Hopefully your CSA pick-up day is quickly becoming your favorite day of the week. There is nothing better than the taste of fresh vegetables…especially when you have new ways to prepare them! It’s very easy to make the same things over and over again…I often find myself on auto-repeat when it comes to meal planning, but it’s always way more fun to eat something new. Even if it’s just a simple side dish, it can really change the flavor of a meal and turn something familiar into something fresh and exciting! This week we’ve come up with a number of side dishes that will allow you to use some (if not all of) your veggies so that you can really take advantage of what spring in the low country has to offer your palate.
Green Goddess Quinoa
www.tastespotting.com
The amounts in this recipe are not exact because a dish like this is meant to be made with handfuls of green, drizzles of this, and pinches of that, all of which will be different from person to person. Adjust everything accordingly.
You can prepare all of the components ahead of time and toss together right before serving.
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked quinoa
wild arugula, a generous handful
1 avocado, peeled and cubed
1 cucumber, diced
kale, sliced into slivers and dropped into boiling water for about 30 seconds
2 green onions, sliced thin
2 hardboiled eggs, cubed
english peas, about a handful, cooked
anchovy vinaigrette
salt and pepper to taste
For the vinaigrette:
1 or 2 large cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 small shallot, chopped
2 anchovy fillets
salt
pepper
handful of parsley leaves
juice from 1/2 lemon
2-4 tablespoons warm water
pinch of sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
Directions: Place all ingredients in a food processor on medium speed until combined.
Alternatively, very finely mince the garlic, then mash with a fork with the anchovies, salt and pepper. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk to combine.
Toss all of the ingredients except the vinaigrette, salt and pepper in a bowl to combine.
Drizzle with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of vinaigrette and toss.
Taste, add more vinaigrette if needed. Season with salt and pepper.
Zucchini Pasta with Heirloom Tomato Sauce
www.roostblog.com
For the Sauce:
4 cups chopped heirloom tomatoes (or any Sweetbay Tomatoes)
1 small shallot, coarsely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic
3 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup coarsely chopped basil
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
5-6 medium zucchini
salt and pepper
Put the first five ingredients into a high speed blender and blend until smooth. WIth the blender running, slowly pour in the olive oil and continue blending until fully emulsified. Transfer to a bowl.
Trim the ends of the zucchini. Using a spiral slicer or vegetable peeler, slice the zucchini into ribbons or curly noodles. Toss with sauce, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with pine nuts and some extra basil. Enjoy!
Serves 4-6
Shredded Napa Cabbage Salad with Radishes, Golden Raisins, and Dijon Dressing
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
2 tablespoons sugar
1 head napa cabbage
4-5 radishes, thinly sliced
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh chives
coarse salt and pepper
Whisk together vinegar, mustard and sugar. Toss together cabbage, radishes, golden raisin, and chives. Drizzle dressing over salad. Season with salt and pepper.
Radish Butter
This simple veggie spread will knock you out first with its speckled-magenta beauty. Then you’ll be impressed by how it synthesizes the old-school delight of peppery, cool radishes from the garden, dabbed with a dot of good butter and a pinch of salt. Spread it on a baguette, unsalted crackers or crunchy romaine hearts.
1/2 pound radishes trimmed
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, completely softened
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Thinly sliced baguette
Put the radishes in a food processor and pulse until the radish is chopped into a very fine dice, four or five 3 second pulses. Transfer the contents to a length of cheesecloth or a double thickness of paper towels and wring out the excess liquid. Transfer to a medium bowl and add 4 tablespoons of butter. With a rubber spatula, cream the radish and butter together, adding more butter 1 tablespoon at a time, until the mixture comes together in a smooth, pliable mass. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, sprinkle the salt and pepper over the top, and serve immediately. Remove it from the fridge 15 minutes before serving it to let it soften. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the radish butter before serving.
Our Local Foods Urges You to Support Walk for Autism-Charleston
In addition to selling the Autism Ribbon Floor Puzzles, we would like to encourage you to participate in the 2010 Walk for Autism-Charleston on Saturday April 17th at Hampton Park. Registration begins at 9:00 am and the Walk begins at 10:00 am. Registration is $15 for an individual or $20 for a family.
Refreshments will be provided with live music, jump castles, a sensory play area, therapy dogs, sponsor tables with information on autism, crafts, and more. Haircuts by Great Clips will be available and there will be a great silent auction to support Walk for Autism-Charleston.
See you there!
 Coming to a field near us! |
The folks from Outstanding in the Field (www.outstandinginthefield.com) will be setting up their famous “Long Table” at Thornhill Farm on Sunday, September 26, 2010! Their mission is to re-connect diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it. Outstanding in the Field is a roving culinary adventure – literally a restaurant without walls. Since 1999 they have set the long table at farms or gardens, on mountain tops or in sea caves, on islands or at ranches. Wherever the location, the consistent theme of each dinner is to honor the people whose good work brings nourishment to the table. Ingredients for the meal will be almost all local, with much of the produce coming from Thornhill Farm. The meal will be prepared on site by award-winning Chef Sean Brock, of McCrady’s Restaurant in Charleston with the Our Local Foods team providing the assist! We encourage you to come join us and have a wonderful day on the farm! |
| We are so proud the folks from Outstanding In The Field have chosen to include Thornhill Farm as part of their 2010 National Tour. We are also grateful that a portion of the proceeds from this event will benefit Thornhill Farm’s resident non-profit organization, Adaptive Gardens of the Lowcountry. Please visit www.outstandinginthefield.com to learn more or to purchase tickets. | |
First Annual Local Music on the Farm A Big Success!
Thank you for attending our first fundraising event in support of Adaptive Gardens of the Lowcountry!
Thank you for attending our first fundraising event in support of Adaptive Gardens of the Lowcountry!
Coastal Caterers, Clammer Dave’s Sustainable Gourmet Seafood, GP Sound, Livingston Seafood, High Hammock, McCrady’s Restaurant, McClellanville Rentals, Meadors Construction, Pearl Cadwell, Sun Bay Logic, Town Museum of McClellanville, Trident Tech Culinary Program, Queen Anne’s Revenge, Beth & Jerry Zink, Holy City Sinners, Skye Paige & the Original Recipe, The Hungry Monks, French Toast, the Toasted 
Beets, Wando High School Special Needs Class, Tom Knisley, Julian Levin, Thomas Beach, Guy Artiguse, the Staff of Our Local Foods, and all our cherished volunteers.
Beets, Wando High School Special Needs Class, Tom Knisley, Julian Levin, Thomas Beach, Guy Artiguse, the Staff of Our Local Foods, and all our cherished volunteers. Also a special thank you to all of you who came out and made it a great day – we hope you’ll come have fun with us again the next time we have such a wonderful event hosted here at Thornhill Farm.
Thank you!
Maria
Kitchen Table Cuisine (KTC)
Our Local Foods, LLC is pleased to announce the opening of it’s latest Direct-to-Consumer Food Service, Kitchen Table Cuisine. This members only service provides delivery of locally sourced food items for healthy at home meals. Local farms, food purveyors and producers are being sourced to provide a convenient way to enjoy fresh and healthy at home meals. A minimum monthly order insures custom ordering and availability. Our Weekly Organic Produce CSA, which is a separate program, will continue as usual, on a seasonal basis, to include fall, spring and summer. Membership is open to everyone, and registration is open now. Ordering begins on September 1, 2009!!
The Monthly Delivery will be comprised of items you select from the following categories:
- Grass Fed Beef, Pork, Chicken and Lamb
- Farm Fresh Eggs from our own free range chickens
- Fresh dairy products to include grass fed dairy milk and goats milk
- Fresh goat cheese
- Fresh, locally made pastas
- Locally grown rice, grits, and other grains
- Locally roasted coffee
- Soup of the month
- Sausage of the month
As always, we look forward to serving you the best in local food!!
Summer days are still around, but our minds are making the slight shift to thoughts of cooler days - shuckin’ and shaggin’, back to school nights, homework and pumpkins! The fall CSA registration is officially open, and we are planting and preparing to deliver farm fresh certified organic vegetables to you this fall. Our planned fall lineup includes late summer goodies - squash, beans, tomatoes, cukes, eggplant and okra. Field peas, fall greens, such as kale and mustards, and salad greens, such as arugula and spinach will accompany them. 
We plan to bring delicious apples from the mountains, and our own winter squashes and pumpkins as well. Other goodies, like grapes and figs just happen to be on the way. We’ll do our best to keep it interesting this fall. We’ve also launched our monthly delivery program, Kitchen Table Cuisine. Beginning in September, Our Local Foods will provide an array of locally produced and procured food items, including grass fed and pastured local meat, in a monthly ordering format. For more information, check our website, or call us at 843-887-3500. Thank you for supporting the farm that supports Adaptive Gardens of the Lowcountry. We are proud partners with this Coastal Community Foundation Project on Thornhill Farm!
And thanks to Meg for getting all of the vegetables to grow in the right shapes, and then to line up for the photograph!
- Maria
The spring palate of greens and turnips and delicate bulbs of all things “baby” is finally giving way to the long anticipated summer sluggers…tomatoes and melons are just around the corner. But the bridge to that long awaited season of plenty is showing up in garden rows and farmer’s markets now.
Zucchini is the celebrated staple of the CSA box this week. It is here to stay for awhile, and so why not celebrate? What will we do to keep ourselves from growing tired of the ordinary and keep the love affair with zucchini alive for at least a few weeks?
Our recipe suggestions this week include three ways to enjoy this hearty and unrelenting power veggie of the season, ZUCCHINI!
Our Local Foods and Chef Sean Brock from McCrady’s Tavern in historic Charleston, SC celebrated the garden this week in an extraordinary way. We hosted “dinner on the porch” as fulfillment of a pretty classy auction item from the coffers of the local fundraiser circuit.
The wonderful meal consisted of vegetables freshly harvested from the damp rows that afternoon, as they were hastily collected in the rain for the evening event.
Guests arrived just as the rain subsided to find the table all set with linens and candles on the screened-in front porch of the cabin that will become our farm store. Mini-lights and citronella lanterns filled the space with a soft welcoming hue of light that said “settle in for a comfortable evening with the chef…”.
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This question arises often in my mind. Now, I know what I eat, and most of the time, I am satisfied that I am meeting my nutritional requirements. But when I’m super busy, or when I look around at the supermarket checkout, or notice what folks are leaving with from the “farmer’s market”, I have to ask the question.
How do we do it? The food guide pyramid suggests we consume more dark green veggies and more orange and red veggies. Whole grains are recommended over processed ones. Simple grilling and baking is suggested above other methods.
Fresh greens
Try preparing simple meals using fresh ingredients and whole foods.
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Planning your meals around what’s in season can be a tasty experience and satisfying way to enjoy food. It may be daunting to imagine only utilizing fresh food that’s growing nearby, but here are some tips that may help:
- Purchase seasonal foods in enough quantity to last for several meals.
- Wash and cook what you purchase right away.
- Use the freshly cooked ingredient in several meals by creatively adding it to different dishes.
- Divide and store in the refrigerator to be used throughout the week.
Let’s take an example from OurLocalFoods at Thornhill Farm. We’ll plan a few meals around a yummy seasonal item from the CSA box!!
Our spring garden is in full bounty of seasonal greens. We have an abundance of Curly Mustard, Russian Red Kale and Turnip Greens. Yummm!
Let’s cook two pounds of curly mustard. Wash the beautiful lacy chartruese leaves and leave in the collander to drain. Finely dice some garlic or shallots. Heat a tablespoon of fresh green olive oil in a large wok or saute pan. Have a half cut fresh lemon for the finish.
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