Hellgate CSA

I always had trouble cooking brown rice until I ran across a new method in Saveur. Although we haven't received brown rice in our shares, I cook it so often to go along with other items from our share, I thought it worth posting. This method is very different from any other way I've cooked rice in the past, but it delivers the best brown rice I've ever made!

Hello all Hellgate CSA members and thank you for participating in this year's evaluation of the 2009 season!

Dear Friends of the Farm,

December news from the farm,

We all finally feel a bit rested from the whirlwind of the 3 Thanksgiving deliveries one after the other.  Our backs were pretty tired and we just wanted to do anything but work in the walk in freezer! So the holiday was a welcome respite from the hustle and our family dinner at Uncle Walt’s was a delicious and warm success. We all bring our “usual” dishes with the flair of different recipes each year. This year I made 2 cranberry delights; Mom’s fresh relish with oranges, lime, lemon, cranberries and maple syrup all finely chopped and mixed in the blender and my new blueberry, currant, cranberry and maple syrup compote cooked for about 10 minutes and deliciously juicy. It was a wonderfully warm day and a baseball game and a football game perked up the kids’ appetites. 

To all you goat’s milk drinkers –

This is our last Newsletter of the season. We would like to thank all our members for supporting us and being part of our farm family. Our CSA's have helped us continue farming the land which has been farmed for 12 generations here on Eastern Long Island. Having a market for our certified organic fruits and vegetables throughout the season has been instrumental in keeping us farming. 

Mashed Rutabagas
adapted from several recipes

- 1 and 1/2 to 2 pds. rutabagas
- salt and pepper
- 3 to 4 tbsp. butter
- 1/4 cup of cream
- 1 small shallot, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 2 slices of slab cut bacon(optional), chopped

Here is a soup I've made several times and think is incredible. Leaving out the pancetta is fine as well as substituting bacon. To make the soup vegan, leave out the meat and substitute olive oil for the butter and vegetable broth for chicken broth. Additionally, you could try using rosemary, thyme or sage oil instead of chive oil. This will make a great soup for Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

Celery Root and Apple Soup
(from Bon Appetit online)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 4 cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled celery root (from one 1 1/4-pound celery root)
• 3 cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled cored apples (from about 2 medium)
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion (about 1 large)
• 4 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth
• 1/2 cup chopped chives
• 1/2 cup grapeseed oil
• Pinch of salt
• 3 ounces thinly sliced pancetta (Italian bacon)

Vegetable Share
fennel
carrots
rutabaga
radicchio
celery root
thyme or sage

Fruit Share:
Candycrisp apples
Empire apples
Bosc pears

Meat and Dairy this week, too!
 

The frost this morning was so thick it looked like it had snowed lightly over the fields and trees. It was almost 40 degrees and humid at an early bird hour of 5 a m when we woke to load the van for our first turkey delivery of the season. The Thursday trip this week in divided in half so luckily we were able to practice on a smaller load. There is another trip on Saturday.  The extra freezer space we need to manage four groups of boxes from Stonewood Farm is substantial.