Fall Market Box (Week 44)

The peppers are all done— pooped out! We overplanted the little hot fellas, it seems. For this chilly of an environment we all live in, there seems to be no call for good ol’ capsaicin to warm the cockles. (Believe me, I understand!!) I’m trying to train my buds to accept it— good for you and all— but can’t seem to convince them. (Check out “apoptosis” and its significance in cancer prevention/treatment; capsaicin is yet another natural substance helping us out in this area.)

Frosted Peppers— still healthier than Frosted Mini-wheats!

So much in your boxes this week the lid is popping off! .

Turnip, purple-top Are they getting sweeter?
Celeriac Perfect addition to any soups to deepen the flavor.
Carrot Nice fall carrots! Finally! Summer carrots bite! (disgruntled farmer…)

Potatoes, Kennebec Just had them in Potato Leek soup for lunch; mmmm good! And All Blue Halloween chips or fries with some sweet potato chips or fries. Orange and Black (blue).

Pepper, specialty reds, lunch box and sweet reds/greens

Kale (Lacinato) Chop it up and sneak it in the lovely winter soups you are going to make with all of the roots!

Cabbage, green Crispy coleslaw to remember summer by.

Boc choi, red Braise and top with BBQ’d protein of your choice.

Radish, Daikon/winter Make into dipping sticks and serve with hummus.

Kohlrabi Green and purple; which is your favorite?

Beets, candy-striped Sweet stripes.

Leeks Slice lengthwise and rinse well to get all of the sand out of the inner leaves.

Parsley The last of the parsley; the deer have found it.

Sage Savory sage for Thanksgiving stuffing! Maybe you need to do a trial run on your homemade stuffing before the guests come?

Thyme Almost the ingredients to sing along with Simon and Garfunkel (don’t tell me we are “dating” ourselves with that reference!)

Recipes for your consideration

A big shredded potato pancake-like contraption with wonderful rich potato and sage flavor. Mix it up a bit by substituting or adding shredded carrots, parsnips, turnips, sweet potatoes or rutabaga for a bit of variety.

Potato Galette

6 large “dry/mealy” type potatoes
2/3 cup olive oil
12 sage leaves finely chopped
1/4 pound margarine (Earth Balance best)
Salt and pepper

Grate the potatoes coarsely. You need to work fairly fast because the potatoes will start to turn brown quite quickly and you can’t rinse or store them in water, as you will wash away the starch needed to bind the galette.

Drizzle half the olive oil into a large skillet and place over medium heat without allowing it to get hot enough to almost smoke. Once you have grated half the potato, or enough to cover the base of the pan to a depth of 3/4 inch, mix with half the chopped sage, and pat the potato down in the pan using a potato masher—this has a wide surface area and allows you to create a really even, flat pancake.

Once the galette has begun to settle in the pan, start to add half the margarine in very small pieces to the edges of the pan, letting it melt and run into the center, which will give a lovely nutty flavor to the potatoes.

Cook for 8–10 minutes, until golden brown on the underside. Gently slide the galette onto a wooden board, then place the pan over the galette and invert the board so the galette is back in the pan, cooked side up. Cook for 8–10 minutes, until the underside is golden brown and crunchy.

Remove the galette from the pan and keep warm while you ?grate and cook the remaining potato to make another galette.?Serve the galettes hot, cut into wedges.

From: Eat Your Vegetables by Arthur Potts Dawson

Oh, these are good, altho a bit of a deviation from the normal palatte.

Daikon Radish Cakes
1.5 cups grated daikon
3/4 cup water
1 cup rice flour
1 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp sugar
a dash or two of white or black pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Place grated daikon and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the radish and cooking water and stir to form a dough.

Transfer dough to a greased 8×8 pan and press down with a spatula to smooth the top (the dough should be about ½ inch high and will only fill about two-thirds of the pan).

Place the baking pan in a steamer and steam for 35-45 minutes. Remove the dough from the pan and slice into squares.

Heat about 1-2 tsp vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Transfer squares to the skillet and sauté for about 3-4 minutes per side, until they are lightly browned.

Serve immediately.

Makes 8 squares.

Coble together a steamer: Put about an inch of water at the bottom of deep, wide wok, and set the 8×8 pan inside that. Cover with lid and bring to boil.

From: vanilla-and-spice.com

For Your Reading Pleasure

Food Rules by Michael Pollan

Read a little. Laugh a little. Learn a little. Eat a little. It’s a good one; have a look.

Farm News

We are zeroing in on the last regular delivery— for Market Boxes and individual-item orders. Looks like it will be next week, November 5th. Our outside roots-n-things are going to be harvested and stored in the cooler/root cellar (to save them from the deer). The high tunnel leafy things are still creeping along in their maturity— the high tunnel is moving on Saturday (barring snow) so hoping that will speed them up a little. But given the uncertainty, we are scaling back to intermittent, maybe monthly or twice monthly market offerings for now. We’ll try for a pre-thanksgiving delivery if folks are interested in stocking up for that big shin-dig.

We are finalizing our survey— looking into an online option— so hope ya’ll can give us some critical feedback to make next year better for everyone!

Have a wonderful week, and enjoy the vegetables.

Roger and Lara