Welcome to our new members and welcome back to our returning members! We are happy to have the first box of the season out to you. This is our online newsletter. It will follow a format each week. A picture and list of the contents of the weeks box followed by notes about the veggies and storage tips. Next a few recipes focusing on veggies that you may not be familiar with or that we have in quantity. Finally, pictures of what's been going on at the farm, musings from your farmers, and news about farm events or announcements. Your CSA experience will be greatly enhanced if you look at the blog each week! It will help you feel connected to the farm and use up your veggies. So here we go...

What's in the box?

medium share

small share

All Shares -

herb pot
dino kale
salad turnips
radishes
spinach
arugula
garlic scapes

Medium and Large

pac choi
green onions
vitamin greens

What's what with the green stuff?!

Notes on the box...

This box has quite a few veggies that might be new to first-time CSA members. We grew a lot of them after getting positive feedback last season from members. They were enjoyed and we hope that you like them! If a lot of these are new to you, we invite you to taste, try, and experiment.

Kale should be stored in the fridge in your crisper in an open plastic bag. It will last for at least a week and likely closer to two. If it seems a little limp from the heat or from sitting in your fridge too long, you can soak it in cold water and it will perk back up. Remove the stems before cooking. Hearty greens like kale are great simply sautéed in butter or oil with some chopped garlic (or garlic scapes!) until it is bright green. You can add leaves to smoothies. Kale can be washed, de-stemmed, blanched and frozen. If you have tried kale before and thought that you didn’t like it, we encourage you to try it again. Sometimes people have tasted kale from the heat of summer when it is at its toughest and most bitter. We won’t give you tough, bitter kale. If our kids won’t eat it raw, it won’t go in the box!

Arugula, vitamin greens, and turnip and radish greens should be stored in an open platic bag in your crisper. They are tender leaves and all make wonderful pestos and additions to salads.

Radishes These are called french breakfast radishes. Take the tops off of the radishes and put them in a baggie in your crisper. The tops are edible as well. You can add your radish tops to stir fry or salads. Radishes are a great spicy snack and if you've never tried thinly sliced radishes on buttered bread with a little salt, now is the time to try it! We’ve been enjoying radishes diced small and added as a seasonal replacement to celery in egg salad and pasta salad. They add a nice crunch and a little spicy flavor.

The lovely white globes are hakuri or Salad Turnips. The tops of the salad turnips are edible. They are nice chopped and added to salads or you can saute them. They are very mild for turnip greens. The turnips themselves are so sweet and nice sliced and added to a salad. We rarely do that as we mostly just eat them whole as snacks. They can also be sauteed or roasted, but try them fresh first!

Bok Choi is perfect for stir fry. The key to good pak choi is to cook it briefly (we add it to the very end of a stir fry) so that the stems stay crunchy and the greens aren't mushy. Try it! Last season it was almost unanimous in our survey that people trying it for the first time liked it, so here we have it!

Green Onions and Garlic Scapes can be paired together where you would use green onions. Or you can substitute the scapes for green onions. The garlic scape is the flowering part of the garlic plant. We pull the scape off to enjoy before the garlic bulb is ready. Pulling the scape off helps the bulb size up more. The scapes can be made into a pesto, chopped and added to scrambled eggs or salads, or put into a vase and enjoyed for its beauty (before you eat it). They can also be grilled or roasted whole till tender. If you are intimidated by them you can keep them in your crisper drawer until you work up the courage to eat them, as they won’t go bad for a long time.

Recipes

Garlic Scape and Arugula Pesto

several garlic scapes, cut into bits
1/2 bunch arugula (or spinach, kale, or turnip greens) chopped
1/2 c seeds or nuts (optional)
1/4 c grated parmesan cheese (optional)
1/4 – 1/3 c olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon (or more)
1/2 t salt
1/2 t chili pepper flakes

Combine the garlic scapes, arugula, nuts, and cheese in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times. Let the machine run and slowly pour in half the amount of oil along with the lemon juice, salt and chili flakes. Slowly add the remaining oil until you’ve reached a good consistency (you may not need all the oil). Store in a lidded jar in the fridge for a week or freeze in small jars. Serve with pasta, spread on sandwiches, mixed into eggs, drizzled onto pizza, tossed with roasted potatoes....

Goodness Greenness Pasta

pasta of your choice
1 bunch garlic scape cut into 1 inch pieces
1 avocado
½ lemon, juiced
½ lime, juiced
fresh parsley, thyme, and/ or mint chopped
fresh basil leaves, chopped
¼ cup sour cream, quark, cream cheese, chevre, or greek yogurt
olive oil
spring onion, finely chopped
2 salad turnips, thinly sliced
chopped arugula, vitamin green, turnip greens, and/or spinach
salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook 6 minutes. Add the garlic scapes and cook an additional 3 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente. Drain.
While the pasta cooks, prepare the sauce: Add the avocado, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, lemon juice, lime juice, and fresh herbs to a food processor or blender. Process on high for 20-30 seconds, or until smooth. Scrape into a small bowl and stir in the sour cream or your choice of creamy dairy. Set aside.
Heat a little oil in a large pan set over medium heat. Add the spring onion and turnips and cook 2-3 minutes, or until soft. Add the arugula (and/ or other greens) and cook another 2-3 minutes, or until the greens are wilted. Turn off the heat and stir in the cooked pasta, garlic scapes, and sauce. Stir to combine; season with salt and pepper.

Radiant bok choi, adapted from Vegetable Love

1-2 heads of bok choi and a bunch of turnip greens or vitamin greens
2 teaspoons of turmeric
Generous pinch of sea salt
1 can of coconut milk
fresh ginger, minced
A few mushrooms (shiitake or oyster are best), de-stalked and caps sliced
Tamari or umeboshi vinegar
1 lime, cut into wedges

Cut base from bok choi, seperate leaves and wash well. Wash additional greens well and chop roughly.
Add the turmeric, sea salt, coconut milk and ginger in a lidded frying pan. Bring to a boil, cover and turn the heat down to medium. Simmer for 3 minutes. Add bok choi and simmer 3 more minnutes with lid on.
Add the mushrooms, stir, and cover again. Simmer for 6 minutes.
Add aditional greens and cook til wilted.
Serve over rice with a little tamari or umeboshi vinegar and squeeze of lime.

Cheese Shares!

Welcome to our cheese share members! We have been really busy with getting this part of the farm up and running. WOW! We will tell you more about it in the coming weeks. for now, we will let you know that the aged cheeses are ripening and so the first few weeks we will get to enjoy some fresh cheese. If you would like to add a cheese share, please contact us and we will be happy to pro-rate a share for you. This week...

Cheese curds
Quark

These are cheddar cheese curds. A Wisconsin classic. If you like squeaky curds, allow them to warm up and the squeak will return. If you don't like squeaky cheese, you can have them cold or let them age for a few weeks in the fridge. At market we noticed that a lot of people said they don't like their cheese to squeak, but they still love these curds! Curds are most commonly eaten just as they are as a snack. They are also very popular fried (Dana likes to make a little batter out of flour, egg, a little baking powder salt and pepper then pan fries them in a little bit of oil. SO yummy!) And we love to float them in a vegetable or lentil soup! We just throw them in at the end and they become soft while still holding their shape.

The quark cheese is a type of fresh cheese very common in Europe. It is versitile and can be enjoyed fresh or used in baking where you would cream cheese, but it has a slightly more tangy flavor. We have made a garlic scape and arugula pesto and drizzled it over the quark and spread that on crackers or bread. It's also nice on a baguette with thinly sliced radish and black pepper. And a good friend suggests using it in a sauce for mac and cheese. Hope you enjoy it!

Want to see a cool time lapse video of boxes being packed?? Click the link at the bottom of the blog that goes to our facebook page to check it out!

First delivery information for new members:

We are so happy to be your farmers! Thanks for signing up. A few things to remember to make your Summer of vegetables more enjoyable:

1. Don't forget to pick up your box! We send an email when your box is delivered. Picking up sooner on hot days will help keep your veggies fresh longer. Always only take veggies from the box with your name on the label. If you are unable to pick up, let your host know so that they may hold it for you until you can pick up or even better, arrange to have a friend or neighbor pick up your box. Certain dropsites (such as the co-ops) are sometimes unable to hold your share. If you have any problems or questions, please contact your host or the farm as soon as you can.

2. If you are splitting a box it is your responsibility to decide how to divide the share. Some members alternate weeks picking up. Some members get together and decide who gets what. Some members cook dinner together and then split up what wasn't used. It's up to you!

3. We wash greens and lettuce before delivering them, but we suggest another rinse just in case of lingering dirt or sand.

4. Some veggies hold for a long time, and others have a shorter shelf life. When deciding what to cook, keep this is mind to get you box used up! For certain crops such as tomatoes, we try to pack some of varied ripeness so that you have some to use earlier in the week and some to use later. Try to use up veggies from the previous week before getting your next box so that you don't get overwhelmed and veggies don't get lost.

5. Be sure to read storage tips to get the best flavor and value from your veggies. Little things, like taking the tops off of radishes and carrots or putting a head of lettuce in a plastic bag will make these veggies hold a lot better.

6. If you have any questions or issues or comments or suggestions, contact us. We will do our best to get back to you right away.