Salubrious Solstice, Karmic Kwanzaa, and Welcome Back the Sun!

I like winter holidays, no matter what they are called. Christmas, Kwanzaa, even Santa Lucia Day, I like them all, though I’m not too fond of winter. Or, perhaps it’s because I’m not too fond of winter. It’s cold, grey, and miserable outside, so the only sensible thing to do is have a celebration to cheer us up.

Some of the traditions of the holidays are very, very old, coming from Solstice and Juul (Yule) celebrations, good old pagan holidays that probably started to keep people from losing their minds on the long, cold winter nights as much as to practice a little sympathetic magic, just to give the sun a nudge, to get it to come back so spring and the growing season would also return.

Others are new but have an old air about them, like Kwanzaa. Personally, I like it because it involves candles. I’m probably the only person in St. Teresa’s parish who faithfully lights a chanukkiah (a menorah just for Hanukkah) every night of the Jewish holiday of lights, and if I had a Kwanzaa candleholder, I’d light that nightly, too. Kwanzaa originated in the 1960s as a way to connect with African roots and has many traditional harvest celebration elements to it. Food and light: That’s what every good winter holiday needs.


We’re right in the middle of Roman Saturnalia, which was celebrated from December 17 to 23, and was a time of merriment, gift-giving, and making amends and new starts. Slaves weren’t punished, citizens were ridiculed, and there were parades, masked dances, and a King of Saturnalia--similar to the Lord of Misrule who turned up in the middle ages. They also ate a lot, special foods that might be generally hard to get.

I like that aspect of winter holidays, too. I always have enjoyed making old-fashioned foods for holiday feasts, maybe not Roman specialties, but things like mince pie and plum pudding and springerle cookies, and serve what were once special treats in the middle of winter, citrus fruits like kumquats, always found on our Christmas Eve table. As that fellow in “Fiddler on the Roof” once said, “Without our traditions, we’d be as shaky as a . . .” Well, you get my point.

Light a fire. Eat an orange or a cookie. Light a candle. Curse the darkness, if you need to. But celebrate the turning of the seasons, because the Solstice/Christmas/Kwanzaa/Hanukkah/New Year’s holiday also marks the sun’s return, and we can start counting the days until it’s time to sort seeds, then plant them in the Enright CSA gardens. Happy Solstice!

“Feed”back, So to Speak

I am tickled to report that the Enright CSA blog has gotten a little feedback from the entry last month that asked what people had made for Thanksgiving using farm produce, I am delighted to report. Another entry got a great response, too—“Remind me not read this when I am hungry!” Ah, then I must be doing something right, talking about all this great food we grow in Price Hill.

Now, for reports of what folks made with CSA or homegrown products for Thanksgiving—just to give you some ideas for Christmas, Hanukkah, or New Year’s feasts. It sounds like sweet potatoes were a common theme:

From Amy Stross: This year I made a sweet potato cake from homegrown sweet potatoes—turned out moist and delicious---perfect amount of sweetness.

Sweet potato cake—I never would have thought of that, but it sounds quite taste-tempting.

From Deborah Jordan: Still feeling the glow although slow to respond, but yes, I took a sweet potato dish to our family gathering - with cranberries and walnuts, etc. Love those sweet potatoes. And, on a preserve the harvest note, I finally bought a dehydrator so have been experimenting with that. Cheers!

I’ll add that on the preservation topic, I am definitely going to be making pickled squash again, with plenty of cloves in the pickling mix. They were a big hit at a night-after Thanksgiving leftover party we attended, as was the baba ganoush made from Enright eggplants. But the squash was really something different and very tasty, unique and delicious. I’m going to be ready for the onslaught of summer squash next year, because now that it’s all gone, I am wishing I had pickled more of it to enjoy all winter.

Now, keep those cards and letters coming, as they say. How are you enjoying the December bounty from the farm? I had some tasty steamed and sauteed mixed greens, or as we like to call it, "bacon delivery system," with dinner last night. And we had a nice salad the other day, made from lettuce and arugala with clementine segments and goat cheese. That would be tasty with the addition of roasted radishes or beets from the CSA, too. It's just wonderful to still have fresh local food to eat when it's almost the Solstice!

Playing with Your Food: Radish Reenactments and Twirled Turnips

I will admit that the only reason I am writing this blog entry is to use this great photograph at left. Someone who obviously had a few too many radishes apparently decided to carve a nativity scene from the roots, and this was the result, I guess. Since we're expecting radishes in our serendipitous December pickup, I thought I'd post the photo in case you too are looking to make Christmas decorations from farm products.

Of course, there are better things to do with the produce. Nancy Sullivan found an article about roasting radishes in the NY Times and though I love radishes raw with butter on them, I have to say that roasting them also sounds pretty tasty to me, for a holiday dinner garnish or just a nice snack.

Now, we're also expecting to get a few turnips in the pickup, and my mom and I were discussing mashing turnips with potatoes, which is kind of a way of hiding the fact that you are serving turnips. I have nothing against turnips myself, but some people do, and you can get them to eat them just by cooking them with potatoes, mashing them together, and adding some milk, butter, and salt.

Then I found a recipe for turnips mashed with sweet potatoes. Well, not exactly mashed with them, mashed separately and then swirled together. I like food that looks lovely, and I am picturing this looking very much like the orange and cream colored circus-themed bedroom my sister and I shared in the mid-1960s. Ooh, dating myself there. Anyway, I think I have to try this one; it's pretty easy and quick, too.

Sweet Potato and Turnip Swirl
1/2 pound turnips, peeled and cubed
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
1 tablespoon butter margarine
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 teaspoons grated orange zest

Cook the turnips and sweet potatoes in separate pans over medium high heat with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until soft, about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain; transfer to a food processor and puree the two vegetables separately (turnips first, with a little butter and milk, then the sweet potatoes, and you won't have to clean out the food processor in between but the turnips will stay creamy white.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the ginger, butter, sugar, and orange peel. Allow butter to melt and mix ingredients together well. In a warm bowl, first add the turnip puree, then the sweet potatoes, then the ginger orange butter; swirl together and serve warm.

And--next post, I promise, will be about what people made from farm produce for Thanksgiving, just to give you some ideas for upcoming holiday meals. For now, don't forget the December pickup, Saturday, December 10, 10 am to 12 noon at the greenhouse.

December Bounty

The weather has been fairly lousy lately--lots of rain, and a little snow today, but apparently those warmish days in November were just what some cool-weather vegetables needed in the Enright CSA plots.

Turns out there were a few more crops growing, and they'll be at the greenhouse for pickup on Saturday morning, 10 pm to 12 noon. This is very exciting! There will be lots of greens, some broccoli, turnips, and a few surprises. I'm looking forward to anything that turns up--I've been having fresh local vegetable withdrawal the past couple of weeks. (Although those winter squash we got awhile back kept well, and we had some delicious homemade butternut squash soup last night; the recipe is in the Asparagus to Zucchini cookbook.)

And, if you need to make up some hours for 2011, or want to get a jump-start on hours for 2012, we could use some help getting the produce ready for pickup at the greenhouse on Thursday, December 8, from 1 pm to 5 pm. Help is also needed for packout/pickup on Saturday, December 10, beginning at 10 am.

Thankful for a Locavore Thanksgiving

It's the day after Thanksgiving--some call it Black Friday, but I like Buy Nothing Day better. I see in the news that OccupyXmas is also encouraging people to indulge in nonshopping activities today. That sounds good to me; I put away my rain barrel for the season, rode my bike to the library, and I might even rake some leaves.

We had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat last night, and it included a few Enright CSA tomatoes that had turned slowly from green to red, plus some sweet peppers in the salad. And some things that were preserved or kept from pickups earlier in the season made it to the table, too, including pickled squash, which was delicious if I do say so myself; eggplant that had been roasted, the pulp frozen, and then made into baba ganoush; a few sweet potatoes that had kept well in the crisper drawer; and some zucchini I'd shredded and frozen months ago that made its way into a spice cake. I'm interested to know--if anyone is reading the blog still--what Enright-grown items made it to your Thanksgiving dinner. Let me know!

It was great to have so much locally grown food on the table for Thanksgiving dinner--I know I appreciate the food from the farm more than I do anything that comes from the supermarket. I also went down to Findlay Market for the first time in awhile on the day before Thanksgiving (I had only stayed away because of the prodigious amount of food we'd been getting from the farm, so I'll be going back more regularly now in the winter). I was happy to see it was quite busy at Market, and a few merchants I talked to said it had been fairly busy all week in the run up to Thanksgiving. We're lucky to have Findlay Market remain a thriving alternative to big grocery chains, so this winter, while the Enright CSA is on hiatus, I encourage members who might not go to Market too frequently to make a trip down. There are locally produced items all through the winter, even if the fresh stuff does mostly come from far away during the colder months.

So, there are plenty of leftovers, and tonight we'll have another Thanksgiving dinner that can't be beat, as Arlo would say. Happy Thanksgiving!

Autumn, Thanksgiving, and What I Ate

This photo shows what was left after a broiled "salad" of tomatoes and pesto from the Enright CSA, layered with some fresh mozzarella. It looked so pretty when I was finished, I thought I should take a photo of it. I'm pretty sure there's a Kandinsky at the Cleveland Art Museum that looks a lot like it . . .

The salad was adapted from a recipe from fellow CSA member Carolanne Frame; she used fresh basil in her recipe but I used pesto instead. It's easy to do, just slice tomatoes and mozarella and layer with basil or pesto, then broil until the cheese gets bubbly. Then drizzle over a little vinaigrette (or just basalmic vinegar and olive oil), and it's a great salad for a cold winter's day.

Even though it's getting colder, we're still enjoying some fresh produce. I made a great pepper soup today, with the fire toned down just a bit with brown rice and sour cream. We've also had some "porridges" of turnip, potato, squash, and beets, and I'm using some eggplants I roasted and froze (just the pulp) to make baba ganoush for Thanksgiving. I've also used some of those frozen cubes of pesto to make pesto bread, which was very delicious.

And, a grand experiment--there is sauerkraut bubbling away in the root cellar. I have a very vague memory of my grandmother and great aunt having a barrel where sauerkraut fermented down in the basement, so if this works, maybe I'll get a barrel.

We'll have a bit of produce from the CSA for Thanksgiving--a few more of those peppers and a couple of late-turning tomatoes in the salad; some sweet potatoes that still look good made into a casserole; the baba ganoush with eggplant and a little garlic that's still left. Then, as winter settles in, we'll have to go to the freezer and the root cellar for the green beans, pear butter, and pickles. Maybe not all at the same meal . . .

Oh, and here's what the broiled tomato-mozarella caprese salad looked like before it was eaten--before it was broiled, too.

Imago Master Plan Needs Volunteers

Folks, now that the busy part of the season is behind us, you may be wondering what to do with the free time you've gained. I know there are some winter garden and greenhouse tasks, but there are also some opportunities to help at Imago. They have completed their master plan and are organizing some volunteer work days to build and repair trails and other projects. Imago is a great neighbor and partner to the Ecovillage and the CSA--donating land at the end of Terry Street, sharing volunteer resources, opening the Earth Center for our potlucks and meetings and promoting the CSA. I'm personally glad for an opportunity to give back for all that support.

There will be a day, probably after the holidays, when a group works on cleaning, painting, sealing and beautifying the building. I'll be sure to share the date when it gets scheduled. In the meantime, there are some volunteer days coming up, posted on Imago's website:
http://www.imagoearth.org/home/volunteer.html
I hope to see some of you around.

Jennifer Belisle

Enright CSA keeps busy in the off season

There is snow out there this morning. I see it on my neighbor’s roof, and on my back porch rails. Hard to believe it was 72 degrees on Tuesday, isn’t it? Well, it’s November in Cincinnati, so you never know what the weather might bring.

We do know what tomorrow will bring, though. It’s supposed to warm up again, at least into the 60s, and the work continues at the greenhouse. There will be a “Learn and Do” Composting Class on Saturday, November 12 at 10:00 am, and participants are needed to bring nitrogen sources from Enright to the Terry Street composting center. If you still need hours, this is a great way to get some in and learn about composting, too.

If you can’t make it on Saturday, there are also bags of leaves that need to be organized in neat windrows and, if you have leaves in your yard and can bag them up and bring them to the composting site, they would be appreciated, too.

Another CSA project that is heating up right now is our efforts to create a dedicated Enright Ridge CSA website to help communicate better with our members. Our Technology Committee is also meeting at 10:00 am at the greenhouse to discuss getting a basic website up and running. We’ll keep you posted on the progress. If anyone out there knows more about websites and HTML code than us (which would not be hard) and needs some hours, please let us know at farm@pricehill.org. We can use all the help we can get--we can make arrangements for hours worked to apply to this season or next season, whatever works best for you.

As the winter proceeds, you can check the Enright CSA Facebook page or this blog for occasional updates on off-season projects. We’re also currently tabulating the information we collected from the surveys, and we’ll get some of those results posted, too.


On a completely unrelated subject, did anyone see that moon last night? Shinin’ like a bright new dime, it encouraged rustication on the back porch even thought it was darn chilly. I didn't think to get my camera out, though; this photo of the moon is courtesy of my Uncle Charlie. Hope you had a little CSA garlic left to ward off the werewolves.

The Last Packout of 2011

There was a bounty of vegetables and greens at the last Enright CSA packout of the season on Saturday, November 5. In fact, there was so much food in the last distribution that it was hard to even pick up bags laden with cabbage, beets, winter squash, turnips, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and more. Special thanks to folks who worked packout that morning--besides the abundance of harvest to process, it was also quite chilly, so it was a challenge to get everything ready for pickup. Of course, working hard is a great way to warm up on a chilly morning.


And it was worth it to see everyone happily loading up on fresh, locally grown vegetables, including some that will keep for awhile--those root vegetables and winter squash in particular. You can try preserving some of that cabbage as sauerkraut, too. There are only two ingredients in sauerkraut--cabbage and noniodized salt. The only other thing you need is patience, as you first grate the cabbage and then wait for it to ferment, skimming off the scum that forms on top every few days.


Did I say "scum"? Yes, growing and preserving your own food is not always pretty, but I hope the rest of the Enright CSA members agree with me that it is well worth it to get to eat food whose history you know--you know where it was grown, who grew it, how it got to you (not travelling far), and what it has "in" it. It's been a great season, and we're already planning for 2012. Until spring, we can enjoy those frozen green beans, preserved pickles, fermented cabbage, and other food we learned to store when it was in abundance this summer and fall.

The End Is Near

No, we’re not going all apocalyptic on you, it’s just the end of the 2011 growing season at the Enright Ridge Community Supported Agriculture Urban Farm Project. (Good thing we don’t use the whole name all the time.) The Enright CSA greenhouse got a little winterization attention last Saturday, with a good-sized crew patching the plastic on the roof and replacing the glass in the side of the greenhouse along the walkway. It was work that needed to be done before it got much colder and wetter, and as it happened, we had a nice sunny and almost warm day to get the work done. Who knew you needed gymnastic skills to be a farmer, but Charles could have represented the U.S. team well at the Olympics, based on his balance beam skills high inside the greenhouse. Thanks to everybody who came out and helped with the work.

I understand people are keeping busy at home, too, figuring out ways to preserve some of the bountiful harvest we've received the last couple of weeks. I have some chili simmering in the crockpot as we speak that used up the last few red tomatoes (though those green ones are pinking up), a slew of peppers, and—to my chagrin—what were the last two eggplants. I'll miss eggplants a lot. Really!

There’s one more pickup, this Saturday, November 5. We’ll be seeing more cool weather crops, greens and root vegetables, with a few more tomatoes and peppers to make us remember summer, too. We’d also like to remind you one more time to bring back your completed surveys—they really help us plan for next year.

Late Harvest Meals Get Creative

We had root vegetable chowder for dinner the other evening, and it was delicious. I didn’t make it—Mike did—and he made some interesting combinations that I might not have considered, but it definitely worked. It was a chunky, gruelly (and I mean that in the best possible way) concoction of potatoes and onions, with a sweet potato and one stray beet that got overlooked, and not only did it taste great, it was a beautiful golden color, too. Unfortunately, he didn’t write down what he put in it, exactly, but it proves that sometimes you can get great results when you make it up as you go along.

I unearthed something similar I did at the end of the season last year. I liked it so much that I did write down what I’d put in it so I could make it again. I call it a “Late Harvest Frittata,” so if you have an interesting assortment of vegetables in the next week or so, you might give it a try. Or you can try Mike’s method, and give cooking without a net a shot. All of our vegetables taste so good, how can you go wrong, no matter what you do with them.

Late Harvest Frittata

1 or 2 small eggplants, peeled and diced
2 or 3 sweet peppers, seeded and sliced
4 to 6 small tomatoes, green or red or a combination, diced
Any other vegetables or greens that look good (if you use potatoes, you might want to dice and boil them first)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
¼ cup grated asiago cheese
6 large eggs
3-4 Tbsps. olive oil
pinch of crushed red pepper
salt and black pepper to taste
4 strips of bacon, fried and crumbled (optional)

Heat the oil in a large iron (or otherwise ovenproof) skillet over high heat. Sauté the garlic until starts to brown, then add the eggplant and sauté for about 5 minutes, until it is soft and brown. Add the tomatoes, peppers, and any other vegetables and cook for another 3 or 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat the eggs and add the asiago cheese, red pepper, and salt and pepper. Preheat the oven to broil, then reduce the heat on the burner under the skillet to medium low and add the egg mixture. Mix the vegetables and the eggs together in the skillet, cover, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until the egg just starts to set but the center is still fairly soft. Take off the lid, sprinkle the bacon on top and broil in the oven until it finishes cooking—about 2 minutes. Cool the frittata in the pan for a few minutes, then cut in slices and serve.

Happy Halloween and Samhain

Happy Halloween--or Samhain, as the original Celtic festival celebrated from October 31 to November 1 was called. Some say Samhain means "summer's end," and that is surely what it is for us, as we'll have our last pickup at the Enright Ridge CSA this coming Saturday. Samhain celebrated the end of the harvest season--just what we are reckoning with at the CSA, too. It also marked the end of the "light" half of the year, as we head into darkness, and hey--I believe that Daylight Savings Time ends next Saturday, too. Who knew that Congress followed the old pagan calendar . . .

In any event, we'll be seeing the last of the tomatoes and peppers of summer, which continued well into fall, as well as some fall greens and root vegetables. You might think about carving one of those big turnips we got into your jack o' lantern this year--it was turnips and rutabagas that were used to carve scary faces to ward off evil spirits before new world pumpkins were introduced to Europe. Or you can just hide behind a false face, as masks were another way people found to hide from the demons.

Most likely the only demons showing up tonight will be trick-or-treaters. My uncle used to discourage them by passing out heads of cabbage, turnips, and occasionally brightly colored hard-boiled eggs, just to confuse them. I think I'll keep my turnips and cabbage for dinner, however, and pass out the more usual chocolate and licorice treats.

Happy Halloween, Happy Samhain, and as my grandfather would say, don't forget to set your clocks ahead. Remember, it's spring back, fall forward.

Survey Says . . .

We’ve been distributing an end-of-season survey that we’d really, really like everybody who has been a part of the Enright Ridge CSA this season to fill out and return to us. You should have gotten a copy via email; it’s a PDF file so (almost) anybody can print it out on their home computer. If for some reason you can’t, we’ll have copies at the greenhouse on Saturday.

If you already have a survey, take a few minutes to fill it out and bring it back on Saturday, October 29—there will be someone there all during pickup collecting completed surveys. If you are just picking one up on Saturday, you can bring it to the Harvest Potluck on Sunday, October 30 (5:00 pm at Imago), or drop it off at the greenhouse any time, but we really, really want to have all surveys returned by the last pickup.

We’ve gotten a lot of good ideas from CSA members in the past, so there’s a place on the survey for any ideas you might have to improve things around the farm. We’d also like to hear what you liked best this season, what you’d like to see more of (or less of), and what you thought of the work that was involved. It’s important for us to hear what you have to say about your experience at the CSA, because we want to keep you all involved, and even better, we want you to tell your friends to join next year.

So, if you can take a few minutes to fill out a survey and bring it back this week or next, we would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

Leeks and Potatoes in the Soup Pot

Last week we got leeks and potatoes in our shares, so I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one thinking about soup. I suspect everybody has a good potato soup recipe, hot or cold (the Good Housekeeping cookbook from the 1950s has my favorite vichyssoise recipe). In fact, I think I have three kinds of soup in my refrigerator right now--leek soup, gazpacho, and cream of tomato and dill soup. I thought I'd post a nice simple recipe for a cold soup that uses leeks and potatoes.

Leek Soup

4 leeks (white part mostly) washed and sliced thin
2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
1 large onion, sliced thin
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 oz. spinach or other greens
2 Tbsps. butter
3 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
Dash white pepper

1/2 cup heavy cream or sour cream
chopped chives or parsley

Saute the leeks, potatoes, onions, garlic, and spinach or greens in a large saucepan for about 20 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until soft but not brown. Stir in the chicken or vegetable stock and milk; bring the mixture to the boiling point, then remove from heat. Cool a little, season with salt and pepper, and puree in a food processor. Chill several hours, then stir in heavy cream or sour cream before serving, cold, with chopped chives or parsley.

Yes, We Have No Eggs

An Announcement
Unfortunately we will no longer have egg sales during Saturday pickup. The eggs have never been a direct part of the CSA, but rather a convenience to members which has become an economic inconvenience to some. Specifically, several times CSA members on Enright have had to write personal checks (up to $30) to insure the week's delivery when egg payments were short. Consequently, the Core Group has decided to suspend egg sales for the remainder of the season.

We regret we've had to take this step and pledge to work over the winter to find a more satisfactory method, if enough members want to continue to purchase eggs next season during Saturday pick-up.

Something Else to Do with All the Eggplant: Eggplant Enchiladas

A little bird tells me there will be more eggplant in this week’s harvest, and that’s okay with me. I’ve still got to try the Eggplant Involtini recipe Angie Utley posted on the Enright CSA Facebook page, and I made some pretty tasty Eggplant Enchiladas last week. More eggplant!

First, I thought I’d repost something Suellyn Shupe researched for the blog last year—she found a list of eggplant varieties so we could put names with the lovely different types we’ve seen, the purple and white striped, creamy white, and pale green eggplant in addition to the classic aubergine aubergine. We don’t necessarily grow these types at the CSA farms, but it gives you an idea of the variety of eggplant there are out there.

Heirloom Eggplants Varieties from Around the World
Cambodian Green Giant – Large, green fruits with light colored stripes and unique ribbed fruits.
Diamond – This popular Ukrainian variety offers dark purple, delicious tasting fruits.
Rosa Bianca – An Italian eggplant displaying beautiful shades of pink and lavender.
Brazilian Oval Orange Eggplant – Fruits start out green, ripening to orange and finally red.
Thai Yellow Egg – This heirloom eggplant from Thailand produces yellow, egg-shaped fruits.
Ping Tung Long – A productive slender purple fruited eggplant from Taiwan.
Japanese White Egg – Plants are very productive yielding large quantities of small white fruits.
Thai Long Green – Another heirloom eggplant from Thailand produces long, light green fruits.
Listada de Gandia – Purple and white striped eggplant, this one is another Italian variety.
Goyo Kumba – Unusual, tall and ornamental African heirloom with attractive, bright red fruits.
Chinese Round Mauve – This heirloom from China produces colorful medium sized eggplants.
Udmalbet – This green and purple striped eggplant from India turns yellowish as it ripens.

Now, that Eggplant Enchilada recipe:

2 medium eggplant, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh basil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 small hot peppers, seeded and chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
6 flour tortillas
grated cheese or cheese sauce

Arrange the eggplant on one or more oiled baking sheets, sprinkle with salt, turn, and sprinkle with salt on the other side. Allow to sit for about 30 minutes. Then preheat the oven to 350 degrees ad bake the eggplant until it is brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Combine the tomatoes with the basil, garlic, hot peppers, salt, and pepper in a large skillet or wok. Add the eggplant and simmer for about 15 minutes. Fill the tortillas with the eggplant mixture and fold or roll to make enchiladas. Arrange the enchiladas in a plan and cover with cheese sauce or grated cheese. Bake for about 20 minute until enchiladas are brown.

The recipe I adapted this from served the enchiladas covered with southern white gravy, but they taste pretty good garnished with a little more cheese, sour cream, or guacamole, too, or just a little salsa if you prefer.

Honeymoon Salad (with a Nice Balsamic Vinaigrette)

So, how about that lettuce we got last Saturday? I don’t think I’ve ever seen heads of lettuce quite so large. I’ve already had two delicious salads made from it, but Jennifer Belisle reports that it’s best in a Honeymoon Salad . . . which is . . . wait for it . . . “lettuce alone.”

May I have a drum roll, please? It’s a good joke, but you know you can’t really live by lettuce alone, you need some dressing. (Um, there’s probably an off-color joke in that somewhere, if you are inclined to go down that road.)

All joking aside, here’s my balsamic vinaigrette recipe, which I had to think very hard about to make up into a written recipe. I make this all the time and just eyeball the ingredients, so you might want to adjust the amounts a wee bit to suit your own taste.

Julie’s Balsamic Vinaigrette

3 Tbsps. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
½ tsp. xanthan gum (optional)*
Minced garlic (or a bit of granulated garlic if you’re in a hurry)
Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil
Vegetable oil

Whisk the first six ingredients together in a large bowl, then add about 3 tablespoons of good olive oil, still whisking. Then add about a half cup of vegetable oil of your choice slowly, while whisking, so the dressing emulsifies. Taste, and if it is too sharp, add a little more vegetable oil. Toss on those greens and enjoy!

* Xanthan gum is a powdered substance that helps dressings emulsify; I learned about it in a cooking class all about salad dressings. It’s nice if you happen to have some, but if you don’t, just be sure to mix up the dressing well before using it.

CSA Members Occupy Cincinnati

The Occupy Wall Street protests went local over the weekend with an endeavor called Occupy Cincinnati, and a number of folks associated with the Enright Ridge CSA were on hand as the protestors gathered at Lytle Park, marched through Over the Rhine to Findlay Market, and then returned to Fountain Square to settle in, discuss issues, and occupy Cincinnati’s historic public venue.

The signs people carried were all over the map in terms of what inspired them to come down and join the rally, but it was good to see a few of them were thinking about the environment, urban agriculture, and the future of farming, as you can see in the photo above.

Some folks stayed all night on Fountain Square, then moved to Garfield Park, where they are still in residence as of Sunday night. They are settling in for another night (fortunately it’s been good weather for outdoor protests as well as for harvest) of occupying a public space in Cincinnati, along with other organized protests across the country.

They are still working on their goals, deciding if they want to publicize a specific agenda or simply create an arena for anyone and everyone to protest what they see as the problems we face in our country and our world today. The Occupy Cincinnati movement hasn’t gotten a lot of press coverage (though it had extensive police coverage on Saturday), but it took a few weeks for Occupy Wall Street to get in the news, too.

There was a lot of music as well as speeches at Occupy Cincinnati on Saturday, and it reminded me of a line from a poem by Arthur O'Shaughnessy —“three men with a good song’s measure/ Can trample an empire down.” Which reminded me of another fellow who had something to say about the strength of a few people leading to something more:

And if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin’ a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin’ a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.

Friends, maybe Occupy Everywhere has a chance of becoming a movement.

Eat Locally, and Help Harvest, Too

I made the BLT pictured here the other day, and realized it was a completely "locally sourced" sandwich: The lettuce and tomato came from the Enright CSA; the bread was from St. Lawrence Bakery, and the bacon was from Eckerlin Meats down at Findlay Market. It was also very tasty.

It's great to have local produce, and I appreciate it even more when I've been in the garden or the fields down at Ritter Farm helping with the harvest. (It also makes me appreciate just what "field worker" really means.) I've done it in the blazing heat and the chill, but right now the weather is perfect and I'd like to recommend a harvest shift if you haven't done that yet.

There's a lot to be picked every week, and if you still need hours for your share, this is somewhere that your work is really needed right now. CSA staff and members are harvesting all day long Friday, so if you have any time free--or if you can get a little time free to spend outdoors in this glorious fall weather we're currently experiencing--think about joining the harvest.

If you go to the greenhouse, the white board will tell you where the harvest is happening, and when. The harvest at Ritter Farm is often in the late afternoon and early evening, and it's easy to get to. Just go down Cleves Warsaw Pike till you get to Hillside, turn left, and look for some cars parked behind the white house on the right (the second house on Hillside on the right). The fields are right along the small parking area.

Join the harvest before it's all over. You'll be glad you did, you'll appreciate those eggplant and peppers and beans that much more, and we'll all thank you for bringing them in from the fields!

Belgian Beet and Dill Salad

Sometimes it works out well to not manage to use up all of one week's produce before the next week's comes in--I had beets left when we got dill last Saturday, and I found this recipe to use both of them to make a lovely and tasty fall salad. The recipe comes from a cookbook I found at the downtown library, Everybody Eats Well in Belgium which I hesitated about bringing home--Belgium and Flanders are kind of known for not getting along. But I thought I'd give it a try, and so far no complaints. Turns out it's not all waffles and crepes; I've made a green bean recipe from this cookbook, too. Not that our green beans need any dressing up--they have been both delicious and prolific this season.

But back to beets and dill; another nice thing about this recipe is you can make it the night before; the longer it marinates in the vinaigrette, the better it tastes. So, eat well, eat Belgian (I just pretend it's Flemish), and try this recipe.


Belgian Beet & Dill Salad

4 or 5 small to medium red beets, scrubbed, with about 2” of green tops left on
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 small onion, sliced thin
Salt
Pepper
Lettuce or other greens
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Place the beets in a saucepan, cover with cold water, add salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, covered, until beets are tender, 25 to 40 minutes, depending on size. Drain and let cool slightly, then slip off the peels and slice or cube the beets. Whish the oil and lemon juice together and pour over warm beets. Add the onions and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve—at least an hour, but overnight is okay, too.

Just before serving, drain off and reserve the vinaigrette (which should be a lovely hot pink color). Arrange the beets and onions on a bed of lettuce and drizzle the beet-colored vinaigrette over all. Top with dill before serving.

Squash That Soup—or Soup That Squash

This is a delicious soup that is, equally importantly, yet another way to use up some of the squash that has been filling our bags each Saturday morning at the CSA. I've made butternut squash soup in the past, and I have always liked it, but since we are knee deep in summer squash at the moment, it's good to have a recipe to make a nice soup for these chilly October days, too. Thanks to CSA member Diana Lewis for sending the recipe.

Summer Squash Soup with Parsley Mint Pistou*

For squash soup
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 medium onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 lb yellow summer squash, halved and thinly sliced
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 yellow-fleshed potato (1/2 lb), peeled, halved,
and thinly sliced
4 cups chicken stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth**

For pistou
3/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs
1 large scallion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon salt



For the soup, melt butter in a large, heavy pot over moderate heat, then cook onion with salt, stirring, until softened, about 8 minutes. Add squash, carrots, potato, and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, then simmer, partially covered, until vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool soup, uncovered, 10 minutes. When the soup is cool enough, work in batches and purée it in a food processor or blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids) and transfer to a bowl. Return purée to cleaned pot and thin with water if desired; simmer 3 minutes. Season with salt and garnish with the pistou.

Make pistou while vegetables simmer by combining the mint, parsley, and scallion in a food processor until finely chopped. With motor running, add oil in a stream, then add water and salt, blending until incorporated. Swirl 1 tablespoon pistou into each bowl of soup.

*From Gourmet magazine, September 2006.
**Vegetable stock works fine for this, too.

Eating Well and Good Eating and Zucchini Blondies

Sunday morning, I was eating some delicious Huevos Rancheros with salsa made entirely from Price Hill produce, enjoying my breakfast while reading what I refer to as “the funny papers” in the New York Times. They may not have comics, but the Sunday Styles section is always good for a laugh. What other people consider trend-setting and important makes me giggle. I particularly like one feature that highlights what a society lady wore each day for the past week. I decided to take that as inspiration for a blog entry. I have been eating so well lately (and it has tasted so good), that I’ll list “What I Ate,” maybe not for a full week, but for a few days, anyway . . .

On Saturday morning, I arrived bright and early at the greenhouse to work the first packout shift, and found a plate of Zucchini Coconut Blondies, made by Jennifer Belisle, that got the day off to a delightful start. In fact, Jennifer has shared the recipe, and it’s at the end of this entry.

When I got home, I spent some time sorting and putting away produce, then made a weird but tasty sandwich—on bread from Skiritz & Johnson bakery down at Findlay Market, I spread homemade Baba Ganoush, then sliced up a tomato from the Enright farm. It was very tasty! I spent the rest of the day making pickles, salsa, and pear butter, then for dinner I put the salsa to good use; we had tacos with homemade tortillas, garnished with Enright farm lettuce and tomatoes, then had baked peaches with almonds and brown sugar butter for dessert.

On Sunday, with leftover tortillas and plenty of salsa, I had those tasty Huevos Rancheros that started this blog entry. A busy afternoon made me forgo lunch, but I had an early dinner of Summer Squash Soup with Basil Pesto garnish, fresh-baked bread, and Belgian Beet Salad with Dill. The squash soup recipe is finally posted (Squash Soup), and soon I will also post the beet salad—it was marinated overnight and quite tasty. I also had a lot of delightful treats at the Queen City Balladeers’ Leo Coffeehouse in the evening to wrap up a weekend of good eating, in no small part due to the great harvest from the CSA this week.

Zucchini Coconut Blondies*
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1½ cups White Whole Wheat Flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1½ cups coarsely grated zucchini
1 cup pecans, roughly chopped
½ cup carob or chocolate chips
1½ cups unsweetened coconut, toasted

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a saucepan or the microwave and then add to the bowl of a mixer. Add the brown sugar and mix thoroughly. With the mixer running, add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla, beating well.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and ginger. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture until just incorporated. Mix in the zucchini, pecans, carob chips, and coconut until combined.

Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan. Spread the batter into the pan and bake in the center of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool before slicing.

*Recipe and photo from http://acraftylass.blogspot.com

Pate de Courgette

You can call it Zesty Zucchini Dip if you'd like, but Pate de Courgette sounds ever so refined, doesn't it? (They call zucchinis "courgettes" in England and France.) Since it's served on cocktail rye squares, it's sort of 1950s cocktail party fare, but I suspect it would taste great on club crackers or pita bread, too.

Pate de Courgettes

2 cups shredded zucchini
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup mayonaisse or Miracle Whip
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup or more grated Parmesan
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
Cocktail rye bread or crackers for serving

Toss the zucchini and salt in a bowl and let stand at least one hour. Rinse, drain, and press out as much liquid as possible. Add the mayonnaise, yogurt, green pepper, onions, garlic, Worchestershire sauce, and about half the Parmesan cheese. You can just stir it or food process it if you want it more homogenized. Put it in an ovenproof dish or small pie plate and sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan over the top. Bake at 375 degrees until bubbly and brown on top, about 20-25 minutes. Serve hot with crackers or the rye bread.

Party, Party, Party!

With all the great food we are getting from the farm, it seems only right to share some of it with friends, so today's blog features party food. Yes, indeed, your friends will eat some of your eggplant and zucchini if you just know how to serve it as a zesty dip. (Jeez, that sounds like something out of Betty Crocker, or that Mad Man show.)

In the picture, that's Baba Ghanoush, spicy eggplant dip, at left, and Zucchini Dip with Cocktail Rye at right. The Zucchini Dip with Cocktail Rye recipe is in the Asparagus to Zucchini cookbook, though I'll try to get it posted soon, too. Here's the Baba Ghanoush recipe.


Baba Ghanoush

1 large eggplant
1/4 cup tahini
3 mincedgarlic cloves
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 pinch ground cumin
salt, to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Then, you need to first roast/blacken the eggplant skin. You can do this on a grill, or over the flame of a gas stove burner, or under the broiler. Prick the eggplant’s skin with a fork in several places and grill or broil the eggplant for 10 to 15 minutes, or hold it with a fork over a gas flame, until the skin blackens and blisters.

Put the eggplant on a baking sheet and bake until very soft, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool slightly, and peel off and discard the skin. Place the eggplant flesh in a bowl and, using a fork, mash the eggplant to a paste. At this point, you can add the other ingredients in the bowl and mash it up, or if you have a food processor, put all the ingredients together in it and blend.

Transfer the mixture to a serving bowl and spread with the back of a spoon to form a shallow well. Drizzle olive oil over the top and sprinkle with parsley, and arrange black olives all around the top to make it fancy for that party. Serve at room temperature with pita bread, pita chips, or tortilla chips.

Cold Mexican Tomato Soup: Gazpacho!

One of my favorite ways to eat homegrown Cincinnati tomatoes (which I love; I refer you to a previous blog to see just how much I love ’em) is in gazpacho, a cold soup full of garden vegetables. I’ve liked it since I was a kid, when nobody around here really knew what gazpacho was.

It’s well-known and, I guess, kind of a hip food these days; people make white gazpacho and watermelon gazpacho and all sorts of variations. But, like bagels, my family members were “early adopters,” as they say. And it’s all because our neighbor was a jazz musician. That might not make much sense, but one of his band members was a tall Jewish fellow who brought bagels from the mysterious East (Marx bagels) to the west side regularly, where they were an immediate hit. Another fellow musician was Jose Madrigal, a great guitar player and an almost equally great cook, especially of Mexican specialties.

I learned to make Jose’s recipes for tortillas and chicken mole and gazpacho early on; we made buckets of gazpacho from my grandfather’s Rabbit Hash-grown tomatoes when I was growing up. I continued to make it, to great applause, with my own homegrown tomatoes from the wilds of Westwood and Price Hill. I’ve already made some this year, depending on the fellow with the Home Grown Tomatoes sign on Guerley Road, since I didn’t get many tomatoes in my own garden before the squirrels made off with them, and they’ve been late coming in to the farm.

But the week before last there were plenty of tomatoes, plus there were cucumbers and I do have a crop of peppers from my garden, so it was time to start the gazpacho. My recipe—well, no, it’s Jose Madrigal’s recipe—follows.

Jose’s Gazpacho
12 ripe homegrown tomatoes, peeled and diced
2 large cucumbers, peeled and diced
4 tsps. salt
3 medium onions, diced
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 or 2 green peppers, seeded and chopped
½ cup salad oil
½ cup vinegar
½ teaspoon pepper
2 or 3 shakes hot sauce
parsley

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor (you may need to do it in batches). Makes 3 quarts. Serve cold garnished with chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, green onions, and croutons.

Zapple Cobbler

Are you up to your elbows in zucchini? It’s a grand vegetable, but sometimes you just feel like you’ve had enough of vegetables, so it’s time to turn your zucchini into fruit. This recipe for Mock Apple Cobbler, or Zapple Cobbler, as we recently dubbed it, is made from zucchini. It's from the From Asparagus to Zucchini cookbook published by the Madison (Wisconsin) area CSA coalition, and we’d like to thank Enright CSA member Jeanne Nightingale for bringing it to our attention by baking it for the Civic Garden Center tasting last week. It really tastes like apples, and it was a big hit. Plus, it offers one more thing to do with zucchini! (One note, this recipe is easy to make in a smaller portion—just use half the ingredients and an 8 x 8 square pan.)

Mock Apple Cobbler
Submitted by Lisa Kivirist, Inn Serendipity

Filling ingredients:
3 pounds peeled, seeded, and chopped zucchini (about 8 cups)
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Crust ingredients:
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1½ cups (3 sticks) butter, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine the zucchini and lemon juice in a large saucepan over medium low heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until the zucchini is tender, about 20 minutes. Then stir in the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and simmer for about 1 more minute. Remove from heat. Heat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 baking pan. Combine the flour and sugar in a bowl and cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs (you can also do this by putting the flour, sugar, and butter in a food processor and pulsing on and off a few times). Stir ½ cup of the crust mixture into the zucchini mixture. Press half the rest of the crust mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan, then spread the zucchini mixture over the crust. Crumble the remaining crust mixture over the zucchini, and sprinkle the top crust with the other teaspoon of cinnamon. Bake until gold and bubbly, about 35 to 40 minutes. Makes 12 or more servings.

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

Has anybody else noticed that it is seriously harvest time around here? The photograph shows my kitchen table last Sunday. I didn’t know where to start—making pesto with the basil and parsley, gazpacho with the tomatoes and cucumbers (more on that in another post), snapping and blanching beans, braising squash, and finding more exciting things to do with zucchini. (I think we need another post for that topic too . . . I got an e-mail this morning from another CSA member asking if there were any zucchinis to spare at the greenhouse. Oh, only a bin or two!)

I seriously overextended myself on Sunday, though; there were pots boiling and dishes piling up in the sink; the food processor was whirring and at least three cutting boards were in use at any given moment. I didn’t finish everything, but I processed what was left by the next evening, so now I have fresh and frozen pesto, and plenty of green beans to get through the winter. I feel like a good little ant, not a profligate grasshopper, as summer turns to fall. I don’t see any leaves turning yet, but I guess it’s just a matter of time.

And that means more cold-weather crops, but I am hoping that there’s enough warmth left in the Indian summer to come that we’ll still be seeing plenty of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, and of course basil. At least I hope so . . . except maybe for the basil. Happy Fall!

Hey, CSAs Could Use a Little Support at Fordham University in NYC

At the Civic Garden Center's "Flavors of the Garden" event on Saturday, September 17 (which was a great event, well attended, with lots of good food from local gardens), the Enright Ridge table was next to one from CAIN (Churches Active In Northside) that was manned by an Americorps worker who had helped get a community garden organized and active in supplying fresh produce to an area food pantry, as well as providing some of the produce sold at the Northside Farmers' Market--a local farm success.

So I was particularly disappointed to read in the New York Times on Monday morning about a successful CSA run at Fordham University in New York City that had been shut down by the powers that be at the university. A law student, Michael Zimmerman (in the picture above, by Angel Franco of the NY Times) had started Farm to Fordham about 18 months ago, and it was a popular and successful community-supported agriculture project. Every week, a farm in central New York state delivered fresh produce to the campus, where students, staff, and faculty who paid $150 per semester received their share. They usually had about 100 lbs of extra produce they donated to a local soup kitchen.

Victims of their own success, the university's administrators decided it was a nuisance, and set about trying to shut it down last April, when guards were first told to refuse the delivery from the farm. You can tell the administration was flailing; first they said the organizers needed a one-day catering permit every time there was a delivery, but when they tried to apply for one, the city told them they weren't a catering operation (which they already knew), and would not give them one. Then the university said there was construction going on, and they couldn't safely take the deliveries (the construction was not in the area where the deliveries were made). Then they said they couldn't take a chance of an "infestation" from the produce, although all pickups were done outside; the produce was never brought into a university building.

After six months of wrangling, the university's lawyer sent Farm to Fordham an e-mail that said "We cannot be placed in a position to break the law," harking back to their claim that the group was operating without a catering permit. Fordham’s director of communications was quoted as saying the permit requirement was “a Catch-22.” But then he threw one more reason to shut them down, hoping something would stick--he said there were concerns about honoring the university’s food service contracts, again a specious argument, because the CSA did not prepare any food on the premises.

Perplexingly, the program is still featured on the Fordham website as a good work at the university, at the same time a university spokesman made a statement that "Given the cost-benefit here, we’re not doing enough good to justify letting this go forward." Zimmerman says that he's resigned to the fact that the CSA is not welcome on campus, and hopes to find an alternate location to continue the program.

And the university officials encourage him in that--the communications director said "This is what we do. We encourage this stuff." Yeah, right. You can read the whole article about the Farm to Fordham program online.

Interested in the Enright Ridge CSA?

If you heard about the Enright Ridge CSA at the Civic Garden Center's "Flavors of the Gardens" event on Saturday, September 17, and you are interested in finding out more about this urban agriculture project in Price Hill, you've come to the right place. You can browse through the blog entries to see what we've been harvesting (and eating) this summer, or go to our web page in the Enright Ridge Eco-Village website, (or find out more about becoming a member, shares, and work hours by clicking here).

We're also on Facebook, where members share recipes, photos, and ideas for dealing with a plethora of squash, eggplant, basil, and more great, homegrown produce. If you still have questions or want an application, you can send an email to urbanfarmproject@enrightcsa.org.

Join Us at the Civic Garden Center

It's been harvest time at the Enright Ridge CSA since May, but most folks think of September as the harvest season--in fact, the Harvest Home Fair was just last weekend. This weekend there's another harvest festival that celebrates local gardens and farms--it's the Civic Garden Center's "Flavors of Community Gardens" party, from 4 pm to 6 pm on Saturday, September 17. A whole crew of folks from the Enright CSA will be there with some goodies made from the produce we've raised this year, and we've been told there will be other community gardens with samples to share, too.

The event follows the Civic Garden Center's first Fall Plant Sale, which is from noon until 3 pm, so you can even come early and see what they have to offer, too. The Civic Garden Center is at 2715 Reading Road, near Reading and Oak (just across from the old Bethesda Hospital, if you are looking for a landmark). It's supposed to be a lovely day, so there's no excuse not to come out to see (and taste) what other folks are growing in their gardens around Cincinnati.

Rain Barrel Blues

I don’t have the blues about my rain barrel, it’s my rain barrel that has the blues. It’s new, installed last week by Pete Weast, an Enright Avenue resident and ardent blues fan. He donated this spiffy rain barrel, painted with “Cincy Blues Fest,” to the Cincy Blues Fest last month for a raffle. No, I didn’t win it. And I was running the raffle. But I swear there was no funny business—the winner of the raffle was the brother of a friend of mine, and he was just down from Cleveland, where he lives, to help at the Fest. So he offered it to me via my friend, and now we have a rain barrel in our side yard. I’ve already collected enough rain water to water the parsley and oregano and basil, and what do you know, the herbs—especially the basil—are thriving. Yeah! More basil!

Proactive Advice for the Chard and Beans Coming This Week

I heard that chard and beans--lots of beans--are on the list for produce pickup this week. Be prepared! In recent weeks, we've had a lot of squash and basil, and we've tried to provide lots of good uses for both. Now it's time to deal with lots of fresh chard and beans--this is a good thing, if you are prepared!

Chard--and other cooking greens--are easy to deal with, I think. You can wash them and chop them up and put them in soup or a quiche, but one of the best ways is to just cook them as southern greens. A lot of greens cook down to not so much pretty quickly, so even if it looks like you have a ton of greens, you will likely have a meal's worth after cooking, but they make a side dish that is not just tasty but also really good for you (well, except for the bacon grease).

That's what I do, cook a few pieces of bacon (4 or 5 are plenty), then pour off the grease (a few tablespoons) into a big pot. Meanwhile, prepare the greens by washing them and cutting them off the tough stems and then chopping them coarsely. Heat up that bacon grease and throw in the greens, still wet from washing (that's enough water to help cook them). Cook over medium heat until they are wilted--15 or 20 minutes is plenty--then add a dollop of vinegar (your choice, I use cider, about two tablespoons to a pot of greens) and crumble the bacon and throw it in. Let it cook a minute or two longer to warm up the vinegar, and then serve. Totally delicious.

If we get as many beans as I'm expecting this week, you can blanche and freeze them to eat at your leisure. First, you need a kid to snap the beans. It's been kids' work since the dawn of time, no reason to change that now. Then take the beans and put them, in batches, into boiling water for one minute. Remove from boiling water into a big bowl of ice. When they've cooled down, put them in freezer bags and pop them into the freezer. That's all you need to do to have fresh local beans for months to come.

Taste of the Gardens at Civic Garden Center

On Saturday, September 17, the Civic Garden Center on Reading Road is having a Fall plant sale, followed by a "Taste of the Gardens" event. Local community gardeners are invited to participate and share some tasty treats made from the bounty they are harvesting. We'd like to have the Enright CSA participate, to show off some of our delicious harvest and also to let people know what we have been doing with our urban agriculture project.

So we are asking Enright CSA members to donate some kind of easy-to-serve food (preferably something that is eaten at room temperature or cold, since we can't really keep things hot) for this event, which will be from 4 pm to 6 pm at the Civic Garden Center. You can drop off what you've made during pickup on September 17; someone will be there to collect the food. Maybe you have a jar of pickles to share, or you could make some delicious baba ganoush from our surfeit of eggplant, or you know a secret recipe for turning squash into a dessert treat . . . If you can't make something, we're also accepting donations of bottles of white wine, so Nancy Sullivan can make some of her delicious basil sangria for the event.

If you'd really like to get involved, we could use a couple of volunteers to help at our table at the Flavors of the Community Gardens party. If you are available during the afternoon of Saturday, September 17, to help us get the word out about the Enright CSA Urban Farm by sharing some of what we've grown, please contact us at farm@pricehill.org. For more information about Flavors of the Community Gardens and the Civic Garden Center, vist their website.

Back to the Past

One other thing to mention--there are recipes on the blog from last summer for zucchini and other squash, and there are also some interesting posts about kinds of eggplants and peppers. Go back to the past--click on the 2010 link at the bottom of the list on the right--to look back at recipes and other information that CSA members shared last season.

July 2010 posts included a recipe for basic pesto and a nice cucumber salad; there's also information about using cloth bags to store produce to keep it fresh (and avoid plastic, too). And there is a microwave zucchini casserole recipe that could come in very handy--it's quick and easy.

In August 2010, Angie provided some information about peppers and Suellyn posted a list of the types of heirloom (and other) eggplants. There's also a scary fake commercial video that Beth put on the blog, about genetically modified plants, that will make you very glad you have access to nice heirloom vegetables at the CSA!

Then there's a September 2010 blog entry that has some interesting statistics about what the CSA raised, what members wished we had raised, what kinds of information we'd like to have about dealing with the produce, and what we liked most (and least) about working at the CSA, all compiled by some Xavier students who surveyed the members.

So, go back to the past and see what interesting things were on the blog last year, while you're here.

A Lotta Squash

Sometimes this summer it has seemed a little overwhelming--what, more basil! Ackk, four cucumbers? Wait, sixteen pears--or nine squash, as was the case for a full share last Saturday. There also seems to be a somewhat endless stream of eggplant coming in these days.

When you have a lot of any one produce, you want to think of different things to do with it, and if possible, ways to preserve some of it for future eating. With the nine squash that arrived at our house last Saturday, I made more zucchini bread (it freezes very well), and I made a nice squash and bacon and cheese and eggs fry-up to put over spaghetti and sliced tomatoes, a favorite around here. But there were still a lot of squash left. Angie had mentioned seeing a recipe for pickled baby pittypat squash, so I thought I'd check out pickling squash in general, and I found that it's a common thing to do.

I adapted a recipe I found and made a big batch (two quart jars), and it's pretty tasty stuff. As Dave proved by making delicious dill refrigerator pickles last week, you don't have to follow recipes to the letter; he changed the herbs and spices for bread and butter pickles to make a dill pickle instead. So, for the following recipe, the "pickling spices" it calls for are up to you--decide if you want sweeter, or more dill, or something completely different.

Pickled Squash

8-10 cups sliced summer squash, zucchini, pittypat squash, or a mixture (you can peel it or not, your choice)
2 cups sliced onions
kosher salt
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons pickling spices (such as mustard seeds, cardoman, cinnamon, bay leaf, etc.)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (dried from last year or store bought)

In a large pot or bowl, layer the sliced squash and onions, sprinkling each layer with kosher salt. Let stand for 1 hour, then drain well. Then, in a large pot, combine the vinegar, sugar, pickling spices, and red pepper and bring to a boil. Add the squash and onions, and bring to a boil again. Divide the vegetables into sterilized canning jars and pour enough of the brine into each jar to come to 1/2" from the top of the jar. Wipe the jar rims clean, put on the lids and rings, and process in hot water bath for 10 minutes to seal. If any jars don't seal properly, the pickled squash will still keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

Up to our Elbows in Basil, Last Part! Maybe!

If you were at the potluck on Thursday, you enjoyed a great array of offerings that used basil; there was basil sangria, several Italian dishes with basil, and a couple of salad-y things that had plenty of basil, too, because let's face it, we all have plenty of basil. I brought Lemon Lime Basil Shortbread Cookies, my first attempt at putting basil in a dessert (I'm still working on the Lime Basil Sorbet).

If you missed the potluck dinner, not only did you miss the delicious Basil Smorgasbord, but you also missed a great quiz game, a hilarious round of charades, a quilt raffle (won by Sophia Yarden), and a hit-and-run accident that damaged a car and a truck and had one of the young miscreants running right through the middle of our dinner. Never a dull moment.

We may not be able to recreate the excitement of the potluck, but I can give you the recipe for the Basil Shortbread Cookies . . .

LEMON LIME BASIL SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar plus more for pressing cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
2 tablespoons sliced fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375°. Place flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, butter, basil, both zests, and salt in a food processor. Pulse until mixture forms a coarse meal (not long), and then slowly add lemon and lime juice until large, moist clumps form. Roll the dough into 1" balls, roll in powdered sugar, and place on a large baking sheet. Lightly dust the bottom of a flat glass with powdered sugar and press cookies into 2" rounds, dusting cup bottom with powdered sugar as needed to prevent sticking. Bake until edges are brown, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool.

Announcements! August Potluck and More

Thursday, August 25, is the next potluck, with dinner at 6:00 pm and the Great CSA Quiz Show at 7:00 pm. I must admit I don’t know what to expect—apparently it’s part Jeopardy, part Wheel of Fortune, part I don’t know what. And you’ll be happy to know I didn’t have anything to do with making up the quiz questions.

Speaking of which, we have two winners of the Enright CSA Blog Quiz: Amy Hotchkiss Kerby somehow managed to get all the answers correct and got the answers back to me within hours of the newsletter being sent out. Second-place award goes to Jim Schenk, who definitely had the most creative answers! With luck, I’ll have prizes for them at the potluck; without so much luck, by next packout. Thanks to everyone who at least sent an e-mail saying they do read and appreciate the blog.

Also, at the potluck on Thursday, it’s your last chance to buy a raffle ticket for the CSA quilt raffle; we’ll pull the winner’s name after dinner sometime. Raffle tickets are only $1 each and they benefit a great cause—the Enright CSA Urban Farm. Plus, it’s a spiffy quilt if I do say so myself.