Watershed Farm

Monday, September 24, 2012

Watershed Farm CSA - 25 September 2012 - Delivery #15

Hi everyone!

It would appear that the rainy season has arrived in Nova Scotia. It would have been nice to have some of this in the sweltering drought this summer, but we are glad nonetheless! Along with the rain, we've also noticed the days getting shorter and the nights getting cooler. Now that the night temperature is getting down, we've had to start closing the greenhouse and caterpillar tunnels to keep the rest of our tomatoes growing as long into the fall as we can. The shorter days also mean we are "reluctantly" forced to have shorter work days as well. It won't be long before we're lighting fires in our stoves and dreaming about starting vegetables for next season's CSA. But, we still have a few weeks left and now we'll keep dreaming about what will be in next week's CSA basket that will feed and excite you.

As promised, the second chance for you to come and see where your food is grown will be next Sunday, the 30th of September. This will be our second Open Farm CSA Day, and we'd love it if you could make it sometime between 12-4. There will be snacks and refreshments as well as guided tours for those interested, and of course the animals will be meeting and greeting all day. If you know of someone who is interested in joining our CSA next season, feel free to bring them along, too.

Joe puts the finishing touches on the new growing space
We've been working on a new greenhouse here on the farm for a little while now, it is just about ready to have the plastic put on, and you can see it yourself on Sunday!

What's in your basket this week:

Beets
I've had a couple of customers at the farmer's markets telling me about making a stacked beet salad with goat cheese out of our beautiful tri-coloured beets. I had to scour the internet, but I found this very descriptive step-by-step recipe (Click on the photo or the title to visit the website):

Stacked Beet Salad
Ingredients
6 large beets
1/2 cup goat cheese at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Cut beet greens off beets. Peel beets and cut ends off. Slice beets into 1/2 inch layers (don't slice the beets too thinly).
3. Brush olive oil on beet slices and lay onto baking sheets. Roast beet slices for approximately 45 minutes-1 hour until edges are caramelized and beets are cooked through (my oven cooks hot and it takes my oven 45 minutes). Let beet slices cool.
4. Mix goat cheese with balsamic vinegar. Season with pepper (I do not season with salt because the goat cheese usually has a salty flavor).
5. Spread 1/2 teaspoon goat cheese mixture onto one side of a large beet slice. Layer with a slightly smaller beet slice and spread 1/2 teaspoon goat cheese mixture on top of second beet slices. Continue layering. I build my stacks to 8 layers because, after that, they become unwieldy to eat but you could certainly stack higher. Do not spread goat cheese on last layer. Continue building stacks.
6. Carefully cut stacks into quarters, making sure not to press too hard onto the beet stacks. I find that the easiest way to cut them is to very gently hold one stack and slice through it halfway and then lay the half-stack on its side to cut into quarters.
7. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. If you leave the beet stacks in the refrigerator longer, the red beet color will seep into the goat cheese. I prefer the flavor when the beet stacks have been refrigerated for 4 hours or more but they certainly look prettier when they have been refrigerated for only 30 minutes.
8. To serve, layer beet stacks on spinach leaves and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar.
(*Note: this would also be great with additions such as: walnuts, citrus, avocado, fresh dill!)

Sunchokes/Jerusalem Artichokes
This photo is of our remaining Jerusalem Artichokes still in the field, which turned out to be a very nice hedge at the side of our salad mix patch. If you've never used them before, you're in for a treat and something really truly different. They are, as they look, in the sunflower family, and they have a fantastic crunch and a nutty sunflower flavour. Since these ones are so fresh, you need not peel them, just scrub them to get the dirt off (which should come as a relief as most of them are pretty gnarly!).
In my previous job, I often recommended Sunchokes as an alternative to potatoes for those watching their blood sugar levels or on restrictive diets or clenses. Sunchokes contain the carbohydrate inulin instead of starch, which is a type of dietary fibre known as fructan that the human body has a limited ability to process. Unlike potatoes-- which are considered high on the glycemic index-- the inulin in sunchokes does not cause an insulin response in the body or raise triglycerides (Of course, please do your own research to see if it is right for you if you are on a restricted diet).
Regardless of all this, they are delicious little nuggets and I hope you find a way to enjoy them! The first time I had them I over-roasted them, which was a big mistake: They get bitter and have a soggy textured when overcooked. Once I was ready to attempt cooking them again I used a recipe and had much better luck. I have heard that they can be hard on the stomach for some, who recommend fully cooking them (like in the soup recipe below). I am including a recipe that is basically how I most often prepare them, as well as links to a few others that I think look interesting:

RECIPE: Sauteed Sunchokes
Ingredients:
1 lb sunchokes/jerusalem artichoke
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions:
1 Scrub or peel artichokes.
2 Slice each artichoke to 1/4 inch thick slices.
3 In a Wok or frying pan, heat olive oil and butter on medium-high heat.
4 Add sliced artichokes, garlic, salt, pepper and parsley; stir well to coat artichokes.
5 Stir-fry for about 4 minutes, stirring often.
6 Do not overcook artichokes, they should be slightly crunchy.
7 Serve immediately.

Check out a couple of other recipes that might inspire you:
Cream of Sunchoke Soup (We tried this one the other night with much success; I highly recommend it!)
Sunny Sunchoke Salad

Kohlrabi or Turnips
In my scouring of the internet this week, I found a great blog with a detailed post about kohlrabi: Just in case you need some more instruction to be able to deal with yours. Also, because of this website (and because they're beautiful!), we are including the leaves on your kohlrabi this week, which you can choose to eat or not (but mind the advice that they are to be treated as a hearty green like kale or collards). If you're not in the mood for experimental cooking, you can simply peel and slice your kohlrabi to enjoy it raw, roasted, sauteed or steamed. It's mild cabbage/turnip flavour goes well with your stir-fry greens, cauliflower or broccoli, et cetera. If you have any great successes, please email me your recipe!
If it's a turnip you happen to find in your bag (there were not quite enough kohlrabi for everyone), they are delicious enjoyed most of the same ways you would enjoy your kohlrabi- raw, roasted, sauteed, steamed, or even cooked and mashed with potatoes to give them an extra kick.

Dill
Dill and beets are a great combination. At this time of year it can be hard to find baby dill, and I always take advantage of it when I'm able to get it and freeze some for winter. Just chop it up and put it in an airtight container- it does turn black but it retains it's flavour far better than drying.

Brassica Mix

Again, "brassica" is farm code for a few things that you will find in your bag: broccoli (heads and florets), cauliflower (green and white), cabbage, and romanesco broccoflower (pointy green alien that looks kind of like cauliflower... only pointy!).

Kale
I get the same amount of "too much kale!" pleas as I get "more kale!" requests. This will please you if you are the latter! For those of you who haven't found a love for this phenomenally healthy and tasty green, I beg of you: don't leave it rotting in your fridge or send it next door, make this:

RECIPE: Massaged Kale Salad
Ingredients
1 bunch kale, stalks removed and discarded, leaves thinly sliced
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
Kosher salt
2 teaspoons honey
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

Directions
In large serving bowl, add the kale, half of lemon juice, a drizzle of oil and a little kosher salt. Massage until the kale starts to soften and wilt, 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside while you make the dressing.
In a small bowl, whisk remaining lemon juice with the honey and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Stream in the 1/4 cup of oil while whisking until a dressing forms, and you like how it tastes.
Pour the dressing over the kale, and add the seeds. Toss and serve.

If you love kale but just can't fit it into your schedule this week, then chop it up and throw it straight in the freezer. It goes great in soups, stews, and smoothies and prevents winter scurvy!

Leeks
To add a little onion flavour to your life.

Full-size shares also get:
Potatoes
Potatoes do not contain inulin and are chock-full of starchy goodness! I made some mashed potatoes this week to go with some venison steaks a friend shared with us, and they were top-notch. I used to love russets the best, and if you love the traditional very dry mashed potatoes, these are your ticket. With some butter and sour cream they taste just like the inside of a baked potato (or save yourself the peeling and just make a baked potato!).

Stir-fry Mix
In the stir-fry mix this week we have: Bull's Blood beet tops, red mustard, red mizuna, mizuna, tatsoi, ruby streaks, chard, and nasturtium flowers (which are also edible).

Our helpers after a long, tiring day getting the CSA bags ready!
(I believe I'll do the same myself as soon as possible!)

Have a great week!

--
Teri Dillon

Watershed Farm
768 Allen Frausel Road
Baker Settlement, Nova Scotia
B4V 7H8
c. 902.212.2301 | p. 902.685.3901

WatershedFarm.org
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Monday, September 17, 2012

Watershed Farm CSA - 18 September 2012 - Delivery #14

Hi everyone!

Yesterday we hosted about 150 people from far and wide for NSFA Open Farm Day. It was a great day that just flew by, as we sold snacks and refreshments and gave guided tours of the farm. Our turkeys were good sports and even showed off for the company- puffing up and "being turkeys", which they rarely do for us. The sheep and chickens were somewhat less gregarious, but I suppose "being a sheep" and "being a chicken" is a little less entertaining than "being a turkey". The ducks were shy as ever and the bunnies were happy for the few children that found them and fed them some grass. Even a few CSA members managed to make it out, and we were glad to see you!

Jon giving a tour to one of many groups yesterday at Open Farm Day.

There's a bit of a bottleneck happening with our bags, so if you have any extra CSA bags lying around that you keep forgetting to return, I would love it if you did! It's my job every week to sort out the bags, which is always a daunting task that never quite gets fully completed until Monday. And for those of you who faithfully return your bags every single week without hiccup- THANK YOU! Believe me, I do notice!

In your basket this week:

Getting ready to pack bags a few weeks ago. We have a very fool-proof system for making sure no one gets missed and there is no mis-counting!

Carrots
The carrots are arriving in a bag this week, as they are getting larger and harder to bunch. That being said, the longer they go the sweeter they get, and I think they just keep getting better and better each week. The white ones were truly stars this year, with the purple and red being fun to look at, and the orange being a solid staple.

Tomatoes
The cooler weather has really slowed down the tomatoes, but there are still lots on the vine to ripen slowly this fall. Eventually we'll take the frost warning seriously and have to go pick them all, which means you may look forward to green tomatoes for something that I have just recently heard of: chow chow. Not sure if this is a Maritime thing, or if I am just sheltered, but we've had a few people buying green tomatoes from us for just this purpose the last few weeks. Anyhow, you're getting vine-ripened ones, picked this morning, and there may not be too many in the future, so enjoy every last flavourful bite!

Butternut Squash:
We are thrilled to have enough butternuts that everyone is getting one! This is my favourite squash, even though I know there are so many different and interesting ones that could be my favourite. I just find butternut super easy to deal with (it just has the one pocket of seeds in the rump) and a really sweet flavour. These were just picked today, and you can eat them now if you want, but if you want to store them, make sure you do so in a warm place. In order to cure properly, squash prefers a room-temperature or warmer climate: so don't leave him rattling around in your root cellar!
You can make a truly stellar soup by roasting your butternut and pureeing it with 1 can of coconut milk and 2-4 cups chicken broth (depending on the size of your squash and how thick you like your soup). Season to taste, and serve! This soup is really simple and free of dairy and gluten, and it comes out a really beautiful colour.

Celeriac:
This is the one thing in your bag that you may not have seen before. Celeriac, also known as celery root, is actually not the root of a celery plant, though they are in the same family. If you're lucky to get one whose tops are still on, make sure you use that to flavour your next soup pot. The veggie you're after is the round-ish, light brown root at the bottom. This can be peeled and chopped and added to beets and carrots for a great roasted vegetable medley, or put in soup or stew, stir-fry, or even eaten raw. It has a mild celery flavour with earthy undertones. My favourite way to enjoy it is to boil it along with my potatoes for a bit of a different flavour in my mashed potatoes.

Cilantro
For those of you who are not fans of cilantro, we hope your friends or neighbours will enjoy it for you. For the rest of you: why not try making some salsa fresca? That's fancy-speak for fresh salsa, which you can add all sorts of things to, especially your tomatoes and garlic. I first found a place in my life for cilantro by making fresh salsa out of heirloom tomatoes, and you can too!

Chard
Lisa's mother sent her this recipe for Swiss Chard Rolls, which we are going to try this week. Judy is inarguably our biggest fan and reads our blog and facebook page regularly. Anyway, she's awesome and here's her equally awesome recipe:
"rolled /stuffed these blanched Swiss chard leaves with cooked brown rice, mushrooms, garlic, thyme, olive oil, and a lot of garlic. Sliced tomatoes on the bottom.
Poured tomato juice over too, baked 35 min
Served with ricotta on top"

Garlic
This is really just a ploy to get you to come to our Stinking Rose Garlic Festival on October 27th:

This is a great day where you can learn all about garlic, and I really hope you can make it.
If you've never made roasted garlic, you haven't lived. What I do is wrap the entire head in tinfoil with a little oil inside and bake at 350 for about half an hour. The cloves turn to mush and you can squeeze the contents out once it cools. It's a very different flavour than raw garlic, and it would go great in the butternut soup recipe from above, or in a tomato sauce, or anything that would benefit from some roasted garlic goodness.

Full-size shares also get:
Beans
Though I wasn't this morning picking them, I'm so glad for the late planting of beans that has just come on. They are stunning and remind me of when the very first beans were ready in early summer. At the markets, beans have ceased being a hot item, but I'm not tired of them and you shouldn't be, either!

Brassica Mix
I was about to change this to "broccoli-cauliflower mix", but then decided that you should know the family name of some vegetables you see all the time. The "brassica" family includes broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, asian greens, arugula, kohlrabi, turnips, radishes, kale, and many others- and in your bag this week you'll find a very nice head of broccoli, cauliflower, or romanesco broccoflower.
Here's something that came up from Open Farm Day that I thought you might be interested in: The brassica family is the favourite snack of the flea beetle and the cabbage looper, which is why they spend the entirety of their lives under a very light white fabric known as floating row cover. The fabric is held down with sand bags and the edges kept taut to keep unwanted visitors out. It does block some of the light, but in the peak of summer plants receive over three times the amount of sunlight they need, so it doesn't do them any harm. The heavier version of this actually offers frost protection to the plants by being a physical barrier to frost settling on the leaves. Row cover is a very common tool used by organic growers and growers looking to cut down their use of pesticides. It's not always necessary in the home garden, but if you have problems with any of these pests it may be a good solution for you!

Peppers
Jon made tacos a few weeks ago, so I can speak from authority that some of these peppers are wickedly hot! Some of you may also get some bell peppers, or a mixture of a few peppers. Very unofficially, I smell them to tell how hot they are. I'm sure there's a better way to tell, but if they're burn your nostrils, chances are they'll burn your mouth too!

And finally, here's a photo of a young gentleman I had to escort off the farm this morning. He and a friend have been getting into our chicken yard at night and making unwanted deposits on the roof of their shelter, as well as eating a poor chicken on Saturday night. If you see him or any of his friends, let them know that I have a live trap and I'm not afraid to use it!

Have a great week,

Monday, September 10, 2012

Watershed Farm CSA - 11 September 2012 - Delivery #13

Hello everyone!

Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day here on the farm. We hosted a Season Extension Workshop with David Cohlmeyer, who just flew in from Toronto. Over 30 farmers, gardeners, consultants and garden enthusiasts attended, and it was a great day, despite the downpour (which let up enough so that we could have a tour). In the workshop we covered winter greenhouses, root cellars, and crop choices for extending your harvest into the winter months, and also had a delicious lunch thanks to Camelia's hard work the past few days in the kitchen!

David Cohlmeyer in front of a caterpillar tunnel at our Season Extension Workshop this past Sunday
In the morning when Lisa went to water the sheep, their shelter had blown over their fence and they were gone. We spent most of the morning looking for them, to no avail. They finally turned up halfway through the workshop, when a neighbour drove up and let us know they were in the middle of the road. We herded them back on the road at least a kilometer, and they were happy to be home.
Apparently all the animals were set on escaping, as I went to change out of my wet clothes and saw a fat, cute little black bunny with floppy ears cross my path- My bunny! Luckily Jon was around and I was able to corner her and grab her.

This Sunday we'll have another busy day at the farm, when we take part in NSFA Open Farm Day. If you're a CSA member you can skip the crowds and come later in the month when we have another CSA Day, but you're welcome to come to our farm (or many others!) this Sunday, too. Here's a poster, so you can share it with friends and family that might be interested to see where all that good food you've been eating is coming from!

The rain these past few days has been great for the fields and though we don't prefer to harvest in the rain, we're happy for it nonetheless.

What's in your basket this week:
Beets
After bunching the beets, they just looked so darn good we had to eat some for supper. Lisa sliced them and roasted them in the oven with a little olive oil and some lemon juice. After they were cooked, she topped with fresh garlic butter and some dill. They are so beautiful-- all the different colours-- and delicious, too!
I was reading a calendar that appeared on our kitchen table and found this recipe for beets. I've had nothing but good experiences adding vegetables to baking, so it would follow that these are probably delicious:

Above, in the glare: "icing sugar" next line "butter at room temperature" next line "vanilla" next line "beetroot water"

Tomatoes
Marry your tomatoes to your basil and you've got an instant hit!

Basil
I got a great tip at the Farmer's Market this Saturday for preserving basil. In the past I have always just thrown it in the freezer and not worried about it turning black, but it's obviously not optimal. A woman told me that she blanches hers (throws into boiling water until it boils again), and then mixes it with enough olive oil in the food processor to make a paste. Then she freezes it flat in freezer bags and it stays bright green!

Stir-Fry Mix
In your stir-fry mix is chard, kale, arugula, and some spicy mustards. Make sure you wash it, as we got a lot of rain this weekend which usually does the opposite of washing our greens. Jon picked out a recipe for a thai peanut sauce that you might try with your greens this week. Just add rice, and you've got a meal!
RECIPE: Thai Peanut Sauce
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
cayenne pepper
Directions:
1 Combine above ingredients and stir until creamy. (It helps to soften the peanut butter first).
2 Add sauce to the stir-fry during the last minute of cooking, stirring to coat food evenly.

Edamame
Edamame is the term for immature soybeans. You may have had them in Japanese restaurants before, and I highly recommend that you serve them the same way: Steam or boil them in salt water until they turn bright green and the beans are cooked, sprinkle with sea salt, and serve! Your family or guests remove the beans inside by putting the whole pod in their mouth and pulling the beans out with their teeth (don't eat the pod). Or, you can shell them and add them to a stir-fry or soup.
Soybeans are one of a list of crops that you should always make sure to buy organic (and that includes tofu), as commercially they are often GMO and sprayed with chemicals you wouldn't want to eat. Fortunately, ours are Round-Up-free!

Potatoes
This week we are sending you some russet potatoes, which are in bags unwashed so they can keep longer. Russets make the best baked potatoes! A little tip from yesterday's workshop if you are going to keep them: if you put them in the fridge, the cold causes the starch to convert to sugar and it actually makes them un-fry-able, as the sugars will burn before the potato cooks. They're just fine if you don't plan on frying them, but if you want them to stay as-is, keep them in a dark, ventilated cupboard rather than the fridge.

Poppy Seeds
We had an army of volunteer poppies all over the gardens this year, so Camelia and Addie patiently collected the seeds and we're sharing them with you! These are a beautiful mauve poppy if you want to save them to plant next year, or you can eat them, too. My favourite is a simple poppyseed dressing:
RECIPE: Poppyseed Dressing
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon poppy seed
1 teaspoon dry mustard

Mix the dressing ingredients together and refrigerate overnight. Very important!
Note: this makes a lot, but you can cut it in half if you like.

Full-size shares also get:
Melon
The melons are a crop that loved the heat this year, and there's no comparison to a farm-fresh melon! There are a few different varieties that you may get: Charentais (bluish skin with dark orange flesh), Galia (russeted yellow skin, light green flesh), Cantaloupe (ribbed, russeted skin with orange flesh), Muskmelon (russeted skin with orange flesh). I'm pretty certain this won't make it to the fridge, as one bite is all it takes to end up eating the whole thing! Jon and I picked a whole bunch on Saturday and sat in the late afernoon sun, covered in dirt from digging potatoes and dripping melon juice as we devoured all the different kinds. Perks of the job!

Broccoli & Cauliflower
We wanted you to have enough broccoli and cauliflower to have a whole side-dish. My favourite thing to do with cauliflower and broccoflower (the green, pointy cauliflower), is to cut off the florets, toss in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast at 400 degrees until it starts to brown. Then it's really delicious as is, or with a lemon juice and dijon mustard sauce added on top.

And finally, just because I'm so impressed that I caught the Kodak Moment:

Kitty Yawn!

Have a fantastic week!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Watershed Farm CSA - 04 September 2012 - Delivery #12

Hi everyone!

Well, it's unbelieveably September already: We who spend entire days from dawn to dusk outdoors notice the crispness of the mornings and the slight chill in the air mid-day. Some of the leaves have already dropped and the days are noticeably shorter. There's always something wistful about fall, that makes one think about all the things that didn't get done in the summer. Other years I have found myself wishing I had spent more time outside, or paid more attention to my garden, but of course not this year. We've even managed to get to the beach enough that I'm not regretful about that. I suppose wistfulness naturally precedes the monotony of winter, and just knowing that it is coming is enough to make one long for summer again.

I asked our friend and most excellent WWOOFer James to be our official CSA photographer this week, so you'd get a fresh perspective on the farm. If you'd like to get a personal perspective on our farm and many others, I recommend you look into Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture's 2012 Open Farm Day. It's happening Sunday, September 16, and we're among many farms that you can come and visit that day. They have a great website, so check out the link above if you are interested!

I promised a second CSA Open Farm Day, and we've decided that it will be Saturday, September 30th. It's very near the end of the CSA season, which means we'll have more time to meet you (and hopefully it won't be as beastly hot as last time!). If you came to the last one, you're welcome to come again, and we'd love to see as many of you as possible that day! Pencil it in on your calendar, and I will be sure to remind you plenty of times before then!

One of our new honeybees returning to the hive.

Last chance for more eggs! If you would like to sign on for a fast and furious delivery of 5 dozen eggs (1 dozen a week until the end of the season) there is just enough time. Email me and pay via paypal on the website or by cheque in your bag return ($25). If you're unsure as to how many dozen you have left in your share, or if your share is over, just email me to find out!

One last thing: for all of you who attend the Lunenburg Market regularly, make sure you say Happy Birthday to Lisa if you pass by the Watershed Farm stall this Thursday!

What's in your basket this week:

CSA bag looking ultra-glamorous!
Carrots
I asked our work share Susan today if she had any ideas for carrots, and she mentioned the attached recipe, carrot greens with sesame dressing. She says: "This recipe is taken from a cookbook called 'Good Food from a Japanese Temple'. A vegetarian cookbook ....it is 'shojin ryori' ....the food actually prepared and eaten by monks and nuns in Buddhist temples. This recipe (and the others in this cookbook) came from a Zen Buddhist nunnery in Kyoto, Japan."

Tomatoes
I never find enough time to preserve food when it's seasonal and abundant. If you're finding yourself with a surfeit of tomatoes, and like me, you don't have time nor inclination to can them, try freezing them! Wash them, throw them in a freezer bag, and throw them in the freezer. When they emerge, you can remove the skins so easily by just running under cold water. You can use them all winter long and save yourself the time of canning them.

Leeks
The cold edge to the air really makes me long for hot soup, and leeks are a great base for a really delicious one. Also great in a stuffed squash recipe!

Parsley
An excellent, if under-appreciated herb, to season all the delicious flavours in your bag this week!

Turnips
I always get a lot of "I got radishes, not turnips" feedback right after we ship out turnips. I assure you, we do not even have any radishes ready for harvest, and these really, truly are turnips! The white are called Hakurei, the purple and white are the more recognizable Purple Top, and the red ones are called Scarlet Queen. These turnips are a favourite of chef Rob Bruce of The Rum Runner Restaurant in Lunenburg, who has been including our turnips on his menu since he first tasted them in early spring. He serves his hot, steamed in a consomme broth, with other seasonal vegetables like patty pan squash.

Orange pumpkins peeking out in the ever-chaotic-looking squash patch.

Winter Squash
I LOVE winter squash, and I feel I could never get sick of it. In my experience, some people are a little afraid and feel they don't know what to do with it: So, I have attached to this email a handy squash chart that shows photos and descriptions of some of the more common varieties. In general, you'll want to slice it length-wise (from the stem to the end) and scoop out the seeds. From there you can:
-roast it (in the oven about an hour at 350, either face up with butter and sugar/spices inside, or face down with some water in the pan)
-boil it (remove the peel and boil the flesh until cooked)
-steam it (remove the peel, dice, and steam until cooked)
-fry it (remove the peel, dice, fry in oil until thoroughly cooked)
(*"cooked" means soft, the texture of a cooked potato or softer, depending on how you prefer it)
-stuff it (cook face-up in the oven and stuff with rice, sausage, herbs, leek, garlic, tomatoes, et cetera- your imagination is the limit!)
Whenever I ask Jon what he wants for supper, he invariably answers "stuffed squash". I don't follow a recipe, but here's an outline of what I do:
Stuffed Squash:
Cut squash in half and remove seeds. In the cavity left behind, stab all over with a fork (not all the way through the skin), and add about a tablespoon of butter, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and a pinch of salt. Roast face up in a 350 degree oven for about half an hour. In the meantime, saute leeks or onions, sausage, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini (et cetera) until cooked. Mix with leftover rice or cubed fresh bread and an egg, and place inside both sides of the squash. Cook for at least another half hour, or until squash is very soft.
This is a great way to use up some leftovers and create a simple one-dish meal that you can cater to your ingredients.
If you got a spaghetti squash in your bag this week (oblong and orange), it's the only squash that is really different than all the others. When cooked, the flesh of spaghetti squash turns into translucent strands, almost like real spaghetti. It's great just roasted and then pulled away from the skin with a fork and served with a great tomato sauce.
(Other than the spaghetti squash) You should eat the skin of your squash, too: We do!

Full-size shares also get:
Zucchini
I love eating seasonally: Zucchini and tomatoes go so well together. Here's a recipe for a quick side dish that uses both:
1 medium zucchini
1 clove garlic, minced
4 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 T finely sliced fresh basil
1 T olive tapenade (or finely chopped olives)
Salt and pepper to taste
Saute the zucchini and garlic in a little olive oil over medium heat until lightly browned (5-10 minutes). Toss together with the remaining ingredients and serve.

Arugula
Arugula, also known as "rocket" or "roquette", is a zesty green that is great for fresh salads and stir-fries. I like it best chopped and put on top of dishes after they're cooked, like pizza, pasta, and soups. It can have quite a spicy flavour, so beware!

Kale
Kale is what they call a "superfood", and here's why:
"Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium. Kale, as with broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical with potent anti-cancer properties. Boiling decreases the level of sulforaphane; however, steaming or stir frying do not result in significant loss. Along with other brassica vegetables, kale is also a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells. Kale is also a good source of carotenoids." Wiki

Here's a photo of a cute kitty to say goodbye for this week!

Have a great one,

CSA12-06_carrotgreensrecipe.jpg

Monday, August 27, 2012

Watershed Farm CSA - 28 August 2012 - Delivery #11

Red sun at 6 am this morning

Hi everyone!

It was great to see those of you who made it out to the Growing Green Sustainability Festival in Bridgewater this past Saturday! It was a busy event, and because of it I thought this would be a good opportunity to explain why we are a sustainable farm. First and foremost, we don't rely on chemicals for fertilization, weed, or pest control, and use organic methods that are far less resource intensive and healthier for the earth, including using human power rather than tractor power wherever possible. Another thing that makes us a sustainable farm is our connection to the community: at the farmer's markets and even more so through the CSA, which you are so importantly a part of. Being connected to local markets and people who care about local food puts us in a position to produce food outside of the conventional food system, without which a small farm would not possibly be viable. You see, we couldn't compete with the economies of scale operating in big business, so by having people like you who appreciate the freshness, seasonality, and locality of our produce over the grocery store we are making great progress towards a more sustainable food system. To quote our 2012 brochure: "Only 12% of the food we eat is grown in Nova Scotia. The average distance food travels before it reaches Nova Scotian supermarkets is 4,000 kilometers". So as you can see, you, our valued CSA members, help make us a sustainable farm!

Moving the turkeys to a fresh pasture this afternoon.

We are fortunate to have our friend James from Calgary visiting and WWOOFing for the next couple of weeks. He worked with us in our previous jobs, so comes with a wealth of produce post-harvest handling and quality control standards, but of course is totally new to the hands-on farming part and so far seems to be loving it! He especially gets along well with the chickens, and has even done some chicken and turkey "wrangling". Tomorrow we are taking a tourist retreat so he can see the Bay of Fundy.

Here on the farm we are working on a re-vamped irrigation system since the pond went dry and we now have a snazzy new drilled well. It's still being figured out, but in the meantime we are able to run the irrigation lines, which is essential, especially for the greenhouses and other covered growing areas.
The two chicken flocks became one last week, which not only makes egg collecting easier, but also will help break the parasite cycle on some mites that are affecting the chicken's feet. They will all return to the coop in a couple of months for the winter, but for now will enjoy the second growth of grass coming up in our recently hayed field. That brings up a note that we should still be able to squeeze in a few more egg shares, as some of yours are finishing up. Email me if you would like 5 more dozen eggs for the remainder of the season!
Some other residents that are thoroughly enjoying the fresh grass are our flock of sheep, which is now up to 9 with the 4 new lambs so fat they are hard to tell from their mothers! I actually can't believe how fast they grow, from earlier in the season when I was able to hold them in my arms! I am including a photo of both, so you can see the difference!

This little lamb I'm holding is now almost the same size as his mother! He is second- or third- in from the right of the photo above.

We tried to take a photo of me holding him now, but since there was no way we were going to be able to catch him, Lisa helped me get an "action shot"! If you believe it, the one I'm holding in the photo from May 1 is the same one that is shown from the side in the front center of this shot (with the little dark mark below his eye).

In your basket this week:

Shelled Beans
These are a very special item that I doubt many of you will have seen before: Fresh shelled beans! Thank goodness for our shelling crew, which was led by James and helped out by all of us: We thought you might be scared off by the shells, which look rather ratty when they start to dry down. It is just a handful, but you can throw these beans right into your stir-fry, soup or sauce, or just lightly steam them to take out that slight starchy taste and put them in a salad. We couldn't help but eat them raw as we shelled them, and they're delicious! I made tomato sauce last night with our supper and threw some beans in: what a treat to not have to soak them overnight and then boil them for hours.
Our friend Susan who comes to work for her share on the farm helped shell them and was intrigued to make the connection that "beans" and "green beans" are the same thing, just picked at different maturities: The green beans you've been getting up until this point are essentially the immature pods of the shelling (or "dry") beans you see in the bulk department. Of course, they're different varieties, and the ones in your basket have beautiful colours and speckles, but they are basically just a mature green bean. As Susan, who is a nutritionist, noted: these have a lot more iron, too!

Beets
I have run out of things to tell you about beets, so I took a couple of pages from Sandor Ellix Katz book (literally!) Wild Fermentation, a well-known how-to for any type of fermented live culture foods. Attached to your newsletter this week is a couple of his recipes for beets, if you're interested in trying something new with yours.
(And make sure you eat the tops, arguably the best part!)

Green Onion
I'm glad we don't give you green onions every week, as cleaning those babies is a lot of work, but they are a great fresh taste for all of the things you are going to cook this week.

Braising Mix
What we are dubbing "braising mix" this week contains chard, kale, arugula, and pea tendrils. Chop and stir-fry or steam them all together, or use the different bits for various dishes. If I were presented with a beautiful mix such as this, I would sautee the greens all together and garnish with pea tendrils for a really stunning side dish.

Herb Blend
I am a huge proponent of fresh herbs, but since even I wouldn't know what to do with an entire bunch of sage, we gave you three different herbs that go well together or can stand alone. Sage is a strong flavour and goes well with poultry and in stews and soups. Oregano goes great with tomato dishes as well as red meat. Thyme also goes well with beef, pork, chicken, or fish, and is a great flavour in soups. The three together are best friend to chicken dishes, especially classic roast style. They are all very easy to dry, which can be done by hanging in a shaded and dry, dust-free area in your house. Once they are fully dry, store in an airtight container to preserve the flavour, for fresh flavours all winter long!

Tomatoes
I could stare at our tomatoes all day and not get bored! There's big ones, little ones, funny-shaped ones, ones with ribs, fuzzy ones, brightly-coloured ones, ones with stripes: but no doubt about it, they're all BEAUTIFUL!

Zucchini
We thought we'd give you one last zucchini before the winter squash takes over. The going joke on the farm is: Why do city people lock their doors when they visit the country? To prevent their cars from being filled with zucchini! I hope you're not sick of it, but if you are, you can freeze it. What I do is refer to my favourite zucchini loaf recipe, and then grate it and freeze in the portions I need for the recipe (mine calls for 2 cups, but yours might be different). I hope when you do refer to your favourite zucchini loaf recipe that you just make some instead! (And if you felt the need to share with us, too, we can definitely help you out with that part!)

Full-size Shares also get:
Head Lettuce
This is a true miracle at this time of year. As I explained last week, it is very hard to grow lettuce in this heat, and what we did grow successfully was munched by a bunny. Well, he didn't find this patch, and though the heads are small, we thought we'd give you the beginnings of a salad.

Cucumber
Cucumbers are a heat loving crop and need warm nights to grow, and a couple of nights this past week I've awoken in the night to pile on more blankets, which tells me they may be near the end. Enjoy this taste of summer, while it lasts!

Parsnips
Though my favourite part of each week is writing the newsletter, I do get a little tired of writing about the same things again and again. So this is fun: Just in! PARSNIPS! For those of you who have never seen one before, they look a bit like white carrots, and we've left a little of the tops on so you can see how fresh they are (we would have left more, but they wouldn't have fit in the bags!). My favourite thing to do with them is mix them in with my carrots in my favourite carrot recipe. I've given it to you before, but here it is with the parsnips edited in:
RECIPE: Glazed Carrots and Parsnips
1 pound carrots and parsnips, sliced
1/2 C chicken stock
2 T butter
2 T honey

Put everything in a saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer until carrots and parsnips are cooked and the sauce coats them. Sprinkle with a fresh herb of your choice just before serving.

They add a complex and exciting flavour to the recipe above: the spiciness of them is accentuated by the honey, and it looks really beautiful with all the colours, too. I have made this with just parsnips, and it was equally delicious.
If you decide to do something else with them, know that you do want to peel them with your trusty vegetable peeler, and remove the tops. You can boil them and mash them with potatoes or on their own, you can throw them in with a roast or into your soup pot: they do make a truly delicious soup. Jon suggests you roast them in the oven at 400 degrees with a bit of olive oil until they start to brown. Later in the season they get sweeter, but they are the first taste of fall nonetheless.

I was just saying this morning how much I love autumn and how excited I am to start crunching on leaves around the farm. It makes me feel like a little kid as though it's time to go back to school, but of course we will just keep plugging away and harvesting and by the time the first frost hits will have hopefully put away enough stores for winter and then will start on the end of season field clean up. But here I go getting ahead of myself: including this week, you still have seven beautiful baskets of produce coming your way to fill your fridge, your table, and your tummies with delicious, local food.

One of our favourite kittens, who answers to many names including: Mittens, Mr. Bojangels, Bo, Buddy, and Baby Harley. He is the right mix of friendly and hunter, thus a perfect farm cat. And we think he's pretty handsome, too!

Thanks for doing your part to support sustainable farming on the South Shore!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Watershed Farm CSA - 21 August 2012 - Delivery #10

Hello everyone!

My grandma gave me her electric typewriter, which she got a couple of years before she got her first computer (and she was the first person I knew with a computer!). As I put the first exclamation point in your newsletter I thought of how happy I am that my computer has one: My typewriter does not! I'm sure I couldn't convey how excited I am about all our great produce if I didn't have an exclamation point.

The sunset we got to look at while packing your bags tonight!

As I'm sure you know, CSA baskets are also referred to as "farm share" programs. By sharing in a part of our farm, you get to enjoy the many rewards (our beautiful harvest, updates and photos from the farm, being connected to your food, supporting a local farmer, etc), and occasionally the less desirable outcomes (such as the effects of weather/climate, crop failures, and other bumps along the way). Whenever possible, we will do everything we can to correct our shortcomings (I'm talking about your sub-par potatoes last week!), and are glad that you stick with us on the crazy journey of growing your food. Once more, our apologies for last week's potatoes, and we've sent along a replacement this week, which I know you will find up to the quality you expect from Watershed Farm.

On that note, I thought I'd send along an update about how the fields are making out this year. As you know, it's been a hot and dry year, which has posed some challenges for us, but overall I hear it has been a much better growing year than last year (we don't have much to base it on, this being our first year farming in Nova Scotia). Us, and nearly every other farmer I know have had trouble growing lettuce in this heat (and we also have a bit of a rabbit problem in some places, which hasn't helped). We do keep planting and plan to have our great salad mix return to your bags later in the season, as well as head lettuce and hopefully some stir-fry mix and/or arugula.
I have never had to deal with striped cucumber beetle before, and they are also, quite the pest. It seems like in complement to the fantastic climate and growing conditions in Nova Scotia, we also have a great deal more pests: so I suppose it evens out! They carry a bacterial wilt in their gut, so it's not only that they chew on the plants, they actually cause them to wilt and die eventually, too... a double whammy! Anyhow, they've gotten a few of our cucumbers and winter squash, and they seem to like the zucchini, but you shouldn't notice a difference in your share of the harvest.
We're (finally) getting a handle on our weeding again, which always gets out of hand once there's lots to harvest: harvesting tends to always take priority. A lot of our beds are now turning over to late plantings of cool-season crops, so you may see a repeat of radishes, spinach, peas, et cetera in your later bags (no promises!). Working with a limited amount of space, some beds get turned over up to 3 or 4 times in a season, which makes our little space a very productive one! We're learning which fields are better for early-season crops, which have fertility issues, and which are-- as we call it in Manitoba-- "turbo-dirt". Of course there's loads of things we would do differently next season, but that's just part of growing on a new piece of land.
As we speak, a number of people are out working at putting in a drilled well on the property. I'm not 100% sure how it all works, but I know that it will at least solve the water shortage problem for the people and animals living on the farm. Also, our irrigation pond went dry last week, which is a bit scary in the middle of the season, so hopefully there will be a way to tap into that well if not this year, then next.

Apples basking in the setting sun. I feel this is a good metaphor for our farm right now: green on top of green, on top of green!

Overall, we've been having a very successful year at Watershed, which I'm sure you were able to gather from the produce you've been eating!

One last thing before I get to the good stuff: It is Lisa's birthday in a couple of weeks, and she's looking for a recommendation for a great bed and breakfast: Let me know if you know of one!

In your basket this week:
Garlic
You can't live without this if you are Ukrainian, Italian, German, East Indian, Hungarian, Spanish, et cetera... I'm pretty certain it's a universal Yum! to all cultures.

Basil
We're giving you all the makings of one of my favourite salads this week- tomatoes, cucumber, basil (add your peppers and throw in some feta and olives to make it Greek if you're a full share!). I'm pretty sure fresh basil is one of the favourite herbs of most people, and that you have a million different things planned to do with it- tomato sauce, chopped on top of pizza, in your salad, pesto... dare I go on? We grow a variety of different types, the most striking being the purple, which you may have in your bag.

Tomatoes

There's just no substitute for farm-fresh tomatoes. We want to send them to you every possible time that we can, because I know how far superior they are. Because we grow so many heirloom varieties, I hope you get a different mix from one week to the next. A note on storing them: fresh tomatoes should only be stored in the fridge as a last resort (as in, you're going away for the weekend and you can't take them with you and you think they won't make it 'til Monday). Otherwise, keep them in the paper bag we send them to you in, or in your fruit bowl (though watch out for fruit flies). Most of ours are picked perfectly ripe, so they should stand at least a few days, and you should always eat them in order of ripest first. With most of the heirlooms, you can't go on colour, so it's the (gentle) squeeze test to find out if it's ripe (I once yelled at a woman at a farmer's market who was squeezing our tomatoes too hard... so please be gentle!). An unripe tomato will have virtually no give, but a ripe one will give ever-so-slightly when squeezed.
Also, to cut your ripe tomato, you're going to need a serrated knife, like a bread knife. Jon thought he was the only one who knew this, until Lisa and I told him that we think it's general knowledge. But just in case you didn't know, it makes it much easier to get picture-perfect tomato slices! And please, for my sake, DO marvel at how beautiful your tomatoes are on the inside as well as the outside: a lot of the heirlooms have coloured marbelling throughout, or complex lobes of seeds and meat that are really truly gorgeous.

Cabbage
The weather gods will not let us have lettuce, so this is a good substitute for now. Lisa stayed home the other night to make sauerkraut; I'm quite certain she's secretly a 90 year old lady! However, we discussed today that the fermented veggies must be doing her a lot of good: she's been experimenting with adding some former no-no's back into her diet, with much success. Like it or not, it's good for you, and sometimes that's just enough to make you want to eat it. If Lisa can find time to make sauerkraut, you can too!
Or, you can do what I did for supper tonight, which was "lazy cabbage rolls": Basically, I made some rice, sauteed some chopped cabbage, made a fantastic tomato sauce out of our heirloom tomates, and layered the three into a casserole dish, and baked at 350 until the edges start to brown (I've seen this made other ways, but this was the amount of lazy I felt like being tonight).

Carrots
Again, rainbow bunches with tops on, if you're so inclined to devour those, too. Our white carrots are actually very beautiful and delicious: I used them in Jon's birthday carrot cake a couple of weeks ago, with no complaints (though, who among us would dare complain about cake?!). I think it's particularly interesting (from a farming point of view) to see the varietal differences in the carrots: our orange ones lag behind those beefy white ones by quite a bit (they were planted at the same time). However, I'm sure most of you are just excited to see a trio of colour on your dinner plates, and that's okay, too! Lisa said these are the best-tasting carrots we've had yet, so see if you agree!

Onions
I wanted to tell you something really exciting about onions, so of course I consulted wikipedia. I learned that when an onion is cut it's cells are broken, which releases a gas that is an eye irritant and causes tears to form. Some ways to prevent this from happening (other than wearing goggles, of course!) are: cut the onion under running water or in a bowl of water, chill or freeze the onion, use a sharp knife which will damage less cells and release less gas, or avoid cutting the root off until the very end, as more of the enzymes that release the gas are concentrated in the root. The first thing I always do is cut the root off first, so perhaps I will change my strategy after learning this!

Cucumber
What's fresher tasting than a cucumber in mid-summer? It pairs so well with your basil and tomatoes, or you can make a traditional cucumber salad, which is really just sliced cucumber and very thinly sliced onion, with a creamy dressing. We had one tonight with supper, and Lisa and I made a lemon-poppyseed dressing to go with it that was delicious. For something different, you can liven up your water with some slices floating amongst the ice cubes.

Leeks
Leeks are one of my favourite members of the onion family, especially small ones. Those big ones are good for big pots of soup (or clubbing people!), but these are nice little guys that are just perfect for a stir-fry or salad or sauteed with your potatoes. The correct way to slice a leek is to remove the end (very end part where the roots are), cut the top where the greens darken, and then slice length-wise (the long way) in half so you can wash and remove any sand or dirt from the leaves at the top. Then you lay flat on a cutting board and slice away. You can use the tops, too, they are a more fibrous texture and might go better in soup stock or must be sliced very thinly.

Full-size baskets also get:
Radishes
This is the first fruitful result of a later season planting of radishes. They are very spicy, reflecting the heat that they endured to grow in.

Peppers
We're excited to be shipping you the first of our pepper harvest! There's a few different ones that may greet you in your full-share bag: a purple sweet bell, a yellow banana that has mild heat, and some spicy green ones.

Beans
Filet beans (the very skinny ones in your basket this week) are one of our true stars of the harvest this season. They are a pain in the butt to pick, overshadowed only by how excited everyone is to see them, and how quickly they fly off the table at the farmer's market, thus making it all worth it. I can see why people get excited over them: they are truly a gourmet item!

A bride walked down the aisle on Saturday with flowers from Watershed Farm: What an honor for us!

Hope you have a great week and enjoy all the bounty in your basket!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Watershed Farm CSA - 14 August 2012 - Delivery #9

Hello everyone!

This is delivery #9, which means we have officially reached the half-way point of our CSA! I can't believe it; it feels as though we've just begun, and I don't feel half-way worn out yet! I get asked a lot when the last CSA delivery is, so I (finally) looked it up: October 9. That's when your Tuesdays will get a lot less exciting!

This weekend we have been fortunate to have Lisa's friend Sarah visiting us from Montreal; here's a photo of the two of them with a loaded table at the Lunenburg Farmer's Market on Thursday morning!

Thanks, Sarah, for all your cheerful help!

One piece of housekeeping for the members of Halifax - Mid East Food Centre pick-up. This group seems to keep getting bigger, and since the bags are not in an ideal location (usually under the exhaust from a stand-up cooler) and Salaam has been very kind in not minding thus far, we thought we'd stay one step ahead and see if anyone would be willing to switch to Nurtured (2571 Robie Street) pick-up instead. The hours are shorter (1-5), but if you can make it work we'd really appreciate it. Email me and let me know if this is a possibility for you!

Just a reminder to wipe out your bags before you return them if possible: we had to wash a few that were getting smelly this week!

A rare moment when everyone was working in the same part of the field: Lisa and Sarah picking cucumbers, workshares Anna, Kyle, and friend Carl picking beans, and Jon weeding (and myself, photographing!).

One of the hazards of the job!
The other day, Jon and I heard a loud scream from one of the greenhouses. We yelled "You okay?" and because she laughed as she responded, we knew Lisa was alright. She had gotten tangled in a spiderweb, which although it sounds like a girlish thing to scream about, I think it totally justified when the spiders look like this:

This is a "Writing Spider" a.k.a. "Corn Spider" or "Garden Spider". It's known as a Writing Spider because the middle of its' web contains a zig zag of spider threads that almost look like writing. The zig zag is to warn and deter birds and small animals from running into the web: though some of these are big enough I think a bird would be just an appetizer! Lisa and I hate them and Jon is busy relocating them throughout the fields. Apparently their bite is harmless, but I don't want to get close enough to find out. They are fascinating enough that I took photos of this one and even looked it up on Wikipedia!

The chickens were kind enough to pose for me the other day: I ended up with some great shots and thought I'd share them with you! 3 out of 4 of these chickens are busy laying eggs for the egg shares, some of which are winding up now-- which means that if any of you want to sign on again (or for the first time) we should be able to squeeze in 5 dozen in the next 8 weeks. Email me if you're interested!

One last note: we have four young roosters that we would love to get rid of. Most still need a little bit of growing until they're fit for the soup pot, so if you or someone you know needs a new a new guy in their lives, let me know!

In your basket this week:
Potatoes
Here's a recipe that makes use of your potatoes as well as your weekly herb (have you noticed we send you a different herb every week? It's because we think herbs are great, people don't use them enough, and fresh farm herbs are far superior!)
RECIPE: German-Style New Potatoes
1-2 lbs baby potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
Directions:
1 Cook potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 15 minutes. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate).
2 Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
3 Add potatoes and sauté until crisp and golden, about 7 minutes.
4 Season with salt and pepper.
5 Transfer to bowl.
6 Sprinkle with parsley.

Cucumbers
We're sending you an abundance, because we're guessing that you love fresh cucumbers as much as we do! Seriously, we've been eating them every day, and I think I even saw Lisa and Sarah eating them for breakfast! Our standby is a cucumber and tomato salad, with balsamic vinegar. Simple, but so fresh and delicious! If you want to get fancy or you have guests coming over, how about a cucumber slice on a cracker with some cream cheese or goat cheese? I even love cucumbers on my sandwiches- much heartier than plain ol' lettuce!

Blueberries
We thought it was going to rain on us picking blueberries, but the weather held and the ridiculous humidity maintained. We hope you are not yet tired of berries, but if you are, throw these in the freezer for those February blues! The man who owns the farm where we pick gave me some good instructions: If you are going to have blueberry pancakes, make your pancakes plain and then heat maple syrup with blueberries in it. It keeps your pancakes from being soggy!

Beans
At the beginning of the season, I love beans just steamed with butter on top. By the second month of eating beans, I feel the need to be a little more creative. Try steaming your beans until perfectly tender, and then throwing them in an ice bath (cold water with ice in it) to stop the cooking process. They are interesting cooked but served cold. I love throwing them in salads, like tomato-cucumber salad or potato salad. If you have a can of beans in the pantry, or the patience to cook some dry beans, why don't you make a four- or five- (or more!) bean salad.

Parsley
I used to think parsley was boring, but now I know it's just underrated. Parsley is such a great, fresh taste, and when it's fresh from the farm it's never wilty or bitter, like I remember from previous encounters with this herb. It shouldn't be confined to just a garnish, either! It adds great flavour to soups, stocks, salads, stir-frys; basically anything you can think of! It can even be used to freshen your breath, after you consume that garlic and onion in your basket!

Tomatoes
YAY! I'm so happy to be sending you the first of our tomatoes this week. We've had some, but not enough to supply all of our CSA members yet, so this week you are getting an assortment of full-size and cherry-size heirloom tomatoes. If you're wondering what makes a tomato an "heirloom", it's basically an open-pollinated (non-hybrid) tomato whose fruit has fallen out of favour with conventional, large scale growers for various reasons (generally they have thinner skins so do not ship long distances well, are usually less productive and do not produce uniform fruit- all the things favoured by the boring grocery store shelves).
These are the delicious tomatoes you had as a kid but can't seem to find anymore!

Here's a brief introduction to some of the tomatoes you may meet in your bag:
Cherry:
Sungold (orange, round)
Yellow pear
Red grape
Red cherry
Black cherry (pale maroon with dark shoulder)
Green doctor (yellowish-green and round)
Matt's Wild Cherry and Currant Tomato (pea-sized and red)
Slicer:
Sunkist Slicer (BRIGHT orange, round)
Orange Blossom (orange, round)
Cherokee Purple and Black Krim (purply/green, eliptical or round shape)
Indigo Rose (black shoulder, orange bottom)
Speckled Roman (oblong red with green/yellow stripes)
San Marzano Roma (oblong red)
Moneymaker (red, round)

Onion
...to accompany all the great things you're cooking this week!

Full-size shares also get:
Kale
I couldn't get my head around kale when I thought of it as a leaf, but when I thought of it as more like broccoli, somehow, it made sense. It's heartier than any other leaf you can eat, and more nutritious, too! As I've said before, I enjoy it best raw, chopped finely with a tangy vinagrette. And lots of nuts and seeds!

Leeks
I love how sweet and mild leeks are compared to onions. That being said, you should feel free to substitute them in recipes that call for onion. A lot of people who can't stand onion go for leeks; they'd be great sauteed with your kale and some garlic!

Garlic
We'll be having a garlic festival at the end of October that all you garlic lovers should attend! In addition to learning all about garlic, we'll also be showing you how to plant, and teaching you different harvesting, storage and cooking methods! More info on this to follow; for now, enjoy our delicious juicy garlic!

Our turkeys have taken to the trees at night, which makes them hard to put away but funny to watch when it's not me who has to do it!

Watershed Farm hosts workshops from time to time and there is one coming up that some of you may be interested in attending. If you grow vegetables in your own gardens or are interested in doing so, this is an opportunity to hear from one of Canada's leading lights in organic agriculture, David Cohlmeyer. Please help us spread the word by sending on the attached flyer to anyone you can think of who may be interested.

Have a great week!