Harvest Day

We hope you are all enjoying the fresh, healthy, biodynamic vegetables which you have received in the past weeks. For this week, we are offering the following:

Gonzales Country Cabbage - a large, crisp head; delicious shredded with lemon and salt.
Sweet Candy Onion - a freshly-dug onion; excellent raw in salads or on a sandwich.
Pickling Cucumbers - crunchy and cute, these are a perfect snack by themselves.
Mix of Heirloom Salad Greens from a Biodynamic Seed Company- until fall, this will be the last week to savor these unique greens not found often at markets or stores: corn salad, miner's lettuce, watercress, arugula, purslane, nasturtium flowers...
Dill Bouquet - this herb is wonderful on potatoes or in one of the following recipes.

Stevia/Mint combo - stevia is a great natural sugar substitute. Cut this and the mint and brew some sweet mint iced tea!

Bounty Baskets:

And from this point on for all of you hot pepper fans, we are going to have a great variety in our bounty baskets, including jalapeno, habenero, paprika, fish, anaheim, hungarian banana, and more. Not all care for hot peppers, so we will have them available for you to choose. We will also have Winterbohr, Red Russian, and Dinosaur Kale in the basket. We have turnips as well.

And - as always - some recipes to go along with this week's harvest:

Cabbage Rolls
(Serves 6 to 8)

This is a great recipe using Chinese cabbage or regular green cabbage from the well-known Moosewood Restaurant series of cookbooks.

1 large head of green cabbage or Chinese cabbage*
2 medium onions (or 1 large onion)
2 tsp olive oil
3 ½ cups chopped mushrooms
1 cup grated carrots
6 garlic cloves, crushed or minced
¼ tsp dried or 1 tbsp fresh, chopped thyme
½ tsp dried or 2 tbsp fresh dill
¼ cup fresh, minced flat-leaf parsley
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp tamari sauce (soy sauce if you prefer)
1 tbsp miso
12 oz cake tofu, pressed and mashed**
1 cup tomato juice
*If you use Chinese cabbage, pull off about 12 large leaves and blanch them for about 2 minutes.
**Place tofu cakes of firm or soft Chinese-style tofu between 2 plates. Rest a heavy can or book on the top plate. Leave for 30 minutes. Remove the weight and top plate and drain the water. The tofu is now ready to be mashed with a fork.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Core the cabbage and chop the onions. Carefully place the cabbage in the boiling water, cover and cook for about 5 minutes or until the leaves pull away easily from the head. (Use 2 forks to test whether the cabbage is ready, one to20keep the head steady, the other to try to loosen a leaf). Once you have determined that the cabbage is ready, carefully pour the hot water off and set aside 12 leaves to cool while you go on to the next step.

In a large skillet, sauté the onion in the olive oil until translucent. Add the mushrooms, carrots and garlic and cook, stirring often, for 4-5 minutes. Add the thyme, dill and parsley and continue to cook until the mushrooms are soft. Add the lemon juice, tamari, miso, and mashed tofu. Mix well. When all is heated through, remove from the heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Assemble the roll. Place ½ cup of filling at the broad end of each cabbage leaf. Fold the side edges toward the middle over the filling, and then roll up lengthwise. Place the rolls, seam side down, in a 9x12 inch baking pan. Pour the tomato juice over and cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for about 20 minutes or until hot.

Cucumber-Dill Salad
(Serves 4)

3 pickling cucumbers
3 tablespoons cider or white vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small onion, sliced and broken into rings
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill

Wash the cucumber(s) and partially remove the peel in lengthwise strips using a vegetable peeler or fork and leaving a little skin between each strip. Thinly slice the cucumber widthwise. Place the vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper in a bowl and whisk. Add the cucumber, onion, and dill, and toss well. The salad can be served at once, but it will improve in flavor if you let the ingredients marinate for 5 minutes.