Green Thumb Farm Huntington CSA: Huntington CSA **2022 Season** Thursday, June 16, 2022 Week #3

Happy Spring (summer’s not till June 21^st 😊)!

CSA weather report…warm and windy

Important…if you send anyone to the CSA to pick up food for you, please tell them to BRING BAGS!

This email includes…

What you need to know
Watch the movie The Need to Grow for FREE (till 6/18 only)!
Food safety and COVID-19…
Any Ice Cream fans out there?
Get to know your Alliums…always a good idea (did you read the part about Garlic Scapes? 😊!
What you actually got last week
And now, for something completely different…

*Anything in any of our CSA emails not directly related to the functioning of the CSA, feel free to take or leave at your discretion, and anything related to health issues always consult with your physician(s) before taking any action.

1. What you need to know (will be either new info to first-time CSA members, or reminders/old hat to returning CSA members)…

Most immediate helpful hints…

Bring at least TWO bags to the CSA EVERY WEEK for wet and dry food items (and never the twain should meet)
When packing up your CSA food, start at the left side of the long table and work your way to the right and out the garden door. Why? We set out the food to be packed in that order so the heaviest food items will be on the bottom of your bag, and your food won’t get squished (another way to make your food go bad faster), and if you separate the wet from the dry foods you’re doing pretty good on having your food last longer! 😊
When you get your food home, if it’s in a plastic bag take it OUT of the plastic bag and store it elsewhere…even if it’s in another plastic bag (the original bag will be too wet and your food won’t be happy there for long)
Plan on using your food in the order of how long it will reasonably stay fresh (if stored properly). This week…1) Parsley, 2)Lettuce, 3) Radishes, 4) Leeks, 4) Garlic Scapes.

Before you leave the house…BRING BAGS to pack up your food (CSA members are responsible for packing up their own shares) – canvas/plastic/paper…bring whatever suits your fancy. The CSA does NOT provide bags for 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.

The list…this is a general list and you’ll be sent another email within the next week with the detailed list after I get it (which isn’t till the day of the CSA…the list is subject to change without notice because farming is like that! 😊 However, most of the time it’s accurate and if it’s not…usually only one food item will be changed)…

CSA words to live by…when trying any new food you’ve never eaten before…START SLOW!!! Read up about it (make sure it doesn’t interfere with any medications you might be taking or any health conditions you might have), see what traditional/conventional ways it’s prepared (cultures that have been eating certain foods for many years basically have a good idea what they’re doing, and we can learn from that), try a small portion, see how your body/digestive system reacts, and proceed from there. Then try preparing in different ways and see what you come up with, and feel free to ask for suggestion/info/recommendations!

Paraphrased wise words by a nutritionist that I read (and don’t remember where I read it or who said it), BUT it’s pretty smart info regarding eating seasonally in our part of the globe…

Spring… is all about detoxing (what we get from the CSA at this time is a lot of green things that are really good to help clean us out from whatever we accumulated during the winter)

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

Summer is all about being hydrated (the popular summer foods are all full of water…Tomatoes, Lettuces, Summer Squashes, etc.)

Fall/winter is all about storing energy (we get all the dense vegetables…Sweet Potatoes, Winter Squashes, etc…. that are energy powerhouses to fuel us through the winter) to get you through the winter to make it to…Spring!

Week #3

June 16, 2022

Leeks* – 1 bunch
Garlic Scapes** - 1 bunch
Radishes*** – 1 bunch – the Radish tops are edible (see your Veg Info Sheet for recipe)
Lettuce – 1 head
Parsley**** – 1 bunch

Total Items: 5

*Leeks are one of the world’s 100 healthiest foods (good info and recipes)!

https://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=26

**Garlic is one of the world’s 100 healthiest foods (good info and recipes)! And I would imagine any part of the Garlic plant that’s edible, which includes the Garlic Scapes!

https://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=60

PLEASE DON’T MICROWAVE GARLIC SCAPES (or Garlic…ever)!!! Why? One minute of microwaving Garlic (and I’m sure the Scapes as well) turns it from a powerhouse of being anti-cancer, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, good for heart health, and more, to being about as useful as eating a piece of paper (contains some fiber and not much else). On the other hand, takes 45 minutes of conventional oven/stove cooking to do this. And here’s the study this statement is based on…

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12092847_The_Influence_of_Heating_on_the_Anticancer_Properties_of_Garlic

If you let your Garlic sit out for 10 minutes after you crush/chop and then microwave (for no more than 60 seconds), it will restore some of the anti-cancer properties, but not as much as when you use other cooking methods.

***Radish tops are edible (raw or cooked)…take a tip from the Sophisticated Caveman (though we disagree about pre-washing them and how he stores them)! 😊

https://www.thesophisticatedcaveman.com/how-to-eat-radish-greens/

****Parsley is one of the world’s 100 healthiest foods (good info and recipes)!

https://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=100

2.Watch the movie The Need to Grow for FREE (till 6/18 only)!

Free ONLY till midnight on Saturday, June 18^th!

This documentary, produced and narrated by Rosario Dawson, is a story of cutting edge solutions to climate change that includes…wait for it…growing organic food! 😊

Check out the trailer…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pBYu4U525Y&ab_channel=EarthConsciousLife

And then watch the movie…

https://grow.foodrevolution.org/?uid=10&oid=3&affid=127

The “price” for watching this film will be getting emails from The Food Revolution Network (Ocean Robbins vegan group…good people) and Earth Conscious Life (think they produced this film).

3.Food safety and COVID-19…

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…

https://www.seriouseats.com/2020/03/food-safety-and-coronavirus-a-comprehensive-guide.html#covid-on-food

After keeping the CSA going thru 2020 and 2021 (with everyone staying healthy using the simple practices of wearing face coverings, hand washing, and social distancing), this is where we are now at this moment in time…

Face coverings are optional
Hand washing upon entering the theater is STRONGLY recommended (it’s always a good idea in preventing COVID as well as the flu and colds)

Why COVID HATES soap (works better than hand sanitizer or gloves), and we’re talking plain soap, NOT antibacterial soap (the use of which causes antibiotic resistance which could kill us all ☹)…

https://healthmatters.nyp.org/how-does-handwashing-with-soap-kill-the-coronavirus/

We will try and keep the CSA area relatively uncrowded
Enter near the Box Office entrance, and exit thru the door that leads out to the Cinema garden and upper parking lot stairs

4. Any Ice Cream fans out there? 😊

If so, ever tried Van Leeuwen? If not, maybe give it a try! It’s on sale at Stop & Shop for $4.99 a pt. (cheaper than Ben & Jerry’s!) thanks to a hot tip from CSA member Joan Weiss! Not sure what flavors are available (they have a vegan line but not sure if those are available and on sale too). You can also find them at Target, Shoprite, Whole Foods & Walmart (but maybe not on sale 😊).

Why Van Leeuwen? While they’re not certified organic, they’re a local company (Greenpoint, Brooklyn) and they’re glocal! What’s glocal? It’s a combination of global & local, and has to do with people sourcing foods they can’t get locally as carefully as they do with their local foodstuffs. While Van Leeuwen has used NY State milk (not so sure now where they’re sourcing everything these days because they’ve grown since I knew them back when they started and they’re now national), for example, their Pistachios for their Pistachio Ice Cream come from Italy because that’s where the best Pistachios in the world are from (and there’s a good chance they know the farmer who’s growing them (that’s the glocal way 😊)…

https://vanleeuwenicecream.com/our-story/

https://vanleeuwenicecream.com/faqs/

PLUS, our July CSA Culinary Extravaganza will be taking us to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and if there’s room after dinner and a stroll around Transmitter Park overlooking the water, we’ll head over to the first Van Leeuwen brick and mortar store for some freshly made Van Leeuwen Ice Cream treats that you can’t buy in a grocery store (and they’re always having special flavors that you won’t find anywhere else but their scoop shops)!

5.Get to know your Alliums…always a good idea (did you read the part about Garlic Scapes 😊!

Great NY Times article on the whole Allium family…

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/dining/onion-scallions-shallots.html

Over the course of our CSA season we might get Garlic, Garlic Scapes, Leeks, Scallions, and/or Spring Onions.

6.What you actually got last week

Week #2

June 9, 2022

Beets (and Beet Greens)* – 1 bunch - $5.00
Onions** - 1 bunch - $5.00
Asparagus*** – 1 bunch (1/2 lb.) - $4.25
Lettuce: Boston, Red – 1 head - $4.00
Curly Cress**** – 1 bunch - $3.75

Total Items: 5

Total Amount: $22.00

(We pay $20 per week for our CSA share…some weeks we get a bit more, some a bit less. This week, it was $2.00 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 last year it was almost four weeks worth extra so we’re talking almost $80 worth of food we got gratis…it’s all good! 😊)

Herb Share – June 1A

Oregano AND Chives, Garlic

*Beets are one of the world’s 100 healthiest foods (good info and recipes)!

https://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=49

when you get the tops on your Beets you get a two for one nutritional treat because…

Beets tops are also one of the world’s 100 healthiest foods (good info and recipes)!

https://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=151

**Onions are one of the world’s 100 healthiest foods (good info and recipes)!

http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=45

***Asparagus is one of the world’s 100 healthiest foods (good info and recipes)!

https://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=12

***There’s no official Veg Info Sheet on Curly Cress so here you go (want any other suggestions, info – get in touch 😊)…

Cress, Curly

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

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…the Smoothie/Juice and Hummus recipes look pretty good (weights need to be translated as this is from the UK)…

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

Web MD on “garden cress” (basically same as Pepper/Curly Cress)…

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-453-garden%20cress.aspx?activeingredientid=453&

8.And now, for something completely different…

Woman who lived on nothing but pasta, chips, and cheese for past 20 years finally learns to eat fruits and vegetables!

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/woman-fear-fruit-vegetables-cured-hypnotherapy

And they said it couldn’t be done…never say never! 😊

Events…both near and far

Thursday, June 16th

10am to 11am

IEatGreen radio show

To listen to the show live (or listen to the archived programs)…

https://prn.live/

Hosted by Long Islander Bhavani Jharoff. Older shows can be accessed in archives.

Sunday, June 19th

7:30am to 12pm

Huntington Village Farmers Market

228 Main St.

Huntington

From now till November.

Monday, June 20th

6pm to 8pm (they close at 8pm)

CSA Culinary Extravaganza – June edition

Organic Krush

108 Woodbury Rd.

Woodbury

RSVP…

respond to this email with the number in your party (ex. – zoubeck +1), OR leave a voice message including the number in your party at 631-421-4864

Check out the menu (and if you like what you see, get on their email list)…

https://organickrush.com/organic-krush-menu-woodbury/

Feel free to ask me any questions about the menu.

Where is this place? It’s on Woodbury Road, between Jericho Tpke. and Pulaski Rd. (big picture), and it’s just a tad south of railroad overpass on the east side of the road in a small strip mall.

Tuesday, June 21st

10am to 11am

Green Street Radio

WBAI-FM/99.5FM

To listen live or check out the archives…

https://www.wbai.org/program.php?program=365

Join Long Islanders Doug & Patti Wood (founders of the Port Washington Farmer’s Market…the only all organic greenmarket in New York State), in their weekly show featuring conversations on health and sustainable living.

7pm – Volunteers

8:15pm – Drive-thru distribution

Huntington Food Share

Community Solidarity

Fairground Ave. & 6^th St.

Huntington Station

FREE

For more info…

https://communitysolidarity.org/foodshares/huntington

To volunteer…

https://communitysolidarity.org/volunteer

Or to make a donation (they REALLY need a new truck)…

https://communitysolidarity.org/donate/funds

Community Solidarity (formerly Long Island Food Not Bombs) is an amazing group, doing much needed good works. These are the folks our CSA donates food to (and have for the last several years). If you’d like to volunteer, make a donation (they REALLY, REALLY need a new truck), or have need of their services (or know people who might)…get in touch/get information via their website (listed above).

They also need/accept donations of the following…Bicycles, Books, Clothing, Flowers (good for general mental health…taking care of the mind AND the body), Food, Medical Care (is there a Doctor or Dentist in the house? 😊), Plants/Seedlings, School Supplies, Toys and more. For details on donating items, please go to the Home Page, scroll to Donate, and read the appropriate listing (and scroll to Material Goods to see the topics not initially listed)…

https://communitysolidarity.org/

Here’s founder Jon Stepanian’s TED Talk (TEDxNYU) on Community Solidarity and Hunger Relief…

https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_stepanian_community_solidarity_hunger_relief

Thursday, June 23rd

10am to 11am

IEatGreen radio show

To listen to the show live (or listen to the archived programs)…

https://prn.live/

Hosted by Long Islander Bhavani Jharoff. Older shows can be accessed in archives.

Saturday, June 25^th

10am/11am/12pm

Green Thumb CSA Strawberry Picking Farm Tour

Green Thumb Farm

829 Montauk Hwy.

Water Mill

FREE

Pick your tour time, and let’s go! 😊This is one of the two times we CSA Members get invited to tour our farm and get to take something home to eat…for FREE! 😊 It’s a walking farm tour for CSA members and immediate family only! Rain or shine (unless we’re talking torrential rain/thunder storms).

There will be a 10% discount to all CSA Members who take the tour on all purchases made at the Green Thumb Farm farm stand after your tour. Sweet! 😊

Dress appropriately for walking on dirt roads and in the fields (sandals/high heels not recommended), and for being in the sun during peak sun exposure hours (sunglasses/hat/sunscreen, etc.). I’ve never gotten ticks on one of these tours yet, but I’d do a thorough tick check once you got back home (they have a roving band of marauding Guinea Hens that take care of eating most of them I believe 😊).

Planning on going to lunch after the last tour at Barrow Food House in Riverhead (farm-to-table and reasonably priced for the area), and everyone’s invited (they have indoor and outdoor dining options).

Sunday, June 26th

7:30am to 12pm

Huntington Village Farmers Market

228 Main St.

Huntington

From now till November.

Tuesday, June 28th

10am to 11am

Green Street Radio

WBAI-FM/99.5FM

To listen live or check out the archives…

https://www.wbai.org/program.php?program=365