It's Honey Time/ A Garden Meal

Bee Happy!

By Good Earth Food Alliance grower and producer, Linda Prescott

The bees have been very busy collecting nectar between rain showers and we finally are going to have a chance to reap the benefits.  This early summer honey was collected from blossoms in the orchards, from spring wildflowers, from the blossoms of black locust trees and other flowering trees and of course lots of clover.   It is a light colored honey and the favorite of many people. 

Honey is primarily composed of fructose, glucose and water.  It also contains other sugars as well as trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins and amino acids.  Bees may travel as far as 55,000 miles and visit more than two million flowers to gather any nectar to make just one pound of honey! 

Tips for baking with honey

• Use pure honey for up to half the granulated sugar in a recipe
• Reduce oven temperature by 25 degrees to prevent over-browning

For each cup of honey used:

• Reduce any liquid called for by ¼ cup
• Add ½ teaspoon baking soda

Because of its high fructose content, honey has a higher sweetening power than sugar.  This means you can use less honey than sugar to achieve the desired sweetness.

Store honey at room temperature.  Honey should not be given to children under one; everyone else enjoy!

To Good Earth Food Alliance CSA members:

• Linda's honey will be available as ala carte this week.
• Erin Meyer of Basil's Harvest shares some dishes she cooked up with the GEFA vegetables this week.  Read on to find out about her Garden Meal!
  

From Erin:

As the GEFA group finished cleaning up and putting everything away from Tuesday’s pick-up, I was trying to determine what to prepare for dinner when I got home.  My husband was in a meeting, but promised to be home by 7:00 so we could eat together.  The produce that  I brought home  included, tomatoes, garlic, golden beets, corn, squash, and onions; along with a couple extra loaves of Foccacia bread.  What to do?

I came up with two dishes to share.

Zucchini, Corn, & Beets dressed with Balsamic

Sweet onion                             ½ cup

Garlic, minced                          2 cloves

Zucchini, med. Dice                  1 medium

Corn, Fresh                              4 small ears

Cracked red pepper                 pinch

Salt                                          tt

Pepper                                     tt

Basil, cut into thin strips 1 T.

Parmesan cheese, shredded      ¼ c.

Balsamic Vinegar                      2 tsp.

1. Heat pan with oil.  Add onion and sauté until soft, 3 to 5 minutes.  Add squash, garlic, cracked red pepper, salt, and pepper.  Cook until soft 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, shuck and clean corn.  Cut off of the cob.  Add to veg. mixture to cook through.
3. Turn off heat, add basil and parmesan.  Adjust seasonings.

Preparing the beets:

Beets                                        3 bunches

Water                                       enough to cover beets

Basil, cut into thin strips 1 T.

Parmesan cheese, shreeded      2 T.

Salt                                          tt

Pepper                                     tt

1. Cut beet stems, leaving 1.5 inches.  Save greens for later use.
2. Wash beets, place in pot and cover with water
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cook until tender.  Approx. 10 minutes.
4. Test with fork to make sure beets are tender
5. Drain water, peel skin off of beets.
6. Cut into wedges

Place zucchini mixture on plate, place beets on top and around.  Sprinkle with basil and parmesan.  Drizzle balsamic over beets.  Enjoy

Garden Frittata

Turn broiler to high
Eggs                                                                 6

Onion, small dice                                              1/4c.

Garlic, minced                                                  2 cloves

Beet greens, thin strips                          ½ cup

Tomato, chopped                                           1

Basil, minced                                                    1 T.

Parmesan Cheese, shredded                             ¼ cup  

Oil                                                                    1 T.

1. Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft.  Add beet greens, let cook 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, whisk eggs, basil, salt, pepper, and cheese together.
3. Add tomato to vegetable mix.
4. Pour eggs into pan with vegetables.  Let bottom set.  Place into broiler on high heat.  Eggs will brown slightly.
5. Remove and plate
6. The eggs will be slightly runny.  This is great place to use toasted bread to mop up your plate