CSA Week 11 newsletter: Getting ready for a community celebration (Sept. 7)

In their shares this week, members will receive the following vegetables:

Romaine lettuce, tomatoes (cherry and slicing), pickling cucumbers, hot peppers, sweet peppers, carrots, summer squash, one yellow onion and fresh herbs. We are also hoping to include a mixture of green cabbage, broccoli and purple cauliflower.

This newsletter includes a roundup of news from the farm as well as information and recipes. Feel free to jump to the bottom of the newsletter to find the section titled, “This week’s veggies and recipes.”

Here is this week’s video check in:

Community Celebration and Fundraiser!

Description: Join us on September 7 from 4 until dusk for a community celebration and fundraiser. We’ll eat food grown on our farm (and pork from our friends at Y-ker Acres in Wrenshall), listen to music and raise money for the construction of a new pavilion and farm stand at our farm.

Details:

• Cost: There will be a fee for dinner, but the music is free
• Music: Our friends, The Minorbirds, will be playing music. If it’s raining, we’ll be in the barn. If it’s sunny, we’ll be in The Grove.
• Food: Our friends at Denham Run Bar and Grill.  will be preparing dishes using vegetables from our farm along with pulled pork from Y-ker Acres farm in Wrenshall. 
• What to bring: Bring a lawnchair or beach blanket.
• What else: There will be farm tours, and our farm stand will be open.

About the Pavilion:

• We are hoping to raise money to construct a multipurpose pavilion on our property. 
• It will be used for future community celebrations and will be the new home of our weekly farm stand. 
• We eventually also hope to construct a pizza oven on the site.
• Fundraising goal: $5,000

News from the farm

We’ve been dreaming of hosting a community celebration and fundraiser ever since we purchased our farm, but it wasn’t until we met someone who could prepare the food for us that we really started thinking it could be a possibility.

A few months ago, we heard some friends talking about a restaurant located not too far from our farm in the tiny town of Denham (population 37). They were raving about it, saying it was their favorite place to go. We were surprised we had never heard of it before, so one day we got in the car and went down to try it out.

Then we went back again and again.

One day, on our third or fourth visit, we got to chatting with the owners and mentioned that we had a vegetable farm.

“A vegetable farm?” they said. “Sell us some of your vegetables!”

And so we did. From there, a relationship with Jill and Conor at Denham Run Bar and Grill was born.

One of the things we love most about this restaurant is that they believe in the importance of locally sourced food. Of course, in northern Minnesota, it’s not always possible to get fresh local produce, but when it is available, Conor and Jill go looking for it and create specials based on what is in season. They also locally source much of the meat they use at the restaurant.

In the months that we have been selling to them, they have made steak tartare topped with our microgreens, prime rib with a side of our kale braised in beer, and a special bruschetta made with roasted beets.

They also made a dish using our romaine lettuce, placing it on a grill to give it a delicious charred flavor. You can read about that recipe below.

Last week, Jill and Conor, along with their two kids, Juniper and Harrison, paid a visit to our farm. We showed them around, talked about what veggies we were growing, and discussed what would be available for the rest of the season.

We also started making plans for our first-ever community celebration and fundraiser, which will happen on September 7th.

The event will feature dishes made with vegetables harvested from our farm and cooked by the team at Denham Run. We will also have slow-cooked pulled pork, also cooked by Denham Run. The pork itself is being supplied by our friends at Wicker Acres Farm in Wrenshall.

The idea for the event is to celebrate our farm and our community, both our CSA community and the local community. We will also have music provided by our friends The Minorbirds.

We’re hoping the event will help us kick off a fundraising campaign designed to raise money to construct a new pavilion at the farm. This pavilion will be a multipurpose structure. It will be the new home for our farm stand. Eventually, we hope to have a pizza oven installed as well, and we hope that in the future, the pavilion will host many other community celebrations, including ones where we can raise money for other worthy organizations in our community.

Later this week, we will send out additional information, including instructions on how to buy tickets in advance. The event will be free to attend with a suggested donation, and there will be a charge to purchase food.

Images from the farm

This week’s veggies and recipes

Grilled Romaine Caesar

This recipe comes to us from Denham Run Bar and Grill, which will be offering this dish as a special this week. 

Ingredients

• One head of romaine or other sturdy lettuce
• Olive oil to taste
• Kosher salt
• Pepper to taste
• Parmesan cheese
• Croutons
• Dressing of your choice

Instructions

1. Wash and cut romaine 
2. Season with olive oil, salt and pepper 
3. Char on grill until edges are blackened 
4. Garnish with dressing, Parmesan, croutons, and julienne radish

Chilled Cucumber-Yogurt Soup

Recipe from the original “Moosewood Cookbook”

Ingredients

• 4 cups peeled, seeded, chopped cucumbers 
• 2 cups plain Greek yogurt 
• 1 clove garlic
• Several fresh mint leaves
• 1 TBSP honey
• 1 1/2-2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp dill weed
• Chopped chives or scallions for garnish

Directions:

Puree everything together in the blender except the chives or scallions for garnish. Serve very cold.

Tomato Pie

simplyrecipes.com

• 1  9-inch pie shell (homemade or store bought)
• ½ yellow or red onion, chopped
• 3-4 tomatoes, cut in half horizontally, squeezed to remove excess juice, roughly chopped, to yield 3 cups
• ¼ cup basil (about 8 leaves), sliced
• 2 cups grated cheese (combo of sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack or Gruyere or Mozzarella)
• ¾ cup mayonnaise
• 1 tsp (or more to taste) of hot sauce
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

1.   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place pie shell in oven and cook for 8-10 minutes or longer until lightly golden.  If you are starting with a frozen crust, you’ll need to cook it a bit longer.  If you are using a homemade crust, freeze the crust first, then line the crust with aluminum foil and prebake it for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

2.  Squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the chopped tomatoes, using paper towels, a clean dish towel, or a potato ricer.

3.  Sprinkle the bottom of the pre-cooked pie shell with chopped onion.  Spread the chopped tomatoes over the onions.  Sprinkle the sliced basil over the tomatoes.

4.  In a medium bowl, mix together the grated cheese, mayonnaise, hot sauce, a sprinkling of salt and pepper.  The mixture should be the consistency of a gooey snow ball.  Spread the cheese mixture over the tomatoes.

5.  Place in oven and bake until browned and bubbly, anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes.