Our Daily Tasks: Covering and Uncovering

Our Daily Tasks: Covering and Uncovering

The winter wonderland where we grow your veggies.

The winter wonderland where we grow your veggies.
Photo credit: Emily Hammon
Want to join and receive your own share of delicious veggies each week? If you are interested in signing up, please email us at greededgegardens@gmail.com. For more information or to download our Enrollment brochure, visit our website at www.greenedgegardens.com/CSA.

We love sharing our wonderful produce with you! We started this blog so that we can keep you up to date with all that is happening on the farm. It is also an opportunity for all of us to get to know one another better. One of the strengths of a CSA is the direct relationship between the farmer's experience and your experience receiving fresh vegetables weekly.

We want to hear from you, so please feel free to share recipes, thoughts and ideas-just click on the COMMENT below each post to add to our CSA community.

February 3, 2010

Week 8 Newsletter

ATHENS HILLS CSA

WEEK #8

February 3, 2010

First for you, this week is an invitation to join Rob for a little Meet-and-Greet at our new Upper Arlington drop site – ECO-Tastic Clothing, 2066 Arlington Avenue in Upper Arlington. The event hours are from 6-8 pm this Friday, the 5th of Feb. Food made from CSA ingredients, as well as samples from our partners including some cheeses from our newest partner for this summer’s cycle. You can sign up for summer at that time or just gather some information. Hope to see you there!

Although I mentioned this in the Veggie List column, I wanted to explain the greens situation a little more thoroughly. When the cold and short day length combined for such a long spell, the re-growth rate of the greens that we were harvesting really slowed down. We have some, but not in the quantity needed to supply all of the members. We anticipate this shortage in supply to be for this week only! With the daily increase in day length, this problem will be completely gone very soon.

Last week, I received an email from LocalHarvest, a website dedicated to informing and selling agricultural products. Many of you found us using their CSA search engine. They shared some phenomenal statistics gathered from some (not even all) of their CSA member farms. I wanted to pass this on to you! Here’s a link to a little movie they created to illustrate the growth of CSA’s in this country since 1984. It only takes 12 seconds to watch - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SmZAJkPEPU There are 3229 CSA’s listed with them, and their numbers indicate that if the rate continues, by 2020, there will be over 19,000! For more information about this, email me and I’ll send you the rest of the article. Athens Hills CSA is currently the size of the average CSA listed with them.

We hope to see you at the Upper Arlington event, but if you can’t make it, you can still sign up for the summer when you receive the AutoEnroller notice from us. Thanks so much for all of your support. Enjoy the sunshine when you can. We all need our Vitamin D!

Becky (for Kip, Dan, Cale, John, Rob Julia, and Penny)

THIS WEEK’S VEGGIES

VEGGIE ALERT!

This week’s share contains no cooking greens. We have tried to make up the quantities with other goodies. We apologize for this inconvenience, and assure you we will make up the difference in future weeks. As the days lengthen, these amazing plants will respond with a huge increase in growth rate. They’re back next week.

SALAD MIX - This is our famous blend of lettuces and mild Asian greens. We expect it to last a week, and sometimes longer. Place a paper towel in the bag to absorb the extra moisture and keep moist without being soggy.

MICROMIX MICROGREENS – This week we are pleased to offer a more delicate version of microgreens. This mix consists of our crunchy sunflower along with buckwheat (very nutritional), radish, cabbage, and kogane. This blend is a little spicy, as raw radish and cabbage can be. The shelf life may not be quite as long as plain sunflower, but the flavors make up for that! Sooo good!! They’re great as a snack too.

SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS РYou have another week of our tasty mushrooms. They are good on pizza, just saut̩ed, or in many other dishes. There are some recipes in earlier newsletters.

KENNEBEC POTATOES – These are a repeat from last week, and we hope you are as happy to get them as we are to send them. These are great baked, fried, mashed, or any of the myriad ways to cook these roots.

RUTABAGA – For many of our members this will be the first time they have tried rutabaga. We find these to be a little sweeter than a turnip with longer storage capability. Recipes are included for these this week.

The Combo Corner from our Athens partners ~

The fruit basket this week contains four varieties: From top to the bottom – Melrose, Yellow Delicious, Gold Rush, and Enterprise.

This week’s bread selection from the Village Bakery and Cafe is Onion Poppy Rye which I think sounds really tasty!

PICKUP CONTACT NUMBERS & HOURS

NEW ALBANY – 614-216-9370 3-10pm

TIBET – 614-784-8124 3-6pm

BEXLEY MARKET-614-252-3951 3-8pm

UPPER ARLINGTON-614-284-1181 2- 6pm

Please remember to call your host first if problems arise. Since they are closer to you, they can usually resolve the problem. Feel free to call us if the host is unable to help you – 740-448-4021 Thanks!


1st Winter CSA Open Farm Day Sunday, March 21 Potluck at the Amesville Grange 1:00 pm

~Farm Tour~

2:30 pm

MARK YOUR CALENDARS PLEASE!

We’re planning activities for the children to engage with, and if weather permits, there is a park right across the street from the Grange Hall.

SUMMER C.S.A. INFORMATION

Pick up Sites for Summer: We want to welcome our new pickup site in the Clintonville area – the Clintonville Community Market! For those of you in this area, you will now have two sites to choose from. We know it’s becoming very crowded at Barb and Ben’s, so adding the co-op will make everyone’s experience better. Also, as mentioned on the first page, ECO-Tastic Clothing and Living Store in Upper Arlington is our new pick up site in Upper Arlington. We have also been contacted by someone in Grandview looking for a site in that neighborhood. If you have friends or relatives there who might be interested, please let them know that we may have that available. Of course, adding a new site requires the minimum 10 full shares to make it possible.

Summer Combo Partners: Artisan breads: Village Bakery & Café Fruit: Cherry Orchards Milk: Snowville Creamery Cheese: Integration Acres

Besides adding cheese to the summer share options, we are also allowing folks to order “Combo” items separately. Of course, there remains a price break for those who want all four choices, but not all members are interested in all items. Hopefully, this will allow more of you to customize your share to you needs.

Summer C.S.A. Prices: With the addition of these separate item choices, the prices can be a little confusing. We will be sending more detailed information soon, but we are pleased to tell you that the prices for the “Veggie-only” shares, both full- and half-shares has remained the same from last summer. These are: $500.00 for a full (weekly) share, and $275.00 for a half (every other week) share for Columbus deliveries, and $475 for a full share , and $250 for a half share picked up in Athens.

Everything Rutabaga…

Some interesting information about rutabagas is below. This little known root vegetable has a lot going for it. It is low in Sodium and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is a good source of Dietary Fiber, Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Magnesium and Phosphorus, Vitamin C, Potassium, and Manganese. (from NutritionData.com)

These tasty roots can be used just like their turnip cousins, or potatoes. Boiled, roasted, baked, shredded raw into salads, mashed, or stir-fried are all great ways to enjoy their milder flavor.

POTATO RUTABAGA CAKE – YIELD: 6 Servings

4 Cups grated rutabagas (or turnips) 2 Cups grated potatoes ½ Cup minced onion 2 Tbl. butter 2 Tbl. vegetable oil salt and pepper

Mix the rutabagas, potatoes, and onion. Melt 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil in a large cast-iron or non-stick frying pan. Spoon in the vegetable mixture, flatten it evenly in the pan, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to medium low, cover the pan, and fry the cake until it is golden brown on the bottom, 10-15 minutes. To turn the cake, slip it out of the pan onto a plate. Place another plate on top of the cake and invert it. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil to the pan and heat. Slip the cake back into the pan to brown the second side. Fry uncovered until browned. Slice into wedges to serve. (from The Joy of Gardening Cookbook, Ballentyne)

Butternut and Rutabaga Puree

Ingredients:

  • 4 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 cup (or more) canned low-salt chicken broth
  • 3 pounds rutabagas, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Arrange butternut squash in single layer in 13x9 x2-inch glass baking dish. Add 1 cup broth. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover tightly with foil. Bake until squash is very tender, about 45 minutes. Drain squash. Transfer squash to processor.

Meanwhile, cook rutabagas in large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain. Add to squash in processor. Process until mixture is smooth, adding more broth if necessary.

Transfer squash and rutabaga puree to heavy large saucepan. Add butter. Stir over low heat until heated through, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer purée to bowl. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cool. Cover and chill. Re-warm over low heat.) ~from Epicurious.com

No comments: