Farm updates and CSA Week 7

Not only are we focused on bringing in the weekly harvest and planting fall crops like carrots, beets, cauliflower and cabbage, but we are thinking all the way ahead to next season by weeding the strawberry plants that we hope will provide a bounty of red fruit next June! Additionally, irrigation and protecting our crops from encroaching deer and other critters (with a combination of fencing, netting, and row cover) keeps us busy! And of course we can't forget the garlic harvest! We'll start to pull our garlic this week. You'll see it hanging in the farm store where it will cure for the summer. When we take it down for use this fall it will be cured and able to keep out of the fridge for months. As usual, we will save some of it for seed for planting this October for next year. 

This week in the CSA:

• Fresh Onions - This week we'll be harvesting the Red Long of Tropea variety. It's a sweet red onion that you eat fresh. Unlike most store-bought onions, these are uncured and therefore should be kept in the fridge. Transitional.
• Potatoes - We will be harvesting Chieftain, a red potato with white flesh. Transitional.
• Cucumbers- Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional
• Summer Squash - Transitional.
• Garlic scapes - The last week of garlic scapes before a bit of a break from garlic until the bulbs are cured and ready to be distributed in September. 
• Carrots 
• Beets 
• Salanova lettuce mix 
• Lettuce
• Greens: yukina savoy, swiss chard, cabbage or kale

CSA pick-your-own:

• Green beans
• Herbs - It's pesto season! There will be 2 new plantings of basil open. We also have cilantro, dill, sage, and thyme.
• Sunflowers

This week in the Farm Store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as the first peppers and eggplant of the season on Wednesday. We will also have eggs from Pete and Jen's Backyard and will likely have Verrill Farm Sweet corn starting Thursday!

PYO Flower CSA: 

Flowers ready this week include zinnias, bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, gomphrena, and more. If you are not a PYO Flower CSA member and would like to pick a bouquet, you can purchase a jar for picking in the store! 

How To Make Quick-Pickled Onions

by Dana Velden from Kitchn

Makes about 2 cups

What You Need

Ingredients

• 1 medium red onion, about 5 ounces
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup rice vinegar, white vinegar, or apple cider vinegar

Flavorings (optional):

• 1 small clove of garlic, halved
• 5 black peppercorns
• 5 allspice berries
• 3 small sprigs of thyme
• 1 small dried chili

Equipment:

• Kettle for boiling water
• Knife and cutting board
• Sieve or colander
• Clean jar or container

Instructions

1. Slice the onions: Start 2 or 3 cups of water on to boil in a kettle. Peel and thinly slice the onion into approximately 1/4-inch moons. Peel and cut the garlic clove in half.

2. Dissolve the sugar and salt: In the container you will be using to store the onions, add the sugar, salt, vinegar, and flavorings. Stir to dissolve.

3. Par-blanch the onions: Place the onions in the sieve and place the sieve in the sink. Slowly pour the boiling water over the onions and let them drain.

4. Add the onions to the jar: Add the onions to the jar and stir gently to evenly distribute the flavorings.

5. Store: The onions will be ready in about 30 minutes, but are better after a few hours. Store in the refrigerator. They will keep for several weeks, but are best in the first week.

Spicy Sesame Carrot Salad

by Popsugar  

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Kosher salt
• 1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled lengthwise into thin ribbons
• 1 cup tightly packed cilantro leaves
•  

• DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, vinegars, honey, sesame oil, sesame seeds, red pepper flakes, and 1 teaspoon salt. Pour the dressing over the carrots, add the cilantro, and toss well. Season to taste with salt, and serve.

Farm updates and CSA Week 6

Last week's heat and humidity were tough, but the crew did an amazing job pushing through! In spite of the conditions, we managed to do a lot of planting, seeding, weeding and cultivating. We also did a bit of irrigation work (both for the plants and ourselves!). We've been fortunate to get a good soaking rain once a week for the past month, but that hasn't stopped us from forging ahead with irrigation set up anyway. Even when we get a decent amount of precipitation, the combination of our sandy soils and the heat mean that our plants still need a boost from our drip irrigation lines and low-flow overhead sprinklers.

The heat and rain have helped bring us a really nice selection of summer vegetables this week! You'll notice that many of the vegetables this week are listed as transitional (onions, potatoes, cucumbers, squash and zucchini). This is because all of these crops are being grown in our field across the street in order to give some of the fields at the main farmstead a rest this year. The field across the street has been managed organically since we started farming it in 2016, but it takes 3 years of using organic practices before the crops from a field can be labeled organic. Next year, everything from that field should be officially certified organic as well, which will make our labeling and record keeping much easier!

This week in the CSA:

• Fresh Onions - This week we'll be harvesting the Ailsa Craig variety. It's a sweet white onion that you eat fresh. Unlike most store-bought onions, these are uncured and therefore should be kept in the fridge. Transitional.
• Cucumbers - Both slicers and pickling cukes are coming in strong! Pickling cukes have a thinner skin and crisper texture, and as the name suggests they are great for making pickles (see below for a great refrigerator pickle recipe)! Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional
• Summer Squash - Transitional.
• Potatoes- We'll continue to harvest the Dark Red Norland variety and also begin harvesting Chieftain. Transitional.
• Cabbage - We'll still have green cabbage, as well as some red cabbage and "Caraflex" (an arrow-shaped cabbage that is quite tender).
• Swiss Chard
• Curly Kale
• Garlic scapes
• Carrots
• Beets
• Salanova lettuce mix
• Lettuce
• Yukina Savoy

CSA pick-your-own:

• Green beans - first of the season. We will have more plantings as the season goes on.
• Sunflowers - they are just starting to bloom, but members will get a couple of stems to pick this week!
• Herbs - dill (just in time for cucumbers!), new plantings of cilantro and basil, and sage, thyme and mint.

This week in the Farm Store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store. We will also have arugula, eggs from Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds, and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

PYO Flower CSA: 

This will be the first week that flowers are open for picking. If you are not a PYO Flower CSA member and would like to pick a bouquet, you can purchase a jar for picking in the store! Flowers ready this week include zinnias, bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, gomphrena, and more.

Pasta With Green Beans And Potatoes With Pesto

 by Nancy Harmon Jenkins from from NY Times Cooking

• 2 cups packed tender young basil leaves
• ¼ cup pine nuts
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 plump garlic cloves, peeled and crushed with flat blade of a knife
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, or more to taste
• ½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, or more to taste
•  Salt to taste
• ½ pound small potatoes, peeled and sliced about 1/4-inch thick
• ¼ pound tender young green beans, cut into 1-inch lengths
• 1 pound trenette, or other long, thin pasta

1. Make pesto: in bowl of food processor, add basil, pine nuts, salt and garlic. Pulse until mixture is coarse and grainy. With motor running, add oil in slow, steady stream. Add cheese; process just enough to mix well. If sauce is too dry, add a little more oil. Taste; add more cheese or salt, if desired.
2. Bring 6 quarts water to rolling boil. Add at least 2 tablespoons salt and the potato slices. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until potatoes have started to soften but are not cooked through. Add green beans, and continue boiling another 5 minutes.
3. Add pasta, and stir. Start testing pasta at 5 minutes. When it is done, and when potatoes and beans are tender, drain and turn pasta and vegetables immediately into preheated bowl. Add pesto, and mix thoroughly. Serve immediately.

Homemade Refrigerator Dill Pickles

By Jennifer Segal

• 1-1/4 cups distilled white vinegar (5% acidity)
• 3 tablespoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups cold water
• 1-3/4 to 2 pounds pickling cucumbers (about 6), cut into halves or spears 
• 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 6 large garlic cloves, peeled and halved (or substitute about 6 garlic scares diced)
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 16 dill sprigs

Combine the vinegar, salt and sugar in a small non-reactive saucepan (such as stainless steel, glass, ceramic or teflon) over high heat. Whisk until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Transfer the liquid into a bowl and whisk in the cold water. Refrigerate brine until ready to use. 

Stuff the cucumbers into two clean 1-quart jars. Add the coriander seeds, garlic cloves, mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, dill sprigs, and chilled brine into jars, dividing evenly. If necessary, add a bit of cold water to the jars until the brine covers the cucumbers. Cover and refrigerate about 24 hours, then serve. Cucumbers will keep in the refrigerator for up to one month.

Zucchini/Summer Squash Ribbons

From Uncommon Gourmet, All-Occasion Cookbook

• 2  Medium-size zucchini         
• 2  Medium-size summer squash   
• 4  Tablespoons butter  
• 1   Medium-size clove garlic, crushed
• ½ cup finely chopped walnuts or hazelnuts
• salt and pepper to taste
•  ½ cup grated Parmesan

Using a vegetable peeler, cut long ribbons of the zucchini and summer squash, reserving the seed core for another use (like soup). Heat butter in a large skillet. Add garlic, squash ribbons and nuts. Season with salt and pepper and stir-fry over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes until vegetables are tender-crisp. Sprinkle with the Parmesan. Stir well, remove from the heat and serve.

CSA Week 5! Farm Store Closed Wednesday July 4th

The good news is that while extreme rain and then heat is hard on the crew it is great for many of our summer crops! We started harvesting summer squash and zucchini and the first cucumbers will make their appearance in the farm store this week. In anticipation of a burst plant growth for our the heat loving tomatoes we pounded in stakes and put up the first trellis lines of the season. This weather pattern also means a burst of weed growth!  In an effort to keep the weeds out of summer crops we began to mulch the pathways of our the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant with a combination of straw mulch and landscape fabric. We plan to have our cultivating tractors running all week and will hoe whenever we get a chance in an effort to keep up with the weeds in  crops that do not get mulched like lettuce, greens, leeks, summer squash, beans and flowers. Wish us luck! 

A reminder, the farm store will be closed Wednesday July 4th. The rest of the week's schedule is the same as usual. We hope everyone has a great holiday!

Farm Store Hours This Week:

Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday: 11am-6pm*
Wednesday July 4th: CLOSED
Saturday July 7th 9am-3pm*

* As usual CSA pick-up options are Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday 

This week in the CSA:

• Cabbage - These mini green cabbages are an early summer favorite! They can be used raw sliced in coleslaw or lightly cooked in stir fry. 
• Zucchini - The zucchini are grown with the summer squash across the street on our more newly leased field. These crops are labeled "transitional" because while we use only organic methods, they are grown in a field that is not yet certified.  
• Summer Squash - The first of many plantings this season! Transitional.
• Potatoes- These new potatoes are a variety called Dark Red Norland, they have a red exterior and a white flesh. Transitional.
• Swiss Chard - We grow a variety with colorful stems called Rainbow Chard. While chard is great in it's own right, it can be useful as a replacement for cooked spinach in many recipes. 
• Garlic scapes - These are the flower buds of the garlic plants. We snap off the scapes in mid June so that the plant focuses its energy on producing a larger bulb. The scapes can be used just like garlic - one diced scape is about the equivalent of one clove in terms of garlicky flavor.
• Purple carrots
• Salanova lettuce mix
• Lettuce - green and red leaf, panise (oakleaf), and more.
• Arugula
• Baby Bok choi

CSA pick-your-own:

We always have a gap in the first week in July between pea and bean season, which works well this time as it is a hot week to be in the fields. This week we will continue to have herbs for picking (basil, sage, thyme, oregano). Soon to come in the CSA pick your own are green snap beans and sunflowers. 

This week in the Farm Store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store.  We will also have the first cucumbers of the season!  It is possible that we will have some gooseberries later in the week.  We will also continue to sell Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds eggs, and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

Spicy Stir-Fried Cabbage and Carrot

Adapted from a recipe by Martha Rose Shulman, NY Times Cooking

• 4 garlic scapes, minced

•  2 teaspoons minced ginger

• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

•  1 star anise, broken in half

•  2 teaspoons soy sauce (more to taste)

•  2 tablespoons rice wine or dry sherry

•  2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil

•  1 small cabbage, 1 to 1 1/2 pounds, quartered, cored and cut crosswise into 1/8-inch shreds

•   1 medium carrot, cut into julienne

•  Salt to taste

•  2 tablespoons cilantro or chives

Combine the garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes and star anise in a small bowl. Combine the soy sauce and wine or sherry in another small bowl. Heat a wok or skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates within a second or two when added to the pan. Swirl in the oil by adding it to the sides of the pan and tilting it back and forth. Add the garlic, ginger, pepper flakes and star anise. Stir-fry for a few seconds, just until fragrant, then add the cabbage and carrots. Stir-fry for one to two minutes until the cabbage begins to wilt, then add the salt and wine/soy sauce mixture. Cover and cook over high heat for one minute until just wilted. Uncover and stir-fry for another 30 seconds, then stir in the chives or cilantro and remove from the heat. The cabbage should be crisp-tender. Serve with rice or noodles.

Quiche with Swiss Chard and Mushroom

by Sue Lau, A Palatable Pastime

• 3 large pastured organic eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 4 ounces white or crimini mushrooms, chopped (or try using some Fat Moon Farm oyster or shiitake mushrooms!)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion or shallot
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 5 ounces Swiss chard leaves (no stems), chopped
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 5 ounces Prima Donna aged Gouda cheese, shredded
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
• Dash nutmeg
• 1 prepared pie crust or quiche pastry dough

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat room temperature eggs with heavy cream in a small bowl. Place pie crust in a deep-dish glass pie plate and crimp edges. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a saute pan and cook mushroom and shallot until browned. Season vegetables to taste with salt and pepper and stir in chopped chard leaves, cooking only long enough to allow them to wilt; cool mixture. Sprinkle about 2 ounces of the cheese in the bottom of the pie crust and spread vegetables over that, then top with remaining cheese. Pour the custard (cream and egg) mixture over all. Make sure the cheese and vegetables are covered or wet with the custard mixture. Dot with butter pieces and sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake quiche uncovered, in a preheated oven, for about 45 minutes or until domed and puffy and custard is set. Allow to sit undisturbed for about 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Farm updates and CSA week 4

With school out for the summer, and farm bags being taken on vacation, it seems like a good time to remind everyone that the farm stand will be closed for the July 4th holiday on Wednesday next week. We'll still be open Tuesday, July 3rd, so that would be a great day to gather some veggies for holiday salads and grilling! Also, we wanted to remind everyone that if you are a CSA member going on vacation this summer, you are welcome to send a friend to pick up veggies in your stead!

It's hard to believe we are almost into July when the memories of the constant harvesting during the first week of the CSA are still fresh in our minds! After that first week in June, we were able to breath a little and begin to catch up on greenhouse seeding and transplanting, and we've also begun to slowly chip away at our long weeding and cultivating to-do list. Thankfully, we've had a couple of solid rains each week, which has saved us from having to sink too much of our precious time into irrigation.

There is always something urgent in farming, though, to drag you away from the weeding projects you would like to focus on. This time of year always brings us the Colorado potato beetle, which will completely defoliate eggplant and potatoes if left unchecked. The organic spray used for many years unfortunately no longer works, as the beetles have developed resistance to it. Our potato patch is too large to pick bugs by hand, so we have resorted to other creative control methods. This year we were able to rotate the potatoes to the field across the street, which helped push off the potato beetle pressure by a few days. We've tried out growing a small section of a variety called King Harry, which is supposed to withstand potato beetle pressure better than other varieties. We covered a few beds of eggplant and potatoes with row cover to try to keep the adult beetles out (it seems to have worked on the eggplant, but it was less effective on the potatoes). We also have been using the method of knocking bugs off the plants and burning them with our flame weeder. Nothing is 100% effective, and we know that soon we will lose this battle in our potatoes, but our hope is to eek out a few more weeks of growth in the potatoes before they succumb to pest pressure. The plants were quite big and healthy before the potato beetle pressure spiked, with some plants up to our waists! We're hoping that the early potato plant health will mean larger potatoes this year!

This week in the CSA:

• Garlic scapes - These are the flower buds of the garlic plants. We snap off the scapes in mid June so that the plant focuses its energy on producing a larger bulb. The scapes can be used just like garlic - one diced scape is about the equivalent of one clove in terms of garlicky flavor.
• Carrots - we'll have both orange carrots and purple carrots. The purple carrots are a variety called Purple Haze and they have a beautiful purple skin with an orange interior.
• Beets
• Kohlrabi
• Scallions - these are grown in our field across the street, which is "transitional" this year. That means that although we are using organic practices, the land was farmed conventionally prior to our use of the field, and therefore cannot be certified organic until the fields have been managed organically for 3 full seasons. Produce grown across the street should be certified organic in 2019!
• Curly kale
• Salanova lettuce mix
• Lettuce - romaine, red leaf, panise (oakleaf), and more.
• Arugula
• Baby Bok choi
• Yukina Savoy - This mild green is great raw in salads or lightly cooked. Now that spinach is out of season until the fall, Yukina savoy can make a good substitute in recipes that call for cooked spinach.

CSA pick-your-own:

• Strawberries - We are definitely past peak and the picking will get harder as the week goes on, but our goal is to keep them open for the remainder of this week.
• Sugar Snap, Snow, and Shelling Peas - To pick, gently hold the plant in place while you snap the stem just above the pea pod. Remove the top before eating (For shelling peas remove the entire pod).
• Herbs - Cilantro, basil, sage, thyme, and garlic chives. Mint will be closed this week to allow it to regrow.

CSA pick-up hours

Tuesday and Thursday 11am - 6pm

Saturday 9am - 3pm

This week in the Farm Store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store. Sadly, our strawberry patch is well past peak, so there won't be any strawberries in the store, but we do have many other summer crops to look forward to! In addition to the items listed above, we will have green garlic, radishes, salad turnips, Happy Rich broccolini, mini daikon, basil plants and the first summer squash and zucchini of the season! We will also continue to sell Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds eggs, and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

Farm Store Hours

Tuesday-Friday 11am - 6pm

Saturday 9am - 3pm

Glazed Grilled Carrots

by Jeff Gordinier in NYT Cooking

• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
• ½ clove garlic, cut into paper-thin slices (or use scapes!)
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for the carrots
• 10 medium carrots, peeled, trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
• Salt
• 1 green onion, thinly sliced

1. In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, rosemary, garlic and ginger until combined. Whisk in 2 tablespoons oil so dressing emulsifies; set aside.
2. Heat grill to low. Coat carrots with oil and season with salt. Grill carrots, covered, turning as needed to prevent burning, until nicely charred and fork tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
3. When carrots come off the grill, toss them immediately in the prepared dressing. Once they're coated, use tongs to transfer the carrots to a serving platter and garnish with green onion. Drizzle a few spoonfuls of the remaining dressing over the top. 

Vegetable Potstickers

adapted from the Uncommon Gourmet

• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• pepper to taste
• ½ tsp sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup chopped bok choi or napa cabbage
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 medium sized carrot, grated
• ¼ cup shiitake mushrooms
• 1 ½ tsp finely grated ginger
• 1 package wonton wrappers

In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, pepper, sugar and sesame oil. Mix and set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over high heat in a wok or large skillet. Add bok choi/napa, scallions, carrots, shiitakes and ginger and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the soy sauce mixture and stir fry for 1 minute more. Remove from heat.

Preheat the oven to 400F and grease a large baking sheet. Place 1 tablespoon of the filling in the middle of a wonton skin. Fold over to form a triangle. Slightly dampen the outer edges with water and press the edges with a fork to seal. Place the potsticker on the baking sheet and repeat with remaining wonton skins. Brush the tops of the potstickers with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until browned and crisp around edges. Serve immediately with soy sauce on the side for dipping.

Farm updates and CSA Week 3!

It is crunch time for us on the farm! While we started devoting much of our time to harvesting, the weeds staked their claim in some of our fields! Pictured above are Molly, Rebecca and Janel working to weed and therefore rescue the leeks. Fortunately, the leeks are healthy due to early season care (tractor cultivation gave them a head start of the weeds) but it's now or never so we are happy to have the crew almost to full strength with Molly's return from school for the summer. This week we also had the help of Alice, a high school student and weekend waterer, who came out to the fields with us a couple of mornings to give us a boost.  Elsewhere on the farm experiments are reaping benefits such as in our greens field where we now plant an extra row per bed. Fertilizing, seeding 4 rows, hoeing, than covering, has produced lush stands of greens for a bountiful harvest while using up a smaller area.  This week we will continue, to plant, weed, harvest, and of course enjoy strawberry season!

This week in the CSA:

• Carrots - First harvest of the season!
• Beets - We will have two varieties to choose from: Boro and Chioggia. The Chioggia are a lighter red color and have white rings when sliced, the darker Boro are like the Red Ace beets we grow for much of the season and are slightly sweeter than the chioggia.
• Yukina Savoy - This tasty green is great in salads or lightly cooked.
• Scallions - It's the perfect week for stir fry!
• Curly kale
• Salanova lettuce mix
• Lettuce - We will have romaine, red leaf, panise (oakleaf), and more.
• Salad Turnips
• Radishes
• Arugula
• Baby Bok choi

CSA pick-your-own:

• Strawberries! All rows are still producing! Walk in the straw pathways and don't forget to check further down the row in case the first area has been picked more recently!
• Sugar Snap, Snow, and Shelling Peas - To pick, gently hold the plant in place while you snap the stem just above the pea pod. Remove the top before eating (For shelling peas remove the entire pod). There is a new planting of snap peas ready now, closest to the farm stand.
• Herbs - Cilantro, basil, sage, oregano, thyme, garlic chives and mint.

CSA pick-up hours

Tuesday and Thursday 11am - 6pm

Saturday 9am - 3pm

This week in the Farm Store:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store. In addition, we will have Happy Rich mini broccoli, green garlic, fennel, mini daikon, and basil plants. We will also continue to sell Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds eggs, and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

Farm Store Hours

Tuesday-Friday 11am - 6pm

Saturday 9am - 3pm

Cold Peanut Noodles

adapted from a recipe by Parsley on GenuisKitchen.com

NOODLES

• 1 lb spaghetti, or you can use linguine
• 1 cup shredded carrot
• 1 cup chopped scallion
• 1 cup chopped sugar snap peas
• 1⁄4 cup chopped cilantro, can use parsley

SAUCE

• 1⁄3 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1⁄4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1⁄4-1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1⁄4-1⁄2 teaspoon hot sauce, I use red pepper flakes
• sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of boiling water to a boil. Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions; drain; rinse in very cold water and drain again.
2. Place cooled noodles in a large bowl and toss with the carrots, scallions, sugar snap peas and cilantro.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the sauce ingredients until smooth.
4. Drizzle the sauce over noodles mixture; toss to coat well.
5. Serve room temp or cold.
6. Garnish with sesame seeds if desired.

Roasted Beet and Avocado Salad

from Frankies Spuntino

• 4 medium beets (about 1/2 pound each), scrubbed
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for rubbing
• 1/2 cup water
• Salt and freshly ground white pepper
• 1 cipollini onion, finely chopped, or 1/3 cup finely chopped sweet Spanish or white onion
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 cup grapeseed oil or other mild vegetable oil
• 2 Hass avocados, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a small baking dish, rub the beets with olive oil. Add the water and season with salt and white pepper. Cover tightly with foil and roast for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until tender when pierced with a knife. Let cool, then peel the beets and cut them into 3/4-inch pieces. Transfer to a large bowl. Meanwhile, in a blender, combine the chopped onion with the red wine vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and honey. Season with salt and white pepper and blend until smooth. With the machine on, add the grapeseed oil and the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a steady stream. Add the avocado to the roasted beets. Pour the onion dressing on top and toss gently to combine. Season the salad with salt and pepper and serve.

Beet Greens and Feta Pasta

from chowhound.com

• Kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 medium white onion, finely chopped
• 4 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pounds beet greens, washed, ribs removed, and coarsely chopped (about 11 cups)
• 1 pound penne pasta
• 5 ounces crumbled feta (about 3/4 cup)

 Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. When shimmering, add the onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the vegetables are translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the beet greens and cook until just wilted, about 3 minutes. Season well with salt and pepper, remove from heat, and reserve.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water Return the pasta to the pot and place over low heat. Add the reserved pasta water and the beet green mixture, then sprinkle in the crumbled feta. Stir until thoroughly combined and heated through. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.