Sandy Spring CSA

The first Spring/Summer CSA pickup will be on May 12, not May 19 as posted earlier. This gives us a full 21 weeks of vegetable deliveries.

Sign up soon, as we need a minimum of 50 shares to start each new site.

new! Potomac pick-up is at the McLean School, 8224 Lochinver Lane
new! West Rockville pick-up is on Baylor Ave, close to the Rockville 270 exit
new! Kemp Mill pick-up is on Kersey Ave at Arcola, close to 495 Univ Blvd Exit

Sandy Spring pick-up is in the center of Sandy Spring
East Rockville pick-up is off Norbeck Rd, two blocks from the Rockville Metro
Kensington pick-up is one mile from old town Kensington

Click here to read about joining our CSA.

Go to Brookside Gardens on Feb 26, 2010 for a full day of speakers focused on the topic of food. Hear from experts on gardening, edible landscapes, community gardens, and more.

From their website:

The Green Matters Symposium concentrates attention on environmental issues with which we are currently faced and over which we have some control. Environmental stewardship is a core value of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Brookside Gardens’ parent organization. As such, we strive to provide timely information and viable solutions to environmental challenges, because we feel strongly that green does matter.

Held annually on the last Friday in February, Green Matters is meant to educate professional and amateur gardeners, community leaders, nursery and landscape professionals, garden designers, municipal, county, state parks personnel, environmental educators, extension agents, and others about the importance of sustainability to the green industry. Previous Green Matters have focused on topics such as invasive plants, water-wise landscapes, and sustainable landscapes.

Feb 26, 2010
8:30am - 4:00pm

To register, click here.

Featured Speakers:

• Anna Lappé – Author, Diet for a Hot Planet and Cofounder, Small Planet Institute, Brooklyn, NY
• Mark Highland, “The Organic Mechanic” – Founder and President, Organic Mechanics Soil Company, LLC.
• Jon Traunfeld – State Master Gardener Coordinator and Director of the “Grow It Eat It” Campaign
• Ann Mattingly – Community Gardens Manager, Delaware Center for Horticulture
• David Vismara – Chief of Horticultural Services, Montgomery County Parks
• Jennifer Bartley – Landscape Architect and Author of Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook
• Nora Pouillon – Pioneer and Champion of Organic, Environmentally Conscious Cuisine & Chef/Owner, Restaurant Nora, the Nation’s 1st Certified Organic Restaurant
• Woody Woodroof – Founder & Executive Director, Red Wiggler Community Farm

November 18, 2009: This week’s featured fruits and vegetables are: parsnips, carrots, white cauliflower, Romanesco cauliflower, collards, broccoli, winter squash, and white potatoes.

Farmer Pam had this suggestion about the Romanesco cauliflower:

This cauliflower is green – it looks like little pine trees, and is great raw. Last year I carefully sliced it up (an exacto knife is good for this) and put the little trees on toothpicks and made a rave-style hors d’oeuvre tray (very Martha).

Have fun w/ your food

Recipes: Parsnips on Parade

Parsnips - yet another vegetable the CSA introduced me to for the first time. For anyone who, like me, has only recently made the parsnip’s acquaintance, here are some fun things to do with this vegetable:

First, some great basic tips on cooking parsnips.

For soups, this Winter White Soup receives rave reviews. This Gingered Carrot and Parsnip Soup recipe also sounds tasty, with its touch of fresh ginger.

Carrots and parsnips go well together, as evidenced by this recipe for Honey Glazed Carrots and Parsnips, or this one for Carrot and Parsnip Latkes.

Parsnips in a pie! This Whitechapel Shepherd’s Pie looks like fun, as does this Curried Parsnip Pie.

Or for just plain parsnips, try Sweet and Gooey Parsnips, which looks anything but plain.

Yes - it’s the beginning of a beautiful CSA friendship.

Food for Thought:

In Montgomery County, one of every four county residents is at risk of hunger. One of every four students attending Montgomery County Public Schools qualifies for a free or reduced price lunch. Hunger in our region may be hidden, but it is all around us.

As Thanksgiving and the year-end holidays approach, all of us probably think about those for whom this is not a season of bounty. Consider contacting the Manna Food Center or the Capital Area Food Bank, two food clearinghouses in our region, to find out how to help.

Reminder: Next week’s pickup is on Monday November 23. It is our last fall pick-up. You will pleased to know that you only paid for seven weeks this fall and you are receiving eight weeks of produce! Nov 23 is a bonus box.

Please return any remaining farmer boxes you have stashed away.

Its Time For the “Fresh” Revolution | Washington Times Communities

November 11, 2009: This week’s featured fruits and vegetables are: purple broccoli, green broccoli, apples, sweet peppers, hot peppers, rutabaga, onion, carrots, kale, and one half-gallon cider for each person.

Recipes:

The rutabaga - so new to me before the CSA, it took several tries just to be able to spell it! For those who, like me, are just getting acquainted with rutabagas, here are some fun recipes with which to get started.

Because a rutabaga in a fridge just might last until Thanksgiving, one might give Hearty Turkey Soup with Parsley Dumplings a try. For side dishes, Lemon Carrots and Rutabaga sounds promising, as does R and R Pudding, a casserole of rutabagas and rice.

For a tried-and-true traditional main course, these Pasties fill the bill - meat pies with potatoes, onion, and rutabaga. For a classy departure from the norm, Rutabaga, Ham, Broccoli, and Cheddar Souffle looks fascinating, tasty, doable in the age of food processors, and (as the blog points out) relatively inexpensive.

Have fun!

Food for Thought:

Thanksgiving is approaching! For those who eat turkey, why not order local this year?

Maryland’s Department of Agriculture provides a list of farms that sell turkeys directly to consumers. Also, My Organic Market (MOMs) in Rockville can also order a local free range or organic free range turkey for you to pick up at their store.

Reminders

Monday November 23 is our last fall pick-up. You will pleased to know that you only paid for seven weeks this fall and you are receiving eight weeks of produce! Nov 23 is a bonus box.

Please return any remaining farmer boxes you have stashed away by the final day.

The organizers will be on site throughout the day on November 23 to answer questions regarding next year and to take checks, should you wish to make your payment now for the Spring/Summer 2010 CSA, which starts on May 19, 2010. Jan 15, 2010 is the deadline and the fee for returning members is $545. Alternately, you can download the Spring/Summer 2010 application here on the web site. Click Join. Print and complete the form and mail in with your check.

We would like your opinion about your 2009 experience. Please complete the customer satisfaction survey online. Your feedback is very important for us to pass to Farmer Pam to make improvements for the coming year.

The mission of Sandy Spring CSA is to continue expanding and introducing people to the organic, local food movement. Please pass our information (and web address) to anybody who might be want to be a member of CSA.

Want to start a pick-up site to help us grow? We think another site in Silver Spring or Rockville would be great. If you are interested, please inquire about what it takes with vanstrunk [AT] gmail.com.

Thank you one and all for participating. If you saw Botany of Desire (Michael Pollan) on PBS last week, you know we truly have a partnership with plants in our journey on earth. CSA is a great way to remember the connection. See you in the Spring!

CSA volunteers

What: FRESH Screening & Panel with Joel Salatin, Sally Fallon, and MORE!

When: November 8, 2009 4:00 PM

Where: Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax 2709 Hunter Mill Road Oakton, VA 22124

Come see “FRESH, the Movie” followed by panel discussion with the stars and our local heroes:

• Joel Salatin (Polyface Farm)
• Sally Fallon (Weston A. Price Foundation)
• Andrew Kimbrell (Center for Food Safety)
• Carole Morison (Sustainable Food Systems Consultant)
• Monica Corrado (Chef & Nutrition Consultant, WAPF)

Moderated by Melissa Harris, Editor of Flavor Magazine!

RSVP here with the number in your party.

A recent addition to the Ljubljana (capital city of Slovenia) farmers market is a “mlekomat” – an automatic raw milk machine which dispenses non homogenized, non pasteurized milk from cows on Alpine pasture, which are not ever treated with antibiotics. The machine dispenses milk in a variety of quantities, and bottles can be purchased to transport the milk. Patrons also can bring their own containers.

Read more.

Good morning – another beautiful day

Hope all went well yesterday – am sure that everyone behaved themselves & only took one jug of cider each

We hope that everyone enjoyed their cider - you will have more next week. We used some to glaze our roasted root veggies – wow.

Working on getting all the parsnips washed & bagged for next week – what a job – sure glad it is still reasonably warm outside.

Hard to think that there are only 3 more deliveries.

Best,

P

November 4, 2009: This week’s featured fruits and vegetables are: apples, celery, cauliflower, head lettuce, purple broccoli, white turnips with tops and a jug of cider.

Farmer Pam speaks enthusiastically about the turnips:

White turnips are nice and sweet. They may be eaten raw, grated into salad, or baked or boiled and then mashed – some people like to do a turnip/potatoes mash – yummy!

Recipes:

For those new to turnips, there are many delicious possibilities out there. (This site has several dozen recipes, as well as some basic turnip tips, if you scroll down to the bottom. For example, one can use turnip greens in recipes that call for kale or spinach - very handy!) Here is a variety of recipes in very different styles, all of which I found intriguing.

For a basic vegetable side dish, Veggies in Vinaigrette showcases not only turnips, but also cauliflower and broccoli, as found in this week’s box.

Those looking for hearty cold-weather soups might try Sweet Potato Soup, which blends turnips with white and sweet potatoes in a sweet and creamy soup that sounds great for this time of year.

As for main dishes, a wide variety of cuisines use turnips in tasty ways. This Cider Pork Chop Dinner combines turnips with carrots, potatoes, and onions, and this recipe for Vegetable Cornish Pasties leans on the same set of vegetables. For a marked departure from these traditional English-style entrees, though, try turnips in either Israeli Moroccan Couscous or Kashmiri Style Kidney Beans with Turnips, both of which look like great fun.

Food For Thought:

Two big environmental concerns for farming are the climate-changing emissions produced by farm machinery and the fossil-fuel-intensive fertilizers necessary to increases crop yields.

What if the one could cancel out the other?

Utilizing an intriguing technique pioneered by Gary Lewis of BioAgtive, an Australian wheat farmer named Ian Linklater has adapted his farm equipment to plow his tractor emissions back into the soil to use as fertilizer. Linklater reports that the technique has saved him hundreds of thousands of (Australian) dollars in fertilizer costs, while producing yields comparable to those he would have gotten with fertilizer.

Scientists are now evaluating this technique; it will be fascinating to hear what they eventually conclude.