White House Gardens Week #1 June 17, 2010

Here we are, at the start of the season!  The harvest was great.  Everything has grown so fast with the warm weather and all the rain.  In your share this week you will find lettuce, green onions, radishes, Chinese (Napa) cabbage, cauliflower, and spinach.  Most of you got sugar snap peas and the rest broccoli.  There will be more of both, I keep track of who gets what so no one misses out.  There just wasn’t enough of those two things for everyone this week.  

The Chinese cabbage can be eaten raw or cooked.  Try it in a stir-fry or in a coleslaw.   Below is a recipe for Asian Cabbage Salad.  To prepare the cabbage, cut in half and then in quarters and trim out the core.  If you are going to cook it, cut the leafy part away from the rib.  Slice the ribs and then the leaves.  Add the ribs first as they take longer to cook.

Or it can be sliced thin or shredded if used raw.  These heads of cabbage are large enough that you could cook half and use the other half for coleslaw or mixed with the other greens for a salad!

 The sugar snap peas can also be eaten raw or lightly cooked.  Snap off the top and pull down to remove the string.  They are meant to be eaten pod and all, not shelled, and are very sweet.   To cook them, put the pods in boiling, lightly salted water for about 1 ½ - 2 minutes, and then, to stop the cooking process, blanch them immediately by immersing them briefly in ice water.  You can then chill the peas for serving in a salad, or you can cook the boiled peas further by sautéing them in butter or oil.

Asian Cabbage Salad
2 ½ cups chopped cabbage
1 medium carrot, or 2 small carrots, grated
Dressing:
2 Tblsp each olive oil and rice vinegar
1-2 Tblsp soy sauce
1 tsp honey (optional)
½-1 tsp grated fresh ginger root
Whisk together the dressing and add to the
cabbage and carrots. Marinate at room
temperature for 15 minutes before serving.
Season with salt and pepper to taste if needed.
Optionally garnish with chopped peanuts.

One of my favorite recipe sources is from the New York Times. It is a weekly series by Martha Rose Shulman called Recipes For Health.  Below is a link.
   
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/series/recipes_for_health/index.html?ref=nutrition  I will be linking to her recipes a lot this season.  

Please try to remember to return your boxes next week.  Each of you have two boxes:  return the empty and pick up a full one.

I hope you enjoy the bounty of the garden.  It sure is looking great this year and I am pleased to be able to provide fresh, organic produce for all of you this year.

Debbie Fox
White House Gardens CSA

Get Ready for a New CSA Season!

Looks like farmer Debbie has been very busy!  Debbie sent an update with this photo of the onions, kale, chinese cabbage, cabbage, broccoli, & cauliflower happily growing at the farm.



Tomorrow is the first pick-up of the season, and I'm excited for the season ahead.  This year I will be preparing not only my own share, but a share for one of my personal chef clients as well.

So here is an original recipe that I created for the grill last week, along with some links to other recipes I am considering for this week's share.

Grilled Potato Bundles with Peppers, Sprouts, and Garlic Scapes

Per Packet, Multiply for desired number of servings

1 baking potato, scrubbed and sliced 1/4" thick
1-2 garlic scapes,  chopped
1 small cubanelle pepper, chopped
handful of sprouts
Salt & Pepper
Drizzle of Olive Oil

Arrange on square of foil. Pinch into a bundle.  Cook on grill over medium heat 30 - 45 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

*Sub any veggies you have on hand, add smashed cloves of garlic instead of scapes. 

This week's share may contain: Lettuce, Green Onions, Napa Cabbage, Spinach, Cauliflower, and Arugula.

My client requested a Spinach Salad with Bacon, Green Onions, and Hard Boiled Eggs, so I will be loosely following this Fine Cooking version.  (Fine Cooking has a fee to access some of their content - totally worth the $9.95 if you are a subscriber,  a little more if you aren't).

The Napa cabbage may make an appearance in this Hoisin Pork with Napa Cabbage.

For the cauliflower, I am eyeing this Cauliflower Soup with Marcona Almond and Piquillo Pepper Relish, this Lentil Soup with Cauliflower and Bacon, or this Orrecchiette with Indian-Spiced Cauliflower and Peas.

What are you planning to make with your first share? If you haven't been by the blog lately, be sure and check the new link I added to the right with tons of offbeat recipes by vegetable.

Savoring Federal Hill: Part 1 - Foodies on the Road

The only thing better than getting together with a group of your foodie friends, is really getting the opportunity to explore the foods and purveyors of a new region.  This past weekend I had the opportunity to get together with a group of my personal chef friends from all over the country in Providence, Rhode Island.

One of the many food centric activities we planned was taking Cindy Salvato's Savoring Federal Hill Tour.  After meeting in a a cafe in the historic district and grabbing a morning coffee, we headed to our first stop, Antonelli's Poultry. 

The sidewalk has a sprinkling of chicken tracks leading up to entrance, where the signs proclaim "Choose Your Chicken Alive".  Cindy informed us that the tracks lead inside, but you'll note there aren't any coming out.

The inside of the narrow shop features a counter with fresh quail eggs, and freshly dressed chickens.  Customers head to the back of the store and go past a plastic curtain to choose their chicken from the cages stacked in the back.  The chicken is then killed and cleaned on-site.  One of the Silkies, which features fluffy white feathers, and black skin, was brought out for us to see, as was the partridge below.  The shop also carries rabbits.

Since we there early on Saturday morning, there were plenty of families, kids in tow, that came into to choose their chickens.  In addition to fresh meat, the shop also carries a nice selection of spices, seasonings, and other goodies. 

They also showed us some of the egg yolks that came out of the butchered chickens.  Said they were great dropped into soup.  (photo courtesy of Mary Beth Brinkerhoff)

It was nice to see a shop operating pretty much the same way it has been for the past century.  In this era of nuggetized, shrink-wrapped, boneless chicken,  it was a great to see that truly fresh chicken is still available for those that seek it out. 

Stay tuned for the rest of the tour....

Spring Supper: Beet Greens, Asparagus, w/Poached Eggs

Are you looking forward to Spring as much as I am?  While the beets were tiny (Chiogga with the pretty rings), the greens were young, fresh and tasty.  I got these from the final indoor winter farmer's market from Maize Valley Farm.

After a long day with no real plan for dinner, a search of the fridge turned up the beet greens, a bunch of asparagus (not yet local, but pretty good), some cooked lentils, and a couple of Brunty Farms eggs.  The last carton of eggs were so big I couldn't even close the carton.

So I sauteed the beets and greens, then the asparagus, and brought a pot of water to boil to poach the eggs.  I got to test out a new gadget - these silicone poaching pods.  Note that you still need to grease the pods, lest your eggs stick to them.  This was my first time using them.  They worked pretty well, but I did break one of the eggs getting it out.

If I hadn't been so tired, I would have thought of the perfect addition to this dinner - some of the awesome Chevre from Lucky Penny Creamery!  But I didn't until it was too late.  Next time, though.

Garden Plowed

The garden was chisel plowed by a local farmer/friend, Jim Berry. He has such large equipment, he can do it in about 14 minutes. I still have to till it, that takes about 4 hours with my small tractor! He is very generous to do this for me, saves me much time. Eventually I will get a small chisel plow or a more powerful tiller so that I can do it myself, but for now I'll let Jim do it if he's willing.

Everything is growing well in the greenhouse. Today I planted swiss chard, beets (red & chioggia), pac choi, and kohlrabi. I also planted some tomato plants for pot sales. If any of you are planning your own garden to supplement your CSA share, I will have some plants for sale in about 3 or 4 weeks. Planting in the ground will begin later this month, or early May, depending on the weather.

I spent Easter in Denver with my 3 children and my daughter-in-law and granddaughter. On Saturday my daughter and I went to opening day of the Boulder Farmers' Market. This market is one of the best I have ever attended. So many vendors and lots of customers. But we have markets just as good, such as the Countryside Conservancy Market in the Cuyahoga Valley Park. There is a market this Saturday at the Happy Days Visitor Center on Rt. 303, starting at 9:00 am. Get there early if you want the best selection. This Saturday is the last winter market at this location. The weekly Saturday morning markets begin May 15th at Howe Meadow on Riverview Road. I just love this market and am friends with many of the vendors. I also volunteer on the advisory committee, which helps the market manager set policies and select vendors for the season. This should be our best year ever, and I hope you will attend at some time this season and support all the vendors that are working so hard to bring local products to the community.

Here's Bradley with the soil block maker. The soil block maker is pushed into a pan of rather wet potting soil, then the blocks are pushed out of the mold by pulling up while pushing down at the same time. Not the best explanation, but that's the best I can do. Next time maybe a short video! Another 22 flats seeded today with onions. We also seeded 600 cells with sugar snap peas, to be transplanted when the weather is more cooperative. And I filled 22 trays to be seeded with peppers later this week. This is the first time I will be transplanting peas. I never seem to get good germination when direct seeding peas early when the weather is unstable. This year I decided to try transplanting one variety and see how that goes. There never seems to be enough sugar snap peas for everyone! Maybe this year there will be enough to go around. Also, next time I will take a picture of Bradley's face!

The broccoli is up along with the cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and some of the herbs, in spite of the cold weather. It got pretty cold in the greenhouse the last couple of nights, but I won't turn the heat on unless absolutely necessary. That's why I don't start the warm weather crops until the weather warms up a little more.

Here's a link to a great recipe/idea from a blog I read, Well Preserved , written by Eugenia Bone. The recipe reminded me of the garden when it is in full force, but I'm so tired that I don't feel like cooking anything! This one is something I can do without too much effort and too much thinking. I have also purchased Eugenia Bone's book, Well Preserved, and will definitely be trying some of her ideas for preserving the harvest in small batches.

Planting Started for 2010

I spent 4 hours on Saturday, and 3 hours on Sunday seeding broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, celery, celeriac, parsley, rosemary, tarragon, and oregano in the greenhouse. Shareholder Bradley Cramer helped make soil blocks, 1,440 to be exact. Thank you so much Bradley, for helping and keeping me company this weekend. I never could have accomplished this much in two days if it had not been for you. Bradley is eager to learn as much as he can about market farming through helping me and reading about different farming methods. His particular interest is in raising chickens for eggs and meat.

I use soil blocks for some crops, those that don't need transplanted into a bigger pot before going into the field. I like them because they produce a bigger and healthier transplant and they also reduce the transplant shock when they do get planted outside. They are made using a special organic potting mix that I buy from Ohio Earth Food in Hartville, plus a 4 block maker that is a mold. (I should have taken a picture of the block maker!) Ohio Earth Food carries many of the organic supplies I need to comply with the organic standards for growing vegetables.

Next will be the onions, peppers, some tomatoes (not all), eggplant, and more herbs. I will have transplants for sale this year of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and just about anything that I grow. I know some of you have your own home gardens to suppliment your CSA shares. I will let you know when they are ready.

That's all for now. Thanks again, Bradley!