I have seen many of these immune booster tips online due to the flu this year. Most have recommended supplements and good hand washing practices, which are very helpful and I do daily. This article suggests food as part of your daily routine…and they suggest items that we receive in the CSA share. Check out #4 in the list below and you will see kale, turnips, radishes and cabbage included to help your body.
November 13, 2009
Beneficial Farms CSA article on the Santa Fe Complex website front page
The Santa Fe Complex website has an article about the CSA on the front page of their site. Thank you to Steve and Dena for working with me on the information about the new site and the history. I have listed the SF Complex site and in case you missed it, the blog story and photos of the first distribution. Thanks Anita for taking the photos.
If you want to see more stories, click on the MEDIA menu at the top.
Amy Hetager, CSA Blogger
November 12, 2009
Amy’s Week of CSA Food
Many members have asked about how I use my CSA food. I love the email questions and try to address on the blog or facebook quickly. What type of menus should be planned with a share of CSA food? How can I cook all of this food before the next share? These are all great questions and I think we can work together to share our experiences, recipes and tips.
This column will be written by guest writers who are members from the CSA. Some of you have already signed up for weeks in December. Let me know if you want to be part of this column and we can schedule a week for you. We had some of these on the blog last year, but I feel that we can have a lot of fun and help your fellow eaters if we all work as a community. Email me at blog@beneficialfarm.com.
Amy Hetager, CSA Blogger
Here is my week of CSA food
Nov 5th share: salad mix, arugula, scallions, baby beets, kale, collards, onions, red delicious apples, persimmons
Thursday: Picked up the share at Kitchen Angels and went home to eat lunch. Had a salad with some greens and scallions. I knew that I would not eat the beets that day, so I chopped off the stems to keep them longer. The stems were fed to my compost worms. I also looked at apple recipes to make over the weekend.
Friday: For dinner, made a kale pizza from the link below. I had made another kale pizza recipe from the same blog (Eggs on Sunday) the week before and added a few more ingredients. I ran across this one and they had made some of the same upgrades, but made kale pesto as the base. I added chicken sausage, marinara that I froze in October, scallions, onions and mushrooms. I only had mozzarella cheese and did not add fennel. Making a large batch of something, like sauce, is great to do over a weekend and then freeze for later use. I have tons of soups, sauces and pestos in the freezer!
Click here for the recipe from Eggs on Sunday blog
Saturday: I ate salad greens with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, black olives and a vinaigrette. Planned to eat a beet salad and did not have time to prepare!
Sunday: My parents came and we made two apple pies and an apple cake that can be found on the blog. The red delicious apples made great pie apples, even though my mom had wanted a different type. We shared the pies with our neighbors and had an early Thanksgiving dinner. We used the potatoes from a few weeks ago for buttermilk mashed potatoes.
Monday: Too tired to cook after Sunday. We made pasta with a jar of sauce from the store. Sometimes you need to have an easy dinner thrown into the week. I did add some arugula at the end of the cooking to wilt in for a green vegetable. We made a quick salad with the greens and did not even add toppings.
Tuesday: Realized that the arugula was becoming limp and looked up my easiest arugula recipes. They were also posted on the blog last week. The arugula pesto is always a crowd pleaser, but I had my parents who are not big fans of arugula. I decided to buy some spinach to mix with the arugula and spread out the taste. The nuts were walnuts to add more oil to the pesto and round out the flavor. Pesto is an easy thing to make with greens!
Click here for the arugula blog post
Wednesday: Planned to make a beet salad and ran out of time. We all went out to dinner instead.
At the end of the week, I still have the baby beets, persimmons and one onion. All of these items will keep for a little longer. The baby beets will either be steamed or roasted for a salad or a tray of roasted vegetables. The carrots that we received today would be nice and sweet roasted with the beets and some potatoes.
The onion will keep in my hanging baskets. I give them lots of air and find that they keep a long time.
The persimmons were too exciting to eat this week. I think I will wait for more or locate more to make the persimmon bars that I posted on the blog last week. They are very happy on my counter. I see all of the fruits and veggies on the counter so that I can remember to eat them.
Please let me know your week of CSA food!
November 12, 2009
Steve’s Weekly Update for 11/12/09
Dear members,
As the prolonged fall continues, we also continue to enjoy bountiful fresh produce, combining the late season plantings of Gard-n-Hers Farm and the end of season harvests of Mesa Top and Tucker Farm, and soon we will see Harmony Farm vegetables. This is the last week of lettuce mix from Mesa Top. We will switch to salad greens from Gar-n-Hers next week. We have Mesa Top carrots for a couple more weeks, and then we will have Harmony carrots in December, January and on into February.
We are so full of vegetables this week that we almost crowded out the fruit! We have at least another week of persimmons to go, which we may hold until December, and we have poms also, but we are done with the low cost red delicious apples. We will offer other New Mexico apples and then switch to Arizona Pink Ladies. We expect the special South Texas Ruby Star Grapefruit and Meyer lemons to start soon.
So far, it looks like it will be a while until we have to supplement the shares with non-produce items. I have a suspicion that many of the people who chose not to continue the winter share would be surprised to know how MUCH produce we still have, and how local it still is! When talking to your friends about the CSA, please mention the incredible success that we are having as a collaborative of farmers at providing a mix of fresh and diverse local foods, even as we dive into winter.
As we transition from the summer/fall to the winter season, we have had a number of departing members mention that they had to leave the CSA for budgetary reasons. This is a very sad fact and reflects a phenomenon that is being observed all across the country. With the highest level of unemployment and underemployment since the Depression, it is absolutely true that many families have to make their dollar stretch further. We hear of more and more people who are switching to lower cost food sources as a way to stretch their dollars. Even Whole Foods has taken up new marketing strategies to convince its shoppers not to head for cheaper aisles elsewhere. We can only express our regrets that anyone has to make such a choice.
The CSA is designed to give maximum value to members who are committed to sourcing locally. We are saddened when we hear of members who have to abandon that value, even temporarily, as a result of budget pressures. We ask you please to let us know of any ideas or suggestions that might help is to maximize CSA food value for members, so that as much as possible we do not lose members for budget reasons.
We believe very strongly that for members who can take the time to cook with CSA food, and to plan their menus to make the most of CSA Food, we are actually part of the solution to the problem of keeping food costs down and quality of food up. Again, we welcome any of your ideas on how to improve in this regard.
It is true that if you do not have time to dedicate to cooking and preparing meals “from scratch”, then the CSA approach to local food can be frustrating.
The above points are worth keeping in mind when talking to friends and other members about the CSA experience: We strive to offer value on the highest quality local foods for people who can dedicate time to food preparation and meal planning around the CSA offerings. We do so in collaboration with a number of farmers who are grateful for our year round support. We always are interested in ideas on how to increase value for members and sustain our commitment to our farmers. We can best do this together, so we thank you for your support of the CSA, and your willingness to share with others the value, quality, and overall experience of the CSA. Out of this collective process we create what we believe is one of the best opportunities in these difficult times for families to keep the cost of their food down while maintaining the highest quality and commitment to local farmers. No one should have to leave the CSA for budgetary reasons.
For next week, we will also be giving pie pumpkins and pecans, so you will have these for your Thanksgiving meal preparation. Along with the “customary” array of fresh veggies there will also be Mesa Top turnips and carrots, along with potatoes. We are also have more leeks, but they may not fit into next week’s mix, we’ll see.
We have a lot of terrific food to work with. And more surprises in store for you as the season progresses. We hope you will continue to enjoy the mix that we are able to offer. Keep watching the blog for ongoing dialogue about tasty ways to enjoy the CSA bounty, and for a new, regularly updated “feature farmer”, with information about our partner farms.
Happy Veteran’s Day (11/11) and thank you to all who serve and have served our country, and happy thanksgiving coming up. Remember that next week’s 11/19 distribution will be the last one of November. This is truly a time to be grateful, and to encourage others to share in the fruits and the process for which we are so grateful, and to redouble our efforts to be sure that none who want to participate lose that opportunity.
Steve Warshawer
November 10, 2009
Arugula Recipes for November
Arugula has a punch of flavor. I like to add it to recipes to add an additional bite instead of leading with arugula as the star ingredient. There is always a lot of discussion around arugula and I say, just try it as a spice. More people like it this way. The arugula we received this week would be great to mix with other salad greens or use almost as a spice in the recipes below. It works well with Italian cooking as it has been used in recipes since Roman times. Arugula can be wilted into pasta sauce and pizza to add a little extra spicy green flavor. Here is some information and recipe links.
Send me your arugula tips and recipes at blog@beneficialfarm.com and I will post them.
Amy Hetager, CSA Blogger
Nutritional Information
Arugula is high in Vitamin A and has Vitamin C and calcium
Click here for nutrition information
Recipes
Fig, Goat Cheese and Arugula Pizza from Eggs on Sunday Blog
This is from a great blog called Eggs on Sunday. They have great photography and stories to accompany their recipes. I also have other pizza crust recipes so email me if you want them.
Click here for the recipe
Beet, Goat Cheese and Arugula from from FoodNetwork site
This recipe would need adjustments from what we received in the CSA share, but is a good combination of flavors. This is the one I plan to make this week with the lovely baby beets.
Click here for the recipe
Pasta with Arugula Pesto from Epicurious
I posted an arugula pesto on the blog and many people told me they made it as a dip. This makes essentially the same thing, but is used as a pasta sauce.
I also use chopped arugula in pasta with red sauce. It is very easy to wash, chop and add to a pan of pasta to wilt in a few minutes. This is probably the easiest use for the greens! Try this arugula and tomato sauce if you have a bit more time.
Click here for the recipe
Polenta with Arugula from FoodNetwork site
Food Network has tons of arugula recipes. This one is lovely because the polenta is creamy and the arugula gives a little bite. I reduced the butter in this recipe and it was still very rich and wonderful.
Click here for the recipe
Arugula Mayonnaise from Epicurious site
I have made a similar mayo with arugula to add a more intense flavor to burgers, chicken sandwiches and here in a turkey sandwich. This will keep in the fridge for a few days so you could make a few different recipes. I have also been known to eat this on chips right out of the fridge!
Click here for the recipe
November 9, 2009
Apple Recipes and Update
I looked at my counter on Thursday and realized that I was not eating “an apple a day” as they were piling up in my basket. The apples from last week’s distribution were the red delicious variety and they were truly delicious. I spent the weekend with my parents making apple pies and apple cakes. I have listed the recipes below.
Apple Update
Steve also had a question online about the type of apples that we will receive in future shares. Steve reports that there will be Fuji apples in future distributions as well as pink ladies later in the season. The red delicious apples that we have been receiving are a great price in the shares and Steve is offering due to the holiday season where there may be more festive dishes with apples.
Amy Hetager, CSA Blogger
Apple Recipes
Whole Wheat Apple Muffins from PinchMySalt blog
This recipe uses white whole wheat flour from King Arthur Flour Company. I am a huge fan of this flour company and have almost every type of flour that they sell. The white whole wheat has a wonderful texture and does well with the gluten taste/texture. If you want to add whole wheat flour to a whole grain diet, this is a great one to start with. The recipe sounds straightforward and wonderful for breakfast.
Click here for the recipe
My Mom’s Apple Pie from Amy
As I mentioned, my parents were visiting for the weekend and we made apple pies and cakes for a family and friends celebration. Here is my mom’s recipe for pie.
7 apples (peeled and thinly sliced)
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
small amount of cold butter
2 pie crusts (let me know if you want a recipe)
1 tblsp milk
Make a pie crust and place in a 9″ pie plate. Mix the dry ingredients and toss with apples. Place the apples inside the crust. Take small bits of butter and add evenly over the apples. Add another pie crust to the top. Trim edges. Crimp the edges to the pie plate with your thumb. With a sharp knife, cut four slits in the middle of the pie in a star shape. Brush with 1 tblsp of milk to promote browning on the crust. Sprinkle with a little sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Enjoy.
We also made a variation with one pie crust, the same amount of apples and ingredients and we added dried cranberries. This gives it a little zing. For the topping of this pie, we used a crumble which is 1/2 cup flour, 1/3 cup brown sugar and 3 tblsp cold butter mixed until it resembles crumbs.
Apple Cake from the Smitten Kitchen blog
I made this apple cake last year and it is like no other cake that I have tasted. The amount of apples is almost as much as a pie and it makes the cake moist and delicious. This blog provides lovely photos and step by step photos as well. Enjoy.
Click here for the link
November 7, 2009
Pomegranate Recipe Update
November is National Pomegranate Month. I found this out last week and luckily with the CSA pomegranates, we are ready to celebrate. Pattie’s special order email lists pomegranates for next week. Fresh pomegranate juice has become part of my new health routine. Check out the POM menu at the top of this blog for recipes and tips. There are tons of different types of dishes, including salads, meat dishes and of course desserts. You can also search the blog entries for photo tips on opening a pomegranate from the farmer, photos following my pomegranate juice process and more recipes.
I was in a yoga class this week and ran into a member that loved the Pomegranate Ginger Muffins from a hard-copy flyer a few weeks ago. This made me want to make the muffins and taste the flavor that they described. She wanted to know the recipe source to share with friends. We will do a better job of combining efforts to have recipes all available on the blog so that you can share with your friends and family. And, thank you for reminding me of recipes and the CSA food, even in yoga class!
I did some web searching and found the recipe so that we could properly credit the original source. Here is the link below from www.myrecipes.com. This recipe was originally printed in Sunset Magazine. If you have never been on MyRecipes, it is a great website to browse. It gathers recipes from many food magazines and has a great search engine to find them. I often stop at this site to decide what to make for dinner when I am out of inspiration. This site always gives me several ideas.
Pomegranate Ginger Muffins from www.myrecipes.com
Here is the same recipe from the hard copy flyer. They are wonderful.
November 6, 2009
Two Member Recipes- Slow Chicken and Quince
This week we have two recipes from members. One for slow chicken that Eric bought from the special order process. The second for Quince Applesauce that Julia found on www.epicurious.com. Enjoy and keep the recipes coming.
Amy Hetager, CSA Blogger
QUINCE APPLESAUCE
The recipes from members this week are very creative. If you follow Facebook, you know that I had the best intentions to make quince paste and I let the paste dry out too much overnight. Very sad Sunday for me. I wish that I still had the fruit to make this applesauce that Julia sent.
Quince Applesauce from member Julia
Click here for the recipe
SLOW CHICKEN
Through Special Order you can have a slow chicken from Mesa Top Farm. Pattie’s weekly emails will let you know what is available. Eric has creative recipes using many ingredients that he grows in his garden. Last weekend he made a slow cooked chicken in a pressure cooker. The Devil’s Claw is a plant and I had fun looking it up on the internet. I can’t imagine a substitute, but he does describe the taste like okra so that could work. Enjoy reading this recipe.
Devil’s Claw Slow Chicken Soup recipe by Eric
Ingredients
Slow chicken:
Find the fastest chicken that is still slow enough for you to catch. This chicken is in superb physical condition from running around the yard a high speed and could easily fling around any of the chickens from the grocery store, if it had a mind to. Cooking does not quickly soften this brute, thus the fast chicken is called “slow chicken” according to cooking time. Cook the chicken under high pressure for 15 minutes at 7000 feet elevation. Then remove the soft breast meat for other recipes and return the remainder of the chicken to the pot.
Devils claw plant:
Plant the devils claw seeds in the full moon light after all danger of frost. Harvest the green pods in the fall before the flesh shrivels, blackens, and reveals the claws. The seeds will be saved for planting and roasting and the pods for decorations or dangerous activities. It is the flesh that is used in this recipe, which adds a flavor reminiscent of okra or cactus pads. Separate the green flesh from four pods and chop it into pieces.
Penasco cheese squash:
Plant the seeds in late spring with corn and beans. The squash looks like a big cheese wheel (or small cheese wheel in the case of this recipe). In the fall, the shell of the squash will harden into armor. Pierce the armor with a mighty chop of a sharp knife. If successful, the squash will lie in two pieces. Remove the seeds for planting and roasting. The rest of the squash goes into the pot.
Tomatillos:
Plant seeds in spring or start indoors. When the early frost comes, rescue the yellow or green spheres. Peel the shells off a few handfuls of fruits, chop them, and add to soup.
Onion:
Chop and caramelize the small onion in canola oil before adding to the soup.
Cayenne pepper:
With a large container of cayenne pepper, slowly sprinkle the red powder into the pot until you say, “Oops!” This is the correct amount to add.
Salt:
The salt container is practically empty. Dump the rest into the soup.
Water:
Add enough water to drown the chicken and nearly cover the squash.
Directions:
Cook under high pressure for 13 minutes. Clean the inside of the squash and remove the shell from the soup. Stir, cover, and slow cook for one hour. Then eat!
November 5, 2009
Persimmon Recipes
Persimmons are a sweet and slightly tangy fruit that can be eaten raw, baked or used in savory dishes. These are the Fuyu variety so they can be eaten when they are firm, like the fruit we received today, or give slightly like a tomato. The more ripe they become, the sweeter the taste. I think that is why most of the recipes that I have are for yummy baked goods. There is a great one for a tart below from the blog Denise’s Kitchen. She also has some good salad and side dish recipes.
You can also make savory dishes. Eric marinated chicken in ripe persimmons and sent me the tip. I have made dips with them and have the recipes and links below.
Amy Hetager, CSA Blogger
Here are some highlights of the fruit
-Great source of potassium and vitamin A, vitamin C
- Fuyu persimmons have a shape like a tomato. There are other varieties that taste slightly different when they are unripe and ripe.
Click here for more background
Handling and Cooking Tips
-This fruit is ripe and could be used for several of the recipes below. It could be even more ripe (and sweet) so that the skin gives a little, like a tomato. I plan to leave out on my counter for a few days before I peel and process in a blender/food processer to use in recipes. I added a bit of water and processed some to create a pulp.
-Store in the fridge if you don’t plan to use this week
- Freeze the pulp for later use
Links to recipes
Persimmon Dip by Amy
Dip for fruit
2 persimmons, peeled and blended into pulp. You may need to add a little water.
1 tblsp sour cream
2 tsps sherry vinegar (or more to taste)
Mint, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1 to 2 tblsp olive oil to gain the consistency that you want.
Blend until smooth. Serve with apples or celery. The inspiration for the dip is in the dressing below that seems more savory.
Persimmon dressing from Myrecipes.com
Click here for the link
Fruit Salad from vegparadise.com
(select your most firm fruit for this one)
1 lb. (453 gr) Red flame grapes, cut in half
3 large Fuyu persimmons, diced
2 large sweet apples, cored and chopped
2 C. (480 ml) black raisins
30 dates, pitted and chopped
1 C. (237 ml) pecans, toasted and chopped
2/3 C. (177 ml) toasted pine nuts
Combine all ingredients in a large, attractive serving bowl and toss to distribute evenly. This fruit dish can be made several hours ahead. Serves 8 – 10 as a side dish.
Note: add 2 cups (480 ml) of fresh cranberries, pulse chopped in the food processor. Add these shortly before serving to avoid loss of flavor.
Recipes from Denise’s Kitchen Blog
Including:
- Fuyu Persimmon-Pear and Walnut Rolled Tart
- Persimmon, Fennel and Almond Couscous
- Fuyu Persimmon, Pear and Pine Nut Salad
Baking Recipes that require more persimmons
The lemon glazed persimmon-date bars are really fantastic and I made them several times last year. I will be on the hunt for persimmons to make this recipe.
Lemon Glazed Bars from Gourmet Magazine
This recipe uses Hachiya persimmons, but you could use soft Fuyus. The bars are moist and wonderful. One tip from member Nancy is to use a food processor to create persimmon pulp.
Click here for the link
Persimmon Cookies from the Pinch My Salt Blog, submitted by Alice
Click here for the link
November 4, 2009
Steve’s Weekly Update for Nov. 5
Hello winter share members!
Officially this week is the beginning of the winter season for the CSA. Yes, the mix of food offered in the share will change quite a bit during the next few months. But in terms of the “grander vision” of the CSA as a year round “gateway” into the world of local and regional food, this is just another week for the staff and volunteers and farmers who supply the CSA.
Consider what we have accomplished this year so far:
1. Two additional “farmer’s market” style distribution locations, at El Dorado and Santa Fe Complex.
2. Member exchange table at all of our farmer’s market style pickup sites.
3. Autopayment billing system to allow the CSA to offer the lowest possible cost per month for members with minimum overhead for the CSA. Thank you Los Alamos National Bank for offering this very effective small business/customer service program.
4. Flexible member opt out program allowing members to skip a distribution without charge to their account, or gift it to Kitchen Angels if they can afford to do so.
5. Beneficial Farms CSA blog, Facebook page, and Twitter. These online resources help members share information about how to utilize the foods that are supplied through the CSA. And they provide links to other interesting Food and Farming related sites.
6. Farmer prepayment program. Along with Mesa Top Farm, Harmony Farm and Gard-n-hers farm have benefited from access to capital in the form of interest free advances of $$$ to help the farmers start their season.
7. Special Order program offering foods that do not fit into the share program, and to offer volume pricing to members on many items.
8. Community Garden outreach and support. Beneficial CSA helped members at Milagro Community Garden to secure low cost garden supplies and plant starts. We also offered workshops at Milagro and at Railyard Community Garden.
9. Re-focusing the CSA as help and support for gardeners as well as farmers. We are hoping that many gardeners will support the CSA, especially outside their own growing season.
These accomplishments will be built on all winter and into upcoming seasons. We ask for your continued support by telling your friends about the CSA. To make the CSA efficient as a business and to increase its value to the members and farms that it supports, we need to continue growing our membership.
We have had a drop off of about 1/3 in members, reflecting the departure of members for whom our approach was not working. Food preferences, changes in family situations such as moves, and other reasons were cited. This seems to me to be just a normal reflection of the seasonality and rhythm that we all experience in our lives.
Having said that, it is also very much the case that the winter shares are very appealing and interesting.
Fresh greens from southern New Mexico, NM nuts and Colorado grain, artisanal cheeses, in general a wider diversity of foods, will make I easier to enjoy the weekly share.
So please tell your friends! Short-term membership options are available. And remember that Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Week will have no distribution.
This week we see out first greens from Gard-n-hers farm. Mesa Top is winding down after successive 10 degree nights last week. Mesa Top scallions and baby beets are still in the mix. The beets from the baby beets will be a nice addition to cook along with the Kale/Collard mix from Gard-n-hers Farm. We have persimmons, a seasonal favorite from Shiraz. Fall apples continue. We are running share values to the low side in anticipation of a larger share on Nov 19th. Next week we will offer our first of the season Harmony Farm carrots!
On the special order side, keep an eye out for weekly updates of food available, and let us know if you need firewood, which is still available from Mesa Top.
Above all, enjoy the food and the community process that delivers it to you. We welcome your participation, your suggestions, and your support.
Steve W
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