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Sunny meals for cloudy days

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Sunny meals for cloudy days
This Week's Winter Produce Harvest:
  • Winter Spinach
  • Golden Turnips
  • Garlic Heads
  • Frozen Tomatoes
  • 'Honeycrisp' Apples - from Mick Klug Farm, St. Joseph, MI
  • Yellow & Red Onions
  • Salad Mix
  • Carrots
  • Frozen Asparagus
*Note: Due to the cold temperatures, all shares are packed into wax boxes. Please take home to unpack or unpack into your own bags and return the wax box to us at your next pick up. Thank you! 
Farm Journal
Good morning from the farm! 
This week, January comes to a close. We're look forward to sunshine making a reappearance this upcoming February weekend. The warm sunshine will melt the coating of ice that covers surfaces throughout the farm. Sunshine also warms the animals and their water. It also brings on more growth in our hoophouse spinach plants for more winter harvests!
Jeff is heading to the 2020 Organic Vegetable Production Conference this week. There he will connect with other experienced vegetable growers and participate in farmer-to-farmer skill sharing with farmers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa. 
Back at the farm, I (Jen) will continue to feed animals, young boys and Jeff's sourdough starter. Our new bread-making hobby gives me a great canvas to feature winter vegetables in new ways. Recently, I'm experimenting with winter open-faced lentil sandwiches and sourdough stratas. I've included a fun recipe where the flexibility can offer space to try new combinations of flavors.  

I hope this week's harvest and winter eggs inspires winter cooking experimentation in your kitchen, too. Please share what you make and bon appetit!
Your farmers, 
Jeff, Jen, Owen, Gavin and the farm crew
Notes from the Farm Kitchen
This week's share contains golden turnips. This was our first year growing this variety of turnip and we've found them to be a tasty addition to soups, stews and roasted root combinations. They have a delicate sweetness that can be played up in dishes that call for apples, apple juice or honey. To eat, trim the ends and you can leave the skin on or peel.
We made sure to preserve asparagus after a bountiful season last year. Just after harvest, our asparagus was diced, blanched and frozen so that you'll taste a bit of spring with each bite. While blanching helps to maintain color and flavor, the freezing process will not maintain the usual crisp texture of asparagus. We find its best use frozen asparagus in soups and baked dishes. With all of our frozen produce, you can use in place of fresh produce in recipes that requires cooking vegetables. Our pre-washed and pre-cut veggies will make cooking a breeze!
Recipes and Ideas from the Farm Kitchen
 

Winter Open-Faced Sandwich with Lentils and Greens
2/3 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
10 garlic cloves smashed
¾ t. crushed red pepper flakes
1 t. kosher salt
½ cup red split lentils
1 bag winter spinach (torn into bite sized pieces)
1 lemon, halved
4 slices sourdough or other crusty bread
 
Heat oil, onion and garlic for 8-10 minutes until softened. Add red pepper flakes and salt, stir. Add lentils, 1 ¼ cups water, stir and make sure all lentils are submerged. Lay greens on top of liquid to steam, do not stir. Cover, reduce heat to medium low and cook for 10-15 minutes until greens are wilted and lentils are soft.
 
Uncover, stir and simmer away remaining liquid (about 2 minutes). Squeeze juice of lemon and salt and pepper to taste.
 
Brush olive oil on bread and toast under broiler. Once toasted, remove bread and rub with additional garlic clove. Generously spoon lentil mixture over toast and serve.

Asparagus, Bacon and Cheddar Quiche
1 pre-made pie crust
2-4 slices bacon cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 package PWFF frozen asparagus
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2  cup whole milk
½ teaspoon table salt
½  teaspoon ground white pepper
pinch fresh grated nutmeg
4 ounces cheddar cheese grated (1/2 cup)
 
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Place crust in pie pan and press dough carefully into pan corners by gently lifting dough edges with one hand while pressing around pan bottom with other hand. Press doubled 12-inch square of aluminum foil inside dough shell; evenly distribute 1 cup of beans or pie weights over foil. Bake, leaving foil and weights in place, until dough dries out, about 13 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool. Decrease heat oven to 375 degrees.
 
Fry bacon in skillet over medium heat until crisp and brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer with slotted spoon to paper towel-lined plate and chop into pieces when cool. Thaw frozen asparagus.
 
Whisk all remaining ingredients except cheese in medium bowl. Spread asparagus, bacon and cheese evenly over bottom of warm pie shell and set shell on oven rack. Pour in egg mixture to cover. Bake until lightly golden brown and a knife blade inserted about one inch from the edge comes out clean, and center feels set but soft like gelatin, 32 to 35 minutes. Transfer quiche to rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Grandma's Anything Goes Strata

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