Badger Rock Farm Veggie Share Newsletter - Week # 13

YOUR WEEKLY FARM UPDATE

This week's share contents finally make me feel like summer has arrived (albeit in mid-August). Zucchini, tomatoes, hot peppers, basil, carrots, cucumbers and potatoes are all present, and the plants are promising that more is on the way. They (and I) were really happy about the nice rain that we got on Monday as well. It was only the second shower the farm had received in well over five weeks. Everything likes Mother Nature's water far better than what comes out of the sprinkler.

WHAT'S IN YOUR BAG

Carrots – Carrots are this week's substitute for salad mix. I went to cut the salad and realized the older lettuce had mostly bolted, and the recently planted lettuce is still teeny tiny. So, we'll give it a couple of week's to reach cut-able size while we eat other selections from the garden.

Basil – If you would like to preserve that fresh basil taste for winter use, there is an easy way to do so. Simply put the leaves, and enough olive oil to mix well with the basil, into your food processor and process until you have a pesto-like paste (this is basically pesto without the cheese and nuts). You can then divide this mixture into serving sizes, place it in freezer bags and freeze it. Perfect for that summertime basil flavor in December!

Tomatoes & Hot Peppers Goodie Bag –The smaller tomatoes, particularly the Glacier and Roma varieties, are continuing to ripen, as are the hot peppers. The hot peppers included here are called Czech Black (like their name, they are the dark purple/black peppers) and the yellow New Mex Joe Parker. Both are mildly to mid hot, depending on the sensitivity of your taste buds :-).

Cucumbers – The cucumbers are really starting to come on strong. If you ever have more cucumber than you do appetite on a given day, but you don't feel like going through the hassle of jarring up a bunch of pickles, here is a method my mother-in-law (and I) use for keeping them tasty a bit longer. In a bowl, mix up a brine solution. Typically this would be vinegar and water (2 parts vinegar per 1 part water) and salt to taste. You can also add to the mix freshly chopped onions, garlic, or whatever other flavor you desire. Then, thinly slice your cucumbers and add them to the bowl. You want enough brine solution so that the cuke slices can all be submerged. Place a lid on your bowl, keep in the fridge and enjoy!

Potatoes – The early season potatoes are ready in abundance right now. The varieties included this week are are Sangre, Rose Gold, Dark Red Norland, and a few Purple Majesty thrown in for good measure.

Zucchini – One of my favorite ways to prepare zucchini is to stuff it. Here is a simple recipe for that. Feel free to dress it up by adding hot peppers, fresh tomato slices on top (add towards the end of baking so they don't become burned) or whatever else sounds good to you.

Stuffed Zucchini

1/2 pound ground beef

1 large zucchini, ends trimmed

1/2 cup bread crumbs

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 16 oz jar spaghetti sauce

1/2 of a 6 oz can sliced black olives, drained

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook and stir the ground beef in a skillet over medium heat until the meat is browned, breaking the beef up into crumbles as it cooks, about 10 minutes. Drain off excess fat, and transfer the beef into a mixing bowl. Slice the zucchini in half the long way, and use a spoon to scoop out the flesh, leaving a 1/2-inch thick shell all around the zucchini. Chop the scooped-out zucchini flesh, and add to mixing bowl. Stir in the bread crumbs, garlic, spaghetti sauce, black olives, and Parmesan cheese; mix the stuffing well. Lightly stuff both halves of the zucchini with the meat mixture. Place the zucchini halves into a baking dish, and cover tightly with foil.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, remove from oven, and remove the foil. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese over each zucchini half. Move an oven rack to within 6 inches of the oven broiler's heat source, turn on the broiler, and broil the zucchini until the mozzarella cheese is browned and bubbling, about 5 minutes.

Badger Rock Farm Veggie Share Newsletter - Week # 12

Your Weekly Farm Update

It is a landmark week....the season's very first red tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet peppers are making an appearance in your share. Finally! The peppers and tomatoes are just beginning their turn towards ripeness, so there's not a huge abundance of them yet. But having enough to share with each of you this week gives reason to hope for the bounty that is to come. Enjoy!

WHAT'S IN YOUR BAG

Salad Mix – Including various lettuces, beet greens, sorrel, mint, dill, johnny-jump-up blooms and calendula petals.

Chard – It has turned into a regular battle with the grasshoppers, and now the blister beetles (one of my least favorite nemeses), for the chard leaves. Row cover fabric helps quite a bit, but I am always impressed at how a few (and sometimes more than a few) clever bugs can sneak underneath and still do their damage. Happily, there were enough (fairly) good-looking leaves to share with you this week.

Chicken & Chard Soup (courtesy of a favorite recipe from summertomato.com)

-1 medium chicken, quartered

-1 bunch of chard, trimmed

-3 garlic cloves, minced

-2 medium onions, diced

-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded & chopped

-1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, drained

-4 cups chicken broth

-2 cups water

-1 tsp thyme

-1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped

-juice of 1 lemon

-2-3 tbsp olive oil

Heat olive oil in a pan large enough for the quartered chicken to cover the bottom. Add the chicken skin-side down and cook on medium heat for approx 8 min. Turn over and cook for another 5 min. Remove chicken from the heat and set it aside. Shred the chard by cutting out the stems (you can save them for addition to a salad or another recipe), stacking the stem-less leaves and cutting them into thin 1/4-inch streps. In a 4-qt pot, cook the onion, garlic and jalapeno peppers over medium heat for approx 10 min, or until the onions are translucent (but not brown). Then add the thyme and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the broth, water, tomatoes and chicken to the pot and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer gently for 15 min or until the chicken is cooked through and firm to the touch. Remove the chicken and set it aside to cool. Add the chard to the soup and simmer for another 10 min. Remove the chicken skins and cut chicken into bite-sized chunks. Return the meat to the soup, and the parsley and simmer for a couple more minutes. Add the lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, and serve!

Red Rubin Basil – This purple basil tastes like its sweet, green relative, and can be used in any recipe that calls for regular sweet basil.

Cucumbers – This week's share contains a special addition. The smooth-skinned cucumbers are from my garden...the old standby pickling cukes. They are starting to come in but are a bit slow on the uptake. Mary Jane Beadle, who I share a booth with at the Billings farmer's market, had a great abundance of her Orient Express cucumbers (wrinkly skin) and asked if I would like to share them with you. She also does not use sprays, etc, so you can count on their non-toxicity, their quality and, of course, their deliciousness.

Tomatoes – Glacier tomatoes, with their slightly-larger than golf-ball size, were the first to turn red for me this year. You are getting the first of them! The larger tomato is an Opalka, grown from seed saved by my mother-in-law. There were some, but not an overwhelming amount of tomatoes or peppers, so they got combined into a goodie bag of the very first of these summer favorites. There will be more to come, as there are just loads of green tomatoes still on the vine. Can't wait!

Sweet Peppers – Included are green bell peppers and sweet banana peppers (long, thin and yellow).

Here is a recipe that uses your tomatoes, cucumber and peppers:

Veggie Salad with Balsamic Vinegar & Feta

-6 plum tomatoes, diced

-1 small cucumber - peeled, quartered lengthwise, and chopped

-1 green pepper, chopped

-3 green onions, chopped

-1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips

-3 tbsp olive oil

-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

-3 tbsp crumbled feta cheese

-salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large bowl, toss together the tomatoes, cucumber, green onions, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and feta cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Badger Rock Farm Veggie Share Newsletter - Week # 11

BADGER ROCK FARM NEWSLETTER

YOUR WEEKLY FARM UPDATE

The heat continues to be the most notable thing that comes to mind when I recall the past week at the farm. It has been weeks since the last drop of rain fell on any of the plants. Dragging around a hose and sprinkler, and checking on the drip irrigation system has become a major priority. So far so good, though. Things are growing like crazy (even if they do droop a bit in the mid-afternoon heat, no matter how much water they have. Them and me both). New potatoes are the most recent addition to your share, with many more new additions to come over the next few weeks.

WHAT'S IN YOUR BAG

Kale – The kale took a bit of a beating during the last hail storm (a couple of weeks ago now), but it has happily made a recovery and is once again looking healthy. For those of you that might be tired of your greens, I included a recipe for kale chips this week. Everyone likes chips, right :-D??

Kale Chips

1 bunch kale

1 tbsp olive oil, divided

1 tbsp sherry vinegar (or whatever vinegar you prefer: balsamic is also good)

salt, to taste

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F. Cut away stem and thick inner ribs from each kale leaf and discard (or cut into a salad). Tear the leaves into uniform bite-size pieces. Wash the torn kale and spin it dry in a salad spinner or dry with paper towels until very dry. Put the kale pieces into a large resealable bag and add half of the olive oil. Seal the bag and squeeze it around so the oil gets distributed evenly on each of the kale pieces. Add the remaining oil and squeeze the bag more, until all kale pieces are evenly coated with oil and are slightly 'massaged.' Open the bag, sprinkle the vinegar over the kale leaves, reseal the bag, and shake to spread the vinegar evenly over the leaves. Spread the leaves evenly onto a baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven until leaves are mostly crisp (approx 35 min). Check them often to make sure they're not burning. Season with salt and serve.

Garlic & Chives – This week's recipe for both of these items can be found under the 'New Potatoes' description. I hope you enjoy it!

New Potatoes – Ever wonder what the difference was between new potatoes and regular potatoes? New potatoes are simply immature potatoes. Less of their sugars have been converted to starch (when compared with mature potatoes), and their skin is more fragile (as you can probably see, it is easily scuffed when harvesting). You can try the recipe below, which also includes two other items that are in your share this week: garlic and chives. But they are also great steamed or boiled.

New Potatoes with Garlic and Chives

1 lb new potatoes

1/3 cup melted butter

3 large garlic cloves (or 5 smaller ones), crushed

2 tbps chives, chopped

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Wash the potatoes and halve (or quarter, if they are larger--you want the pieces to be relatively uniform in size) them. Place pieces in a baking dish and sprinkle with the salt, pepper and chopped chives. Stir the crushed cloves of garlic into the melted butter and allow to sit for a few minutes. Then drizzle the garlic butter over the potatoes and mix everything together well. Bake at 350 degrees in an uncovered dish for approx 45 min, or until the potatoes are tender and golden brown.

Carrots – I think it was one of the veggie subscribers that told me one of their favorite ways to make carrots was to cook them whole. I couldn't agree more. Here is recipe that describes how to do just that! (flip page over for recipe)

Roasted Whole Carrots with Garlic

1 pound medium carrots

1/4 cup water

4 garlic cloves

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp butter, melted

salt & freshly ground pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In a medium baking dish combine the whole carrots with the water, oil, butter, salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast for 30 minutes or until carrots are tender. Uncover and roast for approx 30 more minutes, until the water has evaporated and the carrots are lightly browned in spots. Transfer the carrots and garlic to plates and serve.

Badger Rock Farm Veggie Share Newsletter - Week #7

YOUR WEEKLY FARM UPDATE:

Back when it was raining endlessly, I wondered if there would come a time when the faucet turned off, and the oven turned on. That is indeed what has happened, and it has become interesting keeping everything watered. I've even caught myself hoping for rain...something I couldn't have imagined doing just a few short weeks ago. Funny how things like that work. The great news is that, as long as they stay watered (which, so far, they have), the plants are just loving this warm weather, and they are doing a lot of growing. I am very happy to be able to offer you something besides just leafy greens this week. Enjoy!

WHAT'S IN YOUR BOX:

Familiar Items: Head Lettuce and Salad Mix.

What's New This Week:

Kale – Kale is one of my favorite leafy greens, and it has a reputation for being very good-for-you too. You can steam it by slicing up the leaves and stems, placing them in your steam basket, and steaming for approx 5 minutes (until the leaves take on a bright green hue, you don't want to overcook them). Or, you can saute it. Here is a recipe recommended by the Food Network's Bobby Flay:

Sauteed Kale

¾ pound young kale, stems & leaves coarsely chopped

1 ½ tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, finely sliced

¼ cup vegetable stock or water

salt & pepper to taste

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until soft, but not colored. Raise heat to high, add the stock and kale and toss to combine. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and continue to cook, stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar. Serves 2.

Snap Peas – I can hardly describe how excited I was to glance over at the pea vines (that have been planted since March) and see that they had become, seemingly overnight, loaded with peas! Finally! My favorite way to eat them is raw, one right after the other :-). Steaming them is my second favorite way to prepare them. Simply place the peas in your steam basket, place over boiling water and steam until they are just tender (but still with a bit of crunch...approx 1 – 1 ½ minutes).

Carrots – The carrots have loved this warm weather, and have done a lot of growing over the past week or so. I am happy to finally be able to include them in your veggie shares this week!

1 bunch carrots, scrubbed and grated
1/2 bunch dill, chopped
3-8 spring onions, chopped
yogurt on it's own or mixed with a bit of sour cream
splash of vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients. You can get creative if you like by adding a bit of mustard, a few raisins, a few nuts or some other grated vegetables. Also, you can spice it up by adding vinaigrette or a flavored olive oil instead of the yogurt.

Dill – I know you've gotten a lot of dill in your shares already. This is just enough to use with the carrot recipe, if you'd like.

Badger Rock Farm Veggie Share Newsletter - Week #6

YOUR WEEKLY FARM UPDATE:

What a switch from working hard to keep things warm, to working hard to keep them watered and alive! I will be very happy when I get all of my drip-hoses laid out, so that I can take advantage of our gravity feed irrigation system. Mother Nature had been helping me out by showering now and again, but this last week turned off the water and turned on the cooker. Many of the veggies like that a lot (as long as I keep them watered). The tomato plants are growing fast, as are the squash and many others. The lettuce's opinion of high heat is not nearly as friendly, but it will just keep getting reseeded so that we have a (hopefully) constant supply. I hope that each of you are enjoying this summer weather, and doing a better job at avoiding sunburn than I did this week :-D!


What's In Your Box


Salad Mix -- This week, the salad mix contains a variety of lettuces, beet greens, chard and sorrel. Herbs are mint, savory, thyme, chervil, cilantro and dill. The edible flowers include Johnny-Jump-Ups, Sweet William dianthus, and some brassica and chervil blooms. 


Swiss Chard -- Here is a recipe for this week's helping of chard:


2 tbps olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch chard, stalks discarded (or, set aside for use in another recipe) with the leaves cut into wide ribbons
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper to taste


Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic and cook until it is tender and aromatic (approx 2 minutes). Add the chard and balsamic vinegar; cook and stir until the chard is wilted and tender (approx 5 minutes). Season with salt & pepper and serve.


Sorrel -- After being harvested heavily for the first veggie shares, the sorrel has had time to recover and is once again turning out delicious, lemony-flavored leaves. Here is a recipe for a sorrel cream sauce that is good with chicken fish or pork:


Sorrel Cream Sauce

1/2 pound of sorrel

2 cup of light cream

1 teaspoon of butter

4 egg yolks

5 cups of chicken broth

Saute sorrel in the butter until wilted. Set it aside. Heat the chicken broth to a boil and lightly beat together the egg yolks and cream. Remove the broth from the heat and add the egg mixture, stirring with a whisk. Cook until slightly thickened, stirring constantly, either over very low heat or over hot water. Definitely do not allow mixture to boil! Remove the mixture from the heat, add the sorrel and set in cracked ice to cool, stirring often. Salt and pepper to taste and refrigerate. 

Head Lettuce – A fan of cooler weather, we'll see what the lettuce heads think of 94 degrees. For now, though, they are still doing well and looking good!

Sage -- An herb whose aroma always reminds me of Thanksgiving (and stuffing!!), sage brings a delicious flavor to summertime recipes as well. You can also dry sage, to preserve it for later use. 

Sage Biscuits

2 cups self-rising flour

1 1/2 tsp fresh, diced sage

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 cup milk (or buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan. Whisk sage into the flour. Using a large dinner fork, stir in the mayonnaise and milk until combined. Do not overmix. Divide batter evenly into muffin cups and bake in the preheated oven for 12 - 15 min. until golden. Note: Do not mix up the biscuits too far in advance in order to retain the leavening powder. This batter can also work great as a topping for pot pies (in place of the rolled crust).

Dill -- Dill is doing its best to stage a complete takeover of my garden! It enjoys seeding itself wherever it sees fit. I can't complain. Few things remind me of summer as does dill's unique aroma. Bees also love dill's flowers, which is why dill seed is frequently included with the "beneficial insect mixes" that I've ordered before. 

1 lb Salad Macaroni

6 whole eggs 

2 cups mayonnaise 

1 tbsp mustard 

1 bunch fresh dill (aprrox 0.75 oz) 

Salt & Pepper to taste

Boil pasta. Drain and rinse it with cold water. Put pasta in a large serving bowl. Boil eggs by covering them with water in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the water comes to a boil then lower heat to a simmer for about 10-12 minutes. Remove the eggs from the water with a spoon and run cold water over them to cool. Then peel eggs and cut into pieces. Add to pasta.

Mix mayonnaise, mustard and dill. Mix into the pasta and egg mixture. Refrigerate until chilled.

Hyssop – Hyssop is an ancient herb in the mint family that is mentioned in numerous places within the Bible. It can be used in soups, stews, or chopped into a salad to give it a refreshing flavor. Its flowers are also a favorite of honeybees, and they function to attract them to the garden. As a rule, it is good to remember that hyssop is strongly flavored. When in doubt, be sparing on the volume of it that you use. Taste your recipe frequently to avoid overpowering it with hyssop's characteristic flavor. Hyssop leaves can be preserved by drying them.

Glazed Carrots with Hyssop

Approx 1 lb carrots, scraped and thinly sliced 

1 cup chicken stock 

1 tbsp honey 

1 tbsp unsalted butter 

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh hyssop leaves 

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

In a saucepan, combine the carrots, stock, honey, butter, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cover and cook over low heat until the carrots are tender and the liquid is a syrupy glaze (approx 20 min or so). Be careful that it does not burn. Toss the carrots with hyssop and serve immediately.