Week 4 CSA Vegan Lasagna

It's another delicious week of specialty stir fry greens, arugula, spinach, radishes, shallots, heirloom lettuce mix, and herbs

Vegan Lasgana

Rice Lasgana Noodles

Soaked Cashews

 Sprigs of Marjoram 

Teaspoon of Thyme

Olives and Capers

Garden Stir Fry Greens

Spinach

Shallots

Tomato Sauce

Prepare your Lasagna by pre-cooking the noodles and chopping the veggies. Add the minced thyme and marjoram to the soaked cashews and puree with a little olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Begin layering noodles, veggies, sauce and cashew cheese (this is your ricotta). Finish with vegan cheese and bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. Serve with heirloom lettuce this week. Enjoy the food share. The garlic is soaring and scapes are just around the bend. 

Week 3 CSA Weather Warmer

Week 3 is filled with specialty spring greens, shallots, herbs, radishes and early garlic clusters. This week's recipes are honey mustard vinaigrette and bok choy with lime dressing. Also, one of my new favorite creations is Russet Mashed Potatoes with Coconut Oil and a hint of dill and raw shallots served with Hungarian Herb Fish and our fresh salad mix.

Week 2 Wild Spinach

Another delicious week of greens, herbs and shallots. Use the wild spinach in any recipe calling for spinach. I really like it in artichoke dip. Just pour marinated artichokes into a baking dish with olive oil, soaked cashews, diced garlic and wild spinach. Bake at 375 till the greens are wilted then puree in a blender adding enough water for a smooth consistency. Sprinkle salt and pepper to serve. We're deep into transplanting season. Up potting hot crops in the greenhouse and adapting others outside and in the tunnel. June is shaping up as wet and wonderful.

Here's a hawk moth we found in the tunnel the morphological mimicker ~ Hemaris diffinis ~ in a suspended state during the snow weather. 

Squash Blossom Farm CSA Food Share 2013

The rain is welcoming in our first food share of the season and after the last few spells it is finally hydrating the dry spring ground. You can see the plants and garlic growing before your eyes.

Besides the enduring nature of garlic I'm always an admirer of spring greens in Montana. Germinating early in spring they taste and feel highly energetic and so fresh after winter in the snow. This weeks share includes an assortment of our garden's greens, spring herbs, flowers and nettles which is highly nutritious in vitamin and minerals. You'll be cart wheeling after eating them. So in honor of jumping around the nettle patches and welcoming them into our lives we have a superfood soup recipe this week. 

Spring in your Step Nettles Soup

grapeseed oil

6-10 shallot greens

1/4 lb nettles

2 cups water
1.5 cups cooked quinoa

2.5 cups hemp milk

salt-pepper-thyme 

Heat oil and gently stir fry chopped shallots for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and carefully add several cup of water. I fill my 3.5 qt about half way. Return to high heat and toss nettle tops in (just tip the bag without touching the greens-the sting is inactivated in boiling water). Bring to a boil for 10 minutes. Add cooked quinoa and milk and reduce heat to simmer. Add 2 tsp thyme and salt and pepper to taste. 

Nettles is a nourishing and replenishing herb loaded with calcium, Vitamin A, C, D, E, F, K, P chlorophyll, b vitamins, selenium, zinc, iron and magnesium. It also makes a great tea or hair rinse. Enjoy Spring!

May Day

We went on a hunt for spring singers of Central America. We found Trillums, a raging creek perfect for otters, Fomitopsis pincola the great forest recycler and last years migrant nest. 

Winter Twist Salad

 Winter Twist Kale Salad

Kale 

Pineapple 

Dijon Mustard

Knudsen Morning Blend Juice or Freshly Juiced Apple, Orange, Pineapple and Pear

An invigorating, mineral and vitamin rich salad as winter approaches. Did you know Kale is super rich in Vitamin C with ample amounts of calcium and iron. One cup offers over 100 mg of Vitamin C ~ can't imagine eating a cup of kale? Surprise yourself with this salad as a winter warmer for your immune system. 

Oil and heat the Kale till lightly wilted. You can also serve the salad raw and rubbed with oil. 

Transfer to a bowl, drizzle with dressing and toss in the pineapple. 

Dressing is easy to make just add twice the amount of juice to mustard and whisk till well blended.

Earth Oven Pizzas

Spent the whole day cooking pizzas and pumpkins. A lot of work for a unique taste but also worth it for  observing the rhythms of the meadow

Starting the fire

first pizza ready to go in

I will say mildly blackened food has a rewarding taste that differs from the electric oven failures. Plenty of variations to work out with the earth oven like heating it up hotter and longer for the start and a tool to remove all the fine hot ash. You'll see during this first time I kept a fire going in one corner of the oven to keep the temp up. This was moved around from one side to the other depending on what I was cooking or burning in most cases. 

The rolling fire posed a bit of a challenge when retrieving the pizza with flames running along the inside top or out the front where the oven exterior is black. So, a wooden peel was quickly constructed. The door also had to be soaked in water and propped up for a fresh air draw to keep the fire rolling. A chimney this spring once we're above freezing at night will be great to keep flames and smoke a good distance from my face. 

These are the ways I discovered to manage cooking with a open flame but not absolutely necessary I hope if 

next time a larger fire is made in the oven, burned longer and then removed when reduced to coals. Then the door can be sealed shut to hold the heat with no flames to contend with. Also, a precook on the crust just like electric cooking would be helpful so it's more evenly cooked in the center.
So, this was a good first try to work out these learning lessons but maybe not a daily affair just yet. This type of oven can easily be improved upon and adjusted since it is merely clay, sand and straw. It was a great reason to spend the whole day outside and exciting to finally use.