Here are the nuts that keep falling out of the trees. I don’t know what they are but this is the first year we’ve had them. Acorns, yes, usually tons of them, but these I have no clue. They don’t actually have an edible nut inside from what I can tell. Take a look and tell me if you recognize them. The green ones are freshly fallen.
I am not joking when I tell you I can hear them hitting the across-the-street-neighbors’ deck—even in the middle of the night. It can’t be acorns; they are too small to make that much noise when they hit. It’s very bizarre! We’ve lived here for three years and never had them, or at least not to this degree that they are constantly plonking down and threatening concussion if they hit you on the head. Very curious ...
That was the nut half of this post, now on to the recipe!
Last week’s distribution from our CSA included acorn squash. We made Rosemary-Scented Risotto in Acorn Squash Cups the night before last with one of them. It was delicious! Such a nice autumn dish. I just love any kind of squash.
The squash cooks in the oven for 45 minutes while you make the risotto.
Don’t be afraid of making the risotto. It’s easy! All it asks is just a hand to stir it and for you to pay attention to it. The recipe (if you follow the link) does not call for this ingredient but we think it’s important in a risotto. Vermouth.
And no, not for drinking, for adding to the rice as it’s first liquid to soak up. I think Julia Child was famous for tippling her Vermouth, wasn’t she? I prefer a nice crisp glass of Chardonnay by my side while I tend the risotto. Anyway, Vermouth is paramount in my opinion if you’re going to make a good risotto. Pour it on and let it soak it all up before starting to add your broth. Just stir and add more broth as it gets incorporated. Repeat until rice is done. When I am making the risotto I slip another splash or two of Vermouth into the broth about ten minutes before I think the rice will be done. Rick doesn’t, but I do. So I wonder why he always thinks my risotto tastes better than his? Was it that splash of Vermouth or was it just because someone else made it?
Ladle the risotto into your cooked squash halves and enjoy! We’ll be making this again soon.
Last week we found beets (again) in our distribution, lovely baby salad greens, and for the first time—green beans.
I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed we are not getting more each week. I know the weather and the woodchucks have been challenging, but still, we hoped for more. However, I must say that everything we get is top quality. I was really hoping for more chard as we had planned to make the Leek and Swiss Chard Tart for our upcoming dinner party. So on Wednesday I headed off to the farmer’s market and bought some there. They only had a curlier leafed chard with white stems and I didn’t think the flavor was as nice as the red.
The peas just didn’t make it. They got some kind of disease and were not looking good because of all the moisture and Pedro said he never wants to give us anything that is not up to his standards. I don’t blame him!
The green beans were just enough for Rick and I to have as a side vegetable. The greens we used several times as a green salad, and once as a bed for the beets which I oven roasted. So, no new grandiose recipes this week, just eaten plainly. Delicious though!
Now my blog posts about the produce we get from our CSA (Bear Swamp Farm) will be named CSA and whatever week we happen to be in for our distribution. If you want to read just those entries all you have to do is enter CSA in the search box and all those entries will be ready to view. The first two entries have different names, so you can find them by clicking on “CSA 2009” under the categories listed on the right side of the blog.
Last week’s included what you see pictured above: Swiss chard, beets, fresh garlic, and two kinds of lettuce. The lettuce was young and tender and was eaten just in salads and on sandwiches. The freckled lettuce was kind of funny. When I reached in my box to pull it out my first thought was gosh, this has lots of dirt on it. I’m going to have to wash all that off when I get home. Was I surprised to find that it wasn’t dirt—just spotted lettuce. It had a wonderful peppery kind of taste. Absolutely delicious!
Pedro seems to be struggling with the weather and different kinds of creatures in his garden. Here are a few excerpts from his weekly newsletter:
I love his sense of humor about all of his trials. But really, what would Bear Swamp Farm be without at least one bear?
It’s interesting to try and use what we get in a new recipe. I hate to just braise/cook/wilt/whatever and have it as a side vegetable dish. Too boring! I scan the recipes online at either allrecipes.com or epicurious.com. Epicurious has mostly recipes from Bon Appetít, but it does have other recipes as well. Food & Wine’s web site also is a good source. As always, the recipe can be found by clicking on the link which will take you directly to our personal recipe book. This way I don’t have to take up space with the actual recipe in the post, plus if you want you can just print it out directly from the recipe archive.
We made a delicious Swiss Chard and Leek Tart with the chard. It was ever so creamy! The puff pastry tart shell made making this a breeze!
We have several good beet recipes but I wanted to try something new. I had picked up some golden beets at our local farmer’s market with the idea of mixing the two together. When I found Golden and Crimson Beet Salad with Oranges, Fennel, and Feta I knew it was meant to be tried! The flavors were fresh and all the ingredients worked perfectly together. The feta cheese added just the right amount of saltiness to the citrus. The beets, especially the red ones from the CSA, were wonderfully sweet and oh so good! Yum!
We used to eat beets only occasionally, but they are fast becoming one of my favorite vegetables when in season. If you think you don’t really like them, try tossing them with some olive oil, kosher salt and pepper, then roast them in the oven (400 F; cover the pan with foil) until they are just tender. When cool, the skins will slip right off. I dare you—go ahead and try them!
Update: When I picked up our distribution for this week (nope, not telling you yet; next week!) I told Pedro about the “freckly” lettuce and how good it was and that also I had thought it had dirt clinging to its leaves. He told me that strangely enough the lettuce is called Freckled Amish Bibb!
Wait just a minute here! How did those pics get on here? I think the cats are feeling left out of my blog. Sam, the Maine Coon decidedly does not fit in the box. eBay however fits very nicely. But that is not the box I was talking about!
I meant our produce box from Bear Swamp Farm of course! Last week we got two gorgeous heads of red leaf lettuce, a small bunch of spinach and a bunch of kale. Oh, and the ever present garlic scapes.
I had never eaten kale before so I asked Pedro what to do with it. He told me that when it’s young and tender to just sauté it in a little garlic and olive oil until it just wilts. So, that’s exactly what we did and it was delicious! Who knew kale tasted so good? We also had some baby carrots from the Warwick farmer’s market which we roasted. Paired with a tasty pork chop it made a great dinner.
The lettuce just went into various salads, as did the spinach. I love the fact that it’s all organically grown!
(P.S. I had meant to post this last week, but on Wednesday I pulled a muscle in my back and I wasn’t able to really sit for any period of time. Getting better now!)
Yesterday was the first distribution day for our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Above is what was in our box: a beautiful big head of romaine lettuce, a large bunch of spinach, a few garlic scapes, and the first of the peas.
CSAs are a great way to enjoy fresh, local, seasonal food directly from the farmer. “Shares” are purchased like a yearly subscription and each week throughout the growing season you receive a box of fresh produce. Each week the produce can change depending on what is being grown and ready for harvest that week. Think of it like a surprise package! Typically the boxes are small at the beginning of the season, but as summer gets into full swing your box may be overflowing.
This is the first year for our CSA; Bear Swamp Farm. Pedro is the farmer and he grows everything organically. This is turning out to be a challenging year for him with all the wet, rainy weather we’ve had. When I picked out my box yesterday and hefted that huge and beautiful head of romaine lettuce in my hand I looked at him and said “You grew this???” He grinned and proudly said “Yes, I did.” He told me how to use the garlic scapes (just use them as you would normal garlic) and we chatted a bit about how the peas were now going to take off with the warmer weather to come next week. He said to expect some different lettuces next week. How fun!
Our town of West Milford finally got its very own farmer’s market and last Wednesday was the first day. They had a really good turn-out and sold out of things very quickly. It’s a small market with not many vendors and some things were a bit pricey as farmer’s markets can tend to be. It’s not on the caliber of the Warwick market but at least it’s a start.
My favorite vendor, Pie-Eyed, had a big crowd in front of his booth. Mostly because he was cooking pizzas and giving away lots of free samples of their fresh mozzarella rolls, pizza, stuffed chicken dishes, etc. I bought a pizza which I think we’ll have tonight and a roll of fresh mozzarella stuffed with proscuitto and roasted red pepper. Okay, not exactly fresh farmer’s market produce, but fun.
Rick and I thought it would be fun to share what we get in our box each week and what we do with it. I made a caesar salad with the romaine last night and I’ll be passing that recipe on in another post. I think it will be fun to come up with different ways to use our weekly share of a farm! We haven’t decided yet whether Rick will write those posts over on his site, or if I will here on my blog, but if he ends up writing them I will add a link to his post.
