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Visit Norwich Meadows Farm!

The Summer 2013 CSA season is just around the corner! Every year, Washington Square CSA Members take an annual farm trip. This year, Grand Street CSA is honored to join them. Thanks to the core of our sister CSA, Washington Square CSA (WSCSA), for inviting our members and organizing this exciting trip! 

On Saturday, April 27th we will be visiting our CSA farmer Zaid Kurdieh at Norwich Meadows Farm (http://www.norwichmeadowsfarm.com) in Norwich, New York. We will be touring the farm where our veggies are grown and Zaid may even have small projects for us to complete! Members, friends and family are welcomed and encouraged to attend! 

TRIP LOGISTICS
Where: Norwich Meadows Farms (Norwich NY)
When: Saturday April 27, 2013
Who: You do not need to be a member to attend; children and families are welcome. Members from other CSAs are also welcome!
Cost: $20 per person (if you choose to ride the bus) – this must be paid by Saturday, April 20th to reserve a seat! Part will be refunded if some members are able to ride with members who are driving their own vehicles.
What’s Included?: $20 will cover the bus rental, gas, and basic snacks such as water, apples, clementines, bananas, granola bars and cookies
What to bring: Money for your lunch (or a bagged lunch), additional snacks, comfortable clothes and shoes, sunhat, additional water, sunscreen, items to occupy you on the bus ride and a smile!
Details: The bus will leave St. Mark’s Church In-the-Bowery (131 East 10th Street, New York, NY 10003) at 7AM and return at approximately 7PM. It is a long drive, but it’s the drive our farmer makes every week to bring our delicious CSA produce!

Action Required: by Saturday April 13th, 2013. 

              If you would like to join us, please RSVP by email to info@washingtonsquarecsa.com and info@grandstreetcsa.org) and provide us with the following information, so we and the farm can plan accordingly. The farm requires a list of all visitors. 
  1. Your Name/Email (main contact):
  2. Names of all attending:
  3. Total #:
  4. I/We want to ride on the bus – Y/N
  5. I/We will drive separately – Y/N
    • I/We can accomodate other passengers to & from the farm in our car – Y/N
    • # of extra passengers I can take:
For those who plan to ride the bus, checks should be made payable to Washington Square CSA and all checks should be received by Saturday April 13.  Once you RSVP, we’ll provide info if you need to mail in a check.

We hope you can join us for this year’s farm trip!

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Meet the Farmers: Tuesday, February 12 @ 8:45pm

We know you are all thinking about snow but it’s time to think SPRING and fresh produce, fruit, eggs, pasta and other specialty items from our new providers for the 2013 season. Please join us for a “Meet the Farmer” meeting on Tuesday February 12 at 8:45PM at the Seward Park Community Room at 264 East Broadway (also known as Building 1 at the Seward Park Co-ops).

You will get a chance to hear from our new farmer, Zaid Kurdieh of Norwich Meadows Farm, about our vegetable, fruit, and egg shares and other specialty items the farm offers. Scott Ketchum from Sfoglini Pasta will be on hand to talk about and show off their artisanal pastas, and you will be able to buy some before ordering if you have not had the opportunity to try some from their stall at the New Amsterdam Market or sold in the neighborhood.

We also have the prices for eggs now, so click on the links below for more information.

Our CSA Core will be on hand to answer any questions you may have on our 2013 season.

Share prices and farm info: http://www.grandstreetcsa.org/p/shares.html

Register today online: 2013 Registration is now CLOSED
We look forward to seeing you Tuesday.

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Emo Eggplants Winning Smackdown Dishes

Grand Street CSA’s own Emo Eggplants, Dan & Caroline, cooked their way to Smackdown glory in Just Food’s first ever CSA Smackdown Final on January 5, 2013!! It was a great afternoon of local food. Thanks to Dan & Caroline for providing details on their winning dishes – innovative but simple takes on local, cold-weather vegetables. Check out Just Food’s Smackdown Page for a full recap. Scroll down to find out about Grand Street CSA’s 2013 season.

Grand Street CSA’s Top Chefs
Dan & Caroline’s winning dish at the September 30th qualifying event
    Delicata Squash Donuts with Kale and Red Cabbage Fall Slaw
  • Delicata squash was sliced into rings, dipped in egg, coated in cornmeal and fried crispy golden brown.  A small ring of onion and a small slice of poblano pepper were prepared in the same way to accompany the squash.
  • For the slaw, kale and red cabbage were sliced into thin strips and marinated and tossed in a dressing made from olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, diced jalapeno pepper with the seeds removed, and salt and pepper to taste.  Cauliflower florets were added for color, texture, and flavor.
 The 2013 Great CSA Smackdown Winner
Reconstructionist Latkes with Apples and Honey and Kale Salad

The two different latkes are a reconstructed take on traditional Jewish potato pancakes. 

  • Shredded potato, kohlrabi and carrot seasoned with salt and pepper and mixed with egg were fried in olive oil and topped with diced apples (with the skin on) that had been sauteed in butter and honey.
  • Shredded potato, bok choy, broccoli rabe, and garlic were mixed with egg and a liberal amount of pecorino romano cheese and fried in olive oil to form the second latke.  
  • The latkes were served with a raw kale salad dressed in olive oil, white wine vinegar, honey, siracha, salt, pepper, and pecorino romano cheese to taste.

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Getting Ready for 2013: Lots of Changes!

Happy new year! We have so much to share with you to prepare for our new season.

Before we get to the details, we’d like to put out a call to members who would like to join our Core Group. These are the people who help organize the CSA, supervise distribution every week, manage the accounts, and communicate with our providers during the season. Typically we ask core group members to volunteer for six distribution shifts during the summer instead of the normal two, participate in email conversations about the CSA plus a few in-person meetings, monitor the CSA email account, and generally be available to add a hand as needed.

If you’d like to become more involved, please email us at info@grandstreetcsa.org.

Now, on to the news …

First of all, Max and Kerry of Provider Farm, after reviewing their first full season, have decided that the trip down to NYC is not sustainable — it just takes too much time out of their busy week to drive down here and back every Tuesday. This was a big disappointment for us to hear, since all the feedback we received from our members indicated a high degree of satisfaction with their vegetables and service. In both quantity and quality, it was probably our best season so far. Nevertheless, we’ve had to find another farm to join our CSA for 2013.

Second, we’re also parting ways with Breezy Hill Orchards, from whom we’ve been getting fruit, eggs, and pasta for the past four years. In this case, the choice was ours — we have had long, simmering complaints about the selection they offer, and this year we struggled mightily with delivery times and proper inventory.

Luckily, we’ve found more than suitable replacements, and we are almost ready to open registration for 2013.

Norwich Meadows Farm is a well-established CSA provider with two properties — one in Norwich, NY and the other in Lebanon, NJ. They are certified organic, and come highly recommended by other NYC CSAs, including Washington Square and Astoria. They’ll offer a familiar list of crops including beans, peas, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuces and cooking greens, herbs, summer and winter squashes, eggplants, peppers, cucumbers, melons, root crops, and other special items. (For a full list of crops, click here.)

Norwich also provides eggs from free-running hens fed only the highest quality certified organic feed with a supplemental diet of organic greens. And they partner with Red Jacket Orchards to bring us stone fruits, pears, and apples during the season.

To round out our offerings, we will be partnering with Sfoglini Pasta Shop in Brooklyn to provide small batch, freshly extruded pastas made from the finest organic semolina flour. We will also continue to offer maple syrup at the start of our season from Circle C Farms, monthly dairy products from Milk Not Jails, and the occasional order of poultry and meat from Norwich.

A few other changes that you should be aware of:

  • The vegetable share offered by Norwich is equivalent to our previous half share — if you have been used to ordering a full share, this year you will just order two shares.
  • Because fruit is provided through our connection to Norwich, you must be getting vegetables in order to order a fruit share.
  • Half shares for fruit and eggs will actually be getting a full share every other week.
  • Vegetables will be delivered in bulk — which means we’ll all be using the scales again at distribution.

You can see our new prices and some more information about our new providers on our website.

Registration will open for past members in about a week (you’ll get another email). We are preparing to have a meet-the-farmers evening in the first half of February, so of course you may want to wait until then to register. But this year we will have deadlines to encourage early sign-ups — on February 22 the vegetable share price will go up $10, and on April 1 the share price will go up another $40.

Obviously this is a lot of change — we will have new providers this year for all of our weekly shares — but we are committed to maintaining our CSA and are hopeful that partnering with an established CSA farm will give us a more consistent experience over the next several years.

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Smackdown Recap

Grand Street CSA’s Saturday Afternoon Smackdown at the Hester Street Fair

A fun, action-packed and delicious afternoon featuring our beautiful Provider Farm veggies!

Competitors: 
The Emo Eggplants’ (Dan Tainow & Caroline Maggi)
VS.
Ray Riga (the famous original)
 
Smackdown officials: 
Deborah Noch & Shien Chiou
Judges: 
Aaron Stoquert, co-owner and chef of Cowboy Pizza
John McGrath, father of Hester St. Fair’s own Rachel Mae Farms CSA
Nivia Mendez and Derek Baldwin of Our Lady of Sorrows Food Pantry
Special Guest:
Just Food’s CSA in NYC Program Manager Paula Lukats

20 minutes to prep …
The cooking begins – 30 minutes to go!
The Emos fry delicata rings dredged in cornmeal & egg
Ray cooks red cabbage, apples, cauliflower & onion in butter & oil.

  Our competitors both used 9 CSA ingredients each, including delicata squash, kale, onion, red cabbage, hot peppers (poblano, jalepeno, cayenne), onion, cauliflower, apple & pear (from Breezy Hill).

Finished with time on the clock
Down to the wire

   Dan and Caroline presented Delicata Doughnut with Fall Slaw inspired by a dish from Back Forty – fried delicata, red onion & poblano pepper strips over a fall salad of kale, red cabbage, apples, pears & cauliflower dressed with apple cider vinegar and olive oil.

   Ray’s fall trio included a massaged kale salad in lemon dressing, an Alsatian inspired choux rouge aux pommes (red cabbage with apples) with the addition of cauliflower, and pan seared delicata with pears that just made it onto the plate as time was called.

Our judges taste and score the two dishes.
Spectators and volunteers taste and give their own 2 cents.

Judges scored each dish on taste, presentation & creativity. While Deb tallied the scores, the judges complimented both dishes, especially Ray’s red cabbage, apple & cauliflower sauteed in butter and the Emo Eggplant’s fried delicata squash ring. Ray’s last minute delicata could have used a little more time in the pan.

Judgement time

 And the winning dish was … Delicata Doughnut with Fall Slaw!!
Congratulations to the Emo Eggplants, who took home a set of T-Fal pots courtesy of Just Food and a ticket to the Smackdown finals next month!

Many thanks to our farmers, competitors, judges, and volunteers, as well as our friends at Just Food, the Hester Street Fair and Seward Park Housing for making the Smackdown possible! 

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Smackdown at the Hester St. Fair!

Grand Street CSA enters Just Food’s Great CSA Smackdown!

This Saturday, September 29th at 1pm
CSA members will battle it out this Saturday at the Hester St. Fair with pots, pans, and Provider Farm veggies! The winning dish will earn its creator(s) a fabulous prize and spot in Just Food’s Great CSA Smackdown Finals in October. Stop by to watch and route for your favorite dish!
The Hester Street Fair is located on the East side of Essex Street at Hester Street.
THE COMPETITION:
Just Food is challenging New York City CSAs to show off their cooking talent and local food skills with the GREAT CSA SMACKDOWN: a city-wide cooking competition for members of Just Food Network CSAs. CSA members will be pitted against each other as they prepare a delicious dish around an assortment of ingredients directly from their CSA share! With only 30 minutes to cook, competitors will need to rely on their speed, skill and creativity to make the cut. Winners will advance to a city wide final-round event, representing their CSA community in the quest to come out on top of the GREAT CSA SMACKDOWN.
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This Week’s Veggies

Delicata Squash
Broccoli
Beets
Head Lettuce
Salad Mix
Leeks
Carrots
Collards
Potatoes

This week the share features delicata squash. Delicata is by far our favorite winter squash. The skin is very thin and is actually edible! We like to cut them in half, scoop out the seeds and roast them with maple syrup and butter. We are convinced that even those who vehemently dislike winter squash will enjoy a Delicata! 

And here’s a link to an easy roasted Delicata recipe!

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This Week’s Veggies

Broccoli
Salad mix
Potatoes
Kale
Onions
Peppers
Eggplant
Fresh Radishes
Hot Peppers
Green Beans (full share only)

And this update from the farm:

Dear Friends,

The beautiful sunny days have given way to some very welcome rain as September unfolds before us. This rain couldn’t have come soon enough as we were watching our fields getting dustier and dustier. Our newly seeded spinach and salad greens love the rain as do our adolescent radishes and turnips. Last week, we began harvesting our spaghetti squash and now we’re waiting for sunny days to return so that we can continue the winter squash harvest. It’s looking like a good crop of squash this year and we can’t wait to get it all out of the field and safely in the barn. After the winter squash is harvested, the sweet potatoes won’t be far behind them. Sweet potatoes, like most winter squash, need to cure before they can be eaten. A freshly picked sweet potato is starchy and not sweet at all. They don’t become sweet until a few weeks of sitting in the green house after harvest. Our summer squash is really winding down and you will be seeing less and less of it in the share every week, although the peppers and eggplants continue to produce nicely.

As we move deeper and deeper towards fall, most of our attention shifts to harvesting. It is extremely satisfying to go out to the field and harvest thousands of pounds of carrots or squash. We love filling up bin after bin of spaghetti squash and bringing them home. I am finding that even better than bringing in a thousand pounds of spaghetti squash is watching that same thousand pounds of spaghetti squash walk out the door in the arms of our CSA shareholders. As much as we love the the way the share room looks the minutes before we open with all the baskets full to the brim, there is a certain beauty to the share room just after 7, with the baskets depleted and all that produce we grew finding its way into wonderful meals for our shareholders. We have a tendency to get really caught up in the production aspect of the farm. How many bins of butternut do we have? How many thousands of pounds of potatoes do we get out of a bed?It is easy to lose sight of what is really important. Those empty baskets remind us how we are able to feed people in a very real way.

This week we say good bye to one of our apprentices. Kara Lally has worked with us from the beginning of April until the end of August, spending countless hours weeding, planting and harvesting your food. She has decided to move on and though we are sad to see her go, we wish her the best in her pursuits.

On behalf of your farm crew,
Tana and Larry

Your Farmers,
Max and Kerry

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Milk Pick-up and Orders

Special orders from Milk Not Jails will be available at distribution on 9/4. If you do not pick up your order, it will be donated to the food pantry at Our Lady of Sorrows.

Make your ala carte order now for their next delivery:
http://www.formstack.com/forms/?1275687-EAfkVfCwfn

The deadline to place your order is Monday, September 10th at 5pm.

Going back to school? Try our yogurt drinks – packed full of protein an probiotics, they are a great meal on the go as you get back to business this Fall! There are limited quantities of some products, so check out the online store today.

Learn more about Milk Not Jails at milknotjails.org.

Questions? Contact them directly at shop@milknotjails.org or (917) 719-6455.

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This Week’s Veggies

Spaghetti Squash
Onions
Summer Squash
Beets/carrots
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Eggplant
Potatoes
Herbs
Kale

Note from Max and Kerry:

Hello Grand Street, we hope you’re well. Well labor day has come and gone and we will start seeing more and more fall crops in the share. This week spaghetti squash makes an appearence and marks the beginning of winter squash season!