Week 1 of the Main CSA Season

This Week’s Veggies:

Veggie Choice: Pea shoots, Green Onions, or Bok Choi

Carrots                                                                 Radishes*

Beets                                                                    Frisée Endive*
2 Lettuce                                                             Salad Mix*

Kale Raab                                                            Potatoes—Chieftain Red*          

Dill                                                                          *”Large” share items; not included  

in the “small” share.

Please Remember to Wash Your Vegetables Carefully and Thoroughly.

This Week’s Recipe:

Fresh Dill and Pea shoot Salad

Prepare a dressing from:

3 T olive oil

1 T Vinegar

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

2 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice

Salt and pepper to taste

For the Salad:

Wash and dice your dill and pea shoots.  With the pea shoots, be sure to discard the lower parts of the stems if they are becoming too woody or stiff.  Wash and tear up a head of lettuce or two depending on your hunger…  Toss the dill, pea shoots, and lettuce together and garnish with sliced radishes.  Add the dressing and serve immediately (if you wish to prepare the salad greens ahead of time, they will keep better in the fridge if you use a salad spinner to get them dry after washing, and then make sure they are well covered with a plastic bag, glass lid, or plastic wrap so that they do not wilt.  Add the dressing and garnish right before you are ready to sit down and eat them).

A garnish of feta cheese and/or crispy bacon can add another depth of flavor to this spring salad.  You can also substitute cold boiled potatoes, diced, for the lettuce to create a heartier spring meal of potato salad.

News from the Farmers:

            Welcome to those of you who are joining us for the main CSA season!  The first part of this spring seemed rather cold and rainy, but after more than a week of sun, it already seems hard to remember.  Due to the sunny weather, our potted tomato plants seem to be selling better at the farmer’s market this year.  We are enjoying the sun, and so are the vegetables, but we did decide to start up the irrigation on Sunday.  We have well-drained soils, which are good in the very wet weather, but it also means that the soil holds less moisture when it is hot and dry.  We were starting to get worried that the transplants that we had set out earlier last week would be getting moisture stressed since they had not yet had time to establish good root systems in their new homes.  The spinach especially seems to have loved being weeded, fed with compost, and watered.  I swear, it doubled in size over night!

            Along with weeding and transplanting, we have been putting up posts and chicken wire trellises for the peas.  Last year they got a little out of hand before we got around to trellising them, so we are feeling better about being on the ball this time around.

            Molly successfully brought off her sheep shearing at the Tilth Farmers’ Market on Sunday with the help from Anna, Chris Williams, Constance Wiseman, and other friends.  This event was the first in a series of ‘second Sunday’ Sheep to Shawl events that Molly has organized for the market throughout the summer.  In June, she will be demonstrating how to wash and process the wool.

            A word about the Frisée for those with large shares: it is a slightly bitter green in the lettuce/dandelion family.  You can mix it with lettuce or other greens in a salad, or stir-fry or sauté it.  Chefs like it in a salad because it is so cool and curly looking… Have fun!