It's taken me a little bit to finally subscribe to Zoe's Garden, the CSA (community supported agriculture) I mentioned earlier. I made the first pick-up on Tuesday, and holy moly! It's a lot of food! This is their small share. If you're curious, this is what it included:- Purple Top Turip
- Tam Jalapano
- Black Beauty Eggplant
- Black Beauty Zuchinni
- Blue Lake Bean
- Yukon Gold Potatoes
- Red Pontiac Potatoes
- Rainbow Swiss Chard
- Endive
- Kolhrabi
- Salad Mix
- Sweet Danso Basil
- Early Ducth Cabbage
- Honey Select Sweet Corn
- Triple Crown Black Berries
Zucchini Pancakes
Makes 10 to 12 pancakes
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (3 1/4 ounces)
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (3 1/4 ounces)
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 to 1 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups milk (low-fat or whole)
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 medium zucchini, trimmed and shredded on large holes of a box grater
Cooking spray
Maple syrup, powdered sugar, yogurt or sour cream for serving (optional)
Add the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt to a large bowl and whisk thoroughly. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Add the milk, zest, lemon juice and butter and whisk until frothy. Stir in the zucchini.
Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir gently, just until combined (some lumps are okay; do not over mix). Let the batter rest at room temperature for 10 minutes or up to 30, allowing the leavening agents to start reacting and any lumps of flour to dissolve.
Meanwhile, coat a nonstick skillet or griddle with cooking spray and heat to medium or medium-low. Give batter a quick stir. Using a small ladle or quarter-cup measure, scoop scant quarter cups of batter onto the cooking surface to make roughly 4-inch pancakes. Cook 2 minutes or until holes form on top of pancakes. Flip and cook on second side 1 minute or until golden brown. Serve with maple syrup, powdered sugar, yogurt or sour cream.
2 comments:
I may have to try out that zucchini pancake recipe! WE have a few here we need to use up... I know you have explained the CSA thing before, but I can't remember - how does the group work? Just curious.
Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. My computer at home has been down, and we finally got it back.
A CSA is basically a farm where people in the community buy shares at the beginning of the season, and get locally grown produce every week through the growing season. There are lots of reasons to do this. The short list is:
-It's better for the environment because your produce hasn't been trucked 1,500 miles to your local grocery store.
-Buying local is a great way to stimulate the local economy.
-The food is generally fresher because it hasn't been in a truck for thousands of miles.
-Local agriculture tends to be more diverse, which is better for the environment than having a monoculture of one species of vegetable being grown for acres and acres.
If you are interested in learning more about the damage the industrialization of the food supply has done to our health and the environment, read The Omnivore's Dilemma.
Anyway--that ended up being a little longer of a response. I've enjoyed the CSA so far. Ryan was skeptical about it from the financial end of things, but in the two weeks that we have been doing it, I've only had to go and buy milk and eggs. I think we have been eating healthier, because I've had to come up with ways of using all of the produce so I don't feel guilty about wasting food that I've invested a bit in.
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