Ditmas Park CSA Week 5

Week 5 looks pretty normal

This is the third time I have picked up, and the 5th CSA share I have split with my easy-going-veg-likin roommate. Last week looked much like week three: tomatoes, green beans, purslane, summer squash, beets, corn garlic, onions, new potatoes, parsley, cucumbers. Notably we did get a cantaloupe. We did not get garlic, peppers (hot or mild), turnips, herbs, lettuce, or braising greens. These are just some of the foods from last summer (and occasionally other weeks this year) that I really miss, and would like back.

This summer Jorge is growing big beautiful food, which we receive in abundance, but the varieties seems to be of the every-day-kitchen variety. Tomatoes and cucumbers are excellent and I will never get bored with variety of ways to eat them, but the really garden extraordinaire vegetables arent here this year. Im craving the challenge in discovering the best way to eat a bundle of callaloo greens or dinosaur kale. Im ashamed to admit that I have been buying produce from other farmers. It feels like cheating but in the past month I have bought daikon, kohlrabi, golden beets, turnips, radishes, mint, and thyme.

1/2 chicken and giblets

The chicken looks bigger than the previous one and it came with a bag of giblets, awesome. I inquired about giblets on my last pick up, and now they are here. I think its mostly livers, maybe two tiny hearts. Im sure my father will enlighten me in the comment section, eh Dad? Im replacing the my foreign vegetable conundrum with natural chicken conundrums. How to cook up those livers?! Must figure something soon, they smell fowl :)

Mystery meats, clue its part of a chicken...

Complete list of vegetables for week 5 of the Ditmas Park CSA:
6 tomatoes
4 summer squash
4 cucumbers
2 mild purple peppers
1 bag green beans
1 big onion
1 huge bunch of basil
1 large cantaloupe
3 (ish?) lbs new potatoes
...and I forgot to pick up the 4 ears of corn, zoot!

Garden Harvest in a Pickle Jar

Garden goods pushed into a pickle jar

Early Saturday morning I cleared out my humble 36" by 30" nugget of garden with my plot partner to prepare for cool weather crops. Because of square foot gardening and the neighborhood greenthumb Ive taken home a remarkable amount of food. Not quite enough to feed myself every day, but more than I need on top of my CSA. I took home an armful of what was left in the ground about 1/2 lb beans, a few hot cherry peppers, some stalks of potent basil, and celery greens. Rather than chop it raw for a salad or cook my harvest, I decided to pickle everything together to savor the garden freshens. What grows together, goes together and makes for an outrageous crisp raw pickle. I plan to use my pickled beans in bloody marys, but they would be nice as finger food along with cured meats or cheese plate. Also try chopping the beans and serving them on top of salads.

Last of the summer veggies right out of the ground

Garden Jar Pickled Beans

2 1/3 cups water
2 tblsp salt
1 1/2 tblsp sugar
2 1/2 tblsp white wine vinegar
2 peeled garlic cloves, smashed
1 hot pepper, quartered
1 inch lemon zest
1 handful garden herbs
1/2 lb string beans

I did a variation of this pickled bean earlier in the year. I made the mistake of boiling beans with the liquid. The beans became mushy when I was after a crunchy pickle. I suggest boiling the water, salt, vinegar and sugar in a sauce pan and pouring into a clean mason jar on top of the garlic cloves, hot pepper, lemon zest, and herbs. The hot water will dissolve the salt and sugar while bringing out the flavor in the herbs.

Inside the world of a pickle jar

Cool the jar until no longer steaming, 20-30 minutes, and add the beans. Screw lid on, and shake vigorously. Let sit for 2-4 days until beans have a zesty tang. I like to sample part of a bean every day to see how the flavors are developing. Store in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.

Crayfish Part 5

Big spend this weekend.  Went out to buy a new tank. Chose a big 800 litre low level one with a white inside. Wonderful to be able to see the Crays. Before I struggled to see them in the black tanks. It took a bit of time for them to settle down and choose their new homes. In fact they a vicious little things. Fighting and very territorial.
Anyway now they are settled.  We got the tank from a road side shop and carried it home in one piece. Lugged it up the stairs and got it positions. Then added the sir stones and a small filter pump we have been using earlier. I still attached the automatic fish feeder. Not sure why as we look at them every day and always give them to much food. And veggies and egg shells and ....
Weve had these guys for some time and apparently after  reaching 6 months in age they should start breeding. Well keep watching.

Just realized in up loading these pictures that Wanna is doing all the work.  How did that happen ?

At the house

Tank Cleaning

On way to new home

Settling in

Each has his/her own condo

Management Checking everything OK...

Ditmas Park CSA Week 13

Lazy CSA share arrangement on bedspread

The weather is cooling off, and its been raining more than once a month. Its no surprise that this weeks share of the CSA is end of the season huge and plentiful. Its time to have an end of season dinner party to use some of these beauties up before they turn.

1 head of broccoli
2 "medium" zucchini
1 eggplant
2 sweet peppers, one yellow one red
2 heads of garlic
1 onion
4 hot peppers
1 bag lima beans
1 butternut squash
12 potatoes
1 cucumber
15 medium to small tomatoes and 1 green tomato

1/2 chicken
1 dozen eggs

KWT Winter CSA Month 5 April

Springy leeks and pea greens

Its April. It warm. Like leave the house without a jacket warm, but get home before dark otherwise you will need jacket. I sort of thought this months CSA would be booming after the unseasonably warm weather. I wasnt expecting fruited vegetable (cucumber, tomato, pepper) but I thought, you know salad greens. This months CSA is okay. Its lighter on the daikon. There is one bunch of herbs. Pea greens are here, a sure sign of spring. Cant say no to 3 dozen eggs.

Kensington Windsor Terrace Winter CSA Month 5 - April

3 dozen eggs
5 lb potatoes
3 medium turnips
2 leeks
2 diakons
1 bunch collards
1 bunch parsley
1 bag braising greens
1 bag purple kale
1 big bag pea greens

Im excited for the 3 dozen eggs there is a great article in Bon Appetite this month about eggs. I will definitely try making some souffles to write about. Last time I got this many eggs I made the Thomas Keller quiche and it was such a miserable flop! Leeks are made for soup, so soup they shall be. Daikon and turnips make a great snack sliced up. The rest of the greens will probably be hacked up into salads for lunch. Ive been thinking of writing up some dressing recipes, which Bon  Appetite also did this month. Boy BA and I are really on the same page this month.  

New System Part 5

Weve doing well. Everything installed except the spreader bar to deliver water to the plants. Just need ot cut some holes and install it. Spend this morning installing some building blocks (red clay bricks) as part of my bio filter. So spreader bar, add bio filter material and some filter cloth good to go.  Seedlings are ready.  Fish shop will have our fish ready on Friday... All done and sorted !!!

Apple Watch Vs Pebble Time

Date:  June 26, 2015

I am so sorry Pebble Time!

Really really sorry!

At first, I thought the long battery life of Pebble Time will make me wear it.

It is a Kickstarter project.  It was a very ambitious project.

It has the ability to change clock watch face.  It sounds so good.

But the realistic fact are:

1) It is always dim like this.  It is like wanted to show you something, but you know it is there, but you can see it clearly.  So, overtime, what you do is to press a button to light it up.

That is very bad design.

The Color E-Ink does give you the color, but still it needed to be in power safe mode.  Unlink Apple Watch, the give you blank screen.  And when you need to see it, flip your wrist a little.  And the full screen comes up.

1-0 winners goes to Apple.

2) Look at the packaging.

Wow.  That’s it.  Come on, you are a watch.  Please come in with better or nicer package.  You give a good box, at least people will keep the watch safe in the box.  But it is a delivery box, which is a also a watch box, that cannot be locked or covered properly.

2-0 apple Watch win the packaging.

3.  No Chinese?

Wow.  That is the first.

It suppose to be a smart watch.

There are way that you can change the language into Chinese.  But that means the whole OS is Chinese.

When SMS or WhatsApp arrived, it is a standard Chinese characters.  Why you can’t display them?  Strange?

3-0 Apple wins again.

4.  And the Interface is Button driven.

So, press the middle button to bring up the Apps menu.  Press up button to go up, press down button to go down, press the middle button to confirm.  

Wow… It actually sucks.  I did not expect this.

Also, there is no touch screen.

No Siri to talk to too!

4-0 Apple wins again.

OK.  To be fair for Pebble Time, they win the battery long life game as well as the price.  So 4-2 Apple win.

I think the biggest mistake is, my Apple Watch come in delivered way before the Pebble Time watch arrived.  So, it could be different if I see Pebble Watch first and might gave a very fair comment about it.  But then, this is fate, my Apple Watch comes right before the Pebble Watch.  And the Apple Watch has been on my wrist for almost 3 weeks.  And I am still wearing it without fail.  Where is my Fitbit Charge HR?  Well, sitting there doing nothing.  HaHaHaHa

The color of the screen, the ease of use of the interface, the notifications delivered in a way which is non intrusive to me (my opinion).  I get to see my phone lesser.  But Apple Watch is still a great product compare to the Pebble Time watch.  No doubt about it.

Sorry!  Pebble Time!

 

Kimchi Ramps

 

ramp it up kimchi

Ramps are a thing in the New York metro area. They are a wild variety of onion with a unique garlicky and mineral flavor that cant quite be replicated. Ramps cant be cultivated and are only around for a short while in spring.  Or so they tell me at the farmers market where they go for $16 a pound. $16 a pound is more than meat, but this ramp kimchi recipe is pretty undeniable good.  Its a powerhouse of savory flavors that take you on a pungent tour of salty, spicy, garlicky, and then more spicy. I suggest it. This recipe is based on Tigress on a Pickles, whose blog has been leading me to conquer pickling and fermentation techniques for some time now. This ramp kimchi kicked my cabbage kimchis ass!

Ramp Kimchi

1 lb of ramps, root ends trimmed off
2 cloves garlic
1 knob of peeled ginger
1/4 lb daikon
1 tblsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tblsp crushed hot peppers
1 tsp oil

Exihibit A: The ramps

You will need a ceramic or glass large vessel that can hold 1 quart or so. You will need to be able to fit you fist into the jar to pack the ramps and company down. Before you begin pour boiling water into the jar up to and overflowing. This will clean the jar. You can feel free to clean the jars with warm soap and water too, just be careful to rinse very well. 

Almost there

Coarsely chop the ramps and garlic and add to a bowl. Grate ginger and daikon and add to ramps. Mix in remaining ingredients until well coated. Press into a 1 quart jar. Cover with a kitchen towel and let sit in a cool dark place for 4 days until kimchi becomes a little bit sour. I suggest trying a little bit every day to better observe this process. Cover kimchi with a lid and chill. The kimchi should be good for 6 months, and a lot longer. Amazing on eggs, toast, rice, tacos, sandwiches, or any food you would want a good kick in the pant condiment on. 

Flatbush Farm Share CSA Week 6

Ive been skipping out my CSA updates. I have big news. This is my LAST CSA share for some time. I am officially moving to Taipei in 2 weeks for a new culinary venture. Updates on that later. Lets talk about whats happen with the massive range of items in the Flatbush Farm Share this week. On top of tempeh, cheese, coffee and more the Flatbush Farm Share offers a range of products from Milk Not Jails. This now includes things like chocolate ice cream, butter, Hawthorne Farms kraut, bread, granola. So many options I feel spoiled. I bought 2 tubs of butter (THICK and creamy is my complete description), regular sauerkraut (so sour you feel it in your brain), and ice cream (sadly mostly melted and icy sort of like a frosty from Wendys). I traded my half and half for some extra radishes.

This is a great assortment of hard and leafy vegetables. Its the kind of variety that makes participating in a CSA really fun. The fruit has been coming in large quantities too, which seems extra abnormal, but no complaints here. Weve had a lot of lettuce to chew on this year, but I found that sauteing it down like a regular green makes it much faster to eat.

Flatbush Farm Share Week 6

1 bunch chard
1 head romaine lettuce
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch texas onions
4 patty squash
3 cucumbers
1 bunch french radishes
4 potatoes
5 small peaches
15 little yellow plums
6 eggs


Extras from Milk Not Jails 
1 jar sauerkraut
1 pint chocolate ice cream
1 lb of butter
half and half (traded for extra radishes)

New System Part 7

Just added a couple of 500 gram Tilipia as the bio level based on using my Hyrdoponic trunchon read 8.3 (initial system is reading around 14 and seems OK with the plants looking a little weak.) so I need more nutrients in the system to maintain my plants. Hopefully these two big fish should add something to all this. The fish actually were caught in our pond a few days ago. We left them in our other system until we were ready for a Bar B Q. Guess they got a reprieve....

Natural Chicken Week 5 Ditmas Park CSA

Poached chicken, neck and all

After some Google group discussion with other CSA members I realize I am not only person with tough chickens problems. The chickens in my csa arent being treated like any other grocery store chicken, organic, non-organic, free range, or any other variety. The chickens arent packed or treated with water or preservatives. No these are chickens that live and die and are given to me.

I was going to progress from least to most intensive cooking treatment (roasted, brined and roasted, braised /poached) but I jumped to poached with better results. The chicken went in a pot at low heat. After an 45 minutes or so I let the chicken sit in its cooking fluids for an extra 30 minutes off heat. I saw Daisy Martinez do this on her show. She explained that chicken "sighs" and absorbs the flavors in the water. I dont have any scientific evidence that this is true, but all of Daisys recipes have proven themselves. My natural chicken came out remarkably moist and a few notches more tender ready for all kinds of other uses. As an added bonus the cooking fluids make a nice broth.

Poached and Pulled Chicken
1/2 chicken, skin, bones and all
2 tblsp sofrito
room temp water
1 tsp salt

Put all the ingredients in a large thick sided pot and fill with water to cover the chicken. Place over medium temp water and allow the chicken to come to a low boil. Its going to take a while to for the chicken to boil, but dont rush it. Lower the heat a little so the chicken simmers. Skim the foam off the top of the water, but do not stir. Cook until chicken is opaque and fully cooked, about 15-20 minutes after boiling.

I need a bigger pot, or a smaller bird

Remove from heat and let chicken sit in fluids for 30 minutes. Take chicken out of pot and let sit until cool to the touch. Meanwhile strain the fluids into a container and reserve for other purposes. I plan to poach my next chicken in this broth.

Shred

Remove the skin with a fork, and tear chicken into pieces with your hands or with the help of a knife. Remove the meat from bones with a fork, and shred into pieces. The chicken can be used sauced and made into a great bbq sandwich, used as a stuffing for vegetables, made into chicken salad. or on tacos.

KWT Winter CSA Month 3 February

I wasnt expecting a rainbow of foods in February. We are digging deeper into the dog days of winter, which means we must dig for our food too. 3 varieties of potatoes, daikon, two kinds of onion, garlic, beets, carrots, turnips. Im gonna list this down below, thats a tubular amount of tubers.

Im glad for the 2 spots of green collards and salad mix, which I will thoroughly wash. Slugs! I found 4 slugs in last months greens. Im sorry to say there probably were more that I unintentionally ingested. I was a little too disgusted to photograph them, but next time I catch one I will publish the evidence.

Kensington Windsor Terrace Winter CSA Month 3 February

1 head cabbage

1 bag collards

1 little bag salad greens

1 shallot

1 red onion

2 heads garlic

10 medium and large beets

5 medium diakon radishes

5 large carrots

4 medium turnips

3 lbs red potatoes

2 lbs russet potatoes

2 lb sweet potatoes

Im thinking the cabbage will become sauerkraut, which I havent had this winter yet. I eat the potatoes for breakfast like home fries (who needs toast?) with an egg on top. I prefer not to eat large turnips raw so I will probably cube and roast them, or try maybe something new. Previously I was slicing the daikon and carrots up and eating them with lunch and for a snack. Daikon cakes seem to be in my future with the volume. I will boil the beets until they are soft peel, cut, and toss them with garlic, shallot, parsley and black eyed peas for lunch. Today I plan to make a big pot of lentil soup with a little bit of all of the above because Im just dying to taste it all.