Recipe Ideas: Chinese/Napa Cabbage

 (Photo Courtesy of TheBittenWord.com)

 

This week's share included one head of Chinese cabbage, also referred to as Napa cabbage. This is the same type of cabbage that Koreans use to make kimchi.

Something tells us that very few of you are planning to use your cabbage to make kimchi, but if you are, let us know -- we'd love to hear about it!

How are you planning to use your cabbage from this week's share? If you need ideas, here are a few:

• Beef & Napa Cabbage Stir Fry (via Epicurious)

• Napa Cabbage Picnic Salad (via Simply Recipes)

• Spicy Napa Cabbage Slaw (via Epicurious)

• And if you're brave enough, here's a recipe for homemade kimchi from Gourmet

What are your ideas for using Napa cabbage? Let us know in the comments!

3rd CSA Share: Carrots, Turnips and Cabbage

(Photo Courtesy of TheBittenWord.com)

Hello CSAers!

Here's what you'll find in this week's share:

• Fresh onions (1 bulb)
• 1/4 pound salad (you'll be able to choose from 3 of 4 options: spicy mix, arugula, spinach and lettuce)
• 3 1/2 pounds turnips (scarlet queen, hakurei and purple top white globe)
• 1/4 pound lettuce
• 1 head Chinese/Napa cabbage

You will also be able to choose 2 of the following (1 pound total):

• carrots
• asparagus
• broccoli
• shiitake mushrooms
• rhubarb
• garlic scallions

On U-Pick This Week

• Mulberries. Learn more about them and what to do with them.
• Strawberries, you can find a few quarts if you're willing to search. 
• Herbs (basil, sorrel, thyme, lemon balm, cutting celery, mint, anise, hyssop, cilantro, garlic chives, onion chives, flowering lavender, sage with blossoms, and dill)
• Flowers (pink chrysanthemums, fox gloves, sweet williams)

A Preview of Next Week:

• We hope to offer the following in next week's share: snap peas, swiss chard, kale, collards, lettuce, spinach, carrots, onions, turnips, and kohlrabi. Soon we will introduce garlic scapes, perhaps as early as next week. 

Also Available: Limited Edition 2010 Clagett Tote Bags!
 
These beautiful, roomy bags are 100% organic cotton and are prefect for your full share of delights from Clagett this season. Hand-silk-screened and designed by local artist Kristy Li Puma using Roshani Kothari's stunning photographs of the farm -- you can pick from 4 designs and take your share home with Clagett pride today. Bags are safe for your food, and for washing; environmentally loving, and have a 7" deep gusset and floor to accommodate all of the amazing locally grown, sustainable produce harvested by dedicated Clagett farmers each week. Come get yours (while they last) at this weeks pickup! *$10 for one, $18 for two*
 
We are thinking about ordering smaller produce bags that will help keep your produce fresher and longer in the fridge. When you see staff at the pick up please let us know if this is something you would buy if we order them.

Have any questions about this week's share? Let us know in the comments!

Abundant Fields Abundant Forage

  

 It's just so exciting to see our members go home with bags bursting with spring's bounty. This is just a friendly reminder that we encourage you to try more than what comes out of the fields. There is also an abundance of herbs and plants growing wild that make delicious additions to your share. Among my favorites for spring are the mulberries.

If you've already been to the farm at least once to pick up your share or volunteer, you'll know it's not hard to find the mulberries. Just in case you haven't noticed, they are the medium sized trees with the shiny, irregularly shaped leaves and the eye-catching red and black berries. Mulberries sometimes come in white so the best way to identify them is by the mitten-shaped leaves with serrated edges. Parents who are unsure how to respond to their child's discovery and fascination with the trees should know that they are edible and delicious! My favorite way to harvest them is one-by-one off the low branches but if you want to stock up, bring a tarp or a large sheet, lay it under the tree and gently shake the branches. 

If you're wondering about nutrition, a quick search on nutritiondata.com will show you how they stack up. Mulberries, though high in complex sugars are great sources of fiber, Magnesium, Potassium and Vitamin C.  Mulberries go well in any recipe that calls for berries including these very easy recipes for Mulberry Lemonade Smoothies and Mulberry Sage Vinaigrette:

Mulberry Lemonade Smoothie

Ingredients:

 

• 2 cups Mulberries, rinsed
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup, brown sugar, or agave nectar
• Juice from 2 lemons
• cold water or ice
• 5 mint leaves (optional)

 

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Enjoy. 

Mulberry and Flowering Sage Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

 

• 1 cup Mulberries
• 1 handful flowering sage (purple flowers from culinary sage)
• 1 tablespoon sugar or other sweetener
• 1/4 cup water
• balsamic vinegar

 

Bring mulberries, sweetener and water to a boil. Turn down to simmer, add flowering sage and allow liquid to evaporate, stirring occasionally. When liquid is syrupy, remove from heat, allow to cool 5 minutes. Blend well until smooth. Add balsamic vinegar at the end until the mixture is the consistency of your favorite dressing. Serve cool over salads, or anything you please. 

These recipes were developed by me, Zachari Curtis. I'm one of the new staff members this season and am happy to be working with all of you. Stay tuned because I will be posting more recipes made with the delicious forage found at Clagett Farm. 

Recipe Ideas: Kale and Collards

Photo via TheBittenWord.com 

With ample servings of kale and collards in our first two shares, I wanted to offer up a few recipe ideas for how to use them.  

Last night I cooked our first batch of kale and collards from the first week's share. I followed a method suggested by cookbook author Deborah Madison, which I'll paraphrase here:  

Bring a pot of water to boil. Boil the collards and kale for 10 minutes.  Remove to a bowl, reserving the cooking water.  In a wide skillet, heat butter.  Sauté a diced onion until lightly browned and soft. Add the collards and half of the cooking liquid. Sauté for 30 minutes, until greens are very soft. In the last 10 minutes of cooking, add a teaspoon and sugar and a tablespoon of red wine vinegar. Serve. 

They were delicious and went perfectly alongside a grilled entrée. 

Here are a few more ideas for using kale and collards:

• Sauteed Greens with Smoked Pakrika (via Epicurious.com)
• Raw Kale Salad with Gouda, Pears and Walnuts (via Whole Living)
• Whole Wheat Pasta with Kale (via MarthaStewart.com)
• Sauteed Collard Greens with Raisins (via MarthaStewart.com)
• Cider Braised Collards with Ham (via Food & Wine)

How are you using kale or collards? Do you have a favorite recipe? If so, please share it in the comments!

-- Clay 

Herbal CSA provides a regular supply of medicinal herbs with consultation

Our friend and former co-worker, Holly Poole-Kavana, has begun a medicinal herb CSA called Little Red Bird Herbal CSA.  Some of her herbs are grown at Clagett, others are wild-harvested all around the region.  Her website is redbirdbotanicals.wordpress.com.  Here is some additional information she provided for us.    

Little Red Bird herbal CSA is accepting members for the 2010 season.

The herbal CSA is based on the Community Supported Agriculture model, but shares include a variety of herbal medicine products at monthly pickups.

CSA membership is a great way to build a home supply of herbal medicines, learn more about how to use local plants, and explore new ways of being in control of our own health.

Little Red Bird herbal CSA is a DC-area herbal medicine project that produces locally-grown and respectfully wild-harvested herbs and connects people with the medicinal plants that grow around us.

There are only a few shares left for the 2010 season; contact holly@riseup.net for more information.

2nd CSA Share: Kale, Turnips, Mushrooms & More

(Photo Courtesy of Deborah Starobin Armstrong)

Happy Tuesday.

Here's what you'll find in this week's share:

• Fresh onions (1 bulb)
• 1 1/2 pounds kale + collards
• 3/4 pound Swiss chard
• 1/2 pound bok choy
• 1 pound turnips (scarlet queen and hakurei) + radishes (pink beauty)
• 1/4 pound lettuce
• A few seedlings (same options as this week with the addition of lettuce)

You will also be able to chose one of the following (though similar to last week, the variety of choices may vary by site):

• 1/2 pound carrots
• 1/2 pound asparagus
• 1/2 pound broccoli
• 1/4 pound spinach
• 1/4 pound shiitake mushrooms
• 1 pint strawberries

 

On U-Pick This Week:

 

• Strawberries will be back on u-pick this week. You can pick them any day of the week, but the supply is very limited.
• Herbs (sorrel, thyme, lemon balm, cutting celery, mint, anise, hyssop, cilantro, garlic chives, onion chives, flowering lavender, sage with blossoms, and dill)
• Flowers (pink chrysanthemums, fox gloves, sweet williams)

A Preview of Next Week:

• We hope to offer the following in next week's share: snap peas, more baby carrots, Napa cabbage, turnips (pink, purple and white varieties), some spicy mix and lettuce, rhubarb, something in the onion/garlic family and likely the last of the asparagus.
• If it affects your choices this week, the following will not be available next week: chard, kale, collards, radishes, seedlings.

Have any questions? Let us know in the comments!

Resources for Recipes

As the CSA season rolls out, we'll be sharing some recipes here for using items in the share in the hopes of helping you find new ways of using your vegetables. If you have a request for recipes for using a certain item from the share, post it a comment here on the blog and we'll be sure to address it.

There are also a plethora of great recipe sites online. They're great if you have something from the share that you're not quite sure what to do with, or need new ideas for a favorite ingredient. Here are a few places to find great recipes:

• Epicurious.com (includes the recipes from Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazine)
• MarthaStewart.com (recipes from all their publications)
• FoodandWine.com (recipes from the magazine)
• FoodNetwork.com (ideas from all of their shows)

What resources do you use for recipes?  Have one to share? Post it in the comments!

1st CSA Share: Asparagus, Spring Greens, Radishes & More!

Our first harvest is complete! 

Here's what you can expect to pick up in the first share. Pick-up details and other important information can be found here.

• 1 bunch garlic scallions (young garlic plants that have a strong garlic flavor)
• 1 1/2 pound combination kale and collards
• 1 bunch herbs (onion chives, oregano, lemon balm or mint)
• 1/4 pound radishes 
• 3 seedlings (we have a mix of herbs, tomatoes, flowers, kohlrabi, and other odds and ends)
• 1/2 pound combination spicy mix or lettuce OR 1 pint strawberries OR 1/2 pound asparagus*
• 1/2 pound rhubarb OR 1/4 pound broccoli*

** For the spicy mix/lettuce/strawberry and the rhubarb/broccoli choices, both sites will likely not get all the choices this week. Whichever option you do not receive this week, you will next week.

On U-Pick This Week:

• Herbs (sorrel, thyme, lemon balm, cutting celery, mint, anise, hyssop, cilantro, garlic chives, onion chives, flowering lavender, sage with blossoms, and dill)
• Flowers (pink chrysanthemums, fox gloves, sweet williams) 

A note on strawberries: Strawberries are off the U-Pick list for now while we evaluate the progress of the crop. We'll update when strawberries are back on the U-Pick list. 

What to expect next week: 

Next week will be much like this week, with a few additions: spicy mix, Swiss chard, baby bok choy, radishes, seedlings, some strawberries, scarlet queen turnips, some asparagus, mushrooms, garlic scallions, kale, lettuce and baby carrots.  Snap peas will likely come the following week.

We'll post a more complete preview of next week's share over the weekend and then the specifics of the share each Tuesday here on the blog.

Enjoy!

A New Season at Clagett: What You Need to Know

Our first CSA share of the season arrives this week! 

 

Those picking up at the Dupont Circle location can do so starting this evening from 5-7PM at 17th St NW & O St NW.

 

This year, we'll be posting lots of updates here on the blog, including previews of upcoming shares and day-of updates on what exactly you'll be getting at that week's pick-up. The first of these updates will be posted here on the blog this afternoon prior to 3PM. We'll also be sharing recipes and crop updates.  If you want to be alerted when we post new information here, you can have our posts sent to your blog reader or sent to you as an email by entering your email in the field at the top of the left column. 

We have also created a Facebook page, where you can get the same updates, communicate with each other if you need rides to the farm, or share the perfect way to eat kohlrabi.

Below you'll find more information and answers to frequently asked questions. If there's something you want to know that's not addressed, leave it in the comments and we'll get you an answer!