Garlic Ginger Pea Shoots

1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs grated fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 lbs pea shoots, chopped slightly
2 tsp soy sauce
½ tsp black pepper
2 tbs seasame seeds

Heat olive oil in skillet or wok
Add ginger and garlic and sauté for 4 minutes
Add pea shoots, cover pan and let cook for 1 minute
Remove from heat and add soy sauce, pepper and sesame seeds
http://www.bigoven.com/133472-Pea-Shoots-Sauteed-with-Garlic-And-Ginger-recipe.html

African Greens

Here is one of shareholder Anna’s favorite Swiss Chard recipes:

Sukuma Wiki (soo-KOO-mah WEE-kee)
In Kenya a bunch of Sukuma Wiki (push the week along) costs approximately five cents (U.S.) Eaten with ugali (grain porridge) it is the cheap, nutritious staple meal of many Kenyans. Kale is the closest substitute in North America. Swiss chard and spinach also work well.

In small amount of water, cook until just tender:
Leaves from 1 bunch kale, finely chopped (I always use Swiss chard.)
1 green pepper, chopped
Salt to taste
Brown in 1 T. oil over medium heat:
1 large onion, thinly sliced
Add and fry until oil separates:
2 T. tomato paste
1 clove garlic, crushed
Add cooked greens and mix thoroughly.

from “Extending the Table... A World Community Cookbook”

Shredded Beet Salad

• 1 cup beets (cooked, peeled, shredded)
• ¼ cup fresh parsley (chopped)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon onion (chopped)
• ½ tablespoon sugar
• ¼ tablespoon salt
• Pepper to taste

Mix together and chill. Place in center of dish
• ½ cup carrots (shredded)
• 1 hard-boiled egg (sliced)
• 1/3 cup parsley (chopped, optional)
• Green olives (optional)
Arrange around the beets.

Serves 2

A Simpler version….
Combine equal portions of shredded carrots and shredded beets with a handful of chopped fresh parsley. Dress with oil and vinegar.
Source: Simply in Season, Lind and Hockman-Wert

Grandmother’s Radish Leaf Soup

Beet greens and kale would also work with or instead of the radish greens for this soup.
3 bunches
1 tbsp.
1 very lg.
1.5 lbs
3 cups
2/3 cup radishes
butter
onion, chopped
russet potatoes, peeled and chopped (about 4)
water
milk

Cut leaves from radishes and wash well. (Reserve radishes for another use.) Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add radish leaves and saute until wilted, about 2 minutes. Add potatoes and 3 cups water. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Puree soup in batches in blender. Return to saucepan. Mix in milk. Stir over medium heat until hot. Season soup with salt and pepper. (Bon Appetit Magazine, 1994)

Sauteed Radishes with Radish Greens or Arugula

• ¼ cup butter
• 1 lb radishes, quartered
• 4 cups radish greens or arugula
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Salt
• Black pepper

Melt the butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add radishes, stirring constantly, until they are tender but still crisp, probably about 5 minutes depending on size. Transfer to bowl to cool. Return skillet to stove.
Put the greens or arugula in the skillet with wash water still on leaves. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until just wilting, 2 to 3 minutes.
Turn off heat. Add lemon juice and radishes to skillet. Stir until combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately
(serves around 4)
From: Farmer John’s Cookbook

The Radish As Medicine

Constituents: Radishes contain glucosilinates, which yield a volatile oil, raphanin, phenolic compounds, and vitamin C. Raphanin is antibiotic, and the phenolic compounds are antioxidant.
Historic Uses:
• The builders of the pyramids in ancient Egypt were paid in radishes, onions, and garlic, according to Herodotus.
• Ancient Romans used radish oil to treat skin diseases.
• The Tang Materia Medica, a Chinese text from the year 659 A.D., lists radishes as a digestive stimulant.
Medicinal Uses:
• Stimulates appetite and digestion
• Can be “dry-fried” to treat chest problems
(Information from: Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, by Andrew Chevallier)

A Shareholder Shares

Shareholder Margaret says: “This spring, Greene Street Friends School, which my daughter attends, performed a scaled back version of "Into the Woods". In the musical, the witch tells the story of Rapunzel in a talking song that starts, "Greens! Greens! Nothing but Greens!" This line has become our mantra, when we look over our weekly haul from the CSA. No expectant father is going to have to sneak into the witch's garden to satisfy his wife, if they participate in the Henry CSA.”

The Witch’s Rap, From Into The Woods:

“In the past, when your mother was with child, she developed an unusual appetite. She took one look at my beautiful garden and told your father that what she wanted more than anything in the world was

Greens, greens and nothing but greens:
Parsley, peppers, cabbages and celery,
Asparagus and watercress and
Fiddleferns and lettuce-!

He said, "All right,"
But it wasn't, quite,
'Cause I caught him in the autumn
In my garden one night!
He was robbing me,
Raping me,
Rooting through my rutabaga,
Raiding my arugula and
Ripping up my rampion
(My champion! My favorite!)-
I should have laid a spell on him
Right there,
Could have changed him into stone
Or a dog or a chair...

But I let him have the rampion-
I'd lots to spare.
In return, however,
I said, "Fair is fair:
You can let me have the baby
That your wife will bear
And we'll call it square."

Observations from the fields, a letter from apprentice Megan

Dear CSA members,

As an apprentice that works the fields of Henry Got Crops CSA, Weaver’s Way’s Awbury Arboretum location, and a small farm at Martin Luther King High School, my job allows me to watch three very different farms grow and change. This CSA’s location is especially dear to me, and I highly value the experience of working to start a brand new farm - and I must tell you, each time I step onto the grounds I see a changed location.

I’d like to encourage you to allow an extra ten minutes the next time you come over to pick up your share, and stroll down to the fields below to check things out.

What you’ll see is a remarkable transformation of a field from an empty green lawn to a space full with vegetable production. You can still see the stages of development: a lightly tilled field with sod trying to take back over, a newly formed raised bed that hasn’t been leveled or shaped yet, a bed ready to be planted in, and finally thriving beds with crops ready for harvest, including perhaps the most beautiful collards I’ve ever had the pleasure of harvesting.

My time spent at Saul has really been dominated by bed preparation, and each day I find more enjoyment in this sometimes tedious work. Most times I’m thinking zen-like thoughts as I rake in compost, testing my balance and momentum as I whiz around a full wheelbarrow,and getting immense pleasure out of planting in one of these soft mounds of earth – coaxing small transplants to root deeply and grow firmly.

Irrigation has been another minor obsession for me at Saul. New fields mean setting up an entire network of irrigation for dry spells and recent plantings. At Saul we use a maze of drip lines which build up pressure and slowly drip drip drip water at every foot of their plastic hoses, so that water reaches the soil directly around the base of the plants, building up moisture for hours. Hooking up irrigation is a nice mind puzzle for the early hours of a day, and now that most of it is installed, I look forward to hastily fixing leaks and checking water pressure as the summer progresses.

But for me, the truly addictive part of farming has always been the never-ending awe of the natural world that working outside nourishes and encourages. Each day that I have the pleasure of growing food for your CSA starts with a bike ride on Forbidden Drive. For the duration of that ride I hear at once the swift water of the Wissahickon and the excited morning chatter of birds. I get caught up quickly dodging potholes and early joggers, and hoping that I won’t be too late. The green of the park is astounding, and each day I am tempted to explore rather than continue up the last strenuous hill, but alas! I find my way onto the fields once again.

And so then I step onto the farm itself, and as I work I see bugs that are so bizarre I can hardly believe they come from Pennsylvania soil, I hear the constantly varying call of a mockingbird, and catch an angry glimpse of a fat groundhog. In the field next to me lumber my friends the cows, who at the end of the day call in their stray friends from the woods in a tone that is distinctly marked by protection and worry. The school’s barns are currently hosts to an array of new baby animals to stare at in amazement. Myself and another apprentice have even recently glimpsed what appears to be a coyote that has taken to hanging around the edge of the wood – too large to be a fox and the size of a medium dog, its mannerisms and appearance seem to be a wild coyote, although I can’t say for certain.

In an attempt to keep this ramble concise and complete, I must also mention my excitement for starting the day tomorrow harvesting your shares. I look forward to the snap of greens as I pull off their leaves to bundle them, and the satisfying pop of turnips and radishes
out of the ground. Delicate herbs are a pleasure to bunch and their rich aromas will lure you into our pickup zone.

Enjoy your vegetables and explore your farm!

Your apprentice,

Megan

Farm Team

Some of the farm crew eats lunch together early in the season

Meet Farmer David Siller

David Siller comes from the Philly area and is going into his third year of farming and educating with the Weavers Way Farm. He loves growing heirloom veggies and funky veggies that even experienced farmers don't have too much experience growing and selling. He manages the Awbury Children's garden with the help of lots and lots of school children and all of the other Weavers Way farmers. He also manages the Stenton Family Manor Homeless shelter garden and the Martin Luther King High School Farm. He'll be heading over to Saul as much as possible over the coming summer.

Meet Farmer David Zelov

David Zelov is a New Jersey native has a B.S. in Natural Resource Management from Rutgers University. He has been farming off and on for the past 9 years in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania including on a rooftop in Manhattan. There was also a short stint at a cactus nursery in Tucson, AZ. He is currently in his third season at Weavers Way.

Whipped Potatoes and Kohlrabi

1/2 pound baking or russet potatoes (about 2 potatoes)
1 pound kohlrabi (about 4 bulbs)
3 to 4 tablespoons butter
¼ to ½ cup milk or cream
½ teaspoon salt, plus more, to taste
Black pepper to taste
• Boil the potatoes and kohlrabi separately until tender, 20 to 35 minutes, depending on size. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of liquid from either vegetable.
•
• Peel potatoes and kohlrabi. Mash together in large bowl.
• Melt butter in small pot over medium heat. Add ¼ cup of the milk or cream. Heat until almost simmering, then remove from heat.
• Pour butter mixture over potato/kohlrabi mixture. Add ½ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. Beat until fully combined and smooth. If you want it to be creamier, add up to ¼ cup additional milk or cream. If you want it to be smoother, stir in up to ½ cup of the reserved corking water until you like its consistency.
(From: John Peterson and Angelic Organics, Farmer John’s Cookbook)

Simple Sauteed Kohlrabi

2 medium kohlrabi bulbs, grated
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup butter or vegetable oil
1 medium onion, diced (about ½ cup)
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed (around ½ teaspoon)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme, chives, or sage

• Mix the kohlrabi and salt in a colander. Let stand 30 minutes to drain.
• Melt butter in medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add garlic, sauté for 1 more minute.
• Stir in kohlrabi. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
• Increase heat to medium, uncover skillet, and cook for 2 minutes.
• Remove from heat and stir in fresh herbs. Let stand for several minutes to let flavors develop
(From: John Peterson and Angelic Organics, Farmer John’s Cookbook)

Why I Like Kohlrabi

By Nicole Sugerman

The kohlrabi is one of the strangest vegetables we grow, and one of the less well-known. Resembling a cross between a turnip and a flying saucer, I fell in love with kohlrabi the first time I saw it growing, during the first season I worked on a farm. The vegetable was bred from a wild cabbage plant, like broccoli, cauliflower, cultivated cabbage, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, and many other similar vegetables, which are all in the “brassica” family. However, unlike all of these other vegetables, the kohlrabi vegetable that we eat is actually the swollen stem of the plant, not a root crop, a leaf crop, or a fruit crop. This is the first reason I like kohlrabi, just because I think that this is neat. Kohlrabi is only one of two vegetables we grow where the ‘good eating’ part is actually the plant’s stem (the second is fennel- the bulb of this plant is actually the petiole of the fennel leaf).

I also like kohlrabi because it matures early. One of the major challenges in planning a CSA farm is making sure we have many different vegetables ready for shareholders each week. We cannot just plant everything all at once and wait; this would lead to a glut of vegetables at certain times, and very few vegetables at other times. Instead, Nina and I back-calculate to see when we should plant each of the vegetables in order to have them ready at many different times, so that every week is a unique, interesting, and bountiful assortment. The trickiest time to have a large assortment of vegetables ready is the beginning of the season, because we cannot start planting until the danger of frost is past, and many vegetables take a long time to ripen. Kohlrabi grows relatively quickly compared to many other plants, meaning we can depend on it during the crucial beginning of the CSA season.

I am additionally fond of growing kohlrabi because it grows reliably and requires little maintenance. Because the part we eat is a swollen stem, the kohlrabi is neither susceptible to the root maggots that burrow through our turnips nor to the cabbage moth caterpillars that often prey on our cabbages. Spring is a very busy time, with our team racing to prepare our beds and get all of our crops in the ground, so kohlrabi is a relieving vegetable to have in the mix. We do not have to pay much attention to it, but it is reliably there for us, looking great and tasting delicious, when we need it.

A slightly less pragmatic, but arguably more important, reason that I like kohlrabi is specifically because it is a little bit ‘weird’. As a small farmer, I consider my efforts toward increasing plant diversity as one of my more important roles in the farming system (I plan to write a whole article on vegetable diversity in the future). Because kohlrabi is uncommon, I am more interested in growing it. I think that the more different vegetables people eat, the more complete nutrition we are likely to get. Also, the more kinds of different and varied vegetables farmers grow, the more stable our agriculture is—if we grow only a few vegetable varieties, we run the risk of falling prey to some disease or pest that could wipe out a very substantial portion of our food supply (think the Irish potato famine). So, by growing kohlrabi, and other such vegetables that are not as popular and therefore are not often grown on large farms, I like to think that I am sowing the seeds of food security and general health.

As we begin our CSA, Nina and I have been the recipients of much advice. I have been surprised by how much of this advice contains a variation on the theme of, “CSAs grow so much kohlrabi! Why?! No one really likes kohlrabi!” I suppose this article is partly a preemptive defense of our decision in the hopes that our feedback box will not be filled with similar sentiments. I also have included two delicious kohlrabi recipes, because I honestly think that once people know how to prepare this delicate, tender, broccoli-esque vegetable, everyone will be a convert to its charms. But I also just couldn’t contain my appreciation for this underrated delight of a vegetable, which is enjoyed in Europe and Asia as well as North America. I hope you enjoy your kohlrabi this week!

A Short History of CSA

By Nina Berryman
CSA farms are spreading like wildfire across the nation! It seems new ones are being created every year, and many have waiting lists. Given how popular CSA is, it’s not surprising that the principles behind it emerged independently in many areas around the world. There is a misconception that there was one original model that was the inspiration for all of the existing CSA farms, however this is not actually the case.
In the 1960’s a group of women in Japan concerned with chemical-laden, imported food came together to implement a different kind of food distribution. They bought directly from dairy farmers to ensure they knew the source and quality of their milk. This concept spread to include more products, farmers and consumers. It became known as Teikei which translates to “cooperation,” “link up” or “join business.”
In the 1970’s there was a strong co-op movement in Chile as well. Farmers and consumers created buying and selling partnerships to promote the local food economy. These cooperatives inspired the first producer-consumer food alliance in Geneva.
The roots of the current CSA movement in North America can be traced to the philosophies of Rudolf Steiner. Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian philosopher (as well as a scholar, architect, playwright, and educator) who lived from 1862 to 1925. His works were largely concerned with “spiritual science,” the connection between western science and mysticism. He is considered the founder of Biodynamic agriculture, a method of agriculture that tries to source all farm in-puts from the farm itself, and considers a farm as one complete organism, compiled of many mutually beneficial interactions and ecological processes. Steiner also believed strongly in the importance of forming a strong relationship between a producer and consumer, where they both are aware of their mutual interests and work together to strengthen them. More and more farms began practicing these ideas of biodynamics and forming an intentional, close relationship between consumers and producers. In North America, these ideas were implemented on two separate farms, independently and simultaneously in 1986, the Indian Line Farm in Massachusetts and the Temple-Wilton Community Farm in New Hampshire.
Indian Line Farm was started by a core group of people who had either visited biodynamic farms in Europe, or were at least familiar with the teachings of Steiner. Robyn Van En, Jan Vander Tuin, John Root, Jr., Charlotte Zanecchia, and Andrew Lorand started this farm with an apple orchard and sold shares of apples, cider and vinegar. They sold 30 shares in their first year, but quickly grew to include more crops, more land and more consumers.
The Temple-Wilton Community Farm was started by Anthony Graham, Trauger Groh and dairyman Lincoln Geiger. Trauger moved from Germany where he had been working with Steiner-inspired agricultural techniques. The Temple-Wilton Community Farm did not have a set price that all shareholders had to pay. Instead they made a budget for the upcoming year and simply asked shareholders to contribute what they could in order to reach their budget goals.
Today, in Pennsylvania alone there are more than 150 CSA farms, and that number is increasing rapidly. While there are many CSA’s that serve Philadelphia, we are proud to say that we are one of two CSA farms located within the city limits. The other is Greens Grow Farm, located in the Kensington area.

Sources for this article include:
Local Harvest: http://www.localharvest.org/

The Rodale Institute: http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/features/0104/csa-history/part1.shtml

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture#History

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teikei

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner#Biodynamic_farming_.26_gardening

Sharing the Harvest, Henderson and Van En, Chelsea Green Publishing Company. Vermont. 2007.

Spotlight On Greens

In the spring, any CSA, and, for that matter, any farmers market in our part of the country is inevitably dominated by greens. It works out this way due to timing. Crops in the brassica family (broccoli, cabbage, collard greens, and kale) can tolerate frost, meaning we can plant them early, but the leaf crops mature much more quickly than the slower growing crops that form a head, like cauliflower and cabbage. Then there are the asian greens and lettuce crops, which are less frost tolerant but grow quite quickly, meaning they, too, are ready to harvest before many of the other vegetables.
I often find that people are intimidated by greens. My mother is a formidable cook, but just this winter I bought a bunch of collard greens while visiting her and was surprised to find, in my farmer-bubble sort of way, that she had never cooked them and had no idea what to do with them.
In fact, greens are easy, delicious, and healthy. I have included several easy recipes for greens to give you some ideas of their possibilities. In addition to the recipes I’ve found, greens can be added to any brothy soup, right before the end, so they wilt in the heat right as the soup is done cooking. I add greens to my scrambled eggs in the morning, and used to sell kale to a coffee shop that added it to their banana-orange smoothies for a drink that was startilingly green and very delicious.
Should you tire of eating fresh greens or find yourself with an overwhelming amount, they are also easily preserved for later use.

Freezing greens: Cut up your greens and blanch them in boiling water for about two minutes. Dry lightly, put into freezer bags, press out the air, and freeze.

Lacto-fermenting greens (Gundru): Note: I tried this last year. It worked, for sure, but the greens do taste very unusual. Try this if you have an adventurous palate. According to Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation, the book in which I found this recipe, this is a traditional Nepalese ferment.
• Set greens in the sun for a few hours until they wilt.
• Using a rolling pin and a cutting board, smash and crush the greens to encourage the juices out. Do not lose the juice.
• Stuff the leaves and any juice coming out into a glass jar. Use pressure to fill the jar to capacity, forcing out more juice. Fill until jar is completely full of smashed greens covered in green juice. Screw a lid onto the jar.
• Place jar in sunny place for two to three weeks. At the end, greens should be pungent.
• You can serve them as is, or dry them on a line or spread in the sun. In Nepal, the dried gundru is used as soup stock.

Potato Planting

Polish Sorrel Soup

Ingredients:
• ½ lb. sorrel
• 1 Tbls. Butter
• 3 Tbls. Water
• 4 cups broth
• 3-4 Tbls. Flour
• 2 cups milk
• 2 raw egg yolks
• 1 Tbls. soft butter
• salt and pepper, to taste
Chop sorrel, and add to a skillet along with 1 Tbls. Butter and 3 Tbls. water. Simmer on low heat under cover for 10 minutes.

Force mixture through a sieve into 4 cups broth and simmer a few minutes longer. Dissolve 3-4 Tbls. flour in 2 cups milk and add to the pot. Simmer briefly, then remove from heat. Fork-blend 2 raw egg yolks with 1 Tbls. soft butter, adding several tablespoons of the soup and stirring until smooth. Add back to the pot. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
(from: http://www.netcooks.com/ recipes/Soups/Zupa.Szczawiowa.(Sorrel.Soup).html)

Meet Farmer Danielle Szepi

Danielle Szepi
Apprentice

Before moving to Philadelphia, Danielle helped to run a CSA in northern California. She is very excited to be helping with the start-up of Saul CSA and to be participating in the growing local food movement in Philly. She hails originally from Wisconsin, so the cow barns at Saul bring her back to her childhood, even though she was not a dairy farmer. Danielle is interested in biking, watching movies, and drinking microbrews

Meet Farmer Megan Rulli

Megan Rulli
Apprentice

Megan comes from the railroad town of Enola on the Susquehanna River. She enjoys the company of friends and being out of doors. She comes to Philadelphia to learn more of farming, food networks, and self sufficiency. She is very talented at interpretive dance.

Meet Farmer Nicole Sugerman

Nicole Sugerman
CSA co-manager
Nicole is currently working on her fourth season as a farmer, after initially trying it out as a summer job on her school’s student run farm. Running a small CSA and learning through the “make a lot of mistakes and kill a lot of crops and then try to figure out why” school of agricultural education, she found herself unable to stop farming after that first summer; every spring, she would get this achy feeling in her chest, and she would panic slightly with the thought of missing a growing season, until she would decide to work on a farm again and the achy feeling would go away. After this happened for two more seasons, until she realized that this is what she wanted to “do” in the career sense of the word. She moved to Philadelphia a year and nine months ago, attracted in part by the city’s sizeable number of vacant lots and the possibilities this could potentially afford for urban agriculture. Besides farming and thinking about farming, she enjoys reading, cooking, bicycling, fermentation of various sorts, and trying to build things.

Meet Farmer Nina Berryman

Nina Berryman
CSA co-manager

Nina grew up in the deep woods of northern Vermont, and is one of the state's biggest fans. After going to university in Quebec for four years, she enrolled in a farming school in British Columbia for 8 months. Here the joys (and frustrations) of farming became addictive and she set out to find work in urban farming. A few google searches later, Weavers Way came onto her radar and in the spring of 2008 she moved to Philadelphia. Now she lives in a communal household in Mt. Airy and is often seen tromping around Weavers Way Co-op in mud boots and a sun hat. If she could be any vegetable it would be bulb fennel.

Stir-fried pea shoots

Ingredients
• 300g pea shoots, washed and drained
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 to 1½ tablespoons fish sauce (nampla)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Heat oil in a non-stick wok over high heat. When hot, stir-fry garlic for about 2 minutes until fragrant. Add pea shoots and stir-fry until color changes. Add fish sauce and stir-fry over high heat briefly. Serve.
(from: http://www.asianfreerecipes.com/asian-recipes/singapore/stir-fried-pea-shoots.php)

Baby Bok Choy with Cashews

Ingredients
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped scallions, including green ends
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon shredded fresh ginger
• 1 pound baby bok choy, rinsed, chopped.
• 1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
• Soy sauce (to taste)
• Chili flakes (optional, to taste)
• 1/2 cup chopped, roasted, salted cashews

Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add onions, and sautee for about five minutes, until slightly tender. Add garlic and ginger, sautee for 30 seconds. Add bok choy. Sprinkle with sesame oil and salt. Cover, and let the baby bok choy cook down for approximately 3 minutes. (Like spinach, when cooked, the bok choy will wilt a bit.)
Remove cover. Lower heat to low. Stir and let cook for a minute or two longer, until the bok choy is just cooked.
Gently mix in cashews.
Add soy sauce, chili flakes to taste.
(adapted from: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/baby_bok_choy_with_cashews/)

Southern Style Greens

• 1 pound collard greens
• ½ ham hock or 3 slices of cooked bacon
• ½ medium onion, sliced or chopped
• ½ teaspoon of crushed red pepper
• 1 to 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
Preparation:
Clean and wash greens well; remove tough stems and ribs. Cut them up and place in a deep pot; add onion. Wash off ham hock and add to the pot. Add red pepper and salt. Add enough water to cover greens and cook until tender, about 1 hour for collards, less for more tender greens. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve with sliced tomato and corn bread.
Serves 4 to 6.
(adapted from: http://southernfood.about.com/od/collardgreens/r/bl00311j.htm)

Sauteed Greens

Ingredients:

· 1 bunch of greens, washed and chopped into bite-size pieces

· 1 yellow onion, sliced

· 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced or finely chopped

· 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

· Lemon juice, to taste

· 1/2 cup of vegetable broth or water

· Sea salt and pepper, to taste (optional)

Directions:

Warm olive oil over medium heat in a large pot or pan. Add onions and cook for 3-5 minutes or until slightly translucent. Be sure to stir the onions around once in a while so that they don't burn.

Add garlic and greens and mix them together with onions. Allow garlic, greens, and onions to cook for one minute, then add vegetable broth and cover pot or pan for 4-6 minutes. Check greens from time to time starting at the 4 minute mark for tenderness.

Once greens are tender, add sea salt and just a few drops of lemon juice. Give it one last stir and serve.

Be sure to taste as you add lemon juice. Adding too much can turn the whole dish sour.

(From: http://drbenkim.com/recipes-kale.htm)

The History of This CSA

Welcome to the first season of the Henry Got Crops! CSA! Although it is only mid-spring, we have been planning for and thinking about this day for a long, long, time. I feel both excitement and disbelief that the season has finally arrived.

The idea of starting a CSA first germinated (ha!) last fall, as the growing season on our original farm site, an acre-and-a-half at Awbury Arboretum in Mt. Airy, was just beginning to wind down a bit. Nina and I were both apprentices on the Weavers Way Farm, but we got along so well with the two full-time farmers that we all started talking about how we could create jobs for Nina and me to continue working with Weavers Way. So, one morning in October, we had a ‘visioning’ meeting for the farm, sitting around our picnic table, where we talked excitedly and idealistically about many ideas and dreams for our continued growth as a farm. We were most excited about one emerging idea: starting a CSA. As an organization committed to spreading the cooperative business model, a CSA fit right into Weavers Way’s goals, as a true model of a member-owned cooperative venture. We liked the idea of connecting closely to a community of people who would be consuming the crops we grew. And we knew that CSA is an important tool to helping many small farms break even financially, as it cuts out both the middleman associated with selling wholesale, and a lot of the labor costs of selling at farmers markets.

The next step, then, was identifying land on which we could grow vegetables for our CSA. We had already been working with Saul High School’s agroecology program, jointly maintaining a small hoop-house at Saul with the students. So, we wrote up a proposal to deepen our relationship by starting a CSA on some of their land. Later last fall, we spoke to the agroecology students about the project, explaining what CSA meant, showing them the land that would be used, and finally asking them if they thought this project was a good idea. The answer was a resounding “Yes”. The students liked the idea of having a hands-on learning opportunity, a concept already so important to a Saul education, and they liked the idea of converting then-unused land into a productive area of food production. They were excited about meeting the people who would be eating the vegetables. After then getting the idea approved by the adults at the school, we got right to work.

All winter, we worked on planning and outreach. We decided how much of each crop we would grow and when we would plant them. We ordered our seeds, and mapped out the plants onto our fields. We hired three amazing new apprentices to work with us this season, as well as two summertime interns. We worked with the Saul students to create a brochure about the project, and to discuss plant varieties and soil testing. Somehow, each of us got to squeeze in a couple of weeks of vacation in order to relax between one busy season and the next. In January, we started our first plants from seed in the greenhouse (onions), and we have been seeding more plants in the greenhouse every week since.

We broke ground on the farm the second week of March with the students, and planted our first crops: broccoli, kale, collard greens, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, scallions. . . It was a busy week off the bat, and the pace has not slowed down since! The agroecology classes have been out in the field with us at least once a week, prepping beds, planting crops, and composting the entire cornfield by hand (whew!). The apprentices rotate between Saul and our other sites, while Nina and I are out 5 to 6 days a week.

Even with all of our careful planning and hard work, there have been some unanticipated hurdles; a rainier-than-average spring meant it was sometimes hard to get beds prepped in time for planting, low levels of organic matter in the soil caused seeds in the ground to dry out more quickly than anticipated, and a flourishing population of groundhogs has meant a vigilant-bordering-on-obsessive watch over our fields so we do not lose any crops to the rodents. “You know,” I commented to David Zelov, the Weavers Way Farm manager, in the midst of some newly-arisen issue, “My tarot card reading a few months ago warned me that things would not go exactly as planned.” “A tarot card reading?!” He replied, “I think that’s just common sense.” It’s true that farming always has an element of the unexpected. But even despite the surprises, we are off to a terrific start. This day is the culmination of a lot of work, but also the start of a long and wonderful season. We are so excited you are with us for it!