CSA Week 2 newsletter

Here is a CSA newsletter, sent via email each week!


Welcome to Week 2 of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program at Wishful Acres Farm!  Listed below are the vegetables included in your share this week, along with cooking ideas & recipes. 

This week, your box will include the following Certified Naturally Grown vegetables (plus eggs if you opted for them):

-Lettuce Mix - enjoy with your favorite dressing or make a Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette (recipe below).  Refrigerate.

-Sweet Corn - the first of the year.  This is a very early, white variety, with cute small ears of corn.  Boil in water for 5 minutes, or can be grilled in the husk.  Refrigerate.

-Summer Squash - summer squash of all types is great raw with dip, sauteed or in a foil pack on grill (recipe below).  Refrigerate.

-Sweet Onions- this may be the last week for the Walla Walla sweet onions.  Refrigerate sweet onions, they shouldn't be left out like cooking onions.

-Dill- each week, your box will include a fresh herb.  Fresh dill this week - great on a lettuce salad, in potato salad, on scrambled eggs, or in a cucumber salad (recipe below).  Refrigerate.

-Cucumber- regular slicing cucumber this week.  Enjoy with dip, salad, or in a cucumber sour cream salad (recipe below).  Refrigerate.

-Kale- this is your leafy green for the week!  Kale is a powerhouse of nutrition.  My farm intern tells me that Whole Foods recently had a list of vegetables, and kale was the most nutritious of all, scoring 1000 on the chart (1000 was the limit).  The variety of kale you'll receive is Red Russian, very pretty, it is great for kale chips or sauteed (recipes below).   Refrigerate.

-Garlic - this week's specialty garlic variety is Elephant Garlic.  Okay left out on your counter for several weeks.

-Hot Peppers- chili peppers are in season!  Some like hot peppers, some don't.  Here's a hint if you're afraid of the heat: the hotness of peppers is located in the seeds & white membrane.  So, to make your hot peppers more mild, use gloves (or wash very well afterwards, don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth while doing this) - cut them in half lengthwise, and remove the white membrane (inner flap of skin) and the seeds.  There is a recipe for grilled cheese-stuffed hot peppers below.  Refrigerate.

-Scapes- you'll receive a bag of mixed garlic and leek scapes.  Scapes are the top of the plant when growing, it shoots up a tasty stem with a seed pod at the top.  These are great roasted, chopped and cooked into potatoes, eggs, etc., or even chopped raw on a salad.  Refrigerate.


And here are some recipe ideas for all those delicious organic veggies!

Recipes:

Kale Chips (like a healthy potato chip!)

• 1 bunch kale
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

Sauteed Kale

• 1 1/2 pounds young kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock or water
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until soft, but not colored. Raise heat to high, add the stock and kale and toss to combine. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and continue to cook, stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar.

Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing:
  1 cup extra virgin olive oil
  1/3 cup Balsamic Vinegar
  1 tablespoon mayonnaise
  salt & pepper to taste
  Mix all ingredients of dressing well.  (I put into a tupperware container & shake it to blend.)

Hot Peppers Stuffed with Cheese

Ingredients

• 6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 ounces shredded aged Cheddar cheese
• 1 green onions, thinly sliced  (can use the onion tops from your bagged onions!)
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 6 hot peppers, halved, stemmed and seeded
• 1 heaping tablespoon chili powder

Directions

Heat grill to medium.
Stir the cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth. Fold in the Cheddar and green onions and season with salt and pepper. Fill each pepper half with about 2 tablespoons of the mixture and sprinkle the top with some of the ancho powder.
Place on the grill, filling-side up and cook until slightly charred and tender, about 7 to 8 minutes.


Cucumbers & Onions in Sour Cream Sauce with Fresh Dill

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped dill

Preparation:

Arrange cucumber slices in a serving bowl, sprinkling layers with salt. Place a saucer or other weight on cucumbers to weigh down. Cover and let stand for several hours. Pour off cucumber juices. Combine sour cream, vinegar, pepper to taste, and chopped dill; add to cucumbers. Recipe for cucumbers and sour cream serves 4 to 6.

Grilling Ideas:    (Each week, I'll try to include some grilling ideas for the vegetables.) 
-Stuffed hot peppers
Grilling recipe above.
-Squash & Onions in foil pack
Chop summer squash / zucchini / patty pan squash, and onion.  Place on a rectangle of aluminum foil.  Drizzle with olive oil, fresh chopped garlic, salt, and pepper.  Fold up foil to make a sealed packet.  Grill for approximately 20 minutes, rotating often to avoid burning.



I hope you all enjoyed your first shares last week!

Thanks, everyone!

Penny Peterson
Wishful Acres Farm

http://wishfulacres.blogspot.com