Box Contents – Holiday Harvest Week 1, 2017

Helpful information about herbs you received can be found here: Your 2017 CSA Herb Garden

Helpful information on share contents can be found in the Produce Information Booklet

Letters & Information

“Food For Thought” by Jennifer Borealo

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving was a week ago already. All that planning, cooking, and of course, great eating. I hope that all of you had a chance to visit with family and friends and a little time to relax over the weekend. We have arrived into the holiday season and since I have been knee deep in ribbons and decorations while working on wreaths, I am truly feeling the spirit! Plan to take a few minutes in the market and the greenhouse when you pick up your share, it will make you feel quite festive.

I was away for Thanksgiving this year so I did roast a Turkey until the weekend. I noticed on Facebook that some of you who had dinner on the holiday away from home prepared your own meal either early or later. Now come the leftovers. It is the favorite part of the meal for some and not favored for others. It seems that the rule of thumb is to change it up as much as possible so not to become boring of course. Ann Buggy on Facebook posted a picture of Shepard’s Pie prepared with Turkey dinner leftovers and maybe some extra mashed potatoes. Some of the shares will have cabbage this week and I plan to try the stuffed cabbage casserole and I will use leftover turkey in place of the ground turkey. There are some options to the recipe that will help to include the carrots and peppers in the share. Be creative and add what you have.

It isn’t often that we see a new apple in our shares for the first time in late November. The apple is Enterprise and it is a late, to very-late season variety. This is not an apple that you will often hear about. This year, these apples were picked when the forecast in November was for a freeze so that we could save the fruit. While reading about these apples I would say our timing was perfect. Many sights talk about their flavor improving when kept in cold storage for a month before sale. They are said to be a good keeping variety so that is good for us as well. The parents of this apple are the Golden Delicious, McIntosh, and Rome Beauty. We know that Rome apples are great for baking and Golden Delicious work well in pies. McIntosh is a good eating apple so they are a perfect fit for all of our needs. In our index they are very good for cooking and sauce and excellent for pie and serving fresh.

One of the treats this time of year is that we have a little bit of winter and a little bit of summer in the shares. The greenhouses are providing us with some of the flavors of summer that we all know and love and miss in the cold. After the “All American” turkey dinners I am ready to chop some basil and tomato for risotto. I think a batch of pesto might be in order as well.
If you have some creative ideas for leftovers or any recipes you would like to share please send them to me, jenn@alstedefarms.com. I am always happy to hear from you. Until next week, enjoy the freshness.