Strawberries Are Here!

Andy is so excited (and so is Justin, the driver) about having strawberries in our boxes this week!  Andy was just sure they wouldn't be ready until next week.  He is not complaining and neither am I.  When he looked back at his records from last year, the strawberries were even two weeks earlier then now.

 

This week we have a large head of Chinese cabbage and a head of lettuce.  Some of the boxes have a small bunch of asparagus and a few zucchini.  If your box didn't have these you will most likely be getting some next week.  Andy tries extremely hard to even things out the best he can.


 Please Andy writes  the newsletter a few days before the boxes are packed.  So he is really trying to predict what we will be getting.  That hand written newsletter is then hand delivered to Rue and Susan.  They type it us and print it for Andy and then they hand deliver it back to Andy and Lizzie so they can put one in every CSA box.  It is not as easy as it might sound.

We love the egg share!

This weeks baked good is a cherry pie!

 

Zucchini relish is something new to me.  I guess I will be trying it on just about everything.

 

FYI...One of the neighboring farmers who also grows using the same organic methods as Cedarmore Farm, have some extra strawberries.  If you would like to order some for next week, please email the farm at cedarmorefarm@tdisp.com with your order.  They are $4.00 per quart or $3.50 a quart if you order 10 or more. On extra orders like this they will keep a tab on what is ordered and then bill you at the end of the month.

Recipe Of The Week: Strawberry Pizza

Strawberry Pizza

 

3/4 cup of softened butter

1/2 cup of powered sugar

1 1/2 cups of flour

8 ounces of cream cheese

1/2 cup of powered sugar

1/4 cup of whipping cream

4 cups of sliced strawberries

1/2 cup  of pineapple or orange juice

1/4 cup of powered sugar

1 Tablespoon of corn starch

1 teaspoons lemon juice

 

Cream butter and sugar.  Mix in flour and press into a greased 12 inch pizza pan.  Bake at 300 degrees for 25-28 minutes or until light brown.  Cool.  Mix cream cheese and powered sugar.  Whip the cream and fold into cream cheese mixture.  Spread over cooled crust.  Arrange berries on top of this mixture  Bring remaining ingredients to a boil.  Boil for one minute and when it is slightly cooled poor over berries.  Chill for one hour.

Green Goodness

With our CSA boxes each week there is a weekly newsletter that Andy writes out long had and then Rue and Susan...the 'Englishers' down the road type and print it out what Andy has written about.  This newsletter then makes it way back to Cedarmore Farm in time to be folded and placed in each CSA box.

 

So...last week at the time of writing it was raining. Then a little stretch of dry weather came and Andy and his helpers scurried out to the fields where they were able to get some work done.  They have just finished their second planting of beans and they were able to get down some mulch so that the tomatoes, cantaloupes, cucumbers and sweet potatoes can be planted. It has been more wet than normal but if they are able to get just a little window where they can plant it isn't too bad.

 

 

For those of you that are new...the green leaves with the colored stems are Swiss chard (my all time favorite vegetable)

 

A little faming mishap...way back in February on one of those cold wintery night, there was a farmer that forgot to wake up to stoke the fire to keep the greenhouse plants nice warm...oops, no broccoli now for our boxes.  But the good news is that there has been a second planting and it should be ready to harvest in a few weeks.  And the strawberries should be ripe about then also.

RecipeOf The Week: Zucchini Bread

Zucchini Bread

 

3 eggs

1 1/2 cup of sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 cup of oil

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

3 cups grated, unpeeled zucchini

1 1/2 cups of raisins

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

 

Beat the eggs then add the sugar, vanilla, oil, and cinnamon.  Mix in the squash and raisins.  Combine and add remaining ingredients.  Mix well.  Bake in two 9X5 loaf pans at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/4 hours or until done.

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

It sure is wet on the farm.  I think they might have gotten more rain that we have here in

'the city'.  According to Andy the produce seems to be doing fine...but the weeds are doing just as well!  And that is not a good thing for anyone's garden.  The real challenge now is trying to find the window to work where it isn't raining and not to muddy to work the fields.  Hopefully in the near future the sun will come out and the winds will blow to help dry things out so more produce can get in the ground and time for Andy and crew 'to get after those weeds'.

 

The zucchini is ripening really well.  I have had a few comments about how early we are getting the zucchini.  I say, bring it on...you can never have enough zucchini bread in the freezer!

zucchini, zucchini bread, kale, green onions, lettuce, radishes, peach butter, and a dozen eggs

 

This week we have a bunch of kale.  Yum!  It is the purplish stemmed, long stemmed greenish stuff.  Lizzie was able to get us a recipe for kale and chicken soup that sounds pretty good.  We like to make kale chips also.  Just google it or type it into the search box at the right...so easy and delicious!  Does anyone else have a recipe using kale they would like to share with the rest of us?

 

The produce supply is picking up but Andy still feels that the boxes are still a little light.  Since they have plenty of eggs to share...we all get to have some in our boxes.  Nothing like a good organic brown egg!  This could be the last week we see any extras in our boxes.  It was great while it lasted.  And what a nice gesture from Cedarmore Farm.

 

Recipe Of The Week: Kale and Chicken Soup

Kale and Chicken Soup

 

3 green onions thinly sliced

2 Tablespoons of Olive oil

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

5 cups of chicken broth

4 cups of diced cooked chicken

1 teaspoon of thyme

1/8 teaspoon of pepper

2 bunches of kale, steamed and chopped

 

Saute onions in the oil for two minutes.  Add potatoes and broth.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Add chicken, thyme, and pepper.  continue to simmer, add kale.  Cook five minutes or until kale is soft.

Another Box Of Goodies

zucchini, green onions, radishes, asparagus, greens, cookies and tomato sauce

 

Word from Andy and Lizzie today in our boxes is that the weather is beautiful and the warm sunshine is helping with the growth of the produce.  This week they had to supplement our boxes with a baked good and a canned good.

 

Andy wants us to know the reason behind the slow start to the produce.  The month of March is key.  We had a cool, wet March and that resulted in not getting things planted.  The ground was way to wet for tilling and plowing.  If the ground is to wet when it is plowed the soil becomes compacted.  Nothing grows well in compacted soil.  They simply had to wait until the weather permitted them to work in the fields.  In the seven years that Andy and Lizzie have lived here, this has been the most challenging. And as a result of this problem, Andy is going to try a different cover crop this fall.  Some farmers have had good success using this cover crop.  It seems to help the ground dry out a little quicker...meaning hopefully that he will be able to get into the fields to work sooner in the season.

 

First Week Of 2013

The first box of the season! And as you can see the box is pretty light on the produce this week.  But there are some really good things that are a surprise to help fill the box..

 

green onions, rhubarb, maple syrup, bread, pickles, eggs, ramsons

 

It is so difficult these few first week of the CSA to fill the boxes to overflowing.  But I promise you that those days are coming.  Andy has some asparagus but not enough for everyone this go around.  They are always trying to be fair and give everyone their equal share.  Sometimes it take a few weeks with the way things grow at the beginning of the season. The extras that we have in our boxes, like bread, eggs and maple syrup, would not be in our boxes.  These things can be ordered each week.  Just make sure to  give them about three days notice before your delivery date. It is pretty simple to order...email cedarmore farm with your order and Rue will see that Andy gets your request. Then you will be billed at the end of the month for the extra items. This box contains a loaf od bread that was baked by some of the girls in the community.  The eggs come from Andy and Lizzies young chickens.  When the chickens mature the eggs will be larger.  We enjoy our egg share.  Nothing like a good yellow egg.  They are beautiful!  And taste just as good, and I am not an egg eater, so that is saying something. 

 

Please remember to return you empty boxs, egg containers and empty jars to your pick up location next week, as they are reused week to week.  And please try to remember to keep the pick up location as orderly as possible.  Unfold and stack your empty boxes in an out of the way place.

 

Andy and Lizzie think that the vegetable will pick up in a week or so.  They are growing lots of  good things but because of the weather that we have had, the vegetables are a little behind.  Andy's last words in the weekly newsletter...'Thank you all for joining us this year.  We hope you enjoy the food as well as the experience.  We'll do our best to make this a good buy for you."

I always have a bit of trouble remembering year to year what some of the vegetables are.  Usually Andy leaves me a little note in my box or I email Rue for some vegetable ID.  These are what the Amish call ramsons.  When I look them up in my vegetable identifier book, they are called ramps or wild leeks.  They look a little to some like a green onion.  But they have a more assertive garlic-onion flavor.  I am going to use them like I would an onion.

Lizzie knows my soft spot.  Well, maybe actually maybe Mark's...pumpkin bars with frosting and nuts...one of his favorites!