Tantre Farm CSA Newsletter
WEEK #2
May 31-June 6, 2020
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.
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.
If you are new to our CSA, you can find all past newsletters on our website under the NEWSLETTERS tab.
THIS WEEK’S SHARE
ASPARAGUS: You will receive green or purple spears; each contains vitamins A, B, and C, as well as iron.
– How to use: serve raw, chopped in salads, or with dips. You can also steam, roast, grill.
– How to store: wrap in damp cloth and plastic bag, then refrigerate. Alternatively, bundle spears with rubber band and place upright in container with an inch of water.
BOK CHOY (Joi Choi): written as bok choi, a traditional stir-fry vegetable from China with a sweet and mild flavor; looks like white Swiss chard with the stems all attached at the bottom; considered a cool weather crop; part of the cabbage or turnip family.
-How to use: two vegetables in one–the leaves can be cooked like spinach, and the crisp stem can be eaten like celery or asparagus; excellent in stir-fries, soups, sauteed or eaten raw.
-How to store: store as you would any green–in a loose plastic bag in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator.
LEEKS: These are young plants with green leaves and white to pale green stems varying in size. The leaves and stems are full of mild-tasting onion flavor, so tender and flavorful from salads to cooking.
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.
-How to use: white and lower part of greens can be cooked whole, chopped in slices and substituted for onions; delicious raw in salads or cooked in soups, quiches, casseroles, stews, stocks, or stir-fries.
-How to store: refrigerate unwashed for 2 weeks in plastic bag.
PEA or SUNFLOWER SHOOTS: You will receive pea shoots OR sunflower shoots (which are extremely high in vitamins A & C and calcium) from Garden Works Organic Farm. They are a certified organic 4.5 acre truck garden and greenhouse farm in Ann Arbor operating year-round with several types of heirloom vegetables, and wheatgrass, sunflower shoots and other microgreens available throughout the year. Visit Rob MacKercher at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market year round or contact gardenworksorganic@gmail.com for more information.
-How to use: use as a salad, blended with chopped radishes, turnips, and cabbage, excellent garnish as a soup, so yummy and tender!
-How to store: store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
RADISHES (Cherriette): smooth, bright red roots with short green, edible tops and a sweet/mildly hot taste.
-How to use: raw, roasted, used in soups, sliced in salads, sandwiches, or stir-fries, grated in slaws; radish greens. (excellent source of vitamins A, C, and the B’s) delicious in soups or stir-fries.
-How to store: refrigerate in plastic bag/damp towel for 1-2 weeks.
SPINACH: crisp, dark green leaf; best eaten raw or with minimal cooking to obtain the beneficial chlorophyll, rich in of vitamin K, vitamin A, manganese, folate, magnesium, iron and a plethora of other nutrients and antioxidants.
-How to use: delicious flavor when juiced, toss in fresh salad, add to sandwiches, saute, steam, braise, or add to crepes, quiche, lasagna, and soups.
-How to store: refrigerate with a damp towel/bag for up to 1 week.
WHITE HAKUREI TURNIPS and GREENS: You will receive a bunch of white salad turnips with round, smooth roots that have a sweet, fruity flavor with a crisp, tender texture. Both roots (good source of Vitamin C, potassium, and calcium) and greens are edible!
-How to use: greens good in salads and soups and can be steamed or sauteed with leeks; roots can be roasted, steamed, or sauteed.
-How to store: remove greens from turnip root and store separately in plastic bag in refrigerator for up to 3 days; roots can last up to 1-2 weeks in refrigerator.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. MASKS & GLOVES: We recommend that all come to each distribution site with a mask and gloves to pick up your shares. We will have hand sanitizer at some sites as well. Please let our volunteers know if you need help.
2. PAYMENTS DUE: If you still owe money, you will see it in the Balance Due column on the Pick up Sheet. Please let us know if you think there is a mistake. Please finalize payments soon.
3. IMMUNE BOOSTER CSA: As some of you know we started a collaborative CSA with several local farms and food businesses that you can opt in or out of each week called the Immune Booster. If you are interested in supplementing your share with more veggies and other locally produced and sourced value-added products, please go to our website to sign up every Sunday – Wednesday night. Pick up is from 9 AM to 12 PM every Saturday at the Washtenaw Food Hub: http://www.tantrefarm.com/how-does-our-immune-booster-csa-work/. Still time to sign up this week!
4. CHELSEA AND ANN ARBOR FARMERS MARKETS ARE OPEN: We will have market tables set up at the Ann Arbor Market for onsite sales on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7 AM – 12 PM, so please feel free to purchase other items to supplement your share. The Chelsea Farmers Market will continue to have online sales and curbside pick up at this time, but starting Saturday we are allowed to set up our market tables for onsite purchase as well from 8 AM – 1 PM, so hope to see you there!!
5. TANTRE FARM PLANT WALK ON JUNE 26 from 1:00 – 3:00 pm:
We are offering a leisurely plant walk at Tantre Farm with the guidance of our local foraging expert, Rachel Mifsud. Plant walks are excellent learning opportunities for those with beginning to intermediate foraging skills, and for anyone wishing to increase their knowledge of the local flora. Our discussion will include information about identification, methods of harvest, preparation, and use. We will explore the area and choose around 15 edible, medicinal, or otherwise useful plants and mushrooms to focus on. Class is limited to 8 participants so that social distance can be maintained while still allowing everyone to see and hear clearly. The cost is $25 with limited spaces, and you must register ahead of time at https://willforageforfood.square.site/
6. ZOOM WALKS: These walks take place in a variety of locations in central and southern Michigan. During the walk, Rachel will show you around 15 plants and talk about ID, harvest, use, and preservation of those plants. To participate, you must have Zoom installed on your device. Then you simply copy/paste the link and password shown below for the date you want to attend, and log on at 2 pm that day. Please mute your microphone when you come on so that background noise is not distracting to other students. All walks will be live from 2-3 pm and are donation-based. You are not required to pay to participate, but it is appreciated when you can. The first one is June 10: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86926811587?pwd=TFhUTWVsMjJlYnZxWWZCRGltc2RiQT09 PW: 968077. More dates will be shared in upcoming newsletters or you can visit the website: https://willforageforfood.square.site/
7. PICK UP TIMES & LOCATIONS REMINDER: If you need to switch to different pick up sites throughout the season, try using the Membership Actions section on the registration page to schedule Vacations or Pick up Location Changes a week ahead of time. Some sites have less space to drop share boxes at, so are considered “limited” (see below). Please always email ahead to see if the limited sites are at capacity before making any switches on your own to those spaces.
**Volunteers will be at each site during designated times below, so if you need to come at a different time, please feel free to bring gloves and your own pen to check off your name.
*Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market (Wed.)—7 AM to 12 PM (TANTRE STAFF for check-in from 7-9 AM)
*MOVE Fitness & Wellness Studio (Wed)—CHANGE IN TIME: 8 AM to 10 AM (SARA for check-in the whole time
*Farm (Wed.)—10 AM to 7 PM (TANTRE STAFF checking off names from 10 AM-12 PM and from 2-4 PM)* (Washtenaw Food Hub (Wed.) –6 PM to 8 PM (LIZZIE for check-in the whole time)
*Pure Pastures (Wed.) (limited site) —10 AM to 5 PM (JESSICA for check-in from 11 AM – 1 PM)
*Farm (Fri.)—2 PM to 7 PM (TANTRE STAFF for check-in from 2 to 4 PM)
*Community High School (Sat.) —7 AM to 12 PM (SHANNON for check-in from 7 -10 AM)
*Washtenaw Food Hub (Sat.)—9 AM to 12 PM (PETER & RYAN for check-in the whole time)
*Chelsea Farmers’ Market (Sat.)—8 AM to 12 PM (DEB for check-in the whole time)
*Argus-Packard (Sat) (limited site)—12 PM to 3 PM (ARGUS STAFF for check-in the whole time)
*RoosRoast-Rosewood (Sat)–9 AM to 11 AM (JONATHON for check-in the whole time)
REFLECTIONS ON THE FARM
by Richard and Deb
With care and attention tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are nested into their raised growing beds. Now that the earth is warm with the hope and expectation that these baby plants will grow tall in between trellis poles woven from post to post so that the fruit can dangle above the ground and ripen in abundance. With this same care all the beds are prepared. The other spring and summer plants are nestled into the soft, brown, moist soil and then weeded with many hands and hand hoes working together.
It is in this working together outside in all weather with all the unexpected elements of nature (the morning cool, the afternoon sun, the pelting rain, the cold frost) that we find ourselves getting to know a whole new garden of wonderful personalities. They sprout from Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, California, New York, Maryland, Texas, Ohio, Michigan (of course), and even the Philippines. They come from many walks of life and are rich with diversity. Each person on the farm has an opportunity to get to know each other and themselves a little better, to have extended conversations for hours sometimes from lunch to supper, sometimes days later. Then again sometimes they may work quietly side by side with few words spoken between them, just doing the dance of the garden together.
As we go about our day, there can be a simple amiability between our farm crew members. We witness an aspiration to create priority in seeing what the most important thing to do for each moment is, and to work effectively as a team to make delicious food for our community. This involves the weeding, the planting, the spreading of compost, the watering, the harvesting of each type of vegetable in its own special and unique way, and then finally preparing the food to share with each other.
Most importantly it is in the relationship with one another as individuals, as fellow human beings, that we learn and agree to treat each other with kindness and respect, to honor each other, to listen to one another, to think and talk together, and to relate to each other, despite and because of our differences. This is the best kind of relationship, where we honor each other for our differences and develop a deeper understanding for each other and ourselves. With care and attention perhaps, we could consider and hope that all people on this earth would discover this most important thing to do.
RECIPES
ROASTED ASPARAGUS-CARROT-SPINACH SOUP (https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asprecipe=1865971)
1 bunch of Asparagus
3-4 carrots (peeled & sliced length-wise)
2 cups of Spinach (or Bok Choy)
2 cloves of Garlic
Water – to make vegetable stock
Milk (or alternative milk)- about 2 cups
Salt & Pepper to taste
Other spices you wish to add
Begin by cutting bottom ends off asparagus (don’t throw away). Peel the carrots (reserve the peels). Place asparagus & carrots on tray to roast in oven – set @ 450 for appx. 20 minutes, carrots cooked about 5 minutes longer. Place the asparagus ends, carrot peels, and garlic in pot. Cover with water and season to taste. Bring to boil, then simmer appx. 20 minutes. This will make your stock. Combine veggies & splash of stock in blender and begin blending. Add more stock & milk as needed to your taste and continue to blend to the consistency you desire. Return to pot & keep it warm on the stove & add seasoning here.