I could've had a roasted grape!

There were beautiful grapes in the box this week and the neighborhood is littered with walnuts I found this recipe for roasted grapes. I adapted it -
grapes roasted with limoncella and spice roasted walnuts served over pears.

Notes from Sol Food Farm -week 22

WEEK 22. hootie hoo!
October 28th, 2008

Box has: summer squash, lettuce, garlic, basil, bok choi, top bunch collards, heirloom collards, red Russian kale, dino kale, tomatoes, broccoli

Week twenty two update:
Our buddy George is out of town this week in Italy for the Slow Food Conference. Some of you might recall Laura Neale was the Sol Food Farm representative two years ago. She went, had a blast, and made out with a random Greek fisherman. Farmers from all over the world convene in Turin, Italy to eat, talk and celebrate their local specialties. This year was George’s turn. He owns Earthworker Farm and sells at several markets throughout the county. While he’s gone we are taking care of his tomatoes, getting them out of the field and into your hands. Thanks a bunch George and we hope you are wooping it up over there in Italy.

Kale chips
1 tblsp apple cider vinegar
1 tblsp salt
3 tblsp olive oil
2 bunches kale

cut kale into 2 inch pieces and mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Place on baking sheet and put in oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes or

White Beans and Collard Greens

A friend sent a tasty sounding recipe...for cranberry beans and collards from the NYTIMES

My version....white beans, Italian sausage, collards (blanched first), dino kale (blanched first) and broccoli (also blanched)

Crockpots are great --and you can usually find ones in good shape at garage sales.

Week 21

twenty one. fun. from the Fellows at Sol Food Farm
October 21st, 2008

Box: spuds, basil, bok choy, lettuce, broccoli/eggplant, apples, garlic, squash/tomatoes, chard.

Well the big news on campus is that our dear friend Leo is coming up for a visit tomorrow. We really just cannot wait to scream and shout with him and call him names. As you may or may not know he has been living out in New York working on various farms and cooking at a fabulous local restaurant. He’s here through Saturday and you can catch him at the Occidental Farmer’s Market this Friday evening. He’ll be signing his new book, How to be loud and obnoxious. He is really good at it. JUST KIDDING! We love him.
As you can see, there is lots of bok choy in the box. We know you haven’t had it in a while and so just wanted to really give you a great bok choy experience. Bok choy can be steamed, stir fried, and tossed in a super crunchy salad. It’s a nice addition to any dish for it’s fresh crunch. Thanks everyone for being so super. Super duper.

Hello Dal--ly

yellow dal, yellow tomatoes, yellow patty pan squash,dino kale some onion, garlic, ginger and vegtable broth Hello Dal-ly

Collard, peanuts and tomatoes

Sol Food Farm had a recipes for greens, peanut butter and tomatoes. Sounded good so I needed to make something for neighborhood block party
so I made a collard, tomato and peanut butter tart with roasted peanuts on top.
Pretty good but needed some chili heat!

Eating outside the box..but locally sourced

In this case locally sourced means "weed growing out of an abandoned window box"
The other day, a commenter at Firedoglake said if I liked collard greens, I should try purslane. I walked out on my deck and there it was... For many people, it's a weed but it turns out to be a super herb with lots of good things about it......a source of omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants.

Marlene Speiler wrote about the undervalued purslane and included a few recipes. I adapted the chickpea salad to what was in my pantry. It was good and hard to believe purslane is not widely cultivated.

Week Twenty

Sol Food Farm

week 20.
October 14th, 2008

Box contains: basil, lettuce, carrots, dino kale, collards, heirloom collards, peppers, broccoli, apples, plums

Apples and plums are from Twim Peaks Orchard. Thanks Ed.

It’s week twenty here at the farm. Still getting a few more transplants into the ground like Napa cabbage, lettuce, bok choi, and more broccoli. Then we can take down the hoop house! Clean up the plastic and prepare the frame for the next year. Then it’s basically weeding what is in the ground now and we can start to relax. Brian likes to tell me to relax and then I like to yell back, in a strained angry voice, “I am relaxed!” It’s one of the many ways that we have fun here working with each other all day long. I must say I am singing more fiercely than ever. Ingrid and I have been singing the I believe I can fly song all morning. We’re really good.

RECIPE.

Salad. Make a salad.

The last tomato

There are lots of competitions for the first tomato, but where is the reward for the last tomato of the year. (Not that there aren't lots of uses for green tomatoes.)

The night temperatures are starting to drop down low but I am still hoping these lemon boys will ripen on the vine.

Homegrown tomatoes for the holidays....

"Cynthia, you might ask: "How is it that you have ripe tomatoes on Christmas day?" The answer is that this tomato was picked two months ago, in mid October, after our first mild frost."

Another last tomato story

A portrait of the last tomato

The other picture is collard greens in their natural habitat. This neighbor's garden is on my morning walk.

Collards pears and cornbread

I use olive oil in my cornbread, the collards are blanched in advance and I use my muffin top pan so there is more crispy crust.

Figs Blue cheese = pizza

Camille called and the black jack figs are ripe and she is headed out of town.
I ate one, picked enough and made this blue cheese and fig pizza on whole wheat crust/

Pears and Collards

I made mini-tarts (no crust) first I roasted collards (that had been blanched), onion, garlic,pears in olive oil. After about 20 minutes, I ground them slightly in the food processor and mixed in blue cheese and mozzeralla but any soft melty cheese works. Then about 10 minutes in a 375 oven.

Quite tasty

This and That

Top picture is what was left of the box. I roasted the vegetables (yes collards are in that mix), combined them with white beans and some vegtable broth. The result - the middle picture - a wonderful soup served with a garnish of blue cheese crumbles and the bottom picture is Elizabeth's birthday tart made with local fruit -apples, pears, blueberries, nectarines and the missing pieces means I can tell you it was very good.

I made strawberry ice cream and used a recipe from a shop in Columbus , Ohio -Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams Shops
Food and Wine had a feature with recipes. She uses cream cheese and a bit of corn starch instead of eggs. It makes a very scoopable and creamy ice cream (and no eggy
distraction.)

Week 19 Sol Food Farm CSA

WEEK 19. Ya’ll
October 7th, 2008 - this is the note from the weekly box and a recipe too!

The box has this:
Lettuce, basil, collards, heirloom collards, dino kale, apples, peaches, parsley, broccoli, eggplant, squash.

News.

It rained. Thank you Jesus.

All is well and good at Sol Food Farm. Hope you all enjoyed that rain. WE loved it. The tomatoes weren’t that into it. We wish you a super duper and that er’body has a fantastic week. HOLLER!!!!

Recipe from Bryla Jane Watson III, aka. Farmer Brian

Stir Fry
½ onion
3 garlic cloves
1 bunch collards
handful of Broccoli
3-4 squash
1 eggplant
salt
olive oil

Heat up olive oil, garlic in for 30 seconds. Chopped onions until translucent. Add diced eggplant, 2 minutes later add diced summer squash. Three minutes later add collards. Pinch of salt. Cook until collards are soft. Add soy sauce if you like.

Brian loves to watch the View. Loves it.

Apples and Pears

 

This area was once apple, pear, plum and peach orchards and every house has fruit years. This time of year people see you coming with a bag of fruit and run the other way.

I'm making pear and apple sauce with a shot of rum. I also make a version with jalepenos. I've seen several recipes for cakes with pears --trying to decide which one sounds best.

Eating less meat doesn't have to mean tiny burgers...

BLUEBERRY BURGERS
Posted on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 by Acme Instant Food
Oh "YUCKO" I hear you scream! Hang on! Not so fast...these are delicious!
This isn't an original idea. People have been adding fruits to ground beef in order to increase moisture, flavor and reduce fat and cholesterol for years. Burgers can be made in this manner from leaner cuts of beef without toughening up and tasting like a piece of sun-dried raccoon leather. That's great news to anyone interested in shaving calories and saturated fat from their diet.



Adding cherries (and some other fruit) to ground beef makes a better burger.

" The cherry burger was invented in the early 1990s when Ray Pleva and his daughter, Cindy, shocked the meat industry with the tasty new invention. The end product, Plevalean, is now marketed in 17 states through the school lunch program and several other marketing outlets.

The Plevalean cherry burger has 65 percent less fat, 16 percent more protein, 150 fewer calories, 91 percent lean beef and "is moister, juicier and, most importantly, tastes great!" said Phil Korson, president of the Cherry Marketing Institute Inc."

You can buy the patented variety or make your own.
From Slashfood... or this version at four obsessions

Thomas Jefferson's Good Advice

"
"Vegetables. . . Constitute My Principal Diet"

Also for health reasons, Jefferson ate meat only "as a condiment to the vegetables which constitute my principal diet." Many family members remarked on this habit, and though we cannot call Jefferson a vegetarian as defined today, for his time, he did eat an unusually small amount of meat, preferring the produce of his garden. The garden featured more than 250 varieties of herbs and vegetables, including those that others considered exotic or even possibly poisonous, such as the tomato."

Meat as a condiment or garnish is good way to cut back without feeling deprived.

The dish from the NYTIMES layered swiss chard etc...became collards, turnip greens, white beans, tomatoes and basil with raw turnip grated over the top ...hmmmmgood.

Pictures from the Past....from week 9

These pictures were taken by my neighbor Barbara Bourne She is great professional photograher and just getting into working with food. We were lucky enought to be models.

The cooking highlight was the mulberry mole served with peaches, pickled collards and the arepas....hmmmmmmmmmgood.

Week 18

week 18. we’re farminals!!!
September 30th, 2008

Your box contains: lettuce, basil, kale, kale, collards, cucumbers!, garlic, carrots!, broccoli, eggplant, parsley, summer squash

I haven't seen week 18 yet because of my busy (snark) schedule but I got a shout out from my peeps at solfoodfarm about the collard green challenge. Solfoodfarm also sells at the Occidental and Sebastopol Farmers Markets if you aren't lucky enough to be part of the CSA

Rulz of Eating

This a great column from Marlene Spieler from the SF Chronicle. It relates her new approach to eating and why it helped her lose weight...she only eats what she loves!

My experience with losing weight has been similar only it's more of eating what I have learned to love.