Welcome to the new CSA season! May brings plenty of greenery to your produce bags so I hope you are in the mood for salad. Two heads of lettuce and some arugula provide a good salad base this week, while French Breakfast radishes and pea shoots can serve as a bit of garnish and interest. Note also that you can just eat the radishes with a bit of butter and salt. Or roast them with their greens. The radish greens are also edible raw, though a little fuzzy – try them on a sandwich. Pea shoots are the delicate tips of the growing pea plant. They are nice raw in salad or on a sandwich, or you can cook them very lightly. Rounding out the share are some cooking greens, and green garlic. The cooking greens are “white russian” kale and rainbow swiss chard. Cooking greens are great added toward the end of a soup or stew, or as a side dish on their own. On their own, I find they benefit from some good oil or fat, a healthy bit of salt, and some wine/lemon/or vinegar toward the middle/end of cooking. Green garlic is a lovely spring treat: the immature garlic stalks where you can use the entire plant, sort of like you would a leek. The flavor is garlicky, but much more subdued than mature cured garlic. So don’t be afraid to use way more than you would with normal garlic. Some have suggested making green garlic pesto (I have not tried it myself but it sounds interesting!):
GREEN GARLIC PESTO: (from http://www.mariquita.com)
– 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts, or other nuts you have on hand such as walnuts or almonds
-pinch salt
– 1-2 pinches black pepper
-1/2 inch chunk of parmesan, cut up into a few pieces Whirl the nuts and parmesan pieces in the workbowl of a food processor for a few pulses. Cut the green garlic shoots into 1-2 inch lengths. Drop in the garlic pieces through the feed tube as the f. processor is running. Add the olive oil while it’s running. When it’s all chopped up and ready to spread on toast or mix into sour cream or… you’re done!
It was nice to see so many familiar and new faces today at the farm. I’m excited to be growing veggies again for a bunch of “neighbors” this year. Thank you all for being part of this community supported farm project. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or feedback about the CSA.
Next week the Monday pickup will be on Tuesday instead because of Memorial Day.
I’ll leave you with a few shots of the new farm property where I’m growing kale, chard, cabbage, kohlrabi, bok choi, potatoes, and more…
Cully Neighborhood Farm 