Welcome to the 9th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Spinach
• Arugula Rapini
• Mixed Brassica Rapini – We’ve finally got some bunchable rapini outside including kohlrabi, cabbage, and kale rapini bunches.
• Purple Sprouting Broccoli
• Purple Cape Brociflower – Somewhere between broccoli and cauliflower, definitely a tasty seasonal treat.
• Kalettes – Pop the kale sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes, just like Brussels. Note that some of these stalks have bonus kalette rapini too! Delicious!
• Cilantro
• Parsnips
• Diana Radishes
• Rutabaga
• Potatoes
• Bunching Onions
• Mostly Yellow Onions
• Garlic – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long garlic wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your alliums before they sprout because spring is just around the corner.
• Dried Ancho Poblano Peppers – Ancho chiles are fully ripe and dehydrated poblano peppers. They can be ground into a chile powder, or blended with roasted onions, garlic, and tomatoes into enchilada sauce, or simply tossed into a soup or stew for chile flavoring.
• Corn Flour – We grow a flint corn called Cascade Ruby Gold that grinds partially into flour and partially into polenta when milled. This week we’re sharing flour and next time we’ll share the polenta. You can use this flour in any recipe calling for corn flour or cornmeal. We like to use it for perfect cornbread.
• Dried Apples – Wanting to extend the dried apple train we purchased some apples from Washington through a local produce market. They are certified organic Fujis and dried by us.
• Tetsukabuto Winter Squash – – A rare cross between butternut and kabocha = the best of both worlds!

We’ve made it to the penultimate share of the Winter CSA season, with just one share remaining in two weeks. We never know quite what to expect when we begin any CSA season, but especially winter seasons. The winter weather is always an unknown that can make or break it. As we edge closer to the end of the season we begin to reflect on making it through another season with vegetables to share. It’s been a cold few months, resulting in slower growth in the field, but luckily we haven’t seen crop killing single digit temperatures this season. And we’re thankful for greenhouse space and the January-sown greens that are seeing us through these final shares. It looks like we’re going to make it through another Winter CSA season!

Our attention now turns to ramping up production for the Summer CSA season ahead. The first starts of the season are hardening off just outside the propagation house to be ready to transplant into the field in the next dry weather window. Jeff was able to prep some beds late last week so we’ll be ready to jump to transplanting when the sun shows up again. Fingers crossed we don’t have to wait too long.

In between scanning weather reports for predictions about dry weather on the horizon we’ll be keeping busy in the coming week flipping greenhouses from winter to summer crops. Harvested beds of mustards and lettuce will get cleaned up to make way for tomato planting. Soon the beds of spring greens we’re enjoying now will get flipped for May eggplant planting. In the interim there are beds of carrots to weed, peas to start trellising, seeds to start for future transplants, and the list goes on. Thankfully we’ll be eating well this week too!

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Kabocha Fried Rice

• Neutral oil, for cooking
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• Salt, to taste
• 6 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated and diced
• 1 pound (about 3 cups) peeled kabocha squash cubes
• ¹/₂ cup vegetable stock
• 4 cups cooked long-grain rice, cooled
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 handful chopped scallions
• Chile oil, for serving (optional)

Set a wok or large nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium heat and add 3 tablespoons of oil. Once the oil is hot, add the shallot slices and fry until golden brown, stirring occasionally, 5 to 10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon or tongs to transfer the shallots to a paper-towel-lined plate. Season with salt.

Using the same skillet with the remaining oil, sauté the shiitake mushrooms over medium heat until fragrant and browned, about 3 minutes, adding more oil along the way if the pan looks dry.

Add the kabocha and toss in the oil (you can add more oil if needed). Arrange the cubes to sit in a single layer. Pan-fry, flipping occasionally, until the kabocha is starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Pour in the vegetable stock and cover the skillet with a lid. Cook until the kabocha is fork-tender and the stock is fully absorbed, about 3 minutes. Transfer about half of the kabocha to a plate.

Add the rice to the pan. Stir in the soy sauce. Toss until the rice is coated, using the back of a spatula to press and break apart any rice clumps. Taste and season with more salt or soy sauce if needed.

Fold in most of the fried shallots and scallions and turn off the heat. Garnish with the reserved kabocha and remaining fried shallots and scallions. Serve with a side of chile oil, if you’d like.

From Food52.com by Woonheng Chia, https://food52.com/recipes/86754-kabocha-fried-rice-recipe

Potato, Chorizo, and Cheddar Breakfast Tacos

• For the tacos:
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 jalapeño, de-seeded and finely diced
• 2 potatoes, par-boiled and cubed
• 10-12 ounces Mexican chorizo
• 12 small corn tortillas
• 8 eggs
• Salt, to taste
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

• For topping:
• Scallions, thinly sliced
• Avocado, sliced and then cut into chunks
• Lime wedges
• Cilantro, torn
• Salsa roja or pico de gallo
• Sliced radishes
• Hot sauce
• Sour cream or crema

Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion, jalapeño (if using), and potato. Salt and pepper to taste, then sauté until the potatoes get a little crispy.

Wipe out the pan and add chorizo. Sauté until cooked through, breaking up the chorizo as you stir. Drain and combine with potatoes.

Meanwhile, in another pan on medium heat, toast the corn tortillas one or more at a time, just until they have a little bit of brown on each side. Set aside.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and add salt & pepper. Lightly scramble.

Wipe out one of the pans and turn the heat down to medium-low. Add the eggs to pan, and using a fork or spatula, gently toss around pan to form very loose curds. Add shredded cheese when almost done and let melt.

Top tortillas with a scoop of egg and a scoop of the sausage-potato mixture. Add more cheese if you’d like, and top as you please.

From Food52.com, https://food52.com/recipes/76747-potato-chorizo-and-cheddar-breakfast-tacos

Broccoli Rabe, Potato, and Rosemary Pizza

• 2 uncooked pizza crusts (recipe below)
• 1 large yukon gold potato, very thinly sliced
• Salt
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• ¹/₂ pound broccoli rabe, washed, ends trimmed (or brassica rapini or purple sprouting broccoli or kalettes)
• 1 large garlic clove, minced, plus 2 garlic cloves lightly smashed but still intact
• ¹/₄ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
• ¹/₂ cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Rosemary sprigs for garnish

• Pizza Dough Recipe
• 2 teaspoons dry yeast
• ¹/₂ cup lukewarm water
• 3 ¹/₂ cups all-purpose flour
• ¹/₄ cup semolina flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ³/₄ cup cold water
• ¹/₄ cup olive oil

Broccoli Rabe, Potato and Rosemary Pizza

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Toss potatoes with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Arrange potatoes in one layer on a baking tray. Bake until edges begin to turn golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Increase oven temperature to 475 F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add broccoli rabe and blanch 30 seconds; drain. Plunge broccoli rabe into a bowl of ice water. Cool and drain again. Lay in one layer on a kitchen towel to thoroughly dry. Cut in 2″ pieces.

Heat one tablespoon olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add minced garlic and red pepper flakes. Sauté briefly, 30 seconds. Add broccoli rabe and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sauté one minute. Remove from heat. Taste and add more salt if necessary.

Assemble pizzas: Lightly brush pizza crusts with olive oil. Rub all over with smashed garlic cloves.

Arrange one layer mozzarella cheese over crusts. Top with one layer of potatoes and broccoli rabe. Sprinkle one tablespoon rosemary over each crust. Top with grated Pecorino cheese.

Bake on pizza stone or on tray on lowest rack in oven until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly, about 15 minutes.

Before serving, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Garnish with fresh rosemary leaves and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil.

Pizza Dough Recipe

Stir yeast and lukewarm water together in a bowl. Add 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and semolina. Mix well. Let sit until bubbly, about 30 minutes.

Combine remaining flour and salt in another bowl. Add to yeast with cold water and olive oil. Mix well to form a dough.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead with hands until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Or use a mixer with a dough hook, and knead about 5 minutes.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and turn to coat all sides with oil. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours. Punch dough down, and let rise another 45 minutes.

Divide dough into 2 equal disks (or 4 if you would like small pizzas.) Let rest 30 minutes before shaping. Lightly flour a work surface. Using your fingers or heels of your hands, stretch the disks out to 10″ shapes.

From Food52.com by TasteFood, https://food52.com/recipes/2611-broccoli-rabe-potato-and-rosemary-pizza

Welcome to the 8th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Salad Mix – Lettuce and spinach! In March! Hurrah!
• Tatsoi
• Mustard Rapini
• Kale Rapini & Purple Sprouting Broccoli Bits
• Kalettes – Pop the kale sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes, just like Brussels.
• Mixed Beets
• Mixed Radishes & Salad Turnips
• Superschmelz Kohlrabi
• LaRatte Fingerling Potatoes
• Leeks
• Garlic – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long garlic wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions before they sprout because spring is just around the corner.
• Dried Apples – We’re into apples from the farm now. Not as colorful as the pink apples from earlier in the season, but these are both harvested and dried by us.

It’s been a cold and blustery winter but the passing of the equinox yesterday means we’ve officially made it through to spring. Last week’s sunny weather stretch helped the plants in the field and greenhouses put on some growth and made for some happy farmers too. It dried out enough for Jeff to run the disc through the fields, the first step in ground prep for future planting. With a little luck and some more dry days we’ll be ready to plant out there before you know it.

As I’ve mentioned before, this time of year can be challenging as storage crops are dwindling and freshly harvested crops are somewhat difficult to predict from week to week. The cold winter has resulted in delayed rapini and purple sprouting broccoli production but luckily the January-sown greenhouse greens are starting to be harvestable. We’re including spinach in this week’s salad mix and bunches of tatsoi that we’re both only packets of seeds a few months ago. Crazy. And we’re happy to bring you bagged kale rapini and the small amount of purple sprouting broccoli the plants have produced thus far. Hopefully we’ll have plenty more where that came from in two weeks.

As we’re attempting to plan out the remaining two shares of this Winter CSA season we’re mostly focused on the upcoming Summer season. We begin laying the foundation for a successful growing season now by getting through the winter paperwork, gathering the supplies we’ll need, and doing equipment maintenance. This past week I finished up the winter paperwork season by submitting our organic plan updates to our organic certifier, Oregon Tilth. It’s been a few months of planning spreadsheets, seed orders, bookkeeping tasks, tax prep and filing, annual loan paperwork, and then the organic certification renewal. Whew! Between budgeting spreadsheets and various government forms I’ve also been filling flats and starting seeds. The prop house is looking greener everyday.

Thankfully Jeff has been ticking through the To Do list while I’ve been in paperwork and propagation land. He made the spring trip to St. Paul for irrigation and propagation supplies and picked up row cover for this season’s squash plantings too. He also organized the first delivery of organic fertilizer, 12 tons! And he’s been undertaking the various oil changes for trucks and tractors. Also the garlic planting dried out enough for him to run the new cultivating set-up on our Farmall Cub through to clean up some grassy areas.

The longer days mean more time for projects this time of year and there are still plenty of things on the Winter To Do list. It’s also time to double down on winter free time. It won’t be long before the farming really gets going.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Beans & Greens Soup

• ¹/₄ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 red onion or leek, sliced into thin half-moons
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
• 5 cups rich chicken stock or vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoons good wine vinegar (sherry or Champagne is great)
• 1 cup cooked beans, chickpeas, or lentils
• 2 cups cleaned and roughly chopped cooking greens (kale, spinach, chard, bok choy, napa cabbage, watercress, amaranth, broccoli raab or mix of any)
• 1 dried chile, optional
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons really good extra-virgin olive oil
• Grilled bread, for serving

In a large heavy-bottomed pan, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions or leeks and garlic clove and gently brown.

When lightly colored, add stock and vinegar. Bring to a light simmer and add cooked legumes. Bring back to a simmer and add greens and chile, if using.

Depending on what greens you use, you will cook the soup a little more or less. Spinach and watercress would cook in a minute or two, while kale and broccoli rabe would take more like 3 to 4 minutes (or as many as 5 to 8). You want to simmer long enough to wilt and cook the greens but not to overcook them.

Taste and adjust salt. Serve by itself or over grilled bread with a drizzle of olive oil on top

From Food52.com by Sara Jenkins, https://food52.com/recipes/66632-beans-and-greens-soup

And the Beet Goes On

• 3 beets, peeled, halved and sliced to 1/4inch thick
• 2 leeks, roughly chopped
• 1 cup Brussels sprouts, quartered (or how about kalettes?)
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
• 5 ounces plain goat cheese
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives
• 1 tablespoon chopped chervil
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced or forced through garlic press
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 10 sheets phyllo dough
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• salt & pepper
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 400F. Place beets, leeks and Brussels sprout on sheet pan and sprinkle with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and rosemary. Season with salt and pepper then, using hands, toss vegetables to coat. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until vegetables are fork-tender.

While vegetables are roasting, make cheese spread: mix goat cheese, chives, chervil and garlic in a small bowl. Add up to 1 tablespoon of milk – this is to make the mixture spreadable. Season with salt and pepper plus a dash of olive oil. Set aside.

Prepare the phyllo crust: place one sheet of dough on greased sheet (or pizza) pan and brush sheet completely with melted butter. Place next sheet of dough on top, brush with butter and repeat with next 7 sheets of dough (you will have one remaining.)

Place final sheet of dough on top and brush only outer edges with butter (make about a 3-inch border.) Spread the cheese mixture in the middle, being sure the cheese touches the butter border. When vegetables have finished roasting arrange on top of cheese, being sure they are an even layer, then fold edges of dough over filling (to partially enclose the vegetables and cheese.) You can make this fold fancy or keep it in a square shape – your choice. Brush dough with additional butter and bake for 25 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Serve hot.

From Food52.com by CookingTheGlobe, https://food52.com/recipes/10332-and-the-beet-goes-on

Rapini with Vincotto

• For the vin cotto
• 1 cup Balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar

• For the rapini
• 1 pound rapini (broccolini), washed
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled, left whole
• 2 peperoncino intero (about 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, fresh ones!), halved
• generous pinch kosher salt

Pour the vinegar and sugar into a small saucepan set over medium heat. Let reduce by a half to a third, 25-30 minutes. Set aside.

Set a 6-quart pot of water to boil. When boiling, add the washed rapini and blanch for about 2 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water, and set aside.

Set a cast iron skillet over high heat. Add the olive oil, garlic and peperoncino and let cook/season the oil for a minute or two. Add the blanched rapini (watch out, the oil might spit) and let it sear. After a minute or two, toss carefully. After 3-4 minutes more, remove from heat. The rapini should be tender yet retain a definite crunch.

Transfer the rapini, garlic and pepper to a serving platter and pour any remaining oil from the skillet over the veggies. Drizzle generously with the vin cotto. Season with more salt and some pepper if needed and/or you like.

Get out some good bread so none of the juices left on your serving platter or plate go to waste!

From Food52.com by EM-I-LIS, https://food52.com/recipes/21748-rapini-with-vin-cotto

Welcome to the 5th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Mixed Radicchio Heads – Great for robust winter salads with punchy dressings and nuts and strong cheese and citrus. Like radicchio’s bitter friends chocolate and coffee, think about pairing it with sweet and/or fat to balance your taste for the bitter. Holds up to a little warming too. We’ll eat it with oven baked salmon, rice, and creamy dressing for a quick dinner at least once a week. Seriously, we at it last night. Soaking cut leaves in ice water for 30 minutes or more can help reduce the bitterness if needed.
• Arugula Rapini – Lots of leaves but some flowering shoots too, the rapini may be best cooked a little. And don’t forget you can pesto it up too.
• Cooking Greens Mix – A vibrant mix of kales, collards, and chard. Colorful and tasty!
• Brussels Sprouts – Pop the sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes.
• Purple & White Daikon Radishes – Tasty raw, pickled, or roasted and we’ll have saute bits and throw it in our ramen lunch.
• Carrots
• Rutabaga
• LaRatte Fingerling Potatoes
• Bunching Onions
• Yellow Onions
• Garlic – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long garlic wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions before they sprout because spring is just around the corner.
• Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Acorn Squash
• Dried Apples – After a less than stellar apple growing year we decided to buy in some apples from another local farm. These are Airlie Red apples, a red-fleshed variety discovered locally in Kings Valley, that we purchased from RainShine Family Farm located west of Corvallis. We did the drying and bagging.

The Summer CSA is full! Thanks to everyone’s enthusiasm for local, organic vegetables the Summer CSA filled up in record time. If you missed out on snagging a spot you can add yourself to the waitlist over on the Summer CSA page. – (Many thanks to those who have signed-on for the upcoming season. We appreciate your support!)

We’ve made it to February and the 5th winter CSA share! This share marks the halfway point in our winter vegetable journey. It’s hard to believe we’re already so deep into this winter season. The days are getting longer and we’ve just passed the return of 10 hours of daylight. Soon we won’t even need lights at the CSA pick-ups. Plants in the field are putting on new growth, the garlic has jumped up, and we’re seeing good germination on the greens we sowed in a greenhouse a few of weeks back. Though our fall spinach was a bust, the spring spinach is thriving! Things are looking up.

Although we welcome the slower pace of the Winter season, the winter weather has a knack for making us nervous. The wind, the rain, and the freezing temperatures all bring challenges for both field and storage crops. We’re a little haunted by the winter of 2013 when we found ourselves experiencing single digit temperatures in December, just as the Winter CSA was beginning.

We’ve had some cold weather over the past month or so and two weeks ago we had a low temp of 16 here on the farm. It’s been a few years since we’ve been below 20, which is the magic number we’re always on the lookout for. We try to choose the hardiest winter vegetable varieties but some plants can’t survive the colder temperatures. Anything below 20 degrees is a roll of the dice as to whether plants will make it through. Thankfully we ramped up to the recent cold temperatures and the plants had acclimated to the winter weather. Things in the fields looked a little sad just after that 16 degree night but we didn’t seem to lose any plants this time around. Hopefully that was our lowest temp for a while.

Our winter schedule has been mostly filled with work projects here on the farm over the past couple of months. Cleaning up after the last season, organizing and creating better work spaces, harvesting winter root crops for storage. The past couple of weeks we did take some time for personal goals amidst the work of the farm. Jeff has been upping his basket making game and learning new techniques with willow processing. I’m always amazed at what he can do with willow he’s harvested from our hedgerow. I was inspired by CSA member Greta B.and I broke out my sewing machine for a couple of small quilting/blanket projects. It had been a while since I’ve used this tool, but it turns out sewing is a little like riding a bike and it comes back to you pretty quickly. And, as evidenced by the photos above, we took a trip to the forest. Though we didn’t quite make it to the snow, we did enjoy exploring a beautiful area that is not the farm.

The coming weeks will hopefully see a mix of on and off farm adventures again. It’s nearly time to start sowing seeds for the first summer crops and we’ll be getting more early greenhouse crops in the ground soon. The 2023 growing season is headed our way quickly!

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Pasta with Gorgonzola, Radicchio, Walnuts, and Orange

• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• kosher salt to taste
• ¹/₂ to ³/₄ pounds pasta, such as penne or gemelli, see notes
• ¹/₄ cup olive oil
• 1 to 2 heads radicchio, preferably Treviso (if you can find it), cut into 1-inch-wide ribbons, see notes
• freshly ground black pepper
• 6 ounces crumbled gorgonzola or other mild blue cheese
• ¹/₂ cup chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley
• zest of 1 orange, plus the juice (optional)
• grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano, for serving, optional

Heat a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the walnuts and toast them over medium-low heat for about 4 minutes, stirring frequently so they do not burn. Remove and set aside. Wipe out skillet.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon kosher salt and return to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente according to the package directions.

While the pasta cooks, prepare the sauce: Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the radicchio and season with salt and pepper. Cook the radicchio until it begins to wilt and brown, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the gorgonzola and cook for 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the pasta water directly from the pot and simmer for 3 minutes more. The water should emulsify the cheese and create a velvety texture.

Scoop the cooked pasta directly into the skillet (alternatively, drain, reserving plenty of the pasta cooking liquid) and toss to combine the pasta with the sauce. Add the walnuts and parsley and toss again until glossy, adding 1/4 cup of pasta water or more (up to 1 cup), as needed to loosen up the sauce. Add the zest and toss to combine. Taste. Adjust as needed with more salt and pepper. I’ve been juicing the orange directly into the pot—I like the acidity/flavor/sweetness—but this is optional.

Plate in bowls and pass the grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiana Reggiano.

From Food52.com by Alexandra Stafford, https://food52.com/recipes/74469-pasta-with-gorgonzola-radicchio-walnuts-and-orange

Triple Radish Yum

• Roasted Radishes
• 3 large watermelon radishes (about 2 1/2- to 3-inch diameter)
• 1 daikon radish (about 1 & 1/4 lbs)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ¹/₂ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• Chèvre Horseradish Dressing
• fresh horseradish
• zest from 1/2 of a lemon
• 1 & ¹/₂ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• ¹/₄ cup chèvre
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400º F, with a rack in the upper third of the oven. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, and spray with a light coat of cooking spray. Set aside.

Remove ends and peel radishes. Cut in half lengthwise, then cut into 1/2-inch thick slices. Cut each half-moon slice into halves or thirds as needed to maintain fairly evenly sized pieces. The narrower end of the daikon may be left in half moons.

Toss radish pieces with olive oil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl to coat evenly. Distribute the radish pieces in an even layer on the baking sheet. (Set bowl aside.) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes. Radishes should have some browning, and retain some firmness when they are done.

While radishes are roasting, grate about 2 to 3 packed tablespoons worth of fresh horseradish using a microplane. Thoroughly combine 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of the grated horseradish with the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, chèvre, and 1/8th teaspoon salt in the reserved bowl. Taste, and if the horseradish flavor is not strong enough add more.

Once radishes have finished roasting, transfer them to the bowl with the dressing. Toss to coat. Taste and add salt if needed. Transfer to serving bowl and grind some fresh black pepper over the top. Serve hot or at room temperature.

From Food52.com by HardLikeArmour, https://food52.com/recipes/10774-triple-radish-yum

Squash Panzanella with Bagna Cauda

• Squash Panzanella
• 3 pounds root vegetables (such as carrots, beets, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and rutabaga)
• 2 pounds squash (such as delicata, acorn, butternut, kuri, and kabocha)
• 1 loaf crusty bread or 2 baguettes, torn into bite-sized pieces
• Olive oil and salt, for roasting

• Bagna Cauda
• ¹/₂ cup olive oil
• 1 sprig rosemary
• ¹/₄ teaspoon chile flakes
• 5 anchovy fillets
• 4 to 6 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, zested
• ¹/₄ cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 3 ounces arugula (or 1 handful per person)

Heat the oven to 400°F.

Cut all of the root vegetables and squash into 1-inch chunks. Transfer to a bowl and coat with a hefty glug of olive oil and a couple big pinches of salt.

Transfer to a parchment- or foil-lined sheet pan and roast until tender on the inside and caramelized on the outside, about 40 minutes.

When the veg are just about done, toss the bread with another glug of olive oil and pinch of salt, and add to the vegetable roasting tray. Return to the oven to crisp and lightly brown the croutons while you make the bagna cauda.

In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil over low to medium heat. Add the rosemary sprig and chili flakes to fry lightly, about 30 seconds. Add the anchovies and garlic with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until the garlic is soft, lowering the heat as needed so it doesn’t brown. Remove and discard the rosemary sprig, then add the lemon zest and butter, and stir to combine.

When the vegetables and bread are finished roasting (after about 10 minutes), remove from the oven and transfer to a large, heat-proof mixing bowl. Pour the bagna cauda on top, then add the vinegar and arugula. Toss to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Eat warm or at room temperature.

From Food52.com by Abraberens, https://food52.com/recipes/84407-squash-panzanella-with-bagna-cauda-recipe

Welcome to the 3rd share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Chioggia Radicchio – Great for robust winter salads with punchy dressings and nuts and strong cheese and citrus. Like radicchio’s bitter friends chocolate and coffee, think about pairing it with sweet and/or fat to balance your taste for the bitter. Holds up to a little warming too. We’ll eat it with oven baked salmon, rice, and creamy dressing for a quick dinner. Soaking cut leaves in ice water for 30 minutes or more can help reduce the bitterness if needed.
• Lacinato Kale
• Bok Choy
• Brussels Sprouts – Pop the sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes.
• Winter Kohlrabi – Don’t be afraid of the giant winter kohlrabi.  It’s delicious and wants to be eaten up raw, or fermented, or roasted, or in a savory pudding (recipe below). 
• French Fingerling Potatoes – Red skins and red streaked yellow flesh, great boiled or roasted.
• Sweet Potatoes – The very last of the sweet potatoes, small but tasty!
• Rainbow Carrots
• Leeks
• Yellow & Red Onions
• Garlic
• Butternut Winter Squash
• Spaghetti Squash
• Dried Apples – After a less than stellar apple growing year we decided to buy in some apples from another local farm. These are Airlie Red apples, a red-fleshed variety discovered locally in Kings Valley, that we purchased from RainShine Family Farm located west of Corvallis. We did the drying and bagging.

Happy new year farm friends! What better way to kick off the new year than with a fridge full of seasonal vegetables? With more time to spend in the kitchen this time of year we’ve been enjoying some of those meals that take a little longer to prep like butternut squash and kale strata and roasted Brussels sprouts with winter squash mac n’ cheese. Of course our oven baked salmon/rice/radicchio/creamy dressing combo continues to be a quick go-to as well. Winter vegetables are some of our favorites, and they’re made even better by the less hectic schedule we run during the winter season.

The past couple of weeks have found us cleaning up from the big wind storm that blew through a couple of weeks back. Jeff spent many of his daylight hours last week cleaning up the greenhouse we lost in the wind. That meant lots of cutting metal and wood into manageable pieces, wrangling windblown plastic sheeting, pulling out concrete footings, and clearing the cheap ground cloth we’d installed ten years ago. After salvaging what he could and then a trip to the landfill/metal recycling bins, the space where the greenhouse had stood is looking rather empty. Which, considering it was prone to flooding in late winter, probably isn’t the worst scenario. Evidently there’s an insurance check headed our way, so a replacement in a new location may be in the works later this season.

During the rainier days and evenings Jeff found time to do some 1947 Farmall Cub cultivating tractor maintenance. He’s finally undertaking his dream of upgrading the battery from 6 volt to 12 volt, which requires re-wiring the whole tractor and adding an alternator, I think. Between the re-wiring and hunting down an oil leak he seems to be making progress and we both look forward to a solid season of cultivating crops in the coming months.

While Jeff ping ponged between greenhouse cleanup and tractor repair (plus a number of willow basketry projects at night), I hunkered down with the seed catalogs and crop planning spreadsheets. We’d done a crop planning overview together previously where we’d discussed planting dates, crop quantities, and general varieties. I then had to do the deep dive of figuring out variety specifics, seed sources, amount of seed needed, and keep the spreadsheets updated with those details along the way. Then came the seed orders, including orders from 8 separate seed companies totaling just over $3600, which is in addition to the $2500 we’d pre-paid last month toward seed and seed potatoes. Whoa! The 2023 growing season just got real!

Now that we’ve made it through this week’s harvest we’ll be focusing again on the list of winter projects that’s been looming for the past month. First, Jeff received the final tractor part in the mail yesterday and is ready to see if his cultivating tractor fixes/conversion has worked. I’ve got farm budgeting and 2023 Summer CSA details to finalize. And it’s time to get some greenhouse space prepped for the first direct sowing of the year. The list goes on with plenty of weed whacking, orchard pruning, year-end paperwork, greenhouse weeding, apple drying, root harvesting, and general spring cleaning to get to as well. Also, Jeff bought us snowshoes for my birthday and we’re looking forward to an off-farm winter adventure soon.

Watch your email for Summer CSA sign-ups to begin in the next week or two.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Squash Mac n’ Cheese

• 3 cups dried noodle (elbows, shells, spirals, or similar)
• 2.5 cups roasted and pureed squash (like ‘Sweet Mama,’ ‘Winter Sweet,’ or ‘N. Georgia Candy Roaster’)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1.5 cup milk or milk alternative
• 4 Tbsp. butter
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper
• Optional: a pinch of nutmeg, a sprinkle of garlic powder, ground mustard, or celery seed

Cook noodles according to the package instructions.

Cut squash in half, remove the seeds, and roast in the oven until soft. Scoop the squash from the skin into a blender or food processor and puree. Alternatively, mash with potato masher, fork, or other kitchen tool. In a medium sauce pan on medium-low heat, melt the butter and add the flour, stirring until just starting to brown. Add milk and stir until the roux starts to thicken. Add salt, pepper and any other spices. Remove from heat and stir in cheddar cheese and squash puree. Pour over the noodles and stir until well combined.

My favorite additions: peas, corn and veggie sausage.

From EatWinterVegetables.com by Laura Brown, https://www.eatwintervegetables.com/squash-mac-n-cheese

Brussels Sprouts with Chorizo Beer Hash

• 1 pound Brussels sprouts (outside leaves removed)
• 3 Chorizo links, outer casing removed and crumbled (can also use dried)
• 1 cup beer (I used Great Lakes Dortmunder)
• 4 Large eggs
• 4 Medium blue or red potatoes, halved
• 1 Shallot, diced
• 3 Cloves garlic, minced
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Bring 2 medium pots of salted water to a boil. Toss your whole Brussels sprouts into one for 5 minutes. Toss your potatoes into the other for 10. Drain both.

In a large sauté pan with high sides, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add chorizo and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and shallots and cook for 3 minutes. Add a bit of salt and pepper.

Trim the bottom of the Brussels sprouts and cut in half. Add your Brussels sprouts to the pan with the chorizo and cook for about 7 minutes, until they have started to brown. Note that the bottom of your pan will start to build a bit of a crust. Worry not: you will de-glaze it with the beer shortly.

Peel the skin off the potatoes, and cut into 1 inch cubes. Toss into the pan after the brussels sprouts have browned. Add a little more salt and pepper to the dish. De-glaze the bottom of the pan with the beer. Let the potatoes cook for about 5 minutes, until they start to brown a little bit. Add more beer if necessary to make sure you get all the flavors off the bottom of the pan.

Cook your eggs in butter with a dash of salt in a separate pan, for about 2-3 minutes, just until the egg white is no longer runny, but the yolk still is.

Serve the egg over the hash while both are still piping hot! Enjoy.

From Food52.com by Brussels Sprouts for Breakfast, https://food52.com/recipes/15140-brussels-sprout-and-chorizo-beer-hash

This recipe was shared with us years ago (2014 maybe?) by a winter CSA member. Was that you Kim M.? It’s a delicious, if dairy indulgent, way to transform a lot of kohlrabi into a tasty savory pudding.

Kohlrabi Pudding

• Cooking spray
• 2 to 3 small kohlrabi, stem, root and ends trimmed, peeled and quartered
• 2 large eggs
• 4 ounces neufchâtel reduced-fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• ½ cup low-fat milk, buttermilk, yogurt, light sour cream, oat or rice milk, or, if feeling devil-may-care and you have it on hand, half and half or heavy cream
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon Pickapeppa sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 or 4 gratings of nutmeg
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• ¾ cup (6 ounces) finely grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Spray a 9-inch square baking dish or six individual 6-ounce ramekins with cooking spray. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the kohlrabi and cook until slightly softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Place in a food processor and puree. Measure out 3 cups of the puree, saving leftovers for another use (such as a chilled soup). Set the puree aside.

Place the eggs with the neufchâtel, milk, cornstarch, Pickapeppa, salt, nutmeg, and pepper in the food processor. Buzz until very smooth. Add the 3 cups puree and half of the Parmesan and buzz to incorporate. Taste and, if necessary season with more pepper.

Pour the pudding mixture into the prepared baking dish or into the individual ramekins. Place the dish or ramekins in a larger pan with hot water to come ½ inch up the sides of the dish or ramekins. Place the pan in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over the top. Return to the oven and continue baking until the cheese is melted and golden and the pudding is firm, browned, and does not stick to your finger when you touch its surface, another 20 to 30 minutes. Serve, hot or warm, cut into squares or inverted out of the ramekins.

From Cookstr.com by Dairy Hollow House, https://www.cookstr.com/recipes/dairy-hollow-house-kohlrabi-pudding

Northern Spy’s Kale Salad

• ¹/₂ cup cubed kabocha, butternut, or other winter squash
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 bunch kale (preferably lacinato or dinosaur kale), ribs removed and finely sliced, about 2 1/2 cups
• ¹/₄ cup almonds, cut roughly in half
• ¹/₄ cup crumbled or finely chopped Cabot clothbound cheddar (or any good, aged cheddar — if you can’t find aged cheddar, use Parmesan)
• Fresh lemon juice
• Pecorino or other hard cheese, for shaving (optional)

Heat oven to 425° F. Toss squash cubes in just enough olive oil to coat, and season with salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet (lined with parchment for easier cleanup), leaving space between the cubes. Roast in the oven until tender and caramelized, about 40 minutes, tossing with a spatula every 10-15 minutes. Toast the almonds on a baking sheet in the same oven until they start to smell nutty, tossing once, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

In a large mixing bowl, toss the kale with the almonds, cheddar and squash. Season to taste with lemon juice and olive oil (approximately 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 2 tablespoons olive oil). Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Divide salad between two plates or shallow bowls. Garnish with shaved pecorino cheese, if desired, and serve.

From Food52.com by Genius Recipes, https://food52.com/recipes/15584-northern-spy-s-kale-salad

Welcome to the 1st share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Rosalba Radicchio – Great for robust winter salads with punchy dressings and nuts and strong cheese and citrus. Holds up to a little warming too. We’ll eat it with oven baked salmon, rice, and creamy dressing for a quick dinner. Soaking in ice water can help reduce the bitterness if needed. Click here for some tips if you think radicchio and chicories bring too much bitter to the table.
• Romaine Lettuce Bites – Mini romaine heads, peeled down to the best leaves.
• Red Cabbage
• Brussels Sprouts – Pop the sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes. Don’t forget to check out the recipe index here on our website if you’re looking for suggestions.
• Celery
• Alpine Daikon Radishes – A short Korean daikon variety traditionally used in kimchi but tasty on salads or roasted.
• Pinto Fingerling Potatoes
• Sweet Potatoes – In an effort to prolong their storage life we’re giving these out unwashed. You may want to give them a soak pre-scrubbing. Enjoy!
• Carrots
• Yellow & Red Onions
• Garlic
• Candystick Dessert Delicata Squash – We tend to roast most of our winter squashes by cutting them in half and baking cut side down at 400 degrees until tender.
• Pie Pumpkin
• Dried Apples – After a less than stellar apple growing year we decided to buy in some apples from another local farm. These are Airlie Red apples, a red-fleshed variety discovered locally in Kings Valley, that we purchased from RainShine Family Farm located west of Corvallis. We did the drying and bagging.

Welcome to the first week of the Winter CSA! We’re excited to kick off our tenth winter CSA season and hope you are too! Whether you’re a returning member who is already well versed in seasonal eating or a new member joining us for the first time, we hope you know we’ll be trying our darndest to bring you the best organic vegetables we can grow to each CSA pick-up over the next five months.

As you know already, winter weather can be unpredictable and growing conditions are the most challenging through the winter months. Ice and snow can be game changers. Short cold days mean not much plant growth is happening at the moment so we’re relying on the planning and planting that happened last summer and fall. That’s all to say that while winter may like to keep us on our toes, there will be vegetables to eat and hopefully they’ll include a wide diversity. So far, so good!

We often get questions about how we spent the two week break between the end of the Summer CSA season and the beginning of the Winter CSA season. After a long, rough growing season we chose to hunker down at home for a short but restful break from farm projects. Jeff focused on his willow basket hobby (if you’re in the market for a willow coffin, hit him up) and I relaxed into wrangling our house back into some semblance of order, cooking slightly more ambitious meals than we find time for during the growing season, and evaluating 2023 health insurance plans. Fun!

Of course it wasn’t all fun hobby time. We had an assortment of random projects that needed some attention. When we last left you our 90s era F150 truck needed repair. Luckily Jeff swapped out the computer and was back in action in no time, plus the repair required a quick trip to the hills to get the computer acclimated to highway speeds. Bonus! We also managed to upgrade our washer/dryer after a washer failure a few days into the break. That involved too much time spent researching the mysterious inner workings of new washing machines, eventually discovering we couldn’t diagnose the problem properly to repair ourselves, realizing no one will repair the brand, and laying down some money for new repairable machines that are equally (if not more) mysterious. And Jeff sold his duck flock on Craigslist to a small farm in Oregon City looking to up their duck game. Herding and catching 22 very wary ducks in muddy conditions is definitely a project.

We did ease back into farm tasks too. Jeff worked on flame weeding the garlic first with a handheld propane torch and then with a wider propane torch with multiple burners that he attached to the tractor. Hopefully he can keep the grass at bay long enough for a dry spell when we can truly cultivate to clean up the beds. We also moved the dry corn out of the prop house where it had been drying down since harvest. Not wanting it to languish in the barn I went ahead and shelled it, resulting in 300ish pounds of dry corn for future flour/polenta milling. Plus there was some apple drying, root harvesting and washing, composting, barn cleaning, bin washing etc. We’ve still got a long list of winter projects to get through but it was nice to get a slow start on some of them.

That’s all to say it was a successful working staycation and we’re looking forward to getting into the swing of the Winter CSA!

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Grilled Chicken Caesar Lettuce Wraps

• For the Caesar dressing:
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 (2-ounce) can anchovy fillets, drained, and minced
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed, peeled, and minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 ¹/₂ teaspoons Worcestershire, plus more to taste
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pinch kosher salt, plus more to taste

• For the chicken lettuce wraps:
• 4 chicken breasts, halved horizontally
• 6 slices bread, ideally crusty and rustic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed
• 1 small head radicchio, halved, cored, and thinly sliced
• 1 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 tablespoons drained capers
• 3 hearts of romaine, broken into leafs for lettuce cups

For the Caesar dressing:

Make the Caesar dressing. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Taste and adjust accordingly.

For the chicken lettuce wraps:

Marinate the chicken. Add the chicken breasts to a big plastic bag and add 1/2 cup Caesar dressing. Mush around to completely coat. Marinate for at least 1 hour in the fridge or up to 1 day.

Get your grill going. For charcoal: Set up for one-zone, high-temperature cooking. For gas: Heat to high until the temperature reaches about 600° F. Make sure the grill grates are clean, then lightly oil them.

Grill the chicken over direct heat for 3 to 4 minutes per side, until charred on the outside and cooked (about 165° F) on the inside. Transfer to a plate to rest.

Now grill the bread. First drizzle with olive oil, then grill over direct heat until charred, a couple minutes per side. Transfer to a plate to cool and crisp.

Chop the chicken into chicken chunks. Add to a bowl along with the radicchio, parmesan, and capers. Dress with the remaining Caesar dressing—use however much feels right to you. Taste and adjust salt accordingly.

Tear the grilled bread slices into crumbs.

Serve as such: lettuce cups on one plate, chicken salad in a bowl, crumbs on another plate. To assemble: Fill a lettuce cup with chicken salad and top with breadcrumbs.

From Food52.com by Emma Laperruque, https://food52.com/recipes/77670-grilled-chicken-caesar-lettuce-wraps

Coconut & Chile Braised Winter Squash

• 2 to 3 pounds winter squash (such as 1 large butternut, or 2 medium delicata)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• Kosher salt plus freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
• 1 13.5 ounces can unsweetened coconut milk (full fat)
• 3 tablespoons chile sauce, such as harissa, or to taste (see author note)
• Couscous or rice, for serving

To prep the squash: Peel the squash if using butternut; no need to peel delicata. Halve lengthwise and remove seeds and stringy flesh. Cut into 3/4-inch chunks.

On a sheet pan, toss the squash with about 1 tablespoon olive oil, or just enough to coat. Season generously with kosher salt and pepper.

Heat the broiler with an oven rack about 4 to 5 inches from the heating element. Broil the squash until nicely charred on the first side, about 3 to 4 minutes, then flip and broil about 1 to 2 minutes longer. (The total time will depend on the intensity of your broiler, so keep a close eye on the squash!)

In a deep skillet or Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onion until tender, about 5 minutes (a little browning around the edges is fine) then add the garlic, coriander, and rosemary and sauté a minute longer. Add the charred squash, stirring to coat it evenly in the oil.

Add the coconut milk, harissa, and another pinch or two of salt, and bring to a simmer. Half cover the pan with the lid, and braise for about 20 minutes, or until the squash is fork tender, adjusting the heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer. Add a little water (using the empty can to get every last bit of coconut milk!), as needed, if the sauce starts to get a little dry.

Adjust salt to taste, and add more chile sauce if desired. Serve warm with couscous or rice as a complete meal, or as a side to virtually any protein.

From Food52.com by EmilyC, https://food52.com/recipes/84649-coconut-braised-winter-squash-recipe

Sweet Potato Nachos

• Nachos
• 2 pounds (about 6 medium) sweet potatoes, scrubbed
• ¹/₄ cup olive oil
• Smashed Black Beans (see recipe below)
• 16 ounces (about 4 cups) shredded cheese (I like a mix of Monterey Jack, pepperjack, and yellow cheddar)
• ¹/₃ cup salsa or pico de gallo
• 1 or 2 ripe avocados, sliced (or, for a bit more excitement, 1 or 2 batches of the Chunkiest, Herbiest, Greenest Guacamole)
• For serving: thinly sliced (daikon) radishes, shredded cabbage, thinly sliced raw or pickled jalapeños, thinly sliced raw or pickled onions, thinly sliced scallions, sour cream (for dolloping), gently crushed tortilla chips, roughly chopped cilantro
• Lime wedges, for serving

• Smashed Black Beans
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 3 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon hot smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 (15-ounce) can black (or pinto) beans, liquid reserved
• ¹/₂ tablespoon red wine vinegar

Nachos

Heat the oven to 450ºF.

Slice the (unpeeled) sweet potatoes into rounds about 1/4 inch thick. Err on the thin side for more charred, crispy potatoes; thicker for creamier—both are excellent!

In a large bowl (or directly on two rimmed sheet pans) toss the potatoes with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Arrange in a single layer. Bake, with one pan on a rack in the top of the oven and the other on the bottom, for 12 to 14 minutes, until well charred. Flip the potatoes, swap the positions of the sheet pans, and continue cooking until cooked through and charred on the other side, another 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the trays from the oven and toss the potatoes to ensure none are stuck to the pan.

Reduce the heat to 350ºF. Spread about half the beans and sprinkle half the cheese over one tray of potatoes. Return the tray to the oven and cook until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.

Remove the sheet pan from the oven. Building on the one tray, layer the remaining sweet potatoes over the melted cheese. Cover the second layer of potatoes with spoonfuls of the beans (use the rest of the batch or however much you’d like). Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and return to the oven for another 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

Dot the surface of the nachos with large spoonfuls of salsa or pico de gallo. Scatter avocado over the nachos (or dot with large spoonfuls of guacamole). Finish with the remaining desired toppings and serve immediately, with lime wedges for squeezing.

Smashed Black Beans

While the potatoes are cooking, make the beans. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and onion and season with salt and pepper.

Cook, stirring regularly, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Make a well in the center and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Stir in the paprika and cumin and let sizzle for 30 seconds, until the spices are fragrant.

Dump the entire can of beans (yes, liquid, too!) into the pot. Fill the can halfway with water, pour into the pot as well, and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 20 minutes.

Taste and season with salt and pepper. Use the side of a spoon or spatula to gently smash the beans up a bit. Let cool slightly, then mix in the vinegar before serving.

From Food52.com by Rebecca Firkser, https://food52.com/recipes/84941-best-sweet-potato-nachos-recipe

Welcome to the 22nd share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Salad Mix
• Lacinato Kale
• Cauliflower or Napa Cabbage
• Cilantro
• Diana Radishes
• LaRatte Fingerling Potatoes
• Leeks
• Garlic
• “Delectable” Sweet Corn – This is the last of this season’s sweet corn harvest. It was a good run!
• Zucchini – Including green zucchini and “Mexicana” zucchini. We’re rapidly approaching the end of summer squash/zucchini season. Enjoy them while you can!
• Sweet Pepper
• Thai or Carrot HOT Peppers – Many of our pepper plants didn’t get off to a good start but we wanted to share what we have. Choose from red Thai or orange Bulgarian Carrot peppers. Both are hot.
• Numex Suave Orange Habanero Pepper – A low heat version of the fruity, usually hot pepper type. Wish we had more to share!
• Pie Pumpkin

Hey, we finally got some measurable rain! The seasonal shift hit this week and it was just blustery and wet enough to feel like fall but there were still some sunny moments too, so we don’t quite have seasonal whiplash. We’re easing into mud season. Hurrah for the rain!

As a reminder, the Summer CSA season has four weeks left and then we’ll be taking a two week break before the start of the Winter CSA season for those of you intrepid eaters that were able and willing to jump on board. That’s to say, the end will be here before we know it. As the days continue to get shorter and the weather actually feels like fall, it’s become obvious it’s time to think about eating in the winter months ahead.

For anyone looking to purchase extra winter staples we suggest checking out one of the Fill Your Pantry events happening around the state in the coming month. These are single day markets, some with pre-ordering still available, where you can purchase varying quantities of locally grown produce and other staples like meats, honey, grains, and beans. Although it will require heading to Corvallis, Eugene, or Bend, you’ll be able to fill your winter pantry in a single trip. Check out the event pages below depending on which location suits your needs best.

• Corvallis Fill Your Pantry November 6th (pre-ordering closed)
• Eugene Fill Your Pantry November 13th (pre-ordering through Oct 31st)
• Central Oregon Fill Your Pantry November 12th (pre-ordering through Nov 5th)

We’re continuing to fill our own pantry here on the farm. Or rather fill all the storage spaces we can come up with. This past week we began the sweet potato digging and the temperature controlled room we use as a seed germinating chamber has shifted to use as sweet potato curing chamber. We also managed to thresh and winnow the dry beans and they’re ready for future CSA shares. We also got our 2023 garlic crop in the ground as well as our overwintering onions. Slow and steady progress.

In the week ahead we’ll continue the potato and sweet potato harvests, do a little weeding in a couple of greenhouse spaces, get some cover crop seed in the ground, and generally try to stay ahead of any cold snaps that may be headed our way any time now. Four more weeks until the end of the Summer CSA season!

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here next week!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Triple Surprise Kale Salad

• 1 small Sugar Pie pumpkin (about 3 to 3 1/2 pounds)
• 1 ¹/₂ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling the pumpkin
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 long slices (about 5 ounces) of thick bacon, cut into big bite-size squares
• About 1 1/2 teaspoons of brown sugar, divided
• A pinch of cinnamon (about 1/4 teaspoon)
• A pinch of cayenne pepper (about 1/4 teaspoon)
• ¹/₂ cup (about 3 ounces) blanched almonds, cut into quarters
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 12 ounces kale
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Chop the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds. Cut the pumpkin into slices, remove the skin, and then cut the flesh into 3/4-inch cubes. Drizzle the cubes with a little olive oil, season with black pepper, and toss to combine. Place the cubes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for about 30 minutes, until nicely caramelized and soft (but not soft enough that the pumpkin is falling apart). Remove the pumpkin from the oven and let it cool. (You will not have to use all of the pumpkin cubes for this dish — probably only about half — but they are a good leftover to have.)

Decrease the oven temperature to 325° F. Line another baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange the bacon slices on the sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle the bacon with about 1/2 teaspoon of the brown sugar, the cinnamon, and the cayenne. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until the bacon is caramelized and very crispy, and all of the fat has rendered out. Let the bacon cool completely and then cut it into 3/4-inch pieces. (The bacon will crisp more as it cools.)

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the almonds, and toast them for about 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly golden. Stir frequently to make sure that the almonds do not burn. Remove the almonds from the skillet and add the remaining 1 teaspoon of brown sugar to the skillet. When the sugar melts, return the almonds to the skillet, mix them with caramelized sugar, and sprinkle with one teaspoon of coarse sea salt. Remove the skillet from the heat, pour the almonds onto a plate, and let them cool completely. Brush any remaining salt in the skillet onto the almonds.

Wash the kale and dry it thoroughly. Remove the hard steams and chop the kale into 3/4-inch strips. Heat a cast iron skillet or casserole dish over medium heat. Place the kale into the skillet and “dry-sauté” over medium heat for about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring constantly. Resist the temptation to add any water to the skillet. Remove from the heat when the kale begins to soften. Let the kale cool completely.

Prepare the vinaigrette: In a small bowl, mix together the olive oil and cider vinegar and season with freshly ground black pepper. Whisk until well blended and creamy.

In a large bowl toss the kale with the vinaigrette. Arrange the kale on a large platter and top with the pumpkin cubes and bacon. Sprinkle with the sea salt-almond crust and serve.

From Food52.com by QueenSashy, https://food52.com/recipes/31255-triple-surprise-kale-salad

3-Ingredient Potato Leek Soup

• 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
• 4 leeks
• 1 ¹/₄ pounds potatoes (I prefer Yukon gold)
• 6 cups water
• salt, to taste

Clean the leeks carefully, then slice them into thin half-moons. Scrub and dice the potatoes into small cubes.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the sliced leeks and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the leeks soften.

Add the potatoes and the water. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 15-30 minutes: The soup is ready when the potatoes can be easily poked with a fork. The timing will vary depending on the type of potatoes you use.

Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth. (If you don’t have one, transfer the soup to a blender and blend until smooth. Be very careful with the hot liquid!) Taste the soup and season with more salt if needed.

From Food52.com by Posie (Harwood) Brien, https://food52.com/recipes/74363-3-ingredient-potato-leek-soup

Harissa Chicken with Leeks, Potatoes, and Yogurt

• 1 ¹/₂ pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks
• 1 ¹/₄ pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 by 1/2-inch chunks
• 3 teaspoons kosher salt
• ³/₄ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons harissa
• ¹/₂ teaspoon ground cumin
• 4 ¹/₂ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
• 2 leeks, white and light green parts, halved lengthwise, rinsed, and thinly sliced into half-moons
• ¹/₂ teaspoon grated lemon zest
• ¹/₃ cup plain yogurt, preferably whole-milk (if using Greek, thin it down with a little milk to make it drizzle-able
• 1 small garlic clover
• 1 cup mixed soft fresh herbs such as dill, parsley, mint, and/or cilantro leaves
• 1 splash fresh lemon juice, as needed

Combine the chicken and potatoes in a large bowl. Season them with 2½ teaspoons of the salt and ½ teaspoon of the pepper. In a small bowl, whisk together the harissa, cumin, and 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Pour this mixture over the chicken and potatoes, and toss to combine. Let it stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the leeks, lemon zest, ¼ teaspoon of the salt, and the remaining 1½ tablespoons olive oil.

Heat the oven to 425°F.

Arrange the chicken and potatoes in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet, and roast for 20 minutes. Then toss the potatoes lightly, and scatter the leeks over the baking sheet. Roast until the chicken is cooked through and everything is golden and slightly crisped, 20 to 25 minutes longer.

While the chicken cooks, place the yogurt in a small bowl. Grate the garlic clove over the yogurt, and season with the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Spoon the yogurt over the chicken and vegetables in the baking sheet (or you can transfer everything to a platter if you want to be fancy about it). Scatter the herbs over the yogurt, drizzle some olive oil and lemon juice over the top, and serve.

From Food52.com by Melissa Clark, https://food52.com/recipes/68405-harissa-chicken-with-leeks-potatoes-and-yogurt

Welcome to the 19th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Lettuce Mix
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Italian Basil
• Strawberry Paw or LaRatte Fingerling Potatoes
• Onion
• Garlic
• “Sweetness” Sweet Corn
• Zucchini & Summer Squash – Including green zucchini, yellow summer squash, and “Mexicana” zucchini. We’re rapidly approaching the end of summer squash/zucchini season. Enjoy them while you can!
• Mixed Cucumbers – Including green cukes, ‘Silver Slicer’ yellow cukes, and lemon cukes. Cucumbers are on the way out!
• Poblano & Jalapeno Peppers
• Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
• Mixed Slicer Tomato
• Tomatillos – A little like green tomatoes, tomatillos make excellent salsa verde and enchilada sauce. Check out this website for more details and recipes.
• Melon – Choose from Tuscan, Lambkin (aka Christmas), Honey Orange honeydew, and some watermelons.

Hello October! We’re welcoming the shorter days, foggy mornings, and pumpkins! We’re both suckers for a good pumpkin. The recent temps could be a little lower, just saying, but the heat doesn’t linger like it does in August so we’ll take it. Though we need some rain, and we’ll appreciate it when it finally arrives, the extended sunshine has helped offset the rough start to the season back in June.

It looks like the good weather is going to hold through this coming Saturday and the annual CSA member pumpkin patch farm visit. We invite all CSA members out to the farm to grab some pumpkins, take a walk around the farm, and maybe even hop onboard for a tractor ride. You can find the details in your weekly member email.

Shorter days mean more strategic harvesting. We’ve been beginning the weekly harvest on Sundays to make sure we get through the list of items appearing in your shares. But Mondays are still the biggest harvest days when we focus on bringing in the bulk of the vegetables. We start with greens, to get them into the cooler before the heat of the day strikes, and then move through the list generally from most time consuming to least time consuming. Sometimes we’ll knock off an item of unsure quantity to make sure we can mitigate the results. For example: Not enough cauliflower for everyone? We’ve got extra broccoli and can make it a choice scenario. We keep at it through the day and often we find ourselves harvesting corn as the sun is fading.

Harvest day tools include clean harvest bins, sharp knives, and tally counters we use to count most items. If you get to choose from a bin of cucumbers or broccoli or bunches of basil at the pick-up, they’ve been counted in the field and again after washing to make sure the correct number makes it to each pick-up location. Anything you receive bagged is generally weighed in the field then the bags are counted as the item is bagged. This is how we make sure there’s enough of everything but also don’t harvest more than we’ll need each week.

There’s a lot going on here at the farm that doesn’t involve counting vegetables too. Of course we keep busy growing the vegetables, but there are lots of other critters going about their own business. Over the past few weeks we’ve seen a family of quail seemingly using the farm to hunker down for hunting season, hawks swooping through hunting rodents, and lots of deer and turkeys enjoying the salad bar that is the farm. There are all the types of bees (and wasps and hornets), so many tree frogs that show up in unsuspecting places (like the pumpkin leaf in the photo above), and yesterday we saw a hummingbird drinking from a flowering tobacco plant. Noticing all of these other creatures is a bonus to the farmwork day after day. That’s just to say that it’s not all counting vegetables here on the farm.

This past week we managed to get the last greenhouse planted to lettuce, cilantro, dill, and bok choy plus some direct sown kale and tatsoi for late fall and winter harvests. It’s a relief to have the majority of the planting out of the way. Soon we’ll be getting the garlic and overwintering onions in the ground and wrapping up the planting season for the year.

This week we’ll be focused on getting things ready for the CSA farm event on Saturday. We’ll make sure the tractor is ready to pull and the trailer is ready to roll. We’ll also get the farm map updated and signs posted for the self-guided tour. And as usual, there’s plenty of mowing, cultivating, and potato, dry bean, and flour corn harvesting to get done as well.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here next week!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Mexican Corn Pudding Served With Smoky Chipotle Sauce

• Butter for greasing the dish
• ¹/₄ cup plain breadcrumbs to coat the bottom of the dish
• 8 medium-sized ears of corn, kernels removed from the cob
• 1 cup butter, cut into small pieces
• ¹/₂ cup whole milk
• 6 large eggs
• 4 ounces queso fresco
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons flour
• ¹/₄ cup sugar
• 1 (4 1/2 ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• FOR THE SAUCE:
• 3 peeled cloves garlic
• 4 medium tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cut in half
• 2 canned chipotle chiles en adobo
• salt to taste

PREP: Preheat the oven to 350. Butter a 9 x 13 inch baking dish and then cover the bottom with an even layer of bread crumbs. With a sharp knife, cut the corn off of the cobs into a large bowl (or the bowl of a food processor if you have one).

COMBINE: Add remaining ingredients to the corn and stir to combine. If you are using a food processor, pulse until mixture is smooth. If you do not have a food processor, puree the mixture in batches in a blender until smooth.

COOK: Pour the corn mixture into the baking pan and bake 1 hour.

WHILE CORN PUDDING COOKS, MAKE THE SAUCE: Lay garlic and tomatillos (cut-side down) in a non-stick skillet and saute over MEDIUM HIGH heat until tomatillos are brown, about 4 minutes. Turn over and brown the other side. Transfer everything to a blender. Add chiles + 1/4 cup water and blend until coarse. Season with salt to taste. Pour into a serving bowl and serve at room temperature.

SERVE: Serve corn pudding warm with smoky chipotle sauce drizzled to taste. It is nice and hot, so start off with just a little.

From Food52.com by Waverly, https://food52.com/recipes/6322-mexican-corn-pudding-served-with-smoky-chipotle-sauce

Cauliflower Pizza Bake

• ¹/₂ pound (about 2 links) uncooked Italian sausage, removed from casings and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 large head of cauliflower, trimmed and cut into small, bite-sized florets
• ¹/₂ cup pizza sauce, divided
• ¹/₄ cup finely grated parmesan, plus more for finishing dish
• Kosher salt + freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• ¹/₄ cup black olives (I like to use the sliced, canned kind)
• ¹/₄ cup slivered or halved sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil (drained of oil before using)
• 2 to 3 ounces pepperoni
• 4 ounces fresh mozzarella (sold in rounds or logs), torn into bite-sized pieces
• A big handful of fresh basil leaves, torn

Heat oven to 425 F. Place a parchment-lined sheet pan in the oven while it heats. The hot pan will help the sausage to get nicely browned, fast!

Working quickly, transfer the sausage to the preheated sheet pan in a single, even layer. (Careful, the pan will be hot!) Drizzle the sausage with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Roast for about 6 to 8 minutes, or until the sausage is starting to brown (set a timer).

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine cauliflower florets with 1/4 cup pizza sauce, 1/4 cup grated parmesan, and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and toss. You want the pizza sauce to lightly yet thoroughly coat the florets; add another tablespoon of sauce, if needed. Add olives and sun-dried tomatoes to the bowl and toss again.

When the timer for the sausage goes off, add the cauliflower mixture to the sheet pan, stirring a few times to coat the cauliflower in the sausage fat. Arrange pepperoni evenly across the top.

Roast for 15 more minutes, until the cauliflower is crisp-tender and the pepperoni has browned. (Taste a piece of cauliflower; if it isn’t approaching tender, return to the oven for a few more minutes before proceeding to Step 6. Season with a little more salt and pepper, if needed.)

Remove sheet pan from oven, and spoon 1/4 cup more sauce over the cauliflower mixture; add a little extra, if desired, for a saucier version. Arrange bites of torn mozzarella over (and in between) the cauliflower florets (avoid putting it directly on the bottom of the sheet pan). Roast in the oven for another 5 minutes, or until the sauce is warmed and cheese is melted.

Cool for about 5 minutes, then grate more parmesan on top and scatter the basil. Serve warm.

From Food52.com by EmilyC, https://food52.com/recipes/81160-cauliflower-pizza-bake

Cantaloupe & Cucumber Salad with Basil & Feta

• ¹/₂ of a medium cantaloupe, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 cucumber, cut into 1/2-inch chunks (any variety will do, but I prefer a hothouse — seedless, with a thinner skin — for this salad)
• 6 large basil leaves, chiffonaded (see note)
• 3 ounces feta, crumbled
• 3 tablespoons shelled raw sunflower seeds
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Flaky sea salt
• Ground pepper

To toast the sunflower seeds, place in a dry pan over medium heat. Toast 2 to 3 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally, until lightly browned and fragrant.

In a bowl, combine the cantaloupe, cucumber, feta, and half the basil. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar, season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Serve the salad topped with the toasted sunflower seeds, flaky salt, and more pepper.

From Food52.com by Kendra Vaculin, https://food52.com/recipes/30433-cantaloupe-cucumber-salad-with-basil-feta

Summertime Potluck Puttanesca

• 2 handfuls broccoli florets
• 1 pound tubular pasta, such as campanelle or penne
• 2 medium summer squash, preferably yellow, trimmed, halved lengthwise and sliced very thinly crosswise
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (remove any green shoots first)
• about ¹/₄ cups basil chiffonade (a moderate handful: 10 or so large leaves)
• 1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes, or to taste
• 20 kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
• ¹/₄ cup capers, drained and rinsed
• Lemon juice to taste (start with half a lemon and adjust from there)
• 1 28-ounce can good quality crushed tomatoes (like San Marzano)
• ¹/₂ cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil (it should be so salty that it tastes like sea water). Have a large bowl of ice water ready, as well. Blanch the broccoli florets for 2 minutes, then remove them with a spider or slotted spoon and shock them in ice water. Drain and set aside. Cook the pasta until al dente in the same water used to blanch the broccoli.

While the pasta is cooking, combine the broccoli florets and all the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Drain the pasta and add it to the bowl. Adjust for salt, pepper, lemon juice, and hot pepper. The dish is equally good warm or cold, but I’d recommend allowing it to sit for at least an hour or, if planning ahead, let it sit overnight to extract the maximum flavor potential.

From Food52.com by Chris Hagan, https://food52.com/recipes/22621-summertime-potluck-puttanesca

Welcome to the 17th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Salad Mix
• Broccoli
• Savoy Cabbage
• Parsley
• Fennel – We know members like roasted fennel, fennel pickles, and shaved fennel salads. Our favorite way to eat fennel is caramelized onion and fennel tart. We cook down the onion and fennel, toss it into a pastry galette style, top it whatever mix of cheeses we have on hand and bake until the pastry it cooked.
• Beets – Click here for a flashback to a standby recipe suggestion for beets and parsley. Scroll up on that page for a glimpse at farm life back in 2013.
• Sweet Onions
• “Delectable” Sweet Corn
• Romano Beans – Mixed green and purple striped beans, great for use in your favorite green bean recipes.
• Zucchini & Summer Squash – Including green zucchini, yellow summer squash, and “Mexicana” zucchini.
• Mixed Cucumbers – Including green cukes, ‘Silver Slicer’ yellow cukes, and lemon cukes.
• Sweet & Jalapeno Peppers
• Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
• Mixed Slicer Tomatoes
• Pears – Asian & Bartlett

Thursday marks the autumnal equinox, the point in the year when the light hours and dark hours are equal lengths. Going forward we’ll be losing daylight hours until we reach the winter solstice on December 21st. If you weren’t already feeling the seasonal shift I imagine it will start to become apparent as we’re plunged into more time in the dark. The shift has certainly been happening on the farm as plant growth has slowed and powdery mildew has begun to set in on some crops. The zucchinis are putting on fewer fruits, the cucumbers are slowing down, the tomatoes are on the decline.

One harbinger of autumn for us is the ripening and harvesting of winter squash. We grew 12 different types of winter squash this season including varieties of pumpkins, kabocha, spaghetti, delicata, butternut, and acorn squash. Some will make appearances in upcoming fall shares but most will be headed to Winter CSA shares.

The wet start to the season made for rough conditions for cultivating the winter squash field right out of the gate. It wasn’t dry enough to get the cultivating tractor through the beds before a sea of grass took hold. A couple of times we made inroads through hoeing and hand weeding once the plants started to spread out and the tractor really couldn’t make a pass, but the grass wasn’t deterred and our half acre of winter squash was a mess most of the season. Needless to say we dreaded the harvest and assumed the worst.

This past week we finally made time to tackle the harvest project. Thankfully it wasn’t quite as dismal as we’d expected, though in the end it was maybe half of last year’s haul. Upside, it takes up less space in the barn. Downside of course, we’ve got less squash to share in the coming months. Thankfully we will have some to share though; there will be pumpkin pies this year!

With the winter squash harvest behind us and that field mowed we can now focus on cleaning up some other areas. In the week ahead you can find us weeding, cultivating, mowing, and weed whacking in order to wrestle some semblance of control back in several areas. We’ve got a greenhouse to transplant into and an organic fertilizer run to make before that can happen. And we’ve got flint corn to harvest for future corn flour and polenta eating. The days may be getting shorter but we’ve still got plenty of things that need doing to pack into them.

Baked Olive, Tomato, and Feta Dip

• ¹/₄ cup tomato sauce, homemade or store-bought (a teeny amount! so the cheese doesn’t stick to the bottom! a perfect use for leftovers or the dregs of the jar)
• 8 ounces block of feta cheese, drained
• ¹/₂ cup pitted and roughly chopped Kalamata olives
• 1 ¹/₃ cups halved cherry tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, finely grated
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• a few turns fresh ground pepper
• toast, crackers, pita, and/or a spoon for eating

Preheat the oven to 400° F.

Pour the tomato sauce into the bottom of a small oven-safe dish (I used a 6–inch round). Place the feta in the center and press to slightly break the block apart. This is a rough-crumbly-spreading situation, not a make-a-clean-cheese-layer situation.

In a medium bowl, mix the olives, tomatoes, garlic, oregano, and pepper — you don’t need to season with salt, as the feta is salty enough on its own. Pour the mixture evenly over the cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes. Your kitchen will smell like pizza and the feta will get warm and spreadable. Top with the parsley once it’s out of the oven.

Serve to guests with toast or crackers, or stuff into a pita pocket with a fried egg and arugula for a meal for yourself.

From Food52.com by Kendra Vaculin, https://food52.com/recipes/37883-baked-olive-tomato-and-feta-dip

Cabbage, Italian Sausage, and Orzo Soup with Parmesan

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound Italian sausage (mild or spicy), bulk or with casings removed
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ¹/₄ cup tomato paste
• 1 large Napa or Savoy cabbage (about 2 pounds), trimmed, quartered, and thinly sliced
• 4 cups chicken stock, homemade or low-sodium store-bought
• 4 cups water
• ³/₄ cup orzo
• 1 or 2 Parmesan rinds
• ¹/₃ cup chopped Italian parsley
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar, or to taste
• ¹/₂ cup grated Parmesan

Heat olive oil in a large thick-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add sausage in a single layer and brown, breaking it into bite-sized pieces and stirring occasionally, until it is just cooked through and no longer pink. Remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the rendered fat in the pot.

Add the onion and several big pinches of kosher salt and black pepper. Saute for about 4 minutes, then add the garlic and saute for another 1 minute. Lower the heat, and add the tomato paste and continue cooking, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pot, until it caramelizes and starts to change in color from bright to brick red, about 3 minutes. (Don’t rush this step; the caramelized paste adds depth and complexity to the soup.)

Add the cabbage, chicken stock, water, orzo, Parmesan rind(s), and another big pinch or two of salt. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally to ensure nothing sticks. Add sausage and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes longer, stirring and scraping occasionally, until the orzo and cabbage are tender. Remove and discard rinds.

At the end, add parsley and red wine vinegar. Adjust salt and acidity to taste. Serve the soup in bowls, topped with grated Parmesan.

From Food52.com by EmilyC, https://food52.com/recipes/84039-sausage-cabbage-soup-recipe-with-orzo-parmesan

Quinoa with Roasted Beets and Pear

• 2 cups cooked quinoa (I prefer red)
• 2 medium-sized beets, scrubbed (I like a mix of colors)
• ¹/₄ cup walnuts
• 1 large pear, cubed
• 3 ounces crumbled feta
• 1 splash olive oil
• 1 splash Balsamic vinegar
• 1 pinch salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat your oven to 400° F.

Slice off the leaves at the top of the beets. Drizzle with a little olive oil, and then wrap each individually and loosely in tin foil. Place on a baking sheet and roast for 40 to 50 minutes, or until soft enough that you can easily stab one with a fork and it doesn’t give you any problems. Unwrap and set aside to let cool; once touchable, run the beets under water to slide the skin off. Cut beets into cubes.

Lower your oven temperature to 350° F. Spread walnuts out in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for 8 minutes. Allow the nuts to cool before giving them a rough chop.

Assemble the salad by dumping everything together into a bowl because you, brilliant human, know that that’s how salads work. Quinoa, beet cubes, pear cubes, walnuts and feta, a.k.a. the dream team. Toss with a slight drizzle of balsamic, a little olive oil, and some coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. Did you know this is awesome warm or cold? It is. Bring it to work for lunch the next day because it will be bitchin’ straight from the fridge, and your coworkers will be like ughhhhhhh.

From Food52.com by Kendra Vaculin, https://food52.com/recipes/31742-quinoa-with-roasted-beets-and-pear