What's in the box?

Salad mix
Carrots
Red curly Kale
Spring sweet onions
basil
Cauliflower
broccoli
squash and zucchini
cucumbers (English or several smaller cukes)
butter head lettuce - medium and large
Cabbage - medium and large
salad turnips- medium and large

Notes on the box.

You might be having a race to keep your crisper clear for next weeks box. I like to wash the lettuce and have it ready to go for salads before it ever goes into the fridge. We serve EVERYTHING at this time of year with a salad. Scrambled eggs, toast, and a side salad. Grains and meat are served on a bed of greens. We eat a salad centered dinner at least once a week this time of year. Keep your favorite dressings on hand. Try to have all of the lettuces and tender greens eaten before your next weeks box arrives since these are the most perishable of the veggies. Your cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc will hold.
Basil is the most perishable and tricky thing to store this week. Avoid getting it wet since it will turn brown and wilt. You can store it in a plastic bag in the warmest part of your fridge. Make a pesto or slice the leaves thinly and garnish cooked fish or chicken. Or add it to stir friend veggies.
To keep root veggies crisp and storing well, be sure to separate the leaves from the roots as soon as you get them home. This is especially true of green top carrots. They get bendy if you leave the tops on for very long. But be sure to eat a carrot with the top still attached so you can work on your bugs bunny impersonation. The leaves of the salad turnips can be cooked. I was at a wedding this weekend and there was a dish with roasted salad turnips where the turnip had been quartered with the leaves left on and roasted that way. It was a little unwieldy to serve with the greens getting tangled up, but it was tasty and fun!
One of the most simple ways to eat your kale is my favorite. Wash the kale, de-stem it by holding the stem in one hand and tiwh the other hand pull along the stem, stripping the leaf away from the stem. It take a little practice, but once you get the hang of it you can make really quick work of a bunch. Chop up the kale leaves, some garlic, and onion. I like to sautée the kale in coconut oil because I like the nutty sweet flavor. Sautee it, cover it to help it along. When it's wilted but not yet a dark much, give it a little salt and squeeze of lemon juice. Serve as a side or mix into pasta dishes or a grain based salad.

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

This week we have feta and The Herdsman. The Feta is in a little brick this time instead of crumbled. You can cube or crumble it yourself this way. If you need to store it for an extended time, make a brine with 1 tsp salt dissolved in 1 cup of water and put the whole chunk in there and store in your fridge. You can also cube it up and store it in olive oil with fresh herbs and garlic to elevate this utilitarian cheese to cheese plate status or to give as a fancy homemade gift. This link has more instructions. I sent feta this week thinking we were having beets in the box, but the beets weren't quite sized up. But the Feta will go nicely on a salad with the cucumbers or on a flatbread pizza with the squash.
The Herdsman is one of the first aged cheeses made for the 2017 season. It's aged 3 months and the cows were still eating mostly hay, so it has a nice fresh lactic quality without the grassy flavors that happen when the cows get out onto pasture. It's a great melter for a fantastic grilled cheese. The rind is edible, but I usually trim it off. You can have a nibble of it to see if you want to eat it or not.

Recipes.

Roasted Carrot Hummus

Vegan Cauliflower Buffalo Bites

Lemony Orzo Pasta Salad with Cucumber and Feta

Lemon Basil Vinaigrette

Easy Cheesy Zucchini Basil Bake This would be good with Feta and Herdsman!

On the Farm.

What a light show last we had on Tuesday night. We dodged a bullet of severe weather. Our friends just a little bit further north had trees downed and one of the roofs of a silo blew off. Other friends said they watched with half sick stomachs as a mesocyclone slowly rotated the sky above their farm. Here at Turnip Rock a few tree branches fell, crops were leaning, and 2 inches of rain fell. But! we had no weather damage to the crops and were dry enough this time to absorb most all the moisture to fall. And the pastures keep on growing! Phew!

The boxes are filling up easier, and coming in with some new crops and waiting patiently for some summer crops, namely peppers, tomatoes, and corn. Melons have started to vine and have a few flowers, so we are a mear 5-6 weeks away from melon harvest....

Garlic will come out next week to cure!

Saturday is the Farm Open house, part of the Eat Local Co-op Farm Tour from 10-4
You can type in Turnip Rock Farm on google maps and we will show up for you. You will also have the opportunity to tour our neighboring farm Bull Brook Keep where Sylvia raises 100% grass fed heritage cattle. And a little further to the North is our good friends at Steady Hand Farm. We will set up a little farm stand, have some cheese for tasting, and be giving tours or you are welcome to do a self guided tour.