Yesterday we went to my aunt’s for Thanksgiving. Because I had a lot from the CSA, I brought sweet potato casserole and kale. My hubby made a shoofly pie and a maple pumpkin pie – both very good, but everyone was just totally stuffed by the time dessert came around, so I’ll be sharing them again tonight for a dinner with family friends at my parents’ house. Now enjoy some largely measurement-free recipes.

maple pumkin pie and shoofly pie made by my hubby

kale

1. Fill a giant pot with water.
2. Add twice-washed kale.
3. Add bacon. Best if you fry it up first. Feel free to dump in the grease.
4. I also add some ham-flavored soup seasoning.
5. Add a bit of salt (not too much, since the bacon and ham flavored stuff have that mostly covered) and pepper to taste.
6. Add a cup or so of vinegar and/or sherry wine. You can serve it with more after it’s cooked.
7. Cover and bring just to a boil.
8. Lower temp and simmer for as long as you like. I prefer to let the leaves not get totally wilted, but do whatever you like. I let mine sit simmering for about 3 hours yesterday.
9. Serve plain or with cider vinegar or white balsamic vinegar.

Sweet Potato Waffles

As noted above, I made sweet potato casserole (recipe linked above, too). My aunt also made candied yams, so we both ended up with a good amount of sweet potato-y leftovers. I will be bringing them to the family dinner tonight, but I wanted to use SOME beforehand because there are a lot. I based my recipe off of this one for pumpkin waffles. I made a bunch and will be freezing the extras to pop in the toaster in the AM next week. I serve my waffles with honey, but you can use whatever syrup you want.

2 1/3 c Bisquick (or make your own)
1 1/2 c milk
1/4 c vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 c mashed sweet potato mix*

* I used sweet potato casserole, so it already had milk and butter mixed in. I scooped in the topping and everything for some crunchy bits in the waffles (but you could leave them out) – just make sure it gets mixed well. If you’re using candied yams, I’d mash them up with a little milk before mixing them in and add some pumpkin pie-type spice if it wasn’t already in the dish. If you’re just using fresh or canned sweet potatoes, cook them then mash them with some cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, brown sugar, and milk to taste. Depending on the consistency of your sweet potato mash, you may need to add more or less milk in to get it to the right consistency.

You may have already heard of the Duke University’s student chapter of the American Fishery Society, DukeFish, establishing the new Durham-based community-supported fishery (CSF) – the first of its kind in the southeastern United States.

They are showing a documentary at 7 p.m., Nov. 29 in the
Levine Science Research Center at 308 Research Drive on the Duke campus. The movie is the Fish Belong to the People. The movie follows a group of family fishermen in Port Clyde, Maine as they work to save their fishing grounds from government, market structure, and themselves.

In a recent newsletter, Wats Grocery’s Amy Tornquist said:

I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed meeting the folks from Walking Fish (www.walking-fish.org). They are the masterminds of the CSF (community supported fish) project that is about to complete its 12 week pilot. If you want to learn more or get on their waitlist for March, log on to their website. What they are doing for NC is amazing!

You can find more about Walking Fish here. Read a Duke University news release about them here.

Deze week (#48) vonden we in de groententas van de Aardvlo:

• aardperen (oei)
• boerenkool
• postelein
• prei
• puntpaprika
• romanesco’s!

Waarom aardperen toch zoveel namen moeten hebben… Ze zijn ook bekend als topinamboers en Jerusalem artichoc (Jeruzalemartisjok). Zo’n naam roept vragen op. Behoren ze tot dezelfde Helianthusfamilie? Nee. De aardpeer is familie van de zonnebloem. Wat kan de reden dan zijn dat-ie zo heet?

Lijkt de smaak op gewone artisjok? Die exotisch ogende groente wordt gezien als delicatesse en de oerhollandse aardpeer lijkt meer een paria in de Nederlandse keuken :\

Uiterlijk dan? Tja, ze hebben allebei een soort ’schubben’… Maar de artisjok is een graag geziene gast in bloemboeketten en de topinamboer niet.

En waarom eigenlijk Jeruzalem???

Zucht, nog een maandje en dan is het seizoen van 2009 voorbij Moeten we zelf weer bedenken welke groente we kopen

ARISS é a sigla internacional de Radioamadores na Estação Espacial Internacional (Amateur Radio on International Space Station), um programa voluntariado que inspira alunos, a nível mundial, a seguirem as carreiras em ciência, tecnologia, engenharia e matemática através de comunicações de rádio amador. O ponto mais interessante desse programa é a oportunidade de comunicação de escolas em qualquer lugar do Brasil, com a Estação Espacial Internacional (ISS) e sua tripulação em órbita. Os alunos podem aprender sobre a vida a bordo da ISS e sobre a exploração da terra através do espaço, com atividades ligadas a ciência e matemática. O Projeto ARISS proporciona oportunidade a comunidade escolar (alunos, professores, famílias e moradores locais) de se conscientizar dos benefícios substanciais dos voos espaciais tripulados, as explorações espaciais e as suas descobertas. Como valor agregado, há também a oportunidade de se aprender sobre tecnologia em geral e rádio amador.

Detalhando um pouco mais o ARISS – é um grupo internacional de trabalho, composto por delegações de 9 países, incluindo vários países da Europa, bem como Japão, Rússia, Canadá e EUA. A organização é dirigida por voluntários das organizações nacionais de rádio amador da AMSAT e internacionais (Amateur Radio Satellite Corporation), com as organizações de cada país.

ARISS é de âmbito internacional. As equipes coordenadas localmente com suas respectivas agência espacial (por exemplo, a ESA, a NASA, JAXA, CSA, e a agência espacial russa) se reunem com uma equipe internacional ARISS através de reuniões de trabalho em grupo (através de teleconferências e correio eletrônico) para alinhamento das atividades programadas ao redor do mundo.

Como não poderia ser diferente o Diário da Produção saiu na frente em contato com o Coordenador do Projeto no Brasil, o rádio amador e piloto Tadeu Fernandes, e está firmando uma parceria com o projeto. Esta parceria visa aumentar a divulgação do principal objetivo do projeto e tão pouco abordado nas escolas: a educação voltada a carreira profissional. Confira aqui no DP os próximos passos desta parceria. Caso você seja um diretor pedagógico ou responsável por uma instituição de ensino (pública ou particular) com atuação em qualquer segmento da educação e tenha interesse em conhecer e participar do projeto, mande um email para redacao@diariodaproducao.com.

Este projeto é totalmente gratuito para as escolas, bastando apenas a instituição sinalizar o interesse em ser uma escola participante.

Interdit de faire des faux reportages sur Jean Sarkozy. Le Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) a décidé de mettre en demeure M6 et d’engager une procédure de poursuite à l’encontre de Canal+

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cides.chorum.fr, NC, le 5 novembre 2009

Sondage CSA : les associations, des acteurs majeurs face à la crise

 « Les Français, les associations et la crise », tel est le thème du sondage réalisé par l’institut de sondage CSA pour Chorum, le Crédit coopératif et la Maif, et présenté au Forum national des associations et des fondations, le 5 novembre. Les résultats sont probants : les associations sont un acteur majeur pour faire face aux difficultés issues de la crise économique en ayant un rôle social fondamental et de lien social et un rôle important pour le développement économique régional ; elles devraient même relever d’un investissement stratégique dans le cadre de l’emprunt national révèle le sondage.

Dans la première partie du sondage qui porte sur les « associations, acteur social et économique », 68 % des personnes interrogées sur un échantillon national représentatif de 1010 personnes, estiment que « dans la période actuelle, pour agir efficacement face aux difficultés provoquées par la crise », les associations sont les plus efficaces, juste devant les citoyens eux-mêmes (65 %), et bien devant les entreprises (46 %), les syndicats (40 %) et les pouvoirs publics (38 %). Autres volets figurant toujours dans cette même partie : qui sont les acteurs les plus efficaces face à la crise pour le développement économique et social des régions ? Les collectivités locales (63 %) et les associations (63 %) arrivent en tête, l’Etat ne recueillant que 35 % de la confiance des Français ; le sondage approfondit ensuite les points précédents et une nette majorité (76 %) des personnes interrogées estime que les actions des associations en faveur des populations sont plus efficaces et plus adaptées que celles des entreprises, et que celles de l’Etat à 72 % ; dernier éclairage de cette première partie du sondage, il en ressort que dans un contexte de crise, les associations jouent un rôle certain en matière économique, mais elles sont toujours davantage perçues comme un acteur social (81 % dans l’aide aux personnes en difficulté, 79 % dans le maintien du lien social, et 61 % dans le développement des emplois).

La deuxième partie du sondage CSA aborde les « besoins de ressources des associations ». Dans le domaine du financement, une majorité de Français (55 %) considère que les associations n’ont pas les financements nécessaires pour mener à bien leurs missions et seulement 13 % « tout à fait ». Autre question en ce qui concerne l’emprunt national qui sera prochainement destiné à financer des investissements stratégiques, 50 % des personnes interrogées jugent nécessaire que l’on « y intègre le financement direct des associations ». Les deux derniers points du sondage ont trait au financement et à l’engagement des citoyens, 49 % des Français estiment que les associations ont surtout besoin de l’engagement des citoyens ; tandis que interrogés sur leur engagement personnel, ils privilégient en priorité la solidarité en direction de leurs proches (65 %), et une consommation plus responsable (59 %), devant une implication dans une association (28 %).

Pour plus d’informations :

Consultez la synthèse du sondage

Consultez le sondage (version complète 10.5 Mo)

Since I essentially hoarded last week’s haul (I just roasted the potimarron, and it will become pie very shortly) I didn’t have much of interest to report.  The kiwis – about a dozen of them – made a delicious breakfast on the train down to Torino, scooped from their fuzzy skins with tiny plastic spoons.

Anyhow, this week I’ve got a lot to work with.  The cabbage will be braised, probably with some smoky Alsatian sausages to make a quick choucroute-like dish, one of my winter staple meals.  I’ll probably throw the turnips in there, too.  I’m thinking the (sandy, but tasty – I munched one as a snack while taking photos this afternoon) carrots could become a quick Thanksgiving hors d’oeuvre.  If only I had some ranch dressing handy.  Maybe bleu cheese?  Speaking of, I think the apples will be wonderful sliced with crumbles of gorgonzola picante… or smears of gorgonzola dolce.  Now there’s a Thanksgiving hors d’oeuvre idea.

The mâche I’m eating tonight, alongside a sausage and fontina pizza (guess what I bought in Italy?), and the other lettuce will provide welcome salad respite from the rest of the week’s heavy eating.

Originally published on Seasonal Market Menus.

Thanksgiving week is always a strange one for me, being in the grocery store business and all. In food retail land, black Friday is actually Wednesday. And by the Monday prior to that Wednesday, the majority of my Turkey Day marketing is done. All I can do is watch people go through the store, point out where the Cope’s Sweet Corn is, suggest items I’d like to be eating right now and, of course, bag groceries.

I will soon make my way into the store, turning from employee to customer, as I search for the ingredients for my Thanksgiving Meal(s). This year, I am essentially making an entire dinner, spread out among four different gatherings. Because I’m not relied upon to provide the traditional side dishes, my dishes will all be based on food from my CSA. Sadly, it’s my last week of veggies from Wayward Seed Farm, and I want to put them to good use.

This past Sunday was my first opportunity to use up some produce, at a potluckey Thankgiving-themed Beer Camp Board of Directors meeting. I got in my share what I am guessing is pac choi, a cabbagey-bok choy-like veggie. If it looks like bok choy, then, I decided, a recipe for bok choy is appropriate.

I found a simple recipe and threw together some staple ingredients to come up with a super-quick and über-tasty side dish. Oh, leafy greens and cabbage-like things, where have you been all of my life?

Bok Choy Stir Fry
from Steamy Kitchen

1 1/2 pounds bok choy or baby bok choy (or pac choi)
1 1/2 tablespoons canola, vegetable or peanut oil (I used olive oil)
1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
3 tablespoons broth or water (or 2 tablespoons broth/water + 1 tablespoon wine) (I used chicken stock)
salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
sesame seeds (my addition)

1. Start by trimming the stem off – don’t trim too much – just the end. Cutting the thick stem off will ensure that the bok choy cooks evenly. Separate out the leaves, keep the tender center intact and clean under running water. Drain.

2. Finely mince garlic and grate fresh ginger with a microplane grater. Grating the ginger helps break up the tough fibers! (and yeah, sometimes when the ginger is nice and fresh, I don’t even bother peeling off the paper-thin skin)

3. Place wok or frying pan on your stove and pour in the cooking oil. Add the garlic and ginger. Turn the heat to medium-high. Let the ginger and garlic gently sizzle in the oil. When the aromatics become fragrant and light golden brown, add the bok choy leaves. Toss very well to coat each leaf with the garlicky, gingery oil for 15 seconds. Pour in broth, water or wine. Immediately cover and let cook for 1 minute. Season with salt and drizzle a bit of sesame oil on top.

Yesterday was an exciting day…the first day I received my CSA box full of fresh organic locally grown fruits and vegetables! I have been wanting to join one for awhile now, but mostly because of my laziness and not spending the time to actually set it up, AND wrongly thinking it would be really expensive, I kept putting it off and am just now getting around to officially signing up. For those of you who are not familiar, ‘CSA’ stands for ‘Community Supported Agriculture’ and basically allows you to support local farmers and in return receive a small portion of their crop! I chose Be Wise Ranch here in San Diego and here is their explanation of how it works…

In a CSA, a community is created between a local farmer and consumers. The consumers purchase a “share” of the upcoming harvest produced on the farm. The cost of a share is based on the true costs of production. By purchasing a share, the consumers obtain farm-fresh, organic produce on a weekly basis while helping to keep a local family farm economically and environmentally viable.

Sounds pretty great, right? It’s like someone going to the farmers market for you and bringing you a box of whatever looks good and is in season. Not bad! My friend and I are splitting the cost and splitting the goods – basically we will get a “large box” every other week for $15 each! Truly it is an amazing deal…I had to snap a picture with my phone of all the stuff we received because I was so excited – three different kinds of lettuce, broccoli, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, slicing AND grape tomatoes, beets, carrots, zucchini, persimmons, limes and apples. Whew! I am really looking forward to this new supplement to my grocery/farmers market shopping. And just in time for Thanksgiving…

Kennt ihr CSA? Diese Bezeichnung ist mir jetzt schon ein paar Mal bei Etsy und bei der Juniper Moon Farm aufgefallen. Die Idee dahinter ist, dass man durch den Kauf einer Aktie den landwirtschaftlichen Betrieb unterstützt und dafür dann Produkte, die der Hof herstellt, bekommt. In Deutschland findet man ein Äquivalent unter der Bezeichnung Landwirtsschafts Gemeinschaftshof.

Warum ich das erzähle? Ich wollte das mal ausprobieren und bin nun stolze Besitzerin meiner ersten "Woll-Aktie" )). Und zwar von der Vermont Grand View Farm, die diverse Angebote bei Etsy haben.

(Foto von Vermont Grand View Farm)

Description

NEW this year! We are now offering a CSA share just for spinners! With the purchase of one share, you will receive one pound of beautiful roving ready for your spinning wheel. The roving is a lovely blend of Romney wool and mohair.

Vermont Grand View Farm is happy to offer our customers Spinning CSA shares (Community Supported Agriculture Shares). CSAs allow our customers to support our family farm in a unique way. By purchasing a share, you are entering into a relationship with our farm becoming a key component to the livelihood our farm. Money from shareholders goes directly to the care and feeding of our animals and the processing of their wool. This allows us to continue to give you the best quality yarn possible.

Ich finde die Idee sehr gut und fände es klasse, wenn es das in Deutschland auch mehr gäbe. Viel darüber habe ich aber noch nicht finden können im WWW.

Week o’ Cabbage went so well I decided to try week o’ kale. I’m receiving tons of kale in my CSA box since it grows so wonderfully in all types of weather. Growing up, I was never what you would call an adventurous eater. Actually, my parents call me the most finicky eater ever. Starting in my college years, I have slowly been growing out of that stage but have not experimented with veggies outside of the “normal” ones. Kale and other greens are not anything I have eaten before this past summer. I’ve heard that you have to try something 7 times before you can decide if you like it or not. Well…..I’m still working on developing a taste for kale. This week was great because I was able to try out kale recipes, but I’m not yet a convert. All of my recipes really involve hiding the kale behind strong flavors for the beginner kale eater. The adult in me will keep adding kale to dishes, and hopefully I’ll start to genuinely enjoy it.

Day 1: Rotini with Kale and Fontina Cheese

I adapted Giada’s Fusilli with Spinach and Asiago Cheese for ingredients that I had in my house. That means I substituted rotini for the fusilli, Kale for the spinach, and fontina for the asiago. I have cooked this pasta several times during the summer with different types of greens and cheese, and it has turned out great every time. I blanched the kale before cooking it with the tomatoes and garlic to make sure it was tender enough. Cheesy sauce makes everything taste good!

Day 2: Polenta with Kale, Beans and Sausage

I simplified this recipe because it was a weeknight dinner for me. I used instant polenta and added in some mascarpone cheese instead of using two types of slow cook polenta and Parmesan cheese. The beans got lost in my dish from all of the strong flavors of the polenta and sausage and I am not sure if it was needed. The kale added some color and texture that was very nice.

Day 3: Soy Ginger Chicken and Winter Greens

This dish was tasty and full of typical Asian flavors. It was a great quick weeknight meal. If I made this again, I’d add more veggies like broccoli or cauliflower.

Day 4: Kale Pesto Pizza

I made a homemade pizza, but used kale pesto for the sauce. Kale pesto is easy to make, I substituted 1/2 of the basil in my normal pesto recipe for blanched kale. I could hardly believe it wasn’t 100% basil pesto, it still tasted great.

Day 5: Butternut Squash and Cheddar Bread Pudding

Thank you Bon Appétit for this delicious recipe. It has officially won a spot on my Thanksgiving table. The kale really made the dish look more delicious. My tips would be that if you used curly kale like I did, use a little less because it because a little overwhelming. I also recommend pressing down on the ingredients in the pan before putting in the oven because the bread absorbed so much of the milk & egg mixture that it only covered the bottom ½ of the bread pudding.

This year was the first time I participated in a Community Sustained Agriculture Program or CSA. The idea behind a CSA for anyone thinking about this is simple – buy local & consider how this small act affects the health of your local community and you – first. find a local CSA farm through localharvest.org.

Contact the farm  to see how their program works and if they have any shares available for the season; if you are interested make arrangements to  purchase a share of the crop, shares are usually sold season by season and most CSA’s will likely have a 3 payment plan. The closest CSA to my home was an organic farm located 4 miles from me. I purchased a garden share and meat and egg share for the season and picked up my share once a week. This is what a typical pick-up included:

The major advantage for me was getting the freshest possible produce from May to October and being introduced to new vegetables and herbs like garlic scapes(shown upper right side of picture above carrots) and lemon balm.  I had such an abundance of vegetables picked up weekly that I become quite the expert on the blanching and storage of fresh veggies. I would highly recommend the purchase of a food storage system which allows you to vacuum seal foods and store them in your freezer or deep freeze. I have a food saver and was able to prepare enough veggies to use all winter:

I am able to pull out the veggies needed for my weekly menu’s and can boil them right in the bags, steam or roast them as needed. The recipe I am about to share was one that was shared with me at our harvest celebration on the final pick up day for this years season. Today’s recipe will be super simple to make because I already have the veggies sealed and ready to use – this  dish makes a terrific side:

Roasted Corn and Pepper Relish

4 ears fresh corn (I will be using the fresh frozen I have on hand)
1/2 cup finely diced red bell peppers
3 tbs finely diced red onions
2 tbs white balsamic vinegar
2 tbs chopped cilantro
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp salt & pepper

Jalapeno peppers are optional

Preheat oven to 350
Ina roasting pan – Arrange corn in single layer and roast for 20 minutes – then remove from oven and set aside to cool

In a medium mixing bowl combine red pepper, red onions, cilantro, and vinegar, add salt & pepper. Add corn to bowl and toss to combine. May be refrigerated, covered, for one or two days. Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

Saturday, 11/21/09

Grateful for quiet weekend days when I can putter around the house, run errands, do laundry, get to the yoga studio and still have time to sit with a cup of tea and read a good book.  These days are so rare they are a true gift and the best way to recharge my batteries.

Sunday 11/22/09

Grateful for good friends and good food!  Had a lovely and successful (if I do say so myself) dinner party last night with my roommates, the Husband-Elect and a couple friends in town from NYC.  Earlier in the day the H-E and I gathered with his friends from high school and college for a huge brunch hosted by the magnificent Alyssa and Rob.  It was a day of shared laughs, drinks and food.  A beautiful way to spend a Sunday.

Monday, 11/23/09

Today I am grateful (and hopeful) for my farm share.  This year was a rough year for all farmers and I am excited about the chance to sign up again for a second year.  The experience was wonderful (and much blogged about here on Perusals … check out the CSA (community supported agriculture) or Parker Farm tags for all related blogs) and I learned a ton about using, preparing and cooking a lot of new fruits and veggies.

If you’ve never done a farm share, I highly recommend it!  Your money goes to support a local farmer and in exchange you get a weekly delivery of fresh, in-season produce.  It will also cut your grocery bill in half for the summer and fall!

Check out Local Harvest for csa’s near you, as well as farmer’s markets.

Today is a sad day. It’s my last chance to pick up my box full of vegetables from the Sunnyside CSA (community supported agriculture) program. Every week since June, we’ve gotten a delivery of fresh produce right to the neighborhood from Golden Earthworm Organic Farm on Long Island.

I joined because I wanted to support the local, organic food movement, challenge myself to cook more, and get involved in something in my neighborhood.

Here are some things I realized during my first CSA season:

• Beets are glorious. Rhubarb is delightfully tangy. Yellow cherry tomatoes are possibly even better than red ones. Lettuce is overrated. Kohlrabi is a fancy name for broccoli stem. Purslane and celeriac… exist.
• Not choosing my own food is oddly liberating. When forced to find a way to use things I would never normally buy—like kale, turnips, leeks, escarole, and rutabaga—I discovered new flavors and acquired new cooking skills.
• Though the produce is considered “local,” the farm is kind of far away. It’s way out east on Long Island, almost a two-hour drive from our neighborhood. If that seems far, what about all the produce I would normally get from Florida, California, Chile, Ecuador? While we New Yorkers might reduce our carbon footprint by walking instead of driving to the store, we tend to ignore the environmental costs of shipping all of our food and other goods.
• What is there to eat during the winter? Should I amass a pile of potatoes and squash and canned applesauce and pick off of that all season? Realistically, I’m sure I’ll still buy some oranges from Florida and mac and cheese from a box. But at least I will let my new-found knowledge sway me towards more seasonally and regionally appropriate dishes.
• Now I’m even more motivated to start an indoor composting system, learn to make more things from scratch, and grow some of my own food. Bring it on!

For information about all 80 neighborhood CSAs in NYC, check out Just Food’s website.

Almost two weeks ago, we got our final Pinckney’s Produce CSA box of the fall season.  It has taken me this long to get a post up about it because without another box’s arrival to give us a deadline, we had the opportunity to eat the last shipment of veggies at our leisure, which, though I did freeze a little bit of it, proved my theory that each box was at least two weeks’ food for us.  Here’s what we got:

• 5 sweet potatoes
• 2 heads broccoli
• 2 bell peppers
• 1 bunch collards
• 3 bunches spinach
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 head cabbage
• 1 eggplant
• lots of green beans
• lots of tomatoes

The first night I made a variation on one of our favorite dishes, Rachael Ray’s Italian Tuna Casserole (I have the cook book this recipe is from, but someone recreated it here).  Tuna casserole is one of my comfort foods, and I’m a big fan of this recipe.  Jon suggested adding in one of the heads of broccoli, and so this recipe used up one of those as well as two of the bunches of spinach.  This recipe fed us for a couple of days, plus at least one lunch for me.

The kale was used up another night in this pasta with sausage and kale, which was almost as good as the bacon and collard linguine we’ve loved this season.

Another night I tried Smitten Kitchen’s sweet potato gratin, substituting collards for the suggested kale, to great effect.  Jon wasn’t a HUGE fan of this dish, as he is sort of burnt out on sweet potatoes lately, but I loved it. So delicious.  I highly recommend using a food processor to slice the potatoes nice and thin, otherwise you’d be chopping for hours.  This dish would be a great one to take to a Thanksgiving potluck, for sure.  One recipe fed us for at least two nights, plus at least one lunch for me.

sweet potato and greens gratin

Jon specially requested that I make my “signature green beans,” which he thinks are some sort of amazing creation, but are really just green beans stir-fried with soy sauce, ginger, and onions.  We had them along with some mahi and rice one night, and again with some salmon another.

Despite the fact that we had plenty of time to eat all the veggies, there was still basically no way we were going to get them all eaten before they went bad, so I made a pasta sauce out of the eggplant, bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, and tomatoes, and froze it all in baggies.

This left the cabbage, which we ate as a pizza and in soup, which I expect will feed me for lunch this week.  Nothing beats soup and homemade bread on a rainy Sunday, and I have to say this No Time Bread, which only takes about an hour total, as opposed to an entire day’s rise, is really delicious.

So, our CSA season is over, though I must say we’ll be enjoying its bounty for weeks to come, thanks to all the goodies I socked away in the freezer.  For the friends who have been wondering how we got it all in there, check out these pictures, and notice I even had room for the Thanksgiving turkey:

I asked Jon if he had any final CSA thoughts to share, and he said “It’s great, you should do it.”  He also said he hopes to always be a CSA member whenever possible.  I have to say I agree.  It felt great to eat according to our values, to know we were supporting a local farmer and family and not unfair labor or a giant corporation, to know that tons of emissions weren’t released just shipping our food to us, to know that as little pesticides and other chemicals as possible were used.  On top of all that, the food was just delicious, and we even got to try new things we’d never used before, like rutabagas, beets, turnips, and greens.  We got to eat in connection with the season and our local climate, eating according to nature’s plan, rather than our own whims, and this made us feel more rooted to our community.  Sure, it took some planning, some sense of adventure, and some effort, but it also inspired us to take a slower approach to our food in other areas, whether it was me baking my own bread, or Jon’s efforts to make peanut butter (unsuccessful, ultimately, but his honey-roasted peanuts were delicious).

I can’t say that we felt healthier or had more energy or were able to leap tall buildings in a single bound thanks to our new diet.  Neither of us was looking to diet or lose weight, but we did drop a few pounds– I’m down a pants size and Jon thinks he lost at least 5 pounds (we don’t have a scale in the house, so he weighed himself at work).  I’m sure this weight loss was probably due mostly to our eating a lot less meat than we had previously.

Ultimately, I’m sure we’ll be signing up for another season with our CSA, and I would encourage you to look into CSA programs in your area.  If you don’t want to deal with the sheer volume of veggies we had in our share, you can get half size or even individual shares, or you could go in with friends and share a large-sized box.  I assure you you’ll be challenged and will have to try new things both as a matter of taste and preparation, but I also assure you that you will find the experience satisfying and rewarding.  As Thanksgiving arrives this week, I’ll be making a sweet potato pie out of my last CSA veggies, and will be giving thanks for the family and farm that fed us this fall.

We had a late October frost (and snow) that killed some of our more tender plants around here, but then the weather warmed up and has been above-normal for the past couple of weeks or so. Thus we’ve had some tomato plants, delicate herbs and even a few tiny peppers holding on for dear life. Kale, chard, onions, woody herbs and beets are all around til the hard frost, so I’m letting them be while I use up what’s on their last legs in my fridge and from the garden. I cleared the green tomatoes and pulled and tossed the spent plants (always a depressing activity, although it’s better than seeing the lonely stems peeking out from the top of a snow drift) and washed up the tomatillos that had been kicking around in the fridge for a few weeks from our last CSA drop-off. What to do, what to do? How about some green chili for a night that the temp might flirt with freezing?

Green Tomato and Tomatillo Chili

Brown up 1/2 – 1 pounds of ground beef  (Chestnut Farms). Add 1 chopped onion and 2 – 3 chopped cloves of garlic, and 2 chopped hot peppers (or to taste) (CSA/ farmer’s market/ garden). Season with salt, pepper, cumin. Add 1 – 2 pounds of chopped tomatillos and green tomatoes (see above). Cover and let cook over medium heat – check and stir every few minutes, adding a bit of liquid if too dry (broth, wine, beer are good options, although I didn’t have to add any). Add 1 – 2 cups of cooked beans: kidney, black, or white (I had tongue of fire shell beans frozen from the CSA this summer). Heat through, adjust seasonings, eat local even in late November.

Kemarin (21/11/2009) daku diajak shooting oleh Lintasarta dalam rangka ajang CSA (Creative Solutions Award) yang sudah digelar sejak bulan Agustus yang lalu. Asyik juga bisa terlibat shooting soalnya daku yang ikut & aktif di periode 1 CSA kemudian tidak aktif lagi di periode selanjutnya masih diingat oleh LA. Hehehe… Terima kasih untuk Pak Budi Wiyono.

Persiapan Shooting

Shooting berlangsung dari jam 09 s/d 16. Tentu disela makan siang bersama di Pare’gu. Setelah makan shooting dilanjutkan. Kebetulan daku peserta CSA terakhir yang di-syuting. Syukurlah lancar. Habis syuting daku langsung pulang tanpa menunggu acara syuting selesai karena ada janji dengan teman.

Semoga acara CSA yang sangat menginspirasi & dapat memicu timbulnya ide-ide brilian dari masyarakat ini dapat berjalan dengan baik & dapat memberikan manfaat yang sebesar-besarnya bagi masyarakat. Amin.

Makan-makan di Pare'gu

Suasana Sesi 2 Setelah Makan

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Arsip syuting2 yg lalu:
~ Shooting Jendela Dunia
~ Shooting Jendela Dunia (Lagi)
~ Jendela Dunia
~ Shooting Mirror To Mirror
~ e-Lifestyle: SMS Pemantau Murid
~ Disengat Tawon dan Diwawancara TV Bali