All CSA boxes have been delivered to their drop sites! Our email program is down so we haven't been able to send out notifications. Sorry for any inconvenience! Contact us if you have any questions. Thanks!

What's in the box?

Red Russian Kale
Red Romaine
Spinach
Green Garlic
Bok Choy
Choy Sum
Hakurei Turnips (large and medium only)
Arugula (large and medium only)
Spinach

Notes on the box...

This first box is full of greens! It's going to be a bit of a challenge for some of our new to CSA members and has more oddballs than we will include later on. But most people know Spinach, lettuces, and Kale has even become a staple. The baby kale is more tender and doesn't need to cook as long as adult kale. It's also nice chopped and eaten in a fresh salad. The Green Garlic is easy to love. Just use it as you would a green onion, but you will enjoy a nice garlic flavor for this spring only treat! Try chopping a stalk of green garlic and your arugula together and blending with some olive oil and a squeeze of lemon for a really wonderful spring pesto. Hakurei aka Salad Turnips will store best with the tops removed. The tops are edible, so you can save them as well. They are sweet and mild little treats that kids generally love to snack on raw and that are also lovely cooked (recipe below). Bok Choy and Choy Sum are wonderful in stir fry!

All your greens will store best in open plastic bags in your crisper drawer. Everything in the first box needs to be refrigerated. Limp greens will perk up again after a soaking in a sink of cold water. All greens are washed, but we suggest another rinse just to be sure you don't end up with any grit in your food.

Recipes

Spinach and Ricotta Fritatta
3 tablespoon olive oil or butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1-2 stalks of green garlic or minced garlic cloves
Salt and pepper
1 bunch of washed and chopped spinach or chard
8 eggs
1 1/2 cups ricotta
1/3 cup grated cheese (romano, parm, or another favorite)
About 1/4 tsp. freshly grated or ground nutmeg
Preheat oven to 375.
In a 10-to 12-inch ovenproof skillet, add the olive oil or butter, heat over medium. Add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until onion softens, 6 to 7 minutes. Add the spinach and stir to wilt, 1 to 2 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, ricotta, cheese, and nutmeg until smooth; season with salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the spinach. and move pan into the oven. Bake until the center is set, 15 to 20 minutes. When cool, run a knife around the skillet edges to release the frittata. Invert onto a work surface and cut into wedges or serve straight from the pan.

Green Garlic and Arugula Pesto
1 buncharugula
2 green garlic (including white stalk and a bit of the leaves)
2 tablespoons toasted sunflower seeds, pine nuts, or other nuts or seeds of choice
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
squeeze of lemon
Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse until the pesto is smooth. Store refrigerated up to 2 weeks and frozen up to 1 year.

Braised Hakuri Turnips and Choy Sum with Miso and Butter (adapted from Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison)
1 bunch Hakurei turnips
1 bunch choy sum
3 tbsp butter at room temp
2 tbsp mirin (or rice vinegar or dry white wine plus a 1/2 tsp sugar)
3 tbsp white miso (or any miso)
1 tsp black sesame seeds (or white), toasted in a dry skillet until fragrant
3 green onions (or 1 green garlic), white parts plus an inch of the greens, slivered
Sea salt
Remove greens from turnips and chop roughly. Also chop roughly your bunch of choy sum. Section the turnips into quarters. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat, add the mirin, then the turnips, and cook, allowing them to color, for several minutes.
White the turnips are cooking, stir together the miso and the remaining butter. When the turnips are tender, add the greens and add the butter miso mixture and allow it to bubble up, coat the turnips and greens, and just heat through. Transfer to a serving dish, finish with the sesame seeds and green onions, and serve. This dish probably won’t need salt, taste to be sure. Nice with brown rice.

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Farmstead Cheese...

Cosmic Wheel Creamery lives at Turnip Rock farm and is part of our whole farm ecosystem! The whey from cheese making goes to feed our pastured pigs, the manure from the dairy cows is composted and provides fertility for pastures and crops, grass is a fantastic carbon sequestering crop that provides habitat for wildlife, and cheese is a wonderful food that rounds out the diverse offering of our farm!

This week we have some whole milk ricotta and an aged Jack that we call Aquilla. The Aquilla just celebrated its one year birthday on June 6. I made it in the morning before going to our good friends wedding and I'm happy to be putting it in their CSA box for their first anniversary! One wheel had a happy accident of some blue mold growth from where I used a tool called a trier to taste the cheese several months ago. When I cut into it, there was quite a lot of blue growing inside. I didn't include that in our members shares (except for a bit as an anniversary present) but we have been eating it and it's inspired me to try out making a blue cheese! It might not be ready for another year, but I'm excited about it anyway! In the mean time, enjoy this salty yummy aged jack. The rinds of our cheese are natural and are edible, but they rarely enhance the flavors of the cheese. you can give it a nibble if you like, but I usually suggest trimming it off and enjoying the rest!

The Ricotta is whole milk wonderfulness that has been drained and is a whole different thing than the liquid filled stuff from the store. It is nice with honey and fruit, used in a savory or sweet tart, or in a classic lasagna.

On the Farm

It's here!! The first CSA box of the season! "Hi there!" to our returning members and "Welcome!" to our new members! If you have any questions about your CSA share, please call or email! Sometimes there's some getting started hiccups and every year your farmers get some pretty serious first box jitters! We are keeping fingers crossed for an uneventful first delivery and that you are all feeling hungry for fresh greens and salads!

We have been planting, building, seeding, weeding, spreading, covering, uncovering, cultivating, harvesting, milking, making cheese, rotating animals on pasture, and if we get a moment, we enjoy a break. Seems the only thing we haven't been doing it blogging... sorry about that!! We have another stellar bunch of workers with us this season. Haley is in her third season at Turnip Rock and is managing the crops alongside Josh. Liberty is our new livestock manager, and with Hannah is doing the day to day milking. Liberty is also managing our flock of sheep and pigs and the calves. Aimee has been here since March and has been Haley's right hand woman in most all the planting, weeding and day to day work. We will also have some part time help from Andrew, Anna, and Miranda pitching in again this year. We are trying to gently coax Otto into helping out in the field a little bit, but his mid is squarely set on playing all day.

We will update you on more farm news in coming newsletters. Here's the best part of the blog... the pictures! Thanks and we look forward to next week!