June 12, 2009

Springdale Farm News

This week's vegetables: garlic scapes, cilantro, strawberries, lettuce, spinach, salad mix, scallions, zucchini, European cuke (full shares and some half shares)

Next week: spinach, lettuce, strawberries, mushrooms, parsley, scallions, zucchini, European cucumber, maple syrup

Soon: snow peas and snap peas, more scapes, basil, broccoli, more pea shoots?

Vegetable tidbits: New subscribers may be unfamiliar with the thin, curly, 'sticks' that are in today's boxes. These are part of the garlic plant, which we remove from the plant in order to encourage it to send more energy into its bulb. They can be used either fresh or cooked. Website? Some of today's strawberries are on the dirty side, as we were picking them shortly after a hard rain which splashed some dirt onto the berries. Better for you to wash them than us, since they should be eaten soon after being washed. Today there's both a fair amount of lettuce, along with salad mix. We aim to have either of the two every week; while many weeks there might be both. As the salad mix will probably deteriorate quicker than the lettuce heads, it might be good practice to eat the mix first, and save the heads for later in the week. Spinach quantity will decrease greatly from now on. To help get rid of today's quantity, check out the recipe(s) below.

False Bread Warning: Last week we mentioned that you might be receiving a sample bread from a new baker that we will be working with this year. We got our day wrong -- it is the Tuesday's pick-up sites that are receiving the free sample, not the Friday folks. (We deliver our shares twice a week, with roughly half of our total members on both days.) The baker, Dean Malloy of Fond du Lac, is able to deliver his 100% organic, sourdough bread on Tuesdays, but not Fridays, and will be providing a weekly bread to bread share purchasers for nearly our entirely delivery season. His number is (920) 251-6036 and his e-mail address is surrealbread@yahoo.com if this sparks your interest.

Cilantro-Mayo Spread
3/4 cup mayonnaise 3/4 cup cilantro
1 Tblsp. fresh lime juice 1 tsp. soy sauce
1 clove garlic to taste
Place all ingredients into food processor and blend smooth & spreadable.
Great with turkey, roasted red peppers, and green onion wrapped in lettuce leaf.

Spanakopita from Moosewood Cookbook
( a little oil, butter or - 2 lbs. of fresh spinach, stemmed and finely chopped
oil spray for the pan) - 5 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs. olive oil. - 3 Tbs. flour
2 c. minced onion - 2 cups (packed) crumbled feta cheese ( about 1 lb.)
1/2 tsp. salt - 2 cups cottage or pot cheese
1 Tbs. dried basil - black pepper, to taste
1 Tsp. dried oregano -

1/3 c. olive oil - or 1/2 c. melted butter - or oil spray
1 lb. filo pastry (16 to 20 leaves), thoroughly defrosted

1) Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease a 9 by 13-inch baking pan.
2) Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or deep skillet. Add onion, salt, and herds, and saute for about 5 min, or intil the onion softens. Add the spinach, turn up the heat, and cook, stirring, until the spinach wilts (5 to 8 min.). Stir in the garlic.
3) Sprinle in the flour,stir, and cook over medium heat 2 to 3 more min. Remove from heat.
4)Mix in the cheeses, then correct the seasonings, adding black pepper to taste along the way.
5)Place a shet of filo in the prepared pan, letteing the pastry edges climb up the sides. Brush it all over with olive oil or melted butter, or spray it with oil spray, then add another sheet.
Keep going until you have a stack of 10 oiled or buttered sheets.
6) Add the filling, spreading it evenly to the edges.Continue layering and oiling or buttering the remaining filo on tpo the filling.
Oil or butter the top layer.
7) Gently (with a serrated knife in a sawing motion) cut the unbaked Spanakopita into squares. Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes or until golded and crispy. Serve hot or warm



Good to know about: 1) From the Weston A Price Foundation:

HR 2749 FOOD SAFETY BILL

A new food safety bill is on the fast track in Congress-HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009.

HR 2749 gives FDA tremendous power while significantly diminishing existing judicial restraints on actions taken by the agency. The bill would impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme on small farms and local artisanal producers; and it would disproportionately impact their operations for the worse.

HR 2749 does not address underlying causes of food safety problems such as industrial agriculture practices and the consolidation of our food supply. The industrial food system and food imports are badly in need of effective regulation, but the bill does not specifically direct regulation or resources to these areas.

To read a detailed account of the bill, go to: http://www.ftcldf.org/news/news-15june2009.htm.

Some of the more alarming provisions in the bill are:

* HR 2749 would impose an ANNUAL REGISTRATION FEE of $500 on any "facility" that holds, process, or manufactures food. Although "farms" are exempt, the agency has defined "farm" narrowly. And people making foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, cheeses, or breads would be required to register and pay the fee, which could drive beginning and small producers out of business during difficult economic times.

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to REGULATE HOW CROPS ARE RAISED and HARVESTED. It puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers.

* HR 2749 would give FDA the power to order a QUARANTINE of a GEOGRAPHIC AREA, including "prohibiting or restricting the movement of food or of any vehicle being used or that has been used to transport or hold such food within the geographic area." Under this provision, farmers markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination. The AGENCY can HALT ALL MOVEMENT of ALL FOOD in a geographic area.

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to make RANDOM WARRANTLESS SEARCHES of the business records of small farmers and local food producers, without any evidence whatsoever that there has been a violation. Even farmers selling direct to consumers would have to provide the federal government with records on where they buy supplies, how they raise their crops, and a list of customers.

* HR 2749 charges the Secretary of Health and Human Services with establishing a TRACING SYSTEM for FOOD. Each "person who produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds such food" would have to "maintain the full pedigree of the origin and previous distribution history of the food," and "establish and maintain a system for tracing the food that is interoperable with the systems established and maintained by other such persons." The bill does not explain how far the traceback will extend or how it will be done for multi-ingredient foods. With all these ambiguities, it's far from clear how much it will cost either the farmers or the taxpayers.

* HR 2749 creates SEVERE CRIMINAL and CIVIL PENALTIES, including prison terms of up to 10 years and/or fines of up to $100,000 for each violation for individuals.

ACTION TO TAKE

Contact your Representative now! Ask to speak with the staffer who handles food issues. Tell them you are opposed to the bill. Some points to make in telling your Representative why you oppose HR 2749 include:

1. The bill imposes burdensome requirements while not specifically targeting the industrial food system and food imports, where the real food safety problems lie.

2. Small farms and local food processors are part of the solution to food safety; lessening the regulatory burden on them will improve food safety.

3. The bill gives FDA much more power than it has had in the past while making the agency less accountable for its actions.



2) The USDA has extended the public comment period to June 30th on its proposal to overhaul (& weaken) its oversight of genetically modified crops, which if implemented, would increase our exposure to untested and unlabeled genetically engineered foods. See the Center for Food Safety's website for more details (www.centerforfoodsafety.org).

3) A good source of food-related issues is the Organic Consumer's Association website and newsletter, found at www.organicconsumers.org

Other stuff available: Next week we'll supply you with more information about the possibility of ordering chickens, beef, extra maple syrup, etc., assorted fruit, etc. In the meantime, happy June while it lasts!

New Season - 2009

I'm not sure if I'll keep this up, but I will for a little while. Here's this year's first newsletter for June 12, 2009.

Springdale Farm News
This week's vegetables: lettuce, spinach, zucchini, pea shoots
Greens Share: additional spinach and pea shoots

Next week: lettuce, spinach, zucchini, parsley, sample bread from Fond du Lac baker, eggs (for those who ordered them)

Coming soon: garlic scapes, mushrooms, scallions, peas, strawberries, cilantro, broccoli, maple syrup

Notice: For those of you who get eggs, we will not be delivering them today, but will be delivering them every other week starting next week.

Welcome to the new season! It sure has been a cool spring so far. We even had two very late killing frosts, one in early June that took out a bunch of tomatoes that we had transplanted to the field a few days before. (Fortunately, we had replacements ready to go, so we should still have many tomatoes coming your way!) Usually by Memorial Day it is safe to plant the warm weather crops outside (such as the tomatoes, squashes, melons, etc.), but this year we had to cover all those crops with buckets, blankets (some of which are huge, covering a 1/2 acre in area!), or straw to keep them from freezing. Luckily our efforts were largely successful, with the exception of some low-lying tomatoes that succumbed to the cold. In our five large greenhouses, one is filled with zucchini, which is already producing, one has European cucumbers, which have also suffered some damage due to the cold, and the other three have tomatoes, which are all looking fantastic so far. In the field, the lettuce and spinach does fine with the cold weather, as does the onions, peas, and garlic, while the strawberries seem to have suffered some winterkill, to our huge disappointment, which will likely lead to a few less berries than we were hoping for.

Lots of spinach this week. As usual, despite successive plantings with intervals of 5 to 7 days, the spinach from several plantings seem to want to mature all together, so look for lots of spinach these first couple weeks.

New vegetable: pea shoots. Thanks to a couple of our Hmong helpers, who have continually encouraged us over the years to eat the tender growing tips of the pea plants, we finally succumbed to their pressure and tried them. And we like them. And now you are getting some, too, packed in the bag with your spinach. You could either fry them in some oil, and boil or steam them, and add some salt if you like. Coincidentally, we planted a crop of oats and peas on part of our field that is remaining fallow till late summer, so we went ahead and clipped off the growing tips of those peas. (I would not dare to clip off the growing tip of the sugar snap or snow peas that we are growing for you, since I wouldn't want to adversely affect the yield of the mature peas.) (By the way, these peas are not the new vegetable promised in our questionnaire last fall -- there'll be something else new coming later as well.)

Pick-up reminders: Plan to come every week from now on (till late October) to pick up a box. Barring some horrendous weather, there will be something ready to harvest for you each week, and though the early boxes are always on the lighter side, the planting is going well, and we look forward to a good season. Return the box to your pick-up site the following week, unfold the box (as shown in the 4-minute clip accessed via our website -- www.springdalefarmcsa.org), and place it neatly in a stack.

Exchange Box: At each pick-up site we leave one or a couple of boxes labeled "Exchange Box". We often put some items in the Exchange Boxes before they leave the farm. This week there is some extra spinach in the Exchange Boxes. If you wish, you can take a small quantity of the contents of the Exchange Box to add to your own box. Alternatively, if you find something in your box that you do not want to bring home with you, you can place it in the Exchange Box for someone else to enjoy. For the first month or so, there are usually not so many extras to be found in the Exchange Box, but do keep it mind, both for extras for yourself, and to pass along to others what you may not enjoy in your own box.

More news, information, recipes, etc. to come in the following newsletters. In the meantime, lots of details for us to attend to to make sure these first deliveries go smoothly!

10/3

This week's vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower (from separate crates), tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, swiss chard, leeks, delicata squash, spinach, salad mix, peppers, eggplant (for half shares), cabbage (some received a half cabbage), European cucumbers (for full shares), green beans

Note: For both full shares and half shares, the cauliflower did not fit in the boxes. Look for your cauliflower in separate black crates. Full shares should take 2 heads, and half shares 1. Also, full share green beans did not fit in the boxes. Look for a separate bag or container for the full shares' beans.

Next week: potatoes, onions, carrots, broccoli/cauliflower, eggplant/peppers, spinach, salad mix/lettuce, kohlrabi?, tomatoes, winter squash

Schedule of remaining deliveries: Oct. 10, 17, and 24, Nov. 7 and 21, and Dec. 5.

Vegetable tidbits: Look for extra spinach, and basil, and kale, in the exchange boxes. 95% of you that responded to our wondering whether you mind us splitting large cabbages had no problem with getting a half-cabbage. For the few of you that would have preferred us to not split them, apologies if you were one of the recipients. Lots of broccoli again this week - it was intended to be spread over two or more weeks, but when broccoli is ready, it needs to be picked, so here it comes. For the next couple of months, your box should contain at least one kind of winter squash. We start out with delicata, a favorite, since it is usually a very sweet one. You'll be receiving delicata probably one more time, to go along with buttercup and butternut squash, both of which usually store much better than the delicata.

Recipe: Braised Leeks and Swiss Chard from subscriber Sarah Wood
Preparation time less than 30 mins
Cooking time 10 to 30 mins

Ingredients
2 lbs. leeks, trimmed, sliced and well washed
1lb. Swiss chard
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation
1. Take the leaves off the chard and shred the stalks and leaves finely. Wash and drain well.
2. Put the oil in a large pan add the leeks and the chard stalks. Season well, cover and cook slowly until tender.
3. Mix in the chard leaves and allow to wilt. Serve at once.

Recipe: Tofu Broccoli Cashew Peanut Madness from former intern Rob Summerbell
1 Tbsp. butter or oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound herbed tofu, cubed
2 Tbsp. tamari or soy sauce, divided
1/2 -3/4 cup peanut butter, preferably crunchy
2-3 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. cumin or more to taste
cayenne to taste
1 medium head broccoli, peeled and chopped
hot, cooked brown rice
handful of toasted cashews, chopped
Heat butter or oil in skillet; add onion and garlic; saute until soft. Add tofu and 1 Tbsp. tamari; saute until brown. Remove from pan. In same pan, mix peanut butter, lemon juice, remaining tablespoon tamari, cumin, and cayenne. Thin with up to 1 cup water to obtain gravylike texture. Stir in tofu mixture. Steam broccoli. Serve sauce over broccoli and brown rice, topped with cashews. Makes 4 servings.

Russian Vegetable Pie

Ingredients:
2 pie crusts (enough for the bottom and top shells of a 9-inch pie)


3 TBs butter
1 small head cabbage, shredded
1 med. onion, chopped
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced


5 eggs, hardboiled
8 oz. whipped cream cheese (room temperature)


1/4 tsp. dried marjoram, basil, and tarragon (or to taste; I usually use more)
Fresh dill (or dried will do)--about 2-3 TBs
Salt and pepper to taste


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Unroll first pie crust and spread on bottom of 9-inch pan (I use a Pyrex pie dish as it tends to work better).
3. Melt 3 TBs butter in a large skillet. Add cabbage and onion and saute until the onions are translucent. Add mushrooms and continue to saute as the mushrooms release their moisture. Add marjoram, basil, and tarragon, salt and pepper. Continue to saute until the cabbage is wilted and the onions are soft, stirring frequently. (You can speed this along by covering the pan to trap moisture and steam the veggies for you, but be careful not to burn your veggies.) Set aside.
4. Spread softened cream cheese on the bottom pie shell. Slice hardboiled eggs and arrange the slices in a layer over the cream cheese. Sprinkle with chopped dill.
5. Spread cabbage, mushroom, and onion mixture over the eggs and dill; use a slotted spoon to remove the veggies from your fry pan if there is a lot of moisture still left or else your pie crust will end up soggy. Cover with the second pie crust; press edges together and flute. Cut several short slashes through top crust.
6. Bake in 400-degree oven for 15 minutes, then turn temp. down to 350 and bake for about 20-25 minutes until crust is light brown.
7. Let rest for about ten minutes; slice and serve.

A worthy organization: The Cornucopia Institute, based in Wisconsin, initiates legal battles against the government, and educational campaigns highlighting corporate wrongdoings, all in order to preserve organic farming, local food choices, and safe food. Judging by what has happened in the securities industry, when restraints are eliminated that restrict greedy and outrageous decisions, it seems worthy to keep such watchdog organizations in business. Check out their website at www.cornucopia.org, and send them a few bucks if you agree that they do good work. An example of a recent action of theirs is the federal filing of a lawsuit against the USDA to overturn their mandated "pasteurization" of raw almonds with a toxic fumigant or steam heat. (It is becoming no longer possible to buy a truly 'raw' almond in this country.)

Have a good week!

The Seelys

"To preserve their [the people's] independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our selection between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude" - Thomas Jefferson

Vegetable Curry Recipe

Here is a recipe sent in by subscriber Terry Niehoff. She says "I'm attaching a recipe for Spicy Mixed Vegetable Curry, one of my absolute favorites of all time. It is from 1000 Vegetarian Recipes. Many different kinds of vegetables are used; and even better, substitutions work well."

Enjoy!

Anneke Seely


SPICY MIXED VEGETABLE CURRY

½ # turnips or rutabaga
1 eggplant
¾ # potatoes
½ # cauliflower
½ # mushrooms
1 large onion
½ # carrots
6 T vegetable ghee or oil
2 garlic cloves
2 inch piece ginger root
1-2 fresh green chilies, seeded and chopped
1 T paprika
2 t coriander
1 T curry powder
2 c vegetable bouillon
2 c canned chopped tomatoes
Salt
1 green pepper
1 T cornstarch
2/3 c coconut milk (lite coconut milk works fine, and is less calories)
2-3 T ground almonds

Chop vegetables.

Heat ghee/oil in large pan. Add onion turnip potato and cauliflower and sauté 3 minutes.

Add garlic ginger chilies and spices and cook 1 minute while stirring. (I used double the amount of spices.)

Add bouillon, tomatoes eggplant and mushrooms and season with salt. Simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the green pepper and simmer 5 minutes.

Blend the cornstarch with the coconut milk to a smooth paste, and add to vegetables along with the almonds and simmer 2 minutes.

9/26

Springdale Farm News

This week's vegetables: sweet corn (the last!), lettuce, onions, potatoes, cherry tomatoes (for full shares), tomatoes, green beans (for half shares), broccoli, European cuke (some half shares), peppers, carrots, spinach, basil, roma tomatoes, cauliflower, eggplant

Please note: Not everything fit in your boxes this week. Full shares and half shares should take a bag of potatoes from the appropriate crates (which will be marked at your site). Half shares should also take one box of green beans. Boxes are heavy -- be careful when transporting!

Next week: swiss chard (last time!), leeks, lettuce/salad mix, cauliflower, tomatoes, delicata squash, broccoli, peppers/eggplant

Directions to the Farm for those of you coming to the Farm Day this Saturday: Take I43 north. A 1/2 mile past the Saukville/Port Washington exit Hwy 57 splits off from 43. Take 57 north. You'll go for 20-25 miles or so until you've passed through a tiny town called Waldo. A couple miles past Waldo take a left on County Rd. U. After a couple of miles take a right on County Rd. S. Then take the first road to the left called Silver Spring Ln. If you started going uphill on S you've gone too far. Our farm is the first farm you see on the left.

Recipe: Cauliflower Cheese Pie with Grated Potato Crust from Moosewood Cookbook
Crust:
2 cups (packed) grated raw potato
1/4 cup grated onion
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg white, lightly beaten
flour for your fingers
a little oil

Filling:
1Tbs. olive oils or butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp thyme
1 medium cauliflower, in small pieces
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 cup (packed) grated cheddar
paprika

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Oil a 9-inch pie pan.
Combine grated potato and onion, salt, and egg white in a small bowl and mix well. Transfer to the pie pan and pat in to place with lightly floured fingers, building up the sides into a handsome edge.
Bake for 30 minutes, then brush the crust with a little oil and bake it 10 more minutes. Remove from oven, and turn the temperature down to 375.
Heat the olive oil or butter in a large skillet. Add onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and herbs, and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add cauliflower, stir, and cover. Cook until tender, stirring occasionally (about 8 to 10 minutes).
Spread half the cheese onto the baked crust (ok if it's still hot). Spoon the sauteed vegetables on top, then sprinkle on the remaining cheese. Beat the eggs and milk together, and pour this over the top. Dust lightly with paprika.

Tomato Pie from subscriber Melanie De Vriend.
pie crust
sliced tomatoes
In a bowl, mix:
mayo
fresh basil
fresh chives
pepper
Smear this concoction on top of the tomatoes in the pie crust
top the whole thing with shredded cheddar. Bake.
YUM!


Olive Garden's Alfredo from subscriber Melanie De Vriend
1 stick butter
1/2 cup half and half cream
8 oz cream cheese
3/4 cu grated Parmesan
Dash of salt
Garlic - to taste


Place first 4 ingredients in a sauce pan and heat, stirring, over low heat until melted and creamy.
Add salt and garlic. Serve over cooked pasta and a pile of the Seely's veggies, stir fried!

Reminders: Schedule of remaining deliveries: Oct. 3, 10, 17 and 24, Nov. 7 and 21, and Dec. 5. Farm day this Saturday! Come anytime between 10:30 and 4:30; we'll have a pot-luck at 12:30! Tour of the fields after lunch, and help with harvesting (leeks, cabbage) either before or after lunch. if you would like to come out to the farm, but can't make this one, we'll be doing it again on Oct. 25th.

Get ready for radiation of spinach and lettuce: Last month the FDA issued a new federal regulation permitting the use of ionizing irradiation for the control of food-borne pathogens and extension of shelf life in lettuce and spinach. (The USDA is also considering allowing low-level radiation of animal carcasses at slaughtering plants.) Have there been studies done on the long-term effects of such radiation? Certainly not that have been made public. Is there a more obvious solution to minimizing the amount of e-coli, salmonella, and other cases of food poisoning? Perhaps we should be taking a look at our factory farming methods of agriculture, and see how those methods are contributing to the occurrences of food poisoning; that evidence is out there, should any official or legislator have the courage to take a look at it!
Just to be safe, though, would anyone be willing to donate funds (tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars) to our farm so that we could purchase a radiation machine, too? We love new toys! (JUST KIDDING!)

Have a good (radiation-free) week!

The Seelys

"We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace." George W. Bush UN Speech Sept 2004

9/19

This week's vegetables: beets, lettuce mix, basil, cilantro, parsley, scallions, zucchini/yellow squash, sweet corn, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes (for half), broccoli, baby turnips with greens, peppers

Next week: potatoes, carrots, onions, salad mix, sweet corn, lettuce?, tomatoes, peppers/eggplant, winter squash?, spinach, chinese cabbage?, cauliflower?

Soon: kohlrabi, cauliflower

Recipe: Butter-Braised Turnips adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
2 Tb. butter
1Tb. canola or other neutral oil
1 pound baby turnips, more or less, with the greens trimmed off.
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup white wine or broth
1 Tb. balsamic vinegar or other vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
Minced fresh parsley leaves for garnish
Combine the butter and oil in a medium to large skillet that can later be covered; turn the heat to medium. When the butter melts, add the turnips and cook, stirring, until they are coated with butter, just a minute or two longer. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the remaining ingredients, except the garnish, stir, and cover. Turn the heat to low and cook until the turnips are barely tender, about 5 minutes.
Uncover and raise the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring, until the turnips are glazed and the liquid is syrupy, another few minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, garnish, and serve.

Basil salad dressing from epicurious.com, send in buy subscriber Julia Kathan
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped shallot
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil


Preparation
Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Cooks' notes:
• Use dressing on mixed greens or sliced tomatoes or for chicken salad.
• Dressing keeps, covered and chilled, 1 day.

Warm Turnip Green Dip from myrecipes.com

5 bacon slices, chopped

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 (16-oz.) package frozen chopped turnip greens, thawed (Of course, substitute our fresh ones!)

12 ounces cream cheese, cut into pieces

1 (8-oz.) container sour cream

1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1. Cook bacon in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat 5 to 6 minutes or until crisp; remove bacon, and drain on paper towels, reserving 1 Tbsp. drippings in Dutch oven.

2. Sauté onion and garlic in hot drippings 3 to 4 minutes. Add wine, and cook 1 to 2 minutes, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of Dutch oven. Stir in turnip greens, next 4 ingredients, and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Cook, stirring often, 6 to 8 minutes or until cream cheese is melted and mixture is thoroughly heated. Transfer to a lightly greased 1 1/2-qt. baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.3. Broil 6 inches from heat 4 to 5 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned. Sprinkle evenly with bacon.

Vegetable tidbits: We had not planned on giving beets out so soon again, since we know some of you don't especially care for them, but the newest bed of beets was growing so fast, and the beets were getting bigger and bigger, that we figured before they get too large we should give them out. Although on the large side, they are still tasty, so don't be afraid to cook them up. (Throw them in the Exchange Box if you don't care for them! There are only a few in there!) Or grill them! Days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, and it's getting closer to the time when a freeze wipes out the remaining basil, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and cucumbers. The cool temperatures are also important, on the other hand, to produce excellent cole crops (of the brassicas family, including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and brussels sprouts); we 'surprise' you today with some baby turnips (also a member of the brassica family), with greens; we wonder if you are pleased with this addition! (Our guess: 2/3 of you like, or don't mind, them, while 1/3 of you would just as soon not get them.)

Further salad mix suggestions: From two different subscribers we received the following, both of which offer tips for making the salad mix last longer:


"We found a way to improve storage time by using 'green bags' which absorb the gases that causes fruits and vegetables to spoil. They do work, and allow us more time to eat the food. I think they cost $10 for 20 bags. They are reusable for 8-10 uses. I'm not sure if they are biodegradable. There is an inconvenience though. The inside of the bags get wet, so must be dried with a paper towel." and, (coincidentally),

" I usually slide a sheet of paper towel (well, you could use a dishtowel) into the bag under the greens, which absorbs the moisture which will eventually start to create yucky leaves. It seems to hold that off from happening longer than when there's no towel in the bag."

The lettuce leaves do seem to last longer if they are not dripping wet, though with our spinners that we acquired this year, they should leave the farm without pools of water like sometimes has happened in the past. But it might be worthwhile to get the leaves even drier, especially if they have been, and will be, sitting in their bag for a number of days.

A possible action: We haven't been suggesting very much letter-writing, or phoning, so far this year, to help influence decisions that guide our agriculture and food policies, maybe partly because it seems both our legislators, and (especially) the non-elected members of the regulatory agencies (FDA, USDA, etc.) have been overwhelmingly coopted by the lobbyists of the major corporate entities, that citizen feedback, no matter how well-reasoned or passionately expressed, does little to sway those whose decisions affect us all. In case that's not true all the time, here's one message you could send to food processors and packages: let's not used cloned animals for food, even though the FDA has apparently okayed it. See http://ga3.org/campaign/cloning_companies, and/or click on the other 'Urgent Actions' on the Center for Food Safety's website!
What perhaps works better is for us to express ourselves through our pocketbook, as evidenced by Monsanto's giving up on its bovine growth hormone due to consumers seeking dairy products without the added hormone. Watch out, though, for what they might be trying to sneak into our food (e.g. the sugar beet industry is now beginning to accept genetically modified beet seed, after initially being against it, and all the while knowing that consumers, if given the choice, would opt for non-GMO sugar), or into our laws, without our notice! Can you believe that this very same company (Monsanto) is trying to claim patents on the pig? (I don't mean to be too harsh on Monsanto, since others are also guilty of similar feats, but how brazen, and how greedy, can they get?) If you are dubious of this last accusation, check out the article at: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/monsanto-pig-patent-111

Reminders: Unfold your box neatly. (Now you should know how, with both the sheet with pictures, as well as the You-tube clip, that we have made available to you!) And place it neatly in a pile at your pick-up site. The containers that we send cherry tomatoes, green beans, eggs, etc., in can be brought back to your pick-up site, but at this point don't bring back odd-shaped containers that you get from the store that contained other produce, that don't nest neatly with the containers you have received from us. Work/fun day at the farm on the 27th of September; details again next week. We do have chickens and pork available in case you've missed an earlier newsletter; contact us for details. Grass-fed beef info coming soon as well.

Have a great week!

The Seelys

"It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificually induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear." -General Douglas MacArthur, Speech, May 15, 1951

9/12/08

In your box this week: watermelon or cantaloupe, sweet corn, cucumbers, roma tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, yellow squash (for full shares), scallions, carrots, onions, cherry tomatoes, salad mix, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, bok choi, lettuce (for full shares), kale. Look for chard and/or arugula in the Exchange Boxes.

Next week: tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, salad mix, parsley, basil?, cilantro?, chinese cabbage, beets

Soon: potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, delicata squash

Recipe: Simple Carrot Salad, a Springdale Farm Special
Grated carrots
mayonnaise
salt
dried dill
nutritional yeast (optional)
raisins
toasted sunflower seeds
Mix as much mayonnaise as you'd like. Add salt, nutritional yeast (optional) and dried dill to taste. Mix in raisins and sprinkle the toasted sunflower seeds over the top of the salad. Enjoy!

Kale-Potato soup - The New Laurel¹s Kitchen
1 Tblsp. butter 1 large onion, chopped 2 large potatoes
1 clove garlic, minced 1 large bunch kale salt & black pepper to taste
5 cups chicken or vegetable broth, divided (or use part stock part water)
Heat butter in skillet, add onion and sauté until nearly tender. Add garlic and continue to cook until onion is translucent and golden. Add potatoes and 2 cups of the stock; simmer, covered, until potatoes start to soften around the edges. Meanwhile, wash kale, remove stems, chop and steam. When potatoes are very tender, pureé half of them with remaining stock, salt and pepper. Combine everything and heat gently, thinning, if necessary, by adding hot water or milk. Four servings.

Schedule of remaining deliveries: Here are the dates for the remaining deliveries for this season: Sept. 19 and 26, Oct. 3, 10, 17, and 24, Nov. 7 and 21, and Dec. 5. Note that there will be no deliveries on Friday, Oct. 31, and Nov. 14 and 28. The storage share delivery date is still to be determined.

Feedback received on the salad mix: Perhaps not surprising, given that we have over 500 full and half shares, the variety of responses to our request for feedback on the addition of non-lettuce greens to the lettuce mix was extensive. For example:

" I LOVE the stronger tasting greens. The other mixes, with no arugula or other spicy or strong tasting greens, can be very boring and dull."

"We prefer the plain salad mix, but it is still nice to change it up every now and then."

"We pick through and find that much of the less traditional greens in the salad mix have overpowering flavors (one in particular is quite bitter) that detract from what WE are used to. We've given it the ol' college try and just cannot develop an appreciation for that taste. So we just pick many of the more 'flavorful' greens out. It doesn't take much to overpower the rest, just like--if you're not a fan of cilantro--a few sprigs of cilantro completely change the entire flavor of the recipe."

"LOVE IT"
"We do like the Asian greens mixed in"

"We prefer the plain salad mix, but it is still nice to change it up every now and then. We REALLY like the washing and spinning!"

"Loved the arugula and other spicy bits in the salad mix"

"We did not care for the salad mix this week at all. The addition of the chard and beet tops made it taste pretty bitter. All of the other salad mixes have been wonderful, but this week we had to pick out the beet/chard leaves (took a while because there were a lot!). I should mention that white I do like beets, I don't use the beet tops, and we are not swiss chard fans, so that goes in to the exchange box for us. Just wanted to give you some feedback on the thought of adding these greens to our lettuce mix on a more regular basis as you were considering. It is the one thing so far this year that we didn't care for. Again, we absolutely adore the lettuce mixes though!"

Perhaps, as a compromise, we will often include some of the other greens, but not always! Thanks for the feedback!


On the longevity of the salad mix: Sometimes the salad mix stores well, and other times it goes bad quickly. Why? Some of the factors include the growing conditions -- including fertility and moisture levels --in the field the lettuce is planted in; the varieties of lettuce chosen; how 'old' the salad mix is when it is harvested; how densely the lettuce is planted; the length of time between harvesting and delivering; how tenderly it is handled in harvesting, washing, drying, and bagging; how hot it is on the delivery day; and how long it is kept without refrigeration (i.e. when it is picked up and placed in your home refrigerator). If we have made good and timely decisions on all of the above (and perhaps other) factors, then it is likely that the salad mix would last for the better part of a week. If we (or nature or you) did not do a good job on one or several of the above, then the mix can start to deteriorate in a day or two. Besides picking up your box as soon as possible, and refrigerating the mix asap, there's not a whole lot that you can do about it to influence its longevity. (Perhaps you could also pick out the bad leaf or two that may be found upon initially receiving your box.) We could also possibly look into vacuum sealing bags which, by limiting the oxygen that the leaves are exposed to, drastically curtails the spoilage rate. We are not sure of the expense of such a solution, nor how much we'd actually gain by vacuum sealing the bags we put the mix in, so we're not actively looking at that possibility, though it certainly might be worth considering. Actually we are considering moving over to the rigid plastic containers like the ones we put cherry tomatoes in, since there are now biodegradable clamshell containers. They are much more expensive than the ziplock bags we currently use, but at least they do not contribute to the problems associated with plastic production and disposal. A couple of you suggested not washing the lettuce at all, with the hope that it would store longer by not getting wet, but the leaves would actually become limp within hours if they are not hydrated, so we do need to get them wet, and keep them moist, for them to stay fresh. We also expect that many of you like the convenience of not having to wash the lettuce so thoroughly, if at all, before putting it into your favorite salad bowl. We do, too!

In other news: Hooray for Monsanto's unloading their rBST (also called rBGH, or bovine growth hormone) product, after consumer concern over its safety, as well as the pledge of many food processors to use only milk that was not produced from cows injected with their bio-engineered sex hormone. Although somewhat successful in inducing cows to give more milk, Posilac (their trade name for the product) was not healthy for the cows, and was not proven to be safe for humans. Monsanto had fought tooth and nail to prevent Posilac milk to be labeled as such, and legally fought farmers and dairy processors and retailers who labeled their products that didn't contain milk from Posilac-injected cows as rBGH free, but even giants such as Wal-Mart responded to consumer rejection of rBGH by selling milk without the hormone, and so Monsanto has apparently decided to sell their Posilac line. Consumers can claim a small victory, though another competitor has bought the product, so we cannot yet exclaim R.I.P.

Have a great week!

The Seelys