Red Acre Farm CSA

What’s In Your Harvest Basket This Week:

• Cabbage
• Eggplant (on rotation)
• Tomatoes
• Summer squash
• Bell Peppers
• Peppers,Big Jim,Banana,Jalapeno,
• String Beans (family shares)
• Onion
• Sorrel
• Peas (you pick)
• Grapes, from Sterling farms,Leeds (conventionally grown)

Fruit Share:

• Rhubarb, Suffers from an identity crisis.Sunset’s “New Western Garden Book” describes rhubarb as an “uncommon vegetable” that’s used as a fruit in sauces and pies. Joy of Cooking is even less polite, saying “Only by the wildest stretch of the imagination can rhubarb be included in this [fruit] chapter, but its tart flavor and its customary uses make it a reasonable facsimile, when cooked, of fruit.”
• Grapes, from Alis Organics
• Grapes, from Sterling farms,Leeds (conventionally grown)

No sugar rhubarb pie

The thought of sugar free rhubarb recipes makes your lips pucker. But, sugar free recipes that use rhubarb are easier than you think. For example, take rhubarb cake recipes or rhubarb muffin recipes. When directions call for sugar, replace it with fruit juice concentrates or mild tasting fruit, such as pears or Delicious apples. Here’s a sugar free rhubarb pie recipe that will make you a believer.

4 cups diced, raw rhubarb
2 cups diced peeled sweet apples, such as golden delicious
1/3 cup apple juice concentrate
1/4 cup unbleached flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon grated orange rind

Line a pie pan with pie dough. Stir the rhubarb and diced apples together and arrange them on top of the pie shell. Combine the remaining ingredients and sprinkle them over the fruit. Dot with 2 tablespoons butter (optional). Cover the pie with well-pricked pie dough or with a lattice. Bake the pie in a 450-degree oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!

Rhubarb spice pancakes

Colorful and tasty, these pancakes are like rhubarb cake, only less sweet. Try them for breakfast or dinner. To two cups of your favorite pancake batter, fold in the following ingredients:

3/4 cup finely diced rhubarb
1/2 cup applesauce
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger

Cook batter on a hot skillet and serve with yogurt, maple syrup or your favorite fresh fruit, jam or jelly.

Ideas for Eating,Cutting,Cooking and Keeping the new stuff:

Cabbage, Cabbage is 90 percent water (only 15 calories per 1 cup serving), but still delivers a significant dose of vitamins A and C, calcium, potassium and magnesium. It’s purported to be a great digestive aid and intestinal cleanser as well. Cabbage is thought to be the most globally cultivated of all the plants in the Brassica family, and is eaten in almost every country around the world. It’s nourished humanity for centuries, whether in the form of kimchi or sauerkraut or good old slaw.

We harvested the wrapped ones earlier and saved them for today.

They will store well in your fridge in a plastic bag or plastic wrap for weeks.

Eggplants, I love this vegetable. Why because of the many ways it can be eaten! Grilled,smoked,fried,marinated,sauteed,At the share holder dinner last year we rolled it around homemade ricotta and smothered it in a tomato sauce and baked it. Amazing!

We grew 10 varieties this season. Several of them are coming on:Rosa Bianca ,they are the beautiful white and violet streaked plump ones.An Italian heirloom with a mild creamy taste.Fairy Tale,miniature eggplants with the same color as the Rosa Biancas but are long and thin,and are non-bitter, with a tender skin and few seeds. Ping Tung from Taiwan,thin long purple,and sweet. Japanese, these look just like the Ping Tung only taste will tell.Brazilian oval orange,very small oval fruit ,orange with green streaks.Of course the more common ones are in abundance those plump black beauty’s.

If using within a day or two, store at cool room temperature:otherwise, refrigerate in an open plastic bag.

We appreciate all your support,weeding,helping,coming to the farmers market and learning to eat what is in season.

THANK YOU

What’s In Your Harvest Basket This Week:

• Celery
• Onions
• Tomatoes (grown in Leeds and St George)
• Scapes
• Garlic
• Beets
• Tarragon
• Basil
• Rainbow Swiss Chard
• Scotch Kale

Fruit Share:

• Grapes
• Plums
• Apricots (done for the season)
• Lemons(conventionally grown)
• Mint

The grapes are organic,beautiful, and sweet. Excellent with cheese.We have been making honey mint lemonade with the last of the lemons and wanted you to have some too!

Ideas for Eating,Cutting,Cooking and Keeping:

The greens are almost gone feel those baskets getting heavier? With all the greens for so many months we have a habit of using bags even when we do not need to.So please reuse or do not use a bag for everything unless needed.

Celery,a handful of celery stalks ,hopefully a good amount to season up a soup, stir-fry, or to add to a platter of crudités.

But beware the Ranch dressing! I once heard of a guy who wanted to lose some weight. He went on a celery diet, because apparently it’s such a fibrous vegetable that your body burns more calories chewing and digesting it than it gains from the celery itself. This man – a friend’s grandpa – ate celery day after day, but ended up gaining weight. The moral of the story: if you want to lose weight, don’t dip your celery in the jar of Ranch dressing!

it’s not as succulent as something store-bought from California, but I also think it has a much more intense flavor – in a good, sweet way. A little will probably go a long way.

Onions, You can count on these on and off for the rest of the season. Store in an open plastic bag in the fridge in the crisper to keep longer put in a mesh bag and hang in a cool dry place with good air circulation.We use an onion a day! I know that not everyone uses onions. So put yours in the basket for another share holder to take.

Garlic, keeps well in a paper bag in a dark dry place away from heat.

We are half way through the season! I have never had time pass by so quickly. So much to learn and all of it needs to be done yesterday!
I really thought I wrote the newsletter last week….
We did have a very successful first downtown farmers market last week.
The kids are weaned and we have plenty of goats milk. Email us for share day or pick up 24/6 in the back fridge. We have cow keifer and goat yogurt too.

I hope you are loving the summer rain and rainbows as much as we are…

What’s In Your Harvest Basket This Week:

• Romaine lettuce
• Chives
• Peppers(anaheim and banana)
• Tomatoes (the last of the heirlooms)
• Garlic
• Sorrel
• Swiss Chard
• Red leaf lettuce
• Onions
• Carrots
• Summer Squash (on rotation)

Fruit Share:

• Plums, A trio of,red,purple and golden inside and out.
• Apricots
• Fresh organic flowers

The dark purple plum is from a friends tree in Las Vegas ( she traded us for tomatoes).The best plum I have had. Reminds me of the ones we would eat when were kids.

The first Down Town Farmers market was today. We have sponsored it along with the USU extension office and the Downtown Alliance.It is wonderful to see local food so in demand.I hope you will all come enjoy and be supportive . Share day and all we did for the market, no wonder this did not get written!

At least it is here for the record.

What’s In Your Harvest Basket This Week:

• Heirloom tomatoes (same as last week from Quail Hallow Farms a CSA in Logandale Nevada)
• Apricots (local from Ali’s Organics in La Verikin)
• Scotch Curled Kale
• Garlic
• Red Wing Lettuce Mix( seed from Baker Creek)
• Sorrel
• Red Iceberg
• Rosemary
• Basil
• Oregano
• Squash ( on rotation M-P)
• Broccoli(on rotation)
• Peas (You pick)

Fruit Share:

• Red Currants (Grown at the greenhouses in Ft Hamilton)
• Plums
• Figs
• Apricots Again!

Red Currants, We picked these and I see why, if you find them at a market they are $20 a lb! Enjoy them in a salad,in yogurt, they can be made into a jar of jam or are excellent dried.

Every thing else came from http://site.alisorganics.com/ in La Verikin.

Ideas for Eating,Cutting,Cooking and Keeping:

No more Asian greens until Fall.We can have a taste of Italy this week.Pasta with 3 herbs and garlic. Or just slice those beauties and put fresh local Mozzarella (6.50 a lb from Nature Hills Farm) , sprinkle herbs and garlic, drizzle olive oil and balsamic. Fantastic!

American could be a possibility too.BLTs, Burgers with that fresh garlic in them on the BBQ.Slice tomatoes and yes Red Iceberg lettuce.

Tomatoes: What a great week to get a taste of Summer early. No one has tomatoes here.Our dear friends and mentors at Quail Hallow Farms a CSA in Logandale were up for the weekend and brought these perfect heirlooms to us this time. They sell to the chefs at the Bellagio in Vegas. We feel blessed. Enjoy!

Heirloom: Something of value handed on from one generation to another. Typically, a more than fifty year-old

variety in fruits and vegetables.

Varieties you have been choosing from,Green Zebra,Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge,Woodle Orange,Tsars,Brandy wine,Black Oxheart. These were not ever grown to look perfect or be uniformed. And definitely not meant to be stored,kept,gassed ripened on the truck ,shipped or bounced.They are thin skinned,fragile,and ripen fast. You ripen on the vine,pick and bring them in the house if they make it that far and eat them !

Apricots, When we can we like to put in fruit if it is local and organic.These are both.

Kale,Scotch,An older more used type.Do not be afraid even if you have never tasted or used Kale and only seen it as garnish on the Chuck A Rama salad bar ! Try a new recipe there are so many excellent ones and easy to find online under one of its many names.Great in a smoothie,or bake and have Kale chips,steamed, sautéed, in soup, or raw. Store in the fridge in plastic bag.We need everyones in put on this. Please submit and respond to new recipes!

A few tidbits of kale trivia:

Kale is a form of cabbage in which the central leaves do not form a head.

Kale is the hardiest vegetable on the farm, withstanding (and in fact, improving with) hard freezes.

During World War II, the U.K. launched its own kale crusade via the Dig for Victory campaign (similar to the U.S.’ victory gardens). The vegetable was easy to grow and provided important nutrients that were in short supply due to rationing.

Because kale can grow well into winter, one variety is called ‘Hungry Gap’ – named for the winter months when precious other crops are available to harvest.

In Scotland, kale was such a staple in the traditional diet that the word “kale” in dialect Scots is synonymous with food. To be “off one’s kail” is to feel too ill to eat.

Garlic,Must be planted between September 1 and the 15th then over wintered. Wa La, here it is 11 months later that is longer then it takes to make a baby!

Lettuce,the Red Wing mix is the most beautiful we have ever grown. It is from a store we love to support,Baker Creek. http://rareseeds.com/ This young (under thirty)family is worth reading about. They are in the front of the movement for non gmo. Please purchase from them they have more then seeds, an excellent magazine and the most artistic catalog out there just order it to have on your night stand or end table. Red iceberg, I know how boring.This variety is rare and usually red and almost a chocolate color.I was hoping that it might have more vitamins since it had color.I grew this 2 years ago and loved it. I grew it in the greenhouse this year and it does not have the same color but taste just as good.

Herbs,Oregeno,Basil and Rosemary,How kind nature is to give us the the best combination of herbs all at the same time and tomatoes too!They are pricey in the super market and

we will continue to have herbs through out the season.Learn to use and cook with them. You need so little and they can make such a difference in flavor. Keep moist in a Ziploc in the fridge oregano and rosemary will last for weeks or dry any of them and use later.Basil is personally my favorite herb.Great in and on everything,raw,cooked or smoke it!It is all good. Store it in the fridge in its baggie,but beware basil will turn black in your fridge after a few days,so use it while it’s perky and green!

Summer Squash,coming on slow.Then we will be screaming for mercy and not know what to do with Zukes the size of small children. Still on rotation. Please read and be sure it is your turn to take squash.

HELP ON THE FARM

Thank You again for a beautiful,productive work day on Monday.It was cool with a light rain and clouds shading us most of the day. Literally showing up from sun up to sundown we had help. We came in around 7 and knock knock one more family helped until dark.We could NOT do this with out your help.

It warms my heart when we hear one Mom say “get to work this is where your food is from”Our oldest and eldest share holder came by and ask for the most difficult row.She took her antihistamine and went to work ,left and came back to finish “her row” When we ask her why she said”because I want you know how much I love my vegetables”

Adopt a row worked very well last year. In our field we have 23 rows 90 feet and 7 that are shorter if a family,couple or group would take a row or half a row and be sure it is kept weeded it would make a huge difference.You may come 24/6 . 24 hrs a day except for Sunday.It is our one day of rest.Do not worry if you do not know how we will teach you in 5 seconds.

We are learning and becoming better at farming every day .We are so excited if you can believe this for next season.Farming is one of those things where you are living 6 months in the future and every day in the moment – all at once….

Enjoy!

What’s In Your Harvest Basket This Week:

• Summer Squash,(on rotation)
• Bulls Blood Beets
• Detroit & Bulls Blood beet greens
• Carrots
• Stir Fry Mix
• Hakurei Turnips
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Swiss Chard
• Scotch Kale
• Sorrel
• Red Wing Lettuce Mix (seeds from Baker Creek)
• Cimmarron Romaine ( is an heirloom from the 18th century. Also called Little Leprechaun.)
• Curly Cress

Fruit Shares:

• Strawberries (pesticide free)
• Lemons( conventionally grown in the orchard that Lynn’s brother lives in)
• ? Tangerines,Ventura Ca
• Pixie Tangerines,Ojai Ca.
• Apricots (local Leeds)
• Stock, flowers that smell great from the fields in Ventura Ca.

I am blessed to still have my dear Dad around,alive,healthy,and still going strong.His nick name was “Red Wright” he grew up farming in upstate New York and one of the reasons we are named “Red Acre”.We celebrated his 90th birthday on Sunday at his favorite restaurant on the beach in Ventura California.

We went the “back way” stopping at as many farms as we could to learn,visit and forage for our fruit shares.It felt good to see that the good news with real estate coming to a halt is that there is still open space,farm land and food being grown locally in Southern California. The strawberries and lemons are from the same farm as before. The Tangerines are Pixies from Ojai and the other variety I failed to remember.We tasted both and disagreed as to which one was the best. All farmers with faces and just picked fresh fruit.

Ideas for, Eating, Cutting, Cooking , and Keeping the New stuff:

Beets First thing’s first with beets: don’t throw away the tops!They are not WEEDS! Beet greens are a sister to Swiss chard (they are, in fact, almost the same plant except beets are bred to develop a fat storage root, whereas chard is bred to produce leaves). Beet greens can be enjoyed a million ways, just like chard, kale, or any other cooking green. In fact there’s a great recipe – – that uses both your beet greens and your beets in a risotto.Please, Symbria put that one on the exchange! Like other roots, the root of the beet will last the longest in the fridge if you cut the greens off and store them separately in plastic bag. If you don’t get around to eating your beets right away, never fear: they’ll hold up for weeks in the fridge. “If you’ve ever read Tom Robbins Jitterbug Perfume, you know the magical powers of beets.”I know I love beets especially roasted! But am yet to read this book.

Summer Squash Just a sampling of what is too come.On rotation means ,that only those with the last names that begin with A-G take there share this week. We continue to rotate through the season.

Stir Fry Mix A smaller version of the Asian greens you have been getting individually this season but in a seed mix,smaller a bit wilder and no Tokoy Bekana .Nancy, a Share Holder shared this excellent recipe for any green. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Wilted-Asian-Greens-108352

You keep asking and we keep telling you, YES, we love ,adore appreciate and NEED help. So many of you have come and continue to come regularly to work. Just let us know time and day or if it is something you or your family wants to do specifically. Harvesting ,planting etc. what ever. Last year we had Families that adopted a row and weeded that row for the entire season.We just can not say THANK YOU enough.

We support local and are in debt to the Shakespeare festival for giving this community an opportunity to see the best.We are so fortunate to have talent from all over the country right here in such a small town. The festival has been so good to us.Last year they wanted to purchase potatoes for “Diary of Anne Frank” We loved having a few Share Holders from the festival last season but this year we have even more: actors,costumers,and more. They let Sara put a flier in every ones mail box this year!

Their season begins this week. Tickets are half off to Iron County residents Monday through Thursday, day of the show.Go if you have been before,go if you have never been. Do not miss it, take family,take a friend take company that’s visiting. We will see you there.

Supporting local together with you,

Symbria,Sara, and Lynn