Showing posts with label basil. Show all posts

You Say Tomato....

....we'll say: "Tomato?  Oh yes we have tomatoes!"

Get ready for what will probably be the biggest unloading of our tomato varieties on you (our CSA members) this season....with the caveat of "who knows, maybe next week we'll have even more tomatoes!"  Our vines are fruiting like crazy....it could happen!

CSA this week:

  • Garlic
  • Onions
  • Kale
  • Zucchini 
  • Yellow Zephyr Summer Squash
  • Patty Pan Summer Squash
  • Potatoes
  • Tomatoes (a LOT!)
  • Leeks
  • Eggplant
  • Sweet Peppers
  • Hot Peppers
  • Basil
  • Carrots

And we thought last week was the peak of the season.

Fresh this week will be basil, brought to you in a neat little bunch.  Yes, finally you can make your winter pesto!  We have planted a basil crop this year, but it has been somewhat scarce on the land to make room for other things (haha, like tomatoes, for example).  And we have carrots (yes, they are back)!  We've been selling them at farmer's market and have received a lot of feedback that they are pretty darn good, some of the best tasting carrots around!  We'll have to thank our carrot-farming specialist, Forrest Kelly, for his good work.

In Echollective farm news, we have been hard at work flipping the farm over into Fall mode, while maintaining the last of our summer crops as they reach the peak of production.  Kale has been consistently plentiful, beautiful, and healthy throughout the hot months; our squashes are still going proverbially crazy (we pull upwards of 50 pounds of squash in from the fields per day); and if you haven't seen them at the New Pioneer Co-ops yet, our leeks are HUGE.  We are so proud of our leek yield this year: it took much care, watering, and thinning of smaller leeks out of the field to give these monsters the room to be the glorious gods amongst vegetables that they are.

But with Fall nearing, it's time to think about cooler-weather crops, which begins with getting the fields prepped and ready before anything can even grow.  As we head into the less-hot months of the season, we are doing a clever tilling method called "stale bedding."  No, it's not a passive way of making your bed in the morning so it at least looks good from the hallway.....stale-bedding is a protracted, useful extra step to tilling many beds and procuring them in a way that yields as little weeds as possible!  How does this work?  (And this could be useful to you in your own garden or yard, so listen up!)  Well, first you till your desired plot until it is just bare soil.  Then, you water it.  Water it real, real good.  In time, all the weed seeds on the top soil that you so dread...they will begin to germinate, their seeds will just crack open a little bit as they are watered.  Can you guess what you do next?  You till the bed again!  Or dig or fork it, whichever method you choose, just as long as those seeds are broken up and reburied once more.  The sprouting seeds are killed instantly by being pulled back under the earth, or at least a very big chunk of them are.  And what do you know....you're having to deal with a lot less weeds in the coming weeks!

So, we are currently watering around 1 to 2 acres with the intent of stale bedding and getting ready for our upcoming crops.  What is there to look forward to?  Well, all sorts of cool leafy greens!  Our daikon radishes are already sprouting out in the field as we speak.  Before you know it, we'll have a lot on the way, ready for Fall....speaking of which, keep your eyes and ears open for our upcoming Fall 2013 CSA.  Details on the way soon!

Now, all we need is the rain we had earlier in the Spring!  All the crops we tend to grow in the Spring will be reappearing for Fall and the drenching was more than welcome.  The past few weeks have been the typical dryness expected of the summer, and we have had to do a lot of the watering of our crops ourselves. 

With that said, we hope you're looking forward to your biggest CSA share so far this season.  Enjoy, and we'll see you at market!



Recipes

 Watermelon-Peach Salsa and Tomatoes (www.myrecipes.com)

Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup hot pepper jelly
  • 1 tablespoon lime zest
  • 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
  • 2 cups seeded and diced fresh watermelon $
  • 1 cup peeled and diced fresh peaches $
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh chives
  • 3 cups baby heirloom tomatoes, halved
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • Garnish: fresh basil sprigs

Preparation

  1. Whisk together pepper jelly, lime zest, and lime juice in a bowl; stir in watermelon and next 3 ingredients.
  2. Season halved baby tomatoes with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste; spoon into cocktail glasses. Top with salsa. Garnish, if desired.


Basil Gelato (www.saveur.com)

MAKES 1 QUART

Ingredients

  • 2 cups basil leaves
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp. lemon zest
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 6 egg yolks

Instructions

Combine basil, milk, cream, sugar, zest, salt, and yolks in a blender and puree until smooth. Pour into a 2-qt. saucepan and heat gently until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and pour through a fine strainer; chill in the refrigerator. Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Serve garnished with fresh basil leaves.



Fresh Cucumber Carrot Salad (www.foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients

  • 2 small or 1 large cucumber, peeled and seeded
  • 2 carrots, grated
  • 1 small or 1/2 large shallot, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons Sriracha
  • 1 teaspoon soy sauce
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Halve and thinly slice the cucumber. Then place into a medium bowl with the grated carrots and shallots. In a small bowl, mix together the vinegar, Sriracha and soy sauce. Toss with the vegetables and season with salt and pepper only if needed. Serve.

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Please tell us if you can't identify something on the market table, don't know what to do with a particular item, have a food allergy we should know about, or if you have other questions or comments. We love to hear from you!
 
 
2013 Fall CSA Iowa basil carrots
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Heat of Summer!

Hello everyone.  The real-deal summer is finally here!  Now we are starting to see our days become shorter and shorter, if only by a few minutes.  Our cool crops will soon fade away, making way for our hotter ones.  FarmHack was a great success!  We hope those that attended enjoyed it, as they all seemed to do. We had a storm that night, but that did not deter our campers!  In fact, the weather in general has been pretty good to us.  We got quite the dumping of rain on us Sunday morning!  At least an inch.  The soil in some places is still wet, and it's been nice to get the watering break, while seeing all our broccoli and kale flourish!

Our head lettuces may be almost all gone, but the zucchinis are just popping right off the vine!  This past week has also seen our first sizable harvest of Sungold cherry tomatoes.  We've been selling both to the restaurants and co-ops this week.  Sungolds won't make it into the CSA shares yet, but the zucchinis will, along with our Yellow Zephyr squashes.  Basil has been picked in plenty, and CSA'ers will be seeing that too!  We've still got some braising and salad mixes to boast, one last harvest of beets and turnips, and this week will feature pea tendrils (or shoots) again.  What to look forward to in the coming weeks with the arrival of hot weather: several hundred pepper transplants have been plugged in, some of which are flowering and bearing fruit already.  Eggplants have been freshly transplanted into our greenhouse, with more on the way into the ground.  Cucumbers have been direct seeded and will sprout soon.  Our green bean plants are looking huge!  We'll expect beans to bear in about a week.

This week also signifies the start of our great garlic pull!  Several of us have been out in the field already pulling up plant after plant.  It's a bit early this year, but so it goes.  Though it looks like garlic problems have been rumored and rampant throughout Iowa, the cloves we've been pulling up are big and gorgeous, for the most part.  No problems here!  We've taken on a lot of extra people for the garlic endeavor so we can get all our stuff into the barn and cleaned for sale as quick as possible, ideally by the end of summer.  Thank yous so far for the garlic pull go to: Colin, Charlies, Dominic, Claire, Jesse, Lucas (our intern), Matt, and Chimo.  Over a ton of garlic has been pulled, cleaned, chopped, and hauled into the barn to be crated for curing.  Wow!  Which reminds me: The weekend of July 7th is our big garlic party!  I know, in the last newsletter I said it was a weekend earlier, but the date changed!!!  Come out with your tent, gloves, maybe some good food and some laid back garlic work where you'll get to meet other like-minded folks interested in sustainable, local agriculture!

Well, that's all the farm news we got for now.  Hope you're ready: CSA is switching gears for the heat of the summer!  Hope to see you at market, and taste a little of the summer!

In this week's box:
  • Braising mix
  • Salad mix
  • Zucchini
  • Yellow Zephyr Squash
  • Beets
  • Turnips
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Mint
  • Basil
  • Pea Tendrils

Recipes

Crunchy Zucchini Rounds with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese (www.health.com)

Ingredients
  • 2 zucchini
  • 1/4 teaspoonsalt
  • 1/4 teaspoonfreshly ground black pepper
  • 2 ouncessun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil (about 24)
  • 3 ouncesgoat cheese
  • 2 tablespoonschopped fresh chives
  • 2 tablespoonsextra-virgin olive oil

Preparation

1. Slice zucchini into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. (You should have about 24 slices.) Lay out on large platter; season with salt and pepper.
2. Place a sun-dried tomato on each slice, then top each tomato with a pinch of goat cheese. Sprinkle tops with chopped chives, and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil; serve.
 
Orange and Avocado Salad with Pea Tendrils (goodcheapeats.com)

Ingredients
  • 2 handfuls mixed greens, including a generous portion of pea tendrils, coarsely chopped
  • 1 orange, peeled and sliced
  • 1/2 avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced
  • 1/4 cup feta cheese crumbles
  • 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
  • 2 tablespoons Tarragon Balsamic Dressing or other favorite dressing
Instructions
 
Layer the ingredients on a dinner plate in the order listed.

Preparation time: 5 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 1

Beet Ravioli Stuffed with Ricotta, Goat Cheese and Mint (www.marthastewart.com_

Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup fresh ricotta cheese (about 6 ounces), drained 30 minutes
  • 3/4 cup fresh goat cheese (about 5 ounces), room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint, plus small sprigs for garnish
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2 recipe Fresh Beet Pasta Dough (click link for recipe!)
  • Semolina flour or fine cornmeal, for dusting
  • 2 tablespoons coarse salt
  • Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions

  1. Make the filling: Stir together cheeses and herbs; season with salt and pepper.
  2. Make the ravioli: Dust a baking sheet with semolina or cornmeal. Work with each sheet of dough just after it's been rolled. Cut sheet in half crosswise, and trim each half to a 3-inch-wide strip. Space tablespoons of filling 3 1/2 inches apart along center of 1 strip. Top with remaining strip, and gently press around filling to seal, working from center out. Using a fluted pastry cutter, cut into 3-inch squares. Transfer ravioli to sheet, and cover with a kitchen towel. Repeat with remaining pasta dough and filling. (To store, lightly dust ravioli with semolina, and refrigerate between layers of parchment in an airtight container for up to 4 hours. Alternatively, freeze ravioli in a single layer on a baking sheet, about 15 minutes, and then pack as described above; freeze for up to 1 month. Do not thaw before cooking.)
  3. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add salt and half of the ravioli. Cook, stirring occasionally to separate, until edges are just tender, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a colander to drain. Drizzle with oil, and toss gently to coat. Transfer to a bowl, and loosely cover to keep warm. Repeat with remaining ravioli.
  4. Meanwhile, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until butter is dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma, about 4 minutes.
  5. Divide ravioli among plates (if first batch has cooled, return them to hot water for 15 seconds, then drain). Spoon brown butter over ravioli. Serve immediately garnished with mint.
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 Please tell us if you can't identify something on the market table, don't know what to do with a particular item, have a food allergy we should know about, or if you have other questions or comments. We love to hear from you!


 
basil cucumbers eggplants
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FarmHack and Upcoming 1st Garlic Party

Hello folks!  Yet another productive week out here at the Echollective.  A couple days of nourishing rain have put our crops where they need to be.  Garlic will soon be pulled and last weekend's rain gave our bulbs just enough water for the home-stretch.  Yep that's right everyone...the weekend after next (June 30th-July 1st) ushers in the first Echollective garlic party!!!  Everyone's invited.  Come out and join us!  Garlic will be pulled by all and then cleaned right there in the field.  It is relaxing, laid back work.  And boy, we are glad that we've been running around putting sprinklers on all our mulched garlic beds, because it seems that a lot of garlic farmers in Iowa are experiencing some bizarre garlic behavior...wrinkly, lumpy bulbs!  Fortunately we haven't seen much of this in our bulbs, only barely a touch of it here and there.  We think this must be due to the intense dryness in between these rains, warping garlic cloves into strange shapes.  It sure was a hassle to get our garlic a drink of water, but we think it will pay off....in fact we may, as a result, have some of the best garlic around in Iowa!

The watering hustle has paid off for our other crops, too.  Our broccoli is simply huge now!  Their leaves form a cooling canopy for their beds.  Their stems are certainly thick enough that we'll be expecting crowns anytime soon.  In the hot, hot heat, however, sometimes broccoli flowers get kinda wonky and gross, so we'll see.  At least we've planted another plot of broccoli not too far behind our other one, full of Gypsy broccoli, a hot variety that is famed for enduring the sun's intensity a lot better.  We hope for good crowns from those, and those broccoli transplants are coming along quite well.  And if all else fails, well....broccoli leaves are pretty tasty and beautiful in a braising mix!  Broccoli in any form is incredibly healthy for you, full of vitamins, iron, and antioxidants.

We have new produce on the way, while some of our current vegetables are on their way to kicking the bucket....either they're flowering or simply cannot pump out more veggies.  This is the reality of things as the heat of summer starts to turn the thermostat up a notch.  Sugar snap peas are about done with what they can produce, and we are reaching the tail end of some of our tasty salad mix constituents like bok choy and mizuna (japanese mustard).  Arugula has long since flowered.  No more spinach!  Although we were able to procure a few bunches at market this past weekend.  Our kale though, even the remnants of our winter varieties, continue to grow bigger and bigger.  Our new hot crops are kicking in...we picked our first few zucchinis yesterday!  We are pleased with the size and health of our current squash plants, they are really pumping out flowers and there are quite a few little zukes on the way.  Along with those were our first Sun Gold cherry tomato harvests.  We managed to get a few pints!  Mmmm, they are juicy and sweet, it is pretty hard not to eat them as you pick them.  As you may know, we are now picking bunches from our already robust basil plants!  You probably received a bunch or two in your CSA.  More bunches will be on the table this week.  We have plans to get ground prepared today for more basil starts, which will be inter-planted with our first cucumber crop, the seeds of which were just sown today.  Last but not least, our potato plants are at the point that we will be pulling up our first harvest of New Orleans red fingerlings in just a couple weeks!  Our farm seems at its most bountiful.

Aside from the typical green vegetables, work is being done today to set up a mushroom fruiting shed by our mushroom farmer Will and a handful of others.  Colonized mushroom bags will be hung in a high-tunnel/hoop-house structure covered with white tarping to minimalize the effects of light and heat, and to trap moisture pivotal for the fungus to fruit, or send out mushrooms.  Soon we will have oyster mushrooms by the pound growing right here at Echollective.  Come check it out sometime, or feel free to contact us to stand in on an inoculation, the process by which mushrooms are "planted" and "grown."  Will has the hopes of providing affordable workshops someday, which we will let you know about, if and when they happen.  It is fascinating, informative and fun!

FarmHack IOWA after-party will be held here on the property tomorrow, June 20th!  Be there or be square.  New Belgium beer will flow!  A delicious farm dinner, featuring Echollective produce will be prepared on-site.  Awesome electric tractors, biodiesel farm vehicles, and other machinery will be shown off by their respective owners.  And when the sun goes down, mother nature's light show...the fireflies out here are pretty breathtaking.

Hope you have all had an excellent week.  See you all at market!

CSA Box this week:
  • Braising Mix
  • Salad Mix
  • Beets
  • Turnips
  • Nettles
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Mint
  • Bok Choy
  • Head Lettuce
  • Basil

Recipes

Lemon Basil Shrimp and Pasta (www.myrecipes.com)

Ingredients
  • 3 quarts water
  • 8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
  • 1 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
  • 3 tablespoons drained capers
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups baby spinach
 Preparation
  1. Bring 3 quarts water to a boil in a Dutch oven. Add pasta; cook 8 minutes. Add shrimp to pan; cook 3 minutes or until shrimp are done and pasta is al dente. Drain. Place pasta mixture in a large bowl. Stir in basil and next 4 ingredients (through salt). Place 1/2 cup spinach on each of 4 plates; top each serving with 1 1/2 cups pasta mixture.

Red Curry Bison Short Ribs with Baby Bok Choy (www.eatingwell.com)

Ingredients
  • 1 1/2-2 teaspoons red curry paste, (see Note), or more to taste
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 3 1/8-inch-thick slices peeled fresh ginger
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro stems plus 1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves, divided
  • 6 scallions, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 teaspoons canola oil
  • 3 pounds bone-in bison short ribs, or 2 pounds boneless (see Note), trimmed
  • 2 cups thinly sliced red onion
  • 1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
  • 3 tablespoons fish sauce, (see Note)
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice, or more to taste
  • 3 ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
  • 1 cup “lite” coconut milk, (optional)
  • 6 baby bok choy, cut in half, or 3 regular bok choy, cut into quarters
  • Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preparation
  1. Place curry paste to taste, garlic, ginger, cilantro stems, scallions and water in a blender or food processor. Blend or process to form a loose paste. Add more water if the mixture is too dense to blend.
  2. Heat oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add ribs and brown on all sides, 6 to 8 minutes total. Stir in the curry mixture, onion, broth, fish sauce and 2 tablespoons lime juice. Bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and cook, turning the ribs every 30 minutes, until the meat is very tender when pierced with a fork, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
  3. Transfer the ribs to a plate; cover and keep warm. Add tomatoes and coconut milk (if using) to the broth; bring to a simmer. Add bok choy; cover and cook until the bok choy bases can be pierced with a fork, 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the size. Season with pepper and more lime juice, if desired. Serve topped with cilantro leaves.
Creamed Turnips (www.simplyrecipes.com)

Ingredients
  • 3 pounds turnips
  • 6 black peppercorns
  • 6 whole cloves
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus 1 teaspoon
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper
  • Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Preparation

1 Peel and cut the turnips into large chunks. In a large saucepan of boiling water, add the tablespoon of salt, the peppercorns, cloves and bay leaves. You may want to tie the spices into a sachet or cheesecloth bag — this makes it easier to remove them later. Boil turnips until tender, 15 to 20 minutes, then drain and remove the spices.
2 Return the turnips to the pot they boiled in and add the cream. Turn the burner to medium-low. Bring this to a gentle simmer and mash the turnips with a potato masher. Add the white pepper, the teaspoon of salt and freshly grated nutmeg to taste and serve at once.

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Please tell us if you can't identify something on the market table, don't know what to do with a particular item, have a food allergy we should know about, or if you have other questions or comments. We love to hear from you!

 
basil cucumbers FarmHack IOWA
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