CSA Week 7: Realizing the dream of a yoga retreat at the farm

In their shares this week, members will receive the following vegetables: Snap peas, carrots, collard greens, sprouted broccoli, parsley, bunching onions, summer squash or cucumbers depending on availability.

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.”

News from the farm

This weekend at the farm a dream of mine came true: we hosted our first yoga retreat.  I first started practicing yoga over 20 years ago.  My commitment to the practice ebbs and flows but it’s always been important to me.  About 10 years ago, I met my friend Amanda and we bonded over food, jewelry making, camping and yoga.  We started dreaming of a time when we could offer a yoga retreat at the farm.  We had two obstacles: I was renting land and didn’t have a location that felt welcoming or suited to hosting an all-day (or overnight) event.  The other obstacle was that Amanda didn’t live in Duluth.  Her husband is in the Coast Guard, and they’ve been stationed all over the U.S.  Currently, they are on Kodiak Island in Alaska.  So her availability was limited.  Things started to look more promising when we bought our farm three years ago and we started hatching a plan.  Then we found a window this summer and decided to dive in.  

Nine of us gathered Saturday morning and spent the day together.  Amanda led us in two yoga sessions, mindful meditation and journaling and painting mandala rocks.  John made an amazing lunch that everyone clamored for more of.  We toured the farm and harvested carrots.  There was a real sense of camaraderie and ease with everyone that I really loved.  As a host, I kept thinking about the schedule, the weather, etc.  Every once in a while, I would peek my eyes open during yoga to check the clouds and to see how everyone was doing.  Everyone had their eyes closed and seemed so in the moment.  It was really inspiring.  We, hopefully, left at the end of the day more rested and restored. The final thought that I left everyone with was that yes, this day was welcomed and needed by everyone but we don’t need to go on retreat to invoke a greater sense of wellness.  It’s in us all the time.  We just need to make the sense and time for ourselves a priority.      

I found myself not just touched by the experience of the retreat and the people gathered, but overwhelmed by the sheer act of hosting this beautiful day.  It meant that we had created this permanent home, this place that was open and inviting.  That I got to host this day with my husband and my dear friend Amanda just made for the most magical day.

Photos from the week at the farm

This week’s veggies and recipes

We are hoping this week’s CSA delivery is the kickoff of the harvesting of our mid-summer produce. With a lack of rain and cooler nights, cucumbers, tomatoes and summer squash have been slow to fruit. At this time last year, we were already harvesting all three on a consistent basis. Finally, this week, cucumbers and summer squash are starting to ripen and we hope will begin to be a part of our shares. Tomatoes, on the other hand, are taking their sweet time. In the high tunnel, there are literally hundreds of fruit, but they are slow in ripening. Our field tomatoes (all 400 feet of them), are big and healthy, but fruit production has been very slow this year.

This week, we also harvest the first of our onions. Over the course of the growing season, we will have a very nice variety of onions with sweet onions expected to be harvested in the next few weeks and scallions also nearly ready.

Our potato crop is also looking healthy and strong. The first potatoes to be harvested will be French fingerling potatoes, which are very close to being ready.

Here is a rundown of this week’s vegetables.

Bunching onions

Bunching onions are similar to scallions but they are larger, like a full-sized onion, but with the greens still attached to make it easier to “bunch”.  Use them as you would scallions or onions.

Parsley

The Store’s Green Dip

The Store Cookbook

• 2-ounce can flat anchovy fillets packed in oil
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 2 T chopped fresh chives or shallots
• 1 T drained capers, rinsed
• 1 ½ cups mayonnaise
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Chilled sliced vegetables, for serving

Put the anchovies and anchovy oil, parsley, vinegar, chives or shallots and capers into a blender or food processor, and puree until the mixture has nearly liquefied, about 3 minutes, pulsing and scraping down the sides as needed.

Add the mayonnaise, and pulse to combine.  Season with pepper, then transfer to a small bowl and refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.

Serve as a dip for chilled sliced vegetables.

Collard greens

We thought we’d give you two collard greens recipes this week.  One simple recipe and one that feels more like comfort food.

Collards will always be a special vegetable for us because we met when talking about how to prepare them.

Minnesotans don’t quite know what to do with this traditionally Southern veggie. However, it’s healthy and versatile. And long before it was a “southern” dish it was an Ethiopian vegetable. In our newsletter we share some Ethiopian recipes as well as one for creamed collards.

Ayib be Gomen (Collards with Cottage Cheese)

“Tastes From Valley to Bluff”

This is one of the national dishes of Ethiopia, where collards and spinach are often paired with dairy products.

• 1 pound collards
• 3 T butter
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 pound cottage cheese (dry-curd is fine)
• Salt to taste

Wash, shred and steam or boil the collards.  Mix the butter, black pepper, and cottage cheese.  Add the drained collards and salt to taste.

Creamed Braising Greens

This recipe is derived from a New York Times recipe: Creamed Braising Greens

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, thinly sliced
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• Salt
• 3 to 4 pounds young greens, like collards, kale, chard or mustard, stemmed and finely shredded.

Step 1

Start by heating 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over high heat until it foams. Add the garlic and shallot, then cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until they become softened and golden, which should take about 5 minutes. Pour in the cream, bring it to a simmer, and let it cook until slightly thickened for approximately 10 minutes. Add a pinch of nutmeg and salt to suit your taste. Next, use a hand blender to purée the mixture until it becomes smooth.

Step 2

Now, take a large pot and heat the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter over high heat until it foams. Add the greens and cook, stirring constantly, until they become tender but still maintain their bright green color, which usually takes about 5 minutes. Sprinkle some salt over the greens and then pour in the cream mixture from Step 1. Lower the heat, cover the pot, and let the mixture simmer until the greens are fully cooked, which should take around 5 minutes more. Taste the dish for nutmeg and salt, adjust the seasoning according to your preference, and serve it hot.

Sprouted broccoli

Broccoli is a pretty versatile vegetable.  It can be steamed, sauteed, roasted and eaten raw.  The leaves are tasty too and we use them like you would collard greens.  The simplest, and one of our favorite ways, to use broccoli is to roast it.  Olive oil and salt do wonders.  

This week we have sprouted broccoli and although smaller heads, they can still be used like fuller heads of broccoli.  As its name implies, rather than one head of broccoli growing from the center of the plant, these broccoli sprout from all over the plant.  Since they are smaller, we harvest them all and then bunch them together to create a “normal” sized head of broccoli.  Growing broccoli is an unpredictable endeavor but sprouted broccoli continues to grow and makes it easier to harvest for a larger amount of people.

Simple Roasted Broccoli

• 1 head broccoli, stems removed and set aside, florets cut into bite-sized pieces
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Black pepper

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Lay out the broccoli on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast 25-30 min.  We roast ours a bit longer until they are crispy.