Congratulations to Zack Hartman. Zack was the lucky Co-op member who won tickets to the Dave Matthews Band concert on June 26. We will continue to pass along opportunities like this to Co-op members as a way of saying thank you and to get some of our many "not-yet" members (you know who you are!) to make the switch and become member-owners. With just 130 more member-owners we will take it to the bank and begin to line up the financing we need to fit out a location, do some hiring and put food on the shelves!

So let's get on it! If you have any people whom you think would be ripe for recruitment into the ranks of member-ownership, let us know and we'll set you up with so much good information that your friend or family member will practically be begging to join.

And who knows... maybe you will be the lucky winner in whatever our next drawing is!

Kohlrabi is one of those veggies that makes people anxious. It's weird looking. It's not one of the ten vegetables* I grew up with.

It's actually pretty easy to just peel it and throw it in a salad. It's sort of like a mild radish, or a bland, crisp apple. So when we got the kohlrabi in our CSA haul, the first bulb was eaten raw, off the cutting board, while we prepped other veg. It didn't even make it into a salad.

You can use the greens, just pretend they're collards and you're all set.

But one quick answer for dealing with unusual veg is to shred and crisp. We've done this with parsnips, we can do it with kohlrabi. Enter the potato pancake.First I got those greens going in a pan just with some water. If I had a microwave, I'd "steam" them in there, but you're just looking to soften them a bit. Pay no attention to them, and go about the rest of your cooking.

I shredded three small red potatoes, from Week 4 of the CSA. Skin and all, just be sure to scrub. Then I shredded up two kohlrabi bulbs right in there with it.

I shredded a whole onion as well, which produced onion snow. I also shredded a garlic clove.

I spooned all of the shredded veg into a tea towel, wrapped it up tightly and drained it over the sink like it was homemade ricotta.

Then I remembered the greens and added them in as well. You want this dry, so you wring and squeeze, wring and squeeze, shuffle around and wring again.

So for about three cups of shredded veg (pre-squeeze) I added three beaten eggs and three tablespoons of rice flour. Rice flour makes things crispier than wheat flour. If I didn't have rice flour, I might use two tablespoons of all purpose flour and a tablespoon of corn starch. Also some salt and pepper, maybe a quarter teaspoon each. More salt later.

I worked the flour and eggs into the shredded veg with my hands--no photos, but it was as unattractive as you might imagine. Then I formed the mixture into balls, bigger than a golf ball, smaller than a tennis ball. If they didn't hold their shape, I'd add more flour, but we were all set.

I heated less than a quarter inch of oil in a skillet and when it snapped when hit with a drop of water, it was ready for a drop of kohlrabi potato pancake. It's safer and more reasonable to just put the tip of a wooden spoon or chopstick in there and look to see if the oil bubbles around the edges of the wood, but hey, water's fun too. I slowly lowered one ball in, knowing the fun of having hot oil snap back onto my forearm, and smushed it down a bit with a spatula.

Once I saw that the oil was hot enough, as in there were tiny bubbles all around the edges of the pancake, I added another and smushed it as well. I also turned the oven on to warmish, so that I could stash mid-batch pancakes in there while I made more. Also, you can see some toes down there. Wear socks when you fry.

When they were golden around the edges, like the guy in the bottom right here, I flipped them. I actually flipped each pancake four times: once when they were just getting golden, once when the other side caught up, then again to crisp the entire exterior of side one and again for side two. I'm an anxious fryer. Maybe two minutes per flip, for a total of four minutes per side? The color and crispiness should be your measurement.

Once they're golden brown all over, remove to a paper towel, or if you're more on top of your laundry than I am, move them to a regular kitchen towel. We have good days and bad days.

Hit them with a sprinkle of kosher salt while they're hot and slightly damp from the oil, so the salt sticks. The into the oven (sans towel) to wait. When I made potato pancakes, or fritters, or anything else like this, I make extra to freeze. It's not every day I'm willing to fry my forearms and toes, so reheating last week's (ok, month's) fritters or pancakes is a welcome break.

They're all golden and crispy, but on the inside they're almost creamy, with exciting bits of greens. Two of these and a salad and you might not quite hate yourself over it. One is a decent appetizer. Add sour cream, if you're like that.

*Alphabetically: broccoli, carrots, celery, corn, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, peas, potatoes, spinach.

This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food.

Kohlrabi Potato Pancakes

Ingredients

• 2 bulbs kohlrabi, peeled


• 3 medium red potatoes


• 1 medium onion


• 1-2 cloves garlic


• 3 eggs, beaten


• 3 tablespoons rice flour (or sub 2 tbsp AP flour and 1 tbsp cornstarch)


• 1.5 teaspoons, divided kosher salt


• .5 teaspoon black pepper


• 1/3 cup oil (more if your pan is bigger)

Instructions

Chop greens and simmer in some water, or microwave-steam, just to soften a bit, while you're doing other things.

Peel kohlrabi, and shred along with potatoes (with skin), onion and garlic.

Drain greens and add to other veg in a pile in a tea towel. Squeeze and drain, quite a bit, to get them as dry as possible.

Mix three eggs and three tablespoons of rice flour (or sub 2 tbsp AP and 1 tbsp corn starch) with half a teaspoon each salt and pepper. Reserve remaining salt for later. Mix this in with the drained shredded veg mix. Form into small balls (bigger than golf, smaller than tennis).

Heat oil in a skillet - less than a quarter inch of oil, until it spits at you when you hit it with a drop of water, or bubbles around the edges of a wooden spoon or chopstick.

Add a veg ball to the hot oil and squish with a spatula until it's about a half-inch thick. If the oil bubbles all around the edges, you're set, add another and squish.

Fry until golden brown on both sides, maybe four minutes total per side, but until done.

Drain on a towel, sprinkle with additional salt and keep warm in the oven until serving time.

Makes 8 pancakes, and they freeze very well.

Details

• Prep time: 25 mins


• Cook time: 25 mins


• Total time: 50 mins


• Yield: 8 pancakes

Hello Co-op members and volunteers! Here's the list of volunteer needs for the upcoming month. These events are a great way to get to know some other Co-op members while helping the Co-op advance its main goal of the moment: getting to 400 members! If you are currently a member-owner, volunteering at any of these events will count toward your household's annual 8 hour volunteer commitment. For those who haven't become members yet but are interested in volunteering, we're still tracking your hours and will apply them to your account when you join. We also have several non-tabling needs listed in the Ongoing Volunteer Opportunities selection below--from Garden Tour design to the first Co-op t-shirt, the Co-op has a variety of ways for you to get involved. If you are interested in any of these volunteer opportunities, please email [email protected]. Passyunk Farmer's Market When: Wednesday, June 27th, 5 - 7pm (or earlier if you have availability) Where: Passyunk Square Fountain (East Passyunk Avenue and Tasker Street) We need one volunteer to table with a committee member. You'll be passing out materials, sharing why you support the Co-op, and taking member applications. Dickinson Square Farmers' Market When: Sunday, July 1st. Two shifts: 10am - 12pm and 12 - 2pm Where: Southeast corner of Dickinson Square (on Moyamensing near Morris Street) We need 2 volunteers to help table at the Dickinson Square Farmer's Market. You will be distributing Co-op information, sharing why you support the Co-op, and taking applications. You will be paired with a committee member who will support you with any questions that arise. Two shifts are available, one from 10am - 12pm and one from 12 - 2pm. Gold Star Park - Music in the Park - Local vs Conventional Veggie Tasting When: Thursday, July 12th, 7 - 9pm Where: Gold Star Park (Wharton and 7th) We need two vounteers to help with this event. You'll be helping to hand out samples of in-season fruits and vegetables. You'll also help distribute South Philly Food Co-op membership applications and materials about the Co-op. We ask that volunteers stay to help us clean up afterwards as well. Concert at FDR Park When: Friday, August 10, (rescheduled from Friday, July 27th). Two shifts: 6:30 - 8pm and 8 - 10pm Where: FDR Park (1800 Pattison Ave near the Phillies & Eagles Stadiums) The Co-op is bringing its Guerilla Gardening workshop to FDR Park. Volunteers will be making Seed Bombs, distributing Co-op information, telling others why you think South Philly needs a co-op, and taking applications. You will be paired with a committee member who can help to answer any questions that arise. We have two shifts for this event and need one volunteer at each. ONGOING VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES 2nd Annual South Philly Garden Tour - Help Needed Saturday, September 8, 2012 (Raindate September 9, 2012) The Garden Tour is a self-guided ticketed event, and will feature 20 public and private gardens throughout South Philadelphia. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 on the day of, and will be available for purchase soon. This is the Co-op's biggest fundraiser of the year and will help us raise the funds for a site analysis of potential store locations. 1) Call for Gardens Have you been working hard on your backyard or roofdeck garden? Have an outdoor space (big or small) that you're proud of? Sign up to be part of the Garden Tour and show off the fruits of your labor! Email Anna to participate. Do you know of some great gardens that we could recruit for the tour? Email Anna for details on how to help out recruiting gardens for the tour! 2) Design work needed We need someone to help out with designing materials for the garden tour: Ticket, Poster, and Tour Guide. We'll provide you all of the text--we just need your help with making it look awesome. Manage Our T-Shirt Order We would like to put together a t-shirt order, collecting pre-orders and payments ahead of time using available online tools. We need someone to head up this project with the help of the Membership Committee. This should be a fun short-term project that will be completed by the end of the summer and can satisfy your volunteer hours for the year. You can go down in Co-op history as the one who was responsible for our very first t-shirt! Help Us Plan Our October Membership Meeting The Membership Committee is looking for help planning the October Membership meeting. While it seems a ways off, we start looking to reserve a location for the meeting in July/August. We already have the "To Do" list for the meeting, just need a few people to help out to cross off the items on the list.

Not only did we announce reaching our initial membership goal of 250 member-owners at our Spring Membership Meeting several weeks ago (on our way to 400 and beyond!), we also held our annual Board elections. While some board members have left and others have stayed on, we are very fortunate to welcome Anna Shipp as our newest elected board member.

Anna has been involved with the Co-op for over a year as an active member of the Outreach and now Membership Committees, and played a major role in the planning and coordination of the first annual South Philly Garden Tour in September 2011. She officially joins the board on July 1.

Anna has never felt more at home than she has in her 10 years in South Philadelphia, and is a proud to reside south of Snyder and west of Broad. Her Bachelors degree in Psychology led her on a path in youth work, social work, and non-profit program and volunteer coordination. Always having loved earth sciences as well, Anna is now pursuing a Masters of Environmental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She intends to use it to combine her passions for urban greening, stormwater management, and civic engagement to make Philadelphia a cleaner, greener, even more beautiful city. She is also currently a fellow with the US Forest Service researching perceptions of trees and green space in South Philadelphia. Anna is addicted to being outside, and loves gardening, hiking, and riding her bicycle(s). She is thrilled to be part of the South Philly Food Co-op and its Board of Directors, and is eager for the day we get to open our doors!

My friend MSNDG's grandmother makes this cucumber salad. I should be clear, she makes a cucumber salad, or even the cucumber salad, but not really this cucumber salad, and it's truly spectacular. It's sweet and tangy and so cool and crisp. I was thrilled to take home the leftovers from one of their family events a few months back. Also, we had a variant of this over a year ago as part of the falafel dinner.

I'm very good at asking your mother, your grandmother, whoever, for a recipe, but I'm not good at pulling out a notepad and writing it down. We covered this in the episode on brisket. But I asked her, I think twice, and she kindly told me what she does, but I'm under the impression that either she cooks like me, and doesn't measure everything, or that she intentionally gave me vague directions so I couldn't follow her recipe exactly. Either way, it worked like that, because I have no idea exactly how she makes it and this was close, and fantastic, and I'll make it again and again, but it's not MSNDG's grandmother's recipe. Close.

When I asked MSNDG for a refresher, just before making this, she gave me about as much information as I had remembered... vinegar, sugar, salt, white pepper, and cucumbers. Ratios, procedures, no.So I got to Googling. I figured if I didn't make MSNDG's grandmother's cucumber salad, I could make someone else's grandmother's version.

This week in my farmshare email there was a Simply Recipes version, which looks cool and refreshing and wonderful but doesn't have the sugar I know this one does. Smitten Kitchen uses this one from Gourmet that includes garlic and less sugar than I thought was right for recreating this particular salad. Emeril uses two kinds of vinegar, and there's quite a few others floating around out there, like this one using olive oil, this one with mayo, and this one with mint, tomatoes, and onions.

So as with most things, I winged it, with all of the varieties I'd read about plus my vague recollection of the actual recipe. As rarely happens, it worked very well.

I started with these tiny cucumbers that my CSA calls pickles.

I put on my safety glove and busted out the mandoline. One thing certain in the original recipe is that the thinner the slices are, the better the salad is. I chose to go skin-on, because that's my approach to most things, but I know the original is peeled and several internet variations are striped, half peeled.

So in the end I had about five cups of slices.

Step two is the marinade. Regular white vinegar, which in our house isn't so much food as it is all-purpose cleaner and ant repellant. It's ok, it's food.

Add to that a half cup of white sugar.

A teaspoon of kosher salt.

About a half teaspoon of white pepper.

I stirred the mixture together well until the sugar and salt dissolved and then poured it over the cucumbers. It just about covered them, and if it hadn't I would just have added more vinegar.

Next I added dill.

I was unsure about using dill, since MSNDG didn't list it among the ingredients she recalled, but I had this fresh dill and thought it'd be a waste to use cucumbers without it. When I served it this weekend I mentioned the dill and she agreed that it belonged in the salad. So, yay, dill.

That got a few good tosses and an overnight stint in the fridge.

The next day is was cool and bright and tangy and awesome. Not quite the original but something we'll make as long as cucumbers are around this summer.

Five cups of cucumbers made enough salad for four of us at dinner (alongside a green salad and some grilled pizzas) and two additional lunch portions, but we're all big cucumber salad fans so we may have overindulged.

This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food.

Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

• 5 cups cucumbers, sliced thin


• 1.5 cups white vinegar


• .5 cup white sugar


• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt


• .5 teaspoon white pepper


• 2 tablespoons fresh dill, minced

Instructions

Slice cucumbers as thin as possible. I used a mandoline.

Dissolve sugar and salt in water, mix in white pepper. Pour over cucumbers.

Toss with dill and store in refrigerator at least an hour, better overnight. Serve cold.

Details

• Prep time: 15 hour


• Total time: 1 hour 15 mins


• Yield: 6 large servings

Big time congratulations go out to Co-op member-owner Andy Arsenault and this brother Sean. The two of them collaborated on a Salted Caramel Chocolate Stout that just won the "People's Choice" award at Home Sweet Homebrew's Extreme Home Brew Challenge at Jose Pistola's in Center City. Andy, who is a long-time volunteer on the Co-op's Programs and Events Committee has been brewing with his brother for about five years. Their victory was featured in a Daily News piece by Philly icon Joe Sixpack (aka Don Russell, the director of Philly Beer Week). Just reading the description makes me regret not going to more Programs and Events committee meetings myself to get a taste of this brew:

Sean said he was inspired to duplicate the flavor of the salted caramel ice cream he enjoyed while living in Lyon, France. It was made with English brown malt, the type used in mild stout and porter, plus sugar and a dose of lactose to amplify its sweetness. Only a small bit of sea salt was added to give it the kick it needed.

Fellow member-owners, please send along best wishes to Andy and Sean for their big win! (You can do so in the comments section below or on our Facebook page, where I've also posted this.) And if you haven't met Andy yet or you want to try some his brew (or fellow Programs and Events committee member Martin Brown's Little Baby's Ice Cream) email [email protected] for information on how you can get involved. Yes... that's right. I'm bribing you with beer and ice cream. Check that... other people's beer and ice cream!

I love infographics and wish I had to the talent to do some really good ones. For now, I just satisfy myself with sharing a couple from Take Part, a pretty slick advocacy website.

Consider how a food co-op (our food co-op) can help fix this craziness.

 

Via: TakePart.com

Via: TakePart.com

And forgive me if you've seen all this before, but it's worth seeing again.

Things are a little busy around here!  I'm in the process of buying a house (fingers crossed!!) but in the meantime my old lease was up so I moved into a sublet for the summer.  I've moved but my plants are in two different places (what, you thought I wouldn't move my plants?  Another bonus of container gardening!):  about a quarter of my plants are at my sublet and the rest are on my boyfriend's porch.  If all goes well with the house I'll start moving plants over there after closing at the end of this month.  But just because my plants are being carted around the city doesn't mean they aren't growing.  Oh, they are.  I was going through all the pictures I've taken so far this year and I thought it would be fun to see how the plants have grown.  I thought the arugula was a particularly nice example:

Above, in mid-March they were freshly planted.

A week later they sprouted!

They grow fast!  Four days later I started thinning them out (because apparently I am incapable of sowing seeds evenly...)

By mid-April they were starting to look like real arugula (and tasted great, too.)

The front pot is spinach and behind it is the monstrous arugula.

I tried to eat as much as I could to thin them out some more.  When I say "thin out" I don't mean pulling the plants out of the ground - I just pick the leaves so new ones can grow back.  Because...

They will!

After I thinned out what I could eat for dinner, I moved some plants to a bigger space so I wouldn't have to thin out as frequently and they'd be able to grow a little bigger - although I tend to prefer baby greens for their tenderness, I love the nutty flavor of adult arugula because it's more pronounced.  Also I wanted the leaves to look more arugula-ish.

I stuck the little arugulas in wherever possible (like with my chard and kale from last winter that were basically just bird food by now) but they grew big with lots of space.

The ones I left in the original pot grew lots too.

Four days later they were enjoying their new home and steadier photography!

And I was eating as much arugula as possible.  Don't knock arugula and cream cheese on a bagel until you've tried it.

This might be the last harvest since tender greens like these don't like it really hot (I've already gotten rid of the spinach and lettuce.)  And I've eaten enough arugula to satisfy my springtime arugula craving, but I'll probably plant more in the fall when it cools down.

As for the rest of the garden ("garden"), I'm getting lots of these:

which is always exciting!  But more on that next time.

We are all about what the City has been doing through the Office of Sustainability and its Greenworks Initiative. Afterall, enhancing local business and regional food security is one of the biggest things our Co-op will bring to this part of the city. So we're always willing to lend a hand in promoting their events:

Please join Mayor Michael Nutter and the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability to launch the Greenworks Update and 2012 Progress Report on June 18th at 2:00 p.m. We’ll be at Sister Cities Park (18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway) celebrating our shared efforts to make Greenworks a success, sipping lemonade and eating cookies from Milk&Honey, and checking out vehicles that are helping Philadelphia’s transportation sector go green. We’ll also be making an exciting announcement about Philly Car Share’s new electric vehicle fleet additions! Thank you for your continued support. We hope to see you on the 18th!

Hmmm... where did I just see something about PhillyCarShare? Oh, of course, on our Shop South Philly page, where PhillyCarShare is one of the 20 or so local businesses that give discounts or specials to Co-op members. And now they're adding electric cars?!?! Uh... awesome!

Guerrilla Gardening Workshop This week the Co-op will be hosting a make-your-own seed bomb and seedling starter workshop - great events for the kids! Seed bombs are a fun way to throw a little splash of color in a vacant lot or that neglected container or raised bed in your patio. We'll also be starting herb seedlings using recycled materials as containers.  If you have any egg cartons, empty paper towel or toilet paper rolls in your recycle bin, please bring for the workshop - they make great seedling containers. If not, we'll have some extras you can have plus we'll provide the seeds, soil, and other supplies. The Guerrilla Gardening Workshop will take place twice this week: Gold Star Park Summer Music Series Thu, June 14, 6pm – 8pm Where: Gold Star Park (6th and Wharton) Music: Fisher & Maher (www.fishermaher.com) (UPDATE: Any member-owners who had paid off their entire $200 equity by May 1 can pick up their ownership share certificate on Thursday!) West Passyunk Summer Festival Sat, June 16, 12pm – 4pm Where: Girard Elementary (18th and Snyder) We still need a few volunteers at these events, so please email volunteer@southphillyfoodcoop.org with your offer to help out.