Paisley Farm CSA blog

Great produce speaks for itself. We were mentioned in the current issue of Edible Brooklyn by our friends at Dressler  in Williamsburg. 

“That may be because it’s something Dobkin’s done for decades.  Though Dobkin was raised in Manhattan, his father has land up in the Hudson Valley, where Dobkin grew up picking-his-own at nearby farms and orchards, and still stops by to load up his car with produce for the drive back to Brooklyn. (He also gets great ingredients delivered from places like Tivoli’s Paisley Farm, whose baby mustard greens he can’t seem to stop praising: “I’ve never tasted anything that delicate, yet that assertive,” he raves.) He cites his time at Gramercy Tavern and the Screening Room, both places known for simple, ingredient-driven food, as formative, too.

“Smart people start with what they know,” he says. “You’d be a fool,” he says of chefs or restaurateurs who don’t plan a business around what they love to eat, “to go with something else.” ”

Read more Edible Publications here. 

We are assertive…and delicate. The best of both worlds… much like this upcoming season. A mix of vegetables shares, fruit shares and egg shares, oh my! A little something for everyone to find their favorite to rave about. 

Don’t miss out on these beloved baby mustard greens and all our other goods!

Secure your spot now! 

Sign up HERE! 

Love & Greens, 

Paisley Farm 

To celebrate the season, we’ll be hosting a Paisley Farm CSA Potluck for all members, friends, and family this Wednesday, January 27 at d.b.a. in Williamsburg. There’s no pick-up that day, so we hope you’ll take the opportunity to come meet your fellow CSA members, share a favorite dish, and enjoy drink specials from the bar.

Paisley Farm Winter CSA Potluck
Wednesday January 27, 2010
7 - 9pm
d.b.a., Williamsburg
113 N. 7th St. (between Berry and Wythe, L to Bedford)

Thanks again for being a member of Paisley Farm CSA, and looking forward to seeing you at the potluck!

Hope everyone is enjoying their first week’s share and looking forward to a great (mini-)season! If you have any recipes you think your fellow members would appreciate, be sure to email them to your site coordinator, and we’ll be sure to post them.

Here are a few ideas to get the juices flowing…

Roast Pumpkin with Cheese “Fondue” A great recipe for entertaining, gorgeous presentation, and delicious beyond words.

If the pumpkin is too much of a production, maybe try Martha’s Gratineed Baked Squash Halves with your golden nugget squash, which is sure to be an elegant addition to your weeknight supper.

What about that daikon radish? Well, member Dave Klopfenstein took it upon himself (along with some nudging from me) to demystify the daikon and also came up with an amazing indian-inspired dinner idea.

And if you’re just in the mood to bake cookies, use 2 of them farm fresh eggs for Peanut Butter Cookies with Milk Chocolate Chunks. I’m not much of a cookie baker, but this recipe has changed my life. Be sure to add a tad more peanut butter than what the recipe calls for.

Enjoy, and stay warm!!

Dear Paisley Farm,

Volunteering the week after your harvest party, I heard about the 90 friends who broke bread with you last saturday. If I were able to be there I would have raised a glass to you and said, “thanks”…

“Thanks” for not poisoning the earth while growing and tending what the earth gives forth.

“Thanks” for working all hours, days and nights, for getting good food to those of us without a plot of land but with a burning need to feel connected to the land (and a healthy contempt for agribusiness).

“Thanks” for beautifully bundling all your bounty and presenting it in a way that shows you are as proud to grow it, as we are to eat it.

“Thanks” for lettuce so delicate that no supermarket could ever carry it.

“Thanks” for radishes as big as eggs and eggplants as polished as marble.

“Thanks” for infinite greens that build bodies 8 ways.

“Thanks” for tomatoes both heirloom and roma….(especially the zebras)

“Thanks” for basil that actually got me followed one day by someone who just wanted to keep smelling my shopping bag.

“Thanks” for the one ear of corn (it was delicious).

“Thanks” for the unbeatable beets.

“Thanks” for the squash and the leeks and the kale, and more kale, and more kale, and the swiss chard.

“Thanks” for the tatsoi that was so beautiful i hated to cook it, but any brassy cook can never resist a brassica.

And “thanks” for sending it all to jimmy’s with the best beer in the city to celebrate Wednesdays.

“Thanks” to Leslie Pariseau, always calm, often beleaguered.

And “thanks” Tivoli, for giving us mike, jan, along with Julian and Augusta, who made this CSA, season one, a joy.

Here’s to next year and a little sunshine in the spring. Oh, and happy “thanks”giving.

Jane Talcott,
Paisley CSA member (at Jimmy’s)

This recipe comes from Tanya Weiman at the Jimmy’s CSA, which she says, “always comes out  *amazing*, and I’m still pretty new in the kitchen! I halve the recipe, and it works out perfectly with our csa share portion I love that it uses the stems too.

A couple other things I’ve been doing is with the chives, chopping them up and adding to plain cream cheese to spread on bagels, or mixing into mashed potatoes. My best use of the mint so far was chopping finely and mixing into ground lamb to make some very tasty lamb burgers! Also I’ve been using the cucumbers to make batches of tzaziki, yum…”
______________________________

Bags for the People is a non-profit organization that provides people with a sustainable alternative to plastic bags.

We were so excited that Bags for the People brought their mobile sewing party to Jimmy’s No. 43 last week for Paisley Farm CSA. Check out the pics below, and keep an eye out for their bag-making parties throughout the summer. Boycott plastic bags - make your own reusable totes!

CSA members sewing bags.

Karol Lu, coordinator of our CSA at d.b.a. in Williamsburg won the prize for most stylish bag!

Sewing + beer!!

The bag-making studio at Jimmy's No. 43.

Bags for the People!

Coffee beans!

Crop to Cup is a farmer-direct coffee importer based in Brooklyn. They have an innovative community reinvestment program whereby consumers directly support farmers with every coffee purchase. There’s much more to the program – check out the details and meet their coffee farmers at www.croptocup.com.

Paisley Farm CSA members at our pick-up sites at Met Exchange, d.b.a. Williamsburg, and Jimmy’s No. 43 may order coffee directly from Crop to Cup. (Crop to Cup will handle all orders and payments directly. This is a *separate* service from the Paisley Farm add-on orders.)

Download the sign-up form here:
www.upstatefarmsny.com/Crop_to_Cup_signup.doc

And the complete FAQ here:
www.upstatefarmsny.com/Crop_to_Cup_CSA_FAQ.pdf

Here’s how the coffee orders will work - you have two options:

1. Week-to-Week ordering: Crop to Cup will send a weekly email and you respond with your desired volume of coffee.
2. Bean Subscription: Avoid the hassle of weekly ordering by subscribing to a pre-set volume on a schedule. For example, sign up to have 2lbs delivered each week, or 3lbs delivered every 2 weeks. You can pause (go on vacation!) or modify your subscription volumes at any time by sending an email to Crop to Cup. Bean Subscribers receive a discount of $.50 per lb.

1. Week-to-Weekers will pay Crop to Cup directly by PayPal or credit card (submitted by phone or email) before each delivery.  Or pay a lump sum in advance (by check, PayPal or credit card); they’ll inform you by email when your account is getting low.
2. Bean Subscribers: Submit a lump sum in advance (by check, PayPal or credit card), or keep your credit card number safely on file with Crop to Cup and they’ll automatically charge your card every four weeks.

Each site will have to meet the minimum drop-off amount each week to keep it rolling, so drink up!