Put a Pepper in your Step! by Jenny Pena

 Put a Pepper in your Step!

by Jenny Pena 

One item that throughout the fall and still as of last week we got in our CSA box are peppers. These come in different colors, shapes, sizes and spice levels. Regardless of your preference of spice level, you can find peppers that can be incorporated in your recipes to add a layer of flavor to your sauces, stews and beans. During this season we received several types and I wanted to share about two of my favorites that are also readily available in stores as well. 

Poblano Peppers – originally from Puebla they are dark green and have a lot of flavor and mild heat. Excellent to have roasted, stuffed and even dried to use in Mexican recipes which are called ancho chiles.

Here is a great recipe that I like to make when these come in the CSA box. Feel free to swap the filling with rice and beans, mashed potatoes and also experiment with different cheese combinations. It is delicious and ingredients are probably already in your pantry. See recipe linked here - https://www.thespruceeats.com/grilled-stuffed-chili-rellenos-3378388

Stuffed chiles.  Photo courtesy of https://www.thespruceeats.com

Jalapeno Peppers – these are widely known and are a bit more intense in terms of heat level. According to Wikipedia, it is the official “State Pepper of Texas,” but you don’t have to be in Texas to enjoy these. I love to add them to anything from stews, beans and guacamole. If you want it to be a bit spicier, leave the seeds; if you want it less hot, remove the seeds and use the outer part. I prefer to use them for guacamole and my trick is to roast them using a pan over the stove and then chop to add to the guacamole. Here is a simple recipe that also uses onions (that have been in every box this season) and, of course, avocados. See recipe linked here - https://everydaylatina.com/spicy-guacamole-with-roasted-vegetables/

Guacamole in a bowl with tortilla chips.  Photo courtesy of https://everydaylatina.com

So, whether you like the spice level to be up or down, you can still add some peppers to your vegetable rotation and experiment with it. Your foods will taste delicious and it is a simple and easy way to be versatile and experiment.

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Interested in learning more about the Norwood CSA? Check out our Info Page: https://norwoodfoodcoop.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-to-join-norwood-csa.html

My Reaction to the “12 Foods You Should Never Store In The Refrigerator” Article by Patrice Hall

My Reaction to the “12 Foods You Should Never Store In The Refrigerator” Article 

by Patrice Hall

 

Fruits and Vegetables in the Crisper Drawer of a Fridge.

I tend to keep most of the food in the kitchen refrigerated, everything goes in the fridge or freezer, especially jars of whatever is opened.  All the CSA veggies are kept in the fridge as well, the root vegetables in the vegetable bin and the greens are wrapped in a paper towel and kept in the plastic bag or Ziplock.  Well, imagine my surprise when I read the article featured in Southern Living website “12 Foods You Should Never Store in The Refrigerator”.  Many foods we keep in the fridge actually need to be kept at room temperature, so I will list each food they featured and give a reason why we customarily refrigerate them.  You can find the original article at https://www.southernliving.com/food/kitchen-assistant/foods-not-to-store-in-refrigerator?hid=745d0323cff2b5ef4eba9d9382b7f96538eb0301&did=10485343-20231011&lctg=745d0323cff2b5ef4eba9d9382b7f96538eb0301:

1.      Tomatoes -I like cold tomatoes when I eat them, they taste good in sandwiches that way.  My mom never kept them on the counter.

2.      Onions -Laziness is the reason why I usually toss these in the veggie bin, it never spoils faster so it works for me 😊

3.      Potatoes -This is a toss up, depending on if there is counter space these will be tossed in the veggie bin.

4.      Oil – I am in full agreement with the article here, this stays on the countertop.

5.      Bananas -If they need to ripen, they are left on the kitchen table, if they are ripe, they go in the fridge, this is a matter of taste with us.

6.      Coffee -I fully agree with the article, this is in a large mason jar on my kitchen table.

7.      Honey- Unopened it is in the cabinet, once opened it goes in the fridge because it tends to get sticky outside the jar.

8.      Bread -We keep this at room temperature on top of the fridge as the article suggests, we keep our Ezekiel bread in the fridge as instructed on the package.

9.      Avocados -When ripe we keep it in the fridge, on the countertop when it needs to ripen.

10.   Garlic -This is a toss-up, depending on our mood…

11.    Melons -These go in the fridge, we like cold melon.

12.   Peaches, Plums, And Nectarines -These all go in the fridge, usually are canned later.

This is how we keep our food stored, however I may take some pointers from the article to see the results.

 

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Interested in learning more about the Norwood CSA? Check out our Info Page: https://norwoodfoodcoop.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-to-join-norwood-csa.html

Butternut Squash – a Fruit Soup for the Soul by Jenny Pena

 Butternut Squash – a Fruit Soup for the Soul

By Jenny Pena

 

Fall is a great time for soup and one of my favorite items to eat is Butternut Squash. If you didn’t know, Butternut Squash is actually a fruit (but treated as a vegetable) and is in season during the fall and winter months, it is rich in many nutrients such as Vitamins C and A as well as fiber and potassium and it helps with maintaining healthy blood pressure, preventing eye disease, great source of healthy fiber, antioxidants, and many more benefits. It has a delicious sweet taste that is very filling. (see article from everyday health here - https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition/potential-health-benefits-of-butternut-squash/)

 

While you can cut it in cubes and add some oil, salt, pepper and herbs (my favorite is thyme) and cook it in the air fryer to keep and add to salads, my favorite way to enjoy it is in a soup. I think that if you enjoy sweet potatoes, you will probably enjoy butternut squash.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

 

Bowl of butternut squash soup. Photo credit: https://theskinnyfork.com/blog/butternut-apple-soup

1 large butternut squash – peeled, seeded and in cubes

1-2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp dried thyme or rosemary (if you like the taste)

2 pears or apples (or both if you are adventurous) – peeled, cored and in cubes

1 medium onion – peeled and chopped

1 tsp turmeric

2-3 cloves of garlic (add more if you enjoy the garlic taste)

1-2 1’’ pieces of ginger (omit if you don’t like the taste, but this is great for your digestion and to warm up the body)

3-4 cups of chicken broth or bone broth

Salt + Pepper to taste

1 Pack of bacon (or turkey bacon) – you can omit, used as a topping to add a little texture

1-2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds – optional, it is great as a topping to add some crunch

Preparation

 

1. Toss butternut and apples and/or pears with 1 tbsp of olive oil and herb and roast for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Check and remove items as they become caramelized.
2. Meanwhile, cook onion, garlic and ginger in 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pot until is soft. Add the rest of the vegetables that were roasting with all the remaining ingredients and let it cook for 5-10 minutes.
3. Taste to verify if you need to add more salt and either use an immersion blender or remove and add to blender. I would suggest waiting for soup to be more on the warm side to avoid getting burned or massive splashes.
4. Cook bacon to be crispy in the over or on a pan, then chop and set aside for serving.
5. Toast the sesame seeds in a pan for a little bit and set aside for serving.
6. Enjoy!

 

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Interested in learning more about the Norwood CSA? Check out our Info Page: https://norwoodfoodcoop.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-to-join-norwood-csa.html

Tips for Herbs by Shannon Haas

 

Tips for Herbs

By Shannon Haas

 

Herbs hanging from a hook in a kitchen with a white background, 

near a bookshelf full of cookbooks and tea

Image from Shannon Haas

Have you ever missed the impossibly short window of time that herbs from your CSA are tasty and fresh? If you’re like me, this unfortunately happens most of the time! I’ve tried all of the methods - dipping herbs in ice water before storing them, leaving them in a cup of water in the fridge like a bouquet, placing them in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel…the list goes on and on. Read on to discover some of the ways I’ve managed to stretch the shelf life of fresh CSA herbs over the years.

My number one go-to when herbs start to lose their oomph in the fridge - dry them! This technique is SO easy. You just need a place to hang your bunch of herbs and some string. Here’s what I do:

1. Rinse your herbs under running water. Pat mostly dry (it’s fine if some moisture remains, but it shouldn't be dripping wet)

2. Holding the herbs like a bouquet of flowers with the stems together at the bottom, tie a string around the bunch of stems. Tie it tightly!

3. Cut the other end of the string to the desired length. Tie this end somewhere in your kitchen that has decent airflow and allows the bundle to hang undisturbed.

4. Wait a few days until all of the leaves are dry and crispy.

5. Once you have some time to spare, process the herbs by removing the leaves and adding them to a labeled container for future use. Compost the stems.

Another method that works only with basil is to propagate it. Again, this is so so so easy! Just take your whole basil stem and stick it in water. Place it by a window so that it can get sunlight and continue to photosynthesize. After a week or so, the part of your basil stem that’s in the water should pop out some roots! You can then feel free to leave it in the water and allow it to continue growing this way, or for more success try potting it up in soil. As always, when you remove leaves from the basil plant to use in a recipe, pinch the top leaves off so that the plant will create new shoots and continue to produce leaves.

I hope you will try some of these methods for extending the length of time you can use herbs from the CSA. It’s always exciting to use them during non-CSA months! If you have other herb-related tricks or tips, please share them in the comments.

 

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Interested in learning more about the Norwood CSA? Check out our Info Page: https://norwoodfoodcoop.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-to-join-norwood-csa.html

My Canning Story by Patrice Hall

 My Canning Story

(It didn’t go as expected!)

by Patrice Hall

I decided to can plums this week. They were sitting in my fridge, and no one had plans to eat them. So, I cleaned my countertop, prepared my pots and utensils, and measured the sugar and water.  I cleaned and sliced the plums, set them aside and prepared the simple syrup using the website https://nchfp.uga.edu/ (The National Center for Home Food Preservation) as a guide.  I didn’t follow the instructions exactly, and I felt confident that I was going to get great results because I've canned 4 times already.  

Washed red plums in a blue bowl.

 

I had eight large plums and three small plums, so I decided to slice the small ones in half and cut the large ones in fourths.  This made the pieces about even, so I boiled them in the simple syrup (and I added some fruit juice I made from peaches from a previous share) while boiling the pint jars, then I went back to my computer and started working.

After about 20 minutes of work, I went back to the kitchen, the pot with the plums boiled over, spilling sticky syrup all over the left side of the stove.  OMG!  What a mess! Good thing I caught it before it got worse.  I cleaned the area, filled the hot jars with the plums (which are shredded) and processed them in the hot water canner.  

My reason for writing this is to demonstrate that we can still go ahead and can our produce even though it may not be picture perfect, it is still good produce which is better than what you can find in the supermarkets.  It may even be the best plums I ever made, who knows?

I still plan to pickle the green beans and other veggies we get in our shares; my husband loves pickled produce. When I do, I will write about those experiences as well.  I used the following ingredients and materials for canning the plums:

2 cups sugar (used for simple syrup)

4 cups water

32oz. fruit juice (made with peaches and sugar)

4 pint Ball canning jars with lids and bands

For the taste test (moment of truth) I will wait until my son tries a jar and see what he thinks 😊

Four mason jars of canned plums on a white paper towel.

 

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Interested in learning more about the Norwood CSA?  Check out our Info Page: https://norwoodfoodcoop.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-to-join-norwood-csa.html 

Making Peach Jam by Patrice Hall

 Making Peach Jam

by Patrice Hall

This summer, I decided that I wanted to learn how to make jams, preserves and pickles.  I also want to start fermenting veggies as well (sauerkraut), and I wanted to start spouting beans.  This is very ambitious for me, and I started with jam first because I had a bunch of peaches which I wanted to use and they looked delish sitting in my fridge.  Usually, we would get lots of cucumbers, but so far no dice and the ones I receive I usually eat right away in salads.  So, I opened my Ball Book of Canning and Preserving book and used the National Center for Home Food Preservation site https://nchfp.uga.edu/ and started my jam.

Ingredients needed:

4 each ½ pint Ball jars with the lids and bands (I prefer the wide mouth jars)

*Prepared Peaches 2 2/3 cups

Fruit Pectin (3 tablespoons)

Sugar 3 1/3 cups

Whole peaches in a blue bowl in a steel sink.

Chopped peaches, lemon juice, sugar, and pectin boiling in a steel pot.

 

Instructions:

Clean the jars with soap and water then boil them in a large canning pot to make them hot.  While this is happening, you prepare the peaches by peeling, pitting them, then finely chop them, then sprinkle them with the lemon juice.  When the canning pot with the jars is boiling well you can remove the jars then set aside with the lids and bands.  Keep the canning pot boiling so you can use it right away after you fill the jars.

Combine the prepared peaches and fruit pectin in a large saucepan.  Bring this to a rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, over high heat, stirring constantly.  Add the sugar, stirring to dissolve.  Return to a full rolling boil, boil hard for 1 minute while stirring constantly.  Remove from heat then skim the foam.  Then ladle the hot jam into the hot jars leaving ¼ inch headspace.  Place the lid on the jar with the band and close to fingertip tight.  Place the jar in the canning pot, repeat until all jars are filled.  Place top on canner and boil jars for 10 minutes (consult the National Center for Home Food Preservation site for altitude adjustments).

After the Processing time is finished let the pot cool a bit by taking the lid off before taking jars out to cool on a counter covered with a towel (this is so the glass jars won’t break with the sudden change in temperature).  You may hear a popping sound, that means that the lids are sealed on the jars which is a good thing 😊  I left my jars to cool overnight, my son wanted to eat some right away(!), so I let him.  In this case, once opened the jar must stay in the fridge.  The rest of the unopened jars can go in the cabinet if sealed properly, if not then it must go in the fridge.  The way you can tell is by pressing on the button on the lid, if it is still raised after 24 hours then it is not sealed.  This is very important because you can avoid getting sick by keeping the unsealed jars in the fridge.  

Three mason jars of peach jam.

 

This is a fun and easy way to preserve some extra fruit, and you can make your own jam without all of the preservatives you don’t want.  I’m thinking about making soups and stews and canning them, but first I have to let go of my apprehension using my pressure canner 😊.

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Interested in learning more about the Norwood CSA?  Check out our Info Page: https://norwoodfoodcoop.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-to-join-norwood-csa.html