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Tag: Harvest Celebration

  • CSA Newsletter: Week 21 (October 8th, 2012)

    Hello CSA members!

    This week we hope to bring you butternut squash, potatoes, shallots OR red onions, cauliflower OR broccoli, watermelon radishes, and baby chard OR lettuce. Large share members will receive baby chard AND lettuce, carrots, and garlic. Fruit share members will receive apples.

    In this week’s newsletter:


    Harvest Celebration THIS SUNDAY!

    Posted by Maddie

    It’s hard to believe the end of the CSA season is almost here! It feels like just yesterday that we were bringing you pints of strawberries and sugar snap peas.

    In order to celebrate another wonderful season and to thank our CSA members for making it possible, Red Wagon will be hosting our 2nd annual harvest party this coming Sunday!

    Come and walk around the pumpkin patch, take a hayride around the farm, enjoy live music and help us bid a fond farewell to the 2012 season! The celebration will be a potluck, so please bring a dish to share. Red Wagon made veggie chili and will be providing beer. The kids can make a s’more by the campfire, meet our goats, llamas, and alpacas, and explore the straw bale maze!

    Date: Sunday, October 14th
    Time: 3:00pm-8:00pm
    Location: Red Wagon’s 63rd St. Farm and Pumpkin Patch
    (7694 N 63rd St. Longmont, CO 80503)

    Bring:

    • a dish to share as this is a potluck. We will try to eat between 4 and 6pm.
    • a chair or blanket to sit on.
    • something warm to wear! It gets cold quickly as the sun goes down.
    • We will have plates and utensils, but you can help us reduce waste by bringing your own!
    • Please no dogs.

    I hope everyone can make it! Have a great week and I’ll see you at pick-up.

    – Maddie

    Let’s Talk About Shallots

    Posted by Mo

    Shallots aren’t little onions. They are more closely related to garlic and potato onions. Their taste is milder than onions in terms of bite or ‘hot,’ but shallots are more complex and flavorful. Shallots will store for a long, long, long time. The shallots you get this week will keep until at least January or February if not longer.

    In most recipes, you can interchange shallots and onions. If I want a more refined or complex flavor (or especially if I want to layer flavors) I will use shallots alone or in tandem with other alliums. One of the best attributes of a shallot is that it melts into the dishes where it is used. The cell walls collapse, leaving only flavor and no crunch.

    I think the flesh even looks more refined than an onion. This is an average sized shallot. I put the egg in there for reference. Small or large shallots don’t affect flavor or storage. They are all really good.


    Squash Yield

    Posted by Mo

    This week you are getting butternut squash. I would say butternut is the quintessential winter squash here in America. They are easy to cut, peel, cube, and bake. They usually aren’t too big and the flesh is nutty, mildly sweet, and a beautiful orange color.

    This butternut squash weighed 3 1/2 pounds. I have found that the weight in pounds of winter squash and pumpkins correlate very closely to cups yielded, meaning a 3 1/2 pound squash or pumpkin will yield about 3 1/2 cups of cooked flesh. Let’s see.

    Yep. If I smooshed it down, I think it would be almost exactly 3 1/2 cups. I thought this info might be useful to some of you.

    Butternut Squash Ravioli
    Yield: about 30 triangle ravioli

    I am calling them butternut squash ravioli but you can use any squash you like to make these.

    For the filling:

    • 1 cup cooked squash (I roasted mine)
    • 1 shallot, chopped
    • sage leaves, chopped
    • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
    • 1 or 2 ounces goat cheese

    For the ravioli:

    • won ton wrappers
    • 1-2 egg whites

    Heat the butter in a skillet. Add the shallot until it is softened, then add the sage, cooked squash and goat cheese. Cook until it is all really well incorporated.

    Lay won ton wrappers out on your work surface and paint egg white around the edges of the wrappers. Spoon about 2 teaspoons of squash filling on the won ton wrapper. You can either put another wrapper on top and seal, or fold in a triangle and seal. The egg white will seal the wrapper to itself.

    I made one ravioli with one wrapper on top of another and the rest I folded in a triangle. I think the triangle is easier and a better size to eat.

    You can freeze the ravioli at this point and pull out what you need later. I like to use these on salads with kale or spinach, or in soups like minestrone. You can also use them for a really rich starter. They only need to be boiled for 2 or 3 minutes so be careful not to overcook them.

    Boil as many as you need. While they are boiling, brown some butter and more sage in a pan. When they are cooked, drain and quickly saute the ravioli in the butter and sage. You don’t need to cook them any more, just coat the ravioli with the butter and sage and drain them a little before serving.

    You can refrigerate the rest of the squash for up to a week or freeze it for two or three months.

    There are hundreds and hundreds of recipes using roasted squash. Let us know what you are making with yours!

    Watermelon Radishes

    I get asked all the time what I do with watermelon radishes.

    I have fun.

    Have a great week and cook something fun.

    – Mo

  • CSA Newsletter: Week 18 (September 17th, 2012)

    Hello CSA members!

    This week we hope to bring you one acorn squash, Italian eggplant, beans, green peppers OR roasted chilies, red tomatoes OR seconds tomatoes, and arugula OR spicy salad mix. Large share members will also receive garlic, Hakurei turnips, and pea shoots. Fruit share members will receive Honeycrisp apples, Gala apples, and pears.

    In this week’s newsletter:


    Harvest Celebration Coming Up!

    Mark your calendars for our second annual Harvest Celebration!

    • Where: Red Wagon’s 63rd Street Farm
    • When: Sunday, October 14th from 3pm-8pm
    • More details to come!

    We have recently started preparing for our end-0f-season CSA celebration. The Harvest Celebration this year will include a potluck dinner (please bring an entree, side dish or dessert to share!), walking tours of the farm, hayrides, pumpkin painting, a straw bale maze, visits with the animals, an evening bonfire (provided there is no fire ban), and more!

    Mo is already busy preparing vegetarian chili and we will be providing beer and non-alcoholic beverages. It should be a great time and I hope to see everyone there!

    – Maddie


    63rd Street Happenings

    Posted by Maddie

    I hope everyone’s week is off to a great start. If you haven’t had a chance, be sure to stop by our new farm stand in Longmont at the corner of Oxford Road and North 63rd Street. Visiting the farm stand is a great way to get a peak at the farm where we are growing most of your late summer veggies as well as fall crops like pumpkins and winter squash. The farm stand is open from 10am to 6pm every day and is a great place to pick up anything you may not receive in your CSA share like corn and peaches or other fruit.

    When you stop by, ask the folks at the farm stand for some old corn or other treats to feed the animals. Our goats, llamas and alpacas love visitors!

    Photo Credit: Blair Bost

    It has been amazing to see the variety of crops we have growing on the farm all at once. Last Friday, while I was picking zucchini and cucumbers (yes, we still have these!) I noticed that our pumpkins are really starting to look ready. Amy says that the pumpkin patch at 63rd Street will be opening in the next week or so, so stay tuned!

    ______________________________________________________________

    Making Chili for the End-of-Season CSA Party

    Posted by Mo

    Mark your calendars for the second annual Red Wagon End of Season CSA Party. Last year we made a big batch of vegetarian chili from our farm vegetables to share with our CSA members. It was a big hit so we decided to do that again. We could get a freeze any night now so last week I started to gather frost-sensitive food for the chili I want to make for you.

    I got a couple of boxes of seconds tomatoes.

    I need to freeze most of the food because the party isn’t for a few weeks. I have a machine that separates the skin and seeds of the tomatoes and just leaves the pulp. I don’t even need to core the tomatoes, so I got through two boxes pretty quickly. I’ll put the pulp in big Ziploc bags and freeze them.


    This is what it separates out and I discard.


    I went to the Farm Stand and had Lauren roast some Anaheim peppers. I separated the charred skin and seeds and chopped the peppers. These are in the freezer with the tomatoes now.

    I thought roasted sweet peppers would be great in the chili too, these are about to be roasted.

    Then I diced up some different color bell peppers and froze them.

    I blanched some corn and removed the kernels and froze it too. I think this will look really pretty with the peppers in the chili. I can’t decide if I am going to make black beans or mixed bean chili yet.

    Phew. That’s done.


    Winter Squash 101

    I love winter squash. Love, love, love it. I love it all, the gnarliest Calabazas, the sweetest Delicatas,  the formidable Hubbards, to the humblest acorn.

    That yellow spot was where the squash was sitting on the soil in the field. We lift up the squash to see if there is a yellow spot. If there is, the squash is ready to harvest.

    All winter squash except acorn, delicata, and sweet dumpling benefit from a curing time. Curing is simply keeping the squash at room temperature, around 70˚F to 75˚F for 10 to 20 days. After that the squash will keep for months at around 50˚F to 55˚F. Pretty much if you keep your squash in the garage or an unheated room,it will be ok. The weather in the fall naturally takes care of the curing temperatures and time. So, any squash you get from us will keep for months if you put it in your garage or a cool room. Don’t keep your squash on the counter or in the refrigerator. Too warm and too cool.

    The basic cooking of any winter squash is about the same. Baking time will depend on the size of your squash, so keep that in mind.
    Preheat your oven to 375˚F. Cut your squash in half and clean out the seeds and any stringy membranes. I always save the seeds to roast alongside my squash. Just rinse the seeds off and separate the membranes and discard the stringy stuff.


    I put a little olive oil and salt and pepper on the seeds and maybe some curry powder or another seasoning.
    I put the seeds on a little piece of foil because the seeds will get done before the squash and it makes it easier to remove from a hot pan.

    Put your squash cut side down, with your seeds in the hot oven and set the timer for 20 minutes.
    The seeds will be done after 20 minutes but your squash will need longer.

    Take the seeds out and turn your squash cut side up and you can brush it with butter or oil and add honey or sugar at this point. I used about a tablespoon of butter and the same amount of honey.

    Back in the oven for 35 or 40 minutes. Big squash might take longer. Here it is done.

    Now, you can serve it like this. Scoop out the flesh and use it in any recipe calling for cooked squash, or freeze it for later. Stuff it with grains or vegetables. This is a starting point. Have fun with it.

    Until next week.
    -Mo