Dear CSA members
This is week ten, the last week of the Summer 2010 veggie CSA. Tomorrow you will receive your last veggie bag.
MUSHROOMS
In your bag tomorrow you will find your last bag of oyster mushrooms from Foxenburg Estate. We hope you enjoyed receiving mushrooms in your bag this CSA, as this is the first time we have included them in a vegetable CSA.
FEEDBACK
As with past CSAs, we have set up an anonymous online feedback form, to help us gauge how successful (or not) different aspects of the CSA were from your perspective. It should only take a minute to fill out, and we would really appreciate your feedback.
THE FUTURE OF THE SLOW FOOD CSAS
As you all know, we have had our fair share of hiccups this CSA, and I have often been unhappy with the quality or quantities of vegetables in the bag. I have passed this on to Erick both during the CSA and now as we come to a close. I still believe that CSAs are good models, and would like to participate in and run future CSAs, but we need to know we are getting value for money (and not just helping an emerging farmer, regardless of the produce) in order for a CSA to be sustainable. In my discussions with Erick as to why we have been having these problems, his response is something along the lines of that old chestnut; “It’s so hard to get good help”. While I sympathise, this is his problem, not ours, and one that he needs to solve.
I am taking a two-month break from running CSAs with Erick, to give him time to mull over my feedback, and give myself a rest from the admin of coordinating the CSA. I have told Erick that I will consider running a smaller, shorter CSA in June, perhaps with one collection point and for a month, to see whether he can rise to the challenge and get his quality and quantities where they should be. Should this happen, you are all on our CSA mailing list and will be notified.
Slow Food Mother City, Slow Food Cape Town’s sister convivium (chapter) does have some other CSA projects in the works, dealing with meat and fruit. When these are ready, you will be notified. If you do not wish to remain on the mailing list, just drop me a line.
A FINAL PLUG FOR SLOW FOOD
This CSA is called the Slow Food CSA for a reason, and that’s not just because I volunteer with local chapters of the Slow Food movement! Slow Food is an international grassroots movement of ordinary people making informed and good choices in the food they buy, eat and enjoy. The motto is, “Food that is Good, Clean and Fair”, and if sustainability, small producers and family farms, protecting food traditions and cultures are important to you, you should get involved.
If you would like to be notified of events (farm visits, tastings, run by Slow Food in Cape Town, go onto Slow Food Mother City’s mailing list, sign up on the ‘news’ page of our website, www.slowfoodmothercity.co.za
Slow Food Cape Town’s website is: www.slowfoodcapetown.co.za
RECIPE OF THE WEEK: CREAMED SPRING ONIONS
Much along the lines of creamed spinach, only with spring onions (or baby leeks). A comforting side dish as we ease into winter. You can find the recipe on the blog, here.
Enjoy them!
Thank you for your support over the last ten weeks. We wish you well for the rest of 2010, and hope to see you at future events and CSAs.
Warmly
Kate & the CSA team
Much along the lines of creamed spinach, only with spring onions (or baby leeks). A comforting side dish as we ease into winter.
1 ½ cup milk
2 TBS butter
2 TBS flour
bay leaf (optional)
1 bunch spring onions
1 tsp butter hard cheese (optional)
Wash, trim and then steam the spring onions (or boil in lightly salted boiling water) until soft but not mushy. Drain.
In a small pot, melt the butter. Remove from heat and stir in the flour, then return to heat and cook, stirring, for one minute. Heat the milk, and then off the heat whisk it slowly into the butter and flour mixture. Add the bay leaf. Return to heat and cook, stirring occasionally over low heat, for eight minutes. Add salt and a grinding of pepper, and fish out the bay leaf. If the sauce is lumpy, strain through a sieve. In a frying pan, sauté the cooked spring onions gently in the last teaspoon of butter, until fragrant. Stir through the white sauce, adding grated hard cheese if desired. Serve warm.
Dear CSA members
This is week nine, the penultimate week of the Summer 2010 CSA.
Not much to report, as even CSAs try to take it easy on public holidays! But your veggie bags will be on their way to you tomorrow, as always.
RECIPE OF THE WEEK: SWEET BUTTERNUT CUSTARD BUNS
Yes, I know this is more labour-intensive than the recipes I usually give, but these are so technically easy, impressive and delicious that I think these sweet Chinese bao (buns) are worthy of a little effort on weekends. The recipe is adapted from Chef Joe Ng of the Chinatown Brasserie in New York which, in my humble opinion, makes the best baked custard buns I have ever tasted. You can find them here, on the blog.
Enjoy them!
Kate
Yes, I know this is more labour-intensive than the recipes I usually give, but these are so technically easy, impressive and delicious that I think these sweet Chinese bao (buns) are worthy of a little effort on weekends. The recipe is adapted from Chef Joe Ng of the Chinatown Brasserie in New York which, in my humble opinion, makes the best baked custard buns I have ever tasted.
FILLING
60g butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
¼ cup maizena
1 ½ TBS cake flour
1 egg, beaten
½ cup coconut milk or cream
230g cooked, peeled butternut (approx 300g small whole butternut)
pinch salt
DOUGH
360g cake flour
5g dried yeast (half a packet)
1 cup milk, slightly warmed
4 TBS butter, melted
2 TBS sugar
pinch salt
1 egg, beaten
icing sugar (optional)
METHOD
To make the filling, combine the sugar, cornstarch, salt and cake flour in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the egg with the butter. Add the dry ingredients and whisk to combine, and then whisk in the coconut milk.
Puree the butternut with a hand blender or push through a sieve. Mix into the coconut milk mixture, and place in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens and does not taste of flour, about eight minutes. Remove from the heat, and leave to cool.
To make the dough, put the year, sugar, salt and flour in a bowl. Pour the butter and milk into the middle and stir to combine. Turn out onto a counter and knead for about five minutes, until smooth. Place in a bowl and cover, and leave to rise for one hour.
Remove the dough from the bowl, and place on a counter. Roughly shape into a log, and cut into 14 roughly equal sized pieces. Lightly roll each into a ball with your hands, and then roll out with a rolling pin, into a 3-5mm thick circle. Place a spoonful of cooled custard into the middle of each dough circle, and wrap the dough around the custard, pinching the dough together at the top to seal. There will probably be custard left over, but this can easily be taken care of by a spoon and a hungry volunteer.
Place the buns seal-side down on a lightly oiled or lined baking tray, about 3cm apart. Let them proof uncovered for another 30 minutes. Brush with the beaten egg, and bake at 180C for 10-12 minutes, until firm and lightly golden on top (if your oven is fierce, rotate the sheet after five minutes). Dust with icing and serve warm.
You can leave them in the oven (with the oven turned off and the door ajar) for half an hour if you do not wish to eat them immediately, or reheat them covered with a kitchen cloth at 160C before serving. These keep a day or so in a sealed container.
Enjoy them!
Dear CSA members
This is week eight of the Summer 2010 CSA.
FARM OUTING: THE DRAMA CONTINUES
When I called Erick last week to confirm the outing last weekend, he was across the country at an agricultural conference. I’m guessing he thought we would cancel the outing again, as we did last time, and accepted an invitation to the conference without mentioning it to me. So we have rescheduled for the last time, for Saturday 27 March, at 1pm. As always, if you’d like to join us… let me know.
BEHIND THE SCENES
This is the fifth CSA we have run, and by far the most stressful for me. I say this because a CSA is a community project, not a business, where consumers have idea of what happens behind the scenes. Well, behind the CSA scenes I have been speaking with Erick almost every week, giving him feedback on the variety, quality and quantity in the weekly bag. I’ve been telling him things like, don’t put rocket and lettuce, or pumpkin and butternut, in the same bag, and over and over again – increase the quantities. But it doesn’t seem to stick, and while initially I was convinced it was a communication problem (Erick is Xhosa and I am English, and we meet halfway in Afrikaans, sometimes less than successfully), I am starting to think it is an attitude problem. So I told Erick last week that I just don’t feel like running another CSA with him immediately after this one. I need a break, and I think he needs a break too, to think about whether he wants to really commit to a CSA model (where he is paid above-market prices in a lump sum to provide a veggie bag), or rather sell directly to shops and at the Stellenbosch Waldorf market, where he sells each item for a specific price.
But I’m not making longterm decisions in a vacuum, so you will still be asked for your opinion in our usual anonymous online feedback form, probably next week. So think meanwhile about whether you are happy with your CSA bag, and would want to continue in the future.
RECIPE OF THE WEEK: SAUTEED SPINACH WITH CHORIZO AND CHICKPEAS
Yes, I know – meat? It took us eight weeks to get there, but here is the first recipe of this CSA that calls for the non-veggie stuff. For vegetarians, I would obviously skip the chorizo and rather add chunks of cooked butternut at the end for a very different but still delicious dish. For meat eaters who are sadly chorizo-less, I would suggest some pancetta or even decent bacon as a substitute. The recipe is on the blog, here.
Enjoy your veggies!
