July 8, 2008
CSA Newsletter
July 8, 2008
There are five solid reasons that genetic engineering is not right for agriculture. One: it’s bad science. It was developed on the basis of flawed assumptions which have since been discredited by the scientific community. Two: it’s bad biology. It was deployed without regard for its potential for genetic contamination and its risks to human health. Three: it’s bad social policy. It puts control over seeds and the fundamentals of our food and farms into the hands of a few corporations who have their own, not our, best interests in mind. Four: it’s bad economics. After billions of dollars and thirty years, only a few products have been commercialized, they offer nothing new. No one asked for genetically modified organisms, and given a choice, consumers would reject them. Five: it’s bad farming. GMO’s don’t address the real issues plaguing agriculture; they’re designed to substitute for or increase the use of proprietary weed and pest control chemicals. Patented and genetically altered seeds perpetuate the very worst problems of the industrial food system, and they are undermining the autonomy of the farmers who use them.
Claire Hope Cummings from Uncertain Peril
I’m reading a very informative and totally terrifying book right now – would recommend it to all; Uncertain Peril by Claire Hope Cummings. We should all be very concerned about genetically engineered food. I would love to go on a long ramble about it right now (a slightly to moderately fiery ramble…), but I’ll hold off and do a little more formulating before I steal your ear for this one.
On to safer topics:
The Harvest
1# salad mix – herb salad mix again. As someone said “it’s a taste extravaganza in your mouth!”
½# spinach
¼# arugula
1 bag scapes
1 bunch herbs
1 bunch Evergreen Hardy White bunching onions
Jalapeno pepper
¼# basil (not all will get)
1 bunch baby beets (not all will get)
1 bunch radish (not all will get)
1 bunch Purple Globe Top turnips (not all will get)
Tomatoes (not all will get)
Eggplant (not all will get)
Broccoli (not all will get)
Edible flowers (not all will get)
I’m gonna do this one more time, just in case…
Greens we wash Greens we don’t wash
Salad mix arugula
Spinach basil
Any stir fry greens
Garlic Scapes!
Woo hoo! It’s garlic scape time! We love these. You know how people say that anything is good sautéed with butter and garlic? This is the ultimate! All you have to do with these babies is cut them up to green bean size, sauté them in garlic, and then put them on, in, next to anything. You can also use them any way that you would use garlic. They are great in stir-fries.
What is a garlic scape? Garlic scapes are the flower of hard neck variety garlic. The end – which looks like a bud, kind of, would eventually turn into a ball filled with little garlic pearls – kind of like an onion flower. Those little garlic pears, if left to fall on the ground, would grow into a garlic bulb that you could eat in 2 year. Garlic scapes are the primary reproductive part of the garlic plant. The bulb is the secondary reproductive part, hence, once I snap the scapes off, the plant puts all of its energy towards the bulb = bigger bulbs! This is all for hard neck garlic. Most of the garlic that you find at the store is soft neck, because it stores better. I’ll get more into this when the garlic is ready.
Beets
Yes, those are beets that many of you got (and the rest will get next week). 3 varieties: Detroit Dark Red (purple), Golden Detroit (gold), and Chioggia (red on the outside, red and white striped on the inside. The greens are just fantastic right now also – don’t forget to steam those up with some garlic scapes!
Herbs
You will get one of the following: Sage (has purple flowers right now!), cilantro, tarragon, thyme, or lavender (the other one with purple flowers).
What could you do with lavender? What couldn’t you do? Dry is to use as a sache or potpourri. Make lavender short bread, pound cake, cookies. Use it in a tea, on your salad…it’s endless!
Broccoli
We are very excited about this one. We didn’t grow it last summer. Had a great crop in the greenhouse during the winter, but this is our first summer crop. Hope you enjoy it!
Turnips
Ahhh, you either love ‘em or you hate ’em! Either way, a good recipe can totally make the difference. I encourage you all to try to find some wonderful ways to prepare your turnips – let me know how it goes. Here is why you should learn to love them: they are very high in vitamin C. The greens are full of vitamin A and lutein. Lutein has been shown to help prevent cataracts and cardiovascular disease.
I hope the following recipes help you out with the turnips.
The News
This Saturday (July 12th) at 12 we will be hosting a garden and greenhouse tour – open to the public. If any of your friends have been asking what’s going on here at Copper Moose Farm, this is the time for them to come check it out. And of course we would love to see any of you that just don’t get enough of us! I encourage you all to encourage everyone to walk or ride their bikes!
August 16th Slow Food Utah will be having their annual Feast Of The Five Senses here at Copper Moose Farm. For more information go to: www.slowfoodutah.org. I know that this is a very popular event for them each year, so if any of you are interested in attending you might want to inquire now.
The Recipes
Turnips Puffs
Mashed turnips are combined with egg white and other ingredients to make this turnip casserole.
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
· 2 cups cooked, mashed turnips, cooled
· 1 cup bread crumbs
· 1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
· 1 teaspoon sugar
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 1/4 teaspoon pepper
· 2 eggs, separated
Preparation:
Combine turnips, bread crumbs, margarine, sugar, salt, pepper, and beaten egg yolks. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; fold into turnip mixture. Spoon turnip mixture into a buttered 1-quart casserole. Bake turnip puff at 350° for 40 minutes.Turnip recipe serves 4 to 6.
Radish or Turnip Greens with Miso Sauce
(Taken from Farmer John’s Cookbook – Thanks Simone!)
1 bunch radish or turnip greens or both
1 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp peanut oil
sugar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 cups hot cooked rice
Bing 2 cups water to a boil in medium pot. Add the greens and boil for 1 minute.
Drain the greens in a colander and run cool water over them to stop the cooking. Let drain again, then gently squeeze out an excess water with your hands. Transfer the greens to a cutting board. Chop finely and set aside.
Put the miso paste in a small bowl. Stir in 2 tbsp water; then add a little more water so that the miso is thinned just enough to stir into other ingredients.
Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped greens; cook, stirring until they are tender and heated through. Add the thinned miso paste. Add sugar to taste; stir the ingredients until thoroughly combined. Remove from heat; stir in the toasted sesame oil. Serve over rice.
And another……also from Farmer John’s
Young Turnip Galette with Cardamom
Try with grilled lamb chops or a roasted chicken
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp powdered sugar
½ tsp freshly ground cardamom
2 tbsp cold water
3 young turnips, preferably of similar size, sliced into very thin rounds.
6 tbsp butter
salt
Whisk the cornstarch, powdered sugar, and cardamom in a medium bowl. Whisk in the water until it forms a thin paste. Stir in the turnips and coat evenly.
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, them remove the skillet from heat.
Place one of the turnip rounds in the center of the skillet. Then add 4 more, slightly overlapping the first round, so that you end up with a four-petaled flower shape in the center of the skillet. Add the rest of the slices, overlapping them in concentric circles, until you have used them all to form a large single circle that fills the bottom of the skillet.
Place the skillet over medium heat; cook until slices are golden brown on the bottom, about 10 minutes.
Carefully flip the Galette with a large spatula. Continue to cook the Galette until it is golden brown on the second side, about 10 minutes. Remove the skillet from heat, season the Galette with salt to taste, and slice into triangles.
Hope you are all well. See you tomorrow - Daisy
July 8, 2008
There are five solid reasons that genetic engineering is not right for agriculture. One: it’s bad science. It was developed on the basis of flawed assumptions which have since been discredited by the scientific community. Two: it’s bad biology. It was deployed without regard for its potential for genetic contamination and its risks to human health. Three: it’s bad social policy. It puts control over seeds and the fundamentals of our food and farms into the hands of a few corporations who have their own, not our, best interests in mind. Four: it’s bad economics. After billions of dollars and thirty years, only a few products have been commercialized, they offer nothing new. No one asked for genetically modified organisms, and given a choice, consumers would reject them. Five: it’s bad farming. GMO’s don’t address the real issues plaguing agriculture; they’re designed to substitute for or increase the use of proprietary weed and pest control chemicals. Patented and genetically altered seeds perpetuate the very worst problems of the industrial food system, and they are undermining the autonomy of the farmers who use them.
Claire Hope Cummings from Uncertain Peril
I’m reading a very informative and totally terrifying book right now – would recommend it to all; Uncertain Peril by Claire Hope Cummings. We should all be very concerned about genetically engineered food. I would love to go on a long ramble about it right now (a slightly to moderately fiery ramble…), but I’ll hold off and do a little more formulating before I steal your ear for this one.
On to safer topics:
The Harvest
1# salad mix – herb salad mix again. As someone said “it’s a taste extravaganza in your mouth!”
½# spinach
¼# arugula
1 bag scapes
1 bunch herbs
1 bunch Evergreen Hardy White bunching onions
Jalapeno pepper
¼# basil (not all will get)
1 bunch baby beets (not all will get)
1 bunch radish (not all will get)
1 bunch Purple Globe Top turnips (not all will get)
Tomatoes (not all will get)
Eggplant (not all will get)
Broccoli (not all will get)
Edible flowers (not all will get)
I’m gonna do this one more time, just in case…
Greens we wash Greens we don’t wash
Salad mix arugula
Spinach basil
Any stir fry greens
Garlic Scapes!
Woo hoo! It’s garlic scape time! We love these. You know how people say that anything is good sautéed with butter and garlic? This is the ultimate! All you have to do with these babies is cut them up to green bean size, sauté them in garlic, and then put them on, in, next to anything. You can also use them any way that you would use garlic. They are great in stir-fries.
What is a garlic scape? Garlic scapes are the flower of hard neck variety garlic. The end – which looks like a bud, kind of, would eventually turn into a ball filled with little garlic pearls – kind of like an onion flower. Those little garlic pears, if left to fall on the ground, would grow into a garlic bulb that you could eat in 2 year. Garlic scapes are the primary reproductive part of the garlic plant. The bulb is the secondary reproductive part, hence, once I snap the scapes off, the plant puts all of its energy towards the bulb = bigger bulbs! This is all for hard neck garlic. Most of the garlic that you find at the store is soft neck, because it stores better. I’ll get more into this when the garlic is ready.
Beets
Yes, those are beets that many of you got (and the rest will get next week). 3 varieties: Detroit Dark Red (purple), Golden Detroit (gold), and Chioggia (red on the outside, red and white striped on the inside. The greens are just fantastic right now also – don’t forget to steam those up with some garlic scapes!
Herbs
You will get one of the following: Sage (has purple flowers right now!), cilantro, tarragon, thyme, or lavender (the other one with purple flowers).
What could you do with lavender? What couldn’t you do? Dry is to use as a sache or potpourri. Make lavender short bread, pound cake, cookies. Use it in a tea, on your salad…it’s endless!
Broccoli
We are very excited about this one. We didn’t grow it last summer. Had a great crop in the greenhouse during the winter, but this is our first summer crop. Hope you enjoy it!
Turnips
Ahhh, you either love ‘em or you hate ’em! Either way, a good recipe can totally make the difference. I encourage you all to try to find some wonderful ways to prepare your turnips – let me know how it goes. Here is why you should learn to love them: they are very high in vitamin C. The greens are full of vitamin A and lutein. Lutein has been shown to help prevent cataracts and cardiovascular disease.
I hope the following recipes help you out with the turnips.
The News
This Saturday (July 12th) at 12 we will be hosting a garden and greenhouse tour – open to the public. If any of your friends have been asking what’s going on here at Copper Moose Farm, this is the time for them to come check it out. And of course we would love to see any of you that just don’t get enough of us! I encourage you all to encourage everyone to walk or ride their bikes!
August 16th Slow Food Utah will be having their annual Feast Of The Five Senses here at Copper Moose Farm. For more information go to: www.slowfoodutah.org. I know that this is a very popular event for them each year, so if any of you are interested in attending you might want to inquire now.
The Recipes
Turnips Puffs
Mashed turnips are combined with egg white and other ingredients to make this turnip casserole.
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
· 2 cups cooked, mashed turnips, cooled
· 1 cup bread crumbs
· 1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
· 1 teaspoon sugar
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 1/4 teaspoon pepper
· 2 eggs, separated
Preparation:
Combine turnips, bread crumbs, margarine, sugar, salt, pepper, and beaten egg yolks. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; fold into turnip mixture. Spoon turnip mixture into a buttered 1-quart casserole. Bake turnip puff at 350° for 40 minutes.Turnip recipe serves 4 to 6.
Radish or Turnip Greens with Miso Sauce
(Taken from Farmer John’s Cookbook – Thanks Simone!)
1 bunch radish or turnip greens or both
1 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp peanut oil
sugar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 cups hot cooked rice
Bing 2 cups water to a boil in medium pot. Add the greens and boil for 1 minute.
Drain the greens in a colander and run cool water over them to stop the cooking. Let drain again, then gently squeeze out an excess water with your hands. Transfer the greens to a cutting board. Chop finely and set aside.
Put the miso paste in a small bowl. Stir in 2 tbsp water; then add a little more water so that the miso is thinned just enough to stir into other ingredients.
Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped greens; cook, stirring until they are tender and heated through. Add the thinned miso paste. Add sugar to taste; stir the ingredients until thoroughly combined. Remove from heat; stir in the toasted sesame oil. Serve over rice.
And another……also from Farmer John’s
Young Turnip Galette with Cardamom
Try with grilled lamb chops or a roasted chicken
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp powdered sugar
½ tsp freshly ground cardamom
2 tbsp cold water
3 young turnips, preferably of similar size, sliced into very thin rounds.
6 tbsp butter
salt
Whisk the cornstarch, powdered sugar, and cardamom in a medium bowl. Whisk in the water until it forms a thin paste. Stir in the turnips and coat evenly.
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, them remove the skillet from heat.
Place one of the turnip rounds in the center of the skillet. Then add 4 more, slightly overlapping the first round, so that you end up with a four-petaled flower shape in the center of the skillet. Add the rest of the slices, overlapping them in concentric circles, until you have used them all to form a large single circle that fills the bottom of the skillet.
Place the skillet over medium heat; cook until slices are golden brown on the bottom, about 10 minutes.
Carefully flip the Galette with a large spatula. Continue to cook the Galette until it is golden brown on the second side, about 10 minutes. Remove the skillet from heat, season the Galette with salt to taste, and slice into triangles.
Hope you are all well. See you tomorrow - Daisy