This week your basket contains: cabbage, potatoes, carrots, beets, cauliflower, onion, garlic, and spinach 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  We hope your holidays were happy and memorable.  We have enjoyed our time off and come back to the farm rested and ready for the coming year.  We’ve used some of our time off to start erecting a new large (30’ x 96’) metal hoop house.  The addition of all that covered growing space will help us diversify our winter/early spring plantings which will make your baskets a bit more interesting in what can be a challenging time of year for growers and cooks.  We’ve also been ordering seeds and planning the crop rotations for all of our fields; all of which are great tasks for cold rainy days!

Another thing that rainy days call for is hearty soups. This one works very well with this week’s basket. 

LILIIYA’S UKRAINIAN BORSCHT

1 pound of lean pork

8-10 cups of water

4 med chopped potatoes

half head of chopped cabbage

2 chopped beets

chopped fresh dill (about 1/4 cup)

1 medium onion

2 TB butter

4 medium finely chopped carrots

4 finely chopped tomatoes (canned or frozen)

In a pan, brown pork.  Add the browned pork to a large soup pot with water and boil for 15 minutes.  Add potatoes and boil another 10 min. Add cabbage, beets, and dill.  Boil another 20 min.  Meanwhile, in a separate pan, brown onion in butter.  Cook until golden. Add carrots to the onions and cook until tender. Add tomatoes and simmer slowly for 10-15 minutes.  Add the pan vegetables to the soup pot.  Add enough water to make the consistency of soup you enjoy.  Add salt to taste.  Cook until all the vegetables are soft.  Serve topped with sour cream sprinkled with chopped parsley.

For this soup, we use frozen tomatoes instead of canned.  You can use cabbage, spinach and/or beet greens for the cooking greens called for.

EASY MINESTRONE

1 medium onion or 2 leeks, chopped

3 (14 ounce) cans chicken broth

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes

1 (15 1/2 ounce) cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15 1/2 ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups chopped cooking greens

1/2 cup whole wheat pasta

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

salt & pepper, to your liking

In a large pot, cook onions in 3/4 cup broth, over medium high heat until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add another 1/2 cup broth and garlic. Cook for 5 more minutes.  Stir in tomatoes, rest of broth, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, kale and pasta. Add Italian seasoning, rosemary red pepper flakes.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer 10 to 12 minutes, or until pasta is tender.  Season with salt and pepper before serving. Adapted from Food.com

We are somewhat amazed to have cauliflower for all of you today.  I can’t remember when we’ve had cauliflower last into January before, but are really happy to have them.  We’ve been using cauliflower as a rice substitute by following this simple process:

CAULIFLOWER RICE

1 cauliflower
1Tbs. olive oil

Salt

Process cauliflower in a Cuisinart fitted with the grating blade.  Heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet and add the grated cauliflower.  Cook for 4-5 minutes or until the cauliflower starts to brown.  Add salt to taste.  Serve as you would rice.