Kansas.  That arrangement continued for about 36 years.  Then around 1953 Prices’ son Jim started shipping whole milk by rail to Alamogordo to City Dairy.  In 1962 Jim established his own bottling facility and began delivering milk under the Mountain Grove name all around the Central New Mexico.  As of 2005, the Miller’s Mountain Grove Dairy was the oldest continuously operating dairy in New Mexico.

After working to strengthen and adapt the Holsteins, by crossing them to Jerseys and then Gurnsey cows, Jim decide to switch to Ayrshires, due to their hardiness and grazing ability.  He began by purchasing several bulls from Portland Oregon where they had been bred from the semen of original Scottish sires.  Crossing these Ayrshires back into the Miller’s herd resulted in a unique strain Ayrshires (mixed with holstein, jersey, and gurnsey) that were the mainstay of Mountain Grove Dairy throughout its years of operation.  Over time the family had bred and adapted a strain of Ayrshire cows so that they are hardy, forage well, and produce tasty, high quality milk while living on the native grasses of their home range.

The dairy grew and at the peak of production in the mid 1970s the Millers were milking 150 cows.  After that the dairy slowly diminished and there were about 40 cows left in the herd in winter 2005-6 when Jim, now in his 73, had a vehicle accident that ended his ability to run the dairy.  He had no one to turn to in order to keep his dairy operating and so he sold his cows and shut down the operation.  The people who bought his herd were not successful in reestablishing a small dairying operation, and the herd was dissipated into the Southeast NM dairying landscape.

In 2005, Jim had sent via Steve Warshawer at Beneficial, a heifer calf and a bull calf from his herd up to Cresset Community Farm near Loveland Colorado.  Cresset is a grass and pasture fed raw milk dairy and CSA.

In 2002 Jim had sold a small starter herd to Pat Sullivan in Lincoln, New Mexico.  Pat began with 10 cows and 14 irrigated acres of grass and was opening a grass fed, seasonal, aged raw milk cheese operation.  Over the next several years, Pat developed his facility, and his skill as a cheese maker, and introduced Cada de Dia Cheese at the Belen and Downtown Albuquerque Farmer’s markets.  He also began breeding top New Zealand Ayrshire genetics into his herd, using AI (Artificial Insemination) and has built his herd up to 14 milk cows as of Spring 2008.   Pat chose New Zealand genetics to breed into his herd because New Zealand dairying is pasture based, seasonal, and prizes traits other than production, such as calving ease, longevity, and disease resistance.

In fall 2007 Pat decided to sell his property and move his family to South America, where he hopes to be able to afford several hundred acres of quality grass, and will begin again as a grass fed, raw milk cheese maker.  He has agreed to sell his stock of aged cheddar and parmesan to La Montanita via the CDC.  Initial deliveries have been made to the Nob Hill store where Dave Payne is marketing the cheese.

After realizing all that had gone on with the Millers over the last couple of years, and seeing that the Sullivan herd is the last remnant of the 90 years of breed selection and adaptation carried out by the Price, Jim, and Pat, Steve Warshawer decided to buy the herd and facilitate its relocation and possible redistribution to other small raw dairying operations.  As part of the Beneficial program that Steve founded in 1994, there were 3 raw milk dairies in Colorado that were participants:  Cresset Community Farm in Loveland, Larga Vista Ranch near Pueblo, and Quintana Ranch in San Luis.  All of these dairies have expressed interest in portions of the herd.  Steve also recently learned that Jim has 2 young bulls left from his herd.

Conversations with Pat and Jim have led to the consensus that priority one is to multiply and continue to improve the herd until it is restored to significant numbers.  This will likely be a several year process.  In that process, it is also important to sustain the high altitude adapted advantage that Jim originally established by virtue of his location at Ancho, approximately 7,000 feet elevation.

It seems that the best approach would be to reestablish the herd at a new location, open a small cheese making facility there, and develop a “minimum work” cheese making operation in order to minimize stress on the herd (and farmer) and maximize effort at breed multiplication and improvement.  As the best bulls are identified, it will also be wise to take and store their semen for future use and as an “insurance policy” against possible loss of live animals.

The eventual goal would be to expand the access to the hardy, pasture based strain by offering bred heifers, yearling bulls, and semen and sire services.  From this base, the possibility of stimulating development of a regional, grass/pasture based, farmstead cheese industry can develop.

Meanwhile we can enjoy the outstanding aged raw milk cheeses of Cada de Dia as our living example of the quality of work of the Millers and Sullivans, as plans are developed and carried out to sustain that tradition into the future.

Holiday Gift Ideas You Can Make From Your CSA Share

Creating holiday gifts is a wonderful experience.  I have been crocheting scarves and blankets for months to prepare for the holidays.  This article came across today and started me to think about food gifts for people.  Pumpkins and apples are in this list of ideas, but the article may help you in thinking about making your own food gifts.

Click here for the link to The Daily Green Blog

Beet Soup Recipe

Beets were a great vegetable to receive last week.  They will last for a month or two in the refrigerator inside of a bag, but I wanted to eat some this week.  Most of my favorite beet recipes are for the summer when I grow beets in my garden.  The following one seemed more appropriate for winter.

Thank you to Carole, Alice and Jackie for sending me more tips on the potato corn chowder that I posted last week.  I made mine thicker with an immersion blender and added green chile, which were great ideas.  The turnips would have been a great idea as I made the soup.

Amy Hetager, CSA Blogger

Beet, Apple and Carrot Soup

I like to make beet soup for the beautiful color!  This one will work with roasted beets or raw beets, you will just need to adjust the cooking time.  My soup has a southwest twist with red chile for heat and apple for a sweetener.  My friend Angie first showed me a similar recipe in a book called Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair.  I highly recommend following her cooking videos and blog as they focus on local food with a fun twist.  Click here for her website.

2 or 3 beets (I will use 3 from last week’s share), peeled and diced

1 medium onion

3 cloves garlic

2 large carrots, peeled and diced

2 apples, peeled and diced

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsps red chile powder

3/4 cup red lentils (they need to be red to work as a thickener in the soup)

Beef stock to cover the vegetables

If you start with raw beets, add them to the stock pot and cover with water.  These will need to boil to soften a little before you start the soup.  I usually start with roasted beets because you don’t have to peel them until they are roasted and the skins are easier to remove.  This keeps my kitchen cleaner.  If using raw beets, use a separate pan to saute the onions in almond oil.  Add the carrots and saute a minute or so.  Add garlic.  Add this mixture to the beets.

If you start with roasted beets, you can begin with the onions, carrots and garlic in the soup pan.  When they are sautéed, add the beets.  Add the apples and let soften.  Add the oregano by placing in your palm and rubbing to release the oils.  Add the red chile.  Now you can add the stock and the lentils.  The idea of the lentils is to thicken the soup as they will dissolve within about 30 minutes.  I usually let my soup simmer for about an hour.

Once everything is dissolved and you like the taste of your soup, you can turn off the stove and let cool slightly.  I use a blender to make the soup smooth and a super hot soup scares me…especially since it is red.  You may have to blend in multiple batches because you don’t want to over-fill the blender.  After it is a good consistency, you can heat to serve.  I usually eat with sour cream and a warmed flour tortilla.

Eric’s Week of CSA Food- Part 3 of 3

Here is the completion of Eric’s week of CSA food, where we follow CSA members each week to see how they ate their food.  Eric has included great recipes and photos of his food.  Thank you again Eric for volunteering to share your adventure.

If any other CSA members want to write a blog post, email me at blog@beneficialfarm.com and we can schedule you next year.

Amy Hetager, CSA Blogger

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Breakfast:  Freshly ground local peanut butter with La Loma Segura red chile jelly on local organic 100% whole wheat bread.  Otherwise known as PB&J.

Lunch:  Leftover butternut soup. (See Saturday entry for the recipe)

Dinner:  Slow chicky soup and hot wings of green

Slow Chicky Soup with Beneficial Farms Chickens

1 cup chick peas

2 eggs

1 slow-cooking chicken (4 lb)

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp rosemary leaves

1/2 tsp salt

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic

1 cup wilted cauliflower greens

1 tsp ground nuts

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes

When my friend Almea spent a year living in Zambia, she learned that the way to cook anything was to add tomatoes and onions.  Ground nuts (peanuts) were frequent additions to recipes as well.  Here the tomato-onion theory is tested on one of the super-birds raised at Mesa Top Farm.

Soak the chick peas 8 hours.  Drain and rinse.  Cook chick peas in water under high pressure for 12 minutes.  Then release the pressure and drain most of the water.

Remove the wings and legs from the chicken (save for another recipe) and brown the chicken on both sides while the chick peas are cooking.  Separate the onions from the chicken when they are clear.

Mix all ingredients in the pressure cooker and cook for 12 minutes under high pressure at 7000 feet.  Allow the pot to cool to low pressure.  Stir a bit, mash a few of the chick peas, and test the chicken.  Then slow cook for one hour.

Hot Wings of Green

2 slow chicken wings

2 slow chicken legs

3 roasted green chiles

2 tsp poultry seasoning (basil, rosemary, sage, marjoram, thyme, oregano)

Add the contents to a pan and cover.  Cook on fluctuating heat on the wood stove, flipping the chicken limbs frequently.  When the chicken appears to be almost done, drain the juices and increase the heat for a crispy skin.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Breakfast:  Leftover smashing potatoes

Lunch:  Bone Marrow Soup (See Sunday for recipe) and Slow Chicky Soup

Dinner:  Silver-edged celeriac and groundcherry rhubarb cake-bread

Silver-edged Celeriac

1 silver-edged squash

1 celeriac

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

Cut the squash and celeriac into thin slices (save the silver-edged seeds) and soak them in the mixture of oil and vinegar for a few minutes.  Then fry them, taking care that all pieces get direct exposure to the hot pan.  Flip when they begin to brown, cook a few more minutes on that side, and eat.

Native Seed/SEARCH claimed that the silver-edged squash was grown for the seeds, which actually have a ring of silver around the edge.  The few that I roasted were fairly good, but lacked the outstanding flavor of the Acoma pumpkin seeds.  The flesh of the squash, which held no promise of greatness, tasted like summer in the wintertime.  It was sweet and absorbed just the right amount of apple cider vinegar.  The nutty celery flavor of the roasted celery root was the perfect complement to the squash.

Groundcherry Rhubarb Cake-Bread

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter

1/2 cup agave nectar

1/2 cup honey

2 eggs, beaten

12 groundcherries

10 ounces finely chopped rhubarb

1/2 cup pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 10×13 inch Pyrex dish with grapeseed oil.  In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients, then the solid pieces.  Stir until well blended.  Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.  Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a knife inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

Groundcherries are a relative of tomatillo and tomato that produce tiny fruits inside of a paper lantern that taste like sweet or sour cherries, depending on ripeness.  Make sure you have carefully identified the plants before gathering them from the wild because there are poisonous plants that look quite similar.  I have been eating the ones in my yard raw for several years, so I think they are ok.  I anticipated that the cooking time would be less, given the broad pan, but the rhubarb releases a lot of water, and 7000 feet elevation does little to hasten cooking time.  It was worth the wait.  The pecans from the CSA and the rhubarb from the COOP were just the thing to stretch the tiny bit of local fruit into large portions.  Luckily, I will get more fresh fruit in the share tomorrow.  (This tasted really good.  I must remember to use this banana bread recipe more often.)

Thursday, December 10, 2009

After a lovely and hastily devoured breakfast of rhubarb-pecan bread, all my imaginary guests depart.  I think I may have scared them away with my cooking.  I have packed each of them a sizeable lunch of leftover winter soup for their journeys.  Hopefully journeys to places where food is fresh and interesting.  And now my kitchen returns to the secretive normalcy of standard fare.  But wait, I hear today’s share includes candy onions, persimmons, and joi choi.  Looks like there will be joy after all.

Eric’s Week of CSA Food- Part 2 of 3

Here is the second installment of Eric’s week of CSA food, which is a weekly column for CSA members to share their experience with food.  Eric has some beautiful pictures to show his food and includes recipes.  Look for part 3 tomorrow.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Lunch:  Salad and leftover smashing potatoes

The salad was lettuce, arugula, and one radish with celeriac green chile dressing.  The dressing flavor had matured, and the celery flavor was more noticeable and the green chile less so (but still strong).

Dinner:  Quesadilla omelette, devil’s claw seeds, green salad, and roasted bone marrow

Rosemary Thyme Quesadilla Omelette

6 eggs

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tortillas

1 sprig rosemary

1 sprig thyme

4 cloves garlic

5 roasted green chiles cut in strips

5 slices part skim mozzarella

5 slices provalone

Dice the garlic, rosemary, and thyme and cook for a short time in a pan with a touch of oil.  Scramble the eggs and salt for a couple of minutes with a fork.  Then pour the eggs into the pan with the herbs cooking (I use a wok).  Cover and cook until the egg no longer runs.  Flip the egg, spread cheese slices over the top of the egg, and cover until the cheese melts.  Meanwhile, heat two flour tortillas on the top of the wood stove or in a pan.  When some brown color begins to appear on the cooking side of the tortilla, flip it and add the green chile strips to the hot side.  Place the egg and cheese between the tortillas (green chile on the inside).  Cut like a pizza and serve.  Very yummy.

Roasted Devil’s Claw Seeds

1 small handful devil’s claw seeds

Roast the seeds in a skillet for about 8 minutes with a touch of grape seed oil.

This was my first time to eat the seeds, after two seasons of trying to grow them (they don’t seem to grow well in dry clay).  While the flesh of the seed pods tastes like okra, the roasted seeds taste just like good roasted pumpkin seeds.

Roasted Marrow Bones

Some marrow bones came in the fraction of the beef I ordered from Beneficial Farm CSA.  The internet referenced people who would definitely choose marrow bones for their last meal if they were on death row and had that decision to make.  I followed the basic directions: “Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put bones, cut side up, on … ovenproof skillet. Cook until marrow is soft and has begun to separate from the bone, about 15 minutes. (Stop before marrow begins to drizzle out.)” –http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/dining/311mrex.html

Only a small amount of marrow softened, so I removed that and roasted the rest for 20 more minutes.  The beef attached to the bones was very good and flavorful, but no more marrow had appeared.  I decided to make soup with the rest.  The marrow itself was good spread on toast, but certainly not the kind of “last meal” that I would hope for.

Potato Bone Soup

Add the marrow bones to a pot of water.  Make a reduction with a bit of water in the pan that the bones were roasting in so you can liquefy the flavors clinging to the pan and add it to the soup.  Add a sprig of savory, one turnip, a dozen fingerling potatoes, and half a dozen fingerling carrots to the soup.  Cook for about one hour at 7000 feet elevation.  Place in individual-sized containers and save for later.  Like salad dressing, soup often does not achieve its full flavor until the next day.

With dinner was also served a salad of the rest of the arugula and lettuce, plus one chopped turnip and four small chopped carrots.  Green chile fennel dressing from the refrigerator was used to add extra flavor.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Breakfast: I am out of peanut butter, so it was almond butter sandwich.

Lunch: Marrow bone soup, dill pumpkin spears, and left-over quesadilla omelette.

Dinner: Peanut Butter Wilted Greens

I now have peanut butter, so I thought I would try one of my favorite ways to make the collard greens disappear:  the peanut butter collard green stir fry.  Add peanut butter to bottom of pan, heat until fairly liquid, then add the chopped collard greens.  One problem – no collard greens.  Fortunately, there is purple Cape cauliflower growing in the yard, and cauliflower is the same species as collards and kale and cabbage, etc.  I brushed the snow off some of the greens, cut them, and brought them inside to chop and toss in the wok.  I had cooked some of these last year in the same manner, and the flavor was fabulous.  Tonight, however, they made the raw root salad seem easy to chew.  The flavor was fairly good, but it seems the leaves had developed too much antifreeze and tough fiber after suffering from too many nights of ten degrees Fahrenheit.  I tried adding a cup of hot hibiscus spice tea to the greens to lubricate them.  All I can say is that I managed to make them disappear (with my mouth).  And that I didn’t blow up the kitchen.

Another cup of hibiscus spice tea and a glass of milk later, I am happy again and ready to collapse for the night’s slumber.

Watch for Part 3 of Eric’s Food Adventure tomorrow

Eric’s Week of CSA Food- Part 1 of 3

This is the third post in the “Week in CSA Food” where CSA members tell the story of their meals and how they ate their food share.  Eric is our guest this week and he has an adventure in food.  You will not only see the CSA fruits and vegetables, but many from Eric’s amazing garden.  He shares recipes as well.  The beautiful photo on the left of raw potatoes is one of his meals and he explains why he ate it raw.  I will post his other recipes over the next three days.  Enjoy this post….and now off to his adventure.

Eric’s Week of CSA Food Adventure- Part One

Thursday, December 03, 2009

A large number of imaginary people are about to descend upon my kitchen, and my refrigerator seems very clean (meaning empty).  Luckily, today is CSA pickup day.

Lunch: The plan was to eat lunch before heading to Kitchen Angels so that lunch would remain a secret.  Snow, a strained muscle, and allegations of getting old delayed lunch, so it must be disclosed to the public.  Happily, I found that fresh, squishy persimmon is fabulous when drizzled on someone else’s cold leftover Thanksgiving turkey.  With or without the sandwich.

Dinner: Dill pumpkin spears, smashing potatoes, and pepitas cooked on wood stove.

Dill Pumpkin Spears

2/3 medium Acoma pumpkin (or one whole pie pumpkin)

4 heads of dill seeds

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups water

The Acoma pumpkin is on Renewing America’s Food Traditions’ list of endangered foods, so make sure you save plenty of seeds for growing next year’s pumpkins.  Slice the pumpkin into one inch slices.  Add the dill seeds, red wine vinegar, pumpkin slices, and a sprinkle of salt to just enough water to slightly submerge the pumpkin spears.  Place on the wood stove and add small diameter wood until the pot comes to a boil.  Then move the pot to a cooler part of the stove and simmer until the spears just begin to soften, perhaps 20 or 30 minutes.  Remove the spears from the hot water and place them in small containers.  Set the containers outside in the freezing cold to chill to serving temperature (40 to 50 degrees F).  Discard the dill seeds and save the hot water for making mashed potatoes.

Smashing Potatoes

1/3 medium Acoma pumpkin

2.5 pounds potatoes

2 turnips

6 small carrots

1 long leek

2 tbsp. green chile powder

Hot dill vinegar water

Chop the leek into fine pieces.  Remove eyes and any green areas from potatoes.  Cut the rest of the ingredients into two-inch or smaller pieces.  Add all ingredients to a pot on the wood stove and simmer until the potatoes are soft enough to mash easily, perhaps 30 minutes.  Drain the water and save it for another experiment later.  Mash the potatoes and serve.

Acoma Pumpkin Pepitas

Add 1/2 tsp. grape seed oil to a frying pan on the hottest part of the wood stove.  Add the pumpkin seeds (not the ones you are saving for planting!) and cook until they turn golden brown, stirring frequently and covering with a lid when not stirring.  Typically I will add salt and chile powder to the seeds while cooking, but these were so good that I was glad I added nothing.  That also made it easier to tell when they were done.

The smashing potatoes and the pepitas were each very good individually and with the seeds sprinkled on top of the mash.  I was also pleased with the dill pumpkin spears.  My imaginary visitors were relieved that the heat from the wood stove kept them from freezing on such a cold night.  I put some extra mash in the freezer for them to have later.

Friday, December 04, 2009

Breakfast:  Quince and Instant slow persimmon oats

To test the theory that all fruit will ripen eventually, I saved the quince until a brown spot began to appear and then ate it like a pear.  To experience the true flavor of the quince, this may be the way to go.  In this state it had a sweet, strong, pear-like flavor but the crunchiness of a firm apple, with a slight hint of sourness that is only noticed on the first bite.

Instant Slow Persimmon Oats: Fill a bowl with rolled oats (not quick oats) and add a teaspoon of flax seed, three teaspoons of pecans, and one ripe persimmon.  Pour boiling water into the bowl to a level slightly higher than the solid contents.  After a few minutes the slow oats will be ready.  Stir and eat.

Lunch:  Turnip green salad, microwaved eggs, and leftover mash and dill spears.

Turnip Green Salad: Lettuce, arugula, turnip greens, one sliced turnip, 3 small carrots.  Sprinkle with a bit of flax oil and red wine vinegar.  Some bites were quite spicy – I think I’ll chop the turnip greens next time.

Dinner:  Celeriac green chile dressing, raw root salad, and hibiscus spice tea.

Celeriac green chile dressing

1 medium-length leek

1 peeled celeriac (celery root)

1 very small spineless cactus pad (about half the size of a computer mouse)

6 small cloves of garlic (3 large cloves)

6 roasted, peeled, and seeded green chiles

1/2 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup flax oil

When I spotted the strange creatures lurking on the exchange table, I knew that they needed to come home with me, though I had no clue what they were.  Luckily, I grew potatoes in my garden this summer, so it wasn’t too hard to sacrifice a number of them to the exchange table in order to take home some fuzzy, dirty critters.  Celery root, also known a celeriac, is what the monsters turned out to be.  Add all the ingredients into the blender and grate until a fluffy green mixture is achieved.  Then add the oils and blend for a dozen seconds or so and serve.

The chiles were a little hotter than I expected, which seemed to conceal the taste of the celeriac.  The true flavor of the dressing does not come out until the second day, so it may re-surface.

Raw Root Salad

1 small purple Peruvian potato

2 small la ratte potatoes

3 small carrots

3 tiny carrots

3 radishes

2 turnips

5 tiny beets

3 Tbsp. pecans

The internet told me this week that people actually eat raw potatoes.  Much of the starch in potatoes is not digestible by humans without cooking, but potatoes are high in vitamin C, which is quickly destroyed at cooking temperatures.  I was surprised how good the fresh, raw potato slices tasted, but in the future I will be much more likely to eat a few slices while preparing potatoes for cooking than to consume an entire raw potato.

This dinner may be described as “good exercise for the jaws”, or as “warming the jaw muscles from the inside.”  The tongue also benefitted from the exercise, and the discovery of the yummy hibiscus spice tea that appeared with a share last winter was a delightful way to warm the rest of the body.  Another benefit of wood stove season.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Breakfast in Truchas:  pancakes and pseudo-pancakes

Quince Persimmon Pancakes

1 quince, minced

2 persimmons, mushed

2 cups whole wheat flower

2 cups milk

2 tsp. baking powder

2 eggs

Butternut Squash Pseudo-Pancakes

1 Butternut squash

Pancake batter

Mix pancake batter (as above, but without the fruit).  Slice the neck of the squash into 1/4 inch slices.  Dip the slices in pancake batter and cook each side on medium-low heat until brown.  Thicker slices are likely to be somewhat crunchy, though thicker is great for summer squash variations.

Roast the squash seeds while cooking the pancakes and serve them on top.  Almond butter is particularly good on the squash pancakes.  Maple syrup and red chile jelly are great, too.

Dinner:

Butternut Soup: Add half a butternut squash (left over from breakfast), 2/3 cup buckwheat groats, 2 cups of milk, and 1/4 cup roasted squash seeds to the water that was drained from the smashing potatoes and set it on the wood stove.  Light the stove, forget about it for an hour, and then eat.

Watch for Part 2 of Eric’s Food Adventure tomorrow

Recipe Ideas for joi choi

This week Gar-d-en Hers Farm provided a wonderful type of bok choi called joi choi.  It is a larger vegetable with crisp white stems.  Steve has this veggie planned for next week and a few weeks in January.

I have enjoyed many of these asian greens and my two favorite ways to prepare are in stir fry or soup.  Both are easy preparations and I have a few ideas below.

Soup Ideas

Most recipes with greens in soup chop the greens very fine, almost like chopping herbs.  The stalks will make a great addition to the soup as well.  A few other ingredients include:

garlic cloves

green onions

vegetable broth or mushroom broth

sesame oil

Brown the garlic in sesame oil.  Add onions, chopped very small.  Add about 4 cups of broth and simmer for a few minutes.  Add the greens and simmer for 10 minutes.  Serve with soy sauce and red pepper flake as condiments.

Stir Fry Ideas

I have used so many different ways to stir fry based on my ingredients, my mood and the temperature of the house.  For a cold day stir fry, I would cut the bok choi thin and include the stalks.  These can be paired with the following ingredients.

diced garlic

diced small white onion

shredded carrots

shredded turnips

mushrooms

red pepper flake

low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp ground ginger, or fresh ginger if you have it

A few tablespoons of beef broth

Chopped beef (optional)

Udon Noodles

Sautee the onion and garlic in sesame oil.  Add the carrots, turnips and mushrooms.  Add  all spices and stir.  Add the joi choi and cook for a few minutes.  The white parts of the joi choi should start to soften as it is done.  Add meat to heat through.  Serve with udon noodles.

Other greens ideas

We also had members write in recipes this summer.  Click here for the link.

Steve’s Weekly Update for Dec 10

Dear members,

This is the second of our 3 December distributions.  Remember that we skip two weeks at Christmas and New Years.

On the range, this latest storm was really a doozy at Mesa Top where the six inches or so of snow have been whipped by 50-60 mph winds into awesome drifts.  The grasses are so deeply covered that the cattle can’t graze.

At the time of the storm, we had eight cows and four llamas out on the farthest pasture, over a mile from the farm center.  Our solar water pump, providing water from a shallow well/spring box had been winterized and we were providing water just fine despite the cold.  But with no grass available forage, we were in trouble.

When the snow stopped, I set out on foot with Maggie and Buddy to find the cows.  I guessed that they would be hiding on a particularly well sheltered northeast facing slope, protected from the intense west winds.  The snow was drifting so quickly that tracking was almost impossible, but by luck one stray cow had crossed our path fairly recently and I heard her mooing.  When I “mooed” back in response, the cows all started mooing and ran to find me.  They herd of eight then followed me back along the ridge and down a steep trail.  It was quite a site:  a runner and two dogs and eight cows running along single file through the drifted snow, winding our way back toward the farm.

We picked up the llamas near the water tank, and with some hay as enticement and another farm helper along to open gates, everyone made it back to the farm.  I expect that we will be feeding hay for the next 90 – 120 days.  Depending on how the winter goes, the herd will not see pasture again until February or March.

Here is the scoop on the produce this week:

We have a pleasant surprise in the form of fresh spinach from Gard-n-hers.  We hope you enjoy it.  The flavor of cold weather grown spinach is incredible.  We also have a medium sized bok choi from Gard-n-hers called joi choi.  We expect to have a choi next week and then again the first two distributions in 2010.  We will also have the big bag of beets and more carrots.

We have persimmons again:  I was told that some people were alarmed by their softness.  In fact, they are as sweet and ripe as they can be only when they get this soft!  My favorite way to eat a persimmon is to wait until it is soft and mushy, cut off the top, and spoon out the inside like a custard or pudding.  I hope everyone will take their share this week.  It is the last week that we will have enough for all members.  Check the blog for more persimmon ideas.

We heard and agree with your feedback that they yellow potatoes from Desert Garden are past their prime.  The rest have been given to the food bank.  We will make up for that next week with a 5 lb bag of russet potatoes with a share value of only $3.00.  Also next week will be a large supply of butternut, for your holiday cooking enjoyment.  On the fruit side next week will be apples and quince.  Amy will be ready for this with recipe ideas as well.

If you get a chance, check out my recent appearance on “Meet the Farmer TV” based in Charlottesville, VA.  During a trip to Washington DC, I had the weekend free and went to visit a friend’s farm and got cornered to do this interview.  It was posted on the blog this week.  Let me know what you think: http://meetthefarmer.tv/shows/54

We appreciate and value your comments and suggestions.  We do our best to incorporate them, or at least to respond and explain further what is happening with different food items and why.

Thank you for your support,

Steve Warshawer