Category: CSA

Lida Farm Jounal: Week 9

August 17, 2007

Earlier this week I attended an Extension training for farmers market managers in the twin cities. One of the other “hats” I wear is as president of the Lakes Area Farmers Market in Detroit Lakes, which, since we’re an all-volunteer market, makes me the market manager by default. We were there to learn how to conduct good market surveys, but I really liked talking to others and learning about their markets.

I learned that we all have the same issues, but each market is really different. Some of this comes from the types of vendors or the organization, but, really, the people give a market its personality. We were on-site of the Midtown Farmers Market on Lake Street, which really had an urban feel. Again, this personality sprung the neighborhood: Somali, Latinos, tattooed twenty-somethings, crunchy yuppie-types all mingling together. You also saw folks coming to the market by bike or light rail instead of by car. The scene was quite a bit different from our mix of lakes people, tourists, and small-town families down by the pavilion. But what’s incredible is that Midtown is quite a bit different from Mill City Market nestled amongst all those high-priced condos just a few miles away in downtown or the Kingston Market near all those cool Uptown hipsters at the other end of Lake Street.

As a vendor I often think of a farmers market as just a place people go to get food, but, really folks go there just as much for the people as the produce. If you just want a cheap tomato, go to the supermarket. But, if you want to banter with the vendors about the weather, run into some of your neighbors, and do some serious people-watching, then go to your local farmers market. It’s a place you can really celebrate your neighborhood each week.

IN THE BOX:

Heirloom Tomatoes

These are a variety called Cherokee Purple. They are totally ugly, but don’t let looks fool you, these have great taste. Best for fresh eating…don’t cook with them.

Tomatoes

These are our main crop tomatoes called Red Sun.

A few leeks

Check out the recipe below. To clean, cut lengthwise and peel back the leaves and wash.

A few onions

The yellow type is a sweet onion called Alisa Craig and the red is called Red Bull.

A Bunch of Carrots

Corn

A white variety called Silver King. First time I’ve grown it…nice size ears.

Summer Squash Mix

Red Norland Potatoes

Potato Leek Soup

4 T unsalted butter

1 large or 2 medium sliced leeks, white part only

4 cups chicken broth

4 cups potatoes, peeled and diced

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup milk (whole or 2%)

Salt and pepper to taste

2 T chopped parsley, optional

Clean and thinly slice leeks. Melt butter in large, heavy soup pot; add leeks and sauté slowly until glassy-do not brown. Add chicken broth and potatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, until potatoes are soft, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Mash or puree. Add cream, milk, salt and pepper, and parsley. Reheat and serve-do no boil. Makes 8 servings.

Reprinted from The St. Paul Farmers Market Produce Cookbook, 1999.

Lida Farn CSA Journal: Week 8

August 9, 2007

One thing we really shoot for at our place is to make sure nothing goes to waste. Sometimes we feel like some 19th century pioneer family trying to get the most out of everything. Probably the best example at our farm is what we do with leftover produce. It’s pretty rare for us to sell absolutely everything we bring to the Saturday market in Detroit Lakes, so we will bring home a couple bushels or so of produce. So, Saturday afternoon, we usually get creative cooking whatever we have a lot of. It could be about 25 pounds of summer squash or 10 eggplant. But, still, there are limits to what we can eat too. In this case, it’s off to the goats! These creatures are great disposal units which like nearly everything from carrot peelings to whole canteloupe. We have about 12 goats on loan from our neighbors. They are short on pasture and we are pretty long, so it works out well.

Maree’s cousin was visiting this week and she was asking why we keep sheep and animals. Wool? Meat? “No.” I said, “It’s the manure. The meat and wool are just a bonus.” Produce takes a lot of fertility, and, growing organically, that means compost. It takes about two years to make good compost up behind our barn and it was be impossible without animals “doing what they do.” It’s a great example of how the farm naturally recycles nutrients. Instead of buying and transporting compost, we make it on site, saving a lot of time and money. In doing so, we also rid ourselves of some waste products like unused cabbage and feed a bunch of livestock at the same time, which can be used for both food and fiber.

IN THE BOX:
Roma tomatoes
These are a variety called Juliet, which are really good as salad tomatoes.
A few Regular Tomatoes
Early girl and the beginnings of the big main crop tomatoes.
A couple Green Peppers
A few Jalapeno Peppers
Fresh Oregano
A Bunch of Carrots
A mix. The purple one are a variety called purple haze, just to change it up a bit.
Corn
Yellow Beans
Cukes
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Beets
Garlic
Dino Kale

Balsamic Glazed Carrots

Submitted by: Harry Wetzel
Rated: 4 out of 5 by 168 members

Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time: 10 Minutes

Ready In: 15 Minutes
Yields: 4 servings

“Carrots are sauteed in olive oil, and then briefly tossed with balsamic vinegar and brown sugar in this deceptively simple side dish.”

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups baby carrots

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1.

Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute carrots in oil for about 10 minutes, or until tender. Stir in balsamic vinegar and brown sugar, mix to coat and serve.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2007 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 8/9/2007

Lida Farm Journal: Week 7

August 2, 2007

Well, high season has finally arrived to Minnesota! It has been a long wait, which is something we are pretty good at around here. And no wait seems longer than the one for tomatoes to ripen. I think it’s so frustrating because we feel like the summer is already slipping away from us and only then do the tomatoes turn red. Heck, it’s already the beginning of august, and, from experience, a mid-september frost is par for the course—sorry, I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade.

Tomatoes are funny though. Today I spent a good amount of time hunting and pecking in the tomato patch to find a couple for each box. Every time I saw another with good color, it was like finding buried treasure. Every year I go from the excitement of the first ones coming in to being completely over-whelmed by a sea of tomatoes in about 2 weeks. By the end of August I am usually completely burnt out on picking and packing tomatoes, I just can’t stand to look out our back door towards the field—I suppose this is just how it is when you have 700 plants. Still, I’m happy now to just bask in that great feeling you from finding the first of the season. And there’s nothing sweeter than that.

IN THE BOX:

Cherry Tomatoes

These are mostly Sungold (an orange variety) with a mix of standard red cherries.

A couple early Tomatoes

The yellow one is named Taxi and the red one is Early Girl.

Red Bull Onions

A couple Summer Squash

Fresh Italian Parsley

Fennel

I’m throwing you for a loop on this one. I think fennel is really one of those “left-field” vegetables for most people, so I’ve included a recipe. I also know people grill it as well and add it to Italian sauces.

Bunch of Carrots

Corn

Green Beans

Fresh Basil

Cukes

Eggplant

Braised Fennel with Parmesan

From Deborah Madison, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

2 to 3 fennel bulbs and halfed or quartered lengthwise
2 to 3 T butter
Salt and pepper
½ cup dry white wine or water
1/3 cup grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Rub a baking dish large enough to hold the fennel in a single layer with butter. Steam the fennel for 10 minutes, then arrange in dish. Dot with butter or drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and add the wine. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the cover, baste the fennel with its juice, then add the cheese and continue baking until the fennel is completely tender, about 10 minutes more. Serve with chopped fennel greens or parsley.

Lida Farm Journal: Week Six

July 27, 2007

Whether you know it or not, you are part of a movement, the local foods movement. There has been a trend growing over the last decade or so for folks to get their food locally. The whole idea is that people source what they eat from a local farm, and, in return, they receive food which is fresh, get to know their grower, and support their local economy to boot. People have figured out that shipping substandard food covered in fungicides half way around the world doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense. I call it a movement because it really is a strong trend you’ll find across the whole country; it’s not just something you find amongst only crunchy folks in California…you’ll find the same thing in Des Moines. Not too long ago very few farmers markets existed, and those that did were not what we think of them today. Go to the St. Paul Farmers Market today and you’d never guess that twenty years ago it looked pretty sparse with a dozen or so vendor huddled in a barren parking lot. The market we sell at on Saturdays, Lakes Area Farmers Market in Detroit Lakes, didn’t even exist 10 years ago. The very first CSA started in upstate New York in just the early 80’s. By 1990, only a handful existed, until today when we have between 30-50 in Minnesota alone.

Detroit Lakes Farmers Market, September 2006

Things have progressed to the point where a recent Star Tribune headline read “Too Many Markets or Too Few Farmers?” It described a new farmers market in Bloomington and their challenges getting vendors to fill the stalls. Basically no farmers, no farmers market—pretty simple. This being my sixth produce season and second year as our market’s president, I know what this is all about. Local foods used to be on the fringe, like organic foods in the 1970’s. Now it’s definitely taken hold and things have grown to the point where we have no problem finding customers, but a harder and harder time finding growers. And this will be problem for the near future until guys like myself quit their dayjobs and grow full-time, convention farmers get into produce, or more people are convinced to give up their weekends.

IN THE BOX:

Red Cabbage
Broccoli: A later variety than we had a couple of weeks ago.
Sweet Onions
A couple Summer Squash: You may already be getting sick of this stuff, so I took it down to two this week.
Fresh Italian Parsley
Lacinato Kale: A Italian variety of kale which most call “Dino Kale” since it looks like it comes from prehistoric times.
Mini-head of lettuce: There was an area of salad mix uncut from last week which basically produced some mini-heads of lettuce…
Red Potatoes
Cukes
Chiogga Beets : An heirloom variety. See recipe below.

Five Minute Beets

From Deborah Madison, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

4 beets, about 1 pound

1 T butter

Salt and pepper

Lemon juice or vinegar to taste

2 T chopped parsley, tarragon, dill, or other herb.

Grate beets into coarse shreds. Melt the butter into a skillet, add the beets, and toss with ½ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. Add ¼ cup water, then cover the pan and cook over medium heat until the beets are tender. Remover the lid and raise the heat to boil off any excess water. Taste for salt, season with a little lemon juice or vinegar—balsamic or red wine is good—and toss with the herb. If you don’t mind the shocking color, you can stir in a tablespoon of yogurt or sour cream, always a good addition to beets.

Lida Farm CSA Journal: Week 5

July 26, 2007

A couple weeks ago I went to a neighbor’s 50th wedding anniversary, and, naturally, everybody wanted to know how the big garden was growing. Usually when we begin talking about growing things (whether we’re talking soybeans or heirloom tomatoes), we typically end up talking about problems. There are so many things which can kill off a crop: hail, drought, fungus, countless viruses, dozens of insect varieties (striped cucumber beetle, squash bugs, Colorado potato beetle, aphids to name a few), but I would argue a child is the greatest danger to any plant. Our 2 year old Sylvia makes it her job to “help” us when we’re out working the fields. She pulls flowers when we pick flowers, she rips out potato plants when we pull out ragweed…I think you get the picture. She is our little Godzilla, but instead on stomping on Japanese people, she has a tendency to crush plants and vegetables.

High season is approaching now. We are getting cukes in, corn is tasseling, and tomato plants have nice green fruit. Another sign is that flowers are coming in as you see from your cut flower delivery. We’re experimenting with delivery by mason jars, so be careful…I don’t want you to have glass all over your garage. We initially thought plastic tonic and club soda bottles would work, but they keep falling over, so we went with something more stable. We will try to put them in secure spots where they won’t fall over. We actually could use some more jars. If you are looking to get rid of some which have been sitting in your basement for a decade or so, we’ll take them off you hands. Please leave by last weeks box if you’d like to help out.

IN THE BOX:

Cabbage

Raspberries: A pint or a half-pint, depending on what you got last week.

Spring Onions: These are an Italian heirloom variety…most call them torpedo onions. They are mild like any red onion.

Mix of Summer Squash : You will see 3 of the 4 types we grow: Yellow Zucchini, Green Zucchini, Sunburst Pattypan Squash, or Yellow Straightneck Squash.

Fresh Basil

Garlic Chives

Salad Mix: This is a first for us. It’s looking really good. I planted it to give folks some lettuce in the heat of the summer…heads of lettuce don’t survive the heat.

Potatoes : Norland reds…your standard early red. I grew up in the Red River Valley and this is the standard.

Gold Beets: Use like you would any beet. I put in different varieties just to change it up.

Summer Squash Fritters

From Ryan Pesch

2 summer squash, grated
2 eggs, beaten
1 t basil
2 T olive oil
1 t oregano
2 spring onions, diced
Salt and pepper

This is a pretty loose recipe, so please experiment with seasonings and ingredients (I have added tomatoes in the past and made with thyme instead of basil/oregano). In a single bowl, mix eggs, squash, and seasonings. Heat oil in a skillet and fry like you would an omlette until the fritter is firm (cooked through) and lightly brown on each side. You can make one big fritter or a few small ones…it’s your call.