CSA Week 2, 2019
Things you MAY find in our bag or box this week: Strawberries! lettuce, Kale (Winterbor, Redbor, Russian, Tuscan), Swiss chard (white Fordhook, Ruby, Yellow, Bright Lights), radishes (Cherry Belle or French Breakfast), some type of pea (last week everyone got edible podded snow or snap peas), garlic scapes, and beets (Red Bull, bright red Chiogga, Golden). As I said a few weeks ago, the early season is all about the greens. If you feel overwhelmed, don’t, our seasoned members will remind you those bunches cook down and what looked like a crazy amount of greens is perfect.
Since I am not sure what kind of pea you might get, here’s what all our returning members know: Peas may be snow (flat green or purple pods), sugar snap (edible pod), or English shell. If you are not sure if you have snap of shell peas, bite one in half, if you can chew it up, it’s a snap pea, if not, get shelling. Looking at the proportion of shell peas to snap peas coming from the field, it is more likely you will be shelling 😉 By the way, it is still very early for peas, thre are none at the farmer’s markets…so you are enjoying the fun of Glenn as your farmer 🙂
If you receive radishes this week, keep in mind the greens on the first radishes are quite nice; don’t rule out making radish leaf pesto or utilizing them in something else. Do remove the tops from the bottom before storing…the leaves suck the moisture out of the roots. This is a good rule of thumb for most root crops – especially later in the season for carrots, salad turnips, and the radishes.
If you got large, bright red roots last week, they are Chiogga beets. There are no radishes that size yet and the Scarlet Queen turnips (not picking yet) are slightly hairy and the turnip flesh is very white.
OMG! I wondered what I was missing when editing the picture! Gorgeous RED strawberries. That would have made the whole thing sing with color! As I mentioned last week, the interactive picture on the blog does is not interactive in the email…so check it out here if you want to click this link to the blog.
Recipes
Did you use up everything from last week? I find it interesting that so many of the Spring and early Summer vegetables can be enjoyed with minimal effort – no cooking! Even today we enjoyed a gorgeous, crunchy salad of lettuces, radishes and snow peas. If I had had any beans on hand, they too would have made it in to the salad raw. Even spiralized or julienned summer squash is wonderful tossed around in your favorite dressing; you cannot say the same for the winter squashes 😉
Are you a food discriminator? You had a bad run-in as a kid and now you just hate on eggplant. PLEASE TRY IT AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME. Mother liked to serve a Japanese zucchini salad (raw zucchini, sesame oil, black sesame seeds, soy sauce). I hated it! I would not touch zucchini for years (excepting the spoonful I had to endure at the dinner table) and then one day I tried some fried zucchini sticks served with a garlicky mayo. Life changer. Now I could eat a pile sauteed summer squashes every day! I’d eat fried zucchini sticks every day if someone made them for me. ?
Some one told me once that tomatoes were their favorite vegetables and I quickly commented that I thought they hated tomatoes. Well, only raw tomatoes…he loved them cooked in any form.
SO there you go, keep trying recipes.
Kale Salad
(this is the generally how I make it…remember, I cook with The Force)
- one bunch of kale cleaned, ribs removed, and chopped fairly small.
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 TB balsamic vinegar
- 3 TB fresh lemon juice (by all means use your bottle lemon juice in the fridge)
- 1 TB Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp coarse salt (start with less if that sounds like a lot)
- At least 1 clove of garlic, minced
- Fresh black pepper, to taste
Whisk the above together and pour over kale. I mix it well with my hands to make sure everything is well coated. It is best if it can rest for a little bit before eating and the kale gets all soft and wilty. Sometimes I add a cup or so of cooked quinoa or wheat berries. It is even better the second day, but it has never lasted beyond that ?
Kale Crunch
Swiss Chard Frittata
Beet Green Soup
Lettuce wraps – In this letter is a fun idea for using the nice big lettuce leaves
Sauteed Beet Greens (works well for chard too)
Kale Pesto
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
- 1/2 lb kale, coarsely chopped (of course include the stems!)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 ounces)
- freshly ground black pepper
Toast the chopped walnuts in a dry, heavy skillet (preferably cat iron) over high heat, stirring constantly, until they start to brown in spots and become fragrant. (Be careful not to overtoast them, as they will burn very quickly once they are toasted.) Immediately transfer the walnuts to a dish to cool.
Bring two quarts of water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon salt then add the kale. Cook kale until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain
Put the garlic, walnuts, and kale in a blender or food processor; pulse until well combined. With the blender or food processor running, pour in the olive oil in a steady, smooth, pencil-thin stream.
When the ingredients are thoroughly combined, transfer to a bowl. Stir in the Parmesan, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Serve hot. (If you are going to freeze, add the Parmesan later when you are ready to eat the Pesto.)
This recipe was sent to me from a member. I make it with almonds, a whole kale bunch, a little less oil and add salt as needed. Kale and other greens are high in oxalic acid which can be tough for people suffering from gout and can also tie up the available calcium and magnesium in your body. Steaming/Boiling the kale breaks down/leaches away the oxalic acid. Personally, I have not been affected by eating too many raw greens, but I pass the info along anyway.
Member Mary sent me this From Yankee Magazine
Strawberry-Walnut Arugula Salad
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
- 6 cups arugula leaves
- 1 pint medium strawberries hulled and sliced thin
Champagne Vinaigrette
In heavy skillet over medium-low heat, gently toast walnuts stirring often, until just fragrant, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. In salad bowl, toss arugula, strawberries and walnuts with Champagne vinaigrette. Serves 6 as a side salad.
Champagne Vinaigrette
- 1 tbsp. champagne vinegar (or substitute balsamic vinegar)
- 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp. honey
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil
Whisk together champagne vinegar, mustard, honey, s&p, then gradually drizzle in olive oil. Season to taste. Yield 1/2 cup
Farm Dirt
Golly I hope this is the last time I whine about too much rain…just stop already!
With the 4th of July right around the corner, this is another reminder that there are no CSA deliveries or markets that day. We will make it up at the end of the CSA season. That’s you Thursday people:)
Monday BPM members, the market is closed this Monday, so we will have your boxes available Tuesday at BPM.
It’s a particularly good year form slugs and snails…in fact, Friday morning, the road was so covered with snails, Glenn did not identify them as such until I pointed it out. He then remarked that he thought it smelled of frogs, but seeing none, the carpet of snails explained all 😉 The interesting moths are starting to pupate out. The lovely specimen above dropped onto us in the greenhouse. Usually it is Tobacco Hornworm Moths we see – LOL. If you are into moths and butterflies, there is no shortage out here, one can spend the day observing and identifying magical wings.
Speaking of wings, those pretty Waxwings discovered the strawberry field by the hundreds. The solution here was to cover the field with spun row cover after picking every morning. Yeppers, it is extra work, but having a bite out of every red strawberry is not the way to happiness…unless you are the bird. Below, pictures of waxwings: a blurry one from this week, as they feasted on juniper berries which is perfect and why we planted them), and a young one we rescued and returned to its nest a few years ago.
Part of our conscientiously grown® philosophy is to steward the land to provide great habitat for our native species; we feel blessed every time we see one of our handsome mammals roaming the farm, like the bear I was writing about last week. Bottom line, enjoy the wildlife sightings, but be careful out there, be respectful of animals, and most of all, be smart!
Have a wonderful week and eat well,
Geneviève Stillman
