Share Notes 5-4-17
CSA Share Notes:
Welcome to the Red Moon Farm spring CSA! You may notice a few green caterpillars have hitched a ride in your box this week. Please scold them for us when you find them, because they’re doing a number on the cabbages! We’ve got a great box for you. We hope you love what the garden has provided for you this week.
Here’s the vegetable line-up:
- Swiss chard—This is one of my most favorite spring crops, it’s so lovely! We’ve made many a delightful fresh salad with swiss chard mixed with arugula or spinach, we’ve chopped it up fine and cooked it into a veggie-egg scramble, but we’ve also got a fantastic main-dish to suggest if you haven’t given it a go: Butternut Squash and Swiss Chard Lasagne.
- Kale or Collard—The large shares received Red Russian kale, tender and great for fresh eating. The small shares received collards (pair these with your mustard greens!) Or give our Kale Pesto Potato Salad a try!
- Tatsoi—This is another Asian cabbage similar to pac choi! It’s great in fried rice (We feasted on this last night! It was fantastic.) or in a stir fry with your crisp, juicy snow peas. It also goes great in a traditional bowl of ramen, or in a coconut milk curry.
- Lettuce—For the large: one head each of Romaine and Waldmann’s Green. For the small shares, a head of red oak leaf. You know what to do with this crop!
- Turnips—Large shares received Purple Top turnips, a souther heirloom variety. Small shares received received scarlet queen turnips. We like to boil and mash them with our potatoes, but this week I have to suggest our Roasted Turnip and Grain Salad. Both of these turnip varieties would be excellent in this dish, as would your mustard greens.
- Giant Red Mustard greens— A southerner’s delight! Plan yourself a fantastic traditional Sunday lunch with a nice dish of baked beans, a mound of braised greens, and a pile of chicken fried steak. These greens are a bit spicy, Braise them with the collard/kale for a great flavor combination, and to tone down the kick, and use loads of fresh garlic. Alternately, roast them in the oven till crisp, like kale chips and munch on them for a snack. We probably won’t have this crop for you very often this spring, but hey, you live in the south, so you’ve GOT to try this historical, traditional vegetable!
- Spinach— Another lovely, tender bag of this delectable green. This crop is getting close to the end of it’s prime, but we hope to have a little more for you in a week or two.
- Snow Peas—Large shares received one lovely pint of snow peas. Crisp and juicy, these are excellent in a strawberry and feta salad, but they’re also great sautéed in butter and of course eaten fresh and raw.
- Wild Blackberries—Although not pictured, some of the small shares at a few of our pick-up locations were able to receive wild blackberries this week! We never expect the berries to produce enough to share with you, but when they do, we are thrilled and we know you are too! These berries came on strong and fast a few weeks ago, but they are waning quickly. We hope that nature blesses us with a few more pints to be able to send out to the rest of the shares next week.
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 root crops should be severed from their tops to keep the roots nice and firm and crisp. 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
