Welcome to the 8th week of the Pitchfork & Crow CSA!
Here’s what’s in the share:
- Fava Beans – Lots of favas for everyone this week. Check out the recipes below including grilled fava beans!
- Cauliflower
- Beets
- Dill – tossed with roasting potatoes or into a cucumber salad, delish!
- Bunching Onions
- Summer Squash – Choose from: dark star zucchini, yellow straightneck, magda, and zephyr
- Head Lettuce – Mayan Jaguar romaine!
- Cucumbers – Mostly picklers this week, which can be eaten fresh like a regular slicer or added to a brine for quick pickles.
- Blueberries! – We u-picked these for you at Minto Island Growers. If you’re looking for organic blueberries to fill your freezer, head down to the Minto Island Growers farmstand for u-pick or pre-picked!
It’s been a big week for these farmers. If you follow our other updates, you may have seen that we’ve made the official decision to no longer attend the Salem Saturday Market. Although we’ll miss our Market customers we’re feeling good about the choice to focus our time and energy on the commitments we’ve made to the CSA and be able to better manage the work of the farm. This weekend we were able to get caught up on planting (for the moment), harvest all six beds of garlic and hang it to cure in the barn, u-pick blueberries for the CSA and we even finally made it to the river for a quick canoe session! Much of that would have likely been put off another week had we continued going to Market.
In the midst of this big decision, we’re also excited to announce the opening of our Winter CSA memberships. You can see all the details of the program on our website here: http://pitchforkandcrow.com/wintercsa/! You can find photos of the shares from this past year over on our flickr site.
The Basics:
Who? – Lovers of winter veggies and local, organic produce
What?– 5+ months with pick-ups every other week = 12 weeks of veggies December through the first week of May
When/Where? – Thursday evenings on the edge of the Willamette University campus
How Much? – $360
We’d like to give current CSA members priority for our Winter shares, so please let us know as soon as possible if you’d like to join us through the winter months.
Enjoy the vegetables!
Your farmers,
Jeff Bramlett and Carri Heisler
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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:
We’re setting you up with a big bag of fava beans this week. We love favas and hope you do too. They’re a little work, but we think it’s worth the effort. We’ve included a few ideas below, but we’d love to hear favorite fava bean recipes from you!
Halibut on Mashed Fava Beans with Mint
- 3 pounds fresh fava beans in pod, shelled, or 2 1/2 cups frozen double-peeled fava beans, thawed
- 2 teaspoons plus 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
- 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel, divided
- 3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 2 pinches of dried crushed red pepper, divided
- 6 5-ounce 3/4-inch-thick halibut fillets
- 9 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- All purpose flour (for dredging)
Cook fava beans in large saucepan of boiling salted water 2 minutes; drain. Transfer to large bowl of ice water. Cool beans; peel if using fresh beans. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.
Mix 2 teaspoons mint, 1 teaspoon lemon peel, 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt, and 1 pinch of red pepper in small bowl. Arrange fish on large rimmed baking sheet. Rub mint mixture all over fish. DO AHEAD: Can be made 4 hours ahead. Cover and chill.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add fava beans. Sprinkle with coarse salt, black pepper, and pinch of red pepper. Cook until heated through and tender, stirring occasionally and adding water by 1/4 cupfuls if dry, about 5 minutes. Using potato masher, mash beans to coarse puree, adding water by 1/4 cupfuls if dry. Season with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.
Dredge fish in flour, shaking off excess. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in each of 2 heavy large skillets over medium-high heat. Cook fish until lightly browned and just opaque in center, about 4 minutes per side.
Meanwhile, rewarm fava bean puree. Stir in remaining 1/4 cup mint, 1 teaspoon lemon peel, and 3 tablespoons olive oil.
Divide fava bean puree among plates. Top with fish and serve.
Fava Bean Dip aka Fake Guacamole
Fava beans
1 tsp. olive oil
Garlic, 2 cloves, diced (use green garlic or scapes here)
Lime juice
Cilantro
Salt
Pepper
2 Tbsp. plain goat cheese
Blanche fava beans. Shell beans from the large pod. Peel off the second layer of skin, revealing a tiny, bright green bean.
In a food processor, combine beans, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, lime juice and goat cheese. Add more water if needed to make it creamy.
Serve as a dip, or as filling between grilled corn tortillas.
From The Veg Table, Mary Altman
Also available here: http://www.culinate.com/user/marybethSF/recipes/the_veg_table/fava_bean_dip_aka_fake_guacamole
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Grilled Fava Beans
1 pound of fresh fava beans, still in their pods
a couple glugs of olive oil
a few pinches of salt
optional: crushed red pepper flakes, lemon zest, and or chopped fresh herbs.
In a large bowl toss the fava bean pods with olive oil and salt.
Arrange them in a single layer on a grill over medium-high heat. If you’re using a grill pan, you may need to cook them in batches. If I’m using an outdoor grill I don’t bother covering the favas, but when I use a grill pan, I typically cover the pan with a flat baking sheet to keep more of the heat in the pan and circulating.
Grill until blistered on one side – 4 to 5 minutes, then flip and grill for a few minutes more on the other side. If you aren’t sure when to pull them off, take a pod off the grill, open and taste one of the beans. You want the fava beans to be smooth and creamy when you pop them out of their skins – not undercooked. But keep in mind that they’ll keep steaming in their pods for a few minutes after they come off the grill, unless you eat them as soon as you can handle the pods without singing your fingers – which is what I encourage you to do 
Season the grilled favas with a bit more salt (if needed) and any herbs or lemon zest if you like. To eat: tear open the puffy green pods, take a fava bean, pinch the skin and slide the bright green fava from its slipper. Eat them one at a time and be sure to lick your fingers.
Serves 2 – 4
From 101 Cookbooks; http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/grilled-fava-beans-recipe.html
2 responses to “csa share – week 8 {july 9}”
Very excited to hear that the Winter CSA will again be available. Please add our names to the list please!
Tom and Charlotte Deibert
Tom Sent from my iPad
Great Tom! Glad to hear you’ll be joining us again. Would you mind filling out the sign-up form, just for our records? You can find it here: http://pitchforkandcrow.com/winter-csa-sign-up/.
Thanks!
Carri