Day 13: Blackened Chicken Salad

 A girls gotta take advantage of warm days in December. So, grilled chicken it is! 

I wanted lots of variety in today's salad, so I picked lettuce from three different spots in our hoop building. 

For some extra crunch, I added some purple kale. Green onions are a must. Then, because this salad has a Mexican taste, I grabbed some fresh cilantro. Carrots were already picked and ready to use, and cherry tomatoes came out of the freezer, roasted for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. But you could use fresh cherry tomatoes, too.

I had to buy the avocado. You can't win them all.

Blackened Chicken Salad

4 chicken breasts

1 tsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp cumin 

2 T olive oil

1/4 lb assorted lettuce (about 4 cups), washed and chopped

1/2 c cherry tomatoes

2 green onions

4-5 stems cilantro

4 yellow carrots, chopped

2 avocados, chopped

tortilla strips, optional

shredded cheddar cheese, optional (but always at our house)

1. Preheat grill.

2. Mix together in a large bowl the paprika, garlic powder, smoked paprika, cumin, and olive oil.

3. Add the chicken to the spice mixture and cover chicken thoroughly.

4. Place chicken on preheated grill. Grill chicken for 7-9 minutes per side, cooking to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

5. Meanwhile, combine the lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, carrots, and avocado. 

6. Remove chicken from grill. Allow to rest 2-3 minutes, then slice into strips. 

7. Serve on top of lettuce, with your favorite salad dressing. (Catalina is my go-to for this salad.) Add tortilla strips and shredded cheese, if so desired.

Day 13: Blackened Chicken Salad

Day 5: Fajita Salad

After Jay and our high schoolers were out picking carrots after school, it was just too cold for a basic salad tonight. And so, we made up this gem: beef fajita salad.

We started out with an assortment of lettuce. I am a bit spoiled, so I walked out to hoop B and picked three kinds of lettuce: Miur, Cherokee, and hornet. Don’t let me fool you; I don’t know which is which, and I had to ask Jay. I just say “I want some of the light green, some of that darker green, and some dark purple lettuce.”

Then I negotiated with my helpers, and they picked me a rainbow of carrots, a fresh green onion, and a yellow onion.

And because I’m really spoiled, I walked to the basement and got a package of beef fajita meat from last year’s 4-H steer.  I sautéed the beef with the chopped onion, and added a little Italian dressing and lime juice. 

I’m a big believer that every dish needs a contrast of tastes (sweet and salty) and textures. So, I tossed these tortilla strips together, but added about a teaspoon of cumin and half teaspoon of paprika in the oil before tossing with the tortillas and baking.

I chopped all the veggies and tossed together without a care. 

Then, it was time to build. Lettuce and veggies, fajita beef and onions, cheddar cheese, Catalina dressing, and tortilla strips. 

YUM.

Day 5: Fajita Salad

CSA Session 5 week 2: Thanksgiving!

 

In this week's CSA baskets we have Lettuce, Carrots, Purple Sweet Potatoes, Orange Sweet Potatoes, watermelon radish, purple daikon radishes, and a bunch of red radishes.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. This Thursday, if we want to be exact. This week's basket is full of vegetables to make your Thanksgiving great! The sweet potatoes can be made into a delicious sweet potato pie. Like most recipes for sweet potato pie, this one calls for the orange sweet potato,  However, you could also use the purple ones and have a pie with a pop of color on your table of Thanksgiving goodies. 

Pie isn't the only use for sweet potatoes you can make Sweet Potato Casserole, or make some Baked Sweet Potato Fries, or make a Sweet Potato Carrot Bake, which all of us loved.

Of course, there's more than just sweet potatoes this week. The lettuce, carrots, and radishes would make for a delicious salad for Thanksgiving. With how beautiful these heads are, I'd hate to not use them. If salads aren't really your thing, you could eat them plain in a veggie tray!

 The vegetables are so colorful that you just have to try one (or maybe all) of them. My favorite is the watermelon radishes and purple carrots. The flavors of the two are just absolutely delicious. If we didn't have to sell them, I'd probably be eating the purple carrots all year long. The watermelon radishes are full of color and flavor- it brings a delicious punch in such a pretty package. It's one that you wouldn't expect at first, but once you try it you can't get enough.

For our family's Thanksgiving, we're always the ones in charge of bringing the vegetables. We normally would bring a salad or two, a veggie tray, and some pie. By the end of the night, the veggie tray would be gone, the salad pretty much gone and there would still be plenty of pie left for tomorrow! Of course, this year since we're staying at home, its going to be a little different- but we're still going to have our sweet potato pies.

I hope that you and your family have a great Thanksgiving!

By Maggie

CSA Session 5 week 2: Thanksgiving!

Day 3: The Traditional

This sala is our basic, go-to, three-times-a-week salad. You can top it with your favorite dressings and toppings to fit your household. For us, that means homemade ranch dressing, boiled eggs, bacon bits, and shredded cheese.

Ingredients:

Red head lettuce

Green head lettuce

Turnips

Radishes

Carrots

Green onions

And, as soon as available, tomatoes as cucumbers

Wash it all. Chop it all. Mix it all.

As a side note, if you spin out your greens after you wash them, you will get many days additional freshness out of them. The salad I made tonight, we will still be eating on this weekend.

Day 3: The Traditional

Salad Season

It's salad time!

I love salad. I'm kind of a nerd that way. I guess it's a good thing I married a vegetable farmer.

This time of year, our salads are made up primarily of five types of greens. You can mix them up anyway you wish, or eat just one kind. Either way, they are delicious, better than you are probably used to. It's like the difference between the cheapest store brand toilet paper and super soft Charmin. Seriously.

Anyway, back to salads. The five types of greens we have right now are tatsoi, tokyo bekana, arugala, romaine, and summer crisp lettuce. (and yes, I had to ask Jay to know those last two.) So, what's the difference? And what do you do with them?

Tatsoi is also called spoon mustard, spinach mustard or rosette bok choy. It's similar to spinach in texture, with a little less overwhelming flavor. It will add crunch to your salad mix, some good bite to it. And it's good for you, providing a healthy amount of Vitamins A, C, beta-carotene, calcium, folate, and of course fiber.

Tokyo bekana, also known as mini Chinese cabbage, doesn't have anything near the texture of cabbage. In fact, in my opinion, it's the softest of the greens we have right now. But the flavor is great, and its light green adds a nice color to the salad. Plus, it absorbs the flavor of your salad dressing so well. But more on that later.

Arugula is not new to most people. It has a strong peppery flavor, very distinct in any dish. Personally, I don't enjoy a salad of just arugula, but rather prefer to mix it in with any of the other greens.

Romaine lettuce is making its debut for 2014 on our market tables this Saturday. Romaine is an excellent source of Vitamin A, but also provides a healthy amount of potassium, fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6 and Iron. Of all our offerings this week, Romaine offers the best crunch to your salad.

Summer crisp lettuce, in both red and green, will be also for sale for the first time this season. This salad component offers some color to the bowl, as well as a medium texture.

Really, you can't go wrong with any of them, alone or mixed together. Our salad mixes are picked fresh just prior to the market, so you can rest assured they won't get all slimy by the time you get home.

But what to do with it. It just depends on your taste. My favorite is a mix of all the greens with fresh green onions, chopped fresh asparagus, maybe a boiled egg, and homemade ranch dressing. From the packet. I'm not that pioneer here.

The Tat Soi is also great with fresh strawberries, sliced almonds, and Kraft's raspberry vinaigrette.

If you want a darker, stronger flavor to your salad dressing, you could whip up some balsamic vinaigrette. Just mix together 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Whisk it right before pouring it over your salad, because it will re-separate if you make it in advance. Or, just go to the store and buy a $2 bottle of salad dressing. That works too.

Or if you need a sweeter dressing (you know, something the kids will love), whip up some honey mustard dressing. Whisk together 1/4 cup mayo, 1 tablespoon mustard, 1 tablespoon honey, and 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice. Trust me -- it's yummy.

Either way, we hope to see you this week at our market. Weather permitting, we will be able to offer these salad options for weeks to come. We will also have radishes and haikuri turnips at the market this weekend.

Salad Season

It has been a long winter.......

With school kicking into high gear, 2 new sets of standards for 5 grades, 2 brand new curriculum series for 2 subjects at 5 grade levels, posting to my website has been a challenge and honestly haven't had time. If I did have time, I usually filled it with something else that had to be done! Well this is what we have been doing this winter. Due to school and a very late spring, everything got pushed back last fall and we didn't get crops in the ground as soon as I would have liked. Therefore I paid the price. I don't have as much produce this winter. That was a double edged sword. Less produce meant, I was unable to do our online market, less winter income. However, I am thankful that we don't have much produce available because we have had a little more family time and I haven't had to run myself ragged to get everything done. Also with the winter we have had so far, I probably would have been more upset with loosing crops. So in the end it all worked out! We have had enough produce to supply the winter market we attend in Manhattan. We got enough planted to make a nice big display and I feel as if I am the largest locally grown produce vendor in the winter there. If I had all 6 high tunnels in production right now, I know I would say I was. Well I try to take a picture at each market before anyone shows up to buy. Sometimes they are good, sometimes I am an in a big hurry! Here is what our winter market offering have looked like this winter. November 2nd November 23rd December 7th December 21st The day following this market, I got sick and eventually was diagnosed with walking pneumonia, needless to say it was a very uneventful Christmas break! January 4th February 7th We still have 3 more winter markets. I am hoping to plant a few things to try and attend the last two. We will be out of town for the next market in February. Winter markets have been very good for us, it is just a challenge to get everything harvested and processed when there is snow on the ground or freezing temps. It is a challenge that I am use to. I just wish I was able to afford to build a nice indoor packing facility!

It has been a long winter.......

Just thought I would share some pics of what we have growing. These are about a week old, but you get the idea. Tomatoes Cherry Tomatoes 2nd planting of lettuce, starting to pick this week 3rd and 4th plantings of lettuce outside Outside tomatoes and peppers, still more to plant! Inside Peppers Potatoes Hilled up Garlic Inside Squash Inside little cucumbers Sweet potatoes and okra Jay

Lettuce: November 12 to December 15th

I transplanted this bed of greens on November 12th. I made a short video of the transplanting.



Well fast forward 33 days and here is how things are looking. I am really impressed with the growth. This is the latest I have transplanted stuff. I am going to be direct seeding some more salad mix this week. I hope it will germinate and be ready by the end of February/March.



Winter Density


Black Seeded Simpson


Red Sails


Red Oakleaf


Green Oakleaf


Tatsoi

Lettuce: November 12 to December 15th

Transplanting Lettuce

We finished up transplanting some lettuce and Tatsoi today. I have learned that transplanting lettuce is an easy way to grow lettuce.



Enjoy!

Jay

Transplanting Lettuce

Salad Bar

Anyone want a salad?

The whole big building


Lettuce Bed


Black Seeded Simpson


Red Sails



Green Oakleaf


Red Oakleaf


Winter Density Romaine


Rouge D'Hiver


Jericho Romaine


Winterbor Kale


Red Russian Kale


Bed of Napa Cabbage, Bok Choy, Kale, Romaine



Napa Cabbage


Red Cabbage


Spinach

Salad Bar