In Your Box
Lettuce Heads- butter head and/or romaine! Great with the creamy dressing.
Scallions– last week for these onions in late July.
Peas- Snap and/or snow peas – all to be eaten in the pod not shelled
Spring Turnips- great in the pancake recipe below.
Napa (Chinese) Cabbage- stir fry, slaw and spring rolls
Carrots- from the hoophouse and wonderful!
Cucumbers: Small Shares Only
Zucchini: Full Shares Only
Fresh Dill
Spinach: Full Shares Only
Strawberries! yippy
Next Week’s Best Guess: Spring Turnips, peas, lettuce heads, garlic scapes, cucumbers, zucchini, kale, fresh herbs (sage, basil, cilantro), carrots
Important Reminders
ü This Sunday is the pancake breakfast! Make sure to park in the yard (not on the road!) for this event as well as pizza nights.
ü Remember to separate carrots and turnips from their greens and to use the greens. Pesto is a great option for extra greens include carrot tops (see back for recipes)!
News from the Farm
This Sunday is the pancake breakfast! We are excited to see everyone. If possible (not required) bring a mug, a plate and a fork to minimize disposables. We are planning on letting CSA members pick and eat strawberries since they have arrived but… this is not an official upick event. We will not have significantly large amounts of berries to take home.
Almost every crop in the field is looking great. June is just incredible in Wisconsin. Our early broccoli crop was hurt by the late frost so we will not have broccoli for several weeks but other than that everything is growing according to plan! We are still in the thick of weeding and mowing season but are also getting fields ready for the big fall planting of storage crops and we continue to plant cabbage family crops for fall. We have some big infrastructural projects going on – we are closing our manure pit which has been un-used and building it into an irrigation pond; we are getting ready to re-roof our giant dairy barn, and we are taking a needed plunge into the world of parking and will have a gravel lot in place in a week or so (to deal with pizza night and CSA event parking.
Have a delicious week – Kat, Tony, Ted, Riley and Maple
Recipes from Heather Busigs and Kat’s Kitchens
Kat’s creamy herb dressing: Use the basic base recipe here and add fresh herbs, green garlic, scallions to change the flavor.
Basic proportions: 1.5 Tbs Mayo (optional but good if you use a less thick yogurt), 1 cup plain yogurt, 2 Tbs lemon juice (mild vinegar like rice wine or apple cider can be used instead), 1-2 Tbs fresh herbs or garlic. This is a great dressing for napa slaw, and grilled romaine or regular greens salads.
Japanese vegetable pancakes (adapted from smitten kitchen) makes 12-14 small pancakes, serving 5-6: Pancakes: 7-8 cups of finely shredded vegetables, including (but not limited to): cabbage, carrots, turnips, kale and zucchini, 4 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle, 1 tsp kosher salt, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (could use a gluten free substitute), 6 large eggs, beaten, neutral oil for frying. prepare: Toss shredded veggies, scallions, and salt together in a large bowl. Toss mixture with flour so it coats all of the vegetables. Stir in the eggs. Heat a large heavy skillet on medium-high heat. Coat the bottom of the skillet with oil and heat that too. To make the pancakes, pick up a small pile of the mixture with your fingers and drop it into the skillet. You can probably fit 3-4 piles of veggies in the skillet. Flatten the piles slightly with the back of a spatula. Cook for 3 minutes, until the edges start to brown. Flip the pancakes and cook them again until well browned on each side. You can keep them warm on a tray in the oven until you finish frying the rest of the mixture. Serve plain or with any of the sauces below. Extra pancakes will keep in the fridge for a couple of days or can be spread on a tray in the freezer until frozen and put in a freezer bag to be stored. Reheat on a baking sheet in a hot oven until crisp. Tangy sauce: 1/4 cup ketchup, 1.5 TBSP Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 tsp dijon mustard, 1 TBSP sake or white wine, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1-2 TBSP honey, 1/8 tsp ground ginger. Make sauce: Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and let simmer for 3-5 minutes, until smooth and thick. Alternate sauce: Combine 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 2 TBSP soy sauce and 2 tsp sriracha. Mix well and serve. Also great with sweet chili sauce.
REMINDER! 10th Annual CSA Local Food Pancake Brunch
Sunday June 26th 9:00am - 1:00pm
Join us for food from 9-12 and including Stoney Acres whole wheat pancakes, maple syrup, maple herb sausage, egg veggie frittatas, local coffee, local cream line milk and yogurt and more all sourced from our farm and local farm and food businesses. Sausage and eggs are gluten free. Call or email with food questions or concerns.
We will have regular farm tours from 10-12:30 and visits to pigs and chickens. On-going berry picking.
11am we will have a planting party (Aimed at kids but open to anyone)– plant your own herb seedlings or bean seeds to bring home and tend!
12pm we will collect eggs with the chickens.
This is a free CSA event. Visiting friends or family from out of town, grandchildren etc. are all welcome to join you. We will have a small farmer’s market table, t-shirts & seasonal cook books available for sale.
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Using Carrot Tops
Every year we send out the reminder (many times) that carrot tops are actually used in cooking all over the world and they are good. When we refer to the tops we are talking about the leaves (not the thicker stems) that can be taken off and fine chopped and used as a mild substitute for parsley in most dishes. They are wonderful fresh in salads (using a handful), as a base for pesto (see below) or in lightly cooked dishes like baby turnips sautéed with their greens, bacon and topped with carrot leaves. Last but not least they can be used in smoothies by those who like to add greens and are milder than many other greens like kale and spinach. When you receive your carrots separate the greens from the carrots. Remove the long thicker stems and store greens in a loose plastic bag. This helps preserve the life of the carrot bottoms too.
Simple pesto for carrot tops, herbs and/or greens (kale, chard, beet tops and more).
3 cups packed torn kale leaves (carrot tops, basil etc can be added instead or used with these together), 1 teaspoon sea salt, 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup toasted walnuts (almonds, pine nuts etc also work), 4 cloves garlic (or green garlic, scapes etc), 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Pulse greens in food processor with nuts and garlic adding olive oil until desired consistency. Add salt and cheese and mix well. Add to pasta, serve on toasted bread, use as salad dressing based or stir into roasted vegetable.
Pesto can be frozen in ice cube trays and then put into ziplock bags and used throughout winter!
Using greens every day and storing them for winter
It might seem early to consider this but if you get behind on greens here are some tips. We will soon be into fruiting season but you can expect to eat lots of salads and greens for several more weeks.
- Steam or sauté a large batch of extra greens that you have chopped and rinsed. Store in the fridge and add to eggs, pasta dishes, or atop sandwiches each day.
- To preserve greens blanch in hot water, massage with olive oil or sauté or steam. Cool and throw into serving size ziplock bags (label) for winter soups, stews, lasagna and more.