Warm Thoughts on a Winter CSA

A winter CSA requires a bit of imagination on the part of the member. You can’t go to a place. You can’t see the vegetables sprouting, you can’t pick them, and you can’t feel the sun on your back. The experience of picking up the share is unremarkable. It is a cold winter night, and I park my car just outside a gourmet food store in a neighboring town. Inside, I put my signature on a list of roughly 30 names – people who have committed to support New York agriculture through the winter months. I am quickly handed a bundle of frozen vegetables that includes broccoli florets, pureed butternut squash, winter greens and raspberries.

There’s no actual farm experience and the food is frozen. It’s not sexy, or evocative, but it infuses my winter cooking with the best of New York produce. The simply labeled packaging gets you to think about greens and bright colors and the farmers who tilled the soil at a time when one might rather be hibernating. Each package includes the name - the personal brand - of a specific farm. The broccoli florets come from Hepworth Farm in Milton, New York. Hepworth Farms grows certified organic produce, is a seventh generation family farm, and is a business owned and operated by women.

Winter Sun Farms has organized nearly 30 winter CSA shares in the Hudson Valley and New York City regions now through April. There’s a little bonus with every share – tender, sweet, pea sprouts – an infusion of fresh greens that I gobble up on a dark, winter night. It’s a harbinger of spring in January.

All these ideas and images move through my mind as I work in the kitchen. I’m able to think about the origin of the food and the farmer. Chef Rozanne Gold, author of the new book “Radically Simple” has some thought-provoking ideas on her blog about cooking in silence, and considering the people who brought you the food and those who will eat it. She says it makes the whole cooking experience more fulfilling.

Indeed, if I am to be more thoughtful about my ingredients, a healthy, wholesome recipe for brown rice with chicken and broccoli makes a delicious showcase for the produce from Hepworth Farm. I tinker with the recipe and add a little seasoning, and some organic chick peas. The frozen florets steam in the rice liquid until they are bright green and crisp-tender. The vivid flavor of the broccoli is evident.

All the discussion of eating local makes me smile. Does it work? Is it worth it? Will it last? The membership in Winter Sun Farms makes me a more thoughtful, conscious chef and eater - and that works for me.

©2011 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Behold the Winter CSA and a Fiesta Soup

The parties are over, it’s back to work, and things might be looking a tad blue.

My case of blues results in part from the fact that my community farm is slumbering, and fresh, local, revitalizing greens are a long way off. By my calculation it is approximately a full five months, or 22 weeks, or 154 days until the 2011 season begins again at Restoration Farm. Sobering, to say the least. Granted, the basement chest freezer is filled with soups, stews and breads that were the result of last year’s harvest, but over time I’ve learned that it wasn’t just the food, but the sun, the soil and the community that mattered as well.

I’m not sure anything can quite fill the void in my kitchen or my psyche, but when I learned of the existence of Winter Sun Farms – a novel CSA model that runs from December through April – I decided to give it a try.

Winter Sun Farms is the brainchild of Jim Hyland of New Paltz, New York who I profiled last autumn for Edible Hudson Valley. Jim purchases surplus produce from Hudson Valley farmers, freezes it, and distributes it monthly to CSA members throughout the Hudson Valley, metro New York and Long Island region. The first distribution for Long Island, which occurs in Rockville Centre, offered a bright selection of colors to chase away the winter blues:

The produce included Sweet Corn from Migliorelli Farm, Blueberries from Greig Farm, Butternut Squash Puree from the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, Green Beans from Markristo Farm and Stick & Stone Farm, Dice Mixed Peppers from Hepworth Farms, Phillies Bridge Farm and I & Me Farm and Plum Tomatoes from Hepworth Farms and Millers Crossing Farm. The membership supports sustainable agriculture and helps these Hudson Valley Farms and many others continue to thrive and develop new markets for their produce.

An influx of local food in the dark of winter is reason to celebrate, so I’ve whipped up a “Winter Fiesta Soup,” thick with sweet corn, black beans, colorful peppers and plum tomatoes. Inspired by the recipes for Penny’s Winter Sun Farms Veggie Soup, and Corn Chowder found on the Winter Sun Farms website, the soup is more than enough to fill the belly and warm the soul as I await the spring thaw on Long Island. And, local farm families throughout New York State benefit, too.

Winter Fiesta Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion chopped
1 medium carrot diced
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 bay leaves
4 to 6 cups vegetable stock
24 ounces frozen diced plum tomatoes
12 ounces frozen diced mixed peppers
16 ounces frozen sweet corn
2 cups cooked black beans
Salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions:
In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Sautee onions and carrots until tender. Add garlic and continue to sautee until golden. Add the vegetable stock and spices and bring to a boil. Add the frozen tomatoes and frozen peppers and sweet corn. Simmer until the vegetables have defrosted. Add the beans and simmer another ten minutes. Remove the bay leaf before serving. Season to taste.

©2011 T.W. Barritt all Rights Reserved