February 2nd News from the Farm!

 

 

Weekly CSA Newsletter
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Weekly farm news for your February 2nd Delivery!
PLEASE NOTE:  All orders must be placed by 5:00 AM Thursday so that we can include your order on our harvest schedule. Please return your boxes because we like to re-use them!  Farm pick-up for shares will be ready Friday AM.  You may access our online store by clicking on this link

The leafy greens such as Kale and Collards, still have not yet recovered from the cold weather, we are hopeful that once past this current cold snap they will recover and grow again to tide us over until our spring planting.  So for folks eating the Farmer’s Choice, you are eating just like us, storage greens that include Napa, Green and Red Cabbage!  For your planning purposes, this may be our last delivery until further notice.  After loosing our main crop of Kale to the greenhouse disaster, we aren’t comfortable offering enough diversity to make it worth a trip to pick-up your share from either the farm or Annie’s Bakery.

We just got a livestock guardian puppy, whom we have named Argus, which means “vigilant guardian” according to quite a few authors who have researched the history of names.  It is our hope that little Arugus can do his job like Kaiser, and free range, so that he can help reduce our ground hog population.  We have spoken to several breeders who claim that that character trait that Kaiser has, in free ranging without leaving the property, is very unique.  We are hoping that all you CSA Shareholders who pick up at the farm, can help us train him, that when you visit we can teach him not to jump onto cars.  This may require a bit of coordination so that you can show up at the farm while we are away, because that seems to be the situation that causes Kaiser to go into high alert mode, where he has jumped on a few cars.  It will probably be another month or two before Argus is old enough to follow Kaiser around the farm.

Feel free to provide feedback so that we make this as easy as possible for you to order your weekly basket of goodness.  Please look for a confirmation email once you’ve completed placing your order, and if you don’t see one, please call us at 828-622-3654.  Also expect an order confirmation Friday AM after your order has been fulfilled that may contain information pertinent to your order.

See you at the Farm or in Asheville!
– Your MHO Farm Crew

This upcoming weekend is Super Bowl LII.  Even if you’re not into football, but it is a great excuse to party, and we hope you’ll include Mountain Harvest Organics for some healthy options of treats this super bowl weekend.

A quick google search indicates that some of these treats might be interesting to include:
–  Either these vegan potato skins  or these non vegan skins are sure to be delicious!  The german butterball potatoes are perfect for these both in size and the texture of the potato.  For an easier potato snack, these potato wedges  or potato chips are incredibly popular that you should be sure to make a lot because they will be certain to quickly disappear.
– Maybe these Chipotle Stuffed Sweet Potatoes, these Sweet Potato Avocado bites, or these Vegan Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potato Skins.  These Sweet Potato Chips are easy and tasty.
– With it being so cold, perhaps this Slow Cooker Vegetarian Sweet Potato Chili
– Either this caramelized onion dip that contains dairy or this vegan caramelized onion dip is one that we are seriously consider making
– We’re for sure making this red cabbage, carrot and daikon radish slaw.  For those who’ve been ordering the Farmer’s Choice, you like us, have most likely been eating a slaw every week!
– You will find chorizo sausage in the online store for this BEERY CHORIZO QUESO FUNDIDO!
– You will find hamburger meat in the online store for these Meatball Appetizers.

We’ve been eating a lot of slaws these past couple weeks because our leafy greens aren’t so happy with this weather.  Above is a Asian Slaw, with napa, carrots and daikon radishes; however, we’ve been using this tahini ginger salad dressing that is excellent.  What makes this salad, is by julienning the carrots and radishes.  What CSA Shareholder Frieda has taught us with her pesto, it is all about the textures and taking a little extra time to prep and chop is worth it.  So don’t use that food processor for making this salad. We’ve also been eating  roasted green cabbage wedges topped with a mustard sauce. We’re certainly glad we didn’t ferment all our cabbage so we can enjoy this recipe because it is simple yet delicious.

What’s available this week

Greens:  Napa cabbage, green cabbage, red cabbage, Lacinato Kale and collard greens.  Here is a recipe for stir-fried greens that will work for any of the greens that are available.  This napa cabbage recipe will also make a delicious Holiday side. This is our second harvest of Red Cabbage. This Pennsylvania Red Cabbage that includes apples and will make a beautiful and tasty Holiday side. 

Irish Potatoes:  Regular types of potatoes include: Purple Majesty (like Adirondack blue, but only more beautiful and loaded with antioxidants), German Butterball, Adirondack Red, Satina and Red Gold.  Fingerlings: Austrian Crescent Fingerlings, Magic Molly Fingerlings (beautiful purple skin and purple flesh), French Fingerlings.  We’re excited about Hasselback Potatoes using the fingerlings!

Sweet Potatoes:  We have been curing the sweet potatoes for a few weeks since they were dug so by now they are fairly sweet but if they are kept in a cool (50 to 60 degree), dry and dark area they will continue to sweeten and should keep several months.  We like to bake them in their skins in a covered casserole at about 375 degrees until they are tender and then just put a little salt, black pepper and butter on them.  Here is a recipe, similar to what was included in a newsletter sent previously, for a breakfast bowl using sweet potatoes.

Roots and Such:  Alpine diakon radishes, which are very sweet and not near as spicy as most diakons. Carrots, red bulb onions, and our famous yellow Candy onions.

Dairy and Eggs:  Pet milk, fresh sweet Cream and clabbered cream.

Need recipes for crops in abundance such as summer squash or potatoes?  Visit the recipe page of our website that contains an accumulation of recipes over the years from CSA shareholders.  These are in no particular order so use your “Find” button to search for an ingredient such as eggplant.

Or if you are into sweet potatoes, and can’t quite bring yourselves to make a casserole with marshmallows, maybe consider this hasselback sweet potato recipe?

We are fortuante that Carl and Joe Miller were able to fix our tractor tire!  Us without this tractor, is much you without a car for transportation.

Updates from the Farm

This week’s Farmer’s Choice Share includes: (share contents are subject to change based on availability)

  • Red Cabbage: One of our favorite recipes is this Pennsylvania Red Cabbage! Either by itself, or combined with the green cabbage, it is delicious fermented for sauerkraut. Red cabbage pairs well with turnips and/or daikon radishes in this recipe. For us, we periodically enjoy this veggie in a stir-fry. We tend to make a lot of slaw salads on the farm, while we mostly use a vinaigrette slaw salad, this ginger peanut slaw is nice every once in a while.
  • Napa Cabbage: So SWEET you might just consider eating it in a Lemon Coleslaw with sliced bell peppers, lemons and onions. We feel this vegetable is underrated because you don’t see it offered much at restaurants and it is amazing raw in salads or in fried rice.  For another main entree, consider this salad with crispy tufu.  We frequently enjoy napa slaw salad  or Asian peanut noodles while napa cabbage is in season.
  • Green Cabbage:  This variety has very thin and tender leaves that make it great for cole slaw, either creamy or with a vinaigrette. We love this cabbage and polenta recipe because it is so filling. A simple way to prepare cabbage is by roasting or grilling it. We highly recommend that you try this recipe that Jess made us for lunch last season which was both delicious and beautiful, called Okonomiyaki, a dish that she had frequently while living and teaching in Japan. While the dish may be a little complicated the first time you make it, we trust once you have it down, it will become one of those dishes you have each year to celebrate cabbage season. If you find that you are accumulating cabbage in your refrigerator because it does store a long time, consider making sauerkraut, it is loaded with probiotics and so healthy!
  • Irish Potatoes:  Satina potatoes that are large and excellent roasted or mashed.  Great for garlic roasted potatoes which would be amazing with our freshly dug potatoes.
  • Sweet Potatoes:  The longer they store the sweeter they will become!  We ate a couple the other night that were DELICIOUS because we couldn’t wait any longer to eat them. We left these dirty just in case you choose to store these as they store better if they haven’t been washed.  We simply baked our sweet potatoes in the oven at 350, with a little bit of water, until the entire sweet potato was tender. To speed up baking you can cut into cubes and roast.  This recipe for baked sweet potato fries is AWESOME and such a treat.  My guess is that same recipe will work with butternut squash.
  • Candy Onions and a couple Red Bulb Onions: SO SWEET and they seemed to have cured well so these will be in your share for the remainder of the season.  We’re providing you with the onions that need to be eaten first because they won’t store.
  • Carrots (without the tops):  We’re providing you with a small bag so that, if you want, you can make the roasted root veggies..
  • Turnips (Hakurei):  NOTE: We may not include these if they aren’t storing well.  We will know when we pack shares on Thursday.  This variety is delicious raw in salads or roasted or  you might be interested in trying it with kohlrabi in a slaw substituting carrots for kohlrabi in these recipes.  Another favorite of ours is Spring Rolls where most any vegetable can go into these delicious wraps.  They can be mashed with potatoes for a gratin which can be made vegan in substituting butter for new balance or an oil and the nutritional yeast for the cheese.
  • Radishes (Daikon):  These radishes can be made into baked fries or pickled with carrots and turnips.  We’ve had market customers who make these into noodles!
  • Garlic:  We’ll include a few but please know they may have a bad clove in them. You will want to use thees quickly. The type of garlic we grow is not known for long storage but for the flavor.

Our cows, May and Sassy, have been escaping the fencing so we’ve been letting them free range around the greenhouses.  There is some excellent grass around the greenhouses that they’ve been enjoying.  Above is Sassy, after I called after her she gave me a look exclaiming, “I don’t want to go back to the barn.”.  So in this situation we let them have their way.

Mountain Harvest Organics
Our email address is:
farmer@mountainharvestorganic.com unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
77 Wyatt Lane
Hot Springs, NC 28743
(828) 622-3654

 

 

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