|
"Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country."-William Jennings Bryan     On behalf of all our farmers, it has been our honor and privilege to provide the CSA community with the best in South Central Colorado foods. And to our CSA working shareholders Eric Havelock-Bailie, and Alex DeCarli (pictured top left and right respectively) and Byron Williams (pictured on the left), thank you for your efforts and artist's eye! And to our driver and warehouse ninja Dave Swain (pictured above) thanks for getting those boxes to where they needed to go with humor and diligence! Here's the box: Apples, Early Jonathan, "Akane," Conner Orchards, Hotchkiss 3.57 pounds Dragon Tongue Beans, White Mountain Farm, Mosca 0.89 pounds Beets, Chioggia, WMF 1 bunch Eggs, Ab Yoder Family Farm, Alamosa 1 dozen Leeks, WMF 1 leek Mixed Baby Greens, Ring a Ding Farms, Howard, CO 0.5 pound Sweet Baby Greens, RAD 0.5 pound Peaches, Black Bear Orchards, Palisade, CO 2 pounds Potatoes, Red, WMF 3 pounds Potatoes, Yellow, WMF 3 pounds Quinoa, WMF 1 pound Acorn Squash, Antonio Garcia, Alamosa 1.5 pound Winter Squash, Antonio Garcia 4.5 pound Sunflower Oil, Colorado Mills, Lamar, CO 1 bottle Colorado River Beans, Dove Creek Bean Company, Dove Creek, CO 1 pound Tomatoes, Graber's Produce, Alamosa 1.78 pound Zuchinni, Oretga's Mini Market, Rocky Ford, CO 0.84 pound Cucumber, Ortega's Mini Market 1 cucumber Jalepenos, Ortega's Mini Market 0.27 pound Garlic, Absmeier High Alitude Garlic, Alamosa, CO 1 pound Cooler Return this week only! Bring 'em back to your CSA pick up location ASAP. These are on loan from White Mountain Farm so let's all please show our appreciation and bring them back. Online CSA Market Orders available for MOSCA PICK UP every week year-round!
From Megumi's Kitchen Wow! What a bounty! I think Nick, the Food Hub manager extraordinary, was making sure that we do not go into shock when the Fresh Box stops coming next week. The box this week had many items that can be stored and sustain us for a long time. Thank you, Nick! Yesterday evening (Thursday, September 15th), I had an opportunity to witness how my heroes worked to assemble our boxes. Unfortunately I did not have my camera and my old cell phone does not take good pictures. So I beg you to use your power of imagination… Imagine you are in a big room that was once a school cafeteria. On a long wall is a line of coolers and boxes —yes, the ones we receive each week—- lined up from one end to the other and continue to the next wall, all 60 or so of them. When you turn your eyes to the center of the room, various produce in cases occupy big tables. At one table, one guy is stuffing plastic bags with salad greens. On the other end of the room, another is washing eggs at the sink. All 6 guys are moving swiftly between the tables, walk-in coolers, and the boxes on the wall delivering various item to each box. What a beautiful view it was to see a work of great team! They’d been there since 7:30 AM, and at around 7PM they finished loading the refrigerated truck with our boxes to be delivered next day. And they’ve done it every week for all through the summer… sometimes working till 9PM. At the end of this CSA season, I would like to offer a huge round of applause and heartfelt appreciation to the each and every one — farmers, producers, ranchers, drivers, assembly team, and the manager— who made yet another great CSA season. Thank you! To commemorate the end of the season, I decided to cook something special with ingredients from the box this week. --- Quinoa Stuffed Winter Squash --- - cook approx 1/4 cup of quinoa in 1/2 cup water. set aside - chop the white part of the leek and sauté till nice and soft - dice 1/2 tomato to small pieces, add to the leek, sauté a few more minutes, season with salt, pepper, crushed garlic, thyme and whatever other spices you may like. set aside dice cheese --any melting kind of cheese would do. today I had some cheddar cheese in my refrigerator - cut off the top of the squash and scrape out the seeds - salt and pepper the inside of the squash. mix quinoa, leek/tomato, and cheese and stuff the squash - poke the squash from outside with a folk, rub with oil, and place an aluminum tent. - bake the squash in the oven at 350-400 degree for about 45 minutes or until the squash is soft. folk should go though the skin without much forcing. cooking time varies depending on the size of the squash and the thickness of the squash wall. Wishing you a bountiful and beautiful fall season!
2 Comments
"The purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows." -Moffat School Marquee  End of the season CSA BBQ Potluck this Thursday 6 pm at the Hub in Mosca, 5401 Terry St Mosca, Co 81146. Come join us, meet your box-builders, and share your favorite recipes! Also, join the San Luis Valley Local Food Coalition and community at the annual Soiree event: Local! Sunday, September 25th from 11:30 AM until 5PM at the Rio Grande Farm Park for an AMAZING afternoon of local food, local live music, local artists, and family fun activities. Entry is only $5 per person (children under 4 are free). Activities include a Farm to Table 5K, hay ride, pony rides, petting zoo, face paining, and other games! Buy your tickets and festival bucks for items at the food, drink, art, and activity booths here. You can purchase tickets at the event as well. The San Luis Valley Local Foods Coalition hopes to see you all there for this great celebration. We also still need VOLUNTEERS! If you are interested in helping set up, clean up, or work the tables please contact Amber at [email protected] or 608-295-3424. Lastly, Wednesday 4 pm deadline for a la carte orders from the CSA Market. Here's the box: Apples, Early Jonathan "Akane," Conner Orchards, Hotchkiss, CO 2 pounds Plums, Blood, Conner Orchards 1.5 pounds Peaches, COG, Black Bear Orchards, Palisade 1.5 pounds Beans, French and/or Yellow, COG, WMF 0.5 pounds Mushrooms, Crimini, Colorado Mushroom Farm 8 oz Onions, White/Yellow, COG, White Mountain Farm, Mosca 1 bunch Radish, Watermelon, COG, WMF 1 bunch Lettuce, Sweet Baby, COG, Ring a Ding Farms, Howard, CO 0.5 pound Watermelon/Cantaloupe, COG, Hirakata Farms, Rocky Ford, CO 1 melon From Megumi's Kitchen --- Three bean salad a la SLV --- The yellow beans in the box inspired us to make three bean salad. But we did not have kidney bean... oh no! Or is it a "oh yes"? It is an opportunity to try San Luis Valley version of the all American three bean salad. With the Anasazi beans from Dave Creek Bean Company and pinto beans from J-Cabz Farm, both of which we bought in bulk from the Hub, here we are the Three Bean Salad a la SLV. - Soak Anasazi beans, Pinto beans, and Garbanzo beans over night. (about 1/4 cup each). - Cook beans in salt water until firm outside but soft inside. (I cooked each kind separately.) Set them aside - Boil yellow and green beans in salt water. Cut in 1/2 inches long. Set them aside. - Chop 1 small purple (or young white) onion. Set aide. - Make your basic salad dressing with Colorado Mills Sunflower oil (or other nice olive or salad oil), apple cider vinegar, thyme, marjoram, salt and pepper. (or use your favorite store bought Italian dressing) - Mix all the beans, onion, and the dressing. Taste and add any seasoning to your liking. This salad would be really nice with Fava beans too.... too bad we have to wait until next season. :-) —— Plum Tart German style—-- While I was in Germany as an exchange student, I used to sit in the kitchen admiring how my hall-mates baked fresh fruit torte. They would take any fruit in season and made torte as easily as making scramble eggs. As advanced as their technology, Germans seemed to have handed down good old home-cooking tradition to the younger generations. For someone who grew up in Tokyo believing desserts were too difficult to made at home, it was eye-opening. Years later, when I lived in Seattle, the house I was renting had a plum tree in the back yard. Reminiscing my days in Germany, I re-created a plum tart recipe from my memory. Finding plums in our CSA box this week brought it all back to me in my SLV kitchen! - Per-bake pie/pastry/quiche crust of your choice - In the mean time make custard. you will need: 2 egg yolks 4 tablespoons sugar 1 tablespoon flour 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 cup + milk 1 tablespoon butter Vanilla essence whiskey/brandy/rum (optional) Combine egg your, sugar, flour and cornstarch in a bowl. add about 1 tablespoon of milk. mix well. set aside. Heat the rest of the milk, when cooked, add it to the egg mixture mixing constantly. Let it run through strainer, and put it back on low to-mid heat. cook until desired consistency Take off the heat and mix in butter, vanilla essence and whiskey - wash and halve the plum taking the seed away - in the crust, pour custard and place plum halves cut side up. sprinkle a little sugar and crushed almond. Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes. Germans would have it with fresh whip cream :)) And here is the "original German plum torte" recipe from NYT. —— Watermelon radish soup —-- I thought the root vegetable we found this week in the box was turnip and started making soup. Whoops! Had I known it was watermelon radish, I would had marinated it and served with salad. It is soooooo beautiful! But my cooking was already in motion; it was too late for me to change the course. The result was beautiful soft pink soup with nice flavor. The original recipe was taken from a website and, as always, adapted it to the reality of my kitchen. While it was good as it was, I am already thinking about adding beets to increase the intensity of pink. Also adding a little bit of lemon juice when you serve would take away bitterness if you prefer. - slice 2-3 small onion into very thin wedges - cube 3 small potatoes - cube turnip/watermelon radish - in the bottom of a pot, pour 3-5 table spoons of olive oil and sprinkle salt - add a layer of onion, potatoes, and then radish - place 2 sticks of fresh rosemary, and sprinkle some ground nutmeg - without adding water, cook it on low heat for 30-40 minutes or until everything is soft. good aroma should be coming from the pot by then - blend the cooked veggies in a blender adding water, veggie broth, or milk as needed - place pureed veggies back in the pot and cook throughly. season with salt and other spices to your liking |
Archives
November 2024
Categories |
RSS Feed
Valley Roots Food Hub
Office: 719-206-2839 5401 Terry Street Mosca, CO 81146 Mailing: PO Box 35, Mosca, CO 81146 |
|