Share Notes May 25, 2023
CSA Share Notes:
Remember how I told you last week in the share notes that we’d be needing volunteers to help with our big onion, potato, and garlic harvests? Well, that’s coming right up!
We’re going to set some dates for the coming 2 weeks, so tentatively mark your calendars, and we’ll be in touch really soon with specifics.
If you are interested in helping out, we’ll just need you to be physically fit enough to work in our outdoor conditions, bending and standing repeatedly, lifting fairly heavy crates, getting your hands and knees really dirty, etc. We’ll have a great time and enjoy one anothers’ company, too. Can’t wait, friends!
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Now on to this week’s vegetable line up, with lots of salad inspiration this week to help you mix it up! Remember, you get NO salad greens from mid- June through late October, so try to enjoy them while you’ve got them!
- Head Lettuce — Larges received a Cherokee and a Fusion (which looks a lot like the Escarole, don’t confuse them). Regular received a Cherokee, and Mini’s received a Rouxai, the pretty red oak leaf. There are lots of various salad-esque greens in your box today, so mix it up and try some new salads! Some of my favorite salad styles include:
- Thai Peanut dressing with lime, cilantro, ginger etc. Add shredded cabbage, onions, lots of radish or salad turnip
- Southwest chipotle dressing, roasted roots or cauliflower, black beans, crushed corn chips,
- Bacon and blue cheese, roasted broccoli, and dried fruit with a honey & red wine vinegar dressing
- Tzaziki, lemon, garlic, fresh radishes and turnips, etc. and topped with grilled chicken or falafel balls (freezer section at Sprouts! Great time saver.)
- Broccoli — A whole bunch for everyone! This crop is some of the yummiest broccoli I’ve tasted. Billie (our daughter, almost 2 years old) helped me eat about 3 heads while we picked them this week. She’s a great helper.
- Cauliflower — For the Large and Regular shares this week. Handle this crop delicately as it is very susceptible to bruising and turning brown from the introduction of bacteria. If you want your cauliflower to stay crisp and white, handle it by the leaves, whenever possible.
- Turnips: flea beetles moved in and have LOVED munching on our turnip tops. We harvested all these Purple Top and Scarlet Queen Turnips and removed their tops so we could send you just the pretty roots. This variety I prefer boiled and mashed alongside my potatoes. But here are a couple of other great uses: Winter Root Salad with Citrus and Ginger, and Roasted Turnip and Grain Salad.
- Radishes — Daikon radishes. These long white tap roots are spicy and delicious. They’re often used in Korean saurkraut- AKA kimchee! You can use your cabbage or pac choi with your daikon this week and a little fresh onion to make a fantastic batch of lactofermented kimchee. Add some ginger, garlic, and hot peppers and it’ll be heavenly and so good for your gut!
- Arugula — For Large and Mini shares. A delicious peppery salad green. I mix mine half-and-half with lettuce and top with fresh or dried fruit, parm, nuts, and a vinegarette.
- Spring Mix — For Large and Regular shares. This is a spicy salad mix, and would be excellent in any salad with an Asian flair. It can also be braised or sauteed, with wonderful results with onion, garlic, and bacon.
- Cabbage — Pretty savoy leaved cabbages for the Regular shares. We TRIED to fit cabbages in the Large share boxes too, but it was a no-go. We’ll have cabbage for the Large shares next week.
- Dandelion — One for everyone, Red for the Large and Regular, Green for the Mini. These are a stronger flavored green with a bit of a bitter bite. They’re SO nutritious for you so we hope you’ll give them a shot and enjoy them. This green comes from Italy and you will find a ton of usage inspiration by googling Italian Dandelion Recipes. We used our in a pasta with lots of lemon, parmesan, butter, and garlic and it was wonderful.
- Escarole — Large and Regular. These look a lot like slightly frilled lettuce but they aren’t! This European bitter green has leaves a little thicker and glossier, and it’s excellent in Italian soups. You also often find Escarole in high-end salad mixes in small amounts, at maybe 15-20%. Some folks also use it as “wilted lettuce” which is kind of a Southern thang.
- Kale/Collard — Winterbor (curly) Kale for Large shares, Red Russian for the Mini’s and Collards 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. 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 — Large 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. You can mix any/all of your cooking greens together to get a larger serving, as they cook down a lot when you saute them.
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. Broccoli and cauliflower, cabbage, basically everything wants to be sealed up in the fridge, without too much moisture to prevent spoilage. Wash really well right before using.
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
