The 20 week season is over. I made it to 18 pick ups. The good news is that we’re extending into a mini-season with bi-weekly pickups. That gives me two more months. I might join another one in the winter. I hear that Kawartha Ecological Growers does year-round and they deliver to Appletree Market and U of T. And hey, I’ve got my year-round farmers’ market (Wychwood Barns), at which my farm has a table.

The farm’s “veggie of the week” is mustard greens, which isn’t exactly one vegetable but a combination of varieties of leafy greens in the mustard family. In this case it’s mizuna, Red Rain, Green Wave, and Red Giant. Here’s what our farmer said about the mustard greens:

This is the first year I’ve grown them, and I am totally impressed. They all have a mild flavour (not too spicy) and can be eaten raw or cooked … except Green Wave, which is quite hot until you cook it slightly, then it mellows. They’re beautiful and they’re perfect greens for this time of year. Soon the hard frosts will wipe them out.

The only information I could find about Green Wave were seed sales and blog posts about CSAs. Since I was on newsletter duty this week and this gives me an excuse to exercise and share my nutritional nerdiness, I learned that mustard greens are detoxifying, can help prevent cancer, they’re an excellent source of antioxidants, they have anti-inflammatory benefits and support the cardiovascular system.

Mustard greens are an excellent source of many vitamins including vitamin K, vitamin A (beta-carotene), vitamin C, folate, and vitamin E. They are also an excellent source of manganese and calcium as well as dietary fiber. They are also a very good source of potassium, vitamin B6, protein, copper, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B2, and magnesium. Mustard greens are a good source of vitamin B1 and vitamin B3 (niacin).

Serving Ideas

• Young mustard greens make great additions to salads.
• Serve healthy sautéed mustard greens with walnuts.
• Adding chopped mustard greens to a pasta salad gives it a little kick.

I included this recipe for sauteed mustard greens from Simply Recipes but was also interested in this recipe for Balsamic-Glazed Chickpeas and Mustard Greens.

Here’s what else I chose this week after missing last week:

• Spinach
• Kale
• Spaghetti squash (I now have 4 kinds of squash, all acquired separately, though I could have also gotten acorn squash and others today.)
• garlic
• Sunflower greens
• cilantro

I need regular salad greens. If the farmers’ market can’t provide, it’ll be Earthbound Farms, my off-season choice.

Here’s my squash collection, by the window in my living room.

Now to decide whether or not I want to stay with the 8-point small share or upgrade to a 12-point medium share if I’m doing half the pickups in the fall than in the summer…

Eat well, be well.

Image by Chris Campbell via Flickr

Registration is open for Everdale’s 2011 season, starting June 14 and running until October 25!

To register online, Click Here
To print off and mail in your registration form, Click Here

About Everdale’s Harvest Share Program:

Everdale’s harvest share program is based on the Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) model that is becoming popular all around the world.  Here’s how CSA farms generally work: the CSA farm receives a set fee from you prior to the start of the growing season. In return, you receive produce from the farm every week during the harvest season. In southern Ontario, the harvest season is about 20 weeks long (June-October).

Everdale’s version of the CSA model is called the “Harvest Share Program”. Everdale’s Harvest Shareholders receive fresh fruits and vegetables grown on our certified organic farm and on other local farms.

Pickup Dates and Locations

Everdale’s Harvest Share program begins in mid-June and runs until the end of October. They have two membership options, depending on which pickup location is closest to you:

• in the Annex neighbourhood in Toronto (187 Brunswick Ave.), on Tuesday afternoons
• at the farm in Hillsburgh, Erin township, on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings

Member Benefits

• 20 weeks of fresh, local, organic food
• 20-30 seasonal fruits and vegetables to choose from each week
• 4 share sizes to suit your needs
• take-what-you-need fresh herbs
• farm events and activities
• cut flowers and u-pick peas and beans (farm pickup location only)
• a choice of how many weeks you would like to pick up your share!

Working Share Option

Everdale also offers the option of a Working Share, which means that you can get your Harvest Share in exchange for working on the farm or at one of our pickup locations.  For more information about the Working Share, Click Here

The number of Harvest Shares available in 2011 is limited, so sign up now!

For full details about the 2011 Harvest Share Program, Click Here (PDF).

Also see my blog post It’s not too early to consider your 2011 CSA share from last month.

Other related articles

• Green Things Growing: What Is A CSA Anyway? (meghantelpnerblog.com)

Image via Wikipedia

From Farmer Daniel of The Cutting Veg:

Hello Farm Folk,

The Cutting Veg is thrilled to offer another year of freshly harvested, local, organic produce through our Four Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) locations in the GTA! A CSA is a mutually beneficial partnership in which individuals or families receive fresh, local, organically grown produce weekly, while supporting local farmers and sustainable growing practices. The Cutting Veg Organic Farm grows and sources local, organic produce, and community members come to their chosen depot from June to October, to choose their weekly share. CHOOSE WHAT YOU WANT! With March having arrived, planting season is around the corner, and in a matter of weeks we will be in the field, planting peas, onions, arugula, salad greens, Asian greens, and more.

Pick-up locations:

• Holy Blossom Temple, near Bathurst & Eglinton (Tuesdays, 2:30-6:30pm)
• Park Road Healing Arts, near Bloor & Yonge (Thursdays, 3-7pm)
• Temple Sinai, near Wilson & Avenue Rd  (Tuesdays, 2:30-6:30pm)
• Kavanah Garden, Bathurst and Rutherford rd. area  (Thursdays, 3-7pm)

For more information, or to register for the 2011 season, visit http://www.thecuttingveg.com, or contact Daniel at 647-388-7444, or daniel@thecuttingveg.com.

This year I will once again be involved in Everdale’s CSA at First Narayever Synagogue near Bathurst and Harbord (part of Hazon’s network of CSAs) and will post information on that one when information becomes available. It might seem odd that I’m on the organizing committee for one and promoting another (I vaguely recall one person commenting on this last year), but I’m happy to spread the word about different Community Supported Agriculture programs such as The Cutting Veg. I believe in eating local food, in season. I believe in making Community Supported Agriculture as convenient and accessible as possible. It’s community supported agriculture and these programs must be located in places convenient to their users.  It’s not competition among Community Supported Agriculture programs, it’s partnership and awareness-building. Be a part of your community’s!

Related articles via Google:

• From my friends at Well Preserved: How to choose the right CSA for you… (Note to Joel and Dana: The post appears 5th under a search for “choosing a CSA harvest OR agriculture”.)
• From The Farmer’s Marketer: Choosing Your CSA Farm Share: Seven Selection Criteria (plus a consideration)
• From The Kitchn (Apartment Therapy): Choosing a CSA
• From Planet Green: Why Try Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)?

Related articles (Zemanta)

• Why Join a CSA? (triplecordcsaorganicproduce.wordpress.com)

Image via Wikipedia

This week had me picking up my usual small 6-point share + my friend’s medium 12-point share. It was a lot to keep track of. My six points went quick. I got…

• Rhubarb (1 bunch)
• Shitiake mushrooms
• A bunch of carrots
• 1/3 lb of spinach
• 2 cucumbers*
• 1.5 lbs of sweet potatoes

…It appears I went 1 point over, as the mushrooms were 2. I’ll still need to get kale at a farmer’s market but I still have some from last week so it wasn’t priority. They were also out of salad mix by the time I got there so I’ll need to pick up more of that. Last week I took another bunch of garlic scapes and decided not to get any more this year because even if I freeze some and make pesto I’ve still got too many. Scape season appears to be over now. I also need to replenish my berries. Tomorrow is another farmer’s market… and so is Thursday. This time of year is awesome if you like fresh, local produce.

Eat well, be well.

Both weeks:

• Salad greens
• Swiss chard (last week’s was finished in a wheatberry salad)
• Kale (different variety this week)
• Raspberries

Last week: Shiitake mushrooms

This week: Garlic scapes

And those are my 6 points for a small share. Raspberries are 2 points for a small container. It makes me a little sad.

This week I stopped at the Trinity Bellwoods farmer’s market first. It was my first visit. Tuesdays are CSA pick up days and getting to both by 7 requires planning, I thought, especially when I don’t usually leave the office until 6. What it requires is getting out of the office earlier (I go in late after puttering around in the morning and missing rush hour as to not be packed tightly with other bodies on public transit).  I realized today that I’d been planning backwards and less efficiently anyhow. Once I realized this my transit plans came together. I left the office around 5:10, was at the farmer’s market by 5:30ish (a 15 minute streetcar ride from work after a short wait) and the CSA pick up location just before 6:30.

At the farmer’s market I picked up a pint of these:

Wild Blueberries are like crack but I rarely buy because of the sticker shock ($9!). If the first container was free they’d really have me hooked.

What else was waiting for me to buy? Cheese from Ruth of Monforte Dairy!  Monforte was selling at two farmer’s markets today. Ruth had someone selling Toscano and curds at the SickKids Hospital MyMarket earlier in the day. I went, didn’t buy. Instead I chose to wait until after work and buy Toscano and feta at Trinity Bellwoods. I don’t think they even had feta at SickKids and I’ve been craving feta for two days, since I made a big wheatberry salad on Sunday. I also find myself craving salt recently, and I’m not much of a salt craver. I think it’s a result of the heat and sweating.

This weekend if I can catch a ride I’ll see if she’s got halloumi at Brick Works. Grilled halloumi makes me happy and I hear that she’s got a cool little worker bee working it.

Dinner tonight: Farmer’s market eggs (albeit, no longer fresh and the dozen is down to one) scrambled with garlic scapes. smoked salmon, Monforte feta and Toscano. One bite of the feta made my mouth happy.

Also on the topic of the CSA: The weekend before last I redid the newsletter template so that it’s easier to work with as long as it’s still being done in Word. It’s a personal little victory. Text boxes FTW.

Eat well, be well.

I’ve been putting rhubarb in smoothies but intend to stew some. I’ve used garlic scapes in scrambled eggs, kale in smoothies and salads (it’s better if you steam it before putting in salad) and spinach also in smoothies and salads. Earlier this week I made a smoothie that included spinach, strawberries, rhubarb and lemon – among other things.

Here are some ideas for chard that I received from Hazon, sent to CSA Newsletter Coordinators. I’m one of three Newsletter Coordinators/Editors for my CSA, and we’re a Hazon CSA site.

• Wash the chard well to remove any sand or soil that may be hidden in the leaves.
• Wrap Swiss chard leaves around your favorite vegetable and grain salad and roll into a neat little package. Bake in a medium-heat oven and enjoy this nutrient-superstar alternative to stuffed cabbage.
• Toss penne pasta with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and cooked Swiss chard.
• Add zest to omelets and frittatas by adding some steamed Swiss chard.
• Use chard in place of or in addition to spinach when preparing vegetarian lasagna.

Obviously the first is the start to all the others. I’d like to try wrapping the leaves around filling as per the second suggestion.

Image via Wikipedia

It appears that I didn’t do a CSA post last week. My haul was similar. From what I remember, I picked up some bok choy, salad greens, apples, strawberries and carrots. I don’t remember what else. I’d been hoping for totsoi because I’d put in back the week before in order to get spinach but there was none.

• Spinach (picked up at the last minute, after putting back tatsoi)
• Strawberries
• Mizuna (sounds like the name of a restaurant, and there are a number of restaurants with the name)
• Cabbage
• Garlic scapes
• Rhubarb

Photos from this week.

Interested in joining Everdale’s CSA with pick up in the Annex? Pick up is every Tuesday from 3:30 to 7. Get more information here.