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Lunch Menu – Week of August 22, 2017

 

Duck leg confit on sweet corn grits with squash,
cherry tomatoes and romesco

Antipasti

chad fell’s bread & olives   5

emily’s farm fresh pickle plate    4

italian vegetable soup, served with bread  5

caramelized onion, potato, and basil soup, served with bread   5

mixed greens with balsamic    6.5

GTF salad – tomatoes, hazelnuts, blue cheese crumbles, and a balsamic vinaigrette 9.5

 

Pizze Rosse

garlic and basil    13

bacon and white onion    13

zukes, corn, scallions  13

 

  

Pizze Bianche

kalamata and goat cheese  13

grilled peppers, leek, cherry tomato  13

 

add an egg or anchovies   1

Green lentils with swiss chard, a poached egg, basil & nut pesto and
balsamic reduction

Secondi

pork ragu over orrechiette with grilled peppers and herbed ricotta   14

green lentils with swiss chard, a poached egg, basil & nut pesto and balsamic reduction  13

duck leg confit on sweet corn grits with squash, cherry tomatoes and romesco   14

GTF chicken ravioli with roasted corn, carrots and chicken cream sauce 14

GTF chicken ravioli with roasted corn, carrots and chicken cream sauce

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CSA 2017 – Week 11: The Eclipse Box

CSA Newsletter – Week 11

The Eclipse Box

There isn’t much of anything that can stop farmers from farming in the dead of August, but this celestial event sure did it. Just as the moon started peaking over the sun, we all dropped our hoes and harvest totes, grabbed some breakfast and eclipse shades, loaded into a couple flatbeds, and went out into our most expansive field to watch day turn to night and back. As I sat on the truck munching on some cantaloupe, I was overcome with a deep sense of gratitude. Gratitude for the beautiful fields of produce being showered by irrigation, for the darkening purple mountains surrounding this valley, for the hardworking fellow farmers sitting on the back of the truck with me, and for the amazing fact that the sun and the moon happen to look like they’re the same size when viewed from our planet.

This is the time of year when we are all working 60 hours a week or more; the only thing on the menu is farming with a small serving of sleep on the side. We are all exhausted and winter is still far off on the horizon, but it’s moments of gratitude that keep us going. Yes, we’re tired. Yes, it’s hot out. And yes, we still love what we do. We get to spend our days in the gorgeous Willamette Valley, growing, eating, and sharing good food together. Maybe it’s not for everyone, but I surely can’t think of anything else I’d rather do.

Though you may not be working on a farm, I’m sure life still tries its hardest to exhaust you. Hopefully this box can provide you with something to be grateful for, something to make you feel—even for just a minute—like you have everything you need in this world. We’ve all got clean drinking water, access to some of the finest fresh produce in the world, and lovely people to eat it with. This week we tried to make your box as cosmic as can be! You’ve got a melon as white as the moon, potatoes that are as purple as the mountains during the eclipse, and otherworldly Barbarella eggplant, streaked with white and purple. Enjoy.

-Laura Bennett, markets@gatheringtogetherfarm.com

Table of Box Contents

  • Honey Orange Melon—Before working for GTF, I had never seen or tasted a melon like this one. It looks like a white alien egg, is actually a honeydew type melon, but is as orange and sweet as a cantaloupe inside. They are simply to die for, slice and enjoy!
  • Sweet Italian Pepper—Italian peppers often are even sweeter than bell peppers, great fresh or in stir-fries.
  • Sweet Bell Pepper—I’ve been eating our peppers raw like apples, they’re just as sweet.
  • Purple Majesty Potatoes— These potatoes are purple outside and inside, with a creamy flesh similar to Nicola yellow.
  • Barbarella Eggplant—This bodaciously bulbous eggplant remains sweet at all times, without as much has a whisper of bitterness. It was developed from an heirloom variety native to Sicily, and is the perfect variety to make you fall in love with eggplant.
  • White Sweet Corn
  • Jalapeno—The hotter it gets outside, the hotter the jalapenos get!
  • Bunched Carrots
  • Sweet Onions—The high sugar content makes these perfect for caramelizing in a sauté.
  • Cucumber
  • Summer Squash
  • Lettuce
  • Tomatoes

Recipes

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Pepper, Corn & Black Bean Quesadillas


Author Adapted from The CSA Cookbook by Linda Ly

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 sweet onion, minced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 Barbarella eggplant, minced (minced eggplant is just like minced mushrooms, it'll act as a meat substitute)
  • 2 ears corn, kernels cut off the cob
  • 1/2 jalapeno, minced
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 2 cups cooked black beans
  • butter for greasing
  • 4 10-inch flour tortillas
  • 2-3 cups shredded cheese of your choice
  • sour cream for garnish
  • Pico de Gallo for garnish (rough chop some tomatoes, onion, and cilantro, add salt and lemon juice and you're good to go!)

Instructions

  1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. 

  2. Add the oil, onions and garlic and cook until tender and fragrant, 2-3 minutes. 

  3. Stir in the eggplant, jalapeno, sweet peppers, salt, and pepper, and cook until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. 

  4. Add the beans and corn and heat through for 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat.

  5. Heat another large skillet over medium heat. Grease the surface with butter, and place a tortilla in the skillet. 

  6. Layer the cheese (a heaping ¼ cup, or more if you’d like) and vegetables (a heaping cup) over half of the tortilla, then top with more cheese. Fold the tortilla in half, press down lightly with a spatula, and toast for about 2 minutes per side until the tortilla is golden brown and the cheese is melted. 

  7. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and fillings. (If you can’t load up the tortilla that fast, you can assemble it on a plate before transferring it to the hot skillet.) 

  8. To serve, slice each quesadilla into halves or quarters and add sour cream and pico de gallo on top.

 

Print

Zucchini & Corn Fritters

When you’re frying the fritters, be sure not to add too many at once to the oil or it will lower the temperature and make the fritters soggy. Fry them in batches and let them sit in a warm oven on a baking sheet lines with paper towels until all are cooked—makes about 24 fritters

Author Adapted from Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden

Ingredients

  • 1 tsp fast-acting yeast
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup fine cornmeal
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 cup whole milk or low-fat yogurt
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 ears sweet corn, kernels cut off the cob
  • 2 cups grated zucchini & carrots
  • 1/2 jalapeno, minced
  • 1/4 cup sweet onion, minced
  • 1/2 cup parmigiana cheese
  • vegetable oil for deep frying

Instructions

  1. Whisk together the yeast, flour, cornmeal, 1 ½ tsp salt, and many twists of black pepper in a large bowl. Whisk in the yogurt and water to make a mostly smooth batter (a few lumps are okay; add more water if the dry ingredients aren’t fully moistened).

  2. Cover the bowl and keep in a warm place for at least 1 hour and up to overnight (if for more than 2 hours, put it in the refrigerator, and then let it warm at room temp for about 30 min before continuing).

  3. When the batter is bubbling and puffed up a bit, slice off the corn kernels, and add them to the batter. Then, with the back of a table knife, scrape the milky juice from the cobs into the batter too. Gently fold in the zucchini, carrot, jalapeno, onions, and parmigiana.

  4. Arrange a double layer of paper towels on a tray. Pour at least 2 inches of oil into a large pan (with tall sides, so that the oil can’t bubble over when you add the batter). Slowly bring the oil up to 375 degrees F on a thermometer. (Or fry a small piece of bread: When it takes 60 seconds to get nicely crisp and brown, but not burnt, your oil is just about right.)

  5. Using two tablespoons, scoop up some batter and carefully lower it into the oil. Continue until you have added enough fritters to fill the pan but not crowd it. Cook the fritters, turning with your spoon in order for all sides to get nicely browned. When puffy and a rich brown, scoop them out with a slotted spoon and drain on the paper towels. Season lightly with salt.

  6. Serve the fritters warm (not piping hot), with butter, if desired. Or top with a fried egg for breakfast! Or top with pico de gallo!

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Dinner Menu: August 17-19, 2017

Antipasti

chad fell’s bread & marinated olives  5

roasted bone marrow, gremolata, crostini  7

baked local chevre, roasted onions, garlic, pears and crostini  9

mixed greens, balsamic vinaigrette  6.5

GTF salad, sweet corn,  green beans, cucumber, tomato, toasted hazelnuts, buttermilk dill dressing  9.5

chilled cucumber soup, pickled peppers  6

 

 Pizze Rosse

garlic and basil  13

bacon &bleu cheese 13 anaheim pepper &roasted  onion   13

 

Pizze Bianche

kalamata and chard   13

zukes, cherry tomato and goat cheese  13

 

add an egg or anchovies 1

Secondi

Potato Gnocchi with onion puree, mushroom, tomato, chard, corn nage, onion blossom    19

Chinook Salmon with quinoa, tomato, corn, zucchini, napa cabbage, meyer lemon buerre blanc   22

Grilled Flank Steak with buttermilk mashed potato, green bean, carrot, coriander chimichurri     23

Duck Breast with roasted potato, leek, mushroom, corn, blueberry gastrique   22

Braised Pork Ragu with polenta, eggplant, chard, jimmy nardello relish    20

 

To Finish

Peach Crisp with home-made ginger ice cream   8

Green Tea Tapioca with toasted pecans and charentais   8

Chocolate Baby Bundt Cake with strawberry sauce   8

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CSA 2017 – Week 10: Delicious Diversity

CSA Newsletter – Week 10

Delicious Diversity

I love the look on people’s faces when they see a watermelon for the first time that defies the red color they’ve come to know and love. What is this alien thing?! Along with puzzled looks I get many questions at the farmers’ market. “Are these genetically modified?” “What did they do to make them that color?” “Do the other colors even taste any good?” The truth is, the genetic diversity for nearly every color of melon in the rainbow is always present in each watermelon seed. Even as I type this, I’m looking at a poster of eggplant varieties up in the GTF office, vibrant with orange, white, red, pink, green, and of course purple eggplants of all shapes and sizes. At some point in time, red became the most popular variety of watermelon, purple became the most popular eggplant, and red became the most popular tomato. So no, these melons are not genetically modified; we didn’t do anything except breed for different colors over hundreds of years, and yes, they all taste delicious.

The most common question I get at market, however, is “how do I know if a melon is ripe?” followed by a series of deeply analytical melon tapping, knocking, sniffing, and probing. We are all used to needing to riffle through melons at the supermarket, hoping not to receive the highly disappointing experience of some unsweet, pithy unripe melon. We need to do this at supermarkets because all the watermelons are harvested in giant sweeps, specifically in an unripe state so that they can travel across vast distances. So it is a rare gem that you can actually find a ripe melon amidst the mounds of unripe melons. All of our melons are harvested by hand the day before they get to you. We pick through our fields daily and only harvest the ripe ones. We guarantee that all our melons are perfectly ripe, so despite how fun it is to tap a melon and listen for it to sing back to you, there is no need when you’re buying local. Each variety of melon has a different trick to know when it’s ripe and our melon master, Joelene, has the pulse on each variety and each field. While there’s no easy answer to tell when a melon is ripe, all you need to do is crack open your watermelon, slice, and enjoy.

–Laura Bennett, markets@gatheringtogetherfarm.com

Table of Box Contents

  • Anaheim Pepper—These peppers can pack quite a punch, and this year they seem hotter than ever. They’re not as spicy as a jalapeno, but definitely spicier than the poblanos from last week.
    • Sweet Bell Pepper—I’ve been eating our peppers raw like apples, they’re just as sweet.
    • Fresh Cipollini Onions—High sugar content makes them perfect caramelizers.
    • Mountain Rose Potatoes
    • Red Beets—perfect shredded raw in salads or slaws; green are just like spinach and can be added into any salad or saute.
    • Watermelon—You’ll either be receiving a yellow or orange fleshed melon this week, enjoy!
    • Cilantro—Add a fresh burst to any dish you have going with some cilantro leaves on top. Make into a pesto if you have trouble using it up.
    • Purple Haze Carrots—Purple carrots are often less sweet than orange so try roasting them to bring out their full sweetness; try adding the greens into a stock or bone broth for an amazing flavor.
    • Red Torpedo Onion—red onions have a wonderful acidity making them perfect for enjoying raw; these torpedos are especially mild in their raw state.
    • Sweet Onion—The high sugar content makes these perfect for caramelizing in a sauté.
    • Pickling Cucumbers
    • Broccoli
    • Summer Squash
    • Lettuce
    • Tomatoes

Recipes

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Anaheim Tacos with Pico de Gallo


Author Adapted from Thug Kitchen

Ingredients

Anaheim Filling

  • 1 Anaheim Pepper, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 1 Sweet Pepper, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 1/4 cup vegetable broth
  • 1 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 1/2 tsp tamari or soy sauce
  • 1 1/2 tbsp hot sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1/4 tsp cumin
  • pinch salt more to taste
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 Sweet Onion, chopped
  • corn tortillas (3-4 per person)

Lime and Cilantro Slaw

  • 3 Purple Carrots, sliced into matchsticks or grated
  • 2 tbsp lime juice
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • pinch salt
  • 1/3 bunch Cilantro
  • 1 Beet, sliced into matchsticks or grated
  • Beet Greens, sliced thinly

Quick Pico de Gallo

  • 2 Tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • 2 Cipollini Onions, sliced thinly
  • 1/2 bunch Cilantro, sliced thinly
  • salt, pepper, and lime juice to taste

Instructions

  1. Crank your oven to 400 degrees F. Grab a rimmed baking sheet.

  2. Chop your onion into thin slices, and chop the Anaheim and sweet pepper into ½ inch slices; set both aside.

  3. In a saucepan, warm the broth, lime juice, tamari, hot sauce, and garlic over medium heat. Add the onion and simmer for about 1-2 minutes, then add your peppers in and sauté about 3-5 minutes.

  4. Toss the spices, salt, and olive oil together in a large bowl. 

  5. Add the pepper mixture in and stir around until thoroughly mixed. 

  6. Dump it on a baking sheet and bake until browned, stirring half-way, about 20 minutes.

  7. To make the tacos, warm the tortillas in the oven or microwave for a hot minute or heat each side gently in a cast iron pan, then pile them high with the pepper filling, slices of avocado, some of the slaw, and plenty pico de gallo.

 

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Brined Pickles

You’ve all received enough pickling cukes this week for a quart jar of pickles, a perfect quantity for the beginning fermenter. Feel free to slice your cukes up in a salad, but if you feel like picklin’, here goes!

Author Adapted from Ball Canning Book

Ingredients

  • Enough Pickling Cukes to fill a mason jar (about what you have)
  • 1/3 bunch fresh dill (sorry it's not in your box, but it is available at market and at the Farmstand!)
  • 1/89 cup pickling spices, or better yet, your own spice concoction
  • 1/4 cup salt
  • 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 5 1/3 cups water
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • Anything else you'd like to throw in, such as turmeric, honey, sweet or hot peppers, etc.

Instructions

  1. Wash and drain cucumbers. Place half the pickling spices and one layer of dill in a clean pickling container. 

  2. Add cucumbers to within 4 inches of top. 

  3. Combine salt, vinegar and water in a pot; lade over cucumbers.

  4.  Place a layer of dill and remaining pickling spices over the top. Add garlic, if desired. Weight cucumbers under brine.

  5. Store container in a cool place. Let cucumbers ferment until well flavored with dill and clear throughout. Pickles should be ready to can (or in the case of this small batch, to be eaten!) in about 2 to 3 weeks.

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Lunch Menu: Week of August 15, 2017

Fresh orrechiette with summer squash, cherry tomatoes, herbed ricotta and hazelnuts

Antipasti

chad fell’s bread & olives   5

emily’s farm fresh pickle plate    4

chilled corn soup, served with bread   5

blush potato and leek soup, served with bread   5

mixed greens with balsamic    6.5

goat cheese and roasted pepper crostini   4

GTF salad – tomatoes, caramelized shallots, croutons, and a lemon-cherry tomato vinaigrette 9.5

 

 

Pizze Rosse

garlic and basil    13

bacon and bleu cheese    13

anaheim peppers, roasted onions  13

 

 

  

Pizze Bianche

kalamata and chard  13

zukes, cherry tomato, goat cheese  13

 

add an egg or anchovies   1

 

Secondi

fresh orrechiette with summer squash, cherry tomatoes, herbed ricotta and hazelnuts   13

shrimp-n-grits with sweet corn, roasted shishito peppers, garlic and tomatoes   14

grilled quails on german potato salad with green beans   12

GTF burger on a brioche bun with bacon, pickle, tomato, mustard aioli,* and a mixed salad  12