Maplewood Organics

Red cabbage

Yellow Onions

Red potatoes

Paste tomatoes

Cherry or sungold tomatoes

basil

cilantro

yellow squash

delicata, sugar dumpling or acorn squash

tomatillos

green peppers

flowers

You may order extra basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, mint, and sage this week by 8:00 am the morning of your pick-up by calling 868-5083 or emailing maplewoodorganics@yahoo.com.

CSA Newsletter

Volume 5

Issue 12- NMC

August 31, 2009

?

__________________________________________________________________________________

Week 12

Wow! We’re 2/3 through the CSA already! Only six weeks left after this! We have red potatoes this week! We’ll offer them to you for two weeks. Then we plan to give you a sampling of blue potatoes to try something a little different. Remember to go to our Local Harvest website blog (

http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M13345) to view your CSA contents for the upcoming week. You can also find our newsletters posted to that blog. If you want to look back at recipes, you can look there!

Flowers for Special Events

We now arrange flowers for special events! If you're planning an event for this summer or fall or next summer or fall (mid July-September) please keep us in mind! We grow all of our own flowers organically and have very competitive prices! Our bouquets would be done in the style you're receiving in your share. Special requests can be made if booked early for next season! Spread the word!

Garden Progress

We’re making good progress on weeds. They slow down this time of year like everything else. There’s much less weed pressure in our new plantings to it’s easier to keep up. The turnips, radishes, lettuce, Swiss chard, and beets we planted recently are all coming in nicely. Eric and Brian transplanted some of the chard to even out the row where the walk-behind seeder missed and clumped. When we’re done weeding out the onions and leeks, we’ll move on to the new carrots and beets planted in the big garden. We’re watching our cauliflower plants to see if we get any side shoots. I never have, but a friend grew some last year in her home garden and had side shoots!

I finally got to make salsa this weekend. Last year I only had extra enough to make 10 pints. I made 36 pints on Saturday. I plant lots of paste tomatoes so that I can put up salsa and sauce for my family for the winter. I’ll have some for sale too, so you can add some to your cupboard for the winter.

Farm News

With the departure of Ellyn last Wednesday, the number of interns has decreased yet again. The only two that remain, Eric and Brian, will be here at Maplewood beyond the end of the CSA. While the amount of hands has declined, the amount of work has not. It seems like we are finally getting control of the weeds, but we still have a lot to take care of and not enough time with the CSA harvests. The current planting of beans is finally dropping off, but the second planting looks as if it could be ready to produce fairly soon. The third and final planting of peas is coming to an end as well. Zucchini, Cucumber, and Eggplant continue to round out the extras, but the latter two give promising signs that they may make their way into everyones share next week. If only we could get some real rain... ~Eric T. Noel, the intern

?

Winter CSA – SOLD OUT

You may place your name on a waiting list for our winter CSA, which runs October through December. If someone cancels, you have a chance at a share in the order that you signed on. (The total cost to you is $140.)

Annual CSA Member Cook-out

Saturday, September 12^th, 5:00-7:00pm

Please keep an eye out for an e-vite for this event in your email inbox soon!

Recipes of the Week

Red Cabbage with Apple

Cook Time: 1 hour

1 medium head red cabbage, washed and shredded

1 large tart apple, peeled, cored, and sliced

2 tablespoons butter

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

1/4 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

In a Dutch oven or large deep skillet, melt butter; add cabbage and apple slices, mixing well. Add bay leaf and salt and pepper to taste. cover and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Add wine, vinegar and sugar; stir to mix well. Cover and cook for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Serves 4 to 6.

Ricotta-Stuffed Roma Tomatoes (adjust recipe to the number of tomatoes you have)

20 small to medium-sized roma tomatoes, halved, hollowed-out (using a melon baller), and drained of excess liquid
2 cups ricotta
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs, such as basil and chives
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-cracked black pepper
1/2 cup dried bread crumbs, such as panko

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil.

Place the halved and hollowed-out tomatoes on the lined baking sheet, open side up. In a medium sized bowl, combine the ricotta, herbs, pepper flakes, fennel seeds, salt and pepper. Pour the bread crumbs in a separate shallow bowl.

Using a small, spring-loaded ice cream scoop, fill each tomato half with about a tablespoon of the ricotta filling (the amount will vary based on the size of your tomatoes, but you want the tomato half to be completely filled and the filling to create a slight mound). Take the filling tomato half and invert it (ricotta side-down) into the shallow bowl of bread crumbs, pressing lightly so the bread crumbs adhere to the ricotta. Place the tomato back on the baking sheet, bread crumb-side up. Repeat with the remaining tomatoes. [Note: If you are making these ahead of time (up to 4-6 hours in advance), cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Before baking them off later, remove the sheet from the fridge and allow the tomatoes to return to room temperature.]

Roast for 10 to 15 minutes, when the bread crumbs should be browned and the tomatoes softened. If, at 15 minutes, the bread crumbs haven’t browned, run the baking sheet under the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

2 small yellow summer squash, thinly sliced
1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons basil, sliced into strips
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon

In medium bowl, combine squash, zucchini, basil, olive oil, lemon juice and salt

Toss ingredients together

Allow to marinate for 20 minutes to 1 hour (time permitting, I have also served mine immediately and it was fine)

Sprinkle with almonds

Serve

celtic sea salt
¼ cup Marcona almonds, chopped