31 Jul Fri 2009
Week 7 Newsletter with Recipes
CSA Newsletter
Volume 5
Issue 7- NMC
July 27, 2009
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Week 7
New to everyone this week: celery! Another exciting addition for our half share members this week: broccoli. We’ll let the onions get big now, so no more green onions. It won’t take long for them to plump up. 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!Farm update:
We’ve continued to make our way through the rows of cabbage, lettuce and broccoli, tackling the overgrown weeds. The hot muggy days leave us sweating, but the spontaneous spurts of rain will cool us off. "Stewy" a wandering chicken, who hasn’t lived in the coop with the other chickens in months, follows us around the farm as we carry out day to day tasks. Love’s probably too strong a word, but she’s tolerated by the women of Maplewood; the men however, see her as a nuisance, as she pecks at multiple types of berries, poops where she wants, and gets into other mischievous activities, so we’ll see how much longer she’s around for! Our new intern, Brian, brings in extra help, which is always needed on harvesting days! To our utmost displeasure, potato beetle larva keep showing up on the plants, but have no fear, we’re hunting them down so that your potatoes are plentiful! ~Hannah Gibbons
Garden Progress
You will have your first beans next week! Hurray! Our most recent bean planting germinated very well. That means that you’ll have beans for many weeks to come! Yellow squash is coming too. Unfortunately though, our zucchini is dying off. We’re going to pull the withering larger plants this week in hopes of stopping the spread of what I think is a bacterial disease to the smaller plants seeded in a few weeks ago. I will most likely buy in zukes so that you can all have some soon.
It looks like we’ll be getting a rototiller this week. I hope it works well enough to really clean up the gardens by Wednesday evening. The interns will be so relieved to not have to do so much hand weeding.
Our garlic is ready for digging this week. We’ll lay it out in the greenhouse to cure.
Winter CSA – SOLD OUT
You may add your name to the waiting list if you are still interested. Our winter CSA runs October through December. The total cost to you is $140.
NOFAvore celebration at Maplewood OrganicsThis Wednesday, July 29th, 5:00-7:00pm –– Dinner, farm tours, relaxed fun!
Join us to celebrate Vermont organic agriculture!NOFAvore Celebrations are dinners featuring our Vermont Farmers' Fare pizza with local and organic cheeses, meats, and toppings from the farm hosting the celebration.
These celebrations will provide an opportunity to meet other NOFA Vermont supporters in your region, introduce your friends to NOFA Vermont, and tour the host farm.
These gatherings are free and open to all (members and non-members alike).
Please pre-register and get-directions by calling the NOFA Vermont office: 802-434-4122.
Save the date: Saturday, September 12th, 5:00-7:00pm – Annual CSA Member Cook-out
Recipes of the Week
Baked Broccoli Frittata
1 cup of sliced onions.
½ cup of sliced green bell pepper.
1 clove garlic, minced.
2 tablespoons of butter.
6 medium eggs.
1/3 cup of half and half.
½ teaspoon of basil.
½ teaspoon of lemon pepper seasoning.
1 cup of fresh broccoli, cooked, drained.
1 cup of shredded Monterey Jack cheese.
½ cup of grated Parmesan cheese.
Preheat your oven to 425°F (210°C).
Generously butter a 2 quart shallow casserole or 4 individual baking dishes.
In a large skillet over medium-low heat, sauté the sliced onions, bell pepper and garlic in the butter until tender; cook slightly.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, half and half, basil and lemon pepper seasoning until combined.
Stir in the onion-pepper mixture and broccoli.
Pour into prepared casserole.
Sprinkle with the shredded Monterey Jack and grated Parmesan.
Bake for 20 minutes or until mixture is set (the top will remain moist).
Allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Braised Green Cabbage with Onions, Carrots, and a Poached Egg
1 medium head green cabbage, about 2 pounds
1 large yellow onion, sliced into rough 1/3-inch slices
1 large carrot, sliced into ¼-inch rounds
¼ cup good-quality chicken stock, or water
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 egg, poached according to the directions here
Maldon salt, or fleur de sel, to taste
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, and position a rack in the middle of the oven.
Peel off and discard from the cabbage any bruised or messy outer leaves. Give the cabbage a quick rinse under cool water, and dry it lightly. Cut it into 8 wedges, and trim away some of the woody core, leaving enough to hold each wedge intact. Arrange the wedges in a 9 x 13 baking dish. They may overlap a little, but you want them to lie in a single—if crowded—layer. If they don’t fit nicely into the dish, remove one wedge and set it aside for later use in a quick sauté, salad, or soup.
Scatter the onion and carrot over the cabbage, and pour the stock and oil over the whole mess. Season with a couple pinches of coarse salt, a couple grinds of the pepper mill, and the red pepper flakes. Cover the dish tightly with foil, and slide it into the oven. Cook the vegetables for 1 hour; then remove the dish from the oven and gently turn the cabbage wedges. If the dish seems at all dry, add a couple tablespoons of water. Cover the dish, and return it to the oven to cook until the vegetables are very tender, about an hour more.
When the cabbage is completely tender, remove the foil over the baking dish, turn the oven up to 400 degrees, and continue cooking until the vegetables begin to brown lightly on their edges, another 15 or so minutes.
Serve warm, topped with a poached egg and sprinkled with plenty of good, flaky Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper.
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