FULL SHARE & GREEN HALF SHARE PICK UP TONIGHT

Pick up today: 5pm - 7:30pm at PS 56 on the corner of Gates and Downing

This Week's Share

Peas
Broccoli
Scallions
Onions
Garlic scapes
Cucumbers
Summer squashes
Lettuces
Your choice of collards, kale or Swiss chard
Perhaps a little something else...!
Fruit: Yonder Farm’s sweet cherries

Screen Shot 2018-07-11 at 5.25.43 PM.png

Letter from Windflower Farm

Delivery #6, Week of July 9, 2018

This week’s share.

Your sixth share will contain peas, broccoli, scallions, onions, garlic scapes, cucumbers, summer squashes, lettuces, your choice of collards, kale or Swiss chard and perhaps a little something else. Your fruit will be Yonder Farm’s sweet cherries. Next week you should get more of the same along with our first peppers and tomatoes in your vegetable share and cherries or blueberries in your fruit share.

This week’s projects: transplant cauliflower and lettuces and your last corn. Seed a round of radishes, arugula and a greens mix. Install a new pump and put drip lines on potatoes (a first for us). Run overhead irrigation on greens, sweet corn and beans and run the drip lines everywhere. Weed broccoli. Harvest all the garlic and early onions.

What’s new on the farm.

Dry conditions continue to consume all of our attention. Every two or three hours we switch some plumbing or fire up a new pump. The wet weather system predicted for late last week – scattered storms that would deliver heavy rainfall up and down the Hudson Valley – missed us completely. And there is little chance of rain in the current ten day forecast. The walk in to the pond follows a now well-worn path and - the silver lining - it’s a refreshing escape from the sun. The path is the length of a city block and follows along a creek, over logs, through ferns, around fox dens. When I arrive at the pond’s edge, the frogs all jump in. It’s as though the life guard has given the all clear signal to the kids at the community pool. Starting the pump had been a headache, but the new Honda GX390 we installed last year has proven to be a reliable motor and the new cast iron impeller a significant improvement over the cheaper plastic models we’ve used in the past. With all the practice, I have finally learned how to set the choke and throttle so that it starts with a single, gentle pull. Small satisfaction. The middle pond still has plenty of water, but the back pond is now dry, and without rain sometime soon, we’ll start to experience losses. Vegetables are more than 90% water. We are a little desperate here, but are trying to keep up. Northeastern farmers are used to irrigating, but, unlike California’s vegetable farmers, we are unaccustomed to providing all of the water our crops need. We don’t have canals or federal irrigation projects. The farm is getting a little weedy, and we are behind in our plantings, but, so far, we are keeping established crops watered. We will keep you posted. Now, off to climb on the Sherpa - there are two pumps to turn off for the night.

Have a great week, Ted

Greens Greens Greens!

The season of yummy greens continues, and this week we're lucky to have two contributions from Beet readers to help you make the most of them. CSA member John Mahoney sent in a recipe for "Greens and Beans," and Core Outreach Coordinator Chelsea Frosini has some tips on how to store greens if you don't manage to eat them right away...

GREENS AND BEANS

John says: "I made this with last week's haul and just wanted to share! It's not anything crazy regarding your typical approach to collards, but it's a pretty flexible weeknight recipe and thought I'd send it in case it sparked any other ideas."

Collards, chard or kale: the choice is yours!

Ingredients
3 strips bacon or equivalent amount pancetta/chorizo/ham/fatty cured meat (optional), chopped into bite-sized pieces or small cubes
1 large bunch collards or other hearty greens (chard, kale)
1 medium or two small onions, halved and sliced
1 garlic scape, chopped (or 2 cloves)
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock (I love organic Better than Bouillon if I don't have stock on hand!)
1 can of beans (I used small white beans, but substitute chickpeas/kidneys/black-eyed peas/lentils/your favorite freely)
Olive oil
1 tbsp (or more/less to taste) apple cider vinegar
Salt/pepper
Hot sauce

Instructions
1. Trim the long stems protruding from the leaves of the collards/greens and chop into 3/4-inch pieces, discarding any particularly woody or thick end pieces. Coarsely chop the leaves (no need to fully de-stem).

2. If using, fry the bacon in a deep pot in a 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil (skip oil if meat is especially fatty) until crisp, then remove and reserve, leaving fat in the pot. If not using meat, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil or butter and proceed.

3. Sauté the onion and chopped collard stems on medium heat until softened and very lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

4. Toss in half the chopped garlic scape and sauté for one more minute.

5. Add the chopped greens, cup of stock, vinegar, and reserved bacon if using and scrape up browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Season with salt and black pepper (can omit the salt if using bacon or salted stock)

6. Cover the pot and simmer on low heat until thickest stems are tender, ~15-20 minutes for collards, potentially less for chard or kale.

7. Uncover pot, add remaining chopped garlic scape and continue to simmer until liquid is slightly reduced but not gone, 3-5 minutes more.

8. Drain and rinse canned white beans, add to the pot, and stir until incorporated and heated through. Check for salt & seasoning.

9. Serve with steamed rice/grains, buttered bread, avocado, or on its own—dressed with your favorite hot sauce

FREEZING COOKED GREENS

You can freeze greens raw or cooked. Thanks to Chelsea, here is your option for cooked greens (via Fresh Bites Daily.)

Ingredients
2 quarts greens

Instructions
1. Put on a large pot of water to boil.
2. Tear the greens into usable cooking sizes if they are large.
3. Wash the leaves well.
4. Add the leaves to boiling water for five minutes.
5. Discard the boiling water through a strainer or colander.
6. Run cool water over the leaves to cool them quickly.
7. Once the leaves are cool, grab a handful, squeeze out the water, and place the leaves in a quart-sized freezer bag.

Summer Squash Pizza

Here's a five-ingredient pizza to get you through the summer squash glut, inspired by Jim Lahey at the Sullivan Street Bakery via Smitten Kitchen. Thanks again to Core Outreach Coordinator Chelsea Frosini for the recipe.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for fingertips
1 recipe pizza dough (below) or about a 2/3 volume of my lazy fitted-to-your-schedule favorite or your favorite, whichever it may be
2 1/2 pounds (about 5 small-medium or 3 large) zucchini or other summer squash, trimmed
1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
2 cups (8 ounces) coarsely grated gruyere cheese
2 to 3 tablespoons plain breadcrumbs

Instructions
Heat your oven to 500°F with a rack in the center. Brush either 1 13×18-inch rimmed half-sheet pan or 2 9×13-inch quarter-sheet pans (as I do) with olive oil. Divide your dough in half and use oiled fingertips to pull, stretch, nudge and press the dough across the bottom of the pan. The dough will be thin and imperfect; just try to get it even. If holes form, just pinch them together.

Use a food processor with a grater attachment or the large holes of a box grater to grate the zucchini. In a large bowl, toss together the zucchini and salt. Let stand for 20 to 30 minutes (more, if you have the time), until the zucchini has wilted and released its water. Drain the zucchini in a colander and then use your hands to squeeze out as much water as possible, a fistful at a time. Back in the large bowl (wiped out if still wet), toss the zucchini with the gruyere shreds, being sure to break up any clumps of zucchini. Taste the mixture; it should be seasoned enough from the salt, but you can add more, plus ground pepper or pepper flakes if desired.

Spread the zucchini mixture over the dough(s), going all the way to the edges of the pan and piling it a bit thicker at the edges, where it will brown first. Sprinkle messily with the bread crumbs.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the topping is golden. Remove from oven, cut into squares and dig in.

Jim Lahey’s Basic Pizza Dough
This is halved and modified a bit

2 cups minus 1 tablespoon (250 grams) all-purpose or bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons (5 grams) instant or active dry yeast
A heaped 1/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
2/3 cups (150 grams) room temperature water

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, yeast and salt. Add the water and, using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until well blended, about 30 seconds. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature until the dough has more than doubled in volume, about 2 hours. Continue using instructions above.

Contribute to The Beet

Get involved! If you have a local event to promote, a service to offer, or a recipe to share, get in touch via newsletter@clintonhillcsa.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

THE BEET: VOLUME 17; WEEK 6