CSA Cooking Classes Episode 1 | Karen

A few weeks ago, some CSA members and Karen farmers got together to share a meal. The farmers chose the menu, showing program staff and CSA members how to cook foods from their culture using food from their fields.

Please come in and join us!

First up on the menu was Sauteed Water Spinach, which has long skinny leaves.

Here's what it looks like raw, taken off of the stem.

See the recipe below!

Sauteed Water Spinach

One large bunch water spinach de-stemmed
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons chicken base (powder form)
6-8 cloves garlic sliced
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon golden mountain seasoning sauce
3 ounces of soy bean paste

Heat vegetable oil in a pan on medium heat.
Put everything except golden mountain seasoning in hot pan
until thoroughly wilted. Add golden mountain seasoning, serve with steamed rice.

Next up was my personal favorite, the steamed blue pumpkin! The farmers were so excited about sharing this recipe and their excitement was contageous. The blue pumpkin is beautiful to look at, a bit tricky to cut up and totally tasty. Check out the recipe below!

Steamed Blue Pumpkin

1 Blue Burmese Pumpkin
5- 6 Shallots
5 Tablespoons of white sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
2 Tablespoons of ginger
1/3 Cup of vegetable oil

Peel, seed and cut pumpkin into 2 inch chunks (like watermelon)
Cut Shallots and place in a large stockpan with 2 inches of water
Add sugar and salt
Drizzle vegetable oil over the ingredients
Grate 2 Tablespoons ginger root and add to the pot
Steam the ingredients with the lid on the pot for 10-15 minutes
Steam until the pumpkin is tender.
Serve and enjoy!

Last up for the evening was the Chin Baung Soup. Chin Baung is the most popular item at our Monday market. Karen, Chin and Karenni folks line up and take huge rubbermaid tubs of this stuff home. Literally. I've been so curious about it- its leaves are beautiful out in the field and it has a lemonny taste that suprises all of our guests to the farm.

Chin Baung and Fish Soup

One large bunch Chin Baung de-stemmed

4 cups water
¼ cup olive oil
2 shallots
one small bunch Chinese long beans cut into 1 inch lengths
1 ½ cups fish (tilapia, or other meat of choice)
1 Tablespoon chicken base seasoning (powder form)
1 teaspoon seasoning sauce
1 Tablespoon fish sauce

Bring water to a boil in soup pot.
In a small pan heat the oil and fry the shallots until translucent.
Add them to the water. Place the fish or meat of choice
into the pan and fry till done, then add to soup as well.
Put chin baung, long beans and spices into soup,
cook till greens are wilted.

These were the sauces, broths and oils added.

Pay Lay with Susan, her CSA friend for the past two years.

Pay Lay and Jessica.

Marion, Beh Paw and Pat who buys into Beh Paw's CSA.

The whole gang.

Cooking together was a blast. Stay tuned for cooking reports from our other farmers as well!

We're growing up!

For the past three years, we have been guided by the dream of refugees operating their own small farms in Kansas City. When we started, we didn't know what we were doing or how to make it happen. Not that we had no foundation to build upon- refugee farmers posses significant experience, work ethic and will, KCCUA brings a city-wide network of farmers, resources and knowledge and Catholic Charities has been partnering with refugees for many years- but this was a new thing for us all. Each new phase of our life as a program has brought challenges and opportunities. Developing the urban incubator site (how many bricks can fit into 8 acres of soil!), building our CSA program, increasing food stamp accessibility, growing our ethnic crop availability, working with new populations, etc. Some phases have been more challenging than others, but they have all provided us with opportunities to learn from one another and work together.

We are now entering into yet another phase- moving some of our farmers onto their own independent sites. We are excited. We are overwhelmed. We can't wait. We are all dreaming together and pulling together all the ideas and resources that we've got.

A few weeks ago, some of the farmers took a field trip to a Hmong farm in KCK. The Hmong were resettled in Kansas City in the seventies and eighties, and now many are operating their own farms. It was a fantastic experience for all of us- opening our eyes to the possibilities and framing our conversation moving forward. Here are some photos from that day.

Yia, our gracious host, who has been in Kansas City for 30 years.

Beh Paw, excited about the dry land rice field, explains it all to Katherine.

Lay Htoo, Beh Paw and Yia communicate in their third language, Thai, that happens to be shared among them. Yia's innovative scarecrows.

Dena and Lay Htoo show me how to save seeds. Everyone was ecstatic to find many vegetables that they haven't seen since the Thai refugee camps.

Lay Htoo and Bay Htoo show the eggplants that are familiar to them. Thanks to Yia for being so generous with her harvest.