CSA Week 12

In your share this week:

Carrots
Sweet Peppers
Napa Cabbage
Zucchini
Cucumber
Green Beans
Tomato
Kale
Parsley
Cilantro

Full shares only:

Basil
Broccoli or Cauliflower

So…

It’s been a week. I am so sorry for any of you whose families have had losses in these fires. My heart is breaking for our neighbors, our friends, our forests, and our coastal home.

We are back to our usual market and CSA schedule this week, and we plan to be at the hospital farm stand on Thursday from 11-2. If you are displaced from the fires and unable to get to your share, let us know and we will figure something out.

The Echo Mountain fire was about 4 miles from the farm, but we were extremely fortunate and escaped mostly unscathed. We lost power for several days, leading to losing some of the flowers and produce we had in the cooler, though we were able to find homes for most of it. We have had a fair bit of cleanup to do, and it’s taken several days to get our harvests back on track. The most challenging result is that 2 of our crew members left suddenly after the fires, so we are left short handed. We’ll do our best to keep up, and things will be slowing down here anyway in a couple of weeks.

Our produce did, however, get dusted with ash. We did a lot of extra washing today, but I strongly recommend that you give your share an extra wash. Some crops don’t store well wet, including beans, broccoli, tomatoes, cauliflower, and cabbage, so we didn’t wash those at all. I’d put them away as is, but wash them when you are ready to use them.

Since we’ve all been breathing smoke for several days, I put together a bit of a “detox” share. I’ve included kale, parsley, and cilantro (basil for full shares), which are all extremely nutrient dense and can help our bodies recover from the stress of the fires and smoke. Parsley is particularly rich in Vitamin C; cilantro can help to chelate heavy metals from our bodies. Basil is anti-inflammatory, and all of these leafy greens are full of good nutrition that our bodies need right now.

But that’s not all. We have the first of the sweet peppers today, and this is the best crop we’ve had in years! Everyone got both a yellow and a red pepper. We grow mostly thin walled, highly flavorful peppers, which are a different shape than you are probably used to seeing at the store. These aren’t spicy; they are sweet, juicy, and delicious, perfect for raw eating or cooking any way you’d use a bell pepper. I’d store these in a bag in the fridge. We did rinse these off, but a second rinse wouldn’t hurt.

Also delicious today is a beautiful head of napa cabbage (full share members: did you use up the last one yet?). These weren’t washed for better storage. Napa cabbage is another nutritional power house, with high levels of antioxidants, B vitamins, vitamin C, and more.

Napa cabbage, also called Chinese cabbage, is mild flavored and extra tender, and it is great raw, cooked, or fermented into kim chi. Raw it’s great as a green salad, as a base or crunchy addition to noodle salads, or makes a good coleslaw. Cooked, it’s most often used in stirfries, but I use it in lots of dishes. I’ve been eating a lot of it recently, stir fried with rice, shredded on tacos, and in a simple soup with chicken stock, ginger, and noodles. It keeps extremely well in the fridge, you can just peel off as many leaves as you want to eat at a time and leave the rest in a plastic bag in the fridge.

We are so grateful for our amazing coastal community, and especially for our CSA members. Our hearts go out to all of you: stay safe out there!

Chimichurri

This is a great way to eat up a lot of herbs! This savory sauce is great on toast, steak, salads, grains, you name it. Recipe from Cooking Classy blog.

• 1 1/2 cups well packed (42g) fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup well packed (20g) fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup (9g) fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried
• 1/4 small red onion or one small shallot
• 3 garlic cloves
• 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional, more or less to taste)
• 3/4 cup olive oil

By Hand Method

1. Finely chop parsley, cilantro, oregano, onion (should have 1/4 cup minced red onion) and garlic (1 Tbsp). Add to a mixing bowl along with all remaining ingredients. Stir to blend.

Food Processor Method

1. If using a food processor no need to pre-chop herbs and you’ll only need to roughly chop onion and garlic. Add red onion, garlic, red wine vinegar, lemon juice and salt to a food processor. Pulse, stopping and scraping down sides occasionally until finely minced.
2. Add in parsley, cilantro, oregano and red pepper flakes then pour in olive oil while pulsing several times until herb leaves are finely minced (they should have some body and texture).
3. Spread over meat, poultry, seafood or vegetables or use as a marinade.

Tacos of Napa Cabbage, Corn, and Tempeh Chorizo

Yes, you read that right.  I prefer napa cabbage to the European style, and I think it makes a great filling for Mexican food.  I also use this as an enchilada filling.  Try it!  Makes lots of tacos.

Tempeh Chorizo:

Crumble 6 oz tempeh into a bowl.  Stir together with:

            2 Tbsp vegetable oil

            2 cloves garlic

            1 Tbsp ground ancho chile (or add a bit of cayenne and double the paprika)

            1 tsp paprika

            ½ tsp dried oregano, preferably Mexican

            pinch each cinnamon, cloves and ground coriander

            salt and pepper

2 Tbsp cider vinegar

Let sit at least 20 minutes.

Add to this mixture:

            3 c chopped napa cabbage

            Kernels from 3 ears corn

            ½ bunch cilantro

Heat 2 Tbsp vegetable oil in a skillet.  Add the mixture and stir and fry about 12 minutes, until the napa cabbage is tender and the tempeh browned.  Add more oil if necessary.  Serve with warm corn tortillas, a twist of lime, and your favorite salsa (salsa verde is especially good.)  You can also add cheese, sweet peppers, and more fresh cilantro.