Loon Organics

September Soup

loon — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:09:48 +0000

This recipe was passed along several years ago by Susie Tangen, a CSA member of ours when we delivered to Eagan, MN. I LOVE this soup. It makes your house smell amazing, is really easy, freezes well (leave out the cream), and takes advantage of all the abundant tomatoes and peppers we have end of summer and early fall. The soup was gone and eaten before we could take a photo.

Zuppa per Settembre

1 ½ lbs tomatoes cored, quartered (about 3 large slicing tomatoes, 6 small, or 9 roma tomatoes) Seed tomatoes if desired.

1 lb red bell peppers (1 very large or 2 smaller) trimmed, quartered and seeded

1 jalapeno or black Hungarian pepper or to taste

2 red or yellow onions cut into wedges

2 cloves garlic quartered lengthwise

1 tsp kosher or sea salt

ground pepper

1 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika

1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme

6 large fresh basil leaves cut crosswise into fine strips or coarsely chopped

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cups best quality chicken broth

1/4 cup heavy cream –room temperature

sourdough croutons

Heat oven to 450. Place tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic on a single layer in a large roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme, paprika and basil, then drizzle with oil. Toss well to coat evenly.

Roast veggies for 45-60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes until veggies are completely tender and well browned in places.

Remove from oven and let cool for at least 10-15 minutes. In blender or food processor, work in batches to puree the veggies with the broth until smooth. Transfer the puree to a saucepan and reheat over low heat. Stir in the cream and heat the soup just until warmed but not boiling.
Top each bowl with sourdough croutons.

Week 12 CSA Box

loon — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:20:01 +0000

Week12 CSA box: Jimmy Nardello Sweet Italian Pepper (long, skinny red pepper), salad mix, leeks, slicing & heirloom tomatoes, garlic, green kale, red & orange Bell Pepper, rainbow carrots (yellow, orange/purple), celery, cucumber (or summer squash), eggplant, cherry tomatoes, red or blue potatoes

Week 11 CSA Box

loon — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:17:00 +0000

Week 10 CSA Box: Cherry tomatoes, Bi-Color Sweet Corn, Zucchini & Summer Squash & Cucumbers, Red Beets, Jimmy Nardello Sweet Italian Peppers (long, red skinny peppers), garlic, Yellow Bell Pepper, Heirloom and Slicing Tomatoes, Watermelon, Ping Tung Long Eggplants, Green Beans, Mixed Herb Bunch

Week 9 CSA Box

loon — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:07:29 +0000

Box Contents: Sweet Corn (6-8 ears), Yellow, Orange or Red-Fleshed Watermelon, Zucchini & Summer Squash, Cherry tomatoes, Green Bell Pepper, Ping Tung Long Japanese Eggplant, Slicing Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Garlic, Celery, Walla Walla Onions, Red Potatoes, Thyme.

Week 8 CSA Box

loon — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:09:05 +0000

Left to right: Red potatoes, assorted summer squash, sweet corn, broccoli (in some boxes before it got to be 100 degrees!), garlic, Walla Walla onions, eggplant, beets or carrots, dill, green peppers, cucumbers

Glorious Garlic

loon — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:43:24 +0000

All 8 beds of garlic are harvested and drying in the hay loft of our barn. A perfect place: dry, relatively cool and breezy and out of the sun (darkness makes for not-so-great photos). It was a beautiful harvest this year and one of our best yet. The early spring made for an early start to the garlic growing season and 2 beds/row were set up for cultivating to keep weed pressure down. The first harvested garlic is drying down and we are starting to clean and size it all for seed, CSA boxes, and the rest will go to the Garlic Festival in Hutchinson in just 2 weeks, Sat. Aug 14! Come on down and visit Laura there. We will have a lot of nice garlic for sale, plus other fine produce from our farm (I’m expecting we’ll have a lot of sweet corn and tomatoes to bring as well–goes great with roasted garlic).

The Garlic Festival also boasts some of the best food I’ve had: local Twin Cities chefs prepare garlic-themed dishes with local, sustainable ingredients. Last year, the garlic sausage from Mike Phillips was to die for, and the sweet corn with roasted garlic butter and a Thousand Hills Roast Beef sandwich made it right up there as well. Top the afternoon off with garlic Cedar Summit ice cream and call it a damn good day.

6th box & zucchini beet salad recipe

loon — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:15:09 +0000

Assorted summer squash, zucchini and pattypan, broccoli head, rainbow swiss chard (salad mix in some boxes), cauliflower, curly parsley, red new potatoes, fresh garlic, cucumbers, green beans, green top beets.

The variety of the box did vary a bit from pick-up to pick-up this week as we didn’t have enough large chard bunches to put in all the boxes, so some boxes got salad mix. There was a great recipe for beet and zucchini salad that I put in some of the farm newsletters, but not in the Chan or Mpls. newsletters. The recipe is below. We continue to have good weather, with rain last night (Friday) and some heavy wind but nothing damaging. Crops are looking really nice…

Zucchini and Beet Salad

1 small bunch beets

1 medium zucchini

4-5 handfuls salad greens, washed

1/2 c. creamy mild cheese, crumbled or sliced thin, like Blue cheese, brie, or feta.

1/2 c. toasted pecans

For the dressing: 1/2 c. olive oil, 3 T. balsamic vinegar, 1 small handful chives or ½ of a small onion, chopped small. Measure together into a container with a cover; shake until well blended.

For the salad: wash, peel and slice the beets. Place in a steamer basket set over boiling water, cover and steam for 12 minutes. Cool, and slice into strips. Cut zucchini into long strips. Steam in the same basket for two minutes only. Allow to cool.

In a large bowl, arrange the greens, beets, zucchini and cheese. Sprinkle the pecans over all. Dress with the vinaigrette and serve.

From Caroline Barrett at www.blog.timesunion.com

5th week of CSA

loon — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:19:51 +0000

Week 5 box contents: Walla walla baby onions(or fresh garlic on Wednesday), 1 bunch summer savory herb, Yellow summer squash, Zephyr Summer Squash, Zucchini, Scallopini Squash, 1 head Summercrisp lettuce, 1 savoy cabbage, broccoli, baby-ish carrots, cucumbers, 1st pick of green beans!

The great garlic harvest has begun and the hay loft of the barn is plum full of beautiful green drying stalks of garlic. We are about 1/3 the way through our harvest. It is looking to be a great crop and we will be in full force at the GARLIC FESTIVAL in Hutchinson on August 14th. Come on out to visit and get your fill of garlic ice cream!!

3rd & 4th box of season!

loon — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 02:52:11 +0000

Week 3 CSA box: Dino Kale, Japanese Salad Turnips, 1 bunch dill, purple scallions, lotsa sugar snap peas, baby bok chois, purple kohlrabi, baby fennel, 1/2 pound baby salad mix. Just an FYI, especially to current members: We harvest and pack CSA boxes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so sometimes there is variation from box to box each week as we look at availability of crops.

Week 4: COLOR!!! Summer squash, zucchini, scallopini/pattypan squash, baby bok choi, basil (purple opal/sweet genovese), Summercrisp head lettuce, greentop beet bunch, scallions, 1 head baby broccoli, green cabbage, sugar snap peas, 1 cuke (in select boxes).

After the HOT, windy weekend, we were getting our irrigating hoses and sprinklers all set for today. But, the weather stepped in with perfect timing and dropped an inch of nice, steady rain. I almost hate to say it because I don’t want to jinx it, but the weather this year has been almost perfect for us. I think we are going to have beautiful crops for the rest of the season–everything coming in now is looking just great, fall crops are looking good so far, tomatoes are getting super big, and the first corn looks dynamite. It’s a bumper crop for mosquitoes too. Even if the precip. drops off from now on, we have more than enough moisture to get us through for a few weeks with our heavy soil. We are much looking forward to a break from this humidity tomorrow. It’s bad when you are drenched in sweat by 7:30 a.m.

The Perennial Plate

loon — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 02:16:35 +0000

Two Fridays ago, we were delighted to have Daniel Klein and his girlfriend, Mirra, of The Perennial Plate, come out to our farm and film the process of harvesting for our CSA and the Mill City Farmers Market on Saturdays. Daniel very aptly captured a typical June harvest day for us (except sometimes it’s raining!) and the video gives you a window into where your produce comes from each week. Check out our farm in Episode 15 below.

The Perennial Plate Episode 15: Farm to Market from Daniel Klein on Vimeo.

Daniel made a rustic homemade pasta dish with fresh arugula, kohlrabi & Hakurei turnip salad, along with a strawberry/rhubarb crisp for us on Friday evening and it was as delicous as it looks in the video. You can attend one of his farm/harvest dinners, by going here: http://theperennialplate.com/harvest-dinner/

The other Perennial Plate episodes are just as delightful, fun and thoughtful. You should watch them all when you get a chance. Cheers to Daniel for all his great work and commitment to local foods!