Wednesday, July 3, 2024

July 04, 2024 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Green & Yellow Beans

 


What's In The Box

Garlic Scapes or Fresh Italian Garlic: We are finishing off the last of our garlic scapes and just getting started on Fresh Garlic! Fresh garlic is delicate, so handle it carefully so you don’t bruise the cloves. You’ll find the skin surrounding the cloves is very fresh and may be a little difficult to peel off—be patient, it’s worth the effort as the garlic cloves are juicy and full flavored!

Purple or White Scallions: We are finishing off the last of our scallions this week and transitioning into fresh white onions. Use the entire onion, greens as well as the onion base. You could even toss the root base that you trim off into a vegetable or meat stock!

Broccoli: Sulforaphane is an important plant compound that is found in broccoli, as well as other vegetables in the same family. This compound functions as an antioxidant as well as being antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory. It is important for supporting brain and heart health as well as our overall well-being. So, eat your broccoli, all of it including the stems! Just peel away the outer layer which can be a bit tough on the stem. Inside you’ll find a juicy, crisp, green core that is delicious!

White Cauliflower: Honestly, this cauliflower is delicious when simply steamed and served with a pat of butter or toss it with oil and roast it until it’s tender and golden. If you want to go a little over the top, you could finish it with a squeeze of lemon or add some spices to the mix.

Silver and/or Green Slicer Cucumbers: Cucumber production is directly correlated to heat and sunshine and when there is no heat or sunshine, the cucumbers don’t produce as much…which is the case this week! Cucumbers are one of nature’s fast foods. Just cut one into slices and enjoy it as a snack with salt, hummus, or your favorite dip.

Zucchini and/or Scallopini Squash: Scallopini squash is a bright yellow, saucer shaped vegetable with fluted edges. You can use it in any way you would use zucchini or yellow squash. They are interchangeable. You can also cut them in half and use them as a kind of bowl to hold a filling.

Green Top Gold Beets: If you are not a beet lover, or if you are still learning to like beets, this may be the beet for you. Gold beets have less of the distinct earthy flavor of a red beet and are sweet. They are delicious boiled or roasted, added to salads and slaws, etc. Be sure to find a use for the greens too!

Sweetheart Salad Cabbage: This variety of cabbage is characterized by its pointy shape. The leaves of this cabbage are more tender and are a great option for a raw salad. Store any unused portion loosely wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator.

Green Top Orange Carrots: Enjoy these tender, sweet carrots raw or lightly cooked. Use the feathery green tops to make pesto or chimichurri or add them to soup or bone broth.
 
Green & Yellow Beans: This week’s beans are our early season varieties known to germinate well in the cool spring soil. Enjoy these beans steamed, boiled, or stir-fried.

Snow Peas: Snow peas are characterized by a wide, flat pod that is edible. Just remove the little stem and the string that is attached to it that runs along the top of the pea pod. Enjoy them in stir-fry, lightly steamed, added to salads, or eat them right out of the bag!


Vegetable Feature: Green Beans

Fresh beans, also known as green beans, wax beans, snap beans or string beans, are actually the unripe fruit and pods of a variety of different cultivars of the common bean.  Aside from color, there are two main types of fresh beans: bush (or dwarf) and pole bean.  Bush beans plants generally do not grow more than two feet tall and do not require support, like the pole beans do.  Pole beans grow on twisting vines that like to climb, thus require a trellis.  Since bush beans are easier to harvest, they are the predominate fresh bean type to be farmed commercially.  We grow two types of fresh beans: the traditional “green bean,” and yellow or wax bean.

Green Beans: The varieties of green beans we grow vary in length between 5 and 6 inches.  The one exception is French beans, which are only about 4.5 inches long.  This is more of a specialty bean that we grow every now and then.  These green beans vary on the green spectrum, from light to dark, depending on variety.

Yellow Beans: The variety of yellow bean we grow is called Roc d’Or.  It is a deep yellow color, as to be expected from a name like “Gold Rock!”  These beans are more slender than our green beans, but also a little longer, normally about 6.5 inches long.

Preparation & Usage
All of our fresh beans can be eaten raw, steamed, boiled, stir-fried, or baked. 

Storage Tips
Fresh beans should be stored unwashed in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator either in a plastic bag or other reusable container. They will keep about a week. For longer storage, you can freeze fresh beans. To do this, rinse the beans in cool water and thoroughly drain. Cut the ends off before cutting them into the length you desire before placing them in a freezer safe container.

Additional Fun Facts 
Beans are native to the Americas, but once they made the trip across the sea to Europe, they became popular in the cuisine of many counties, particularly Italy and France


Palestinian Green Beans with Olive Oil - Fasolia Bi Zait

“Fasolia” is the Arabic word for beans, or green beans. “Zait” is the Arabic word referring to olive oil. This recipe is Yasmin Kahn’s version of a simple, staple dish commonly prepared in Palestinian homes. This dish may be served warm or at room temperature. It is often served with rice or flat bread and/or as a side dish to accompany other dishes in a meal. Despite the simplicity of this dish, it is full of flavor and just might surprise you as to how delicious and satisfying it is!

As with many traditional recipes, every home cook has their own version of this dish. In my research, I found versions of this recipe that are more like a stew with a thick tomato sauce. Some cook lamb or beef in the stew along with the vegetables. Some cooks keep the seasonings simple while others spice it up as Yasmin does in her recipe. Another source (famiebananiebread.com) describes this recipe as “…a dish that showcases the delicious simplicity of fresh green beans.  Fasolia is a staple in Palestinian cuisine, celebrated for its vibrant flavors and the sense of togetherness it brings to the dining table.”

Yield:  4 servings as a side dish

2 Tbsp olive oil or other neutral oil
2 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely sliced
¾ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground allspice
14 oz can of plum tomatoes 
1 tsp sugar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
12 oz green beans, trimmed
Extra virgin olive oil, for serving
  1. Pour the 2 Tbsp of olive oil into a frying pan and gently fry the onions over medium heat for 15 minutes, until they are soft and translucent. Add the garlic and spices and cook for another few minutes.
  2. Add the tomatoes, sugar, ¾ tsp salt and a generous grind of pepper. Cover and leave to simmer for 10 minutes, adding a little hot water if the pan starts to look dry.
  3. Meanwhile, boil the green beans in a saucepan of water until they are just cooked through, but still have some bite. Drain and add them to the tomato sauce.
  4. Taste and adjust the seasoning, then drizzle with a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil just before serving.
Recipe borrowed from Yasmin Kahn’s book, Zaitoun:  Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen.

Note from Andrea:  When I made this recipe, I used one bunch of scallions (greens and onion base) in place of the 2 onions called for in the recipe.  If you receive garlic scapes instead of fresh garlic this week, you can substitute 3-5 scapes, finely chopped, for the cloves of garlic called for in the recipe. In other similar recipes, the beans are cooked in a tomato mixture instead of being par cooked on the side and then finished in the tomato sauce.  I decided to try a shortcut and cook the beans in the same pan instead of boiling them on the side. They required a little longer cooking time in the tomato sauce to become tender and I had to add a little additional liquid to the pan. When they were about al dente and almost cooked through, I removed the cover from the pan and reduced the liquid down until the tomato sauce portion was a little thicker.  Did this shortcut save any time? Well, it saved me the time for having to wash one additional pan, but overall time was probably the same!  
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A Recipe For Peace: Embracing Diversity & Remembering Our Humanity

By Andrea Yoder

Andrea chatting with CSA Members at a
Strawberry Day potluck lunch

“You can learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.”—Anthony Bourdain

I am not a historian, a philosopher, a scholar or an academic. I write, but I would not call myself a writer. I am not as well-read in world affairs as I should or could be. I have traveled to only three countries outside of the United States. I identify as a human being, with a heart, living in a global community and I often seek to explore and understand different parts of the world and its people through food. This is the language I speak and thankfully, food is something that is shared by every other human in the world. Our common thread.

As we started the CSA season this year, the state of the world weighed heavy on my heart—and still does. I kept thinking to myself “what can I do?” The things that are happening in the world—in Palestine, but other areas as well (Ukraine, Sudan, Congo, sadly the list goes on), are incomprehensible to me. I cannot recall where I saw this quote, but it was something like “We judge that which we do not understand.”  As I reflected on these words, I thought maybe if we can understand more about other people and where they come from, that may be the start of breaking down walls and barriers of judgement. Perhaps the effort to become more informed could be an entry point for compassion & basic considerations of humanity, the first step in a recipe for peace. 

As I started looking at recipes to feature with each week’s delivery, I was drawn to looking at other cultures to see what I might learn from other parts of the world and how they prepare vegetables and incorporate them into their meals, traditions, celebrations, etc. I started with a recipe from India, found a rhubarb stew from Persia (Iran), a simple Hungarian Kohlrabi Soup, and an Israeli Fennel, Kohlrabi and Green Onion Salad. Yes, I will definitely be featuring some Palestinian recipes as well in upcoming weeks as more summer vegetables fill our plates. I also hope to explore some other areas of the world I know nothing about with the intention to embark on a steep learning curve. Perhaps we may honor the people of Congo with some recipes that represent Congolese culture or perhaps Sudanese cuisine. There is a vast world to explore.

I do not know fully what cultures, religions, or belief systems are represented within our membership. There may be people from India, China, Argentina, Palestine, South Africa, Israel, Mexico, Korea, Greece and beyond. There may be people in our membership who are Republicans, Democrats, or Independents. There may be Muslims, Buddhists, Baptists, Mennonites, Catholics, Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, and Jews. There may be people in our membership who support abortion and those who do not. We feed everyone. We may not personally agree with everyone’s beliefs, but we invite everyone to come to our table for peaceful, respectful conversation and acknowledge the sovereign right to agree to disagree.

Can we, the people of one CSA community in the Midwest, be a representation of a world living in peace, respecting each other? Can we be a representation of humans teaching other humans how to be good humans through example? Can we sit together and share meals and food in an effort to learn each other’s stories and in doing so cultivate compassion and recognize that beneath the skin we are all the same? Can we open our hearts to share another’s pain, and can we speak up to say enough is enough? Can we lead with love even when it’s so very hard to do? I challenge myself with these questions.

I recently had the opportunity to watch a documentary entitled “Where The Olive Trees Weep: No One Is Free Until We All Are Free.” The introduction to this film reads as follows: “Where The Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma and the quest for justice…..Ancient landscapes bear deep scars, having witnessed the brutal reality of ancestral land confiscation, expulsions, imprisonment, home demolitions, water deprivation, and denial of basic human rights. Yet, through the veil of oppression, we catch a glimpse of resilience—deep roots that have carried the Palestinian people through decades of darkness and shattered lives. This emotional journey bares the humanity of the oppressed while grappling with the question: what makes the oppressor so ruthlessly blind to its own cruelty?” 

After the release of this film earlier this month, the directors hosted 21 days of discussions looking at the history and current situation of the Palestinian people. They have interviewed leaders in faith, physicians, poets, artists, lawyers, activists, psychologists, all in an effort to understand what got us to the point we are at right now while simultaneously seeking answers and direction for a peaceful way forward for all. I have watched the discussions each day and this experience has been such a gift to me and has helped me be a quick study. I have cried and allowed my heart to break over and over as the names and faces become real to me. It is no longer “Palestinians,” but rather people with names who have suffered and died. People who have risked imprisonment simply by participating in some cases. People who had to choose their words carefully for fear they would be arrested. While my heart is still very heavy, my hope in humanity is renewed. I have watched Palestinians and Israelis come together to have conversation. I have watched people of differing religions come together in prayer. We cannot assume a belief system simply because one is Israeli, Palestinian, American or anything else. Through coming together, we can work with the common thread of a longing for PEACE.

If you are interested in viewing the film, you may find more information about how to do so HERE. You will also find some helpful resources if you wish to become more involved.

Bright blue skies and mineral 
rich valley soils.....we are blessed
As we prepare to pack this week’s CSA boxes, I am very much aware of how very blessed we are to be able to farm the land we are stewards of, to produce food for all of your tables. In a world where there are farmers without land and abandoned fields without caretakers while people face malnutrition and famine, the food we pack in CSA boxes feels even more sacred. Thank you for being part of our CSA community and our global community. May we all do our part to create a world where we are all free and live respectfully in peace, one meal at a time.

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