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Author: mo

  • Roasted Fennel

    If you haven’t tried roasting fennel you should. Roasting fennel brings out sweet and caramel flavors and the strong licorice taste of raw fennel becomes very subtle and more rounded. Much how onions become sweet and less sharp when they are roasted.

    I think roasted fennel is a simple elegant side dish. Here is some roasted fennel with this simple cauliflower sauce.

    You want to roast fennel pretty hot and quick to make sure it caramelizes. Cut up your fennel bulb add some olive oil and salt and pepper and roast it in a 400-425F oven for 20-25 minutes.

    I hope you give it a try.

    Mo

     

     

  • Cauliflower ‘Rice’

    I am super late to trying cauliflower rice. I was/am perfectly happy to make and eat rice. I love the flavor and texture so I didn’t see the point in messing with what I thought was already a good thing, until I (and probably you) found myself with huge amounts of cauliflower from our CSA share this year! In the past month I have roasted cauliflower, made curry, and one of my favorite things to do with cauliflower is to make this delicious sauce. I still found myself with more cauliflower to eat in my refrigerator.

    So, I tried making cauliflower rice and I love it. It’s super easy and fast to make. Fluffy and crunchy at the same time and unlike regular rice, cauliflower rice is really good cold and room temperature. AND it freezes beautifully!

    To make it all you do is break off some cauliflower florets and pulse them 8 or 10 times in food processor until it looks like rice. Or you can use a box grater if you don’t feel like busting out the food processor.

    To cook it all I did was heat a little oil in a pan with garlic and sauteed the cauliflower until it was just starting to turn brown and added some salt and pepper and chives. You don’t have to brown it if you might want it just cooked through and leave it more white. Any herb would be nice here as would any sauce, just like rice! This is a really nice side dish and pretty much goes with anything.

    You can steam cauliflower rice or even eat it raw! I love making ‘Buddha Bowls’ with the leftovers and other odds and ends I have laying around.

    I haven’t tried it yet but I think making fried ‘rice’ with cauliflower would be so good.

    Well Folks, this is the last week of our regular CSA. Thanks for your support. We appreciate you all so much and hope to see you back next year. The Winter CSA starts next week so sign up before we sell out! I love the winter CSA vegetables so SO SO much! I’ll be making lots of soups, stews, baked dishes! Yum!

    See you at the last pickup!

    Mo

     

  • Winter Radishes

    Winter radishes start appearing in our last one or two regular season CSA shares. If you signed up for our Winter CSA you will see them more frequently.

    Aren’t they pretty? The radishes we get in the spring are just as pretty and you can use both varieties in very similar ways. The main differences are the winter varieties are much less pungent than the spring radishes, more like our salad turnips, but so much prettier! Winter radishes store for a really, really long time, at least two months.

    I keep mine in a plastic bag in my crisper drawer with a damp paper towel if they are whole. Once I cut into them I like to store them in the refrigerator in a glass jar with a lid and a damp paper towel on the bottom of the jar. The damp paper towel helps keep the color in the radish.

    I slice them really thin and add (lots!) to salads, toast, tacos or sandwiches, or just snack on the them! They are so pretty and crunchy and fun! Try some pickled!

    You can roast them like hakurei turnips, or braise them, but they will lose a bit of their color but they do add a nice texture and flavor to cooked dishes.

    Winter radishes are a beautiful fun winter vegetable to enjoy. Have fun with yours!

    Mo

     

     

     

     

  • Simple Celery Apple Soup

    How about that celery we are getting this year! When I’m standing in the field some of the celery is almost as tall as I am, I’m not even kidding.

    I made a really basic pureed soup with some of my celery.

    With any blended soup I love to play with toppings to dress it up, toppings also add interest and make the soup more of a meal. Kids love toppings too. Here I have apples and peanuts and apples and blue cheese. Leftover chunks of roasted vegetables are really nice in blended soups too, and of course croutons or crusty bread is always prefect with soup.

    This only took about 1/2 hour to make. While you are cooking the soup, look through your pantry and refrigerator and see what toppings you want to add.

    Simple Celery Soup

    • 2 tablespoons butter or oil
    • 1 small onion, diced
    • 1 big bunch of celery, cut into 1-inch chunks I used both these bunches
    • 1 medium potato cut into 1-inch chunks
    • 1 small apple cut into 1-inch chunks
    • salt and pepper to taste
    • 1 quart (945ml) vegetable stock or water, plus more to adjust
    • 1/3 cup heavy cream or coconut cream, yogurt or nut milk (optional)

    In a large saucepan, melt butter or oil add onion, celery, potato, apple, and a large pinch of salt and cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are softened but not browned, about 5 minutes.

    Add vegetable stock or water and simmer until vegetables are completely tender, about 30 minutes. Working in batches, ladle vegetables and broth into a blender pitcher, making sure not to fill pitcher more than halfway. Blend soup, starting at low speed and gradually increasing speed to high, until totally smooth.

    The sun was going down so I didn’t get any more pictures of blending it but I took a few pictures the next day when it was blended and topped.

    Simple is good.

    Have a great week.

    Mo

  • Cauliflower and Celery Curry

    Vegetable curries are a staple at our house. Curries are one of those ‘clean out the refrigerator’ meals that I can make in the morning and go to work, come home and reheat and have a warm filling satisfying meal.

    You only need a few basic pantry ingredients and 4-6 cups of pretty much any vegetable you like. I used cauliflower, celery and a couple peppers. Winter squash is good, as is broccoli or potatoes. You can add a protein like tofu, chicken or hard boiled eggs. Eggs are great in curry! Add any protein when you add the vegetables to the broth. Serve it with rice or noodles or eat it as a thick stew or soup. It only takes a few minutes to make, but improves and mellows with some simmering and rest time. Leftovers are great.

    Cauliflower and Celery Curry

    • 1 tablespoon oil
    • 1 onion, chopped
    • 1-3 cloves garlic, smashed
    • 1 knob of ginger, peeled and chopped
    • 1–2 tablespoons curry powder (taste for more)
    • 1–2 tablespoons turmeric
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 2 tablespoons sweetener, any kind-sugar, agave, brown sugar
    • 4-6 cups any vegetables you like, cauliflower, celery, peppers, potatoes, zucchini, winter squash
    • 1 14-ounce can coconut milk
    • 1 cup water or broth, I always use water
    • anything you have for toppings like nuts, herbs, scallions, raisins

    Sauté the onion, garlic and ginger in oil until softened and add the spices and sweetener. I like agave or brown sugar for sweetening. Curry needs heat to ‘bloom’, you will smell spices ‘open up’ and mellow as the dish cooks.

    Add the coconut milk and water or broth and let the simmer for 5-10 minutes. Taste it and see if you want more curry or sweetener. It might taste a little bitter, don’t worry. Add a little more sweetener and let it simmer a little longer. It looks watery and grainy. It will thicken and smooth out with a little time.

    Add your vegetables (and protein if using), I add a lot of vegetables, they cook down. You can add fewer vegetables if you want more curry gravy/sauce. Cover it and let it simmer another 10 or 15 minutes.

    See how much it has cooked down in just a few minutes.

    Taste it again and adjust salt, sweetener or even more curry powder. That’s it. Cover it and let it simmer a while.

    I love curry with a little rice, some nuts or seeds (sunflower, cashew or almond) and raisins.

    Only four weeks left! Have a great week. See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Apple Cake

    Fall is in the air and that means that apples are coming in from the Western Slope. We are super lucky to partner with  friends at First Fruits Organic Farm to bring our CSA an option to ‘add-on’ a fruit share. Now that the Farm store is open, anyone can stop by and get some of these delicious organic apples as well as some of our other vegetables if you need extra, or want to put up some food for winter. You could also check out our U-Pick event this weekend.

    One thing I know you should do,  you should make this apple cake.

    This cake is stuffed full of apples, nuts and raisins. It’s balanced with moist and chunky and chewy bites. It’s one of those cakes that that will travel well to work for snacking, or a potluck, or it will last a few days on the counter.

    I like to serve it for dessert with a soft cheese.

    Or, my favorite way to eat it is for breakfast with some yogurt.

    The recipe is from a tried and true high altitude cookbook. Follow the easy directions, I promise it will work.

    Apple Cake from Susan G. Purdy’s Pie in the Sky

    • 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
    • 1/2 tsp baking powder
    • 1/2 tsp baking soda
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
    • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
    • 3 cups apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
    • 1 cup (6 oz.) raisins
    • 1 cup (4 oz.) walnuts, chopped
    • 1 1/2 cups canola or light olive oil (I used 1 1/4 cups avocado oil)
    • 2 cups sugar (I reduced this to 1 3/4 cup sugar)
    • 3 large eggs
    • 2 tsps vanilla extract
    • 3 tbsps buttermilk
    • confectioners’ sugar for dusting the finished cake (optional)

    With the oven rack in the center of the oven, preheat to 375°F  Grease and
    flour a 12- to 16-cup capacity tube or Bundt pan.  In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the spices. In another bowl, mix together the apples, raisins, walnuts, and 2 tablespoons of the flour mixture. Toss together to coat. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk and beat everything together on the lowest speed. While the mixer is still running, slowly add the flour mixture, scraping down the sides until combined. Add the apple mixture until it is well blended into the batter. It should be pretty thick. Empty the batter into the pan and smooth over the surface. Bake 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes. Let cool completely and sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

  • 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