Share Notes 12-21-17
CSA Share Notes:
This week you’re receiving the final fall harvest, and today happens to be the first day of winter. How appropriate! Thank you all for enjoying our fall harvest with us this season, and have a lovely holiday week and a happy new year!
Here’s this week’s Vegetable line-up.
- Sweet potatoes—make some lovely hasselback sweet potatoes for your holiday feast this week!
- Radish—French Breakfast. This is our favorite radish, a gorgeous heirloom variety. Their white tipped roots are so lovely.
- Cabbage—You may have received some Tendersweet cabbage, a smooth, round variety, or some of our heirloom savoy leaved cabbage, which have lovely crinkled leaves. My favorite use of cabbage is to make this one-pot meal: cut up smoked sausage links, coarsely chopped onion, potato, apple, carrot, and cabbage, all tossed into a dutch oven and cooked on low heat for 2 hours until all veggies are tender.
- Endive—This salad green is highly prized by chefs, and has more robust flavor than lettuce. Mix with some of your other salad greens to add more diverse texture and flavor.
- Head Lettuce—Fresh heads in an array of pretty varieties. You may have received Speckled Trout, Skyphos, or New Red Fire.
- Arugula—Makes a super flavorful and delicious salad. We like to pair arugula with a flavorful cheese like parmesan or chevre, a nut like pine nut or pecan, and sweet, tart fruit like fresh apple or dried cherry.
- Spring mix—This bag of mixed Asian greens can be eaten raw in salads, but if you’re tiring of salads, it is also wonderful cooked. It would be great sautéed in with the turnip greens. We’ve also had CSA members report back that these spicy Asian greens make an incredible pesto.
- Purple Top Turnips—with large bunches of healthy greens. The traditional way to cook southern turnips is to sauté your chopped roots in butter or bacon fat with garlic and onion for a few minutes, and then toss in the chopped greens to cook together a few minutes longer. Add hot sauce and you’ve got an authentic southern mainstay.
Veggie Storage tips:
Sweet potatoes will prefer to stay at room temp. Everything else will keep longest stored in the fridge sealed up in a bag. 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