Purple and Green Curry

By Evan Casper-Futterman & Katherine Howitt

Our first CSA share was this winter, so we had gotten pretty used to being creative with beets, turnips, rutabaga, radishes, and of course, the unforgettable kohlrabi. But with the winter share, at least we had a couple weeks to figure out how to integrate all of those good roots into our weekly meals. Now, as first-timers to the summer share, we have to be super up on our game and ready to rock from the moment the box comes in the door on Wednesday afternoon. 

So we’ve gotten our routine down - quick inventory of the haul, followed by a reference check to what we’ve got on the fridge, followed by a huddle on first draft meal inspirations, followed by the longer task of cutting stems, and repacking everything into the fridge so it fits. Not easy with some of the leafy greens and giant spring onions! For dinners where we’re not sure exactly what we’ll want or have left in any given week, we’ve taken to writing in “garden basket” as a general catch all, that can go with anything: tofu garden basket, pasta garden basket, etc. 

But the times when inspiration strikes are usually a bit more fun, because they come with some intentionality around flavors, colors, etc. This week, our first meal was a gigantic (sort of accidentally) tofu and vegetable curry. This curry has now fed each of us (in a two person household, our cat has his own veggie share) for at least two or three meals, and is a real crowd pleaser we’ll come back to throughout the rest of the summer and fall. 

For the curry, we started off with a few things we had already that we wanted to use: tofu, one pepper, some mushrooms, and broccoli. The rest were from our share: a heaping bunch of amaranth, a beautiful purple pepper, an eggplant, romano beans, and a couple spring onions. We also threw in some of the garlic from the share the previous week. 

While the rice cooked with a bit of coconut milk, we threw the ingredients into the pan in stages, eventually realizing that we were looking at a near overflow situation. The ingredients were all cooked down with some curry paste and coconut milk, and after about 20 minutes of simmer, we were ready to go. It felt great to start off the new share with using so many different share ingredients all in one recipe, and we’re excited to try it again with some new veggies later on this summer.

RECIPE

Ingredients:

Lots of veggies! We used:

• Amaranth

• Peppers

• Eggplant

• Mushrooms

• Broccoli

• Spring Onion

• Garlic

• Rice (1 cup)

• 1 can coconut milk

• 1 tablespoon red curry paste

• 1 teaspoon curry powder

• 1 teaspoon coriander

• 1 teaspoon cumin

• ½ teaspoon paprika

• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

• Olive oil

• Salt and pepper to taste

To make the rice:
Boil 1 part rice with 2 parts water, half the can of coconut milk and ½ teaspoon of salt. Once boiling sit to simmer for 20-25 minutes until all liquid is absorbed. 

To make the curry:
We definitely didn’t follow a recipe here but spices and oil went first followed by onions and garlic. We added ingredients based on our beliefs about how long they’d take to cook (broccoli early, mushrooms late, tofu somewhere in the middle) to give everything adequate time to cook and cook down. At some point we added the rest of the coconut milk. Salt and pepper throughout as desired. 

Finishing touches:
We like more spice so we added hot sauce while eating. 

French Onion Soup with Spring Onions!

French Onion Soup!

I used to lump french onion soup into the category I have for complicated-sounding desserts, called “Best Ordered in a Restaurant and Not Attempted in my Kitchen.” You know, one of those advanced class dishes.

That was before last week, as we scrambled to finish the vegetables from the previous Norwood CSA share delivery. 4-5 spring onions, what to do? Soon, after Googling a recipe, I came to a shocking realization: not only is french onion soup pretty easy to make; I already had most of the ingredients in my fridge and pantry.

This recipe from Gimme Some Oven was super easy to follow and delicious. I used five small spring onions and one regular-sized yellow onion. I think the freshness and natural moistness of the spring onions made for a richer and more flavorful caramelization process. The dish was even more perfect and filling with a baguette from Madonia Brothers Bakery on Arthur Avenue that I’d been keeping in the freezer and later toasted in the oven. For garnish, I didn’t have thyme on hand, so I chopped a sprig of oregano from our rooftop garden. Turns out you can eat this herb once it starts to flower (I think, anyway).

Also, a note: for anyone who saw someone identical to me in the Dobbs Ferry Stop & Shop adding Progresso french onion soup to her cart during early days of quarantine, you are surely mistaken; I'm far too much of a cook to commit such a mortal sin. 

Grilled Zucchini and Squash

Hello  CSA members,

The best thing I have bought during this online shopping season is a cast iron stove top grill. It has brought the taste of back yard grilling to indoor apartment living due to current circumstances by covid. Now that the we are getting beautiful squash from our CSA, we turn on the grill and have delicious veggies in only a few minutes. Here is an easy recipe to use if you would like to have outdoor tastes while at home:

https://www.marthastewart.com/352690/grilled-zucchini-and-squash

The grill is so good we now have two, can't wait to get more from the farm to see what more we can do!

Post by : Afua Baako

Amaranth Greens- the new, new, new super food?

Cooking unfamiliar vegetables we get from Norwich Meadows Farm in the CSA is a whole new world these days.  When I joined the Norwood CSA in 2005, cookbooks were really the only place to turn for recipe ideas:
Farmer John's The Real Dirt on Vegetables was a must have
Simply in Season from the Mennonite Central Committee, also useful

These days, I almost always turn to the computer to produce creative and delicious dishes.  You still need to wade through many less than stellar recipes, but it turns up a lot of family crowd pleasers in our household!

I found this post on the Organic Authority (relation to the now bankrupt Sports Authority- could be!), extolling the wonders of mighty Amaranth Greens:

• vitamin E in them could lower cholesterol and reduce risk of heart disease
• potassium can improve brain function and reduce risk of stroke
• magnesium reduces high blood pressure, gives energy, calms anxiety, prevents osteoperosis
• improves digestion
• high in iron, addresses anemia

We are now feeding the stems to our guinea pig with the hopes that he develops super powers, or at least starts cleaning his own cage.

We tried the recipe included, using some of the spring onions and garlic scapes, replacing the coconut milk with some of the cream we had left over after making chicken tikka masala (ok, I realize that cream might counteract some of the amaranth benefits).  The girls loved the pink greens, as well as their parents.  If that's not a super food, I don't know what is!

The First Week of the 2020 Summer Season

In previous years, when asked what I looked forward to the most about the CSA, I’d exclaim, “Garlic scapes!” -- I love chopping them up and putting them in anything from salads to stir fry to omelets to pesto, and their brief appearance at the beginning of the summer season signals the end of an exhausting school year and the harbinger of many vegetable adventures to come.

This year, though, the mere existence of the CSA felt both necessary and impossible for a time, and so I find myself looking forward to all of it. Not only the produce, but the time outdoors in the garden volunteering, seeing neighbors from a distance, and rallying 50-some households to keep showing up. It is a credit to core organizers, current and past, that we have the tools to support each other and continue to work to grow our membership.

Our old routines are fairly well-documented on this blog and other social media; in stark contrast, this season we’ll have pre-packed boxes and limited dawdling. Our first delivery went smoothly and it was great to see familiar, albeit masked, faces and meet new members as well. It was a combination of taking back some control (knowing where our food comes from, avoiding gathering indoors), and yielding some of it (what’s in the box??), too. 

Food sovereignty and food justice are necessary branches in the larger overlapping struggles for racial equity, environmental justice, and liberation for all. I look forward to hearing how members use the material fuel of these gorgeous vegetables to expand their vision of a better world, while hoping for the day we can fling the garden gates wide open once again.

Summer 2020 CSA is Now Taking Signups!

join us for our summer season from june-november!

Your membership in the Norwood CSA supports:

Organic produce. Norwich Meadows Farm offers weekly deliveries of organic produce from mid-June to mid-November. Your weekly share will include fresh organic vegetables and fruits grown in season and picked just prior to delivery. Expect to receive between 7 and 9 different vegetables per week.

Affordable shopping. The quantity and variety of items in the share will vary weekly, depending on weather and season. In an average year, the share prices reflect a savings of about 15-20% off what you would pay in a green market for a comparable amount of local organic produce.

Local agriculture. Unfortunately, our CSA family at Norwich Meadows farm has seen a downtrend in signups over the past few seasons. We value supporting the direct link between the farmer and consumer, giving consumers fresh and more wholesome organic foods and farmers more security in their work. (The food co-op is not like shopping at the supermarket. You pay in advance for produce selected by the farm.)

Community. This CSA is run by members. A rotating core group of volunteers take on much of the administrative management of the CSA. This can include signing up new members, collecting members payments, running the distribution site, and planning community-building or educational events. All sign up for one volunteer shift hours during the season. In doing so, you'll meet other members and neighbors who care about good food, sustainability, and eco-justice.

Sign up: