Lettuce Heads You have two varieties of lettuce in your share this week- romaine and red leaf lettuce. This is the last week of lettuce for the summer since high temperatures begin to make the flavor bitter. We’ll be back to salad greens in the fall! Garlic Scapes Before putting its full energy into making a bulb, a garlic plant sends up a delicious stalk called the garlic scape that can be harvested a full month before the garlic bulbs. Use them in place of garlic in any recipe when chopped small or sautee them like a green bean. These store well and they’ll be in your share until garlic harvest in a couple of weeks. Oregano Mince this fresh herb and add it to savory dishes or sauces. Hang it upside down in a well ventilated area and dry down for weeks until it flakes for oregano that will store for months. Beets These young cylindrical beets are particularly tender. The greens taste and cook a lot like spinach. Carrots These early season carrots are particularly tender and sweet! The greens are gorgeous and if you are ambitious you can use them to make soup stock. Curly Kale This variety makes amazing kale chips when roasted to a crisp in the oven. You can also make raw massaged kale salads, steamed or sautéed kale side dishes, or kale soups. Napa Cabbage These gorgeous Asian style cabbages will store for longer than the kale will so you may want to use that first. It makes delicious raw slaws and salads and is also wonderful when very lightly sautéed or stir-fried. Snow Peas You can eat these raw as a snack or stir-fry them with greens and scapes. Lettuce Heads You have two varieties in your share this week. The redish one that you also received last week is called Magenta and it is a summer crisp, which means that it falls somewhere between a romaine and a leaf lettuce on the crispness spectrum. The other is a green romaine lettuce called Jericho that is very crunchy. Salad Mix This is the last week for salad mix until the fall as the baby greens turn bitter in the heat. This week’s mix is heavier on baby lettuce than mustards. Red Russian Kale Early season kale is the most tender so it cooks quickly and is perfect for raw salads too. Garlic Scapes Before putting its full energy into making a bulb, a garlic plant sends up a delicious stalk called the garlic scape that can be harvested a full month before the garlic bulbs. Use them in place of garlic in any recipe when chopped small or sautee them like a garlicky green bean. These store well and we'll be distributing them for several weeks. Basil Basil turns black when it gets wet or cold, so store it out of the fridge, use fresh, and wash it right before using. Carrots These early season carrots are particularly tender and sweet! The greens are gorgeous and if you are ambitious you can use them to make soup stock. Kohlrabi The beautiful purple vegetable that makes everyone wonder if they are in outer space. Peel the bulb and slice it raw for salads or just to snack on plain. The greens cook up just like kale does. Salad Turnips This unsung crop is bafflingly uncommon in grocery stores but one of our favorites. The tender white turnips are juicy raw in salad or in stir-fries or roasted veggies. The greens are also amazing! Unlike radish greens, which are a little tough and spiny, turnip greens are tender and perfect when lightly wilted or chopped up for salad. Feeling overloaded with salad and cooking greens? Its all part of the evolution of the season! I like to imagine a bear emerging from winter slumber to start off the summer with tender greens before the fruits and roots develop. Consider balancing out the heaping piles of salad with nuts and chick peas or rounding out the cooking greens by putting them in bean soups or cashew stir-fries. We promise, the season will advance with heavier crops as we go along:)
Lettuce Heads You have two varieties in your share this week. The more upright is called Magenta and it is a summer crisp, which means that it falls somewhere between a romaine and a leaf lettuce on the crispness spectrum. The other is a butterhead called Merveilles des Quatre Saisons. It makes a head like a cabbage and is incredibly tender and “buttery”. The flavor is very mild and the lime green color of the inner leaves offsets the dark red color of the out leaves for a beautiful salad. Salad Mix This weeks salad greens were gently triple washed and should last better than last week’s salad. It is a mix of baby mustard greens and baby lettuce greens. Rainbow Chard These gorgeous bunches of colorful swiss chard can be used much like spinach. The leaves are tender and cook down quickly. Scallions Also called spring onions, these young alliums are a fresh green way to incorporate onion flavor into salads, sautés, miso soup or just about any dish you might otherwise use onions in. Kale This variety makes amazing kale chips when roasted to a crisp in the oven. You can also make raw massaged kale salads, steamed or sautéed kale side dishes, or kale soups. Spinach These large leaves are best for cooking but are also nice as salad. Mint We’ve included a few sprigs of mint in your shares so you can freshen up your ice water on these warm days days, mince and add it to stir-fry, infuse hot tea in the evening or just enjoy the smell:) French Breakfast Radishes This is the last of the spring radishes since they start looking a little funny after the weather warms. Enjoy, and we’ll see them again in the cool days of fall! Salad Turnips This unsung crop is bafflingly uncommon in grocery stores but one of our favorites. The tender white turnips are juicy raw in salad or in stir-fries or roasted veggies. The greens are also amazing! Unlike radish greens, which are a little tough and spiny, turnip greens are tender and perfect when lightly wilted or chopped up for salad. Salad Mix This week our salad greens were accidentally handled a bit roughly during washing. You may find that it doesn’t last as long as our greens usually do. We apologize! It is still delicious and healthy. We hope you can find a way to eat them first among the salads of this week’s share, ideally in the next couple of days, since I’m sure the arugula, spinach, lettuce and bok choi will last longer in your fridge.
Lettuce Heads This variety is called Magenta and it is a ‘summer crisp’, which means that it lies somewhere between a romaine and a leaf lettuce on the crispness spectrum. Arugula This mustard green has a sharp flavor that you can tone down with a sweet dressing if its too much for you. It makes a perfect salad with walnuts, goat or blue cheese, and raisins. You can cook arugula down into a mustardy pesto. It is also an awesome pizza topping and is great in soups or stir-fry if cooked lightly. Bok Choi This Asian green is perfect for stir-fries, braised greens or marinated raw salads. The dark green leaves cook or marinate similarly to kale while the white ribs are crunchy like celery and can either be cooked or eaten raw, perhaps with a dip. Spinach These large leaves are best for cooking but are also nice as salad. Kale This smooth leaved variety is called Red Russian Kale. This is the first harvest on these plants and the spring weather has made the leaves especially tender. They are easily succulent enough for raw salads but can also be steamed, sautéed, or added to just about any cooked dish. Oregano Mince this fresh herb and add it to savory dishes or sauces. Hang it upside down in a well ventilated area and dry down for weeks until it flakes for oregano that will store for months. French Breakfast Radishes I’m not sure how many people in France eat these for breakfast, but they’d add a lot of color and sharp flavor to any time of day. The greens are a bit tough but brave chefs do find uses for them. Popcorn on the Cob We grew these last fall and they popped perfectly in our “trials” (excuses for popcorn snack time). Press firmly on the kernels over a bowl to detach them. Heat a few teaspoons of oil in a pot with three test kernals. When those kernels pop, you’ll know the oil is hot enough. Add the rest of the kernels and remove from heat for thirty seconds, shaking them around a bit to get them all coated with oil. Put the pot back on the heat and wait until most of the kernels are popped. Then salt and enjoy! |
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