2013 Parkchester CSA Application

The Parkchester CSA application is now open to current members and excited people interested to join us this season. Parkchester CSA (community Supported Agriculture) connects with a local farm, W. Rogowski farm to give the community of Parkchester local and  fresh vegetables every year since 2009. Come and join us this season. There is a variety of vegetables given from June to November. It will be a fun experience. With Parkchester CSA, you can visit the farm, get to know the farmer, Cheryl Rogowski and most importantly, you get to know where your vegetables are grown and harvested.  If you have any questions, email Lizzette Bonfante, our membership coordinator at parkchestercsa@gmail.com

Support local/ seasonal vegetables !

Support a farm this year and take advantage of the health benefits ! 

Eat to Live -- Turf Breast Cancer Food Project

As we wait for spring, summer, and the return of our CSA season, our CSA founder Sharon has exciting news about her new project helping women affected by breast cancer eat healthy. Their first meetings will be March 23rd and March 30th, from 1pm to 3 pm, at St. Paul's Church. More information below.

Eat to Live!

Breast Cancer Support Group

For women in Parkchester living with breast cancer.
Receive nutrition resources, cooking tips, recipes and
support with eating healthier!

Attend a March Orientation Meeting!

Saturday, March 23rd (1pm—3pm)

-and-

Saturday, March 30th (1pm—3pm)

Meetings are held at

You must RSVP to attend these meetings

Email contactturf@yahoo.com

Call 917-432-8494

GOOD FOOD! PRIZES! FREE GIVEAWAY!

What do I DO with all my vegetables? One Healthy and One Decadent Use for Winter Squash

Ah, Fall. When you are eating seasonally as all of us have been this year, you learn to appreciate the different fruits of each season, even each portion of each season. Early summer and the beginning of our CSA season brings garlic scapes and green onions,the blooming of summer brings corn, tomatoes, chiles, and squash blossoms. Fall, although it is normally considered a season when things hibernate, has its own vegetable pleasures as well. Squashes and potatoes abound.

I have my own personal go-tos when it comes to squash and potatoes, and I usually rely on those as we enter this wonderful season of comfort foods, stick-to-your-ribs meals. This year I have entered two new dishes into my repertoire-- one, a slow-cooker black bean and butternut squash chili, is healthy and we will definitely be eating a lot of it. The other, a recipe for a flan de calabaza (pumpkin custard) given to me by my grandmother, is definitely more decadent and we will make it for special occasions (as well as share the recipe with all of you!).

Recipes after the jump!

What do I DO With all these vegetables? Hands off my bok choy!

Truth be told, I was overwhelmed when I received my first 'choy from the CSA, about three years ago, the veggies looking very similar to the picture above. I am sure I had had bok choy at some point before that, but I had certainly never cooked with it or its various family members (chinese cabbage, fun choi, tatsoi, and various others, a veritable family reunion of Asian greens), which I would come to know well as I continued receiving my CSA share week after week. I learned to use most of it by pickling, shredding the 'choy in all its forms to create a sort of mustardy sauerkraut which I found worked great in tuna salad. But I didn't go farther than that. 

Until I found a gateway recipe that introduced me to the pleasures of bok choy stir-fries. It was a recipe for beef and bok choy that I have included below, and it is delicious over rice noodles or regular rice. Ever since then, I beg people to hand over their choy if they don't want it. I also recently found a recipe for sesame chicken and bok choy stir fry, which (to me) tastes just like sesame chicken but not as overwhelming, and much better for you (My husband likes it, but is not so convinced)

Click the link for nutritional benefits of the "chois" and for recipes! 

What do I do with all these vegetables? Part 5: When the going gets tough, the tough pickle the hell out of their share!

 

 

Last week's share brought with it the smell and taste of the summer harvest from Rogowski Farm! We received all sorts of vegetables we had not yet seen this CSA season, including baby kohlrabi. If anyone has seen an "adult" kohlrabi, you know just how daunting they can look: big, purple, with multiple limbs stretching out into its greens, the root of the kohlrabi really looks like a purple alien before you undress it of its skin and find something very similar to a jicama and which can be used in similar ways.

 

I usually make a kohlrabi slaw with my CSA kohlrabi, but I wasn't in the mood this time, and sometimes when we get into a fixed mindset about a vegetable, we can forget there are other things to do with it. So on and on my kohlrabi sat during the week, pretty much forgotten until I finally got some time to work on the project I had in mind to use up the large amounts of sweet, hot, and Banana peppers we have received in the last few weeks, namely pickling them to enjoy their crunchy, tangy, spicy goodness in later months.

For more information on how you (yes, YOU) can pickle in your refrigerator with a minimum of work and a small amount of space, read on!

What do I do with all these vegetables? Part 4: In which a share is decimated (but the kitchen sink is left intact)

I think I may have found the ultimate summer soup recipe that uses up a good deal of the vegetables we have been receiving in our share (or can be added). The herbs are flexible (my suggestions are a guideline) It can be made vegan, it can be made vegetarian, it can be made with meat! Most importantly, it is yummy for adults but very healthy! Maybe even more importantly for some of us, it is easily made for kids (see below for more instructions) and our young taste tester found it pretty tasty.

The recipe is after the jump, and modified from Veggie Venture's Summer Best Corn Chowder (the really, really healthy stats for the recipe, including Weight Watchers points, are also at the site. Be sure to include points for meat if you add it, or calories, if you are watching those!) Thanks to Jessca for posting the original recipe!

What do I DO with all these vegetables? Part 3--The New Mom makes Pink Worm Soup and Oven Roasted Beets and Zucchini with Orange-Paprika Compound Salt

 What my vegetable soup COULD have looked like -- courtesy of http://www.all-creatures.org/recipes/images/soup-vegnood_small-3.jpg

My daughter has decided that regular, jarred baby food is beneath her. This might be because of all the amazing table food she had while were on vacation in Puerto Rico--and the fact that this week, she went out to eat three times (jetsetter AND gourmand): She sampled the carrot soup at a Mediterranean restaurant downtown, had pupusas at a Salvadoran restaurant (her tamale never got to the table), and finished the week off with gazpacho, some chicken, and melon for dessert at lunch with her grandparents.

Figures she would turn her nose up when I tried to serve her baby oatmeal this morning, but I panicked. She had never liked any of the baby food I had made for her in the past--she SPIT OUT some baby hummus I lovingly made for her at five months, ditto oatmeal wih peaches at 8 months--and now I was either going to have to take her out to eat every day...or I would have to learn to make something for her that she would enjoy.

This week's share and recipes after the jump!