Recipe: Saffron & Crimini Mushroom Pasta

Saffron & Crimini Mushroom Pasta

This creamy pasta is very rich and makes a great meal when served with a light side salad.  

Saffron & Crimini Mushroom Pasta
(I based this meal on a recipe for Crab Fettucine with Wild Mushrooms, served at Baked Alaska in Astoria, OR.  Since I didn't have any crab meat on hand, it ended up being a vegetarian dish!).

Ingredients

12 oz. pasta

4 tablespoons butter
8 oz. crimini mushrooms (from this week's box)

2 cloves garlic, minced (from a previous week's box)

1 cup white wine

1/2 cup heavy cream

Saffron (a pinch or two)

Salt & pepper

-Cook pasta.

-Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium heat.  

-Saute the mushrooms until brown (around 10 minutes) and season them with salt & pepper.

-Add the garlic.

-Stir in the white wine and a pinch of saffron.  Reduce the wine by half.

-Add the cream and blend with the wine mixture.

-Serve over pasta.  

CSA: Late Spring Session (Week 3); mama pig outside!

Arabia is enjoying her new pig pen...

Now that the piglets are older, we have moved their mama, Arabia, out into the field.  She has been absolutely loving the tall grass and has been rooting around in her pen (pigs are great at aerating soil).  Her piglets will be heading out to their pen soon, too!

Tomorrow (Wednesday, May 15) is Week 3 of our Late Spring Session - I'm always excited to see cilantro appear!  Most people are fairly polarized in their opinions about cilantro, and according to some studies, there may actually be a genetic factor involved in that preference.  

This is what you can expect to see in Week 3's box:

Late Spring Session, Week 3: Box Contents

Spinach

Carrots

Cilantro

Apples

Eggs

Braising Mix

Red Chard

Crimini Mushrooms

Romaine Lettuce

Dandelion (Regular Shares only)

May Day Celebration

Going around the May Pole

We were fortunate to have gorgeous, sunny weather on Saturday for our May Day celebration!  At noon, all of the kiddos grabbed streamers on the May Pole and walked around it while Farmer David sang "Old MacDonald" and other classic farm tunes while he strummed a guitar.  The kids always have so much fun wrapping the May Pole in these colorful streamers!  

Visitors got to enjoy hay rides around the farm

Before and after the May Pole celebration, Farmer David took groups on hay-wagon tours of the farm.  We also had seed-planting set up - kiddos could plant bean seeds and take them home!  Our scavenger hunt was also popular this year, and we find that it's a great way for children to get familiarized with the various plants & animals on the farm.

Happy May Day!

Farmer Micah was super excited to go outside in the morning and find that colorful streamers had sprung up from the May Pole. :)  It's such a fun tradition.

All in all, it was a fantastic and joyful day, and we're truly thankful that we had so many wonderful friends of the farm here to celebrate the coming of spring with us.  

Eggs in a Nest - braising mix recipe

Braising mix becomes a familiar item to folks in the Pacific Northwest who are eating locally, and I always love finding new ways to serve it.  Here's a gorgeous and wholesome braising mix breakfast that was put together by CSA members Heather & Ross!

Eggs in a Nest
(adapted from a recipe in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle)

Ingredients from the share box:
Eggs

Braising Greens

Garlic

Extra ingredients:
Coconut oil
Cranberries
Walnuts
Splash of balsamic
Top with some grated Drunken Goat cheese

CSA: Late Spring Session (Week 1); animal update; tomatoes

Kohlrabi starts

Our Late Spring Session began on Wednesday, May 1st.  If you're interested in joining for the remainder of the season, you can receive a prorated share cost!  Also, if you'd like to come out to visit the farm, our May Day celebration on Saturday, May 4th would be a great opportunity.

Dandelion greens are nutritious and super yummy, though they tend to be rather bitter, especially for kiddos.  I've found that putting the greens in mashed potatoes or even scrambled eggs helps Micah to eat them, since their bitter flavor is balanced out a bit.

Late Spring Session, Week 1: Box Contents

Eggs
Beets
Garlic
Apples
Chard
Braising Mix
Spinach
Asparagus and Dandelion greens for Regular shares only
Bok choi for Three Quarter shares only 

Turkey chicks!

We brought home five peeping turkey chicks today!  They're currently staying warm under a heat lamp in the duck shed but will be out and about in no time.

The ducklings have continued to grow like crazy and are already outside...

Ducklings in their movable pen

They weren't huddling together for warmth in this picture - they're still awfully shy whenever someone steps into their pen, so they all cluster together in a corner.  All of the ducklings are doing well, and they have a small pool to practice swimming in.

Tomatoes in a greenhouse

 Several of our greenhouses are full of growing tomato plants.  I'm particularly excited about Green Zebras - these are my absolute favorite tomatoes, and I found myself eating them like apples last summer.

CSA: Early Spring Session (Week 6); Late Spring sign-ups; May Day

Sorry for posting the box contents a bit late this week! :)

Wednesday, April 24 was the sixth and final week of our Early Spring Session this year.  Thanks so much to all of you who joined us!

The Late Spring Session will begin this coming Wednesday, May 1st!  If you'd like to join us for this session, please submit your application before Tuesday, April 30.

May Pole

Also, we will be having our annual May Day celebration on Saturday, May 4!  Hay rides start at 11 am, and the May Pole will begin at noon.  More information is posted on our blog.  Please come join us as we celebrate the warmth of spring!

Early Spring Session, Week 6: Box Contents
Radishes
Broccoli
Carrots
Yellow Onions
Bunched Arugula
Kale
Apples (Fujis and Granny Smiths)
Braising Mix

CSA: Early Spring Session (Week 5)

Rutabagas

Thanks so much for your patience with this late Box Contents post!  

One of my favorite items in Week 5's box was rutabaga, which, like its strange cousin kohlrabi, is a cross between the cabbage and the turnip.  

Here's some interesting info featured in From Asparagus to Zucchini, which is a fantastic cookbook produced by the Madison Area CSA Coalition (we sell this in our market during the Summer Session; if you'd like to purchase a copy during the Early or Late Spring Sessions, let me know and we'll put one in your box!):

The rutabaga appeared suddenly in the middle of the 17th century and first became popular in Sweden.  In fact, rutabaga comes from the Swedish rotabagge, meaning 'baggy root.'  Rutabagas are also commonly referred to as Swedes or Swedish turnips.  They were among the first vegetables grown by colonists in America as they began farming the untilled land, because the large roots helped break up poor soils. [...] Rutabaga is high in carbohydrates, vitamins A and C, and some minerals, particularly calcium.  Rutabagas belong to a handful of cruciferous vegetables believed to be effective in cancer prevention as well.

Also, I'd like to remind everyone that next Wednesday (April 24th) marks the sixth and final week of the Early Spring Session.  The Late Spring Session begins on Wednesday, May 1st - if you're planning to join us for that session, please send in your application (if you haven't already done so)!

Early Spring Session, Week 5: Box Contents

Cauliflower
Braising Mix
Watercress
Collards
Lettuce
Fennel
Apples
Eggs
Leeks
Rutabaga
Garlic