Cycles of Nature
Jan. 24th, 2004 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beetigerI finally found a CSA (community-sponsored agriculture) farm that has a pickup location in Westchester, early enough to join for the 2004 season. Roxbury Farm is actually up in Columbia County, but they deliver to Pleasantville, a reasonable once-a -week drive. I am bouncing-up-and-down happy about this.
My first experience with a CSA was up in Ithaca, many years ago; the farmers used to have parties for the 20 or so members, the pickups were from someone's porch, walking distance from my house, but I always drove because the vegetables were heavy. I ate nettles and cattails and green squash that was round for stuffing and kale and more kale that summer, and started my annual tradition of salsa making when I was rewarded for an afternoon of hoeing not only by the sight of a prowling red fox on the edge of the property, but with a 40-lb box of beautiful ripe tomoatoes.
When we moved downstate, I found a CSA which was a moderate drive away from home, and we joined, but I was really disappointed. It was more like a bulk purchase of organic produce, not quite as good as what they had in their farm store, and not with much variety, and there was no community -- I never saw anyone else that was part of it, and it turned out to be much less convenient than I thought it would be.
I tried to join the little CSA they are doing at the Teatown Nature Preserve locally, but it's a tiny project, and all full by the time a friend told me about it.
This should be good. I talked to the local coordinator, and this one feels much more like I remember from my experience upstate. There are fruit and vegetables and herbs, and monthly work days at the farm if I want to drive out and meet people. Maybe there will even be enough fruit for nice organic jam! Rhys will be eating solids by the summer, and the idea of pureeing him up some local, sustainably grown produce that I've got an emotional investment in for his lunch makes me feel like such a good hippiemom.
There's still the problem of the kale, of course. Anyone got any good kale recipes?
My first experience with a CSA was up in Ithaca, many years ago; the farmers used to have parties for the 20 or so members, the pickups were from someone's porch, walking distance from my house, but I always drove because the vegetables were heavy. I ate nettles and cattails and green squash that was round for stuffing and kale and more kale that summer, and started my annual tradition of salsa making when I was rewarded for an afternoon of hoeing not only by the sight of a prowling red fox on the edge of the property, but with a 40-lb box of beautiful ripe tomoatoes.
When we moved downstate, I found a CSA which was a moderate drive away from home, and we joined, but I was really disappointed. It was more like a bulk purchase of organic produce, not quite as good as what they had in their farm store, and not with much variety, and there was no community -- I never saw anyone else that was part of it, and it turned out to be much less convenient than I thought it would be.
I tried to join the little CSA they are doing at the Teatown Nature Preserve locally, but it's a tiny project, and all full by the time a friend told me about it.
This should be good. I talked to the local coordinator, and this one feels much more like I remember from my experience upstate. There are fruit and vegetables and herbs, and monthly work days at the farm if I want to drive out and meet people. Maybe there will even be enough fruit for nice organic jam! Rhys will be eating solids by the summer, and the idea of pureeing him up some local, sustainably grown produce that I've got an emotional investment in for his lunch makes me feel like such a good hippiemom.
There's still the problem of the kale, of course. Anyone got any good kale recipes?
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Date: 2004-01-26 05:48 pm (UTC)For a half-bushel basket of tomatoes:
Peel tomatoes by placing in boiling water for one minute, then immediately rinsing in cold water. This should loosen the peels without losing much of the flesh. Puree about half of the tomatoes in a blender, and chop the other half pretty finely. Toss in a few pots, splitting the puree and chopped tomotoes evenly, and start boiling.
Add about three finely chopped green peppers, an onion or two, and perhaps a dozen jalepenos, more or less depending on the heat desired and the hotness of the peppers. Reduce down to about half the volume by cooking for a few hours. Add water if it cooks to too low a volume before you think it has gone long enough.
After it is reduced, add about a cup of white vinegar, and a lot of green herbs, mostly parsley, oregano, or basil. Simmer for maybe half an hour, and then adjust by adding vinegar a quarter cup at a time or sugar a tablespoon at a time until you like the sweet/acid/hot balance. (note: salsa will get hotter as it sits, but seem a bit milder cold than hot.)
Can boiling salsa into clean jars and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
If you want some, remind me of your address in email, I always make more than I need and I've got a lot around from previous years.