Edition 169

March 5, 2010

• Local Box Contents
• News & Updates
• Recipe Corner
• Greenling Tidbits

• Back - Goose Eggs, the gaggle of local geese is laying again
• In Nepal -Kala & her fresh pico, she'll be back in the kitchen in April
• New -Tamale Varieties, local from White Mountain Foods
• New - Hard & Soft cheese, local from Humble House in San Antonio
• Peak Season - Blood Oranges, Tangelos, Mandarisn, Tangeries, Marrs, Navels, Valencias, from local and non-local sources

Cilantro & Herb Storage

There's an easy way to make that cilantro and other herbs with stems last much longer. Simply put the whole bunch in a glass of water and loosely cover with something (we suggest compostable plastic baggies). Snip off leaves as you need them.

If you're not going to use it all (there's a lot of cilantro right now) simply spread out the dry leaves on a cookie sheet and place in freezer - an hour or two should do it. Then collect the frozen leaves together into a bag and return to the freezer. They can last through the summer when we don't have as many herbs.

Delivery Tip - Haven't ordered yet and wonder how your groceries arrive? Check out this 1-min video.

Get to Know Greenling

Ryan Adams, your Fleet Admiral

Ryan is the glue that holds our delivery system together...or at least he carries the glue. He started as a delivery driver and has worked just about every job in Greenling at some point. You'll catch him on the phone sometimes and he's always the one to track down where your basket is if it hasn't quite arrived yet.

He keeps the packing room on pace, routes deliveries, fixes our trucks and equipment, and basically helps out wherever he can. It's people like this that go above and beyond their job who keep Greenling purring like a kitten. He's about to tie the knot with his partner, Grace (the famous Keeper of the Peas who used to work here) and has 1 little organic sprout named Griffin. Check out a short video 'Hello' from Ryan here.

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Venture Capital Meets Slow Food

I believe this is as important of a movement as any for repairing our economy, our health, and our environment. Why don't we have local, organic meat? Because there's not an organic processing facility within 1000 miles of here. Why don't we have more local food restaurants? At least in part because supply is so volatile and local ingredients/foods are often not available (even when they're in-season). We all know the demand is there. We want local! Building local infrastructure takes capital.

But investment dollars have turned away from this ever-important sector. To some of us an investment portfolio is a napkin with a stock tip on it, but really we all have 2 buckets we think of for our investment dollars - charity and market-return assets. Slow Money is a whole new bucket! It's a new way of thinking of investments and returns. I hope you will come find out more and learn how you can get involved.

Slow Money Austin is a newly formed non-profit I'm helping launch with the goal of bringing our money back down to earth and into our backyard. SMA is hosting a pair of events this April to talk specifics on how to do this and how to help the local food system thrive! On April 21 is a conference at City Hall featuring a keynote by Woody Tasch, author of Slow Money, experts from around the country joining local leaders to help us envision the future of the local food system as well as Showcase companies that are using or in need of Slow Money (if you know someone needing money for local food ventures, please send them to the Slow Money Austin website). Then on April 22, Earth Day, SMA has teamed up with the award-winning Dai Due supper club and Barr Mansion Organic events center for an amazing local food fundraising dinner. Please join us:

Join Us on April 21 & April 22!

Slow Money Austin 2010 Showcase
Co-hosted by the City of Austin
April 21, 12:30 - 5:00 p.m.
Council Chambers, Austin City Hall, 301 W. 2nd Street, Austin, TX

Slow Money Austin Fundraising Dinner
Co-hosted by Barr Mansion
April 22, 6:00 p.m.
Barr Mansion, 10463 Sprinkle Road, Austin, TX

Visit http://www.slowmoneyaustin.org to learn more

This Week's Box Contents & Local Items

Rain then sun is absolute heaven for farmers. Everyone is working hard to get plants in the ground to thrive and the ones who's plants are already in are doing great. This week lots of corn, berries, and squash has been planted and citrus around the country, including locally, is ripening and so delicious!

Here's what will be available from local farms on our website this week (the best selection of local produce in the state - guaranteed):

In Local Boxes ($34.99) this week (Mar 8-12):

• Lettuce - Bluebonnet
• Cilantro - Acadian
• Green Shallots - Acadian
• Radish - My Father's Farm
• Yellow Onions - Naegelin
• Mushrooms - Kitchen Pride
• Spinach - Naegelin
• Grapefruit - G&S
• Arugula - Bluebonnet
• Herb - Pure Luck

Last Week's (Mar 1-5) Local Box Video:

In Farmstead Boxes this week (Mar 8-12):

• 2 Mini Cheesecakes - Little Bluestem
• Lemon Sunrise - Humble House
• Half-caf Fresh Roast - Austin Java

Order Here

Fresh, Prepared Meal Selection for this week:

Dish #1 - Will be up by Saturday (1 pint - serves 1 for lunch) -

Dish #2 - Will be up by Saturday (1 pint) -

Produce from Local Farms

• Swiss Chard - Naegelin
• Herb, Asst. - Pure Luck
• Herbs, Basil, Live - Bella Verdi
• Sunflower Sprouts - Groovy Greens
• Lettuce, Baby - Animal Farm and My Father's Farm
• Lettuce, Bibb - Bella Verdi
• Cauliflower - Ope's Farm
• Meyer Lemons - G&S Groves
• Kale - Naegelin
• Mars Orange - G&S Grove
• Cherry Tomatoes - Naegelin
• Grapefruit - G&S Grove
• Limes - G&S Grove
• Green Leaf Lettuce - The Farm Patch
• Romaine Lettuce - The Farm Patch
• Red Leaf Lettuce - The Farm Patch
• Spinach - Naegelin
• Scallions - Lundgren and Acadian
• Pea Shoots - Bluebonnet
• Watercress - Bluebonnet

Produce from Local Farms

• Microgreens, Arugula - Bella Verdi
• Microgreens, Broccoli - Bella Verdi
• Mushroom, Crimini - Kitchen Pride
• Mushroom, Portabella - Kitchen Pride
• Mushroom, Shiitake - Kitchen Pride
• Mushroom, White - Kitchen Pride
• Potatoes, Sweet -Naegelin
• Red Radish - My Father's Farm
• Red Spring Onion - My Father's Farm
• Onion, Yellow - Naegelin
• Arugula - Acadian
• Cabbage - Naegelin
• Tomatoes - Village Farm
• Broccoli - Various
• Collard Greens - Naegelin
• Mustard Greens - Naegelin
• Cilantro - My Father's Farm
• Kohlrabi - My Father's Farm

Events & Local Food Happenings Around Town

Local Food Tasting Soiree

-March 28th, 4pm-7pm

-Beets Cafe (map)

A super-cool new raw food restaurant in town, Beets creates some amazing vegan dishes. My favorite is the asian salad. They also have this amazing chocolate almond milk that is only sweetened with dates. But anyway, they're going to share some of their awesomeness with us for our next Local Food Tasting Soiree.

Bring you favorite local ingredient recipe (with a focus on VEGAN) and get voted into our cookbook! The group will decide which recipes are good enough to go in our seasonal cookbook. So bring your best dish and let Greenling make you famous. As an additional reward, all recipe winners will get a free Local Box! With all these local food potlucks asking you to bring food, we figured we could give a little back to you.

RSVP by emailing jevans AT greenling.com or clicking here.

Check out pictures from the last one.

Slow Food Austin Farm Tours

-Throughout March

-$16 - towards food from farm

The Yonder Way tour was a huge success so Slow Food Austin has created several more farm tours from Urban farms like the relatively new Springdale to the Stryk Dairy farm where you can learn more about raw milk regulations (and why we can't sell you raw milk). Slow Food Austin also puts on great happy hours. Click here to follow Slow Food Austin on Facebook and stay up to date on their events. Or just check out http://slowfoodaustin.org

Recipe Corner

Cracker Lasagna

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
  
• 1 cup milk
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• splash of olive oil
  
• 1 medium onion, chopped
  
• 1 green shallot, chopped (optional)
  
• 1/4 pound brown mushrooms (about 12 medium), brushed clean and chopped
  
• pinch of fresh thyme (optional)
  
• 2 big handfuls of spinach, washed and chopped
  
• 18 2 x 4 - inch crispy crackers (see head notes)
  
  

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400F degrees with rack in the middle. Oil your baking dish and set aside.

Using a hand blender (or food processor or regular blend) puree the cottage cheese, milk, eggs, and salt until smooth. Line a separate deep dish or baking pan with the crackers and cover with 1 1/2 cups of the cottage cheese mixture, reserving the rest for later use. Let the crackers soak for about 10 minutes - long enough for them to soften a bit, but not long enough for them to loose all their structure

In the meantime, in a large skillet over high heat, cook the onion and shallot in a splash of olive oil along with a pinch of salt. Cook for a couple minutes, until they begin to soften up a bit. Stir in the mushrooms, and cook until they release their liquid and start to brown, another 5 minutes or so - stirring once or twice along the way. Remove from heat and stir in the spinach. Combine with the remaining cottage cheese mixture.

Arrange about 1/3 of the soaked crackers in a single layer in the bottom of prepared pan - I break up the crackers a bit to make things fit. I should mention things are much easier if you're using a square pan. Ladle 1/3 of the spinach mushroom mixture over the first layer of crackers. Add another layer of crackers, another 1/3 of the mushroom mixture, a final layer of crackers and the remaining mushrooms - three layers total. Place in oven for about 30 minutes or until top is golden (edges golden). Remove and cool for 15-20 minutes - this helps everything set up nicely. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes about 8 - 10 servings.

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For More Recipes Check Out The Eating Out of the Local Box Blog. Also make sure to become a fan of Greenling on Facebook to get weekly recipes from Woman With A Whisk & The Best of Thymes food bloggers.