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CSA Season Starts Again – My 10th Year With the Hellgate CSA

share-setup-hellgatecsa-week-1-2015-astoria-queens

Our first share of the 2015 Hellgate CSA season, in a rad new space.

This week marks my tenth season with the Hellgate CSA, a community supported agriculture organization that I helped establish up in northwestern Queens. A little history: it was originally called the Ravenswood CSA, based in the Ravenswood Houses senior center, and as CSAs work in NYC it was passed on the following year from the Americorps member who staffed it, to an all-volunteer team. The members interested in forming the core group all lived above the GCP, so we brought it north.

I was a core member for eight seasons (2006-2013) and am happy to see the CSA still going, well-managed by the current core group. I left the core group for a variety of reasons, one being my desire to move on and make room for new experiences. But I wanted to remain a member, so here I am.

(The other day I realized I’ve been a member of a CSA on and off for about 24 years; my first CSA experience was with Full Belly Farm in CA, which started my love of CSAs and eating seasonally.)

We’re also in a nice new space, away from the elements, and with a lot more room than we’ve had in the past.

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Queens Swap This Weekend

I’ve talked a little bit about this over social media, but wanted to write about it here – the next Queens Swap is this weekend!

We – myself, and my friends Judith and AJ – will be holding it at Sweet Afton, one my favorite Astoria institutions. It’s a wonderful gastropub that serves one of the best burgers in the neighborhood (they use a blend of meats from Pat La Frieda), and they were the first to bring fried pickles to the area, which have been a smashing success. I also love their cocktails – last time I had the spicy margarita, it was really spicy!

They also are one of the few places in town that tap a cask ale – a naturally fermented beer.

The space is also beautiful, made from reclaimed materials. It’s dark and cozy, with lots of wood.

We’re grateful to the guys behind Sweet Afton for lending us the space for a few hours. The swap will take place on Sunday, February 19 from 4-6:30pm. As usual, homemade, home grown, and personally foraged foods are welcome. I’ll be bringing some water kefir soda – probably raspberry, blueberry, and lime-ginger – and some almond shortbread. Maybe something else, but for now it’s the kefir and shortbread.

So, if you are in the NYC area – especially in Queens – I encourage you to sign up and come swap. It should be a really good time. Here’s an easy way to register, too:

See you on Sunday!

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Final Hellgate CSA Share of 2011

Final Week of 2011

So, last Tuesday was our final Hellgate CSA distribution of 2011. I won’t deny that it will be strange not picking up later tonight. What we got last week was:

1 bunch lacinato kale
1 celeriac
1 pound carrots
1 pound rutabagas
1 head cauliflower
1 bag sunchokes

I’ve eaten half the kale and carrots. The sunchokes were used for carrot-sunchoke fritters. Celeriac for remoulade. Rutabagas will be for roasting, as will the cauliflower.

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Saxelby Cheesemongers Donate Profits to Hurricane Relief Efforts

hurricane ireneAs you know, Hurricane Irene has been devastating to residents in upstate New York and Vermont – the flooding has been astonishing, and it has really caused a lot of pain and suffering among those who live and work up there. That includes farms – some farmland has been destroyed, and that put many small farmers and their families in financial peril.

A number of organizations are helping with relief efforts, but the one that is on my mind presently arrived in my inbox this morning, from Saxelby Cheese, a wonderful little shop among many other wonderful little shops in the Essex Street Market, a destination for those who love delicious artisanal products.

Here is Saxelby’s offer:

In New York City, Hurricane Irene was billed to be a potentially catastrophic storm. In the end, for us it came and went without much fanfare. However, there are countless farms across New England that suffered tremendous losses, and are continuing to suffer as power is slowly restored, roads are slowly rebuilt, and stock is taken of the widespread damage that the storm left in its wake.

Saxelby Cheesemongers depends on the vitality and hard work of our regional farmers to provide our shop with some of the country’s finest cheeses. Though many of our cheesemakers were spared from Irene’s destructive path, some were hard hit. This week from Monday through Sunday, we invite you to help us give back to our upstate and Vermont neighbors by buying their cheese! Being a do-gooder has never been so delicious!!

This week only, from Monday, September 5th through Sunday, September 11th, Saxelby Cheesemongers will donate 50% of the profits from the sale of New York and Vermont Cheeses at our Essex Market shop to Hurricane Irene relief efforts spearheaded by the New York and Vermont Chapters of the Red Cross.

Sounds like an excellent deal to me and a great way to support the Red Cross’ efforts in the area. I am planning on stopping there on Friday before I pick up my salmon share in Brooklyn. I’ll likely pick up a cheddar and some kind of goat cheese.

And if you can, please pass on this message to those local to the NYC metro area.

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CSA Bounty – Weeks Twelve and Thirteen

I neglected to post about last week’s CSA share, so I’m including it here.  Last week was a bust, in part to being sick on and off and feeling great fatigue.  I am feeling better, though, after sleeping a lot.  Sometimes the body just wants to rest more than at other times.  These 90 degrees + weather doesn’t help, either.  Anyway, the shares!

Week Twelve:

Week 12 collage

Pictured, left to right, top to bottom: green beans, plums, cubanelle peppers, cucumbers, yellow paste tomatoes, nectarines, basil, summer squash, green bell peppers, apples, tomatoes.

So many yummy things.  The tomatoes were fantastic, I must say – nothing beats an August tomato. I made a tomato mozzarella salad with them.

We got an interesting pepper, the cubanelle, which is sweet.  The basil was fabulous.  Cucumbers and summer squash, all very good.  I made zucchini fritters which turned out great; however I didn’t take a picture.  Next time.

The fruit is almost all gone, except for the plums, of which we got a lot.   I think it was 2 pounds of little baby plums!  So cute, and so many.

Week Thirteen:

Week 13 collage

Pictured, left to right, top to bottom: prunes, nectarines, peppers, leeks, yellow wax beans, cherry tomatoes, apples, summer squash, eggplant.

Last night I used the peppers, leeks, zucchini, and tomatoes in a farro salad (recipe to come).  It was marvelous!  Some of the tomatoes were a little overripe, but it didn’t matter with the salad.  Didn’t matter when I popped them on their own in my mouth, either!  So sweet and delicious.

I’ll roast the eggplant this week, and probably parboil and freeze the beans.  I don’t know what I’ll do with all the prunes I received – 2.5 pounds, which is plenty.  Must search for a recipe.  The apples got rave reviews at my home, and I expect we’ll finish those and the nectarines by next week.

These summer fruits and vegetables are so amazing, I almost can’t stand it!  I am so very, very fortunate to have access to such excellent local produce.

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CSA Bounty – Week Eleven

Well, almost the entire week has gone by without a post, which is in part because of a number of tasty dinners with friends that happened this week that has occupied my time, happily.  I’ve been able to eat my CSA veggies and fruit, though, and everything has been amazing.  My favorite so far has been the cantaloupe, followed by the excellent cherry tomatoes.  This week’s collage:

Week 11 collage

From top to bottom, left to right:

Apples, peaches, cantaloupes, nectarines, cucumbers, eggplant, summer squash, tomatoes.  Not shown: green beans.

Everything is gorgeous and bursting with flavor.   This really is my favorite time of the year for produce.  I wish it could continue for months!

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CSA Bounty – Week Nine

Well, this week we got a fantastic selection of summer vegetables.  I was really excited when I saw the share menu for the week!  I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures of my share before I dove in, d’oh.  It’s been a hectic week, too, so I haven’t had a chance to do a share photoshoot.  Still, I’ll tell you what we got this week:

tomatoes
cucumbers
bell peppers
summer squash
eggplant
parsley (mint was another option)
peaches
plums
blackberries

Fantastic!!!  You can’t ask for a more summery selection than that.

I took the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers and stewed them all together and topped it with a little grated parmesan.  I have a lot to learn about cooking eggplant, I think.  It is one of the most challenging vegetables to cook well.  I have a white eggplant that I will work with over the weekend.

I also peeled the cucumber, sliced it, and combined it with the tomato, cut into wedges.  Add a little extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and perhaps some sherry vinegar, and that makes for a delicious summer salad.

As for the summer squash, not sure what I’ll do with them exactly.  I am overloaded with summer squashes of all kinds right now. One thing I could do with them is simply grate them and freeze them for use in zucchini bread or sprouted muffins over the winter.

As for the fruit, I’ve eaten most of the blackberries and am enjoying the yellow plums a lot.  I think I’ll make a peach crisp this weekend, too.  I would like to see if I can adjust the recipe for the crisp topping to accommodate rapadura/sucanat and coconut sugar. Yum!

Pictures next week, promise.