The green beans, collard greens & swiss chard are coming along slowly still. I promise we planted more than what you have been getting.  I’m personally feeling impatient about the garden progress. I usually have loads of beans and squash (my favorites) by this time and I go out each day to weed and check on things and I’m all “Come on beans! Why are you taking so darn long?” and my kids just look at me silly for talking to the plants.

We are kind of curious & excited about all the winter squash that have sprung fourth in various places around the homestead. We have squash and pumpkins specifically planted for the CSA but we are loving finding and watching all the volunteer plants around the property. It is like the farm lottery. Ha, ha!

Offerings will be a similar variation on what you’ve already seen with the addition of a few zucchini. Zucchini lasagna anyone? Just sub zucchini slices for the noodles.

Of course there is lots more going on but for now I’ve got to keep things short, got a sick kiddo running a high fever

For week 4 you’ll find a combination of the following:

• Slicing cucumbers
• English Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Slicing tomatoes (maybe a few green ones for fried green tomatoes)
• Salad tomatoes
• Bell Peppers
• Sweet snack peppers
• Hungarian Wax – (these are spicy)
• Raspberries

We intended to head over to a fellow farmer friend’s place and stock up on some blackberries for you this week but had to change plans when a kiddo spiked her fever.

Sick of cucumbers? They sure are prolific and happy in this weird summer weather we are having!

Have you ever made refrigerator pickles that you can enjoy in just 24 hrs? You should try them this week with your abundance of cucumbers! You can use a regular, non-pickling cucumber for this recipe since they aren’t canned or stored for very long.

Easy Garlic & Dill Pickles Recipe

Makes 1 pint jar of pickles in 24 hrs.
Ingredients:

• 1 pint jar with lid
• 6 oz of cucumbers
• 1 tsp garlic
• 1/2 tbsp dill seed (or fresh dill weed)
• 1/2 tbsp coriander seed
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• Enough water to fill the jar

Instructions:
1. quarter the cucumbers and cut them length wise so they can fit in your jar
2. combine your spices & vinegar and seal the jar, shake vigerously until the sugar and salt are dissolved.
3. remove the lid and tightly pack in your cucumers. Add water to the mixture to fill the jar.
4. replace lid and gently invert the jar a few times to mix brine and water.
5. leave the jar in the refridgerator for 24 hrs before enjoying.

Pickles will last up to a month int he refrigerator but you’ll eat them all right away I bet.

CSA Extra Add-ons we can deliver:

The following extra items can be purchased and added to your CSA share. You can pay me cash at pickup or I can take a credit/ debit card with our card reader (note an extra charge is added to card reader purchases to cover processing fees. It’s expensive).

Local Freshwater Prawns

We can bring you some Tanglefoot Ranch, farm raised freshwater prawns and deliver it with your CSA basket- if shrimp is your thing. It’s last year’s harvest that we helped raise & harvest right here on the farm in 6 outdoor ponds. We just enjoyed some the other night and I got me thinking about mentioning it to you all.

Tanglefoot Ranch Freshwater Prawns are $25 for a 2lb bag. They are shell on to preserve freshness and moisture and they are really delicious!

Homemade Goats Milk Soap

We are still experimenting with goats milk soap recipes right now. The pumpkin spice fragranced soap we had is nearly sold out and my girls and me have been making new soap batches like crazy. You can click here to see and even order soaps.

Last week several members posted about their CSA shares online and we loved hearing about the fun recipes you tried. Keep them coming and have a wonderful, healthy next week!

The post CSA News Week 4 appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

This recipe is a wonderful example of how gluten free doesn’t always mean going without. It’s so good and it’s flourless so no gluten worries.

I even use this recipe as a base for my lactation cookie enjoyment (cookies to support and enhance lactation for breastfeeding moms) Do take care to buy gluten free oats if your goal is to make these gluten free. And seriously, double or triple this recipe so you’ll have cookies for a few days these go fast.

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The recipe made it home with him, I loved it too and it was even a success when we tried the recipe with gluten free flour blend once we had to go gluten free! Since then we’ve made the recipe a variety of ways and the girls also really love the recipe.

One day when I couldn’t find Nathan’s “German Baby” recipe I found a Clafoutis recipe I wanted to try. The Clafoutis is another interesting recipe that is french and typically made with black cherries and a custard type batter. In terms of puffiness, the Clafoutis falls less that the “German Baby” recipe does and the Clafoutis isn’t quite as dry.

This morning a puff pancake was requested by Everly so we whipped up a Clafoutis together and I figured it would be a nice recipe to share with you.

Today we are putting some sliced apples in the batter because the apples have been sitting a bit too long and are getting too soft for our tastes. In the past we’ve done it plain with a powdered sugar/ lemon sauce and also with peaches & cream.

Here is the Clafoutis pan going in the oven, see how creamy the batter looks?! Mmmm.

Here is what you’ll need to get the recipe going:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of sugar + 1 Tbsp. to dust pan
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup heavy cream, milk, yogurt or kefir (I used my raw milk this time)
• 3 eggs (pasture raised hens)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt (I used my raw Himalayan sea salt: http://amzn.to/18BAiYh)
• 2/3 cup of all-purpose gluten free flour (I used Nameste’s Perfect Gluten Free Flour Blend brand: http://amzn.to/18BAiYh)
• 3 cups of sliced fruit (today it was apples that were going south)

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a blender, combine the ingredients and blend on high for 1 min, scraping the sides once.
3. Butter a 9-inch glass pie pan or a fluted porcelain tart dish, sprinkle the reserved 1 Tbsp of sugar over the buttered dish. Note, I used white sugar for the batter and brown sugar for the sprinkling.
4. Next pour in about half of the batter in the pan and arrange the 3 cups of sliced fruit on top of the batter.
5. Pour the remaining batter over the sliced fruit and bake for about 45-60 minutes or until the top puffs up and starts to turn golden-brown.

Here is what my Clafoutis apple puff pancake recipe variation looked like today after puffing up all nicely in the oven.

When you pull it out to cool at bit it does deflate slightly but not as much as a “German Baby” does. Once it’s cooled down, slice and top it accordingly. Here is my apples & cinnamon sugar variation from today:

The basic “baby” or Clafoutis recipe is simple, just milk, flour and egg. With variations it morphs and becomes new each time. It can be done with whipping cream, yogurt, kefir or just plain ole milk and the fruit & topping possibilities are seriously endless (which I love)! 

Here are some topping & fruit variation ideas we have tried:

• Apple slices in the batter & butter with cinnamon sugar on top
• Peaches in he batter & a peaches & cream topping
• Skip the fruit in the batter but the finished pancake with the juice of 1/2 lemon & powdered sugar
• Skip the fruit in the batter but make the batter with fruit flavored kefir or yogurt

What topping and fruit variations do you think would work well?

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First Everly got sick, then Adalyn. Nathan got it next, then they passed it around a bit… I was the last to come down with it, just as everyone was getting better and just as Christmas was coming.

As soon as Nathan’s holiday vacation began I was completely down for the count. It’s funny how “mind of matter” keeps us moms going until it’s more convenient to be sick, then when we are sick it’s like total checkout.

My fever came a four days before Christmas, I slept and shivered and mouth breathed my way through the days and nights. Finally, I hauled my butt out of bed for Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Sadly, I caved and had to get some antibiotics. It was very bad. The chest junk was making me cough so bad I was throwing up. We feared pneumonia would be next.

Anyway, I am now two days post-antibiotics and feeling much better respiratory wise. The down side to the antibiotics is that I am back to ground zero in terms of my gut healing journey. Antibiotics kill off everything, even the friendly bacteria that are the basis of your immune system and digestion… and in the absence of those friendly bacteria yeasts and other nasties are left to take over the system.

So I am fighting Candida bad and starting over with gut healing now. The die-off fatigue, anxiety and mood disruptions are back and my diet is VERY limited as I try to cleanse and beat the Candida while recolonizing my gut.

It’s like walking a tight-rope right now, I can’t totally dive in to a Candida detox since I have Adalyn’s breast milk supply to safeguard and to keep toxin clean but I can’t live with the impacts of rampant Candida destroying my gut and making all my foods cause allergic reactions.

Anyway, that is where we are right now… along the way we stumbled upon this great tea to help with sinus congestions and throat junk. It works wonders as long as you aren’t fighting bronchitis and on your way to pneumonia. I really wanted to share it with you. If you are suffering cold or flu give it a try for sure!

Throat soothing tea: A natural cold and flu home remedy

I’ve been drinking this tea at night and it has helped immensely with releasing sinus pressure and chest congestion before bed. It also has been helping my cough. This recipe is for 1 cup of tea:

• 1 large cup of water (about 8 oz)
• 1 whole clove
• 1 portion fresh ginger root, chopped
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbs raw local honey *add in after simmering all the above ingredients
• 1 tbs apple cider vinegar (raw with mother is best) *add in after simmering all the above ingredients

I boil all of this together. The cinnamon won’t dissolve in the drink (it will collect on the bottom), but it really helps with the taste, it is POTENT. Once the water and spices are boiled, pull the liquid off the stove and add the apple cider vinegar and honey. Cooking the ACV and honey will kill off the live organisms and be less effective. This is why they are added afterward.

Drink it warm and fast as the mixture really globs up as it cools. It is like a tart warm apple cider drink and it kicked our sinus headaches, soothes the throat and helped clear my husband’s throat drainage and resulting cough.

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Cream of [whatever] condensed soup mix. A dry, homemade, wholesome recipe

• 1 cup non-fat dried milk (organic if possible)
• 3/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot (as cornstarch is usually GMO containing)
• 4 Tablespoons freeze dried minced onions
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme (I couldn’t find the thyme so I used dried parsley instead)
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Combine dry mix with 1 1/4 cups homemade bone broth/ stock or vegitable broth. 2 cups + 3 teaspoons of dry mix adds to 1 1/4 cups liquid broth.

OR

Combine dry mix with 1/4 cup your choice bouillon (check their ingredients for MSG and yucky preservatives! If you have cubes you have to smash them up first) with 1 1/4 cups water. 2 1/4 cups + 3 teaspoons of dry mix adds to 1 1/4 cups liquid broth.

Heat the mixture so dry ingredients are dissolved and thickened. Then add them to the recipe you are using.

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