CSA 2014 Week #11

August 19, 2014

IMGP4810

  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Basil
  • Cucumbers
  • Lettuce
  • New Potatoes
  • Red Onions
  • Strawberries
  • Tomatoes
  • Some Sites Only
  • Cauliflower
  • Peppers
  • Zucchini

IMGP4812PEPPERS: Peppers will stay fresh in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator for 1-2 weeks. For the highest nutrition, eat peppers raw. Slice or dice them for pasta or green salads, thinly slice them for sandwiches, or cut lengthwise for dipping. Add peppers to omelets, stir-fries, quiches, sauces, curries and stews. Peppers taste great in Italian, Indian, Mexican, or Thai food as well as in many other ethnic dishes. Roasted peppers are especially tasty. Place peppers under the broiler until the skins have evenly blackened. Place the peppers in a brown bag, fold and allow the peppers to steam for 10-15 minutes. When cool, peel off the skins and add to your recipe.

IMGP4823RED ONIONS: Red Onions taste best when eaten fresh. You can extend their storage by refrigerating them, but they should be eaten in about a month. Warmth and moisture will cause sprouting. To enjoy raw flavor with a little less bite, boil onion slices for less than a minute, then remove from the water and enjoy. Raw onions provide the most health benefits. Chill onions in the refrigerator or wash under running water to reduce eye irritation during cutting. Try red onions chopped on pizza and mixed into cornbread, diced in salads and stir-fries, or baked in the oven for caramelized onions. Onions are flavor enhancers, you can use them generously in just about anything.

RECIPES!

Today Sara and family are finishing up a much needed vacation, so I am taking the reigns on the blog this week. While I used to write the weekly boxnotes for many years, this is my first BLOG post! I thought of so many things I could write about….how it’s still hot on the farm, what a wonderful season it has been, the goods, the bads, the uglies of all the crops or maybe a young farmer profile. Yet, I really just want to write something inspirational, and while pondering, the poet Wendell Berry keeps coming to mind. I thought I would share one of my favorite of his works from the Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front….I hope you enjoy it!

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Cow and Pasture Tour

We did have a few folks come to our Cow and Pasture Tour this past weekend…Jack was pleased to show them around and share a hayride tour of the fields. We will host one more before the end of the season, on Saturday, September 6th at 10:30 AM….I will be getting the current information regarding our organic, grass fed beef out to folks interested this week, so let us know if you would like to receive it.