February CSA
You know what is so cool about February? We start planting starts for our Summer CSA and our next Winter CSA.
February is here if you can believe it and we are halfway through our Winter CSA! Thank you so much for joining us on this journey of eating locally year round! We love your support and we love seeing you every month and hearing how you are doing and what you have been cooking with your shares.
Last Chance: we have 23 of only 150 remaining Summer CSA shares for sale! If you are thinking about purchasing one, NOW IS THE TIME! We really don’t want you to miss out!
For more information on our shares, check out our Summer CSA Page. |
You know what is so cool about February? We start planting starts for our Summer CSA and our next Winter CSA. That is right, you are halfway through this winter’s CSA and we have already started planting for next winter.
In February, we start all of our alliums (onions, shallots, leeks) in our 4-season green house. They move from the green house to the halfway house in about 6 weeks and we plant them in the 25-acre field in May. We harvest alliums out of the 25-acre starting in the fall and then eat all those onions through the winter CSA. This means that the onions you are getting in your Winter CSA box this month started their life in early February 2020, pre-Covid. Now that is a mind bender!
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In early May, we plant the onion starts you are receiving, fully grown, in your CSA boxes throughout the winter. Adam is watering the starts with compost tea to give them a little boost of nutrients and moisture before we plant them in the 25 acre.
This Month’s Share
This month, the lengthening of days and the mild January is apparent. In addition to all those amazing root vegetables, we also have 3 freshly harvested items to share with you: green onions, Siberian kale, and yukina savoy. We were so excited to spend the day harvesting all this winter bounty from our hoops. We hope you enjoy.
This month’s veggie share includes:
- carrots
- celeriac (consider using a paring knife to peel these)
- viking purple potatoes
- daikon radish (This is it, the last of the daikon until this summer! You all have been such troupers.)
- garlic
- onion
- yukina savoy (This is an asian green that you can eat raw like spinach or substitute for bok choi)
- green onions
- Siberian kale
- mixed winter squash
The meat share this month includes:
- 1 whole roasting chicken
- 1 cube steak
- 3 lbs ground beef
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(adapted from Andrea Bemis, “Local Dirt”)
serves 4-6
3 tablespoons cooking fat or olive oil
1 large yellow or red onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-2 carrots, chopped
1 celeriac, peeled & chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 cup red or brown lentils
4 cups vegetable broth
1 bunch kale, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
Plain yogurt or sour cream for serving
- In a Dutch oven over medium heat, melt the cooking fat. Add the onion, paprika, cumin, red pepper flakes, and a hefty pinch each of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring to coat the onion in the spice mixture until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the carrots and parsnips and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato paste. Cook for about 1 minute longer. Pour in the wine and bring the mixture to a boil Use a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape up any brown bits. Reduce the heat and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Add the lentils. Cook, stirring often, until the lentils are coated in the spices and veggies. Add the broth and 2 cups water and toss in the kale and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat and simmer until the lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and stir a dollop of yogurt into each. Serve with crusty bread and a pinch more of salt and pepper to taste.
(adapted from Abra Berens’, “Ruffage”)
serves 4-6
10 to 12 carrots (3 lb), scrubbed and cut into large chunks or left whole
neutral oil
salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup apricot jam (or other sweet jam)
1/4 oil w/chili flakes in it
10 sprigs mint and/or cilantro, leaves picked off and chopped
- Heat oven to 425F.
- Toss the carrots with a glug of neutral oil and big pinch of salt.
- Spread on a baking sheet, leaving some space between the carrots so they don’t steam, and roast in the oven until fully cooked, about 35 minutes.
- When the carrots are golden brown, crispy, and tender, spread the almonds on the baking sheet and return to the oven to toast until fragrant, about 5 minutes.
- Whisk together the jam and oil w/chili flakes.
- Toss the carrots with the jam mixture and return to the oven to crisp, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Transfer the carrots to a serving platter and scatter with the mint and almonds.
(from Deborah Madison’s “Local Flavors”)
serves 4-6
1 Roasting chicken, 3-5 lbs
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 large garlic clove
1/4 cup rosemary needles
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons marjoram leaves
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons aged red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup red or white wine
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, optional
sea salt and freshly ground pepper, optional
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Rinse the chicken and pat it dry.
- Pound the peppercorns in a mortar. Coarsely chop the garlic with the herbs, then add them to the peppercorns and pound into a paste. Stir in the sea salt, vinegar, and oil.
- Carefully slide your hand between the skin and the flesh of the chicken, loosening it over the breasts and the legs as far as possible. Rub about half the herb mixture into the flesh. Spread the remainder over the chicken and into the cavity. Truss, then place the chicken in a roasting pan.
- Bake the chicken for 1/2 hour, then add the wine and lower the heat to 350F. Roast until the juices run clear from the thigh, about 1 1/2 hours for a 3-pound bird. While the chicken is roasting, baste it several times with the juices. If it appears to be getting too dark on top, cover it loosely with foil. Serve hot or cold.
- To make a sauce for hot chicken, remove the bird from the pan and put the pan over a burner on low heat. Whisk in the flour and stir, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer for 10 minutes. If the sauce is too thick, add stock to thin it out. It should be well seasoned already, but taste and season, if needed, with additional salt and pepper.
Cube steaks are a thinner cut taken off the top of the Top Round Roast and tenderized. That means that it cooks a lot faster then other steak cuts and can be surprisingly versatile. I like to turn mine into chicken fried steak for a special weekend brunch vibe or make fajitas with it. Either way, this is a quick and tender cut of meat to cook. Check out the links below for some cube steak recipes I found online that are pretty tasty!
Quick Cube Steak Fajitas, by Riemer Family Farms: I love the marinade on these. I have a bag of frozen sliced peppers left over from this summer which I like to defrost and brown along with sliced onions. Check out the Flour Tortilla recipe from last month’s newsletter to serve with the fajitas.
Chicken Fried Steak w/Mashed Potatoes, by Ree Drummond: This would be a great dinner option for chicken fried steak! But, if you want to do more of a brunch/breakfast option, consider Grandma’s Homemade Biscuits from last month’s CSA newsletter in place of the mashed potatoes.
Click the button above and let us know if we can do some shopping for you at our Farm Store. Try to get your orders in to us by 1 pm on Thursday, and we will bring them with us to your CSA pick up.
We spend the summer pickling and preserving. We grow wheat, corn, and buckwheat which we mill into flour. We make chicken, beef, and pork broth. Our bees produce honey. Pigs produce lard. These are great ways to enjoy the organic, nutrient-dense bounty of Rainshadow Organics.Â
Flours and Wheat Berries:
- 2 lb bags hard red, hard white, soft white flour: $5/bag
- 2 lb bag buckwheat flour: $7/bag
- 2 lb bag corn flour: $12/bag
- 3 lb bag hard white or hard red wheat berries $5/bag
Meat:Â we will have a variety of beef for sale (no chicken or pork at this time). Price/lb varies by the cut ($8-$15/lb):
- $8/lb: ground beef
- $10/lb: chuck roast
- $11/lb: cubed round steak
- $12/lb: top sirloin
- $13/lb: brisket
- $14/lb: rib steak
- $15/lb: flat iron
- $15/lb: New York Strip
- $19/lb: tenderloin
Pickles, Salsas, Preserves, Sauces:Â $5/half pint;Â $9/pint; $16/quart
- spicy zucchini relish (pint)
- spicy pickled kohlrabi (pint/quart)
- dilly bean & dill pickles (quart)
- pickled hot peppers (pint)
- tomatillo salsa, hot and mild (pint & quart)
- tomato sauce (quart)
Honey:Â $10/pint; $20/quart
Spring Dinner & Brunch Dates
We have just released our spring 2021 Farm to Table Dinner and Sunday Brunch dates! Click on the dates below to purchase your tickets!
That’s right! This year we are moving brunch and dinner ticket sales to our newsletter format. Want to be the first to hear about ticket releases? Sign up for our Events Email list! After an initial release to our Events Email List, we will publish the calendar and ticket sales links to our monthly & CSA newsletters. We set initial ticket numbers to 20 to accommodate state & local mandates. Email us if you want to be put on the waitlist for a particular dinner or brunch. We will call or email you first if we can increase seating for that event!
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