Sandy Spring CSA

August 26, 2009: This week’s featured fruits and vegetables are: Sweet corn, apples, eggplant, zucchini, onion, herb, beans, beets with tops, and - a special treat - a sunflower head for everyone!

Here are some suggestions from Farmer Pam about the sunflower heads:

The sunflower heads are freshly cut, so you do need to let them dry before you eat the seeds - any flat surface will do. Please do not leave them outside overnight - the morning dew will slow the drying and also your little forest friends may find it irresistible! You may also dry the heads for making a fall wreath for your door and then later, feed them to the birdies. We like to nail ours flat to a piece of plywood – that way you can move it around. Just a few 3-4 inch nails will hold the edges flat.

Pam also warns about taking extra care with this week’s vegetables:

A word about the veggies: this extreme weather has really beat things up. Please use your veggies promptly. The beans and the herb should be opened up and checked for moisture - dry them or put them in a new container and use them soon!

And speaking of extreme weather: apparently they had a tornado touch down at the farm!

Tornado and straight line winds - we now have enough firewood for winter heating, thank you very much! The next wave of spinach for fall was just shredded - we have replanted, but what a disappointment.

Let’s all take a moment today to think of the many hands that put food on our tables - working in all kinds of conditions.

Recipes: Pleasant Surprises

A CSA subscription is a series of pleasant surprises - an ongoing invitation to try new things. For instance:

Wow - sunflower heads! For me, this will be the first time I’ve gotten my seeds straight from the source. Check here for a simple, step-by-step guide for harvesting, and here (all the way down at the bottom) for some suggestions on shelling the seeds, as well as ideas on roasting and making sunflower seed nut butter.

Then, there are the pleasant surprises that come from new vegetable combinations. Googling “recipe apples corn,” for example, brought up Apple Corn Muffins - from the Mayo Clinic, no less, so they’re bound to be healthy! Or, in a decidedly less healthy vein, the Apple or Corn Fritters also look delightful.

Searching for “recipe eggplant beets” brought up Baked Eggplant, Tomatoes and Beet Greens with Parmesan Crumb Topping, which looks interesting, and also Baked Trout with Warm Beet Medley Salad, which uses not only eggplant and beets, but red cabbage and carrots from last week!

I hope others are finding - and creating! - their own CSA pleasant surprises.

Food for Thought: Saturday Food Events

Here are two events taking place this Saturday that may catch your eye:

In Derwood, from 10am - 1pm, the Master Gardeners of Montgomery County are holding an Open House at their Demonstration Garden at the Agricultural Farm History Park (full details are in our August 12th post.)

In Rockville, from noon - 6pm, Uncorked, the Rockville Wine festival, will take place in Rockville Town Square. Farmer Pam sends word that one of the wineries from her area, Terrapin Station Wineries, will take part in the festival. Pam sent a link to the winery’s most recent newsletter, which contains a coupon down at the bottom for their wines purchased at the festival.

Enjoy!