Recipe: What the heck is French Sorrel?

You'll likely only see it this one time because it's fairly unusual, but it is a fun thing to add a little change once in awhile. Is it a green or a spice? Frankly I'm not really sure, but it sure does have a distinctive flavor. It's very lemony, in case you haven't ever nibbled it before.


To store, put French sorrel into a sealed plastic bag and keep in the refrigerator. Sorrel does not dry well, but it can be frozen successfully. Its leaves, rich in potassium and vitamins C and A, will keep its beneficial qualities and great taste for a long time, but they are especially good when fresh.
Slivered sorrel leaves add a tangy accent to fresh salads. Add its spunky taste to scrambled eggs and

omelets. Seafood, chicken, veal, lamb, pheasant dishes welcome its bite. Hearty meat stews like its acidic contribution. Shred into soups with a tomato or fish base. Add its pizzazz to rice and lentils. Make a sorrel based sauce; drizzle over grilled, sautéed or marinated portabella mushrooms. Fold into mayonnaise and creamy sauces. Tuck a shredded leaf or two in sandwiches. Experiment with this herb in savory dishes, adding a little at a time until desired taste is reached.
Use generously when cooking sorrel as it reduces greatly in volume. Pureed sorrel wakes up cooked vegetables. Pair with asparagus, green and yellow string beans, turnips, cauliflower and summer squash. Use less lemon and vinegar in recipes when including sorrel. Do not cook in aluminum or iron pans as sorrel will develop a metallic taste. Use a stainless-steel knife for cutting. Stems are tough and should be removed.




TUNA DIP WITH HERBS AND CAPERS

two 6-ounce cans solid white tuna packed in oil, drained well
a 10 1/4-ounce package soft tofu, drained
3 spring onions, minced
1 carrot, shredded fine
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
2 tablespoons drained capers, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice OR leaves of sorrel
Accompaniment: crackers or assorted crudites
In a bowl stir tuna with a fork until finely flaked. In another bowl whisk tofu until smooth. Stir tofu
and remaining ingredients into tuna until combined and season with salt and pepper. Serve dip with
crackers or crudites.

Recipes for Chard, Kale & other greens

Kale


 I know kale isn’t high on everyone’s list of favorite veggies, but I really think it’s hard to find a leaf that’s so good but also good for us. It can be thick and is usually cooked, it’s packed with vitamins, minerals, and, so we read, cancer-fighting chemicals. Plus, frankly, I think is among the prettiest vegetables and it’s nice to have recipes that highlight it’s texture and shape, in addition to the beautiful chartreuse color.
I use greens quick-cooked like this in dozens of ways. Stir a few beaten eggs into a skillet of sautéed kale, and you're on your way to a delicious omelet or frittata. I sometimes chop the leaves a bit finer (pre or post sauté), and add them to all sorts of soups and curries - you get color, flavor, and a nutritious boost. Puree the sautéed greens and you can whisk or blend them into yogurt, hummus, mashed potatoes, and dips. Any ideas from your end?


Keep kale unwashed (moisture speeds its decay) in a plastic bag in the coldest section of the refrigerator, which is usually in the back.
Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium.
Because of its high vitamin K content, patients taking anti-coagulants such as warfarin are encouraged to avoid this food since it increases the vitamin K concentration in the blood.


Kale, as with broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical believed to have potent anti-cancer properties.
Kale Soup
4 large russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 links hot Italian or other robust sausage
1 large onion, chopped
1 bunch kale, ribs removed, chopped
3 quarts chicken stock or
veggie stock
1/4 cup hot pepper sauce
Whenever using kale, I always remove most of the thick stalk.
I sometimes lightly steam kale and eat it with a splash of good soy sauce or balsamic vinegar.
It can also be lightly cooked and drizzled with sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds and sea salt. Chilled after cooking it makes for a zesty salad.


Garlicky Greens
1 large bunch of kale, chard, or spinach
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
fine grain sea salt

5 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (opt)

crushed red pepper flakes

To de-stem each leaf of chard/kale, grab the main stalk in one hand and strip the leaf from the stem all the way up with the other. I then tear the big leaves into bite-sized pieces, but you can use a knife for this task if you prefer. Wash the greens in a big bowl (or sink) full of clean water, rinsing and swishing to rinse away any stubborn grit and dirt. Drain, rinse again, and set aside.

Hold off cooking the greens until just before eating. Then, in a large skillet heat the olive oil. Add a couple big pinches of salt and the greens. They should hiss and spit a bit when they hit the pan. Stir continuously until their color gets bright green, and they just barely start to collapse - two, three, maybe four minutes, depending on how hot your pan is and how much structure your greens have. Then, just thirty seconds before you anticipate pulling the skillet off of the heat, stir in the garlic. Sauté a bit, remove the pan from the heat, stir in the Parmesan, and add a big pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. Taste, add a bit of salt if needed.

Emjoy! 

Kohlrabi and Green apple slaw

So this is an option for the weird looking round things in your box you will see a couple times this season. Basically, you can treat this healthy vegetable like cabbage, raw or cooked.

Julianne or shred the kohlrabi and green apple (s) until you have about the same amount of each. The dressing is 1/2 c. heavy cream, a blob or two of the mustard you like best, 1 tsp. of lemon juice, 1tsp. of sugar, 2 tbsp. chopped parsley, and salt to taste. Optionally, you could use horseradish in place of the mustard and/or dill in place of the parsley.
Yum!

Another short article about the strange veggie: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2010/10/five-ways-to-eat-kohlrabi/

Recipe: Zucchini ribbons with mint

This is a really easy and refreshing salad that pairs well with a heavier meat like pork or beef. Using a veggie peeler. slice 4-6 smaller zucchini lengthwise in ribbons. Yellow and green ones together look really vibrant together. Put the ribbons into a bowl with 1/2 tsp of course salt to draw out some of the moisture-leave for 10 minutes. Pour off the accumulated liquid and blot the ribbons dry on towels. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk 2 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tbsp olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Add 1/4 c. fresh mint leaves-they can be spearmint, or any of the many mint flavors available today- and 1/4 c. thinly sliced onion. Toss gently, and serve promptly.
Enjoy...

July 6, 2012 News from the farm

The heat has made things pretty challenging the last week or so, along with continued dry weather at our location. Some of the vegetables are doing well with the heat and some have completely stopped producing or skipped out and gone to seed in response to the soaring temps. Winter and summer squashes, tomatoes, peppers, okra, melons and eggplants are all doing pretty well and in the beginning of their production, so that's the upside. You've seen the zucchini and cukes in your boxes and while there are no ripe tomatoes yet, there are lots of tiny green ones and zillions of blooms. The peppers and eggplants are growing well and flowering, too. We are adding more irrigation equipment this week because while some areas have had too much rain, our farm is in an area that has been dry for 2 weeks and it's starting to show. Between the heat and no rain, most of the lettuce, spinach and snap peas are over until cooler weather returns for awhile, but other greens aren't bothered like kale and chard.
Blue skies...

Recipe: Basic Veggie Pie

Or Vegetable Gougere,as the Frenchies say:

This recipe is a really basic baked vegetable dish you could use in so many variations. It could be made to use spring veggies like asparagus, and garlic scapes, or later in summer with zucchini, sweet corn, and tomatoes, or even fall with squash, kale or root vegetables. Cooked ham or bacon is also a nice addition.

For the dough: 1 1/4 cups water, 1/2 cup butter, 1 1/4 cups flour, 4 eggs, 1 cup or so of shredded Gruyere or cheddar cheese, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, salt and pepper to taste.

For the filling: 1 can of tomatoes or a couple pounds of fresh. Other veggies as you desire.

To start: Preheat oven to 400-grease a baking dish. Add water and butter to a pan and when the butter is melted, add the flour and remove from the heat. Mix for about 30 seconds until the mixture is smooth. Allow it to cool slightly before adding the eggs, one at a time, and mix until it's smooth and glossy. Add cheese, mustard, salt and pepper and spread it into a baking dish, leaving a hollow in the center for the filling.

In the meantime: Blend or mash the tomatoes into a sauce and add water if necessary until you have 1 1/4 cups. Choose your other veggies and saute them with a little oil until about 1/2 cooked. Always start cooking the denser veggies first and add others according to how fast they will cook. Add the tomatoes and some dried or fresh thyme or basil. Cook only for a few minutes and then carefully spoon the mixture into the hollow of the dough in the baking dish. Cook about 30-40 minutes or until the pastry part is risen and browned nicely. Enjoy!

June 14 2012, Week 2

In the box this week:
-Carrots
-Bac Choy
-Swiss Chard
-Lettuce
-Garlic Scapes
-Garden Peas

Two additions of note this week are the carrots and the peas. I have taken the liberty of removing the tops from the carrots. You will often see them in markets with the tops on and that is perfectly ok. But it's important to remove them when you get home because the plant will actually suck moisture and nutrients from the root, the part we like, to keep the greenery, the part the plant likes, alive. The same is true for radish and parsnip.

The peas are perfect and very sweet, but don't forget that these are garden peas, not pea pods or snap peas,  so the pod is fibrous and the pea within is the part we are meant to eat. The are delicious in salad, pasta, or just on their own. My son loves to shell them with me and just eat them, and I'm guessing that's true for most kids.
*Enjoy*

June 7 - 1st distribution

Greetings to all. It was so awesome to get back to CSA distribution - seeing and speaking with the families partnering with me this year was great. As shown on the card included with your produce there was a nice variety of early summer produce and I look forward to being able to increase the volume as the season progresses. 

In your box this week:

-Salad Mix

-Spinach

-radish

-dill

-perennial onion 

-garlic scapes (flower stalks)

-cherries

For some of you, this might be your first introduction to the lovely garlic scape. It is the odorous bulbs flower stalk and mush be removed in order for the bulb to attain a generous size later in the year. But to many Europeans and North Americans, more recently, these are a delicious addition to anything that benefits from a light touch of garlic. I love it on pizza, in pasta or salad, or with eggs.

The cherries are obviously my pride and joy, as clearly indicated by my happy crowing on Facebook for the last couple weeks as I eagerly awaited their peak ripeness. A fine mesh net kept away the worst of the birds and squirrels and I was able to bribe the neighbor kids by promising them each a few - mostly anyway.

Blue skies...

Here they are! I am so excited to be able to offer these to my CSA families and we will likely have some left over for our very first West Side Farmer's Market. Our first CSA boxes will be ready Thursday afternoon and things are shaping up to be a great season. More updates to come this week and some great recipes on deck.

Greetings to all,

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us at the Seward Co-op CSA fair yesterday. It was a busy event and it was so awesome to have so much interest in all the local farms and farmers. It's a great experience to meet with the families we grow food for and to be able to tell them directly how much we appreciate all the support. Choosing to support a CSA really does make a difference, both for making stronger communities and healthier bodies. 

It was still pretty wet out in the fields today, so we didn't get out and plant the melons & winter squash. Here's a preview of coming attractions for the varieties. 

Thanks again to everyone who came out yesterday in the rain and happy CSA shopping. If there are any questions I can answer for you regarding our CSA and what we will be offering this year, please feel free to contact me on Facebook or by email at tusentackfarm@gmail.com.

2012 Spring is springing!

Man, am I ever excited for this year on the farm! Flats of seeds are started and many more are on my to-do list. Each day my list gets longer as I ramp up for our 3rd season of CSA. I'm still not sure how many families we will add this year, some of that will depend on how many we sign on in the next few weeks, but I do know one thing-we will max out this year and end up turning some late comers away. We have been invited to the CSA fair at the Seward Co-op in Minneapolis, and while I will be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with some older and well respected farms, the event brings in a lot of interested families for whom I know we will be a good match. Here are some recent scenes from our endeavors.

Some tomato seedlings growing under the lights.

These beauties are soon-to-be Blackgold cherry blossoms. 

We may only have enough to give each family a sample in 2012

but we expect to be able to offer more and more fruits each 

year as we establish our perennial crops. 

Remember these juicy beauties from 2011? We could only

offer samples last year, but..

We hope to be able to offer a small amount of Minnesota grown, 

chemical free peaches to our families in the 2012 season.

That's all for now, folks. We will be blogging regularly this spring to let families know what we are up to. Be sure to friend us on Facebook and Twitter. 

Blue skies,

Ellen & Family