Independence Days – Week 3

Plant Something  – Rick planted more radishes (those darn chickens!!).  But they grow fast and we had the room!

Harvest Something  – So far Rick has harvested two radishes – they were sweet and spicy and we can’t wait for more!  We also got a good deal of spinach this week… Yum!  😀

Preserve Something– I didn’t really do much in this category…. thinking of picking more raspberry leaves to dry… does thinking about it count?  LOL!

Reduce Waste – I bought a bunch of raspberries on sale last week.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to the last ones before they started going bad… but the chickens sure enjoyed them!

Preparation and Storage – I put the dried raspberry leaves from last week into a baggie?  But they will be used up quickly, so it’s not really long term storage or anything. 

Build Community Food Systems–  I worked on getting more vendors for our farmers market here in Englewood.  It’s neat to see the market grow!

Eat the Food – Spinach!  And pork and corn and tomatoes!  The corn and tomatoes were from the freezer, from last year’s CSA harvest.  Still great! 

I’m thinking, so this doesn’t get boring, of putting a recipe in this section each week.  So for this week, since we harvested spinach, I’ll share my favorite dressing recipe to top fresh spinach with:

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1-2 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 envelope onion soup mix (or use dehydrated onions and a good measure of salt or soy sauce)

Mix ingredients well and pour over a big spinach salad topped with sliced almonds, and mandarin oranges.  We usually throw red bell pepper, thinly sliced red onions and cucumber into the salad if we have them, but use what you like!  You can even throw in cooked pasta and grilled chicken and make it a whole meal.  We took this salad (with pasta in it) to one of the BBQ’s we went to this weekend.  This dressing is for a big salad, so you can use less if you’re not making it for a crowd or as a meal.