Week 8 7-6-2011

Week 8 box

Carrots (the last for now, so enjoy)

Beets- They have a sweet earthy richness that so many people love. Others just can’t understand this diamond in the rough. Once you’ve boiled the beets ‘til fork tender, rinse with cool water, and slip the skins from the beets. Then prepare as you wish. See a recipe below that is a delightfully delicious summer salad. (These are the types of salads we eat when lettuce is out of season.)

Red Russian Kale- I just love the Epicurious website. I peruse the site and then always vary the recipes base on my own whims and the seasonal or available ingredient. Try this recipe: Kale with Panfried Walnuts …http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Kale-with-Panfried-Walnuts-356015

Swiss Chard- I’ve been adding basil and goat cheese to the Chard dishes we’ve prepared lately. Mmmmm…

Cucumbers- Do you put cucumbers in your pasta salad? Try mixing in nice triangular chunks of cucumbers.

Squash/Zucchinis- One other item that I’ve discovered is raw, shredded squash and zucchinis along with cucumber chunks and shredded carrots. I dress this mixture with a basil vinaigrette.

Bell Pepper- The plants are beginning to bear fruit. As the plants mature, we’ll allow the fruit to ripen into nice red and yellow peppers.

Basil- See the vinaigrette recipe below. I know I’ve put it out there many times, but allow your creativity take over as you make it and add your own twists. (I like to crank up the amount of basil and call it a “Basil Vinaigrette.”

On the way!

Cherry Tomatoes

Green beans (snap beans)

Pigs Corralled!

Last Wednesday was a hectic adventure with many pig escapades. The final escape occurred during CSA pickup. A member came down to the house and said “are there supposed to be pigs on the driveway?” Nope! By the time I got fencing supplies in the truck and got up there they were headed toward the neighbor’s yard. Luckily I caught them before they made it there. I herded the 7 or so 250 pound hogs back to their home fence area. Then I fixed there fence-so far it has held. Instead of the one wire that has proved sufficient for the previous 40 or so pigs we have raised these 13 trouble makers required 2 hot wires and a ground wire to make sure they really get shocked! The gang of 13 has taken the title of worst behaved animals previously held by the sheep for their triple escape weekend. We attribute their ability to escape to their athletic prowess. Off to the butcher in 3 weeks (not that we’re counting).

Spiny pig weed

In the garden it is spiny pigweed season. Spiny pigweed is a hot weather weed in the amaranth family. The family includes many not so bad weeds most of which are edible. Spiny pigweed is the bad seed in the bunch. The entire stem is covered in needle sharp, nearly invisible spines. When touched these spines practically jump off the plant into your finger. They will penetrate gloves, socks, or the mesh portion on a running shoe. Once in your finger the spine is almost invisible and breaks off easily when tweezed. In short it is, a highly irritating painful, hard to get pain in the finger. Unfortunately, spiny pigweed is highly tenacious if you simply cut the plant it will grow several branches where there was only one. The only way to deal with this hydra of a plant is to pull it up by the roots. So with gloves and fork I did battle this week. Now where the pig weed had moved in edamame soybean seeds are beginning to germinate! We look forward to their delicious seeds in fall!

Cooling Rain

Today we suffered a setback during chicken butchering. When I went out early this morning to start the scalder up so that it would be ready when we start butchering, it wouldn’t light! Fortunately, we were able to fix it, but not before 7:30-when we were supposed to starting to butcher. Once lit the water takes nearly 2 and half hours to heat up. So we had to go find other things to do for that time-move chicks to pasture, move the horse, clean, relax, eat a snack. We didn’t start butchering until almost 9:30. We had an amazing crew though and we made up much of our lost time, finishing only about an hour later than usual at 2:30. As we ate lunch on the porch the clouds began to move in thicker. As the crew pulled out of the driveway the first few drops began to fall. The breeze and rain came in earnest and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon storm bringing a much needed 1.35 inches of rain. I had front row seats to the storm from the chick brooder. As I cleaned out the space in preparation for the next batch of chicks the storm crashed around me. There were frequent lightning flashes with thunder following just on its tail. Crack-boom! Crack-boom! The coolness and energy of the storm transformed the normally hot and tiresome job into an almost fun task. Poor Petunia didn’t think so though. She eventually found me in the shed as she nervously sought shelter from the storm. She eventually settled down in the fresh shavings as I finished the job. She does not like storms!

Recipes

Classic Tangy Vinaigrette https://sites.google.com/site/bluebirdfarmnc/homeC/recipes/classic-tangy-vinaigrette … Variation: Pack the basil in this recipe. I like to reduce the mustard and then add around 12 leaves of basil into the blender or food processor.

Orange-Beet Salad

From Better Homes and Gardens annual Recipes 2001

Note: I used olive oil instead of walnut oil and plain chevre instead of feta cheese. I also omitted the orange peel (the peel of conventional citrus have a high concentration of pesticides) and used 1 extra tablespoon of orange juice. I let the beets marinate overnight in the dressing and topped the beets with the walnuts and cheese on the dinner plates. It was delicious!

3 medium beets (about 9 oz)

3 Tbsp. walnut oil or salad oil

1 tsp. shredded orange peel

2 Tbsp. orange juice

1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar or white vinegar

2 Tbsp. broken walnuts toasted

3 Tbsp crumbled feta cheese

¼ coarsely ground pepper

1. Wash beets well. Cut off and discard root tails and all except 1 inch of stems. Do not peel. Cook, covered in lightly salted boiling water for 40 to 50 minutes or until just tender. Drain. Let cool until easy to handle.

2. Slip skins off beets under running water. Carefully slice each beet into 1/4 inch thick slices, removing and discarding remaining stem ends.

3. Meanwhile, for dressing, in a screw-top jar combine walnut oil or salad oil, orange peel, orange juice, and vinegar. Cover and shake well.

4. In a medium mixing bowl gently toss the beet slices with the dressing. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours.

5. To serve, let mixture come to room temperature. Gently stir walnuts into beets. Sprinkle with feta cheese and pepper. Makes 4 servings.

Well, here it is 9:30 pm and we are finally sending out this week’s newsletter.When William began writing it this morning at 6:00 am, we had no idea that today would turn into “one of those days.” See the last paragraph in the body of the newsletter and you’ll see the type of piggy adventures we were up to late last night…and then several times through the day today when we trying to harvest and pack the CSA boxes. The pigs have been having a blast! Every heard of a pig jumping over the moon? We hadn’t either.

Week 7 Box: We apologize for the shortened recipes section today.

Curly Kale- Baked Kale Chips anyone?

Swiss Chard- I’ll be cooking a fine Italian pasta meal with Swiss Chard, zucchini and squash, basil, garlic, and parmesan cheese.

Bok Choy (also spelled Boc Choi) Try an Asian style stir-fry with carrots, spring onions, and boc choy. Remember to cook the carrots and onions first, then cook the Bok Choy stems lightly, and the chopped Bok Choy greens last. Any green will taste bitter if you cook it for too long- I like my greens just past wilted and still bright green.

Squash/zucchini-

Cucumbers

Carrots

Spring Onions

Garlic- variety “Nootka Rose”

Basil- Keep the bag of basil open so the basil can “breathe” and always store basil at room temperature. You can still use it if it is slightly wilted. You make also freeze basil in freezer bags and then crumble it into a dish when you need it. It won’t keep a pretty color when frozen, but it will still taste amazing!

Thank you for all the returned boxes last week! It makes our job much easier to have them back so we can pack them for you today.

This week you will be receiving some of the garlic we talked about last week. We grew about 5 different varieties of garlic, just a small sampling of all the possibilities. This week’s garlic variety is Nootka Rose, a beautiful silverskin garlic with red streaked clove skin. Look for differences in taste, peeling ability, and texture each time we put garlic in your box. Garlic is a great example of a crop with tremendous variation that has been reduced down to just a few types available commercially. Those commercial types have, as usual, been chosen not for flavor but for looks, storage ability, and easier peeling. Spending just a few moments more to peel a clove of garlic seems like a small price to pay to begin to explore a plant with as many complexities and differences in flavor as wines. For a brief overview of all the garlic available you can readhttp://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/overview.htm

You will probably notice holes and pock marks on the boc choi. These are the marks of flea beetles. The marks are just cosmetic blemishes, and the plants are fine to eat. They are very small, usually black insects that jump when disturbed, hence their name. Two of their favorite crops are eggplant and boc choi and this year they found both! If their numbers are controlled they typically just slow a plant down and it will recover. However, they are capable of completely devouring a young transplant. It is always interesting to see how the pest populations vary from year to year. Last year we had very little flea beetle problems, but we were inundated with squash bugs and potato beetles at this time. This year it is reversed.

This big project in the garden this week was to catch up on weeding and put down hay mulch around the potatoes and tomatoes. We still need to get around to the peppers. All these crops really appreciate the moderating effects of mulch. It will help hold moisture in, cut down on weeds, cool the soil temperature, and reduce pest pressure. Pests that particularly like tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes-in particular the potato beetle, are unable to navigate the jungle created by mulch. They tend to get lost in the hay instead of finding the plant. Unfortunately the same is not true of pests for other plant families. Mulch around squashes is a bad idea because this provides the ideal habitat for squash bugs to wildly proliferate.

This Monday and Tuesday we didn’t get to work in the garden quite as much as we had planned because we were busy with an experiment. We were testing the idea that our single electric line fences for pigs only work when the pigs are happy. It turns out that when the pigs decide that they are unsatisfied with what’s inside their fence they have no problem going through it! In the last 48 hours the pigs have more or less operated as if there were no fence-extremely exasperating (especially to the poor horse who is pretty sure that the pigs are after her when they get out!). Last night we were finally able to address some of the issues. Turns out the pigs were just plain hot. Who can blame them for being grumpy when it’s almost 90 and humid? So we ran water for a nice big wallow-they loved it! We also added some electric lines to their fence so it looks a little more intimidating. Today we will find out if our changes worked. Update: The pigs decided that the fence doesn’t apply to their situation right now. William added one more electric line to help prevent these particularly athletic pigs from sailing over the fence.

That’s all for this week, Enjoy the food!

Week 6 6-25-2011

Please remember to return your boxes each week

Week 6 box

Carrots

Spring Onions

Red Russian Kale

Cucumbers

Squash/zucchini

Large Shares only-Napa Cabbage (Chinese cabbage)-Napa cabbage is a mild cabbage that forms a looser head than European cabbages. When we cook them we like to slice the leaves off the white stem first. We cook the stems in some olive oil with onions until they are almost done. Then we add the diced greens to wilt. Napa cabbage is a great addition to a stir-fry or sauté to serve with rice, cous-cous, or potatoes.

Beets-Never had beets? Don’t like them? I’d say give them a try. Think sweet and earthy when you eat them. See preparation and recipes at end of newsletter.

Basil!!! Don’t refrigerate basil, because it can turn brown and spotty. Store at a cool room temperature. If possible, place stems in water like a flower bouquet. This week the basil is mostly bud trimmings, so they won’t fit in a vase or jar. Don’t worry, basil is still fine to use when it is wilty. Basil ideas: Grilled Zucchini and Squash with Basil. I slice the zucchini and squash into long, flat strips. Then I brush each side with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and chopped basil. Grill. You can also try sprinkling chopped basil over just about anything. In the summer, I always have basil in the kitchen in a little vase, and I love its aroma as I walk into the room.

Parsley- Chopped parsley is very good with cooked beets and a touch of lemon juice.

Barn Rafters of Garlic

Happy summer! Yesterday marked the sun’s nothernmost track in the sky. For a few days the sun will stay in relatively the same place on the horizon, before slowly working its way back south.

Last Monday we harvested all of the garlic. Last week you received fresh garlic in your box. This is a bulb that we dug up, cut off the stalk and passed along directly to you without curing it. The rest of the garlic we have sorted and hung up to dry, or cure in the rafters of the barn. This will ensure that the bulbs dry down slowly so they can keep for as long as possible without rotting. Cured garlic can store for a very long time in a cool, dark, dry place.

When we hung the garlic up we carefully selected the largest, best formed, most even bulbs of each variety to set aside as this fall’s seed garlic. We cure these bulbs along with all the rest and just kind of forget about them. Then, in October, we will pull them out take all the cloves off the bulb and push them into the ground to start the cycle over again.

This is about half of it!

Garlic is an interesting plant because it is planted in the fall in October. In the sprouts up to about 6 inches then waits dormant for the rest of the winter. In the spring it takes off, quickly becoming the tallest, most lush green plant in the early spring. Their growth and vigor begins to slow in May when they start to think about flowering. This is when they send out their garlic scapes. The scapes are the closed blossom of garlic. Garlic reproduces both vegetatively and sexually. However, if it is allowed to fully flower and create seed it invests far less energy in the roots, the part we want to eat. So we cut off the flowers before they open, this is what was in you box several times in May. After the flower is cut the above ground portion of the plant starts to decline. The tips of the leaves begin to yellow and no new growth is seen. Meanwhile, the plant is working to make its bulbs as large as possible to give thee, energy to regrow the next year. Once several leaves have fully died on the stalk we know it is time to dig them up.

In a few weeks, we’ll pull down the cured, dried garlic and put them in your boxes. We’ll have several exciting varieties to taste and enjoy.

Flowering cilantro. Look closely to see all the pollinators it attracts to the garden.

Recipes

Basic Method for Cooking Beets:

Beets, butter, salt, freshly ground pepper, chopped parsley

WASH WELL. Cut off all but 1 inch of the beets top; do not pare or remove the roots. Drop the beets into enough boiling water to cover them, and cook them, uncovered, until they are tender, allowing 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the age of the beets. Drain the beets, drop them in cold water for a minute or two to cool them slightly, then slip off the skins. Leave them whole or quarter them, or slice them. Toss them with butter, salt and pepper to taste, and some chopped parsley, and reheat them, if necessary, before serving.

(from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook)

Beet and carrot salad- a great simple salad with raw carrots and beets

Wash carrots and beets well. Remove tops and roots. Finely grate carrots and beets. Mix. Add salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, parsley, and other herbs to taste.

Baby cucumbers for August fruit.

Cucumber yogurt salad

Wash cucumbers well. Finely slice, dice, or grate cucumber. Mix with plain yogurt (greek style yogurts are particularly good for this recipe). Add as much yogurt as you prefer. This salad can range from being almost purely cucumbers with a yogurt dressing to a bowl of yogurt with some cucumbers in it. Salt to taste. For flavor try adding dill, crushed garlic, diced spring onion, parsley, or another of your favorite herbs.

A bumblebee visits our Echinacea

Week 5 6-15-2011

Week 5,

A few items of business

Please return your box each week. If you pick up at Nature’s Bounty simply leave your empty box in place of your full box and I will pick it up the following week.

In your box this week- lots of new items coming in!

Baby Carrots- Good fresh carrot flavor! Snack food! Eat whole and uncut or slice up large carrots into sticks. Cook or steam lightly to retain nutrients and flavor. I like carrots cooked until just fork tender. Also see carrot recipe below.

Lettuce mix- Enjoy the salads! Probably the last week of lettuce mix.

Kale- Curly variety. Kale is so packed full of nutrients! This curly variety holds up well to cooking. You can steam or simmer it and then sauté with sausage or beef. BUT… PLEASE TRY the Baked Kale Chip recipe below. It is amazing! Eat your healthy kale AND have the crisp crunch of a chip.

Swiss Chard- Need another idea? See recipe below.

Squash/zucchini- We love baby squash and zucchini. It is so tender and tastes like summer. We use it interchangeably in recipes. Grill, sauté, fry, bake-anything! Tonight I plan on slicing the zucchini or squash into long, flat pieces, brush it with olive oil and salt, and then grill it. Try a grilled piece on your burger!

Cucumbers- Dress with a bit of oil, vinegar, dill, and salt. Cukes are a summer standby. We never eat cucumbers out of the summer season. They never have the garden flavor and grocery cukes must be shipped in from warm climates. I’d rather think about cukes for most of the year, and then enjoy the real thing during the summer.

Spring onion- This rare Japanese spring onion is a beautiful blue- green. Use the green part of the stalk as well as the white stalk. Use it fresh or cook it. We lovingly grow our onions from seed, so that’s why they are ready a bit later that other spring onions at the local farmers’ markets.

Fresh garlic- Enjoy now. Fresh garlic won’t last as long on the shelf, because it hasn’t been dried. It will last several weeks. You’ll also receive some dried garlic in upcoming weeks.

Dill- Sprinkle over sliced cucumbers or try dill with carrots in the recipe below.

All recipes at end of newsletter

Pig Wranglers and a Sweet Potato Jungle

Last Friday, our big afternoon project was not out in the vegetable field, but with our young pigs. We played pig wranglers with our youngest batch for several hours-they almost made us tear our hair out! The pigs in question are twelve piglets we purchased form Warren Wilson College about 6 weeks ago. When we first get piglets we keep them in a corral because they are so small they will slip through all but the smallest gaps in a fence (several of these actually developed a habit of worming their way through the gaps in a pallet we use as part of the fence!). After about a month of eating they are big enough to learn about electric fences. We string up a double line and hold training sessions. We let them into their electric fence area and watch to make sure they don’t run through the fence. After about 3 practices they generally know what the fence is and they don’t want to have anything to do with it. Now they are ready to go to a paddock in the woods. So we trimmed back some of the brush that has grown up this spring and strung up some electric line. Now comes the fun part; moving the pigs to their new home. Usually pigs herd relatively well. We can get them all moving in one direction out of their old area and toward their new area. Not these pigs, they wanted to go in every direction except the one we wanted them to go in. To top it all of many of them confidently explored the woods alone. It took us about one and a half hours of crashing through brambles to move these little guys thirty feet to their new paddock! Every time we got them close to their paddock they would decide that that was the least interesting part of the woods and scatter in all directions around us. Boy was it frustrating! But in the end they got tired and a little more cooperative. Now they are happily rooting in the woods.

He looks innocent now!

This week we also planted sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are an interesting crop because you actually grow miniature plants from last year’s roots to transplant. It all starts the previous fall when you save out your best potatoes for “seed” potatoes. You then store them in a dry cool area with some airflow until about April. In April you “wake” you potatoes up by allowing them to get warmer. Once the outdoor temperatures are safely above frosting, place the sweet potatoes in a pile of mostly decomposed mulch or very loose soil. Within about a month small green sprouts will begin appearing. In about another month there is a sweet potato jungle! Each sweet potato will send out up to a dozen sprouts, called slips, from one end of the potato. Once these slips are about 6 inches tall (ideally anyway, Mine are always bigger because if you neglect them for a week they grow from 6 inches to 16!), snap them off at the potato and plant. The little slips typically have begun to send out small rootlets of their own. When placed in the soil and watered well they will establish themselves in about a week. After that, watch out, because sweet potatoes are related to morning glories and they will take over! They are a long season crop that appreciates warm weather, so after about three months of patient waiting we should be able to dig up our sweet potato treasure.

Harvesting spring onions

Recipes

Sweet Dill Carrots

Adapted from How it All Vegan!

6-10 medium carrots or 12-15 small carrots,

sliced into your favorite shape (small carrots can be left whole)

2 tblsp chopped fresh dill or 1 tblsp dried dill

1 tblsp sweetener, your choice

1 tblsp olive oil

In a medium pot or steamer, steam the carrots until they can be pierched easily with a fork. Drain and then place the carrots in a small bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir together until well incorporated. Makes 2-4 servings.

You can't see the forest for the dill!

Kale Chips recipe: Kalyn’s Kitchen, Roasted Kale Chips with Sea Salt http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2010/03/recipe-for-roasted-kale-chips-with-sea.html

I liked the Kalyn’s Kitchen recipe because the higher temperature made everything go faster. Try her plastic bag trick to oil the kale, you’ll use less oil!

Here’s another great recipe for Kale Chips:

Baked Kale Chips

Rated:	Prep Time: 10 Minutes	Ready In: 20 Minutes
Submitted By: LucyDelRey	Cook Time: 10 Minutes	Servings: 6

"These are a low calorie nutritious snack. Like potato chips, you cannot stop at just eating one. They are great for parties and a good conversation topic."

INGREDIENTS:

1 bunch kale 1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2.	With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
3.	Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2011 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 6/15/2011

Creamy Baked Swiss Chard and Pasta

I don’t like to call anything “noodle casserole,” so I’m renaming this dish Creamy Baked Swiss Chard and Pasta. You may omit the parsley if you wish. –Marie

VEGETABLE NOODLE CASSEROLE

Printed from COOKS.COM

---

3 tbsp. olive oil
2/3 c. chopped walnuts
1 lg. onion, thinly sliced
2 lg. carrots, coarsely grated
1 lg. bunch Swiss Chard, chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1/3 c. minced parsley
1/2 tsp. thyme leaves
8 tsp. soy sauce
1 c. sour cream
Salt
3 c. pasta
2 c. grated Jack cheese

Heat oil in large frying pan and saute nuts until lightly browned. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon, then stir in onions and carrots.

Sauté until onion is translucent, then remove from pan. Add chard, garlic, parsley and thyme and sauté until chard is limp.

Combine soy sauce and sour cream; add to chard mixture along with walnuts, onions and carrots.

Stir to mix well. Add salt to taste. Spread pasta in a lightly greased 2 quart casserole and spoon vegetable mixture over top.

Sprinkle with cheese and bake in 400°F oven for 15 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and casserole is heated through.

Serves 6.

Zinnias

Week 4 6-8-2011

Week 4

A sad note: The spinach crop has failed due to a sudden fungus/ leafminer problem. We may rescue and harvest what is left.

This week’s vegetables-This probably the last week of large quantities of greens so enjoy! The season will move on into carrots,summer squash, onions, cucumbers, and basil.

Make sure to wash veggies before cooking or eating! I like to use a large bowl to swirl the veggies around in.

Radish- I love them grated and dressed with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then marinated in the fridge for 30 minutes or longer.

Sugar Snap Peas- They aren’t blue ribbon beauty peas, but they just barely survived the heat wave, so we are thankful for the harvest.

Baby Lettuce mix-

Head lettuce- We think this is the last week of head lettuce. The heat is adversely affecting their growth.

Swiss Chard-

Poc Choi- Try cooking with the Sugar Snap Peas!

Red Russian Kale- See recipes below

Parsley- see Parsley hummus recipe below

CSA Newsletter: Weeds in the Garden and Organic Principles

In the garden this week the weeds grew. It is amazing how we turn our back on the weeds for a week or two and they are suddenly knee high! In some ways the dry, hot days have been helpful. They make the weeds grow more slowly and die more easily when hoed out. In the paths of the big field we had planted a clover cover crop. In some areas it has done well, outcompeting weeds and blooming nicely (the blooms help attract beneficial insects). But in others the clover didn’t take as well and the weeds quickly filled the void (nature does not like bare ground). No the weeds are kind of like a cover crop as long as we don’t allow them to seed, so we mowed them all down. Many weed seeds can survive for up to 7 years in the soil without germinating. This is called the weed seed bank. Every time you till seeds are brought to the surface to grow. This is like a withdrawal form the bank. If you allow the weeds to seed this is like a deposit. Unlike most accounts, this is one where you don’t want to make any deposits. Overtime, if no plants go to seed we can reduce the number of weeds we have to contend with.

Depleting the weed seed bank is the primary weed control strategy available to organic farmers. In the short term we can weed, cultivate, and mow. But in the long run that is time consuming and tiresome. By eliminating the seeds we can prevent a problem before it occurs. Weeds are such a challenging problem that even farmers who have reduced or even eliminated pesticide use cannot imagine giving up their herbicides. This has led to some confusing labeling in the marketplace. Is “pesticide free” the same as “chemical free.” In either case is the farmer still using chemical fertilizers? (because the fertilizers don’t typically come into direct contact with the plant many farmers will say “chemical free, except fertilizers”). There are responsible and irresponsible ways to use many of the chemical tools at our disposal at farmers. But, as confusing as this sounds, never assume that a broad statement like “chemical free” means the vegetables were raised in anything like a balanced organic system. Always ask.

At Bluebird Farm we raise all of our produce following the organic standards for fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and all other growing techniques. In addition we strive to work with the ecology of the soil, our plants, and insects instead of against them. We work to establish patterns that encourage our vegetables instead of discouraging weeds. We try to increase beneficial insect populations instead of eliminate pest insects. In other words we are trying to build a positive ecological system of growth rather than a negative system of suppression.

Vegetable Recipes

Fettucine with sausage and kale

Recipe from Shiloh at Tumbling Shoals Farm in Wilkesboro, NC. We both have stands at the Hickory Farmers’ Market, and she sends her vegetable customers over for our ground Country or ground Italian sausage for this recipe! She says this recipe is how she gets her farm customers “hooked” on kale! It’s certainly an all-star vegetable in this awesome recipe!

Makes 4 servings
A quick hearty Italian dinner. I prefer to use whole wheat spaghetti, but the fettucine is great too!

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound hot turkey or pork sausages, casings discarded and sausage crumbled
1/2 pound kale, tough stems and center ribs discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
1/2 pound or less dried egg fettuccini pasta
2/3 cup chicken broth
1 ounce finely grated pecorino romano cheese plus additional for serving

Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook sausage, breaking up any lumps with a spoon, until browned, 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile, blanch kale in a 6-quart pot of boiling salted water, uncovered, 5 minutes. Remove kale with a large sieve and drain. Return cooking water in pot to a boil, then cook pasta in boiling water, uncovered, until al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta-cooking water, then drain pasta in a colander. While pasta cooks, add kale to sausage in skillet and saute, stirring frequently, until just tender, about 5 minutes. add broth, stirring and scraping up any brown bits from bottom of skillet, then add pasta and 1/2 cup reserved cooking water to skillet, tossing until combined. Stir in cheese and thin with additional cooking water if desired. Serve immediately with additional cheese on the side.

Gourmet, March 2006

Indian-Spiced Kale & Chickpeas

We love Indian vegetarian dishes! This dish goes well with chicken and lamb for a meal with meat. The chickpeas add a great texture and a source of protein to this recipe. You may experiment with different ratios of spices to suit your tastes.

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/indian_spiced_kale_chickpeas.html

From EatingWell: October/November 2005, EatingWell Serves Two

Chickpeas make this exotic dish a terrific player in any vegetarian menu.

4 servings, about 3/4 cup each | Active Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-1 1/2 pounds kale, ribs removed, coarsely chopped (see Tip)
• 1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth, or vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon garam masala, (see Ingredient note)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add kale and cook, tossing with two large spoons, until bright green, about 1 minute. Add broth, coriander, cumin, garam masala and salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the kale is tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in chickpeas; cover and cook until the chickpeas are heated through, 1 to 2 minutes.

Nutrition

Per serving : 202 Calories; 5 g Fat; 1 g Sat; 3 g Mono; 1 mg Cholesterol; 32 g Carbohydrates; 9 g Protein; 6 g Fiber; 415 mg Sodium; 499 mg Potassium

2 Carbohydrate Serving

Exchanges: 1 starch, 1.5 vegetable, 1 very lean meat, 1 fat

Tips & Notes

• Tip: A 1- to 1 1/2-pound bunch of kale yields 16 to 24 cups of chopped leaves. When preparing kale for these recipes, remove the tough ribs, chop or tear the kale as directed, then wash it--allowing some water to cling to the leaves. The moisture helps steam the kale during the first stages of cooking.
• Ingredient Note: Garam masala, a ground spice mixture traditionally including coriander, cumin, cinnamon, peppercorns, cardamom and cloves, is commonly used in Indian cooking. Find it in the specialty-spice section of large supermarkets.

Parsley Hummus with Whole Wheat Pita Chips

http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2009/06/recipe-for-parsley-hummus-with-whole.html

Marie’s notes: This is a recipe that represents the parsley hummus that I make with my food processor. I assemble all of the ingredients, whip up a batch of hummus, and stick the food processor in the dishwasher. Voila! Healthy, quick, and economical hummus for snacks and lunches. We like to include hummus in wraps and sandwiches.

I never use a recipe for hummus; I use approximate ratios. The hummus that I make does not have any sour cream in it, but it has a total of 5 or 6 tablespoons of olive oil instead. Sour cream is not traditionally used to make hummus.

(Makes about 1 1/2 cups hummus, recipe adapted from Parsley Hummus in The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh.)

1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chopped parsley (pack parsley into half-cup measure, then chop in food processor)
1 tsp. minced garlic (about 2-3 garlic cloves)
1/4 cup sour cream (I used low-fat sour cream)
3 T tahini sauce
1 1/2 T lemon juice
2 T sesame oil
2 T olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1 1/2 tsp. salt (or less, this seems like a generous amount of salt, so add salt to taste)
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper or hot sauce
1 T water (more or less, depending on how thick you like it)
3-4 pieces whole wheat pita bread, cut into triangles
olive oil, for spraying pita and baking sheet

Preheat oven to 450 F. Drain chickpeas (garbanzo beans) into a colander placed in the sink, then rinse until no more foam appears and let the water drain off.

Put parsley and garlic into bowl of food processor fitted with the stainless steel blade. Process about 1 minute, until parsley is well chopped. Add drained chickpeas and process 1-2 minutes, until beans are mostly smooth. Add sour cream, Tahini sauce, lemon juice, sesame oil, olive oil, cumin, salt, and cayenne or hot sauce. Process until mixture is very smooth. Test thickness and add a bit of water if you'd like it to be a little thinner.

Cut whole wheat pita into triangles. Spray baking sheet with olive oil, then arrange pita triangles in a single layer. Spray top of chips with olive oil. Toast chips 4-5 minutes, then turn and toast 1-2 minutes more. (Watch them carefully at the end because they can get too brown rather quickly.)

Serve hummus with pita chips. Can also be served with cauliflower, celery, carrot sticks, or red bell pepper strips.

This printable recipe from Kalynskitchen.com.

Posted by Kalyn at 8:17 PM