What’s In The Box with Recipe Suggestions
Green Top Chioggia Beets: This week’s fresh beet selection is named after a town in Italy. This is a special beet that is candy-striped on the inside! The stripes are most distinct if the beet is sliced horizontally and either eaten raw or roasted. This variety has a mild beet flavor and is very sweet! Don’t forget to eat the green tops as well! They are packed with nutrients and may be used interchangeably in recipes that call for Swiss Chard.
Creamy Parmesan Risotto with Beet Greens
What To Do with Beet Greens—10 Ways to Love Them
Broccoli: While many only eat the crown of the Broccoli, or flowering portion of broccoli, the stems are also very edible. Using a vegetable peeler or a paring knife, remove the outermost layer of skin from the broccoli stem to reveal the tender, juicy, light green flesh inside.
Roasted Broccoli Salad with Toasted Almonds, Olives & Mustard Seed Maple Dressing
Sweetheart Salad Cabbage: Don’t be deceived by the small size of this cabbage. They are a naturally smaller variety, but they are very densely packed. You’ll be surprised by the yield once you start shredding this cabbage. It is known as a “salad cabbage” because the leaves are tender enough to be eaten raw in salads and the flavor is mild and well-balanced.
Summer Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad
Collards: Collard greens are part of the brassica’s family. The paddle-shaped leaves bear a resemblance to cabbage leaves, but in general they tend to be flatter and more open, and the plants do not make a head. The leaves are thick and more durable and heartier than other greens, such as rainbow chard. However, they may be softened to a silky texture with heat, liquid, and time or by marinating or massaging them when they are raw with oil or vinaigrette. While many assume collards are strong in flavor, they are very mild flavored. They are great when used as veggie wraps too!
Collard Greens Salad with Ginger & Spicy Seed Brittle
Saag-Paneer Inspired Collard Greens and Tofu
How To Make Raw Collard Wraps….and Suggestions for Fillings!
Green and/or Silver Slicer Cucumbers: Cucumber season is upon us! This season you may notice we are sending smaller/different cucumbers. We are trialing quite a few new varieties looking for the perfect balance between size, crunch, less seeds, and of course flavor! If you get one that you are particularly fond of, feel free to snap a pic of it and let us know!
Caramelized Pork and Cucumber Stir-Fry
Garlic Scapes: The scapes are the curly, skinny, wild looking green vegetable! We are finishing up the scape harvest this week so the plants can focus on the bulb.
Mini Green & Red Lettuce: This lettuce has tender leaves that are best suited to vinaigrettes and lighter creamy dressings. You can also use lettuce to make a nice summer soup.
Grilled Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps
White Scallions: Scallions still going strong, so we’ve packed two bunches in your box! Onions are often used as a background ingredient, but they can be the star of the show too.
Taiwanese Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Scallions & Broccoli
Sugar Snap Peas: We like to grow sugar snap peas because they have an edible pod! Just peel back the little stem on the top of the pod by pulling back on the end where the pea was connected to the plant. Enjoy them as a raw snack or in a fresh vegetable salad or lightly cook them until tender/crisp.
Tofu Quinoa Stir-Fry with Snap Peas & Broccoli
Crunchy Parmesan Sugar-Snap Peas
Sauté Mix: Sauté mix is a mix of baby greens including some spicy greens such as mizuna. The sauté mix is bagged in a clear, Ziplock bag and may be eaten raw or cooked.
Spicy Lentil Tacos with Radish & Scallion Salsa
Green or Italian Zucchini or Scaloppini Squash: Zucchini is a warm-weather crop that is best stored at temperatures of 48-50° F. Store zucchini at room temperature or put it in the refrigerator for short-term storage. If stored in colder temperatures for too long, it will get cold injury which will diminish the shelf life.
Vegetable Feature: Broccoli
Broccoli is one of the most consumed vegetables. One report indicated that consumption in the USA has increased by over 940% in the last 25 years!
Broccoli is in the Brassica family, along with cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage. This green vegetable often looks like a tree when you find it in the grocery store, but in the field (and in our boxes) it sports collard greens like leaves that are also edible. We grow broccoli in the spring and fall, starting some of our plants out in the greenhouse, but planting the later crops directly into the soil in our fields.
Broccoli should be washed prior to use. It can be eaten raw, boiled, steamed, roasted, sautéed, or even grilled. Some studies show that steamed broccoli is the best way to cook it in order to retain the most nutritional value. The edible leaves have a milder broccoli flavor than the stems and florets. You can use these leaves similar to how you would use kale or collards, as a cooking green, in smoothies, in salads, or roasted into chips!
Broccoli is low in calories but high in essential nutrients. One cup of raw broccoli provides significant amounts of vitamin C, which boosts the immune system, vitamin K, and potassium. It also contains fiber, aiding digestion and promoting a healthy gut, along with small amounts of magnesium, iron, and calcium. Broccoli is a good source of plant-based protein.
Broccoli should be stored, unwashed, loosely wrapped in plastic or a perforated bag, and in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator.
Farm Update
What an amazing day Saturday! We couldn’t have asked for better weather and a great group of CSA members. Rafael started his day grilling up some HVF ¼ pound burgers, and it sure smelled great round the farm. Kelly was able to pull off the Strawberry Rhubarb muffins and the Iced Maple Lattes! All the other delicious food came from some creative CSA members. Needless to say, we all ate pretty well before heading out on the wagon tours. The wagons traveled around some beautiful fields, including the broccoli and cabbage, dill and radish fields. On the way to the Strawberry field, we passed those beautiful garlic fields. Despite the warning about not having very many berries in the field, there were still plenty of red faces, full bellies and even more berries for members to take home.
It was all around a fun filled day seeing some familiar faces and meeting plenty of new ones. We were all tired by the end of day, but from what we could tell, everyone left with a smile!
Richard’s Field Update: The beginning of summer and the end spring salad greens, means it’s time for a creamy cucumber salad. The broccoli field looks very good and should produce for several more weeks. Our cauliflower did not like the colder April, so will not be as abundant as the broccoli.
Mini cucumbers are the hottest new commodity to the vegetable world! We are trialing quite a few varieties and are looking for smaller size, crisp and with small seeds that you can eat like a popsicle. We would appreciate your feedback on the different varieties: Picollina – Smooth and dark green; Silver slicer – white in color; Gracie – dimpled pickling cucumber.
