Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions, the first of 2019!  This week we have a suggestion for Bob on how to use the abundant salad turnips we received last week:

I felt a bit intimidated by the salad turnips last week.  I’ve definitely wasted some in the past and never feel like I have an exciting dish to use them in.  I decided to check one of my favorite fonts of recipes: NYT Cooking.  Sure enough, they had a recipe that caught my eye and inspired me right away, Shaved Turnip Salad with Arugula and Prosciutto.  To keep it simple, I used a mandoline to thinly slice the turnips and bought a clam-shell package of arugula since I hadn’t received any from the CSA yet.  I prefer the crispness of diced pancetta to prosciutto so I picked some of that up instead.  I cooked the pancetta in a nonstick frying pan with a few drops of olive oil to get them started.  Once they were wonderfully crispy, I spooned off a few tablespoons of the leftover fat to cool and serve as the vinaigrette base.  To the fat, I whisked spicy honey, cider vinegar and S&P.  I tossed the arugula and the turnips in the dressing and topped with the pancetta.  Served with some ciabatta it was a bright and different summer dinner!

We also have a suggestion from Ginger of Treelicious Farms:

Sour cherries are delicious for the 4th of July as a crumble.  My favorite topping takes 5 minutes to prep and is placed on top of any prepared fruit. Cut 1 stick of margarine into 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of sugar — this creates the yummy topping. Baking for 35 min at 350 F in the oven should produce a nice golden top with juice on the edges. Enjoy alone or with ice cream! This is a favorite summer treat with fresh fruit of any kind.

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted periodically during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions.  This week we have a suggestion for Bob on how to use the delicata squash we received this week:

When I first saw the delicata squash this week, I was a bit intimidated.  I had never cooked them before and honestly thought they might just be ornamental because of the colorful striping.  After a little googling I realized that they are the perfect vessel for a flavorful stuffing and that they can be eaten whole, skin and all.  The recipe I started with came from NY Times Cooking and was called Whole-Roasted Stuffed Delicata Squash.  I made some modifications based on what I had on hand (i.e. I subbed arugula for the kale) and it came out great.  Here’s what I did… I sliced the squash in half length-wise and scraped out the seeds.  I sprayed them with cooking spray and sprinkled them with salt and pepper.  While I worked on the stuffing, I gave them a fifteen minute head start in a 400 degree oven.  For the stuffing, I started by toasting walnuts in a dry skillet and removing them to a large bowl.  Next, I sauteed chopped onion and garlic until soft and added arugula until it wilted and cooked down.  I dumped the veggies into the bowl.  Then I added stuffing cubes from the pantry (you could make your own from stale or toasted bread) to the pan with a few tablespoons of butter, tossing constantly to coat and lightly brown.  I added the cubes, dried cranberries and dried herbs to the bowl and mixed to combine.  To help bring the mixture together, I added a few tablespoons of chicken broth (I skipped the maple syrup the recipe calls for so needed some moisture).  Once it cooled a bit, I stirred in blue cheese crumbles.  Finally, I added the stuffing to the parcooked squash, mounding it high and pushing it into the squash.  I cooked it for about twenty minutes before covering with foil to prevent the stuffing from burning and then added about ten minutes more until the squash was fork-tender.  The squash was flavorful, the stuffing crunchy and it made for a great introduction to a new vegetable!  I couldn’t help but snapping a picture:

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions.  This week we have suggestions from Shana:

It is already week 8 of the CSA! I hope you are enjoying the shares so far. This week was by far my favorite in size, variety and quantity – just perfect! Some recipe ideas below:

Zucchini Brownies (VEGAN!)
These brownies are courtesy of Zest, a great Vegan restaurant in Fairfield. I am not a vegan but these are tasty and delicious and contain some more nutritious ingredients in addition to the sugar!

Tabbouleh/Bulgur Wheat Salad
Theresa often uses the plethora of parsley we get for tabbouleh salads.  This week was perfect for that with the cucumbers and tomatoes that we got. You could also add in some other veggies and make a fun, creative salad with the bulgur wheat!

Ratatouille
We got everything we needed for a delicious Ratatouille and I couldn’t resist making it (I think I post this every year). I use Julia Child’s recipe, but if you don’t want to be cooking for over an hour, there are tons of other simpler recipes that are also great! This one from the Kitchn looked great too.

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions.  This week we have a suggestion from Bob about his go-to recipe when we get a CSA share like we did yesterday:

Yesterday was possibly my favorite CSA share ever.  I typically do a half share so there are weeks when I miss some of my favorites but this week was perfect.  Peppers, onions, eggplant, squash, herbs, oh my.  I had a flashback to last year when the CSA gave me all of the ingredients for one of my favorite recipes: America’s Test Kitchen’s Walkaway Ratatouille.  I knew I had to make it last night even though it feels more like a hearty Fall dish.  Luckily, I had no other plans for dinner so it was fun to meal plan on the fly.  Since we didn’t have any tomatoes yet, I stopped at the Caldwell Marketplace on the way home for some canned tomatoes, garlic and a loaf of french bread.  I still had some Wrong Direction farm salted butter in the fridge which was perfect on top of the crusty bread.  I went from a potential takeout dinner to a wonderfully local homemade dinner.  (To view my post from 2017 with a link to the recipe, click here.)

Bob has another suggestion for the beautiful carrots we received last night:

Fans of the aforementioned America’s Test Kitchen might also know about Milk Street, the next project from Christopher Kimball.  Coincidentally, yesterday’s free recipe from Milk Street was for a French Carrot Salad which would be a great way to enjoy these fresh carrots without cooking all the flavor out of them.  The recipe is only free for a limited time but essentially it’s a shredded carrot salad dressed with white balsamic, tarragon, parsley, shallot, cayenne and olive oil.  It’s simple enough to make as a weeknight side dish and since it’s not mayo-based it would hold fine for outdoor Summer dining as well.

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions.  This week we have suggestions from Shana and Alyssa.  First up, a note from Shana and her new grilled cabbage recipes:

Hope you are enjoying Week 6 of the CSA – time is flying! Maggie Konner mentioned grilling cabbage with butter at pick up yesterday and I found these delicious looking recipes! Good use for the Napa cabbage (if its still in the back of your fridge like mine is) or the new green one we just got.  Grilled Cabbage from Taste of Home  Grilled Cabbage with Spicy Lime Dressing from Kitchn

CSA member Alyssa Casazza chimed in this week with a suggestion for swiss chard which can sometimes be hard to use up:

This is our go-to recipe for Swiss chard. We use the Field Roast apple sage veggie sausage and it’s amazing.  Gemelli, Swiss Chard and Sausage from Martha Stewart

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions.  This week Bob explains how he used this week’s lettuce and basil to make a flavorful summer salad:

Basil is such a familiar ingredient but rather than making another batch of pesto, I simply wanted to add it to my lettuce to make a flavorful salad.  After washing my greens, I thinly sliced the basil and added it to my chopped romaine.  Then, I considered my toppings.  I didn’t have any traditional salad toppings (i.e. tomato, cucumber, onion, etc) but an untouched package of strawberries was staring at me when I opened the fridge.  I immediately thought a strawberry basil salad would be great on such a hot summer evening.  Luckily I also had some feta and walnuts which I crumbled on top to add some salt and crunch, respectively.  I sliced the strawberries super thin and tossed everything with a simple balsamic vinaigrette (balsamic vinegar, olive oil, dijon, salt, pepper).  It was great and by far the best part of Tuesday’s dinner!

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Image courtesy of Cedar Circle Farm

Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions.  This week we’ll be tackling… garlic scapes.  Garlic scapes may be a difficult ingredient for CSA members to use since it’s not something you regularly see at the supermarket.  Bob found himself wondering what exactly a garlic scape is so he did some quick research and found this helpful description from Cedar Circle Farm:

Garlic scapes are the flower bud of the garlic plant. The bud is removed in late June to encourage the bulbs to thicken up.

Scape newbies may also be unsure how to store them.  Cedar Circle offers these tips to get the longest life out of your garlic scapes:

Garlic scapes keep well in a plastic bag in the fridge for two to three weeks. They will keep for a few days (and will look beautiful) in a glass with a little cool water in it, on the counter in a cool room. Change water daily.

Once you’re ready to cook with them, Shana suggests trying a pesto:

I love garlic scapes and thought they’d make a great pesto with all the greens we’ve been getting.  Lo and behold, if you google it, there are several recipes already out there for it!  I am substituting the basil with the spinach and arugula since we have so much. Pesto also freezes really well.  Here are a few I found from NY Times Cooking and Epicurious.  Happy cooking!

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Bee My Honey Apiary, owned my Jeff and Michelle Sager, is located in Stillwater, New Jersey.  Their girls, (most bees in a hive are girls) have the opportunity to forage in a very natural environment between Swartswood State Forest, Stokes State Forest and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.  The area where they gather nectar and pollen is primarily forest and field.  By living here, their girls are not exposed to harmful pesticides and lawn care herbicides.

Honey bees have many benefits to both humans and the environment they live in.  They pollinate fruits, vegetables, nuts, flowers, berries and produce beeswax, pollen, and of course honey. Local honey contains small amounts of pollen from seasonal plants and can help you build up a resistance to seasonal allergies.

Bee My Honey’s honey is wildflower honey, raw, pure and delicious.  We hope you enjoy all the benefits that honey can bring you.

For the current menu of items you can order from Bee My Honey, click here:  Bee My Honey 2018 Order Form

For new members, the early weeks of the CSA can be difficult and overwhelming with the amount of greens that are in each week’s share.  Don’t fear though, before you know it we’ll have onions, tomatoes and all the other goodies that we look forward to each Summer.  For now though, we have lots of greens to use up.  Bob takes steps each Tuesday to prep for salads the rest of the week:

Whenever we get greens from the CSA, I prep them right away.  I know if they go into the fridge as-is, I’m going to be far less likely to use them when I cook dinner subsequent nights.  It may not be the most ideal way of storing them for long periods but I’ve found that they last at least 3-5 days which is perfect for us.  Depending on the type of green, I will stem and/or chop the leaves before thoroughly washing them.  I fill my salad spinner with water and let the greens soak for two minutes (longer for spinach), using my hand to swirl them around before pulling the basket out and dumping the water.  I repeat two or three times until the water that is left behind is mostly clear.  I spin them dry and then bag with pieces of paper towel.

In addition to washing and bagging the greens, Bob goes a step further to make side salads even easier:

I also prep my salad toppings in advance so that when it’s dinner time a salad is only a minute away.  I cut up tomato and cucumber and store them in plastic containers and make a big batch of dressing in a mason jar that I can easily store and shake up.  Another tasty, and simple, addition is quick pickled red onion.  When I’m prepping all of the other ingredients, I will marinade some thinly sliced red onion in a mixture of salt and vinegar.  Go heavy on both because you’ll drain the mixture and give them a quick rinse after they sit for 10-15 minutes.  The quick pickling marinade tames their strong flavor a bit and adds a nice tart kick to your salads (and sandwiches).

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

It took us awhile, but Spring has finally sprung and the CSA has returned! The Serving Suggestions articles will return again for 2018 to help you find recipes and tips to utilize all of the beautiful produce we are getting from Farmer John. If you would like to submit your own content for Serving Suggestions please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. If you’re stuck on how to use a particular ingredient, you can also try using the search bar at the top of the menu bar.

Today’s share will be heavy on herbs and lettuces. When Bob has herbs he needs to use, he turns to pesto:

Pesto can be so versatile and is a great use of leftover herbs and mild greens. My typical pesto is basil, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, red pepper flake and olive oil (here is a simple recipe from NYT Cooking but it’s so easy you can just eyeball it). The pine nuts are interchangeable with whatever you have in the pantry: sometimes I use almonds or walnuts, sometimes I just skip them if I don’t have anything similar on hand.  The basil is a mainstay for me but I often add parsley, cilantro or even baby spinach – essentially any greens in my fridge get thrown in. Aside from the obvious pasta+pesto uses, I often add some to mayo for a great sandwich spread or dollop some on top of vegetable soup.

We also received radishes in today’s share. A lot of past recipes we have shared called for either pickling or sauteing the radish but Bob was looking for something different:

When I need a quick dinner side dish, I often turn to a tomato and cucumber salad. I was looking for a radish salad recipe and came across this Summer Radish Salad recipe which is essentially what I do except substituting the tomato for radish. I’m looking forward to giving this one a try and using radishes in a different way than I have in the past.

CSA member Alyson Wasko was thinking about both pesto and radishes today when she picked up her share.  She posted this on the CSA Facebook page:

In an effort to waste as little as possible, I made a Radish-Top Herb Pesto:

• Radish tops
• Herbs (I picked oregano, but now I’m regretting not taking the garlic chives!)
• Garlic
• Nuts (I used walnuts, but I’m sure pistachios or pine nuts would also be great)
• Lemon juice
• Parmesan cheese
• Olive oil (drizzle into the food processor until it’s your preferred consistency)
• Salt & pepper

If you find the pesto to be too spicy from the radish tops, you can mellow it out with some of the spinach or kale.

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.