CSA Share Week #2

CSA SHARE WEEK #2

How does your garden grow…?

At our first farmers’ market in late May, an older gentleman politely approached our stand to ask: “Do you have any tomatoes?” We gave the spiel about how locally grown tomatoes don’t normally appear until some time in July. “Well,” he countered, “I thought you might have some left over from last season.”

Though this man’s rebuttal was surely unique, all too often we field questions about when tomatoes and many other vegetables will be available. Our neighbor once asked us if we’d have Brussels sprouts for a Father’s Day dinner. Really, when everything from tomatoes to winter squash and apples and berries can be found year round in supermarkets, why should the average person be familiar with the cycle of a Northeast growing season?

As a CSA member you will get to experience this cycle first hand with your week-to-week shares. Early in the season you’re typically eating lots of salad and greens, as these light, leafy, highly nutritious vegetables are something that will grow relatively early in the growing season.

Many of the crops that you’ll be receiving further into the summer, such as peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant, need a lot of heat to grow, flower, and produce fruit. These plants not only take time but simply can’t be planted until the threat of frost is past in late May.

As growers, we do have some tricks up our sleeves to help some of these slow-to-grow, heat-hungry crops along. For instance, we start these high summer crops on heated grow mats so that the seeds will germinate well before the ground outside is warm enough. And the young plants then get a head start in our greenhouses, which warm up beautifully inside even when it’s 50 degrees outside—so long as it’s sunny. Once it’s warm enough we then transplant them into the fields.

We could have tomatoes in June. A close grower friend does just that. But then he has to charge $3 to $5 per tomato just to cover all his costs—from purchasing nursery-raised plants in winter to burning fossil fuels to keep his greenhouses heated early in the season. We enjoy a fresh tomato, but not that much.

If you’re new to the idea of truly eating in accordance with the growing season, there is this online chart that maps things out fairly well (except somehow it’s got peppers appearing in June; that can’t be). This is just a guide and not specific to what we grow or when we’ll definitely have a crop. But when you start feeling antsy, wondering when you might see a fresh cucumber, this trusty chart might prove useful.

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IN THIS WEEK'S SHARE:
½ pound salad mix (baby lettuce greens, nothing spicy)
1 bunch green garlic
1 head escarole
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch swiss chard
½ pound spinach
1 bunch Easter egg radish
1/3 pound (4.8 ounces) arugula
1 head red leaf lettuce
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Since this is the time of year you can expect a lot of greens (see letter, above), we thought we'd share with you a couple of our favorite main-course salads that use some of this week's share contents.

RECIPES
Pan-Seared Salmon with Baby Greens
Serves four.

For the dressing:
2-1/2 Tbs. Champagne or white wine vinegar
2 Tbs. fresh orange juice
1 tsp. finely grated orange zest
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

For the salmon:
4 6-oz. skinless salmon fillets, preferably center cut
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-1/2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

For the salad:
8 oz. mixed baby salad greens (about 8 lightly packed cups)
4 radish, very thinly sliced crosswise
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper


Start the dressing: In a small bowl, combine the vinegar with the orange juice and zest, 1/4 tsp. salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Stir in the dried cherries and set aside.

Cook the salmon: Season the salmon fillets on both sides with 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the salmon, flipping once, until barely cooked through and a rich golden brown crust develops on both sides, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Set aside on a plate.

Finish the dressing: Using a fork or slotted spoon, remove the cherries from the orange juice mixture and set aside. Slowly whisk the 1/2 cup olive oil into the orange juice mixture until blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Assemble the salad: Combine the greens and radish in a large bowl. Add about half of the vinaigrette to the salad, toss, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide the salad among 4 large plates or shallow bowls. Set a piece of salmon on each salad and sprinkle the cherries around the fish. Drizzle some of the remaining vinaigrette over each fillet and serve.

© Maryellen Driscoll, Free Bird Farm

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Spinach and Artichoke Salad with Couscous Cakes and Feta
Quick-to-cook couscous cakes make this meatless main-course salad satisfying.
Serves three.

For the dressing:
2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbs. sour cream
1 tsp. finely chopped fresh mint
5 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Honey

For the couscous cakes:
3/4 cup couscous
Kosher salt
1 large clove garlic, peeled
1/4 cup packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves (optional)
1/2 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Finely grated zest of 1 medium lemon (about 1-1/2 tsp.)
3 Tbs. vegetable or canola oil

For the salad:
8 oz. spinach, washed and dried (about 6 lightly packed cups)
1 14-oz. can artichoke bottoms, drained, rinsed, and sliced
4 to 5 radish, very thinly sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 oz. crumbled feta (about 1/4 cup)


Make the dressing:
In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, sour cream, and mint. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and honey, if desired.

Make the couscous cakes:
Put the couscous and 1 tsp. salt in a medium bowl. Add 1 cup boiling water to the couscous, cover the bowl with a pan lid or plate, and let sit for 4 to 5 minutes.

Coarsely chop the garlic in a food processor. Add the parsley, if using, and pulse until finely chopped. Add the chickpeas and 1 tsp. salt and pulse until coarsely chopped.

Uncover the couscous and fluff with a fork. Stir in the chickpea mixture, eggs, and lemon zest until well combined. Press the couscous mixture into a 1/4-cup measure, smooth the top, and invert the measuring cup to release the cake onto a plate. Repeat with the remaining couscous mixture to make 9 cakes.

Heat 1-1/2 Tbs. of the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat until shimmering hot. Add 5 of the couscous cakes to the skillet and use a spatula to lightly flatten the cakes so they’re about 3/4 inch thick. Cook, flipping once, until crisp and golden brown on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Add the remaining 1-1/2 Tbs. vegetable oil to the skillet and cook the remaining cakes the same way.

Assemble the salad:
In a large bowl, toss the spinach, artichokes, and radish with about three-quarters of the dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper and divide among 3 large plates. Top each salad with 3 couscous cakes, sprinkle each salad with feta, and drizzle with the remaining dressing.
© Maryellen Driscoll, Free Bird Farm

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KITCHEN TIPS:

Radish. Radish--whether you're using for salad or simply as a snack with a squirt of lemon juice and a sprinkling of Kosher or sea salt--seems all the more tasty when thinly sliced. If you don't have a mandoline or v-slicer, it can be tricky thinly slicing such a small, round object. The trick is to keep the radish from rolling: slice the stem and root end off first, then set on a cut end and proceed to thinly slice.

Green Garlic. One of our favorite hallmarks of spring is green garlic. Subtle in flavor, it’s an incredibly versatile ingredient. Like a green onion, you can use the white and green portions. It’s all edible. We often using the white portions for sautéing in anything we’d normally use traditional, cured garlic. The green portion is delicious thinly sliced or minced and used as a garnish on top of eggs, pasta or a salad. Or fold into tuna, pasta or a grain salad. Store in your refrigerator.

Ken and kids lay irrigation line in a row of broccoli to help cool the crop from the recent high heat. We regret to say, that crop of broccoli didn’t hold up. No worries. There will be more.

Letter from the Farm
We love farming. But it’s not nearly as romantic a job as one would think.

Farming is all consuming. We don’t get weekends off, forget about a summer vacation, and even holidays like this week’s Memorial Day are just another work day for us.

Farming is expensive. According to the USDA, operating expense ratios for a “medium-sales small-scale” farm like Free Bird are about 75 percent. That means for every dollar we earn, 75 cents goes to costs. A good example of farming’s steep costs might be the $1400 we recently spent to replace two tractor tires. (At least the other 2 were salvageable.)

Farming is unpredictable. In May, we’ve had damaging frost and unseasonably hot, not-so-helpful 90-degree weather. Last week we had the worst hail we’ve seen on this farm. Amazingly, no damage. And there’s more than just weather to contend with. We have bunnies noshing on new plantings, and coyotes stealing chickens. Ironically, nature isn’t always so compatible with farm life.

So maybe it’s a precarious calling. But as much as we are constantly bracing ourselves for the unexpected, we are equally and steadfastly embracing the many, many positives of what we do. We love the work. We care deeply about what we do. It’s ever changing. Every year is an opportunity to do things better. And we come to know some of the coolest people—fellow farmers, market customers, and CSA members alike.

We’re excited about the upcoming season and getting to know new members as well as catching up with returning members from as near as our small, beautiful town of Palatine Bridge to the southern Adirondacks, Albany, Cooperstown, and two new and dynamic CSA communities in New York City. Our CSA has experienced quite a bit of growth this year; consequently our farm has undergone quite a bit of growth and change. Yet no matter how busy we get, moments like the one in this photo are what define us. We remain what we originally set our hopes and hearts on being, a family farm.

Thanks for growing with us.

Ken & Maryellen
Free Bird Farm


In this week’s share:

1/2 lb. spinach
1/2 lb. mixed baby salad greens
1 bunch green onions
1 head bok choy
5 ounces (1/3 lb.) arugula
1 head romaine lettuce
1 bunch radish
1 bunch cilantro

Farm Facts.
What are the holes in the arugula? That’s the work of itsy, bitsy, voracious-for-the-taste-of-arugula flea beetles. The beetles small size (1/16 inch) and ability to jump are what earns them their name.
To stave them off, we rotate where we plant our arugula each year, and we lay row covers over the crop as soon as the seed is sown. We do not apply pesticides. Despite our efforts, flea beetles find their way to the arugula—through the slightest tear in the cover or a gap in its sides when lifted by the wind. You’re not going to find these bugs in your greens. The holes are merely cosmetic.

Variations in egg size. Bear with us while some of your eggs might be on the small side. Our 5-month-old pullets have just begun to lay, and small eggs are what they first deliver. Fairly soon, our Rhode Island Red chickens will be laying their standard large to extra-large sized eggs for you.


Recycling egg cartons. For all those with egg shares, we’re more than glad to reuse any clean egg cartons—from the eggs we’ve provided or even eggs purchased elsewhere. Bring them to the CSA distribution site.

Recycling rubber bands. Through the course of the season you’ll accumulate quite a few rubber bands we use to bunch a number of our veggies. We can reuse them. So feel free to bring your eventual stockpile to the CSA distribution, and they will get returned to us.


Recipes:We'll do our best to provide recipes each week and ones that are relatively simple since most often cooking with a CSA share means cooking on the fly. We'll also do our best to include recipes that use more than one share ingredient and don't call for additional produce that's not in season. We'll also strive to offer recipes or include variations on recipes, so that they can be enjoyed by all, whether you are a vegetarian or vegan or eat meat.

Mango-cilantro salsa
Serves 3

This quick recipe uses both the cilantro and scallions in your share. It’s great with grilled shrimp, pan-seared salmon, or chicken. Or spoon it over one of the farm’s favorite in-a-pinch meals—black beans, rice and tortillas.

1 heaping cup chopped mango (thawed, frozen mango works fine)
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons mild-flavored oil, such as peanut, walnut or grapeseed
Large pinch of red pepper flakes (or minced fresh jalapeño, amount to your liking)

Combine all of the above ingredients in a small bowl. Season with kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste. Let sit, refrigerated, for up to 4 hours before serving.

Recipe by Maryellen Driscoll


Bok Choy
A relative of cabbage, bok choy is a common ingredient in Asian cuisine. It has a soft crunch and a gentle bitterness. It’s well suited to stir-frying, and we especially like this recipe for stir-fried bok choy with garlic, ginger, and scallions by friend Susie Middleton.

Week 22

Indeed, this is the last week of our CSA season. We don't consider membership to a CSA suited for everyone, but we hope nonetheless that everyone took something positive away from the experience—whether it meant you found yourself eating healthier, were inspired to cook new things, or simply enjoyed having an abundance of produce picked-that-day fresh. We try hard to provide great shares week after week and hope that, in general, we succeeded. It was a hard growing season, as any of you who keep a garden would know.
Expect soon a year-in-review letter from the farm. We'd like to share with you thoughts on how we would have liked to do better (i.e. more winter squash), why we we may have been short on certain things (aka historically disastrous summer weather), as well how we hope to do some things differently next year. We'll also include a short survey so that we can find out from you what you really liked, what you could live without or would like to see us do differently. Your feedback really counts.

Meantime, this week’s share included:
½ pound spinach
2 pounds potatoes
1 quart Brussels sprouts
1 large yellow onion
1 bunch Toscano kale
1 head of read leaf lettuce
1 bunch leeks
1 bunch parsley
3 green bell peppers (see note below)
1 green cabbage (see storage note below)
1 pound garlic (see storage note below)

Bell peppers. Lately, for every pepper we slice or dice for dinner (or for a morning omelet), we chop one or two extra, slip it into a zipper-sealed bag and stash in the freezer. It’s a nice ingredient to have on hand through winter.

Cabbage. Don't feel like you have to use your cabbage this week. Or next week. Or the next. Cabbage has incredible staying power when stored in the fridge. At some point, however, you might want to use it to try Molly Stevens’ recipe for Braised Cabbage with Maple and Ginger (don’t worry that it calls for red cabbage; use your green one). After trying this recipe, you may feel compelled to seek out her book All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking, which includes this recipe. This cookbook was recently included in the Village Voice's list of “Our 10 Best: Cookbooks" and has won awards from the esteemed James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Garlic. Unlike the garlic you get at the supermarket (often grown in China), our garlic keeps. So tuck it somewhere dark, dry and cool (not in the refrigerator). If you don't use it all beforehand, it will last until next May or even June—around when fresh garlic starts to appear in the following year's shares.

WEEK 21

Reminder: One more week left in the CSA season

In this week's share:
2 pounds potatoes
1 quart Brussels sprouts
2 bulbs garlic
1 head of red leaf lettuce
1 large head of bok choy
1 bunch kale
1 onion
1 bunch radish
1 bag mixed peppers
2 delicata or sweet dumpling squash

Re: peppers.
At a farmers' market last week a customer bought half a dozen peppers. Her friend looked stumped, then proceeded to ask what she planned to do with all those peppers. The reply: "I slice them up and eat them for lunch." The friend then grabbed 5 as well. It was a good reminder that these peppers are crispy and sweet enough to enjoy raw; nothing like the thick, leathery peppers with half the bright flavor we often find at the grocery store.
If you haven't been able to make your way through the last 2 weeks' worth of peppers quite so efficiently, chop and freeze them. There's no need to blanch or parcook. Just chop and seal in a freezer bag. Pull them out this winter when making a stir fry, pasta sauce, homemade pizza, among many other possibilities. Or if you've got the time and inclination, roast the peppers and then freeze them.

Week 20

In this week's share:

1 bag of mixed peppers
1 head of lettuce
1 head of escarole (not to be confused with lettuce)
1 pound of green beans
1 bunch radish
1 onion
2 bulbs garlic
1/2 pound spinach
1 bunch collard greens
1 large or 2 small tomatoes (from a late crop planted in our greenhouse)

Week 19

We’ve 3 more weeks to the season (22 in all). That means the last week in october is the final week of the CSA season. :(
We included a number of late-summer type crops with you this week that you are not apt to see again (i.e. eggplant, peppers)—especially if we end up with some snow in the next week. We’ve yet to have a frost on the farm, but last we checked there was snow in the forecast.

We’ve got covers over vulnerable greens hoping that they’ll stay protected. But a lot of our hearty end-of-the-season plantings, such as cauliflower and broccoli, which should hold up to a frost, still very much need some sun to grow. Yes, that ever-elusive thing we call sun…

In this week’s share:
1 head of Romaine lettuce
1 head of bok choy
1 bunch of Swiss chard
2 Beatrice Italian eggplants (see cooking tip below)
Bag of spinach
1 cabbage (don’t feel pressed to use this too soon; it will hold for a few weeks in your refrigerator)
1 bunch carrots
3 green peppers—easy to chop & freeze for the winter!
1 bulb of garlic
1 bag of arugula

Getting your vegetables through a CSA often requires you be able to cook on the fly with what you have been given. That's not always so easy. So we try to help you with that when we can. Take eggplant. That’s not exactly a vegetable most people grab for when they need a quick-fix vegetable side. That is, not unless you’ve roasted eggplant. It’s effortless and delicious. Try this recipe: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/oven_roasted_eggplant.aspx

Something we often do with eggplant is grill it. To grill: slice the eggplant into ¼- to ½-inch thick discs, brush generously with olive oil, season with Kosher salt and grill over medium heat until golden brown on each side. For a simple dinner, we often then halve or quarter the grilled eggplant slices and toss with pasta, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, chopped olives or capers and a little reserved cooking water from the pasta and some extra-virgin olive oil so that the pasta isn’t too dry. For some protein we sometimes add white beans. A minced fresh herb, such as basil, rosemary, oregano or chives, is terrific but not necessary. Serve with grated parmigiano reggiano or crumbled goat cheese.

Week 18

Let's hope this week's November-like stretch of cold is a precursor to one loooong Indian summer. We've so many beautiful fall crops, but they need sun to grow and come to fruition.

Here is what's in this week’s share:
1 butternut squash
1 bunch radish
1 pound Brussels sprouts
2 pounds potatoes
1 bunch parsley
2 heads lettuce
1 bunch curly-leaf kale
1 bulb garlic
1 pound green beans
1 red onion