January 12, 2016
Winter 2016, Week 2
CSA Newsletter
F a r m
You may have noticed that dry
beans as an option in the CSA is
becoming a trend. If you chose
to take home some of the Marfax
beans from last week, you may
have also noticed that the beans
you get from our farm are different from any bean you’ve ever
tasted. Namely, their texture is
creamy and pleasantly chewy.
They didn’t take millennia to
cook and, when they were done,
they weren’t bitter and grainy.
You actually enjoyed eating
them and not just because you
heard on the news that they are
healthy. You’ve started saying
things like, “Wow. These beans
have incredible flavor!” very
loudly at dinner. Or, “Hey
THIS
WEEK’S
SHARE

Black Beans

Russet Potatoes

Golden Beets

Leeks

Sunchokes

Kabocha Squash

Garlic

Cabbage

Cornmeal & Dry
Corn

Salad Mix
H a p p e n i n g s
honey, why don’t we have some
beans tonight?” without the
usual anxiety associated with
having to avoid being in unventilated areas with other people
for the next 48 hours.
harvested crop each year.
Therefore, your store-bought
bag of beans is of such poor eating quality because it has been
stored underground in a bunker
in the desert for at least half a
Consider yourself warned: If you century. Storage in such condicontinue with the Winter CSA, tions causes the beans to desicyou are in serious danger of be- cate. With such a low moisture
content, the beans are much
coming a bean-eater. Your
harder, both on the teeth and on
reputation may be affected.
You will have to be prepared to the digestive system, than the
“fresh” dry beans that we offer.
defend your behaviors to your
friends and coworkers, who
The situation with the whole
won’t understand. Your chilcorn and cornmeal that will be
dren will be too ashamed to
available in this week’s share is
invite their friends over for sleep a little different. As with dry
-overs. But that’s ok. It will be
beans, the corn that we grow is
worth it. These beans are really nothing like its store-bought
freakin’ good!
counterpart. As many of you
probably know already, thanks
You might be wondering why
they are so much more interest- to the work of folks like Michael
ing than the beans you grew up Pollan, the corn that is grown
predominantly in the Midwestwith (unless your mother or faern United States is barely fit for
ther was a bean farmer). We
human consumption.
have a theory about that.
Though first, to explain it simply, Over the years, it has been bred
the beans that you get in the
for essentially one thing: yields.
store are really old.
Eating qualities like flavor, nuNow our completely unfounded trition and the like fell by the
wayside of modern hybrid corn
theory (try not to put too much
thought into it) is that all of the breeding eons ago. Therefore,
beans that you get in the super- the corn you find in the store is,
market were grown back at the to state it baldly, re-packaged
animal feed.
height of the cold war in the
60’s. Concerned about Cuba,
the US government was preparing for WWIII. Seeing as how
beans are the perfect food during the nuclear winter-time,
they paid farmers to grow
enough black, pinto, navy, and
kidney beans to last the country
a hundred years. To keep their
stores fresh, they sell the old
beans on the market and replace them with the freshly
The corn that we grow, by contrast, is the same corn that was
grown by the Western Abenaki
tribe in Vermont back when the
Northeastern US was their land.
Since then it has been grown
and maintained by pioneer
farmers in that region, and was
famously the only corn variety
to produce a crop during the
year without a summer in 1816.
It was bred by people who had
to eat nothing but unleavened
cornbread all winter long. And
the amazing thing is… they
could.
All silliness aside, the corn and
beans available in the CSA, and
the numerous and threatened
heritage foods grown by gardeners and small farmers all
over the world, are not only tremendously flavorful, they are
widely adaptable, disease resistant, and drought tolerant.
Characteristics not shared by
their modern counterparts.
Their wisdom runs deep into our
history and their seeds have
traveled on a path to the present
that is the soil and climate in
which we live. And, importantly,
they are not property of any one
individual.
They may not be as cheap as the
megastore alternative, but we
hope you’ll embrace them. Because in a food system like ours,
where we are in danger of losing
our food heritage, the seeds that
have sustained our predecessors
for hundreds, and sometimes
thousands, of years. These foods
only exist because they were
eaten and depended upon. They
will only continue to exist if you
eat them. If you depend upon
them.
So eat for the future of our food
sovereignty. Shovel our delicious food heritage into your
mouth, chew it up, and taste the
rich history of the land. Go
ahead, be a bean-eater, and
celebrate what that really
means.
We hope you enjoy this week’s
produce.
Winter 2016, Week 2
January 12, 2016
T h i s
Black Beans
An American standard, enjoy these
freshly harvested dry beans just like
you would in your favorite black
bean recipe. Or try them in the delicious black bean tamale pie recipe
below!
Jerusalem Artichoke
This weeks root, also commonly
known as sunchokes, are a potato-
W e e k ’ s
like tubers from a plant related to
artichokes and sunflowers.. Their
unique and delicious nutty flavor
and crisp texture makes them
good for eating raw or cooked.
Sunchokes peels are edible, however, commonly the skins are removed. When preparing
sunchokes make sure not to overcook, as they can quickly turn
T h i s
Black Bean Tamale Pie
V e g e t a b l e s
W e e k ’ s
Crust:
1 1/2 cups ground cornmeal
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 kabocha squash, roasted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp. chili powder
1/4 cup butter or oil
cayenne pepper, to your heat preference
2 tbsp. honey or maple syrup
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp black pepper
1 can (15 oz.) diced or stewed tomatoes
1 cup black beans, cooked
Salt, to taste
Sunchoke-Kale Hash with Farro
3/4 cup farro, cooked and drained
11/2 lbs sunchokes, peeled and cut
into 2-inch pieces
Salt
3/4 lb kale, de-stemmed
6 tbsp. olive oil
1 small red onion, sliced 1/4-inch
thick
1 tbsp butter
1/2 lb oyster mushrooms
Freshly ground pepper
In a large saucepan, cover sunchokes
with water and add a pinch of salt.
Kabocha Squash
Very flavorful, dry fleshed squash
with smooth, rich texture. Great for
soups, sauces, casseroles, and just
about anything cooked. Or just
halved, roasted, and eaten with a
spoon, on the couch, like a bowl of ice
cream!
R e c i p e s
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
mushy. Best steamed, roasted or
pan fried.
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
salt, squash and tomatoes. Simmer for
10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400° F. Combine
cornmeal, flour, baking powder in a
bowl. Mix together butter, honey,
milk, eggs, and stir mixture into the
dry ingredients until well combined.
Add black beans to skillet. Adjust
salt to taste. Pour the cornmeal batter
over the filling and bake for 20-25
minutes until golden brown.
Heat a 17-inch cast iron skillet over
medium heat. Add olive oil and saute *If you don’t have a 17-inch cast iron
onions for 3-4 minutes until translu- skillet, you can use an equivalently
cent. Add the garlic, cook for 1-2 sized casserole dish.
minutes. Then add chili powder, cayRecipe adapted from
www.delishknowledgecom.
enne, cumin, coriander, black pepper,
Boil until tender, about 10 minutes.
Slice 1/4 inch thick.
Fill the large saucepan with water
and bring nto a boil. Add kale and
cook until just tender, about 3 minutes. Drain the kale and let cool
slightly. Squeeze out any excess liquid from kale leaves and then
coarsely chop them.
In a small skillet, heat 2 tablespoons
of olive oil. Add the red onion and a
pinch of salt and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally,
until browned, about 12 minutes.
In a medium skillet, melt the butter in
2 tablespoons of oil. Add the
sunchokes in an even layer and cook
over high heat until browned on the
bottom, about 3 minutes. Turn the
sunchokes, reduce the heat to moderately high and continue cooking until starting to brown, about 2 minutes.
Push the sunchokes to the side of the
skillet.
Add 1 more tablespoon of the oil and
the mushrooms. Season with salt and
pepper and cook over moderately
high heat until browned, 3 minutes.
Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil
along with the farro, kale and onion
and cook, stirring, until hot. Season
with salt and pepper and serve.
Recipe adapted from
www.foodandwine.com.