Red Wagon Farm

Asparagus and Spring Herbs Two Ways

Posted on May 31, 2022 by mo

Is everyone enjoying the lovely asparagus and herbs we got in our CSA share as much as I am? It’s so great to have fresh vegetables and herbs again!

I made a couple really simple dishes with my asparagus. I felt like I was eating in a restaurant while eating these, the addition of the herbs really elevates dishes and really made these special. I wanted to share what I made.

I sauteed my asparagus with walking onions, chive blossoms and some mint (recipe below) – it made enough for two herby asparagus side dishes. The first one, I made some polenta and topped it with the asparagus and herbs.

The second, we had an arugula salad with chopped eggs and topped it with the asparagus herb mix. Asparagus and eggs are classically delicious and this was so good with the beautiful arugula from our CSA share. Yum.

I really like the bigger stalks of asparagus, I think they are more tender and have more flavor (not everyone agrees, some people really like the skinny stalks!). I do peel the bottom of the thick stalks because they are a little stringy but I don’t mind the extra step, I love the crisp thicker stocks.

Prepare your asparagus by trimming and peeling it and chop up any herbs you are using.

Any soft herb would be delicious here, basil, chives, tarragon, sorrel, walking onions aren’t really herbs but they cook very quickly so I used them just like herbs.

I like to sauté the vegetables in olive oil and a little chicken or vegetable stock. I used Better than Bouillon mixed with about 1/3 cup water.

Here is the asparagus, oil, stock and walking onions after just a few minutes of cooking when they are just starting to soften I add the soft herbs.

Let that cook until it is tender enough to your liking, serve alone or with polenta or as a salad.

Sauteed Asparagus and herbs

1 pound of asparagus trimmed of stringy ends
2-4 tablespoons of oil
1/3 cup stock or broth
a large handful of soft spring herbs
3 or 4 stocks of walking onions or green garlic

Sautee oil and onions or garlic if using with asparagus until it is just starting to soften and add the stock. When the vegetables are just beginning to look glazed add the herbs. Continue cooking until the asparagus is done to your liking. Serve with a salad or over polenta making sure to scrape up all the herbs and onion clinging to the pan.

We are getting asparagus again this week. What a treat! I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

See you at pickup.

Posted in 2022, Miscellaneous, Recipes | 1 Comment

Welcome to the 2022 Red Wagon CSA from Amy

Posted on May 24, 2022 by Amy

We are so happy to welcome all of you to our 2022 CSA! We have lots of returning members, some brand new members, and some members who go way back with us. These folks started with Red Wagon way back in 2007 when Wyatt and I still had a farm stand at 95th & Arapahoe in Lafayette. We closed that down in 2012 a moved everything to Boulder and Longmont. Now 10 years later we’re back in Lafayette at Thomas Open Space farm and I love the fact that some of our original members are moving back to Lafayette with us!

It feels like the last few seasons have been very challenging at the farm (and for everybody in general!) But first some good news…we were all biting our nails over the weekend while waiting to see what damage the snowstorm would bring. Even though we got a few inches of snow, almost everything survived and most crops only suffered mild damage.

The cucumbers look sort of ugly after being snowed on, but hopefully they’ll grow through it!

A few of the leaves on the potato plants died.

Zucchini in caterpillar tunnels We have come to love our caterpillar tunnels more and more. These are temporary structures that protect our crops from bad weather and keep it really toasty inside to let us have some crops ready earlier in the season. In this photo Wyatt is checking on the zucchini plants in one of the tunnels. Look how huge the plants are! We should have zucchini ready for you in a few weeks.

We’ve been anxious about irrigation water for a while now. The snow pack looked good this winter but then we had one of the driest Aprils on record. Fortunately we have irrigation ponds at two of our locations so we were able to do some irrigation out of them. But Wyatt had to pump the water almost down to the level where our pumps could not pull anymore water out of the ponds. Fortunately, we do have irrigation water at Thomas Open Space farm in Lafayette so we planted a lot more there this spring than we had originally planned to. Our irrigation ditches have finally turned on and the moisture we received over the weekend will help. But the parched ground soaked up a lot of the water and all the reservoirs still need to fill. Hopefully we’ll continue to get some rain. (But no more snow please!)

We’re still desperately short staffed. I thought that surely things would be better than 2021…but not so far. Fortunately the small crew we have this year is fantastic and we’re getting a lot done even with so few people. I’m glad some of you got to meet them when you came out to our farm earlier in May.

Thank you all so much for trusting us to feed you this summer! We’re looking forward to seeing you every week.

With gratitude,
Amy

Posted in 2022, Farm, Newsletter | Comments Off

Hello 2022 Red Wagon CSA!

Posted on May 22, 2022 by mo

Welcome returning and new CSA members.

I’m Mo McKenna. I’ve been working at Red Wagon for over a decade in some capacity or another. Mostly now you will see me here, writing the recipe farm blog. I’ll also be at the CSA pickups at the Farm and at the new CSA pickup in Lafayette. I’m really looking forward to our new venue and seeing new faces!

Whether you are a new or returning CSA member sometimes getting a CSA share can be a little overwhelming. I thought I would share a few things I like to do before the first pickup of the season.

Clean out your refrigerator. You need room for all the new vegetables, if you can see them you will use them. If they are buried them will probably languish and die :-(

I try to do this before every pickup, I try. I at least like to clear out my vegetable bins to make room for my new vegetables and to remind myself what I have and need to use up. Lots of room now!

Review how to best wash and store the different CSA crops you will be getting. You can start here and here too.
Have a plan for your food tops, peels and scraps. Will you compost? Make vegetable stock? Give it to your chickens?
Have a plan for bringing your CSA haul home. Will you use bags or a basket? Gather what you like to use; plastic, paper or cloth. I have a basket with different bags to put my vegetables in right away when I pick them up. Lettuce and chard and kale don’t wilt if I put them in plastic right away and onions don’t get everything messy if bag them when I pick them up.

A couple other tips I are;

If you are unfamiliar with a item we offer, take it and try it even if it sounds weird! That’s what CSA’s are all about! Branching out! Ask people at the pickup what to do with something you haven’t tried before or look here for recipe ideas. There is almost certainly a post on every crop we grow.
Plan a simple dinner for your CSA pickup evening. Early in the week Kai will always post a blog here to help you plan with what we are hoping to harvest for the week for you. You can always make a simple pasta or grain dish or maybe just make some toast and sauté some the vegetables you just picked up and put an egg on it!

Final tip; get a salad spinner if you don’t already have one.

I am so looking forward to this new season. See you at pickup.

Posted in 2022, Farm, Newsletter | 2 Comments

Roasted Carmen Peppers and Romesco Sauce

Posted on January 26, 2022 by mo

This week everyone is getting roasted red Carmen peppers. We roasted and froze them this summer when we had tons and what a treat it will be to have a little bit of summer in our last CSA share.

Carmen peppers are a really thick walled sweet red pepper. To prepare them from this frozen state just let the peppers thaw overnight in the refrigerator or leave them on your counter for an hour or two. Then rinse them under the faucet to get rid of the seeds and skin. They will look like this after you defrost and clean them.

The possibilities are endless with what you can do with these. I love them added to grilled cheese or any pasta dish, add them to egg or tuna salad, top a pizza with them, any rice or grain bowl would be so delicious with roasted peppers. I really like to make Romesco sauce. Like roasted Carmen peppers, this sauce makes just about anything more delicious.

The ingredients are almost exactly the same for making pesto if you swap the peppers for basil. Nuts, oil, garlic (hard to see but there) and acid (vinegar, I ended up adding lemon too) same as pesto. Anything dish you like with pesto I think you will like with Romesco sauce.

This couldn’t be any simpler to make. The hardest part is cleaning the blender or food processor, depending which you use. Oh, I usually use tomatoes or sundried tomatoes. I didn’t have any so I left them out. I didn’t miss them. I liked the texture better I think without.

Romesco Sauce

1 pound of roasted red peppers seeded and peeled
½ cup raw or roasted almonds or any nut
2 medium-to-large cloves garlic peeled
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon each of salt and pepper to taste
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tomato or 1/4 cup sundried tomatoes (optional)
1/2 the juice of a lemon. I added this after I tasted it. Taste yours and see if you want a little more zip

Put everything in a blender or food processor and blend until you are happy with the texture. I made it smooth this time. Sometimes I like it a little chunky so I can taste the almonds. Both ways are nice.

I was at a Farm to Table dinner one time (exactly one time) and the vegetarian meal was roasted vegetables served with Romesco sauce. It was delightful. It was made with summer vegetables but winter vegetables make just as lovely a dish I think.

Well CSA Fam. This is it. Our longest winter CSA will be in the books this Thursday. We can’t say enough how much we appreciate your support and loyalty.

Virtual hugs to all of you. Be well, hopefully we’ll see you back here in May.

Posted in 2022, Peppers Roasted, Recipes | Comments Off

Garlic Fried Rice

Posted on January 19, 2022 by mo

This is for all you garlic lovers out there. Garlic is the star here. The oil used for ‘frying’ the rice is infused by roasting garlic in the oil first, then removing it and using the infused oil to ‘perfume’ the rest of the ingredients.

This is so good with shrimp or fish but really it will compliment any roasted vegetable or protein. Or just eat it alone.

I wrote down measurements but you can adjust the amounts to your needs.

I had-

8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/4 to 1/3 cup neutral tasting oil – you want to coat the bottom of the pan you are using so the garlic ‘floats’. It will burn if you don’t use enough oil and you want to coat the rice with the yummy oil.
Salt to taste
2 inch piece ginger, peeled, finely chopped
1 large egg, beaten
3 – 4 cups chilled cooked white or brown rice
2 tsp. toasted sesame oil (optional)
4 scallions, thinly sliced on a diagonal (optional)
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Heat the oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat and add the garlic slices in one layer.

Let them gently sizzle until they are brown, don’t let them burn. Fish them out with a slotted spoon as they brown onto a plate. See my plate to the right of the pan with the browned garlic?

When they are all brown and removed from the pan (leave all the oil) add the chopped ginger.

And the beaten egg, rice, scallions and sesame oil if using.

Carefully mix it all up make sure the oil has coated everything. Now smoosh it into the pan to so the bottom can crisp up a little and turn it over once or twice to brown it all.

When you are happy with the crispness add a few of the roasted garlic slices back and taste for salt or if you want more garlic. I used about 1/2 the garlic. I’ll save the rest for another dish.

I added some hot sauce in the above picture. MMmmm, mmmmm.

I hope you try this simple dish.

Have a great week.

Posted in 2022, Garlic, Recipes | Comments Off

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