We love this short documentary What Artichokes Teach Us About the Pandemic from The New Yorker.
And our medium artichokes from Pezzini Farms are the perfect size for this recipe!
https://www.newyorker.com/video/watch/what-artichokes-teach-us-about-the-pandemic
Your box contains the following items.
| 1/2lb. Mesclun |
| 1lb. mixed radicchio 1 head escarole or more radicchio |
| 1/2lb. erbette green chard |
| 1/2lb. spigariello |
| 1 bunch radishes |
| 1 bunch spring onions |
| 1lb. orange carrots |
| 1 head celery 1 yellow onion handful rosemary and thyme |
| 3/4lb. dried borlotti beans |
| 2lb. baby yellow potatoes 1 head celery root |
| Handful limes 1 each moro blood and cara caras |
We had a couple of issues in the field today, so if you don’t get a head of escarole, you will receive another 1/2lb. of mixed radicchios.
The main attraction in this week’s box is nearly all the fixings for a pot of Tuscan borlotti bean soup. You can soak the beans overnight in water, but if you forget or don’t have time, it’s no big deal. I cooked the beans without pre soaking and they turned out fine. In a medium sized pot, fill half way with water and add the beans. Put a little of the thyme and one branch of rosemary, and if you have some extra onions, chop one up and throw it in as well. Without soaking, they will take over an hour to cook, and you may need to add water before they are done. I like to cook them a little al dente so they can finish in the soup. Once you have the beans simmering, chop the celery, onion, and carrots into little pieces, as small or large as you like. If you are using bacon or pancetta, cut into one inch pieces, and cook until not quite crispy. Remove and drain most of the fat, leaving some to cook the mirepoix, and for the wonderful flavor it adds to the soup. Cook the mirepoix until it’s somewhat translucent, and add pancetta or bacon and set aside. When the beans are cooked enough, put them in a bowl to use that pot or use another pot for your soup. Add cooked mirepoix, bacon/pancetta, rosemary and thyme, and fill pot about 2/3 with water. Add beans, and some of the liquid into the mix. Bring the soup to a boil and immediately turn down to a simmer. You are finishing the beans, and allowing all the ingredients to meld together. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, and add chopped spigariello or erbette chard at the end, so it doesn’t over cook and turn to mush. Season with good salt, maybe black pepper to taste, and I like to add a little vinegar, sherry or apple cider vinegar are great. When serving, grate some cheese, drizzle some of your best olive oil, and maybe a few croutons in each bowl.
The limes are from Bernard Ranch, and are great for making a cocktail. I will be putting a few in the box here and there in the next month as we wait for lemons to ripen. These limes are also ripening, meaning they are turning half yellow instead of all green. They will be juicier and more flavorful as they ripen, don’t be caught up in the conventional thinking that a lime has to be green to be good.
The small yellow potatoes in the box are perfect for salt baking. I’m hoping you have a box of kosher salt handy, so you can completely cover the one layer of potatoes in your pyrex pan or some other equivalent. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes and dig one out to see if it’s done.
This week’s celery root will pair nicely with last week’s parsnips, if you still have those in your refrigerator. Peel both, and cut into cubes or as you like, then roast on a sheet pan with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Enjoy!
Martin
Your box contains the following items.
| 1/2lb. Mesclun |
| 1/2lb. Red/green little gems 1/2lb. spigariello |
| 2lb. Mixed fingerlings |
| 1lb. Sunchokes |
| 1 bunch red torpedo onions |
| 1 bunch baby leeks |
| 2lb. Loose mixed carrots |
| 1 bunch cliantro |
| 1lb. Mixed peppers |
| 2lb. Brussels sprouts |
| 2-3 sudachi |
| 2 fuyu persimmons |
Instead of one yuzu, you are getting 2-3 sudachi citrus. I wasn’t sure I could get them, as their short season is almost over. These are like yuzu, in that they are Japanese citrus that are ready in the fall for a few weeks. But they are more like a small mandarin or lime, with a thin skin and juicy flesh. I wanted you to have the chance to use the sudachi with the Brussels sprouts.
Brussels sprouts have had quite the renaissance lately, usually served deep fried with a tangy sauce. I will periodically put them in the box from now through February, as they are a very local, healthy green vegetable through the winter. I like boiling them in salted water just like you would boil pasta, but not too long. Maybe 3-5 minutes. You want them al dente so you can cook them again, this time broiled or roasted with slices of lemon, or in this special case, sudachi. There is something to how citrus counteracts the more unpleasant qualities of a brussel sprout. I also like to use bacon or pancetta in this dish, but if you are kosher/halal, or vegetarian, use some onions instead. Take the blanched brussels sprouts and cut them in half lengthwise. Put them on a cookie sheet, roasting pan, with somewhat cooked bacon or pancetta cut into 1 inch pieces. Take the sudachi and cut in half, then slice thinly with a very sharp or serrated knife. You should get many thin half moons about 1/8 inch in diameter. Toss with the Brussels sprouts, bacon or onions. Add some bacon fat or olive oil, salt and pepper. Everything should be spread out to be only one layer, so when you put it under the broiler, or in your oven at 475-500 degrees everything gets golden brown with little black edges quickly and evenly. You don’t want to get distracted at this moment, as you will end up with a pile of black carbon if not careful. Serve immediately.
I recommend taking some of the potatoes, sunchokes, baby leeks, and carrots, and roasting them all together with some olive oil and white wine. Cover with aluminum foil if you want them to cook more delicately. Don’t use any or take if off half way if you want to get some color in the root veggies.
You could use the sudachi in a salad by zesting the skin into the olive oil and vinegar. Then squeeze the juice as part of the acid. It’s your one chance to have a sudachi-flavored salad dressing.
Enjoy!
Martin
Your box contains the following items.
Yes, it’s been way too long since I last wrote the box flyer. Too many heat waves, smoky days, election freak-outs, irrigation and tractor issues are my excuses. We had a couple of changes from what Monday’s newsletter said was in the box, so that seemed a perfect reason to get back in the habit. Instead of carrots, you have a head of romanesco cauliflower. And, instead of Italian parsley, there’s a bunch of French breakfast radishes.
Since you’ve been getting lots of potatoes of late, I want to suggest trying to salt bake the smaller round red and yellow ones, with a few ruby crescents or Austrian crescents. After washing them and letting them dry, put them in a pyrex pan, aluminum pan with at least two inch sides, or a ceramic baking dish. Make sure you fill the pan with one layer of potatoes, as close together as possible. Take a box of kosher salt and spread it all over until all you see is white, with the little bumps like moguls on a ski run. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. Feel free to poke a knife or fork in one at 25-30 minutes, and if nicely soft, they are ready. They are not salty cooked this way. They retain much of their moisture and flavor this way. I like to dig them out while hot, dust off most but not all the salt, and have butter, sour cream, aioli, fresh goat cheese to eat with them. You can also slice them in half and toss with chives and butter, or whatever is your favorite potato accompaniment. The salt is reusable many times, so when it cools just put it in a plastic bag for future use. I like to make this dish for friends, as when they see you put all that salt, they might freak out and think you’re trying to kill them, then when they get to eat one they quickly forgive you and understand you’re doing something special.
The head of celery root needs to have all the brown skin cut away, until all you see is the white flesh. I like to cut half inch circles, then cut the disks into half inch cubes. You can do the same with some potatoes, and roast them all together in a roasting pan in the oven. Olive oil, salt, pepper, and let the flavor of the celery root shine all on its own.
Cardoons are in the artichoke family, but you cook and eat the stalks like they were celery. Cut the base of the head so all the stalks are free and you can wash the dirt and critters that often hang out at the base of the plant. The bottom 7-9 inches is usually the best part, with the top of the stalks being more stringy. Cut into 4-5 inch pieces, boil in lots of water with salt and a little vinegar or a lemon or lime cut in two. I like to squeeze the juice then throw in the lemon halves to flavor the cardoons. They should be soft in 12-20 minutes, depending on how thick or tender the stalks are. This is just like you would cook artichokes. When they are done let them cool. You can slice them into 1/8-1/4 inch slices, and use them in pastas, mix them into a potato salad, or deep fried like artichokes. Here’s a link to give you a visual and more descriptions of how to prepare them.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-clean-cardoons-2394986
Romanesco is an arguably better tasting cauliflower. I like to snap off the spirals from the center, and sauté them with peppers and onions. Olive oil, salt and pepper is all you need. Don’t cook them too long, as they retain their flavor with a little firmness.
Since we are now into the fall/winter chicory season, you should consider making a blue cheese lemon zest vinaigrette with your red and lusia radicchios. Zest a lemon into a small container, then put about ¼-1/3 cup olive oil. If you have the time, let it sit for 10-20 minutes so the olive oil can absorb some of the lemon flavor. Then add red wine vinegar and lemons juice in equal parts, and salt and pepper. Crumble the blue cheese and whisk until it’s to your desired smoothness. You may want to add more olive oil, or more cheese, depending on how big your pile of radicchio is. Croutons or toasted walnuts are a nice addition as you are tossing everything together.
Enjoy!
Martin
Your box contains the following items, give or take any subs.
Here’s a recipe for mixed summer squash soup, as I help you not get tired of all the squash in your box each week. You can use the walla walla onions, but I’d recommend using a regular yellow onion, cut into half inch pieces, and the two pounds mixed squash, cut in half lengthwise, then into half inch pieces. Sweat the onions and squash in a pot with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, but don’t brown. Add your liquid of choice, about a quart of chicken stock, veggie stock, or plain water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or so. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup to your desired smoothness. Add salt and black or white pepper to taste, and a teaspoon or so of white wine vinegar, or lemon juice. When serving, add torn or sliced basil leaves, and you can also add sliced squash blossoms into the bowl. Now you have three very different ways of preparing summer squash: soup, shaved raw salad, and grilled and tossed in a basil pesto sauce.
This week there’s yellow romano beans in the box. The last few weeks saw bluelake beans. We will have off and on various varieties of snap beans. My favorite and simplest way to cook and serve beans like these is to blanch them in salted, boiling water for 3-5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the beans, and your desired tenderness, then toss them into a bowl that has some olive oil (you can also add a little butter if you like) with a clove or two garlic that’s been finely minced. If the beans cool down before serving, put the bowl on top of the pot of water you cooked them in, bring it back to boil, and use it as a way to heat up the beans without cooking them any more.
I’ve been enjoying cherry tomatoes sliced in half, with walla walla onions sliced and added to the tomatoes, with sherry vinegar, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper to taste. I like to let it sit for a few minutes so the vinegar can bring all the flavors together. Have you noticed the best tasting salad is the last handful you left in the bowl that you end up eating before doing the dishes at the end of the meal? Time for all the flavors to meld together really makes a difference.
Enjoy!
Martin
Your box contains the following items, give or take subs that may happen as the week goes on.
We have a couple of new items this week, with the most unusual being agretti. This plant is loved in Italy, where many of the more unusual vegetables are from that find their way into your box. Yes, agretti looks like a weird version of pine needles (though it’s not like pine needles in any meaningful way), and I suggest taking a little piece of it and tasting it just so you know what it’s like raw. Like many of the cooking greens you’ve been getting these last few months, I recommend blanching it in salted boiling water, for 4-6 minutes. Then you can make a pasta with it, or just toss it with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon and eat it like spinach. Here’s a link to help you understand how to cook agretti.
https://honest-food.net/agretti/
I’m including a handful of mint leaves so you can make a shaved raw squash salad, if you so desire. Best if you have a mandolin to make thin slices, but you can also use the blade side of your cheese grater, or a potato peeler. Add a little bit of olive oil, and lemon juice or white wine/champagne vinegar, chili flakes and mint leaves torn or cut up, and salt to taste. The salt will cause the water to come out of the squash, so go easy on the olive oil and acid, to keep it from getting too watery and soggy. This is a lovely and super easy and quick dish to make. You can also cut the squash in half lengthwise, grill it on both sides, then cut into large chunks and toss with a simple basil pesto with almonds and the handful of basil leaves in the box.
Enjoy!
Martin
Your box contains the following items, give or take any subs.
This week’s signature item is one very large head of romanesco from Lakeside Organic Gardens in Watsonville. I thought I could get smaller heads, and you would have gotten two of those like the initial newsletter said, but they didn’t have enough of those so instead you get the big one. Think of it like regular white cauliflower, but better. You can cut it into the little florets that reflect their individual conical shapes, or quarter the head and roast the pieces like roasting white cauliflower. I like to make pasta a la palina, a Sicilian recipe for spaghetti with, in this case, romanesco, ½ cup golden and dark raisins (soak them in hot water to soften and plump them up), 1/3 cup pine nuts or almonds, 1 medium onion, pinch of saffron, 2-3 cloves garlic, 3-5 anchovies, chili flakes, marjoram or oregano, parsley, parmesan or pecorino cheese grated, and bread crumbs. Start with the onions in the pan, then add garlic, saffron, marjoram or oregano, anchovies, romanesco florets, and cook at medium heat. Add the nuts and raisins, chili flakes, a few minutes later. You should be boiling your noodles while doing this. Add pasta to the pan with the sauce, and add a ladle of pasta water to simmer the whole thing together for a couple of minutes. Serve with parsley, bread crumbs, and grated cheese.
Celery soup is normally a winter thing, but we are still a couple of weeks away from the beginning of tomato season, and with all the foggy weather this week, maybe celery soup can find a home in July. I like to make mine with chicken stock and to not puree it. I like to throw in a few carrots, a potato, onion, with some dill at the end. Save the blanched leaves in the heart to scatter in the bowl before serving.
Also, celery is one of the three key parts of mirepoix, a French word (happy Bastille Day!) describing the fundamental base of so many dishes in French cooking: chopped celery, onion and carrots, cooked slowly in oil or butter.
Enjoy!
Martin
Your box contains the following items, give or take any subs as the week goes on..
We initially told you there’d be a head of celery in the box, but that was before we found so many padron peppers on the new plants, that we decided to put 1/2lb. in the box instead. They are from Galicia, Spain, and are ubiquitously known there as pimientos de padron. These are small ones, before they grow up to be really hot peppers. You also should have about two peppers that are 3 inches long or a little more. These are the hot ones. Treat them as you would a jalapeno, or serrano pepper. The small ones are best fried at high heat with a small amount of olive oil in your frying pan. They cook really quickly, 3-4 minutes at most. Let them get a little brown or black on one side, then toss in the pan a few times. Remove, sprinkle with your best salt, and eat while hot. They are a wonderful starter item. They are also great to put into other dishes after frying. I like to toss them into my scrambled eggs in the morning. If you like to cut corn off the cob, and sauté in butter, then toss a few of the cooked peppers into your corn. Remember to cut off the tough but small stem before. Please beware that occasionally a small one will be hotter than the rest, maybe one out of ten or fifteen. We will be putting these in the box regularly until the fall. This link will show you how they should be cooked and how they should look when done.
https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/05/spanish-style-padron-peppers-how-to-cook.html
The other signature item in your box this week, fresh cranberry beans, are from Louie Iacopi. Whether it’s been his English peas, favas, or more recently his bluelake beans, we all benefited from his Half Moon Bay farming successes. But I consider his fresh shelling beans to be a wonderful luxury, and I hope you will appreciate them as well. They need to be shelled from the pod, just like English peas. Put them in a pot of water, about twice as much water as beans, with a few garlic cloves cut up coarsely, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, and a generous amount of salt, as though you were cooking pasta. Feel free to add your favorite dried herb as well. Oregano, marjoram, thyme all work well. Fresh herbs also work well. Bring to a boil then turn down to a medium simmer, and cook until soft but not too mushy. About 20-30 minutes, depending on heat, amount of water, etc. When done you can add parsley, diced onions, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes. More olive oil and a little vinegar to make a bean salad.
Here’s David Lebovitz explaining with photos much of what I’ve said here.
https://www.davidlebovitz.com/fresh-shelling/
Enjoy,
Martin
Your box contains the following items, give or take any subs.
This week’s box is a reprise of the box from a month ago, as we wait for the summer produce to kick into gear. It gives you a chance to make one of my all time favorite pastas, which can easily be vegetarian.
I also suggest you slice your stone fruit, chop a few almonds, mince some spring onion, toss with the mesclun salad greens, and add some fresh goat cheese, and enjoy many of the ingredients we offer, all in one salad bowl.
The signature items of the week are english peas and a leek, with a handful of mint leaves, giving you the opportunity to make a favorite pasta dish, spaghetti with peas and ricotta. I ate this dish at Romans in Brooklyn a few years ago, and I had to know how to make it at home, cooking various versions for myself over a few pea seasons. I asked Dave Gould, the former chef of Romans, to write out the recipe for our benefit.
I guess this is a Romans classic creation, though we rarely did the same exact thing twice, so now it’s a Martin’s country kitchen creation.
Start by shelling all of your peas. The pods can get smashed, almost bruising as you go, into a stockpot. If you’re vegetarian, fill the pot with water until it comes 3/4 of the way up the peas, so they are not fully submerged. Pea pod broth can be really delicious, but it must be concentrated, i.e. not watered down. Put in a clove or 2 (the spice), a tiny shard of cinnamon stick, leek tops trimmed of any discoloration, and a small handful of either dry porcini or dry morel mushrooms. And if you’re not vegetarian, substitute the water with good chicken broth.
Bring to a rigorous boil over a high flame, skimming any foam that rises as you go. You should find at this point that the pea pods have wilted and are now barely submerged. Simmer over a very low flame for 5 minutes, drop in a few sprigs of mint, then leave to cool for 10 minutes, at which point it is ready to strain. You will need 1 cup of broth per person and the rest can be held for various future purposes.
To build the sauce, slice the white leek bottoms (about 1T per person) thinly and sweat gently in a mixture of butter and olive oil, with a few cracks of black pepper and a few leaves of sage or basil. When very soft, but not colored, add the necessary amount of broth per person. Bring to a boil and season fully with salt. Boil spaghetti in unseasoned water until it is about 6 minutes away from being finished, and add it to the sauce along with all of the peas that you desire. Everything should simmer gently in the liquid, practically submerged until the last minute or two, so you will need to periodically add pasta water and taste consistently for seasoning.
Ideally you can eyeball that when the noodles are cooked there will be about 1/2 cup of broth left in the pot per person. Turn the flame off and add a heaping tablespoon of ricotta per person, the light green leek middles, sliced thinly, a few torn mint leaves and a small squeeze of lemon juice. Stir aggressively, but quickly, so as to not agitate the ricotta too much. The idea is that it remains clumpy and turns your broth milky and rich.
Divide evenly amongst soup bowls and shower with freshly grated pecorino cheese, black pepper and good green olive oil.
Enjoy!
Martin
Your box contains the following items, give our take any subs that happen as the week goes on.
This week we have a greens heavy box. We have large heads of green romaine, and lots of red butter lettuce, with the last of a large planting of red little gems. For more delicate salad needs, there’s the half pound of mesclun mix, which is made up of mizuna, arugula, frilly red mustard, upland cress, chervil, chrysanthemum leaves, and lettuces. For salad ideas, remember to zest your citrus, lemon or orange, into olive oil, to give you a bright citrus flavored vinaigrette. If you like fruit in your salad, try slicing some of your peach or nectarine into your salad after it’s all made.
Cooking greens are erbette chard, a flat leafed, thin-stemmed chard from Italy, as well as a half pound of bull’s blood beet tops, both from the Soledad farm. The bull’s blood beet tops will turn whatever you mix with them a beautiful red color. At least I like that color. That’s a good reason to cook them separately from the erbette chard. While it’s green, it is different from the other green chard you’ve been getting. It is thin stemmed, with a more delicate leaf, similar to spinach. It also has a more mild flavor. I like to cut it crosswise into one inch strips, and sauté it with garlic and olive oil. Maybe a splash of white wine or water to wilt it down at the end. Then serve with a squeeze of lemon juice.
The featured items of the week are two heads of fennel, and one tarocco blood orange, from Rising C Ranch in Reedley, CA. It’s unusual for a blood orange to be so good at this time of year, but when I tried one of these last week, it tasted as good or better than any blood orange I’ve tried this season. Included in the box are two heads of fennel, so you can make a shaved fennel and tarocco blood orange salad. If you have a mandolin, that’s best to shave the fennel. I like it as thin as you can get it. To prepare the blood orange, use a serrated knife if you’re not a serious knife person, as you need a super sharp chef’s knife to successfully cut all the skin off. Cut off about half an inch of the top and bottom of the orange. After placing the one cut end down on your cutting board, carefully cut the skin off the flesh from top to bottom, trying to get as little of the flesh as possible. Then cut slices crosswise. You can quarter those slices to mix with your fennel. Add olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes I like to add some fresh onion, so thinly slicing some scallions is an option.
I know I’ve been giving you a lot of carrots lately. Here’s a pickling recipe from Tartine Bakery in SF that will help you mix it up a little. https://www.7×7.com/secret-recipe-tartines-spicy-pickled-carrots-1787333732.html
Enjoy!
Martin