Farm updates and CSA Week 9

Our watermelons have too many fans! At the first signs of coyotes finding and eating our (unripe!) watermelon we got to work protecting them with woven fence. In anticipation of the crows also finding the melon patch we covered the entire thing with netting. We closed it up so tight we might have to cut our way in for the first harvest! Across the street you will also now see an electric deer fence as well. Deer have been nibbling on our cucumber, summer squash and zucchini plants (they went after sweet potatoes vines pretty aggressively a few weeks earlier, but we covered the plants with row cover to keep them out). It was a fencing themed week here at the farm but we made sure to fit in our usual weekly tasks: seeding, transplanting, cultivating weeds, hand weeding, and of course the harvest! This week we are excited to have added tomatoes to the harvest list! We will also be planting our fall broccoli, scallions, and fennel, weedwacking fence lines, as well as weeding fall beets, carrots, and celeriac. With thunderstorms in the forecast we are continuing to spray some of our field tomatoes (no pick-your-own plants will be sprayed) with an organic copper fungicide to prevent late blight so as with all of your produce please wash your tomatoes at home before eating. 

This week in the CSA:

• Tomatoes! Just the first taste of the field tomatoes for the season. 
• Fresh garlic - while we cure most of our garlic to improve its storage quality and intensify the garlicky flavor, we are setting aside some of the freshly harvested garlic for everyone to enjoy this week!
• Peppers - Green and purple! The two colors taste similar but we don't usually pass up the opportunity to grow purple vegetables! The color does fade when cooked. 
• Eggplant - Nadia, Beatrice and Japanese varieties. Many of our plants dropped their blossoms during the recent heat wave so quantities are still limited but the plants are healthy so future harvests are promising. 
• Fresh Onions - Transitional.
• Potatoes - Transitional.
• Cucumbers- Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional
• Summer Squash - Transitional.
• Carrots
• Lettuce - We are harvesting mainly our heat tolerant "summer crisp" varieties for the next few weeks.
• Kale - Curly or Red Russian

CSA pick-your-own:

• Cherry tomatoes! - Sungolds, grape, jasper, cherry bomb, yellow mini and bumblebee are all beginning to ripen. Look low on the plants for the first fruit. As you will see there are many green ones higher up that will be ready soon!
• Green and purple snap beans
• Herbs - basil, cilantro, sage, and thyme.
• Sunflowers

This week in the Farm Store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as corn from Verrill Farm. We're also excited to now carry Double B Honey! Beekeeper Ken Anderson has several hives in the area, but this batch we're getting is all honey produced by the hives on Barrett's Mill Farm! We have eggs from Pete and Jen's and may also have more mushrooms from Fat Moon later this week. 

PYO Flower CSA: 

The field is now in it's peak! Flowers ready this week include zinnias, snapdragons bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, gomphrena, ammi 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! 

Seared Summer Squash and Egg Tacos

MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, cut in half lengthwise and sliced across the grain
• 1 ½ pounds summer squash, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 to 2 serrano chilies, minced
•  Salt to taste
•  Freshly ground pepper
• 8 eggs, beaten
• 2 to 4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 10 warm corn tortillas

PREPARATION

1. Heat a heavy skillet (preferably cast-iron) over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and the onion and cook, stirring, until the onion begins to color, about 3 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook, stirring, until it is lightly colored and tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, chili and salt to taste and stir together for about 30 seconds to a minute, until fragrant. Reduce the heat to low.
2. Beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Add to the zucchini mixture along with the cilantro. Cook, stirring, until the eggs are set. Fill the warm tortillas and serve.

Farm updates and CSA Week 8

Overall we've received a decent amount of rain in the past week, and it looks like we are about to get some more in the near future! After the recent dry spell, it has been a relief to take a break from irrigation, but excessive rain also poses its own set of challenges. Many of the rain events we've had this summer have been torrential downpours. While the 2 1/2" of rain we received last Tuesday helped to make up for the week of hot dry conditions prior to that, it can also wash out new seedings, which can negatively impact germination. Stormy conditions also tend to bring plant diseases with them on the wind, and lingering wet conditions can help those diseases to spread around the farm. We've begun to take precautionary measures on our tomatoes by spraying copper, an organically approved fungicide, on a few beds of heirloom and slicing tomatoes (we do not spray cherry tomatoes, greenhouse tomatoes, or any of the late blight-resistant varieties we grow in the field). Some of our PYO fields are closer to the the regular fields than they have been in the past, and the spraying of copper is an important reason to pay attention to roped off areas and signage (the farm equipment in operation in the regular fields is another good reason not to wander outside of PYO areas!). As always, if you are bringing children with you to the farm, they need to be supervised at all times, especially when out in the PYO fields.

The rain we've been getting is also often accompanied by thunderstorms. Lightning makes field work unsafe for our workers, and as you might imagine, we don't have nearly as many pressing indoor projects in July as we do outdoors! These storms also make field conditions unsafe for CSA members, and force us to close pick-your-own fields. Though we usually strongly encourage members to do their picking on the same day they pick up their CSA, in this instance we make an exception! When we've closed the PYO fields this year on Tuesdays or Thursdays due to the weather, we have  given members the option to do the PYO portion on a non-CSA day like Wednesday or Friday. This is often preferable to coming back on a Saturday, which tends to be our busiest day with the most limited parking.

This week in the CSA:

• Fresh garlic - while we cure most of our garlic to improve its storage quality and intensify the garlicky flavor, we are setting aside some of the freshly harvested garlic for everyone to enjoy this week!
• Celery - Our celery usually has an intense flavor and is best used for cooking. Transitional.
• Peppers - The green and purple peppers are just starting, so there's limited quantities. You'll have a choice between peppers or eggplant.
• Eggplant - Usually we harvest Asian eggplant and Beatrice eggplant first, but because we covered some of the larger Italian eggplant rows this year to protect from potato beetles, they are the first ones producing! Because it's still early in the season and quantities are limited, you'll have a choice between eggplant or peppers.
• Fresh Onions - Red Long of Tropea or Ailsa Craigs. Transitional.
• Potatoes - We will be harvesting Chieftain, a red potato with white flesh. Transitional.
• Cucumbers- Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional
• Summer Squash - Transitional.
• Carrots
• Lettuce
• Greens - chard, kale or cabbage.

CSA pick-your-own:

• Cherry tomatoes! - Sungolds are the main variety that is ripening. Look low on the plants and pick bright orange
• Green and purple snap beans
• Herbs - basil, cilantro, sage, and thyme.

This week in the Farm Store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as corn from Verrill Farm. We're also excited to now carry Double B Honey! Beekeeper Ken Anderson has several hives in the area, but this batch we're getting is all honey produced by the hives on Barrett's Mill Farm! We have eggs from Pete and Jen's and may also have more mushrooms from Fat Moon later this week. 

PYO Flower CSA: 

Flowers ready this week include zinnias, snapdragons bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, 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! 

 

It's a nice week to make pesto - below is a pesto recipe and 2 more recipes that incorporate pesto in them!

Bright Green Pesto

by Martha Rose Schulman, NY Times Cooking

• 2 cups tightly packed, fresh basil leaves
•  Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons lightly toasted pine nuts or untoasted chopped walnuts
• ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, halved, green shoots removed
• ⅓ to ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan

Bring a medium-size saucepan full of water to a boil while you rinse basil leaves. Fill a bowl with ice water and place it next to the saucepan with a skimmer close by (a Chinese skimmer is good for this). When water comes to a boil, salt generously and add basil leaves. Push them down into the water with the back of a skimmer to submerge, count to five, then remove immediately with skimmer and transfer to ice water. Drain and squeeze out excess water.

Place pine nuts or walnuts in a food processor and process until finely ground. Add blanched basil and kosher salt to taste (I use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon) and process until finely chopped. With machine running, slowly add olive oil and continue to process for a full minute, or until the mix is reduced to a fine purée. Transfer to a bowl. You should have about 1/2 cup of purée .

When you are ready to use the pesto, purée garlic in a mortar and pestle, or put through a garlic press, and stir into the pesto (or if using a mortar and pestle, add the puréed basil to the mashed garlic in mortar and work garlic and pesto together with pestle). Add Parmesan and stir in. The pesto will condense when you add the cheese, so even though you’ve added a half-cup of cheese to the purée, you will end up with about 2/3 cup of pesto. Follow the instructions in recipes for thinning out with water.

Orzo with Summer Squash and Pesto

MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 ½ pounds summer squash or zucchini, cut in 1/4-inch dice (about 4 cups)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh marjoram or mint
•  Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 10 ounces (1 1/3 cups) orzo
• ⅓ cup basil pesto (1/2 batch see recipe above)
•  Additional grated Parmesan or pecorino for serving

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the orzo and salt generously. Meanwhile, heat a large, heavy skillet over medium heat and add olive oil and garlic. Cook, stirring, until garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds, and add summer squash. Turn heat up to medium high and cook, stirring often, until squash is tender and translucent, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in marjoram or mint and season to taste with salt and pepper. Turn off heat.

When water in pot comes to a boil, salt generously and add orzo. Cook 9 minutes, until al dente. Stir 3 to 4 tablespoons of the cooking water into the pesto, then drain orzo and toss with squash. Heat through, add pesto, toss again and serve, passing more Parmesan or pecorino in a bowl.

Pesto-Filled Deviled Eggs

by Martha Rose Shulman, NY Times Cooking

• 6 eggs
• ⅓ cup pesto (1/2 recipe - see above)
•  Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (optional)

To hard-cook eggs, place in a saucepan, fill with water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. As soon as water is at a roll, cover tightly and turn off heat. Let stand for 12 minutes. Meanwhile, fill a bowl with ice water. Transfer hard-cooked eggs to ice water and leave until completely cooled. Peel off shells and cut eggs in half lengthwise.

Remove yolks from eggs. Set aside 3 of them for another use (or discard) and mash the other 3 together with the pesto, either in a mortar and pestle or in a food processor. Pipe, scoop or spoon into the egg whites.

If desired, season exposed egg whites with salt and pepper. Arrange on a plate or small platter and serve.

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.