Sandy Spring CSA

The week of September 15, 2008 we got sweet corn, sweet potatoes, peppers, beans, Swiss chard, collards, herb, garlic and one tomato each.

Sept 29 is the last summer pick-up. PLEASE return ALL BOXES by that date. If you are continuing with the fall season, it begins Oct 6 and all logistics remain the same as for summer.

We will be asking all members to rely more on this site for information as we move forward. We thought we would start by inviting you to explore it a bit.

The first thing you can do to make it easy on yourself is to bookmark the web address (http://sandyspringcsa.com) in your web browser (your web browser is most likely Internet Explorer if you use Windows and Safari on Apple Mac, although there are others: such as Foxfire and the new one from Google, called Chrome, etc).

Visit anytime to see what veggies we got this week, last week and all the way back the beginning of the season. The list of veggies is at the top of each weekly post under NEWS (click NEWS above the farm photo).

NEWS is also where you can see photos from our Good Morning America piece, as well as a link to the ABC TV web site, where you can still watch video of the entire TV segment. And occasionally we get highly interesting stories from the farm, which also show up at the NEWS link.

On the front page, simply called CSA, there is information on the CSA concept in general, and specific info on our CSA. This is intended for new members and prospective members.

Our newest addition is a page of frequently asked questions. We’re still working on this one. Click FAQ at the top of the screen. Still to come, a recipes page.

Recipes

Beginning of the sweets. You can make soups, add to stews and just bake with seasonings and butter. Tonight I simply cut up a sweet potato in chunks and baked it with chicken covered in barbeque sauce. My barbeque sauce has no sugar so the potato added sweetness and the sauce made it spicy.

Here is a recipe from Farmer John’s Cookbook.

Sweet Potato, Broccoli, and Tomato Stew
Make this tasty, one-pot vegetable stew and you’ll have dinner on the table in no time and with little mess. Put your kids or even your dog on this simple project and go relax—dinner will be served within the hour no matter what. This stew will go well with your favorite corn bread.

Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 28-ounce can stewed tomatoes
2 cups cooked or canned garbanzo
beans, drained
1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable
stock or water
3 medium sweet potatoes
(about 1 pound), cubed
1 medium head broccoli,
cut into large chunks
(about 2 cups)
salt
freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion;
cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1
more minute.
2. Add the tomatoes, garbanzo beans, stock, and sweet potatoes.
Simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes. Add the broccoli, cover,
and simmer until the sweet potatoes and broccoli are tender,
about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Food for Thought

Here is an excerpt from a a good article about the potential impacts of Genetically Engineered (GE) foods. Click here to read the full article.

Schools in Wisconsin are showing kids the dangers of genetically engineered junk food with some unique science class experiments. Sister Luigi Frigo repeats the experiment every year in her second grade class in Cudahy. Students feed one group of mice unprocessed whole foods. A second group of mice are given the same junk foods served at most schools. Within a couple of days, the behavior of the second group of mice develop erratic sleeping schedules and become lazy, nervous and even violent. It takes the mice about three weeks on unprocessed foods to return to normal. According to Frigo, the second graders tried to do the experiment again a few months later with the same mice, but the animals have already learned their lesson and refuse to eat the GE food.