WHAT TO COOK

What is more spooky than a bone-chilling cold front that swept in like a dementor? The time has finally arrived to pull down those stock pots and get creepy in the kitchen. If you’re like us, you’re cooking all the time. Why not liven things up on the Day of the Dead by cooking with a theme?

SWEET POTATOES

Sweet potatoes and their beta-carotene-packed flesh seem like the obvious anchor vegetable for any Halloween themed meal. Why not make a sweet potato soup, and then garnish the top with two dollops of sour cream and a black olive in the middle to make it look like some eyeballs are peering from beneath your bubbling brew? Or, roast some whole sweet potatoes, slice them wide open, and top them with bloody beet chorizo? Again, turn to your friends sour cream and black olives to make some eyeball-like garnishes. Here is a recipe for the imitation beet chorizo , and here is some chorizo-stuffed sweet potato inspiration.

Did you catch last week’s sweet potato albóndigas, or sweet potato meatballs, recipe? Why not make these meatballs, serve them over pasta and tomato sauce, and make it spooky by transforming the balls into... you guessed it... more eyeballs. This recipe uses mozzarella and olives for the pop factor.

Hector's sweet potato albóndigas, with some added eyes. You get the idea!

Photo by Kat Wirsing, courtesy of Delish. Link to the recipe above!

Many of you often wonder why we don’t grow pumpkins, and we once devoted a whole blog post to that very question. Though we don’t grow pumpkins, you can just use our sweet potatoes and in a move of true culinarian theatrics, and pretend like the potatoes are tiny pumpkins. These potato jack o lanterns might be better than the actual gourds.

Photo by Jill from her blog Simply Jillious. Link to the recipe is above!

TURNIPS

Believe it or not, before people were carving pumpkins, they were decorating and cutting up turnips… an ode to the myth of Stingy Jack who was given a lump of burning coal by the devil, which he kept in a carved-out turnip. Why not pay homage to this very weird and creepy myth by first carving a little face into and then roasting, some turnips?

Not keen to carve any vegetables? Wooden skewers, toothpicks, and glue go a long way.

GREENS

Dark leafy greens and fragrant herbs abound, and there is no shortage of recipes out there that turn these greens into an insatiable and cheesy dip. People are doing ghoulish things with dips to make the presentation a bit more... grotesque. You can serve the dip in a bread-mummy or have it projectile out of a pumpkin. Which is kind of gross, but if gross is what you’re going for, carry on. Traditionally spinach is used in a dip like this, but a combination of spinach, kale, or even finely chopped and cooked collards would work well. Don’t forget to add whatever herbs you might have on hand like parsley, dill, or green onions. They will bring life to the deathly dip.

CARROTS & BEETS

What better way to celebrate the season’s first bunched carrots than to carve them up to look like actual farmers’ fingers, accidentally sliced off during the harvest and packed in your CSA box? Too much?  Might we suggest making this brightly-colored beet hummus to dunk the fingers into.

Ada's beet hummus. Link to the recipe above.

Photo courtesy of Tesco. Use your JBG peppers to create the finger nails. They're glued on with a bit of cream cheese.

WHAT TO DO With traditional tick-or-treating off the table, we thought we’d share some of the creative Halloween happenings around town.

From 2-4pm on Saturday, Wheatsville is hosting an in-store experience called Trick or Treatsville. Why not grocery shop in costume, while providing your kids with a trick or treat experience?

Our friends at Tiny Tails to You are celebrating Halloween and hosting Virtual Animal Costume Parties that you can invite your friends to.  Cute, cuddly, and even creepy-crawly Tiny Tails animal friends will be in attendance. Wear your costumes to join in on the fun! Our party animals will be dressed up in animal-safe costumes to put smiles on your friends' faces.



Manor Farm Tour: Our friends at Bee Tree Farm, F-Stop, and Two Hives Honey are teaming up to offer free tours of their farms from around 9am to 1:30. There will be hayrides at F-Stop, seed bombs at Two Hives, and goats at Bee Tree. Details here. 

Last, what is scarier than a democracy wherein people don’t participate? If you haven’t voted yet, please do. Early voting ends today, and then you’ve got one final chance this upcoming Tuesday. Happy Halloween to you all! As always, thanks for reading!

 

Easy Tzatziki Dip Makes about 2 cups Author: The Migoni Kitchen

This easy Greek dip has been a favorite of our family for years. It’s incredibly refreshing with the crisp cucumber and fresh mint. We love it alongside grilled Mediterranean kabobs or alone as a dip or appetizer with some fresh pita bread. Great way to use up the last of those summer cucumbers!

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup whole milk yogurt
• 1 small cucumber, peeled and finely diced or grated (about 1 cup)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Juice of ½ a lemon
• ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 1-2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped

Combine all the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and stir to combine well. Add additional salt, pepper, and lemon to taste. Serve with fresh pita or alongside your favorite Mediterranean meals! Can store in the fridge for 1-2 days.

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 26th

Individual: Lettuce, Chard, Dinosaur Kale, Turnip, Herb

Small: Spinach, Sweet Pepper, Herb, Chard, Squash, Collards, Turnip

Medium: Romaine Lettuce, Carrot, Herb, Beet, Dinosaur Kale, Mustard Greens, Sweet Pepper, Turnip, Kohlrabi

Large: Romaine Lettuce, Spinach, Carrot, Herb, Roasting Bag, Eggplant, Sweet Potato, Mustard Greens, Sweet Pepper, Cabbage, Collards, Kohlrabi

At this moment in the fall season, we have a lot of crops in the ground! While we're harvesting many of these crops, there are many more that are in the ground, but are not ready to be harvested... they've gotta grow up! Our job? Keep these plants that are in the ground, happy and healthy. This week at the farm, Scott captured this moment in the season. Scroll below and you'll see us working to give these crops both a weed and bug-free environment in which to mature.

Rows and rows of weed-free rows. We love the fall! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Before we can plant any seeds in our transplant trays, we mix soil on this concrete pad, fill the trays, and stack them up. Who knows how many trays Giana, our greenhouse manager, has filled up? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Transplant babies, enjoying some time outside of the greenhouses on our transplant trailer, where they will grow up and harden off. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Radish sprouts sporting their first true leaves. Welcome to the other side! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Army worms and cabbage loopers have made themselves at home in our beet greens. Temo, our head grower, is at war. Here he is topping the beets so he can get better coverage when he targets them with the spray arms. Don't worry, the greens will grow back quickly! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Beets: the mowed version on the left, to-be-mowed on the right. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Slowly harvesting the rainbow chard forest. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Aren't the colors spectacular? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Greens as far as the eye can see. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

The cabbage is coming along! You can see the heads beginning to form. Greens as far as the eye can see. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Why hello there! We're glad you joined!

We keep this tiny Case tractor around for the main tasks of tine-weeding. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

These metal tines can be set at distances to avoided the precisely planted crop. The tines disturb the first inch or so of soil, and uproot any tiny weed or grass seeds that have just germinated. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Lush, leafy spinach that would make Popeye proud! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Bok choy, of the baby variety. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Peppers are still going strong, but they'll be gone before you know it. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Clouds and carrots. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Okra overlooking the situation. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

 

Have you ever met a grocery store that you loved at first sight? One that you could instantly tell had isles of wonder both delightful and delicious? Stacks of goods, carefully procured and displayed with attention? That’s how we feel about Austin’s own Wheatsville Co-op and the gregarious group of bakers, butchers, clerks and warehouse staff that make the store sing. 

It feels important to note that Wheatsville is currently baking vegan pumpkin spice donuts. That you can enjoy in a pumpkin patch. Run!

If you’re new to Austin or have been living under a rock, let us tell you a little bit about Wheatsville Food Co-op. Wheatsville is a full service, natural foods cooperative grocery store. It was founded in Austin in 1976, meaning the grocery store is coming up on its 45th birthday! Wheatsville has over 24,000 invested owners who help direct the co-ops growth and community impact through annual elections and meetings. (Are you a member? This year's meeting is virtual and is coming up on the 24th. Tune in!) Members enjoy special shopping perks and discounts, all of which you can stay hip to by subscribing to The Wheatsville Breeze, the store’s version of The Daily Dirt (the name of JBG’s weekly blog). To us, a visit to Wheatsville is more than just a trip to pickup groceries. It's a cozy, intimate, and wonderful shopping experience where you can discover a new favorite flavor of chips, get a warm and affordable lunch, and casually participate in a unique finger of Austin's food system. Through its Community Action Program, Wheatsville donates thousands of dollars every year to local nonprofits, and so there's that, too.

Where is Wheatsville, you may be wondering? Wheatsville has two locations, one on Guadalupe nestled near the heart of UT campus, and another easily accessible (and newer) location on South Lamar, just north of Ben White. You don’t have to be a member to shop at Wheatsville, and their friendly staff welcomes everyone with a startlingly authentic warmth. Seriously… go to Wheatsville and TRY to find an employee that won’t flash you a very friendly smile. We should know, because we’ve been wheeling our way through the Wheatsville doors since 2012. Like any grocery store close to our hearts, Wheatsville makes a point to stock their produce department with a variety of locally grown vegetables... plus all the staples you expect a grocery store to carry. 

JBG & Wheatsville, 2013.

JBG & Wheatsville, 2020. It looks like the sign got an update, but it's the same great co-op!

We work with Wheatsville year-round, but when cool weather crops start to roll in, Elias, Wheatsville's Produce Manager, really starts ramping up his orders. This week, in fact, the Wheatsville produce sections at both the Lamar and Guadalupe location are brimming with JBG vegetables... we just delivered a fresh harvest yesterday! Specifically, you can head to Wheatsville right now and snag some JBG okra, beets, collard greens, kale, or maybe a divisive bunch of dandelion greens. Do you love ‘em or hate ‘em? We know it’s not always feasible to make it to a farmers’ market on the weekend, so if you're hankering for some JBG produce mid-week… just head to the co-op. If you’re a member, you’re in luck: from 10/22-10/25, owners can receive 10% off an entire basket of your choice. In other words, shop 'til you drop, grab some JBG veg, and save. There are options to Instacart or Curbside your Wheatsville order, too!

Leafy greens like collards are a common JBG crop you can find on the Wheatsville shelves. Looking for JBG veggies at Wheatsville? Just ask a clerk!

In addition to carrying our veggies in the produce department, both Wheatsville stores are CSA pickup locations. Through this partnership, Wheatsville kindly offers our farm the ability to drop off CSA boxes for customers to pickup - allocating precious floor space and employee attention to help our members. Wheatsville, if you're reading this, we can't thank you enough for your steadfast work as a CSA Pickup location. Through this partnership, our CSA Members can pre-order a CSA box  for pickup at Guadalupe on Thursday afternoons and at Lamar on Friday afternoons. CSA Members, did you know you can always switch your pickup location just for one week? If you’d to coordinate your next pickup with a little Wheatsville shopping spree, just shoot us a message. 

We asked our driver Tom to snap some photos of his experience delivering to Wheatsville Guad on Thursdays. Tom usually makes this drop quickly, because as you an see our delivery truck feel especially large in this somewhat small parking lot. Thanks Tom for sending us these selfies. They're just as wholesome as we hoped they would be. At the Guadalupe location, CSA boxes are stacked near the front window. If you're lucky, you'll have a friendly run-in with Joseph who can help you find your box. 

Speaking of shopping sprees, we a all know shopping habits have changed across our country since the onset of the pandemic. Consumers are making bigger trips to the grocery store, less often, sometimes cutting out once-regular stops to smaller grocery stores that might not carry all of the items they hope to secure in a single swoop. This week on the blog we simply wanted to remind you of Wheatsville and what a wonderful grocery store it is. If you don’t go for the rainbow of JBG vegetables currently in stock, go for the house-made cashew tamari salad dressing. It’s the perfect companion to this year’s salad season, and after one taste you’ll understand why the dressing has a bit of a cult following around town… and in the JBG office. Thanks Wheatsville! We love you! 

If you know, you know.

   

 

 

Sweet Potato Albóndigas

Recipe and photo by Héctor Gonzáles.

The coming cold days (under 75 weather) makes me crave comforting foods. Carbs tend to be what I enjoyed the most while growing up in México. While adapting some of the recipes from my country to my current residence, some things have changed. Although I’m still an omnivore, I enjoy vegetables for their flavor and how fun playing with these ingredients can be. This dish is one of those Mexperiments.

Albóndigas (pronunciation can be found here) is the translation for meatballs in Spanish. Despite the fact that these contain no meat, I felt the name in Spanish fit this recipe better. This word’s etymology comes from the Arab word “búnduqa” which means “ball.” The “Al” at the beginning meant “the,” making the literal translation “the ball.” Simple.

These were usually made with meat at home, but I wanted to play with some of the ingredients from my CSA. The sweet potato will also have some of the greens from this week’s box as well to make it shine. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

• Albóndigas
• 3 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 cup of masa harina
• 2 cup of greens, finely chopped
• 1 medium egg (an egg substitute can be used, like flaxseed or chia seeds)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp Mexican oregano

Sauce

• 1 lb of fresh tomatoes or a 15 oz can
• 1-3 chipotle peppers
• 2-4 cloves of garlic
• Salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork or knife. Roast for 30 minutes or until tender. Peel and let these cool.
2.  While the potatoes are roasting, blend the tomatoes, chipotle peppers and garlic. Add or remove peppers or garlic to taste. Add salt to taste after blend.
3.  Mix the ingredients in a bowl until it reaches a playdough-like consistency.
4.  Roll into 1 inch balls and put into a 9 in x 9 in square pan. The balls can touch each other.
5.  Heat the oven again to 375 degrees. Roast in the oven, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Then add the sauce to the pan and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and raise the temperature 425 degrees and cook for 10 minutes.

You can also add cheese during the last step, as it will get deliciously melty.

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 19th

Individual: Cucumber, Squash, Beet, Collards, Arugula

Small: Cucumber, Kale, Herb, Sweet Potato, Lettuce, Beet, Chard

Medium: Cucumber, Squash, Herb, Spinach, Collards, Chard, Turnips, Mustard Greens, Sweet Potato, Radish

Large: Cucumber, Squash, Herb, Spinach, Radish, Turnips, Mustard Greens, Sweet Potato, Beet, Curly Kale, Lettuce