Share Notes 4-20-17
CSA Share Notes:
Welcome to the Red Moon Farm spring CSA! We’re so glad to have you as members this season. These first items are fresh, young, and packed with nutrition, so enjoy. The boxes are pretty full this week, and throughout the season the quantity ebbs and flows as old crops fade and new crops come in. Look forward to lots more deliciousness from the Red Moon Farm garden.
Now on to your vegetable line-up:
- Radish—small shares received French Breakfast radishes, an heirloom variety. Large shares received Easter Egg radishes, a fun mix of several colors. We find the French Breakfast to be more mild than the Easter Egg. Recently we sliced our radishes in half, length-wise, and sauteed them in browned butter with their greens. It made a delicious side dish. Did you know that radish tops are edible? These are super good.
- Kale—This first week everyone received Red Russian kale, a tender, delicious variety that out-ranks the curly kale in our opinion. Cook your kale southern style with a little bacon and onion, or try the Massaged Kale Salad or the Rainbow Kale Salad.
- Win-win Pac Choi—a delicious Asian cabbage that’s a great addition to stir fries, curries, or turned into kim chee. We’ve got a great dish we recommend: Sesame noodles with bok choy (pac choi and bok choy are the same plant, just two slightly different translations from Chinese)
- Lettuce—A large healthy head of Red Oak Leaf for everyone, and a head of Waldman’s Green for the large shares. You know what to do with this one!
- Swiss Chard—The most gorgeous spring crop, filled with color and flavor. We’ve made many a delightful fresh salad with swiss chard, chopped it up fine and cooked it into a veggie-egg scramble, or we’ve also got a fantastic main-dish to suggest: Butternut Squash and Swiss Chard Lasagne.
- Spinach—This fresh crop, though larger than the baby spinach you’re used to purchasing at the grocery store, is still tender and young enough to get chopped into a salad, but would also be great cooked. Those of you who have been with us for a while know that we have struggled to grow any spinach for the CSA at all, it just hasn’t seemed to like our soil. But we’ve kept working hard at it, and this spring’s batch of spinach is totally blowing us away. We hope you enjoy it! It’s come with a few years of work.
- Arugula—This flavorful green has come to be our very favorite spring salad ingredient. If the flavor is a bit much for you, our suggestion is to pair it with a little sweetness like fresh apples or strawberries, or dried fruit. Also add in some mild chevre goat cheese and a creamy dressing like poppyseed.
Veggie Storage tips:
The many leafy greens will all last longest stored in the refrigerator, sealed up in bags or containers to retain their moisture. A suggestion: buy some “PEAK fresh USA” bags from Natural Grocer! They’re roomy and re-usable and help keep your produce fresher, longer. The radish roots should be severed from their tops to keep them firm and crisp, and the tops can be stored like the other greens. Everything will need a gentle washing before cooking, but leave the dirt on until you’re ready to use them. As a general rule, wait to wash any veggies until you’re ready to use them to help retain nutrients and prevent spoilage from excess moisture.
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
