Fall CSA #28

Good evening CSA members

Unfortunately, i have yet to be connected to a reasonable source for writing a newsletter.
I will do my best and hopefully by next week things will be up and running.  Last weeks mission was garlic planting which explains the garlic slivers you received. Garlic bulbs often contain smaller cloves not very good for planting so we use them for garlic powder or cooking.  We did get most of our garlic planted last week.
This week's focus was chickens.  As we speak they are housed in a move-able chicken coop that moves along the property but soon the temperatures will drop and they will need more comfort and warmth.  So cleaning and repairing the chicken coop was on the agenda this week. I'm guessing tomorrow they will be transferred to their fresh winter home.  More work than one would realize goes into many jobs and raising chicken for eggs is certainly one of them. Chickens can easily be raised in a barn where they never see the light or a mud pit if you give them a small enclosure.  It's important to us for our hens to have some fresh pasture which is why we keep them moving.  However during the winter months keeping them comfortably warm becomes a priority and they are moved to a permanent coop and yard.  We do plan on building them a winter hoop play-yard, for those brutal days when they just can't go out- hopefully next season it will be done.
We have been quite lucky with the weather this Fall and crops outdoors are still doing quite well.  All crops outdoors right now could handle some frost except for a few, some will improve with a few frosts and so for them we wait before harvesting.  

In your baskets this week:
1 bag of Chez Nous Salad Mix
1 bag of Tatsoi
1 bag of Collards
1 bag of beets
1 bunch of celery
1 onion pepper mix

juicing upgrade also got Kale, Sunflower greens and Stevia

Stevia is a sweetner and a little goes a long way! Here's a link showing you how to dry and use your plant but you can also use it fresh in juices but remember a little is all you need.
http://wholelifestylenutrition.com/videos/how-to-make-your-own-pure-stevia-liquid-stevia-part-2/



This week you got a gorgeous bunch of collard greens.  They make beautiful wraps and can be lightly steamed and used as wraps we make these delicious rolls. http://www.cheznousfarms.com/2012/09/csa-19-and-stuffed-greens-recipe.html  but they can be used sauteed like anything green which sometimes is the easy route!

Also this week is Tatsoi, my favorite green! It's so hardy and i actually love it more than spinach! It's delicious in pasta dishes and as a substitute for spinach.

This weeks celery stalks are larger than previous and a little less bitter. Delicious anywhere you would use celery.  If ever you find the celery too strong like stronger greens you can boil them for a minute or two to downgrade the taste a bit.  We like the obvious celery taste it adds to dishes.

I am certain that i will be able to add some photos to this post very very soon, so check again if you would like a more complete newsletter. Sorry again for the inconvenience.

Shirley and Rick
Chez Nous Farms

Fall Csa #27

Hello everyone

It's  been a crazy week and a few days ago our computer crashed.  I'm writing on the iPad and not enjoying it very much. I have a lot to tell but no patience to use this. Hopefully we get things running again soon.In the meantime let me tell you about your baskets this week.

1bag of broccoli
1bag of Hakurei turnip
1bag of Bok Choy
1bag of peppers all mild
1 bag of garlic slivers from new planting stock that are too small to plant
1 container of pickled  pepperoncini peppers

Juicers also got kale, carrots and celery leaves

Pepperoncini peppers are just a little spicy...and a little bitter. They are a common ing in many beef dishes I found many recipes on Pinterest and yummy the Mississippi roast or italian roast are similar to a recipe  I made and enjoyed.

Hopefully I can update this post soon!

Shirley

Fall CSA #26

October 10th 2014

Good evening everyone

For as long as I can remember, Fall has been my favorite season, not only because it was my birthday, but because the smells, colors and temperature were so comforting.  I was reminded by something i read today, just how wonderful Thanksgiving is, a time to be thankful and enjoy each other without the need or stress to buy gifts.  This Thanksgiving, I am especially grateful for how learning to live with less has given me so much more.  Moving in to a smaller house, doing away of excess material possessions  and disconnecting from that part of society that tells us we need this and that to be happy.  It wasn't a conscious decision but one we needed to make to accommodate changes we made in our lives to make our dream happen and it ended up becoming a crucial part to our finding happiness and freedom.  This living with less, a minimalist lifestyle has opened our eyes to what is necessary to be happy so even as we move forward and have the liberty to spend and accumulate again it's not something i want to do instead i would like to live with even less and continue to pursue those things that truly bring us joy our family, our new career choice, each other, nature and good food.

This Thanksgiving I turn 40 and i am in such a peaceful place compared to my 20's and early 30's when i was supposedly "living the life" I guess one of the virtues of getting older has been finding my perfect spot!  My wish for you this Thanksgiving is to clear a little space in your lives from all the noise, and enjoy those things that truly bring you joy and meaning and hopefully a good meal that was passionately grown by our small organic farm.

In your basket this week:

1 bag of Chez Nous Salad Mix
1 bag of Carrots
1 Bag of Hakurei Turnips (greens also edible)
1 Leek
1 Bag of Flower Tops
1 Bag of Mustard Greens
 Herbs: Sage, Thyme and Rosemary

Juicing upgrade: Broccoli Greens, Swiss Shard and Bok Choy

Carrots this week and lots more to come!

Mustard Greens like many greens such as Arugula, Cress even celery leaves taste quite hot or spicy or bitter when tasted straight out of the bag.  Howver, once you add them to a soup, salad or curry etc... really mellow out.  With Mustard greens, if you find them too spicy, you can blanch them before adding to a dish or eating to mellow them out.  What's really neat about these spicier greens is you can turn them into a bland green item in your dish or have them more flavorful if you wish by cooking them less. I usually blanch them if i am adding them to a dish that my kids will eat-like lasagna. The stalks and flowers are also edible. 

For our new members: the turnips you have received are summer turnips called Hakurei Turnips and they cook up very fast, the greens are also edible- they are also delicious eaten raw with dip, eggs or in a salad.  This week I cooked them with bok choy in a recipe that I shared last week  called Stir Fried Bok Choy with Ginger and Soy. It's such a quick simple sauce, I also used it to make a noodle dish with beef, turnip/greens and broccoli topped with toasted sesame seeds.  Many of the recipes in that article called  for Peanut oil something i had never used before-turns out i love it and from what i have read it's healthy too! I bought the Spectrum Unrefined Peanut Oil from Commisso's. An off the wall recipe I liked last year was the buffalo turnip - I did however use homemade hot sauce.: http://www.kilpatrickfamilyfarm.com/2013/06/hannahs-buffalo-style-hakurei-turnips-3/

Harvesting Flower Sprout and Brussels Sprout Tops

Cutting the tops off the plants pushes the sprouts out faster. We love these tops best steamed with butter- they are mild and have a Brussels Sprouts taste.

A awesome gift I got from my dad a spool of electrical wire to bring more power out to the farm- it will give me a little extra piece of mind next summer as this year things were shorting out due to an increased power demand on the farm. I also got a new pair of rubber boots = heaven!  Boy has my taste changed!

Fall CSA #25

Good evening everybody!

And the Fall CSA begins! We would like to welcome some new members and of course thank those of you who have been around for quite a while! To be honest, I wish we could buy everything CSA style bread,meat, cheese, fruit! Last year, we started ordering in bottled, whole, unhomogenized milk (you know the stuff with the nice cream on top!) I guess it's the closest were going to get to raw milk which is what i would really like, anyway, knowing my milk is waiting for me every week is awesome! I guess I don't really like shopping much and hate for things that i depend on not being there.

So today, we embark this journey of Chez Nous Farms 2014 Fall baskets, we have more growing than ever before and i bet next year there will be even more...there such a learning curve when it comes to tackling something such as growing food and yes, we are finally getting there! This season will be filled with lots of greens which you will notice getting sweeter as temps gets colder- we also have carrots, turnips, beets, radishes- potato and onions in storage- once we plant our newly ordered garlic we should have the smaller pieces that we didn't plant to send out, there will also be hot sauce samples etc... Should be fun!

And by the way, our newsletter is usually posted Friday nights or if not Saturday morning at www.cheznousfarms.com under the newsletter tab.

In your basket this week:

-Chez Nous Mix ( getting bolder with mustards and cress in the mix..you can go bold with the dressing too!)

- Kale Mix

-Kohlrabi plus greens (the greens are delicious)

-Bok Choy

-Celery Leaves

-Peppers/Tomato mix


Juicing upgrade: Pea Shoots, Beet Greens and an extra salad mix

We still have some tomatoes... and I have begun to make some green tomato relish.   If you would like to try some green tomatoes- just give us a shout.

Bok Choy- Beautiful isn't it? For now we are harvesting "Cut and come again style".  This green is new to me and I am just learning how to cook with it.  I have seen many recipes online use whole baby bok choy but this stuff is the regular size.  I did cook it up one way that i enjoyed this week though:
I browned a good 1/4 of butter and added some garlic. I first fried the stems which were cut up into bite size pieces and then added the greens last.

I did find a really good link to cooking bok choy and plan on trying a few of the recipes: How to cook Bok Choy and recipes

And next is celery leaf we have been using a ton of this lately- in sandwiches, green juices, casseroles, soup/broth etc...  Today i made a delicious  salad dressing - it was a twist on one of my favorites called Mme Karolynn's Dressing (named after an old co-worker!) The recipe calls for celery salt and i used leaves and a small onion and pureed in my vitamix here's the link: My favorite dressings

Red Kitten Spinach 

Yukina Savoy found in your salad mix

Now that greens are taking a bigger spot in baskets...we are looking forward to some cooler (not cold!) weather if not it's a race to get them done before it gets hots out.

Our salad mix is ever changing and usually included every week.

Since we have added the chicken moat it's so easy to feed the chicken garden scraps all day long! They follow us around the farm lol! It was a relief to have them laying strong this week after the stress they suffered of being mixed together. Here you see our layers (red sex link-brown) and our meat birds ( white heritage chanteclers)

And last, if you could have spied on me the last two days you would have noticed me twitching a little more than usual! You see, I always feel things tickling me and think it's a bug and flick well, nothing, off. However, this time I heard a thump and omg it was a big hairy spider crawling on my neck, of all places! I did scoop this guy up on a stick and set him free! Ewww!

See you next week!