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Category: 2023

  • Melted Leeks

    Melted leeks are a delicious side dish and a great addition to big holiday meals. A small portion of leeks packs a big flavor punch when added to heavier dishes like mashed potatoes and dressing.

    Melted leeks are super simple to make (recipe at the bottom) and can be made ahead and reheated or served at room temperature, so perfect for holiday meals! You can serve them alone, as a side dish, with your turkey or ham, macaroni and cheese, lasagna. Just a spoonful will add a nice pop to your holiday dishes, kind of how cranberry sauce adds a little zing.

    I topped some mashed potatoes with melted leeks and sage brown butter, it really elevated plain mashed potatoes. You could do the same with dressing. I didn’t mix the leeks in because some people/kids might not want leeks but you could mix them in if you like. Plus, I kind of like how it looks.

    Below photo is a simple appetizer-melted leeks and cheese on small bite size pieces of buttered toast. Sort of a deconstructed French onion soup. This would travel really well if you need to bring an snack or appetizer to a friends house.

    Melted leeks are simple and fast to make. You’ll need;

    • 3 or 4 large leeks
    • 3 tablespoons of butter
    • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
    • a splash of water, broth or white wine
    • salt and pepper to taste

    Clean your leeks and slice them into rounds.

    Add the leeks and the rest of the ingredients to a pan and cook on a medium low heat with the lid on for 20-30 minutes.

    You don’t want them to brown, just collapse and ‘melt’.

    Taste the leeks and see if you want them softer or if they need more salt or pepper. Depending on what you are eating these with you dress them up further and add a splash of cream or some parmesan cheese, maybe lemon zest?

    Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I can’t wait to use some of my CSA bounty in our Thanksgiving Feast. Leeks will be somewhere on our menu. Hope they make it on yours too.

    Have a great week.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Citrus Glazed Hakurei Turnips

    One of the most cooked and loved recipes on the Red Wagon blog is Miso Maple Turnips.  Here is very similar dish but this has an easy to make sauce that is has a bright citrus essence rather than a deep warm miso note of the older recipe. Try both!

    So fast and simple. You need.

    • 1 bunch of turnips washed and I cut mine into 1/8ths.
    • 3 tablespoons of butter
    • about 1/2 cup of orange juice. I had ‘cutie’ mandarins and used three and didn’t quite have a half cup. I went with that. As always adjust as needed.
    • Olive oil and salt, pepper for roasting the turnips (and delicata).
    • Optional toppings like red pepper flakes, nuts or peel from the citrus.

    To roast the turnips preheat the oven to 400F, mine took about 25 minutes to roast. I had extra room on my baking tray so I roasted a delicata squash on the other half of the tray because you can never had too many roasted vegetables in your life!

    Juice the citrus and put that and the butter into a pan to melt and reduce the liquid to thicken while the turnips are roasting.

    Check the turnips after 25 minutes, they are done when they are turning brown and tender when you poke them with a fork or sharp knife. Take them out of the oven and add them to the pan with the citrus butter and let all that simmer together until the sauce thickens.

    It looks like I’m making candy. Don’t worry. It’s not too sweet it just sticks to the turnips as it gets thick.

    That is it. A lovely dish to go with just about anything. This time of year I think about the holidays and food, a lot. This would be a really nice dish to go with any holiday food. It is light and bright and you could easily make it ahead and warm it up before serving or even serve it at room temperature.

    What are you doing with your turnips? Let us know in the comments.

    Have a great week.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Winter CSA Week 3

    Hello CSA Members!

    Welcome to week 3! Wow, I’m really excited to try out some of those incredible squash recipes that Mo has been posting. Dip? Smoothies? Check out her blog post from last week, if you haven’t already, and be ready to impress everyone with your culinary prowess!

    Here is what we hope to bring you this week: 

    Regular Share:
    1 – Arugula
    2 – Bok Choi
    3 – Winter Radish
    4 – Turnips
    5 – Leeks
    6 – Carrots
    7 – Sunshine Kabocha Squash

    PLEASE NOTE: This year, we are holding our pickup from 3pm-6pm (an hour earlier than summer CSA).

    Looking forward to seeing you all this Thursday!

    We are still accepting sign-ups for winter CSA! Click here to sign up. So let your family and friends in on it!

  • 2 Winter Squash Recipes; Queso and a Smoothie

    One thing is certain when you join a Winter CSA; You will be getting (eating!) lots of winter squash.

    Often times when you roast a squash for a dish at home you will have leftovers, sometimes LOTS of leftover, like I did last week. I had about 2 1/2 quarts roasted squash and no plan for using any. Not a problem! I really love to have cooked squash and vegetables at the ready so I can easily make vegetable forward dishes by just grabbing a few ingredients that are already cooked and throwing them together. Soup and chili are two of my go-to’s.

    We had friends over this weekend and I wanted a quick snack and I really wanted something decadent and cheesy. I looked in the refrigerator and saw the pumpkin puree I made earlier and remembered this macaroni and cheese recipe.  I made that recipe and left out the sage and pasta and added some roasted poblano chilis I had in the freezer. I’ll post the recipe modifications at the end of this post.

    This was good and so quick and easy because I had the roasted squash and poblanos all cooked and ready. We had leftover queso and ate it the next day with roasted potatoes, sausage and eggs for another easy delicious meal.

    Another use for the extra squash is making smoothies. Squash/pumpkin smoothies feel healthier to me than fruit heavy smoothies and homemade roasted squash is soooooo much less expensive than buying fruit.

    I usually double this and save the second portion for the next day.

    • 1 ripe banana, frozen , if not frozen you might want to add a handful of ice cubes to the smoothie
    • 1 cup squash or pumpkin puree
    • 1/2 teaspoon spice like cinnamon, ginger or mix spice
    • 1 cup milk of choice
    • 2 pitted dates, or more, depending on how sweet you want it. optional
    • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, optional
    • handful of nuts, optional

    Throw it in a blender and let it rip. I like to top it with granola. Creamylicious.

    Here is the Queso recipe with the modifications.

    • 1 cup of cooked pumpkin/squash. If you don’t have any cooked pumpkin or squash here is a ‘how to’ post from a few years ago.
    • salt and pepper
    • 4 tablespoons butter
    • 4 tablespoons flour gluten free is fine
    • 2 cups milk any kind
    • 1 to 1 1/2 cups cheese, shredded – I used cheddar
    • roasted poblano chilies, optional
    • squeeze of one or two limes to taste
    1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium cook until the butter is bubbling and it has turned golden brown.
    2. Mix in the flour and let simmer until it returns to a light golden brown.
    3. Add the milk and simmer until it thickens and add cheese to melt.
    4. Add roasted poblanos if using.

    I hope you enjoy the abundant squash we have as much as I do. Have a great week.

    Mo

    PS I also made a couple little pumpkin pies. Winter Luxury Pumpkins ROCK. I LOVE that they taste like pumpkin and aren’t very sweet. I think some squash are too sweet for pie, which sounds counter intuitive I know.

  • Winter CSA Week 2

    Hello CSA Members!

    Welcome to week 2 (Biweekly B’s first week) of Winter CSA 2023! It finally feels like winter, doesn’t it?

    PLEASE NOTE: This year, we are holding our pickup from 3pm-6pm (an hour earlier than summer CSA).

    We are still accepting sign-ups for winter CSA! Click here to sign up. So let your family and friends in on it!

    Here is what we hope to bring you during week 2: 

    Regular Share:
    1 – TBD
    2 – Cooking Greens
    3 – Winter Radish
    4 – Root Vegetable Choice
    5 – Allium Choice
    6 – Cabbage or Cauliflower
    7 – Winter Squash

    Looking forward to seeing you all this Thursday!

  • Why I Love Winter CSA

    I love Summer at the Farm, it is always crazy. Some years more than others, but we can always count on crazy. We can also count on things slowing down in the Fall. Somehow we make it across the finish line of our regular season CSA, we breathe a sigh of relief that Summer is over (phew, we did it!) and low and behold, Winter CSA is here (yay) and I LOVE everything about it!

    I love that almost all of you Winter CSA members are repeat and loyal Red Wagon CSA’ers. Many of you have been with us since day one. You are familiar and as excited about the Winter vegetables as I am!

    I love the winter vegetables, pumpkins and all the root crops. Winter greens are so special too, they seem like a miracle to me, how something so beautiful can grow and thrive this time of year and be so delicious.

    In the summer I don’t want to turn on the oven. I make a ton of salads and grill almost everything I cook, which is fine but I am ready for something different. Cool weather means I get  to turn the oven on and deeply slow roast vegetables and bake casseroles and pies.

    I love to slow cook some beans when it cools off and add whatever vegetables I have from CSA that week. , it’s one of my favorite meals.

    This morning was a little chilly and I was baking bread. While the oven was on I took the opportunity to roast some vegetables, my first winter luxury pie pumpkin and a baby butternut squash this season!

    I also roasted a few beets.

    I have no specific plans for any of these roasted vegetables, but I feel rich knowing I can quickly throw together some delicious meals now that the main ingredient is prepped waiting for need and  inspiration.

    It’s great to have you here with us for the next 14 weeks. Let’s have some fun in the kitchen and enjoy some delicious Winter food.

    Mo

  • Welcome Winter CSA Members!

    Welcome Winter CSA members! We are happy to get started with our 4th year of our Winter CSA! I always say that our CSA members are the foundation of our farm. Red Wagon would simply not exist without our CSA. But our Winter CSA members take it to a whole other level! You are the ones who are truly committed to supporting small-scale agriculture and our local food system.

    We try really hard to give you a good assortment of vegetables to feed you for a lot of the winter. I think we do a pretty good job with this! I want to try here to explain one of the many ways our Winter CSA members support our farm in return.

    The main growing season in Colorado is about seven months. Eight months if you’re being generous. It is really hard to get through the other four or five months when you’re not producing and selling much. For a number of years we’ve been selling storage crops to restaurants over the winter (mostly roots and winter squash). That was just barely enough to pay our basic farm expenses and keep one or two people employed part time. That meant that we could only hope to keep our best crew members for a season or two–maybe three if we were really lucky. Not many people can make it for 4-5 months each year without income. And it gets old fast to spend your winters at a job that you’re not very excited about.

    Like many things, our Winter CSA was born out of the pandemic and our need to reinvent ourselves during such crazy times. It turns out that it is a great fit for us! Our Winter CSA hasn’t completely fixed the many challenges of having a seasonal business. But it’s gone a long way towards giving a few people stable employment at Red Wagon! You are the ones who’ve made this happen!

    The pace of things at our farm is less hectic this time of year and I’m able to spend more time at our CSA pickups. I’m looking forward to seeing you!

    Amy

  • Winter CSA Week 1

    Hello CSA Members!

    Barn at Thomas Open Space

    Welcome to Winter CSA 2023! We’re so excited to move into our winter season with you (although with my eyes closed, it’s hard to believe it’s even fall yet with these gorgeously warm days).

    PLEASE NOTE: This year, we are holding our pickup from 3pm-6pm (an hour earlier than in the past).

    We are still accepting sign-ups for winter CSA! Click here to sign up. So let your family and friends in on the good veg!

    Here is what we hope to bring you during week 1: 

    Regular Share:
    1 – Salad Greens
    2 – Cooking Greens
    3 – Allium Choice
    4 – Turnips
    5 – Winter Radish
    6 – Cabbage or Cauliflower
    7 – Winter Squash

    Looking forward to seeing you all at the barn!

  • End of season thank you!

    We are wrapping up our 20th season at Red Wagon. Wow! Every season has successes and failures. Our labor problems were very challenging again this year. The cucumber beetles got to our crop and ruined most of it. We had torrential rain storms that made it almost impossible to plant things in the spring. Wyatt planted carrots 2 or 3 times only to have a deluge within a day or two that washed out all the carrot seeds. We did learn one valuable trick with all the rain…the fields were way too wet to plant our winter squash seeds on June 1 and there wasn’t much prospect for the fields to dry out. So we started a few thousand winter squash plants in our greenhouse and transplanted them out at the end of June. This felt like a crazy thing to do but it worked really well! It was a lot easier to cultivate the plants and they had higher yields than normal. We’ll definitely try that again next year. The onion plants were damaged by snow in April and never really recovered. But the shallots and leeks did great! The list of successes and failures goes on and on. And no two seasons are ever the same!

    Through it all it is our CSA members that make it possible for us to have a farm. You show up reliably week after week–and year after year for many of you! That stability is one of the reasons our CSA members provide so much support for us. I’m tired and my brain is foggy so I won’t try to write down all the many reasons our CSA members keep our farm going. But ask me next time you see me!

    With gratitude,
    Amy

  • Celeriac Soup

    Fall and Winter crops are here and one of my favorite vegetables is a choice this week-Celeriac! Days are noticeably shorter and cooler and I wanted some soup.

    I say all the time ‘use what you have and what you like’ and that is what I did to make this Celeriac Soup.

     

    I looked at my basic potato leek soup recipe and gathered pretty much equal amounts of whatever ingredients I had to make this soup. I bet you have most of these ingredients, or similar enough in your refrigerator and can make this soup too.

    • 1 little leek and a couple little onions washed and cut into circles.
    • 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of celeriac and a few smalls potatoes
    • 2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil to sauté the vegetables, I used a little of both
    • 4 cups of liquid maybe a little more to thin it outt. You can use vegetable or chicken stock, or water or milk-dairy or plant based. I used chicken stock today, I thought I was going to use some oat milk too, I like to mix liquids, when I took this photo, but I didn’t use it after all. But you might want to.
    • Salt, pepper and any herbs you like. I had some celery leaves so I am using those instead of herbs. I also added some bay leaves, not in this picture.
    • You can always add optional toppings to finish the soup like cheeses, seeds or nuts or some crunchy raw vegetables are all a nice way to finish a hearty soup and make dinner feel special and fun. Look in your refrigerator and pantry for yummy toppings.

    Peel the celeriac and cut up everything else and add it to a large pot. Sauté on medium heat with some butter and or olive oil and salt and pepper.

    When all the vegetables have started to soften a little add whatever liquid you are using (I added my bay leaves at this point) and cover the pan with a lid and let that simmer for at least 45 minutes or an hour or so until everything is really really soft.

    When the vegetables are done your soup is done, it’s that easy. Taste it and see if you want to add some milk or cream or salt or pepper, maybe more liquid? I blended mine a little with an immersion blender. I left some chunks, I like it chunky. If you do blend it and you used bay leaves make sure you take the bay leaves out don’t blend them!

    My soup was really nice at this point and I didn’t want to add anything except a few chives. I thought I was going to add milk or cheese but no. I had made some pumpkin bread that went perfectly with the soup. Super simple and fast.

    Taste yours you may want to add something, otherwise, your done! Dinner is served!

    Well Friends. This is Week 22. Thank you so much for your support. Winter CSA starts next week and I hope to see you at the Winter pickups, but if not hopefully next year in our regular season CSA.

    Be well.

    Mo