The End is Near

No, I'm not a doomsday prepper...but I know that this was one of our last distributions for the 2014 farmthisway CSA season. Week 22 of 24.  With yet another GIANT distribution, filled with cabbages, two different squashes, apples, grapes, eggs and more (including some Fall decorations!), we are prepping not for doomsday, but for Winter.  When our beautiful fresh vegetable distribution will not be showing up every Wednesday.  So a lot of this is heading to the freezer or into canning jars to make sure we have yummy stuff to eat when the snow flies as well.

I've already got soup bases and sauces prepped and frozen.  Along with many canned and frozen veggies.  I think early next week, I will take on making and freezing some cabbage rolls with the remaining cabbage that I have, and prepping the rest of my acorn squash for the freezer, which I will then use (amongst other things) for a Thanksgiving side dish.

EGG SHARES ARE HERE!!!
Sign up has begun for the 40 (or what is left of that 40) egg shares that farmthisway will offer.  24 weeks of 1 dozen farm fresh eggs for $85!  Pick up is at the farm in Brant, that you set up your weekly pick up date with Marty and Carolyn,  but there is also a Monday distribution group setting up in the Northtowns. Email farmthisway@gmail.com to get more information or to reserve your share!  Pick up starts the week of November 1st! 

And it isn't too early to start thinking of a 2015   CSA Membership.  Click the link for more information on pricing and then click on Our Bushel to see a sample year of distributions.  We are winding up our 3rd year of participating in the CSA, and we have NEVER been disappointed in the amount or quality of the great packages that Marty and Carolyn put together for us every week! 

Eggs-actly what you need

 

With the 15 week members being done for the season and the chickens still producing lots of eggs, this week everyone got 2 dozen fresh brown eggs with their distribution.  YUM!  We use lots of eggs around here, and can go through a dozen easily in one meal if we make that our protein source for the meal.  However, when we have LOTS of eggs, a fun thing we like to do is my 14 year old daughter's DUO OF DELECTABLE DESSERTS.  For those of you who don't like to sugar yourselves up, or can't...This doesn't help you much, but this dessert solution is my absolute FAVORITE use of a dozen eggs. 

The first is Angel Food Cake, the recipe the link goes to is Alton Brown's, which is our favorite.  We switch up the extract of choice depending on our mood.  Light, fluffy, and delicious!  And is uses one dozen egg whites.

Then, since we have 1 dozen egg yolks left after this delicious angel food cake is done, we move onto a double batch of Alton Brown's Creme Brulee Recipe.  Yes, Alton Brown again, what can I say, we always look to the master for our recipes, his always turn out to be our favorite!  Yes, double batch.  There are 5 of us, and we sometimes share.  

 We have also been getting into a lot of breakfast sandwiches lately.  They're yummy, easy, portable and pretty healthy too.  Using an English muffin, typically the whole wheat variety, as the bread, I scramble an egg, and load it onto the muffin with a slice of cheddar and sometimes either bacon or ham or sausage.  This week we used Canadian Bacon.  If you have kids who run out the door without breakfast, or like me need to bring dinner on the run in between after school activities, these sandwiches are GREAT to hand them as they run out the door for the bus, or as a breakfast for dinner in the car, or anywhere.   I wrap them in aluminum foil when I make them, and stick them in an insulated lunch tote, and off we go.  I did 5 on Tuesday and took them to my oldest daughter's swim meet and we all ate them for dinner while sitting in the stands.  She came up to get hers during the diving break.  

Of course, you can make an omelet bar night , scramble them, make chicken in a basket, quiche, frittatas (like maybe with some of the lovely tomatoes and  green peppers we received this week as well!), or many other yummy things with your eggs.  But with only about 70 calories per egg & 6 grams of protein, plus some of the healthy fats and other nutrients we need, eggs are a lovely choice for any meal! 

A new way for me to can - The Freezer

 

The biggest reason I have heard for people to tell me they couldn't do a CSA or farm share program is that they simply can't use all of the produce that we get each week through our farmthisway membership distributions.  That they don't know how to can or don't have the time, or don't want to invest in the supplies.  Here is a secret...I don't have the time to can most of the time either.  But I do have a freezer!  And here is how that helps.

This week we got a whole crate of corn.  We can't eat THAT much corn in one week, especially at the end of the season, when we literally have corn coming out of our ears (pun intended).  But, if I freeze some of that corn, right on the cob, mid winter, a special taste of summer can be ours.  Last week we got a LOT of tomatoes, and this week too.  Last week I didn't have the time to deal with them and make sauce, so I froze them, whole with skins on.  Sometime this fall or winter, I will pull them out, and the skins will come right off when they're defrosted, and I will use them for sauce or soup then. 

But, aside from freezing stuff straight out the freezer and a farmthisway CSA are great for future meal planning.  Today, a rare day where I don't have to be anywhere while the kids are at school, I have my stove and oven working away. Tomato sauce, potato and corn chowder and chili sauce on the stove, and acorn squash roasting in the oven (which will also become soup).  The chowder is for tonight, but the others are for future meals.  The easiest way for me to process them is this....after they are done, I let them cool.  I transfer them to 1 gallon size Ziploc bags, suck the remaining air out with a straw and seal the bags.  then I have flat laying packages of future meals that stack EASILY in my freezer.  It doesn't require a canning pot or lids and jars, just some bags, which are way cheaper and I always have in stock anyhow.  I don't have a chest freezer because my husband isn't a fan, so I have one section of my bottom freezer (similar to the one shown above) that I save just for all of my flattened, frozen meals or meal starters.  On those nights in the fall and winter when we are in need of a quick dinner or need sauce for a pasta meal, I go to the fridge and grab a bag to defrost, and off we go!  

So, if you dread the process of canning, give freezing a try.  It is my new favorite method of preservation!  

CSA with Farmthisway - Not just for Humans

While I always talk about how much my husband, kids and I enjoy our farmthisway CSA, today I thought I would talk about the ways that our furry family members enjoy it as well.

My daughter, Mara, has two chinchillas (Mooch and Squishy), Caitlyn has a Russian Dwarf Hamster (Ivan), and my son, Finn, has a guinea pig (Oreo).  Not to mention the blue jays, squirrels and other friends we have in the yard as well.

One of the things we like to share with the critters is Kale.  Kale is a special treat that the chinchillas especially love.  It is something we can only give any of the furballs in small amounts, but they all seem to enjoy the occasional treat of kale.

Corn - sweet corn, because of the high sugar content is also given only as a special treat to the Hamster and Guinea Pig, but the inner husks of the corn are apparently VERY tasty if you're a guinea pig, and that is one of Oreo's favorites!  It makes him hop up and down in his cage and make happy chirp like noises.  Ivan is especially excited when he gets a kernel or two or corn.  Chinchillas are never supposed to eat corn because it can have fatal effects on them.

Herbs - Chinchillas can eat some basil or thyme as an occasional treat too. Guinea pigs too.

There are other little treats we can give our furry friends from our CSA distribution.  Just check with your vet or search the internet to find what is safe for your pet and then let them share in the farm fresh goodness as well. 

****Note*******
this was written 9/6 and meant to be published last week, so I will be posting another as well today

Ratatouille

Recent farmthisway distributions have been inspiring me to think of some interesting recipes.  Something that I had never tried until I saw the Disney Movie of the same name was "Ratatouille".  My kids instantly wanted to try this dish that the movie was named for.  So now, when the mood strikes, we will whip up the Disney version of this classic recipe .  Recently the vegetables provided by our CSA have been perfect to make a ratatouille without having to buy very many ingredients at all to complete the recipe. 

I was reminded of this ratatouille recipe when a customer came into the farmthisway tent at the Blasdell farmers market.  She was very friendly and outgoing, and clearly new her way around a veggie stand.  Once she started seeing some of the different fresh vegetables that were on offer this past week, her eyes glowed with excitement as she filled her bag and said "I'm going to make Ratatouille! This is perfect!" 

Seeing the joy brought to a fellow human being just by something so basic as selling her some fresh veggies was one of the highlights of my work day on Wednesday.  The way that people talk about their favorite recipes and the creative things that they do with the different produce is always fun. 

I also have the opposite end of the spectrum come through the market many days.  People who look at something like kale or eggplant and say, "I would love to try it, but I just have NO idea what to do with it!"  I am always happy to offer up suggestions on what I have done with it, and it often helps them to get the courage to try something new.  They will sometimes come back the next week and tell me that they tried it and loved it, like the man who has been adding kale to his morning smoothies all summer long, and sometimes tell me that they tried it but it just wasn't for them.  Hey, not everyone is going to love everything. 

But, if you are looking for a little inspiration, fire up some zucchinis, squash, onions, garlic, eggplant, peppers, and a few other ingredients, into a lovely Ratatouille, and maybe pop in the DVD of the Disney movie to have a special movie themed dinner night.  I always love seeing Remy and his passion for food.  Even if Remy is a rodent. 

On the side

Sometimes our veggies from our farmthisway CSA share are the STAR of our meal, like when we all decide to eat 3 ears of sweet corn then can't eat anything else, or when I make squash casserole, but sometimes, they play a supporting role. And that's OK too.  What would the leading actress be without the supporting cast. 

This week I discovered a new instant family favorite.  We all love quesadillas, but this time, I sauteed up some ground beef from Robbins Nest, with some of my farmthisway bell peppers, onions and tomatoes, and made Cheeseburger quesadillas.  The veggies were there and tasty, just not screaming out "LOOK AT ME!  I'M A STAR!" Another fun use was in a potato hash.  Diced up baby fingerling potatoes with the green peppers and onions again, and sauteed as a side for breakfast for dinner, along with our farm fresh brown eggs! 

Besides that, we've used the tomatoes, with the peppers and onions to make an individual batch of sauce for our lasagna this week.  And this week, most of our blueberries got frozen for later use (though my son managed to find a few before I sealed them in their freezer bags for future smoothie use!). 

The white corn this week was PHENOMENAL and shines as the star of any meal, even if it is "just" on the side...And our jalapeno peppers got their first run as an appetizer, stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon.  YUM!  One of my favorites, and so easy!  I like that the jalapenos are a perfect pair with the creamy cream cheese and yummy bacon.  Not too HOT but spicy enough.  Even the kids love them!

Another week and suddenly I am realizing that summer is ending soon.  The kids go back to school in a couple of weeks and that means pretty soon the leaves will start turning.  But fear not...I also no that along with that comes hardy winter squashes, mums, and pumpkins!  We love all of our seasons, especially the 24 weeks of CSA season!

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!