The Deri Air
A Blog and Farmcast About a Vegetable Farm and Then Some
Interview with Sweet Peas Podcast
Posted by Deri Farm | Filed under Just for Fun
Last week I enjoyed a wonderful supper with the fine people of Sweet Peas Podcast (http://ritefoodandcompany.com/Podcast/) followed up with a delightful conversation about CSAs and farming. That conversation was recorded and turned in to a podcast (see episode #60.)
Sweet Peas Podcast tells a great story of the family’s journey in eating well in a way that is healthy for not just the consumer, but the environment and the community. Also, Lisa Marie is developing a line of wonderful chocolate…so keep your eyes out for what she has coming out soon. She does have a good deal on the chocolate “bark” until the product launch in September!
Sweet Slaw with Mango
Posted by Deri Farm | Filed under Cabbage, Recipes
This is a tasty recipe submitted by CSA shareholder, Susan. She says, “this is a recipe that I adjusted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook Plenty. Not only does it taste great but is a nice burst of color at the dinner table. Super quick, too.” The recipe uses several ingredients available at Deri Farm including cabbage, cilantro and jalapeno.
Serves 4.
Dressing: mix the following ingredients in a small bowl and set aside for later.
juice from 1 lime
1 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp aged balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
1/2 tsp black sesame seeds
Slaw
7 leaves of green cabbage- finely shredded
1/2 red cabbage- finely shredded
1 mango – cut into chunks or thin strips
1 jalapeno- deseeded and finely sliced
about 20 pistachios or peanuts
6-10 mint leaves- roughly chopped
appox. 20 cilantro leaves- roughly chopped
Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Add dressing and toss together.
A Colorful Dish to Add to a Meal
Romanesco
Posted by Deri Farm | Filed under Crops, Romanesco
Romanesco
This beautiful vegetable is a variation on cauliflower. It has an almost alien appearance with the fractal patterns in the florets. It is quite tasty roasted, steamed or eaten raw.
I posted a great recipe roasting romanesco, fennel and leeks: Roasted Romanesco with fennel and leeks.
Roasted Romanesco with Fennel and Leeks
Posted by Deri Farm | Filed under Recipes, Romanesco
I adapted a recipe I found on epicurious that uses cauliflower: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Cauliflower-with-Onions-and-Fennel-237336. I have replaced the cauliflower with romanesco.
Ingredients:
1 head of romanesco, cut into 1 inch florets
1 bunch of baby leeks or you can use 2 onions, cut in to1 inch sections
2 fennel bulbs, cut lengthwise and cut up in and then cut up in to sections about the same size as the romanesco florets
olive oil
5 garlic cloves
Preparation:
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Toss romanesco in 2 T of olive oil in a bowl. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add oily romanesco and sauté until it starts to brown. Transfer to a glass, rimmed baking sheet.
Heat 2 more T of olive oil in the skillet. Now brown the leeks or onions for a couple of minutes on each side. Transfer leeks to baking dish with romanesco. Finally, sauté fennel in 2 T of oil until it browns slightly and transfer to baking dish.
Roast vegetables in the oven until they are caramelized. This takes about 25 minutes.
Child Labor!
Posted by Deri Farm | Filed under Just for Fun
Julian really wants to help around the farm. He’s only 17 months old, but is very serious about his work. His favorite chore is to push the dolly around the gravel driveway…in his bare feet…up hill!
Peas and Picking Them
Posted by Deri Farm | Filed under Crops, Peas
Peas are a great pick-your-own item. Kids love to walk down the rows picking and eating…now that I think about it, so do adults! I just wanted to post a quick note on how to determine if a pea is ready to be picked.
There are two types of peas we have for PYO: shell and snap. The pop/shell on the shell peas are very tough, so you need to pop them open and strip out the peas. Snap peas can be eaten shell and all, but I do recommend stripping the strings to make them a bit more tender. When peas are not quite ripe, they will look thin and you may see small indentations where the peas are growing. Below you can see the pea pod is somewhat thin:
It's thin and not plump
When a shell pea is ripe, you will see the peas bulging out the sides and the pod as a whole will look much more plump:
This shell pea is plump and the peas are bulging out!
A snap pea looks very plump, but if the peas are starting to bulge out the sides, then it is overripe! Also, notice the dark green stripe along the length of the pod:
A snap pea ready to be picked! Notice how it is consistently plump and no peas bulging.
Week 2 Harvest – 6/22/10
Posted by Deri Farm | Filed under Uncategorized
This week has many of the same items as week one: chard, garlic scapes, hakurei turnips and radishes. Head lettuce and beets are new this week. Don’t forget that in addition to the beet root, the greens are tasty too!
Beets & Beet Greens
Posted by Deri Farm | Filed under Beets, Crops
Beets and beet greens are quite popular here at Deri Farm. Beets are in the same plant family as Swiss Chard and are essentially the same as chard, except they have a root the swells up! Or you could say chard lacks the swelling root of a beet.
I think many people are surprised at how tasty beets can be. Many people only know beets from the boiled ones often seen at salad bars. One of my favorite ways to enjoy beets is to roast them. The skin on my spring beets is very thin, so there is no need to peel them.
I plan to post some beet recipes. A fellow farmer, Natalie, came up with a really tasty beet recipe: beet pesto.
Mustard Greens
Posted by Deri Farm | Filed under Crops, Garlic Scapes, Mustard Greens
Mustard greens can include many different varieties of mustard. A few specific examples are bok choi, arugula, kale, tatsoi, mizuna, etc. At Deri Farm, we grow a few different greens that don’t really get their own name and fall under the general category of mustard greens.
The greens can be cut and bunched as pictured above or cut as baby greens and included in salad mix. The photo is of a variety called pink lettucy mustard. I chose to grow it because it’s a mild mustard that looks quite nice both as a baby green and a full sized one.
Recipes
As with most other greens, the simplest method to cook them is to just braise/saute them in oil with a little garlic. Here’s a recipe that sounds tasty to me that uses a couple of items from this week’s share:
Mustard Greens with Garlic Scapes and Ginger
- wash, then chop or tear greens in to pieces, optionally remove stems
- chop garlic scapes in to 1/4 inch pieces
- mince 1 tablespoons worth of ginger
- heat 1-2 tablespoons oil in pan – olive oil is a good choice
- add scapes and ginger and cook over med-high heat for a minute or so
- add greens and cook for just a couple of minutes
Swiss Chard
Posted by Deri Farm | Filed under Chard (aka Swiss Chard), Crops
Swiss Chard (aka Chard or Silverbeet) is in the same family a beets. I recently learned that it is often called Swiss Chard to distinguis it from French spinach in catalogs back in the 1800s. Though they are very different plants, the fact is that it can be treated very much like spinach when cooking and are popular substitutes for each other.
During the main summer season, I tend to grow the Bright Lights variety. It gives a variety of colors, tends to be a bit milder and doesn’t bolt (or go to flower.) As the colder weather moves in, I like to grow Fordhook which can handle the cooler temperatures a little better.
Most of the time, we cut and bunch the chard when the leaves are about 6-12 inches. Sometimes, you might see smaller chard added to salad or braising mixes. In fact, at markets you can often buy small chard loose like a salad mix. However it is harvested, it’s a great vegetable…and even seems popular with kids!
Recipes
Most simply, you can cook chard just like you would most any other green. Just chop up the leaves and braise or steam them. I recommend folding the leaves in half lengthwise, then cutting along the stem to separate the leaf and stem. The stem can be chopped up and cooked first, followed by the greens. Being the stem, it is a bit more fibrous and needs a little more cooking than the leaf portion. The consistency of the stem is much like celery, though not stringy.
Otherwise, chard can be used just as you would spinach. Add it to casseroles, soups, omelets. I’ve even heard of some people stuffing the larger leaves like you would stuff cabbage.
Do you have a creative way to cook Swiss Chard? Let me know…