Oakhill Organics Full Diet CSA – 6 Months In

July 7, 2013 | 5 Comments

Welcome to our full diet experience, week 26. We are half way through the first year, and are still feeling extremely fortunate, to be having this wonderful experience. We feel blessed to be sharing this food adventure with our children,  fellow Oakhill Organics full dieters, and our Oakhill Organics Team. The following is the bounty we chose, and took home this week;  broccoli, eggs, cherries + u-pick cherries, cabbage,  Spring onion, Spring carrots(yum), red potatoes, Spring lettuce, beef(a chunk of neck meat), milk, kale, and Summer squash. We only got 2 1/2 gallons of milk because we are only going to make Mozzarella this week. Next week we will take more milk to make a soft cheese, and yogurt. We did not take home walnuts, tigers eye beans, oat flour, or corn flour, because we still have some left over from last week. We also were offered swiss chard, and cauliflower, but did not take any this week. Since we chose to u-pick cherries, we did not have time to u-pick raspberries.

Our whole family loves broccoli, so we were over the moon about being able to take a blue bin of it home this week. We roasted half the bin for dinners and snacking during the week. With the other half of the bin, we made a broccoli soup for one dinner and one lunch.  I started making this broccoli soup recipe years ago. Every time we have broccoli in the house, my five year old daughter Marjie requests it for dinner. Here is our super easy recipe to delicious broccoli soup. Cook broccoli in a large pot of salted water til tender.  Remove all but two cups of broccoli to blender. Add enough salted broccoli water to blend.  Add more broccoli water, if needed, and blend more to desired smooth consistency. Roughly chop the reserved two cups of broccoli,  and add to soup. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

These Organic free range chicken eggs are not only really pretty, but also extremely delicious. I love to eat a couple of them scrambled in homemade butter for breakfast over roughly chopped kale. The hot eggs wilt the kale, making for a very satisfying breakfast. For a treat, I serve this with a homemade soft cheese.  Before I begin making the cheese, I skim off cream from one gallon of raw milk. Reserved cream can be used to make butter,  whipped cream, or ice cream,  added to coffee, or be stirred back into the soft cheese to make it more creamy. The recipe for our homemade soft cheese is adapted from the recipe Whole Milk Ricotta, from the book Home Cheese Making, by Ricki Carroll, and is as follows. Pour one gallon raw milk into large pot. Add 1 tsp citric acid, and 1 tsp cheese salt(I use kosher salt). Stir for 3 minutes scraping sides, until fully incorporated. Turn on heat to medium, and bring temperature up to 185-195 degrees F.(do not boil), stirring often to prevent scorching. You should see a clear separation between the curds and clear yellowish whey at this point. Turn off heat and leave undisturbed for 10 minutes. Place a colander in a bowl, and drape butter muslin or 2 layers of cheese cloth over colander. After 10 minutes, carefully ladle or scoop curds into a butter muslin lined colander. loosely tie butter muslin, and let sit in colander, and drain off whey. Check every 10 minutes for desired consistency. It only takes 10 minutes of draining for my desired consistency.

Last weekend was The Fourth of July. We received cherries at pick up on Wednesday the 3rd, and also had time to pick six pints of cherries. We made a yummy buttery cherry cobbler, with two heaping cups of fresh pitted cherries, for a Fourth of July gathering with friends. I will post the recipe soon.

This is our second week of these delightful crispy spring carrots. They are the perfect size for carrying around in little hands. We snack on them raw throughout the week. We keep the carrots in the easy to access crisper drawer in the refrigerator, so when my girls want to help themselves to a healthy snack, it is easy for them to do so, win win. These little beauties are also delicious dipped in our homemade soft cheese, as well as any nut, or seed butter we have on hand.

This is our second week of these little spring cabbages. My wonderful Mother-In-Law and Father-In-Law give me a subscription to Cooks Country every Christmas. Last week I was flipping through my August issue, and was surprised, and inspired by a delicious looking recipe for grilled cabbage. I took the one cabbage we chose last week, quartered it keeping the core intact. I liberally sprinkled each quarter with kosher salt, and then rubbed extra virgin olive oil all over each of them. I then placed them on our grill on a medium low flame.  This grilling method transforms cabbage into wilted sweet, caramelized Asian flavored treats. This can be a snack, lunch dinner, a side dish, or you can slice the quarters up after grilling and use them in a stir fry, rice or noodle dish. This week we took home six little heads of cabbage and we have been savoring them. They will be gone tomorrow.

We have not used these gorgeous red potatoes yet, but I have been thinking about a simple mustard and lemon or vinegar based potato salad since we chose them. I don’t have the recipe formulated yet, but it might include some fresh dill or tarragon. If anyone has a recipe for a vinegar based potato salad recipe, please leave a comment.

This kale is sweet and delicious raw or cooked.

We only got one onion this week. We used it in a Summer squash, onion, and egg saute, and ate it for breakfast tucked inside warm corn tortillas.

We only took two bags of this tender lettuce, and I have been eating it for lunches with egg whites, and chopped apple,  tossed in apple cider vinegar. I use the reserved egg yolks, cooked as an afternoon snack for my girls, for a crumble on a salad, or in a chocolate chip cookie recipe. I am going to make homemade mayonnaise with a few of them next week. I will let you know how it turns out.

This is our second week for summer squash. We have been sauteing them, and grilling them like crazy. I baked them two nights ago in a 350 degree F. oven without any fat or oil, until tender. I just sprinkled them with a little kosher salt and placed them on a parchment covered sheet tray. They were mild, juicy, and delicious. I have grand plans to make a Summer squash bread this week. Stay tuned.

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Tags: Broccoli, Broccoli Soup, cabbage, cherries, Fourth of July, free range, free range chicken eggs, Full Diet CSA, homemade ricotta, Independence Day, kale, kosher salt, Oakhill Organics, organic, Organic beef, Organic milk, Organic Raw Milk, Raspberries, red potatoes, Spring carrots, Spring Lettuce, Spring onion, Spring Recipes, Summer squash, U-pick, u-pick cherries, u-pick raspberries

Categories: Oakhill Organics, Summer Recipes