July 3 - 2007

CSA Newsletter
July 3rd, 2007

'Food, our most basic necessity, has become a force behind a staggering array of social, economic, and environmental epidemics – a toxic cornucopia of poison-laminated harvests, extreme labor abuse, and treacherous and secretive science. At the reins of the food combine are a few increasingly monopolistic corporations controlling nearly every aspect of human sustenance. The way we make, market, and eat food today creates rampant illness, hunger, poverty, community disintegration, and ecological degradation – and threatens our future food supply. Welcome to what I’d call Silent Autumn.'

Christopher D. Cook in Diet For A Dead Planet (p.4)

Hello all, happy Independence Day. Hope you are surviving the dry heat. The plants are holding up pretty well. The warm weather sure is encouraging lots of growth, but that dry wind has been……..well, drying.

The Harvest

· 1# salad mix
· ½# stir fry mix
· ¼# basil (mix of Lettuce Leaf, Lemon, Genovese Sweet, Opal, and Sweet Thai)
· 5 oz arugula
· Garlic scapes
· either 1 bunch of Purple Top White Globe Turnips, or 1 bunch of mixed baby beets (Chioggia and Golden)

This is the last of the garlic scapes so enjoy them. If you have not been able to keep up with the garlic scapes you have received, do not despair, they will last for at least a few weeks in the refrigerator. I would highly recommend baking them with the baby beets, brushed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper (350 degrees for 20/30 minutes or so).

The stir fry mix is composed of mature: Bull’s Blood Beet Greens, Mizuna, Tatsoi, Chard, Red Russian Kale, and Giant Red Mustard. These greens do not need much cooking time. When I use them in a stir fry I cook all my other ingredients until they are done, turn off the heat, throw the greens in and cover for a few minutes. Just the residual heat of the other ingredients will wilt the greens the perfect amount (I think).

You may have noticed some little holes in the baby spinach last week…you will notice them this week in the arugula. The tiny holes are caused by Flea Beetles. I cover the arugula and many of our greens to hide them from these little guys, but sometimes they find it anyway. Despite the tiny holes, the baby arugula is fantastic this week.

If you receive turnips this week you will get beets next week, and visa versa.

I have had quite a few people ask me lately how I thin my beets and carrots. The answer is that I don’t thin them in the classic way. This week’s beet bunches are my thinnings. I wait until the beets are baby in size and then I thin. This way we still get to eat them rather than thinning when they are just seedlings and not getting a little beet to eat.

The beets that are red in color on the outside are called Chioggia Beets. MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!!! You have got to try them raw, they are soooo sweet. They are candy stripped red and white on the inside It may be a little hard to tell with some of the really tiny beets, but the larger ones will have the classic red and white striping, gorgeous! The yellow beets are called Golden Beets. These have more of the classic earthy flavor similar to purple beets. The white beets are in the Chioggia seed and they taste just like Chioggia Beets, so I am guessing that they are just a colorless Chioggia.

Don’t forget to eat the beet greens! Many people like the greens better than the roots, and they are soooo good for you. ½# cup of cooked beet greens contains 46% of your daily allowance of vitamin A and 30% daily allowance of vitamin C.

The News

If you just can’t get enough of our greens these days, head on over to the Blind Dog Restaurant. Starting today they will be buying some of our produce. We are very excited to have our veggies served at such a great restaurant!

The Recipe

This week’s recipe comes from Penny Lehman-Kinsey, Chef and Owner of Blind Dog Restaurant & Sushi. Enjoy!

Blind Dog Restaurant & Sushi
Penelope Lehman-Kinsey

Turnip, Green Apple & Jicama Slaw

Note: Try to grate the veggies and apples with a hand grater to get the longest strips possible. But go ahead and use the food processor if plate presentation is not the main goal.

1 pound of turnips, cleaned and shredded on a grater or food processor
1 pound of apples, peeled and shredded
1 – 2 jicama, peeled and grated
Juice of one Lemon
(put the lemon in the microwave for 20 seconds on high to release more
juice)
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or grape seed oil
Sea Salt (I use this or kosher. I beg you not to use iodized salt. We get enough
Iodine in the food we eat)
Cracked Black Pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
1 bunch flat leaf parsley; stems removed and washed

Grate the veggies and the fruit into a medium non reactive bowl. Add all of the other ingredients. Toss, chill and serve.

Serve with tacos or under seared fish. It is great on a hot day.

Cheers!
Talk to you all next week.

Daisy