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Author: mo

  • Potatoes

    Who doesn’t love potatoes? One of the best comments I hear during CSA pickups is, usually from first time CSA members, they say, I didn’t know that potatoes could taste so good, and they all taste so different! They are right. Fresh potatoes properly grown and properly stored taste so good. They are so much tastier than anything you will ever get in a super market.

    Wyatt works really hard trialing and sourcing different varieties, not only for taste and texture, but also for yield and growing compatibility for our environment. This year the potato crops did really well. Our storage refrigerators are bulging with lots of big beautiful delicious varieties.

    This year we grew 10 different varieties.

    • Mountain Rose
    • French Fingerling
    • Ama Rosa
    • Red Gold
    • Yukon Gold
    • Harvest Moon
    • Purple Viking
    • Masquerade
    • Purple Majesty
    • Golden Globe

    To help determine which potatoes to use for different recipes/uses potatoes are categorized into three general groups; starchy, waxy, and all-purpose.

    In general all the potatoes we grow can be used for any use and most are categorized as ‘all purpose potatoes’. They will all be delicious boiled, fried, mashed or grilled.

    That said I do have my favorites. For general use, especially roasting I love Purple Viking, Red Gold and Masquerade. I love Fingerling for boiling or steaming and nothing beats Yukon Gold for mashing and frying.

    Here is a cross-section photo of a few of the potatoes we are growing this year.  So pretty. I wish I had an all purple variety for the photo, but I didn’t. Kids love purple mashed potatoes!

    For fun I roasted one of each of the potatoes with just olive oil and salt to see if they were really ‘All Purpose’.

    They were all delicious but two really stood out when roasted. The Purple Viking was so creamy and buttery and the Masquerade was so fluffy and light. The Yukon Gold was really fluffy too, look at that!

    Here is a photo of a pan of the 5 different varieties roasted. You hope you can see the difference of moisture content and how it affects texture.

    Have fun experimenting with all the potatoes you get to try!

    If you have questions or comments on varieties or uses, ask us at pickup or leave a comment here or on any of our Social Media.

    Have a great week. See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

  • Carmen Sweet Peppers

    Carmen Peppers are a favorite crop of everyone one working at Red Wagon. They are a thick-walled sweet Italian red pepper.

    Because of their thick sturdy walls they hold up to stir-frying, (think fajitas) grilling and stuffing. When they are roasted they make great sauces and dips too. They don’t weep when they are blended with other ingredients and add a unique sweet-fruity richness. Here is a delicious recipe using roasted Carmen’s.

    Try adding them to your favorite tomato sauce recipe.

    As good as they are roasted and grilled, you can use them raw just like you would any bell pepper. The flavor is more complex than bell peppers, even red or orange bell.

    Try them with a dip.

    Or in a salad.

    Carmen’s will store in a plastic bag in your refrigerator for at least a couple weeks.

    If you haven’t tried them yet, try something new this week.

     

  • U-Pick at Thomas Open Space Farm

    The U-Pick Fields are bumping with loads of tomatoes and mild, sweet, and spicy peppers. We are open to the public. Check here for details.

    Admission to our U-pick patch is free. We’ll provide you with pint containers for cherry tomatoes, boxes for larger amounts of tomatoes and peppers (tomatoes and peppers are sold by the pound), or you can bring your own bags and/or boxes.

    Attention Food Savers!! This is a great time to get your canning or freezing on! Here and here are a couple of great small scale recipes you can make now and freeze. Both these recipes easily double or triple and won’t take up too much freezer space.

    If you like bigger projects like canning (like me! I love to can) I want to give you canners or wanna-be canners a visual idea of the amounts you need for a canning batch, and what those amounts will yield, here you go;

    Here is a 20 pound box of paste tomatoes and 3 pounds of peppers. I made 6 quarts and 2 pints of rich tomato sauce.

    One of my favorite and quickest and easiest canning projects is to can salsa. You only need about 6 pounds of any kind of tomatoes and a few peppers and garlic or onions and a few herbs. There is loads of information and recipes on the internet on ‘how to’ can salsa. It might seem daunting, but really canning is a pretty easy, quick and satisfying project. You’ll be so happy to have your own salsa this winter.

    These 6 pounds of tomatoes made 4 pints and 2 half-pints of salsa. It always blows my mind how a few tomatoes and peppers turned into salsa can give me so much joy in the winter.

    We have loads of peppers in the field too, the plants are literally dripping with them.

    The plants are super easy to pick and we have a great variety of both spicy and sweet peppers. I love to can pickled peppers.

    Here are a couple of my favorite resources and recipes for canning peppers.

    I also like to freeze peppers. Here is a blog I did a while back on freezing some summer crops. Scroll down a little to get to the pepper freezing method.

    Fall is in the air and the summer crops are at their peak, get out this weekend and grab some! Yippeee for putting up food for winter!!

    Mo

  • Quick Pickled Spicy Hot Peppers

    If you are a fan of hot peppers I think you will really like this hot pickled pepper recipe.

    These are great on pizzas, sandwiches and Mexican dishes like nachos or tacos. The peppers we have this year are really hot, to me at least they are hot. The quick pickle brine I use here is sweeter than I usually make. I think that cuts the heat of the peppers a little.

    For about 1 pint of pickled peppers I used a mix of peppers (inferno banana, Fresno,  jalapeno and 1/2 an onion. You don’t need the onion, but I like it mixed with the peppers. I used white vinegar because I like how it looks but you can use any vinegar you like. I used white sugar for the same reason (I like how it looks) you can use honey or agave or turbinado sugar, it will just look different.

    Gather your ingredients.

    • 1/2 cup white vinegar
    • 1/2 cup water
    • 1/4 cup sugar
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 an onion any color (optional)
    • 8-10 hot peppers sliced thinly, about 2 cups total of peppers and onions combined. I used a mandolin to slice them.

    Heat the vinegar, water, sugar and salt until it boils and add the peppers and onions (if using) and remove from the heat.

    Let it cool a little and pack it into a jar with a tight fitting lid. These will keep in the refrigerator for at least two months. I like to use the spicy brine for salad dressings or for making tuna or egg salad or deviled eggs. What are you doing with your spicy peppers?

    Have a great week. I’ll see you at pickup.

    Mo

  • U-Pick Day at Thomas Open Space Farm

    We had our first You-Pick Day at our beautiful Farm Saturday. It was so great to see so many of our great CSA members and Lafayette neighbors enjoying the great weather and huge abundance of food we have in the fields.

    The pepper plants are dripping with peppers this year. Lots of cherry and field tomatoes.and flowersMore flowersand more flowersCheck back here for information on more You-Pick days. We would like to do more You-pick days for the next several weekends but it depends on staffing.

    Hope to see you at the Farm.

     

     

     

     

  • Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes

    I am loving the abundance of eggplant we are getting in our CSA share this year! I hope you are too. Also, aren’t the tomatoes delicious? I mean, they are always good, but this year they seem to taste even better than I remember in years past.

    This is a really simple dish celebrating both eggplant and tomatoes.

    It’s great as a main dish or side with anything grilled and leftovers are nice in a sandwich or with topped with an egg or two.

    I used Barbarella eggplant, the big globe variety. You can use any Italian style eggplant. If you don’t have pesto just use some olive oil and herbs and garlic, 2 or 3 tablespoons will do.

    Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes

    Preheat your oven to 400F

    • 1 eggplant
    • 2 tomatoes
    • 4 tbsp pesto or about 4 tablespoons of finely chopped herbs (parsley or basil) and garlic mixed with 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil
    • Manchego or parmesan cheese or any cheese that will melt
    • sea salt & black pepper
    • handful freshly chopped chives

    Slice the eggplant into about 3/4 of an inch and salt and pepper them and rub some olive oil on.

    Spread some pesto (or garlic herb oil if you don’t have pesto) on the slices.

    Now top with some beautiful tomato slices.

    And cheese.

    Bake in a preheated oven for 20-30 minutes until the eggplant and tomatoes are soft and the cheese is bubbly.

    Top it with some fresh herbs and that’s it. Delicious. The Barbarella eggplants are so creamy. It’s hard to see, but look close at the cut cross section of the cut eggplant, you can see how creamy it is.

    Have a wonderful week. I’ll see you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Zucchini Melon Salad

    There probably isn’t an easier salad recipe to toss together than shaving some zucchini and maybe one or two other herbs or vegetables, maybe a melon? I like to use a vegetable peeler to shave the zucchini thin like noodles then dress it with vinegar or lemon and olive oil and topping it with some hard cheese and maybe some nuts or seeds.

    I could eat this every day.

    Zucchini Melon Salad

    • 2 medium zucchini cut thin or shaved with a vegetable peeler
    • 1 cup fresh herbs I used mint and basil-sorrel is wonderful here
    • 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
    • 2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar or fresh lemon juice
    • 1 small, sweet melon, halved, seeded and thinly sliced into half-moons, then skins removed
    • a handful of nuts or seeds
    • Shaved hard cheese like parmesan or Manchego (optional)
    • Salt and Pepper

    Toss the shaved zucchini, herbs, oil, nuts and vinegar or lemon juice and salt and pepper in a bowl, separate the zucchini ribbons and make sure they get some dressing on both sides of the ribbons and get the nuts and herbs in there too.

    Layer the zucchini mix on a plater with the slices of melons in a couple of layers.

    Taste it to see if it needs more salt or vinegar or lemon or oil and top it with a few more nuts and herbs and cheese. I like to eat this zucchini salad, actually I like to eat most salads with chopsticks. I find it easier to include different salad components in each bite.

    Think outside the box. You don’t need lettuce to make a delicious salad!

    Have a great week. I’ll see you at pickup.

    Mo

  • Sage Brown Butter

    I am a huge fan of herb butters. Herb butters are a simple way to brighten up everyday dishes. You can add them to mashed or steamed potatoes, drizzle some on pasta or ravioli, top mushrooms, beans, or corn to uplift almost any ho-hum dish into something special.

    Sage brown butter only takes a few minutes to make and keeps for at least a couple weeks in the refrigerator so make some and keep it on hand.

    All you need is

     

    • 4 ounces (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
    • 1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped (optional)
    • 1/4 cup (about) coarsely chopped fresh sage leaves
    • Salt and pepper

    Take the leaves off the sage and chop them.

    Put the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat and let it melt

    The butter will start to foam, bubble, and pop, this is good! Eventually these bubbles will just sort of sink to the bottom of the pan and start to brown and it will start to smell nutty and yummy. Add the sage and garlic now, if you are using garlic. It will bubble a little and smell amazing.

    Leave it to simmer on a medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes, but don’t let it get too dark. Take it off the heat if it is getting too dark.

    When the butter is brown and clear and stops bubbling t’s done. Take it off the heat and add salt and pepper and taste it to see if it needs more.

    At this point your kitchen will smell so good you won’t need me to tell you what to use this on, you will want to put it on everything!

    Try some on eggs too.

    Have great week. See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

  • Reviving Greens

    Reviving greens to (almost) their just harvested freshness is super easy. You can revive any greens, kale, lettuce, chard, arugula, even broccoli will work using this method.

    This droopy bunch of kale is about a week old. It was in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. It is still fine to eat. If I was cooking the kale I would just wash it and go ahead and cook it. In this case I wanted a kale salad so I am going to revive it to give it a little crunch and freshness back.

    Fill a bowl or your sink with some cold water and add a few ice cubes if you have them. Trim off the stems and submerge your greens in the water for 20-30 minutes.  

    That’s it! Look how bright and happy they are!

    Drain and dry them really well and store them in an airtight container like a salad spinner or plastic bag if you aren’t using them right away.

    Don’t give up on your produce too soon! Give it a dunk and a chance!

  • Stuffed Eggplant

    This eggplant dish is gussied up grilled eggplants. You could use zucchini instead of or in addition to eggplant if that is what you have. It’s so hot this week I didn’t want to turn on the oven so I grilled them. You can roast your eggplant in a 400F oven if you don’t have, or want to use a grill. Roast them for the same time as you would grill them.

    Cut the eggplant in half and rub them with oil and salt and grill them on high for 15 to 30 minutes until they are soft. The time will depend how big your eggplant are. I have both Japanese (left) and Italian (right) eggplant.

    I topped my thin Japanese grilled eggplant with yogurt and a tomato relish I made with tomatoes, parsley and some red onions. I added a little lemon and olive oil to my yogurt, but that is all. Super simple.

    The fat globe Italian eggplant I topped with ricotta, basil and parmesan cheese. You could top these with any pizza topping and it will be delicious.

    This is a really quick meal I think you will really like. Leftovers are great in a salad or with pasta.

    Have a great week and try to stay cool. See you at pickup.

    Mo