Spring Greens

We will finally have vegetables in our bag! Some lettuce and Swiss chard will accompany your eggs home this week.  Swiss chard is a nutritional powerhouse -- an excellent source of vitamins K, A, and C, as well as a good source of magnesium, potassium, iron, calcium and dietary fiber. One cup of chopped Swiss chard has just 35 calories. Health wise, chard can help with blood sugar regulation, which provides benefits diets of individuals diagnosed with diabetes. With its very good supply of calcium and its excellent supply of magnesium and vitamin K, chard is also a healthy boost for your bones. Swiss chard does not ship well, so you typically will not find it in grocery stores. 

The young tender leaves are the most flavorful and make a colorful addition to salads. Cut out the midrib of larger leaves before cooking or chopping into salads. Chop large leaves to cook down like spinach, or use in casseroles, soups, and pasta.

How Store Swiss Chard

Do not wash Swiss chard before storing as the exposure to water encourages spoilage. Place chard in a plastic storage bag and wrap tightly. Place in refrigerator where it will keep fresh for up to a week. When ready to eat, rinse Swiss chard under cold running water. Do not soak chard as this will result in the loss of water-soluble nutrients. Remove any area of the leaves that may be brown, slimy, or have holes

If you have large batches of chard, or won’t be able to use it this week, you can freeze it. In the fall, once it is plentiful, we chop the leaves in the food processor and store in 1 cup portion small freezer bags, which is perfect for the family favorite: Crust-less Swiss Chard with Cheddar and Bacon Quiche

Prep Time: 12 Minutes
Cook Time: 35 Minutes

Ingredients:

·        1  cup chopped Swiss chard
·        1  cup chopped yellow sweet onion
·        A splash of olive oil
·         6-12 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (or the whole package)
·         3 cups sharp cheddar cheese
·         5 large eggs beaten
·         Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1.      Heat oven to 350 degrees
2.      Nonstick spray a 9-ince pie plate
3.      In a large skillet, heat olive oil
4.      Cook onion until tender
5.      Add chopped chard leaves and continue cooking, stirring until the chard is wilted
6.      Toss with salt and crumbled bacon
7.      Stir in the cheese and beaten eggs
8.      Pour into the prepared pie plate
9.      Bake for about 35 minutes, until the quiche is firm and lightly browned around the edges  
*Amount of onion and Swiss chard can vary but it is important that they are proportional

 

Sweet Mama

This sweet mama hen has been our brooder- wanting so badly to hatch her eggs. When the baby chicks arrived, she moved out of the nesting box to lie next to the fence that separated the big girls from the little ones. For two weeks, she spent her days and nights pressed up against the fence so to be closer to the chicks.

 

This week we let her in with them. She is so good -when we open the door to the hen house in the morning, she moves to put herself between them and the draft. They all nestle around her so sweetly. We have caught a few sleeping on her back and we love it when she walks around with them on top of her. She is such a good mommy and the 50 baby chicks seem very happy to have been adopted.

Kale Start

How did we overlook the vogue vegetable of the season? We ordered from Seed Savers this week and they arrived today: Scarlet, Red Russian, and Lacinato Kale. Starting them indoors this evening, they should harvest by July 25. Yes, we should have started eight weeks ago, as Kale prefers cool temperatures. The flavor will sweetened by a touch of frost, but we are told that Kale can be grown in spring, summer or fall. With a July harvest, we will try to keep the soil moist so to help the kale leaves remain sweet and crisp, rather than tough and bitter from the heat. A bonus experiment to the late start is that we will be able to compare how the flavor differs after it is ‘sweetened by a touch of frost’ this fall.

Estimation of What to Expect each Week:

Est. First Harvest Date	Category
5/27/2014	Lettuce (1st Batch)
6/11/2014	Swiss Chard
6/16/2014	Beet
6/20/2014	Spinach (1st Batch)
6/20/2014	Cucumber
6/30/2014	Zucchini
7/8/2014	Carrots (1st Batch)
7/11/2014	Lettuce (2nd Batch)
7/11/2014	Sunflower
7/22/2014	Carrot (2nd Batch)
7/25/2014	Kale
7/26/2014	Spinach (2nd Batch)
7/29/2014	Potato (1st Batch)
7/31/2014	Onion
7/31/2014	Tomato
7/31/2014	Peppers
8/2/2014	Cabbage
8/5/2014	Broccoli
8/19/2014	Potato (2nd Batch)
8/22/2014	Squash
8/24/2014	Leek
8/25/2014	Brussels Sprout
8/25/2014	Bean
8/27/2014	Watermelon
9/8/2014	Pumpkin

Tomato Cloche

We have put the young tomato plants under the protection of glass Ball canning jars to keep them warm during this first week of cool spring evenings.

 

In the 19^th Century, French market gardeners placed Cloche (pronounced kl-osh- French word for "bell") over plants in the spring and fall to act as portable miniature greenhouses. These glass bell-shaped jars covered acres of fields outside Paris that supplied out-of-season vegetables to the city's households and restaurants. Because they were made from heavy glass and were small, the air trapped within could quickly get too hot on sunny days, possibly killing the plants. The French would trudge out to cloche-covered fields on bright, frosty mornings to slide a block of wood under one side of each cloche to vent it during sunny days and return in late afternoon to kick out the blocks, so the cloches would sit flat on the ground and seal in the warm air for the night.

 

This will be our week of experiencing 19^th Century French country-side living. We plan to take on this practice so to keep the one hundred heirloom tomato plants safe and healthy. If all continues well, we should start to enjoy the bounty come late July.

 

Save the Date!

New arrivals this past Saturday - 62 new baby chicks: 36 meat birds and 26 exodic brown-egg layers. Pictured are those that will be with us for a long time.

We plan to be processing the meat birds on Thursday, June 26th. Any CSA family member who would like to partake in on the fun is welcome to join us that day to assist in the process. Otherwise, plan on bringing the whole family over after 5:00 pm. There will be celebration food and drink, kids can swim and people can pick up their two chickens.

Angel Food Cake

Expect  Friday (5/9/14) delivery to be a dozen eggs. Still have eggs left from last week? Our favorite treat to make with eggs is Angel Food Cake - high in protein, low in fat, and there is simply no match for fresh, from scratch, Angel Food Cake.

Additionally, kids of all ages enjoy the plastic bottle trick to separate the egg yolks from the egg whites -netting the most amount of egg white for the dessert and the yolks can be saved off for Hollandale Sauce. We challange you to try it this week!

 

Angel Food Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of sifted powdered sugar

1 cup of sifted flour

1 ½ cups of egg whites (between 9 - 12 eggs)

1 ½ teaspoon cream of tartar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Instructions

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.      Sift together powder sugar and flour 3 times and set aside

3.      Beat egg whites, cream of tartar, vanilla and salt at medium speed until soft peaks form

4.      Gradually add sugar, a tablespoon at a time, continually beating until stiff peaks form

5.      Sift ¼ of flour mixture into egg whites and fold in lightly by hand.

6.      Repeat, folding in remaining flour mixture by fourths

7.      Gently pour batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan

8.      Bake on lowest rack for about 40 minutes or until cake springs back when pressed lightly

9.      Invert cake in pan until completely cool

10.    To remove from pan, run a knife along the edges to release and invert cake onto a plate

11.    Serve with fresh berries and whipped cream

Benefits of Pasture-Raised, Free-Range Hen Eggs

First week of CSA! For those at the UIHC today, your bag and eggs are in the insulated bag in my office. I will drop them off to you by 4:00. If you want them earlier, stop by and take one, checking your name off the list. If you can wait until 4:00 you will most likely have a full dozen as Bob will be checking on the ladies one last time, else, each of you at least have ten.  Talk about fresh!

Just so it is noted in this blog, we must boast the benefits of eggs from pasture-raised, free-range hen eggs over supermarket eggs from a processing plant:

Age - Fresh this week vs. supermarket eggs tend to be 1-2 months old. The fresher the egg, the richer the flavor. Note: Fresh eggs are more difficult to peel so if wanting for hard boiled eggs, sprinkle backing soda in water while boiling or have them sit in the fridge for a month.

Yolk Color – Influenced by diet, yard hens that forage for bugs and greens will produce a deeper yellow, almost orange color yolk.

Nutritional Content - Compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:• 1⁄3 less cholesterol • 1⁄4 less saturated fat • 2⁄3 more vitamin A • 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids • 3 times more vitamin E • 7 times more beta carotene

Check out the article from Mother Earth News.