Week 15 Newsletter 2016

Hello Everyone,             

We started picking apple this past week and what a week to begin the apple season! The warm temperatures and dry conditions make it a delight to be in the great outdoors. The apple packing line has been carefully reassembled and is taking up the center stage in our packing shed. When we have more apples picked and stored in the cooler we will begin packing apples. Look for an apple price list in next week's newsletter if you are interested in purchasing some extra apples.

This week you will receive a survey from me in your email. Please take a few minutes to answer the questions, it does help me out to get feed back at the end of the season which is beneficial when I am making plans for the next season. Anyone who completes the survey will be entered into a drawing for a peck of honey crisp apples.

What to expect to find in your bin this week:

Asian Pears
Honey Crisp Apples
Tomatoes
Peppers
Fingerling Potatoes
Beets
Shallots
Garlic
Chives/Tarragon

or in your bucket:

Honey Crisp Apples
Tomatoes
Peppers
Fingerling Potatoes
Garlic

Beet and Endive Salad with Walnuts

MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN  YIELD Serves 4  TIME About 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE DRESSING:

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
 Sea salt, kosher salt, or fleur de sel
½ to 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (to taste)
1 very small garlic clove, finely minced or put through a press
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon walnut oil
 Freshly ground pepper

FOR THE SALAD:

4 small or medium beets, roasted, peeled, and cut in wedges or half-moons
4 Belgian endives, rinsed and sliced
2 tablespoons broken walnuts, preferably from fresh shelled walnuts
2 ounces fresh, mild goat cheese or feta, crumbled
2 teaspoons minced fresh tarragon
1 teaspoon minced chives

PREPARATION

Make the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the sherry vinegar, balsamic vinegar, salt to taste, Dijon mustard and garlic until combined well. Whisk in the olive oil and the walnut oil. Add freshly ground pepper to taste.
Combine the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Toss with the dressing and serve.

Roasted or Grilled Peppers

MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN  YIELD Serves 4  TIME 1 hour 45 minutes

You can serve roasted peppers as they are or add to salads, pasta, pizza and sandwiches.


INGREDIENTS

4 medium red, green, or yellow bell peppers

OPTIONAL

 Sea salt (fine or coarse) or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 or 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
 Slivered fresh basil leaves or chopped fresh tarragon, chervil or marjoram
1 teaspoon balsamic or sherry vinegar

PREPARATION

ROASTING IN THE OVEN

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place the peppers on the foil and bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, using tongs to turn the peppers every 10 minutes. The peppers are done when their skin is brown and puffed. It won’t be black the way it is when you grill them.
Transfer the peppers to a bowl. Cover the bowl with a plate or with plastic, and let sit for 30 minutes, until cool.
Carefully remove the skins, then, holding the peppers over the bowl so no juice escapes, separate into halves or quarters and remove the stems, seeds and membranes Cut into strips if desired, and place in another bowl. Strain in the juice. If storing for more than a day, toss with 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. Refrigerate until ready to use. If you wish, toss with the optional ingredients shortly before serving.

GRILLED PEPPERS

Using a Burner: Light a gas burner and place the pepper directly over the flame. As soon as one section has blackened, turn the pepper, using tongs, to expose another section to the flame. Continue to turn until the entire pepper is blackened. Place in a plastic bag and seal, or place in a bowl and cover tightly. Allow to sit until cool, then remove the charred skin. You may need to run the pepper briefly under the faucet to rinse off the final bits of charred skin. If so, pat dry with paper towels. Cut the pepper in half, holding it over a bowl, remove the seeds and membranes, and store as instructed above.
Using the broiler: Preheat the broiler. Cover a baking sheet with foil. Place the baking sheet under the broiler at the highest setting. Turn the peppers every 3 minutes or so, until uniformly charred. Proceed as above. Using a grill: Place on a grill directly over hot coals and turn as each side becomes charred and blackened. When the entire pepper is charred, remove from the grill and proceed as above.

Week 14 Newsletter 2016

Hello Everyone,    

We are making our way through a deep pile of ripe tomatoes. After another incredibly warm weekend it looks like there will more vine ripened tomatoes that will be ready to be picked this week. Yes, the bays may be getting a little cooler in the middle of September but we are swimming in produce this time of year!

What to expect to find in your bin this week:

Purple Plums
Nectarines
Tomatoes
Winter Squash
Peppers
Leeks
Carrots
Thyme

and in your bucket:                                                    

Nectarines
Tomatoes
Peppers
Leeks
Thyme

Here are a couple of recipe to use this week.

Salsa Fresca

MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN  YIELD 2 cups  TIME 10 minutes

This quick fresh tomato salsa will always be best when tomatoes are in season. Juicy tomatoes will yield a more watery salsa than pulpy roma tomatoes.

INGREDIENTS

¼ small white or red onion, minced
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 pound fresh, ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
1 to 3 jalapeño or serrano chiles, to taste, minced (and seeded, if you would like a milder salsa)
4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, more to taste
1 to 3 teaspoons fresh lime juice (optional)
 Salt to taste

PREPARATION

Place minced onion in a bowl and cover with cold water. Add vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes or longer. Drain and rinse with cold water.
In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients and stir in onions. (If your tomatoes are full of flavor, you won’t need lime juice.) Ideally, let stand at room temperature for 15 to 30 minutes before eating so that flavors will blend and ripen.

Root Vegetable Soup

MELISSA CLARK  YIELD 6 to 8 servings  TIME 1 hour

INGREDIENTS

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion or 2 leeks (white and light green part only), chopped
2 to 3 celery stalks, diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 rosemary or thyme branches
2 bay leaves
3 ½ pounds mixed root vegetables (carrot, parsnip, celery root, turnip, rutabaga, sweet or regular potato), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 teaspoons fine sea salt, more as needed
½ teaspoon black pepper, more as needed
 Juice of 1/2 lemon, more for serving
 Extra-virgin olive oil
 Flaky sea salt
 Crushed Aleppo, Urfa or other chile flakes, optional
 Grated Parmesan or pecorino, optional


PREPARATION

Melt butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Stir in onion and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in garlic, rosemary and bay leaves; cook 1 minute more. Add root vegetables, 8 cups water, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer, covered, until vegetables are tender, 30 to 40 minutes.
Remove and discard rosemary branches and bay leaves. Using an immersion blender, purée soup until smooth. (Alternatively, you can purée the soup in batches in a blender or food processor.) If the soup is too thick, add a little water. Season with lemon juice and more salt to taste.
To serve, ladle soup into bowls and top with a drizzle of olive oil, a few drops of lemon juice, flaky salt and crushed chile or grated cheese, if desired.

Week 13 Newsletter 2016

Hello Everyone,                         

Oh, the times are a changing! It seems that regardless of where you are in your life, if you
have been out of school for 30 years or are just starting your first year of kindergarten, the beginning of the school year is an exciting time of year.  I had someone visit the garden earlier this week and they asked why a school bus was driving down our dirt road. Our farm is a village this time of year, and we have many farm workers who are preparing for apple harvest and many of these folks have families. So the big yellow bus makes its way down our road too. I hope you have eased into September and have found creative ways to use all of the produce that you brought home on Wednesday or Thursday.



What to expect to find in your bin this week:

Nectarines
Peaches
Sarah's Choice Melon
Tomatoes
Peppers
Red Cabbage
Carrots
Summer Squash
Basil

and in the buckets:

Nectarines
Tomatoes
Peppers
Red Cabbage
Basil

Here are a couple of recipes that include items that you will find in your bin or bucket.

Cabbage and Basil Salad

JACQUES PEPIN  YIELD 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 small cabbage (about 1 1/4 pounds)
4 cloves garlic, peeled, crushed and chopped fine (1 tablespoon)
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon mustard, preferably Dijon-style
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
¼ cup olive oil, preferably virgin
¼ cup shredded fresh basil leaves

PREPARATION

Cut the cabbage in half and remove the center rib. Shred as you would for coleslaw. You should have about 6 to 7 cups of lightly packed cabbage.
For the dressing, combine the garlic, salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar and olive oil in a bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add the cabbage and stir. Just before serving, sprinkle the basil on top. The salad will develop more taste if made a few hours ahead.

Salmon and Tomatoes in Foil

MARK BITTMAN  YIELD 4 servings  TIME 30 minutes

Here is a dead-simple recipe for salmon prepared en papillote (a fancy name for “in paper,” though like most everyone else these days, you will use aluminum foil). Layer salmon, tomato and basil on lightly oiled foil and wrap it all up — you can even do it a night before cooking. When the time for dinner comes, you can steam, grill, roast or pan-grill the packages — though our testing shows roasting is easiest. You can substitute almost anything comparable for each of the ingredients: salmon can be replaced by any fish steak or fillet, or by boneless, skinless chicken breast. The herb and vegetable can also be varied at will, as long as the vegetable will finish cooking at the same time as the protein: if you were cooking broccoli, for example, you would have to cut it into small pieces; if carrots, you'd have to parboil them.

INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ to 2 pounds salmon fillet, cut crosswise (4 pieces)
12 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
 Salt and pepper
16 basil leaves

PREPARATION

For each of 4 packages, place one 12-inch-long sheet of aluminum foil on top of another. Smear top sheet with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, and layer a fillet of salmon, 6 tomato halves, salt and pepper, 4 basil leaves and another half tablespoon oil. Seal package by folding foil onto itself and crimping edges tightly. Repeat to make other packages, and refrigerate until ready to cook, no more than 24 hours later.
When you are ready to cook, heat oven to 500 degrees. Place packages in a roasting pan. (Or they can be cooked on top of the stove in 2 skillets over medium-high heat.) Cook 5 minutes (for medium-rare) to 8 minutes from the time the mixture starts to sizzle, or roughly 10 to 12 minutes total.
Let packages rest a minute, and cut a slit along the top with a knife. Use a knife and fork to open the package. Spoon the salmon, garnish and juices onto a plate, and serve.

Week 12 Newsletter 2016

You've gotta love potatoes!

Happy September!
............ let the autumn bounty begin.

You will notice that you will be receiving more melons this week. It has been a robust year for melons. I grow short season melons in black plastic mulch, the warm day and night temperatures this summer made all the difference in both flavor and with the growth of melons. My fingers are crossed that they were harvested at the right time. 

What to expect to find in your bins this week:

Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Tomatoes
Peppers
Red Onions
Curly Green Kale
Potatoes
Garlic
Rosemary

and buckets:

Cantaloupe
Broccoli
Tomatoes
Green & Purple Pole Beans
Garlic

Here are some recipes that include kale, garlic, rosemary and of course, tomatoes.

Lemon-Garlic Kale Salad

JULIA MOSKIN  YIELD 8 to 12 servings  TIME About 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS

2 cups sliced almonds
⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 to 4 lemons)
 Kosher salt
1 ½ cups extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed with the flat side of a knife, peeled and left whole
10 to 12 ounces washed and dried kale leaves, thick stems removed (weight after trimming)
1 ½ cups freshly grated Parmesan (optional)

PREPARATION

In a toaster oven or skillet, toast almonds until golden brown and fragrant. Set aside to cool.
In a bowl, combine lemon juice and 1 heaping teaspoon salt. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Add garlic cloves and set aside to steep.
Working in batches, cut the kale into thin ribbons: gather a large handful of leaves, bunch together tightly, and use the other hand to slice into 1/4-inch-thick pieces. This need not be done very precisely or neatly; the idea is to end up with a kind of slaw. (Recipe can be made up to this point 1 day ahead. Keep kale and dressing refrigerated separately.)
Place chopped kale in a very large bowl. Sprinkle surface with almonds and then with cheese, if using. Remove and discard garlic cloves from dressing. Pour half the dressing over the salad and toss. Taste for dressing and salt and add more as needed, tossing to coat thoroughly. Serve within 1 hour.

Amazingly Sweet Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN
YIELD Serves 4 as a snack, side dish or sauce.  TIME About 3 hours

INGREDIENTS

1 pound small plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
 Coarse salt to taste
 A tiny amount of sugar
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

PREPARATION

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Put the halved tomatoes in a bowl and toss with the olive oil. Oil a rack that will fit on top of a baking sheet. Place foil on the baking sheet and oil the foil, and place the rack on top. Place the tomatoes, cut side up, on the rack. Sprinkle with coarse salt and a tiny amount of sugar. Place in the oven and roast for 2 hours. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for about 30 minutes. The tomatoes will look a little dry on the surfaces and the skin will be tough. But when you bite into the tomatoes you’ll experience a rush of incredibly sweet juice and pulp. If you want to use these for a sauce, put through the fine blade of a food mill.

Focaccia With Tomatoes and Rosemary

 MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN  YIELD 12 to 15 servings

INGREDIENTS

2 teaspoons (8 grams) active dry yeast
1 teaspoon (5 grams) sugar
1 ½ cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons (25 grams) olive oil, plus an additional 2 tablespoons (25 grams) for drizzling
250 grams (approximately 2 cups) whole-wheat flour
200 to 220 grams (approximately 1 2/3 to 1 3/4 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour, plus additional as needed for kneading
1 ¾ teaspoons (13 grams) salt
¾ pound Roma tomatoes
 Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary (to taste)

PREPARATION

In the bowl of a standing mixer, or in a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water. Add the olive oil, whole-wheat flour, 200 grams of the all-purpose flour and salt and mix together briefly using the paddle attachment. Change to the dough hook and beat for 8 to 10 minutes at medium speed, adding flour as necessary. The dough should eventually form a ball around the dough hook and slap against the sides of the bowl as the mixer turns; it will be sticky. Remove from the bowl, flour your hands and knead for a minute on a lightly floured surface, and shape into a ball.
If kneading the dough by hand, dissolve the yeast in the water with the sugar as directed. Stir in the olive oil, whole-wheat flour, salt and all-purpose flour by the half-cup, until the dough can be scraped out onto a floured work surface. Knead, adding flour as necessary, for 10 minutes, until the dough is elastic and smooth. Shape into a ball.
Clean and dry your bowl and oil lightly with olive oil. Place the dough in it, rounded side down first, then rounded side up. Cover tightly with plastic and let rise in a warm spot for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or in the refrigerator for 4 to 8 hours, until doubled.
Punch down the dough. Cover with lightly oiled plastic and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, preferably with a baking stone in it. Line a sheet pan with parchment and oil generously. Roll or press out the dough into a rectangle the size of the sheet pan or just slightly smaller. To do this efficiently, roll or press out the dough, stop and wait 5 minutes for the gluten to relax, then roll or press out again, and repeat until the dough reaches the right size. Cover with a damp towel and let rest for 30 minutes. Just before baking, use your fingertips to dimple the dough all over.
Cut the tomatoes into rounds and place on top of the focaccia. Sprinkle with coarse salt and the rosemary. Drizzle a tablespoon or two of olive oil over all.
Bake, setting the pan on top of the baking stone (if using), for 20 to 25 minutes, until the bread is deep golden brown. Let rest for at least 10 minutes before serving, or allow to cool completely.