Share Notes May 18, 2023
CSA Share Notes:
Every year we put a call out for able-bodied volunteers for a couple of really, really big jobs, and those jobs are coming up pretty soon:
Onion harvest
Garlic harvest
Potato harvest
We’re scouting the crops for the signs of readiness, and then we’ll begin watching the forecast for the right harvest conditions. We’ll need a crew to help us dig, carry, and hang the harvest. It’s dirty, it’s hot, and it’s fun, and it takes us several days, often spread out across a couple of weeks, especially if there’s rain interrupting the process- which, I’m starting to face it- it’s a very rainy spring!
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays are the only possible days we would call for a big volunteer crews for this work, and right now we’re looking at the weeks of May 29th, June 5th, and June 12th when we will probably need to get the bulk of this work done, but the weather will dictate all. If you want to tentatively mark your calendars and watch your emails for our call for volunteers, we’d love it!
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Still have food remaining from last week? What’s amazing about how FRESH this food is, is the amazingly long shelf-life. Nearly everything we sent you last week should still be good if it was stored properly. But obviously you’ve got a lot more coming and need to get that older food eaten, pickled, frozen, or otherwise out of your fridge. Head to your e-book we sent you by email and reference it for all our “exit strategies”!
Now on to this week’s vegetable line up.
- Turnips: flea beetles moved in and have LOVED munching on our turnip tops, but luckily they don’t effect the roots. Most of the greens were shot, so we removed them and just bagged up your turnips. But some of the regular shares received bunches with enough salvageable greens that you might be able to use them. Just wash them really well and please don’t be shocked if you find some bugs! Scarlet Queen for the Regular shares and Japanese Hakurei salad turnip for the Large shares. Some Mini shares received Scarlet Queen, and some Hakurei. We’ve got a few great turnip recipes we enjoy on the regular this time of year: Winter Root Salad with Citrus and Ginger, and Roasted Turnip and Grain Salad, and we’ve got a post dedicated to the ins-and-outs of the lovely hakurei turnip. We also love to boil and mash them with other root veggies like potatoes and carrots.
- Red New Potatoes — Freshly dug Wed. morning! They’re quite dirty because it’s best for their shelf-life if we do not get your potatoes wet prior to placing them in plastic bags, so plan on washing them well once they’re in your kitchen.
- Radishes — French Breakfast for the large and regular shares, and Easter Egg for the mini shares.
- Head Lettuce – Again, 3 for the large shares, 2 for the regular shares, 1 for the minis. All of the shares received a Red Romaine, Large and Regular received a Green Romaine, and Larges also received a Green Iceburg Lettuce. While iceburg has gone out of fashion in foodie circles, I really need you to know: it’s one of the most difficult lettuces to pull off in a warm, humid climate and we are always SO excited when we succeed. Please savor this one, we worked really hard for it! Make some burgers or tacos this week and top it with that organic, locally grown iceburg, knowing that you’ve got a unicorn on your hands!
- Snow Peas — For the Regular and Mini shares. They’re slowing down, next week might be the last week! Enjoy them while we’ve got them. We used lots of peas and garlic scapes in a fantastic mushroom risotto this week with 1514 Farm’s incredible chicken bone broth. It was wonderful.
- Arugula — beautiful bags of this peppery, flavorful salad green. With all the rain it has been impossible to weed enough to keep the grass from growing up with this batch, so there will be a little grass in your bag with your arugula. We quickly sorted out about 80% of the grass at our washing step, but you’ll still need to take a minute to sort out what’s left. (this is why we LOVE when we can grow cut greens in the greenhouse in the cooler months because they grow with almost no weed pressure!) I love arugula with fruit, nuts, and cheese. Right now I’m thinking I’ll do a fresh strawberry, goat cheese, and walnut salad to go with the pasta primavera I’m making tonight. You could also change it up and do pine nuts or pecans, and parmesan, feta, or blue cheese. plenty of delicious options. But these are just my preferred ways to enjoy arugula.
- Broccoli — Large shares only. This crop is just beginning to mature so we should have loads of it soon! Cauliflower is right behind it.
- Kale — Lacinato for Regular shares, Winterbor (curly) Kale for Mini, and Red Russian for Larges. 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. My weekly routine for greens is breakfast prep. I’m a daily hot-breakfast-eater but I need my mornings to go fast. So at the beginning of the week I cook up 1 lb of 1514 Breakfast sausage and a huge amount of greens (usually kale, sometimes collard or chard or spinach) with onion and garlic. I store this all in a large glass tupperware in the fridge and toss a half cup into my egg scramble each morning for me and the girls. Sometimes we eat it as is, sometimes with salsa in tacos or on sourdough toast. This planning ahead step makes a fresh hot breakfast take only 7 minutes each day. You can do this with any green we give you, and it’s delicious!
- Chard — Regular shares. This colorful crop is eye catching and tastes a whole lot like spinach. I enjoy it in a massaged-greens-salad (try it with cranberry, pecan, and parm, so good!) or cook it like any of my greens, usually with an animal fat (butter, ghee, lard, bacon grease) and garlic and onion. The stems are tasty too. The vitamins and minerals in the greens become more bio-available to your body when paired with a good amount of fat. (Isn’t nature genius? And it tastes good too!)
Veggie Storage tips:
You can always consult the e-book we sent you recently for a comprehensive veggie storage guide! Most everything will keep longest stored in the fridge sealed up in produce bags. All root crops should be removed from their tops to keep the roots from getting rubbery, and the greens stored separately, sealed up to stay fresh. Everything will need a gentle washing before cooking, but leave the dirt on until you’re ready to use them to prevent spoilage. Garlic scapes will want to be sealed up in an air-tight container 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
