CSA Share Notes:

Here’s your vegetable line up:

• Beans—A lovely mix of all our colors: Purple, dragons tongue, yellow, and green. lightly parboil (check for al dente tenderness just like you would for pasta) and dress with a little fresh dill, lemon zest, and butter
• Radishes— French Breakfast for the large shares, and Easter Egg radishes for the regular and mini shares.
• Okra— For the large shares only. A few tips were shared in last week’s blog. Check them out!
• Arugula —  Generous beautiful bags of leafy greens this week! This arugula is a bit spicy and so, so delicious.  Enjoy with nuts, cheese, and fresh fruit like apples and pears.
• Spring Mix — this pretty and super flavorful mix is excellent as a salad balanced out with somethign a bit more mild like lettuce or spinach, but it’s great on it’s own, too, but be prepared that it can be a bit spicy.  It’s wonderful braised or sautéed as well.
• Sweet Potatoes— These lovely tubers come from our friend just 5 miles up the road from us, Tony Philips Sweet Potatoes. He’s a wonderful area grower, and while he’s not organic, he is conscientious of chemical use, and uses no sprout-retarding chemicals on the roots, which is commonplace in conventional potato production.  We eat them all fall and winter, loading up on nutritious betacarotene.  Enjoy!
• Eggplant— Large shares received Fairytale eggplant, Regular shares received Japanese eggplant, and Mini shares received the Italian If you’re new to cooking eggplant, see our cooking tips we shared 2 weeks ago week.
• Bell Peppers— Colorful and crisp, a few for the regular and large shares this week.
• Italian Peppers— For the Mini shares only. These are a thin-walled sweet pepper, that are fantastic with dips like hummus. They also roast wonderfully and are excellent in place of bell pepper in any cooked dish.  Find these on Sola Bread Co.’s Red Moon Pizza which they only offer seasonally.
• Jalapenos— A few for the regular shares.
• Poblanos—A few for the Mini shares.

Veggie Storage tips:

All your bagged greens, eggplant, beans, radishes, peppers, and okra will keep longest stored in the fridge sealed up in produce bags. Remove radish roots from their tops to keep the roots from getting rubbery. Keep sweet potatoes at room temp. Everything will need a thorough 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

Regular

Regular Share-Rows, left to right: Easter Egg radish, Sweet peppers, mixed beans, spring mix.  bottom row: Bell pepper and jalapeno, Japanese eggplant and arugula.

Large

Large Share- Rows, left to right: French Breakfast radish, Sweet peppers, mixed beans, spring mix.  bottom row: Bell peppers and Fairytale eggplant, okra and arugula.

Mini

Mini share: Rows, left to right: Easter Egg radish, Sweet peppers, mixed beans, arugula.  bottom row: Italian peppers, Italian eggplant, poblanos, and spring mix.