Share Notes 1-16-20
CSA Share Notes:
Welcome to your first Winter share! We’re so excited to try our another year of winter growing in our (usually) mild Texas winters. Some limited in-field production combined with what we’re growing in our big greenhouse- which is quickly filling up with beautiful leafy greens and roots- should be able to fill out your shares nicely over the next 3 months. Remember, our goal is 6 deliveries, planned to be delivered bi-weekly, but that’s with the caveat that our garden may dictate different plans. If we need to double up for a few back-to back weeks because we have loads of crops, or if we need to take longer than 2 week intervals between harvests, we may do so. This is all an experiment and we are happy to have you along for the ride.
We’re so excited about how big our first week of harvest is. You probably won’t see the boxes packed this full every week, but happy to share with you the abundance we’re experiencing right now!
Here’s your first week’s vegetable line-up
- Kale—Large shares received Red Russian kale (flat, oakleaf). The Regular shares received our Lacinato (aka dinosaur or tuscan type) or Winterbor kale (curly and crunchy) We’ve got a great recipe for rainbow kale salad that would be great with some roasted sweet potatoes and turnips. We made Zuppa Toscana this week, and it was heavenly.
- Turnips—We have some of the tastiest and prettiest turnips we’ve ever grown coming out of the garden this winter. Adding a few turnips in with your mashed potatoes, at a ratio of about 2 potatoes to 1 turnip is perfect to brighten up the dish and add a huge punch of extra vitamins to an otherwise high calorie, low-nutrient dish (turnips contain vitamins K, A, C, E, loads of B vitamins including folate, and tons of minerals, too)
- Radish—Regular shares received Easter Egg radish, and Large shares received French Breakfast radish. You can just crunch into them if you like, but my preference is to toast a piece of good rye or sourdough, spread it with an obscene amount of butter (or mashed avocado), and dot it with layers of our thin sliced radishes and a sprinkling of salt. It’s my favorite snack this time of year.
- Spinach—A nice big bag of fresh, nutritious spinach. Some of these leaves are bigger than you’d typically want for a salad. These we chop up into our scrambled eggs, or put in a minestrone, or any other dish that would be great for cooked spinach.
- Cabbage— Everyone received one petite cabbage, perfect for slaw, salad, or our favorite, a cabbage-sausage-apple bake. It’s a super tasty one-pot meal.
- Kohlrabi— Everyone received 3-4 kohlrabi. In the brassica family (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale)This crop grows almost like it’s a big swollen, crunchy broccoli stem. It’s a bit sweet and nutty and so good sliced thin in a fresh salad or roasted, or cubed or pureed into a soup. Remove the tough skin, and enjoy.
- Arugula—A large bag of delicious peppery arugula. This came from out in the field under harsher conditions, so it’s a sturdier leaf with a stronger flavor. The tender and more mild greenhouse-grown Arugula is about a month away.
- Broccoli—Loads of this crop is ready right now so we’re making sure you get tons of it while we’ve got it. The greens are edible. I would toss these beautiful leafy florets with a bit of olive oil and salt and put them straight into a hot oven to roast, as is, no trimming.
- Sweet potatoes—These tasty taters were grown by our friend about 5 miles down the road, Tony Phillips. The jumbo ones will be best cubed and boiled into a soup. If you’ve never given our Spicy Sweet Potato Soup with Greens a try, it’s killer. Super fast and simple and freezes well, too.
Veggie Storage tips: The sweet potatoes will prefer to stay at room temp. Everything else will keep longest stored in the fridge sealed up in produce bags. All root crops should be severed from their tops to keep the roots from getting rubbery. Everything will need a gentle washing before cooking, but leave the dirt on until you’re ready to use them to prevent spoilage. We’d love to hear stories and recipes of your culinary adventures this week. Send us a note or post a comment of how you’ve used your CSA share. Your farmers, Jess & Justin
