Sam and I had our summer CSA with Cedar Circle Farm – one of the big two CSAs in the Upper Valley. However, we changed over to Your Farm, another large CSA for the Fall and Winter Storage Share.

We’ve been only partially happy with Cedar Circle this season. We’re used to coming from a 100% CSA farm where we were treated like investors, and we felt entitled to our “share” of the harvest at the farm. Cedar Circle, on the other hand, is part CSA, part wholesale, part farmer’s market vendor and part farm stand. They have more sources of revenue, and the CSA members are not the main supporters of their farm. What this meant in practice was we were “prepaid” customers instead of investors. I saw multiple times where the farm diverted high-profit crops (e.g. garlic scapes) to the farm stand, and the CSA members got these crops only when there was a surplus. The first harvest also went to the farm stand and farmer’s markets. There were many weeks that there were crops available for high prices at the farmer’s market that weren’t also available in the CSA boxes. We waited 3 weeks after tomatoes showed up at the farmer’s market booth before we got a tomato in our box. Additionally, we were not happy with the diversity in our box. The spring was overwhelmed with lettuce and radishes, at the expense of other spring crops like asian greens. I didn’t get a single salad turnip all year.

That being said, we were also not happy with the plan for the fall CSA from Cedar Circle. They have every week boxes through mid-December and we would have to travel to their farm – a 40 minute drive round-trip- to pickup the box on Saturday or Sunday. We started looking for a new farm, and I hope we’ve found a better place.

We’re getting our fall/winter box from Your Farm. They will delivery every other week to my health club through mid-January. The cost per box is about $5 less than Cedar Circle. I’ve also appreciated the diversity of crops they have available – more asian greens and fewer rutabagas. I hate rutabagas. I’m also excited for some of their prepared foods they offer with the fall CSA – sauerkraut, home canned tomatoes, pesto, dilly beans. They also freeze farm surplus and include it in the CSA delivery – corn, beans, asparagus, pesto… As always, I’ll try to post pictures of our boxes to give everybody a sense of what we’re munching on all winter.

We had a SNAFU last week with the fruit box. We signed up for summer fruit (think peaches) and fall fruit (apples). Through some strange administrative glitch, we had an overlap between our summer and winter CSAs, and we ended up with two boxes of fruit. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, we put up a bunch of the unexpected fruit.

The boxes had 16 ripe pears-Bartlett and Bosc. There is no way that Sam and I could eat 16 ripe pears before they went south. Out came  the water bath canner and most of those pears ended up in jars.  We were able to fit 6 pear halves into each quart without squashing them too much-these were big pears. I made 6 cups of super-light syrup to fill the jar space. We ended up with 5 quarts and one pear left over for breakfast.

Typically, I would can my pears with ginger. The combination is really special. But, doing this at 9pm on Friday with the stuff I have in the house, I wasn’t able to make the best. Farnum hill will have some pears ripe in a few weeks, and I’ll can a load of them with ginger.

Two weeks ago it was really really hot. 90+ degrees hot. In that heat, i was supposed to pickle a peck of peppers. But… The first step in pickling a peck of pickled peppers is roasting them over an open flame. I really didn’t want to heat up the house with the broiler. Instead, I sat out in the back yard with the camp stove and roasted peppers.

Roasting Chiles over the camp stove. Underneath the stove is the slab of marble that Sam uses in the oven when he bakes bread. It was a great work surface, but it’s NEVER coming camping with us…

The peppers had been marinading in the fridge for two weeks, so I got to crack the jar and have a taste. Just as you’d expect, the peppers are slightly sweet and slightly tangy, with great flavors of oregano. We will definitely be enjoying them on crispy pizza.

Pickled  Sweet Bell Peppers

• 1/2 Cups White Vinegar
• 1/2 Cups Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 Cups Dry White Wine
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 4 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• 4 tsp salt
• 4 Cloves Garlic
• 6 sweet red bell peppers

(Prepare canning jars, lids and rings. This recipe made 1 pint of peppers.)

1.  Roast the red bell pepers until the skins are blackened and blistery. Either use the flame of a gas burner, or an oven broiler on highest heat. Once roasted, put the peppers in a plastic container or paper bag, to allow the residual heat to steam the peppers. Let the peppers sit for 15-30 minutes to cool.
2. Using a paper towel, rub the blackened skin off the bell pepper. Slice the pepper in half and remove the gills and seeds. Slice the peppers into large 2″ squares.
3. Peel the garlic cloves and thinly slice.
4. Mix the vinegars, wine and water in a sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add the sugar, salt, and oregano. Bring just to the boil then turn down the heat to low. Don’t let it simmer because it will reduce the amount of water and concentrate the acid. Just keep it hot.
5. Pack layers of pepper and garlic slices into clean, sterile widemouth pint jars. Once full, pour over the hot brine.
6. Knock the air bubbles out of the jar by either tapping on the counter or using a chopstick. Clean the rim of the jar with a clean paper towel. Fit the lid and screw on the ring.

At this point, if you are just making one or two jars, put them in the fridge to marinade and eat them within two months. Let the peppers marinade at least 48 hours before tasting. Otherwise, if you want to preserve the peppers, proess in a water bath canner for 15 minutes.

Image stolen from healthy-delicious.com

A surprise in our CSA was 5 lbs of tomatillos. I would have rather had them around when I was making salsa two weekends ago, but better late than never, eh? Unfortunately, there were no tomatoes in the box – this was a mixed blessing. I eyed the mixed bag of chiles that had been accruing in the bottom of our crisper drawer – I had no idea what types of chiles where in there and how hot they were…

I decided to make tomatillo salsa, aka salsa verde, and roll the dice with the chiles. Big mistake.

I planned on making green chile enchiladas. However, after tasting the salsa (OMG!) I had to run to the store and buy mild store-bought green enchilada sauce to cut the heat in my homemade salsa. I used about 1 part salsa verde to 5 parts enchilada sauce. The enchiladas came out great.

Paint-Peeling Salsa Verde

•  5 chiles. If you have a choice in the matter, opt for 3 mild chiles like poblanos, and 2 hot chiles like jalapiños. If you’re looking to take a layer off your tongue, use mixed chiles found in the crisper drawer.
• 10 to 12 tomatillos
• 2 large onions
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 cup stock (vegetable, mushroom or chicken)
• salt
• 1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves
• 1/4 cup lime juice

1. Roast the vegetables: Turn on the broiler to high and give extra time to heat up the oven. Arrange one oven rack at the topmost position and the second oven rack at the bottommost position. Place the tomatillos in a baking dish and put on the bottom rack of  the oven to roast. Place the chiles in a separate pan and place 4 to 6  inches below the broiler. Turn chiles to expose a new surface to the heat of the broiler, about 2 or 3 minutes or until  the side facing the broiler is blackened and blistered. Once roasted, put the peppers in a plastic container or paper bag, to allow the residual heat to steam the peppers. Let the peppers sit for 15-30 minutes to cool. Allow the tomatillos to roast in the residual heat in the oven until their skin splits or looks brown.

2. Prep the Vegetables:  Using a paper towel, rub the blackened skin off the peppers. Slice the pepper in half and remove the gills and seeds. Mince the peppers. Roughly chop the tomatillos with a knife or with 3 to 5 pulses of the food processor. Dice the onions. Mince the garlic. Chop the cilantro leaves. Juice the lime.

3. Cook the salsa: Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Heat the oil to shimmering and add the onions and garlic. Sweat for 5 minutes. Add the chiles, tomatillos, oregano and stock. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until thickened. Allow to cool.

4. In the blender or food processor, puree batches of salsa until smooth. Return to saucepot. Add cilantro and lime. Sir to combine.

Adjust the salt to taste.