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MEADOWLARK FARM SUMMER CSA NEWS 9-15-09 Dear community of meadowlark, Another beautiful day in September and the boxes that come your way are full of color and good tastes. We hope that you will enjoy many delicious meals with your meadowlark box. We were excited to have enough artichokes for everyone! This is a first for us. Last year we were able to parcel out artichokes to each drop off site, but never have we had so many. They are a pleasure to grow, tend and harvest. If you are not familiar with this member of the thistle family, fear not. I did not grow up eating artichokes and my first experience with them was at the Watt's family house when I was a teenager. We had them for dinner and it is one of my favorite food memories. There is a sweet, slow ritual to the eating of artichokes in the Watts household and we are lucky that Jane is here today to give advice and instruction. Her favorite way to prepare an artichoke(s) goes something like this: Cut off stem so artichoke will sit flush in a pot. Save stem and cook in bottom of pot with aromatics. Place cut onion, shallot and celery, plus a TBL of olive oil to pan and cover artichoke(s) with water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to light boil. Cook for 45 minutes for a small artichoke, 1 hour for several or larger size chokes. To test artichoke doneness, you should be able to pull one of the leaves off of the lower set easily. To eat artichokes(by far the best part) melt butter and place in a small ramekin or bowl. Jane likes a squeeze of fresh lemon juice in her butter, but try it straight up first. Take a leaf from the artichoke, dip in butter, then scrape bottom portion of leaf over your teeth. Have a big bowl to share for scraped leaves. As you finish, toss your leaf in the bowl and move on. As you move into the center, the leaves will be smaller, more tender and succulent. Once you reach the purplish cone you are close to the choke which are small hairs that you don't eat. Simply scrape them out with a spoon and discard. Enjoy the heart--a disk of purely edible artichoke as a finale. You can make this a fun part of a family meal and introduce(or indulge again) your people to the joys of fresh artichokes...... Boxes today include: artichokes, watermelon for all, ailsa craig sweet onion, garlic, shallots, rainbow carrots, sangre red potatoes, Carmen sweet red peppers, eggplant, rainbow chard, Italian parsley and salad mix. Premiums receive cukes, jalapenos and a cherry bomb hot pepper plus extras. Fruit this week is meadowlark blackberries, peaches and the first mt. Stanley plums. A reminder to all, we are excited and gearing up for the annual Meadowlark Farm Harvest Party. We look forward to coming together for this fun event on Sunday, Sept. 27th. We will gather here around 3:30 with time to pick a pumpkin, pick your own flower bouquet, press some cider and play some kids games. This is a potluck, so we encourage you to bring a generous dish to pass as well as your own place settings(zero waste please) and a few folding chairs. We will start the food around 5:00. There will be local beer, wine and hard cider available as well as freshly pressed sweet cider. We are hoping for nice weather and if it rains we will reschedule, so check out the CSA website(csafarms.org) to be sure or the get directions. We look forward to seeing you and hope that you can make it...no dogs please! Have a great week, enjoy the artichokes, and we will see you on the 27th. love, the meadowlarks
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