FFF CSA - Week 4/12 - What's in the Box? - Preserving Herbs

... and we are on to Week #4 of our twelve week CSA share and all our smart shareholders are munching on yummy veggies that they didn't have to lift a finger to grow! 

The new items this week include sweet garden peas and broccoli! Are you someone who thinks they don't like broccoli??? Promise me you will try some fresh out of the garden... and you will change your mind! Garden fresh broccoli tastes so mild and delicious its almost like a different food from that which you often get from the grocery store! 

This week's box comes with the usual bundle of herbs and I thought I would spend some time talking about how to use these gems each week! There are so many options! 

Eat fresh! Remove the leaves from the stems, chop or mince as desired and add them to salads, soups, sauces, or smoothies ... or any other recipe!

Dry! Hang the herbs in bundles in a cool, dry room until the leaves are dry and brittle. Strip the leaves from the stem in a bag or bowl, crush somewhat to create smaller flakes and you are ready to use! Note: it's important to be sure that the herbs are completely dry before you store in jars or bags or they may develop mold. If you have a dehydrator and want to speed the drying process, lay the herbs in the tray in one layer and dehydrate at 90-95F.

Freeze! Prepare the herbs as if eating fresh and then place in small freezable containers and cover in oil. My favorite tip is to place chopped herbs in ice cube trays and freeze. Then I put the small serving size cubes in a labelled ziploc bag ready to grab for any recipe I need! 

So... What's in the Box this week?

• Swiss Chard
• Lettuce
• Baby carrots
• Kale
• Zucchini or Cucumbers
• New Potatoes
• Broccoli New!
• Onions New!
• Beets New!
• Peas New!
• Bouquet of various herbs including: 
• Chives
• Parsley (flat and curled)
• Cilantro 
• Basil
• Rosemary
• Oregano

Note: We do rinse the produce but it would be prudent to wash all vegetables when you get them home. Keeping the herbs (ends) in a cup of clean water will keep them fresh longer. (unless of course, you are drying them for storage later.)

Reminder: Please return your empty box along with all re-usable containers (ice cream pails, plastic containers, etc) so that we can reuse them all over again. 

Follow us on Facebook or on Twitter at @FenezFollies

Week #4 - 2015 FFF CSA - What's in the Box - Pesto Please!

This past week, the weather has been a fickle master. You know what they say... 'if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change'... well that pretty sums up this past week. Lots of sunshine, lots of rain, lots of wind, lots of time looking up at the sky trying to predict what will happen next!                           

Most of the plants are enjoying this changeable weather with a few exceptions. The beans, spinach and cilantro are not happy... the basil, squash, & tomatoes are loving it!                     

Sorting peas for the CSA boxes!

Given the happy basil, I thought I would share with you my favorite pesto recipe... with a few ideas to try from your CSA box:

Basic Pesto recipe: (this is enough for one meal, increase recipe as you see fit)

1 cup fresh basil (could substitute all or a portion of the basil with fresh garden peas, carrot tops or fresh spinach as available)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup pine nuts (could substitute pine nuts (which can be expensive) with almonds or walnuts)

2 garlic cloves

salt and pepper to taste

The easiest way to make pesto is to put all ingredients into the food processor and process until a paste. If you don't have a food processor you can certainly chop all by hand and mix in a bowl. Pesto is good tossed in pasta, divine on pizza and wonderful in risotto! 

Pesto will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks or you can freeze it in ice cube trays and then put the cubes in a bag to be used one by one. Enjoy! 

So in summary... What's in the Box this week?

• Lettuce (mixed greens in bag)
• Zucchini
• Carrots
• Peas
• Kale
• Spanish Onion
• Swiss Chard
• New potatoes
• Green chili peppers (relatively mild spicy pepper)
• Beets 
• Herbs in the red cup: 
• Oregano
• Chives
• Parsley
• Cilantro
• Rosemary
• Basil - in small ziploc bag

Notes to our CSA Share holders: 

We pick the vegetables within 24 hours of the box being delivered. We do rinse the produce but it would be important to wash all vegetables before you eat them. Keeping the herbs (ends) in a cup of clean water will keep them fresh longer.

Please return your empty box along with all re-usable containers (pails, cups, bags etc) so that we can reuse them all over again. 

Follow us on Facebook or on Twitter at @FenezFollies

Plethora of peas!

FFF Photo a Day - Day 197

In between the rain and sun that seemed to dance with each other all day long, we managed to get out and pick the peas... and peas and more peas! 

Hope our CSA shareholders like peas!

Week #3 - 2015 FFF CSA - What's in the Box! - The Importance of Keeping Dry!

If you have been following our blog or social media posts this week, you will know that the farm got hit hard by heavy rain and wind on Monday night. Time will tell how the veggies will fair but we really didn't want/need any more rain after some of the heavy downpours last weekend! Alas, we are used to the fickle weather gods and will adapt! 

Despite the rain, we have a number of new treats to share in our CSA boxes! Our peas are ready and there is truly little on earth better than fresh garden peas! My personal opinion is the best way to eat them is standing in the garden....however, a close second would be simply eating them raw (shelled or pod and all) as soon as you get them home! Our shareholders will find a snack of peas in their box this week!

Potatoes are ready to go and with all the rain we are a bit concerned that they will rot in the ground if we leave them, so the boxes contain some tasty nuggets! 

New potatoes are small and sweet. (their sugar has not yet been converted to starch).  They don't have thick skins and rarely need to be peeled. Simply give them a scrub and pop in the pot to boil. Served with butter and salt or even cooled and tossed into a salad... a new potato is unlike the potato that you will get in the fall - so experiment! 

Lastly I wanted to share with you a tip or two for extending the life of the greens that you find in your box each week (or that you pick up from the store). As most are packed wet after rinsing, they can become mushy if not tended to when you get them home. In our house, we often use the ziplock produce bags that you can get at the grocery store. I find that they are worth in the investment (and we re-use them over and over). However, if you don't have these special bags, other plastic bags will work... the trick is to ensure that the greens are as dry as possible. Therefore, I recommend that you take the greens out of the bag/pail and lay them out on papertowel and then roll the whole thing up like a jelly roll. Storing the greens inside the papertowel in a plastic bag ensures it lasts a much longer time! 

So in summary... What's in the Box this week?

• Rhubarb
• Lettuce (mixed greens in bag)
• Zucchini
• Carrots
• Peas
• New potatoes
• Spring turnips (turnip greens are edible too!)
• Broccoli (for full shares only)
• Peppers (spicy)
• Beets 
• Herbs in the red cup: 
• Oregano
• Chives
• Parsley
• Cilantro
• Basil 

Notes to our CSA Share holders: 

We pick the vegetables within 24 hours of the box being delivered. We do rinse the produce but it would be important to wash all vegetables before you eat them. Keeping the herbs (ends) in a cup of clean water will keep them fresh longer.

Please return your empty box along with all re-usable containers (pails, cups, bags etc) so that we can reuse them all over again. 

Follow us on Facebook or on Twitter at @FenezFollies

Sweet Pea!

FFF Photo a Day - Day 175

Peas are growing tall and today I found the first flower! 

That means that soon we will be enjoying fresh garden peas. 

Bursting forth!

FFF Photo a Day - Day 157

After today's long rain, everything is practically bursting from the ground! 

Here the peas are stretching to meet the evening sun. 

Week #4 - 2014 FFF CSA - What's in the Box - New Potatoes - Simply Exquisite

This week has been another busy one on the farm. Our four new piglets are settling in nicely, and all the birds are now finally big enough to be outside on pasture. Grace our cow is due to calve any day now so we are keeping a close eye on her. We got our new sign up (check out our facebook page for pics), we have visitors from BC staying with us and our oldest son got his driver's license! We've had a great week... how about you?

 

This week you will find a feed of new potatoes in the CSA box! There isn't much better than the first taste of potatoes each summer.  New potatoes are picked before their sugar content has converted to starch making them taste almost like a whole new vegetable. We are growing the red Norland potato as well as the yellow Yukon Gold this year.  

 

New potatoes are simple to cook. Scrub them clean of dirt, boil them and smother with butter... Yum! No need to peel them, the skin is so tender and nutritious. An alternative is to roast them. Again, wash and cut into bite size pieces, toss with olive oil and herbs such as the fresh rosemary you will find in your herb cup and roast for 40 min at 450F.

So... What (else) is in the Box this week?

• Rosemary New!
• Dill New!
• Basil
• Cilantro
• Chives
• Peas
• Mixed greens - includes lettuce and spinach
• Beets
• Turnip
• Kale
• Potatoes New!

We pick the vegetables within 24 hours of the box being delivered. We do rinse the produce but it would be prudent to wash all vegetables when you get them home. Keeping the herbs (ends) in a cup of clean water will keep them fresh longer.

Please return your empty box along with all re-usable containers (ice cream pails, plastic containers, etc) so that we can reuse them all over again. 

Follow us on Facebook or on Twitter at @FenezFollies

Week #4 - FFF CSA - Peas... glorious peas!

Have you ever had the experience where you eat something fresh from the garden and you don't recognize it as the same food you get at the grocery store? No? Well, then you haven't eaten peas straight from the garden! Garden fresh peas are sweet nuggets from heaven. Even those people who swear they hate peas... if I can manage to get them to try peas straight from the plant, they always have to admit that they are wonderful!

So there is no debate on how yummy they are! However, at least in our house, there is much debate on how to eat them.... shell them or not? Cook them or not? Everyone has a different opinion on the best way to eat peas. My opinion for what it is worth is they are best shelled, warm with sunshine, slurped out of the shell before you even go indoors!

Need more ways to eat your peas...? Check out this link (and click the arrow beside "1 of 4" )

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/16-ways-to-use-fresh-peas.html?page=1

What's in the Box? Week #4

Lettuce (mixed greens)

Swiss Chard
Kale
Herbs (Parsley, Basil, Chives, Cilantro)
Carrots
Zucchini
Peas

New this week:

New Potatoes
Banana peppers (not super hot, more of a sweeter pepper)
Beans (purple and green) (did you know that purple beans turn green when you cook them?)

Please remember to wash/rinse your vegetables. While we don't use any chemicals, we do use all natural fertilizer (a.k.a. manure) so its always advisable to give everything a rinse.

So Philip is finally home from Japan, arriving Monday night with lots of souvenirs and more stories. His sleep/awake clock is a bit wonky but he's glad to be home and boy, we are happy to see him!

We have had almost 3 inches of rain over the past week or so which means that we haven't had to water and most plants are happy! Of course the weeds are happy to and growing faster than everything else. We have tons of tomatoes on the plants so when these start to ripen, boy will those boxes be heavy!

Just a reminder that we really need the ice cream pails and plastic cups back from you in order to reuse and keep next weeks' vegetables cool and fresh!