Spoutwood Farm CSA Harvest Guide: Week 13- Sept 5, 2005
To view the first harvest for this week, click here
To return to the 2005 Harvest Guide page, click here
WORK HOURS: Please contact Liz ASAP (by phone or e-mail) to confirm a day and time you are planning to work on your share hours. THIS IS IMPORTANT! We need to know in advance that we have help on the schedule.
Next CORE GROUP MEETING : Sat., September 10, 4pm, afterwards potluck. This is an important meeting to consider our strategies for next year’s CSA. All are especially invited!
Green and Hot Peppers – Bells are great fresh, in salads, or stir fries. And the Anaheim long hot peppers are really not so hot , but are so good cooked or raw.
Squash – Yellow straight and crook neck and golden or white patty pan—great fried up with onions and garlic, with cheese melted on top.
Eggplant – Louisiana Long Green eggplants, Orient Express and Black Bell.
Cherry Tomatoes – Still getting those “Sun Gold” cherries.
Tomatoes – Great fresh, in salads, or on sandwiches, but not so hot in stir-fries, though you can make a mean curry with them.
Lettuce – Oakleaf, red romaine or a red leaf Grand Rapids type, all of which have been struggling with the summer heat
Green Beans – Getting to the last of the second round of beans.
Green Onions –They’re green and they’re onions—need we say more?
Leeks – Leeks are great in salads (we even like the chopped up green leaves), stir fries, but especially soups and most esp. sharing the soup pot with potatoes – please see veggie of the week with recipe below.
Potatoes – So going along with the leeks is, what else, the last of the potatoes, Yukon Gold and Blue.
Herbs – Basil and Parsley.
Flowers – This week’s bouquet features yellow tansy, zinnias, African marigolds, cockscomb (celosia), Jerusalem artichoke flowers, globe amaranths, plume celosia, garlic chive blossoms and black-eyed susans.
Recipe of the Week: Potato Leek Soup
Ingredients
· 2 T butter * 2 c milk
· 3-4 leeks, washed and sliced (white and light green parts) * 1 t salt
· 1-2 pounds potatoes, sliced or diced (peeling optional) * Black pepper
· 2 c vegetable stock/chicken stock or water * 1-2 T parsley, chopped
Directions
· Sauté the leeks in butter over medium heat until limp, 8-10 minutes.
· Add the potatoes and stock, bring to a boil, lower heat, partially cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are completely soft, about 30 minutes. *If there isn't enough liquid, add more stock, water, or milk, 1 cup at a time.
· Stir in 2 c milk, salt, and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.
· You can serve the soup like this or put some or all of the soup in a blender or food processor for a smoother, heavier soup.
· Garnish with additional pepper and parsley and serve.
Notes: Adding milk rather than additional stock or water during the potato-cooking stage will give you a richer, creamier soup.
Mother Earth Harvest Fair is October 1 and 2 at the Farm, 10-6 both days. It’s definitely a blast: Music and dancing, food galore, storytelling, harvest crafts, craft vendors, Mother Earth Poetry Marathon, Apple Harvest Village, tons of speakers and exhibits on such sustainable living topics as Green Energy and Building Technologies, Folk Culture, Nature (Native plants and wildlife, environmental causes), Sustainable Food and Farming, Sustainable Healthcare & Wellness and Native American Traditions. Please take extra poster-flyers to post or give to friends. If you want to be involved with the CSA booth or the demos of food preservation, please call Liz at 717-235-9272, spoutwoodcsa@yahoo.com (all Fair hours count toward CSA hours!).
Leeks
Latin (Allium Poorum)
Leeks have been cultivated since at least 3000 BC, and they are native to the broad region stretching from Israel to India. Relished throughout Europe, they have been cultivated for so long that their beginnings are uncertain. Phoenician traders introduced the leek to Wales when they engaged in the tin trade in the British Isles, a casual act that would unexpectedly elevate this humble plant to national status. Legend has it that in 640 AD, the Briton King Cadwallader was sorely pressed by invading Saxons. To distinguish themselves from the enemy, the Welsh wore leeks in their hats and subsequently gained a great victory over their enemies. Since that time, the Welsh have proudly eaten and worn the distinctive vegetable as a matter of national pride. Witness the tender scene in Shakespeare's Henry V when Fluellen turns to the victorious young King Hal: "Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to this hour is an honorable badge of the service; and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day." (Act IV, Scene 7)
Nero was said to eat leeks every day in the belief that they would maintain the clarity of his voice. The French have long described leeks as "the asparagus of the poor," and it is fitting that one of her proudest chefs Louis Diat would create an internationally famous leek soup based on the "poor people" soup of his predecessor Parmentier (see All about Potatoes). Vichyssoise, to the surprise of nearly everyone,
was created on American shores at the turn of the century in New York City's Ritz Carlton Hotel. Chef Diat recalls in Cooking a la Ritz a hot soup of leeks and potatoes that his mother used to make: "But in summer, when the soup seemed to be too hot, we asked for milk with which to cool it. Many years later, it was this memory which gave me the inspiration to make the soup which I have named Crème Vichyssoise."
Leeks fall into the same family, as do chives, onions and garlic. Leeks, unlike many other vegetables, can withstand cold temperatures. Good-quality leeks will have bright white bulb-ends with dark green leaves. They will be straight, thick-leafed and very crisp. They are harvested in the fall up until November and again in the spring. Leeks have a flavor much like onion though more delicate and sweet.
Leeks must be fully cooked before eating. A most favorite way of eating leeks is in a stir-fry or a soup. Here is a food prep tip: Leeks can catch soil in their leaf layers during the growth process. Simply cut off green leaf ends and root end. Slice leek longwise from leaf to root and rinse folds under water.
Nutrition:
· Leeks are high in: Manganese, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin A & B6, Iron
· Like their other allium vegetable family members, leeks can reduce cholesterol, reduce the risk of cancer (prostate and colon in leeks case) and reduce blood pressure.
· Leeks have the nutritional content that supports stability of the human blood sugar level.
· Ancient Greeks and Romans used leeks medicinally to clear the throat and to make the voice stronger.
· Leeks are high in oxilates that can crystallize if too concentrated in the body. Those people prone to kidney or gallbladder problems should avoid leeks. Oxilates can interfere with calcium absorption therefore people trying to increase calcium intake might well avoid leeks.
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