Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

 

Looking at the top of my farmthisway newsletter, I realized that we are already in week 10 of our 24 week CSA distributions.  Looking back we have already received so many wonderful items from annual flowers and hanging baskets (I always take the portulaca - even I can't kill them) to herbs (I know have a thriving fresh herb garden - minus most of the parsley which I managed to kill) to yummy fresh produce, which always comes in quantities big enough to share &  still have enough left over to freeze, can, etc.  My freezer is starting to fill up with some of the yummy things we have gotten.  I've got lots of strawberry jam stored up, even despite giving it as end of the year teacher presents.  And we've made a few family, friends and neighbors happy as well, by sharing a little of our farmfresh goodies.

This week brought perhaps the happiest of arrivals since fresh strawberries...THE FIRST CORN!!!  We love corn on the cob.  Caitlyn couldn't even wait to get it home on Wednesday and ate one ear raw at about 9 AM...meaning it was only about 3 hours old, as it was picked fresh at 6 that morning, as it is every day at the farm.  I'm perfectly OK eating corn as a side dish every night for the next couple of weeks.  It doesn't get much fresher than that and we all enjoy it.  The first night the corn starred as the main attraction, even though it was a side to the pancetta and kale I had sauteed up to go with it.  I know that when we get more next week, we will start to put some aside to freeze for later use in corn chowder, etc.  Pretty soon it will be tomato season, and the corn makes a wonderful addition to our homemade salsa as well!  

Along with the corn, and many other goodies, we got some more zucchini and summer squash.  At the grocery store the other day, they were demonstrating a delicious grilled zucchini and summer squash with an Asian Miso Ginger sauce.  My daughter and I loved it, so we decided to replicate it at home.  I thought I had ginger..but I thought wrong, so instead, I used soy, soba sauce, garlic olive oil, and sesame oil as the marinade, grilled until tender and then sprinkled with some toasted sesame seeds.  It was delicious, and gone very quickly.  

The first of the green bell peppers arrived this week too.  Those are so tasty that they didn't even make it to a salad, as they are very wonderful sliced and eaten plain.  Maybe in the next few weeks, some of them will make it to be stuffed peppers.  It is hard to believe how fast the summer is flying by, and how we are already closing in on the halfway point for our CSA membership for this year.  If you didn't do it this year, maybe 2015 should be the year you try farmthisway CSA.  This is our 3rd year, and we have never been disappointed! 

ALL HAIL, GLORIOUS KALE

If you and your family, like the dwarf above think "I don't like green foods", then kale can be a little scary.  But, for a seasoned green foods veteran, kale comes as a pleasant treat in this week's farmthisway CSA Distribution. 

I took a peek at Marty's distribution video and from what I can see...this week includes both summer squash and zucchini, cauliflower, eggs, cherry tomatoes and kale!  My kids will be excited about this, especially my oldest, 14 year old, Caitlyn.  I know the first thing she will want to do it make kale chips.  They are SIMPLE, quick and tasty! 

To make kale chips, take one bunch of kale, get the leaves off and torn up into bite size pieces.  Wash and dry (I use a salad spinner) and drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with a teaspoon of sea salt.  Bake in an  350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, or until the edges start to get a little brown.  My daughter took these into school one year and her teacher was impressed and tells me to this day that she still makes them because she LOVES them, but would have never tried them if Caitlyn hadn't brought them in that day!

If kale chips are not your thing, how about adding pancetta to your kale?  Pork fat never disappoints in my house, so my plan is to make Kale, Apple & Pancetta Salad. 

 

And sometimes for a straightforward kale side dish, this  Bobby Flay recipe for Sauteed Kale hits the spot.

Let's not forget the other greens in the basket...This week, we remembered one of our favorite squash recipes.  First we sliced up 2 each (small to medium) summer squash and zucchini, and sauteed them in butter with about a quarter of a sweet onion, salt and pepper.  Next we tossed them in a big bowl, with about a cup of panko bread crumbs, and about 2 cups of cheddar cheese.  I put this all in a Pyrex 9x13 pan, topped it with a few pats of butter,  and baked at 350 for about 20 minutes, putting the broiler on for the last 2 minutes to brown/crisp up the top a little.  Sometimes, for a little something different, we will also mix in either a can of cream of mushroom soup or cream of chicken soup, but this time, we went for less added to the veggies.  SO GOOD that the little bit that was left was highly contested for leftovers as lunch the next day. 

I'm sure you have plenty of ideas for what to do with cherry tomatoes, mine don't usually make it past being rinsed and eaten straight out of the container.  And the cauliflower in our house is usually either eaten raw with dip or steamed with a little butter and salt.  

I hope you like green foods, and that if you don't you give them another try.  And stop by the Blasdell Farmer's Market on Wednesdays from 9AM-2PM at the farmthisway stand and say hi! 

Wednesdays are the best!

With no alarm clock and no school schedules to keep up with, Summer days can tend to be indistinguishable from each other.  Not Wednesdays though.  Wednesdays are farmthisway days!  Today is no different.  We are in week 7 of our 24 week CSA membership here in my house, and this week is looking like a fun week!  

Growing season is in full bloom, and the variety in the distributions is starting to show that.  This week we have lovely cauliflower, cabbage, zucchini and summer squash, strawberries, cucumbers, onions and eggs.  Oh what a culinary delight!  The first thing on my post CSA pick up shopping list is going to be a pizza crust or two.  I see a grilled veggie pizza night in our very near future. I usually either buy the Wegman's whole wheat crust or the Rustic Crist Old World Whole Grains crust.   Then I just make long slices of the zucchini and summer squash, make large rings of onion and rough chop the cauliflower and toss in olive oil and some sea salt.  Grill those up first, and once cooked, chop to smaller, pizza friendly sized pieces. Then I take my crust, shred up some fresh basil from my farmthisway herb garden and spread that with some olive oil as the sauce.  next some cheese of your choice, I usually do a blend of cheddar and mozzarella, and toss the veggies on, before putting the whole thing on a low heat grill and closing the lid to get a better melt on the cheese!  

Also a summer favorite is cauliflower salad.  Steam the cauliflower, and you've got a picnic side dish in a few simple steps.  Much like potato or macaroni salad, but by using cauliflower instead of noodles or potatoes, you get more veggies, and please any of your friends who skip the carb scene for one reason or another.  Sweet yellow peppers, hard boiled farm fresh eggs, and mayonnaise make this quick and easy, and tasty too.

This week, most of our strawberries are destined for the freezer in one form or another...Here is the strawberry Popsicle recipe we will be using this week!  

2 pounds ripe strawberries, washed, hulled and halved
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Place strawberries in a medium bowl.  Add sugar.  Toss to coat.  Soak berries for about 30 minutes, or until they begin to leave juice in the bowl

Add strawberries and lemon juice to food processor.  Blend until strawberries are pureed.  Add to popsicle molds.  Freeze until solid (about 8 hours).  

This looks like a great way to beat the heat this Summer.  Healthy popsicles that the kids will LOVE!  I hope you enjoy your week of goodies, I know I will! 

Week 6 of 24

Fresh produce is starting to roll into the local farms around Westen NY and our CSA distributions at farmthisway are getting exciting.  

In my family, we plan most of our meals around the produce in the distribution for that week.  This past week we received Cucumbers, cabbage, and 2 more flats of strawberries, plus eggs.  

The strawberries have been made once again into jam, frozen for future use, sliced with sugar for shortcake and just eaten plain.  One of my favorite things to do with the strawberries in the freezer is to make smoothies.  We use these for breakfasts, lunches and snacks.  One of my favorites is the "Banana Split" smoothie.  Greek yogurt, frozen strawberries, banana, Ovaltine (or your favorite chocolate milk making powder/liquid), and milk.  Another frozen strawberry favorite is a simple strawberry milkshake.  Berries, ice cream or frozen yogurt, and milk in the blender is great for dessert. 

The cucumbers never usually make it to dinner, unless we slice one or two on our salad.  They are often just sliced and eaten either plain or with a little salt.  Sometimes if we have a lot of them, I like to make a cucumber salad, with sour cream/vinegar dressing and some sweet onion, or if we also have fresh tomatoes, we use the cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet onion and a little Italian style dressing.

A lot of people fear the cabbage.  My family was never really a big cabbage family until we started getting it from our CSA.  It was something I just never bought because I didn't have many standard recipes for.  We have grown to enjoy it though...and found many tasty ways to prepare it.  Whether a fresh cabbage slaw, or sauteed with onion and bacon, stuffed with ground beef and rice for cabbage rolls, or made into sauerkraut, there are way more uses for cabbage than I had ever imagined.  This week, I used some of mine to make an Asian style stir fry of cabbage, onion, and thin sliced beef, tossed in a little sesame oil mixed, and finished off with toasted sesame seeds, soba sauce and some fresh garlic chives chopped out of my herb garden that was part of an earlier distribution (and that I have miraculously managed to not kill!). 

Strawberry Fields...FOREVER

 

We are on Week 5 of our 24 week farmthisway CSA distribution already.   This week, besides the farm fresh brown eggs, we got a big box of broccoli and 2...yes 2 flats of strawberries!  What does one do with so many strawberries?  Well, for one thing, I immediately hulled, washed, patted dry and then flash froze some.  These come in very handy for smoothies and for recipes involving strawberries when we are way past fresh berry season.  The next thing my oldest daughter and I did, was find some new recipes to try.  

The first thing we came up with was Strawberry-Buttermilk Sherbet.  We made two batches...because we have a lot of berries... We only tasted a couple of testing bites as we put in in the ice cream machine, but we liked what we tasted!  

Next up was Strawberry Smoothie Ice Cream Pie .  It was a layer by layer in the freezer sort of thing.  A labor of love...but boy, am I having a hard time not going down there right now, releasing it from the prison of its springform pan, and eating half of it in one sitting.  Layers of strawberry, banana and blueberry (each layer mixed with vanilla ice cream) on top of a waffle cone crust.  YUM!  Dessert tomorrow cannot come soon enough!  

There was of course much jam making as well...some will be given away as end of year presents to teachers and bus drivers, but much will be ferreted away in the basement for a later date. And of course some to eat now as well!

And then we had to think about tonight...

So we decided to put the broccoli to good use with Broccoli Cheddar Soup.   I know, I know...you are probably thinking it is too hot for soup!  Well, I cranked the AC anyhow because we were cooking on the stove all day...so the soup tasted great!  I made a double batch, which is a good thing, because we only have a couple of bowls left after dinner!

And sticking with the soup theme...we opted for Strawberry Soup for dessert. (although I left off the olive oil, salt and pepper that this recipe calls for, and substituted white grape juice for the wine it called for).  Essentially, it was a bowl of smoothie, and we loved it. 

All in all it was a BUSY day.  We even took some time out from our crazy kitchen madness to ride out to farmthisway with a friend who wanted to buy a flat of strawberries as well, but wasn't sure how to get out there.  Now we have just about 1 1/2  quarts left in the fridge for just EATING.  

I hope your day was productive too!  I'm falling asleep at my keyboard, so it must be time to sign off and dream of strawberries...

Market Time!

 

Today was the first day of the 2014 Wednesday Farmer's Market in Blasdell.  It takes place in the Ilio DiPaolo's additional parking lot on South Park.  This year the market is PACKED with vendors, and opening day was a pretty good success I would say.  I was working my weekly shift at the farmthisway stand, and we were quite popular with the crowd.  Marty and Carolyn provided a huge array of flowers.  Annuals, planters in multiple sizes, hanging baskets, herb plants, patio tomatoes, lettuce bowls, strawberry plants and more!  It was a gorgeous sunny day!

Also, we had week three of our distribution.  As always, they always supply an amazing distribution for the farmthisway CSA members.  This week's distribution consisted of the dozen brown eggs (YUM!), a bundle of rhubarb, 2 citronella geraniums (they keep the bugs away!), a flat of mixed annuals, a flat of geraniums, and another lettuce bowl.  We have been using our lettuce bowls every single night to have a fresh salad with dinner.  Just clip off what we need, and it will grow back for us too!  

We are all anxious for the fruits and veggies to start making their way to market, but have to be patient as the rough Winter and crazy Spring proved to be difficult for some of the crops.  However, fresh produce should start making its debut within the next week or two, so keep your eye on the farmer's markets, and look for farmthisway!  

Back in the Swing of things

Yesterday was our second week of distribution with the 24 week farmthisway CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  This is our 3rd year with the program and we are NEVER disappointed.  Yesterday's lot included 2 gorgeous potted planters with varied plants in them, two patio tomato plants, a dozen farm fresh brown eggs,  rhubarb (and a tasty sounding recipe for an orange rhubarb breakfast bread), and a box of herb plants (with info on how to care for them and what they are good for!).  And I even ran into someone from high school, who I've kept in touch with on Facebook yesterday at the farm.  She and her family had done a different farm experience last year, but based on my posts of the goodies we've received, they are trying farmthisway this year, and two weeks in, really loving it already.


With June on the horizon, my family is looking forward to the Member Solstice Strawberry Social.  Marty and Carolyn Rosiek (And their son Eric who will be running the South Buffalo Market on Sundays this year), our farm family, are planning a fun evening for the members to gather, eat, enjoy music and a fire, and I even heard rumors of 200 Chinese lanterns that are to be released! 

I can't say enough how much our family loves being a part of this CSA.  Once you are a part of the CSA, you become part of a family of sorts.  For instance, the rhubarb and recipe actually came from another member who wanted to share with the "family".   It is so much more than just a farm share. It is a learning experience, with recipes and information on canning and freezing. It is a community builder, with members helping members, farmers helping members and members helping farmers. It is a family. 

You don't have to be a CSA Member to experience this however (although I recommend it!) Stop out at the farm in Brant, or one of the farmer's markets Hamburg on Saturdays, South Buffalo (Caz Park) on Sundays and Blasdell (Ilio DiPaolo's Lot) on Wednesdays, and check out all of the great ways that you can farmthisway.