07/28/2009
CSA Newsletter
July 28, 2009
Soil erosion is occurring at 20 times the rate of natural replenishment, even faster than during the Dust Bowl, which occurred before the chemical Green Revolution.
Dr. Arden Anderson, Science in Agriculture
The Harvest
1# salad mix
2.5oz arugula
1 bunch scallions
1 bunch beets
Fennel
Broccoli
2.5oz basil
1 bunch herbs (thyme, oregano, tarragon, or cilantro) If you don’t like the one you got in your box, check in the “for sale” herbs box and swap out if you want.
Not everyone will get the following:
1 bunch carrots
1 bunch turnips
Jalapeno
Sweet Bell Pepper (Red Ace or Sweet Cal Wonder Orange)
Heirloom tomatoes (check the white board)
Edible Flowers
U-pick peas and beans (check the white board)
Fennel – This is the only fennel you will get this year, so love it up! I left the ferny greens on the bulb because I like to cut them up and put them in my salad. They have a nice mild licorice flavor (I would avoid the stalk though, just the ferny part). The bulb itself is lovely grilled, chopped fresh in a salad (gives a wonderful juicy crunch with a mild licorice flavor), in a stir fry, diced and cooked with your scrambled eggs, etc. The fennel is going to store best…….yup, you got it, in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Nutritional Tip
Fennel (here is a random assortment of info on fennel):
Fennel is a good source of vitamin C, fiber, folate, and potassium.
It is the primary ingredient in absinthe.
It is considered a stimulant.
There are historical anecdotes that fennel improves the milk supply of breast feeding mothers. Any of you breast feeding mothers out there; I would check with your doc before you start pounding the fennel though (what I have given you this week does not count as “pounding”).
Apparently it is disliked by fleas and fennel powder has been used to drive fleas away from kennels.
Some use it as a diuretic.
In India fennel tea is used as a compress or directly on the eye to reduce redness, irritation or inflammation. The Indians also eat raw fennel seeds to improve eye sight.
The News
We had a fabulous Half Moon Harvest Dinner here on Saturday night. The evening was perfect, the setting gorgeous, the company fabulous, and the food spectacular! Looking forward to 2 more Harvest Dinners coming up.
Just a reminder (now that I’ve got you wishing you had signed up for a Harvest Dinner before they sold out) that the CSA Potluck is Sunday August 30th.
The creek that runs right by the farm has dried up, so the ducks are sticking closer to home these days – which is nice. They were starting to venture pretty far, I’m pleased everyone is still with us.
The chickens have a mystery nest somewhere out in the woods, so we have been a little low on eggs the last few days. We are on the hunt and I’m sure we’ll locate their new favorite laying spot soon.
Our Open House is this Saturday from 2-5. If you have any friends who are interested in what we’ve got going on here, tell them to stop by. Doug the bee guy will be here, Andrew Parker the contractor will be here, Ashley from the Green Building Center will be here to talk about our solar panels, and I’ll be here to talk about the gardens.
Bee Update
With the wet June behind us and now the heat high summer on us, business at "The Hive" have turned a bit from building up the population and "drawing out" or building honey comb to collecting nectar, pollen and laying in HONEY.
On the last inspection the population was pouring out of the hive and by counting the number of frames of honeycomb with "brood"(baby bees in differing stages of growth) and frames with stored honey and pollen, the number of bees in our hive is close to FORTY THOUSAND PLUS!
Next time you visit the farm take a feel free to take a close look at the hive. You can easily approach within four feet or so with out bothering the ladies coming and going from the fields. Remember, approach and leave slowly and stay out of the "flight path" directly in front. The bees are more interested in getting home from work than bothering visitors (sound familiar?).
The smaller box on the top of the larger hive boxes is called a honey "super" (like Super man). Inside this smaller box are ten smaller frames that the bees will start to build honeycomb and fill with honey. There is a small screen below it that will only allow worker bees through. By excluding the queen from laying eggs in the super it will only contain honey. If by late fall the colony is strong enough and has enough honey stored to eat over the winter, the top super is where the honey we may harvest will come from. So far so good as they already have a good amount of honey stored.
Hope to see you at the CSA Pot Luck Dinner in August. I will be there to answer questions and we will open up the hive to let you see first hand the action. See you there-Doug
The Recipe
Roasted Fennel Recipe
Ingredients
· 1 fennel bulbs (thick base of stalk), stalks cut off, bulbs sliced
· Olive oil
· Balsamic vinegar
Method
1 Preheat oven to 400°F.
2 Rub just enough olive oil over the fennel to coat. Sprinkle on some balsamic vinegar, also to coat. Line baking dish with silpat or aluminum foil. Lay out piece of fennel and roast for 15-20 minutes, until the fennel is cooked through and beginning to caramelize.
Serves 2.
Red Pepper and Fennel Bulb Salad
INGREDIENTS
1 medium red bell pepper
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
1 head leaf lettuce - rinsed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces
1/2 bulb fennel, diced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
black pepper to taste.My folders:
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat broiler. Grill pepper under the broiler until the skin is blackened, and the flesh has softened slightly. Place pepper in a paper bag or resealable plastic bag to cool. Remove the seeds and skin (the skin should come off the peppers easily now). Slice into strips.
2. Set oven to bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place pine nuts and sesame seeds on a baking sheet, and toast until beginning to brown. They'll smell great!
3. Combine lettuce greens, fennel bulb, and red pepper in a salad bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce and vegetable oil. Pour over salad, and toss to coat. Sprinkle with pine nuts and sesame seeds, and season to taste with ground black pepper.
Easy Turnip and Beet Chips
I just wanted to remind everyone about turnip and beet chips! To make the chips, peel the turnips and slice about 1/8th to ¼ inch thick, cut the beets the same way (but don’t peel them. You don’t have to peel the turnips either if you like the spicy flavor of the skin…). Toss them all in a bowl with some kind of oil (peanut, coconut, olive, etc) and what ever herbs you like (my favorite combo is sage, rosemary and thyme – there is a reason they wrote a song about those), and salt and pepper. Place in one layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes – longer if you want them crispier. Mine never get truly crispy like a chip….but you get the idea. Kids will love the multi-colored “chips”.
That’s all for this week, see you tomorrow between 8-6.
Daisy
July 28, 2009
Soil erosion is occurring at 20 times the rate of natural replenishment, even faster than during the Dust Bowl, which occurred before the chemical Green Revolution.
Dr. Arden Anderson, Science in Agriculture
The Harvest
1# salad mix
2.5oz arugula
1 bunch scallions
1 bunch beets
Fennel
Broccoli
2.5oz basil
1 bunch herbs (thyme, oregano, tarragon, or cilantro) If you don’t like the one you got in your box, check in the “for sale” herbs box and swap out if you want.
Not everyone will get the following:
1 bunch carrots
1 bunch turnips
Jalapeno
Sweet Bell Pepper (Red Ace or Sweet Cal Wonder Orange)
Heirloom tomatoes (check the white board)
Edible Flowers
U-pick peas and beans (check the white board)
Fennel – This is the only fennel you will get this year, so love it up! I left the ferny greens on the bulb because I like to cut them up and put them in my salad. They have a nice mild licorice flavor (I would avoid the stalk though, just the ferny part). The bulb itself is lovely grilled, chopped fresh in a salad (gives a wonderful juicy crunch with a mild licorice flavor), in a stir fry, diced and cooked with your scrambled eggs, etc. The fennel is going to store best…….yup, you got it, in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Nutritional Tip
Fennel (here is a random assortment of info on fennel):
Fennel is a good source of vitamin C, fiber, folate, and potassium.
It is the primary ingredient in absinthe.
It is considered a stimulant.
There are historical anecdotes that fennel improves the milk supply of breast feeding mothers. Any of you breast feeding mothers out there; I would check with your doc before you start pounding the fennel though (what I have given you this week does not count as “pounding”).
Apparently it is disliked by fleas and fennel powder has been used to drive fleas away from kennels.
Some use it as a diuretic.
In India fennel tea is used as a compress or directly on the eye to reduce redness, irritation or inflammation. The Indians also eat raw fennel seeds to improve eye sight.
The News
We had a fabulous Half Moon Harvest Dinner here on Saturday night. The evening was perfect, the setting gorgeous, the company fabulous, and the food spectacular! Looking forward to 2 more Harvest Dinners coming up.
Just a reminder (now that I’ve got you wishing you had signed up for a Harvest Dinner before they sold out) that the CSA Potluck is Sunday August 30th.
The creek that runs right by the farm has dried up, so the ducks are sticking closer to home these days – which is nice. They were starting to venture pretty far, I’m pleased everyone is still with us.
The chickens have a mystery nest somewhere out in the woods, so we have been a little low on eggs the last few days. We are on the hunt and I’m sure we’ll locate their new favorite laying spot soon.
Our Open House is this Saturday from 2-5. If you have any friends who are interested in what we’ve got going on here, tell them to stop by. Doug the bee guy will be here, Andrew Parker the contractor will be here, Ashley from the Green Building Center will be here to talk about our solar panels, and I’ll be here to talk about the gardens.
Bee Update
With the wet June behind us and now the heat high summer on us, business at "The Hive" have turned a bit from building up the population and "drawing out" or building honey comb to collecting nectar, pollen and laying in HONEY.
On the last inspection the population was pouring out of the hive and by counting the number of frames of honeycomb with "brood"(baby bees in differing stages of growth) and frames with stored honey and pollen, the number of bees in our hive is close to FORTY THOUSAND PLUS!
Next time you visit the farm take a feel free to take a close look at the hive. You can easily approach within four feet or so with out bothering the ladies coming and going from the fields. Remember, approach and leave slowly and stay out of the "flight path" directly in front. The bees are more interested in getting home from work than bothering visitors (sound familiar?).
The smaller box on the top of the larger hive boxes is called a honey "super" (like Super man). Inside this smaller box are ten smaller frames that the bees will start to build honeycomb and fill with honey. There is a small screen below it that will only allow worker bees through. By excluding the queen from laying eggs in the super it will only contain honey. If by late fall the colony is strong enough and has enough honey stored to eat over the winter, the top super is where the honey we may harvest will come from. So far so good as they already have a good amount of honey stored.
Hope to see you at the CSA Pot Luck Dinner in August. I will be there to answer questions and we will open up the hive to let you see first hand the action. See you there-Doug
The Recipe
Roasted Fennel Recipe
Ingredients
· 1 fennel bulbs (thick base of stalk), stalks cut off, bulbs sliced
· Olive oil
· Balsamic vinegar
Method
1 Preheat oven to 400°F.
2 Rub just enough olive oil over the fennel to coat. Sprinkle on some balsamic vinegar, also to coat. Line baking dish with silpat or aluminum foil. Lay out piece of fennel and roast for 15-20 minutes, until the fennel is cooked through and beginning to caramelize.
Serves 2.
Red Pepper and Fennel Bulb Salad
INGREDIENTS
1 medium red bell pepper
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
1 head leaf lettuce - rinsed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces
1/2 bulb fennel, diced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
black pepper to taste.My folders:
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat broiler. Grill pepper under the broiler until the skin is blackened, and the flesh has softened slightly. Place pepper in a paper bag or resealable plastic bag to cool. Remove the seeds and skin (the skin should come off the peppers easily now). Slice into strips.
2. Set oven to bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place pine nuts and sesame seeds on a baking sheet, and toast until beginning to brown. They'll smell great!
3. Combine lettuce greens, fennel bulb, and red pepper in a salad bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce and vegetable oil. Pour over salad, and toss to coat. Sprinkle with pine nuts and sesame seeds, and season to taste with ground black pepper.
Easy Turnip and Beet Chips
I just wanted to remind everyone about turnip and beet chips! To make the chips, peel the turnips and slice about 1/8th to ¼ inch thick, cut the beets the same way (but don’t peel them. You don’t have to peel the turnips either if you like the spicy flavor of the skin…). Toss them all in a bowl with some kind of oil (peanut, coconut, olive, etc) and what ever herbs you like (my favorite combo is sage, rosemary and thyme – there is a reason they wrote a song about those), and salt and pepper. Place in one layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes – longer if you want them crispier. Mine never get truly crispy like a chip….but you get the idea. Kids will love the multi-colored “chips”.
That’s all for this week, see you tomorrow between 8-6.
Daisy
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