June 14th, 2023
Whats’s in your share?
Broccoli
Salad Mix
Japanese Salad Turnips*
Endive*
Butter Lettuce*
Scallions
* Endive - often referred to as “frisée” doesn’t fly off the shelves, but we love it anyways. Endive is in the same family as dandelions, and this family is packed with vitamins. The bitter taste can throw people off, but the bitterness does soften when tossed with honey and cooked ever-so-slightly. Endive is delicious when paired with savory flavors such as sautéd mushrooms, bacon, or a poached egg.
* Japanese Salad Turnips - We love “Hakurei” turnips! They have become very popular among our members because of their tenderness and sweetness, unlike a storage turnip, which has a tendency to be more dense and slightly bitter. We definitely recommend trying them raw; on a salad, sandwich, salad, or just plain. They also sauté nicely and pair well with napa cabbage, bok choy, carrots, and scallions. The greens are also delicious and nourishing! Add them to salads or stir fries.
* Butterhead Lettuce - has a silky leaves that form a tight inner head. We wash them as best as we can, but you’ll likely find that you have to do some of the dirty work. Cut the core of the head out, separate the leaves, rinse or soak the leaves in cold water, and then dry them. A solid salad spinner is a key kitchen tool for a salad lover and is a sure way to make your lettuce last as long as possible.
This being our second week, I figured we’d take care of some housekeeping. I’m shamelessly copying a newsletter from past seasons that I feel is imperative to include every year, as it talks about crop storage and how to make your veggies last as long as possible and maintain their nutritive qualities.
Sautéed bok choy, creamy grits, homemade meatballs, slaw made with radish, turnip, and cilantro, roasted broccolini, and chimichurri.
Most of the crops we grow have a surprisingly long shelf life. The key to preserving the life of the vegetables is all about how they are stored, starting in the field. The night before harvest, we make sure to irrigate everything that will be harvested the next morning, so that it can take up water at night. Then in the morning, we begin harvesting early, before the sun gets hot. Harvesting when the cool morning dew is still on the plants helps them stay crisp and fresh as they make their way to your table. When a vegetable is harvested, it is full of what we call “field heat”. When a plant is no longer connected to the soil, the field heat needs to be removed quickly. Immediately after harvesting, we submerge, soak, or spray the crops with our cold well water to release field heat. We then put the crates of harvested vegetables in our walk-in cooler, and return to the field to harvest everything on the list for that day.
We take a great deal of time making sure that your produce comes to you as clean as possible. This is not only to provide you with a clean and tidy box, but thoroughly cleaning each crop with very cold water helps to keep the veggies as fresh as possible. As we hand the them over to you, we wanted to provide some tips for keeping their vitality as long as possible.
Take a few minutes to look this over if you can, and if you’re ever in doubt, put your produce in a plastic bag or a glass or plastic container.
Peas are almost ready to harvest!
This resource is an ongoing project, using mostly our own home recipes. We do take the challenge to cook seasonally seriously, so most of the recipes you will find use crops we grow, but can be adapted. Most recipes are simple; we know most folks are busy, and the commitment to CSA is enough in itself without elaborate recipes that are time-consuming. When I first started the “Crop Storage and Tips” project, it was winter, and I had high hopes of creating original recipes and taking sexy photos of my food to include on the website. But it was the off season, and nothing fresh was coming in to take photos of while I had the time to sit down at the computer. Now, when we have the produce, we don’t really have the time to write out recipes.
As I mentioned last week in the newsletter, we’re learning not only our strengths, but also when to accept direction or help from others. In this case, I’ve decided to relieve myself of the expectation (perhaps I was the only one with that expectation) to be a cuisine curator. We’re growers - that’s what we do best. There are so many folks who make it their full-time job to create recipes, videos, and tutorials for prepping and storing veggies; so we’ll leave it to the experts and instead, try to point you in the direction of some of these resources while we focus on growing awesome veggies.
Recipes to try:
Warm Frisee and Mushroom Salad
Garlic is just starting to put out scapes.