Tantre Farm CSA Newsletter
WEEK #11
Aug.5-11, 2018
If needed, please contact Richard Andres & Deb Lentz at 2510 Hayes Rd. Chelsea, MI 48118 e-mail: tantrefarm@hotmail.com phone: 734-475-4323 website: www.tantrefarm.com.
We try to keep the printed newsletter to a 2-page maximum, which means that we won’t list all the share items’ descriptions every week, but refer you to previous newsletters for information on items that have already appeared in your shares. If you are new to our CSA, since you signed up with a prorated share, you can find all past newsletters on our website under the NEWSLETTERS tab.
In our newsletter, we try to give you an accurate listing of the produce in your box; however, since the newsletter is published before the harvest, we may sometimes substitute some vegetables for others. The information provided here is also published each week on our website. **Also, if you’re having trouble identifying any unfamiliar produce, please look for “Veggie ID” with additional information on our website under CSA INFO or under RECIPES.
THIS WEEK’S SHARE
GREEN or PUPRLE BEANS: You will receive Cosmos (fancy, dark green bean with superior eating quality) or Royal Burgundy (brilliant purple, smooth, round, meaty pods; add stunning color to salads when used raw; pods turn dark green when cooked; excellent fresh or frozen). See Week 10 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
CARROTS (Mokum): a very sweet, slender, “pencil carrot” with edible green leaves. Greens are delicious in soups and also salads. See Week 10 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
CUCUMBERS: long, cylindrical, green-skinned fruit of the gourd family with mild, crisp flesh. See Week 6 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
U-PICK FLOWERS (only available on the farm): Every summer we plant a variety of flowers for drying or fresh bouquets. We welcome you to the farm to pick your flowers on any day of the week until the first frost, but please contact us if it will be on other days besides Wednesdays and Fridays, so we can make sure to be around to show you where to go. This week you can pick up to 10 stems, since the flowers are just starting. Please make sure that you and your kids stay on the paths without stepping into/over the flower beds to harvest, which compacts the soil. You may want to bring a vase/jar to keep your flowers fresh going home, but we will have donated yogurt containers to fill with water as well. Your bouquet is part of your share, although you may always feel free to make a donation to pay for seeds, if you like. Extra bouquets cost $4 per bunch.
FRESH HERBS: In general, store herbs upright with cut stems in 1 or 2 inches of water and refrigerate for up to 1 week or wrap in slightly dampened cloth or plastic bag and store in refrigerator.
You may CHOOSE ONE bunch (NOT one bunch of each) from the following 5 options:
1. French Sorrel: slightly tart, lemon-flavored green shaped like spinach; excellent for salads, soups, and sauces; can be used in omelets, breads, dressings, or cooked as a side dish.
2. Marjoram: a small and oval-shaped leaf, which is light green with a grayish tint. When fresh it is spicy, bitter, and slightly pungent with camphor-like notes, so often added to fish sauces, salads and dressings, tomato-based sauces, grilled lamb and other meats; goes well with vegetables including cabbages, potatoes, eggplant, and beans. It is usually added at the end of cooking to retain its delicate flavor or as a garnish. Traditionally, it was used in tea to cure headaches, head colds, calm nervous disorders, and to clear sinuses.
3. Italian Flat-leaf Parsley: flat, glossy, dark green leaves have a strong parsley/celery flavor for use dried or fresh; high in vitamins A and C; especially good in omelets, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, soups, pasta and vegetable dishes.
4. Sage–an herb from an evergreen shrub in the mint family with long, narrow, grayish-green leaves; a musky aroma and a warm and spicy taste; used in making sausages, stews, breads, pickles and teas.
5. Winter Savory: is a semi-evergreen, perennial herb; its strong spicy-peppery flavor goes well with beans and meat; medicinally it has antiseptic, aromatic, carminative, and digestive benefits, as well as relieves bee stings.
*Genovese Basil—ALL SHARES will receive basil this week, an herb with sweet, spicy, shiny, green leaves. We supply it with root attached, so it will last up to a week or 2 when stored in a jar, vase, or glass of water on your counter or table top. Do NOT refrigerate!
KALE: You will receive Red Russian (stems are purple, and leaves are deep gray-green, purple-veined, flat, non-curled, and
tooth-edged) or Lacinato (dark green, noncurled, blistered leaves, but heavily savoyed). See Week 4 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
LEEKS: green leaves with white to pale green stems. See Week 8 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
Cooking tip: slit from top to bottom and wash thoroughly with root facing up to remove all of the dirt trapped between the leaf layers.
LETTUCE: You will receive lettuce, which may include Green or Red Leaf or Romaine. See Week 1 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
SWEET ONIONS: You will receive Ailsa Craig (a huge, sweet, mild, yellow-skinned, heirloom onion that is well known by British gardeners who grow show-size onions) or Walla Walla (sweet, mild, juicy, yellow-skinned; nice as a “green top” onion; not for storage). See Week 10 for usage and storage tips.
POTATOES: You will receive Yukon Gold (yellowish brown skin with yellow dry flesh and pink eyes; long storage and good tasting. See Week 7 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
SUMMER SQUASH/ZUCCHINI: You will receive some variety of Green or Yellow Zucchini (gourmet golden or green zucchini with uniform, cylindrical fruits) or Slick Pik Summer Squash (long, yellow straight neck with good flavor). See Week 6 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
TOMATOES: You will receive a mixed quart of Sakura (bright-red, shiny, medium-large cherry tomato with real sweet tomato flavor), Sun Gold Cherry (exceptionally sweet, bright tangerine-orange cherry tomato; less acidic than the red cherry tomato, so slightly less bland in flavor; popular as a garnish, in salads, or as a cooked side dish that can be sautéed with herbs), and Clementine (tangerine-colored, oval-round fruits; appealing, sweet-tart flavor. Exceptional when halved and roasted!). You will also receive an heirloom slicing tomato, which may be Pruden’s Purple (early Brandywine type; vivid dark pink, heirloom tomato with smooth, crimson flesh; delicious flavor and large–often over 1 lb—fruit) or Cherokee Purple (heirloom, medium-large, flattened globe fruit with color as dusky pink and greenish blush). See Week 9 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
WATERMELON: You will receive Little Baby Flower (small, 2-4 lb. round fruit; bright green stripe pattern on shell and dark pink flesh that is sweet and crisp with a high sugar count), Sunshine (8-10 pound oval-rounded fruit; green-striped shell with bright yellow flesh, which is brittle, juicy, and very sweet), or Dark Bell (dark-green skin, bright-red flesh, oblong 5-7 lb. fruit with thin rind, and very sweet flavor).
-How to use: slice, dice and serve as drinks, salads, or salsa.
-How to store: If melon seems not quite ripe, store at room temperature until sweet smell is coming from the soft, stem end; then store in the refrigerator.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. STILL SPACES LEFT in the KIDS’ COOKING CLASS on August 12 from 1 to 3 PM: We had so much fun in July with our first Kid Cooking Class that we are scheduling another one in August, so if you missed the first one perhaps you can make this one!Personal Chef Allison Anastasio Zeglis, from www.lastbitechef.com, will show you how to approach a CSA box, family style. Using a few classic techniques that can be adapted to a variety of vegetables, cook your way through a share box with your child. Get hands on experience as a dynamic duo tackling cooking projects and then enjoy eating them together at the end of the class. Please register with KID COOKING CLASS in the Subject Line and your NAME and your CHILD’S NAME, child’s AGE, PHONE, and EMAIL ADDRESS. Please bring $10/person or $30/family, but if financial difficulties, please let us know. More details coming!
2. KID FARM DAY will be on Wed., Aug. 22, from 9 AM until noon. This half-day will be for all kids who are 4 years old and older. Activities will include an edible farm walk, a nature craft to take home, and a fun movement activity! Snacks harvested from the farm will be included. Advance registration is required due to limited space and there will be a small fee for materials, which is still being finalized. Please register by e-mail with KID FARM DAY in the Subject Line with NAMES AND AGES of KIDS, NAME OF ADULT attending, PHONE NUMBER, and E-MAIL ADDRESS. Anyone interested in helping out, let us know.
3. VACATIONS or OUT OF TOWN: Please remember to contact us at least by Sunday and please be specific about which location you’re requesting, since we have several options on every day.
4. PICK UP TIMES & LOCATIONS REMINDER:
Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market (Wed.)–7 A.M. to 12 P.M.
MOVE Fitness & Wellness Studio (Wed)—8 AM to 12 PM
Farm (Wed.)–10 A.M. to 7 P.M.
Washtenaw Food Hub (Wed.) –6 P.M. to 8 P.M.
Pure Pastures (Wed.) (limited site) –9 AM to 7 PM
Farm (Fri.)–2 P.M. to 7 P.M.
Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market (Sat.) –7 A.M. to 12 P.M.
Washtenaw Food Hub (Sat.)—9 A.M. to 12 P.M.
Chelsea Farmers’ Market (Sat.)–8 A.M. to 12 P.M.
NEW! Argus-Packard (Sat) (limited site)–10 A.M. To 12 P.M.
EAT YOUR CARROT GREEN TOPS (THE LEAVES) (from www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/recipes.html#tops)
There is some debate about whether you can eat the green leaves. Despite the presence of celery and carrots in the carrot family of Apiaceae (“umbellifers”), many other members of the family are highly poisonous, but not carrot. They ARE edible and are highly nutritive, rich in protein, minerals and vitamins. The tops of the carrots are loaded with potassium which can make them bitter, so the use of them in food is limited. However, it is edible, so you may mix some in with a mixed lettuce salad. You may also use it for garnish. Combine your common sense and your creative skills, and invent something! That’s what makes cooking fun. It is a form of art. Carrot greens are high in vitamin K, which is lacking in the carrot itself.
The leaves do contain furocoumarins that may cause allergic contact dermatitis from the leaves, especially when wet. Later exposure to the sun may cause mild photodermatitis. (This is NOT the same as ‘poisonous’ – it will only affect susceptible people with allergies to the plant. Some people have the same reaction to yarrow, ragwort, chamomile etc.). There is a distinct difference between toxins and allergens. Carrots (Daucus carota), whether wild or domesticated, are not toxic, they are allergenic. This is like peanuts, which are not toxic but can kill those who are allergic to them. It is however important that any wild plant be positively identified before it is used for food.
Carrot greens have antiseptic qualities, so they have been added to mouthwashes and, mixed with honey, to disinfect sores. They are also diuretic (increase urine flow), and can help treat kidney disease and edema.
Here are some cooking suggestions. The carrot leaves are pretty, but bitter, so what about using it on something that is robust in flavor, but boring in appearance? Decorate a pate with it, and glace it with aspic. What about “carrot top pesto vinaigrette”? You can hide the bitterness under the tangy vinegar, and sweeten it slightly with some honey. Try sauteing the chopped carrot tops lightly in olive oil with garlic and onion. Then add other garden-grown veggies (the carrots themselves, zucchini, tomato, peppers, fresh herbs), sauté some more, then fold the entire garden mish-mash inside a whole wheat tortilla, brown it, and call it a quesadilla. Truly a great vegan treat, and the carrot tops gave a nice crunchy texture. It is a delightful garden feast. I recommend adding your carrot tops to other things you may already have simmering on the stove.
**Carrot Top Soup is a favorite at the farm. Please try it below!!
RECIPES
CARROT TOP SOUP (Local Flavors by Deborah Madison) Serves 4.
1 bunch (6 small to medium) carrots, the tops and roots
2 Tbs. butter
3 Tbs. white rice
2 large leeks (or 1 bulb onion), white parts only
2 thyme or savory sprigs
2 Tbs. chopped dill, parsley, celery leaves or lovage
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
6 c. vegetable or chicken stock or water
Pull the lacy leaves of the carrot greens off their stems (2 to 3 cups, loosely packed). Wash, then chop finely. Grate the carrots, or finely chop them. Melt the butter in a soup pot. Add the carrot tops and carrots, rice, leeks, thyme, and dill. Cook for several minutes, turning everything a few times, then season with 1-1/2 teaspoons salt and add the stock. Bring to a boil and simmer until the rice is cooked, 16 to 18 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and serve.