Beginning of the 2013 summer CSA

Today is the beginning of the 2013 summer CSA. The share is bountiful, including lots of luscious greens, asparagus, and other goodies. Included in today’s harvest is;

Baby Arugula; this makes an excellent salad addition, or is also great as a topping on home made pizzas, or in pesto.

Head Lettuce, several different varieties, from romaine to buttercrunch.

Kale, two different varieties to choose from.

Asparagus, mostly fresh from our fields, with a few additional bundles from

Early Asparagus

Zucchini, yellow or green variety, from our greenhouses.

Cilantro or oregano

Japanese Turnips, organically grown from Show-me produce, a delicious salad type turnip, sweet, crunchy, unlike any turnip you’ve had before.

Whole shares only;

Choice of beets or radishes

Additional head lettuce and kale

Green onions

Chard

zucchini

Bok Choi: great for stir fry or cole slaw.

Green Garlic, some from our friends at Yang Farms, and some from ours, both organically grown.

Fruit share today is Fresh Strawberries, conventionally grown by Browns Berries and Boz’s Berries, both from Miller MO. We will have a limited number of quarts for sale at the farm, $5/quart.

We’ll see you at the farm for pick-up between 4 and 6pm. If you are unable to make it to the pickup, please give me a call at 8390847 before 6pm, and we’ll set your share aside in the cooler with your name on it for later pickup. We are excited to see

Chard

those of you who we haven’t seen in a while, and to meet the new members. Thank you for letting us be your farmers.

Curtis and the farm crew.

Still taking CSA members, share the news with your friends!

We still have room in our Summer CSA, please spread the word! Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is an innovative food distribution model that can best be described by comparing it to the purchase of a subscription to a newspaper. Instead, you subscribe to a weekly delivery of produce direct from a local farm source, and in this case Millsap Farm. The subscriber provides the farmer with guaranteed income and the farmer provides the subscriber with fresh and local produce at a cost below traditional supermarkets.  The produce is absolutely fresh, supports a local family, and connects you to where and how your food is produced.

Millsap Farm offers 6 Share options, we offer full and half shares of our veggies, Katiemade bread share, Green Grass Hens egg share, Millsap Farm raised pastured non- GMO chicken, Schwartz Cattle llc grass fed beef, local sourced fruit share.  All of these can be picked up Tuesday at the farm, or delivered to your door in Springfield, or picked up at Homegrown foods!

Find out more here http://millsapfarms.wordpress.com/join-our-summer-2013-csa/

Spring Farm Photos

Salmon with Rhubarb Sauce

“This is good, mom,” the girls said! Actually they ended up asking to “just eat Rhubarb” at the end of the meal because it was so good, but we opted to save it for toast instead.
You will need:
1-2 lb rhubarb, cut into 1/4 inch pieces (about 5 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
1 lemon, juice of, to taste
8(6 ounce) salmon fillets, about 1 inch thick,
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 500 degrees
2 In a small saucepan, combine rhubarb, and sugar.
3 Cover and cook over low heat until rhubarb is falling apart, about 10 minutes, adding water if necessary.
4 Stir in the lemon juice. The sauce should be the consistency of applesauce.
5 Arrange salmon filets, skin side down, parchment paper on a baking pan.
6 Season to taste with salt and pepper.
7 Bake until flakes 10-15 minutes.
8 Place fillets on rhubarb.
9 Spoon rhubarb onto center of warmed plates.

Egg, Chicken, and Beef shares now available.

We’ve got great news; this summer we have arranged for egg, chicken, and beef shares.

Egg share is offered through a partnership with Diane Gambel of The Seedless Gardener.  Diane has a flock of pastured laying hens, who lay delicious eggs with dark yolks and firm whites.

Laying hens, and one confused duck

If you’ve never had a farm fresh egg, you’re missing out, and if you have, then you know what I’m talking about.  We’ve arranged for a limited number of egg shares, which will include one dozen eggs each week.  The cost is 3.75/week, for a total over 26 weeks of 97.50.

Beef share is genuine grass finished Highland Beef, which is known for it’s flavor, lean nature, extra high protein, and low cholesterol (actually lower than chicken in tests).  These cattle are raised entirely on forage, and are free of pesticides, growth hormones, and antibiotics.   Emmanuel and Lydia Schwartz, an Amish couple from Eldorado Springs, raise these great cattle, and are offering up to 5 shares of beef this summer.  The beef share will include 5 distributions this summer; June 25th, July 30, August 27th, September 24th, and October 29th.

In June and September you will receive:

2 ribeye steaks

2 boneless sirloin steaks

1 pikes peak roast

10 lbs of roast beef

In July and October you will receive:

Highland cattle

2 top sirloin steak

1 arm roast

4 lbs of stew meat

10 lbs of ground beef

In August you will receive:

1 chuck roast

10 lbs ground beef

6 lbs of beef patties

All together over 100lbs of top quality beef, total price is $600

Chicken share will be chickens raised on our farm, on pasture, fed non-GMO grains.  These chickens are better flavored, better textured, and better for you than grocery store chickens.

poultry on pasture

The chickens will be whole, shrink wrapped, and frozen.  Chickens will be distributed on the last Tuesday of the month, starting in May. Each month you will receive four chickens, for an average of 20 lbs of chicken per month.  Cost per month is $75, or $450 for the season.  This is a .25/lb discount from our regular price, and is also the only way to guarantee that you get chickens from us.  We will have a limited number for sale at the farmstand, but when they are gone, that’s all there will be, so only chicken share members will be guaranteed a supply of chicken all summer long.

To purchase any of these options, follow this link if you are not already a Summer CSA member; http://millsapfarm.csasignup.com/members/types

If you are already a Summer 2013 Membership, use this link to add  to your membership;  http://millsapfarm.csasignup.com/members/updatemembership

Use those beet greens in your share today

Spring has sprung, and we are as busy as bees, planting and tilling, preparing for a big summer, and keeping the veggies flowing for the winter CSA. Our intern, Adam says, “The last week at the farm has been a good one. Spring is here and everything is starting to grow a little faster. The trees have buds, some are blossoming, flowers are coming out of the ground like magic, wasps are coming out, it’s getting warmer. It’s an exciting time. We are rushing to get fields prepped for planting and getting plants in the ground. We’ve filled up the Rye Field completely with transplants and a few direct seeded rows. Lots of cabbage, lettuce, kale, carrots and the like. The transformation of the farm is neat. High tunnels have been moved, the ground in being tilled, no-till beds are piling up with straw, green is becoming the dominant color again and the smell of turkey litter floods the air. It’s a beautiful thing.”

The leaves of root vegetables are often edible, but they’re often overlooked. They either get thrown away, composted, or perhaps used for stock, but they’re can be ingredients in their own right. Try one of these with your beets or radish tops:

1-Beet Greens and Feta Pasta – Wilted beet greens, sauteed onions and garlic, along with a little pasta water make a simple sauce for Penne pasta that’s topped with Feta.
2-Grilled Goat Cheese Pizza with Figs, Beets, and Wilted Greens – Sweet figs and tangy goat cheese pair with beets and their greens on this pizza that’s perfect now that we’re all firing up our grills.
3-Lemon and Butter Braised Beet Greens – Simple and quick, this side dish comes together in less than 10 minutes.
4-Spicy Beet Green Crostini – Beet greens are sauteed with red chile pepper flakes and garlic, then placed on top of toasted baguette slices.
5-Salad of Edible Radish, Beet & Carrot Top Greens – This no-waste recipe uses the tops from three different root vegetables and tops them with a vermouth vinaigrette. Add any other salad topping you like.

Do you make use of your beet greens or the greens from other root vegetables? What’s your favorite way to prepare them.

Here is your share:
Spinach

Green onions (bundled)

Sweet Potatoes

Radishes

Kale

Arugula

Pea shoots

Whole Share only

Head Lettuce

Green Garlic

Chard

Beets

Leaf Lettuce

Jerusalem Artichokes

We’re looking forward to the spring potluck, scheduled for 5:00 p.m. May 4. Come one, come all, bring the family, friends, anyone you want. We’ll have hayrides, bonfire, fresh bread from the pizza oven, farm tours, and more than anything else, a chance to hang out on the farm.

See you at the farm.

Coming home today in your CSA basket

In today’s harvest we have;

Carrots
Sweet Potatoes
Arugula, bundled, better for cooking and pesto than salad
Spinach
Head Lettuce
Green onions
Boc Choi

Whole shares only:

Jerusalem artichokes
Kale
Bean Sprouts

Hope you enjoy the veggies, we are relieved to be back to spring weather, as opposed to earlier in the week when it felt more like winter around here.

See you at the farm

Sweet potatoes, perfect for sweet potato, and orange salad!