Oh my gosh....rhubarb. Part of our homeschool curriculum today needed to include division and fraction review for Sierra, so we decided she should make the rhubarb crumble and cut the recipe in half. This was fortuitous since the recipe calls for 2 lbs. of rhubarb and my farm box included 1 lb. (If you didn't see the crumble recipe, click the Recipes link on the side of the blog)

While she was downsizing the recipe, I was really proud that when she got to the part about putting the ingredients into an 8x8 pan, she asked "so should we put this into a 4x4 pan?" Go Sierra!

Anyway, we all had our doubts about the outcome....still wary of the rhubarb! But we needn't have worried.

And this is our most hard-to-please eater, just finishing up:

He had no problem gulping it all down.

So if you haven't used the rhubarb yet, go for it! And if you still are wary-contact me and we will be over lickety split to take it off your hands and practice multiplication by doubling the crumble this time!

Rhubarb. Say it with me now…..rhu barb. Ah…conjures up images of grandmothers and pies left on tables we never touch, right? That was my initial response to one of our offerings this week. But then, in true farm box pioneer style, I sucked it up and started researching how I’m going to enjoy this strange fruit. And about that…..

Although rhubarb is botanically classified as a vegetable (a stem or leaf), it is most often prepared as a fruit. In 1947, the U.S. Customs court proclaimed it a fruit, since that is the way it is eaten. Well, whether you want to call it a fruit or a vegetable, never eat rhubarb leaves, cooked or raw, because they contain a high concentration of oxalic acid, which, if eaten in large quantities, can be lethal.

So I’ve gone classically overboard on recipes this week in the hopes that one of them will get you excited to truly try this new product in your Otter Orchard farm box. I’ve also included a link to a twist on broccoli, and a new way to prepare sweet potatoes. For even more rhubarb recipes, as well as to access earlier recipes, click on the Recipes link on the sidebar.

And by the way, don’t forget that the happiest you can make a blogger is by leaving a comment, signing up to follow the blog, or signing up for an e-mail subscription. It lets us know you’re out there, you’re reading, and you care!

Rustic Rhubarb Scone Cake

From the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market Cookbook

Quicker to make and easier to handle than pastry dough, this rustic Irish cake soaks up the delicious rhubarb juices.

For the Dough

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ cup sugar

pinch of salt

½ cup (1/4 pound) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

¾ cup buttermilk

For the Filling

1 pound rhubarb (about 5 stalks), chopped

Grated zest of 1 orange

½ cup sugar

1 egg white, lightly whisked with a little water

Sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter a 10-inch deep-dish pie dish and set aside.

To make the scone dough, sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl.  Add the butter and, using a pastry blender, 2 knives, or your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture has the consistency of coarse cornmeal. Gradually add the buttermilk, folding the wet and dry ingredients together until a soft, shaggy dough forms. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead lightly just until the dough comes together.  Don’t work the dough too much, or it will be tough. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions.

To make the filling, combine the rhubarb, orange zest, and sugar in a bowl and stir to mix well.

Roll out half of the dough into a 12-inch round on the floured work surface and transfer it to the prepared pie dish.  If it falls apart, don’t worry. Just gently pat it back into place.  Fill the dough-lined dish with the rhubarb mixture. Roll out the remaining dough into a 12-inch round to form a pastry lid. Brush the rim of the bottom crust with water and put on the lid. Press the top crust to the bottom crust to seal.

Brush the whisked egg white evenly over the top crust and then sprinkle lightly and evenly with sugar. Make 3 or 4 steam slits in the lid. Bake until the crust is golden brown and looks dry and the fruit is soft when tested with a knife tip through a slit, about 1 hour.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

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Scalloped Rhubarb

Serves: 4

4 oz cubed stale bread


4 oz melted margarine


11 oz diced rhubarb


8 oz sugar (less can be used if desired)

Pre-heat oven to gas mark 4 [this is my favorite instruction-obviously this recipe is not American – it’s British. So if I had to guess, I’d say go with a 350 degree oven].

Simply combine the bread, margarine, rhubarb and sugar. Pour into a shallow baking dish and cook for approximately 45 minutes.  The bread turns crunchy and the rhubarb is wonderfully stewed in the sugar.

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And in case you want some new ideas for your broccoli, there’s a great recipe at the Guilty Kitchen blog that happens to pair it with sweet potato fries (which we all know is a perennial favorite here at OO-just scroll far enough down in our Recipes link to find them again):

And also a new sweet potato recipe:

Curried Sweet Potato Fritters

These Indian-inspired fritters also make great hors d’oeuvres—simply use scant 1-tablespoon dollops of the fritter mixture when cooking, and skip the bed of spinach.

Serves 6

Fritters

3 large eggs

1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal

2 Tbs. curry powder

1 tsp. grated fresh ginger

1 large sweet potato, peeled and grated (4 cups)

1/2 cup finely diced onion

1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed

2 Tbs. poppy seeds, optional

1/4 cup mango chutney

Wilted Spinach

12 cups baby spinach

1/4 cup lemon juice

To make Fritters:

1. Whisk together eggs, cornmeal, curry powder, and ginger in large bowl. Stir in sweet potato, onion, peas, and poppy seeds, if using. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

2. Heat large skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Scoop sweet potato mixture onto hot skillet in 1/4-cup dollops, and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook 4 to 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Flip, and cook 4 to 5 minutes more, or until golden brown on second side. Transfer to plate, and keep warm. Repeat with remaining sweet potato mixture until you have 12 Fritters.

3. Meanwhile, prepare Wilted Spinach: Heat large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add spinach in batches, and cook 2 to 3 minutes, or until leaves are wilted, but still bright green. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

4. To serve: Divide spinach among 6 serving plates, and drizzle with lemon juice. Top each serving with 2 Fritters, and garnish each with 1 tsp. mango chutney.

Have a great week - and don't forget to subscribe!

The History, Benefits and Future of Otter Orchard

I don't mean for the title to be scary....like you have to read a report or anything....but really wanted to put some info out for the whole school community, as we start to wind down the year, and think about the future of Otter Orchard. Unfortunately, our future is in jeopardy.....and we're going to need the support of the whole school community if we want to continue Otter Orchard.


History


The idea came from a parent...."how about a produce stand to help defray costs for the Gold Country field trip that parents are required to pay for as part of the 5th grade curriculum? I'll go down to the wholesale produce market, buy some produce, and we can sell on campus." Sounds great! Multiple (mega-multiple?) planning and volunteer hours later, it began.

A core team of people divvied up the responsibilities, and gravitated to doing what they liked (always key in volunteer recruitment!). Amazingly to me, the most people stepped up to volunteer to go down to the produce market at a ridiculous hour in the morning....and they fought over the chance to do it! Uh, just to be clear - I wasn't one of those people.

But I can see why....it's an exciting environment, a beehive of activity at an unreasonably early hour.

Eventually, we streamlined our process even further and set up a delivery system for our produce - so now our early birds can just receive the produce in the morning at Montclair. Heck, if so inclined, they could just roll out of bed in their jammies, sign for the order, and roll on home to catch a couple more hours of nod time.

We also evolved into all organic all the time, based on customer feedback. Here's my thoroughly professional continuum of how to decide what we stock:

As you can see, we are currently purchasing smack in the middle of the continuum.


We decided Wednesdays were a great day for a produce stand for several reasons. It seemed like a natural - hump day, between the weekends when folks can procure their fruits and veggies at the local farmer's markets. And not of little importance, it's the day that one of our core team members doesn't work, and the day that one of the portables is vacant before and after school in order to stage the produce for sale.


Our produce stand is a wonderful opportunity for parents and children to buy fruits and veggies after school, but we also needed to address the parents who can't be at school until sometimes 6pm to pick up their children. So, to serve these needs, as well as for customers who are super-excited by the prospect of lots and lots of produce, we created the weekly farm box program. Not surprisingly, this is where most of our revenue comes from, and as anyone in retail can tell you, being able to plan your profit margins more accurately from pre-sales makes for a successful business. But ya gotta have the bricks n' mortar for presence, marketing, customer service, and most importantly, community involvement.

Okay....I think we're up-to-speed on the history. Next up:



Benefits


Ahh...so, so many benefits. 

• It's a weekly profitable enterprise. 
• It's an opportunity for students to experience running a business firsthand.
• The produce table has the ability to create community. 
• The healthy eating component is a huge benefit for our children.

We've all seen the media out there-childhood obesity is such a hot-button topic that President Obama created a Childhood Obesity Task Force in February. From that came Michelle Obama creating Let’s Move, an initiative whose goal is "to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation." Chef Jamie Oliver is attacking school lunch programs in American school districts with his program Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, after doing the same in the U.K. On a local basis, most people are aware of Ann Cooper, the Renegade Lunch Lady who engineered the revitalization of the food in the Berkeley school district with the help of Alice Waters and many others. These are all flashy, media-driven bandwagons. 


However, there are many more grass-roots movements going on, which I like to believe we can be a part of.  

Future

Oakland Unified is involved with creating a Farms-to-Schools Network to specifically provide fresh farm produce for sale to parents at schools who don't normally have easy access to it.  These markets have become so valued to the communities they serve that when solicited two months ago to volunteer at the markets, more people signed up than there were available volunteer shifts. The average weekly sales of School Markets have increased over 30% since their inception in October 2006. Today, each School Market sells an average of $600.00 of fresh organic produce each week. In May 2008, 117 parents were surveyed and 99% reported that their families have been eating MORE fresh fruits and vegetables since they have been shopping at the School Market, and 91% reported that their children ask them to buy produce at the School Market.

Two very different models of farms stands also exist in fairly close proximity. One is at Glenview Elementary and the other is at Windrush, a private school in El Cerrito. 

Montclair is now in the position of needing to decide how to proceed with Otter Orchard. As we 5th grade parents wind down our final weeks, we are left to wonder what the future holds. What should the primary goal be for Otter Orchard? Is it profits? Is it community building? Is it promoting and modeling healthy eating? Or is it a blend? What we definitely do know:

1. Otter Orchard will always take a core, passionate group to drive it;
2. It needs the support of the larger school community, including the PTA and Administration; and
3. The students need to be involved to the very greatest extent possible

With that, I think you're up-to-date. Please leave a comment or e-mail me with any thoughts or ideas - how you've felt about Otter Orchard, what you've liked, didn't like, or how you might see it's future. We've thoroughly enjoyed this experience but relish the idea that others may be able to create the next level. Have a great week!


otterorchard@gmail.com

Customers checking out the Otter Orchard farm table yesterday.

Giving the purple carrots a try.

April 14 Farm Box

This week Otter Orchard's farm box includes bananas, valencia oranges, zucchini, sweet potatoes, Braeburn apples, strawberries, Black Knight carrots, tomatoes, beets, grapefruit and baby spinach.


Black Knight carrots is a new item that we had to look up. Here's what we learned:

Seasons/Availability

Black Knight Carrots are harvested and available year round. 

Description/Taste

Deep purple to nearly black with a contrasting white center, Black Knight carrots are getting the attention of gourmet chefs. Unique in color and size, these colorful carrots are exceptionally tender in texture and sweet in taste.

Nutritional Value

Maroon carrots are an excellent source of anthocyanin, beta carotene and antioxidants. Anthocyanin pigments act as powerful antioxidants, grabbing and holding on to harmful free radicals in the body. Anthocyanins also help prevent heart disease by slowing blood clotting. Carrots rank second to beets for containing the largest amount of natural sugar of all vegetables. As a carrot matures, its natural sugars are stored in the cells of its outer layer.

Applications

Enjoy raw or cooked. Add this carrot's unusual color and crisp crunch to enhance fresh mixed green salads and coleslaw. Juice carrots; use to add color and flavor to dishes. The color of cooked Black Knight baby carrots deepens and becomes more intense. Each cooked carrot may vary in color creating an interesting colorful contrast. These carrots especially make superb carrot soup. To store, refrigerate in a plastic bag up to three weeks.

Geography/History

Carrots were originally purple, however, other colors such as red, white and yellow also appeared in Asia thousands of years ago. About 200 years ago, the first orange carrots were cultivated in the Netherlands and the Royal House of Oranje is credited for the carrot's popularity.

Native to Turkey, our Black Knight carrots are grown at Tutti Frutti Farms in California. They are Fifth Generation farmers in northern Santa Barbara county.

Chilled Carrot Honey Soup
Gourmet, July 2005


1 lb carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (2 1/4 cups)
3 cups water
1 3/4 cups (14 fl oz) reduced-sodium fat-free chicken broth
1 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons mild honey
2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice


Garnish: 6 thin lemon slices and 1 tablespoon mild honey for drizzling


Combine all ingredients except 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice in a 3-quart heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until carrots are tender, 30 to 40 minutes.

Purée soup in 2 batches in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids) until very smooth, then chill soup quickly, stirring occasionally, in a metal bowl set in a larger bowl of ice and cold water, about 30 minutes. (Alternatively, cool soup, uncovered, 30 to 40 minutes, then chill, covered, until cold, about 4 hours.)

Stir in remaining 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice and salt to taste. Divide soup among 6 bowls with a ladle. Float a lemon slice on top of each serving, then drizzle with honey and serve.

Soup can be made 3 days ahead and kept chilled, covered.