Farm share, week 7, and a local meal

[magid]

Not quite as many different things, but still quite a lot.

• a head of cabbage (tiny to small, in green or purple; I chose green)
  
• a white onion (medium-small)
  
• a bunch of cilantro (I gave it away to some guy getting his share)
  
• eight carrots (rather small ones, choice of white or purple; I got a mix)
  
• six eight summer squashes and/or pickling cucumbers (mix and match; the greater number because I was picking up towards the end of the distribution and they had more than enough for people to take a bit more; I got all squash, since I still have a bunch of cucumbers to get through)
  
• ten twelve fifteen ears of corn (same thing about the increasing amounts; most of these are white-kerneled, while a few are butter-and-sugar)
  
• a small punnet of Juliette tomatoes (halfway between grape tomatoes and Romas)
  
• six to eight full-size tomatoes

Porch update: 33 grape tomatoes, 17 Sungold cherry tomatoes

Tonight's the one night I have time for cooking this week (other than for Shabbat, of course), and with the lovely produce, it's definitely a night for a local dinner.

Obviously, given that I still have much of last week's corn (sweetcorn to the Brits), cut off the cob, still in the fridge, and this current influx, corn has to be on the menu. I still have some of the potatoes from last week's share, and I got some milk as well (actual dairy milk, not the soy version, which is unusual for me), which all adds up (with that onion) to a lovely chowder. It would've been even better had I a nice piece of white fish, but even without, this makes me happy.

Currently my favorite way to prepare summer squash is roasting cubes of it, because sauteeing so often ends with it turning mushy, which is not what I want. Since there's such an abundance of tomatoes, I diced a couple of them as well, to add sweetness, balancing the salt and pepper.

I cut some of the cabbage into slivers, and quickly sauteed it with some sliced carrots and cumin (Why cumin? I'm not sure.). The carrots went in first, then the cabbage for a shorter while, so it would be just wilted, with a little bit of crunch left, but I wanted the carrots done through.

I thought about making a not-omelet, but this felt like enough for tonight (read: my feet are tired of being stood upon). So sitting and enjoying the fruits of other labors it is for me.

P.S. I emailed the local Va'ad about local cheese and meat, and they just got back to me. They suggest asking at The Butcherie for kosher rennet (I so doubt they'll have this, and I think it even less likely that they'd have the cultures to make different cheeses, but I'll ask.), and gave me the phone number of a local shochet, R. Kelman. Very cool! The Va'ad says I'd need a place for the slaughter, but I should talk to R. Kelman to find out details. *deep breath* So, local and kosher consumers, if I organized it, would anyone else be interested in local meat? (No promises; I have no idea if it's really feasible, given that (a) I don't have a space, though that feels like something that could be found, and (b) I've never kashered meat before, much less dealt with most of a carcass or defeathered birds, but it's worth seeing if I'm the only one for whom this has appeal.)

Comments

[gilana]

buckydt makes his own cheese, and uses the cultures instead of rennet. I believe he mail-orders them. Want me to ask for a pointer? Soft cheeses, like chevre, sound like they're pretty easy.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that would be great. I've made paneer, which doesn't require rennet or cultures, and I thought it would be neat to try something more involved. (I looked at the New England Cheesemaking site, but didn't see any information about kosher status, and was lame about emailing.)

[kissoflife.livejournal.com]

I am guesting on someone's farmshare the next two weeks, and pretty psyched about it. Lots of onion, greens, zucchini, yellow squash. Too much yellow squash- gotta figure out what to do with it!
Is very cool.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yummy! Which farm are you guesting on?

Like I said, I've been roasting the summer squash, and the added bonus with that is that the volume decreases quite a bit, plus it's then easy to toss into other things (lasagna, pizza topping, casserole, funky green salad, etc.).

[kissoflife.livejournal.com]

Love those ideas. I think it's Parker Farm, definitely drops by Davis Square. The zukes and squash is actually via another friend, who is working on a farm.

Would you be interested in exchanging a big zuke for some tomatoes, maybe? These big 'uns are the size of four little ones- your call whether that size compromises richness of flavor more than you would like.

[magid.livejournal.com]

A couple of other people on my friends list have shares with Parker Farm. Cool.

I'm still reveling in the tomatoey goodness, actually; I'm not yet willing to trade them away...

[kissoflife.livejournal.com]

Well, go you, then!

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Dealing with defeathered bird carcasses is something I know something about (though I haven't done it in over 10 years), at least in terms of removing the innards and cutting the meaty bits apart. I might be interested, depending on pricing and misc. other details.

[magid.livejournal.com]

It's the defeathering I'm concerned about, especially because I think it's problematic to dip into scalding water before the meat has been kashered (essentially, salted to drain the blood off, but I suspect reasonably more complicated in practice).

FYI, there are at least two meat CSAs that have deliveries in metro Boston (neither kosher, of course): Chestnut Farms and Stillmans Farm.

Somerville

[theora.livejournal.com]

Hmm, we got not as much. I guess it's partly that we didn't go near the end, but we only had 8 ears of corn and three tomatoes, and nothing extra to make up the difference :-/

Re: Somerville

[magid.livejournal.com]

It would've been 8 corn had I been earlier (I suppose I shouldn't be annoyed at late work meetings quite so much...). No idea why the tomatoes would be that different, however.

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

I'd be up for the challenge of freshly killed chickens. For the defeathering part, I wouldn't worry about most of the pinfeathers until after kashering. And worst comes to worst, we just won't eat the skin the first few times!
But who would raise them, and where? We have a large paved driveway and area behind the house, where I bet we could schecht them, unless the neighbors object. Or is there a code and regulations about that? (But they have a smelly smoking vat out there a few times a year.)

I learned how to kasher meat in school. I just need to refresh my memory with a kitzur.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I figured that there's a lot of local farms advertising chicken and other meat animals, so it ought to be possible to buy them live. Some of those farms have meat CSAs, so I wonder where they harvest* their animals, whether that would be a usable place for this.

I don't know about health code issues. When I call (which won't be for at least another week and a half), I think the rabbi would know something about that.

I've read about kashering meat, but never actually done it, which is why I'm a bit nervous. Plus there's the whole 'getting new stuff just for kashering' (these are the milchigs, the fleishigs, the pareve stuff, all that again in Pesach stuff, and here's the traif stuff, for kashering, don'tcha know :-).


* I was just reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, about her family's year of eating locally, and she had an interesting discussion of 'harvesting' v. 'killing' for when one kills a meat animal. Her theory is that the verb used can emphasize the 'anathema' squeamish feelings that lots of Americans have about the whole thing (never mind that they're fine eating the end results) or the idea that this is what the animal was raised for, as the vegetable crops were, and having a good, well-tended life in the meantime not only leads to better meat, but makes it easier to do what needs to be done.

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

I think all you would need is a cleaver or kitchen scissors, a good knife, 3 plastic basins, and a grill rack for the liver. You have a gas stove, right?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'd have to get a cleaver/scissors, a fleishig (or traif?) cutting board, and bins, and the grill rack (or find someone else to take the liver...). Yes, I have a gas stove. Does that make a difference?

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

It just makes things easier, what with the grilling of the liver over an open flame and later singing the remaining feathers off.

[mrn613.livejournal.com]

chiming in late: for sure there are live animal markets inside the boundaries of NYC for those wanting hallal meat.... I have seen the signs for them. If you can find a local hallal meat market or coop perhaps they would allow you to use their slaughter/harvest facilities.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I know of a couple of halal meat stores; not sure whether they slaughter nearby or not. Thanks for the suggestion.