Become a Working CSA Member!  See details →
🔍

Tag: Zucchini

  • CSA Newsletter: Week 11 (July 30th, 2012)

    Hello CSA members!

    This week we hope to bring you watermelon, new potatoes, onions, broccoli OR eggplant, zucchini OR cucumbers OR tromboncino squash, and green beans. Large shares will get broccoli AND eggplant, tomatoes, and bell peppers. Fruit share members will get peaches AND plums.

    In this week’s newsletter:


    Farm Updates

    Posted by Maddie

    As I’m sure you all know by now, we are in the middle of one of the driest summers on record. The drought is putting a lot of stress on farmers all across the United States, with Colorado being one of the hardest hit states. Wyatt, the farm managers and the farm crew are working hard to ensure that we have plenty of food despite some pretty tough growing conditions.

    Photo Credit: Robert Wilson

    Fortunately, Wyatt was able to change some things around that have made a huge difference and we have so far been successful at producing a lot of delicious veggies.

    Many of the crops that have been grown at the Teller Farm in years past are being grown at our 63rd Street Farm this year. If you attended our farm tour back in June, you probably saw a lot of these crops when they were young. Wyatt decided to grow some of the tomatoes, most of the green beans, and all of the eggplant and peppers at the 63rd Street Farm this year. This photo shows some of the rows of peppers and eggplant which are just starting to produce fruit.

    Photo Credit: Robert Wilson

    The green beans you will get this week were harvested at 63rd Street.

    Photo Credit: Robert Wilson

    Purple potatoes AND purple peppers?! Peppers are just for large shares this week but will be coming soon for everyone.

    Photo Credit: Robert Wilson

    Here is Hannah harvesting some beautiful heirloom tomatoes from the hoop houses. Tomatoes for CSA may be a couple of weeks out, but they will be worth the wait!

    Photo credit: Robert Wilson

    We have an amazing share for you all this week and there is more great stuff to come. I hope you enjoy it!

    Have a great week,

    Maddie


    Magical Mystery (ahem..Zucchini) Muffins

    Posted by Maddie

    Week 6 in a row for zucchini? I know, I know. And there’s more where that came from, trust me. But keep in mind, zucchini is one of the most versatile veggies out there. Need more zucchini ideas? Slice it into coins with some of your CSA onions, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and grill. Slice it into spears or halves and do the same.

    And then of course, there are the easy to make, easy to eat and easy to share Zucchini Muffins. I know Mo gave you a recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread last week (which was awesome, I hope you tried it) but I thought I’d give you a different take this week for fun. You can use either the zucchini you get this week, if you choose it, or some that you have left over from previous weeks. (Or you can use the zucchini your neighbor put in your car or on your porch while you were sleeping. Or the ones that fell from the sky…you get the idea.)

    Here is an awesome, easy recipe for zucchini bread or muffins from the Smitten Kitchen. I have made this twice already this summer and it has been fabulous both times. The key is to share! My coworkers, who are also eating a lot of zucchini right now, really enjoyed these. You can even call them Magical Mystery Muffins if you want.

    Magical Mystery (ahem..Zucchini) Muffins
    Yield: 2 loaves of bread or approximately 24 muffins

    • 3 eggs
    • 1 cup olive or vegetable oil
    • 1 3/4 cups sugar
    • 2 cups grated zucchini
    • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    • 3 cups all-purpose flour
    • 3 teaspoons cinnamon
    • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
    • 1 cup dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional)

    Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners (or grease and flour 2 8×4″ loaf pans).

    Grate your zucchini using a box grater, or a food processor if you have one. 2 cups is about half of a big zucchini or a whole medium zucchini. If you have a big one on hand, make a double batch with 24 muffins and 2 loaves of bread and freeze the bread for later. It really freezes well wrapped in plastic wrap a few times, and will be great to have a few months from now when you’re in zucchini withdrawals.

    In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Add the oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla.

    In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and then add to egg mixture.

    Pour batter into muffin cups and bake for about 20-25 minutes.

    How could you not love these?


    Choosing a Watermelon

    Posted by Mo

    Look at this week’s CSA share.
    <img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-538" title="Share Week 11" src="http://redwagonfarmboulder.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/share-week-11.jpg&quot; alt="" width="640" height="426" /
    Just beautiful.
    I may weep.

    Remember 11 weeks ago when we were explaining the possibility of a drought this year and the problems that go along with drought? We'll it's here. We are in one of the driest, if not the driest summer on record and look what Wyatt and the farm crew can produce.
    How lucky are we to have Red Wagon be 'our' farmers? Let's have a big, big round of applause please for their knowledge, experience and commitment to growing fantastic food in some of the most challenging conditions in decades.

    This week everyone gets a watermelon. Yea!
    We grow several different varieties, all delicious. Big and small, they are all great. Pick one that will fit in your refrigerator. That's the biggest choice you need to make.

    People always ask if the watermelons are ready, or if we can pick a ‘good one’. We are very, very careful to pick only ripe and ready melons so you can be assured that any melon you get will be wonderful. But, just for fun I’ll show you how to make sure a watermelon you get from someone else was harvested correctly.
    First thing you do is roll the melon over to see it’s ‘tummy’. See the yellow? That is where it has been sitting on the ground in the field. If a melon is all green, pass on it and find one with a yellow ‘tummy’. When you find a yellow one put the melon in one hand and tap the top of the melon with your other hand like Erica is doing here.

    Your bottom hand should be able to feel ‘water’ vibrating in the melon. Almost like a water balloon. If it feels dense with no movement, try another one.


    Tromboncino Squash and Japanese Eggplant

    Posted by Mo

    We are bringing a choice of summer squash this week. Tromboncino squash are new this week. They are an Italian squash.

    Tromboncino can be picked young as summer squash or left on the vine and picked as a winter squash. We pick them young. They are larger and more dense than the green and yellow zucchini we have been bringing you. I think they taste nutty and I find anything I can do with a winter squash I can do with a Tromboncino, except unlike most winter squash, you can use and eat the peel of the Tromboncino. So try out your favorite winter squash soup or casserole dish with a Tromboncino. I think you will love them. I really do.
    They will keep well in the refrigerator a few days longer than zucchini, more like 10 days rather than 6 or 7 for zucchini.

    The eggplant you are getting is a Japanese variety. It is more tender and sweet than the large, globe shaped Italian variety you will be getting later this year. Some recipes for eggplant call for salting and letting the salt draw out the bitterness of the eggplant or cooking the eggplant and discarding the peeling. With these small Japanese eggplant you don’t need to do either of those things. Just cook and enjoy them almost like you would a zucchini. There is a slight bitterness in the skin but there are almost no seeds and the inside of the eggplant is creamy and delicious.

    Grilling Vegetables

    Posted by Mo

    I decided to grill my Tromboncino, eggplants, and grilling onions I got this week. While the grill was getting hot I cut the vegetables into roughly the same size pieces so they would grill about the same time. I rubbed them with olive oil and salt and wacked them on the grill.

    When vegetables are this good I try to avoid any complicated cooking or additions. The one thing you want to do is grill them until they are truly done. “Crunchy” grilled vegetables are no bueno. We are about half way here.

    Done now.

    See how the cell walls are collapsed? If the vegetables are firm you aren’t getting the flavor of grilling. Some charring is ok, too. Some of that black is the skin of the eggplant, not burned vegetables.

    This made lot of vegetables. I used ½ for one meal and cut up the other ½ to use later in the week to add to some grains for eggs for a quick dinner.

    We have some great food this week. Let us know what you do with yours! Have fun.

    Mo

  • CSA Newsletter: Week 10 (July 23rd, 2012)

    Hello CSA members!

    This week we hope to bring you beets OR carrots, new purple potatoes, broccoli raab OR turnips, zucchini, cucumbers, grilling onions, basil OR kale OR chard. Large share members will also get tomatoes, garlic, and double potatoes. Fruit share members will get peaches.

    In this week’s newsletter:


    Guest Submissions

    I’ve received a few great newsletter submissions recently, both from CSA members and people who work on the farm. So, I’m sharing ideas from other folks this week in lieu of own weekly post. I really love hearing how everyone adds their own unique flavors to things as basic as beets and carrots. The following two recipes are particularly good for kids…that is, if they don’t gobble up all the carrots on the ride home from pick-up. The last one, from a CSA member named Amy, is a delicious variation on massaged kale salad. Enjoy!

    -Maddie

    Carrot Puree

    Submitted by Connor (Red Wagon employee)

    Hey Red Wagon CSA members,

    My name is Connor and I have been tending to the irrigation needs at Teller Farm until a recent bout with heat exhaustion put me on the sidelines. But alas, now I can find some time to share with you ways in which I’ve enjoyed our delicious produce.

    I enjoy cooking with things that remind me of home. Having grown up in New England, two of my favorites are sharp Vermont white cheddar and maple syrup. One of my favorite ways to prepare carrots, which I picked up from eating at fancy restaurants with my grandparents as a child, is a warm puree.

    Ingredients:

    • Carrots, boiled until tender (enough to feed your party)
    • Pure maple syrup, to taste
    • Cinnamon, to taste

    Optional

    • Nutmeg, to taste
    • Cayenne pepper, to taste

    Simply boil the carrots until they are soft enough to easily stick a fork into, throw them in a food processor and add cinnamon and maple syrup to taste. Nutmeg as well as cayenne pepper also go really well in here. Tread lightly when adding the syrup and the spices so you don’t mask the flavor of the carrots too much. I find our carrots from the farm to be particularly sweet anyway. I prepared this back in June as a side paired with our ripe sugar snap peas for a new take on peas and carrots, but I find this carrot puree to be a very versatile side that goes well with any sort of white fish or chicken. I’ve also used it in burritos with rice and beans in the same fashion that one might use a sweet potato.

    Connor


    Beet and Carrot Coleslaw

    Submitted by Susie (CSA member)

    “This beet and carrot coleslaw has been popular with my six year old and pretty simple.”

    • beets (boiled and chilled), diced
    • carrots, diced
    • cabbage, diced
    • apple cider vinegar
    • olive oil
    • honey, optional

    Blend diced vegetables with apple cider vinegar and a small amount of olive oil.  We like it on the drier side so for half a head of cabbage I did 4 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of olive oil. I also added a bit of honey to counter the vinegar for the kids.

    Also I have found that blending cooked beets with applesauce is a great way to introduce the beets to 1 and 2 year old types.

    Susie

    Massaged Kale Salad

    Submitted by Amy (CSA member)

    This is a suggestion I received from Amy a few weeks ago. She said she doesn’t really measure anything. Just use any and all of the ingredients to taste and according to your personal preferences.

    • Kale
    • Salt
    • Olive oil
    • Lemon juice
    • Maple syrup
    • Red wine vinegar
    • Craisins
    • Toasted almonds/sunflower seeds/pumpkin seeds

    More protein/fiber additions:

    • Avocado
    • Smoked salmon

    Massage kale with salt, olive oil and lemon juice. Add maple syrup and red wine vinegar to taste. Toss with craisins and nuts of your choice and top with avocado and/or smoked salmon.

    Yum! Thanks Amy.

    Construction on Cherryvale Road

    If you pick up your share on a day other than Thursday, the following may or may not affect you. Please read on just in case. I also sent this out in an email last week so please forgive the repetition.

    We have received a notice from the City that Cherryvale Road will be closed between Arapahoe and Bonai Shalom (our Thursday pick-up location) starting THIS Thursday, July 26th through Sunday, August 12th. This means that everyone picking up their share on Thursday evenings will have to come to Bonai Shalom from Baseline.

    NOTE: If you miss your pick-up on any Tuesday OR Thursday between July 26th and August 12th, you will also have to use the alternate route from Baseline to get to Ru and Bob’s house to collect your share.

    A helpful tidbit from Erin, Office Administrator at Bonai Shalom:

    Old Tale Road will be closed to all motorists. That is the usual Boulderite sneaky way of getting around jams at Cherryvale, but the City/County/State is on to that scheme and they’ll just close it entirely at Arapahoe. Even residents will have to come from the south and snake to their homes on Old Tale the long way. Everyone HAS to come from Baseline. If you normally take Arapahoe, you’ll just have to drive down 75th or 55th to get to Baseline and then get to Cherryvale that way.

    Again, I apologize for repeating myself but we want to do everything we can to avoid confusion and make sure that everyone still gets their veggies!

    Thanks and have a great week!

    -Maddie

    Potato Harvest and Storage

    Posted by Mo

    Potatoes are one of my favorite vegetables to harvest. Really anything that grows underground I love to harvest. It’s like a treasure hunt, unearthing food.

    We grow some of our potatoes under plastic mulch. Here are a couple of potato plants at the farm.

    Not too exciting huh? When I pull back the plastic you can see the potatoes growing.

    I didn’t brush back any dirt before taking that picture, that is how they grow. For some longer season potatoes we ‘hill up’ soil around the potato plants and the plants make lots of potatoes. But ‘early season’ or ‘new’ potatoes don’t get hilled up.

    To harvest, I just grab a plant and pull gently and evenly and the whole plant comes out. Thusly.

    This is what I harvested from that one plant.

    To store your potatoes, you want to put them in a plastic bag and store them in the vegetable drawer in the refrigerator. These will keep for a week or two but don’t store as long as late season potatoes. (Late season potatoes need to be stored in a cool place like a garage, but not too cold or the starches turn to sugar.)

    I didn’t include a specific recipe for the potatoes this week. I just wanted to say that I really like to show off the color of these potatoes. I like to keep them as whole as possible and dress them very little to show off their gemlike color.

    I made a potato salad with olive oil.

    I hope you have fun with your purple potatoes this week.

    Chocolate Zucchini Bread
    Posted by Mo
    adapted from Joy of Baking

    • 1 1/2 cups shredded raw zucchini
    • 1 cup white whole wheat flour
    • 1/2 cup (45 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (not Dutch-processed)
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 cup safflower or canola oil
    • 1/2 cup (105 grams) light brown sugar
    • 2 large eggs
    • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
    • 3/4 cup (125 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips and a handful of nuts.

    Preheat oven to 350F.

    Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls then mix together. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips, and nuts.

    Scrape batter into a greased 9×5 loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

    I like to leave my zucchini really big when I bake bread with it. I like to see the vegetables, because then it is good for you, right?


    ____________________________________________________________________

    Easy Broccoli Raab

    Posted by Mo

    I wanted to show you another way to cook greens. You can use this method for any greens. Collards, kale, broccoli raab, chard…any of the greens you get in your CSA share.

    First roughly chop your washed greens.

    Then throw those into a hot pan that has oil in it and maybe some garlic too.

    This will really steam up and sputter. It cooks down pretty fast.

    Pour about a cup of broth or water in the pan and let that simmer until the greens sort of melt.

    At this point you can add some beans and serve it over rice for a really quick healthy meal. This is great with eggs and toast too or just a quick side dish. Use your imagination.
    Have a great week.

    Until next time,

    -Mo

  • CSA Newsletter: Week 9 (July 16th, 2012)

    Hello CSA members!

    This week we hope to bring you beets OR carrots, green kale OR scarlet turnips, cucumbers, zucchini, scallions, spicy salad mix OR mizuna, and basil OR squash blossoms. Large share members will also get beets AND carrots, broccoli, and arugula. Fruit share members will get apricots AND Rainier cherries.

    In this week’s newsletter:


    On the Farm

    Posted by Maddie

    I thought I’d start off this week by sharing a little bit of what’s been happening on the farm. As always, some crops are in full swing while others are just getting started. On Thursday night, we received restaurant orders for 400 squash blossoms. While we all know that the zucchini is booming right now, some of us were doubtful that there were 400 flowers out in the field.

    After 20 or 30 minutes, we had reached our total with some blossoms still left on the plants. Squash blossoms were really fun to harvest. Each person collects a bouquet of 25 flowers before we bag them. Don’t they look gorgeous? They’re also super tasty, but more on that to come from Mo.

    ______________________________________________________________

    On Friday afternoon, Eva and I harvested the first of the cherry tomatoes. Lover of tomatoes that I am, I was the first to volunteer to help pick. When we arrived in the rows, it took the two of us about 20 minutes to collect everything that was ready. Needless to say, we won’t have enough to include tomatoes in CSA shares this week, but they will come soon and be around for quite a while.


    Calling All Foodies!

    Posted by Maddie

    When I first started working at Red Wagon back in April, I was surprised to learn how many people got a job on the farm simply because they were really into cooking and eating fresh, yummy food. Of course, this was among my reasons as well. One of my favorite parts of working on the farm and talking with all of our CSA members is sharing ideas about how to cook and eat the food we grow. And I think this blog is one of the best ways to have the conversation.

    So, I would like to put out a request for knowledge. We love to share our recipes and cooking tips with you, but we also know that many of you have been eating locally and in season for years and we want to hear from you. One way that you can share your food knowledge is to send me a link to your own blog. If you have a food blog where you write about your weekly CSA share or even the veggies you grow in your garden, don’t be shy! Let us in on it. Only if you’re comfortable sharing, of course.

    You may have noticed that I have finally gotten around to adding a Resources page to the blog. I realize it’s pretty skimpy at the moment, having only added a few of my own suggestions. But this is another way that you can impart some of your food knowledge. Please send along a short email with some of your favorite food blogs, cookbooks, or any other resources you love and I’ll add them to our list.

    Email any of the above to me at csa@redwagonfarmboulder.com and I’ll be happy to spread the word. Thanks for sharing and have a great week!

    -Maddie

    A Day in the Life of a Zucchini
    Posted by Mo

    At the Farm, every year some things work and some things don’t. You don’t always know why, it’s just the way it is. Last year the zucchini sort of puttered along. We had some, but it just got by. This year the plants are gorgeous and pumping out beautiful fruit. These are the plants in Bell field this morning.

    When a farmer looks at a crop we want to see even growth. We don’t want to see anything ‘different’. No holes in the plantings, no short or tall plants. The above image shows just what we want to see. Good job Wyatt, Eva, Clay…everyone at Teller.
    Look closer and see all the growth at different stages on just one plant.

    Can you see the male and the female blossoms in the above picture?
    The male blossoms don’t have fruit attached. The females do. We only harvest the male blossoms for zucchini blossoms. You will only get males.

    Here is a female blossom getting pollenated by some very happy bees.


    Fried and Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

    You can eat the blossoms raw in a salad or they are really nice in a quesadilla. Just put it in with the cheese and it will soften with the melted cheese. The blossoms have a sort of ‘condensed’ zucchini flavor, but very mild. The stem is very tasty, so make sure you include that in whatever you make. Some recipes say to discard the stem. Don’t do that.
    I made some fried and stuffed blossoms. It really isn’t complicated and it is just delicious. First you will want to remove the stamen before you do anything with your blossoms. The stamens are a little bitter.
    This is a male stamen. I just gently tear the blossom and remove the stamen.

    You can stuff your blossoms with anything, grains, cheese of any kind, herbs, anything.
    I had some goat cheese and basil. So I mixed that up. And stuffed my blossoms.


    Get a couple bowls and put a beaten egg in one and some seasoned flour in the other.
    Pull the flower around the cheese and dip the blossom in the egg then the flour. You don’t have to be that careful with these. They are really forgiving.  Eva stopped by when I was making these and she can’t eat gluten and I just fried some with cheese and without cheese for her and they were really good. Anyway…
    Fry the dipped, stuffed blossom in a hot pan with oil. Make sure you press the stem down in the pan so it cooks.
    Turn it over and fry the other side and there you go.

    Three or four of those with a salad and some bread and wine makes a great summer dinner.
    The blossoms will keep in the refrigerator for several days so don’t feel like you have to make these right away. I kept last week’s blossoms for 6 days in the fridge before I used them and they were fine.


    Kale Salad

    I love this salad. If you try it let us know how you like it. You could use any of the greens you get this week to make this salad. Mizuna, spicy salad mix, or kale.

    • ¼ cup olive oil
    • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
    • 2 tablespoons of shoyu or soy sauce
    • 1 bunch of kale (or any green), chopped with ribs removed
    • ½ to ¾ cup unsweetened large-flaked coconut. If you use small flaked use less coconut
    • Some crushed red pepper (optional)

    Preheat the oven to 350F
    Dump the washed and chopped kale and coconut with the oils and the soy sauce (and crushed red peppers if using) into a bowl.

    Make sure you mix the sauce all over the kale and coconut evenly.

    Spread the contents of the bowl on a baking sheet and bake it for 20 to 25 minutes until the coconut starts to toast. You might need two baking sheets. Stir the kale once or twice while it’s cooking.

    You can eat this as a side dish or I like to add some grains for a meal. I had some leftover jade rice. This is a great make-ahead dish and the leftovers are really good for lunches.

    Have a great week.
    – Mo