Welcome to the 23rd week of the Pitchfork & Crow Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share:
- Fall Salad Mix – we’ve got a mix of mizuna, arugula, and tatsoi this week. Feel free to quickly saute this mix for a warmer option.
- Shallots
- Brussels Sprouts – Snap the sprouts off the stems, clean away the ugly outer leaves, and cook them up. We like to quarter and roast them in the oven or roughly chop them and saute with bacon and onions. Mmmm!
- Cauliflower – Looks like the last of the cauliflower this year. End of a good run.
- Chard
- Garlic
- Kennebec Potatoes
- Basil! – Looks a little rough, but hey, October basil!
- Sweet Peppers
- Tomatoes
- Pie Pumpkin – It’s pumpkin pie season! Click here for my go-to recipe.
- Plums – Riper than previous weeks, you’ll want to eat these up soon. Perhaps a plum cake is in your future?
Here we are, headed into the final month of the 2015 Summer CSA season. Just four weeks left to pack in all the seasonal goodness that’s available this time of year. In the spring we rely on the quick growing crops like lettuce and radishes to get the season off to a solid start. Now that we’re deep into fall, and at the end of a gorgeous and surprisingly long growing season, we get to share with you those slower growing crops that we wait all season to mature. This week we’ve got Brussels sprouts headed your way.
We started the Brussels from seed back at the beginning of May and transplanted them into the field a month later during the first week of June. Jeff drove our Farmall Cub cultivating tractor through them several times to keep the weeds under control and in August we hand weeded what we had missed with the tractor. By September it was time to top the Brussels to encourage the plants to focus on forming sprouts and we included the topped greens in your share those weeks. Now it’s the end of October and the sprouts have formed on our earlier varieties! Six months after starting the seeds we get to send you home with Brussels sprouts to eat up. Whoa!
As hoped we pretty much finished up our planting for the season this past week. Our overwintering onions, garlic, and fava beans are all tucked into their beds in the field. Somehow we pushed through the fall fog and had an incredibly productive work week. With Tim’s help on Saturday we got our five beds of garlic planted in two hours! In fact it went into the ground so quickly and efficiently that I hardly snapped any photos.
After a sad garlic harvest this season we invested in a lot of new seed garlic. Seed garlic is expensive and we usually try to re-plant from our own stock. This year the heads were too small to trust for a good harvest next year so I went in search of reinforcements. Many thanks to the folks at Adaptive Seeds, Persephone Farm, and Kitchen Garden Farm for getting us back in the garlic game!
With the planting mostly behind us and the recent rain helping out with irrigation, we’re ready to turn our attention to some big projects we’ve had on the back burner. Of course there is some weeding and harvesting to still tackle, but we’re excited to make some progress on a few infrastructure improvements here on the farm. It’s always something, isn’t it?
Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you next week!
Your farmers,
Jeff Bramlett and Carri Heisler
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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:
Moroccan Pumpkin Stew
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 medium onions, peeled and cut in large chunks
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and cut in large chunks
- 6 small potatoes, well-scrubbed but not peeled, cut in half
- 1-1/2 cups fresh pumpkin, peeled and cut in large chunks
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1-1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1-1/2 cups canned tomato, chopped
- 1 cup water
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons raisins
- 1 preserved lemon (optional garnish)
Heat the oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium high heat. Add the onions, carrot, potato, and pumpkin and saute for 5-10 minutes, stirring from time to time. When vegetables have softened, add the ginger and garlic. Continue to saute for 2-3 minutes, then add the turmeric, coriander, cumin and cinnamon stick. Cook for another 5-8 minutes, then add the canned tomato and 1 cup of water. Bring to a simmer, season with salt and pepper, then add the raisins. Allow to cook for 18-25 minutes until all vegetables are soft – but don’t overcook.
Just before serving, cut the preserved lemon into thin wedges and add as a garnish (this is optional but if you can locate it, the unique flavor of preserved lemon is worth trying).
You can present this stew with some warm pita bread on the side – or serve it over a bed of couscous or rice pilaf. Want to add more interest to the dish? Try spiking the rice pilaf with some chopped apricots or slivered almonds. Note that the nutritional information below is for a serving of stew only. It doesn’t include the rice or couscous.
From MeatlessMonday.com via Leilani (a fellow CSA member), http://www.meatlessmonday.com/recipes/moroccan-pumpkin-stew/
Brussels Sprout Hash with Caramelized Shallots
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, divided
- 1/2 pound shallots, thinly sliced
- Coarse kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 4 teaspoons sugar
- 1 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts, trimmed
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup water
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in medium skillet over medium heat. Add shallots; sprinkle with coarse kosher salt and pepper. Sauté until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add vinegar and sugar. Stir until brown and glazed, about 3 minutes.
Halve brussels sprouts lengthwise. Cut lengthwise into thin (1/8-inch) slices. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sprouts; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until brown at edges, 6 minutes. Add 1 cup water and 3 tablespoons butter. Sauté until most of water evaporates and sprouts are tender but still bright green, 3 minutes. Add shallots; season with salt and pepper.
From Epicurious via Bon Appétit by , http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/brussels-sprout-hash-with-caramelized-shallots-240411
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Striped Omelet
- 3 medium red bell peppers
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
- 2 lb red or green Swiss chard, center ribs and stems discarded
- 1/4 cup finely chopped shallot
- 13 large eggs
- 3/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons crème fraîche or heavy cream
- 6 oz coarsely grated white sharp Cheddar (1 1/2 cups)
- Special equipment: a nonstick 12- by 4- by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan (8-cup capacity) or 9- by 2-inch round cake pan
Roast and sauté peppers:
Roast bell peppers on racks of gas burners over high heat, turning with tongs, until skins are charred, 6 to 8 minutes. (Alternatively, broil peppers on rack of a broiler pan about 5 inches from heat, turning occasionally, 15 to 25 minutes.) Transfer to a bowl and let stand, tightly covered, until cool. Peel peppers, discarding stems and seeds, and finely chop.
Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté peppers, stirring frequently, until tender and excess liquid is evaporated, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in basil and salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a bowl and cool.
Cook chard:
Cook chard leaves in a 4- to 6-quart pot of boiling salted water , uncovered, until tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water to stop cooking. Squeeze handfuls of chard to remove excess moisture, then finely chop.
Cook shallot in remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in cleaned skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add chard and cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture looks dry, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in salt and pepper to taste and cool.
Prepare egg mixtures and bake omelet:
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Break 4 eggs into each of 2 bowls, then add 1/8 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste to each and whisk to combine eggs in each bowl. Whisk 3 tablespoons crème fraîche into 1 bowl of eggs until smooth, then stir in bell pepper mixture. Whisk 1/4 cup crème fraîche into other bowl of eggs until smooth, then stir in chard mixture.
Pour bell pepper eggs into oiled loaf pan and bake in a hot water bath in middle of oven until firm to the touch, 18 to 20 minutes (about 13 minutes if using round cake pan).
Pour chard eggs into loaf pan and continue to bake until layer is firm, 18 to 20 minutes more (about 13 minutes if using round cake pan).
While chard layer bakes, break remaining 5 eggs into a bowl, then add remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste and whisk to combine. Whisk in Cheddar and remaining 1/4 cup crème fraîche, then pour cheese eggs into loaf pan and bake until layer is lightly browned and slightly puffed, about 20 minutes (about 16 minutes if using round cake pan). Transfer loaf pan to a rack and cool omelet 5 minutes.
Invert a long platter over loaf pan and invert omelet onto platter. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
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pitchfork & crow 
