Hilltown Families 
GIVEAWAY: CSA Farm Share from Crimson & Clover Farm
Enter to Win a Farm Share from
Crimson & Clover Farm this Summer!
Enter to win a Small Farm Share from Crimson & Clover Farm in Florence, MA for the 2012 season by sharing a family recipe you're looking forward to preparing this spring with fresh local produce, embellished with the story behind this favorite dish! Deadline: April 16th.
Locally grown food is a great community connector! This past winter families could enjoy Winter Farmers’ Market all throughout Western MA while connecting with friends and neighbors during these often festive weekly markets. And during the growing and harvest season Farmers’ Markets happen nearly every day of the week and have quickly become places the community not only shops for fresh produce and local products, but a place they can enjoy a summer morning or evening together listening to music, enjoying coffee or dinner, and chatting with local farmers.
But Farmers’ Markets aren’t the only way the community can connect with their neighbors while supporting local farmers… Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is another fabulous way families can support and participate in our local food culture. By purchasing a CSA share, shareholders pledge their support of a local farm and receive weekly shares of fruits, vegetables, herbs, cut flowers, honey, eggs, dairy and meat products. For a list of CSA’s in the Pioneer Valley, check out CISA’s list of local farms.
SEASONS AT OUR TABLE
Hilltown Families is currently working on a project titled, Seasons at Our Table, inviting our readers to share recipes and stories inspired by our local food culture. Hilltown Families sponsor, Crimson & Clover Farm, a community based farm on the Northampton Community Farm land, is partnering with us in this project by offering an incentive to our readers to share their favorite stories and best family recipes. Share a family recipe you’re looking forward to preparing this spring with fresh local produce, embellished with the story behind this favorite dish, and be entered to win a Small CSA Share from Crimson & Clover Farm, a $375 value! Deadline to enter to win: April 16th by 7pm (EST). Details on how to enter to win are below.
CRIMSON & CLOVER FARM
Crimson & Clover Farm is a community based farm located on the beautiful Northampton Community Farm in Florence, Massachusetts. They grow vegetables, fruits and flowers for a Community Supported Agriculture Program and for farmers’ markets. Welcoming and encouraging community involvement with the farm, they offer weekly volunteer workdays, farm celebrations and educational opportunities.
They are offering our readers a Small Farm Share ($375 value) which will feed up to two people. Their vegetable options change through the season, starting with more leafy greens in the early season and more roots and summer type vegetables as the season moves along. The Small Farm Share is a great option for smaller families, couples, individuals, or folks trying out a CSA share for the first time. In addition to a Small Farm Share the winning shareholders will have access to their Pick-Your-Own garden where families can pick many other crops like strawberries, cherry tomatoes, flowers and much more. Find out more about their farm shares at www.crimsonandcloverfarm.com.
HOW TO WIN
Your chance to win a Small Farm Share from Crimson & Clover Farm in Florence, MA for the 2012 season will be super fun for all foodies and families who love to cook & eat together! To enter to win simply:
- CONSIDER SHARING THIS POST ON FACEBOOK by selecting the Facebook icon below;
- SHARE A FAMILY RECIPE YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO PREPARING THIS SPRING WITH FRESH LOCAL PRODUCE, EMBELLISHED WITH THE STORY BEHIND THIS FAVORITE DISH below (one entry per household);
- FULL NAME (first/last);
- LIVE (TOWN/STATE) (must include your town to be eligible);
- ACCURATE EMAIL (we never share your email address);
- From our favorite entries (so make them good!) we’ll randomly draw a winner and will share the results below.
IT’S THAT SIMPLE! — Deadline is Monday, April 16th, 2012 by 7pm (EST).
I’m not a great cook, and my husband and I don’t have much time, but we do try hard get our family eating well and to have family dinner each night and we’ve landed on something that works well for us…
On a day when we do have some time, we’ll cook up a big load of veggies in a little bit olive oil – usually in a big pan on the stove, sometimes on the grill outside.
When possible we’ll get our kids involved in picking out the veggies (at our CSA, at the farmers market, or at the grocery store), and chopping up the veggies (a two-handled rocking knife and some clear instructions makes it safe even for our 6-year old).
Then we use these veggies in a bunch of easy, quick ways throughout the week:
• Throw it on top of whole wheat pasta – with red sauce, pesto, or just plain
• Put it on the table with beans, cheese, and whole wheat burrito or taco shells for make-your-own burritos or tacos
• Use it as a side dish with rice and beans (when in a real rush I buy prepared rice and beans at the Greenfield Coop) or chicken and rice (sometimes I buy a cooked rotisserie chicken)
• Throw it on top of a pizza crust (prepared or homemade crust)
• Mix it in a pan with eggs and milk and call it an eggs bake
• Throw it in a pie crust (I use the prepared, roll-out kind) with eggs and milk and call it a quiche
Finally, we just throw some fresh fruit, raw veggies and milk in lunch boxes with these dinner left-overs when we pack lunches each day – viola – meals for a week!
Kat Allen
Northampton, MA
Tonya, when you make your brownies, is the beetroot just chopped up beets? I want to try these!
Tasha has won a small farm share from Crimson & Clover Farm in Florence, MA and should contact us at hilltownfamilies@gmail.com for details.
Thank you to everyone who participated in our promotion. Check back for some really great promotion we will be doing this spring & summer… and get your recipes ready to submit as part of our Seasons at Our Table series!
HI!! We love fresh salads with baby spring greens topped in a warm garlic dressing… First, gather up your greens: my little ones used to love picking baby spinach, mescalin leaves, and dandelion leaves out of our garden (what ever you have growing works perfectly). Nowadays, I go to the farmers market and use whatever is in season. I still use the dandelion leaves from my yard as they are plentiful!! Then make a bowl full of greens.
Top it off with this dressing:
I head of garlic roasted or finely chopped
3 T olive oil
2T balsamic vinegar
1T lime juice
1/8 salt
1 med. shallot, finely chopped
Pepper
Squeeze the roasted garlic into a pan. Add oil, vinegar, lime juice, shallot, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until the shallot is softened, like 3-5 minutes. Pour the dressing on top of the greens until coated.
You can also add pine nuts and goat cheese.
(Once summer and fall come, add kale and beet greens. I have not tried mustard greens or swiss chard but bet they would taste yummy.)
Thankfully, both of my kids love garlic and always have.
Me and my girlfriend love to juice. Me and my mom used to juce when we were trying to loose weight and it worked wonderfully. We always served it when our family was visiting and our whole family fell in love with it. We usually use about 1 handful of spinach, 1 handful of apple slices, 1 handful of celery, 1 handful of sliced carrots, and 1 handful of parcley. It tastes like drinking life itself. My entire family absolutly loves this drink. It’s also very refreshing to drink on hot days. I forgot to add that I’m from northampton, ma.
Me and my girlfriend love to juice. We usually use about 1 handful of spinach, 1 handful of apple slices, 1 handful of celery, 1 handful of sliced carrots, and 1 handful of parcley. It tastes like drinking life itself. My entire family absolutly loves this drink. It’s also very refreshing to drink on hot days.
Our family loves veggie pizza on the grill all summer! It has been so much fun for my girls Hannah & Gracie to work together to create awesome tasting & heatlthy pizzas. Hannah is our self taught, in-house dough expert. Gracie kicks it into high gear pretending she is an Italian pizza chef. She has the apron, the hat & the accent!
Begin with your favorite pizza dough and roll it out.
Brush one side with olive oil & sprinkle with salt and pepper, grill for a couple of minutes. Brush the top side with olive oil and flip.
You can pre-grill some of the veggies, we like our crunchy so we start piling them on.
Tomatoes, onions, peppers, broccoli, spinach, summer squash, carrots, cucumbers, garlic and your favorite cheese. Cook for a few minutes & enjoy.
Gracie says, “We’re eating a rainbow!”
We really enjoyed our fresh, colorful, local veggies from C&C farm last year.
Ciao Bella!
Ellen, Hannah & Gracie Moriarty
Hampden, MA
All these great recipes are making me long for summer! We often make a crustless quiche, and it tastes great with local fresh vegetables in the summer. You can add any vegetables to this recipe — we usually put in spinach and zucchini. And sometimes even my son will try it!
Crustless Quiche:
– some veggies: 1 zucchini shredded, a couple handfuls of spinach, etc.
– 2 tablespoons flour
– 1 cup cottage cheese
– 3 eggs
– salt to taste
– 1/2 cup milk
– some grated cheese (cheddar works well) blended in and some on top
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until golden on top. Enjoy!
Beryl Hoffman
Florence
This is a simple dish, but it’s tasty. I like to slice zucchini and yellow summer squash quite thin, mix it with some extra virgin olive oil and freshly ground black pepper and sprinkle it with grated asiago cheese, then bake it for a half an hour at 375F. We make this simple veggie side dish every summer on our annual trip to Cape Cod and everyone seems to love it.
Sandra Dias
Holyoke, MA at 375 degrees
Being a new family, we don’t have any long-standing recipes, but we do have a newfound favorite.
My now three-year-old son used to refuse all things vegetable. It seemed to me like he could sense them in pasta sauce and refuse his favorite tortellini when I served it on top.
Last year, when he was a stubborn two year old, I was determined to find SOME vegetable that he would eat. After spending countless hours reading cookbooks and searching online for new and not too adventurous recipes, I found a suggestion for vegetable pancakes. Aha! This recipe gets bonus points because our 18 month old also loves it!
Below is the recipe I follow. It is cobbled together from the few we tried, and customized based on what we have on hand.
Veggie Pancakes:
Mix together:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
a small shake of salt
In a separate bowl, mix together:
1 cup of fresh shredded veggies. Past favorites include carrots, zucchini, broccoli and squash. You can also mix and match 1/2 c of two different veggies.
1 large egg
1/4 cup whole milk (start with 1/4, add in more if needed at the end)
Mix the two bowls together, shape into patties, then fry in a thin layer of vegetable oil
This will only be our second year making this new family recipe, but I think it’s safe to call it one now because we make it almost weekly!
Emily Hindle
Florence, MA
When I was young, I remember standing knee-deep in rich soil, watching my mom and dad dig, plant and pull up weeds. By the end of the summer, my mom would send us out to pick tomatoes straight off the vine, and basil so fresh I could smell it as soon as I stepped out of the door.
Before my dad died after one of those sun-soaked summers, I was always focused on picking, planting and eating fresh foods.
Last year was the first time I made my own garden, and those hazy memories came back to life. One of my favorite recipes is the classic Italian Caprese, tomatoes, basil, olive oil and mozzarella.
This summer, I can’t wait to eat tomatoes that smell so good your mouth waters.
Miranda
Northampton, MA
One summer, my grandmother planted a garden full of nothing but basil, garlic and tomotoes. I remember being confused in the beginning of this garden why it only had three ingredients. Later, when we harvested our first batch of each, my grandmother lined the grandkids up in the kitchen and gave us each a task: wash, peel, chop, slice, puree. I was the washer usually! The kitchen would start to smell of mouth-watering pesto. We’d have pesto pasta that night for dinner, but we’d also have frozen pesto to last for the rest of the year! Yum!
Jackie MacNeish
Ashfield, MA
My Nana had a big family of ten children and a passion for baking. She had her own garden and one of the family favorites was strawberry rhubarb pie. Of course everything was fresh and made from scratch. I think it tasted better because of the love she had for all of us. Nana always served her food with a huge smile and anticipation to see how much we all enjoyed eating the pie.
Here’s a recipe combined from two separate recipes from The American Woman’s Cook Book from 1950. This is one that most housewives got as a wedding gift. It has everything from packing lunches to setting the table for a dinner party!
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
1 cup sugar 1/8 tsp salt 1 egg, beaten
3 Tbsp flour or cornstarch 2 cups rhubarb cut into small pieces
3 cups fresh strawberries, hulled 1 Tbsp butter 1 recipe Plain Pastry
cinnamon & sugar for garnish
Mix sugar, cornstarch, & salt. Add egg & beat thoroughly. Add rhubarb & strawberries. Line piepan w/pastry, add filling, dot with butter and cover with top crust or lattice and bake at 425 degress for 10min. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 30-35min. longer. Remove pie from oven, brush with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar.
(1 recipe Plain Pastry makes 2 crusts) You can use your own favorite for this.
Spinach Smoothies – I originally made these for St Patrick’s Day as a green food (with no food coloring) option. The whole family loved them. My 3 and 4 year old ask for these almost every morning and they are sooo much better with fresh, local spinach, honey and strawberries!
Serves 3-4
1 orange
6 strawberries
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1/2 banana
2 cups spinach
1 cup ice cubes
Sweeten with raw local honey to taste
Add ingredients in the order listed to keep the blender from getting stuck and add the spinach a handful at a time. Blend until smooth.
This is a quick, healthy, and delicious way to start the day (and the extra half of a banana keeps the kids busy while you make it).
Kristen Rhodes
Leeds, MA
In the summer we dine almost exclusively on the fresh vegetables in our area, they are so delicious and my oldest daughter just loves to help prepare fresh food. We call this receipe our Summer Vegetable Sandwich, and it tastes just perfect on a hot summer night when we eat out on the porch!
Ingredients
1/4 cup mayonnaise
3 cloves garlic, minced1 tablespoon lemon juice1/8 cup olive oil
1 cup sliced red bell peppers
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
1 small yellow squash, sliced
2 (4-x6-inch) focaccia bread pieces, split horizontally (Bread Euphoria makes the BEST!)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
Directions
1.In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise, minced garlic, and lemon juice. Set aside in the refrigerator.
2.Preheat the grill for high heat.
3.Brush vegetables with olive oil on each side. Brush grate with oil. Place bell peppers and zucchini closest to the middle of the grill, and set onion and squash pieces around them. Cook for about 3 minutes, turn, and cook for another 3 minutes. The peppers may take a bit longer. Remove from grill, and set aside.
4.Spread some of the mayonnaise mixture on the cut sides of the bread, and sprinkle each one with feta cheese. Place on the grill cheese side up, and cover with lid for 2 to 3 minutes. This will warm the bread, and slightly melt the cheese. Watch carefully so the bottoms don’t burn. Remove from grill, and layer with the vegetables. Enjoy as open faced grilled sandwiches.
We often pair this with cucumbers and sour cream, a receipe handed down from my grandmother, which we prepare by slicing local cukes up thinly, adding real sour cream and a couple splashes of red wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. This alone often serves as a meal for my 4 yr old daughter! To drink we top it off with organic homemade mint ice tea that we use by letting the tea stand in the sun to brew and adding fresh mint leaves and lemon!
Truly a delicious meal for summer time!
(Ooops! Forgot to add my town, had to repost! )
In the summer we dine almost exclusively on the fresh vegetables in our area, they are so delicious and my oldest daughter just loves to help prepare fresh food. We call this receipe our Summer Vegetable Sandwich, and it tastes just perfect on a hot summer night when we eat out on the porch!
Ingredients
1/4 cup mayonnaise
3 cloves garlic, minced1 tablespoon lemon juice1/8 cup olive oil
1 cup sliced red bell peppers
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
1 small yellow squash, sliced
2 (4-x6-inch) focaccia bread pieces, split horizontally (Bread Euphoria makes the BEST!)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
Directions
1.In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise, minced garlic, and lemon juice. Set aside in the refrigerator.
2.Preheat the grill for high heat.
3.Brush vegetables with olive oil on each side. Brush grate with oil. Place bell peppers and zucchini closest to the middle of the grill, and set onion and squash pieces around them. Cook for about 3 minutes, turn, and cook for another 3 minutes. The peppers may take a bit longer. Remove from grill, and set aside.
4.Spread some of the mayonnaise mixture on the cut sides of the bread, and sprinkle each one with feta cheese. Place on the grill cheese side up, and cover with lid for 2 to 3 minutes. This will warm the bread, and slightly melt the cheese. Watch carefully so the bottoms don’t burn. Remove from grill, and layer with the vegetables. Enjoy as open faced grilled sandwiches.
We often pair this with cucumbers and sour cream, which we prepare by slicing local cukes up thinly, adding real sour cream and a couple splashes of red wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. This alone often serves as a meal for my 4 yr old daughter! To drink we top it off with organic homemade mint ice tea that we use by letting the tea stand in the sun to brew and adding fresh mint leaves and lemon!
Truly a delicious meal for summer time!
Roasted Beet Salad
Take fresh beets, rinse off the dirt and use hands to coat with olive oil, then wrap the beets in an envelope of foil – crimping the edges to seal the envelope – and put envelope of beets in a 350 degree oven for an hour. Remove and let cool. When cool, remove beets from foil, rub peel off beets and slice into thin slices. Pour a drizzle of walnut oil over slices and top with crumbled blue cheese (or cherve if you like that better) and a sprinkling of walnuts. Enjoy! I never like beets until I discovered how roasting them brings out the sweetness.
Young children can help rub oil on the beets, rub the peel off the beets when they are cool, sprinkle the cheese and walnuts – and its extra fun to eat something so richly colorful.
D Thompson
Northampton MA
Most of my favorites revolve around those luscious late summer tomatoes. Here is one of several:
Fresh tomatoes (a few different colors makes it even better) – chopped
fresh garlic – minced or pressed (to taste)
oil cured black olives – roughly chopped
capers – rinsed and roughly chopped
fresh basil – ripped or chopped into strips
fresh parsely – finely or roughly chopped
dash good olive oil
dash balsamic vinegar
optional: chopped fresh mozzarella
Mix everything together, taste and adjust if needed. Eat just like that, or spoon onto lightly grilled or toasted sliced of good bread and let the juices soak into the bread.
The only story I can share is that for years now I have lived on various versions of this recipe for the month of August – as long as I belong to a CSA or garden that can keep me supplied with those lovely yummy tomatoes!
Karin Perlman
Northampton MA
PS. I also can vouch for that grilled asparagus recipe that Ruth mentioned – delicious indeed!
Last year was the first year that we discovered garlic scapes. At the markets, I was drawn to their beautiful curly shapes, even though I had no idea what to do with them. My husband created this simple recipe the first time I brought them home (ingredient amounts are approximate) and it quickly became a family favorite. So excited to make this again this spring!
-1 box whole wheat pasta
-2 bunches of garlic scapes
-1/4 cup chopped basil leaves
-1/4 cup toasted almonds
-1/4 cup pecorino romano
-olive oil
1. Prepare pasta according to box directions.
2. In a blender, combine garlic scapes, basil, almonds, and the pecorino romano. Add olive oil slowly, between pulses in blender, until desired consistency is reached.
3. Combine pesto sauce with pasta and top with a few basil leaves. Enjoy!
Tasha Anderson
South Hadley, MA
This recipe is best when made from fresh and tender beets! It became a family favorite having a “picky eater” so the recipe below and zuccini brownies became favs. I always add more veggies and less cacao than called for!
Beetroot Brownies:
– 100g butter (softened)
– 1 cup dark brown sugar
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– Dash of ground nutmeg
– 1 cup wholemeal flour
– 2 tbsp raw cacao powder and nibs
– 4 eggs
– 1 cup ground almonds
– 1 cup finely grated raw beetroot
Method:
Preheat fan oven to 180°C (200°C conventional).
– In a large bowl, mix together butter, sugar, vanilla and nutmeg.
– Mix in the flour and cocoa powder, then beat the eggs in one at a time.
– Fold in the ground almonds and the beetroot, mixing completely.
– Pour the mixture into a greased 20 x 20cm baking tray.
– Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
– Leave in the tray for about 15 minutes before transporting to a wire rack to cool completely.
When cool, cut up into rectangles and enjoy!
Tony(a) Lemos
Ashfield MA
For me, so many spring vegetables are about the thrill of eating something fresh from the garden after a long winter: sugar snap peas plucked straight from the vine, fresh spring salad greens and crisp asparagus, eaten raw like a whole carrot. Grilled asparagus is the exception…in our family we count the spears to make sure we are all getting our fair share.
The recipe is simple: one or more bunches of asparagus sprinkled with some olive oil and a generous amount of chopped garlic cloves and sea salt all cooked on the grill a few minutes until they just start to look bright green and start to loose a bit of their rigidity. Delicious!
Ruth von Goeler
Northampton, MA