First CSA pickup!

Happy first pickup day, everybody! This is your first newsletter installment. We have been busy at work getting ready for the first CSA delivery. All the crops are jumping out of the ground, due to the profusion of rain and sun, creating ideal growing conditions for both crops and their antithesis, the weeds!

This week the shares have the following:

green onions
head lettuce
beets
carrots
hakurei turnips
easter egg radishes
bok choi/tat soi
cilantro
peas

If you’re not sure what to do with some of these things, here are some helpful hints. First of all, if it’s green and not lettuce, you can probably a) chop it into a salad or b) stir fry it. These are my rules of thumb. I find it pretty helpful to always have plenty of extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lemons, sea salt, sesame oil, fish sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce on hand. You can make just about anything taste good with a combination of those kitchen aids.

Now, for some specifics.

Hakurei turnip is a mild tasting turnip that really tastes more like an apple-y radish. We like to eat them like apples, but you can also slice them up and add them to a stirfry. Another way is to quarter them and steam them lightly. Add some butter, lemon juice, pinch of salt, touch of honey and maybe some nutmeg. toss and serve. You can also eat the greens of the turnip, raw or cooked.

Radish. Did you know you can cook radish? It actually makes a fantastic addition, greens and all, to a stir fry. If you’re not into stirfry, you could slice them, and the greens, and add a sour-cream dressing. Check out our last post, a recipe for radish green soup from one of our customers!

Tatsoi and Bok Choi are delicious greens usually used in Asian cuisine. I like to slice them up with hakurei turnips, radishes and onions and toss them with a dressing (with olive oil, garlic, minced ginger, rice wine vinegar, salt and pepper and a touch of sesame oil). Sprinkle on some sesame seeds and voila! A homemade caesar dressing is nice on these also. Tatsoi and Bok choi make a great addition to stirfrys, but I’m becoming a bit repetitive with that one.

That’s all for this week. If you discover or invent any delicious recipes with your veggies, let us know and we can post them for the rest!

Till next week, bon appetit!