Golden Beets!

Did you get golden beets in your box this week? I did, a nice bunch of them. Even if you're not a fan of red beets, try to goldens--their flavor isn't as strong, and the color is more friendly to visual eaters. I've learned to like red beets, even love them, but the intense magenta kept me away from them for a very long time--it just didn't seem like a savory food color.

Last time I got golden beets in my box, I just fried them up in a little butter (shown above) and sprinkled them with salt and pepper--so simple. Even the picky child in my house enjoyed them--they looked enough like fried potatoes, I guess. Another visual eater!

CSA Soup

This is what we make with the vegetables we don't love from the CSA box; or maybe we love them, but we don't need so much; or maybe, we love them but our schedule doesn't allow us to eat them before they're gone. We make CSA Soup: the one above contains kohlrabi, carrots, celery, Chinese broccoli, and cauliflower. Chop them all up. Put them in a soup pot with stock and water to barely cover. Add spices to taste (salt and pepper are fine; a basic curry blend also works well). Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer until the veggies are soft. Blenderize in batches. Stir back together. Serve with nice bread. Even if you don't love the individual components of this soup, they'll generally work together as a blended soup.

Other things we did with our CSA goodies this week: cooked down the bunch of chard to make some saucy Indian takeout more substantial; added much of the Chinese broccoli and another bunch of chard to a favorite cheesy tuna-noodle casserole; had a strawberry-chai milkshake for Valentine's Day (so pink!).

Now What?

Are you sitting on the fence about signing up for a CSA box?

Or have you already signed up and feel guilty about the decaying veggies in the bottom of the produce drawer?

Want to see my method for prepping and storing the produce when I get it home?

Want to learn some new recipes for preparing the seasonal produce in the latest boxes?

Meet your CSA coordinator, Grace Peng, at Neighborhood Grinds at 5:30 PM on Thursday February 24 where I will walk you through the pickup process.

Then go to my (nearby) kitchen where I will show you some techniques to store and prepare the produce from the box. We should be done by 6:15 or earlier.

Make eating real food really easy!

Where:
Neighborhood Grinds
2315 Artesia Blvd., Unit 1 (NW corner with MacKay)
Redondo Beach, CA 90278

When:
5:30 PM (sharp!) February 24, 2011

RSVP to let me know how many to expect.

Chinese Broccoli

Ever wonder how they make that delicious Chinese broccoli dish served in dim sum tea rooms?  Make some tonight with the Chinese broccoli that came in today's box.

Bring a large pot of water to boil while you wash and trim the broccoli.  Then blanch the broccoli in the boiling water for 5 minutes, or until it is tender-crisp (the leaves are tender and the thickest part of the stem is just slightly crisp).  Drain the broccoli and put it on a serving dish.

You can drizzle oyster sauce* directly on the broccoli.  If you worry about the sodium, thin the oyster sauce with up to 50% hot water or broth before pouring it on top of the greens.

It's that easy.

* I buy oyster sauce from 99 Ranch Supermarket in Gardena.  But you can also find it at any Asian market or larger general supermarkets.  If you make the trek out to 99 Ranch, check out the fresh noodle aisle.  You can buy blocks of turnip cakes to round out your dim sum feast at home.  Slice the turnip cake into 1/2" thin slices, pan fry to brown on each side, then serve with soy sauce, vinegar and chili sauce.

Not Roundup Ready

One of the main reasons to join a CSA is to get to know your food supply. When you visit your food, you learn how it is grown and by whom. A small organic farm is fundamentally different than the highly-automated large-scale monoculture (single crop) farms where most conventionally grown food originate. TF, like many small farms, is messy. You will see weeds and volunteers (veggies from the last crop) everywhere.

Tanaka Farms (TF) holds several CSA Family days a year--usually in the Spring, Fall and Christmas. Strawberries and the green veggies star in the Spring visit. Kids pick and wash their own veggies. Then the Tanaka Farms staff grill them up so you can eat them for lunch right there. Afterwards, everyone is sent out to the strawberry patch to pick dessert.

When things wind down in the fall, TF tours focus on the pumpkins and the corn maize. Each December, TF also holds a Christmas party for CSA members where they also sell Christmas trees for another local farmer.

I took these pictures at the September 2010 Fall tour. See the broad-leaved weeds amid the corn? These are definitely not Roundup Ready corn--corn that has been genetically engineered to withstand direct spraying of the glyphosate-based herbicide sold by Monsanto as Roundup. In fact, genetically-modified crops cannot be sold as organic under current labeling laws.


Do you see the insect holes on the radish greens below? Some people are turned off from organic food because it is typical to see moderate amounts of insect damage. You can see the insect holes, but you can't see the insecticides that are sprayed on conventional produce to make them look so perfect. Common organophosphate insecticides have been linked to ADHD in children, particularly genetically susceptible children and/or children who were exposed in-utero. Other insecticides, endosulfan and dicofol, were linked with autism.


Instead of spraying herbicides, they pull the weeds by hand. Sometimes, they get behind and the vegetable beds look a bit messy. If you visit the farm and see a weed, give them a hand and pull it out.

This is Farmer Tanaka, aka Glenn Tanaka. He learned to farm from his father. His son, Kenny, works with him along with a cadre of farm staff that has worked with the family for decades. They are all family.


Glenn says that he sprays Neem tree oil instead of insecticides to repel insects. The oil doesn't kill the insects; insects simply don't like the taste (or smell) of the oil and stay away. Neem tree oil is very expensive compared to synthetic (but toxic) insecticides. Moreover, neem tree oil needs to be resprayed every two weeks in order to repel subsequent waves of insects. This is why organic food costs more than conventional food.

It's expensive to grow food that doesn't contain stuff that is invisible to the naked eye.

Get to know your farmer. Get to know your food. Bon appetit!

Adams CSA Important News for 2011

Update as of Feb 1, 2011
We met the 10-box minimum for both Feb 10 and 24. There is still time to sign up. Get your orders in by 8AM Friday Feb 4 to Neighborhood Grinds (NG) for delivery on Feb 10. Get your orders in by 8AM Friday Feb 18 for delivery on Feb 24. Download the February form and turn it in at NG.

The original entry
I buried the lead in the last post, so I am reiterating the programmatic part here.

Due to problems with the Farm2TableConnect system, both Lincoln and Adams are reverting back to the old paper ordering system through June 2011.

In reviewing his expenses last year, Farmer Tanaka realized that CSA delivery costs were putting the CSA program in the red. In 2011, he needs to strictly enforce his 10 box minimum in order to maintain delivery to a group.

The Adams/Neighborhood Grinds group had previously enjoyed weekly deliveries, but we fell short of the 10 box minimum on most weeks by a few boxes. If we can have the same number of orders per month, and move everyone to delivery on the same biweekly schedule, we should be able to meet the minimum.

If you used to order weekly small boxes, consider getting a large box on a biweekly basis. Our family of three finds that the large box lasts us about 1.5 weeks. We sometimes do supplemental shopping at the El Segundo farmers' market (Thursdays 3-7 on Main street) on our off weeks.

If we get our subscriber count up, we may be able to offer weekly deliveries in the future. So recruit your friends and tell them about the strawberries.

Adams and Lincoln will both offer biweekly deliveries, on the same Thursdays of each month. That will help keep the farm expenses to a sustainable level and reduce the carbon input of your food.

If we don't make the 10 box minimum, then we all don't get our strawberries. :-(

Don't delay, download the February order form now.

Winter Strawberries 2011

It's time to rehash a post from January 2010. Here's what I wrote then:

True winter strawberries (rather than those imported from a warmer clime) are a rare and precious commodity. They look pretty ordinary, but they are the most amazingly sweet strawberries we have ever tasted.

When we took the Tanaka Farms CSA family day tour, Glenn Tanaka told us that the first crop of strawberries in the season are his favorite. They plant strawberries in October/November. By the end of December, the first strawberries ripen. Winter berries are the smallest and sweetest strawberries the plant will ever produce.

They mature more slowly due to the cold weather and shorter days. There are only a few, not enough for commercial harvest. Glenn says he and the rest of the TF family love to walk the fields then, searching for strawberries under the leaves and eating them right away.

By January, there are a bit more--enough to share with the CSA families. Last week, we received two pints of these ambrosial berries in our CSA box. In February-March, when the days get warmer and longer, the plants go into full-scale production. They can pick the plants every few days because the berries grow and ripen so quickly. They will also be bigger, but they will never be as sweet and precious as those early season jewels.

Last Fall, Glenn Tanaka had difficulty finding strawberry starts. I would link to his blog posts from that time period about that, but his blog appears to keep only recent entries. The delay in finding strawberry starts and the October rains meant that he planted a month late this year. Shift the time scale from the 2010 story back a month.

That means the strawberry plants has started to bear fruit, but not in CSA quantities, in January. CSA subscribers will start getting strawberries in their boxes in February.

In reviewing his expenses last year, Farmer Tanaka realized that CSA delivery costs were putting him in the red. In 2011, he needs to strictly enforce his 10 box minimum in order to maintain delivery to a group.

Adams and Lincoln will both offer biweekly deliveries, on the same Thursdays of each month. That will help keep the farm expenses to a sustainable level and reduce the carbon input of your food.

Due to problems with the Farm2TableConnect system, both Lincoln and Adams are moving back to the old paper ordering system. If we don't make the 10 box minimum, then we all don't get our strawberries. :-(

Don't delay, download the February order form now.

Keep forgetting to sign up? This is your reminder!

Tanaka Farms is instituting a new system for CSA signups, which should make it much easier to plan ahead and pay for your boxes. Here's what you need to do:

1. Go to the Tanaka Farms CSA website.

2. In the lefthand column on that page, click the first link, "Farm 2 Table Connect."

3. Set up an account for yourself (userid, password, contact info).

4. Sign in and sign up for the January boxes. There will be a slider menu asking which group you're affiliated with (I ticked "Lincoln Elementary").

5. Pay online with a credit card, and your boxes will be paid and reserved.

Delivery is still in the usual place and time. If you pick up your boxes at Neighborhood Grinds, tick the "Adams MS" box in the slider menu.

Your school coordinator is still your school coordinator. She just won't be juggling forms and checks so much.

Schools need a certain minimum to use this service, so please encourage first-timers or even your neighbors to join the program--current happy customers are the best advertising.

IMPORTANT: Your January boxes MUST be paid for by DECEMBER 27.

Another bowl of CSA goodness

So here's something easy and satisfying to do with some of your CSA veggies, especially as the weather cools down...

Chop up some cabbage, carrots, and green onions, and anything else you like in soup. Put them in the crockpot with a few tablespoons of green curry paste and enough broth to cover. Crockpot all day (or overnight). When the veggies are tender, add a little coconut milk if you like (or not), and salt if you like (or not). Cube some firm tofu (or meat if you want) and fry in a pan with a Tbsp or two of olive oil. Serve soup over rice, and top with the fried tofu.

What's in the box? And how do I use it?

We picked up some new subscribers this month and the most common concerns are, "What's in the box and how will I use it?"

We prefer to be surprised. But people who are better organized than our household may look ahead at Farmer (Glenn) Tanaka's blog. He posts a weekly entry about doings on the farm and updates the list of what MIGHT be in your box this week. If you follow the blog regularly, you notice that weather and insects sometimes change his plans at the last minute.

This is what might be in your CSA box for the week of November 1, 2010:

SMall box might have: Carrots, Baby Maui Onions, Potatoes****, Broccoli or Squash or Cherry Tomatoes, Lettuce or Salad Mix, Fuji Apples***, Fuyu Persimmons*.

Large Box might additionally have: Sweet White Corn, Chinese Cabbage (Napa), Grapefruit**.

This is what might be in your CSA box for the week of October 25, 2010:

Small box might have: Green Beans, Carrots, Sweet White Corn, Romaine Lettuce, Broccoli or Spinach, Our Strawberry Jam (prepared with our strawberries by Kerry at Julian Jams in Julian, California) and Sweet, Juicy Fuji Apples***.

Large box might additionally have: Napa Chinese Cabbage, Red Beets or Roma Tomatoes or Green Zucchini and Valencia Oranges*.

This is what my family received in our large box last week:

• jar of strawberry jam
• Fuji apples
• Valencia oranges
• corn on the cob
• 4 beets with beet tops
• bok choy
• quart of green beans
• bunch of medium carrots with tops
• bunch of spinach
• head of Romaine lettuce
• head of Napa cabbage

You've got your veggies. Now what do you do?

Read my prior post, The locavore's dilemma. Don't let From Farm to Fridge to Garbage Can describe your kitchen. supercook.com is another great resource. Just type your ingredient into the green search box and the search engine will reply with recipes that use it.

That sounds very good in theory. After all, who wants to waste food? But how did our family do in the 6 days since we got our large box?

• The jam went into the pantry (we have 2 open jars in the fridge that need to be used first).
• We ate the corn, apples, and half the oranges.
• BTW, you can juice the oranges and freeze them for later use. I have a stack of ziploc pint containers of orange juice, squeezed from a gift of backyard fruit from my father in law.
• The beets were scrubbed and put in a pan with water to boil. I burned them and had to throw the out. If I had paid more attention, we would have eaten them in salads all week.
  
• The beet tops, the outer leaves of the Napa cabbage and 3 carrots went into a vat of kale(less) and white bean soup. We ladled the soup into pint and quart size containers, and put some in the freezer and some in the fridge. They make great lunches at work with a small sandwich.
• BTW, we use kale, mustard greens, beet and turnip tops and Swiss chard interchangeably in our house. They are all from the brassica family. If a recipe calls for one thing, and we have another member of the brassica family in the box, we use that instead.
  
• The inner Napa cabbage leaves will be cooked this upcoming weekend into wontons and potstickers (some eaten fresh, some put up in the freezer for quick weekday dinners).
• BTW, as you wrap the wontons or potstickers, put them on a metal backing sheet. Put them in the freezer when you fill up a sheet. By the time you have the next batch on a full sheet, the first batch will be firm enough to store in a ziploc bag without turning into a single block of ice.
  
• We haven't cooked the bok choy yet, but I will be making a stir-fry of bok choy and oyster mushrooms with them.
  
• My husband will stir-fry the green beans with almond slivers. He might reserve some beans to blanche and use for salad Nicoise.
• My husband will stir-fry the spinach with garlic.
• We've used about half the Romaine for salads and sandwiches so far.
  

It looks like we have 3 more stir-fry suppers in the next week and we will easily have used our veggies all up before our next biweekly big box.

BTW, we use our rice cooker with a timer a lot. If you set the rice cooker so that the rice finishes when you get home, and you pre-wash and chop your veggies on the weekend, dinner will be ready 10-15 minutes after you walk in the door.

When I drop my daughter off for choir practice on Saturday morning, I need to swing by 99 Ranch (the mother of all Asian supermarkets) to buy wonton and potsticker skins; pork shoulder and/or shrimp, ginger, and green onions for the filling; fried tofu cubes to throw into the stir-fry and baked tofu for snacking. We stock dried Shitake mushrooms and canned Oyster mushrooms as pantry staples.

Anyone want a recipe for a salad based on the tofu strips that look like noodles?

Click on the links for recipes. If I mentioned a recipe w/o a link, and you want me to post the recipe, leave a comment.

Also leave a comment if you are interested in a CSA field trip to local ethnic markets. 99 Ranch, Marukai and Market World (Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean) supermarkets, can be bewildering to the uninitiated. But they are great local food stores for vegetarians and flexatarians. Marukai promises that all of their meat is antibiotic-free, and their prices are much lower than Whole Foods.

Lastly, if you would like to learn how to wrap wontons and potstickers this weekend, leave a comment.