Kretschmann Farm June 17, 2008
don@kretschmannfarm.com www.kretschmannfarm.com
Greetings from the Kretschmanns,
Just as it was getting a bit dry out there,
we got a good rain on Friday and Saturday.
What a blessing this is for us in
We thank you for all the patience you’ve had
with us these first weeks of the season. It’s been extremely demanding. This is normally the case because we’re
setting up new stops and routes, training new drivers and farm help, and
bringing new subscribers up to speed.
It’s been a little harder this year because there’s been an explosion of
interest in locally grown foods. We’ve
been inundated with phone calls and e-mails. This makes it doubly hard to
screen through for important messages from subscribers. Please help us keep our sanity by: 1. Leaving your account name and stop letters with your message
[we’ve begun to post these at the top of correspondence so you can just hit
“reply” and we’ll see it right away.] 2. Try to include in the subject line the reason
for the note so we can quickly get to our most important messages. Eg. “missed veggie box”, “cheese
order”, blueberry flat….. Using our subject line does this automatically…”Extra
Strawberries” 3. When responding to one of our messages via
“Reply”, try not to include other messages because it takes us off the task at
hand of organizing the responses. Just
send another message.
Hoping you enjoy the berries and other
treats of this special time of the season, we are, sincerely,
Don, Becky, & The Kretschmann Crew
Note on picking up: Remember to bring back your box
because we need to fill them up again. Please
don’t drop crates off at odd times.
Either empty the box on the spot, or bring it back during the pick up hours. Contact the host only if necessary—eg, there’s an emergency and you can’t get your box. For general information, contact us
directly.
Swiss Chard: This green is so versatile. Chop the leafy portion and use it like cooked
spinach. Saute
with a little onion, garlic, add crumbled feta cheese, lemon juice, and stuff
in pita bread--ala spinach pies/pizza. Or do much the same preparation, add
sour cream and stuff a baked potato.
(Remember swiss chard
takes a little more time to cook than spinach.)
The chard stems can be used where one would use celery--in mixed sautes, stuffings etc. Chard, as well as other
dark green leafy vegetables are rich in folic acid--essential to health,
and shown to reduce the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. It also plays a such
critical role in the early development of the human fetus that the government
mandates certain foods be fortified with it to prevent birth defects.
Chard is easy to prepare and
is delicious in combination with various beans.
Saute about 2 packed quarts of chard, 1/2 c.
onion, and 4-6 cloves of garlic in 2T olive oil until wilted (10 min.). Add salt, pepper, a little allspice, oregano,
basil, and 1/4 c. sherry or white wine if desired. Sprinkle 1/4 to 1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
before serving over rice or beans.
One should commit this
one to memory in strawberry season…
Shortcake: Sift
2c. flour, 3 tsp. baking powder, 1/4 tsp. salt, 2 tbs.
sugar. Mix in 1/2 c. oil well, until
evenly distributed. Beat 1 egg and 5/8
c. milk and mix with dry ingredients. Pat out with oiled hands or use a plastic spatula to spread dough
onto an oiled cookie sheet about 1/2 " thick. Bake @375 deg about 20 min. (we use all whole
wheat flour with fine results) Cut up strawberries and top with
whipped cream. This is breakfast, lunch, and dinner around here in early June (also a
midnight snack)
Veggie ID: The crazy ropey looking stems in
the bag with oregano are garlic scapes. These are the tender seed shoots of the
garlic plant. Use them anywhere you
would use garlic. But it’s lots simpler—just chop up and sauté in olive oil to
add to greens, spinach, meats…
Cheese Orders: Beginning
the week of July 7-11, every second week of the month we’ll start delivering
cheeses. We’ll have Sam & Suzy Byler’s goat
cheeses—plain chevre and feta. Also Adam Dean’s raw cow’s milk
cheeses—Cheddar, baby Swiss, Colby, Jack, Pepper Jack, and Camebert. Let us know what you’d like to get every
month. All cheeses are @$6.00/half pound
except Camebert which is $10/half pound.