Spoutwood Farm CSA Harvest Guide: Week 1: June 12, 2008
To return to the 2008 Harvest Guide page, click here
Greetings, Spoutwood Farm friends!
Welcome to the First Harvest of the 2008 Community Supported Agriculture season, here at Spoutwood Farm! We are blessed this year to have three excellent full-time apprentices: Dana Hunting, Derek McGeehan, and Zach Trimble. Dana, Derek, and Zach are dedicated, creative, innovative, and deeply committed to sustainable agri¬culture. We are very fortunate to have them, and under their tender care (with a little help from Rob, Tom, and a group of equally-dedicated working shareholders), our gardens once again rejoice in the title, “best ever.”
However, success in farming does not come without setbacks. And this is particularly true in our type of farming, where we do not use synthetic chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. Early in the growing season, our “cole” crops (a.k.a. brassicas, or cruciferous vegetables, including cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower, among others) were attacked by a “fungus gnat” and suffered losses. Our cauliflower was particularly hard-hit, and others were set back several weeks. But this, too, is part of the “community supported” in community supported agriculture, that you our members and shareholders share with us in both the rewards and challenges of farming in harmony with nature. If our cole crops are suffering somewhat, our leafy greens are doing spectacularly, so we hope you will find your share sufficient for your needs, even if this first one is a little on the light side.
Even this early in the season, we face the challenge of both bugs and weeds. To combat the former, especially on our hard-hit cole crops, we’ve applied BT (bacillus thurigensius), an approved organic biocontrol which attacks the larvae of cabbage white moths - the dreaded cabbage worms. To combat weeds, hand weeding and mulching is the natural solution. We’re deeply grateful for those wonderful share¬holders who’ve come out help us with these necessary tasks. If you’d like to join our “Weed Warriors,” please contact us at our e-mail address, spoutwood_csa@yahoo.com. We check this address regularly, so don’t hesitate to be in touch.
Please feel free to also drop us a line if you discover a new recipe, have any cooking tips, or would like to share your favorite way to eat the veggies from our harvest - email us and we’ll share with everyone else! Again, that address is: spoutwood_csa@yahoo.com. As the old commercial used to say, “please make a note of it.” Thanks!
Peas: Today’s peace are Sugar Snap Peas: the entire thing is edible (pod and all). Enjoy these delicious peas in stir fries, sautéed with butter, or just simply nibble on these delicacies raw!
Lettuce (“Salad”) Mix: A medley of five different lettuce varieties to delight your taste-buds! This mix will require some sorting and washing, although we’ve made an effort to remove the most blatant weeds and clumps of compost-rich Spoutwood soil. Excellent for salads or anything else you’d use lettuce for.
Spinach: Add to the salad mix or enjoy on its own, spinach is delicious raw or cooked. For a classic spinach salad, top with diced hard-cooked eggs, crumbled bacon (turkey or vegetarian if you prefer), diced red onion, and a vinaigrette dressing. Wash carefully before using!
Arugula: Roquette to the French and “rocket salad” to the British, arugula is a bitey green with what some call a nutty flavor. The entire plant is edible, including stalks and flowers. Some enjoy as a salad on its own with a light vinaigrette, others add to salad mixes or stir-fries. Rob swears by arugula and peanut butter sandwiches!
Bok Choi: Also known as pak choi, “white vegetable” to the Chinese, bok choi is an Asian green related to Chinese cabbage. Excellent as the basis of stir-fries (which might also include snap peas), or added to soups, bok choi is high in vitamins A and C and calcium, and low in calories.
Green Onions: Green onions and radishes are two classic vegetable signs for spring for me (Tom), and this week we have both. Enjoy our robust green onions raw with (or without) a little salt, or slice them up and add them to salads, soups, omelets, quiche, or anything you like. Don’t forget the flavorful and colorful green tops!
Radishes: Our variety is called “Easter Egg,” and these bracingly tangy root vegetables are available in a variety of colors – red, purple, and white. Once again, enjoy raw with a little salt, or slice into salads. Radish greens are edible, tasty, and nutritious! Try them in salads or stir-fries. Our Vegetable of the Week this week!
Mint: One of the most useful and flavorful herbs, mint makes a wonderful tea, or a sauce to be enjoyed with lamb. Its leaves can be torn into tabouleh salad, and a single leaf, chewed, makes a simple drink of water more refreshing.
Oregano: Best known for its association with Italian cuisine, oregano is popular in many Mediterran¬ean dishes, and in Mexican cookery as well. Oregano is also a potent anti-oxidant, and its oil has anti-bacterial properties.
Flowers: Our bouquet this week features Herb Robert (a geranium), Kossa dogwood, and one of a variety of roses, as well as various wildflowers.
Bread: For those who purchased bread shares, today’s selection from Atwaters is a classic French baguette. The perfect side to your salad of fresh Spoutwood greens, spring onions, and radishes!
Other Add-Ons: For those who ordered them, today’s pick-up also includes excellent raw-milk cheese from Farmstead Fresh (this month’s cheese is Cheddar), and delicious meat, dairy, and egg shares from Break¬away Farms. Spoutwood aims to become your “one-stop shop” for fresh, local, natural foods!
If you would like to partake of an add-on share, we have extended the registration period by one month (until July 1st), at full price. After that, you’ll have to wait until next year!
Breakaway Farms also offers a newsletter, which you should be receiving soon under separate cover.
In our quest to find interesting and healthy recipes, during this ‘08 harvest season of Spoutwood CSA, an attempt to offer at least one raw food recipe will be made for each featured vegetable.
Recipes: Thanks to University of Illinois Extension
Open-faced Radish Sandwiches
4 bagels cut in half or 8 slices black bread
8 ounces low-fat cream cheese
6 small globe radishes
salt and freshly ground pepper
Spread bagels or bread slices with 1/4 inch cream cheese.
Using s sharp knife or mandolin, slice radishes very thin. Overlap radish slices on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle each sandwich with salt and pepper. Cover with damp paper towels until serving.
Radish Confetti Salad
4 large radishes, washed and trimmed
1 medium carrot, trimmed
1 celery stalk, trimmed
Six to eight chives, cut into one-inch pieces
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup sweet rice vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
6 romaine lettuce leaves
Using a mandolin or box grater, shred the radishes and carrots.
Cut the celery into matchstick-size pieces. Toss the vegetables together in a medium bowl.
In a small bowl whisk together olive oil, vinegar, celery seed and salt and pepper. Pour over vegetables and toss. Serve on a bed of romaine lettuce.
Radishes with Pasta and Radish Greens
24 radishes, sliced (about 2 cups) with green tops
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
12-ounce package short pasta such as penne or shells, cooked
1/4 cup cooking water from pasta
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
Salt and pepper
Separate the greens from the radishes. Wash greens in several changes of cool water. Drain or spin dry in a salad spinner. Wash and trim radishes. Thinly slice radishes.
Heat oil in a large skillet or wok. Add onions and cook just until they begin to soften. Add radish slices and greens. Cover and cook for 5 to 7 minutes or until greens wilt and radishes look almost translucent. Remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper. Taste. Adjust seasoning.
Add drained pasta to skillet and toss. Add cooking liquid from pasta and stir. Sprinkle on the cheese and toss. Pass additional cheese if desired.
CSA Potluck, with Farm Tour and Core Group Meeting: Saturday, June 14th
This Saturday, June 14th, will be our first CSA Potluck and Core Group Meeting of the season. Beginning at 3:00 with a Farm Tour for those who have not had a chance to see our gardens yet this year (or anyone who wants to rejoice at their bounty), the afternoon will continue with a Core Group Meeting at 4:00. Not sure what a “Core Group” is or if you want to be in it? Come to this initial explanation/formation meeting and find out! The evening will conclude with a potluck dinner at 5:00. Come one, come all! Potlucks are a great way to keep the “community” in Community Supported Agriculture.
BAGS: Requested, Recycling of Same
As most of you will know, especially after today’s distribution, there are various share items which must be bagged even within your usual share bag. Today, these included peas, lettuce mix, and spinach. And frankly, we’re low on appropriate bags. Thus, we’re asking our shareholders to please bring in plastic bags that you might have at home. We are looking for both standard grocery-sized bags, and smaller plastic bags such as those used for produce in supermarkets, to keep news¬papers dry, etc. If at all possible, please help us by bringing them in pre-sorted as to size.
Also, please be aware (if you aren’t already) that your plastic share bags can be re-used the following week! Better yet, invest in a cloth “market bag” that can be used over and over again. We are in the process of investigating Spoutwood-themed practical items to offer for sale, including Market Bags -- stay tuned to this space! In the meantime, if you bring back your plastic ones, you’ll help us and Mother Earth alike. Many thanks, from us and the Home Planet.
This Saturday, June 14th, will be our first CSA Potluck and Core Group Meeting of the season. Beginning at 3:00 with a Farm Tour for those who have not had a chance to see our gardens yet this year (or anyone who wants to rejoice at their bounty), the afternoon will continue with a Core Group Meeting at 4:00. Not sure what a “Core Group” is or if you want to be in it? Come to this initial explanation/formation meeting and find out! The evening will conclude with a potluck dinner at 5:00. Come one, come all! Potlucks are a great way to keep the “community” in Community Supported Agriculture.
BAGS: Requested, Recycling of Same
As most of you will know, especially after today’s distribution, there are various share items which must be bagged even within your usual share bag. Today, these included peas, lettuce mix, and spinach. And frankly, we’re low on appropriate bags. Thus, we’re asking our shareholders to please bring in plastic bags that you might have at home. We are looking for both standard grocery-sized bags, and smaller plastic bags such as those used for produce in supermarkets, to keep news¬papers dry, etc. If at all possible, please help us by bringing them in pre-sorted as to size.
Also, please be aware (if you aren’t already) that your plastic share bags can be re-used the following week! Better yet, invest in a cloth “market bag” that can be used over and over again. We are in the process of investigating Spoutwood-themed practical items to offer for sale, including Market Bags -- stay tuned to this space! In the meantime, if you bring back your plastic ones, you’ll help us and Mother Earth alike. Many thanks, from us and the Home Planet.
Radish
The vegetable that wins the race
from seed to maturity is the vegetable we can harvest on week one of
the Harvest season at Spoutwood Farm! That vegetable is: the radish!
In fact, the Roman word for the genus of radish translates as, “quickly appearing.” Radishes need warm, loose soil and only about 3-4 weeks from seed to harvest. There are so many varieties but they all share the common characteristics of having a green leafy top and a crisp, peppery bulb as an edible root. The entire plant, both leaf and bulb may be eaten. The radish is directly related to cabbage and it’s closest cousins are turnips, horseradish and wasabi.
History: Radishes had been cultivated for both culinary and healthful benefits in Roman, Greek cultures and in ancient Asian cultures. Today the radish maintains her status as an important food source and as a healing plant:
Nutrition: The food energy of a radish comes to us as carbohydrate. One cup of raw radish equals about 20 calories of carbohydrate. Radishes also are high in:
Potassium Vitamin C
Folic Acid Vitamin B6
Health: As a Healing plant, radishes are friends of the farmer and neighboring garden plants since they repel most garden pests.
Radishes may be used as treatment for common cold and cough as the leaves can be steeped and mixed with tea and honey. Together this remedy can relieve sinuses and act as an anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant in fighting off cold symptoms.
Radishes also benefit the gastrointestinal system, the liver and help kidney stones to pass. Eating radishes may relive arthritis, reduce chances of cancer, and fight intestinal parasites.
The seeds of radishes are not edible but contain 48% oil and may be a viable source of biofuel.
Preparation and Storage:
• In the kitchen the pungent peppery flavor of the radish adds a crunchy zing to a salad.
• While radishes may be steamed and dressed with vinaigrette the full potency of nutrition comes from eating this vegetable raw.
• Try to eat the leaves on the radish right away to ensure it’s crispness. To store radishes take off the tops and keep them in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
In fact, the Roman word for the genus of radish translates as, “quickly appearing.” Radishes need warm, loose soil and only about 3-4 weeks from seed to harvest. There are so many varieties but they all share the common characteristics of having a green leafy top and a crisp, peppery bulb as an edible root. The entire plant, both leaf and bulb may be eaten. The radish is directly related to cabbage and it’s closest cousins are turnips, horseradish and wasabi.
History: Radishes had been cultivated for both culinary and healthful benefits in Roman, Greek cultures and in ancient Asian cultures. Today the radish maintains her status as an important food source and as a healing plant:
Nutrition: The food energy of a radish comes to us as carbohydrate. One cup of raw radish equals about 20 calories of carbohydrate. Radishes also are high in:
Potassium Vitamin C
Folic Acid Vitamin B6
Health: As a Healing plant, radishes are friends of the farmer and neighboring garden plants since they repel most garden pests.
Radishes may be used as treatment for common cold and cough as the leaves can be steeped and mixed with tea and honey. Together this remedy can relieve sinuses and act as an anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant in fighting off cold symptoms.
Radishes also benefit the gastrointestinal system, the liver and help kidney stones to pass. Eating radishes may relive arthritis, reduce chances of cancer, and fight intestinal parasites.
The seeds of radishes are not edible but contain 48% oil and may be a viable source of biofuel.
Preparation and Storage:
• In the kitchen the pungent peppery flavor of the radish adds a crunchy zing to a salad.
• While radishes may be steamed and dressed with vinaigrette the full potency of nutrition comes from eating this vegetable raw.
• Try to eat the leaves on the radish right away to ensure it’s crispness. To store radishes take off the tops and keep them in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
If you have comments or suggestions about this website, please send email to:
and we will hammer things out.
Home - About Us - Education - CSA - Observatory - Events - Contact
©2006 Spoutwood Farm, Inc.