CONTACT INFORMATION:
Coordinator: Mike Rabinowitz: Farm/House Phone. ( 895-2884) Before 5:30 Leave a message.
Cell Phone at Pick-Up. 749-2884. 6 -6:30 p.m.
Please note: Mike has this cell phone at pick-up only. It is usually not answered at other times. E-Mail Ahead!! Looking for extra things. E-mail ahead.
Will we or won’t we go to the Farmers’ Market?
That was the decision of the hour last Saturday morning. It was a different kind of rain dance as the employees who came in early around 7:30 a.m. to help get things organized and packed for the Farmer’s Market. On Friday afternoons, most things are packed, priced and labeled and in tubs ready to load but the dance began when people arrived to load the van. The market table is out doors and Oz, our son, who does the market most Saturdays was not able to be the vendor, due to the death of a close friend. He was part of the funeral and needed to be in by nine. The plan was for him to leave before 8:30 take in the veggies in for Ryan, who would cover the market. Then they began to wonder if they should go in. I left the decision up to them; they decided the rain was too fierce for the outdoor vendors. They called from the processing shed. The message was to call and cancel, which I did. My son went to get dressed for the funeral, expecting not to have to drive into the market. Ten minutes later, the shed crowd called, to say, “cancel the cancel, which I did. By this time, it was 9 o’clock; too late for Oz to help so he left in Mike’s car. Luckily, Paulette, an experienced driver came to the rescue. She drove in our van with the goodies and Ryan handled the market, until Oz finished with the funeral. She came back with the van, so Mike could go in later to help bring things home. It turned out to be a beautiful day and we had very few things to bring home!!! It was a wise man who said, “All is well that ends well!”
What else is happening on the farm?
Too much! That’s what! Louis’s brother left at 5 a.m. to go home to Alaska on Tuesday morning. I am behind on farm notes and have apparently missed writing about a few things that were in the bags over the past two weeks, important veggies – fennel and fava beans, maybe also kohlrabi. And don’t give up on the garlic scapes. We have a couple of interesting recipes for garlic scapes – one from a member and one I inadvertently created last week – Garlic Scape Wasabi.
What’s that strange vegetable?
When my daughter answered the phone a few nights ago, it was a Veggie Coop member asking about the strange vegetable in her bag. Right away, I knew it must be kohlrabi as that is not the first time we got such a call. I explained that I was serving it raw as an appetizer, with the green onion, cream cheese dip for dinner guests just arriving. I also gave her a few other suggestions. She was obviously trying to look it up on the world wide web. When I gave her the spelling, she found it immediately and said, “Thanks, I have it.”
THIS FROM MEMBERS!
“Using The Garlic Scapes! I don’t know exact amounts since I just kind of threw it all in my vitamix, but I will estimate as best I can!
Blend together in food processor:
a couple big handfuls of basil
3-4 garlic scapes
a big handful of spinach
handful of walnuts (or pine nuts if you prefer)
about 1/2 cup or more of grated Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
a couple slugs of olive oil – enough so it isn’t too dry – I add a bit of pasta water at time of cooking to get the right consistency. You could add extra olive oil instead of pasta water if you want.
It’s delicious and full of healthy goodness! 🙂
Christy”
Excerpt from Cathy, giving feedback, pro and con, which is greatly appreciated. Please see comments on garlic scapes:
“I am also sending a ‘report-back’ as you requested on quality. Very nearly everything has been absolutely top notch. The occasional plump broccoli worm is even a bit reassuring! The only sadness has been the green cabbage: too critter-infested for two weeks now, quite eaten away last week and this week earwigs.
But everything else! The fava beans were perfect, such a luxury. All the ‘greens’ have been stunning: the mustards this week, the kales and chards of previous weeks. The green zucchini skins were a little on the tough side but the yellow zucchini has been uncommonly tender and sweet. You mentioned the garlic scapes in the farm notes a few weeks now, but I didn’t so much mind the ‘woodiness’- the flavour was excellent and prudent trimming and puréeing took care of the rest. The best treat apart from the favas has been the fennel. Stalks not at all fibrous so have been doing all sorts of fun and tasty preparations.”
Cathy also sent several wonderful pictures showing how she used her veggies. Find these by clicking “Veggie Coop/CSA” on the menu bar of the site, or click here.
Garlic Scape Wasabi
Last week I was on a roll, making samplers of pesto, using both basil and garlic scapes. The garlic scape pesto, turned out to be so hot and spicy that I decided to call it Wasabi. I started with a cup of garlic scapes, removed the bottom l/2 of the stems, stripped the rest, cutting with scissors, including tops, flowering part, seeds and all; using the food processor, they were blended with olive oil, starting with maybe a l/3 cup, the blender is ten years old so I stood by as it shook, chunking and grinding the stems. When it seemed past the critical grinding, I added a hand full of cashews, along with about l/2 cup of Parisinan and a couple of tables spoons of fresh lemon juice. No salt because the nuts were salted. Swish, Swish! And taste. It was delicious but quite a kick. My son who prefers hot and spicy to any other kind of seasoning, did his part by scraping every last bit from the food processor bowl with taco chips.
FENNEL SALADS
There are several suggestions and ideas already in the Organic Farm Recipe File, but when I saw one of my favourite wasn’t there, the one with Apples, Fennel and Grapes, I started trying other recipes. Natalie, A Veggie Coop Member told me last week about how much she loved fennel at the same time that some members were in line to swap theirs in. I asked her for the recipe. Here it is, from All Recipes.com:
Spring Salad with Fennel and Orange
Ingredients
Dressing
l/4 cup white sugar.
¼ cup red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped basil
3 tables spoons olive oil.
Salad.
1 ( 10) ounce ag mixed salad greens
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 orange, peeled and segmented
l/2 red onion, thinly sliced
l/2 cup silvered almonds
l/2 cup dried cranberries
Directions:
Whisk together the sugar, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, bail and olive oil in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves; set aside. Toss the salad greens, sliced fennel, orange, onion, almonds and cranberries in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the salad and too to serve.
WOOFER SALADS!
Kelsey, our newest woofer is a vegetarian. When I explored what kind of things she liked to eat, with the purpose of learning if we needed to buy anything special, i.e. tofu or veggie burgers, she convinced me that her favourite food is salad, of any kind. Since she arrived a few days ago, we have had several variations of green salads, avocado-tomato salad/ Yesterday, we made tabouli with very little left over. Today, a farm volunteer and I made three salads, a double recipe of tabouli, 3 beans salad and SHAVED FENNEL AND GREEN APPLE SALAD/ WITH ORANGE DRESSING AND RICOTTA SALATA. Google to find this recipe on Food Network. Regardless, if you like fennel or not, I cannot imagine anyone not enjoying this recipe. So, let’s say, it has the ORGANIC FARM STAMP OF APPROVAL.
Tabouli
This recipe is in Organic Farm Recipe file. Everything in this recipe will show up in your Veggie Coop bag, but we have to wait until we have enough tomatoes to go around. Meanwhile, you might want to have a preview of it on the Organic Farm Recipe file on the Website.
We will try to get pictures posted early next week. I have the Newfoundland Writer’s Guild here on Sunday for an all day workshop, so no hope for now!
OH YES! FORGOT ABOUT THE FAVA BEANS!
Some people can’t wait to get fava beans and wait in line at tail gate sales to buy more. Other people don’t have much interest. I am just learning, but have a look for recipes on the Internet. There is one shelf, who has a video on how to steam, find the inner seeds and how to use them in pastas and salads. Some people in middle east, cook the bean, skin and all, slow cooked for a long time, like a pot roast. I have eaten this dish, prepared by a friend, but never managed to get it where we enjoyed it!
Any recipes for Fava Beans, please let me know.
Thanks for feedback, pictures and recipes. We are moving into mid-season and things are getting exciting.
Melba/ August 13, 2014
