Share Notes 5-16-19
CSA Share Notes:
The shares look great for you! But the garden does not look too awesome. This is the week when all these heavy rains are finally revealing their lasting impact.
Most of our root crops are too covered up in weeds to grow because we couldn’t get in there to weed for 2 months. I don’t think we’ll have beets for you any time soon, though the carrots, onions, and garlic are still doing ok. The brassica family was all far too sensitive to the over-saturated soil and we had a crop failure on that entire family. And sadly it’s a BIG crop family: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, arugula, bok choy, napa cabbage, our spicy asian spring mix, and radishes. All of these are kaput with a few sparse holdouts (collards and kale are super resilient, and we have a late planting of arugula and radishes that are currently doing okay, so hopefully in 2 weeks they’ll be ready for you).
We typically rely heavily on the brassica crop family in the spring CSA shares and this year, that’s not an option. What this all means is that there won’t be the usual variety we are able to offer in the shares and they’ll more or less look very similar from week to week. And since we’ve been and will continue to harvest from the same crops more heavily week after week, they’ll need more time to recover between harvests. We might take next week or the following week off from harvest to give them a chance to re-grow (That’s either May 23rd or 30th). Of course we’ll update you by email as we see how the garden is doing.
For now, check out this lovely week of the Spring CSA season. Here’s your vegetable line-up.
- Parsnips—Regular shares all received this difficult to grow crop. We recommend oven-roasting them with other root veggies for a nice nutty flavor.
- Turnips—Large shares all received Scarlet Queen turnips. The greens are far too buggy to be used, so just discard them. These are fantastic cooked up southern style. Chop a few strips of bacon and an onion and cook in a heavy pot. Keeping all the bacon fat in the pot for this dish, next toss in the chopped up turnips and cook just till soft. They are so delicious. You can also oven roast them or glaze them and they’re incredible.
- Snow Peas—Crunchy and sweet, these tasty gems may not make it home, but if they do, dip them into hummus, or sauté them up in a super hot skillet or wok with lots of other veggies for a nice stir fry. These delicious beauties are only available for about 3 weeks, so enjoy.
- Garlic Scapes—this is the end of them! Chop them and use as garlic, or puree them into a delicious pesto with walnuts/pine nuts/pecans, loads of parmesan, and a bit of olive oil. Whole garlic bulbs are just a few weeks away.
- Winterbor Kale—Regular shares received winterbor kale (until we ran out, then a few of you received Red Russian kale), my favorite for cooking up in a soup.We’ve got several ideas in our kitchen blog for you.
- Collards—Large shares all received this crop. This variety can be used as kale in any kale recipe, or cook it up southern style with bacon and onions. We didn’t quiiiite have enough collards, so a few folks received Red Russian Kale
- Head lettuces—Regular shares received 2 heads: skyphos, red romaine. Large shares received 4 heads: skyphos, 2 red romaine, and a green heirloom iceburg.
- Endive—This is similar to the Escarole you received last week, in that it’s a specialty European green with a stronger flavor than lettuce. This pairs best with an acidic dressing (vinegars, or an orange or lemon vinaigrette) to balance the bitter greens. I’ve served this with poached or hard boiled eggs and bacon many a time, (lots of bacon suggestions this week. Sorry to the vegetarians!) and it’s hearty, simple, and delicious. Here are loads of more ideas.
- Spinach—Large shares received a nice big bag of spinach. This is the end of our greenhouse spinach, and our field-grown spinach didn’t make it through the heavy rains and saturated soil, so it’s done for now! We’ll grow more in the fall for you.
Veggie Storage tips:
Sever roots from their tops to keep them from getting rubbery. Everything you’ve received this week wants to be stored cold 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
Regular Share
