|
What a great event! Having never hosted a dinner party before, I was unsure of how it would work itself out. It was better than I imagined. The hors d’ oeuvres were awesome, the potato leek soup and chicken Florentine were culinary masterpieces, and the Café au Lait pudding was heavenly. But even more impressive than the organic dinner was the incredible activity of farmers, my office team and customers talking away. All-in-all, I would say that our 1st Klesick Family Farm Dinner Party was a huge success towards my goal of making meaningful connections. We will do it again. Our next chance for meaningful connections will be at our 8th annual Spring Plant sale at the Rents Due Ranch on April 30th.
|
Fresh This Week Tips – Feb 22, 2011
BABY BOK CHOY – As far as cabbages go, baby bok choy are pretty irresistible!
STORE: Place in a plastic bag — but do not close — and refrigerate for no more than three days.
PREP: There is no need to cook the stalks and leaves separately – just wash the whole and drain and cut into small pieces.
USE: Bok Choy is normally used in stir-fries. But when the time comes to start cooking, you’ll find that bok choy is extremely adaptable. Boiling, steaming, stir-frying and even deep-frying are all possibilities. When stir-frying, a good basic method is to stir-fry the bok choy for a minute, sprinkling with a bit of salt, then add a small amount of water or chicken broth (about 3 tablespoons per pound of bok choy) cover, and simmer for 2 minutes.
RED BELL PEPPERS
STORE: Store peppers in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to five days.
PREP: Wash peppers just before using; remove the stem, seeds, and interior membranes, and add to salads, soups, or stir-fries.
USE: Peppers can be sautéed, steamed, or baked. Roast peppers by holding them over an open flame, or broiling them about 1/2-inch (1.25cm) from the broiler flame and rotating every minute or so until they blacken evenly. Put charred peppers in a plastic bag for about 10 minutes, then pull off the blackened peels and rinse the peppers under cold water. Pat dry, remove seeds and stems, and slice peppers. Use roasted pepper slices in salads, or purée in soups.
BUNCH CARROTS
STORE: Always remove tops from carrots as they take moisture from the “root” to stay green, leaving you with a limp carrot. Store carrots in the coolest part of the refrigerator in a plastic bag or wrapped in a paper towel to reduce the amount of moisture that is lost. They should keep for about two weeks. Be sure to store your carrots away from apples, pears, potatoes as they produce a gas that will make carrots bitter.
PREP: Wash carrot roots and gently scrub them with a vegetable brush right before preparing them to eat. Peel (if desired) and chop according to your recipe or their purpose.
USE: You can steam, pickle, puree (for carrot soup!), juice, eat them raw or add them to any number of soups, stews and stir fries.
Do you hear what we hear? It is stir-fry time. See recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Stir-Fry/Detail.aspx
Images from flickr.com
Grass-fed lamb is available through Klesick Family Farm!
My friends Ken and Kathryn at Horse Drawn Produce on Lopez Island have offered to make their grass-fed lamb available to our customers! I am really excited to be able to offer this quality, locally raised product. Ken and Kathryn are excellent farmers, but even more important to me is their sincere commitment to sustainable, healthy farming. It is their way of life, not their job.
The lamb program will work similar to our beef program. The lamb has an approximate hanging weight (before being cut and wrapped) of 50 lbs. KFF will charge a flat fee of $250 at the time of your order—there will be no additional costs to KFF. You will pay Del Fox Custom Meats an additional $90 for their processing, cutting and wrapping service. The meat will be ready for you to pick up in Stanwood at Del Fox Custom Meats in May.
To place your order for grass-fed lamb visit the meat page of our website http://www.klesickfamilyfarm.com/main/order-meat , scroll down to the bottom of the page and select “Lamb-Whole.”
1st Annual “Meet Your Farmer” Dinner
The box of good starts here…
 Joelle and I would like to invite you to spend an evening dining with us at the Everett Train Station. I have always wanted to host a dinner party for our customers and couldn’t quite find the time, but now we are going to make it happen. Through this event I am combining two things that are important to me: connecting with my customers and connecting my customers with the people that grow their food. We already have our annual open house Farm Day on the third Saturday in August, but this special venue will be a “dinner party” for the 20-somethings on up to our 104 year old customer (yes, we have a customer reportedly that old—she swears by her diet!) who support Klesick Family Farm. What better way to pull it all together than with an organic meal and dessert.
To prepare this special meal I have teamed up with our organic community. Donna King from Scandia Coffeehouse and Café in Stanwood will be catering the event for us. Food blogger Ashley Rodriguez will be making the desserts—you have been reading about her recipes and now you will be able to meet her and taste her culinary expertise. Camano Island Coffee Roasters will be providing the perfect coffee for the evening and Breadfarm will be adding their exceptional artisan bread. |
Along with several of our KFF team members, we also plan on having several of our local growers on hand with whom you can connect, share gardening stories and ask questions. I will share a presentation on Chilean agriculture based on my recent two-week agricultural tour of that country, comparing it to American agriculture and the importance of local farmers.
So mark your calendar to join us for a fun evening together sharing great food and enjoying each other’s company.
Date: Thursday, March 3rd
Time: 6:30-9:00 p.m.
Location: Everett Train Station, Weyerhaeuser Room
Cost: $28 per person
Attire: Business Casual (farmers need a reason to dress up every now and then)
The menu will include both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes.
No host local wine bar.
Door prizes!
Space is limited, so RSVP early to our office (360-652-4663) or make your reservation online by purchasing the “Dinner Event: Meet Your Farmer” on our grocery page at http://www.klesickfamilyfarm.com/main/order-honey-eggs
I hope you will be able to join Joelle and I on March 3rd.
*Image courtesy of Amtrak Cascades
Fresh This Week Tips 02.02.11
Red d’Anjou Pears – These are ready to eat now!
STORE:
Refrigerate ripe pears for up to 5 days.
PREP:
If you’re serving uncooked pears, cut them just before using; sprinkle the flesh with lemon juice to prevent browning.
USE:
Red D’anjous can be enjoyed like an apple, or try baking, roasting, sautéing, or poaching in wine; when cooking, use fruit that is still firm.
Avocados:
STORE:
Avocados should be stored at room temperature to allow them to ripen to their desired stage. Place in a brown paper bowl or in your fruit basket to ripen them.
The avocados in this week’s box are a variety called Bacon Avocado. These have an exceptionally bright green color, even when ripe, and don’t store long, so enjoy within a day or two of delivery! Bacon avocados are known for their delicious string-free flesh & mild flavor. The fruit is typically softer to the touch than your usual Haas avocado, so be careful not to squeeze when handling. Test for ripeness by gently feeling the wide end of the avocado. There should be a slight soft impression when its ready to eat.
PREP:
To peel, grip the avocado gently on one side with one hand. With a large, sharp knife in the other hand, cut the avocado lengthwise around the seed. Open the two halves to expose the pit. At this point there are a few ways you can proceed to remove the pit from the avocado half that has the pit. One way is to make another cut, lengthwise on the avocado half that has the pit, cutting around the pit, exposing it so that it is easier to remove. You can also use a spoon to scoop out the pit.
At this point, you can either scoop out the avocado flesh with a spoon (for making guacamole), or slice the avocado into segments. To make it more easy to scoop out the avocado flesh, take a small dinner knife and gently make cuts in the avocado flesh in a cross-hatch pattern, careful not to break through the avocado peel. Then use a spoon to easily scoop out the avocado pieces. If you are making guacamole, don’t worry about slightly discolored or brownish sections. Scoop them up with the rest of the avocado to mash.
Garlic
STORE:
Stored in a dark, cool place where air can circulate around it, garlic will keep for up to 2 months.
PREP:
Remove the outer, papery layer of skin and pull off individual cloves. If they’re tight and can’t easily be pulled free, use the ball of your hand to press and roll the head against your cutting board to loosen the cloves. To remove the skin of an individual one, crush the clove lightly and swiftly with the side of a broad knife, use a paring knife to cut each end off, and then peel away the skin. When sautéing garlic, do so briefly and over low heat under close monitoring; burned garlic is bitter.
Images from flickr.com
Refer Your Friends and Win!
This is the time of year when people are making lifestyle changes for good. We all start to focus on maintaining healthy eating, exercising and setting goals for ourselves to keep us healthy. However, there are so many others—friends, family members, neighbors, co-workers—who could benefit from the fresh variety of fruits and vegetables that you’ve been enjoying! This season, we want to partner with you in the goal to share the good!
Many new customers join our team of faithful customers at this time every year, and many of those new customers are referrals from you! We are always excited when a new customer signs up and gets on board with “a box of good.” In appreciation, we send out a thank you gift to both the new customer and the existing customer that referred them to us. The gifts have been a fun way for you to sample some of our product offerings, and have included fresh roasted coffee, artisan sourdough bread, and select organic grocery items.
For the next couple months, we have decided to make it even more fun for you to share the good with your friends by having our second annual “Share the Good” contest! From now through the end of March, not only will you receive the standard thank you gift for each new customer you refer, but for every two referrals, your name will be entered into a drawing for the chance to win a special prize! (Prizes and drawing dates are listed in the insert on the right.) So, refer four friends and your name will be entered into the drawing two times, six friends and it’ll be entered three times.
Our first drawing will recognize referrals from January through February. The second drawing will be for March referrals. The final grand prize drawing will include referrals from January through March. Winners will be notified immediately after the drawing.
We are excited about making your referrals more rewarding! So spread the word and share the good!
Fresh This Week Add-Ons 01.29.11
Chocolate, the Poetry of Love
Capture your Valentine’s heart with the elegance of Theo Chocolate, the exquisite Breadfarm’s cookies or a combination of both in The Essential Chocolate assortment!
Theo’s Casanova Caramel Collection – $8.80 – $26.40
Theo’s exquisite Casanova Caramel Collections will have you swooning as you explore each elegant flavor. Each caramel possesses a unique aphrodisiac quality, so share with that special someone! These collections contain: Ginger Rose Caramel, Honey Saffron Caramel, Grey Salted Vanilla Milk Caramel, and Lavender Caramel.
Casanova Caramel – 4 piece box: $8.80
Casanova Caramel – 12 piece box: $26.40
To order your Casanova Caramel Collection, click here.
Seattle’s own Theo Chocolate produces premium organic and Fair Trade specialty chocolate. As the first and only organic and Fair Trade bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the country, all of their ingredients are carefully screened to ensure that they meet their standards for social and environmental responsibility.
The Essential Chocolate Assortment – $22.00
Our own hand-selected assortment of chocolate decadence!
You get a selection of Theo Chocolate: one 3 oz. bar of Theo Cherry Almond Dark Chocolate, one 2 oz. bar of Theo Nib Brittle, one 4-piece box of assorted Casanova Caramels, and then, a bag of Breadfarm’s delightful little Cocoa Niblets! Comes gift packaged in a cream-colored box and tied up with a burgundy ribbon. To order The Essential Chocolate Assortment, click here.
Breadfarm – Chocolate Lover’s Cookie Box — $30.00
Only available for the month of February, Breadfarm’s exclusive assortment of premium hand-made cookies! Contains the following: Cocoa Nibs, Chocolate Biscotti, Chocolate Thumbprints with chocolate ganache filling, and Espresso Shortbread – (approx 26-32 cookies). To order your Chocolate Lover’s Cookie Box, click here.
Photo from: http://www.etsy.com/listing/61928475/holiday-cookie-box
Fresh This Week Tips 01.26.2010
Celery root (celeriac)
Celeriac is a vegetable that is a member of the celery family. However, only its root is used for cooking purposes. Also known as celery root, knob celery, and turnip rooted celery, celeriac has a taste that is similar to a blend of celery and parsley. Additionally, celeriac is grown similarly to celery, as its seeds are sown outdoors in the spring then the vegetable harvested when its roots are developed.
STORE: Celeriac can keep for up to one month in the crisper section of your refrigerator, if wrapped unwashed in a plastic bag.
PREP: whenever you are ready to use the celeriac, you must first wash the root thoroughly in water then peel its outer skin. You can then use the celeriac for cooking purposes, for example, cutting it into pieces that can be added, raw, to a salad or, slicing it into sections that can be boiled and used as an accompaniment to an entrée.
USE: Because celeriac can be used in recipes that call for celery, its use is limitless. It is, however, especially good when used as an ingredient in soups and stews or when cooked and accompanied by potatoes as a side dish. Celeriac can also be baked, whole, in its skin. Once baked, you can remove its skin and eat its inner flesh.
For some celeriac recipes go to http://www.brookfieldfarm.org/celeriac.htm
For the Apple Potato Celeriac Soup recipe pictured above go to: http://www.tinyurbankitchen.com/2009/10/celeriac-apple-potato-soup.html
Pepitas
This week we have a fairly new to KFF item in the NW and Harvest box menu: Spiced candied pepitas from the Breadfarm.
What are pepitas?
Pepitas are shelled pumpkin seeds. Typically rather flat and asymmetrically oval, and light green in color. Marinated and roasted, they are a seasonal favorite. We can’t get enough of them! You’ll find yourself munching away on these!
Breadfarm has taken organic pumpkin seeds, tossed them with a light amount of organic cane sugar, allspice, cayenne, egg whites, and sea salt, then toasted them until light and crispy. Don’t worry, these are not HOT like the traditional pepitas-Breadfarm was more conservative when creating their seasoning blend for this- and the result is an irresistible, savory snack – great for topping fresh green salads, supplementing your snack mix, making into these Sweet & Spicy popcorn balls (only try to get around using microwave popcorn for this recipe…it is not so good for nutrient quality & stovetop is very easy!)http://www.atasteofkoko.com/2010/10/sweet-and-spicy-pepitas-popcorn-balls.html
Or, try this recipe for Wild Rice Salad with spiced pepitas, cranberries, and apple cider vinaigrette! http://www.indianharvest.com/recipes-wild-rice-salad-with-spiced-pepitas-cranberries–apple-cider-vinaigrette-245
Tips:
Add pumpkin seeds to healthy sautéed vegetables.
Sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top of mixed green salads.
Grind pumpkin seeds with fresh garlic, parsley and cilantro leaves. Mix with olive oil and lemon juice for a tasty salad dressing.
Next time you make burgers, whether it be from vegetables, turkey or beef, add some ground pumpkin seeds.
Sunchokes
STORE: Wrap sunchokes in paper towels and store them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator vegetable drawer for up to a week.
PREP: Peeling sunchokes is optional. The thin peel has a slightly chewy texture, but it’s not unpleasant, and you may find the effort of peeling their knobby surfaces isn’t worth the return. The cut surfaces of sunchokes, like those of potatoes, tend to oxidize and turn pink. To prevent this, submerge cut sunchokes in lemon water until ready to cook.
USE: Sunchokes become tender and slightly starchy when cooked. To roast them, cut them into chunks, toss with a little oil, season, and add to a roasting pan with a whole chicken or a pork or beef roast during the last half hour of cooking. You can steam or boil whole sunchokes until tender and then mash them roughly or serve them whole. For a creamy soup (the one instance where you may want to peel sunchokes so the soup has a smooth texture), simmer cut-up sunchokes in broth and milk or cream until tender and then purée. And to make addictive sunchoke chips, fry thin slices in peanut oil.
However you prepare them, keep the seasoning mild and minimal to allow the sunchokes’ subtle flavor to shine. Vinaigrettes, cream, butter, goat cheese, garlic, nuts, herbs, nutmeg, mace, coriander, fennel seed, mushrooms, bacon, and lemon juice all pair well with sunchokes.
Crenshaw Melon
STORE: Whole melons can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. Store cut melons at 45° F for up to 5 days.
PREP: Melon preparation is easy! Always wash melons in warm soapy water before cutting to get rid of any impurity on the rind that might be carried from the knife blade to the flesh. Simply cut the melon in half and scoop out the seeds and strings.
USE: Melons can be cut into halves, quarters, wedges, cubes, or scooped into balls with a melon baller. Most melons will benefit from a squeeze of lemon or lime juice to enhance the flavor and served at room temperature.
http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/03/melon-101-digest-this-raw-recipes-tips.html
Images from flickr.com
“Share the Good” Contest!
This is the time of year when people are making lifestyle changes for good. We all start to focus on maintaining healthy eating, exercising and setting goals for ourselves to keep us healthy. However, there are so many others—friends, family members, neighbors, co-workers—who could benefit from the fresh variety of fruits and vegetables that you’ve been enjoying! This season, we want to partner with you in the goal to share the good!
Many new customers join our team of faithful customers at this time every year, and many of those new customers are referrals from you! We are always excited when a new customer signs up and gets on board with “a box of good.” In appreciation, we send out a thank you gift to both the new customer and the existing customer that referred them to us. The gifts have been a fun way for you to sample some of our product offerings, and have included fresh roasted coffee, artisan sourdough bread, and select organic grocery items.
For the next couple months, we have decided to make it even more fun for you to share the good with your friends by having our second annual “Share the Good” contest! From now through the month of March, not only will you receive the standard thank you gift for your referrals, but for every two people you refer, your name will be entered into a drawing for the chance to win a special prize! (Prizes and drawing dates are listed in the insert on the right.) So, refer four friends and your name will be entered into the drawing twice, six friends and it’ll be entered three times.
Our first drawing will recognize referrals that customers have already been sending our way throughout this month. The second drawing will include all referrals from January and February. The final grand prize drawing will include all referrals from January through March. Winners will be notified immediately after the drawing.
We are excited about making your referrals more rewarding! So spread the word and share the good!
.
Share the Good Prizes!
For referrals the month of January
First prize drawing on January 28
Delicious Organic Pie:
Baked fresh by Scandia Bakery
For referrals January-February
Second prize drawing on February 25
Organic Breakfast Box:
Real Maple Syrup
Fresh Eggs
Bilberry Nectar
Artisan Chuckanut Bread
Blueberry Lemon Fruit Spread
Coffee or Teeccino Herbal Coffee
For referrals January-March
Grand prize drawing on April 1
Organic Snack Box:
Roasted Valencia Peanuts
Pistachios
Whole Wheat Crackers
Spiced Pepitas
Fruit & Nut Trail Mix
Cashew Almond Prana Bar
Apricot & Goji Prana Bar
Nutiva Hemp & Chocolate Bar
Theo Cherry Almond Chocolate Bar
Theo Bread & Chocolate Bar
Theo Fig & Fennel Chocolate Bar
(gluten and nut allergy options available)