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Recipes & Ideas from the Farm Kitchen

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Recipes & Ideas from the Farm Kitchen
This Week's Vegetable Harvest:
  • Broccoli
  • Fresh Ginger
  • Acorn Squash
  • Green Beans
  • Salad Turnips
  • Tomatoes
  • Dill
  • Garlic
  • Italian Frying Peppers
This Week's Fruit Harvest:
  • Fuji Apples
  • Italian Plums
  • Bosc Pears
Farm Journal
From the farm share pickup to the farmers' market on Saturday, we love exchanging cooking ideas and recipes with CSA members and customers. Your ideas always inspire us! So we thought we'd share a typical weekend of food around the around the farm kitchen.
We tend to keep Friday night dinners simple on the farm -- which is to say, we grill pizza! We like our pizzas loaded with fresh vegetables, and we like to share with a house full of kids and friends.
On Saturdays, we gather with family and oftentimes, we're asked to bring a seasonal appetizer. While I was at the farmers' market, Jeff crafted this heirloom tomato tart appetizer for a late afternoon gathering.
On Sundays, I (Jen) love to spend the afternoon in the kitchen making dishes that provide a warm meal with plenty of leftovers for lunches. I recently made a lasagna with roasted autumn vegetables (delicata squash, crimini mushrooms, onions) combined with a late summer tomato marinara sauce (including some poblano peppers for a little kick). It was perfect for a rainy evening.
We look forward to hearing about (and seeing pictures of) your seasonal, delicious meals, too. Enjoy this week's farm shares! 

Your farmers,
Jeff, Jen and our farm crew
Notes from the Farm Kitchen
Our white salad turnip is a Japanese variety called hakurei. It is very mild and sweet and is easily mistaken for a white radish. Japanese turnips are delicious eaten raw or sautéed in a little butter and sprinkled with salt. They are also delicious roasted and pureed into a soup. Turnips are a good source of Vitamin C, and rich in the minerals potassium and calcium. 
Ginger is a tropical plant that we grow in our hoophouses throughout the summer, which the most tropical environment on the farm! The seed comes from the Hawaii in late winter. We plant the ginger in early March in our greenhouse and by early summer, the plants are large enough to transfer into the hoophouse beds. Throughout the summer we tend to the crop by weeding, adding compost, watering, and we hill the beds to keep the ginger bulbs protected while they grow upwards. When the plants are nearly waist-high, we gingerly (sorry:)) dig an experimental patch to see the size of the treasure beneath.  We were pleased to see the results and we hope you'll enjoy the fresh flavor of this week's ginger!

We store ginger in a paper bag in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. However if you won't use all of it within a week, we encourage freezing it in a zip-lock bag. When you are ready to cook with it, simply use a knife to shave the peel away, and then grate to your desired amount. 
Bosc pears are a beautiful looking pear with a deep tan outside, and very sweet inner flesh. They delicious eaten raw or cooked (they retain their shape well when poached or grilled), and they need not be peeled to be enjoyed. We like to use them on platters alongside cheeses, as their sweetness holds up well next to strong cheeses. They should be kept at room temperature until ripe and will keep up to an additional week when stored in the refrigerator.
EXTENDED ONE MORE WEEK!
Heirloom, Paste & Beefsteak Tomato Cases 
- Last week, we were blessed with plenty of sunshine and warmth which ripened a wide variety of tomatoes. So we have 20lb cases of beefsteak, paste or a mix tomatoes available for $40 and 10lb cases of heirloom tomatoes available for $28. Place your orders by emailing Jen (jen@prairiewindfamilyfarm.com) and we'll deliver to your pick up site. Simply let us know the date you would like to pick up your order and we will send you a confirmation.
Recipes Ideas from the Farm Kitchen

Simply Summer Roasted Pepper Salad
6 large sweet Italian frying peppers or bell peppers
4 jalapenos
1 cup seeded, cored diced tomatoes
1 cup finely diced sweet onion
1 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Roast the peppers on a gas grill or on the stove top until they begin to blacken and blister a bit. Cover and set aside until cool.
Once cooled, peel and remove the seeds and stems. Cut the peppers into a one inch dice. Very finely diced the Hungarian hots or jalapenos until they're almost like mush. Combine everything in a bowl and then park in the fridge for a few hours to let the flavors blend.  Makes 4 cups.
(adapted from food52.com)

Ginger Apple Crumble
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
 
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
4 pounds large mixed apples, peeled, halved, cored, each half cut into 6 slices
2 tablespoon fresh ginger
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
 
Mix oats, 1 cup sugar, and flour in bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until topping comes together in moist clumps. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill.) Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray. Mix apples, lemon juice, fresh ginger, cinnamon, and 1/2 cup brown sugar in bowl. Transfer to dish. Sprinkle topping over. Bake crumble until apples are tender and topping is brown and crisp, about 55 minutes. Cool slightly. Spoon warm crumble into bowls. Serve with ice cream.  Serves 6.

Spicy Plum Sauce - serve on top of grilled pork chops
3 large Italian Plums (about 3/4 pound), quartered and pits reserved
2 1/2 cups water
2 teaspoons sugar
1 long red fresh chile, seeded and minced
1 tablespoon chopped dill
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Salt
 
In a small saucepan, cover the plums and pits with the water and bring to a boil. Cover partially and simmer over moderately low heat until the plums are very soft, about 20 minutes. Drain the plums, reserving 1/4 cup of the water; discard the pits. Transfer the plums to a blender. Add the sugar, half of the chile and the reserved cooking liquid and puree. Strain the puree through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Stir in the dill, vinegar and the remaining chile. Season with salt and serve.
Next Week's Harvest (our best guess)... carrots, apples, broccoli, apple cider, fresh ginger, cabbage, lettuce and more!

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