CSA Share Notes:

Welcome to another bountiful week of winter! A quick note regarding the status of a few crops-no radishes this week. These poor plants have been struggling big time against a HUGE aphid problem we’ve got going in the greenhouse. They also took out the turnips we hoped to send you this week and next, and all the arugula, too! Within organic production our options to combat the aphids (various types of natural soaps and oils) are not that effective and are really tough on the plants. We’ve been doing what we can but they’re definitely winning. We’ll replant and you’ll likely get those crops again near the end of this winter season or early in the spring season.

Here’s this week’s Vegetable line-up.

• Collard— Small shares received this southern green. Use it as a kale substitute or braise it with bacon, onion, and garlic.
• Kale—Large shares mostly received winterbor (curly) kale, a few received collards.
• Mixed lettuce—This crop is still rocking along super strong. So delicious this time of year!
• Spinach—Super vibrant green and healthy spinach. We toss some into our morning veggie scramble every day, but when we have a surplus of spinach, we love to make spinach soup with a little cream, onion, and garlic.
• Pac Choi—(same thing as bok choy) This crop belongs in a comfort food bowl of yellow Thai curry. If you haven’t ever made it, it’s not difficult and is so tasty. This recipe is a favorite. I substitute serrano pepper for the Thai chili pepper and I keep a few jars of lemongrass paste from World Market on hand for when I get a hankering for Thai cooking. Add your chopped up pac choi for the final 3-5 min. of cooking time, just long enough to wilt the greens but leave the stems with some bite.
• Beet Thinnings—This time with a few baby beets!  We’ve been chopping these delicate tender greens into our cast iron skillet when we do our veggie-egg scramble. They are also tender enough to get mixed into a salad, and they’d be wonderful roasted, too, or in a traditional Italian pasta dish with loads of European butter (Plugra brand is really good).
• Dandelion Greens—These young greens are super tender and perfect to be blended into a salad with our lettuce mix.  Dandelion greens are strongly flavored, so I recommend using them at 20-30% of a salad mix. They’re also excellent cooked, braised, scrambled, etc. They’re super healthy for your liver, too!
• Broccoli—We don’t have a ton of it left, but still a little bit for you to enjoy.
• Sweet Potatoes—This is your final week of sweet potatoes. They are reaching the end of their storage life, so you’ll want to use them up soon rather than store them. We’re making a batch of our favorite sweet potato soup with greens today. Perfect for using your spinach, beet greens, kale, collard, or dandelion greens.

Veggie Storage tips:

The sweet potatoes will prefer to stay at room temp, but everything else will keep longest stored in the fridge sealed up in a bag.     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

Large Share 

Large share from top left to right: Bagged lettuce, bagged spinach, bagged dandelion greens.  Winterbor kale, sweet potatoes.  Bagged broccoli, pac choi, and beet thinnings.

Small Share

Small share from top left to right: Bagged lettuce, bagged spinach, bagged dandelion greens.  Bagged broccoli, sweet potatoes, pac choi. Beet thinnings and collard greens.