Red Wagon Farm

Collard and Toasted Pecan Pesto

Posted on September 15, 2014 by mo

This year almost all the farms in the area had a growing problem with basil, there was a weird bacteria, or something like that that made the basil look horrible and not grow. Basically no one got a basil crop, (every year something fails). That means no one has basil pesto.
Honestly, that is fine with me. I’m not a huge basil fan in anything other than using a few leaves on a pizza.
I do love pesto and make pesto out of just about any green, kale, chard, parsley, and today I used some collards. If you are bummed over the lack of basil for pesto this year, maybe try this recipe.

Cucumber with pesto

Here is a very simple recipe. You can substitute any green you have for the collards if you like. You can freeze this or keep it in the refrigerator for a week or so.

Collards and Toasted Pecan Pesto

½ small bunch collard greens, center ribs and stems removed
Kosher salt
½ cup olive oil
1 garlic clove
¼ cup toasted pecans
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Freshly ground black pepper

Cook collard greens in a medium pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 2 minutes. Drain, let cool.
Blend greens, oil, garlic clove, pecans, vinegar, Parmesan, and red pepper flakes in a food processor until a coarse purée forms; season with salt and pepper and enjoy on pasta, or vegetables or bread.

Posted in 2014, Collards, Recipes | Comments Off

CSA Chili

Posted on September 8, 2014 by mo

Mark your calendars for October 5th for Red Wagon Farm’s annual End of Season Harvest Celebration.
It’s always a great time to gather and celebrate the end of the year together.
Every year I make a vegetarian chili using vegetables from our farm. CSA memebers often ask how I make the chili, so this year I remembered to take some photos to document the process.

Chili in a bag

A little planning is necessary because the vegetables are ripe and plentiful a few weeks before the event so I want to capture the flavor of the season at it’s peak. I have been chopping and freezing all week.
I make 10 gallons of chili every year, that is finish/cooked.
I start with tomato seconds. I have a machine I got off craigslist that removes seeds and peels from tomatoes. Cool huh?

Tomato press

I freeze about 7 gallons of these crushed tomatoes. I will probably only use 5 or 6 gallons, but I want to have extra in case the chili is too thick.
We don’t grow corn at Red Wagon, mostly because other farms do such a great job of growing corn. We do sell it at the farm stand and the corn is at it’s peak right now so I wanted to freeze some for the chili. I froze about 1 1/2 gallons of corn for the chili.

Shucking Corn

I blanch it and remove the kernels from the cobs and freeze it. I like to put a few bags away for my personal use too. We love to have ‘fresh frozen’ corn on Thanksgiving. The corn is so sweet right now it smelled like cake batter.

Next I diced up some bell peppers and froze those as well. Raw peppers freeze beautifully. I froze about 1/1/2 gallons of bell peppers.

Diced bell peppers

…and a few roasted chili peppers went into the freezer for the chili. I clean these by removing the charred peels and seeds and stems so they are easy to use when I finally make the chili.

Roasted Chiles

I’ll update this post as I add more ingredients and cook the chili. I still need onions, garlic and beans, oh, and I’ll probably roast some winter squash to add in right at the end too. But, those ingredients don’t need to be prepared before hand, or more than a day or two to let the flavors blend. So I’ll be doing the rest closer to the Event.

Hope you all can make it.

Posted in 2014, Recipes | 2 Comments

Picking Peppers

Posted on September 1, 2014 by lnmayer

During the rush of the Friday harvest, I am usually on team kale, where we weigh out the restaurant orders and bunch the various types of kale in the field. This Friday, however, I was sent to the peppers on the southwest corner of the farm.

Despite the cool weather, the peppers have finally started to ripen. There assorted types of bell peppers of all colors – purple, white, yellow, orange, and green. There are the salsa-lovers favorites, jalapeños and chilies like Anaheims and Poblanos. Then, there are a number of red peppers, whose appearance says “hot and spicy,” but are really the sweetest pepper you can imagine.

Picking peppers is similar to the kale, when you’re searching for the biggest and most beautiful. There is a certain amount of self-restraint that one must employ to be sure that next week’s harvest isn’t picked before its prime, no matter how enticing the little pepper-jewels are. The pepper plants are rigid and fragile and quite susceptible to breaking easily. The plants themselves are still covered with blossoms. I was surprised by the amount of bees buzzing around, which is always a welcome sight and sound.

Now, with the peppers and tomatoes in full swing, it’s time to concoct sweet and spicy salsas. Perfect for snacking on a late summer evening.

Posted in 2014, Farm | Comments Off

Roasted Chilies (Gringa) Rajas con Crema

Posted on September 1, 2014 by mo

This week one of your choices will be roasted chilies. We roast the chilies at the Farm right before driving to the CSA pick-up and bag the chilies at the pick-up. The chilies will still be hot and will look like this when you get them.

Roasted Peppers

The chilies are fairly mild, I would say not even medium hot. But very flavorful. To prepare them you just need to remove the charred skin, stem, and seed them. Like so.

Deseeded Pepper

One of my favorite things to do with roasted chilies is to make rajas. Rajas are basically roasted chilies sliced thin with onions and cream.

Rajas can be used as a taco filling, or as an appetizer served with tortilla chips, or as a side dish with fish or meat.

We have a strong Hispanic community working here at Red Wagon and I have asked several of our Hispanic workers how they make rajas.

This is my ‘gringa’ interpretation, with apologies to Marta and Chayo for any in-authenticity and my poor understanding of Spanish.

Rajas con crema recipe

1 pound roasted chilies

1 medium white onion

vegetable, or olive oil

a little garlic, and cumin if you like

1/4 cup crème fraîche, cream cheese, or heavy cream

Cut clean and seeded chilies into 1/3-inch-thick strips. Halve onion lengthwise and cut each half lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices.

In a heavy skillet cook onion in oil over moderately low heat, stirring frequently, until softened, about 5 minutes.

Saute Onions

Add chilies and salt garlic and cumin to taste and cook, stirring, 5 minutes.

Saute Chiles Add créme fraîche cream cheese, or cream and cook, stirring, 2 minutes.

Add Crema

Rajas may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Reheat rajas before serving.

Posted in 2014, Peppers Roasted, Recipes | Comments Off

Tomato and Bread Salad

Posted on August 25, 2014 by mo

I made this yesterday.

Bread Salad

I sometimes see this type of salad called Panzanella. Most recipes I have seen for panzanella call for ‘stale bread’. That sounds kind of gross to me, and soggy.
So, being the renegade that I am I think to myself, how can I make this without being soggy?
I used fresh bread toasted it, you could grill it too and I used fresh, not stale bread.
The toasted bread holds up in the salad and toasting adds a nice flavor as well as better texture.

First I cut up what ever tomatoes I have and I add some onions and this time I added some cucumbers. I wish I would have thought to add some peppers too.

Chopped Veggies

I toast whatever bread I had, it was a loaf of whole grain sourdough, and I tore it up.

Toasted Bread

I added the bread to the tomato mix and made a simple vinaigrette with 1/2 red wine vinegar and 1/2 olive oil, some salt and pepper and a couple garlic cloves crushed. I added the vinaigrette to just moisten everything.

Add Vinagrette

I tossed in some basil.

Add Basil

And some fresh mozzarella and pepper.

Add Mozzarella and Pepper

Tomatoes are finally here. This is a great way to enjoy them.
Have a great week.

Posted in 2014, Recipes, Salads-Spring-Summer, Tomatoes-Tomatillos | Comments Off

Zucchinification

Posted on August 25, 2014 by lnmayer

This time of year, zucchini is a prolific staple food that has the potential to take over a fridge. One can only eat so many stir-fried zucchini (or tromboncino) before you feel like you’re turning into one. Here’s an alternative to the norm. As a kid, I remember putting spoon-fulls of my grandmother’s zucchini relish on top of toast or on a burger.

Ma Mayer’s Grand Scale Zucchini Relish
Makes 8+ pints

10 cups Zucchini (or substitute a Tromboncino)
1 cup Pickling Salt (I made notation to cut back on salt)
5 cups White Onion, minced
1 cup Celery diced
2 Sweet Peppers, diced
2 tsp. Turmeric
1 Tbsp. Dry Mustard
3 Tbsp. Celery Seed
3 Tbsp. Mustard Seed
6 cups Sugar
5 cups Vinegar (White or Apple Cider Vinegar)

Prepare Zucchini. Leave skins on and dice finely.
Combine with salt and other vegetables.
Allow to stand overnight.
Drain off any liquid in the morning and rinse thoroughly.
Drain again in colander. (Grandma Mayer’s note: I taste to see if too salty, if they are too salty, rinse vegetables again in cold water.)
Press bowl on top of vegetables to force out extra liquid.
In large enamel or stainless steel pan, combine remaining ingredients.
Add vegetables and bring to rolling boil.
Reduce heat and boil gently for 20 minutes.
Ladle relish into hot sterile jars and seal. For elevation, process in a boil bath for 20 minutes.

Posted in 2014, Farm | Comments Off

search our site