We try to keep the printed newsletter to a 2-page maximum, which means that we won’t list all the share items’ descriptions every week, but refer you to previous newsletters for information on items that have already appeared in your shares. In our newsletter, we try to give you an accurate listing of the produce in your box; however, since the newsletter is published before the harvest, we may sometimes substitute some vegetables for others. **Also, if you’re having trouble identifying any unfamiliar produce, please look for “Veggie ID” with additional information on our website under CSA INFO or under RECIPES.
If you are new to our CSA, since you signed up with a prorated share, you can find all past newsletters on our website under the NEWSLETTERS section in the CSA Info tab.
THIS WEEK’S SHARE
AMARANTH: known as “Callaloo” in the Caribbean; medium-green, oval to heart-shaped leaves; tastes like spinach and can be prepared like spinach. (Wed members will receive, but may not be enough for Fri/Sat members this week.)
-How to use: use in soups or as a cooked green like spinach
-How to store: refrigerate with a damp towel/bag for up to 1 week
CARROTS (Mokum): a very sweet, slender, “pencil carrot” with roots only this week. See Week 5 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
CUCUMBERS: You will receive LOTS of long, cylindrical, green-skinned fruit of the gourd family with mild, crisp flesh; the thin skin doesn’t need peeling, unless waxed for longer shelf life in stores. See Week 5 newsletter for usage and storage tips and recipe at end.
FRESH HERBS: Everyone will receive a bunch of Prospera Italian Large Leaf Basil this week, an herb with a sweet aroma with notes of anise in its green leaves; traditionally used in pesto, and originally from India where it was traded in ancient times via the spice routes. This herb does not store well in a refrigerator, since it does not like cold temperatures. It will last longer when stored in a jar, vase, or glass of water on your counter or table top.
KALE : You will receive either Red Russian (the stems are purple, and leaves are deep gray-green, purple-veined, flat, non-curled, and tooth-edged) OR Red Curly (well ruffled green with red stems and also good as roasted Kale Chips); rich source of phytochemicals, which studies have shown can ward off various forms of cancer; highest protein content of all the cultivated vegetables. See Week 3 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
LETTUCE (Romaine): medium-sized heads with thick, dark green leaves with good flavor and crisp texture. See Week 1 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
SUMMER ONIONS (Ailsa Craig Exhibition): slightly larger bulbs than green onions, but besides the bulb, the green leaves are still edible for stock; a sweet, mild, yellow-skinned, heirloom onion that is well known by British gardeners who grow show-size onions. See Week 7 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
NEW POTATOES: You will receive Carola (yellow potato from Germany; smooth, creamy texture that is good for baking or frying) and Red Norland (smooth, red skin and white flesh; great baked, boiled, or roasted)
-How to use: new potatoes are just young potatoes that haven’t had time to convert their sugar fully into starch and often have a crisp, waxy texture and thin, underdeveloped wispy skins, so are good boiled or pan-roasted, but particularly suited for potato salad, since they hold their shape well after being cut and cooked.
-How to store: refrigerate new potatoes if not used within 2-3 days, but use up sometime during the 1st or 2nd week of receiving them; these potatoes have not been cured, so will not last as long as “cured” potatoes, which should not be refrigerated, since low temperatures convert the starch to sugars and may turn dark when cooked.
WHITE HAKUREI TURNIPS (no greens): white salad turnips with round, smooth small white roots with sweet, fruity flavor and a crisp, tender texture. See Week 4 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
ZUCCHINI (Golden and/or Green): gourmet golden and/or green zucchini with uniform, cylindrical fruits. See Week 3 newsletter for usage and storage tips.
ANNOUNCEMENTS`
1. PLANT WALK ON TUESDAY, July 26, from 6-8 PM: We are hosting a leisurely plant walk at Tantre Farm with our local foraging expert, Rachel Mifsud from “Will Forage For Food”. Plant walks are excellent learning opportunities for those with beginning to intermediate foraging skills, and for anyone wishing to increase their knowledge of the local flora. Our discussion will include information about identification, methods of harvest, preparation, and use. We will explore the area and choose around 15 edible, medicinal, or otherwise useful plants and mushrooms to focus on. Unlimited class size, drop ins are welcome, and cost is $25 for non CSA members, and CSA members will register as usual, but receive a $5 refund if they attend the class. To register ahead of time or find more information, just go to her website at https://willforageforfood.square.site/
2. U-PICK RASPBERRIES AVAILABLE: The first flush of raspberries are starting at the HoneyBee U-Pick site (5700 Scio Church Rd., Ann Arbor), and will continue into August and September with different varieties. We are selling them for $6/pint when you pick and $4/half pint if we pick. Our patch will be open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this week from 8 AM-7 PM. It will be closed Wednesday this week due to staffing shortages and the patch needs to rest. To keep informed go to https://www.tantrefarm.com/tantre-farm-raspberry-u-pick. This patch is a bit weedy, so wear pants and closed toed shoes, but the berries are fantastic! Hope to see you there!!
3. WEEDING VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: If you are interested in helping out–even if it’s just for 10 or 15 minutes before you pick up your box at the farm, come join us. Please contact us any day of the week or evenings until dark. Thank you!
4. STILL PLENTY OF BOXES AVAILABLE FOR OUR IMMUNE BOOSTER CSA THIS WEEK: Please feel free to sign up for our weekly, collaborative CSA share if you would like to supplement your box or give it as a gift. The menu is updated on our website every Monday – Wednesday http://www.tantrefarm.com/how-does-our-immune-booster-csa-work/. Still time to sign up this week for a share!
5. PICK UP TIMES & LOCATIONS REMINDER: Please use your Member Dashboard to schedule Vacations or Pick up Location Changes or let us know if you are having any problems with rescheduling.
*Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market (Wed.)—7 AM to 12 PM
*MOVE Fitness & Wellness Studio (Wed)—8 AM to 12 PM
*Farm (Wed.)—10 AM to 7 PM
*Washtenaw Food Hub (Wed.) –6 PM to 8 PM (Hub Farm Market open during this time!)
*Pure Pastures (Wed.)—9 AM to 11 AM
*Farm (Fri.)—2 PM to 7 PM
**Community High School CHANGED TO AA FARMERS MARKET (Sat.) —7 AM to 12 PM
*Washtenaw Food Hub (Sat.)—9 AM to 12 PM
*Chelsea Farmers’ Market (Sat.)—9 AM to 12 PM
*Argus-Packard (Sat)**Change in starting time to 10:30 AM to 3 PM
*RoosRoast-Rosewood (Sat)–9 AM to 11 AM
*HoneyBee U-pick (Sat)–8 AM to 12 PM
REAWAKENING TOTEMIC AWARENESS
by Adam Schoonover (Writer and long-time Tantre Farm Staff)
Consider for a moment that all life has the capacity for awareness—being merely a difference in degree—and that all are driven by a will to life and have the means to defend this, and as such, no living thing offers itself willingly. Does this disrupt your view of the foods you’re partial to? The notion that we can, at once, revere and honor animals, as well as make room for them on our dinner plates is, for some, an absurdity. Yet, the mindful and gracious embracing of the sacrifice within our food is the very means of celebrating the life that feeds us, as living inevitably takes life, from within all kingdoms, directly and on the periphery, and the severity of this truth is not broken by choosing one dietary road over another. The fire that animates our individual lives is shared through eating, “mutual insparkedness”. Life feasts and is feasted upon. There is no either-or, only this and that. Such paradoxes, the tension between apparent opposites, are woven into Life. It is that pushing and pulling that creates our reality. Our kind once held a deep awareness of this, allowing them to gracefully accept Life on its terms and acknowledge the simple, immutable law of nature that life is exchanged for life. Yet, their thoughtfulness and respect in light of this is evident in what these cultures left behind, and it’s clear that they ate with gratitude and accepted food as the gift and sacrament that it is, as well. The modern world comes up significantly short on this last count, approaching the life that feeds us as, at best, mere fuel for the tank, and at worst, a commodity and entitlement, which in turn has sparked the sentimentalist notion that one can eat without sacrifice of one or another life.
“The knowledge that every animal, plant, [and] person … is indebted to the fruit of everything else is an adult knowledge. To get out of debt means you don’t want to be a part of life, and you don’t want to grow into an adult”, is the offered insight from Martín Prechtel in his book Long Life, Honey in the Heart. Only in a culture devolved to the point of frivolity and chronic amnesia, veiled from its own ancestral wisdom and split into rigid dualities could such black and white thinking that now exists arise, content in its childishness, as it were. It serves us well to remember that we all exist in the same sacred space, all of us sharing the general essence of Life, to abide in this “totemic awareness”, as our lives do depend on it. At the surface, we are a grand forest of singular trees reaching for the light in our own way, at our own pace, and though individual trees inevitably fall to the rhythms of time, in the deep unseen, we remain bound at the roots, where glimmers of the next new life are in infinite motion. When we learn to see from beyond our all too human eyes, we ultimately grasp that there are no true endings, only transitions, and in this beautiful, eternal ebb and evolution, even death is eclipsed, and what remains is “life and life only”.
RECIPES
TOFU AMARANTH SALAD (from https://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/tofu-amaranth-salad-recipe.html) Serves 4.
1/2 small clove garlic, peeled
1/4 teaspoon red chile flakes
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, plus more to taste
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2/3 cup / 160ml coconut milk (full fat)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste
1-2 heads of Romaine lettuces, cored and sliced into 1/2-inch ribbons
1 bunch of amaranth leaves, or spinach
12 ounces extra firm tofu, pat dry and cut into tiny cubes
1 small handful of basil leaves
1 small avocado, thinly sliced
Start by making the dressing. In a mortar and pestle, smash the garlic and chile flakes into a paste along with the salt. Alternately, you can use a food processor. Add the oil and the scallions, and smash or chop a bit more. Transfer the mixture to a jar or bowl, and whisk in the coconut milk, then the lemon juice. Taste, and adjust with more salt or lemon juice if needed. You can store the dressing in a refrigerator for up to a week. Be sure your lettuce and amaranth is well washed and dried, then combine in a bowl along with the tofu and basil. Toss gently. You can either dress at this point or serve the dressing to the side. Add the dressing a bit at a time, until the lettuce is coated to your liking. Taste, and salt, if needed. Add the avocado last and give the salad once last gentle toss.
BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES (from Mad Mares Cookbook)
2 qts medium cucumbers (about 3 lb)
4 small onions
1 green pepper
2 1/2 cups vinegar
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp celery seed
1 1/2 Tbsp mustard seed
2 Tbsp salt
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
Slice cucumbers, onions, and pepper. Heat vinegar, sugar, and spices except turmeric. Add vegetables to cooking solution. Don’t allow to boil. Add turmeric and stir. Stuff into jars. Keeps in fridge for 2 weeks.