Share Notes April 14, 2022
CSA Share Notes:
Welcome to your very first week of Spring CSA! We hope you are as excited as we are about the crops coming your way this season. We were able to start just a little bit earlier than we often do. Lucky you! There are just 5-6 items in your share this week but in weeks to come, many more crops will be mature and ready for harvest. Here’s this week’s vegetable line up
- Kale—Winterbor (curly) kale was bagged up and packaged for the Large shares. Red Russian kale was bunched for the Regular shares. These crops can be used interchangeably in any recipe that calls for kale. Red Russian is often a little more tender, so I prefer it for use in a raw salad. Though the curly kale is also nice raw in a massaged salad. We have a technique to suggest here. Massaged kale salad, to which you can add any number of delicious toppings like fresh strawberries or blueberries, maybe a bit of feta.
- Collard—A bunch of super tender fresh collards for the Mini shares. If you’re not familiar with cooking collards, here’s our best tip: slice up an onion and chop a few cloves of garlic. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes if you’re daring and sauté (in bacon fat, even!) until translucent. Next toss in the shredded or sliced collard leaves and wilt. Cook until as tender as you like them (I prefer mine with a little chew left).
- Spinach—A bag of fresh, iron-rich baby spinach for Large and Regular shares.
- Arugula—A bag for everyone this week. These leaves are super flavorful and are excellent paired with parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and fresh or dried fruit and a sweet dressing to cut through the peppery arugula bite.
- Carrots—Everyone received a nice bunch of our lovely rainbow mix carrots. Shades of yellow, orange and white, all crunchy, all sweet. Enjoy!
- Radishes— French Breakfast for everyone. These are a wonderful, crunchy heirloom with a very mild spice. 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 cook them like kale or turnip greens. They tiny hairs come right off when cooked.
- Sweet Potato—For everyone. These are storage potatoes, harvested in late fall. You’ll want to use them up pretty quickly as they’re nearing the end of their storage life. A southern classic. If you want a good southern meal, roast the sweet potatoes, prep your collard greens as mentioned above (can do your kale the same way), and serve alongside a nice grilled Lonesome Lady pork chop. You could even serve up the radishes with salt and lemon for appetizer. Good southern feast.
Veggie Storage tips:
Most 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, and the greens stored separately, sealed up to stay fresh. Sweet potatoes will like to be at room temp. 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
Pictures of your shares will be added here by around noon Thursday.
