Week 11: 8/20 - 8/23
Thursday 3pm - till Sunday Night | SELF SERVE 13197 10TH St. South. Afton, MN. 55001 | 612.770.7194
What we're up to:
Planting carrots for winter! It is time for beds to fill for fall and winter produce; we really only have a month and a half left of decent growing time so now is our shot. As daylight hours decrease our days to maturity increase and Nov. 7th is our last day of 10hours of daylight. This all gets calculated into late season planting dates. Our high tunnels help us to hold all this produce for harvest through the winter months but dose not help in growth as daylight hours are really the key. So over the next 2 weeks the farm will change quite a bit to prepare.
In Your Bag This Week
Cucamelons: For our CSA members, we’ve got something new in the bag this week. Ladies, gentleman, and everyone in-between, please allow me to introduce you to my friend, the cucamelon. Also know as Mexican Sour Gherkins and mouse melons in English, and pepquinos, sanditas, melon riata, and pepinillo agrio in Spanish, cucamelons (Melothria scabra) are in the cucurbit family along with cucumbers, zucchini, melons, and butternut squash (to name a few). I was first introduced to them as Mexican Sour Gherkins, but I’ve fallen in love with the name cucamelon, and that’s what I’m calling them from now on. Native to Central America, I first met cucamelons at Red Cat Farm in the Lehigh Valley where I was helping farmer Teena Bailey to clean up her greenhouse in preparation for the winter. She had cucamelons growing up the table legs of her planting boxes, their slender vines winding around the boxes and up the greenhouse posts, the little melons dangling like ornaments. Enchanted, I asked her what they were, and she sent me home with a handful and a name. A few years later, when I was managing the Pendle Hill Kitchen Garden outside of Philadelphia, I built a trellis and started growing them myself. This year I planted a bed of them in the 96’ greenhouse and they couldn’t be happier. Store in your fridge. (grown by Lucia!) Arugula: tender and peppery, arugula makes a great salad base and is perfect for sandwiches. Store in your fridge. Green Onion: Add some flavor to any dish by chopping these up! Eat from the white end to the green end. Store in your fridge. Bok Choy: super versatile, add to stir frys, salads, or the grill selection. Store in a bag in your fridge. Mint: great in salads, dips or cocktails! Store in water on your counter. Micros: Flavor Mix Micros. Eat as a salad with olive oil, salt and pepper or add to a sandwich, your breakfast eggs or pretty much anything else! Store in your fridge. Carrots: sweet and crunchy, our carrots are great raw or cooked. Store in your fridge in a bag. Cherry Tomatoes: a happy mix of color and flavor. great in the tart recipe below! Store on your counter Kale: best green on the block! always a winner in salads, baked dishes, with eggs, on toast as a spread, ect. Store in a bag in your fridge.
Arugula Pesto | Serves: 4 | total time: 10 mins
Ingredients
4 cups Arugula same as 3.5 oz
1 cup Walnuts
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice optional, but recommended
2 cloves Garlic chopped
1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
Black Pepper to taste
1/4 cup water as needed for thinning
Instructions
Place ARUGULA, CHEESE, WALNUTS, OLIVE OIL, LEMON, GARLIC, SALT, and PEPPER in a food processor fitted with the dough/chopping blade attachment.
Pulse or blend until all ingredients are well-combined.
Add water in small amounts to adjust consistency.
Store in airtight containers up to five days in the refrigerator and up to 90 days in the freezer.
Easy Bok choy | Serves: 4 | total time: 15 mins
Ingredients
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped green onions, including green ends
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pound baby bok choy, rinsed, larger leaves separated from base, base trimmed but still present, holding the smaller leaves together
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
Salt
1/2 cup chopped, roasted, salted cashews
Instructions
1 Sauté onions, garlic, bok choy: Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add onions, then garlic, then bok choy. Sprinkle with sesame oil and salt.
2 Cover, and let the baby bok choy cook down for approximately 3 minutes. (Like spinach, when cooked, the bok choy will wilt a bit.)
3 Remove cover. Lower heat to low. Stir and let cook for a minute or two longer, until the bok choy is just cooked.
4 Gently stir in the roasted cashews.
Pajeon~Green Onion Pancake | Serves: 4 | total time: 15 mins
Ingredients
10 Stalks Scallions/Green Onions, cut into 5” length Vegetable Oil for frying Batter ½ Cup All-Purpose Flour About 1/2 Cup Water + 1 Tbsp, if needed 1 tsp Korean Soybean Paste ½ tsp Sugar Vinegar Soy Sauce (Cho Ganjang) 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce 1 Tbsp Rice or Korean Apple Vinegar 1 tsp Honey ¼ White Onion, diced 1 Green Chili, sliced 1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Seeds
Instructions
In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients for the vinegar soy sauce and set aside.In a medium bowl, mix the flour, water, soybean paste and sugar. Mix well until the batter is smooth.
Heat a non-stick pan and add about 3 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Put the green onions on the pan parallel to each other, in a rectangle shape. Then pour the batter evenly over the green onion.
Cook on one side until golden brown. Flip and cook the other side. Remove the pancake and transfer it to a serving plate. Serve warm with the vinegar soy sauce.
We wash everything in your bag but we wash them in bulk so some things may need an extra rinse at home.
Please bring your bag back next week so we can re-use them!
thanks!