Red Wagon Farm

Simple Celery Apple Soup

Posted on October 10, 2022 by mo

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.

Posted in 2022, Celery Celeriac, Recipes | Comments Off

Cauliflower and Celery Curry

Posted on September 27, 2022 by mo

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.

Posted in 2022, Cauliflower, Recipes | Comments Off

Apple Cake

Posted on September 20, 2022 by mo

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.

Posted in 2022, Apples, Recipes | Comments Off

Potatoes

Posted on September 13, 2022 by mo

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.

Posted in 2022, Potatoes, Recipes | Comments Off

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