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Goldfinch Farm CSA
Goldfinch Farm Newsletters
| For Beth's Ramblings and Rants click here. |
Issue No. 2: Wks of June 22 & 29
GOLDFINCH FARM CSA NEWS
Farmers: Jon & Beth Weaver-Kreider * 252-3894
www.goldfinchfarm.com * screechowl@paonline.com
July 4th Weekend
We will be open for business on the July 4th weekend, on our regular hours. If you are a Friday/Saturday pick-up and want to change your
day to Tuesday, June 30th, in order to go away for the weekend, let us know by noon on the 29th, please.
Rain, Rain, Go Away
Rain is probably the number one topic of questions people ask us about in general conversations. And especially this spring. We need
rain to make things grow, but we need sun and summer heat, too. Maybe with the turning of the year past Solstice, we’ll start to get some
of that good sunshine. Some years, we have asked people to do rain dances; this year, it may well be sun dances we’ll be requesting.
In Your Share
During late June, the early crops, like peas and strawberries, have finished up, and the summer crops are starting to come in. We’ll have
new potatoes, radishes, early summer squash, and soon …the first tomatoes (you may want to make sure you have a jar of mayonnaise
ready).
New Potatoes
Our favorite thing to do with the new potatoes is simply to boil or steam them until they’re just soft, then drizzle melted butter over top. A little
salt, and they’re perfect. Make the butter a little extra exciting by adding chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, dill, or garlic scapes or
mashed roasted garlic to the butter before adding to the potatoes.
Garlic Potato Salad
(modified from Simply in Season recipe)
1. Boil new potatoes in water until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Combine in a large bowl: minced garlic scapes, minced green onion, ¼ c. olive oil, 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar, 2 tsp. chopped fresh herbs
of your choice, & salt & pepper to taste.
3. Add new potatoes and stir to coat. Chill about three hours before serving.
Another Good Cookbook
For an “I’m-a-Big-Brother-Now” present, Beth’s sister Valerie gave Ellis the Simply in Season Children’s Cookbook by Mark Beach and
Julie Kauffman. He can’t read it yet, of course, but he loves to have us cook out of it.
We’ve made every recipe from the Spring section already, except for the Potato Crunchers (which we’ll probably make this week): Wash
and scrub your new potatoes and pat them dry. Put them in a large lidded plastic container with 1/3 c. of olive oil, some chopped fresh
herbs, minced garlic (scapes would work), ¾ tsp. of salt, and half a tsp. of pepper. Shake container to coat potatoes and bake in a
preheated, 375 degree oven for 20 minutes on a large oiled baking sheet. Turn potatoes over and bake another 20 minutes. Potatoes
should be crusty brown on the outside.
Savory Chard
(modified from Simply in Season recipe)
Eat as a side dish or tuck into a wrap-style sandwich. The recipe’s contributor suggests stuffing it with refried beans and shredded cheese
into a homemade chapati.
1. Slice an onion or some green onions and sauté in 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil on med. until brown and crisp. Remove to serving dish.
2. Stack a large bunch of Chard leaves, roll them, and slice about ¼-inch thick. Sauté for 1 minute.
3. Add several Tbsp. water and ¼ tsp. salt, cover, reduce heat, and steam until tender, about 8-10 minutes. Add more water as needed.
Drain in a colander
4. Return onions to pan and heat until sizzling.
5. Add 1 Tbsp. tomato paste, and stir. When this mixture is hot, return chard to pan, mix, heat through, and serve.
Food Blogs
We love the enthusiasm of our shareholders! Your energy for good food feeds us as surely as the food from the farm feeds you. Two
shareholders have blogs that include their experiences with food from Goldfinch Farm. Why not check them out and join the conversation?
Last year, Mike and Amy Warner began a blog about food. They have some good recipes on the blog, including one for zucchini crab
cakes--a great recipe to have on hand as the summer squash begins to ripen! You might even try it with yellow zephyr. Their blog can be
found at blog.theweeklyshare.com.
Laura Whetstone has recently begun a blog to help document the challenge she has given herself to be very conscious and conscientious
about how she uses her share. Her beautiful page is at realgoodfood.blogspot.com/2009/06/csa-self-challenge.html. I believe that she’ll
be posting recipes, too, as the summer progresses.
Pick-up at the Farm
This winter, Jon bought a small shopping cart for people to use when picking up your shares at the farm, if you want. Feel free to use it for
keeping a baby or small child close to you while you pick up your share and/or for transporting your share to your car as the season
progresses and weekly shares get bigger.
If you need to park closer because of health issues or if your child falls asleep in the car on the way to the farm, please feel free to do what
we do when Ellis falls asleep in the car, and park up in the lawn between the swing set and the barn under the trees, or in the drive in front
of the market room.
HFCS--Another Reason to Avoid It
High fructose corn syrup is used to sweeten everything processed these days, from candies to sodas to those multi-grain crackers I
bought the other week without checking the ingredients list first. Food journalist Michael Pollan writes about the challenges our bodies
face in trying to process the stuff.
Now, recent studies offer another potential cause for concern: mercury. Processors use lye to separate corn starch from the corn kernel.
Some companies that make HFCS use lye that has been created by pumping salt through mercury. While there are still some questions
about how much mercury may get into the HFCS that we consume, it makes me even more determined to minimize it in our family’s diet.
For more information, see the July/August 2009 issue of Mother Jones, or online, check out the journal article at www.healthobservatory.org.
New Foodie Movie Coming Out
Speaking of Michael Pollan, he apparently appears in a new movie coming out soon (already out in some major US cities) called Food,
Inc. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, also appears in it. We heard a review of it on NPR this week and it sounds like it will be a
good documentary on the importance of eating natural, unprocessed foods, both for our own health, and for that of the planet. Check www.
foodincmovie.com.
Hooray for the Bikers!
We have an amazing crew of farm workers this year, the largest ever. We’re incredibly grateful for this gang of folks who work hard in the
sun and rain and the bugs and the mud to plant and harvest the food here in exchange for their share of food for the season.
One member of the crew, Vince, has been biking here from York (about a 12-mile journey) a couple times a week for the past few
seasons. Then he works a full shift and bikes back home again--even in the rain! This year Jon D. and Andrew and Francie have been
biking here, too, and they don’t come from just around the corner either. Last week one shareholder couple from the other side of Hellam
even biked here up (and I do mean UP) Ducktown Road to get their weekly share. Thanks to all of you for your inspiring dedication to
reducing your use of fossil fuels and to inspiring others to do the same.
ARCHIVE
#1: Weeks ofJune 8 & 15
#1: Weeks ofJune 8 & 15