Welcome! This new site is a great way to discover new recipes that use ingredients from our winter and summer shares. Select an ingredient from the left side of any page to view recipes. Do you have a recipe you’d love to share? Let us know! E-mail us at paulmartin23@gmail.com or visit our main web site at http://www.sweetlandfarm.org
Join us, one and all, in eating locally grown produce!
We are very excited to be hosting this blog. The biggest request from our 2008 surveys was that we provide a place for members to share recipes. Here it is!! With the help of some or our very talented members we are finally a go!
CSA Cookbooks and Seasonal Cookbooks
We strongly encourage anyone who is embarking on a CSA season to buy a new cookbook. Especially a cookbook with seasonal recipes. There are loads of great books out there. Just search local/ seasonal/ farm/vegetable/ cookbooks on amazon.com and you are bound to find something good.
There are three CSA cookbooks out there that we recommend:
- Farmer John’s Cookbook: Great recipes and wild farm anecdotes
- From Asparagus to Zucchini: Easy to Follow
- Rolling Praire Cookbook: Over 130 Recipes
Here are six cookbooks we like:
- How to Cook Everything: our new favorite, 2000 simple recipes for great food
- Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon: meats, whole grains, fresh veggies, femented foods
- Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters: simple flavorful arrangements
- Local Flavors by Deborah Madison: cooking from the farmers market
- 1000 Vegetarian Recipes by Carol Gelles: classic, the name speaks for itself
- Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child: a fun cookbook we wanted to mention
Internet Recipes
- www.farmfreshtoyou.com A website from Capay Organic farm in California it is very extensive dating to the late nineties
- www.epicurious.com An amazing search engine from Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazine. We highly recommend this link!!
Philosophy on approaching an alien vegetable or cooking in general
Cookbooks, websites, friends, family, and farmers are a great resource for new vegetables, but in the end bringing the produce home, washing the produce, inspecting, smelling, feeling, chopping, and tasting really get you familiar with your food. Play with your food. Add some music and some wine if you desire. Have fun. When in doubt follow this simple procedure: cook, add butter, salt to taste.
The CSA is not an accronym for Vegetable Eating Competition
We like to suggest eating from the CSA share in baby steps. Try not to start off running. Instead of attempting the 20 step chard recipes first try washing your chard, slicing the bunch of chard 2 to 3 times, steaming in a normal pot with an inch of water add the bottom, and then add salt and butter. It’s amazing how much greens will steam down to end up with a small dish.
One common mental roadblock can be trying to fit the CSA share into a full meal. We find that we consume a lot of produce ourselves at home by eating steamed chard/kale with takeout pizza, or a side salad with chili, or a side of roasted roots with soup, etc.
A few herbs and spices to have on hand
- Salt and Pepper: A must in everything
- Rosemary and Thyme: What would roasted root vegetables be without them
- Marjoram: My new found friend. Great in soups. Will stand alone.
- Salted Dried Tomatoes: Great flavor for spaghetti sauce, soups, etc
- Oregano: tomato sauce
- Can of Chipolte Peppers in adobe sauce: spice up any dish
Happy eating everyone!!!! We look forward to this blog steaming with ideas!!!
Farmer Paul and Farmer Evangeline
