Sorting carrots. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

We are in a rush to get the last of the direct seeding done before the Fall planting window closes! The fall greens are out of control right now, so hop on over to the market and grab some of this verdant bounty. Did we mention that the autumnal crops are some of our favorites?

Fields of green. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Kale details. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Kale harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Fields forever. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Transplanting. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Working hard to get Fall planting done. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Harvest work. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Collard harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Collards. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Collard (hand for scale). Photo by Scott David Gordon.

All farm dogs on deck. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Cabbage details. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Recipe and Images by Nadia Tamby

The name of this pie isn’t entirely accurate but it is loosely based on the idea of the popular Greek pie – a spinach and feta filling enveloped in layers of flakey filo dough. When I am faced with a daunting amount of greens, I often wash, dry and trim all of them at once so they are ready for salads or side dishes (I’m more likely to eat a kale salad when it’s already halfway prepared). This time my CSA basket came with collard greens, kale, malabar spinach, and a bunch each of radishes and turnips (with perfect-looking greens attached). I saved the collards and Malabar spinach for another use as they tend to keep for longer, and cooked down the kale, turnip and radish greens with garlic and herbs and subbed the feta for some fresh goat cheese for a twist on the classic pie. You can use any mix of greens, herbs and cheese to your liking for this forgiving recipe!

I tend to use more robust herbs in dishes before cooking them (sage, thyme, rosemary, oregano, marjoram…) and fine herbs after cooking, for garnish, or in sauces (cilantro, parsley, mint, dill…).

The green sauce I made to swirl into the yogurt served alongside this pie is similar to a French “sauce verte” which literally means “green sauce.” It is a great way to use up all your leftover fine herbs. Simply blend herbs with a couple raw garlic cloves, salt and extra virgin olive oil and a splash of lemon juice or vinegar. This sauce is delicious as a marinade, used to top grilled fish or meat, can be diluted with more olive oil and lemon juice to make a salad dressing, or swirled into hummus or yogurt to make dips.



Pie Ingredients:

Filling:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 3 tablespoons herbs, finely chopped (I used oregano, marjoram and thyme)
• 1 bunch turnip* greens (cut stems off)
• 1 bunch radish* greens (cut stems off)
• 1 bunch kale (ribs removed)
• 10.5 oz goat cheese, room temperature (1 full log)
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Crust:

• 1 stick butter, melted
• 8 oz filo dough (1 roll of ~20 sheets)

Herbed Yogurt Ingredients:

• 1 cup of good quality whole milk yogurt and a few tablespoons of prepared “Sauce Verte”

Sauce Verte:

• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 bunch of cilantro (just tear off the bottom part of the stems, you can actually use cilantro stems in addition to the leaves)
• 1 bunch of mint (discard stems)
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil (or more, if needed)
• ½ lemon (juice and zest)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Extras/Tools to have on hand:

• Brush for butter, springform pan, clean damp kitchen towel to cover filo, blender or food processor for sauce verte

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Sautee the garlic and onions over medium heat until cooked and started to slightly color. Add the herbs of your choosing and cook for another minute and then add all your greens (you can add them in batches if you can’t fit them all in your pan at the same time – as they cook down you will have room for more). Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool about 10 minutes. At this point you may need to squeeze out any excess moisture from the greens to prevent your dough from getting soggy. I didn’t have to, but it depends on the type of greens you decide to use.

In a mixing bowl, whisk your eggs and goat cheese together until smooth and fold in the mixture of cooked greens.

Unroll your filo dough and cover with a damp kitchen towel to prevent it from becoming brittle while working with it. Using your pastry brush, brush the inside of the springform pan with butter. Lay a piece of filo dough inside with about a 2-inch overhang (precision not necessary) and brush a layer of butter over the filo dough. Then rotate the pan and continue this process of overlapping filo sheets and brushing butter until you’re out of sheets and the whole pan is lined with filo.

Spoon the filling into the filo and flatten the top. Flip the edges of the filo pastry onto the filling creating folds and waves in the sheets. Don’t worry if it breaks – it’s going to look rustic anyway. Brush butter on the top and then bake for 45-50 minutes until the filo looks browned.



Combine the Sauce Verte ingredients into a food processor and blend until you have a smooth, bright green sauce. I spoon this into a jar and top it with an extra bit of olive oil to prevent it from oxidizing and turning brown. This should keep for about a week. Spoon some of this into a bowl of yogurt and give it a swirl.

Serve the pie warm with a dollop of the herbed yogurt for dipping!

*Slice up the turnips and radishes into a jar with spices, vinegar, water, salt, and a little sugar to make some crunchy quick-pickles

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 16th

Teamwork. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

We are still a little behind schedule and racing to get planting done. With temperatures way down this week, it's finally feeling like Fall. Our fall greens and roots are thriving, see for yourself at the markets.

Have you heard? We are hosting a laid-back Fall Open House on Saturday, October 28th from 4:30 until sundown. Don't miss the fun!

Collard harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Becky working on the tractor/compost spreader. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Smiling at the helm. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

In the dandelion green field. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Dandelion green harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

A race to get beds prepped and planting done. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Signs of Fall. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Fall herbs. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Radish harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Kale harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

**major contributions by Lindsey Bradley from AISD

Perez Elementary School crew. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

In case you haven't heard, October 9th through the 13th is National School Lunch Week! This week was created by JFK in 1962 to commemorate the most beloved part of the school day, lunch, and all the benefits of the National School Lunch program, which provides nutritional lunches to over 30 million students nationwide! That sure is something to celebrate. With farm-to-school efforts taking off around the country, school lunches provide an important access point to these kids, not only nourishing future generations and fostering healthy diets, but also introducing students to food system, in general. For this celebratory week, school lunch staff all around the country curate special menus, make fun foods, and just generally enjoy their favorite meal, lunch! We had the immense pleasure of attending a school lunch at Perez Elementary School this week, plus we got to experience some of the NSLW festivities, and boy, does AISD do NSLW right.

Ada, Marketing Manager, and Mike Mo, Wholesale Manager, ruminating on what to pick! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

You CAN sit at our table. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

AISD prides themselves on exposing kids to new foods and global flavors. So this year, they decided to focus on global fare during NSLW. All cafes selected a day to sample baba ganoush, prepared with JBG eggplants, and the Sustainable Food Center helped support these local veggie samplings. Check out the AISD recipe at the end of this post!

Baba ganoush glory. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

On top of mind-blowingly delicious NSLW delicacies, AISD is really reinventing what cafeteria food means. On Farm Fresh Fridays, they are feature JBG roasted sweet potatoes each Friday, in all cafes, during the fall menu cycle. After Thanksgiving, they'll rotate to the winter menu, which will feature JBG greens in a braised greens recipe. The spring menu will feature JBG carrots, where it all began two years ago!

Baba ganoush tasting. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Food + Art? Yes, please. With this also being Farm to School Month, AISD is working with the visual arts department on an elementary school art contest. Students will be encouraged to create art featuring carrots and the winning design will be used as the promotional sign during Farm Fresh Fridays in the fall.

School lunch line. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

AISD completed all the elementary school salad bar rollouts last school year, so now lunch features a daily salad bar option. High schools also have a daily self-serve salad bar option, and middle school salad bars will be debuting later this fall. Can you believe what AISD is doing for school lunches? It is truly incredible. A huge shout out to all of their hard work and how they are revolutionizing the school lunch.

To the parents out there, you are truly lucky to be able to send your kids to school where food services is committed to "positively impacting Austin’s food system by continually incorporating more local options into their school menus." We loved to hear that this project is "helping [students] learn the benefits of locally-sourced food and gain closer community connection." We can't thank AISD enough for this commitment and what it means to us as farmers in Austin. 'Til next time!

Baba ganoush tasting. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

AISD Baba Ganoush Recipe

Scaled for 14 (1/2 Ounce) servings

• 3/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon + 1.5 teaspoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon + 1/3 teaspoon fresh parsley
• 5/8 ounces garlic
• 7 1/8 ounces roasted red pepper
• 1 lb + 13.5 ounces eggplant

1. Set convection oven to 375F on a low fan convection.

2. Rinse fresh eggplant under cool running water and remove tops (stem-end) carefully with a knife. Cut eggplant into quarters and drizzle quarters with oil.

3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place seasoned quarters on a foil lined baking sheet pan and place in pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

4. While eggplant is roasting in the oven, place canned roasted red peppers into a blender pitcher.

5. Add roasted garlic to the drained red peppers. Pulse the blender in short bursts so that peppers and garlic are chunky but NOT LIQUIFIED.

6. Remove Roasted eggplant quarters from oven and remove/peel skin with gloved hands.

7. Placed roasted and peeled eggplant quarters into a large mixing bowl and add red pepper and garlic mixture into the same bowl.

8. Add fresh chopped parsley, fresh lime juice and salt to mixture and mash-up all ingredients by hand with a potato masher.

Toast pita bread to make pita chips to serve with and enjoy!

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 9th

Images and Recipe by Megan Winfrey

Nothing says "fall has arrived" like beautiful, varietal squash. JBG always boasts an excellent selection, and what I've seen rolling into my CSA share has me anticipating all the warm, homey, comforting squash dishes I'm going to make this season. This recipe can be tweaked and added to, with just about any type of squash. I love using the pattypans for this, and telling my daughter they're flying saucers. 'Tis the season, am I right?!



Sausage Stuffed Pattypan UFOs

• 2 pattypan squash, sliced in half to resemble flying saucers
• 1 lb. ground sausage, venison, or beef
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, or other white cheese + extra for topping
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tbs. dried sage
• 1 tbs. onion powder

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Heat a skillet to med-high, add the minced garlic and meat, cook until browned. Stir in the sage and onion powder in the last minute of cooking.

In a bowl, thoroughly mix the browned meat, bread crumbs, 1/2 cup of cheese, and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Scoop the seeds and pulp out of each squash half, forming a bowl. Fill the center with the meat mixture, top with more cheese, and drizzle with olive oil.

Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes or until the squash is tender.

I served these with a squirt of Yellowbird serrano hot sauce, and a little pickled red onion salad.