Asian P’s make a curtain call but bring a poncho to this party because the juice is loose. Good golly, I bit into one just now and I felt like I was sitting front row at a Gallager show. The flavor is somewhere between cotton candy and John Candy.
There is so much happening right now that I’m not sure where to begin...let’s just use bullet points as those seem to be a good way to make some sense out of my ramblings.
BLACK RADISH!!
Seems like every week we have one “show stopper” type product and this week we are blown away by the black radishes. Mile Creek Farm over in New Lebanon, OH has been a new partner with us this year for many of your great products and this is one of their beauties.
My house is going through a kitchen remodel and we’ve been sans a functional kitchen for awhile. My current kitchen consists of a hotplate, Instant pot, and a what I think may now a broken toaster oven. The instant pot has become increasingly helpful since it’s also a slow cooker, can saute things, and of course, is a pressure cooker. Jack Lalanne would have been in his element on this one.
Knowing that the instant pot is not something that all Yellowbirders have, I finally found a cookbook that shares recipes that can either be made in the Instant pot OR a slow cooker. I made this dish last night and it is delicious and super healthy.
2 things coming in your box this week on card stock…
-A recipe for Acorn Squash and Apples that you can use this week, and then add to your recipe box...you do have your grandma’s old recipe box right?
-A card with a promo code on it for the online store...use promo code “GROCERY” at checkout to get $5 off an order of $50 or more...and YES, YOUR BOX COUNTS TOWARDS THE TOTAL!
Spigariello or “Broccoli Leaves” have made their way back around for the second time into our boxes.
My FAVORITE item of the year is finally here…
The very first year of building the Yellowbird I tried many things that I had never tried before. Because we get a lot of the same item over and over, I had to keep it fun for myself and for the customer by trying things that I had never had before...OR...trying to cook things in ways I had never tried before.
Deep Purples and Reds are brewing this week.
My oh My it’s a beautiful time to be eating the produce of OHIO!
We have 5 BRAND NEW varieties hitting the boxes this week but none more awesome than the purple carrots. I wish I could see the looks on each of your faces when you see them for the first time...and then TASTE them for the first time.
Our last farm dinner event was spectacular and I am still full in both heart and stomach
How about this for pivoting in real time?? ... This morning (Tuesday...the day we go get all the food), we get a call from 2 people that we are counting on getting food from for every box. Both crops failed because of how hot it is right now. So we gather around the “water cooler” and have an impromptu, "what should replace this with because it’s too late to reach out to try and get more food??"
We are beginning to get our act together with our online store, and as part of that process we have highlighting our vendors on a week to week basis. We will run promo’s, contests, and all the while trying to drive people to our online store to buy their wares. This week we are focusing on Lopaus Point Gluten FREE Frozen Waffles. They are fab and can be purchased here
I remember going to my best friend’s house in upstate NY a decade or two ago and having her introduce me to oven fries. They were better than any fast food fries I had ever eaten! I’ve made them quite a bit over the years and last season, the winter box of Yellowbird was heavy on the potatoes so I pulled this recipe back into the mix and my hubby and I enjoyed them several times over the winter.
PLUMS! I haven’t tasted them yet because they are not here yet. (Tuesday at 3pm) BUUUUTTTT…...they are on their way so let's keep our fingers crossed.
I ordered a box this week from a national food delivery service called “Farmbox Direct”. It was $50 to have a box of “natural” fruits and veggies delivered. It got here and it had about $7 worth of food in it and about $40 worth of packing materials. These were things that looked like they had been pulled off the shelf of the nearest Kroger...2 weeks ago. I’m not trying to run a dirty campaign here but let’s not be tricked any longer by fancy packing materials and million dollar marketing campaigns.
I got a great cookbook called Simply in Season from Half price books years ago. It breaks recipes out by the four seasons and highlights which vegetables are being used on each page, which is helpful when you have a certain vegetable(s) that you’re looking to cook with. Here is a recipe from that cookbook that I've made a few times and love because it’s pretty easy and versatile - substitute whatever veggies are in season. Or add meat, beans, vegan cheese.
“I want my honeycrisp, honeycrisp, honeycrisp. I want my honeycrisp, honeycrisp, honeycrisp. OHHHIOOOOO, Hoooneyycrisp Aappllllles” (chili’s baby back ribs? anyone?)
They are big. They are tasty. They are the most expensive apple on the block, but we figure let’s come out swinging for apple season!!
If you want more, you can order them on the store for the upcoming week.
Article written be Gwendolyn Rehm, Yellowbird Foodshed subscriber and fan
As a toddler mom, budding environmentalist, budget lover, and music teacher, my time in the kitchen has changed! Every meal I cook is more intentional with ingredients and waste. Yellowbird Foodshed makes the ingredient part simpler for sure! We try to prepare two vegan meals to lessen our carbon footprint. With any meat we do consume, we try and source locally and responsibly raised.
Now for waste, this one is a toughie! I typically look for low-waste or recyclable packaging. I also cook as much as I can turning on the stove as few times as possible, especially in the summer. I always felt silly turning on the stove multiple times a week while my AC is running. So, here became one of my solutions; multi-layered cooking.
Pears, Leeks, and Grapes...where do we live? The Garden of Eden??
Nope, it’s OHIO!
(Throwback line to the movie Field Of Dreams…”Is this heaven?” Kevin Costner:“No, It’s Iowa.”)
ast week the “Mini’s” went Ca-prazy over the Caprese ingredients...this week it’s the “Base” and “Full”’s turn. Basil, Tom’s, Mozz, and a mouth is all you need.
Blackberries again because by the sounds of it, most of your blackberries last week didn’t make it home because either you or a kid ate them all en-route.
We've reached the END...of Season 1
We are somewhere around 35 consecutive "Friday 5's". I am not joking when I say that I hear more feedback on the "Friday 5" emails, than other form of communication we publish each week. I had the thought over the weekend that it might be time to let us all rest from my opinions for a spell.
Over the next couple of months I will put out some random content but for the most part we will be working on new ideas and new concepts.
In the mean time, here is what is coming up that you don't want to miss...
A few years ago, I was making a Tuna ‘noodle’ casserole but didn’t have a can of condensed soup around so I decided to make my own. It was a delightful surprise. I had never fully appreciated how bland off the shelf condensed mushroom soup was. And since those bland soups cans are also lined with BPA, it’s worth kicking them to the curb. Voting with our dollars, right? This soup is rich and creamy with a slight hunt of nutmeg. The difference in taste is substantial and makes you appreciate how much better food can taste if you can take a little more time to prepare it (total time is ~20 mins, including prep).
Kids are back in school, the sun is hanging lower in the sky, “OUR PETS HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!” (The randomness of that Dumb and Dumber quote surprised even me) Let’s get to it. The FOOD you eat is what is giving you fuel to operate. The better the fuel, the better the performance. We’ve all eaten wrong at lunch and then paid the price for it (or sometimes our employer has paid the price for it), by having a lackluster afternoon.
“We Cantaloupe, my dad’s got the car!”
Come on...that’s top 5 food puns all time.
Just had a great conversation with Ester Run Farm. If you were with us last year, you got a bag of heirloom “black pop” popcorn from them. This year they are doing a rainbow popcorn for us but also had planted an heirloom striped acorn squash, as well as some heirloom pie pumpkins.
If you’re vegan or like myself, lactose intolerant, you may be buying almond milk or some other milk alternative and noticed that most of them have ingredients that don’t sound natural and may or may not be safe to drink, the jury’s still out. Until the science is conclusive, I prefer to make my own. I went through a period a few years ago where I made my own almond milk but life happened and I fell out of the habit. Truth be told, I didn’t love the straining part of the process - it was messy and I could never think of what to do with the leftover pulp. I recently saw in a cookbook where the author suggested something super helpful:
