admine9519, Author at Morning Song Farm - Page 22 of 44

Another nice flush of mulberries to harvest this week off of the few trees that are producing. You’ll only get a “taste” of these amazing and rare berries; we’ve added our neighbor’s organic blueberries to the clamshells as a combination. We can’t wait until next year, when 100 or so young mulberry trees should be more productive. For now, we only have enough for “taste tests!”

It looks like our sapote trees may have a decent harvest this coming year, and our loquats may be ready to pick next week. Blackberries are just starting to come in! I’m guessing we’ll have enough to send out in boxes in a couple weeks.

Sara has combined a little of this and a little of that into a bunch of tender herbs, and suggests trying your hand at herb butter, see the recipe she suggests above.

My current addiction, herbed kale chips are in our recipes this week. I know dehydrated kale sounds a little iffy, but you just have to try these chips! I can eat a whole head of kale a day, better than popcorn, packed with nutritional value, and something different. Making a puree with herbs and olive oil which is then kneaded into the kale leaf to break down its fiber is a new variation!

We’re just starting to harvest zuchs; you may enjoy the zuchini bread recipe this week as much as we do! The whole crew starts each morning with coffee, tea and something to nibble on; zuchini bread with our farm’s goat butter is the perfect offering to start the day!

Join us May 19, 2012 between 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 for our CSA cooking class being held in Santa Ana.
Learn how to maximize your weekly basket in a number of ways with Farmer donna and Master Food Preserver Delilah snell of The Road Less Traveled. Prepare lunch made from the bounty of Morning song Farm while understanding how to make creative meaqls and bases for other dishes. Workshop ends with lunch, recipes included.

Limited seats * call to RSVP: 714-836-8727

Cost: $15 per person for CSA members, $25 for non CSA members

•  One bunch of celery, cut into pieces
• 1 starch potato such as Russet
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 quart veggie stock
• Seasalt to taste
• dash of hot sauce
• ground white pepper, to taste

First off, making your own coconut shreds is a real money saver, and you’ll be guaranteeing a much fresher product. Just open a store bought coconut, and shred; either with a carrot grater or with a Cuisinart. I’ve done it both ways. I then thinly spread my coconut on a cookie sheet and dry in a warm oven. Don’t cook to the point that the nut meats turn brown. This may seem like a lot of extra effort, but you sure get a lot of coconut shreds for the price of one fruit. I store in a glass jar and use in dessert recipes, top smoothies and scatter in salads.

If you want to make your own butter for this recipe:
 (If you want to try making your own butter as we do here on the farm, choose an organic heavy cream (don’t use non organic grocery store cow-milk cream because conventional producers now almost certainly have numerous ingredients besides just cream–but don’t take my word for it; check out the label! Shocking! ). We use a basic Kitchen Aid stand-alone mixer. Just dump in your cream and turn to medium speed. It only takes a few minutes to make butter. That’s it. Drain off the butter milk (saving for use in another recipe if you like).

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 cups all purpose whole wheat flour (or altnerative flour if that suits you)
Grated zest of 1 lime
1/2 cup of your shredded dried coconut
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 TBsp cornstarch
1 Tsp baking powder
4 organic eggs
3/4 cup fresh lime juice
Powdered sugar for dusting

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×13 inch baking dish with aluminum foil. Beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add flour, half of the lime zest, coconut and half of the salt until dough just holds together. Press into pan and prick with fork. Bake until JUST golden, 20-25 minutes. Don’t over bake!

In the mixer, combine the granulated sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, asnd remaining lime zest and salt. Add eggs and lime juice. Pour into the crust. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool and then refrigerte until set, 2 hours. Cut into bars and dust with powdered sugar and lime zest.

Here’s a quick recipe for an impressive dessert:
First prepare a kumquat reduction, see recipe under “Kumquat” at right.
You’ll also need to purchase Chambord, which is a black Raspberry Liquer (optional)

Makes 6 servings
3/4 cup sugar
1 and a half cups of fresh grapefruit juice
pinch of salt

In a saucepan, heat 1 1/2 cups of water and the sugar over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Stir in the grapefruit jice and the salt. Transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze according toi the manufacturer’s instructions.

Or: freeze the recipe in an old-fashioned ice-cube tray and then using a Vita-Mix or other heavy-duty blender, puree the frozen cubes until velvetey smooth. Pour into a bowl, freeze for an hour or so; and then scoop into serving bowls, top with your Kumquat reduction and a spash of Chambord.

Click on image to enlarge for easier viewing.
Enjoy the grapefruit, juice and freeze! We won’t have any in next week’s shares. The only unusual leafy green this week is Mizuna; an Asian green that can be both eaten raw in salads (not quite as spicy as arugula) or it can be lightly sauteed or steamed.

No mulberries this week; looks like they’ll be plenty again next week to give at least the large shares, and maybe all shares a taste of these amazing berries. We only have a few trees in full production this year, but next year we’ll have 100 trees or so to harvest from.

Kumquats in this week’s shares have plenty of uses! The “reduced” juice of the skin and fruit makes the most amazing reduction you may ever taste. The full flavor of the kumquat isn’t realized until it’s been cooked down, so click “Kumquat” at the right of this blog and kumquat recipes, including our Kumquat Reduction recipe will pop up. Use your reduction for a Kumquat Margarita, as the sweetener for a limeaide, as a syrup over crepes or pancakes; and with reduced sugar…over fish or chicken.