CSA Share Notes:

Welcome to your final week of our Mini Winter CSA. We’re so grateful you guys shared in this with us! Your membership to our CSA this winter provided critical income during a time of year when revenue streams are naturally quite lean for farms, while expenses for preparing for the coming season are high.  Thank you!

 

If you have not registered for Spring season, you can do so here. (There are only 3 spots left at the time of writing this blog). Harvests run from April to late June. Abundant in leafy greens, roots, and brassicas.

 

If you have not registered for Summer season, you can do so here. We just launched that season’s sign up page last week, and it’s already roughly half-full. Harvests run from late June-ish through mid-Aug. It includes summer favorites like squash, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, a bit of okra and melons, etc.

Here’s this week’s vegetable line-up:

• Beets – Finally! These babies have been slowly growing for months and we’re so glad they’re ready in time for your last winter harvest. Rich, high in vitamins and iron, and loaded with flavor! We always suggest roasting them in a hot oven. Scrub well, and trim off the leaves (save!) Oil and salt them, wrap them in foil, then roast at 400 until soft- about an hour, less if they’re small. Gently scrape off the peel with a butter knife or edge of a spoon. Now they’re ready to top a salad, toss in a fresh pasta primavera, or be drizzled with a citrusy, mapley, or balsamicky glaze. Something tangy and sweet is the point. Let your creativity (or google searching) abound.  I like to saute the greens in butter separately, then mix them with the roasted roots and the glaze all together into one single side dish. Or I’ll do a garlicky take in my greens-sautee, and top the whole mixture with pine nuts and parm. DELISH.
• Cabbage – Everyone received a big, flat Tendersweet cabbage or two, depending on size. This week this became a fantastic Asian salad with grated carrot, cilantro, green onions, sesame seeds, sliced almonds, grilled chicken, plus a scrumptious dressing with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, plenty of ginger, a bit of garlic, and honey.
• Carrots – A bunch of our Mokum Carrots, over wintered  in our greenhouse, and packed with high sugar from all the frosts they’ve survived. They are DELICIOUS.
• Swiss Chard –  It’s excellent braised and served with beef, or roasted in a hot oven and topped with parmesan and pine nuts. This crop is so closely related to beets, you can absolutely mix the greens together to make a larger side dish.
• Brussels Sprouts –Large shares only.  This crop is so difficult to grow successfully in our climate. It wants long day length (summer time) coinciding with cool temperatures (not here!) Most of the brussel sprouts in the grocery store come from northern latitudes. But every once in a while we have a winter with enough sunshine to produce some good sprouts for us. We’re so excited to have some for you this year. We don’t have a ton, so we suggest you treat them like the specialty item they are for this climate- like perhaps roast them and then use them as a salad topping along with your roasted beets and carrots, or use them in a power bowl with hearty grains, legumes, and a scrumptious sauce.
• Spinach – This crop is just gorgeous. Rich and dark green.  We prefer our spinach cooked to break down some of the oxalates that can be hard on the kidneys. A regular addition to our frittatas and veggie-egg scrambles.
• Lettuce Mix – NO BORING SALADS ALLOWED! Try our latest ones:
  • Roast your beets, carrots, and Brussles sprouts, top with Blue cheese, bacon, pecan, and a creamy balsamic.
  • Strawberry, goat cheese, roasted beets, pepitas, poppyseed dressing
  • Southwest style with charred corn, black beans, avocado, and toasted pepitas
  • This Paula Deen white wine and cheese dressing is a fave in our house and is excellent with salad toppings like mushrooms, colorful peppers, cucumber, fresh berries, apples, toasted nuts or seeds, and lots more parmesan

• Kale– We’ve got gorgeous leafy greens this week. Bagged curly kale for all the shares. All the greens have increased their sugar content to protect themselves from frost damage, and boy has it made the leaves extra delicious! Check out our roasted squash and kale salad, as well as our rainbow kale salad.

Veggie Storage tips:

• Everything wants to be washed well before cooking, but keep the dirt on till then, to prevent faster spoilage.
• Sever all roots from their tops -this keeps the roots from turning rubbery- and either discard the greens or save them for your braising pot or next batch of home-made stock.
• Leafy greens, cabbages, broccoli, bunched root crops, etc. want to be stored fairly dry and sealed up in a container/bag in the fridge.

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: Left to Rt (top row):  Swiss chard, mixed lettuce, spinach, curly kale, (2nd row) cabbage, carrots, and beets.

 

Large Share

Today’s Large Share: Left to Rt (top row): Curly kale, mixed lettuce, spinach, bunched Swiss Chard (2nd row) 2 cabbages, above Brussels Sprouts, carrots, and beets