Pork chops, maple syrup, chard, and Lodi Apples

Sorry the post is a little late this week.  I had the package all planned out on Monday, but then Tuesday I woke up to find that half of my farmers’ fields were turned into lakes overnight with the thunderstorms Monday night.  One of my farmers in Hartville received 6 inches of rain.  That’s devastating!

This week’s package features a very special product, Berkshire pork chops.  Over the next couple months, we’ll be featuring different pork cuts.   All will be from animals raised exclusively for Fresh Fork by New Creation’s Farm in Chardon, OH.  The pork is registered Berkshire pork, which is a heritage breed praised for its intramuscular marbling and dark pink meat color.  These animals have been raised outside in the woods at New Creations Farm where they forage for roots, nuts, and whatever they can find in the woods. The rest of their diet includes non-gmo grains, molasses, apples, garden scraps, and cheese products (the mistakes) from Mayfield Road Creamery and Middlefield Cheese Coop.

This week, we will also be bringing back more peaches.   Rich Eschleman of Eschleman Fruit Farm in Clyde also has the season’s first apples, the Lodi apple.  These small, crisp green apples are best used for sauce or baking.  They are not very good eating apples, but they should pair very nicely as an apple sauce, a chutney, or even pie to go along with your pork chops.

Finally, my favorite item this week is the mustard greens from K&D Farm in Hartville.  Mustard greens are a nutrient dense food that are quite tasty steamed, boiled, sauted, or even used in soups.  Mustard greens, similar to other greens like kale and collards, should be included regularly in your diet because they help detox the body and are anti-inflammatory.  For more info on Mustard Greens, the whole foods website has a lot of good info on it.  Simply google mustard greens.

 

Small CSA:

1 bunch multi-color swiss chard

1 pint maple syrup

1 package boneless pork chops, approximately 1 lb each package

1 quarter peck Lodi apples (5-6 apples)

Approx 1.5 lbs cling peaches

1 candy onion

1 bunch mustard greens

1 lb beans, either green, purple, dragon tongue, or yellow

2 slicing cucumbers

 

Large CSA: the small package plus the items below

1 pint blueberries

Approx 1.5 lbs apricots

1 head broccoli

1 bunch beets with tops

1 bunch green onions

*If any large members were on vacation last week, please ask for the cream cheese this week.  We put it in a week early last week*

 

 

Vegetarian Substitutes: In place of pork chops

1 pint blueberries

1 bunch beets with tops

 

Vegan Substitutes:  same as the vegetarian substitutes