Sandy Spring CSA

November 23, 2008 This week’s featured fruits and vegetables are apples, spring onions, cabbage, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, lettuce, radishes and winter squash.

Farmer Pam had a few words to say about the ups and downs of the current season, providing another little window into farming life:

This sudden 20 degree weather sure was a surprise – we were sorry to lose a lot of late fall produce – it simply froze in the fields.

We are already soaking up the seed catalogs – lots of pretty new things for next spring – can’t wait!

LAST CALL FOR BOXES!

This is the last week, so it’s time to bring back any and all boxes that you may have hanging around. They may be poignant reminders of this fall’s fun vegetable times - but we need them to get ready for next spring’s fun vegetable times! Bring a bag for your veggies to this final pickup, and leave your box behind. Thanks!

Recipes: Tried and True

For the final round of recipe suggestions, I thought I’d leave you with a few that have been sure-fire hits with me (and with my dinner guests!)

This sweet potato soup has been a hit several times - and when I need to make it for my vegetarian friends, I substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock and it works just fine. It’s delicious, but very rich - small portions work best!

I posted this next one on my blog last week, but it’s so good, it deserves a second mention: spicy ginger cauliflower, cabbage, and potatoes. I took it to my potluck group, and people had third helpings! Delicious, and sooooo easy. I substituted a minced garlic clove for the garlic powder - very tasty.

My own menu plan this week will involve Cossack Pie from the Moosewood Cookbook - it will use last week’s broccoli and mushrooms, plus this week’s cabbage, onions, spring onions, and carrots. For those of you who don’t have this lovely cookbook (a real resource for creative ways to use those CSA vegetables), I’ll post the recipe at my blog.

Food For Thought: Food Preservation, Family Preservation

How many of us remember our parents or grandparents canning food?

Now, how many of us can do it ourselves?

I went on a search for local classes in canning, and discovered Montgomery County Cooperative Extension, a fascinating resource for our local farmers and gardeners. Although they do not currently teach canning, they did mention that interest in the subject had been growing in the last couple of years, between the economy and the local food movement.

Looking online, I found the National Center for Home Food Preservation, a well-organized site with a wealth of information about several methods of food preservation - and an online course in canning! Very tempting….

But the most fun thing, of course, would be to approach my mom on the subject. I could learn from her the methods she learned from her mother, who in turn learned them from her mother. This is the lesson I learn over and over again as I get more interested in food: that a new relationship with food creates new relationships with people all over my life. I have discovered my CSA farmer, the vendors at my farmers market, others interested in local food, and best of all, have even rediscovered my own family in a new way, as I find myself unexpectedly in touch with our pioneer past.

Wherever you are in your own CSA experience, I wish you one as rich and rewarding as I am finding mine to be.

Jennifer Milewski