Welcome to the blog!

Hi! I'm Rebeca Torres, one of the crew here at Denison Farm. I started out my relationship with the Denisons about 5 years ago as a working CSA member. I loved my time the farm and the markets so much that I started taking vacation from my full time job to put in more hours. The next year I started to work on the crew part time and then year after that I worked on the farm full time during the growing season. I was hooked! After a short hiatus where I only worked at the Troy Farmers' Market stand on and off, I am glad to be back full time again.

This is my first time on this side of the blogging fence and I'm excited about the opportunity to share some of my experiences on the farm and recipes that I enjoy. I hope you will feel free to comment and that this blog will be one more way in which we foster the Community aspect of our CSA.

Some of the recipes I will share will come from cookbooks, other blogs or websites that I frequent and will also recommend to you as sources for your adventures in local, seasonal (and certified naturally grown!) cooking.

To start off, since many of you received Bok Choi in your share this past week, I will share this recipe for a Bok Choi Salad that I received in my inbox this morning from A Veggie Venture.

(Note: the "I"s in the recipe are from Alanna Kellogg who writes the A Veggie Venture blog)

BOK CHOY SALAD with CHINESE SALAD DRESSING

Hands-on time: 10 minutes for dressing, 5 minutes for salad
Time to table: 15 minutes
Serves 4

DRESSING
Note: I used about half the dressing on a pound of bok choy.

1 tablespoon garlic (or garlic to taste, I used garlic from a jar which is some milder)
1 tablespoon ginger (or ginger to taste, I used ginger from a jar from an international market)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Juice of a lemon
1 tablespoon honey (or agave syrup for a vegan salad)
1 tablespoon sesame seeds (I used black sesame seeds)
Generous dash of cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (a little goes a long way)
Peanut oil to taste (I used just 1 tablespoon and was tempted to use none at all, any oil will work but we needn't waste our best olive oil since the other dressing flavors are strong)

Whisk.

ASSEMBLE
1 pound bok choy (for St. Louisans, mine came from Centennial Farms at Tower Grove Farmers Market)

Wash well and trim. Chop the stems into bite size pieces, then the greens. Toss with the salad dressing, just enough to wet.

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As Alanna notes on her blog, "the dressing would be good tossed into steamed greens like mustard or leafy spinach." Or the braising green, or spinach that some of you received. Or kale, which might be coming soon...

Que aproveche! (that's the Spanish version of "Bon appetit!")