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