Week 14 Newsletter

Week #14 March 16 , 2011


  We hope you are as excited as we are about the upcoming Open Farm Day. We really enjoy seeing all the folks who come out for the great potluck dinner and amazing tour of the farm. Hope you can be one of them this year! Please remember to reply to the emailed E-vite so we can have a count of folks planning to attend. Visits from prospective intern candi-dates continue. We will make our decisions toward the end of this month. At the same time, we are interviewing others to replace Cale who will be leaving us at the end of this month.
  With his departure, we are changing some things, and we need your help. Green Edge/Athens Hills CSA is looking to hire someone from the Columbus area to work with Kip on delivery days. This job is one day a week on Wednesdays. It would start around 9:30 am through the end of the route (around 4:00 pm). End times vary with the seasons and from mid-May through October are 6:30 pm. This person needs to be physically fit, a non-smoker, a good handler of details, with transportation to meet our truck. Wages are $10 per hour. If you know of anyone who you would recommend for this position, have him or her email a cover letter and resume to us at info@greenedgegardens.com . Please put “Columbus position” in the subject line. Thanks for your help with this!
  Work on the equipment shed is moving along nicely. Yesterday before the rains, Kip and his crew were able to pour the cement pedestals that will hold the posts. We are expecting the lumber and trusses by the end of the week. The shed won’t be done by Sunday, but at least you can see where it will be. When this project is completed, we will begin to build more forms for more lintels to make even more permanently raised beds. These beds have been a very real improvement for grow-ing salad mix and herbs. We need more for other ‘hard-to-weed’ crops. When those forms are finished, the lumber that is used for those forms will eventually complete the last intern cabin. (We rarely throw anything away.) We hope to see you Sunday. Have a great week!
From all of us at Green Edge,
Becky (Kip, Dan, John, Rob, Cale, Penny, Maria, Guinevere, and Morgan

THIS WEEK’S VEGGIES

Salad Mix – In the mix t his week are 7 varieties of lettuce. This mix is best stored in an air-tight con-tainer with some paper towel or cloth to absorb any extra drops of water that can form.
Mushrooms - Shiitake. It’s a good thing they’re so good. If you can’t use them all in one week, they should store fine in their pa-per bag to be combined for a really big mushroom extravaganza next week!
Sunflower Microgreens - If you’re not familiar with micro-greens, you are in for a surprise! These have a mild, almost nutty flavor and are juicy and crunchy.
Spinach - Another week of spi-nach while we patiently wait for the chard and kale to size up. We hope you are not too bored with it already.
Rutabaga - This year’s crop of rutabagas was very sparse. This is the only time you will get them this season. Disappointing yields like this just mean we have some extra planting to do now, so that we will have variety for the rest of the cycle. Treat these special veggies as you would turnips. They are somewhat creamier than turnips when cooked, and some claim the flavor is less strong, but you can make your own descriptions. This veggie is a cross between cabbage and turnips. The name comes from ‘rotabagge’ meaning “round root.” It is Swedish in origin.
Kale - We love it raw, massaged, steamed, in soup, etc., etc. A complete amino acid score of this food is 92 – that’s with 100 being a complete protein!
Swiss Chard- We glad to have this favorite back this week. The mild flavor of chard makes it the all around choice for most cus-tomers. It’s the only green that grows well in winter and summer.

The Combo Corner

The apple selections from Cherry Orchard this week are Fuji and Gold Rush.
This week’s bread from The Village Bakery and Café is Irish Soda Bread! It's 50% whole grain, with organic unbleached white, oat, barley, and Kamut flours. Slightly sweet, rich with Hartzler butter and house made (Snowville Creamery) yogurt, studded with organic raisins and currants, it is a great complement to savory Irish stews or served as simple scone-like breakfast bread. The bread is smaller than the usual loaves, and not suitable for sandwich making. We only make this for St. Patrick's day, and our local micro-brewery, Jackie O's, serves our Soda Bread all day to help mitigate the effects of the other St Patty's Day tradition.... Serves 4.

Recipes
MAPLE-GLAZED RUTABAGA

¼ cup maple syrup
1 ½ teaspoons butter, melted
7 cups (1/2” cubed) peeled rutabaga
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425 F.
Combine syrup and but-ter in a large bowl, stir-ring with a whisk. Add rutabaga, salt, and pep-per, toss to coat. Spread rutabaga mixture on a jell y roll pan coated with cooking spray.
Bake at 425 for 35 mi-nutes or until rutabaga is tender, stirring occasio-nally.

SHERRY’S POTATO-SWISS CHARD CURRY

3 medium red-skinned potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1” pieces
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
3 cups chopped Swiss Chard
1 (14.5 oz can) diced tomatoes, undrained

Place potatoes in a large pan, cover with water. Bring to boil. Boil 4-6 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add potatoes, sugar, cumin, salt and cayenne pepper.
Cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir in Swiss chard and tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, simmer 4-6 minutes.
Very saucy, healthy side dish.
Sherry Monfils www.cooks.com

Garlicky Greens Recipe

If you are using spinach, ignore the stem instructions below. With spinach, I simply trim any long stems. Also, feel free to make this vegan and/or dairy-free by leaving out the Parmesan cheese. Toasted almonds or pine nuts are a great substitution (or addition).
1 large bunch of kale, chard
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 destem 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, and serve immediately if not sooner.
Serves 2- 3.
from 101 Cookbooks