Tag: Uncategorized

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

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

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

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

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!

Put your local food skills to the test and Cook for Grand Street CSA!

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.

Grand Street CSA will be holding its round of the Smackdown at the end of September (date/location TBD). We’ll have details on where and when in the coming weeks. Register to compete here!

Interested in finding out more? Keep reading …

THE CHALLENGE:

To cook a spectacular seasonal dish using local CSA ingredients.

THE TIMELINE:

First Round: on at date to be determined (September 27^th – 30^th)

Venue and exact time: TBD

Final Round: October

The winners from each first round competition will come together for a final-round event hosted by Just Food.

Venue and exact date: TBD

FIRST ROUND REQUIREMENTS:

Ingredients

Each competitor or team must select their main ingredients from their own CSA share from the current week.

Grand Street CSA will provide the following staple ingredients for all competitors to use:

– Olive Oil

– Salt

– Pepper

– Vinegar

– Butter

– Eggs

Grand Street CSA will provide a portable butane burner. Competitors are responsible for all other cooking utensils/equipment, limited to the following items plus 3 Additional pieces of Kitchen Equipment as described below:

– 1 pot

– 1 pan

– 1 cutting board

– 1 knife

– 2 mixing bowls

Optional

Up to 3 Flavor Enhancers: spices (curry, cardamom, etc.), herbs (dill, mint, etc.) and sauces (teriyaki, soy sauce, etc.) only.

Up to 3 Pieces of Additional Kitchen Equipment (i.e. knives, mandolins, food processors, whisks, etc.).

Just Food Will Provide:

Apron for each competitor.

One prize for each GREAT CSA SMACKDOWN finalist.

FIRST ROUND RULES:

RULE 1: COMPETITORS

Competitors can compete as an individual (one person) or as a team (two people).

At least one person in each team needs to be a Network CSA member.

Each competition event must have at least 2 competitors/teams participating.

Total number of competitors is flexible. Please keep in mind your location capacity.

RULE 2: FOOD

To provide an even playing field, please confirm that all competitors have the exact same CSA share to compete with (i.e. same vegetables and quantities).

As stated above, each competitor can bring up to 3 flavor enhancers and 3 pieces of kitchen equipment.

Each competitor is free to make any type of dish they want (i.e. raw, cooked, breakfast, lunch or dinner dish)

Competitors should use their own CSA share from the current week unless additional shares are purchased from their CSA farmer.

Please try and organize your event on or close to the distribution date so that the food is as fresh as possible.

RULE 3: TIME ALLOTTED

Competitors will be allotted 15 minutes for washing produce and prepping their station and 30 minutes to cook a dish.

The MC should start and stop the official clock, and provide commentary during the 45 minutes of competition.

RULE 4: JUDGING

Three servings should be created for the 3 judges.

Judges must use the following criteria for determining the winner:

Taste: Up to 10 points

Presentation: Up to 10 points

Creativity: Up to 10 points

CSA share use: 1 point per CSA share ingredient used

The scores of the three judges will be added together for each competitor’s total score.

RULE 5: WINNER

The winner with the highest score will receive an exclusive prize and be invited to attend the finals round competitor event to compete for the ultimate title!

You all know this, but it bears repeating (and is nourished by Mark Bittman’s thoughtful prose):

… most cooking is dead-easy and pretty quick: it takes 20 minutes to roast a marrow bone, and an ambitious fifth-grader can get it right on the first try. … But raising and butchering the cows and pigs that produced the marrow bones and meat for the chorizo? Growing the corn? These are tasks that take weeks, if not months, of daily activity and maintenance.

Go read the whole thing.

Our swap box — a new addition to distribution this year, thanks to a suggestion from our friends at the (late) LES CSA — has been generally well received. It’s a nice easy way to have a little bit more control over the veggies you get to take home each week. Chances are there’s always someone who’d love a little extra of exactly the item you don’t want to take home … and vice versa. The box hasn’t always been prominently placed, but please do look for it if there’s something you want to drop in it.

Ah, and there’s the rub: please don’t just take. Turn on your own inner sense of justice before interacting with the swap box, and make sure your super ego — not your ego (or your id) — is in charge.

Basic rule of thumb: take something, leave something.

Thanks.

What’s in the share this week:

• Carrots
• Beets
• Onions
• Summer Squash
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Head Lettuce
• Swiss Chard
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Herbs
• Red Cabbage

Just Food — the non-profit that starts and supports CSAs in NYC — is putting together an Iron Chef competition for CSA members called the CSA Smackdown. The basic idea is a 30-minute cook-off using one week’s veggies from Provider Farm. We’d have our own competition, and the Grand Street winner would move on to the finals to compete against other CSA cooks from all over New York.

We’re still putting together the details, but we are planning on participating. Look for more information here and in your inbox.

If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s something more productive than filling up your trash can with the food you don’t eat, make sure to stop by our composting table at this Tuesday’s distribution. A neighborhood representative from the LES Ecology Center will be on hand to answer your questions with informational pamphlets and worms.

As a bit of a follow-up to the question of how to deliver loose greens, a few members have asked recently if the lettuce and spinach we receive has been pre-washed. The answer from Max:

Yes the farm washes all the loose greens they have bagged for us … but you should probably give everything another good rinse yourself before eating.