Creamy Cucumbers
from the St. Pat’s church cookbook

2 cukes or 1 long seedless cuke
1 med onion
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
½ cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tbsp. chopped fresh dill
1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Thinly slice cucumbers and onion.  Mix into vinegar, salt and sugar.  Let stand for 30 minutes, then drain off the liquid.  Mix mayonnaise, sour cream, dill and parsley.  Pour onto cucumbers and mix.  Makes about 2 ½ cups.

Thanks for sharing, Lynn!
Others (CSA members or not), please feel free to share your favorite vegetable-based recipes too!  You can just put them in a comment and I will paste them into their own post.  And, if you can, send along a picture too, since people love to SEE what it’s going to be like.

Asian Green Bean Salad 

 2 pounds green beans, ends trimmed

1/4 cup rice vinegar

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce, more as desired

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon honey (I used Mirin about 2 tblsp)

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion, rinsed and drained

1 1/2 cup fresh bean sprouts, rinsed (I didn’t have so I didn’t use)

In a 6-quart pan over high heat, bring 3 quarts water to a boil.

Add beans and cook until tender-crisp to bite, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain, immerse in ice water until cool, and drain again.

In a serving bowl, mix vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce to taste, ginger, sesame seeds, garlic, and honey.

Add green beans, onion, and bean sprouts and stir gently to coat.

Serve at room temperature, or chill airtight up to 3 hours, and serve cold.

May & June 2011, planting, mulching, and playing

 Unwrapped Spring Roll Salad 

1 pack thin rice noodles – cook and save some of the water.
2 small bunches of Bok Choy thinly sliced including the greens.
1 bunch green onions thinly sliced including some of the green.
1 cup diced cucumber.
1 grated carrot.
handful of chopped mint
handful of chopped cilantro

Toss together. 

Make a dressing using:

½ cup of the reserved water
½ cup chunky peanut butter
¼ cup Hoisin sauce (or less depending on your taste)
And for a little kick a dash of garlic chili sauce

If serving later, wait to add the dressing.   I had some shrimp left over from the night before so I tossed these in with the salad.  You could add just about any vegetable.

Sadly, it is not quite time for cucumbers yet, but we are enjoying an abundance of early June veggies.  In your box this week:

1. Rhubarb
2. Green Onions (the perennial kind.  we’ll switch to the smaller annual ones soon)
3. Bok Choy (maybe for one more week?)
4. Mint
5. Garlic Chives
6. Chamomile
7. ARUGULA  (like a spicy lettuce.  Eat it raw or cook like spinach.  Loose leaves of various sizes in a bag.)
8. Red Russian Kale — purplish stem, wrinkly edged leaves, mostly green with some purple.  Rubber-banded together at the stem.
9. Dill leaves
10. Radishes.  Little known fact:  you can eat the radish leaves too, but because they are prickly most people would cook them first.  You could saute them or flash steam by dunking in boiling water, or you could chop them up into eggs or hotdish.  (No pressure of course if you don’t want to eat them, most people do just compost them.  But most people also do not know that the leaves are great sources of vitamin C and calcium!)

In your box this week:

1. Rhubarb
2. Bok Choy
3. Green Onions
4. Garlic Chives
5. Oregano
6. Lemon Thyme
7. Mint

• Our box is $500 this year.
• We are only having on-farm pick-up (in St. Francis, MN).
• Veggies will be ready for pick-up on Tuesdays, anytime between 4 – 7 pm.
• Our season runs approximately June 7th to October 4th.

Click on the tabs above for the 2011 details.  “2011 General Info” has an intro to the CSA model and a table of what crops you might see in your box when.  “2011 Registration & Logistics” has the registration form to download and other 2011 specific details.

Happy Spring Equinox!

Winter is the season of making plans, and we have been doing some thinking and talking this winter here at Reimann Family Farm.  With mixed feelings, we have decided to mostly take a sabbatical this year.  We will only be taking-on a handful of CSA members who can pick up their box at the farm in St. Francis.

In lieu of doing the usual bigger CSA this year, we hope to focus on longer-term farm projects like orchard planning and building up even more fertility in our very sandy soil.  We are also looking forward to re-stocking our own pantries and freezers, and to taking more time to enjoy cooking with all these amazing fresh veggies we are growing!

To our Anoka and Minneapolis members, we will miss you and our weekly visits this year!  We sincerely thank you for your past support, especially to those of you who have been with us all five years.

We hope that you will keep us in mind for CSA membership during the summer of 2012 and beyond.

***If you are interested in 2011 on-farm weekly vegetable pick-up, please let us know in a comment on this post.  We will finalize the details of price and pick-up times very soon.***

If you are interested in trying a different CSA for this summer, 2011, the Land Stewardship Project has a very helpful CSA directory and map.  The map is perhaps the most useful part, since you can zoom in to where you live and look for the closest farms and drop-off sites.

The website is:
http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/csa.html

Also, this link provides some resources to find the farmers’ markets in your area:
http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/farmers_markets.html

Sincerely, and with many thanks for your support and interest in our family farm,
Chris,
on behalf of everyone at Reimann Family Farm:
Vangie, Darwin, Carol,
and our 11 chickens.

PS: I made the following video last fall while we were putting everything away.  After the season ended we let the chickens loose to scratch around in the garden as they wanted; I was trying to record our rooster who has never quite figured out how to do the whole “cocka-doodle-doooo!”  Instead, he goes, “cocka-doodle-ertch,” and it makes me chuckle every time.  My niece Alyssa makes a poignant cameo at the end.

“Yummy acorn squash recipe from Weight Watchers. Makes the squash really taste light and creamy. Enjoy! (I used maple syrup instead of brown sugar and omitted the butter.)”

Ingredients

3 medium acorn squash, cut in half and seeded
3 spray(s) cooking spray
3/4 cup(s) fresh orange juice
2 Tbsp ginger root, fresh, minced
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp orange zest

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Coat a roasting pan or baking dish with cooking spray. Place acorn squash, cut side down, on pan and spray outside of squash with cooking spray. Roast until desired doneness, about 30 to 45 minutes.

About 6 or 7 mintues before squash is finished cooking, in a medium oven-safe bowl or pan, combine orange juice, ginger, butter, sugar and zest. Place in oven and cook just until butter and sugar melt; remove from oven and stir. (Or you can heat the dressing on the stovetop over low heat.)

Serve each squash half like a bowl with dressing poured inside. Yields 1 squash half and about 3 tablespoons of dressing per serving.
Notes
You can also scoop out and mash the squash with the dressing and serve it like mashed potatoes.

In your box this week:

1. NEW!  Popcorn: Hang or place in the open air to let dry for about 4 weeks.  Test a few kernels to see if they are ready for popping.  Kernels that are not dry enough will not pop fully.  We removed most bad spots, but due to recent wet conditions there may still be a few moldy kernels.  The rest is still good.  When they are dry enough, rub off the good kernels into a jar for storage.
2. NEW!  Rutabaga
3. NEW!  Lavendar: an edible variety.  Use for crafts, tea, or make some sorbet!
4. NEW!  Parsnips: baby ones!  You could just boil them and have mashed parsnips.  You could also mash in rutabagas, potatoes, and carrots for a lovely fall treat.
5. Eggplant: they are very little, but I think you can use them just like full grown eggplant.
6. Hot Peppers: In the bag with the eggplant, so you know which ones are hot.
7. Sweet Peppers: Lots of sizes and shapes.  We picked some of them quite young (just before the frost on Saturday night).  Young peppers have thinner walls but can be used just the same as the older.  If you have too many peppers to handle — freeze some!  Select some full grown peppers (with thicker walls) and cut into chunks.  Throw into a plastic bag in the freezer.   Easy!  These frozen peppers are perfect for chili, soup, hot dish, etc. all winter long!
8. Kale
9. Rainbow Chard
10. Broccoli
11. Carrots
12. Beets with leaves
13. Parsley
14. Cilantro
15. Mint: easy to dry
16. Sage: easy to dry
17. Pineapple Sage
18. Thyme: easy to dry
19. Lemon Thyme
20. Rosemary: easy to dry