FarmShare, C.S.A. Newsletter week of September 24th, 2013
This week’s share:
Applecrest’s own fresh-pressed Apple Cider for Tuesday members!
Fruit
McIntosh, Gala, Cortland Apples
Peaches-White and Yellow
Veggies
Beets
Sugar Pumpkin
Green Beans
Kale and Swiss Chard bunch
Corn
Cherry Tomato mix
Tomato
Zucchini and Summer Squash
Head Lettuce
Storage, handling and general cooking tips:
Pumpkin
Storage + Handling Tips
Store your pumpkin in a dry, well-ventilated area. It will look adorable on your table as you decide how to prepare it! Before use, wash your pumpkin in hot, soapy water to remove any soil residue. Pumpkin can be baked, steamed, stir-fried, or boiled. Pumpkin is great for soups, pies and roasts. You can also freeze your pumpkin. The easiest way to freeze pumpkin for later use is to preserve cooked pumpkin mash. First, wash the pumpkin, then cut in half and remove seeds. Bake pumpkin in oven then remove pulp from rind and mash. From here you can place the mash in labeled plastic bags and freeze.
Red Beets
Storage + Handling
If your beets still have the greens attached, cut them off, leaving an inch of stem. Keep these greens unwashed and refrigerated in a closed plastic bag. Beet greens can later be added to a mixed green salad, or steamed or sautéed. Store the beet roots, with the rootlets (or “tails”) attached, unwashed, in a plastic bag in the crisper bin of your refrigerator. They will keep for several weeks, but their sweetness diminishes with time; so try to use them within a week.
Just before cooking or consuming, scrub beets well and remove any scraggly leaves and rootlets. If your recipe calls for raw beets, peel them with a knife or vegetable peeler, then grate or cut them according to your needs. Try baking beets at 350-400 degrees for an hour or until they are easily pierced with a fork. Rub off the skins and cut off any rootlings, then serve whole or sliced. Why not add some other root vegetables to the dish along with olive oil, garlic, herbs, and salt. I like to boil beets as well. Plunge them directly into cold water after boiling and the skins will slip right off. Then slice and top with fresh lime juice. Please don’t miss the opportunity to have your kids taste beets! My daughter loves them and they are chock full of fiber, vitamins (lots of Bs and C!), minerals (iron, magnesium), and antioxidants. Plus, they look beautiful on the plate.
Braising Greens: Swiss Chard + Kale
Storage + Handling
Chard and Kale are beautiful! Chard stems come in a rainbow of colors from green and yellow to red, pink, white and orange. Kale has the curly edge. Both are very good for you too – chock full of minerals like calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, and potassium, as well as vitamins A and C, plus 13 different antioxidants. You should eat these leafy greens once a week!
Braising greens also very perishable, so enjoy them soon after pickup. They can be stored unwashed in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for two to three days. The leaves can be eaten raw, like beet greens and spinach, or cooked. Before cooking, separate the leaves from their large center rib/stem. The easiest way to do this is to fold the leaf in half along the stem and then just slice the rib off. Next, rinse the greens under cold running water. Do not soak it as this will result in the loss of water-soluble nutrients. Dry the leaves. Now the chard or kale can be covered or bagged in plastic and refrigerated for a few hours until needed. Braising greens can be parboiled, steamed, baked, or sautéed. They are wonderful with pasta, in omelets, frittatas, soups, or lasagna.
If you hate to throw anything away, rest assured, you can also eat the stems! One easy way to prepare them is to slice the stems into 3-inch chunks, boil in salted water for 5 minutes or so, then bake in a 400-degree oven with butter, salt, pepper, and ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese for 20 minutes.
Braising green leaves also freeze well after blanching. Blanch for 2 minutes then immediately immerse the leaves in a cold-water bath for 2 minutes. Dry the leaves and pack them into freezer containers, leaving no headspace or air. Leaves last for up to one year in the freezer. Don’t forget to date your storage bags. And when cooking veggies that you have blanched and frozen, always bring them back (cook) in butter.
Apples
Storage and Handling
Apples should be kept uncovered or in a perforated plastic bag in the refrigerator. Warm temperatures will cause apples to lose their crispness and flavor, so if they are kept out of the refrigerator, make sure it is in a cool, ventilated place far from direct sunlight. To prevent cut apples from turning brown, sprinkle with lemon juice or soak them in a bowl of ½ cup water and 2 tbsp lemon juice.
Peaches
Storage and Handling
Peaches bruise easily, so when testing for ripe-ness use your whole hand, not just one finger. Leave peaches out, on the counter. If they need to ripen more, place in a closed paper bag. Once ripe, store in the crisper bin of your refrigerator where they’ll keep for up to five days. Peaches can also be frozen. Peel and slice them, lay them on a baking tray and stick in the freezer for a few hours until they’re frozen through. Transfer the peach wedges to a resealable plastic bag and freeze until ready to use. They’ll keep at least 6 months (longer in a free-standing freezer) and are perfect to use in baking. Want to peel your peaches? Here’s how: Cut a small “x” in the bottom of each peach. Dip them in boiling water for 30 seconds, and the skins will slide right off.
Cook tips
Eat these guys fresh, rinsed and wiped to remove fuzz. Or bake into a crumble. Or put in your morning cereal. Or serve with almond essence infused whipped cream as almonds are a close cousin to peaches. Delicious in savory dishes as well, you can grill them and put in a salad, can be made into a chutney alongside your pork or beef, or preserve them to be enjoyed mid-winter. There are endless options.
Corn
Storage and Handling
Corn is best when eaten right away, before the sugars turn to starch, and diminish its sweet taste. This is mostly true for eating corn right off the cob, but after 4 days, corn will still be edible and tasty enough to cook with. Corn should be refrigerated with the husks still on. The husks will preserve that milky moisture in the kernels. Keep them in the crisper drawer without any strong smelling foods, as corn will easily absorb those odors.
Cook tips
Try eating your corn raw – when it’s fresh like this, it’s yummy! My kids love to pick an ear off the stalk, shuck it in the field, and chomp away. To cook your corn, boil it in water for about 4-6 minutes, depending on how soft you like it. Last night, I cooked it for just 3 minutes then let it steam in the pot until the rest of dinner was ready a few minutes later. It was perfectly cooked and just popped off the cob! Corn is best when eaten simply: boil, slather with butter, and sprinkle with salt. Do you twirl your corn and eat around the cob or lengthwise like a typewriter? In our family, I’m the typewriter.
Corn is also delicious grilled. Pull back the corn husks without removing them fully, remove the silks, then pull the husks back up and soak for at least 15 minutes in water. Grill corn in its husks (maybe brush some pesto on the corn before pulling up the husks), turning occasionally until charred about 20 minutes. Corn is super versatile. Think: creamed corn, corn bread, corn chowder, salsa, succotash, or as a topping to salad.
Tomatoes
Storage + Handling Tips
Tomatoes bruise easily, so handle them with care. They are best stored at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, stem-side down. Keep them away from your bananas and onions to avoid decay and icky taste. Never refrigerate tomatoes! The cold renders tomatoes mealy and flavorless. Eat them within a few days.
You can also freeze tomatoes. There is no need to peel or blanch them beforehand. Once thawed, the tomato skins will slip easily off. Simply rinse and dry the tomatoes thoroughly, then place in freezer bags. You can suck any air out of the bag with a straw. Frozen tomatoes are great for cooked dishes.
Fresh tomatoes are yummy sliced and layered with mozzerella cheese, basil, olive oil and salt. They work wonders for burgers, wraps, pastas and salad.
Zucchini and Summer Squash
Storage and Handling
Zucchini and summer squash respire through their skins, so they need to be refrigerated as soon as possible. Store them unwashed in a perforated plastic bag in the vegetable bin, or refrigerate them in a sealed plastic container lined with a towel. In the refrigerator, they keep for about a week. Before eating, rinse the veggies under running water to remove any dirt, then slice off the stem and blossom ends. They can be cut into rounds, quarters, or chunks.
Zucchini and squash are great grilled. Slice the veggies lengthwise, then top with just a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Just before serving add some slivers of basil or pesto. You can also cube them and put them on a kabob with cherry tomatoes, meat, and peppers before grilling. If you don’t want to fire up the grill, zucchini and squash also fry well. Just slice and put in a sauté pan over medium heat with butter or olive oil. When almost done, reduce heat to medium-low, top with parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and cover pan until the cheese melts. Your side dish is done! Overcooked zucchini will end up as mush. To salvage it, make soup!
Salad Greens
Storage and Handling
Store unwashed lettuce or mesclun in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. To store lettuce or greens that you have already washed and dried, roll the leaves loosely in a kitchen towel, put the towel in a plastic bag, and place the package in the vegetable crisper bin. Wet greens will spoil quickly, so make sure they are truly dry before refrigerating them. If you have a salad spinner, wash and spin the greens before refrigerating them. Eat mesclun mix within three or four days, and use lettuce within a week.
Salad greens bruise easily, so be sure to handle them gently. For lettuce, slice the head at its base with a sharp knife and let the leaves fall open. Discard any damaged or leathery outer leaves and tear large leaves into bite sized pieces. Both lettuce and mesclun mix can be washed by swishing them around in a basin of cold water. If a lot of dirt collects in the water, wash them a second time. Dry the greens in a salad spinner, or if you don’t have one, place them loosely in a mesh bag or thin towel, then go outside and swing them around your head.
Recipes
Homemade Pumpkin Puree
Most recipes I found called for “canned pumpkin puree”, but why buy the store bought stuff when you can easily make this while dinner is on the stove. Freeze it, and it will last well into the winter for those Holiday dishes.
Ingredients
- whole Small Pumpkins
Preparation Instructions
Cut the pumpkin in half. With a spoon or a scoop, scrape out the seeds and pulp from the center. You don’t have to be too thorough with this.
Place all the seeds into a bowl (you can roast them later and make pepitas). Repeat until all the pumpkin pieces are largely free of seeds and pulp.
Place pumpkin pieces on a baking sheet (face up or face down; I’ve done both) and roast in a 350-degree oven for 45 minutes, or until pumpkin is fork-tender. They should be nice and light golden brown when done.
Peel off the skin from the pumpkin pieces until you have a big pile of the stuff. If you have a food processor, throw in a few chunks at a time. A blender will work, too, if you add a little water. Or you can simply mash it up with a potato masher, or move it through a potato ricer, or process it through a food mill.
Pulse the pumpkin until smooth. If it looks too dry, add in a few tablespoons of water during the pulsing to give it the needed moisture. (Note, if the puree is overly watery, you should strain it on cheesecloth or over a fine mesh strainer to get rid of some of the liquid.)
Dump the pureed goodness into a bowl, and continue pureeing until all the pumpkin is done.
You can either use this immediately in whatever pumpkin recipe you’d like, store it in the freezer for later use.
To store in the freezer, spoon about 1 cupful of pumpkin into each plastic storage bag. Seal the bag with just a tiny bit of an opening remaining, then use your hands to flatten out the pumpkin inside the bag and push out the air. Store them in the freezer until you need them.
Pumpkin Olive Oil Bread
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup delicately flavored olive oil (such as Bertolli Classico)
- 2/3 cup water
- 2 cups pureed pumpkin (fresh or canned)
- 3 cups sugar
- 3 1/3 cups sifted all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 cup golden raisins or dried cranberries (optional)
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
Directions
-
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease three 1-pound loaf pans (8.5-by-4.25-by-2.75 inches) with olive oil or spray with cooking spray (or bake in batches).
- In a large mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the olive oil, water, pumpkin purée, and sugar and whisk with a fork to combine thoroughly.
- Sift some flour into a small bowl. Measure out 3 1/3 cups of sifted flour by spooning the flour into a measuring cup and leveling off the top with a knife. Then sift the measured flour again together with the salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and baking soda into the mixing bowl. Stir into the wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in raisins, cranberries, or nuts, if using.
-
Pour into prepared loaf pans, nudging batter into corners. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan to cool completely. The bread will keep at room temperature for more than a week if tightly wrapped in plastic. It also freezes beautifully.
Curried Pumpkin Bisque
1 3 lb pumpkin
1 1 lb sweet potato/jewel yam
Olive oil
1 lg yellow onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 apple, cored
3-4 Tablespoons Coconut oil
2 Tablespoons Garam masala
2 teaspoons Ground ginger
1 teaspoon Ground cumin
1 teaspoon Curry powder
2 teaspoons Sea salt
Black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 can coconut milk
3-4 cups vegetable stock
Dash of honey
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Halve pumpkin vertically, cutting carefully with a sharp knife and scoop out seeds and goo. Rub open side lightly with olive oil and place open side down on baking sheet.
Wash sweet potato and place next to squash to bake.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until pumpkin and sweet potato are very soft. Flip squash over and slice open sweet potato to cool.
In a large pot, cook onion and apple in a little coconut oil, until translucent. Add spices/seasonings. Cook 7-8 minutes more.
When cool enough to handle, scoop out squash and sweet potato into soup pot.
Add coconut milk and stock. Cook about 15 minutes until flavors blend.
Puree in batches and season with salt, pepper, and honey to taste. Finish with about 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice.
Lasagna with Kale, Zucchini
Ingredients
- 12-16 kale leaves, stems removed
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 small zucchini, about 1/2 lb., chopped
- 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
- Salt and pepper
- 12 lasagna noodles, no-boil or cooked
- 3 cups cottage cheese
- 1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
- 2 Tbsp fresh herbs – basil, oregano, thyme, parsely
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, topping
Directions
Boil the kale leaves in salted water for about a minute. Then place on paper or clean dish towel and roll and squeeze dry. Set aside until ready to layer.
Saute the garlic, zucchini, onion in olive oil for 5-7 minutes, or until opaque. Add the crushed tomatoes and let simmer another 4-5 minutes. Set aside until ready to layer.
In a mixing bowl, combine the cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese and the chopped fresh herbs. Set aside until ready to layer.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Layer in a lasagna pan, or a 9×13 baking dish…noodles, cheese, kale, sauce…repeat. Top with the remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes, or until cheese begins to golden on top. Let cool slightly before serving.
Apple Green Bean Sautee
Ingredients
1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
1 Apple, chopped
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
Directions
In a large skillet, saute beans and apple in oil for 3 minutes. Add
walnuts; cook and stir until vegetables are crisp-tender. Stir in
honey and sesame seeds; heat through.
Roasted Beet and Apple Soup
1/2 pound red beets (about 3 medium)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 leek (white and pale green parts only), sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 apple, cored, peeled and diced
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
3 cups vegetable stock
2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wrap beets in foil and roast until tender when pierced with fork, about 1 hour. Cool. Peel beets. Dice
Heat oil in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add leek and garlic and cook 5-8 minutes until tender. Stir in apple, beets and ginger. Cook 1-2 minutes. Add stock. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 25 minutes. Add lemon juice. Cool soup slightly. Working in batches, puree soup in blender or puree with immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
Yield: 10-12 granola bars
Cook Time: 30-35 minutes
ingredients:
3 1/4 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup pumpkin puree
¼ cup applesauce
¼ cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8 by 8 baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk oats, spices, and salt together. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk brown sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, honey, and vanilla extract until smooth. Pour over oats and stir well, until all of the oats are moist. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Evenly press oat mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. The pumpkin keeps the bars moist, so make sure they are golden and set-you don’t want them to be under baked. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
5. Using a sharp knife, cut into bars. Remove from pan and let cool completely.
As Always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us!
All the Best,
The FarmShare Team
Applecrest Farm Orchards
133 Exeter Road, Hampton Falls NH 03844
Tel: +1 603 926 3721
Email: CSA@applecrest.com
Web: www.applecrest.com
