Click Here for the full PDF
Remember this week is the barn dance!
In Your Box
Chicories- radiccio, frisse, escarole and sugar loaf types. NOT LETTUCE. These greens are more bitter than salad. See recipes for ideas.
Celery- Darker in color and stronger than the stuff grown on California sand.
Fresh Sweet Onions-
Cucumbers
Zucchini/Summer Squash-
Tomatoes – This newsletter has a full guide
Garlic-
Sweet Peppers- Purple or Green
Hot peppers-Perfect for salsa (Jalepenos, hot wax, black Hungarian or Anaheim). For less spice remove seeds.
Tomatillos- Halves. These look like mini green tomatoes/lanterns. See recipes for info.
Broccoli- Fulls only.
Fennel
Next Week’s Best Guess: onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet corn, broccoli, zucchini, salad greens, cabbage, broccoli
News from the Farm
Welcome to Week 10. We are half way through the CSA. Oh how time flies in summer time. In your box for halves this week are tomatillos – use in salsa with onions and garlic; and Chicory use in roasted salads, soups and together with other salad ingredients in smaller amounts. We have been working on big weeding projects for all the fall crops and are done with 95% of our planting for the year. We really need rain and are hoping that the upcoming forecast is accurate – we are running drop irrigation 12 hours a day and our limited overhead system all night on newer plantings. Overall the dry conditions are not effecting things too much but things like carrots etc have slowed down.
The barn dance is coming this Saturday August 8th. The potluck is from 4:30-6:30pm at the farm (7002 Rangeline Rd) and the dance is from 7-11pm down the road 4 miles (1701 Windfall Hill Rd). This is a family centered event for all ages. Bring your own dishes and cutlery if possible. We will have our annual silent auction to raise money for shares for low-income families. If you have a local food related (or similar) item you can drop it off at the farmers market on Saturday morning or call us to set up a pick up.
Have a delicious week- Kat, Tony, Riley, Ted and Maple
Kat’s Kitchen
Chicory 101- This bitter greens family is great for your health and some people love it while other find the bitterness overwhelming. Best served fresh finely chopped with hot dressing like bacon or sweet dressings like maple lemon vinaigrettes. The Red Eye in Wausau featured frisse topped with hot bacon dressing and a poached egg. Alternatively it can be added to classic soups like minestrone, to cooked beans, or roasted and served alongside other roasted veggies. Use in smaller amount with celery in slaws to add texture. We had it roasted on burgers last night. The core is the mildest part. The following recipes also work well for cabbage and kale!
Chicory with hot bacon dressing - 4 strips bacon, 1 large onion, thinly sliced, Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, 4 ounces mild blue cheese crumbled, 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 large head escarole, radiccio etc, coarsely chopped. Cook the bacon over medium heat in a medium skillet until crispy. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. To the drippings add the sliced onions and toss well. Cook until caramelized, stirring another 15 minutes. Season with 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper.Meanwhile, in a small bowl stir together the cheese, vinegar and oil. The dressing will be chunky and not completely emulsified. Place the escarole in a large serving bowl and crumble the bacon over it. When the onions are done and still warm, sprinkle over the chicory along with the dressing. Toss well.
Sauteed Chicory -2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil , 2 anchovy fillets, coarsely chopped (optional) , 1 head radicchio (about 10 ounces), trimmed and sliced into 1/2-inch pieces , 1 bunch chicory (about 1 1/2 pounds), trimmed and roughly chopped, Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, Balsamic vinegar, for drizzling Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add anchovies, and cook 1 minute. Add radicchio and chicory; saute until slightly wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to serving platter, and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.
Basic tomato and tomatillo salsa
4-6 tomatillos or 1 large tomato (or a mix), ½ onion diced, hot pepper seeded and finely chopped, 1 clove garlic chopped, salt and pepper to taste, lime (optional). Roast tomatillos in oven at 400 until skins start to blacken then puree. Tomatoes can be roasted or just diced. Combine with other ingredients and add salt and pepper to taste. If you are not sure how much spice you want add peppers gradually. Serve fresh.
Tomato Time: A Guide for 2015
Every season we write a tomato guide because unlike the store we grow many shapes, sizes, colors and or course flavors of tomatoes. For a newbie some of the green varieties look unripe and the scars that some heirlooms have and the patterns are hard
U-Pick: We will not start this until the end of the month and will announce times ahead of time. They will last for 3-4+ weeks from the end of August until frost.
General info- most heirloom tomatoes have “green shoulders” so the top may be green or harder while the tomato is actually ripe. The bottom of the tomato (or bottom ½) should be similar to the texture of an out stretched palm when ripe. Most Red slicing tomatoes are filly red when ripe and have even texture throughout.
Care- All tomatoes should be left on the counter if and when possible. They ripen best and taste best when not refrigerated. They are one of three crops that we do not cool down in anyway.
Varieties-We grow a lot of types of tomatoes. Most of what you will get are cherries, saladette, large heirlooms and slicers. You can also use these names to search online for images and next week we will post a picture of most types for the tomato curious.
Heirlooms/Slicers
Striped German – rainbow from light green shoulders to yellow orange with a red bottom
Prudens Purple- a pink “brandywine” type. Larger uneven tops with a deep pink color
Martha Washington-a pink round slicing type;
Cherokee Purple- dusty pink to a brown purple with some darker shoulders
Paul Robeson- a purple to brown tomato much like Cherokee purple but browner
Japanese Black Trifele- shaped like a pear with green shoulders and a deep purple red bottom
Cherokee Green - ripe green tomato. It has a yellow bottom and ranges from light to bright green on top.
Valencia – An orange mild slicing tomato
Cosmonaut – A wonderful heirloom red slicer. Flatter and more flavor filled than the large big beef.
Big Beef - Classic red slicing tomatoes
Trials- we have several plants of these types as we participate in a trial from UW Madison. These look similar to brandywine types and other red slicers.
Cherries
Sungold- super sweet orange; black cherry-a dusty pink to deep purple large cherry;
Sweetie and peacevine cherry- both red types smaller cherry types;
Montesino – a grape tomato. Sweet and red
Juliet-not a cherry but a miniature roma/saladette oval that is sweet and firm.
Back Cherry- The Cherokee purple of cherry tomatoes, a larger dusky pink to brown color. Best flavor around.
Rainbow “Artisan” tomatoes- We are trialing a set of 7 colored saladette and large cherry types that range from green to pink and darker purple.
Romas
We grow several romas which are generally thought of as sauce tomatoes. The rounder Bellstar variety is our favorite but you will likely have a range of romas in your box as the season progresses. These are also the tomatoes we use for upick so expect to learn more about these as canning season comes in later august/early sept.