The Adamah Blog

Week 23, Last West Hartford CSA Pickup of 2012!!

November 15, 2012 at 2:11 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Thank you for your participation in the 2012 Jewish Local Greens CSA with Adamah! It has been a joy growing for you and we are already getting excited for next season. We have begun to decide which new varieties we will grow and which varieties we will repeat so please remember to fill out your survey. Your feedback is incredibly important to our planning process. FInd the survey here.

Registration

Sign up for another amazing spread of the freshest organic vegetables in 2013 by downloading a registration form at the JLG website http://jewishlocalgreens.wordpress.com/. And please spread the news about our CSA to friends and neighbors in the area.

Register by DECEMBER 1 to lock in this years prices. Share prices will go up to $625 for large shares and $615 for small shares for all registrants after December 1^st.

Gift Baskets

Receive a gift basket of 1 dairy item, 1 jam and 1 pickled item if:

a) you sign up for a large veggie share plus two of the following shares

a flower share

a salty-sweet share

any of the dairy shares

or

b) you refer a friend to the CSA and they purchase either a large veggie share or a small veggie share + two of the additional shares

Harvest Notes

Romanesco is a lot like cauliflower, but with a psychadelic twist. The buds form a natural fractal; each bud is composed of a series of smaller buds, all arranged in a logarithmic spiral. You can cook it like cauliflower or do as we did at our farm Holloween party, just trim pieces off to dip in a creamy onion dip. For the math buffs out there, check out this link about the fractals of romanesco: http://www.fourmilab.ch/images/Romanesco/

Brussels Sprouts get tastier and tastier as the weather gets colder. We waited until the last CSA pickup to harvest them so that they could sweeten up.  Some of the sprouts aren’t very big but we wanted to give you all that we had and we did do some taste-testing in the field- the tiny sprouts are just as delicious as the big ones. If your eyes haven’t yet opened to the delicious wonders of fresh brussels sprouts you are in store for a treat that is completely unlike frozen sprouts. Try simply braising them in butter or roasting them but be sure not to overcook them. The color should remain bright after cooking.

Turnips Like all root vegetables, turnips store best in a cool, dark and dry environment so you can keep them in your crisper loosely bagged. Worried that you have too many turnips in that crisper? Check out some of these fresh recipes: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/giving-turnips-a-second-look/

Butternut Squash stores best in a dry cabinet at room temperature. If you already ate the pie pumpkin that you received in your share earlier this season, don’t worry, butternuts (or most other winter squashes) can do the job just as well. http://farmersdaughterct.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/butternut-squash-pie/

Sage is a good Thanksgiving herb- hearty and autumnal. If you pick up some chevre at the Adamah market you can use your share to try this recipe for butternut squash, goat cheese and sage crostinis http://thehungerstruck.com/category/recipes/thanksgiving-recipes/

Leeks This recipe for leek and wild mushroom stuffing looks like it would do these alliums justice in what would be a grand finale for all of the leeks you got in your shares this season! http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Leek-and-Wild-Mushroom-Stuffing-107292

Red Onions We have noticed that a few of our onions have bad layers. Hopefully, you won’t find such a case but if you do, you can usually compost those layers and rinse off the rest to for use.

Spinach Picking spinach in 35 degree weather is tough on the fingers.  But with the landscape looking less and less colorful as we get closer to the winter solstice, the bright color of the spinach was some consolation to the Adamah crew throughout the process.  Not only is the spinach beautiful, but it makes a vitamin-rich addition to quiche, dip or as an accompaniment to turnips or squash.

Bok Choi (large shares only) A less traditional Thansgiving food, bok choi can mix up the palate in the days before, after or even during the big meal. It is best in stir-fry or marinated for a raw salad.

Adamah fellows Aviva, Amanda and Janet and Adamah apprentice Reesha after loading the truck for the last CSA delivery:

West Hartford CSA Pickup Week 22

November 7, 2012 at 3:27 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

It would not be a complete Adamah CSA season without a hurricane and a fall snow storm, so I guess we are right about on schedule!

CSA Fair

November 15^th is the last CSA delivery of the season and Adamah will be at the JCC to celebrate! Join us when you pick up your share.

4-7pm
Adamah Market and Sampling
Apple Cider Pressing
Meet the Farmers
Registration for 2013 CSA Shares

5:30 – 6pm
Q&A and Goat Gurt Smoothies with Adamah

Folks can learn more about the farm, Adamah, Isabella Freedman, vegetables, how the CSA works and the broader food system from an Adamah panel

Harvest Notes

Beets come in two shapes on our farm, red and cylindrical. They taste and cook the same and we are sending both kinds to the CSA pickup. You have good ingredients for borscht in your share this week with the onions and cabbage. You could also try this recipe I found from Red Fire Farm, where I once worked, that combines beets, winter squash and goat cheese into a delicious looking strudel: http://redfirefarm.com/recipes/maindishes.html#beetstrudel

Rutabega is a lot like a turnip but with a richer, more earthy flavor. It cooks the same way as a turnip- taking longer to boil or roast than a potato. It will store for a long time in the crisper in your refrigerator so you can use it over Thanksgiving or even weeks after. Red Fire Farm has another recipe that combines two items in your share this week: http://redfirefarm.com/recipes/sides.html#squashpuree

Butternut Squash stores best in a dry cabinet at room temperature.

Cabbage This is the autumn of the small cabbage here at Adamah. Most of our cabbages were planted in a very wet area and just never grew as big as we would have liked. I love cabbage for its ability to soak up the flavors of seasoning and other ingredients in a mixed dish. My favorite way to prepare cabbage is roasted in the oven with a little olive oil, sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Mint We always like to include a few sprigs of an herb in the CSA shares. Mint is soothing to the stomach and makes a tasty tea when steeped in hot water.

Salad Mix We harvested these fancy baby mustards and lettuce in the snow! We were racing the beautiful onslought, trying to get your salad mix in before it was buried. I am a bit concerned that the quality may have been compromised by the sudden snow fall, freezing temperatures during harvest, and the fact that we couldn’t clearly see the greens we were picking under the snow. The mix looks good overall but it might not last quite as long as we are all used to, so you might want to eat it in the next few days.

Red Onions We have noticed that a few of our onions have bad layers. Hopefully, you won’t find such a case but if you do, you can usually compost those layers and rinse off the rest to for use.

West Hartford Pickup Week 21

November 1, 2012 at 2:02 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Adamah farm endured Sandy relatively unscathed. Everyone is safe, the fields did not flood, the soil did not sustain much erosion and the veggies stood tall and strong through the storm.

The main building of the Isabella Freedman campus did take a hit, however, when a one-hundred year old tree fell across the roof. No one was hurt and removing the tree from its clean slice through the building proved more straightforward than any of us imagined. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGmCvkWzoSo.

We are thinking of all of you and hoping that you fared well. The might of this week’s weather reminds us, yet again, how interconnected we are and how relevant the climate is to our lives. We are grateful that you recognize this and choose to throw your lot in with a local farm, tying your meals to the weather in a truly meaningful way.

“Unusually” severe weather events have become increasingly “usual” over the past few years. No individual event can be traced to the role humans play in climate change but the trend is indeed connected. Reducing your carbon footprint with a diet based around local, organic vegetables is one of those small steps toward a more reslient society that we should each be proud of, especially when it tastes so good and is so nutritious.

CSA Fair

November 15^th is the last CSA delivery of the season and Adamah will be at the JCC to celebrate! Join us when you pick up your share and feel free to invite any friends or family who want to learn more about the CSA.

4-7pm
Adamah Market and Sampling
Apple Cider Pressing
Meet the Farmers
Registration for 2013 CSA Shares

5:30 – 6pm
Q&A and Goat Gurt Smoothies with Adamah – Folks can learn more about the farm, Adamah, Isabella Freedman, vegetables, how the CSA works and the broader food system from an Adamah panel

Harvest Notes

Broccoli Raab (large shares only) is also called rapini and it is a delicious, mustardy vegetable whose stalks, leaves and buds are all good for cooking. This website gives a good introduction http://whatscookingamerica.net/BroccoliRaab.htm

Sunshine Squash (large shares only) is in the kubocha family. The flesh is very thick and it is incredibly rich and creamy when roasted.

Butternut Squash did very well on our farm this season so you will receive a number of them. It is a very versatile squash that stores for months.

Sorrel If you have a hankering for sour, sorrel is a much more delicious alternative to sour patch kids or lemonheads. Yonah (9) and Ibby (4), who spend a lot of time in the Adamah fields, eat raw sorrel by the fistful right off the plant. If raw sorrel isn’t quite your bag, try adding it as an herb to meat or making a soup like this one http://nymag.com/listings/recipe/sorrel-soup/.

Leeks are delicious slow cooked and added to jsut about any dish that calls for an allium.

Kale is a versatile super food whose health benefits argue that the old addage be changed to “a serving of kale a day keeps the doctor away”.

Purple Top Storage Turnips are a hearty fall crop for soups and roasts. Check out a few ideas here http://waywardseed.com/products/recipes/p-69.html

Sorrel is a relatively uncommon, tart herb. Try it raw, chopped up onto a salad or in soup.

Onions These onions will store for months.

Lettuce doesn’t fare too well in below freezing temperatures so we went ahead and harvested the whole patch before this weekend’s cold weather. Everyone will get at least one large head of lettuce and large shares will also get a few small heads.