Organic Needle

I’m Being Squashed by the Great Pumpkin

Posted by organicneedle in CSA/ Local Food, csa, recipes

I currently posses a pumpkin, a giant butternut squash, 2 acorn squashes, a sunshine squash, and what appears to be a confused pumpkin. I do not posses, however, even one measly idea as to what to do with them all. This is a cucurbit crisis people!!!!! (OK…I totally just wanted to show off my years of botany study. That 2 seconds of impressing the pants of you cost me tens of thousands of dollars. Fake your awe if you must.)

A Cure for Those Eggplant Blues

Posted by organicneedle in CSA/ Local Food, csa, recipes

I haven’t done a CSA update for awhile. Honestly the past few weeks have been rough because I have had to heavily supplement my share with the markets. Lots of fruit…not a whole lotta greens. So I haven’t been feeling the inspiration. One thing, beside bushels of zucchini which apparently has the world’s longest growing season, we have been getting by the butt load is eggplant. Yup…eggplant. Not a fan of eggplant?  Me neither. Now I don’t mind an eggplant parm now and again, but for the sake of not being shaped like an eggplant, I keep that at the scarce end of diet frequency. I made two huge batches of ratatouille for the freezer which is okay…but labor intensive for an okay kind of meal. I made babaganoosh and it got tossed after a week of everyone pretending they couldn’t see it in the fridge. So what am I to do with nature’s unappreciated bounty? Are you ready….drum roll please….I hide it. Well…it is a little more involved than that. I slice the babies in half, slather them in olive oil, add a touch of salt and pop them in the toaster oven under the broiler. I spend the next 30 minutes thinking about how cool my hair would look feathered with a snazzy sparkly bow accent. I then simple pop the bad boys into the stew pot with the rest of the basic tomato sauce gang…tomatoes, garlic, onions, & basil. Puree the whole gang with my immersion blender. Not only does it hide the eggplants, but it actually gives a nice body to the sauce. I can leave the sauce a little on the fresher side, spend less time cooking, and still get a good rich sauce. You can simply send your fan mail to Organicneedle.com.

CSA Update: My New Friend Purslane

Posted by organicneedle in CSA/ Local Food, csa

Meet my little friend Purslane. Not much to look at, but darn tasty and apparently quite the little power hitter. Loaded with Omega-3s. I will say my new friend, although good for me, is a tad high maintenance. It took me about 20 minutes just to pluck the leaves off. It took the boys about 20 seconds to devour the harvest. But they LOVED them. (Yes…they defy then laws of toddlerdom each and every day with their veggie freakitude, but they’re my little freaks.)

Also included this week:

Red Gold Potatoes…creamy and delicious, chives, carrots, cucumbers, 1 lone tomato, more, yes more zucchini, an eggplant, mystery peppers, a big bag of apricots and one bag of peaches

*The positive…besides meeting a new little green friend, is that this is the first week I can remember in the history of the world that we ate entirely local fruit. Up until now we have been getting a few pints of berries that are lucky if they see the inside of our fridge, let alone feed us for the week. I have had to ration the fruit to 4 pieces a day per kid to make it last the week, but it looks like we have had our first local/seaonal fruit week. Taaadaaaaaa.

* The negative…can’t say the same for veggies. Potatoes…delicious but a starch. Eggplant same deal. Zucchini goes straight to freezer. Carrots and cucumbers go in the snack category. Chives…garnish/enhancer. Tomato…baby is allergic and big brother won’t eat as an act of solidarity. That leaves me with the green peppers which may be hot or sweet. I will definitely eat everything that came but will need to supplement the green zone. Oh…wait..I still have swiss chard from last week. Won’t the kids be thrilled.

Freezing My Niblets Off For Winter

Posted by organicneedle in CSA/ Local Food, csa, projects

I’ve aways lived a slightly crunchier than average life (hippie parents)…nothing extreme. Grew up not wasting stuff or energy, buying used, recycling, eating primarily grains and veggies, etc. etc. (Isn’t it funny how “greenness” comes hand in hand with being poor?)The basics were there…just needed fine tuning. However, the whole local eating thing is fairly new to me and a wee bit of a challenge. My mother was taught to cook by her Mexican stepmother and she in turn taught my brothers and I to love the flavors with a passion. (Hence my insane avocado addiction. Blame her.) Also…my childhood was heavily influenced by the flavors of Norway and Poland. Now I’m married to an Italian. And all these cultures demand a voice in my cooking…and don’t care that the ingredients can’t necessarily be grown locally. Now…whereas I am not willing to give up my little green creamy pods of joy or smoked fish, nor my husband his olive oil and “real” pasta, I can’t say Omnivore’s Dilemma was completely wasted on me.

Even with the best of intentions, I do have a major issue though. NYC is not the easiest to go local. Especially year round. This summer we have made huge strides with the CSA. My out-of-area produce list has been reduced to lemons, bananas, and creamy pods of joy, and apples, which do grow here but not organically….but more rant on that later in the week. But come November we are done with the sweet ride. (Yeah, yeah, CA…stop shaking your winter tomatoes in my face. I know all about your extended growing season.) So will I just give up over the winter? Well, probably…but not without a half-assed attempt at goodness. I’m going to let some summer goodies spend some time with my buddy Bumble. I’ll be freezing zucchini, carrots, rhubarb, & corn. (Maybe berries if I can stop piling them into my trap before they even get out of the CSA box.) What else is easy to freeze? I mean easy. Like a cat could do it if you drew detailed enough pictures easy. And not a very bright cat. With a touch of narcolepsy. And perhaps a missing toe.

Eco-Frustration & Stuffing My Ice Cream Hole at Bellvale Creamery

Posted by organicneedle in CSA/ Local Food, organics, product review

You didn’t think I was done with my Upstate adventure tales yet, did ya? Well…this one required a lot of hard work and sacrifice on my part. Paid a little visit to Bellvale Farm & Creamery & had to eat what was perhaps the most delicious ice cream ever made…and saw the moo moos who produced it munching out in a field. Yep…they’re grass eaters. Now why is this such a big whooptidoo that I got to consume a weeks worth of calories while pretending to be contemplative about its source? Well…because it threw me for a little loop. I happened to just be reading the section of Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma that featured Joel Salatin’s argument about truly sustainable verses industrial organic. Now here is the deal. Bellvale is NOT organic. If a cow gets sick, they treat it. And I’ve made it a goal to stick to organic dairy - because that is better, right?. But what is organic? Here is a farm that treats their cows pretty darn well by dairy cow standards, practices responsible land and even poop management, and keeps its doors and policies completely open to the public. Verses my carton stamped organic from an unknown source. The teacher part of me is thrilled to have such a clear and tasty example fall right into my gelatto hole as I’m learning to ecofy my diet. (Feel free to borrow the new word.) The lazyass in me thinks when will it ever f***ing get easier to figure out what to feed my family? The truth is it will never be easy because there are just so many options and variables. Now I’m not expecting to get all the answers from one book, one store, or even one farm…but the experience has so wiped out the smug confident feeling I have reaching for my little organic brands without ever doing a lick of research as to the source. One thing is clear- I will need to do extensive research by tasting every ice cream ever made to ensure I am making the best choice. Where did I put those stretchy pants?

Foxy Lettuce Uses Their Heads?

Posted by organicneedle in CSA/ Local Food

Hehehehehhhe. Oh that’s a good one. Get it HEADS. Whooooo….

Anyway…learned another little tidbit, besides how to rock a zucchini’s world, on my adventure up North. First a little background info for those of you living in year round veggie paradise. Farmers cannot provide year round constant produce in NY. Therefore, they can’t get contracts with the local grocery stores, most of which are chains even in small towns. All those contracts go to huge companies, like FOXY, that drive stuff across the country from CA. This pretty much blocks local farmers from selling in stores literally at the edge of their own property. Farmers’ markets have always been a part of life during the growing season, but most farmers can’t make ends meet without larger guaranteed buyers. So many farmers have been closing shop. But, surprisingly, with the rising fuel costs comes an opportunity for some little guys. Apparently it cost Foxy about $9000 in fuel…yes fuel alone…to truck a load of lettuce from CA to NY. That’s a lotta lettuce! They decided to actually start using local farmers to grow for them a little closer to the stores they are supplying. The farmer whose onions we were harassing is one who has managed to actually stay in business. How? By growing for Foxy lettuce. Now…there are still more miles on the food than necessary. His lettuce gets chilled and boxed right on his farm and then is sent to PA for Foxy packaging and then redistributed throughout the tri-state. More miles than it needs…but a lot fewer than coming from CA. It is definately a major carbon savings…even if it is just for the season.

And…very importantly…it allows another small farmer to keep his land & livelihood. A perfect solution? No…but it seems like a decent one in an imperfect market where people expect food of all seasons all year regardless of where they live. (Not being a Judgy McJudgerson here….I buy avocados all year round….not sure I’ll ever be able to kick that one.) What do you think? Is this a viable way for farmers to stay in business or is it still the problem of a few mega farms running the show even if they are not actually farming the land? Also…if it was costs Foxy $9000 in fuel to get a load here…which they must still do during the winter months…and lettuce still only costs $2-4 dollars a head….how much could a farmer actually be making?

When the World Gives You Lemons…You Pick Onions and Make Some Zucchini Bread

Posted by organicneedle in CSA/ Local Food, csa, family, projects

Okay…we can’t all be Hallmark writers, now can we? Well, last week, for the 2nd time in about 6 weeks, my husband was shipped out of town last minute once again at the whim of one of his bigger clients, let’s call them Snike to conceal their identity and protect my husband from running into the wrong end of a rouge sneaker. So off to Portland he went while I scrambled to think of entertainment for the wee folk. What to do…what to do…..when will I get to poo? Hey maybe I should write for Hallmark.

I have an aunt, we call her Aunti, who lives about 1&1/2 hours north of the city who has a fairly liberal open door policy, a big yard, and a lot of farming friends. Perfect. Off we go. First we unleashed the little city boys on the black dirt.

They had a ball pulling onions for Daddy’s welcome home gift and getting dirt into nooks and crannies they didn’t even know they had. (More on the owner of this farm later in the week.)

Oh…and did I mention that my CSA has been providing a disturbing amount of zucchini? Well…that was the other reason for my visit…get my hands on THE RECIPE. When I called Aunti sniveling about the woes of a fridge full of zucchini that my kids were not digging roasted or sauteed, she laughed out loud at me. Make zucchini bread Dingbat. Tough love in my family. So I packed the 87 zucchinis and took them for a ride to her oven. With a little help from my gremlins I managed to tranform the inedible veggie drawer filler into scrumptious little wonder loaves. And because no one should have to suffer zucchini season alone…I will share.

Aunti’s Zucchini Bread

• 3 eggs
• 1 cp oil (I think 1/2 apple sauce would work well in this one. I’ll keep you posted)
  
• 2 cps grated zucchini
• 2 1/2 cps sugar (Yikes! I know….I am going to tinker with this over the summer with reduction and honey.)
• 2 tsps cinnamon (I think nutmeg might be a tasty addition too.)
  
• 1 tsp salt
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1tsp baking powder
• 3 cps flour (The original calls for all white but I think it could handle some ww swap.)

350 for an hr in 2 loaf pans or a bundt.

****Options**** 1 cp choc chips, raisins, walnuts….you get the idea. The chocolate is really goooooood.

Thanks to that little recipe I no longer fear the seemingly endless zucchini season. In fact I have been grating and freezing the extra in 2 cp bundles so I can enjoy it even post season. It is amazing what a little chocolate can do to even the dullest of veggies. The kids were right all along.

Hey…That’s My Farm!

Posted by organicneedle in CSA/ Local Food, csa

The NY Times wrote a little blurb about MY farm, Golden Earthworm, and the growing interest in CSAs and other local goodies. I feel so proud …even though I have never even held a hoe…well…..

Anyway, read the article for some actual encouraging news!

That’s Farmer Matt. If you like to fantasize about veggies or their handlers….and I know you do, check out Golden Earthworm’s site and blog. They have tasty photos of all kinds.

Don’t forget to enter your name in the comment section of the Teetotaler post if you are interested in a free tea bag and being one of my little lab monkeys. I will announce the winners Monday.

I Survived The Cheese!!!!!

Posted by organicneedle in CSA/ Local Food, blogtastic, sewing

While not a raw milk drinker, I am a raw cheese eater…well any kind of cheese eater…bit of a cheese whore. In fact, I did a major happy dance when my CSA announced the they hooked up with CSA Pastured Meat & Poultry which brings upstate farm goods to us greedy little city dwellers. So when Tuesday Crunchy posted about the quandary of raw milk and the potential banning I must say I became more than a little concerned. Cheese is art…and therefore should not be messed with because a handful of farmers didn’t practice clean and safe handling. Fortunately, yesterday was the CSA’s first CSAPM&P delivery and you bet your sweet caboose I ordered myself a pound of the good stuff…1/2 raw milk cheddar and 1/2 raw milk firehouse jack. The cheddar we happily nibbled and the firehouse made a tasty little tostada. Maybe our enjoyment was heightened by the idea that we may not always be able to get raw cheese legally, but it was gooooooooood. Aren’t you impressed that I didn’t say gouda? ( I would have taken pictures of the potential contraband but it was just too hard to balance the camera and shove cheese in my cheddar hole with both fists at the same time.)

Well…I won’t keep you in suspense…we all survived.

Well except for that set of horns growing out of my head…probably nothing…I’ll just dab a little Neosporin on it and I’m sure it will clear right up. Just a little Rawmilkcowheadidous. Very catchy. You had better not eat my cheese…just to be on the safe side.





The camembert flies with the bunny….10 pm…sharp.

CSA Week 3: WTF

Posted by organicneedle in CSA/ Local Food, csa

WTF? (Organic kohlrabi may look like it wants to take over the planet but it is actually edible and quite tasty!)