Tantre Farm CSA Newsletter
WEEK 3
June 8-14, 2014

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: Remember if you’re not sure how best to enjoy your green, “taste it”. If you like the flavor fresh and raw, then use it in a salad. If the flavor is a little too strong or pungent for you, then mellow the flavor by lightly steaming or sautéing it or also add to soups or smoothies. See recipes at the end of the newsletter!

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, or serve “cold” with a bit of olive oil, a dash of salt, and lemon juice.
– 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.

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: We have so much Cilantro right now that everyone will receive a bunch in your box. There will be no other herb choices this week. Cilantro are the flat, delicate, lacy-edged leaves and stems of the coriander plant, which look a lot like flat-leaf parsley. They have a slightly citrus fragrance, which go well with highly spiced foods.
-How to use: chop it into a salad, dressing or guacamole; juice it!
– How to store: 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.

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).
-How to use: for salads, soups, and light cooking
– How to store: keep in plastic bag in fridge for up to 1 week

BABY LETTUCE MIX (Wildfire): a beautiful bag of dark reds and vibrant greens including Green and Red Oakleaf, Green and Red Romaine, and Redleaf lettuces. Your lettuce has been rinsed once, but probably needs more washing.
-How to use: raw in salads, sandwiches, or use in soups
-How to store: refrigerate in plastic bag for 3-5 days.

HEAD LETTUCE: You will receive 2 heads of Green Leaf, Red Leaf or Romaine in your box with an optional extra head on the side.
-How to use: raw in salads, sandwiches, or use in soups
-How to store: refrigerate in plastic bag for 3-5 days.

MUSTARD GREENS (Golden Frill): bright green, intricately serrated leaves with spicy, pungently sweet flavor.
How to use: deliciously beautiful in salads, garnishes, and for quick braising (if you wish to mellow the spicy flavor)
How to store: very perishable, so use up quickly; store in plastic bag in refrigerator for up to 5 days.

POTATOES (German Butterball): a round to oblong tuber with lightly netted golden skin that wraps around deep yellow flesh.
-How to use: good for everything – frying, baking, mashing, soups
-How to store: Keep unwashed in cool, dark place in paper bag.

RADISHES: You will receive Pink Beauty (pink-colored root with mild, spicy flavor) or D’Avignon (also called, “French Breakfast”; traditional variety from Southern France; 3-4 inch long root that is part red with a white tip and tapered to a point) or Amethyst (bright purple skin and crisp, mild white flesh).
-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: 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: You will receive 1 quart this week of this member of the rose family; red, conical fruit with tiny white flowers. **Over the last few weeks, we have received many calls or emails about u-picking organic strawberries. We thought we should explain how the berry harvest works for you, since everyone is so excited about picking. As the berries first get ripe, we usually have just enough for the market table. When we know we have enough for our members, then we pick them for you. We do not allow u-picking until we’ve been able to give our members at least 1 (and If we’re lucky, 2!) weeks of berries, or we may not have enough for each distribution, so no u-picking just yet. Thank you for your patience and your excitement! You know “how to use” strawberries, yum!!!
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: Freeze whole strawberries hulled and washed on cookie sheets and put in freezer bags.

WHITE HAKUREI TURNIPS and GREENS: A white salad turnip with round, smooth roots that have a sweet, fruity flavor with a crisp, tender texture. Use the greens as well, sautéed or braised.
– How to use: good in salads and soups, roasted, steamed, sautéed,
– 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. “LULU” COOKING CLASS ON June 25! We will be offering “Cooking Classes” once a month at Tantre Farm. We have a large commercial size kitchen, and plenty of picnic tables for eating outside! We will be offering tips and recipes on what we are preparing, using mostly ingredients from Tantre Farm’s share box. The first class is on Wed. June 25 from 6 to 8:30 PM. We will be helping prepare a delicious 4-course meal with help from our guest chefs and fellow CSA members, Eric Lundy and Laenne Thompson. Their start up restaurant is called “LuLu”, which sources local ingredients and adds a dash of global flavor to deliver deliciousness to your mouth! A core belief and practice of LuLu is to create spaces to learn about our community and share a meal with a local food producer. They look forward to cooking with you! There will be a $10 fee for materials and handouts for each class. Please register by contacting us soon with your NAME, PHONE NUMBER, and E-MAIL ADDRESS in the body of the email. We have 15 spaces available, so let us know if you’re interested in joining us for a special meal together at Tantre Farm. More details about the meal will follow in the coming weeks.

2. TASTE TESTINGS IN CHELSEA: Tantre Farmers, Erin Throop and Andi Wilkins, will be the guest “experts” presenting Farm to Market, kid-friendly tastings and demonstrations in Chelsea this coming Wed., June 11, at the Bushel Basket Market (located near the Chelsea Wellness Center, in the lot adjacent to the UM Family Practice). You will have the opportunity to try their recipes of “garlic scape pesto” and “asparagus guacamole” from 2:30 – 6 PM. Come by to taste, collect recipes, and check out the Bushel Basket Market!

3. CHANGING PICK UP DAYS: Please remember to contact us preferably a week in advance, but at least by Sunday of each week, to make changes in pick up days or locations. It is very disappointing to put together a box that is never picked up! Please have the courtesy to make some kind of contact with us, if you can not pick up your box for some reason. You will have 1 extra day to retrieve your box at the farm before we donate it.

4. PICK UP TIMES & LOCATIONS REMINDER:
Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market (Wed.)–7 A.M. to 12 P.M.
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.)—10 A.M. to 12 P.M.
Chelsea Farmers’ Market (Sat.)–8 A.M. to 12 P.M.

SHARING THE PLENTY
By Deb and Richard

The recent, cool and wet weather have made all the greens plentiful! You will get the option of another extra head of lettuce on the side, if you can use it, since we have so much this week! Remember you can always put greens, including lettuce, into smoothies! See this week’s recipes. The fava beans are especially happy with this wet, cool weather too! The black and white flowers decorate the branches and stems of these tall, leafy plants. It looks as though there should be a promising crop of favas this season.

The strawberry stems are drooping, drawn down by the weight of the red and green berries. Unfortunately for every berry that would touch the ground, there is also easy access for the cutworm caterpillar to feast on a berry that could be 50 times the size of the caterpillar, so many of the berries are finding themselves partially eaten by these hungry caterpillars. This is more than we’ve ever seen in past years, so you might find a few holes here and there in your berries. Mostly we try to leave these large, worm-mauled berries out in the field for the robins to enjoy or feed them to the chickens. Occasionally a few of these holey berries will make it into the harvest basket, so you might have to cut off a few parts that we’ve missing in culling this week. It may be that the lesson here is that there is risk in growing berries and that we may have to share this meal with all beings great and small.

RECIPES

CILANTRO PESTO
1 clove garlic or 2 garlic scapes
cup almonds, cashews, or other nuts
1 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6 tablespoons olive oil

Put the cilantro and olive oil in blender and process until the cilantro is chopped. Add the rest of the ingredients and process to a lumpy paste. (You may need to add a touch of hot water and scrape the sides of the blender.) You can change the consistency by altering the amount of olive oil and lemon juice, but keep the 3:1 ratio of oil to juice. (It freezes well, so you can make several batches at once.)

CREAM OF LETTUCE SOUP (contributed by CSA member Ramya Sivaraj)
1 head of Lettuce, chopped roughly
3-4 medium potatoes, cubed
1 bunch green onions or 1 good size onion, diced
1 bunch French Sorrel (or cilantro), chopped roughly
1 teaspoon each of Salt and Sugar (to taste)
2 tablespoons of creamer (I use soy creamer)

Sauté the onions in about a tablespoon of oil (I used Olive oil). Add salt and after onions start to get translucent, add potatoes and then the lettuce. Stir to mix everything well and add about a half cup of hot water to get things cooking (I usually have water boiling in my kettle as I get the onions started). Cook for about ten minutes until potatoes are soft (add more water if needed – check every five minutes or so). Add the French Sorrel and sugar and continue to cook for a few more minutes. Make sure again that the potatoes are cooked completely, and then after it cools down for a few minutes, add the creamer and blend the mix until smooth and creamy (my immersion blender makes this part very convenient). Taste to adjust the seasoning and enjoy!

GREEN LETTUCE SMOOTHIES (You can always interchange the lettuce for any other kind of greens in your share box.)
#1 (yields 1 quart)
1 cup strawberries, 2 bananas, 1/2 bunch lettuce, 2 cups water or fruit juice. Blend well.

#2 (yields 1 quart)
6-8 leaves red leaf lettuce, 1 banana, 1/4 cup blueberries, 2 cups water or fruit juice. Blend well.

FRESH STRAWBERRY DRESSING (from www.eatingwell.com)
1 cup strawberries, rinsed, hulled and sliced
½ teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil

Blend strawberries, vinegar, pepper, sugar and salt. Add oil and process until smooth. Makes about 3/4 cup.

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