Drying Persimmons

Six different farms provided produce for this week's CSA box!



Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark provided:
Butternut squash
Carrots
Pomegranates
Fuyu Persimmons
Fuji apples
Napa cabbage
Red leaf lettuce
Spinach
Tomatoes


Rancho Santa Cecilia provided:
Hass Avocados
Satsuma tangerines
Limes


Tierra Miguel Foundation, a biodynamic grower, provided:
Beets
Chard
Cucumbers
Cilantro
Dill
Horehound mint


Weiser Farms provided carrots and Russian Banana potatoes.


Winnetka Farms provided Italian salad greens.


And Silver Lake Farms provided microgreens: pea shoot, radish shoots, and arugula shoots.



Fuyu and Hachiya are the two most common varieties of persimmons. Fuyus are firm when ripe, while Hachiyas are best when soft. Hachiyas are great for things like persimmon pudding, bread and cake because the pulp can be easily mashed (think banana bread). You can make baked goods from Fuyus, too. However, because they're firm, they're usually peeled and chopped and they remain discreet bits in your baked goods.


Fuyus are perfect for drying. They're quite beautiful when dried and can be eaten like any other dried fruit: plain as a snack, mixed into oatmeal or granola, even chopped and added to savory dishes like rice pilaf or stewed chicken. I like them in salads, too.


It's unbelievably easy to dry persimmons. Simply wash and dry the fruit and slice them crosswise (horizontally) into 1-4 to 1/8 inch slices. A little lemon or lime juice will prevent them from turning brown and enhance their flavor. Then use the drying method or your choice.


I like to dry fruit in my oven. You'll need an oven thermometer to ensure that the temperature stays around 150 degrees F. Place the slices on cookie sheets lined with racks so that air can circulate. Turn the slices every 2-3 hours. They'll take about 10-12 hours to dry, depending on the thickness of your slices and the temperature of your oven. Convection ovens might be a little quicker because of the circulating air. You want them to be deep orange in color and not sticky. Let the dried persimmons cool before storing them. Well-dried persimmons can be stored in a can or a jar and do not need refrigeration.


If you have a solar dehydrator, you can use that instead. Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne discuss solar dehydrators in their wonderful book, The Urban Homestead.

Enjoy!

Shelley

Wild Kauai Boar

Shelley here - your intrepid traveling recipe blogger. I just got back from Kauai. When most people think about Hawaii, they think sun, sand, and surf; I think about wild boar. In fact, I dream about the wild boar on Kauai. There's a man in Anahola about half way between Lihue and Hanalei who traps young wild boars, butchers them, and roasts them at a roadside stand on weekends. You can smell the wafting aroma of succulent pig on an open fire from blocks away. He sells slices or chunks of any size with well-seasoned, roasted red skin potatoes, island grown sweet corn, and of course, his secret sauce, which is a smoky barbeque sauce with a hint of sweet and touch of tart. It's about as local as you can get on an island where there are very few mammals suitable for eating.

I usually pick up a few pounds of the tender, smoky meat. It's a slice of heaven right off the grill. It's also great cold on sandwiches, chopped and folded into scrambled eggs for breakfast, diced and made into hash with potatoes and onions, or just plain re-heated gently for another great meal.

Being a locavore on Kauai is much easier than it used to be. There's a "sunshine market" every day somewhere on the island and a passel of other privately-run farmer's markets. Competition for island-grown greens, such as arugula and mizuna, can be fierce, but tropical fruits such as papayas, pineapples, and bananas are abundant, as are sweet potatoes, taro, and giant avocados. Island-grown carrots, tomatoes, onions and herbs are also available, as well as eggs from local farms.

Of course, there's wonderful, locally-caught fish, especially ahi tuna. I discovered locally-caught shrimp on this trip. They were so fresh and minimally-processed with their shells, heads, and long antennae still attached! They tasted sweet and juicy sauteed quickly in butter and lime juice with a little salt.

There's a goat farm in Kilauea where a lovely, mild, soft goat cheese is produced. It's sometimes available in local markets but restaurants on Kauai apparently have first dibs. Coffee is grown on many of the Hawaiian Islands and there's a nascent chocolate industry on Kauai, too.

I remember a time when fine food on Hawaii meant steak and lobster shipped over frozen from the mainland. That's still available, but there's no need to settle for that when there's so much locally-grown, organic, fresh food available from small farms and artisan producers. So, wherever you go, take a moment to seek out the local delicacies and you'll take home the memory of these special treats as your souvenir.

Shelley

Persimmon & Spinach Salad - From Jennifer's son's school lunch program

From shareholder Jennifer:

Hi Tara,
I'll be picking up my first box today with my kids, I'm looking forward to it.
I've been searching for a good way to use persimmons. Mostly I find desserts but this recipe (I'll be trying it this weekend) comes from, believe it or not, the lunch program from my son's public school:

Persimmon and Spinach Salad

3 cups spinach, washed
3 medium "Fuyus" Persimmons, sliced
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons 100% orange juice
2 tablespoons Rice Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a small bowl, combine oil, orange juice, rice vinegar and salt for dressing
In a large bowl, combine spinach, persimmon and cranberries
Toss with dressing and serve

Jennifer: yay to the good peeps at your son's school for feeding developing brains with real food. Tara

Kelley's fall fruit cocktails

This from shareholder Kelley:

Soooo excited for the fruit. Amazing.

So many great recipes, but since it's holiday season, some of my favorites for those are party-friendly:

Persimmon cocktails: http://www.drinkoftheweek.com/drink-of-the-week/golden-gate-persimmon-cocktail/

Pomegranate mojitos: http://www.recipegirl.com/2008/11/17/pomegranate-mojitos/

Pomegranate seeds are easily mixed into tons of dishes: guacamole, yogurt, ice cream, pumpkin butter (over toast- yum) ... also, for a great salsa that I like to put over grilled fish: pomegranate seeds, lime juice, salt, cilantro, onion, maybe some ginger, maybe some peppers, and voila. :)

See you in a bit!

Kelley: Thanks for being a shareholder since the start. Love ya! And I'm coming to any cocktail party you ever have at your house. oh yeah.

Jess' savory galette with pomegranate seeds

From Shareholder Jess: my favorite way to use pomegranate seeds is on a savory galette, to add a little crunch and tartness. They're not the primary ingredient, but the way I heap them on, they might as well be. This is great for the holidays. I adapted this recipe from smittenkitchen.com

Dough:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, just softened, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
3 1/2 tablespoons chilled water

Combine flour, salt, sugar, and butter in a bowl. Combine butter with a pastry mixer or two knives until mixture resembles a coarse cornmeal. Add the water a tablespoon at a time. Toss with hands until you can roll dough into a ball. Flatten into a disk and store in the fridge for half an hour.

Filling:

1 small squash (butternut or kabocha work well)

olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 large onion, halved and thinly-sliced

salt

Pinch of sugar

3/4 cup cheese of choice (gruyere or parmesan work well)

1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage

pomegranate seeds

Cut squash into half-inch cubes and roast with a little olive oil and salt at 375 for 30 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, caramelize the onions with the tablespoon of butter, about a half teaspoon of salt and a pinch of sugar, stirring occasionally over medium heat until golden brown (about 20 min).

Turn the oven up to 400. Mix cooled squash, onions, cheese, and sage together in a bowl. On a lightly-floured, ungreased baking pan (or on parchment paper), roll your dough out to about a 12-inch round. Spread your squash/veggie mixture over the round, leaving an inch border. Fold the edges over, crimping as you go.

Bake until golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with a generous handful of pomegranate seeds, and garnish with a fresh sage leaf. Serves 6.

Jess' savory galette with pomegranate seeds

From Shareholder Jess: my favorite way to use pomegranate seeds is on a savory galette, to add a little crunch and tartness. They're not the primary ingredient, but the way I heap them on, they might as well be. This is great for the holidays. I adapted this recipe from smittenkitchen.com

Dough:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, just softened, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
3 1/2 tablespoons chilled water

Combine flour, salt, sugar, and butter in a bowl. Combine butter with a pastry mixer or two knives until mixture resembles a coarse cornmeal. Add the water a tablespoon at a time. Toss with hands until you can roll dough into a ball. Flatten into a disk and store in the fridge for half an hour.

Filling:

1 small squash (butternut or kabocha work well)

olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 large onion, halved and thinly-sliced

salt

Pinch of sugar

3/4 cup cheese of choice (gruyere or parmesan work well)

1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage

pomegranate seeds

Cut squash into half-inch cubes and roast with a little olive oil and salt at 375 for 30 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, caramelize the onions with the tablespoon of butter, about a half teaspoon of salt and a pinch of sugar, stirring occasionally over medium heat until golden brown (about 20 min).

Turn the oven up to 400. Mix cooled squash, onions, cheese, and sage together in a bowl. On a lightly-floured, ungreased baking pan (or on parchment paper), roll your dough out to about a 12-inch round. Spread your squash/veggie mixture over the round, leaving an inch border. Fold the edges over, crimping as you go.

Bake until golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with a generous handful of pomegranate seeds, and garnish with a fresh sage leaf. Serves 6.

fall fruit at pickup

We are having so much fun with the CSA program. Today we scored 150 pounds of Fuyu persimmons, and 150 pounds of pomegranates from Rancho Santa Cecilia in Carpinteria. It's fun cos it's new. We didn't have fruit in the CSA this time last year.

Then someone posted a video link to our facebook page showing Martha Stewart smacking a pomegranate on the bottom with a right- no-left handed lady. Cracked up laughing at it.

I picked up from Underwood this morning. They never fail to deliver, and they are such nice people to work with.

On my way home from their farm, I meet Craig from Winnetka Farms and pick up the Italian salad greens he grows. I love this guy. He so knows his stuff. And he's a laugh and a joy to work with. We cannot stop talking and he keeps making me late for things.

Here's what we had at pickup today:

From Underwood:

Cauliflower

green butter lettuce

mizuna

french breakfast radish

broccoli

corn

spaghetti squash

Cherokee tomato

From Tierra Miguel Foundation:

biodynamically-grown, organic carrots, chard, basil and rhubarb

From Weiser Family Farm: heirloom spuds, tons of garlic, carrots

From Winnetka Farms: Italian salad greens

From Rancho Santa Cecilia in Carpinteria: pomegranates and persimmons

From Silver Lake Farms: "shier than mamma" arrrugula, and radish microgreens.

Recipes coming up next: I'm posting each one received from shareholders.

See you soon!

tara