The Beginning of the CSA Summer Season

Norwich Meadows Farm, the farm of our CSA, has announced our official summer start date - Thursday, June 15. Bring your reusable bags and any extra plastic bags to add to our stock. Check your email for volunteer shift information. 

Our first delivery will include the following items. Check out this Edible Bronx article What to Expect When You Join a CSA.

Radishes
Pac Choi
Kohlrabi
Chives
Garlic
Cucumber
Mixed Greens

For more information about food storage and preparation visit Just Food Veggie Tip Sheets. 

Bronx Music Garden

Join Us! CSA member Omar Morsy invites you to the Bronx Music Garden.

There will be live music, free food, gardening demonstrations and free raffle giveaways.

Moved to Tuesday, June 6th. 

Hanley’s Shepherd Pie

For those of us particularly with the omnivore share, we’ve had a good supply of ground beef, potatoes, onions, and carrots. On this fine St. Patrick’s Day, I’d  like to share with you my recipe for Shepherd’s Pie to help us use up those ingredients.

Hanley’s Shepherd Pie

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 lb. ground beef*

Sea salt and black pepper

3 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped*

2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped*

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

Few thyme sprigs, leaves only

2 plum tomatoes, chopped

2 tbsp tomato purée

1 1/3 cup bottled Guinness

5 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1-1/4 cup chicken stock

1 15 oz. can of peas

2-1/4 Ib potatoes, peeled and roughly cubed*

1-3/4 oz. butter

2 tbsp finely grated Parmesan or cheddar, plus extra for grating

1 large egg yolk*

Step 1: Place a large frying pan over high heat and add a thin layer of olive oil. Season the ground meat with salt and pepper and fry, stirring, in two or three batches, until nicely browned. Once cooked, tip the meat into a sieve or colander to drain off the fat.

Step 2: Place another large pan over medium-high heat and add a little olive oil. When hot, fry the onion and carrots, with garlic and thyme, for 8-10 minutes until soft and golden. Add the browned meat, tomatoes and tomato purée. Stir constantly for 4-5 minutes.

Step 3: Add the Guinness and Worcestershire sauce and boil until the liquid has reduced by half. Pour in the stock and return to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 20-25 minutes, by which time the mixture should be thick and glossy. Halfway through add canned peas.  Continue to simmer for another 5-10 minutes if it doesn’t seem quite thick enough. Remove from the heat.

Step 4: Preheat the oven to 356°F. Meanwhile, add the potatoes to a pan of salted water, bring to a boil and cook until tender. Drain and return to the hot pan for 15 seconds or so, to dry out, then take off the heat. Pass the potatoes through a potato ricer back into the pan or mash smoothly. Mix through the butter, cheese and egg yolk. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Step 5: Spoon the meat mixture into the bottom of a 2 L pie dish. Spoon the mashed potato on top and rough up the surface with a fork. Grate over some extra cheese and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until bubbling and golden brown.

*ingredients received in Norwood CSA Winter Omnivore Share

- Nicole Hanley

Sunchoke Bravery!

Kohlrabi

Since I joined the CSA last summer, I have encountered several interesting veggies - and familiar veggies in interesting shapes and colors. I've been brave and thankfully that bravery has been rewarded with some delicious eats - Kohlrabi! However, I have yet to muster the courage to try the intriguing Jerusalem Artichoke, AKA the Sunchoke. But, it’s time. I'm starting the way I did with many of the items I received over the months: some basic research on the item itself and then what is the simplest way to prepare this item. I've gathered that info and some links below. I hope you all find this information helpful. If you have some thoughts, share. Please note this is heavily plagiarized/paraphrased, and will likely lead to my removal from consideration for any presidential appointments.

 

Suchokes are bulbous, medium-sized tubers of the plant known botanically as Helianthus tuberosus. These tubers are the root stem of variety of sunflower that can grow up to ten feet tall with smallish yellow flowers. Related to daisies, the sunflowers grow anywhere but in wetlands and marshes. Sunchokes have “eyes” similar to potatoes, some varieties are smooth whereas others are more knobbed. The tubers have a light-beige to tan-colored skin. The crisp, ivory flesh of the Sunchoke has a texture similar to water chestnuts and a sweet, nutty, savory flavor...or perhaps the best potato you've ever had.

Sunchokes are native to North America. The tubers are unrelated to either Jerusalem or artichokes. Several different theories describe how the moniker Jerusalem Artichoke came to be, but I'll let you research that topic on your own.



Though the skins of sunchokes / Jerusalem artichokes are indeed edible some people find the taste too earthy. Many cooks enjoy adding bits of the crunchy, raw vegetable to salads or salsas, while others prefer them roasted or mashed. If you eat them cooked, they have a creamy texture and you can use them in ways similar to potatoes. Jerusalem artichokes provide a number of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. These vitamin-rich roots are high in thiamin, niacin, and iron. They also contain relatively large amounts of potassium and Vitamin C, while being low in calories. The tubers contain no fat or cholesterol, and only small amounts of sodium.

• A 1-cup serving of sliced, raw Jerusalem artichokes contains 110 calories, 3 grams of protein and 26.2 grams of carbohydrates, including 2.4 grams of fiber, or 25 percent of the daily value. 
• Each serving of Jerusalem artichokes has 10 percent of the daily value for vitamin C and niacin, and 30 percent of the DV for thiamine. 
• Eating a cup of sliced sunchokes provides you with 11 percent of the DV for copper, 12 percent of the DV for phosphorus, 18 percent of the DV for potassium and 28 percent of the DV for iron. 

Sunchokes can be steamed, boiled, grilled, fried or even microwaved, much like potatoes.

• Boil them in water for 10-15 minutes or until soft. Larger sunchokes will need a bit longer, and, just like potatoes, you can chop them up first to get them to cook a bit quicker. They tend to get a bit mushy when boiled, so steaming them may be a better choice. 
• To grill sunchokes, slice them thin and brush with olive oil. Or, wrap in a foil packet drizzled with oil. 
• Another option is to roast sunchokes in the oven. Heat the oven to 375 degrees, drizzle your coarsely chopped sunchokes with oil, salt, and pepper, and roast them in the oven for 35-45 minutes, or until soft and golden brown. 

Some people experience mild gastrointestinal bloating when eating Sunchokes. Proponents suggest introducing sunchokes to the diet gradually, beginning with small portions. The unpeeled roots should be refrigerated, and will remain fresh for about a week.


Sources:

http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Sunchokes_2023.php

https://www.thespruce.com/what-are-sunchokes-3376827

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-a-sunchoke.htm

http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/sunchoke-nutrition-facts

http://www.livestrong.com/article/374796-health-benefits-of-jerusalem-artichokes/

Spinach and Leek Quiche with Roasted Veggies

With leeks, a little goes a long way. I love leeks; I find them sweeter than onions and they don’t make me feel icky afterward if I eat them when they’re not cooked through. So, when I got a bodacious leek from the CSA, I was determined to use the whole thing.

Needless to say, the warm leek vinaigrette didn’t exactly do it.

I’m not typically into huge chunks of onion in my quiche, but leeks tend to be a bit more delicate (they’re also easier to chop into fine strips), so I went for it. I’m attempting to be healthy as of late, and I’m cooking for one, so I felt less inclined to load the quiche with cheese, bacon, and buttery pie crust.

(On that note, I’ve been fawning over this recipe for quiche with brie and beets. If you make this or have ever made it, please tell me all about it in graphic, vivid detail. Don’t spare a single detail.)

Aside from some heavy cream mixed in, this quiche is bread-less, bacon-less, and crust-less. I do not recommend this, but it worked for me.

Getting to business!

I sautéed a bunch of spinach in a pan. Again, because I was hoping for a healthier option, I didn't add any oil to the pan. Spinach will cook nicely on its own. 

Then leeks. These did need oil, and boy was I happy to give it to ‘em.

Meanwhile, I whisked six eggs and a squirt of heavy cream in a mixing bowl. 

I buttered a pie dish.

I’ll be honest: I singed some of my leeks. No one’s perfect. Good thing leeks are big enough that there was plenty of un-burnt leek to use.

Once I salvaged the survivors, I mixed everything together in a bowl, added some salt and pepper, and baked it for ~30 minutes.

If I was in a real hurry in the mornings, baking this in a muffin pan would have been an easy way to get some pre-portioned breakfast to go.

On the side, I roasted up some beets with olive oil + salt + pepper. Roasted potatoes are great, too! (Really, is there anything better than simple, roasted veggies?) As for that warm leek vinaigrette, I used it on some of our fresh lettuce.

Even the finished plate was pretty...

Panzanella Salad with Warm Leek Vinaigrette

When I got home from our community garden last week, I was HUNGRY. Like, ready to eat my hand hungry. Like, good-thing-I-forgot-there-was-pizza-in-the-fridge-because-I-would-have-swallowed-it-without-chewing hungry.

And my apartment was still hot, and I still don't have a grill. I needed something fast.

Luckily, fresh garden veggies taste amazing raw, and with a little prep, they can have a real “wow” factor. I mean, they’re already colorful and crispy and fresh, what else do they need?

Olive oil, balsamic, and crusty bread, that’s what.

I made this panzanella salad for a friend’s cookout last year, and it was a crowd pleaser. People love bread in their salad; I love bread in my salad (and that’s coming from someone who has a huge penchant for raw lettuce). It feels like a real compromise when, in fact, I’d rather be eating just bread.

I had some kind-of stale crusty bread from Arthur Ave in the freezer, so I was able to quickly defrost that in the toaster oven. While it became crispy and delicious, I cut up tomatoes, peppers, and cucumber, and threw the large chunks into a mixing bowl. 

I cut up the green part of a leek into small pieces and put it in a pan with some olive oil. Once the leeks got olive green and fragrant, I added in some balsamic and let the whole mixture get warm.

Bread out of the oven, chunked, into the mixing bowl.

And then I dumped the leek-balsamic heaven over everything.

Here are some things that would be very appropriate in a panzanella on a day when you’re not chomping at the bit: garlic, basil, salt, pepper, olives, mozzarella. (Onions are usually called for, but leeks were a good substitution for me.)

I ate it without any of the above. For healthiness’ sake, I did dump the whole thing on top of some of the fresh lettuce that I had gotten from the CSA. Because, you know, we’ve gotta do something about the abundance of bread on the plate.

Or not.

Truly, this is a good one to have on file for entertaining, and it makes a great addition to a picnic, too!