Big Woods Farm CSA

• Fresh-shelling beans – Taylor Horticultural, an heirloom variety.  To use these beans, first shell them and then simmer in water for up to 45 minutes, or until soft.  Add to any pasta dish, or simply toss with olive oil and a little salt.  Let us know what you think of them!
• Carrots – They’re back
• Celery
• Garlic
• Greens: Mustards (Valley Natural) or Bok Choi (MPLS)
  
• Shallots – – these are mild and can be used like onions.  They are especially good in salads, salad dressings, and sauteed added to dishes.  They are often called for in French recipes.
• Sweet Peppers
• Radishes
• Tomatoes
• Winter Squash: Acorn – some are a new “personal-size” (small) variety.
• Apples – organic management of apples is a tricky business, so we let our apples fend for themselves.  This is a year when they appreciated our benign neglect.

Posted under Share Contents on September 22nd 2011
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• Fresh-shelling beans – Taylor Horticultural, an heirloom variety.  To use these beans, first shell them and then simmer in water for up to 45 minutes, or until soft.  Add to any pasta dish, or simply toss with olive oil and a little salt.  Let us know what you think of them!
• Green or Red Cabbage  (Coop) – stores well in a bag in fridge.
• White Turnips (Farm) – tender, tasty; good roasted or boiled and mashed; cook the greens too
• Beets – both red and golden; try the Sauteed-Steamed Beets at the bottom of the beet recipe page on website
• Carrots – remove greens before storing in the refrigerator
• Celery
• Greens: Mixed Mustards – we recommend this recipe: Greens Braised w/ Ginger, Cilantro and Rice recipe
• Arugula – try adding it to a grilled cheese sandwich.
• Bulb onions – cipollinis and others
• Radishes – French Breakfast and Cherry Belle
• Hot Peppers – Anchos are the larger dark green ones; the small, hotter ones are jalapenos and Super Chilis
• Sweet Green Peppers
• Herbs: Italian parsley
• Tomatoes
• Garlic

Posted under Share Contents on September 19th 2011
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• Melon – refrigerate these.  The cantaloupes are tender enough for a spoon, but the  sun jewel melon (yellow & white striped) and honeydew melon (white smooth melons) are crisp and should be bitten into or cut off the rind.
• Watermelon – these watermelons are either yellow or red.
• Beets - – Beets – mixed bunch of heirloom beets. Orange are Burpee Golden and and striped are Chioggia from Italy.  Their greens are tender too, good for eating
• Greens – Broccoli Raab. These Italian mustard greens are tender, tasty and slightly sharp greens.  Taste first for use in a salad;  otherwise, they are great sauteed with a little garlic and olive oil.  The bunch may seem very large to you, but these greens cook down quite a bit!  If the cut end of the stem has a white center, cut the end higher so that no white center shows (the white pith is stringy).
• Cucumber and Fennel (farm)
• Eggplant and tomatillos (Coop)
• Herbs: Dill
• Green Onions (= scallions)
• Sweet Pepper(s)
• Hot Peppers – jalapeno and/or narrow serrano
• Tomatoes: heirloom and red slicers
• Tomatoes: processing/salsa/sauce in plastic bag. These tomatoes have less juice and make great sauce and salsa.
• Tomatoes: cherry
• Summer Squash

Posted under Share Contents on September 6th 2011
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• Celery – this is some more nice Minnesota Celery, stronger than California-grown celery.  It is particularly good in soup.
• Melon (Mpls) or Watermelon (Valley Natural) – refrigerate these.  The cantaloupes are tender enough for a spoon, but the  sun jewel melon (yellow & white striped) and honeydew melon (white smooth melons) are crisp and should be bitten into or cut off the rind.  The watermelons are either yellow or red.
• Garlic
• Green Onions (= scallions)
  
• Cucumbers
• Sweet Pepper(s)
• Hot Peppers – jalapeno and super chili (this second kind of hot pepper is small and very hot!).
• Greens – Young Broccoli Raab. These Italian mustard greens are tender, tasty and slightly sharp greens.  Taste first for use in a salad;  otherwise, they are great sauteed with a little garlic and olive oil.  The bunch may seem very large to you, but these greens cook sown quite a bit!
• Greens – Arugula.
• Broccoli or Eggplant – MPLS only
• Cucumbers and sweet onion – Valley natural only
• Herbs: Basil
  
• Tomatoes: heirloom and red slicers
• Tomatoes: processing/salsa/sauce in plastic bag. These tomatoes have less juice and make great sauce and salsa.

Posted under Share Contents on September 1st 2011
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• Celery – this is some more nice Minnesota Celery, stronger than California-grown celery.  It is particularly good in soup.
• Sweet Corn – farm pickup only (Coop had corn last week).  This corn is on the small side, and this is not the best corn year for us.
• Cucumbers
• Eggplant – farm pickup only.
• Greens – Young Mustard Greens.  These are tender, tasty and slightly sharp greens.  Taste first for use in a salad;  otherwise, they are great sauteed.
• Greens – Arugula.
• Melons – Sun Jewel – this is a yellow and white striped Asian melon.  The flesh is sweet, but a bit hard for eating with a spoon.  It is best sliced and eaten out of hand, or else in chunks cut off the rind.  The flesh is sweet all the way to the rind.  The Coop pickup has a Sun Jewel melon, while the farm has a choice of melon or watermelon.
• Onions
• Garlic
• Sweet Peppers – bell and apple (smaller, red)
• Hot Peppers – jalapeno
• Summer squash
• Tomatoes:
  - Hoophouse-grown – 1 quart in paper basket
  - Field-grown – 1 bag
  - Cherry – 1/2 pint for Coop pickup only
  - processing/sauce/salsa – 1 bag.  These tomatoes have less juice and make great sauce and salsa
• Herbs: Basil – 1 bag – good for making pesto

Posted under Share Contents on August 29th 2011
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Today’s share (8/25/11) includes the following:

Cucumbers – both regular and Asian
Garlic
Greens: Swiss Chard – use this in stir fries, casseroles, quiche
Greens: Arugula – great in salad and in pasta
Summer Squash – a mix of green zucchini, as well as some yellow & green summer squash
Onions – sweet Walla Walla onions
Sweet Peppers: green bell and sweet Italian (long & pointy)
Hot Peppers: Jalapeno and Serrano – these should be in the tomato basket (see below)
Slicing tomatoes: 1 or 2 heirlooms in green basket
Slicing tomatoes: variety of field tomatoes in bag – these may be not quite ripe, so if there seem too firm, set on your kitchen counter for a few days until they ripen up
Cherry tomatoes – orange and red
Herbs: Dill
Herbs: Bag of Basil (good for making pesto)

Posted under Share Contents on August 25th 2011
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