CSA Week #2

June 18, 2013

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  • Lettuce
  • Carrots
  • Sweet onions
  • Radishes
  • Spinach
  • Kale
  • Pac Choi (Tuesdays)
  • Napa Cabbage (Fridays)

We are now into the second week of the CSA harvest season and as you can see the boxes are looking bountiful! We hope you were happy with your first box, and your CSA pick-up becomes an enjoyable part of your weekly routine.  As you can see Tuesdays harvest will receive pac choi, and Friday’s harvest will recieve napa cabbage. Next week, Tuesday’s harvest will be getting napa cabbage in their box!

We had feedback that some of you would like some more information on how to care for and store your vegetables. This week I will include some of the handling techniques we recommend. You can also access an archive of box notes from previous seasons on our website, which will have a lot of this information, categorized by date and vegetable. You can get there by clicking here.

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ImagePAC CHOI (aka BOK CHOY)

*Refrigerate unwashed Pac Choi in a plastic container or loosely wrapped in a plastic bag. Pac Choi keeps for over a week but is firmest and tastiest if used with in a few days.

*Store Pac Choi stalks loosely inside a plastic bag in a drawer of your refrigerator.

*To prepare, slice stalks away from the base and wash, then separate the leaves (the green part) from the stalk (the white part), as they cook better separately.  Slice and cook stalks as you would celery. Enjoy raw or add them first to stir-fries and soups (any more ideas out there?)

ImageCARROTS

*Cut or twist carrot tops off before storing in plastic bag in the refrigerator.  They will keep for several weeks.

*Clean carrots well before eating by scrubbing with a vegetable brush under running water. Do not peel unless damaged as much of the nutrients are very close to the skin. Eat carrots raw in sticks, rounds, Julienned, or grated, or add slices or chunks to soups, stews, or casseroles. Carrots are also delicious lightly steamed or sautéed and garnished with butter or olive oil and fresh herbs. Try them grated with oil, lemon juice, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper

ImageRADISHES

Radishes may need a good scrubbing (we have already washed these for you!) but do not need to be peeled. Trim off any damaged area. Store them in a damp towel or plastic bag in the refrigerator. Store green tops separately, wrapped in a damp towel. Use as soon as possible.

ImageSPINACH

*Rinse Spinach leaves in cool water and pat dry with a towel or “spin dry” as you would lettuce. Store in a damp towel or plastic bag for up to a week. Spinach can be steamed, sautéed eaten raw or added to soups at the last-minute

*For long-term storage, spinach may be frozen. Blanch for 1-2 minutes.

*Spinach cooks quickly, so be careful not to over-cook. Look for a bright green color. 2-3 lbs. of fresh spinach will reduce to 2 cups cooked.

ImageKALE

*Wash kale leaves well, by dipping in a sink of cool water several times, to flush out soil and garden stowaways.

*Remove stems from Kale leaves by folding leaf in half lengthwise, and stripping or slicing away thick stems. Baby or tender young leaves may be cooked stem and all.

*Steam mature Kale leaves approx. 4-5 minutes, depending on age, size, and amount in steamer. It’s ready when limp, but still retains texture.

*Wrap Kale in a damp towel or in a plastic bag and refrigerate, preferably in your crisper drawer, for up to 1 week.

*For long-term storage, kale can be frozen. Wash, de-stem, and blanch leaves for 2 minutes. Rinse in cold water, drain, and pack into airtight containers (zip lock bags) and freeze.

ImageSWEET ONIONS

* These sweet onions are delicious on sandwiches, burgers, in salads, or stir-fried or caramelized. These onions are fresh, so they should be stored in your refrigerator and used within the next few weeks. Enjoy!

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You might notice that there are no strawberries in this week’s boxes, and we wanted to keep you updated with the situation in the strawberry patch. We just had a flush of ripe berries and the CSA was able to get in on the tail end of that flush last week, but we are going to have to wait a few weeks for more berries to ripen. This is very typical with strawberries, and all the plants are looking healthy, so we are confident that you will all be getting many more of those deliciously sweet berries in future boxes.

Speaking of berries…We are excited to be working with Sunset Valley Organics again this year to bring you blueberry pints in your box! We also offer the ability to order flats of berries and have them delivered to your drop-off site.  We wanted to let you know in advance that the blueberries will be in your box the weeks of July 8th and July 15th. If you would like to order additional flats of blueberries, the cost will be $38.50 a flat. The price has increased a little from last year, because the price of harvesting and processing has increased as well. If you are interested in ordering these flats you can call Linda in the office by the week before each delivery and she will be happy to take care of that for you. Sunset Valley Organics is a family run blueberry farm located in Corvallis. You can read all about their farm and agricultural practices on their website here, or check out their blog here.

Recipes

Your fellow CSA member Marsha Johnson sent in this recipe, it sounds delicious, and even though it is for the turnips from your box last week, you could file it away for when we have turnips again or modify it with another vegetable! Thanks Marsha!

Baby Turnips Cold Salad:

Wash and chop turnip greens, leave a portion of stems on each turnip and cut off root, and then quarter the turnips.  To a wok pan, add sesame oil, then 1/2 chopped sweet onion, 3 cloves garlic, minced, the bigger turnip stem pieces, salt and pepper, then the turnips.  Stir-fry and toss, add the green leaves, chopped, and cook 1 minute more…. spray with balsamic vinegar, adjust seasoning, cool in frig over night.  Eat as salad the next day with goat cheese.  Delicious lunch dish!

More recipes…

Sautéed Radishes and Sugar Snaps with Dill from smittenkitchen.com

Kale Chips! from everydayfoodblog.marthastewart.com

Spicy sautéed Spinach from Bon Appétit

We hope that you are all having a great start to the summer season. If we can do anything to make this CSA experience better for you, please don’t hesitate to let us know!

Enjoy your Vegetables this week!

Sara