WHATS IN YOUR BOX THIS WEEK AND HOW TO USE IT

LETTUCE MIX - Store in a plastic bag loosely in your refrigerator. The ideal temperature for storing lettuce is at or near 32 degrees. Wash prior to use. Lettuce stores normally for UP to two weeks. $5

CARROTS- If your carrots have the tops on, take them off right away to avoid limp carrots. The tops like to suck the moisture from the root (carrot) which makes for lifeless carrots. Store carrots in the refrigerator in a plastic bag or container. They can store for several weeks and sometimes even months. $5

SPRING ONIONS - Store in the refrigerator crisper drawer for up to one week. You can peel off layers that become dry or slimy if used after one week. $2.50

SWISS CHARD OR KALE - Kale loves the crisper drawer. Does well in a loose bag in your refrigerator. Wash prior to use. Stores normally for UP to two weeks. Swiss Chard will become limp and lifeless very easily. Gently wrap unwashed greens in paper towels and store loosely in plastic bags. Keep moist and cool in the lower part of the refrigerator in the high-humidity bin. Store for up to 5 days. but, have no fear you can still use it in lots of things if chard becomes a little lifeless! $5

HERBS - Oregano OR Parsley . $2.50

Parsley: Trim a little off of the bottoms of the stems so that they can take in more water. Fill a jar or glass partially with water and set the parsley inside. An inch or two of the stems should be submerged.: Cover the jar of herbs loosely with a plastic bag. Store in the refrigerator. Change the water when it becomes cloudy (every few days). The herbs should stay fresh for 1 to 2 weeks.

Store Oregano in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to three days. If you place a slightly damp paper towel in the bag with the oregano and leave some air in the bag, it may extend the life up to one week.

BEETS OR SWEET TURNIPS- cut off immediately. Store the roots in a bag in your refrigerator. Before use wash your beets., you can peel them with a knife or peeler, or you can roast them in foil or boil them, and the peels will come right off. Turnips do not require you to peel them, but you should use prior to use. $6

GARLIC SCAPES - Garlic scapes keep well in a plastic bag in the fridge for two to three weeks.$3

A quick note before we dive into this week, I am going out of town at the end of this week and Matt will be handling the day to day alone. I will NOT be sending out a full newsletter next week (week 5) in order to make it a bit easier on both of us while I am having a quick visit with my family in Michigan. I am however packing this one full in the hope that it will hold you over until week 6. I will be sending out a condensed version of a newsletter next week telling you what to expect in your box and how to store them. Thanks for your understanding.

VEGGIEs OF THE WEEK

BEETs, SALAD “SWEET” TURNIPS and garlic scapes

You're getting a “threefer” this week. Lots of recipes for beets, turnips and garlic scapes. If you received turnips this week you will get beets next week and vice versa. You should also notice this week that if you received kale last week you will have swiss chard this week and you can reference week 3 for recipes for those.

Honestly, I don’t think I touched a single beet or turnip in my life until 2 years ago. My family doesn’t eat them, I don’t know why, but we didn’t ever have them growing up. This is why it is shocking to me how popular beets are with turnips close behind. Matt and I were both shocked at how many beets we sell at market, which lead me down the path of finding out why, starting with trying them!

The simplest preparation I have found so far with beets is to wash them well, and then roast the heck out of them. Sometimes we cook them for as long as an hour. Once they’ve cooled, peel, chop, toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, I also don’t mind a little parm or asiago cheese added at the end.

My FAVORITE way to eat beets and lots of other veggies is in a breakfast I had at a restaurant in Michigan called Anna’s House. The dish is called Hippe Hash. It has two eggs cooked your way on top of a medley of slow roasted cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, radish and beets seasoned with garlic and ginger then served on brown rice with red potatoes. Finally topped with Monterrey Jack cheese and a dollop of sour cream. . You could also sub the radishes, since there are not any in your box and use turnips. YUM YUM YUM!! You can omit the cheese, sour cream and egg and just eat all the roasted veggies, but as is, this was so, so good. I have to assume the root vegetables were all slow roasted and the cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage were roasted separately. They might have been roasted together but separate from the root veg and then brought all back together at the end. I have yet to find a copy-cat recipe that fits this dish, but maybe my CSA members can find one as the season goes on. Beets and turnips stay fresh for a long time with greens removed, so you have plenty of time to find something to try. Save a few behind and try this as the other veggies come in.

A few others to try:

Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Balsamic Recipe - Love and Lemons

Whole Wheat Strawberry Beet Muffins Recipe - Super Healthy Kids

These look fun and something I might try with my kids!

Sautéed Beet Greens Recipe - Love and Lemons

Something to use those nutritious tops in!

SALAD TURNIPS (HAKUREI TURNIPS)

These particular vegetables should not be mistaken for purple top turnips. They are distinct and should not be treated as the same. Spring turnips are suitable for consumption in their raw state. They can be finely diced into matchstick-like pieces and added to spring rolls, or even eaten whole like an apple - even my 7-year-old enjoys them this way! One of my preferred recipes with spring turnips is adding them to my beef stew. This is a fantastic method to incorporate more nutritious vegetables into my children's diet. If your children are picky, you can pass these off as potatoes and they won’t know the difference! The Pioneer Woman's recipe, which I have frequently prepared, is absolutely delicious.

I understand that you may be tired of winter and the abundance of soups and stews, but I assure you that this dish is worth a try. Treat yourself to a warm bowl of this stew with a side of crusty bread before the summer heat sets in - you won't regret it!

A few quick notes about my version of this dish -

This recipe is also perfect in the fall when carrots, onions, turnips are really in abundance.
For those interested in a healthier alternative, I have occasionally substituted beef with venison cubes.
I have also omitted the parsnips and the parsley garnish is mine.
Lastly, I load the vegetables and beef into the pot. One small turnip isn’t going to do it for our family. We like to have a mix of meat, carrot and turnip in every bite.

Photo Credit: Eating Healthy Today by Oliva Adriance

Beef Stew with Root Vegetables Recipe | Ree Drummond | Food Network

Spring Rolls With Carrots, Turnips, Rice Noodles and Herbs Recipe - NYT Cooking (nytimes.com)

Feel free to interpret the spring roll recipe according to your preferences. You can generously fill them with a variety of vegetables. However, the real secret lies in the sauce, which perfectly complements the rolls when paired with a delicious peanut sauce. You can purchase a pre-made sauce over the counter or you can try the ones we added at the bottom. The combination of the refreshing coolness of the roll, the satisfying crunch of the veggies, and the subtle heat of the sauce will undoubtedly leave you craving for more. If you desire a boost of protein, consider adding chilled cooked shrimp while preparing the rolls. During our previous life in Columbus, GA, we discovered these delectable spring rolls at a charming Thai restaurant. Whenever we return to the area, we never miss the opportunity to revisit and indulge in this delightful dish.

Another recipe option for spring rolls with shrimp and peanut sauce -

Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls with Shrimp + Peanut Sauce (bigflavorstinykitchen.com)

The recipe below is very detailed and discusses the “tuck and roll” method well, when making your rolls. -

How to Make Fresh Spring Rolls | Fresh Vietnamese Summer Rolls (whiteonricecouple.com)

Also! don’t forget your greens! Greens on root vegetables are not always beautiful and likely much cleaner in the fall, but if we have a good spring crop make sure to use your turnip tops! Try the recipe below, this chef is great at explaining in detail and with photos a step-by-step process to getting tasty bitter-less turnip greens.

Southern Turnip Greens - The Cooking Bride

Garlic Scapes

Garlic scapes are likely new for many of you which, means a little information is likely needed in order to know what to do with these seasonal treats.

Garlic scapes are the thin, green stalks that grow from the garlic bulb. They are long, curvy, and kind of look like a cross between chives and scallions. Garlic scapes have a more in-your-face garlic flavor, though they’re less spicy than raw garlic cloves. Once cooked, the scapes have a sweeter flavor similar to roasted garlic. My favorite way to use garlic scapes is to make a compound butter. Compound butter is great to add garlic flavor without actually adding garlic. The recipe below calls for Oregano and Parsley, You could save your herbs this week and wait until next week to get the other herb and make this. Simply follow the storage instructions and there shouldn’t be a problem. You can also omit some of the herbs and just use butter and the scapes.

Garlic Scape Butter with Herbs - Binky's Culinary Carnival (binkysculinarycarnival.com)

You can also try to this site which gives twelve ways to use garlic scapes.

How to Cook With Garlic Scapes | Bon Appétit (bonappetit.com)

Week 4

Welcome to week 4. We hope that you enjoyed your bag last week and that you were able to utilize all the items we packed for you.

You might not be aware, but I make it a point to plan out the rough structure of our weekly newsletter well in advance. As I write this, it is currently mid-February. I am deep into our seed calendar, product expectations, CSA marketing, daily monitoring of hundreds of tomato plants due to be planted in 2 weeks and hundreds of seed starts. I am certain that by the time this newsletter is published, we will be fully immersed in the hustle and bustle of farmers markets. Our children will be finished with their school year and diving right into their summer vacation. The weather will gradually become warmer, but this also means a list of seasonal challenges.

At present, we are facing early season challenges imposed by Mother Nature. It seems like every few months, she changes her course, presenting us with a new set of problems. Currently, the weather is transitioning from cool to warm, bringing with it the arrival of strong and persistent winds. As spring continues to move in, it will be accompanied by plenty of rainfall and a weird weather pattern of 60 degrees one day and 20 degrees the next.

Recently, our most pressing issue was the collapse of the new caterpillar tunnel we had erected during the fall. This unfortunate incident occurred due to the force of 60mph winds blowing from the south. In one moment, the tunnel stood tall, and in the next, it was gone. The neighboring tunnel also suffered damage, resulting in tearing of its plastic covering. Thankfully we can fix some of those tears and make it through the season.

When using a caterpillar tunnel such as this, they are more cost effective and quick to erect or take down but, they aren’t as structurally sound as permanent structures. We had one get taken down in the spring of 2023 by wind as well.

The tunnel that we lost holds 1000 strawberry plants and is important that we get it back up quickly. (UPDATE: as you all know from the last 3 CSA bags the strawberries did make it!) Matt made a phone call to his dad and thankfully he was able to come to the farm the next day. In true farmer fashion however, stubbornness is a pretty strong trait in Matt. He had sent the photo of the collapsed tunnel to a few friends, they immediately offered to help, and Matt assured them that he needed no help and between the three of us we could get it taken care of the following day.

We are grateful to have friends that don’t listen to Matt. The next morning, we had three vehicles pull up unannounced carrying 6 additional people making 9 of us to take down, sort, separate damaged pieces, fix weed barrier and plastic mulch, make lists of needed new parts, take Matt to town to get new parts and by the afternoon the place was cleaned up. While a little wonky it was standing again. We did 21 hours’ worth of work in 3 hours, and we couldn’t be more grateful for the help. I think we could have finished it in one day, but some parts had to be shipped in, including a second round of wind stability improvements. I swear there isn’t a wind like a Missouri straight line wind.

We want to give a special shout-out to long time CSA customers and friends, Waldon and Melissa Chevalier for disregarding Matt’s nonsense and rounding up your troops to help. We especially thank State Representative Kurtis Gregory for stopping out to help. We are a very, very small business and appreciate his willingness to take time out of his busy schedule to assist a small farm in their time of need. He didn’t know us before today and yet he was willing to show up and help, which speaks for itself. (PS: He’s the guy in the orange!)

IF ALL ELSE FAILS

If your week has been crazy and you haven’t had time to do a thing with items in your bag, focus on these tasks:

Make sure the greens are removed from the root vegetables. Your roots will store for a good while, your greens from your root vegetables need to be used or lose them.
Lettuce, Kale and Swiss Chard will store for at least 7 days. We wash and spin dry your lettuce one time. You should wash and dry again before consumption. Keep in mind moisture leads to spoilage. You can wait to wash your greens until you plan to consumer them. Place greens in an airtight container such as a bag or Tupperware.
You can freeze green onions including the leafy green tops, the white bulb end, and the stem in between. After freezing, the texture changes somewhat. Stem and bulb portions become soft, while the green parts sometimes become tough
Rosemary can freeze. Wash sprigs thoroughly and dry them well. Leave the leaves on the stem and arrange the sprigs on a baking tray so that the individual stems do not touch − this prevents the stems from freezing together and makes it easier to remove individual sprigs later. Place the baking tray in the freezer for a few hours to freeze the rosemary sprigs. Once frozen, transfer the rosemary sprigs to a freezer bag and store them in the freezer. Frozen rosemary can be stored for a year or more. Frozen rosemary sprigs do not need to be defrosted before cooking
Fresh oregano must be used quickly. Whether it's homegrown or purchased, oregano should be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to three days. If you place a slightly damp paper towel in the bag with the oregano and leave some air in the bag, it may extend the life up to one week. You may also extend the shelf life of fresh oregano by storing whole stems with leaves in a glass of water with a plastic bag loosely tented over the glass. Fresh oregano can also be frozen. Before doing so, though, wash and dry the fresh oregano sprigs. Strip whole leaves from stems and place in plastic bag loosely without crushing but remove all air.
Greens such as carrot tops or other veggie scraps can be saved and used for homemade vegetable broth. Try this recipe: How to Make Vegetable Broth Using Saved Kitchen Scraps ~ Homestead and Chill

NEXT WEEK’S POSSIBILITY’S

Your bag next week will include 6-7 of the following depending on availability and if it’s ready to harvest.

Carrots
Herbs
Green Onions
Lettuce (head or mixed)
Turnip
Beets
Broccoli
Kale
Swiss Chard
Tomatoes (big maybe!)

Wishing you a fantastic week ahead, see you next week!

Summer CSA Newsletter: Week 4