CSA Share Notes:

Week 2 of our Mini Winter CSA! We’re so thrilled to feed you guys, and nourish your families. This sunshine is making our crops SO HAPPY! Who knows if it will last, so we’ll take it while we’ve got it. We usually get ample rain, clouds, and wind this time of year, so the past couple of weeks have been a welcome change.  At this rate, we’ll have a strong garden for a while. But if there are any big shifts in the weather, it can all turn on a dime, so just stay in the loop with us here at the blog and through email to know when your next shares will be.

Here’s this week’s vegetable line-up:

• Spinach – So sweet this time of year.  It will be delicious cooked into any veggie dish you’re preparing, or fantastic in a side salad.
• Lettuce Mix – So tender and delicious. Excellent in any salad- give yours a southwest flair with toasted pepitas, black beans, and a spicy salsa dressing, or perhaps a buffalo blue cheese salad with bacon crumbles? Or maybe a fresh strawberry pecan salad? Sky’s the limit. No boring salads around here!
• Broccoli – sweet and delicious. The stems are my favorite.
• Cabbage – Everyone received a big, flat Tendersweet cabbage, and an Alcosa- a savoy leaved cabbage, sweet and tiny. These are all perfect for a slaw to pair with pulled pork sliders this weekend. Last week we did a delicious Asian peanut salad with grilled chicken.
• Carrots – A mixed bunch of our over wintered carrots, packed with high sugar from all the frosts they’ve survived. Enjoy each color, yellow, red, orange.
• Baby Beets/Greens – These are thinnings from our tightly packed rows of beets. These have to come out to make room for the beets to get larger, and rather than discard them, they make an amazingly delicious leafy green. You can use both the leaves and the small root balls. Wash thoroughly and trim the root hairs off. Saute the roots for a few minutes to soften with some onion and garlic. Toss in the sliced up greens to wilt. Pour in some orange juice and a splash of balsamic vinegar, maybe a bit of ginger, and cook until utterly delicious. Makes a lovely side item packed with vitamins.
• Swiss Chard – Large shares received this crop. It’s excellent braised and served with beef, or roasted in a hot oven and topped with parmesan and pine nuts. 
• Radish – Everyone received easter egg radishes. They’re flavorful crunchy, and just a bit sweet. This time of year they’re so mild and wonderful.
• Kale – We’ve got gorgeous leafy greens this week. Bagged Red Russian kale for the regular 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 kale pesto potato salad,  but options abound online.
• Collard – This crop went to the Large shares this week. Here’s the southern way to prepare them: Chop up the greens into one inch ribbons, dice a small onion, mince some garlic, and chop up a couple strips of bacon.  Cook the bacon, onion, garlic and a pinch of optional red pepper flakes together for a bit, till bacon is cooked, but not crispy.  Toss in the ribboned greens and add a few splashes of chicken stock. Cook till the greens are nice and tender. Salt and eat as is, or add a bit of hot sauce, or hot-pepper-vinegar. So that’s the proper southern way to do it, but it also works really well in any recipe that calls for Kale, too. Just sub it in, you won’t be disappointed.

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): leaf lettuce, spinach, Red Russian kale, (2nd row) beet greens, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, and radishes.

 

Large Share

Today’s Large Share: Left to Rt (top row): leaf lettuce, spinach, Swiss Chard, Collards, (2nd row) beet greens, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, and radishes.