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Tuesday July 19, 2011
Greetings CSA Members,
As I write to you, the last car is pulling out of our driveway with Mark Westcott, Deputy District Director in Congressman Chris Gibson's office at the wheel. He, along with Babara Glaser from Saratoga Open Space, NYS Senator Roy McDonald, NYS Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino, Jean Carlson, Supervisor of the Town of Schaghticoke and Teri Ptacek, Executive Director of the Agricultural Stewardship Association,and several other wonderful ASA people attended a "Press Conference to announce the launch of a public campaign to protect Denison Farm in Schaghticoke". Brian is already back to work on the tractor. I on the other hand am completely wilted from this big event! Lucky for me, this week Jeannine has written a piece about her visit to her home state of Iowa. I hope that you enjoy reading her words and we both welcome your feedback and thoughts about the questions she poses.
This week in your share, you will most likely receive:
Lettuce, Sweet Onions, Cucumbers, Summer Squash/Zucchini, Tomatoes (I hope!), Braising Greens (Mizuna, spicy Red Streaks, Mustard Greens, and Kales) or Arugula, Chives or Parsley, and Radishes or Fennel
Fruit Share: 2 containers (pint containers) of Blueberries
Have a great week - Justine
Devoted and hard-working crewmember Jeannine Laverty takes a busman’s holiday.
Back home in Iowa for a national conference of liberal Quakers, I signed up for a field trip to an organic farm. In my view, no one farms smarter than Brian and Justine, so I’m a little closed-minded, but after only 3 days away, I was homesick for the crew and the crops and the camaraderie at the Denisons. I also wanted to feel the hope of seeing organic vegetables thriving among the Iowa seas of corn/beans/corn/beans/corn/beans.
The young farmer at Grinnell Heritage Farm is the 5th generation of his family on that piece of soil. Andy Dunham didn’t even grow up there, but preceding the 2000 Gore-Bush election he made a heads-or-tails decision: Gore wins I go to vet school; Bush wins I go to the Peace Corps. In Africa learning from the Tanzanians how to grow a garden without chemical fertilizers, he made his next choice: he’d come back to the family farm, keep it from being sold for “development”--think Global Foundries coming to Malta—and grow organic vegetables.
Eleven years later he has a wife, a 2-yr-old, 11 acres of vegetables, and 200 CSA members. I wish for him: next year, 300. Let him be up to Denison size before Sophie’s in Kindergarten!
But then I see my dream is too timid. Excavation and piles of gravel line the lane to the packing shed. “I’m building a turn-around for semis.” (Iowa-speak for what we Northeasterners call tractor-trailers.) Besides, he mentions, he has “pending wholesale contracts,” which would require easy access for the big rigs. Uh-oh, I thought, is he going to become dependent on selling to Whole Foods when they open in West Des Moines, who may or may not stick by him, and will certainly tell him what to grow?
We see a concrete slab on which the new, bigger packing shed will be built. He tells us he’ll be expanding to 25 acres—more than doubling his acreage under cultivation in ONE year. I swallow. He’ll have to have a lot more workers or a lot more machines, probably both. “It’s the only way the bank would give me the loan,” he finishes. “I could eventually have 40 of these 80 acres in row crops.”
Twenty-five acres…. PENDING contracts!!
In Iowa, a 1,000-acre farm is SMALL. I should be glad Dunham found a bank willing to lend to him. But the voice of Ezra Taft Benson, Secretary of Agriculture after World War II, booms in my head. The U.S. solution to food-security concerns then was “Get Big or Get Out.” In Iowa, it still is.
When it comes to food-security slogans, I much prefer “Buy Local” and “No New York Farms, No New York Food.” It’s never been easy to be a farmer, and I may be an Ol’ Nervous Nellie. But I wonder, will he still be farming in 2020? What do you think? What do you see for small organic farms in 2020?
Quick Sauté of Zucchini with Toasted Almonds
(Inspired by the Red Cat, NYC)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons thinly sliced almonds
1 to 2 small zucchini, cut into 1/8-inch matchsticks with a knife or
julienne blade on a mandoline
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Few ounces pecorino Romano or parmesan, in thin slices — a peeler works great for this
Heat the oil on high in a large skillet. When it is hot but not smoking, add the almonds to the pan. Cook them, while stirring, until the almonds are golden-brown, approximately a minute or two.
Add the zucchini to the pan, tossing it with the oil and almonds until it just begins to glisten, about one minute. The idea is not to cook the zucchini so much as warm it.
Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately, with or without cheese on top.
Pasta with Braising Greens
(topped with a Farm Fresh Fried Egg) Thornhill Farm CSA
Boil pasta in salted water until cooked al dente (fresh pasta cooks quickly – watch for it to change color and swell slightly). Stop the formation of starch by removing from the heat and adding a cup of cool water. Remove a cup of the cooking liquid and reserve, then drain carefully into a colander and rinse the pasta.
Chop the braising greensinto large 1-inch pieces. Add thinly sliced sweet onionto the greens, and sauté. If you like garlic, add chopped fresh garlic. Sauté in olive oil until lightly wilted, about 5 minutes. You can add sliced mushrooms, sundried tomatoes or artichokes at this point if you like.
If you want to use meat in this dish, thinly slice some good fresh sausage. You only need about 2 ounces per person, at the most! Combine sausage and braising greens mixture in the pan and stir to combine the flavors. Add about ½ – ¾ cup of the reserved pasta liquid to the pan and allow to simmer for just a few minutes. You can enhance the flavor of this with the addition of something acidic – I would recommend 1 Tbl Balsamic Vinegar.
Top the whole thing off with a fried egg! Over medium allows the intense flavor to permeate the dish and add an indescribable richness and depth to the fresh egg pasta. Salt and pepper the egg generously, then top with an additional dollop of the tomato chutney if you have it.
Chives
(Chives can be stored in plastic in the refrigerator for up to a week)
Chives are often snipped and sprinkled on food just before serving for seasoning and
are matched well with: eggs, fish, potatoes, salads, shellfish, sole, and soups
Cucumber Salad With Sour Cream and Chives (German Gurkensalat)
2 medium cucumbers
1/2 cup good quality sour cream, chilled
1 -2 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
Salt & pepper, to taste
Peel cucumbers and slice them paper thin (or as thinly as possible), and drain if watery.
In a medium bowl, mix together the sour cream and chives. Add cucumber slices and stir gently to coat. Season to taste with salt (go easy on the salt) and pepper.
Serve immediately, or cover and chill for up to one day.
What's a sweet onion anyway?
If you've never tasted a fresh, sweet onion you're in for a treat. Because they're so sweet and mild (forget the tears), yet still deliver great onion flavor, they're something you'll want to keep on hand all the time.
Sweet onions, sometimes referred to as "short day" onions, because their growing season occurs during the fall and winter with harvest usually in spring /summer, are fresh onions, picked and cured for a short time, then rushed to market. Storage onions, or regular globe onions, are harvested in late summer and fall, stored in warehouses and delivered to markets throughout most of the year.
Although there is no official industry standard, it is generally accepted that an onion should contain at least 6% sugar to be in the "sweet" category. Some sweet onions, like the OsoSweet, have recorded sugar levels of up to 15%. Storage onions usually range from 3%-5% in sugar content.
Unlike sweet onions, regular onions have high levels of sulfur compounds. It's the pyruvic acid in the sulfur that causes tears, harshness, and indigestion. That's why great sweet onions are always grown in soil with low amounts of sulfur. Typically, sweet onions have pyruvic acid levels that measure below 5%; storage onions usually run 10%-13%. Because a sweet onion is also a fresh onion it is very high in water content, which further dilutes the effect of the sulfur and increases mildness.
The best sweet onions deliver a burst of sweetness when bitten into, are incredibly mild, with very little if any sharpness, and have a subtle, fruity flavor. They should still taste like an onion, but be much sweeter and milder. Sweet onions have a thinner, lighter color skin than storage onions and tend to be more fragile.
Sweet Onion Cornbread with Cheddar Cheese
3 cups yellow cornmeal
1-1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons butter, divided
1 quart buttermilk
1 cup chopped Sweet Onion
4 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded (1 cup)
Mix dry ingredients together reserve. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in each of two 9"x9"x2" pans in a 450-degree oven. Meanwhile, stir buttermilk into reserved dry ingredients; fold in onion and cheese. Divide batter between each prepared, hot pan. Bake at 450 degrees until just firm in the center and lightly browned on the edges, about 25 minutes. Remove; let rest 15 minutes before cutting. Cut each pan into 12 pieces. Serve slightly warmed or at room temperature.
Yogurt, Cucumber and Radish Salad
1 cup yogurt (Greek style yogurt is the preferred choice)
1 cup finely diced radishes
1 cup finely diced cucumber
1 small garlic clove, minced and mashed to a paste with 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons minced fresh mint or parsley leaves, soft-leafed lettuce or pita bread for
In a bowl stir together the yogurt, the radishes, the cucumber, the garlic paste, the mint or parsley. Salt and pepper to taste
Divide the salad among individual salad plates lined with the lettuce or serve with pita bread.
Sautéed Fennel
Alice Waters writes in her book, The Art of Simple Food:
"Fennel is among the most versatile of vegetables: it's good whether it's eaten raw in salads, or cooked in any number of ways, and I use it as an aromatic vegetable, often instead of celery, in mirepoix (diced carrot, onion, and celery) and other preparations. Cultivated fennel forms a compact, pale white bulb that is topped with fibrous green stalks and feathery leaves. The flavor is reminiscent of anise or licorice. Look for firm, undamaged bulbs that have no signs of drying or shrinking. The fronds should be fresh and vibrant.
To prepare fennel, trim away the darker fibrous stalks and bottom end, and remove any outer layers that are tough or blemished. Fennel should be cut close to the time it is needed, as it will oxygenate and brown over time. Cover cut fennel with a damp cloth to protect it. Many recipes ask you to remove the core, but I don't find it necessary; on the contrary, I like the taste of the core and find it quite tender. The feathery dark green fennel leaves can be stripped from the stalks and chopped to use as a flavorful garnish."
Sautéed Fennel
Cut off the leafy tops and fibrous stalks and trim off the root ends from the fennel bulbs. If you want, save some of the feathery leaves to chop and use later to garnish the dish before serving. Peel away any bruised outer layers. Cut the bulbs in half and then slice fairly thin. Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Pour in enough oil to coat the bottom generously and add the cut fennel. Let the fennel brown for a few minutes undisturbed. Start tossing or stirring occasionally and continue to cook until the fennel is tender. Season with salt, fresh-ground black pepper, and the chopped fennel leaves. Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice or a pinch of dried chile flakes.
Shaved-Fennel-Artichoke-and-Parmesan-Salad
2 large artichokes
2 lemons
2 large fennel bulbs
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 to 2 tablespoons white truffle oil
Salt and pepper
1 piece Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
About 1/2 cup Italian parsley leaves
Pare the artichokes down to their hearts and scoop out the chokes with a spoon; dropping them into water acidulated with the juice of 1 of the lemons.
Cut off the feathery tops of the fennel at the base of their stalks and remove the outer layer of the bulbs. Slice the bulbs very thin with a mandolin or a very sharp knife. Remove the artichoke hearts from the water and slice them very thin the same way.
Assemble the salad in layers on a large platter or on individual salad plates. First make a layer of the fennel slices. Squeeze lemon juice evenly over the fennel and drizzle with salt and pepper. Then make a layer of the artichoke hearts, also slice very thin. Squeeze more lemon juice over them, drizzle evenly with another third of the oils, and season with salt and pepper. Cut thin shavings of the Parmesan with cheese slicer or a vegetable peeler and arrange them on top of the artichoke slices. Scatter the parsley leaves over the cheese, season with salt and pepper, squeeze more lemon juice over, and drizzle evenly with the rest of the oils. Serve immediately.
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