Crispy Jerusalem Artichokes

 By: Patrice Hall

(Note:  This recipe is from bbcgoodfood.com, I removed the mace and instead added Himalayan salt and black pepper to suit my taste, you can add the mace if you wish..)

Crispy Jerusalem artichokes with roasted garlic & rosemary

Prep:  20 minutes

Cook:  50 minutes (plus soaking)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

800g Jerusalem artichokes

1 garlic bulb, cut down the middle

1 tbsp rosemary leaves, chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

Pinch Himalayan sea salt

Pinch Ground black pepper

20g butter

2 tsp lemon juice

STEP 1

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Soak the artichokes in cold water for 20 mins or so to loosen any dirt, then scrub them with a scourer, being sure to remove any grit. Halve the small ones and quarter the bigger ones, and put them in a roasting tin with the split garlic bulb and rosemary. Coat everything with the oil and season. Roast for 45-50 mins until tender inside and crispy outside.

STEP 2

To finish, squeeze the softened garlic cloves from their skins and toss with the roasted artichokes, along with the mace, butter and lemon juice.

CSA-The Best Way to Control Your Own Supply Chain

 By : Patrice Hall

I have been a member of Norwood CSA for 15 years, and I have never felt as fortunate to be a part of this group as I do now.  The broken food supply chain is becoming a large problem as some supermarket chains are facing shortages of all kinds of goods.  There are hundreds of cargo ships waiting off the coast of California to unload their goods, and the trucking industry is facing staffing shortages.  I am reading more and more articles highlighting the importance of buying local produce and goods as overseas shipping is not as reliable as it once was.  These factors point to one simple fact, families across the US must learn to control their own sources of food and necessities of life.

CSA’s are one way to do this, we purchase shares in a local farm and receive food shipped direct to us each week, which means we bypass the middle-man (supermarkets, store chains, etc.) who markup goods.  These stores also rely on overseas shipments and other factors, due to the pandemic staffing shortages shelves become bare when shipments are late.  Also, when the food finally arrives it is near its expiration date, or it is heavily treated with preservatives to extend shelf life.  By contrast, our weekly share from the farm is free of preservatives because it is picked fresh early that morning or canned that week, and the meat is fresh from colorants and other chemicals.

It is unfortunate that it takes a pandemic for us to realize just how fragile our supply chain is and how important local farms and producers are, but I am happy that the public is becoming aware of this.  Every week I strive to use every bit of my share and waste little, I also try to preserve as much as possible.  Maybe this will lead to more people joining CSA’s like ours in the future, and this will help local farms like Norwich Meadows thrive.

Boom...roasted

 By : Vaughan Myers-Jennings

This week's haul of vegetables gave us a rainbow of colors to eat!

Seriously, if my plate was this colorful as a child (and God bless my grandma, who was an amazing cook), I probably would have been more open to actually eating vegetables.

Radishes, turnips, beets, purple potatoes...there were so many choices.

But how do you make the most of all these radiant veggies? How can you possibly consume them all? Well, when in doubt...roast! In my many many years of vegetable eating (a whole 3 years), I've come to learn that the best way to get your proper intake AND make them tasty is to oven roast them. The process is very simple: preheat your oven to 400, chop them into similar sized pieces, place on a baking pan, season with a mixture of oil, salt, garlic powder and onion powder; put them in the oven and cook anywhere from 10-45 minutes (depends on the vegetables; make sure that you can pierce with a fork), and voila!

Now you have some tasty veggies to eat. Enjoy!

Canning Applesauce

By : Patrice Hall

This is a recipe I have from the website National Center for Home Food Preservation (https://nchfp.uga.edu/), I plan to adjust the recipe for 3 pounds of apples, and I use the boiling water canning method which is best (the pressure canning method is for vegetables and other non-acid foods). I deleted the pressure canning details from this post but if you want to look it up you can go to the website…

Quantity: An average of 21 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 13½ pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 48 pounds and yields 14 to 19 quarts of sauce – an average of 3 pounds per quart.

Quality: Select apples that are sweet, juicy and crisp. For a tart flavor, add 1 to 2 pounds of tart apples to each 3 pounds of sweeter fruit.

Please read Using Pressure Canners and Using Boiling Water Canners before beginning. If this is your first time canning, it is recommended that you read Principles of Home Canning.

Procedure: Wash, peel, and core apples. If desired, slice apples into water containing ascorbic acid to prevent browning. Placed drained slices in an 8- to 10-quart pot. Add ½ cup water. Stirring occasionally to prevent burning, heat quickly until tender (5 to 20 minutes, depending on maturity and variety). Press through a sieve or food mill, or skip the pressing step if you prefer chunk-style sauce. Sauce may be packed without sugar. If desired, add 1/8 cup sugar per quart of sauce. Taste and add more, if preferred. Reheat sauce to boiling. Fill jars with hot sauce, leaving ½-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process.

Processing directions for canning applesauce in a boiling-water canner:

This document was adapted from the "Complete Guide to Home Canning," Agriculture Information  Bulletin No. 539, USDA, revised 2015. 

My Vegetable Soup Recipe

By : Patrice Hall

My regular go-to website for cooking ingredients is Nuts.com, they have a wide selection of spices, nuts and organic foods.  I decided to try their organic harmony soup blend so I can use it with my CSA veggies for soups this fall.  The carrots and garlic really made this soup golden…

Ingredients

3 cups of Organic Harmony Soup blend (Nuts.com)

7 medium carrots

2 bulbs of garlic

3 Leeks

6 cups of water

2 tablespoons of dried basil

2 tablespoons of black lava salt (or Himalayan sea salt)

1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

First, take the soup blend and boil it in the water for at least 10 minutes then let it sit for 1 hour.  Meanwhile peel the carrots and slice into 2 inch pieces.  Clean and cut the leeks into 2 inch pieces.  Peel and dice the garlic.  Add the carrots, leeks and garlic into the pot with the soup blend, along with the salt, basil and red pepper flakes.  Add enough water to the pot to cover the ingredients by 2 inches, then bring to a boil, then bring the pot down to a very low simmer to slow cook the soup for an hour.  After it is done, remove from the heat and serve. 

Picture from Nuts.com

A Tasty Way To Use Eggplant

By :Vaughan Myers-Jennings

In one of our most recent CSA vegetable hauls, we received eggplant, tomatoes, and garlic (amongst a host of other tasty veggies). While researching potential eggplant dishes, my wife and I came across an amazing Indian dish called Baingan Bhartha. Using all of the aforementioned 3 vegetables, it’s a dish that’s both healthy and delicious.

First, take 3 or 4 eggplants, place on a baking sheet, cover them in oil, poke holes in them using a fork, and broil them until blistered.

While that’s happening, cook down a combination of tomatoes, garlic, ginger, onion, and spices.

When the eggplants are done; peel them, mash them, and mix into your sauce. Yum!

For a more in-depth recipe, use this link:

http://chefinyou.com/recipe/baingan-bhartha