CSA Share Notes:

This is week 7 of the Spring CSA, and we likely have another week or two to wrap up Spring boxes. We hope you’ve been loving it!  After that, summer crops should be ready, and we’ll make the switch to delivering to our Summer CSA members.

Remember, you OPT IN to our CSA season, which means if you do not join the coming Summer season, your boxes will soon come to an end.  If you’re ready to be done, that’s just peachy, but if you want more fresh food coming your way then you’ll want to click the link to get yourself signed up.

Summer season is nearly full and we have room for about 15- 20 more of y’all before we start our waiting list.  You can join here.

Now here’s your vegetable line-up:

• Carrot – The dry conditions of the past month have caused our carrots to mature very slowly, but they’re finally here! We’re hopeful to send you carrots each week as the Spring season wraps up. We try to grow them in a lovely array of colors for beauty and to also diversify your nutrient content on your plate. Eat the rainbow!
• Kale/Collard – Collards are such a great southern crop, as they don’t mind the high humidity and can tolerate pretty high heat. We’ve come to absolutely love them cooked in chicken broth for a long, long time, with lots of garlic and onion. They cook down a lot, but pack major nutrition and wonderful flavor. And you can cook your kale or chard the same way, too. Curly kale for the large shares, collard for regular shares, and Red Russian kale for the mini shares
• Chard – Large shares received this crop, but we didn’t quite have enough. About 10 of you received Lacinato kale instead of Chard. Enjoy it cooked like the kale/collards, or use it in a fresh or massaged salad. it’s also a great green for smoothies.
• Cabbage – Big round slightly flat TenderSweet cabbages for the large shares and a crinkly Alcosa cabage for the Regular and mini shares. Make a delicious shaved veggie slaw this week! Use your kohlrabi, fennel bulb, and your salad turnips with your cabbages.
• Kohlrabi – Crunchy and sweet. This is the end of this crop. We suggest peeling and slicing it thin, or you can use it match-sticked in a slaw, or roast it. It’s delish!
• Romaine – The very last lettuces of the season. One for each share. Some of you received a green romaine, and some a red/green bi-color romaine. We just sorted all the lettuces by size, and gave the largest heads to the large shares, and so on.
• Broccoli – Just enough for the large shares this week. Some of you received petite heads, and some of you received really long stemmy florets. The stems are sweet, crunchy and super delicious, so don’t discard them! If the skin is a bit tough, just peel them.  We might have a few more florets for y’all next week, or this could be the end of the broccoli. It’s getting hot out there!
• Turnips –  Hakurei turnips for the regular and mini shares, Purple Top turnips for the Large shares.
• Fennel – A few of these super delicious flavorful bulbs. This crop is excellent shaved into a salad or slaw, or is lovely slowly sauteed or even roasted or cooked into a soup. The fronds are delicious too. Need some help knowing what to do with fennel? Use this helpful write up from a CSA farm!
• Potato – Pretty red new potatoes, ready to boil into a delicious potato salad. Or try Smashed Potatoes: parboil and drain, then lightly oil a baking sheet and place boiled potatoes on it. Smash each one with the bottom of a coffee mug into a flattened disk (the potato will crack, deeply. This is fine) Brush all sides heavily with olive oil, salt generously, and bake at 450 till crispy and golden, about 30 min. (We actually use a small counter top oven which we plug in outside on the porch to not heat up the kitchen this time of year). This will be your new favorite way to enjoy potatoes.
• Onion – Some yellow and/or red onions for everyone. We’ve got a beautiful onion harvest hanging in the barn. We’ll show you pictures later this week!

Veggie Storage tips:

• Everything wants to be washed well before cooking, but keep the dirt on till then, to prevent faster spoilage.
• Sever the roots/bulbs from their tops (carrots, turnips, kohlrabi, and fennel) and store the tops separately if you’re going to use them.
• Carrots and onions prefer room temperature, dry conditions. Everything else will want to be sealed up in the fridge. Enjoy!

We’d love to hear stories and recipes of your culinary adventures this week. Tag us on Instagram or Facebook, showing us how you’ve used your CSA share.

Your farmers, Jess & Justin

Regular Share

Today’s Regular Share:
Top Left to Rt: Carrots, Collards, Hakurei turnips above a couple of onions, kohlrabi, and fennel. Bottom row after carrots: Alcosa cabbage, red new potatoes, head lettuce.

Large Share

Today’s Large Share:
Top Left to Rt: Carrots, Curly kale above a few onions, Purple Top turnips, kohlrabi above broccoli florets, and fennel. Bottom row after carrots: Swiss Chard (some received Lacinato Kale) Tendersweet cabbage, red new potatoes, head lettuce.

 Mini Share

Today’s Mini Share:
Top Left to Rt: Carrots, Red Russian Kale, Hakurei turnips, kohlrabi, and fennel. Bottom row after carrots: Alcosa cabbage, onion, red new potatoes, head lettuce.