What To Do With Your Suzie's Farm CSA Pumpkin

Pumpking, like most other winter squash is delish when roasted, but getting it cut into pieces can be a nightmare.

Here is the trick, boil or mircowave your pumpkin (or squash) for 10 minutes. This will cook the oustside just enought to make them easy to cut but not cooked all the way through.

Or make pumpkin puree- place whole pumpkin in a large pot of boiling water. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until pumpkin is just cooked. Peel and seed pumpkin. Them roast or micorwave till tender.Place pumpkin into a food processor and puree till smooth. THis puree can then be made into soups, pies, ravioli and so much more.

 

 

 

Last night I had an amzaing class at Great New, the class show cased Suzie's Farm's CSA box.

Featuring these amazing vegetables:

Lettuce
Kale
Sunflower Greens
Cherry Tomatoes
Mixed Hot Peppers
Sweet Pepper
Squash
Cilantro
Salad Mix
Onions
Pumpkin - Winter Luxury or Long Island Cheese (edible)

 

Here is one of the recipes I made in class, enjoy!!

Pumpkin and Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta

Serves 6 to 8

1                 Vanilla bean

1 cup          Milk
1 tbsp         Agar agar flakes or 1 tsp agar agar powder
½ cup         Dark or light agave syrup
1 cup          Plain Greek yogurt
1 cup          Pumpkin puree (made from winter luxury, squash, or sweet potato will also work)*
¼ cup         Orange juice
¼ tsp          Pumpkin pie spice

 Split vanilla bean down the length of the bean, using the back of a small knife,  scrape seeds from the pod, reserve seeds and pot.

Add milk, vanilla bean, vanilla seeds and agar agar in a medium saucepan; bring to a scald over medium-high heat. Stir to dissolve agar agar.
Remove from heat add agave syrup and stir combine agave; steep for 10 minutes.
Remove vanilla bean from steeped milk.
In a small bowl whisk together pumpkin puree and orange juice.
Add steeped milk, Greek yogurt, pumpkin puree mixture, and pumpkin pie spice; to a blender and blend till smooth.
Strain through a fine mesh sieve.
Divide mixture among custard cups.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep refrigerated.)
Run a knife around edges of each panna cotta to loosen. Set each cup in shallow bowl of hot water for 10 seconds. Immediately invert onto plate and serve.

*Pumpkin Puree- place whole pumpkin in a large pot of boiling water. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until pumpkin is cooked. Peel and seed pumpkin. Place pumpkin into a food processor and puree till smooth.

 

 

Unlocking The Mysteries of The CSA

What is a CSA?

In short CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and you do just that when your subscribe to one. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to local farmers or products directly from the producer; usually consisting of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit, in a vegetable box scheme, and sometimes includes dairy products, coffee, bread and meats.


Local CSA Programs

There is a CSA right for you, check out these websites to find your perfect match (keys to look for- size of the box, drop off points, contents of the box, organic or non-organic, farm, etc.). i f I missed any please comment and I will add them to the list.

Be Wise Ranch

Suzie’s Farm

Garden of Eden Organics

Tierra Miguel Foundation Farm

Seabreeze Organics

Speaciality Produce (not really a CSA but more of a Farmers Market Basket and loads of fun)

More Information

Half the battle of using your CSA produce is know what everything is. I recommend

Fresh Produce Guide: The best-ever guide to 300 varieties of fruit and vegetables; published by Try-Food International in 2009.