Hello, here's this week's newsletter in an html file. I did send this week's newsletter (!) but something happened in cyberspace and many folks didn't get it. Sorry about that: we're trying to figure it all out. -julia

Two Small Farms Newsletter
Issue Number 357, May 17th, 2006

In your box this week: Strawberries, Avocados, Fennel, Fava Beans, Cilantro, Little Gem Lettuce, And each farm will give one more item: see below in Veggie Notes #7 for more info

Manna a Mano by Andy G.

Warm weather seems to demand food that’s spiced with warm flavors, like cilantro. Cilantro is the Spanish and American name for Coriandrum sativum, or coriander. Sometimes you’ll also see the herb described as Chinese parsley. Coriander traces its name to the Greek koros, meaning bug. Classical scholars seem divided as to whether the stinky bug that lent its name to the fragrant herb was a bedbug or a wood bug. Yum!

According to the herbals cilantro fortifies the blood, and it’s a diuretic, tonic, stomachic, and aphrodisiac. Cilantro is a good source of vitamins C and A, niacin, calcium, phosphorus, potassium and iron and it even tastes good, at least to me and most of the rest of the world. Many Americans have been slow to accept cilantro, but that just shows we’re still a young culture with a lot to learn about food.

While cilantro is only now making its presence felt, or smelt, on the average American restaurant menu the herb is one of mankind’s oldest foods. Cilantro was mentioned in Sanskrit manuscripts written almost 7000 years ago in India. Pictures of cilantro were painted in tombs of ancient Egypt so that the dead could enjoy the healthful properties of this herb in their afterlife.

Cilantro’s fans might be interested to know that the Bible refers to coriander in the Book Of Numbers, chapter 11 verse 7, “The manna was like coriander seed...” Given that manna was also described as a bread from heaven that appeared like flakes of frost and tasted like honey wafers it’s difficult for me to understand how, except for sharing a color, manna could be anything at all like coriander seed. It’s interesting, though, that the Israelites were commanded to gather only so much manna as they could eat. Some people disregarded this warning and tried to hoard the manna but on the following day the old manna had broken out in maggots. Bugs again.

It fell to the Roman armies occupying Europe to introduce this plant with its origins in Asia to a wider northern audience. While an appreciation for cilantro doesn't seem to have taken root in Rome itself the descendants of the Roman colonists of Hispania, the Spanish, introduced the plant to México. The Mexicans took cilantro in as one of their own, and today cilantro is considered as Mexican as Nopal cacti and rattlesnakes. If Mexican food “bugs” you try cilantro with a Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, or Indian recipe and I’m sure that what you prepare will taste like manna from heaven.

copyright 2006 Andy Griffin

Redmond House weekend job and Farmstand info plus a Farm Dinner at Freedom Elementary in Watsonville

Redman House Farmstand is Open and Position Available
The farmstand is now open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM. On Lee Road off Hwy 1 and Riverside Drive in Watsonville. Drop by anytime to pick up extra strawberries, artichokes, lettuces, root vegetables and greens.
Position Available: We are looking for someone to staff the Redman House farmstand in Watsonville on Saturdays and Sundays from now through November. Candidates should have good basic knowledge about vegetables and organic agriculture, and ideally some market sales experience. $12/hr. E-mail Jeanne at csa@highgroundorganics.com or call (831)786-0286.

Slow Food Monterey Bay is having a dinner to support and celebrate the school garden at Freedom Elementary on Saturday June 3rd. See their website for more details:
http://slowfoodmontereybay.org/events.php

FASTEST way to use this box. Eat the strawberries. Get family members to shell the favas, or save them for a weekend gathering and get guests to do same. Or shell them while you’re on the phone or watching TV. Then stir fry them with other vegetables and eat over rice. Slice the fennel to eat raw as a snack. If you don’t like that raw fennel flavor: try it cooked like celery: I chop it up and use it instead of celery with chopped onions at the bottom of any soup, chili, stew, etc. Make a salad or two with the lettuce, wait for the avocados to ripen then make glorious sandwiches, and or cube them into a green salad. Cilantro! On the day you have a *little* time to cook, make a quick cilantro pesto with some toasted nuts, garlic, walnut or olive oil, and the cilantro. Whirl into a paste with a food processor and then dress noodles or toast or crackers with your delicious creation.

5) Recipes from Julia and Jeremy

Jeremy’s short notes on this week’s box:

Hmm. It's hot out. Salsa with the cilantro to go with the avocados!
Or make a shrimp salad with the lettuce, and a dash of avocado. The artichokes/squash will probably get simply steamed. The strawberries will get devoured the day we pick up the box, or if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll make a pie.

A Strawberry Pie
6 cups sliced strawberries (about 3 baskets)
1/3 cup + 1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
double pie crust (3/4 cup flour, 1/3 cup butter, pinch salt, 5 Tbsp cold
water)
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp rose-water

Roll out bottom crust in a 9" pie pan. Mix 1/2 cup sugar, rice flour, cinnamon and cloves together. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the sugar mixture over the crust. Layer with 3/4 cup of the berries. Alternate sugar and berries until all are in the crust. Roll second crust and crimp over pie, piercing in several places to vent steam. Bake at 400 degrees for
25 minutes. Shortly before the time is up, melt the butter and rose-water together. Remove pie from oven and brush the top with the butter mixture. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 tsp sugar over the top, and bake the pie for another 10 minutes.

Cilantro:

GINGER, MISO AND CILANTRO SAUCE

1 1/2 teaspoons oriental sesame oil
1/2 cup minced shallots
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons yellow miso (fermented soybean paste)* or soy sauce
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in heavy small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and ginger and saute 2 minutes. Add broth, orange juice concentrate and vinegar. Boil until mixture is
reduced to 3/4 cup, about 6 minutes.
Stir in miso and cilantro. Simmer 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.
More cilantro recipes:
http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/cilantro.html

this would be good with the little gem lettuces:
CILANTRO SALAD Bon Appetit May 1998

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
3 heads lettuce hearts, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Whisk first 3 ingredients in small bowl to blend. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.
Combine mixed greens and cilantro in large bowl. Toss salad with enough dressing to coat. Season
to taste with salt and pepper.

INDIAN-SPICED MUSSELS OR CLAMS
Fine Cooking Magazine, July 1998

1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
1 cup onion, chopped
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1/4 tsp. cayenne
2/3 cup homemade or low-salt canned chicken or fish stock
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 to 3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 lbs. mussels, scrubbed and debearded, or 4 dozen clams, scrubbed (discard any gaping shellfish
that don’t close at least partially when you tap them)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

In a large, heavy-based skillet or saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the ginger
and onion and saute over moderate heat, stirring often, until soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the salt,
coriander, turmeric, and cayenne; stir to distribute the spices evenly. Cook the spices about 1 minute. Add the stock, coconut milk, and lemon juice, and bring to a boil. Add the mussels or clams. Cover the pan until the shellfish open, about 5 to 8 minutes. Discard any mussels or clams that don’t open after cooking. Sprinkle with the cilantro and serve with rice or noodles. Serves 4.

Note: You can substitute one pound shrimp or cut up chicken.

EXPERIMENT WITH CILANTRO
Fine Cooking Magazine

- Garnish tomato-, carrot- or coconut-milk-based soups with chopped fresh cilantro.
- Serve iced tea or freshly squeezed juice with a splash of lime juice and sprigs of cilantro.
- Make a flavorful dip from chopped tomato, cilantro, cucumber, green chiles, and plain yogurt.
- Try making pesto using cilantro in place of basil.
- Rub chicken or fish with chopped cilantro, ginger, and black pepper before grilling.
- Sprinkle chopped cilantro and chopped cashews or slivered almonds over cooked rice or
couscous.
-- add it to any beans or soup, stems included, then remove as you would a bay leaf

basic fava instructions:

1. Remove the beans from the cushiony, foamlike outer pod.
2. The beans will be covered with a very pale green inner sheath. Although edible, this sheath is quite bitter in all but the youngest beans. Parboil the beans and peel the sheath off with a paring knife.

A fava bean idea/story from www.chowhound.com:
Over the holidays, I was food shopping with a visiting French friend, when suddenly we saw fresh fava beans in the market. Being an east-coaster now, she became excited seeing them this time of year, ("Putain," she cried, "C'est pas vrai!") so we tossed a few big handfuls in a bag and brought them home. At dinner, she introduced me to the way her family used to eat them when she was growing up:

Serve them in their pods, accompanied by good crusty bread, butter, and salt. Living in L.A., I couldn't find any good crusty bread, so I settled for Whole Foods ciabatta. But I did happen to have some Plugra on hand and fleur de sel, so we were sitting pretty. Pop a fava bean out of the pod, peel off its outer coating, dip it in the salt, pop it in your mouth, and follow with a morsel of generously buttered bread. Heaven! They have an aftertaste of a very fresh, very young artichoke. The experience is almost a French version of eating edamame, but more textural. Do try!

Fava Bean Sauce on pasta
(Serves 4)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1-1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano
1-1/2 cups Chicken Stock or canned low-salt chicken broth
Gray salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups cooked, peeled fava beans
3/4 pound dried fettuccine
4 oz piece pecorino cheese or Parmesan cheese
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until hot. Add the garlic and sauti briefly until light brown. Stir in the oregano, then add 1 cup of the stock. Bring to a boil, season with salt and pepper, and add 1-1/2 cups of the fava beans. Simmer to blend the flavors, about 3 minutes.
Scrape into a blender container and puree with the remaining 1/2 cup stock until smooth. Return the sauce to the pan and add the remaining 1/2 cup favas. Simmer gently and taste for seasoning. Add salt and especially pepper.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 12 minutes. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water. Pour the pasta into a warm serving bowl and add the sauce. Toss well and thin with the pasta water, if necessary, until the sauce is glossy and not sticky. Serve immediately and grate the cheese over the top at the table.
Try any high quality olive oil to drizzle over the pasta.
I like serving pasta in a warm ceramic bowl. Just before serving, ladle a little hot pasta water into the bowl for a couple minutes to warm it up. Drain the water before filling the bowl with the pasta.

Fennel:

CREAMY FENNEL SOUP from: http://www.recipeland.com

2 cups stock (chicken, beef, vegetable....)
1 full sized Fennel bulb, about 1 pound
1 Sliver garlic
2 T Chopped onions
1 T Lemon juice (or more to-taste)
1 t Lemon zest, chopped
1/2 t Dried dillweed (or 1 1/2 -t fresh)
1 t Ground coriander
1 qt Nonfat yogurt

Clean and slice the fennel bulb, reserving any greens for garnish. Cook the fennel in the stock with the garlic and shallots until soft. Puree in a blender with the lemon juice and zest, and the spices. Strain the puree if you wish a smoother texture. Combine well with the yogurt and chill. Serve garnished with chopped fennel greens or chopped cilantro.

6) Veggie Notes

From High Ground: Flowers, berries, fennel, mystery which might include either summer squash OR green artichokes....

From Mariquita: fava beans, cilantro, lettuces, and a mystery which might include broccoli di cicco OR purple cauliflower

From Marsalisi Farms: Bacon Avocados!
** We occasionally use 'mystery' in our list. We use this as an item because of last minute harvest questions: some crops are hard to estimate. Imagine yourself looking at several rows of broccoli di cicco or zucchinis or cherry tomatoes. Even with Andy's 30 years of experience and Steven's 10+ years, it's hard to estimate. By using the 'mystery' item we're able to give you as much info as possible about the other items, while still putting off the harvest to the last moment to get you the freshest possible vegetables and fruit. Thank you. .

Two Small Farms

831-786-0625
P.O. Box 2065
Watsonville, CA 95077