CSA Share Notes:

Welcome to our very first week of Spring CSA!  We hope you perused and enjoyed the new offerings we put up in the web store for you.  Zillmer Farms’ “no-spray” strawberries were a huge hit, and we hope you enjoy them! We should have some available every Thursday and Saturday for a few weeks. ETX Aquaponics duck eggs are also in pretty good supply right now, so you can either add them to your CSA subscription for a guaranteed weekly share of eggs (you do this from within your member account), OR just add them to your cart week to week in our web store when we have extra available.

Remember, the web store has a limited shopping window! Shopping days are:

• Monday and Tuesday to have items ready for Thursday delivery
• Wednesday and Thursday to have the items ready for Saturday’s delivery

Now on to your vegetable line up!

• Kale—Regular shares received curly kale, Large shares received Red Russian (flat, oak leaf), and the Mini shares received Lacinato kale (dark green and elongated). Try our Rainbow kale salad with lentils, or this massaged kale salad, to which you can add any number of delicious toppings. I love it with just fresh strawberries and a bit of feta.
• Spinach—A bag of fresh, iron-rich baby spinach for the Large and Regular shares. This stuff is SUPER tender, so handle delicately and savor it! It’s some of the best we’ve grown.
• Arugula—A bag for everyone! These leaves are super flavorful and are excellent paired with parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and fresh or dried fruit.
• Spring Mix— A big bag for everyone. This is an intensely flavored mixed greens for braising or for salads with notes of peppery, nutty and spicy. The various have a great array of textures and colors too.
• Beets—Chioggia for the Regular shares (these are bright red and look like a bulls-eye when you cut across the root), and Red Ace for the Large shares (dark purple-red).  Remember the greens are so delicious, too and boy are there a lot of them! With beets, roasting is definitely the way to go, as the high heat makes them so much sweeter. Drizzle in oil, wrap in foil, 400 degrees, about 1-1.5 hours depending on size. We like to top ours with a citrus or balsamic glaze.
• Radishes—these are French Breakfast radish, a wonderful, crunchy heirloom. We like to slice them thin on sandwiches or salads, or dip into hummus, but our favorite is to just snack on them sliced thin with sea salt and lemon juice.  FYI, radish tops are edible! You can use them in a salad or cook them like kale.
• Cabbage—Green savoy leaved cabbages for the Large shares. We grow nice little petite cabbages so they’ll fit in the CSA box. These leaves are crunchy and sweet and would be excellent in a slaw with your radishes.
• Carrots—only for the Mini shares. These are left from our big winter planting and they’re super sweet from the cold night temperatures we’ve had this week! Enjoy. Next carrots will be ready in about 6 weeks!

Veggie Storage tips:

Everything 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

Regular Share

Regular Share top left to right:  Curly kale, spinach, spring mix, and Chioggia beets. on bottom: Arugula and French breakfast radishes.

Large Share

Large Share top left to right:  Red Russian kale, spinach, spring mix, and arugula, and on bottom, French Breakfast radishes, cabbage, and Red Ace beets.

 Mini Share

Mini share: Lacinato kale, arugula, spring mix, carrots, and French Breakfast radishes.