Tantre Farm CSA Newsletter
WEEK #2
June 5-11, 2016

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.
THIS WEEK’S SHARE

GREENS ADVICE for the entire season: Please keep in mind that greens are especially prominent during this early part of the farm season, so basically, “It’s salad time!” If you’re not sure how best to enjoy your green, taste it. Greens can be eaten raw in a salad or lightly steamed or sautéed with garlic, green onions, or butter in order to mellow their flavor. They can also be tossed into a dish (such as soup or a smoothie) for an extra nutritional and flavorful boost.

ARUGULA (Sylvetta): also known as “wild rocket” with more deeply lobed leaves and a more pungent flavor; an aromatic, bright salad green with a peppery mustard flavor
-How to use: add to salads, soups, and sautéed vegetable dishes
-How to store: very perishable, so use up quickly; store in plastic bag with a paper towel in refrigerator for up to 5 days.
ASPARAGUS: You will receive a bunch of green, purple, or white variety; 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.
BEETS (Red Ace): topless, round, smooth, deep red roots with sweet flavor when eaten raw or cooked that have been stored all winter in our root cellar.
-How to use: roots good in juices, soups, stews, roasted, boiled, steamed, excellent grated raw into salads or baked goods.
-How to store: store unwashed in plastic bags in hydrator drawer of refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
GARLIC SCAPES: This popular and highly delectable flower top of a garlic plant has a slender green stem with a slight bulge at the bottom (resemble chives, except for the bulge and often curled); tender and milder in flavor than mature garlic, but can be substituted for garlic cloves in recipes. **Attached recipes to online newsletter.
-How to use: mild garlic flavor, so delicious chopped in salads, roasted, and sautéed.
-How to store: put in refrigerator in plastic bag for up to 2 weeks.
FRESH HERBS: In general, store herbs upright with cut stems in 1 or 2 inches of water and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or wrap in slightly dampened cloth and store in refrigerator.
You may CHOOSE ONE bunch (NOT one bunch of each) from the following 4 options:
**Winter Savory– is a semi-evergreen, perennial herb; its strong spicy flavor goes well with beans and meat; medicinally it has antiseptic, aromatic, carminative, and digestive benefits, as well as relieves bee stings.
**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. The flowers are edible and make nice garnishes! This herb is suffering from some fungus or insect damage, but we needed to cut it all out anyway, so a few of you might not mind the damage on the leaves for their aromatic and culinary favors.
**Thyme– tiny green leaves used in meat and vegetable dishes and most casseroles, soups, stews, and medicinal teas, which soothe sore throats. This herb has gone to flower, so the leaves are small, but the flowers are dainty and delicious. We needed to clear the bed anyway, and instead of throwing it out, have it as an option.
**Lemon Balm– these fragrant lemon-minty leaves make a delicate herbal tea, served hot or cold; good addition to lettuce or fruit salads and ice cream; nicely paired with grilled fish or lamb and tossed with steamed vegetables; also aids in depression, tension, or nausea.
ONION TOPS (optional): Some of our onions overwintered, but it has become difficult for our crew to get the bulbs out of the ground due to weed pressure, so you received last week and this week again these delicious top leaves and white flowers of onions without the bulbs; full of great fiber and antioxidants, high in potassium and source of vitamins C and B-6.
-How to use: flowers and green leaves are edible! Chop into salads, soups, & stock for flavor. Easy to freeze for winter soups, just chop and freeze in Ziploc bags.
-How to store: refrigerate in damp towel/plastic bag for 5-7 days.
KALE: You will receive Red Russian Kale (the stems are purple, and leaves are deep gray-green, purple-veined, flat, non-curled, and tooth-edged) or Green Curly (well-ruffled, curly green leaves on green stems; this variety makes a good, roasted “kale chip”).
-How to use: for salads, soups, and light cooking in stir-fries
-How to store: keep in plastic bag or damp towel in refrigerator for up to 1 week
LETTUCE: You will receive 2-4 heads of lettuce, which may include Green Leaf, Red Leaf or Romaine.
-How to use: raw in salads, sandwiches, or use in soups
-How to store: refrigerate in plastic bag for 3-5 days.
POTATOES (Carola): yellow potato from Germany; smooth, creamy texture that is good for baking or frying. These potatoes have been carefully stored in our root cellar since last fall.
-How to use: good roasted, mashed, or in salads
-How to store: Keep unwashed in cool, dark place in paper bag.
SPINACH: You will receive a bag of this crisp, dark green leaf– best eaten raw or with minimal cooking to obtain the beneficial chlorophyll, as well as vitamins A & C; delicious flavor when juiced.
– How to use: toss in fresh salad, add to sandwiches, sauté, steam, braise, or add to crepes, quiche, lasagna, and soups.
– How to store: refrigerate with a damp towel/bag for up to 1 week.
STRAWBERRIES: Each share will receive 1 quart of this member of the rose family (if you split a share, you will need to divvy it up); red, conical fruit with tiny white flowers. U-pick opportunities in Ann Arbor are mentioned below.
-How to use: excellent raw, juicing, jam, pie, sorbet, in desserts
-How to store: Do not wash until you are ready to consume them. Place them on a paper towel in a tightly-covered container in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.
-How to freeze: This is so easy to do for fresh berries! Freeze whole strawberries hulled and washed on cookie sheets and when frozen put in freezer bags.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. STRAWBERRY U-PICK in ANN ARBOR: We have a wonderful opportunity for our CSA members this year! Our large strawberry field just north of the Washtenaw Food Hub on Whitmore Lake Rd. is in its second year of growth. The location is just north of the Food Hub (4175 Whitmore Lake Rd.) on the west side of the road. There are lots of signs that show you where to go. The berries are bursting off the plants! We are inviting all CSA members to come to the “Ann Arbor Strawberry Patch” to u-pick their first 4 quarts for free! You just need to mention your Primary Contact’s name so your share can be checked off our Master List that your share received your 4 quarts. If you split a share, then each of you can pick 2 quarts for free. Any amount after that, you will need to pay the regular rate of $4/level quart. Right now the berry patch will be open every day this week through Sunday (and possibly 7 days a week for the next few weeks) from 9 to 6 PM. We will let you know more details in the coming weeks.
2. KID FARM HIKE on June 17: Come join us for a guided monthly exploratory walk around Tantre Farm on Friday, the 17th. Each month various community members will share their expertise in a guided tour. We’ll use all our senses as we take an approx. 45-60 minute hike around the farm for kids and adults. We will meet at 2 PM behind the Main House at the picnic tables.
3. PAYMENTS DUE: If you still owe money, it will be reflected on the check-in sheet, when you pick up your box. If you believe there has been some mistake, or have any questions, please call or e-mail us. Please finalize payments due within the month of June, unless alternate arrangements are made.
4. CSA COOKBOOKS: We will have a handy cookbook for sale this season called “From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce”. This $15 book includes an easy-to-follow format with vegetables listed from A to Z. We will have a limited number of these cookbooks available, so if you are interested in purchasing these books, and they are no longer at your site, please let us know to make a bulk order.
5. NEEDED: SMALL WADING POOL! We will have 9 adolescent ducks taking up residence here on this week, adding to the Tantre animal menagerie of cows, pigs, chickens, cats, and dog. If anyone has a SMALL wading pool they were thinking of getting rid of since they were upgrading or it was too dirty to use again, please consider it for our new feathered friends. Of course, we will buy one eventually if no one has one, but first we would rather reuse someone else’s.
6. 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.
Farm (Fri.)–2 P.M. to 7 P.M.
Community High School (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.

INTRODUCING RICHARD, DEB, AND ARIANA….
Some of our articles may feature some of the regular workers on Tantré Farm throughout the coming weeks. Here are the owners of the farm, Richard Andres & Deb Lentz, and their daughter, Ariana.

Richard and Deb both grew up with a connection to farming and growing food. Richard grew up in Plymouth & Canton, Michigan. He had an early interest in farming, since he worked as a teenager picking corn for a local farmer. Then he started raising and selling strawberries, corn, and muskmelons on his parents’ property. He also worked at his friend’s farm, Garden Works, for a few years. Following that, he tended traditional, Asian-raised gardens at the Ann Arbor and Toronto Zen Buddhist Temples for a number of years. Finally, he bought Tantré Farm in 1993, and proceeded to make it certified organic. After that he began growing organic potatoes, winter squash, and garlic for wholesale orders, besides continuing full-time work as a timber-frame carpenter.

Deb grew up on a 160-acre beef farm in Lake City, Minnesota. She graduated from the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota with an Elementary Education degree. She taught fourth through sixth grades in Central Minnesota and worked as a counselor at a Summer German Camp for the next 10 years. Then she met Richard in 1994, which led to their marriage in July of 1997. After that she taught first and third grade for several years in Napoleon, Michigan, until their daughter, Ariana, was born in 2001.

Richard is working as a full-time farmer now, and continues using his carpentry skills through the many maintenance and building projects of the farm. Now Deb publishes the newsletter and coordinates the communication and bookkeeping of the CSA. She also continues to enjoy teaching to groups who come to the farm for field trips, as well as, in area schools through Farm-to-School programs. Ariana is now completing eighth grade, and she is looking forward to hanging out with lots of kids on the farm this summer! Both Richard and Deb enjoy the sense of community that running Tantré Farm creates for themselves and their daughter, as well as the many young interns/farmers who live and work on the farm, which provides the opportunity to serve the local community fresh, organic food.

RECIPES

SPINACH STRAWBERRY SALAD (From Asparagus to Zucchini by MACSAC) Serves 4.Sesame seeds
2 Tbs. sugar
2 Tbs. red wine vinegar
minced garlic or garlic scape to taste
dry mustard to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup salad oil
1 bunch spinach, cleaned & stemmed
1 cup strawberries, sliced or chunked
1 1/2 tsp. fresh dill or 1/2 tsp. dried
Toast sesame seeds in dry skillet or hot oven for several minutes, tossing often; let cool. Combine sugar, garlic, dry mustard, salt and pepper. Whisk in oil in thin stream. Toss with spinach, strawberries, dill, and sesame seeds.