Mango Salsa with Fresh Tomatoes

We ate up most of the mango salsa before I thought to snap a picture, so this is the tail end of the batch.  It was delicious on top of fish tacos.  We pan seared tilapia after coating it in cornmeal and a little cumin and then finished the fish in a 400-degree oven.  We served the fish and salsa on corn tortillas with a hearty topping of greek yogurt sauce and chopped fresh cucumbers.  All in all - delicious!

Mango Salsa

1/2 sweet onion, diced tiny

2 cloves garlic, diced tiny

2 mangos diced, or about a cup of frozen mango thawed

1 medium tomato, diced

1/4 kohlrabi, diced (turnip works too!)

Handful of cilantro, chopped

1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tbsp olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Slice of lime

Put onion and garlic in bowl with vinegar, squeeze of lime and olive oil while you dice other ingredients.  The acid in the vinegar "cooks" the garlic and mellows out the flavor a bit.  Mix remaining ingredients in and let sit covered in fridge for at least 30 minutes.  Keeps for a few days in the fridge.

Curried Yogurt Sauce

1/2 cup greek yogurt

1 tsp curry

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tbsp white wine

Stir together and serve with tacos. 

Easy Cucumber & Tomato Salad

This recipe combines a lot of things I look for in a side item.  Vegetable-laden, easy to eat with fork or fingers (necessary when feeding both toddler and adult), and keeps well so I can make it once and have it all week.  Oh yeah, and it tastes pretty good too!

Easy Cucumber and Tomato Salad
2-3 medium tomatoes, chunked
1 cucumber, chunked
1/2 small sweet onion, minced or two baby leeks, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Salt & Pepper

Combine cut-up vegetables in a bowl.  Mix olive oil, vinegar and salt & pepper and pour over vegetables.  Best after sitting for 30 minutes in the fridge.  Keeps well for a few days in the fridge!  (For fancier looking cucumbers, use a vegetable peeler to remove alternating strips of peel.)

Veggies for Breakfast

Vegetable Frittata 
I just learned the word 'frittata' this year.  When I first heard it, I thought it meant something Spanish and definitely something fancy.  As it turns out, it's actually pretty simple (and definitely really versatile).  And I was wrong about the Spanish part too - 'frittata' is an Italian word.  I should've known; everything the Italians do is delicious.  Basically a frittata is an open-faced omelette and it makes for a hearty breakfast.

Couple of tbsp of olive oil
1/2 cup of chopped onion
4-6 cups of any vegetable chopped (greens like kale, arugula, chard can be sliced thin and included raw; root vegetables like potatoes and turnips should be added to pan first and cooked a little longer than other veggies - other great additions are broccoli, tomatoes and squash)
Handful of fresh herbs, chopped
2 - 3 eggs
1/2 cup cheese (parmesan, goat cheese, cheddar - they're all good)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet set to medium.  Add onion and cook until soft.  Add the vegetables and heat until soft.  (If using root vegetables, add first and let cook down for about 10 minutes before adding greens, etc. If using tomatoes, you may want to squeeze them dry before adding to pan.)  Turn the heat down and add herbs.  Cook until pan is pretty dry.  In a separate bowl, beat eggs and salt and pepper and cheese.  Spread veggies evenly in the pan and pour your egg mixture over it.  Let everything cook undisturbed for about 10 minutes until the eggs are just set. (If you do disturb it, then just strip it of the 'frittata' fanciness and call it a scramble.  It'll still be good!)  Serve it up alone, or top with a little Greek yogurt.

This recipe is great for leftover vegetables too.  Just toss in after the onions and add your egg mixture right away.

Breakfast Smoothie
The trick is to incorporating vegetables into smoothies is balancing the earthiness of the vegetables with fruit and herbs.  Also, this recipe involves juicing.


For the juice:
Bunch of beet greens, kale, spinach or chard
Half handful of mint
(Juice & set aside - Great to make ahead to have on hand for last minute morning smoothies)
For the smoothie:
1 1/2 cups frozen fruit (peaches, mangos and strawberries are good choices - berry mixtures can be a little intense)
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup of your green juice

When you make smoothies, always make sure to add your liquid first so that the blender's blades are never running dry.  Ginger is also a great balancer to 'green' juice.  Sometimes I throw some chai tea concentrate in the mix for a little flair.

**None of my pictures turned out well so I borrowed the images in this post from the web - cannot claim them! 

Community Supported Agriculture: Native Sun style

CSA is short for Community Supported Agriculture. The term covers a broad range of different techniques for getting great local food out to the folks who want it. Most commonly, CSA means selling shares of a small farm's crop prior to the harvest and then distributing those shares throughout a season in weekly produce boxes.

Who should join a CSA? People who love the freshest vegetables! Who should join our CSA? We recommend subscription boxes for small households (1-2 people) if they eat vegetables with most meals or larger households that eat vegetables at a least one meal a day. Since the boxes will be made up of the vegetables that are ready for harvest in that week, boxes work best for folks that like variety and have an interest in trying new recipes. Our shares will be distributed in 8 week sessions over the course of spring, summer and fall. Since shares need to be picked up every week, make sure to select sessions that don't conflict with vacations. Also shares must be picked up at the farm during farmstand hours on Wednesday, so CSA boxes will work best for people who can get to the stand easily.

The sign-up form includes a list of "anticipated offerings" for each session. Since we are always at the mercy of Mother Nature, the anticipated offerings serves as a guide and isn't set in stone. We'll make every effort to maximize variety and interest while still including the staple crops you would expect, all at a great value.

Interested? Sign up here. Still have questions? Email us!

Raw conclusions...

Well, today is day 7, and I am hesitant to admit that we quit the raw lifestyle a little bit early. Staying true to the raw fast between dusk and dawn for the work week was no problem, but we faltered on Saturday after a long hike around the Botanical Gardens and succumbed to a delicious plate of Kelly's Jamaican. Without work to distract us, our hunger took hold, and we had not prepared enough raw snacks to combat it. Still, even at 5 days, it was a great experience. Besides just eating more raw foods, we also used the week as an opportunity to abstain from television and to get to bed earlier. We kept a gratitude journal and made sure to say a few words of thanks before we sat down to any meals. We both felt more focused, more grounded and more grateful and we plan to carry some of this week's experience back to our regular routine. Especially the part where we convinced Garrett to eat raw kale!

7 days of RAW

Farmer Brent and I are going raw this week! Between dawn and dusk for the next 7 days, we'll be limiting ourselves to raw fruits and veggies. As parents of an infant, there's no way we could pull off a true raw fast, but this seemed like a do-able compromise. We plan to eat healthy breakfasts and dinners, filled with whole grains, vegetarian proteins and lots of veggies. Wish us luck! We'll keep you posted.

Our first Youtube video!

Ok, it's not our video, but we're in it! It is from the Field of Greens event that we participated in this past fall. Check it out and let us know what you think! LINK