Distribution - November 8, 2009

Hey winter, bring it on! We're ready....

Our first share distribution of the season features some last items plucked before the frosts, and a few that have grown sweeter with the cold. Here's what we've got:

• pawpaws from Lee Reich's "Farmden"
  
• scallions from Huguenot Street Farm
  
• green peppers from Huguenot Street Farm
  
• cabbages from Huguenot Street Farm
  
• peppermint from the wintergreens garden
  
• broccoli (huge heads!) from Madura Farm
  
• brussel sprouts from Madura Farm

Just to be cheezy about things, everything in our first distribution is GREEN!

I was so excited about being able to make pawpaws available for wintergreens, and Lee blew my mind by talking about the possibility of providing hardy kiwis next year. I tasted one, and they're really really good. But, in the here, now and today, pawpaws are an amazing thing! We'll crack a couple open at the market so that you can taste them. If you don't like them, you should make a point of giving these rare babes to someone who might be interested. And you should plant the seeds! Pawpaws shouldn't be rare, and we can start a pp trend right here in Beacon. Lee suggested reading his pp chapter in Uncommon Fruits before planting them. If you decide to do that, put the seeds in a baggie in the refrigerator with a moist paper towel (and ideally some moss) until you're ready to plant. Sorry to have given you a reading assignment and a project, but not too sorry... Oh! I'm supposed to remind you not to eat the skin or the seeds. Just that luscious, custard flesh. Farmer Ron from Huguenot Street swears by frozen pawpaw: like sorbet.
The scallions and peppers are two other things brought in just before the killing cold. We don't have a ton of these, but enough for fajitas or a stir fry.

Cabbages taste perfect in fall. I'll post a lovely Harvest Soup recipe made with cabbage and all the other veggies available now, but really all I ever want to do with my cabbages are eat them boiled, or make colcanon. Oh yes, and stinky kraut.

Mint! Make tea with fresh leaves, chop them up and add them to salads, cook them into beans to keep your belly settled, or make really tasty Indian Dal. If you're already busy making fried green tomatoes with your garden rescues, try them this time with mint chutney.

Broccoli. You're good here, right? Everyone feels stronger and smarter after eating broccoli, and the cold weather makes it go down even sweeter.Ridiculously attractive brussel batons. For many years I'd only had slimy, overcooked brussel sprouts, and they were the only vegetable I didn't like. After having them raw and cooked well, they've become one of my favorite things about fall. These are a bit spicy, very crispy. Again, you'll just want to show off your Popeye muscles after you eat them. If you don't know what to do with them them, consider roasting them, caramelizing them, or chopping them and making them lemony.

Happy first distribution! Eleven to go...

Extending the Season

People tend to think of covering tender plants in the spring, when they are first put out. But row covers, wrap, and cloches work well at this time of year, too. We had our first heavy frost last night, and some of my covered herbs are looking unscathed this morning. (That's peppermint in the picture.)

Once garden herbs like chives have had a tiny taste of winter, you can put a shovel full into a pot, and they'll grow vigorously on a sunny windowsill indoors, thinking its spring again.

Then you can not only enjoy this chive oil on top of celeriac soup, you can chop fresh chives onto your soups, salads, and sandwiches year round.

Seed Arts

The [vital] Hudson Valley Seed Library is having an art opening in Rosendale November 14th to show off the artist-designed seed packs for the coming season.

It's a win win win: Hudson Valley farmers/seed savers, Hudson Valley artists, and Hudson Valley chefs all in one room for one evening.

What the World Eats (and eats and eats)

© Peter Menzel from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

Thanks to Tea and Food for reminding me about this amazing book, and providing a link to some of the fascinating pictures of families in different countries with all their food for one week laid out around them. I'd be terrified to do this exercise!

Revolution Bread

"It will be a great day for America, incidentally, when we begin to eat bread again, instead of the blasphemous and tasteless foam rubber that we have substituted for it."
—James Baldwin in The Fire Next Time, 1962

A James Baldwin book wasn't a place I expected to find a quote about the U.S.'s wrecked food systems, but there it is, right in the middle of race and religion and violence and sex. Baldwin, of course, was also referring to our wider lack of basic sustenance, beyond food, specifically in Harlem in the Fifties and Sixties. Harlem still has a shortage of nutritious food.

It is interesting for me to think about how long we've been losing our connection to real food. On some podcast I listened to lately, Michael Pollan was talking about the commercialization of prepared food in the Fifties. When cake mix was first marketed, it didn't go over well because people felt that just adding water was cheating. Cake mixes continued to be sold, of course, but producers backed up a step, and made it so that a cook has to break an egg to use the mix, and therefore feel like they're doing some food preparation. Now that's better! We've made an effort!

I also heard about a diet recently where the guidelines were simple: eat [and drink] nothing out of a box, bottle, or package. Prepare your own food and drink.

Revolutionary idea.

Easy Duck-Free Pâté

If you're having company, or even if you want to treat yourself to a special cracker spread for your Sunday night TV-a-thon, this easy recipe is rich and tasty. While typing up this recipe, I had a flashback of my go-to comfort food from college: stuffed mushrooms. Who doesn't adore appetizers?

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces water
  
• 12 ounces sliced mushrooms of your choice
  
• 1/2 medium onion, sliced
  
• 2 clove garlic, crushed
  
• 4 ounces firm tofu, mashed
  
• 2 ounces chopped walnuts
  
• salt and black pepper to taste

*I like a little something green in here, too, like a chunk of bell pepper or a few fresh green beans.

Heat the water in a frying pan, then cook mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Simmer five minutes or until soft. Transfer the vegetables and tofu to a food processor or blender and process until smooth Add walnuts, salt and pepper and blend for another five minutes.

Transfer to a serving dish and chill for at least two hours before serving. Serve with crackers, crudites, or on slices of cucumber.