Family Share shown in photo above

This Week’s Share

Farm News

Order Your Bulk Carrots

We all love SIO carrots, and we know many of you juice, pickle, and love to chomp chomp chomp those carrots down, and if you fit that description the Bulk Carrots option may be for you. We will be selling 20 pound boxes of carrots (no tops) for $25. To order reply to any email from the farm, include your name, pick-up site and number of 20lb boxes you’d like to receive, and we will email back confirming your order and what date you can plan to pick-up your carrots.

You must pre-order your Bulk Carrots, and they will be delivered to your CSA pick-up site on our next available date, or requested date if we have capacity. We have a limited number of boxes per week we can deliver, so if we are sold our for the next week we will set you up for the next available week. You can order a 20lb box weekly, on a one-time basis or as needed now through the end of the season.

Recipes

Delicata Squash Fritters
Beet Ideas
Grated Beet and Apple Salad
Carrot Soup a Dozen Ways
Arugula Walnut Pesto
Simple Italian Chicken with Peppers
Three Turnip Ideas 

Delicata Squash Fritters
–adapted from the Kelly Meyers collection on Culinate.com

Simple (if you have a food processor) and completely addictive. And a sidenote, Kelly Meyers (author of this recipe) has a new restaurant at 37th and Division that is well worth a visit.

Batter
1 large egg
½ cup cold water
¼ cup flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
about 1 teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground pepper
Your oil of choice for pan-frying

Veggies
1 medium delicata squash, cut in half lengthwise, seeds scooped out (no need to peel) and grated in food processor or on the large holes of a box grater (not as hard as it sounds but takes a bit of elbow grease and don’t grate your knuckles!)
¼ of an onion, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (or more or less depending on how much spice you like)
Chopped herbs such as chives, parsley, mint (optional)

Crack egg into a small bowl. Add water, flour, cornstarch, salt, and pepper. Whisk together until batter is smooth. Put grated squash and onions and spices and herbs, if using, into a medium size bowl. Add batter and stir mixture well.

Heat a wide skillet with 1-2 tablespoons oil over medium high heat until the oil is very hot but not smoking.

Add 2 heaping tablespoons of fritter mixture to skillet and flatten with the back of a spatula until fritter resembles a pancake. Repeat, leaving room between the fritters. Cook for about 2 minutes each side, or until fritters are golden brown. Use a spatula to remove fritters from skillet onto a plate lined with paper towels. Continue cooking the fritters in batches. Add additional oil as needed. Fritters may be held in a warm oven but are at their best when served freshly fried.

Beet Ideas

Toast some cumin seeds in a dry skillet for just a minute or two and then coarsely crush. Mash some garlic with some salt and add some lemon juice and olive oil to the garlic and cumin and dress diced, roasted beets and chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and a bunch of chopped parsley, if you have it. Toss gently and adjust salt and lemon.

Dress roasted beet wedges and roughly torn arugula and very thinly sliced onion with a dressing of Dijon-style mustard, capers, olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Grated Beet and Apple Salad
–adapted from Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry

This is gorgeous, refreshing, crunchy and packed with good nutrients and the author is a friend of mine (that makes two of those for this week’s packet)!

2 large beets, peeled
2 large apples, cored, peeled
1/4 cup apple juice/cider
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dried currants (you could chop up some raisins, golden or regular if you don’t have currants though the currants are awfully good)

Coarsely shred beets and apples on box grater or food processor fitted with large grater attachment. Combine in large mixing bowl and set aside.

Heat apple juice in small saucepan or skillet over high heat until boiling. Cook until reduced to one tablespoon, about 3 minutes. Transfer to medium mixing bowl. Add apple cider vinegar to reduced apple juice. Slowly drizzle in olive oil while whisking constantly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Drizzle dressing over shredded beets and apples, add currants, and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Carrot Soup a Dozen Ways

There are so many ways to make carrot soup. It’s the prefect cook-it-however-you-want-to dish. So here are some guides to inspire your very own carrot soup.

•  You can roast the carrots (tossed in a little olive oil and salt in a hot, 400 degree oven) until tender. Then you can sauté some onion in some olive oil or butter—carrots like butter a lot—then add the roasted carrots, a couple of sprigs of thyme and as much broth, stock or water as feels right. You can always thin it down later so I think it’s safer to start with a modest amount of liquid. Now simmer the whole thing for about 15 minutes to deepen the flavor. Now you can use an immersion blender or regular blender or food processor to process to your desired consistency. Adjust to your liking with salt and pepper. Carrot soups can be a bit one-note and even too sweet so a squeeze of lemon or lime juice or dash of cider vinegar or soy sauce may be very welcome.
• Or you can skip the roasting and just start with the onion and add the chopped, raw carrots, thyme and stock and proceed as above.
• Or you use half (or all) coconut milk and half water and skip the thyme and add some green or red curry paste (Thai and True is a good, local brand).
• Or you add turnips and/or peeled Delicata squash chunks to the mix and make it a multi-veggie soup with even more complex flavor with any of the above approaches.

Toppings:

• For this weeks share I would thinly slice some peppers and onions and fry those in a bit of olive  oil until softened and beginning to crisp so keep the heat up and stir often. Towards the end add a handful of large-ish breadcrumbs and fry them to a crisp. Season with a bit of salt and then top your soup with that.
• Or a dollop of, you guessed it (!), Greek yogurt flavored with a little salt, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil.
• Or a tablespoon or two of minced parsley mixed with olive oil, garlic, lemon, juice and salt.
• Or plain old croutons or mustard croutons or cheesy croutons.
• Or salted, toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds or slivered almonds.
• Or a mixture of yogurt and harissa.

Arugula Walnut Pesto
–adapted from Cookie+Kate

I used to be decidedly anti arugula pesto. I’d had several versions in restaurants that were just too bitter and strong. And I LOVE arugula but somehow the pesto versions never appealed. For some reason I decided to make some myself this summer and decided I loved it. Maybe the trick is lots of toasted walnuts and the lemon juice.

I like this with pasta, or boiled or roasted potatoes, with fish or as a spread on toast or with eggs.

4 cups of packed arugula leaves, stems removed
1 cup of shelled walnuts
1 cup grated Parmesan
3/4 cup good olive oil
2 garlic clove peeled and minced
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Juice of 1/2 lemon, or a bit more

Over medium high heat, toast the walnuts until fragrant in a dry skillet, about five minutes. Or do this in a 350 degree oven for about 8 minutes.

In a food processor, combine the arugula, salt, walnuts and garlic. Pulse while drizzling in the olive oil. Remove the mixture from the processor and put it into a bowl. Stir in the Parmesan cheese, freshly ground pepper and a big squeeze of lemon, to taste.

This makes enough to generously coat a pound of pasta and have a little left over.

Simple Italian Chicken with Peppers
–loosely adapted from the Silver Spoon

Serves 4-5, generously

Simple, delicious!

3-4 sweet peppers
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 chicken, cut into pieces (if you’re cutting up your own chicken you might use the back, neck and giblets for stock which gets you another meal or two out of the bird)
¾ cup dry white wine
¾ cup diced tomatoes (fresh or canned – hopefully you still have a couple tomatoes lurking around)
½ cup halved, pitted black olives (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the broiler. Roast the peppers, turning until all sides are blackened and blistered. Remove from oven and put in a bowl, covered by a plate to steam. When cool enough to handle, peel and seed and cut into strips.

Heat the oil in large, deep skillet. Add the chicken pieces, working in batches if you need to, and cook, turning to brown all sides. Season with salt and pepper and return all chicken to the pan and add the garlic and the wine and cook until most of the wine has evaporated. Stir in the tomatoes and peppers and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the olives, if using, and cook another 5 or so minutes until the chicken is tender and cooked through. If the sauce is too thin for your taste (as it sometimes is for mine) remove the chicken pieces and keep covered on a plate and reduce the sauce on high heat for a few minutes. Then add the chicken back in.

Serve with some chopped fresh parsley if you have it and with rice or boiled or roasted potatoes or a good slice of bread to mop up the juices. You could also make a quick grated carrot and turnip salad with a lemony dressing (see below) to go with this.

Three Turnip Ideas

Turnips with Vinegar

Scrub about 5 turnips and cut into wedges. Gently cook the turnips in 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter (if you use more just adjust quantity of everything else to taste)  for about 5 minutes. Add 2-3 teaspoons of sugar and 1 -2 tablespoons of champagne or white wine vinegar and gently cook for another 10 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper. This is excellent with any kind of pork dish.

Turnips with Carrots and Bacon

Dice turnips (no need to ever peel these) and carrots (don’t peel either, just scrub) in more or less the same quantity. Mince 2-3 cloves of garlic. Dice 1-2 slices bacon or use a bit of bacon fat. Add everything to a large skillet (you’ll need to use 1 tablespoon or so of olive oil or butter if you don’t have bacon or bacon fat) and cook gently for about 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Season with salt and a squeeze or two of lemon juice.

Turnip, Carrot (and Herb) Salad

Turnips work well with dill, parsley and cilantro, in my opinion. So if you have any of those, by all means use them in this quick, grated salad and if not, don’t sweat it.Grate as many carrots and turnips as you want. Dress with a lemony vinaigrette (lemon juice, olive, oil, salt and pepper and a little lemon zest if you’d like) and mix with plenty of chopped dill. If you have some toasted slivered almonds or toasted sunflower seeds by all means add a few tablespoon for crunch and heartiness. And slice up a little onion very thinly too, if you’d like.

Family Share shown in photo above

This Week’s Share

Share Notes

• Eggplant: We are going big on eggplant this week and it’s the last of the season, so whip up your favorite dishes for eating now or saving for winter.

• Joi Choi: Please take note that the choi heads in your share this week have very delicate greens and stems. Consider any broken leaves you might find a head start in your prep cooking.

• Tomatoes: As the saying goes, were going out with a bang. Make sure to do your favorite tomato recipes for eating or saving this week, because this is the last large distribution of the season. If the weather allows were hoping to do one more smaller round next week.

Farm News

Canola Update – It’s Time to Act

September 28 Rally and Hearing! Learn about the issue and take action

ODA has filed a permanent rule changing the protected boundaries in the Willamette Valley and two other locations in Oregon.  Allowing canola production in these areas will have detrimental affects on the viability and ability of specialty seed growers and fresh market producer growers already established in these areas.

Actions you can take:

• Attend the Hearing on September 28th at the Salem Fairgrounds, testify, and submit your comments.
  
• RSVP by emailing Leah
  Date: September 28th, 2012
  Time: 9am-afternoon
  Location: Friendship Square at the Oregon State Fairgrounds, Cascade Hall – 2330 17th St. NE, Salem, OR 97301 (directions, map)
• Sign the Petition asking ODA Director Katy Koba and Governor Kitzhaber to leave the current Canola rule in place (No New Rule Needed!)
• Donate to help support the fight and fund the rally!
  
• Email your comments to ODA

For more background on the Canola issue here>>
Also see the event Facebook page here>>
To volunteer for the rally or ask questions about the hearing or rally, contact Leah@friendsoffamilyfarmers.org

Farm to City

Join us in supporting the Sauvie Island Center on Thursday, October 11th as they bring their farm-based educational program into the city. The rooftop of the Ecotrust building will be overflowing with excitement, farm-fresh hors d’ oeurves and local beer and wine. They will premier a new short film about the Center. The fun starts at 5:30 pm. Tickets are available online in advance for just $20 per person, or $25 the day of the event.