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Tag: Winter Squash

  • 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 20 (October 1st, 2012)

    Hello CSA members!

    This week we hope to bring you spaghetti squash, cabbage OR sunchokes, cauliflower OR baby chard, roasted chilies OR roasted sweet peppers, and Red Russian kale OR broccoli raab. Large share members will get cauliflower AND baby chard as well as spinach. Fruit share members will be getting pears and apples.

    In this week’s newsletter:


    Spaghetti Squash
    Posted by Mo

    Week 20, is that right? Whoosh, there went Summer.

    This week you are getting spaghetti squash. Spaghetti squash will store for a long, long time. They are very bland so you need to add some good flavors and textures to any dish using spaghetti squash.

    I hear some people say that they are intimidated by cutting winter squash in half in order to bake them. I have read that you can microwave winter squash for 5 to 10 minutes, making them easier to cut, then proceed with baking. I had never tried that, so I did.
    I poked some holes in the spaghetti squash so it wouldn’t blow up in the microwave.

    I microwaved it for a total of 10 minutes. After 5 minutes I turned it over and cooked it another 5 minutes. This is what it looked like after 10 minutes of microwaving. You can see how it is partially cooked, but very raw in the middle. While I was microwaving it I preheated the oven to 400°F. After doing this I am positive it will work with any winter squash.

    I scooped out the seeds and added some onions, herbs, salt and pepper. I rubbed all that with olive oil and put it in the 400°F oven for about 35 minutes.

    Spaghetti squash are the ultimate in stringy squash. To optimize the stringy ‘spaghettiness’ of the squash you want to dry it out a bit so bake it uncovered, cut side up the whole cooking time.

    See the meat of the squash pulling away from the squash shell? That is how you know it’s done.

    Discard the herbs if you used them and use a fork to fluff up the squash to make it look like spaghetti. Don’t stir it or smash it. Try to keep it fluffed up.

    My very favorite thing to do with spaghetti squash is to cut up one of my last very ripe tomatoes and add a little olive oil, parsley and Parmesan cheese. This dish tells me that summer is well and truly over. What a great goodbye.


    Jerusalem Artichokes
    We have been offering Jerusalem artichokes in our CSA for years now, so many of you love them and look forward to getting them. This is some information for those of you who may be less familiar with them.

    Jerusalem artichokes (also called sunchokes) are tubers belonging to the daisy family. The plant looks like an enormous sunflower plant. We dig up the roots to eat, much like potatoes. I don’t want to get into a health discussion here, but if you are interested you should look up the health factors of this tuber, especially if you eat it raw. It has some very unique health benefits.

    You can use Jerusalem artichokes in pretty much the same way you would use a potato. Specifically, use it like you would a new potato because you don’t need to peel these. They are washed and ready to use.

    They look a little like ginger root don’t they?

    You can roast these, bake them, incorporate them in a root vegetable mash-up, or make a soup or a salad. Anything that you would make with a potato, you can make with these. I think they are fun to cook with because your brain thinks it is going to taste like a potato but you get a unique flavor and texture.

    I pan roasted some with onions, mushrooms and a little garlic.

    They have a very interesting nutty taste and a pleasant crunch that potatoes lose when cooked. Because they are so flavorful with such a nice texture, they work well to compliment a less flavorful, unique textured counterpart…like spaghetti squash.

    Have a great week and I hope you try something new.

    – Mo

    Guest Recipes

    Posted by Maddie

    We have a very food-filled newsletter for you this week! Thanks Mo for your great ideas, as always. Today I thought I would also share some recipes with you that I’ve collected from CSA members in the last week or so. Unfortunately the timing on two of these is a little off, since they contain mostly summer veggies like tomatoes and zucchini. However, if you happen to still have any of these ingredients hanging around, either from your CSA share or from your garden, I highly recommend trying out one or all of these recipes.

    I’m off tomorrow on a short trip back to Vermont so I won’t be seeing all of you at pick-up this week, but I hope everyone has a wonderful first week of October! Enjoy those veggies.

    – Maddie


    Summer Vegetable Caponata

    Submitted by Jessica Hersh

    • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 Tbs brown sugar
    • 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
    • 3 lbs summer vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, peppers, yellow squash, green beans)
    • 1 medium or 2 small onions
    • 3-5 cloves of garlic
    • 1 large can small diced tomatoes in juice or 2 lbs fresh tomatoes, peeled and diced
    • 2-3 Tbs capers
    • black pepper
    • salt

    Prepare the eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash as follows: wash, trim, and cut into small bite-sized pieces. Peel the onion and dice it. Peel the garlic and cut into thin slices. Put the oil, sugar, and balsamic vinegar into a heavy-bottomed pot and heat over medium high until bubbly. Add the eggplant and onion and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking and burning. Add the rest of the vegetables (including tomatoes and garlic.) Add capers. Stir well, turn heat down to low and cover the pot.

    If the mix seems very dry add half a cup of water – you want to allow this dish to stew for hours without drying out. Cook over low heat for at least 2 hours, checking water content and stirring every 10 minutes or so. When the dish is fully cooked, all the vegetables should be very soft and falling apart and it should be thick, not soupy. At this point, remove it from the heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot or allow to cool and serve cold. You can eat this as a salad, a side dish, an omelet filling, tossed with pasta, topping a frittata, as a dip for chips or bread, as a crostini topping, a sandwich filling, or just a dip-the-spoon in snack.
    Enjoy!


    Curried Apple and Potato Kugel

    Submitted by Jessica Hersh

    • 3 lbs potatoes (either red or yellow)
    • 2 lbs apples (something with nice flavor and crisp texture (like honeycrisp or granny smith)
    • 2 medium onions
    • 2 Tbs curry powder
    • 2 tsp salt
    • 1 cup flour
    • 6 eggs
    • 1/4 cup neutral oil (safflower or sunflower)

    Preheat oven to 375°F. Wash the potatoes and apples well and peel the onions. Grate them all, starting with onions and rotating (this will keep the potatoes from oxidizing and turning brown.) Mix the shredded vegetables and fruit together with the flour, eggs, curry powder, and salt. Put the oil in a baking dish (Pyrex works great for this) and put in the hot oven for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and put the kugel mix in the hot oil in the pan. Spread evenly then bake for 45 minutes to an hour until the edges and top are nicely browned. Cut into pieces and serve hot. This is great plain or topped with plain yogurt.


    Tomato Soup

    Submitted by Kate Martin

    • 1 large onion, chopped
    • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
    • 1 1/2 Tbs butter
    • 1 Tbs olive oil
    • 2 tsp. each dried thyme and dried basil
    • 3 Tbs tomato paste
    • 3 lbs. fresh ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
    • salt and pepper to taste
    • 4 cups chicken broth

    Saute onion and garlic in butter and olive oil. Add spices, tomato paste, salt, pepper and tomatoes. Cook for 10 minutes. Add broth. Cover slightly and simmer 30 minutes more. Puree in a blender, food processor, or using an immersion blender. This recipe freezes great and is a perfect dish to pull out on a cool fall evening.

  • CSA Newsletter: Week 19 (September 24th, 2012)

    Hello CSA members!

    This week we hope to bring you Delicata squash, German Butterball potatoes, beets OR turnips, beans, jalapenos OR parsley OR onions, and lettuce OR roasted sweet peppers. Large share members will be getting lettuce AND roasted sweet peppers, broccoli, and shallots. Fruit share members will get Alkmene apples and Gala apples.

    In this week’s newsletter:


    Potato Success

    Posted by Maddie

    In my eyes, this year’s Cinderella story at Red Wagon has definitely been the potato crop. I’ll be honest, when we planted potatoes in the field back in May I did not have high hopes. The farm crew that day spent hours planting row after row of potatoes in soil that looked more like a lava field than fertile earth. I remember my skepticism well. With every seed potato I wiggled into the rocky ground, I thought, “Good luck down there, little fella.” More experienced farmers assured me they would probably do just fine.

    Looking back, I wish I had thought to take some pictures on planting day. Last week I had the chance to harvest some of our stubborn little spuds for the first time and did they ever prove me wrong.

    Javier got us started by tilling up two rows of potato plants with the tractor. The row on the left in this picture shows what the tops of the plants look like when the potatoes are ready. You can see potatoes tumbling out of the ground in the newly dug row in the center.

    The tractor pulls the plants out of the ground and we follow behind, digging the potatoes out of the now beautiful soil, teeming with earthworms.

    Pulling potatoes makes me feel like a little kid. There you are on your knees, digging around looking for buried treasure with your shoes and fingernails full of dirt. And then the occasional earthworm or roly-poly squiggles out to greet you. I recommend that everyone try it at least once.

    Pumpkin Patch Now Open!

    Posted by Maddie

    We have been busy on the farm getting our pumpkin patch set up. The leaves on the pumpkin plants are dying back and revealing thousands of beautiful orange pumpkins. The straw bale maze is complete and ready for adventure!

    Our pumpkin patch is located at the 7694 N 63rd Street, off the Diagonal highway in Longmont. Come visit us! We will be open from 10am-6pm every day now through October 31st.


    Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

    Posted by Mo

    You have a choice of roasted red peppers today. These are a very sweet pepper called Carmen. Roasting them brings out even more sweetness and complex flavors. To prepare these you simply need to rinse off most of the charred peel and seed and devein them.

    You can put some olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar on these peppers and essentially you will have what you get a Whole Foods olive bar or buy in jars that you would pay big bucks for.

    I like to use these on grilled cheese sandwiches. But I really love roasted red pepper sauce.
    Roasted red pepper sauce is almost as easy as making pesto. Seed and devein your peppers as above and take the peppers for a spin in your Cuisinart or blender.

    Add some onions and garlic sauteed in olive oil.

    And take that for a spin. If you are going to eat it right away you can add a splash of cream or 1/2 & 1/2 and some Parmesan cheese. Use this like you would pesto, on pasta or bread as a spread or to compliment some grilled vegetables or meat.

    I wanted to save mine for winter eats so I am going to freeze it at this point and add cream when I use it.

    Yeah. I love putting some things away for winter.


    Roasted Delicata Squash Salad

    Posted by Mo

    This week you are getting delicata squash.

    Delicata will store for up to 3 months so don’t feel like you have to use it right away. Keep it in the garage or an unheated room and it will be fine.

    Delicata are one of a few winter squash that you don’t need to peel. The flesh and peel are firm with a nutty flavor. I like to roast them in smaller pieces to get more caramelized areas, but you can also just cut it in half and roast it like you would an acorn squash. Delicatas are nice stuffed with grains or vegetables and roasted, too.

    I want to show you one of my favorite winter salads. This is a good way to use up anything you have in your refrigerator.

    Delicata squash work really well with this salad because the flesh is so firm when it is cooked and can hold up to being tossed with vinaigrette and mixed with other ingredients.
    Cut up your squash, removing the seeds and stringy pulp.  Drizzle the slices with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast in a hot 400˚F oven.


    Roast the bejeezes out of it, about 40 minutes. You want these really done, almost dry.


    Put the cooked squash in a bowl and chop up any vegetables that you have on hand. Make sure you add some sort of onion and some crunchy stuff like celery or peppers. The contrast of soft and crunchy is nice. I wish I had some hard cooked eggs to add here.

    I drizzled this with a Dijon vinaigrette but any dressing will do. Mine was 2 teaspoons Dijon, 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. I tossed it all and served it on some lettuce. This is also great on grains or rice. The leftovers are so good too. The flavors meld so make lots. You will want more than one meal out of this.

    Enjoy this cool weather and being able to turn on the oven without dying of heat.
    Until next week.

    – 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