Thanks again for signing up to be part of the first season of the CSA Club. The season is starting off strong with this week’s box full of delicious produce.
As we get into the flow of things, we hope to have these newsletters sent out a couple a couple days earlier (quick plug: Lisa and I were also busy the beginning of this week with another organization we work with, Next Door Dinners. Check it out).
To get the season started Lisa will share some things to keep in mind about the shares, containers, and our zero-waste goals.
Hi! Lisa here. Let’s get this season started with 3 quick points:
Nichols’ has a significant amount of storage crop space, so these are actually from the fall. They still taste great though, with a creamy texture, and are a nice size for easy chopping.
I like to quarter these and roast them until they are soft and sweet, with much of the intense radish flavor gone, but I’m also crazy and love just eating them raw; plain, with a little butter, or as a garnish.
These are the same as your typical yellow onion, just harvested early so they are still small, tender and little more mild.
Enjoy it, we’re on the back half of the season so before you know it, you’ll be missing it.
These won’t compare to the field tomatoes we’ll get later in the season, but they certainly beat the warehouse ripened ones you’d find at the grocery store.
These are my favorite. Raw they have a slight crunch and a funky flavor between a radish and horseradish (mild though). When cooked, the texture softens to creamy adjacent and the flavor mellows out. Try braising whole for the veggie equivalent of a pot roast.
With the amount of other greens, we went ahead and hit the pause button on these. Use this week, next week, or in 4 months. You won’t be making a crunchy salad but the flavor and quality of the frozen spinach will be near identical to if you were to have cooked it from fresh.
Add at the last moment to any dish that calls for spinach to minimize over cooking.
In comparison to the spinach, blanching and freezing here was a little more out of convenience than abundance-management as you wouldn’t likely eat these raw anyway.
Add at the last moment to any soup, stew, braise, or just sautéed veggies to minimize over cooking.
From the Larder, a thank you for being part of the CSA Club.
The purple color of this stock is striking, but the flavor is nothing short of classic: deep and savory. Both orange and purple carrots from Nichol’s Farm were paired with blush onions from Froggy Meadow Farm. Use for soup, sauce, braises, rice pilaf or anywhere stock or water is called for.
