The Broadsheet - Broadacre Farm's 2014 CSA, Week Ten - Vol. 1, Issue #10
fruit tomatoes
('Sub-Arctic Plenty', 'Imur Prior Beta', 'Black Krim', & 'Bloody Butcher')
fruit cherry tomatoes
('Principe Borghese', 'Lollipop', 'Sweetie', & 'Pearly Pink')
fruit 'Zestar!' apple
herb Purple Ruffles basil
spice Sichuan peppercorns+
vegetable 'Milky Way' sweet corn
vegetable 'White Scallop' patty pan,
vegetable 'Dark Green Prolific' zuke
vegetable 'Lemon' summer squash@
vegetable 'Yellow Crookneck' squash
vegetable cucumber
('Mountain Pickling' or 'Boothby Blonde')
vegetable pea mix
('Rembrandt' snow peas & 'Sugar Anne' snap peas)
vegetable bean mix
('Neckargold' pole bean, 'Burgundy' bush bean)
vegetable tomatillo mix
(purple and 'Cisineros')
vegetable serrano peppers
vegetable jalapeno pepper
greens Greens of the Season Mix ('Ragged Jack', 'Lacinato', and 'Pentland Brig' kale; 'Bull's Blood' beet greens, & Rainbow Lights chard)
+ Wild foraged
@ Random rotation
+ + +
Use first Ripe tomatoes, greens, sweet corn
Best keepers Tomatillo, peppercorn, patty pan
Room temp Tomatoes, basil
Dry it Sichuan peppercorns
Quick Picks
Oven-dried tomatoes Principe Borghese cherry tomatoes + dried herbs, olive oil, garlic
Salsa verde Tomatillo, serrano, jalapeno, basil + roasted garlic, lime
Chili verde Salsa verde + green pepper, pork
Zucchini-corn salsa Tomato, zucchini, sweet corn, serrano, jalapeno + onion, garlic
Pasta salad Snap peas, basil, marinated beans, cherry tomatoes + quinoa pasta, olive oil
Tomatoes
The beefsteaks are still coming on, with Black Krim leading the way, and the rest lagging because the tomato plants are so huge they cast shade upon themselves. Experiments of weeding, trimming, and additional trellising are underway. This is another case of wishing for the summer we are not getting this year - we need sunshine and heat to bring on the late varieties. There is still plenty of time, but all those green orbs are tempting. One tragedy occurred when we left the first (and exquisite) Kellogg's Breakfast tomato on a table at the farm. Next week there will be more!
Cherry tomatoes
A few new varieties here, and while they're pretty and tasty, they're not numerous yet. Not so with Principe Borghese, an Italian heirloom bred to be the ideal sun-drying tomato - it's the majority tomato in the quart, deep orange-red with a peach-like cleft and often a characteristic sharp point at the blossom end. If you're wondering how in the hell someone sun-dries something in cold, wet weather without it spoiling, the answer is that we do it in the oven. One of my first garden-to-kitchen experiments was raising these little meaty Principes (or P.B's, we talk them up so much), where I grew them specifically to dry. However, without a solar dryer, I was a little stuck until I found a recipe in my first adult cookbook for oven-dried tomatoes. So bless Michael Chiarello for this fantastic way to enjoy tomatoes. The process is easy, transformative, but uses a lot of time (up to 7 hours) in the oven at low temperatures. Here's how to do it: Slice Principe Borgheses in half from stem to blossom end (not on their 'equator' because they roll too much on the pan. Start adding it together in a large mixing bowl, and coat them with olive oil and a couple cloves of pressed garlic. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of dried herbs -- herbes de Provence, or a mixture of thyme, ground fennel seed rosemary, lavender, and marjoram. Or use fresh herbs: Rule of thumb for substituting dry herbs for fresh is 1:4 - so, if you have fresh herbs, use 4 tablespoons. Add a generous crackling of black pepper and sea salt, then bake at 170 deg F for 6-7 hours, checking about once every hour. Toward the end of baking, the tomatoes will be reduced to 1/3 or ¼ of its original size, and should have a leathery quality where no more juice exudes but without crispiness or scorching. Remove and cool, then store in a jar using the herbed oil and maybe a little additional olive oil to cover. Stores in the fridge for a week or less, depending on juiciness (juicy tomatoes besides Principes don't store as well). Oven-dried tomatoes keep in the freezer indefinitely, and are fantastic on pizzas, in casseroles, beside cuts of meat, in pasta salad, in sandwiches, blended into readymade or homemade sauces, and even the herbed oil makes a wonderful base for salad dressing.
Apple
So proud to bring you an apple from our Zestar apple trees. Lots to say about Zestar and yet more is said by offering you one of our first apples as a demonstration of our commitment to perennial agriculture.
Basil
Basil continues to be a tough crop to grow this year, and ever thankful we have six varieties. Purple Ruffles is up this week, although we reduced the harvest because our second section is getting shaded out and it has destroyed the texture and the flavor. I do see a recovery for the plants themselves, but the flavor once it returns from thrip damage will be the biggest question to answer.
Sichuan peppercorns
The reddened seed husk of the prickly ash tree that grows wild around here. Lemony and numbing, a little goes a long way - 7-10 corns for a Chinese dish, or about 1-3 corns per pound of meat. Best dried and ground.
Sweet corn
'Milky Way' is the name we chose for this family heirloom that we grew in conjunction with his parents, Christie and Sheila Castleberg. Chris originally bought the seed from the Shumway seedhouse before GMO corn was introduced into the market (and in fact GMO sweet corn has only recently been let loose on the food system. So after years of growing Peaches and Cream, Kandy Korn, and Tender Treat sweet corn together, selecting and saving seed from the best cobs, and renewing this cycle every year, we bring you a sweet corn that really isn't available anywhere else. And while grown in Buffalo County, these plants were raised in our former garden which had a three-year track record of no pesticides and herbicides, enough time to qualify for organic certification.
Squashes, Cucumber, Pea mix & Bean mix
These four are pretty common to you now, and as they should be - they are our summer garden staples. A few changes though - we cut down the 'Tendergreen' half-pole, half-bush beans because they were incompatible with our habaneros, 'King of the North' sweet peppers, holy basil, and lavender. (Plus the beans were rough and production fell way off weeks ago.) Cucumbers are clinging to life, but producing less now and there may be a gap before the new plants set fruit. I thought squash was a goner when I saw powdery mildew on the leaves, but they are producing more than ever, and could peak next week with the rain we've gotten.
Tomatillo
Also known as husk tomatoes, tomatillos are used in much the same way as tomatoes. There are a few differences, though. They aren't well known outside of Mexican and Mesoamerican cuisine, and they don't have quite the same richness of flavor as tomatoes. No matter, as they are the primary ingredient in salsa verde, which is then the base for chili verde (a green chili with slow-cooked pork). Tomatillos keep extraordinarily well - when picked before first frost, they can store until Thanksgiving. That's due to the fibrous husk that keeps pests at bay, and any with a hole is easily discarded. Besides the husk, tomatillos have a sticky layer of saponins (natural soap) on their skin that must be washed off until the fruits are no longer slippery. Because of these protections, our tomatillos are unwashed. One of those cases where washing promotes spoilage and reduces shelf life. After washing, their best treatment is broiling under and extremely hot element until slightly blackened, split, and leaking juices.
Serrano & Jalapeno
Your jalapeno is the last for a couple weeks so they can size up, and it's with the tomatillos. The serranos, five of them, are atop your cherry tomatoes. Serranos are several times hotter than jalapenos, so beware of heat!
Greens of the Season Mix
Also proud of this beautiful mix of our best leaves. I say 'our best' because now 90% of our leafy greens are bitten by flea beetles or chewed by grasshoppers. There was absolutely no 'Vivid' choi harvested, and we found a scarce few kales worth serving. A part of me will cheer for joy when sweater weather arrives and all these gnawing pests will slow down like molasses and be eaten by giant birds. Then we can have lots of nice greens again. Strangely, our other brassicas - cauliflower, broccoli, and kohlrabi - are showing very little leaf damage and will undergo testing this week to determine their flavor profiles. Yes, it's true - kale is just a non-heading, non-rooting crucifer, and all the other brassicas have edible leaves just like kale.
Mixology Notes
Not too many herbs this week, primarily having to do with basil, but Joe and I spent some time and money investing in new perennial herbs to make sure that our eating and drinking fans of Broadacre Farm have flavor, flavor, flavor. Because our mints have been popular, we have chosen ten new varieties to plant this fall (perhaps with enough time to include in a share). We'll have everything from 'Iced Hazelnut' mint (coffee and chocolate drinks), 'Kentucky Colonel' mint (expressly for mint juleps), and 'Mojito' mint which is the true mint used for authentic mojitos. Add to that 'Berggarten' sage and more 'Profusion' sorrel, and you have the start of a real alcohol apothecary. (Plus, you know, you can put herbs in the food.)
Thanks to volunteers
A space this small can hardly justify the huge appreciation we have for the volunteers we received last week from Avodah Farm, another CSA farm located in Pepin, Wisconsin. Special thanks to Martha, Geoffrey, Simon, Joe, and Elijah for helping us whip the south garden into shape. Thanks also for the amazing homemade mozzarella and potluck. Joe and I can't thank the Avodah crew enough!
Preview of next weeks
Wild crabapples, beets, kohlrabi, wild carrot seeds, more heirloom and cherry tomatoes
- Barrett Johanneson