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Hi Farm Fans! Here is an email about yoga classes and a new service being offered by Chris' mom, Patty, who lives in Somerville. We'll be cooking with her at the December 1st class. If the yoga or coaching sound like just the booster you need, send her an email! pateoneill@aol.com
" A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step" - Lao Tzu
If you are like me, the holidays can mess with your routines, making it easy to fall into bad habits that contribute to higher stress levels.
Do you want to maintain good health, weight and sanity and prevent a holiday meltdown this year?
I am so grateful to be launching my new Holistic Coaching business, offering a bountiful array of programs that will allow you to really enjoy the next few months, not just endure them. These programs are low cost and will be the sweetest gift you could give yourself or your loved ones.
NUTRITIONAL/ HEALTH COACHING PROGRAMS
Couch Potato Coaching - Do you need a push to get out the door on these cold days? Let me be your walking coach!! Latley, I have been doing some amazing walks. If you live in the Boston/ Cambridge area, why not join me and get a free health assessment
Cost - FREE
45 Day Holiday Transformation - I invite you to go ahead and treat yourself to this healthy experience. This year, ring in the New Year feeling alive and vibrant instead of heavy and groggy. The program starts November 21st and continues all the way through until January 4th 2011. And no matter where you live I will support you every step of the way!! You will receive, a healthy whole food eating plan, 3 one-on-one personalized Health Coaching phone sessions, a weekly email package containing healthy, delicious recipes, tips on surviving holiday temptations, and practical approaches for sustaining change. I will also be available for unlimited email communication.
SPECIAL INTRO OFFER- Cost - $99 if you register by November 14th. $149 after that. So act now!!!
Cooking the Winter Harvest - Do you know that the average person gains about 5 lbs during the holidays!! But no worries for you this year. Come and meet local organic farmers Chris and Christy from White Barn Farm, Wrentham, MA and learn how to cook simple, mouthwatering, seasonal, organic foods that will not add inches to your waistline.
Cost $45 for class and dinner Space is limited so make your reservations now - Deadline for reservations 11/26
Location -Patty's Place- near Davis Square T Station, Somerville, MA
Date and Time - Wednesday 12/1/10 7-9:30PM
Menu - Curried Apple and Butternut Squash Soup
Frisee Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
Sweet Potato and Millet Bake
Coconut Macaroons and Sweet Baked Pears
Vegetables provided by - White Barn Farm- http://www.whitebarnfarm.org
YOGA PROGRAMS
Have Mat will Travel- Private yoga classes - Cost - 60 min - $85 - 10 class package $700
To register for any of these programs please call Patty at 860-395-7676 or email pateoneill@aol.com.
At this time I can accept cash or checks only.
Where else can you find me
Balanced Health - Chauncey Street, Boston, MA - http://www.lifeneedsbalance.com
Tuesday and Thursday evenings 5:45PM - 6:45PM - Wednesday - 12:15PM - 1PM
Open Doors Yoga Studio - North Cambridge, MA
Tuesday and Thursday 9:30 - 11:00 AM
***Special Thanksgiving Bounty-Flow class 9:00 -10:30 AM
Please share this information with all your Friends and Family and check me out on Facebook!! Namaste
Hi Guys!
It’s your farmers here. I know you are imagining us nestled by a fireplace, reading books and circling items in the seed catalogs. It is true that we have been blowing off some steam. We had a great Halloween weekend, kicking it off in all of our wigs at the Roadside Stand on Saturday, bringing them up to a wild costume party in Montague, Mass that night, then keeping it going the next night at a pig roast in Providence. There is still lots to do on the farm, though. We spread manure and lime and planted our beautiful garlic cloves this week. There’s lots of continuing clean-up to be done. We’ve been getting fennel and celery root out of the fields and packing boxes to sell to restaurants in Providence. It turns out our fall crop plan has yielded quite bountifully. This brings me to my point:
We are offering 40 one-time late-fall CSA-style boxes, to be picked up this Thursday, November 11. The price is $30 (just bring cash or a check to the pick-up). The pick-up will be at the barn from 3pm – 7pm. You can come park somewhere in the driveway. Boxes will be distributed from the right side of the barn. We will have Franklin Honey and Brambly Farm eggs for sale at that time, as well.
The box is going to follow the CSA model, which means that the contents will depend slightly on the weather. At this point, we are sure of a few items: Butternut Squash, Green Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Celery Root, Carrots, and Beauty Heart Radishes. The rest of our crops are under row cover and a peek at the 10-day forecast shows no below-freezing temperatures, but just in case I don’t want to promise the rest of the items. Most likely, there will be kale, escarole, broccoli, bok choy, lettuce, some sort of cut salad greens, and a mini-bunch of cilantro. The estimated value of the box, using our Roadside Stand prices, is about $35. We are offering this share for $30, which also includes the price of the box and our labor to pick and pack. The box should provide enough produce for a week for a family of four or a couple of vegetarians that love to cook. This is the perfect box for those of you with an adventurous spirit in the kitchen.
IMPORTANT! These boxes will be reserved by email to info@whitebarnfarm.org on a first-come first-served basis. Please include your name and phone number in the email. We have no idea how many people will be interested, so reply quickly to reserve a box. We’ll respond by email to confirm your reservation. If boxes sell out, we will announce it on the website, www.whitebarnfarm.org (so check that before you respond). If for some reason we get more than 40 replies before we announce they’re sold out, we’ll send you an email letting you know.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!
Chris and Christy at White Barn Farm
p.s. We are still scheming for the Thanksgiving Sale on Saturday, Nov. 20. 10am – 4pm. My dreams of finding a larger location are not working out so far. It will definitely NOT be at the Congregational Church (fall fair), American Legion (reserved), Delaney School (our of our price range), or the Catholic Church (setting up for fair). Tomorrow morning I’ll see if the Episcopal Church is open again on our date. Hope I haven’t missed the boat! Stay Tuned!
Well! We cannot believe 22 weeks have passed since we first started. Our year has been so full of activity that time seems long, yet passes so quickly (if that makes any sense). We hope that you have all enjoyed the five-month tour of in-season vegetables in your region. Perhaps you've made some discoveries, and can welcome some new members of the vegetable kingdom into your home on a more regular basis (or maybe lock your door when you see them coming). Either way, we have had really nice feedback, zero whiners, and very few complaints. That makes us feel good and we truly appreciate all of you. We would like you to fill out a survey before we draw up next year's crop plan. Very honest feedback is appropriate for that. I haven't decided to use an online survey or mail you all a paper survey (last year the online response level was pretty low and maybe it would help if I gave you a summary of everything in the share to reference as you respond). Anyway, be thinking of helpful feedback. As far as your boxes go, you can flatten them and store them for next year or bring them back to the last Roadside Stands on this Friday and Saturday. We will also be holding a Thanksgiving Sale Saturday November 20, 10-4, Location TBA. You could drop it off there if you are coming. As far as renewals go, we give all of our current members first dibs on next year's CSA membership. An email about how to renew or cancel will go out shortly. We do have a waiting list for 2011 that I've rolled over from 2010 and will continue to roll over. As soon as I hear back from all of you, I will start going through the waiting list. If you know anyone interested in our CSA, they can send us an email expressing their interest in being on the waiting list.
2 Lb Celery Root. The easiest option is probably roasting this tasty root. Just take off the skin, dice it and toss it with olive oil salt and pepper and roast in a 375 oven on a baking sheet. Another great idea is to make a puree – mashed potatoes with celery root. Boil chunks of celery root and potatoes together in salted water until fork tender. Heat up milk or half and half and butter in the pan while the potatoes are draining (with the lid from the pot tilted over them so they stay warm, but steam escapes). Mash together and taste and adjust for salt and pepper. This is also a good treatment for parsnips. One of the tastiest dishes with celery root is a gratin. I made one with half potatoes and half celery root. I peeled both veggies and sliced thinly on a mandoline. I parboiled these slices in salted water until just slightly al dente. As the potatoes are boiling I buttereed a casserole pan and made a béchamel on the stovetop.You may want to look up a more professional recipe about béchamel. But basically you melt a couple big hunks of butter in a saucepan (I like to use a wide, shallow pan). Sprinkle in flour, whisking constantly, until a fairly thick paste forms. Add milk to thin it to a creamy sauce. I like to add shredded Asiago and Parmesan to make a cheese sauce. Adjust for S&P, and add a couple fresh gratings of nutmeg (or a couple shakes). Toss this sauce with the parboiled veg, add fresh chopped parsley or other greens if you want. Put into your buttered dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs (possibly mixed with parmesan and parsley), drizzle w/ olive oil or dot w/ butter and bake covered in a 375 oven until quite fork tender and sauce is bubbling up on the edges. Uncover for the last 15 minutes or so. Delicious. Good as a leftover, too. Celery root is very good in a stew and is a wonderful base of any soup. Melt down onions in olive oil and butter, add diced celery root, then take it away . . . .
Scallions. The allium of the week. Terrific in an Asian-style cole slaw. Throw onto a green salad. Egg scramble. Nachos. Quesadillas. Stir fry. Tuna, egg, pasta salad. A tasty ingredient all around.
Frisee. That bitter salad green that you met a couple weeks ago. I would chop it up (almost like you do a head of Romaine for a Caesar salad), wash it well, spin and throw in a salad bowl, maybe with other salad greens, maybe not. We had a creative salad at Cook and Brown the other evening with an array of roasted root veggies served over frisee with a sweet sherry vinaigrette. The good old dried cranberry, toasted walnuts, and blue or goat cheese would be an easy fall salad. If you are feeling adventurous try poached pears or sautéed apples, onion and bacon, deglazed with vinegar and tossed with the frisee while still warm. Other suggestions include serving seared scallops on a bed of frisee or wilting the green into a simple garlic and olive oil pasta and finishing w/ parmesan.
Red Cross Lettuce. A gorgeous red butterhead lettuce. Perfect for a simple lettuce and sliced radish salad. Great for sandwiches and burgers (don’t forget that in addition to beef patties, you can make homemade black bean burgers, turkey, tuna or salmon burgers). Maybe even good for Lettuce wraps – with chicken or tofu in peanut sauce with scallions perhaps?
1 Head Green Cabbage. I forgot to mention last week – Fish Tacos!! Thinly sliced or shredded cabbage gives fish tacos excellent crunch. Chop up your mini cilantro with some white onion and lime juice, Grill or Roast white fish, and wrap in a tortilla with a sauce of sour cream, cilantro, and lime. Rice on the side. Of course, different types of slaw are possible, cabbage rolls, cabbage soup, braised cabbage and onions, saurkraut. This guy should store for quite a spell, so don't feel you must use it this week.
1 Butternut Squash. This should also store for a bit. Check out the last two emails for ideas.
1 Head Bok Choy. Delicate head of Bok Choy. Perfect for a stir fry along with your scallions, perhaps some matchsticks of Kohlrabi that is still around, carrots, broccoli, you can even use fennel. I think it is good to have all your veggies chopped and then heat a large wok-style pan to pretty hot with peanut oil, then start adding veggies in order of hardness. A real simple sweet and sour sauce is: chopped garlic, honey, chiles if you like, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. I usually add this towards the end. Chopped scallion greens and cilantro are nice if added after the stir-fry is removed from heat. Pot of rice and the meal is complete.
Mini Cilantro. Let’s hope a tiny bunch is better than no bunch. Flavo-rama. Stir fries, tacos, quesadillas, or that southeast Asian butternut squash soup recipe.
2 Lb Rutabagas. The turnip-looking roots with a purple haze on its shoulders. Another good root for storing (in a plastic bag in the fridge). Excellent in the roasted root medley. My friend Heather showed me a nice technique of cutting each veggie in a different shape so they can be differentiated afterwards. Cubes, sticks, rounds, half moons (essentially the same size for even cooking). Great for stew. Some people like to boil and mash with butter like potatoes. I have a great recipe for a Roasted Root Turkey Pot Pie. Each of the components are made separately. It is perfect if you have just roasted a turkey and made gravy. Just pick the rest of the turkey (or chicken) off the bones, toss it with your roasted root medley, cover w/ gravy, added some fresh chopped herbs and frozen peas, and put in a homemade pie shell and bake. (I think it is best to parbake the bottom crust first). I've even made a bunch of unbaked minipies and frozen them for Grammie to take out when I'm gone.
1.5 lbs Parsnips. The white carrot-looking veggie. Extremely sweet, but not particularly good raw. Another good storage root. Great in the roasted root medley. Fabulous as a puree with potatoes. Also good in shredded root pancakes - kind of like a latke. Here's a good-sounding recipe from Food&Wine.
2 L1b Potatoes. You guessed it - another good storage veggie. Essential for the above mentioned purees, gratins, and latkes. Great in the Roasted Root medley. Super for home-fries. Great for big wedges, roasted with rosemary and served some braised short ribs or a grilled steak, for example. Excellent for adding texture to a pureed soup. Make some gnocchi if you are feeling adventurous!!
1 Head Broccoli. A wee bit of brocc. I enjoy roasting it as a side dish. First I toss it with some oil, soy, and chopped garlic, then put it on a baking sheet in the oven for 20 minutes. I’ve had this container of raw peanuts so I threw in a handful of those the other day and it turned out great. They also did well in the stir-fry, added at the same time as the onions.
1 Bunch Perpetual Spinach Swiss Chard. Steam it or fry it up. Make “spinach” calzones, use as a component in a pasta or eggs Florentine, cook with olive oil and plenty of garlic, squeeze out the excess moisture, and top a pizza, maybe along w/ feta and roasted red peppers or some dried tomatoes. Once cooked and squeezed it can be frozen, as well. Fabulous in a soup. Cook and Brown made consommé (a very finely strained broth) to pour over turkey and bacon meatballs and a chiffonade of chard. The resulting cup of soup was wonderfully tasty and very healthful.
1 Bunch Red Radishes. The obvious choice is salad. Sliced on good buttered bread with a pinch of salt. Sauteed quickly in butter for a snack or a side. Last weekend, I brought a raw veggie plate with a ramekin of Annie’s goddess dressing. The arrangement was nice: Kohlrabi sticks (the most popular, though no one knew their identity), quarters of red radishes, sticks of beauty heart radishes, broccoli florets, and carrot sticks. Quite a hit!
2 Heads Fennel. I love this veggie. I’ve been getting hot tips about what to do with it. Slice and sautee in olive oil with a pinch of salt, after they soften a bit add some stock to help them break down a little more, cover with shredded gruyere, allow to melt, and serve. Another shopper told me about putting slices in a roasting dish, tossed with olive oil, s&p. Once somewhat softened, add cream and Sambucca (anise flavored liqueur). Allow to meld and cook down into a beautiful cream sauce. Deluxe! I still love the shaved fennel, red onion and sectioned citrus in a simple citrus vinaigrette. Another good choice is shaved fennel with sea salt, cracked black pepper, good olive oil, and curls of shaved parmesan. Fennel can certainly go on your baking sheet for the medley of roasted roots. We pretty much macheted off all the fronds, but the remaining sprigs can be finely chopped and used as an herb (perhaps to finish the gruyere, sambucca, or salad dishes).
1 Bunch Popcorn. We grew popcorn again! Hang it up somewhere until about Christmas when it should be sufficiently dry. At that point, push the kernels off the cob and pop. We like the old stovetop method best. High heat oil just covering the bottom of the pan, a single layer of kernels. Heat and shake occasionally until you start hearing popping, at which point you should start shaking more vigorously. When the popping slows or the volume of popped corn is pushing the lid off your pot, remove from heat. Put in a big bowl, put butter in the hot pan back on the stove, melt the butter, drizzle and mix into the bowl, add salt. Use some popcorn to clean the rest of the butter out of the pan and then dig in! A novelty item from your farmer friends J
- Floyd, from Burnshirt Valley Farm in Barre, with his pastured pork and his neighbor's grass-fed beef. He'll bring his freezer full of all different cuts as usual. The "meat guy" is going to be there for all of you who ask!!!!
- Our beekeepers, Roger and Lauren, from Franklin Honey, with their honey, soaps, lip balm, hand salve, etc. Stock up on quality products, nice gifts and honey for your winter tea time. Actually Franklin Honey will be at the stand BOTH Friday AND Saturday.
- Sandra, from Brambly Farm in Norfolk, will be selling eggs and offering sign-ups for Thanksgiving turkeys. Bring your checkbook so you can put a deposit on your bird! You'll be able to pick up your fresh turkey here at White Barn Farm on the Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 22 & 23).
Feel free to try out your costume at the stand as well!
What veggies are still for sale????
We should have lots of:
cabbage
butternut squash
acorn squash
New England pie pumpkins and long pie pumpkins
Long Island cheese pumpkins
kale
chard
fennel
celery root
turnips
carrots
parsnips
escarole
beauty heart radishes
kohlrabi
little lettuces
frisee
potatoes
rutabaga
and more limited quantities of:
beets
scallions
shallots
parsley
arugula
mizuna
mustard greens
radishes
bok choy
sweet potatoes
broccoli raab
cauliflower
broccoli
As usual, bring your own bags, baskets, boxes, and be careful turning in and out of the field. Cash and checks accepted.
Thanks for reading! - Chris and Christy at White Barn Farm
P.S. The last announcements will be about our final sale of the year, the Thanksgiving Sale! We are planning to hold the sale on Saturday, November 20, from 10am to 4pm. Location TBA. All the special guests above (plus a few new ones) will be there, too!
Next week is the last pick-up, for those who have lost track. Yes, one more week!
The box was packed with:
1 Butternut Squash. Store it at room temperature (50-60 degrees is ideal) in a dry spot. Or use right away! There are lots of delicious soups, pastas, risotto, etc to be made. Check out last week's email for some good ideas. Of course, the recipes section of the website should have ideas, too. A curried butternut squash soup is tasty. Easy to make vegan, as well. Cook onions and apples (a little orange peel is good, too) in some olive oil until softened. Add some curry powder and whatever other spices (maybe cinnamon, nutmeg), Deglaze with Sherry. Add scooped out flesh of roasted butternut squash, puree with veggie stock to desired thickness. Simmer to marry the flavors for a little while. Adjust for salt and pepper, spices, and sweetness. or try Ina Garten's Recipe.
Shallots. Flavorful little red bulbs. perfect in place of a red onion. wonderful thinly shaved along with fennel for a salad. or on top of a roasted beet salad. great roasted along with some roots in the oven. The best to chop finely in a homemade vinaigrette, such as White Balsamic Vinaigrette.
yellow onions. a few little onions. i don't expect these to keep, so no use storing them up.
1/2 lb Bag of mizuna and tatsoi - little cut salad greens. These could be briefly wilted if you want, but I think they are best for a salad. Especially with your beauty heart radishes and some white balsamic vinaigrette. They can also go in a sandwich (a wrap would work particularly well) or just be snacked on while you're making supper.
in the Bag of roots:
1.4 Lbs Purple-top turnips. These will keep quite well in a plastic bag in the fridge (or a cold, not freezing, slightly humid root cellar). I love to roast these guys on a baking sheet with some oil, salt and pepper. I scrub them well, rather than peeling them, but you can peel if you want. Turnips are nice in a beef stew or a cream of turnip soup - cook down some onions in butter, add diced turnip, maybe one diced potato, and cover with stock. puree when tender, add half and half to taste - adjust for S&P and sweetness and acid (a dollop of honey or maple syrup and a splash of apple cider vinegar work well). Al Forno does a delicious cream of turnip soup, served with a swirl of red applesauce (made from apples cooked down with their skins).
2.5 Lbs of Purple Dragon Carrots. Reddish-purple on the outside, orange on the inside. Good old carroty, yummy flavor. Use em like other carrots. With lunch today we had a shredded purple carrot and kohlrabi slaw with scallions, a little mayo, sesame oil and Chris' other magic seasonings.
Scallions. Luscious green onion flavor. Perfect to finish the Silky Pumkin Soup from last week's email. Great on nachos. Great in a green salad salad, a slaw, tuna salad, pasta salad, or my favorite, with eggs and cheese.
Beauty Heart Radishes. These are the turnip-looking root with pink-tinged roots that were not in the bag. They were loose in the box. They have a bright pink center when you slice them. Plus they are tasty radishes. These are great for that thinly sliced radish and mizuna salad. Slice them on a mandoline for a really nice effect. These roots store really well, too, if you don't feel inspired to use them right off. They do hold their color if you want to roast them. They will end up tasting more like a turnip when they're cooked.
Gnome Cabbage. Cutie Conehead Cabbage. Another candidate for keeping in the fridge or a cold root cellar with plenty of moisture. So easy to shred on a grater or a mandoline. Just hold the butt and away you go! No troublesome quartering like with their cousins, the round cabbages. There are some super recipes out there for Braised cabbage and apple with sausages. Oktoberfest ahoy! Emeril has a recipe for chicken braised with cabbage and apples. Coleslaw is another option. A modest batch of saurkraut is another idea. Saurkraut will keep in a jar in the fridge for quite a while. Cabbage rolls are another good meal. Blanch the whole leaves so they're pliable. You can make any kind of stuffing you like. Veggies and/or meat or mushrooms and rice or quinoa or any grain. Roll the stuffing in the leaves like little burritos. Stew your little rolls in tomato and voila! Tyler Florence has a good old-fashioned recipe for Galumkis.
Two heads of escarole. You probably figured out which one was the escarole last week, so you should recognize it this week. I usually do the quick and easy escarole and white beans I described last week, but my helpers on friday and shoppers at the Roadside stand were telling me about Escarole Soup. Chard and Kale are growing very slowly in this cold, so we decided escarole could be this week's cooking green. The soup is made with chicken broth, little meatballs, and orzo pasta. Like an Italian Wedding Soup. Here's one recipe from Epicurious:http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Escarole-Soup-with-Turkey-Meatballs-13488
Darcy's recipe seems more like this one:
http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/RECIPES/RECIPES/Soups/meatballescarolesoup.html
Two heads of lettuce: One super-crunchy kind named Loma. Green and very curly and firm. And Red Cross, a beautiful red butterhead variety.
2 lbs Keuka Gold potatoes. A super variety for all sorts of purposes. Mashed. A gratin (especially half and half with the celery root if you didn't use that yet). To add some oomph to fall soups. Roasted in the Roasted Root Medley. Cut into french fry shapes and roast with rosemary to go along with burgers. homefries. These will store in the fridge for ages.
Fall crops are in full swing and the final demise of the tomatoes is official. We had a frost on Saturday night/Sunday morning. But there is still plenty to eat!!! Lettuce is exceptionally beautiful at this time of year. There is kale, swiss chard, bok choy, scallions, onions, garlic, potatoes, peppers, cabbage, celery root, fennel, carrots, a tiny bit of broccoli and cauliflower, and lots of winter squash. Plus Jack O'Lantern pumkins, popcorn, blue corn, giant decorative winter squashes that look like Cinderella's carriage. Baby pumpkins, Dancing & Spinning Gourds (nature's tops), and more. We have coffee from Sheldonville Roasters, a humble gentleman from Sheldonville who roasts coffee in his homemade roaster in 4 lb batches. His labels are very good and lots of the beans are organic, fair-trade, or both. $5 for a half pound and I don't know if you can get coffee more freshly roasted. We still have eggs from Brambly Farm, which reminds me - if you still want to order your . . .
- Thanksgiving Turkey here's the info:
small heritage turkeys 8 - 14 lbs : $65 each
Medium heritage turkeys 15 - 24 lbs : $80 each
large traditional turkeys 25 - 32 lbs : $95 each
If available "E L G Ts" over 32 lbs : $110 each
The fresh (not frozen) Turkeys will be available for pick-up the Monday and Tuesday just before Thanksgiving (Nov. 22 & 23) here at White Barn Farm. We will send a notice with more details about the pick-up to all who have sent a deposit (really, don't forget your email address!). If you would like to pick up at White Barn Farm, please note that when you mail your check, as Brambly is selling to customers at other farms, too.
To reserve a turkey please mail your $25 deposit check, made to Brambly Farm, to:
Brambly Farm * 84 Cleveland St * Norfolk, MA * 02056
Please include a note with the following information: Your name, phone number, email address, and preference of birds (breed and preferred size). Sooner is better for best selection . . . If you want to pick up here at White Barn Farm, make sure to indicate that.
If you have additional questions, you can email Ted and Sandra and family at bramblyfarms@yahoo.com
- White Barn Farm Dinner at Cook and Brown Public House in Providence
Next Sunday we are going to be part of a special White Barn Farm Dinner at Cook and Brown Public House, a fairly new restaurant in Providence. We have been selling produce to Chef Nemo all season and have had several occasions to enjoy a drink and a snack at their lovely bar. Chef Nemo has a true dedication to using quality ingredients and has been a great supporter of our little farm. We are excited to team up and create a little buzz about local ingredients prepared in season. Dinner will be on Sunday, October 24 at 6:30pm. We will be there to talk about the farm and participate in the merriment. The five-course menu will be based on ingredients grown at our farm and meat raised at Brambly Farm in Norfolk. You may also choose to enjoy your meal with wine pairings, carefully selected by the staff at Cook & Brown.
Check out the invitation
You can make a reservation by calling 401.273.7275
What the heck was in my box this week, you must be thinking . . .
2 lbs Sweet Potatoes- The long, dirty roots in the plastic bag. These do not need to be refrigerated. Make sure they don't get nicked or bruised and they could last a while. But they are so delicious, I really recommend just eating them. Chris wrote about his favorite way to prepare these sweet treats last year: "cut into small cubes sauté some onions and garlic then fry them for some delicious sweet potato home fries, add some hot pepper to the mix for sweet and spicy Sunday morning dish."
My best friend’s sister made a great sweet potato soup that was the potatoes peeled and cut into chunks and boiled in stock (just enough to cover the potatoes) until fork tender. In a sautee pan, she fried up some onion, garlic, ginger, and a jalapeno. When the potatoes were cooked she added a can of coconut milk, the sautéed ingredients, and blended the whole mixture (I would use an immersion blender, but batches in the blender works, too.) The soup is finished with the juice of a couple limes. Taste for salt and pepper and bon appetit.
We get asked all the time, Is this a yam? What is the difference between a yam and sweet potato? These were some of my favorite answers when we asked our friend, Google:
1-http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookvegetables/a/sweetpotatodiff.htm
2-http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/sweetpotato.html
3-http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-23-a.html
1 Big Celery Root, with the tops on (AKA Celeriac). This is probably the most unrecognizable item in this week's share. It is a big brown ugly orb with dense white flesh. The root will store best if you remove the tops - we left them on in case you wanted to bunch them and hang them upside down out of the sun to have some dried celery leaf for winter soups (as soon as crispy dry, crumble into a jar and store with your other dried herbs. The rinsed leaves can also go into a stockpot. They would make a lovely bed for a roasted chicken, as well.
Peel this root and dice or slice for oven roasting (just the usual baking sheet method) excellent in a medley of roasted roots - carrots, turnips, rutabaga, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions. If you are roasting a chicken all these same diced roots can roast right in the same pan with the bird. you can add it to a pot of boiling potatoes and make a mashed potato/celery root puree.
Celery root remoulade is a tradition in France. It is basically a slaw. Normally the root is peeled and made into very fine matchsticks with the help of that fancy kitchen tool, the mandoline. Alice Waters' cookbook, The Art of Simple Food (which would be super for any CSA member to own) has a reliable recipe for remoulade:
"Cut away all the brown skin and small roots from about 1 lb of celery root. make a julienne - chop into 1/8 inch thick slices then slice into matchstick size pieces. toss with salt and 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar.
in a small bowl, mix together: 2 TBsp creme fraiche (or substitute one egg yolk with 3 tbsp olive oil whisked in), 2 tsp dijon mustard, juice of 1/2 lemon, 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, S&P. stir well, pour over the clery root and toss to coat. taste for salt and acid. the salad can be served right away or refrigerated for up to day.
She suggests serving this winter salad alongside other little salads such as marinated beets, carrot salad, arugula salad. Other variations are to add other julienned root vegetables such as rutabaga, carrot or radish or to toss with fresh arugula or to sprinkle with chopped parsley, chervil, or mint."
The restaurant, Oleana, in Cambridge served a wonderful twist on raviolis with thin slices of blanched celery root instead of pasta. some delicious filling and a sauce with wild mushrooms. yum.
A box grater is all you need to make a grated salad of celery root and carrots, maybe with a light mayonaise based dressing with some mustard and lemon. some thinly sliced shallot or red onion would go well with this, perhaps some parsley.
Winterbor kale. look up potato and kale soup. Chop this variety a little more before cooking, make sure to cook with generous olive oil and lots of sliced garlic, kosher salt, and stock, soy sauce, or balsamic vinegar if you need more liquid. Chopped up kale can be good in a cheese quesadilla to accompany a soup.
1 Butternut Squash. These should store at room temperature for quite some time if you don't want to use it right away. Squashes can always be roasted in the oven. Roasted Butternuts make a nice puree for filling raviolis or for an unconventional lasagna or using in a pumpkin pie or muffin recipe. The ease of peeling a butternut makes it a great candidate for peeling, dicing, and making into a soup or risotto or just sauteeing on the stovetop. Curried squash definiitely works.
For a traditional creamy squash soup I would dice it up, add a few coarsely chopped onions, a chopped carrot, a clove of garlic, a potato for texture, and cover it with stock. Cook until tender (in a pressure cooker makes this really fast) then puree with an immersion blender for the least dishwashing. Season with salt and pepper, a good pat of butter for richness, a dash or two of apple cider vinegar if it lacks tang, nutmeg, cinnamon, etc if you like that feel, curry and cayenne if you like that style. Some cream, milk, half n half if you want a true cream soup. Just keep tasting and adjusting until it is super great.
For something very different from an excellent cookbook for Southeast Asian cuisine, Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet I highly recommend this recipe - in addition to the squash you'll need cilantro, coconut milk, stock, fish sauce, and shallots:
"Silky Coconut-Pumpkin Soup, Thailand, Laos: In a heavy skillet or on a charcoal or gas grill, dry-roast or grill 3 or 4 shallots, turning occasionally until softened and blackened. Peel, cut lenghtwise in half and set aside.
Peel the pumkin and clean off any seeds. cut into small 1/2 inch cubes. you should have about 5 cups of cubed pumpkin. place 2 cups canned or fresh coconut milk, 2 cups mild pork or chicken broth, pumpkin, shallots, and 1 cup loosely packed cilantro in a large pot and bring to a boil. add 1/2 tsp salt and simmer over medium heat until the pumpkin is tender, about 10 minutes. stir in 2 tbsp fish sauce and cook for another 2-3 minutes. taste or salt and add a little more fish sauce if you wish. (The soup can be served immediately, but has even more flavor if left to stand for up to an hour. reheat just before serving). generously grind black pepper over and finish with a sprinkle of fresh scallion greens to serve. freezes well."
Butternut Squash Risotto is another great recipe. A very good vegetarian option if you have vegetable stock on hand. I start out with finely diced yellow onions, sauteed in olive oil with a good pinch of kosher salt. When they are translucent, add the diced squash (the smaller dice the faster it cooks - just choose a size you want in your dish) and sautee until just becoming tender - at that point I usually remove half the mixture mostly to make space in the pan - but also to ensure that I have some good texture at the end. Add arborio rice to the pan (as much as you want - 2 cups is probably plenty for a family of four). Stir with your Italian grandmother's wooden spoon until it starts to crackle a little bit, get all the rice coated and tossed. then add white wine, just enough to almost cover the rice. stir thoroughly then let it sit until the wine is absorbed and more liquid is needed. Add a ladle or two of stock (homemade and heated in a saucepan next to your risotto if you are really on top of it - I sometimes just pour right out of the chicken stock box). stir thoroughly and wait for it to "talk to you" or crackle a little for more stock. continue stirring and waiting and adding more liquid. after a while you can start tasting for doneness. at this point, add the rest of the squash back in. al dente rice is what you are going for - i think that is the theory behind adding just a little liquid at once. At the end it is tasty to add something a little rich. a couple pats of butter or some shredded cheese - pecorino romano worked great. definitely add salt and pepper and make sure to taste for enough salt. you can be creative with your seasonings - curry, nutmeg, cinnamon, fresh sage or rosemary. crisped pancetta could be a nice accompaniment.
Two heads of lettuce. The beautiful red butterhead, Skyphos, and the crunchy greenleaf, Loma. Salad time!
Escarole. This is not lettuce!!! You can use it in a salad, but it is quite bitter, so you must like that sort of thing. I think it is best sliced or chopped in with other mixed greens if you want to have it raw. I say: time to make escarole and white beans! a very very simple recipe. Sautee a sliced onion and a clove of garlic (or more or less) in olive oil. You can add some spicy sausage at this point if you want. Add the washed and coarsley chopped escarole. Toss well with the oil and wait for it to cook down like spinach, chard and kale do. Add a can of cannellini beans with all the juices. Add a couple cups of chicken stock to just cover. Cook a little longer to let everything get together. Taste for S&P. Ladle into bowls and serve with fresh grated parmesan and black pepper. Heat up a good loaf of bread for the side and dinner is served.
Frisee. This is also in the endive family. It is the tall thin, frilly head of bitter greens. This can also be cooked similar to the escarole method. Brittany suggested a very simple pasta tossed with just olive oil and garlic and chopped frisee so it just wilts in a little bit. Serve with parmesan. I think frisee is a great base for a salad. But it does like to have something a little rich along with it. Maybe a creamy cheese - a good combo is a creamy blue or goat cheese with poached pear and pecans or walnuts. Another good choice is to toss it with a bacon vinaigrette, some thin shaved shallots or red onions, and finish with a sunny side up egg. Make some cheesy toast on the side and voila! Lunch. Frisee can also be chopped up in a mixed greens salad. A sweet dressing like a cranberry/raspberry vinaigrette would go well. And of course fruits, cheeses, and nuts are nice complements.
Bunch of arugula. I love chopped arugula in a warm or cold pasta salad or potato salad. Good in a sandwich. Great for a salami, mozzarella, arugula Piadina=Italian Quesadilla. Chop with apple, red onion, and a simple honey-mustard-lemon vinaigrette.
Beets! The last bunch of the season! They will store best with the tops removed. The tops are super steamed and served with a pat of butter and perhaps a splash of cider vinegar. You can dice up beets and sweet potatoes for a candy-like roasted root medley. Beets and Blue cheese and walnuts on a frisee salad would be so fall . . .
Kohlrabi. We made a super accidental recipe discovery at lunch the other day. Chris had cooked up some of our Red Noodle String Beans to see if they were any good. He sauteed lots of smashed garlic in olive oil, added raw peanuts, and then the beans. He sauteed that for a while, added some chilli flakes and sesame oil and whatever other magical ingredients he uses. We all loved them! We decided you could serve anything in that sauce! Our huge kohlrabi, sliced in half to see if it had a sound center at that magnificent size, loomed on the counter. We butchered off a chunk and grated it on the box grater - tossed it in the sauce (garlic, oil, peanuts). I decided to add the juice of half a lime and some salt. Yummy slaw! My favorite is still roasted, though. Diced kohlrabi on a baking sheet, tossed with olive oil, S&P, rosemary and/or thyme if you like. Flip once with a flat spatula to get both sides crispy. mmm. Someone suggested kohlrabi and carrots mashed together with a little butter. good idea! Use half to make a slaw, wrap up the rest, then roast along with celery root and carrots for a perfect accompaniment for grilled steak or roasted chicken or anything - squash soup, etc.
onions and garlic
Enjoy!!! We hope you are still keeping up with the challenge of eating in season!
Hey everyone! Here are some ideas about what to do with your share, from Chris and Christy this time. I just found a bunch of recipes to add from our website provider, small farm central. All the farms with them can share recipes so I just added lots of relevant ones. Either scroll through or search by veggie.
Broccoli – Its been awhile since we have seen this glorious brassica. One of our favorites! This is organic broccoli so it is likely that there could be a little green caterpillar under the crown. For that reason, I suggest cutting each head into florets so you can check them. For a quick lunch the other day we just roasted the broccoli on a baking sheet tossed with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and soy sauce, so good so simple.
Bunch of arugula- Great raw, chopped up for a salad, or add to pasta dishes right at the end. The flavor is going to be peppery so it likes either something sweet or sour to complement it. We always have our fridge stocked with lemons for some last minute adjustments.
Bunch of mustard greens- this size of mustard greens are probably best enjoyed quickly wilted. This is your perfect side dish to any meal. How bout we make these greens Spanish style? First, coarsely chop your green. Then, get your pan nice and hot with some olive oil add chopped garlic cook until golden brown, add your greens. Briefly sauté greens until they change to a darker green . Add raisins and pine nuts for some delicious Spanish greens.
Savoy Cabbage- Cabbage land is looking plentiful this year. A coleslaw or some fish tacos is good. If you feel too cold for raw cabbage, look up some recipes for braised cabbage, or a quick sauerkraut,. Cabbage is pretty tasty fried in a pan with some butter. We had a pretend Oktoberfest at our house the other night. Sausages, pretzel bread, lots of mustards. How about some cabbage? Try making stuffed cabbage.
Romaine Lettuce. Check out Alice Waters’ Caesar Salad recipe I put on the website. Or chopped romaine is great with some sweet peppers, red onion, olives and feta.
Red Leaf (magenta) Lettuce. Another salad. Or for some good crunch on a sandwich. How about this: grilledApple, cheddar, turkey, honey-mustard. Raw onion and lettuce at the end for crunch.
Parsley. I just added a tabouleh recipe to the website. Parsley is great for mixing with breadcrumbs if you are topping a casserole, or frying some eggplant. I added it to a béchamel along with some parmesan and asiago to make a sauce for my potato gratin the other night.
Potatoes. Gratin. Mashed. Roasted with Rosemary or Thyme. Boiled and mashed with a pat of butter and pinch of chopped parsley on your plate. Cut into French fry shaped sticks for roasting and have with some breaded baked fish for a leaner fish&chips. Serve with garlic sautéed kale for some color.
Peppers.
Bok-Choy. Check out the recipes on the website. Sautéed, grilled, stir-fried, raw in a salad, in a brothy soup.
Kale. Make a quick pasta or top a crostini along with some creamy ricotta or goat cheese
Fennel. Check out the recipes on the website.
Acorn Squash. We’ve really been enjoying how fast and tasty these guys cook up when you slice them in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and then put the cut side down on the cutting board and cut 1/2” cross sections so it looks like half-moon shapes. I put those on a baking sheet with some oil, salt, and pepper. You can get crazy with seasonings. Salty, spicy, sweet, curry, rosemary. 350 for maybe 15-20 minutes. Check after a little bit, flip if you want to. When they’re fork tender they’re done.
Onions and Garlic. Crucial.
- FAQ
Tuesdays and Fridays 3pm to sunset and Saturdays 10am to 2pm. Our last day at the stand will be on Saturday, October 30.
- Family Fun this Weekend
We will be at the festival this Saturday and Sunday, October 2 & 3.
It is from 11am to 3pm in front of the Bass Pro Shop.
Ward’s Berry Farm and Foxborough Community Farmstand will be there with us on Saturday.
Cook’s Valley will be joining us on Sunday.
We are sure to bring lots of pumpkins, winter squash, potatoes, onions, popcorn, and chinese lanterns.
- Good Eats
find out more about the Farm to Fork Dinner at Tastings in Foxboro
* Later in the month, we are pairing up with another young chef we've been working with for a special White Barn Farm Dinner at his Providence restaurant, Cook and Brown Public House on Sunday, October 24 at 6:30pm. You may not know this, but on Tuesday nights we pack everything left at the stand into the white van, along with a few pre-orders from the awesome restaurants we work with, and Chris drives down to sell veggies Providence. The chefs we work with have a special exuberance for beautiful produce and we all get a kick out of the wheeling and dealing out of the back of the van in the alleys at night. 9:30 or 10pm turns out to be a good time for both farmers and chefs to have a moment to connect. We love the food scene in Providence and there are such excellent restaurants, way more than just what Federal Hill has to offer. We've been working with Chez Pascal (Hope St.) and La Laiterie (Wayland Square) for two years. Cook and Brown opened right across the street from Chez. Easy delivery route! we thought. That is true, but we have been blown away by the awesome food we've sampled at their very chic bar, waiting for Chef Nemo to be available. I had, by far, the best onion rings I've ever tasted with some incredible aioli as a little bar snack. The space is lovely and the menu is totally focused on quality ingredients. Anyway, Nemo needs to get the word out about his restaurant. He heard about our farm dinner and offered to cook for the next one. We decided an indoor location would be better for the rest of this year, so we settled on a Sunday evening dinner at his restaurant. The five-course menu will be based on ingredients grown at our farm. Wine pairings are available. We'll be attending and talking to guests, maybe even showing some slides.
Nemo and his wife Jenny created this nice invitation for the
White Barn Farm Dinner at Cook and Brown Public House in Providence
- Yoga at the Farm
Park in the field where the Roadside Stand is, then look both ways and cross the road, walk towards the barn, and head down the hill to the left towards the big Ash tree. Bring a mat (and a block if you have one). Suggested donation is $7. Make sure to bring a layer for when it gets chilly. If it is rainy, we have space indoors in the barn.
There is a limit to the space inside, so email Patty at pateoneill@aol.com to reserve a spot.
So what was in your share this week?
1 bunch Crunchy Royale Radishes. Like little apples! These bionic radishes grow large, stay crunchy, and don't split. You can slice them in rounds or make little matchsticks and throw these in a salad or a slaw. Or just eat them like an apple. or put thin slices on buttered bread. or sautee them briefly in butter for a lighter potato-esque side. I've heard of making a pesto out of the tops.
1 bunch of Carrots. This variety is named Bolero. A winner, I say. really good flavor. Perfect for shredding on a salad or into a slaw. Shredded carrots are fabulous on sandwiches, too. Or do the matchsticks for a stir fry or maybe a chopped salad with matchsticks of kohlrabi, radish, carrot and chopped arugula. I'm thinking those along with hard boiled egg and a lemon-honey-mustard vinaigrette would be a good combo. Of course, if you are roasting veggies, chunks of carrot roast up super sweet. Carrot cake/muffins are delicious.
1 bunch Swiss Chard. Swiss Chard goes very well with cheese and eggs. Quiche, frittata, scramble, breakfast burrito. A homemade macaroni and cheese is nice with chard wilted in with the cooked pasta and warm cheese sauce, then baked with bread crumbs on top (perfect chance to use any leftover parsley, too - finely chopped with the bread crumbs). A sautee if swiss chard with a sweet and sour golden raisin and rediced vinegar sauce and toasted pine nuts is great. I always enjoyed a pasta with chard, feta, and toasted walnuts. Use your instincts!
Eggplant. If they're adding up, try the baba ganouj. It's always good to have a snacking dip around. Pita triangles or some veggie sticks would be the perfect vehicle (kohlrabi and carrot sticks, for example). Grilled eggplant is yummy on a sandwich or a pizza or just chopped up with some grilled sweet peppers and onions and tossed with a little balsamic and olive oil for a side or a topping for a slice of good bread. Our neighbor Kathy did not leave any of her gourmet instincts behind on a recent camping trip. She wrapped a couple eggplants in foil and put them in the fire to roast. She scooped out the cooked eggplant and mashed it with some garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese. It was a wonderful dip for a loaf of bread. I love that story!
Onions and Garlic. These should keep in a basket on the counter okay. They just need to be dry. The onions are not storing as well as we would like. We try to rogue out any soft ones, but if you end up with some bad onions just let us know and we'll send you to the basket at the stand to replace them. The garlic is the bomb.
2 Zeppelin Delicata Winter Squash. The cream colored squash with green stripes. This is winter squash. It has very delicate skin, which is edible if you like. The easiest cooking method is to just slice them lengthwise and bake in the oven. Maybe try with honey or maple syrup or ginger or nutmeg or cinnamon and some butter. It is also quite sweet and delicious on its own. This is really a pretty easy crowd-pleasing side dish.
1 bunch of Spicy Arugula. The bunch of greens with the roots on. it's just a bunching method, you don't eat the roots (I don't think. In the case of cilantro, the roots are used in southeast Asian recipes). This is kind of a spicy arugula so I recommend chopping it for a salad or pizza or sandwich. You can treat it like an herb. Finish an egg dish or a risotto with it. A really tasty salad combo is arugula, diced red onion, and thinly sliced green apple with that honey-lemon-mustard vinaigrette. Toss the apples in the dressing as soon as they're cut so they don't brown. Chopped arugula is great in sandwiches. Even a BLT - BLAT!
Bok Choi. Our little hourglass-shaped friend. This should be stored in a plastic bag in the fridge so it doesn't get wilty (same for all leafy greens). To prepare it, I'd cut off the base so the individual leaves can be removed and rinsed at the bottom (kind of like celery - collects dirt at the base). Then you can cut it lengthwise and braise it with some garlic and onions, then stock and soy sauce if you want to feature it as a side. If you are throwing it in a stir fry, I'd slice it cross-wise and add the stems first and then add the leafy part towards the end. My aunt gave me a recipe for a delicious salad made with bok choi. And one of our farmstand shoppers described a very healthful and satisfying preparation: She layers a bowl with first bean sprouts, then shredded carrot, then thinly sliced bok choi (she will also substitute kale or chard or whatever). Then she pours a boiling broth (she makes one out of water, soy, sesame oil - I think chicken, veggie or mushroom stock would work great, too) over it and has a nice soup. Maybe she added rice noodles, too (if not it would be good)
sweet peppers. Good in that veggie wrap or roasted or in the stir fry or a salad.
tomatoes. a few stragglers.
1 pint tomatillos. Hope you are enjoying salsas with these little guys.
1 Kohlrabi. The alien vegetable. Slice the bottom so you have a flat surface to put on the cutting board, cut off the skin and then make sticks or cut into chunks for roasting. We had a report of roasting kohlrabi and other veggies under a chicken (using the vegetables as a rack). The kohlrabi acted like a sponge for all of the flavorful juices produced in the pan. Don't forget the slaw option. Kohlrabi lasts a ridiculously long time in the fridge. If you're not inspired to use it this week, just push it to the back and it should keep. But beware, the cabbage crops coming along are looking good.
1.5 lbs String Beans. Mostly yellow beans, and a few green for flair. Another simple side dish. These can be blanched and frozen if you are overwhelmed. I'll try to add a few recipes to the website.
That may be everything! If i'm forgetting any item that you have questions about, just send me an email.
Thanks so much for your continuing journey through the seasons in vegetables!
Take Care!
Chris and Christy at White Barn Farm