The last week -Week 25

The last box..peppers, delicata and acorn squash, summer squash, lettuce, bok choy, collards, dino kale, red Russian kale, basil.

I am very sad the CSA is ending. It has been an adventure in vegetables and the human experience has been the best. Brandon and Brian have been great and I wish them both the best in their next great adventure. My box buddy Allen has been wonderful and I am sure we will stay in touch.

The big question for me is what to do next in terms of keeping up being a seasonal eater.

Week 24 (the penultimate box)

week twenty four. ONE WEEK LEFT!!
November 11th, 2008

Box> lettuce, squash, bok choi, dino kale, red Russian kale, potatoes, radishes, peppers, garlic

Dear friends and family of Sol Food Farm. How are we today? Brian and I are just swell. Yours truly just got back from a week visiting home and preparing myself for the big move back. That’s correct folks. Brandon Pugh has had his amazing California experience and is now heading back to the homeland to start my own project, Delta Sol. This farm has been a dream of mine for a while and at last the time has come. I will be farming the land that I grew up on and will be one of the only vegetable producers for miles around. Memphis is where my markets will be and my mom is already working on my CSA membership. I will be back around my family and am ready for this next step. Thank you all for being so supportive of us young farmers as we figure out how this all works.
Have no fear for the present Sol Food Farm for once again there will be some new folks around. Not 100 percent sure who but we will make sure you know as soon as we have the okay.
Lots of love and a friendly reminder that we one week left ya’ll. Holy cow.

Recipe.
Basic vinaigrette.
2 tbsp cider vinegar or 3 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp dry mustard or 1 tsp Dijon
½ tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
6-8 tbsp olive oil

In a small bowl, whisk vinegar or lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper until salt dissolves. Slowly whisk in oil. Alternately, combine vinegar or lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper in a covered jar and shake vigorously until well combined; add oil and shake until blended.

Grapes - good eats and an underutilized ingredient

Most cuisines have examples of cooking with grapes - from curried chicken salad (or uncurried as well) to sole Veronique. Aside from eating them plain - are grapes worth the effort to make a part of everyday food?

Nutritional value of grapes

This is a great looking recipes and story about cooking with grapes...pork tenderloin with roasted grape sauce.

Pickled grapes are wonderful too. The first time I made pickled grapes --a little too much on the spicy hot side! But they are great as a condiment and a cocktail nibble.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cooking for the New Year

It's the Jewish New Year and I looked around for some recipes for inside my box
I found this one...False Mahshi: Layered Swiss Chard, Beets, Rice and Beef

I will have to make some changes since I have turnips not beets and collards not chard
but we will see soon.

Week 17 (or 18 if you are on Sol Food Farm time)

Lettuces, basil, parsley, nectarines, red russian kale, dino kale, collard, garlic, gypsy peppers and the turnips are back!

Week 16 (not 17 boyz)

Lettuces, gypsy peppers. eggplants. tomatoes, collards, basil , parsley, dino kale, red russian kale, garlic, potatoes and nectarines.

Week 14

Summer squash, lettuce, eggplant, bell pepper, broccoli, garlic, basil, parsley, tomatoes, collards and peaches.

I made crispy collards again and homemade potato chips for snacks while we made fun of the Republican convention. Think crispy collards are now my favorite way to eat them. Blanch them first --dry thorough and fry them up. They are pretty good crumbled over salads, soups, eggs and just seasoned and eaten alone.

Lucky Week 13

The box looks wonderful --basil, broccoli, top bunch collard, deer tongue and red butter lettuce, lemon cucumbers, torpedo onions, summer squash, tomatoes, OYSTER MUSHROOMS (they are so beautiful), garlic, eggplant and peaches.

Week Eleven --inside the box

Cilantro, lettuces, eggplant, tomatoes, plums,asian pears, collards, dino kale, heirloom collards, basil garlic and summer squash.