June 17th Market & CSA Pick-up #5

I can’t believe this is our 5th CSA pick-up! I hope you have all enjoyed your food! I have certainly enjoyed planning my family menu around what will be in your bag! Providing my family with clean, healthy, unprocessed food is so important to mine and Matt’s health values. It is so important to us that once we had our child, Matt decided to devote himself to growing full time to ensure our son gets the highest quality ingredients.

Matt works from dawn to dusk during the growing season. Most nights, I make him a plate that he heats up and eats when it is dark. I work full-time as a principal at a local elementary school. Our son is in to soccer and piano so I am the one that runs him to all he enjoys. On Saturdays, I am up at 4:00 in the morning helping Matt at market. It is about a 10 hour day by the time we are done. We are a busy family, but as busy as we are, I still cook clean, healthy dinners at home every night because it is what my family values. I know many of you are working the hours that I work and I am hoping that this blog will help you make some home cooked dinners for your families that are easy to manage.

Our garlic is now at the curing stage. We will cure it in our barn for a few weeks and then bring them back out to market and give to our CSA customers.

Meet Stephen, he is our farm intern who is learning from Matt. He is farming on his own and is helping Matt on the farm, learning from him. In the above picture, he is helping pull our garlic to take to the barn to cure. He is a great help and Matt is enjoying working with someone who is eager to learn sustainable farming practices.

CSA members will find these things in their bags this week: Kennebec Potatoes, Kale, Field Greens, Squash, Fennel, Onions, Bok Choy.

Here is my menu for the week. It will help you eat EVERYTHING in your bag!

Monday: Cheese Burgers on the Grill and French Fries. Start the fries first. Preheat the oven to 425. Here is my secret, cut them up in to sticks by chopping off the top and bottom and slice in to fries. Here is the secret, let them soak in water for 30 minutes, this step removes excess starch from the potatoes and allows them to crisp up in the oven. After 30 minutes, pull them out of the water and dry them off. Toss them on a bowl of olive oil, salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic to taste. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil and cooking spray. Cook for 30 minutes and start the cheese burgers.

I do my cheese burgers a little different. In a big bowl, I drop in about 3 pounds of hamburger meat (I make extras for leftovers the next night). I take two pieces of sandwich bread and remove the crust and cut it in to 1/4 inch pieces and toss it in the bowl along with a splash of low fat milk, salt and pepper to taste, minced garlic, 1 1/2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons of ketchup, and I chop up one of the onions in your bag and add it. I form them in to patties. Put them on the grill while the fries are cooking.

Pull it all together by putting the burgers on a bun, use your field greens and cut another onion up to put on top of your burgers. It is total YUM and one of our son’s favorites. The boy loves a great burger. Take the leftover burgers (without the bun) and store them in your fridge for tomorrow night.

Tuesday: Leftover Burgers and Kale Chips. Sometimes, you need to make life easy! The burgers are done, so you just need to heat them up for tonight! Instead of fries, kale chips are a must! Here is a quick YouTube recipe. The trick is to make sure they are dry. Our kale is nice and clean, so you don’t have to clean it when you get home.

If you want a recipe for this click here. Kale chips are a real treat and they taste like chips! They will go great with your burgers!

Wednesday: Spring Salad with Fennel and Orange with Grilled Chicken. This salad recipe is one of my very favorites! This dinner will take 30 minutes from start to finish. Make your salad while the grill is preheating. Serve the salad aside grilled chicken and you are done!

Thursday: Garlicky Shrimp Stir-Fry with Shitakes and Bok Choy. My favorite food blogger is Gina from Skinnytaste. I have all of her cookbooks and everything I make from her blog is outstanding.

garlicky-shrimp-stir-fry-with-shiitakes-and-bok-choy-8

Picture courtesy of Skinnytaste

This recipe is a healthy 30 minute wonder that your family will love! I serve it on top of brown rice. Here is my secret to great rice. Heat a can of chicken broth to a boil and add a cup of uncooked brown rice. Let simmer for about 40 minutes while you are prepping your stir fry and it is amazing! If your pick-up is at market, I highly suggest you get your mushrooms from Steve Haas of HaaShrooms. He is at market and forages the freshest mushrooms each week to bring to the South of the James Farmer’s Market. He is just a few booths down from us.

Friday: Pork Chops with Mushrooms and Shallats and Squash. As you know, Matt and I are very in to food that is grown sustainably and in humane ways. Dennis from Black Boar Farm does just this. We get our pork from him at market each week. My favorite pork chop recipe is from SkinnyTaste.

Picture courtesy of SkinnyTast

I love pork chops served alongside squash. In a pan, I heat up about a tablespoon of olive oil and take 2 medium squash and slice them in circles about 1/4 inch thick. I sauté it until soft (10 to 15 minutes). I then put it on plates and dress them with fresh chopped parsley, mint, and thyme. I add salt and pepper to taste. This easy recipe is healthy and tastes like a million bucks!

So what is coming to market? We look forward to seeing you at the South of the James Farmer’s Market from 8-12 this Saturday!