Beyond Produce

One sweltering night last week, Patrick and I took a monstrous kohlrabi bulb from our garden, and some asparagus and golden beets from our co-op, and made some delicious grilled vegetables. (Grilling is the best thing that ever happened to kohlrabi, if you ask me. It softened and charred.) So, what does that have to do with our Driftless CSA?

Ta-da! Our farm makes sunflower oil! Although grilling might not be the best way to highlight this delicate oil—Farmer Josh, I promise to use it in a salad next time—I was too pumped about adding something Driftless to our meal to save it for later. So often, when we talk about eating local, staples like dry beans, grains and oils just don't seem to count. I feel we've gone a little further toward regional self-sufficiency when we have local products outside the crisper drawer.

What about you? Do you get something besides produce from local farmers? Has anyone had any luck with meat or egg shares?

Back to this week's veggies: I find the more time I have, the more I fuss with perfectly good food. What better way to turn nutritious broccoli and green garlic into something sinful than a bleu cheese quiche with a butter-black pepper crust? This was Sunday's breakfast. I love how that little garlic slice landed right in the middle.

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It's All True

There's box three: broccoli, spinach, cilantro, peas, red-leaf lettuce, garlic scapes, green onions, green garlic, strawberries, radishes and fennel. The potatoes we had with dinner had been stored from the previous week, as were some of the kohlrabi greens (they stored well in plastic in the fridge), to which we added kohlrabi greens from our garden.



I think the box three meal that Jason just described was the single healthiest meal I've ever eaten. Vegan, high in protein and iron, and abundantly local and fresh. The only components that weren't grown either at Driftless (which I've taken to calling "our farm") or in our home gardens were the garbanzo beans, the olive oil and the pineapple we had for dessert.



Jason's too modest to mention it, but he kicked our asses at Catan.

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Dinner is served, compliments of box number three

Last night, Patrick and Morgon Mae invited us to their house for dinner using some of the produce from the third box from Driftless Organics. The box was nearly overflowing this week, with garlic scapes, strawberries, spinach, potatoes, peas, greens, radishes, broccoli, mint, asparagus and arugula. JB and I brought some bok choy and snow peas from our garden to compliment the meal

Patrick and Morgon Mae fired up the outdoor grill and cooked some of the potatoes. The bok choy was also grilled. Morgon Mae made up a fresh salad with the greens, radishes, broccoli and peas. Additionally she prepared a very tasty garbanzo bean and kolrabi leaf salad.

Together the four of us enjoyed the bountiful meal. The meal was served with chilled white and rose wine. Within a half-hour we were full and content. We talked about our gardens, some politics and recent world events... even a bit of conversation about Michael Jackson.

A bit later the table was cleared and I set up the board game Catan. We played the 'fog island' version described in the Seafarers version of Catan. The game lasted nearly two hours and we all had a pleasant game. During the game a sweet dessert of freshly sliced pineapple and the CSA strawberries were presented to us by Morgon Mae. It was very yummy.

I thank Driftless Organics and our hosts Patrick and Morgon Mae for a very enjoyable evening. I can't wait for next week and box number four.

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The second box arrives

Greetings readers, this is Jason. This year my partner, JB and I split a CSA share from Driftless Organic Farms with our friends and neighbors Patrick and Morgon Mae. Today we obtained our second box of produce. I am processing some of the goods to make up a stir fry right now. I just snapped this photo on my phone.


I neglected to comment last week. The first box as SAMA also wrote, was full of good stuff, including greens, potatoes, kolrabi, green onions and garlic.

This week I am on top of things. Once we returned home from Eastside Co-op, I pulled open the box and spread out some of the goods to take the picture above.


The dish above is the result of stir frying the radishes, green onions, green garlic from the CSA along with the bok choy and snow peas from our own garden. I used Chinese 5 spice, ginger, hot Hungarian paprika with ginger and sunflower seed oil. JB and I are now full and content with this healthy and tasty meal.

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First Box 2009!

As I set down our CSA box on the kitchen table, I heard the rumble of excited footsteps on the stairs. Don appeared in the doorway looking like it might be Christmas. We pulled the arugula out, oohing and ahhing at the fragrance of rosemary, and--oh the purple kohlrabi! Blue potatoes! Green garlic! Not to mention three shades of radishes. A feast for our eyes, even as our tummies rumbled. It was already late for dinner making, so we didn't bother taking a photo. Becky attacked the green leaf lettuce and radishes for a salad, and I prepped kohlrabi leaves and radish tops for a batch of southern greens, referring to the recipe on the newsletter. I didn't even know you could eat these leaves! Don got the rest into green bags and into the fridge. Leftover potroast was sorely upstaged by the delightful produce. We can't wait to roast those potatoes with green garlic and rosemary for brunch on Sunday.

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(C)SAlsa

Aside from clever titles for blog posts, one of the best things in life is fresh salsa, and the tomatillo in our final box just screamed salsa making time. It was actually a little unnerving.

Anyway, in addition to the tomatillo, the final box contained some garlic, a fantastic looking red onion and a nice little jalapeno. I supplemented that with some little sweet peppers, a couple poblano, and some other random peppers that I grabbed from our coop, the lovely Eastside. We had some cilantro hanging out in the crisper from the previous box, so that would find it's way in the salsa as well.

Tomatillo salsa

10 Tomatillo (or whatever you have)
Half an onion
5 cloves garlic
1 T olive oil
Salt to taste
2 T Tequila
2 poblano
2 jalapeno
1 very hot pepper
4-6 random other peppers
5 springs cilantro
1 T lemon juice

I began by broiling the tomatillo and all the peppers except the jalapeno and the other little spicy one, whose name I forgot (sorry). After the skin began to show back spots, about 10 minutes in our too cold oven, I removed them and set aside. I then grabbed five cloves of garlic and chopped those in the food processor. I then put the broiled tomatillo and peppers, onion, cilantro, fresh peppers and oil and processed until I liked the consistency. I then added the salt, tequila and some lemon juice (usually would add lime, but I used what I had on hand).

fin

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Squash-tastic

Beautiful and delicious, baked Driftless squash is the perfect way to stave off the cold fall morning. Simply slice in half, scoop out the seeds, and bake for about 30-45 minutes.



Accompanied by a delicious quiche, and good friends, it was more than easy to ignore the blustery hooplah that mother nature was brewing up outside.

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