- Spinach–Spinach Calzone
- Asparagus– Asparagus Guacamole
- Radishes– Honey Glazed Radishes
- Green Onions- Pasta with Green Onion Salad Dressing
- Garlic Scapes- 7 ways to use scapes
- Red Lettuce
- Saute Mix (kale, rainbow chard, beet greens)- Poached Eggs over Sauteed Greens
- Eggs…we’re throwing a dozen eggs to all our members this week! Enjoy!
Welcome to the Summer CSA program! Our weekly newsletter comes to you via email and is posted on our blog roll on the farm’s website. If you ever want to look back at newsletters, they are kept on the website. We find our paperless communication system to work well and it helps us link together many interesting sites, recipes, and resources on the internet. Recipes can be searched either in the index on the right hand side of the website, or via our search engine on our website. However, there are many great blogs (just do a google search for the particular vegetable you are looking for a recipe), boards on Pinterest devoted to the topic, or try Farmer Dave’s Recipe Blog, CSArecipes.com or search by ingredient at Food.com.
I make a big effort to keep our website updated. So please remember to check there for information or notices about the CSA. You can also email or call Heather anytime with questions. Or if you notice a mistake on there, let me know as sometimes I am making these updates in the wee hours of the morning.
Here’s a few tips for making the most out of your CSA box:
- Make your weekly plan after you receive your CSA box for the week. It can make a huge difference in the amount of vegetables you use up. You will often be able to buy less at the grocery store.
- Have a good source for CSA recipes. If you need more inspiration than our newsletter, try the websites and sources mentioned earlier.
- Find a go-to easy recipe for using up vegetables. For us it’s stir-fry. Dice things up and add to a hot oiled pan with some seasonings. A real time saver is the veri-veri teriyaki sauce that we all love as a sauce. Serve over rice. Some people’s go-to recipe is a quiche, frittata, grilled veggies, or soup.
- If you get behind, use your freezer. Here are some quick tips on how to freeze some common vegetables:
- Spinach, kale & chard: blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds, then drain and squeeze out the extra moisture. Freeze in a baggie or an airtight container
- Tomatoes: blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds, then peel off their skins. Remove seeds if you’d like, then freeze whole
- Peas, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, & soybeans: Chop into smaller pieces, if needed, and blanch for 2-3 minutes. Dunk in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process, then drain and flash freeze (freeze on trays, then dump into bags so you can pull out just the amount you need)
- Onions & peppers: Chop and separate into containers based on how much your family usually uses during a meal (I usually use 1 cup mason jars or plastic baggies)
Spinach uses abound: fresh spinach salad eaten just like lettuce, side dish cooked, added into stir-fry or rice dishes, pesto sauce (simply replace basil with spinach), calzones, lasagna, pizza, or dips. Here’s a skinny asparagus and spinach dip recipe that looks interesting. I also linked to an asparagus guacamole recipe above. I never thought of replacing our long-travelled avacado with midwestern asparagus, but I think it seems like a good substitute. I think you should have some inspiration for your spinach.
Garlic Scapes-you ask what are these curly things in the box? They are the immature stalk of the garlic flower. They are pulled in order to have the garlic bulb bulk up more, and they have great garlic oils in them to chop up and use just like garlic. Nibble on one and you’ll taste the less pungent, but distictly garlic taste. Here’s 7 things to do with garlic scapes.
The saute greens are a beautiful mixture of rainbow kale, red russian kale, rainbow chard, and bull’s blood beet tops. These need to be rough chopped and sauteed (or cooked) in order to tender them up a bit. After washing and packing this wonderful mix, I was craving a huge bowl of asian greens. I simply heated olive oil in a pan, added the rough chopped greens stems and all, threw in a tablespoon of chopped garlic, sprinkled some rice vinegar on top, added some soy sauce, ginger, and red peper flakes. Stir until well wilted. Then I threw in an egg, stirred, and added a pint of leftover rice to the mix. To finish it off, I added a little sweet chili sauce (I find many uses for this sauce which I buy at Rochester Wholesale food in the back of the store). So this was a 5 minute dinner and completely filled me up and satisfied my craving. Yes, the kids were gone so I didn’t have to consider anyone else’s desires.
The boys, Ashlan and Ethan, are spending the week up north in Chetek fishing with grandma and grandpa. I was able to go with them for a long weekend and then headed back to the farm. What a wonderful way to kick off summer! Life at the lake is always wonderful and relaxing. There’s something about sitting on the dockside or floating on the water that slows life down.
SUMMER CSA: CSA Pick-Up Site Details will remain on our website as a reference for summer.
4th of July Decision: The majority of the membership wanted to cancel the delivery the week of the 4th of July and add on a delivery at the end of the season. I will remind you of as we near the holiday week. Thanks for sharing your opinions!
Wood-Fired Pizza : We are now open for our wood-fired pizza both Thursday and Friday evenings, 4:30-9pm. There will be live music this THURS with James Moors from 6-9pm.
Eat Well. Smile Often.