The Unboxing

 by Matthew López-Jensen

“Is it snowing again?”

“No, it’s actually sleeting. You can hear it on the windows. It sounds like sand.”

“It was snowing earlier. Big fat flakes.”

“Should be done and the sidewalks cleared by Wednesday for the pick up.”

“We did sign up for it; for the winter walks.”

“So worth it, though.”

“For the greens alone.”

“I know. Eating a salad with these greens in the middle of winter in the middle of everything that’s going on. It almost feels wrong.”

“That’s just how tame we are. A salad feels illicit.”

“Not that kind of wrong. It’s just at what other time in history could you walk a few blocks and snag amazing organic veggies with organic baby greens grown in the middle of winter.”

“Maybe you just feel bad eating anything that has the word “baby” in it.”

“Could be. But there’s like five kinds of babies in there!”

“Are you going to make the same dressing you made last time?”

“Is there anything else?”

“No. What do you put in there again?”

“Half a lemon, three teaspoons of olive oil, squirt of Dijon mustard, pinch of salt, black pepper, and a bunch of the dill I dried in November. Dill tastes like summer.”

“That’s it? Why’s it so good?”

“Maybe it’s the dusting of lemon zest. The box this week came with a bunch of red onions. I think I’ll mince some, just a bit, and put them in the salad.”

“You can pickle some.”

“I will this weekend. Along with some of the radish. Faaa! These apples. It’s February but they look perfect, like Crispins.”

“Let’s eat one now.”

“The potatoes look amazing.”

“We’re having them tonight in rice and beans.”

“Yes, please.”

A Salad a Day Keeps the Doctor Away!

by Kathi Carter Rodriguez

We’re almost a year into COVID and who hasn’t gained a few pounds while sheltering in place?  Well I have.  I’ve put on about 10 pounds and that’s why my two posts reflect a consistent theme…..recipes designed to help lose weight. 

I was excited to receive this week’s bounty because I was anticipating all the colorful veggies I’d add to my daily salad. Ah…. mesclun, carrots, beets, Jerusalem artichoke and onions…what a treat!

Before chopping and dicing starts, I clean everything with my ubiquitous spray bottle of white vinegar.  As my grandmother would say, “I went to town” cleaning and scrubbing my veggies.   

While sautéing the onions, I chop mesclun, carrots, beets and Jerusalem artichokes. I combine everything into a serving bowl and add protein.  Today, its leftover roasted chicken, but on other days, it might be turkey, boiled eggs, tuna, salmon, mackerel, chickpeas or lentils).  Then comes the fun stuff:  avocados, golden toasted flaxseeds, toasted pumpkin seeds, tomatoes and pitted Kalamata olives (I absolutely love them). 

Lastly, I dress my salad with Braggs apple cider vinegar and olive oil. Voila!  A guilt-free meal that’s satisfying enough to get me through till dinnertime.  

If Popeye Owned a Vitamix….

by Kathi Carter Rodriguez

My Dad turned 77 last week and credits his good health (no aches and pains whatsoever) to his juice fasts once a week.  So my Dad, Popeye, and this week’s goodies have inspired my second post about juicing.  Juicing is super easy; gives you a natural source of energy; and removes toxins from vital organs (liver, kidney, intestines, etc.).  What’s not to love about juicing? 

This is one of my favorite juice recipes because it’s simple and contains 4 powerful antioxidants------spinach, carrots, beets and apples (all items in this week’s share). 

Here’s the nutritional rundown:

• Spinach is an extremely nutrient-rich vegetable. It packs high amounts of carotenoids, vitamin C, vitamin K, folic acid, iron, and calcium.

• Beets are a superfood that’s packed with potassium, iron, Vitamin C, Vitamin B9 (folate), manganese and fiber.

• Carrots are a good source of several vitamins and minerals, especially biotin, potassium, and Vitamins A (from beta carotene), K1, and B6.

• Apples are fraught with Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C and folate (folic acid)

INSTRUCTIONS:

• A handful of spinach 

• 2 carrots

• 1 beet

• 1 apple 

Clean, peel, and place the items in your Vitamix or juicer.  Juice for about 15-30 seconds and drink immediately to reap the most nutrients.  If you need to store in the fridge, add about ¼ teaspoon of Vitamin C Crystals to preserve freshness. 

This recipe reaps about a cup or two. 

I’m sure my Dad and Popeye would give this recipe a thumb up. ☺

Confronting Root Vegetables

By Sarah Courteau

My mother met my father in her early twenties, fresh from a solidly suburban upbringing. He was significantly older than she and lived on an Ozark farm where he raised and grew much of what he ate. The first fall they were together, he butchered a hog and gave her the head of the animal to make into head cheese, which he prized as a delicacy. Horrified at this elemental presentation of pork, my mother put the hog’s head in a pot, slapped a lid on it, and pushed it to the back of the stove. It remained there, undisturbed, until the smell of decay outed her. 

In summers past, to my shame, the few root vegetables I received in CSAs got roughly the same treatment. They tended to molder in the veggie crisper until they were beyond salvaging while I salivated over the immediate accessibility of juicy tomatoes and crisp cucumbers. I found turnips intimidating. Becoming a member of a winter CSA—which is all about root vegetables—for the first time has forced me to overcome my phobia through exposure therapy. And it’s shown me just how wrong I’ve been about vegetables pulled from the earth. 

So far, of everything we’ve received, the garlic is what pleases me most. The plump, spicy bulbs we’ve been getting are nothing like the desiccated offerings in most supermarkets at this time of year. The single bulb that was in our box this week was gone within 24 hours. The carrots, too, so crunchy and with such personality in their twisted roots, have been a revelation. Since we got our first box of the winter season, my husband and I have eaten more healthily and been able to stretch out our trips to the grocery store to once every couple of weeks as we den up during this winter’s Covid surge. 

Here are a few things I’ve made with this week’s bounty.

Winter Salad

(Serves 2)

I was excited to try the kohlrabi salad recipe linked to in this week’s list of the CSA veggies, but our box didn’t have one. What we did have was lots of daikon radishes and tender beet greens. I made the following salad, loosely adapted from the kohlrabi recipe. I usually go with simple vinegar and oil dressings, but for a salad like this, the creamy, sweet tang of the mayo dressing is a welcome note.

Salad:

2-3 large handfuls of beet greens (or the green of your choice), washed, de-stemmed, and dried

½ giant daikon radish, peeled and thinly sliced 

1 large rainbow carrot, peeled and thinly sliced

½ a tart apple, thinly sliced (I used Granny Smith)

1-2 handfuls of pecans (or the nut of your choice), toast for 7-10 minutes on a cookie sheet in a 350-degree oven

Dressing:

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 ½ to 2 Tbsp. of white wine vinegar

A pinch or two of sugar or a dollop of honey

Salt and pepper

Directions: Toss salad ingredients together. Mix dressing, making sure to fully incorporate honey, if using, and adjusting proportions to your taste. Drizzle over salad and enjoy!

Breakfast Hash

(Serves 2)

This recipe is adapted from a Blue Apron recipe I stumbled on when I typed a few ingredients from the first CSA box into Google. It uses many different CSA items, is extremely adaptable in terms of portions and ingredient substitutions, and is just delicious. I’ve made it three times so far and plan to make it many more.

8-10 fingerling potatoes, scrubbed and sliced into ¼-inch coins

½ cup of sliced pepper of your choice (I use red bell, but any peppers—even jalapenos!—will do)

1 small to medium onion, diced

1 large clove of garlic, minced

A couple handfuls of the green of your choice (our CSA baby beet greens were a bit delicate for this dish, as you can see in the picture, though they tasted yummy; kale is particularly good here)

Two farm eggs

Grated or crumbled cheese (I’ve used cheddar, fresh mozzarella, and chevre—all delicious)

Olive oil

Hot sauce! (optional) 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium cast-iron skillet (or other oven-safe pan), liberally salt and pepper potatoes and sauté them in a bit of olive oil on medium-high heat until crisp, 8-10 minutes. Add onions, garlic, and peppers, salt and pepper again, and sauté a few minutes more until the onions begin to look translucent. Add greens to pan, season again, and cook briefly until wilted. Create two wells in the veggies and crack your eggs into them. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and cheese in an amount to your liking, and bake 7-9 minutes, depending on how well done you like your eggs. (Nine minutes results in a fairly firm egg, in my oven, which runs a little hot.) Top with hot sauce, if desired, and enjoy. (I’m currently obsessed with this NYC-made variety, a Christmas present from my brother and sister-in-law.)

Cabbage Soup

This cozy cabbage and farro soup was a sleeper hit in our house. SmittenKitchen is one of my favorite recipe sites—Deb Perelman never fails me. But I live with a cabbage skeptic, and I was myself a little dubious that this soup could be as full of flavor as promised. Ha! We gobbled it up, and I was sorry that I hadn’t taken Deb’s advice to double the recipe. The tartness of the vinegar and lemon juice balance out the sweetness of the cabbage. I used Italian barley instead of farro and cooked the cabbage way longer than the 30 minutes recommended. (It got very soft but never caramelized.) Will definitely make again.

What I’m looking forward to cooking next … is this New York Times recipe for three-cup vegetables. I’ve made three-cup chicken and am eager to apply the same treatment to potatoes and turnips. I plan to throw in a little tofu, as some reviewers of the recipe suggest.

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Abundance Even in the Dark

 By Evan Casper-Futterman & Katherine Howitt

Our first haul from the winter CSA was a double whammy: our neighbors in the CSA emailed us to ask us if we were interested in their share for the week since they were out of town. This being our second winter season, we had some idea of what to expect in terms of quantity (the potatoes and turnips in our box did not disappoint), but a double haul of those great little fingerling potatoes was nothing compared to a double dose of what are BY FAR the largest cabbages I have ever seen. For example, the photo above is a photo of a cabbage with a substantial amount already used to make sauerkraut. Lucky for us this week we are staying with my mom at her home in Ulster county, about 2 hours north of the Bronx, so we have more space to store all this bounty. 

Our typical triage and assessment process to figure out how we’re going to deal with the contents of each CSA box can take up to 45 minutes with just one box. Four or five pounds of potatoes and 6 pounds of cabbage is a bit overwhelming, so we needed a family strategy session, which we didn’t even get to until Thursday. 

Here’s what we came up with for the immense quantity we are facing down for the next couple weeks:

Homemade sauerkraut  with caraway seeds (see photo above)

Winter slaw:This is an improvisation of my mom’s. 

-Shredded cabbage (about ⅕ of the green cabbage)

- 4 shredded carrots

- 1-2 parboiled and shredded or julienned beets

- 1 shredded turnip or radish

- 1 leek thinly sliced, mostly the green part

- caraway seeds (yes my mom puts them on/in everything)

- salt and pepper

- two sprigs of cilantro 

- tablespoon of minced ginger

- one minced garlic clove

Optional nuts or raisins if you like

Dash of hot pepper flakes if you like

Dressing: a sesame vinaigrette with 3 Tbsp sesame oil, 1/4 cip rice vinegar, and a dash of Bragg’s amino. 

The kraut used up the rest of the first cabbage so we’re one down, but have barely touched the potatoes, turnips, and carrots. For those, here’s what we decided to do:

Martha Stewarts Turnip and Potato Mash

Besides being from Martha Stewart, there’s not much special here but a solid mash is indispensable as a side dish and has that extra comforting quality in the winter. 

Moroccan Spice Carrot Potato Soup

This is a carryover recipe for our house from last winter. It's useful because it's almost completely interchangeable with many of the roots we get in our CSA. You could substitute a rutabaga or kohlrabi into this soup base instead of potato, or mixed with potato, etc. 

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

We typically are vegetarian at home but Evan’s family is partially from Eastern Europe and this style of preparation is the Polish-derived one. We got chicken from our neighbor’s omnivore share, so the beef was from the supermarket, but we’re looking forward to it anyway. 

Keep the lights shining in these dark days!

Bright Bitter Berries

 

by Kristine Paulus

Locally grown cranberries arrived in recent fruit shares, just in time for socially distanced Thanksgiving celebrations. The bag in which they came includes a surprisingly simple recipe for classic cranberry sauce: just add a cup of sugar and boil in water. Related to blueberries, Vaccinium macrocarpon (American cranberry) is a low-growing shrub native to North America. White bell-shaped flowers are thought to look like sandhill cranes, prompting German and Dutch settlers to call them craneberries (the “e” fell away at some point). In Unami, a Lenape language, they are known as ibimi, which means “bitter berry,” referring to its tart flavor.

Cranberries are known for thriving in bogs but the plants are somewhat adaptable. Like other members of the Ericaceae family, which includes blueberries, heaths, heathers, azaleas and rhododendrons, they prefer acidic soil but don’t need to be waterlogged. They can be found growing in the nearby New York Botanical Garden’s Native Plant Garden, Azalea Garden and Rock Garden sections. There is also one growing in a container at Bainbridge Avenue Garden. Although usually grown for its edible fruit, cranberry is a rather pretty perennial with shiny evergreen foliage, trailing branches, pollinator-friendly flowers and bright red berries, giving it considerable ornamental value as well. 

Photos:

1. Vaccinium macrocarpon in fruit at the New York Botanical Garden

2. A flowering cranberry plant at Bainbridge Avenue Community Garden

3. A bowl of CSA cranberries ready to be sauced

Norwood CSA is the Best in the Bronx!

by Kathi Carter Rodriguez

I know the title of this post is bias.  And, I’ve only been a member for a relatively short time, but I can say with confidence, while mimicking King Kong’s chest-pounding that we have the best CSA in the Bronx (dare I say in the entire New York City area).  Yeah, it’s a bit melodramatic, so I’ll expound. 

I joined Norwood CSA at the start of the year before COVID made its global debut and took center stage in our lives. When I signed up I was apprehensive because I didn’t know what to expect. However, being a part of the Norwood CSA for almost a year and participating in both the winter and summer shares allayed any reservation I may have had.  I am now a passionate advocate.  

I know that a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes, as well as, upfront goes into making our food co-op run smoothly. Our CSA is well managed and very organized. And, information is disseminated to our members superbly. I personally look forward to receiving emails a day before pick-up to alert us of the content of weekly shares.  One member recently compared receiving our weekly shares to a Christmas gift and I’m sure many of you share that sentiment.

I also want to give a round of applause to all of my follow volunteers because the concerted efforts of everyone has made this a wonderful year-long experience for me.  I won’t give any personal shout-outs, but as a whole, I feel that this IS the best CSA in the Bronx.  And, I’m looking forward to many years of being a part of this group. 

Next week is our last pickup for the summer/fall harvest.   The signup has begun for our Winter Food Share (deadline Sunday, December 13, 2020). I’d like to encourage as many people as possible to join us….you won’t regret it! ☺

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