Seeds of Hope Farm CSA Newsletter, Week 25, November 1, 2013

Mark your calendar and join us Tuesday, November 19th for a pre-Thanksgiving feast. This is the last farm dinner of the year! RSVP to me at ghahn@caastlc.org or 314.566.8643. We have plenty of room for all, and would like all of you to come so we can give our thanks to you, our members in person for a great season. Please remember, this is a FREE cooking class and FREE great meal.
At each dinner, I find myself more grateful to those who come and those supporting our program. The food and learning are great, but the greatest function of the dinners is underlying. We get to know our neighbors, make friends, and get to know people who are eating the same food from the same place every week. In our consumer based culture it is so easy to overlook the common grounds we all have, the common grounds we all share. These dinners are a time and place to find both.

We have recently had a couple of spots open up for subsidized membership. If you know anyone that is eligible and interested, please send them our way! We have plenty of food to go around.

Food For Thought…and Recipe Ideas

Have you occasionally wondered what that veggie is in your bag? We’ve added a helpful page on our website called A Picture Guide to Your CSA Vegetables. It can be found under the Our CSA tab at the top of the home page http://www.seedsofhopefarm.org.

***Jerusalem Artichokes
This week in your shares we are offering a new vegetable, the Jerusalem Artichoke, also called Sunchoke. It is like a potato, and can be cooked like a potato, but it is produced underground by a native sunflower!

The appearance of these knobby tubers is much like ginger but that is where the resemblance ends. Be sure to keep them refrigerated in a plastic bag. They taste sweet, nutty, crispy and delicious uncooked. Just give them a quick scrub under running water before you slice them up.

Steamed or roasted they are known to taste like the tender green globe artichokes commonly grown in California. We suggest boiling some with potatoes and then mashing them together to impart a nice nutty taste to a familiar dish. Or thinly slice and sautee to add to a pasta and greens dish.

Your Jerusalem Artichokes were grown at our Bel-Ridge Community Garden and Farm in our Summer in St. Louis demonstration garden, a project supported by Slow Food St. Louis to introduce community gardeners to reliable summer vegetables.

The Jerusalem Artichoke is a star of the summer garden because it is a heat and drought tolerant wildflower that happens to produce tasty food! If you are interested in keeping a few plants in your garden, hold onto a few pieces of tubers in a plastic bag in your refrigerator. You can plant them anytime from March on up to June (even if they are looking a bit gross by then). – Randy

Another note on Jerusalem Artichokes- while a starch, they digest differently than potatoes, having a slower and lesser effect on blood sugar levels, making them a great option for those with diabetes and other blood sugar issues.

Peppers: This week you are receiving a whopping two pounds. We know this is a whole lot to use before spoiling. So, if you can’t use soon, freeze them. Simply slice the peppers, removing the stem, meniscus and seeds. Lay on a paper towel or towel to dry. Then place in a freezer bag. Freeze, and use in a sauté, soup, etc. The only downside is they will be a bit mushy, so are only good for cooked dishes. But who can complain?

Shelling Beans: The small green pods in the bag are at a shelling stage. Treat them just as you did the edamame from earlier this season. Simply split the pods, drop the beans into boiling salt water for a few minutes, then enjoy them on their own, add to a salad or a nice pasta dish. While some look great, don’t eat the pods. They will be tough and fibrous.

Green Tomatoes: Fried green or green salsa. Yep. Or, if there is any blush to the tomato you can set in a window, or wrap in newspaper with an apple or a banana, checking for ripeness every few days. Ripening by this method is best done between 60 and 70 degrees. To preserve green tomatoes, keep them dark and below 60. You will see more green tomatoes in the next few shares.

Please return your CSA bags!!!