House In The Woods CSA Blog

June 22, 2012  CSA Offerings

Lots of bounty, its been a bountiful season with conditions that the plants have been loving! Check the recipe section of the blog for ideas on how to prepare your share of the harvest…

CSA Members select 8 from the following items:

zucchini (a peak week, and they don’t last too long! Another set of plants will be ready later as well)

chard

kale

scallions

kohlrabi

white turnips

cabbage, savoy traditional

cabbage, nappa Chinese–a few of the last for the season

beets, beautiful beets!

cucumbers?–just beginning, definitely next week

fennel–try this unique vegetable braised, grilled, shredded in salad or to sweeten a soup

lettuce

bok choi?

I need to check on basil, green peppers, jalapenos–we may have a small amount of these just starting

U-Pick Beans, in addition to your 8 items–a peak week for beans! With new sets of plants coming too!

Harvest Week #4, June 8, 2012

CSA members can select 8 items from our offerings for the week. You may double an item, and it counts as 2.  You can add additional items for $3.50/item. Items are bunched, counted, or by weight. This is our anticipated list and may change:

Sweet white turnips — I like these raw, but check the blog recipe files for a CSA favorite–turnip fritters

Garlic Scapes — chop em up and stir-fry, they are essence of garlic! Last well in the frig, or chop and freeze.

Kale — oh my, its beautiful this time of the year..Get it while its great! Time for baked kale chips. See recipe below.

Chard — also so pretty right now. Try kale or chard chopped in scrambled eggs or cheese omelettes.

Nappa cabbage–Blues variety, try an asian coleslaw with an orange ginger vinagrette.

Romaine lettuce–I just bought anchovy paste for authentic caesar! find a recipe online, its easy to make.

bok choi —edible spoons! with ranch dip, hummus, or rice.

kohlrabi — a spring treat, peel the tough purple skin off, slice and eat raw. Just another week or two.

scallions

fennel

baby zucchini maybe

KALE CHIPS

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Cut or rip kale into big pieces (chip size?).  Toss kale in a bowl with a little olive oil and salt. Maybe nutritional yeast too, or spices. Perhaps a dash of cayenne? Spread out on cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes, check it so it doesn’t burn. Slightly undercooked will still be a little chewy, but fully cooked will have a crispness that melts in your mouth like a potato chip.  Enjoy!

New CSA members may be wondering when to expect certain crops to ripen… you’ve noticed that spring is the time for greens, and our bodies really appreciate the nutritional jumpstart that greens offer. I know I often crave them in the springtime, after a winter of less green things.  Zucchini is here early this year, thanks to our earlier than usual planting of it. U-pick green beans…maybe next week! The nappa cabbages will end and we’ll start regular savoy cabbages. Beets! Cucumbers before long. In July we’ll see green peppers, eggplants (3-4 kinds!), jalapenos, and tomatoes. Fresh Garlic! The u-pick zinnias will blossom, and Candy Lane, our u-pick cherry tomato row. We feature heirloom tomatoes, so you’ll be introduced to tomatoes in red, pink, purple, black, yellow, orange, green, and streaked and striped. Its a delightful exploration, heirloom tomatoes. Onions somewhere in there too. In late August and September we will add potatoes and sweet potatoes and hopefully winter squashes. I’m surely forgetting some crops so there will be some surprises too.