RECIPE: Skillet Gnocchi with Chard & White Beans

• Ingredients:
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 16-ounce package shelf-stable gnocchi, (see Tip)
• 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup water
• 6 cups chopped chard leaves, (about 1 small bunch) or spinach
• 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes with Italian seasonings
• 1 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese

Procedure:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add gnocchi and cook, stirring often, until plumped and starting to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil and onion to the pan and cook, stirring, over medium heat, for 2 minutes. Stir in garlic and water. Cover and cook until the onion is soft, 4 to 6 minutes. Add chard (or spinach) and cook, stirring, until starting to wilt, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, beans and pepper and bring to a simmer. Stir in the gnocchi and sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover and cook until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbling, about 3 minutes.

Submitted by Avigail Yarkoni

RECIPE: Cabbage Stuffed with Beef, Zucchini, and Herbs

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 cabbages (1 1/2 lb each)
1/4 cup fat-free chicken broth
3 tbsp olive oil
2 small zucchini, finely diced
1 large tomato, finely diced
1 sweet onion, finely chopped
1 small eggplant, finely diced
1 tbsp chopped garlic
6 oz lean ground beef
1 tbsp each chopped fresh basil, parsley and thyme
1/4 cup whole-grain breadcrumbs
2 tbsp melted unsalted butter

Procedure:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Cut cabbages in half from top to base. Cut out core; discard. Pull out inner leaves of each half, leaving 3 outer layers (reserve). Finely slice inner leaves.

2. Heat broth and 2 tbsp oil in a medium sauté pan on medium. Add vegetables (plus sliced cabbage), garlic, and beef. Cook until vegetables are tender and meat is browned; add herbs; place in cabbage halves.

3. Mix butter with breadcrumbs; place on top of cabbage; drizzle remaining 1 tbsp oil on top. Bake until tender, about 35 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Submitted by Laura Grund

RECIPE: Watermelon, Feta, and Arugula Salad

Ingredients:

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

6 oz. baby arugula
8 cups seedless watermelon, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
7 oz. feta cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (crumbled also works)

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Procedure:

1. Pour balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan or skillet. Boil over medium-high heat until reduced to approximately 3 tablespoons, 6 to 7 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, separate arugula into individual salad plates. Scatter watermelon, then feta over arugula. Drizzle with balsamic glaze and sprinkle with black pepper.

Submitted by Vicki Boyne

RECIPE: Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts

From Bon Appetit August 2010

Ingredients:

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp coarse kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper

2 lbs. medium zucchini, trimmed

1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

Small wedge of Parmesan cheese

Procedure:

1. Whisk oil, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon coarse salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, and crushed red pepper in small bowl to blend. Set dressing aside.

2. Using vegetable peeler or V-slicer and working from top to bottom of each zucchini, slice zucchini into ribbons (about 1/16 inch thick). Place ribbons in large bowl. Add basil and nuts, then dressing; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Using vegetable peeler, shave strips from Parmesan wedge over salad.

Submitted by Vicki Boyne

RECIPE: Korean BBQ-style Burgers

For those of you who order beef, we hope to start offering recipes with beef in them each week.

From The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook By Jaden Hair

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

3 tbsp minced garlic

3 tbsp grated fresh ginger

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp finely minced scallion

2 tsp sesame seeds

black pepper

nonstick cooking spray

Cucumber Pickle

1 cup matchstick cut carrots (or 1 cup of grated carrots from the grocery)

1 cup matchstick cut cucumbers

1/2 tsp sesame seeds

4 tsp rice vinegar

1/2 tsp sugar

Procedure:

1. In a bowl, mix the ground beef, garlic, ginger, soy, sugar, scallion, sesame seeds and black pepper. If you are like me and want more salt/heat, then add chili flakes or salt.

2. Form into 4 equal-sized hamburger patties (or if you are a glutton like I am, into 3). Form a divot/indentation in the center of each burger to ensure that they stay flat once cooked and don't puff up into giant burger balls with peaks in the center. Allow to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, prepare quick cucumber pickle (if desired) by tossing all ingredients together in a small bowl. Preheat a grill pan on medium-high heat.

4. When grill pan is hot, spray with PAM. Place the patties gently on the grill pan. Allow to cook 5-7 minutes per side for medium, or cook longer if you want them well-done. Serve with whatever burger toppings you desire.

Suggested banchan burger toppings:

Quick cucumber carrot pickle

Lettuce

Kimchi

Korean BBQ sauce

Sriracha

Submitted Vicki Boyne

ADVOCACY: Eaarth Book Review by Josh Kigel

Book Review Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

The concept of “too big” is pervasive in modern society; from our banks to our Ford Expeditions to our waistlines. Between the near financial collapse and the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Bill McKibben’s mantra of scale back and slow down seems particularly sage advice.

For 253 pages in his most recent book Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, McKibben explains the finer points of the “scale back/slow down” program, which turns out to be less suggestion, and more mandate. McKibben’s mandate is not the kind of government mandate Fox News might frantically label “interference.” This is a mandate from a planet that knows no political affiliation. Eaarth itself will be…a harsh environmental dictator that will force us to bend to new rules. The question is whether we will be smart enough to bend ourselves first. In essence, McKibben says we have “pushed nature around” and now nature is “pushing back with far more power.” McKibben suggests that we have so profoundly changed the planet it needs to be renamed, hence the second “a”.

The book is an easy read, which might temper the sense of urgency were the situation not so dire. McKibben can write in a pleasantly conversational style because the facts of the case and the magnitude of the consequences speak volumes on their own.

Readers will be introduced to a new magic number; 350. As in the upper limit of safety for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is 350 parts per million, and the 650 that would be devastating to humanity. We are currently at 390.

So what can we do? Read chapter 4 and learn to live Lightly, Carefully, Gracefully. One of McKibben’s tenets of particular interest to members of a CSA is the need to adjust our eating habits in volume and substance. In pointing out that it takes 11 times as much fossil fuel to raise a pound of animal protein as an equal amount of plant protein, McKibben espouses reduction in meat consumption. Chubby Bunny vegetables anyone? McKibben does not argue for local food as a matter of taste as much as environmental necessity.

Far from condemning us all to a post-apocalyptic world, McKibben describes how ordinary people can get us back to 350, scaling back modern American society. This is artfully illustrated in his depiction of the Farmers Diner in Vermont, where all ingredients are from small local farms. Owner Tod Murphy competes with the economics of industrial farming and the preconceived notions about food held by a population that has grown up under the regime of industrial food. Murphy is “constantly working to solve the problem presented by the need to get food from the farmer to the customer at a price point that everyone could live with,” or the need to educate his customers that cream from a cow raised naturally isn’t necessarily white. Murphy’s struggle is a microcosm of the “food issues” facing modern diners on planet Eaarth.
“Like someone lost in the woods, we need to stop running, sit down, see what’s in our pockets that might be of use, and start figuring out what steps to take.” You are already a member of a CSA—what other ideas might McKibben turn you onto?

FARM NEWS 7:18.10

Hi folks,
As a grower of roughly sixty different vegetables, it's challenging to come up with reasonable quantities of good salad mix or head lettuce every week for 22 weeks. Here's why: 1.)The dang deer. I come out to harvest at 5:00 AM on Saturday and I see two adult bucks chowing down three week's worth of Romaine. Should I go chase after them with my 22? Nope, I've got to harvest for the Norfolk farmer's market. My three local hunters have permits to hunt here out of season, but they have not been effective. Basically they try to hunt after work in the early PM, but the deer are here in the early AM. 2.) The dang rain. If it doesn't rain for four weeks, this is two weeks where the salad mix, direct seeded, doesn't germinate. This means we're two weeks behind on mixed greens and all my head lettuce is ruminating in the deer. Who knew head lettuce had brains? 3.) All the rest of stuff to grow anyway. There are whole farms locally who grow exclusively salad mix. This is their art. They grow beautiful mix. Chris Reagan of Sky Farm in Millerton or Ted Dobson's Equinox farm in Sheffield. And they have it down to an art. For us, this is one of 60 crops, so while we do strive for perfection it just isn't always possible. There's fall carrots to weed, there's tomatoes to trellis, there's brussel sprouts to plant, there's a cow giving birth, there's pigs to feed, there's garlic still needing harvest. And so much more...So please forgive imperfections in salad and salad mixes and know that we're doing our best to divide up our time so that you get the best of everything we have to offer. Sometimes it's "primo mix" and sometimes it's lettuces mixed with romaine leaves. Sometimes it's just arugula. What ever shape and size it is pretty tasty, I'd say.

So, that's my salad rant. If the salad's not perfect, enjoy the kale or chard or cabbage or arugula. Enjoy the 56 other veggies and herbs as well, knowing you are benefiting from a real season in Falls Village, CT. And thanks for all your positive feedback and support. This connection with you feeds us and fuels us through our challenging work.

Here's the approximate harvest:

zucchini
chard
kale
savoy cabbage
sweet onions
New Potatoes!!!
carrots
beets
basil
Salad Mix/Arugula
maybe cucumbers, we'll see
maybe eggplant, we'll see