Forgot to add: Income-based aid available at NYC CSAs--as in reduced costs for folks on food stamps, acceptance of WIC/food stamps, income-based sliding scale, etc.
By paying full price, I help subsidize others who can't, and that's a good thing. 
I just like the name Hellgate YOUR HIGHNESS. Still playing???
Hey Jen,
I just wanted to post a link to the cookingforengineers.com website which also has their instructions for making butter: http://www.cookingforengineers.c...3/Making-
Butter
Advice for keeping produce fresh = don't wash it until right before you need it.
Also, you'll be surprised how long truly fresh produce will keep in your fridge. Kinda makes you wonder exactly how old the stuff we buy from the store really is.
Sounds very interesting, but for the moment I'll be sticking with the farmers' markets for this kind of produce. I'm a single urban dweller who doesn't have much time to cook or much room to store perishables, so I'm willing to pay more for choice and smaller "shares" and going on weekends.
There do seem to be some interesting potential secondary and after-markets that might emerge from these co-ops, though. Split-share brokerages would be a natural for people like me. So would consolidation markets for members who want to bulk up on a particular type of produce for prepared foods for re-sale/re-distribution within the co-op (local health authorities will have fun with that one). Eventually the co-ops will have to allow some sort of pickup/delivery service as well, if they're serious about more people being involved in the local/organic movement (though I'm not sure they really want that at the moment).
We finally got into a CSA this year, too. We got our first drop last week - 2 baskets cherry tomatoes, a shitload of yellow squash, 2 zucchini (enormous and nearly seedless, for stuffing) and 6 ears of corn. The farmer says this is a very light shipment due to lack of rain.
This is our favorite way to serve strawberries:
Gently wash, and gently spin dry the whole berries. Remove the leaves, and place stem side down on paper towels. Cut in halves or quarters, and place in stemmed glasses.
Pour this sauce over them to taste:
2 cups real sour cream
1/2 cup raw sugar crystals (or to taste)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 T. brandy (or to taste)
Mix well, and let cure in fridge about 2 hours. Pour cold over berries.
Hi Jen; please check out my blog for seasonal recipes. You guys are a bit further along than we are here, but only by a week or two. Check out the month we're in, and also the next month, and you should find recipes suitable for whatever you are getting.
I hope this will be helpful.
CSAs are wonderful. For leftover fruit, I recommend freezing it to make smoothies later. I love my fruit-raw pumpkin seed purees.
DocBopper,
Yes, I am still playing Hellgate--got my Blademaster up to 29 (woot!), my Guardian is up to 21, and my little baby Evoker is still at 11 because they're a pain in the ass to level up. And yes, my district is called Hellgate--the local fire department is the Hellgate Crew.
All,
Thank you for the links, advice, and recipes--please keep em coming!
how many starberrys...id go with preserves/jam.
pickle the artichokes
Moonglum,
Jerusalem Artichokes are sunchokes; not really sure if you can pickle those. I've had them poached, whole, Japanse-style and they are GREAT--very sweet.
Dunno how many berries I will be blessed with; will find out tonite!
a good marinade for mutton is:
cheap red wine
lots of smashed garlic cloves
peppercorns
kosher salt
olive oil
and some red wine vinegar
it helps with the strong mutton taste.
the navajo do know their sheeps. green chili is one of my favorites. you can pile the green chili onto a chunk of fry bread, slather on all kinds of good stuff (lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream) to make "navajo tacos" which are a big pow-wow favorite out here in the west.
you can also do racks of mutton ribs the same as you would pork, with your favorite rubs or sauces. they are delectable.
p.s.
the miss navajo nation beauty pagent has a section on slaughtering and cooking a sheep as part of the competition.
those are some wonderful girls.
here's a good cajun style bbq coating
excellent on lamb chops.
Don't forget that you can freeze the strawberries and drop them into pancakes, muffins, ice cream, champagne, fresh cream, yogurt, anything all at a time convenient for you. I drop them into salads. In fact, with the list you made, a salad of everything you listed simply would not suck.
I like Mike's suggestion on the smoothie.
Also, I thought this may be of interest to some of you:
http://www.congoo.com/Industry/A...try/
Agriculture
Minstrel Boy,
Thank you!
Do you have your own favorite recipe for a Navajo bowl of green? Would LOVE to see your take on it. Note that I can get most chili varieties up here--huge Mexican/Central American population.
Interesting article on preserving fresh fruit:
http://
generalhorticulture.tamu....PostHarvest.pdf
Basically Modified Atmosphere packaging bags work by reducing the oxygen and ethylene levels of storage while increasing the CO2 and N2 levels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Mod...aging_.28MAP.29
So those bags might well work.
I wonder if a "seal a meal" would help as well to provide the weak vacuum described in the paper.
Non vacuum sealers available for $4 under the name "Avocado Bagmaker" from good ol' American Science & Surplus
It might be possible to combine evacuated bags with sous vide cooking:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-vide
Jen you can freeze your veggies.
I buy alot of vegetables at a time. And I got tired of my vegetables rotting before I could end them.
This might be something you want to try.
Generally speaking all you have to do is:
1. Cut up the vegetables into whatever portions you want
2. Blanche them for 3 minutes
3. Taking a cookie sheet or tray and spread the vegetables out evenly and place the sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes. This will individually freeze each portion.
4. After 30 minutes take the vegetables and put them in a freezer bag.
They vegetables will last for months.
Obviously you can't freeze all vegetables. But there are guides on the web as to the proper procedure to freeze just about anything.
Baltogeek -- I'm stealing that tip.
Best wishes, Jen. Good to see you're well and cooking.
I'll probably be banned from this site for being an independent thinker (Jesse thinks I'm a troll, albeit one who can spell "omphaloskepsis"), but I did appreciate Mr G, even if I didn't agree with him on everything. I'm sure eventually the five or six second-stringers here will eventually rise to his level, if only collectively.
Baltogeek,
THANK YOU. Not sure I have the room or nonskanky sheets to lay stuff out in a single layer on (I really need new cookie sheets and some SilPats), but can modify the idea with what freezer space I have.
Also LOVE the idea of popping frozen berries into a smoothie or just...having them. :D When I was a kid my Mom put grapes in the freezer and would chomp on them on days when it was unbearably hot and humid. I should remind her of this option.
Flexible cutting sheets might work instead of cookie sheets:
http://kitchendance.com/flcush.html
They certainly are cheaper.
try this:
1 1/2 pounds lean mutton, venison or elk, diced into 1/2 cubes
* 2 cups chicken broth
* 1 cup green chile sauce (las palmas is the best)
* 2 cups tomatillos, husks removed and coarsely chopped
* 2 roasted green chiles, seeded and diced (Anaheim or Poblano work well)
* 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
* 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon sugar (very optional i leave it out most of the time)
* 3 tablespoons oil
* 2 cups drinking water (i love it when a grandmother's recipe specifies something most folks aren't used to thinking about. on the rez there were several different grades of water)
* can of good beer (or red wine, or sherry)
in the bottom of a heavy pan brown the meat in a bit of oil, over high flame.
remove the meat and use the beer or other liquor to deglaze the bottom of the pan. add everything else in and simmer, covered, for at least 3 hours. for the absolute best, after three hours, remove from heat and refrigerate over night. then simmer two more hours before serving.
for a killer fry bread, use the recipe on a bisquick box for dumplings, but flatten it out into discs with your hands and deepfry until golden brown.
aal aal a'ahliiza!
(come and get it!)
p.s. with my overflow tomatos i usually do a straight canning job. blanch the whole tomatos in boiling water, dunk in an ice bath to loosen the skins, peel and stick into mason jars. adding green onion tops and a clove or two of garlic really works well. then, during the winter you can use them just like fresh (except for BLTs and salads).
For storing vegies: ditto to whoever said don't wash them till you use them. I've also had good luck wrapping most fruits and vegies in paper towels before bagging them. The paper towel acts as a blotter so water doesn't condense on the vegetable's skin in the fridge and create soggy spots, and it also holds an even supply of dampness around the item so it doesn't dry out. I use this technique for lettuce and other greens including herbs, green onion, peppers, cherries, grapes, cucumber, zucchini, green beans, and sprouts. It will also work for some fruits, but not strawberries.
I need to buy some non-skanky cookie sheets too, mainly for laying out food for freezing. Spread out strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries on the sheet, pop into the freezer, and bag them after they freeze. Super-easy. I avoid any process involving blanching; just too labor-intensive for me and it seems to take away from the farm fresh taste (maybe my technique is poor).
For tomatoes, I bought a cheap little food dryer for $3 at a yard sale. It will only do 2-3 trays at a time, but I'm not a big fan of processing large amounts of food at a time, so it's great for incidental preserving (eat one tomato, dry 3). The dried tomatoes are almost sweet, like fruit leather, and keep their natural thickener enzymes (unlike even the most expensive stem tomatoes in the store).
Have a ball with the produce, Jen. What a great idea for a series of posts.
Can't wait to read this thread but have to post and run. Our first CSA pickup is Thursday (splitting a share with neighbors). Hi Jen!
CSAs are wonderful. Took part in one in Minnesota with several friends ... an abundance of good things.
SAGE: i'm visiting out of town at the moment so can't access my cookbooks but IIRC this is from the New Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. Basically it invoves simmering dried white beans with stalks of fresh sage. Recipe might be called Tuscan Beans but i could be wrong. But it is delish and my kids loved it.
eartha651 -- i've had great luck with the paper towel trick too. i've only done it with lettuce and herbs, so thanks for mentioning you can do the same for some fruit and veg -- good to know.
in terms of freezing, a few things i've started preferring frozen -- namely jalapeno peppers and ginger root. i think freezing actually makes the jalapenos taste more pungent once used, plus in guac they break down faster once mixed so the flavor spreads out more. so i buy a few and just stick them in the freezer so i always have some on hand.
for ginger root, i freeze chunks with the paper skin on. to use, i peel off the skin with a sharp knife, which thaws it ever so slightly. then to use i usually grate it with my microplane (best kitchen gadget ever invented imho) and it turns frozen ginger into ginger dust -- so you don't have those pesky strings to deal with and almost no waste. so i buy a bunch and freeze -- ginger really seems to go bad fast in the fridge...
my fav way to use ginger root is on cooked carrots or with pureed butternut squash, with a little butter, salt & pepper added to taste. really dresses both up and tastes like something gourmet almost -- when in fact both are quite simple. major crowd pleasers @ thanksgiving!
like many here i don't have room for CTSA level produce. but i just went to the farmers mkt for the first time here in boston last week after much anticipation. one word: arugula. oh how i missed it over the winter!
Minstrel,
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH. I can get fresh Poblanos and tomatillas at my local Food Fair, and have more than one brand of green chilie sauce available. I get my mutton on the 24th or so; will keep everyone posted!
if you can find Las Palmas green chile sauce it is the very best i've ever found. of course, it might just be on account of it tastes like home to me. that shit's important in the kitchen. i'm going to be cleaning out the freezer over the summer (gotta make room for fall hunting) and hope to have some good game recipes and stuff like that.
mutton is a very under appreciated meat here in america. so is goat. on the rez our motto was pretty much if it's smaller, slower, or stupider than us, it's on the menu.
(except fish. in our mountains the fish can carry a bacteria that kills your ass dead.)
If you do freeze any strawbs, then make some simple syrup, let it cool, and put it in the freezer bag. Good for preventing freezer burn.
An idea regarding veggies that have outlived their storage life but haven't actually gone to goo - I mean stuff that is overripe, starting to look banged up, and frequently my refrigerator freezes my damned vegetables and they are mushy when they thaw: Wash, peel if appropriate, and chop. If you are doing mostly veggies that have mild flavors - say summer squash, carrots, celery, green peppers, etc., you can pile them all together in a pot, cover with chicken stock, and simmer until very tender. When done, throw the results into a blender and blend until smooth, then freeze the mixture in small freezer containers. Drop one or two or three as desired into your soups when you make them this fall and winter - thickens, adds much flavor and nutrients. I haven't tossed out any veggies in forever, and all of my soups have a back flavor that NOBODY can duplicate.
Most herbs can be frozen. At the end of the season, I collect all of my french tarragon, basil, rosemary, chives, etc, wash them, dry them well, and chop them up and freeze them individually. The soft-leafed herbs like basil can't be used raw as you would the fresh leaves - the texture of soft leafed herbs is messed up by freezing, but the flavor in cooked foods is exactly the same as fresh, and tougher stuff like rosemary thaws out exactly as it was frozen. I haven't bought herbs in years. And I don't throw ANYTHING away anymore. The freezer is your friend.
Minstrel,
Will look for that brand. Not sure if we get Las Palmas out here but we get the other one made in Mexico in the little cans (can't recall the name).
RE cabrito/goat--cabrito is on the menu at the CSA also; may order a back saddle of one eventually.
What kind of game are you hunting out there; what do you get?
Punkster,
Thanks for the tip! I actually wound up making some herbed vinegar, herb butter (which I need to freeze tonite), killer salad dressing (most of which will be used in a creamy slaw that I am taking to a party on Saturday), and hung the rest up to dry--photos next week...
My one big challenge is going to be eating all the fresh GREENS before they turn to mush. I had freaking salad for breakfast today. Actually it was pretty good--VERY peppery peppercress and the bronze lettuce drizzled with balsamic vinegar; cut up a nectarine into the lot and ate it with my hands.
Any suggestions on keeping thin-leafed greens nice very much appreciated...
Thin leafed greens: Separate from the lettuce head and wash them well, then roll them up in paper towels to dry them REALLY WELL. Then bag them in one of your keep fresh bags (or even just a plastic baggie) with a couple of just barely damp paper towels (I usually can use the ones I used to dry them off)wrapped gently around them. Drying them well keeps the mold and mildew at bay and slows the turn to slime; the damp paper towel supplies just enough moisture in the baggie to keep them crisp. By the way, anyone buying the bagged regular old salad greens from the regular old grocery store can do this - just toss a barely damp paper towel in with them and they don't get flabby.
I put my salad greens in a salad spinner, give them a whirl, dump out the water and put a paper towel on top before it goes back into the fridge.
Punkster/Andrea,
Thanks--looks like I was on the right track with the rinse/spin/dry/papertowel plan. :D
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