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Category: Storage and Preparation

Storing Herbs and Creamy Herb Salad Dressing

I LOVE that herbs are being added to our CSA share. I thought I might post on how to store your herbs and a really basic recipe for a salad dressing that you can adapt to any herb you might have on hand.

Clockwise, top to center we have; chives, oregano, garlic chives, cilantro and thyme.

Tender herbs like basil, cilantro and parsley should be treated like fresh flowers on your counter. Just put them in a container with water and make sure the stems are touching the water. Change the water every day or two until you use all the herbs.

Woody herbs like oregano, thyme, tarragon, and grassy herbs like chives need to be stored in the warmest part of your refrigerator; in the door, or where you store your butter. You can wrap them loosely in plastic wrap, Ziplock bag, or in a small Tupperware like container with the lid slightly ajar. Don’t seal them tightly or they will mold. Oh, and don’t rinse any of your herbs before you use them. They don’t store well wet or even damp. I put a little piece of papertowel in a Ziploc with my herbs to keep them dry and really fresh.

I also put them in front of everything on the shelf so I can see them. That way I don’t forget about them and I use them.

Here is a basic recipe salad dressing. It makes at least enough for 12 or 15 single salads and keeps for two weeks. I keep this on hand and put it on any greens I have, lettuce, arugula, kale, chard. Keeping greens washed and ready to eat and having a nice fresh dressing on hand makes me really happy.

Creamy Herb Salad Dressing
1 cup (about) loosely packed dill, parsley, basil, cilantro, or chives washed and most of the stems removed. Any combination of these works.
2 or 3 tablespoons loosely packed leaves of woody herbs like thyme, oregano or tarragon.
3/4 cup mayonnaise, low-fat, or not, or even yogurt works here.
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Tbs. vinegar, any type.
1/2 tsp. kosher salt; more to taste
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3/4 tsp. hot sauce _optional.
In a food processor, combine everything and process for a minute or two. Pour into a bottle or jar and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

May 26, 2014
Storing and Handling Melons

August 12, 2016: This is a re-post of a blog from August 2013. Melons are coming in strong right now. Soon to be followed my winter squash and more fruit, yay! Sometimes it is easy to forgot that, though we are organic, we still need to wash melons, and all produce from ANY Market or vendor before eating.

August, 2013 repost; The most important thing to know about melons, any melons, is that you need to wash the melon before you cut into it. Even though you don’t eat the outer rind of the melon, any pathogens on the outside of the melon can be transmitted to the flesh when you cut into the melon.
You don’t need to wash it if you are storing it. Wash the melon before you cut into it.

Watermelons won’t ripen after they are picked. We are very careful to pick only ripe melons so rest assured the melon you get from us will be at it’s best. It will be heavy for its size and usually have a yellow spot on it’s ‘tummy’ where it was sitting growing on the field.

Cantaloupe, honeydew, and musk melon will continue to slightly ripen after being picked. If you get a really firm melon with no fragrance leave it on the counter for a day or two, it will ripen.
When perfectly ripe, the melon will be firm, the blossom end should smell fragrant and fruity, and the stem end shouldn’t smell like anything. If the stem end smells musky or moldy it is over ripe.

Watermelons whole will keep in the refrigerator for at least two or three weeks. If you have a cool room, 55 to 65 degrees it will keep for 3 or 4 weeks. I don’t have anywhere this time of year that stays that cool, maybe you do.
A watermelon cut up will keep in an airtight container for 3 or 4 days.

Ripe melons, cantaloupe, honeydew, and musk melons will keep in the refrigerator 7-15 days depending on the variety. They will be good and safe to eat but they might be a little over ripe if you leave them a couple weeks.

You can freeze any melon in an airtight container and use them in smoothies or fruit soups.

August 12, 2013
Chard 101

Chard is basically a leafy beet plant without a root. It is related to beets, spinach and quinoa, not kale, it’s not a brassica.

Wash your chard, don’t soak it. It will loose nutrients if you soak it.

Almost all recipes call for you to cut off and discard the chard stems. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. The stems are a little tough and crunchy so you might, or might not want that. It will depend on the dish. If there is a long cooking time for onions or something in the dish I will add the stems to cook with the onions, then add the quicker cooking leaves later. This is one of those kitchen decisions you will have to make as you go.

Sometimes recipes call for you to remove the rib of the chard.

To chop up chard I like to stack the leaves and roll them up like a cigar and chop them into ribbons. You can do this with or without the ribs.

Here is the bunch of chard all chopped up and ready to use, with or without the stems; you choose.

I’m going to make pan roasted garbanzo beans and chard with this bunch of chard.

July 1, 2013
Napa Cabbage Storage and Prep

Napa Cabbage is a little different than green or red cabbage. Napa cabbage is more closely related to bok choy so it is more tender and a little sweeter than green cabbage. I think of green cabbage as being rubbery, in a good way. Napa cabbage is crisp and sweet.

The Napa cabbage I got in my CSA share had lots of dark green outer leaves. I peeled them off to reveal what you are probably used to seeing Napa cabbage look like when you get it at the store.

I washed and chopped up the outer leaves, I’ll use those in a stir fry tonight. The outer leaves are a little tougher than the inside head.

You can store the head of the Napa cabbage wrapped in an airtight container or plastic in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. You can use it raw, like you would with lettuce or cabbage. Or you can use it in cooked dishes like you would green cabbage. Peel or cut off what you need and replace the rest in the sealed container and put it back in the refrigerator.

July 1, 2013
Fava Bean Prep

We had a farm tour yesterday and we peeled and ate favas we picked from the field on the hay rides.

Favas are yummy raw and fun to eat. But cooked, favas are heaven. If you haven’t had favas, or haven’t prepared them yourself this might seem like a lot of work. Really it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes or so and the yummy, nutty result is more than worth the effort. You probably will only do this once or twice a year so, enjoy the time you spend preparing this fun legume.

Here is a basic fava bean preparation for most any recipe calling for favas, save grilled favas.
Check the recipe index for the grilling favas blog.

There are three steps to preparing a Fava Bean:
1.Removing the beans from the pod.
2.Blanching the beans in boiling water, that you removed from the pod, to soften for easy removal of the outer shell.
3.Peeling off the outer shell before eating or cooking to end with a bright-green, tender-scrumptious bean!

In the picture you can see the steps, except I didn’t show blanching the beans. You know what boiling water looks like, right?

The bright tender inner bean is what you are after.

A pound of fava beans yields a heaping 1/2 cup of recipe ready fava beans. You can simply eat favas with a little butter and salt, or add them to almost any pasta dish or salad.
I hope you enjoy your favas, I know I will!!

June 24, 2013
Storing greens

We work really hard to get our greens (kale, chard, broccoli raabe, collards) to you fresh and full of life. Here’s how you can keep them that way.

If you store your greens properly they will stay fresh in your refrigerator for a week. Modern frost free refrigerators have moving air that will dehydrate food uncovered, so you need to keep your greens sealed in a plastic bag, or some sort of sealed container.

When you pick up your CSA share it would be best to put your greens in a plastic bag or container immediately at the pick up. We have bags available if you forget to bring your own. If you don’t want to use plastic you can use a cloth cotton bag. You need to rewet the cloth bag every day or the greens will wilt as soon as the cloth bag dries. You don’t want to pack the greens too tightly in the any bag or squish them either. they need to be stored loosely so some air can move around the leaves.

This is a bunch of kale that was harvested Friday and kept in a plastic bag in my refrigerator for three days. It looks just like it did when it was harvested.

This is a bunch of kale that was kept in my refrigerator unwrapped for 12 hours.

I’m sorry kale. I did it for the good of the blog.

The second bunch of kale is still edible. It is just dehydrated. You could cook it and it would be fine. If I left this bunch of kale much longer uncovered it would start to get slimy. Slime happens when the cell structure breaks down and the kale starts to decompose. When that happens you don’t want to eat it.

So, sealed and wrapped greens store nicely for one week in the refrigerator and unwrapped greens store for less than one day.

June 3, 2013