Happy Spring (not really summer till June 21st 😊)!
- What you need to know
- CSA Strawberry Picking
Farm Tour Update
- Food safety and
COVID-19…
- Click activism – you
don’t have to do much, or spend any money, to help make a positive change
in the world
- What you actually got
last week
- Think you’re gardening
organically? Think again…
- And now, for something
completely different…
1.What you need to know (will be either new info to
first time CSA members, or reminders/old hat to returning CSA members)…
Time – 3:30pm to 7:30pm
Place – Sky Room Café in the Cinema Arts
Centre at 423 Park Ave, Huntington
Parking – park in the all the way around at
the back of the building by the day care center (you’ll see a fenced in
playground area with a sandbox)
When you arrive at the CSA –
- Check-in at the desk with our friendly CSA worker
- Read the Wall Chart that tells us every week what we’re getting, how much we’re getting, and what the farm charged us for it…some
weeks it’s take one of everything but SOME WEEKS IT’S NOT!!! So you have
to make sure you read the Wall Chart every week, and not assume anything.
You can also ask your fellow CSA members that are working that day what
the story is for the day (they should have name tags on).
Before you leave the CSA – Make sure you have
everything on the list (like the story of the 3 bears…not too much, not too
little, but just right 😊)! If you get to talking
with people, have kids with you, etc., it can be easy to be distracted and if
you get home and find out you don’t have everything that was on the list,
you’re out of luck because at 7:31pm the food is donated to a local food
organization that’s waiting to pick it up and get on their way.
Veggie info sheets added as needed. This is the link to the: Veggie Info Sheets. Print out, put in a notebook and you end up with a cookbook at the end of the CSA season. Also, there are good tips on storage, prep, and nutrition.
Interesting piece about spring greens (out of the 14 listed,
we get 12 of them with our CSA…watercress nutritionally and botanically similar
to Curly Cress/Peppercress) and detoxing…
http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2012/03/detox-with-spring-greens.html
Week #2
June 10, 2021
- Lettuce – 1 head
- Strawberries* – 1 pt.
- Cress: Curly (also known as Peppercress/Garden Cress)**
– 1 bunch
- Kale (greenhouse)*** – 1 bunch
- Jerusalem Artichokes – 1 bag
Cilantro**** AND Oregano*****
http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=32
Cress, Curly (also known as Peppercress and Garden
Cress)
It’s speecy spicy, very good for you, and goes well in small
amounts in any salad, sandwich, wrap for starters…read on…
https://harvesttotable.com/cress_cress_is_a_common/
https://www.healwithfood.org/health-benefits/garden-cress-nutritional-benefits.php
Web MD on “garden cress” (basically same as Pepper/Curly
Cress)…please read if you have any underlying health conditions
(diabetes, low blood pressure, etc.)…
Pepper Cress – tangy/spicy herb that can be used raw in
salads, on sandwiches or wraps and you can toss a small amount in at the end of
a stir-fry or cooked recipe to give things a bit of a culinary punch
http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/peppercress
Peppercress Aioli…
https://food52.com/recipes/10884-peppercress-aioli
more Peppercress recipes…
https://www.florettesalad.co.uk/recipe-category/peppercress
more recipes from a place that does Peppercress Sprouts more
than growing them in soil outdoors…
http://www.urbancultivator.net/learn-about-peppercress/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_cress
***Kale is one of the world’s healthiest foods (good info
and recipes)!
http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=38
****Cilantro is one of the world’s healthiest foods (good
info and recipes)!
http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=70
*****Oregano is one of the world’s healthiest foods (good
info and recipes)!
http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=73
2. CSA Strawberry Picking Farm Tour Update
Check the events email for more details but the basic new
info is (and any additional info will be added as I get it)…
- Tour times begin at
10am, 11am, and 12pm
- Please RSVP to the farm
by calling 631-726-1900 between 9:30am and 4:30pm Monday to Sunday
- For last minute
planners…you can call (starting at 9am) before leaving for the farm and
probably still be able to attend
- CSA members attending
the this event will be able to get a 10% discount on purchases at the farm
stand (this discount is available to our CSA members on farm tour days
only)
- If you have a home
garden, or plant things in pots, keep in mind that Green Thumb Farm has
their own certified organic farm grown vegetable and herb plants for you
to purchase and add to your garden
Watch writer J. Kenji Lopez-Alt (son of a Harvard University
geneticist and immunologist, grandson of a chemist, and author of Food Lab:
Better Home Cooking Through Science), talk about COVID-19 and food safety…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkvw9lZ3v3I
And read in more detail here…
Tell Home Depot and Lowe's to remove
toxic herbicides from their shelves and replace them with products that promote
least-toxic practices…
https://secure.everyaction.com/Uk4HdNd820u2XdqKrw4VmQ2
Week #1
June 3, 2021
- Lettuce: Romaine AND Leaf, Red – 1 head of each -$5.00
- Strawberries* – 1 pt. - $6.25
- Arugula – 1 bunch - $3.75
- Kale: Siberian, White** – 1 bunch - $3.50
- Onions: Spring*** – 1 bunch - $4.25
Total Items: 5
Total Amount: $22.75
(We pay $20 per week for our CSA share…some weeks we get a
bit more, some a bit less. This week, it was $2.75 extra. Doesn’t sound like a
whole lot, but it adds up over the course of the CSA season. We seem to always
get at least one CSA share’s worth of food every year that we didn’t pay
for…some years two, and some between one and two…it’s all good! 😊)
Flower Share - #1
Sweet Williams
*Strawberries are one of the world’s 100 healthiest foods
(good info and recipes)!
http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=32
**Kale is one of the world’s healthiest foods (good info and
recipes)!
http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=38
*Onions are one of the world’s 100 healthiest foods (good
info and recipes)!
http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=45
6.Think you’re gardening organically? Think again…
There’s a LOT more to growing “organic” food than just not
spraying pesticides (check out the NOFA organic standards book at the CSA
sometime to see what’s required to be a certified organic vegetable farm).
Does your “organic” fertilizer have toxic sewer sludge or
other harmful chemicals in it that can then get into the “organic” food you’re
growing?
If you want to be (or are) an organic gardener, I HIGHLY
recommend you consider joining NOFA-NY (the organic certification group that’s
been certifying farms, like Green Thumb Farm, LONG before the federal
government got involved). It’s only $45 for a basic membership and you get a
lot of proverbial bang for your buck (and support certified organic farming in
NY)…
https://nofany.org/about-us/become-a-member/
One of the things I like the best is their yearly listing of
all certified organic farms in NY by county.
And the next step is to consider attending this year’s
virtual NOFA Summer Conference (which includes all seven NOFA member
states…including NY)…
https://nofasummerconference.org/
While a lot of this is geared toward farmers, there’s ALWAYS
workshops for the home gardener/cook/food activist. Some of the speakers this
year include Elizabeth Henderson (one of the founds of one of the first CSAs in
the USA back in 1986…who I’ve met a number of times over the years…a great lady
😊),
and Lee Reich (if you have any interest in growing fruit…he’s your man…have
attended a workshop at his place upstate and ALWAYS worth hearing what he has
to say).
Events…both near and far
Saturday, June 19th
10am to noon
CSA Meeting – Get to know your CSA, and your Strawberries!
Cinema Arts Centre
Sky Room Cafe
423 Park Ave
Huntington
RSVP so we know our seating/spacing limits, and how many
copies of materials to make, by responding to this email or calling
631-421-4864
10 to 10:15 – gather and optional recipe swap (bring a copy
of a recipe for something you’ve used in the past 2 CSA Shares and we’ll make
copies for everyone attending!)
10:15 to 10:30 – What’s a CSA (and what it’s not)? And…a
brief history of Green Thumb Farm
10:30 to 11:30pm – Good Eats episode – Strawberries (recipes
from the show will be given to those attending)
11:30am to 12pm – chat time and raffle drawings…ask any
questions regarding the CSA or the food we get, future meetings, restaurant
outings, etc., and there’s TWO raffles - one for new CSA members, and one for
rejoining CSA members (no attendance required to win).
Saturday, June 26th
10am, 11am, OR 12pm
Green Thumb Farm
2 Rose Hill Rd (and Montauk Hwy)
Water Mill
FREE
For more info and to RSVP:
631-726-1900 (call between 9:30am and 4:30pm)
Directions are basically to go past the Green Thumb Farm
farm stand (if you’re headed east), make the first right and the first driveway
to the right is the path to the farm tour. Park along the road and walk down
the path and there should be a sign-in table right there.
Barrow Food House
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