Renae Writes: No-Noodle Zucchini Lasagna

The picture does not do it justice--I am not a photographer! Notice it is a little watery as I would suggest dabbing the zucchini with a paper towel. As we near September, the bounties of the field are at their peak (hence the scheduling of the annual Taste of Sunshine event this Saturday, August 28!).  This time of year calls for numerous "celebrations of the harvest."  This week, I decided to challenge myself to my own celebration of the harvest by cooking up a new recipe using the veggies that you will be getting in today’s CSA share.

Although I don’t get a formal CSA box each week, I do consume my fair share of veggies.  Sometimes, however, I lack in creativity.  I will grab a couple veggies or a mix of greens and call it a simple meal.  I find it difficult to want to turn the oven on in an already heated house!  Last night the crisp August air accompanied with the full moon felt right.  I turned the oven on after collecting some veggies from the field and some products from the Sunshine Farm Market.  After a little work, I turned this week's box (plus a few more ingredients) into a no-noodle lasagna, a salad, and a strawberry-watermelon freeze.  A field report and a dinner plan in one!  

We challenge any of you brave CSA members to take all the contents of any given week, use every item, and creating a scrumptious meal.  If you attempt or complete this we would love to hear about what you come up with.  Maybe we could even get you toshare it with the rest of the CSA members!  A CSA recipe/meal plan swap.  What more perfect people to share with than others that go home with a grocery bag full of the same veggies.  Send your recipes to veggies@thesunshinefarm.com.

No-Noodle Lasagna

• 1 eggplant
• 4-5 large tomatoes, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2-3 large zucchini
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 lb ground beef (Sunshine Farm Beef available at the Market!)
• ½ t ground black pepper
• 1 small green bell pepper, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 4 carrots, chopped
• 1 cob of corn (sliced off the cob, I know it is hard to justify cutting up that fresh corn and baking it)
• 2 Tbsp chopped basil
• 1 Tbsp chopped oregano
• 1 egg
• 1 container of Sunshine Farm chevre (if we're out, try Sunny Pine's chevre)
• 2 Tbsp chopped parsley
• ½ bunch of Chard
• .5 lbs of Greenbanks mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease a deep 9 X 13 inch baking pan or similar size Corning Ware with glass top.  
2. Put diced tomatoes in a saucepan with the minced garlic and simmer for 45 minutes. 
3. Roast eggplant:  Cut in half, make slits in flesh and sprinkle with salt, let sit for 20 minutes and dab moisture with rag.  Brush with oil, sprinkle with dried/fresh oregano and place with flesh down on cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.  Let cool.
4. Slice zucchini lengthwise into very thin slices.  Sprinkle slices lightly with salt, set aside to drain in a colander.
5. Cook and stir ground beef in large skillet over medium – high heat for 5 minutes.  Add green pepper, carrots and onion.  Cook and stir until meat is no longer pink.  Stir in tomato sauce and basil.  If it gets too thick add a little red cooking wine or water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer sauce for ten minutes. 
6. Scoop eggplant out of peels, chop eggplant and place in a medium size bowl.  Add the egg, chevre, corn and parsley.  Mix together. 
7. Chop chard, place in sauce pan to simply wilt.  
8. To assemble lasagna, spread half of the meat sauce into the bottom of prepared pan.  Then layer half the zucchini slices, half chevre mix, all the chard, then half the mozzarella.  Repeat by layering the meat sauce, zucchini slices, chevre mix, and mozzarella. 
9. Cover with foil or glass cover.  Bake for 45 minutes, increase heat to 350 and bake for 10 more minutes.  Let sit for 15 minutes and serve.

I started with a recipe from www.allrecipes.com, then revised itin order to pack in some more veggies and to make use of the products we have here at the market.  I experimented with our own chevre which was a nice touch, not quite the chunkiness that ricotta normally adds but creamy nonetheless.  I used the dill chevre which made this a three herbed lasagna, dill, parsley, and basil.  I must admit it the three complimented each other well but I may suggest using a basil, garlic, or parsley chevre.

This meal would go well accompanied with a mix of salad greens and my seasonal favorite Strawberry-Watermelon freeze.  It sounds fancy, but it's easy to do.  Scoop out the innards of half a watermelon (trying to discard any seeds) and place in a freezer bag for half the day, or longer.  Wash and cut the greens off a pint of strawberries.  Place strawberries and frozen watermelon in a blender and pulse for about a minute and enjoy.  Nice and refreshing after a hot day in the sun.

Rachel Writes: Succession Planting

I was looking at the weather report early this morning.  98 degrees today!  But then by Saturday we’re supposed to be back down to 78 as a high.  Time to plant spinach, I thought.

We have a “Crop Book” that we’ve put together which lays out the plan for how and when we plant each of our vegetable crops.  Most planting dates are decided on in January and February.  On the spinach page, we set the first three spring planting dates by the calendar, but the fourth planting is a little more variable:  “Plant on the first cool spell in August,” it says.  We usually get one such cool spell and here it is.

Spinach doesn’t germinate well when the soil temperature is above 70 degrees.  Even though the air temperature won’t be quite that low, we might be able to keep the soil temperature down by shading the spinach bed with shade cloth on wire hoops, plus irrigating every day at least a bit.

It seems like kind of a lot of trouble, but spinach is a high value crop for us, which makes it worth it.  If this planting comes up, we should be harvesting spinach by the third week in September.

The next planting of spinach is scheduled for mid-September, when the soil has cooled down.  We’ll get one or two pickings off of it in late October and then leave it to sit during the winter.  Spinach is a hardy crop, which can survive winters here without any protection—though we may decide to throw some hoops and row cover over it to give it an extra boost.  In the spring, it will start to grow again, and we’ll be able to start harvesting in March or April.  We’ll also be putting some spinach in our high tunnel, which will give us something to harvest in the dead of winter.

The majority of our crops are planted multiple times a year.  The exceptions are things like pumpkins, eggplant, and peppers, which we only plant once.  But to keep a steady supply of vegetables coming out of the field, we have to plant most crops in multiple successions.  We plant salad mix and arugula every week; head lettuce and cilantro every other week; beans, carrots, and beets every three weeks; and so on.  We get a succession of corn by planting varieties with different maturation dates several times a year.

All this succession planting can get complicated, but it’s one of the things I like best about growing vegetables.  It keeps your mind engaged, while the physical work keeps your body engaged.  I love the challenge of keeping a consistent supply of  fresh vegetables on our shelves and in your CSA box. 

Right now we’re involved in the challenge of scheduling winter plantings in our high tunnel in order to extend the season as long as possible.  Renae is trying her hand at this plannint work this winter, so we’ll keep you updated on how she’s doing!  At the very least, we will be selling a 6 week winter share and it’s not too early to sign up for yours.  Through the deep of winter, I’m hoping we’ll be able to continue to provide boxes at least once in a while that contain fresh greens from our high tunnel….including some of that yummy spinach.

Succession Planting. You can see month-old beans on the left, brand new beans next to them, and Renae preparing a bed for yet another planting of beans. On the right is a young sucession of corn, while another sucession grows in the field in the background.

Renae Writes: Accepting Change

Renae bringing in the onion harvest.Change is inevitable, I know.  But after finding myself in the third season of growing vegetables, I still have a difficult time with the mid-summer transition!  A change from beautiful spring salad greens, broccoli crowns to the summer crops that just don’t quite seem satisfying at their early stages.  It is this small window where Rachel and I ask, “What can we grow next year so we don’t have this gap?” But before we know it we are up to our shins in red tomatoes and can’t keep up with the zucchini. 

The summer fields are established and ready for continual harvest until a frost (a long ways out, I hope).  These crops include corn, beans, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and eggplant.  The lettuce green, carrot and beet beds are being continually turned over and put into cover crop for the winter, as new successions of lettuce greens, carrots and beets are sprouting up.  And not far behind are the fall crops of broccoli, cabbage, and rutabaga that will reappear soon in your CSA box. 

Cover cropping is one change that I find myself getting excited about.  I love the process of putting the beds to rest and replenishing the soil for the bounties of future crops.   Cover cropping is a tool used to help promote good soil fertility through managing soil quality, water, weeds, pests and the list goes on with many other benefits.  The management is done through planting a crop that nourishes the soil with what you want.  Different crops benefit the soil in various ways.  The cropping that I most recently planted was a mix of vetch and rye seed. Vetch, a legume is a crop that converts nitrogen gas in the atmosphere into soil nitrogen that plants can take up and use.  It is slow to grow but will persist through the winter and provide the bulk of the leguminous nitrogen the following spring, right in time for spring planting.  Because it is a slower growing plant there is a rye seed mixed in.  The quicker growing rye seed helps with weed suppression and acts as a mulch through the winter and breaks down adding organic material to the soil. 

As we have already said goodbye to the mid-summer transition I need to help be reminded of all the beauty this time of the year brings.  Thoughts of next year’s planting in the form of cover cropping while slicing open a watermelon from this year’s crop.  It is this, the continual change and continual learning, that gets me out of bed before the sun rises!

Daniel Writes: Working in the Heat

With the position I’m in, it’s pretty easy to take care of myself.  I have access to plenty of water, I’m able to choose from a plethora of organic food, I spend plenty of time outdoors, and I’m only a bike ride or bus ride away from all sorts of recreation.  I am fortunate to be young and healthy.

The dog days of summer have begun.  Even though this is probably considered a mild summer, for me the heat just takes some getting used to.  My uncle Mark once told me something very simple, but thinking about it comes in handy on days like this: he said, “Everything is only as hard as you make it.”  Badda bing, badda boom; livin’ is easy and so is workin’ in the heat.  I wish.  But, no doubt his simple words touch on some sort of interconnection between thoughts, feelings and actions.  If I feel like a struggling leaf crop in the heat, I’ll probably drag my heels.  However, if I’m as happy to be alive as the corn is on a scorcher, I can view hard work as an opportunity to have a good sweat.

It just takes a bit of planning, like drinking plenty of water and getting plenty of rest.  And, on the really hot days, making time to jump in the lake during my siesta.  :)



The Sunshine Farm CSA Program

We are nearing the end of our fourth season of the CSA program here on the farm.  It’s been a fantastic CSA year.  We’ve had fun growing the food, and we’ve had lots of good comments from our members, many of whom return year after year.  It’s hard to believe we only have two more CSA boxes left after today.  It’s already time to start thinking about next year!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with CSA, let me explain.  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  CSA programs all over the world link people directly with a farm that grows vegetables especially for them.  CSA is sometimes called a “subscription farming” or a “box program.”  The way it works is you sign up as a member and then receive a “share” of vegetables every week throughout the season.  CSA members make one upfront payment in the spring, which helps us cover production costs for the year.

Some CSA programs include both fruits and vegetables in their share, but right now our CSA program is by and large vegetables (the exceptions being the strawberries and melons that we grow right alongside our veggies). A weekly share is generally enough food to feed a small family or two vegetable-loving adults.  Each week you get about ten different items and the produce easily fills a full grocery sack.  If a share is too big for you, you can consider splitting a share with someone else.  We can help you make arrangements!

All the vegetables in the CSA share are grown right here on our farm, in our certified organic market garden.  We have grown between two and four acre of vegetables each year, depending on circumstances (like whether or not we have a new baby!).  The CSA has ranged in size from 30 members its first year to 72 members in 2008.  In 2010, we plan on having 40 to 50 members.

Grandpa Toad picking up his CSA share. The board behind him lists what’s in each week’s share and the veggies are laid out for him to select. This happens on the east end of the market each Tuesday from 3:30 to 5:30. You can also choose to have your share packed for you to pick up any time during the week that’s convenient for you.You can ask some of our current members, but joining a CSA will pretty much guarantee a small revolution in the way you cook.  Instead of going to the grocery store armed with a grocery list, you will start your menu planning based on whatever is in your share that week.  There is no better way to get more vegetables into your family’s diet and force you to learn about the whole range of vegetables that can be grown here in North Central Washington, from kohlrabi to celeriac.  (We do grow favorites like tomatoes and sweet corn of course too!)  To help you out as you’re learning to cook all these new foods, we give each new CSA member a great cookbook called From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm Fresh Seasonal Produce.  This cookbook, which is also available for sale in the market, is written specifically for members of CSAs.   It has a section of recipes for each different vegetable, listed in alphabetical order.  We’ve had many comments that this book is “just what was needed.”

The summer season CSA runs for 20 weeks from mid-June to mid-October.  The cost in 2009 was $500 for the season.  (We will finalize the season and cost for 2010 later this year.)  This year we’ve  also added a Winter Season CSA that will run for 6 weeks from the end of October to the beginning of December.  The winter share will be a mix of storage crops like potatoes, carrots, and onions, plus greens that we grow in our high tunnel.  We still have a few spots left in the winter CSA if you’d like to join!

If you’d like to sign up for the summer season CSA for 2010, a $100 deposit will hold your spot.  Membership is limited and shares are sold on a first-come, first-served basis, so don’t delay!  For more info, you can visit our website or contact Rachel Evans at 509-670-8958 or Rachel@sunshinefarmmarket.com.