Produce ordered

1 bunch collard greens
3.3 lbs yams
1 bag celery hearts
2 Green Peppers
1 head broccoli
1 bag apples (3 lbs)

Please plan to pick-up your share next Wed. unless you hear otherwise.

Thanks
Tanja

Produce ordered

I ordered for next week (29th):

Collard greens 1 bunch
Carrots 2 lb bag
Avocados 2
Cabbage 1 head
Zucchini 1.6 lbs (2-3 small ones?)

I will probably put an e-mail out once the produce is in, but lets just say for the future, unless I notify you otherwise your produce will be available for pick-up on every Wednesday. It seems like they can get our produce in every week. After next week I will just e-mail if it does not come in for some reason.

Beet Soup

You guessed it, this recipe is from nourishing cook:
http://thenourishingcook.com/2010/11/simple-beet-soup-recipe/

Tips for making Beet Soup
Add a touch of heavy cream or half and half to make this soup even more luxurious.
Use very fresh beets, locally grown if possible, for the best flavor.
This would be a great appetizer soup served with a dollop of cultured sour cream and homemade sauerkraut.

Simple Beet Soup
Difficulty: Super Easy

Ingredients:
6 medium beets
4 tablespoons butter or ghee
1 quart filtered water
sea salt or fish sauce and pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
piima cream or creme fraiche (omit for GAPS or casein free diet)
Preparation:
This easy soup brings out the exquisite sweet flavor of beets. Use water, not stock. Peel beets, chop coarsely and sauté very gently in butter for 1/2 hour or until tender. Add water, bring to a boil and skim. Simmer about 15 minutes. Purée soup with handheld blender. Season to taste, ladle into heated bowls and serve with cultured cream and chives.

Cooked beets

Here is the simplest way to enjoy beets.

• Wash beets, leave tail on beets and leave an inch of the stems on too.
• Put in a pot of water and bring to a boil. Boil for 50-60 minutes or until a knife goes in easy.
• Drain hot water off and rinse with enough cold water so you can barely handle the beets. The skins should slip right off. Serve with butter and salt. Delicious.
• My kids will gobble these up like there is no tomorrow.
• Be prepared for pink pee!

Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

This recipe is from one of my favorite blog sites:
http://thenourishingcook.com/2010/12/hot-spinach-artichoke-dip/

Tips for making Hot Spinach Dip

I like the frozen artichoke hearts instead of the canned since canned is either too vinegary or oily with questionable oils
It is most important to get the spinach and artichokes as dry as you can or your dip will be a bit watery (but still good!).
Make this a complete gluten free appetizer by serving with veggie sticks and/or corn chips fried in coconut oil.

Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
1 cup (packed) thawed, chopped frozen spinach
1 1/2 cups thawed, chopped frozen artichoke hearts
6 ounces cream cheese softened
1/4 cup sour cream or creme friache
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or Tabasco (omit for nightshade free and use black pepper instead)
1/4 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Preparation:
Steam spinach and artichokes until tender, let drain and cool. Remove as much liquid as you can with paper towels. Mix all ingredients together well and put in a an oval oven safe crock. At this point you could put in fridge until the next day or right before the party if you want.
Set oven to 325 and cook the spinach artichoke dip for 15-20 or until bubbly and slightly brown on top. Serve with homemade whole grain crackers, fresh cut vegetables, or tortilla chips fried in coconut oil for a gluten free treat.

Chard recipe

I know we have not ordered chard. I have grown chard as it is much easier to grow than spinach and can be used and cooked in much the same way. Here is a recipe from one of my favorite blog sites:
http://thenourishingcook.com/2010/11/even-a-kid-will-eat-this-chard/

Sauteed Chard Greens
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
1 bunch of chard (washed), stems removed and leaves torn into pieces – DO NOT remove the water clinging to the leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
1 cup diced sweet onion
3 Tablespoons butter (for GAPS/SCD/Kosher/casein free use ghee or olive oil)
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar (for GAPS/SCD use a legal vinegar)
parmesan cheese for topping (omit for GAPS/casein free)

Preparation:
Wash chard and remove stems, tear leaves into pieces and set aside. No need to remove any clinging water.
In a cast iron pan, saute the onion in butter or ghee. Once onion is transparent, add the garlic and continue cooking for two minutes. Deglaze the pan with the vinegar, then add the chard. Cook until the chard is wilted but still green (about 3 minutes), moving it around the entire time.
Top with parmesan cheese and serve!

Chard can be used in any of your spinach recipes. On my blog site I also have a recipe for creamed spinach that we love and you could use chard in.

Produce ordered

I ordered produce last week and hope it comes this week.

Spinach (1 box)
Beets (1 bunch)
Grape tomatoes (1 pint)
Cucumber (1)
Oranges (1 bag, 4 lbs. I think)

I also received our certificate of assumed name back from the State. Tomorrow I will go to the bank to open an account for the Club.

I found some yummy recipes online, so I will post them in a separate post.

Another soup recipe with kale

Kale, Bean and Potato soup

Looks good. I have not tried it.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe-Tools/Print/Recipe.aspx?RecipeID=187924&origin=detail&servings=6

Ideas for Kale

I guess I grew up eating slow-cooked canned kale. My Mom threw in smoked bacon and sausages and we ate all that with boiled potatoes and lots of dijon mustard on the kale. That was my favorite meal as a kid and because kale tastes the best after the first frost we ate this only in November....all November long! This is why I am so infatuated with kale...i just love the flavor, although I do not use canned and do not cook it for long times these days. But I still love the way it tastes.

Here is how I prepare it for my family. It is not really a recipe but all four of us gobble it up like this.

1. Wash bunch of kale. On a cutting board fold leaf in half lengthwise and cut out the hard midrib. Chop up coarsly.
2. Steam for 7 minutes.
3. Serve with plenty of melted butter poured over and sprinkled with sea salt.

If you want more of a recipe here is a link for soup with kale. There are several bean soup recipes out there that call for chopped kale.
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/11/the-healthy-1-menu-peasant-lentil-kale-soup.html

Here is a recipe from the food network:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/sauteed-kale-recipe/index.html

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds young kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1/2 cup vegetable stock or water
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Directions
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until soft, but not colored. Raise heat to high, add the stock and kale and toss to combine. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and continue to cook, stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar.

One final note on kale: Since it is in the crucierous vegetable family such as broccoli it has some anti-nutrients that are best neutralized by brief cooking such as sauteeing or steaming, rather than eating raw. Also, make sure to eat it with fat such as butter or a cream sauce so your body can absorb all the fat-soluble vitamins in it.

We are up and running!

We have 12 people for the Wednesday group and at least 6 for a Monday delivery group.

A couple of things have happened:
1. The weather in California is colder than usual and is affecting the harvest for cauliflower, broccoli and romaine lettuce. For now these items are hard to come by and very expensive to purchase so we need to stay clear of them for a few weeks.

2. The produce manager just found out from his wholesale warehouse that they need a longer lead time to be able to deliver such quantities as cases to us, so now we have to order 10 days in advance. The prices are only good for a week which makes it more difficult to do the finances but I have started excel spreadsheets and will keep meticulous track of our available money and what we purchase and get charged. I hope to adjust weekly so that at the end of our 4 week period I have used up our money without too much left over to maximize what we are getting.

With that said I have put in an order for Kale, Yams, Green Peppers, Green Beans and Celery hearts on Friday and it was questionable whether we could get in on Wed. the 15th. Otherwise we would hopefully get in on the following Wednesday.

We have 9 people so far....

....and we would have two more if we could move to a Monday delivery date and pick up at Faith Baptist Church. For now we will keep it to the Wednesday plan since we can start sooner if we have enough people for Wednesday. I am hoping to get enough people for a Wednesday and a Monday delivery.
So if you e-mail me to sign up, let me know which day would work better for you or if you are flexible.

Welcome!

Check out the info pages on the left and let me know if you have any questions or comments. Any feedback is welcome to get us started right!
Thanks
Tanja