Hi everyone,
We hope you enjoyed your first share of the season! It’s been wonderful getting back into the swing of things. I’ll admit—at the start of every season, I feel a little stress about whether we can meet the demands of our ambitious growth goals (sometimes, I even turn into a bit of a curmudgeon). But the moment the vegetables start rolling in, it’s nothing but joy for me.
I follow a number of local farms—Nichols and Otter Oaks of course, but others as well—because I love hearing different perspectives on the growing season. One of my favorite newsletters is from Tracey from Three Sisters Garden, whose recent one really resonated with me. She wrote about the challenges of quality standards as a small business, and I loved how she put it:
We don’t have an advertising department, using only social media, and word of mouth to attract new customers. That means we must be brutally critical of what we do here. Keep the bar high, and do everything we can to cleanly make our way over that bar with each bag and box we pack, every time. With many of you, I do not necessarily meet you, so our relationship develops entirely with your satisfaction after receiving your order….
We want you excited to look into your box or bag, anticipating all the goodness inside. We know you could be purchasing from other, larger, more diverse, farms, but the vast majority of you have chosen to stay with us since the very beginning. That says to me that we are doing something right.
Gard Mo and the CSA Club have been incredibly fortunate to have steadfast support from the beginning, and we’ve always strived to deliver the highest quality produce to you. But once it leaves our hands, we don’t always know how it holds up—or whether it fully meets your expectations. That’s where you come in!
Your feedback is invaluable to us. If something isn’t quite right—whether it’s produce that doesn’t last as long as it should, a share that feels a little light, or even just a preference for how things are packed or prepared—please let us know. We’re always looking for ways to improve and make the CSA Club an experience you’re excited to share with friends and family.
We hope you love this week’s veggies, and as always, don’t hesitate to reach out.
—Ben
Radishes are an odd ball and not part of the two major brassica groups, and actually not even a brassica even though we would consider them. Their scientific name is Raphanus sativus. Radishes seem to have reached the Mediterranean by the time of the ancient Greeks and Egyptians and have continued to be a significant part of human food ways since.
These turnips are some big hunkers. Technically these are the same species as the bok choy (Brassica rapa), just a different variety. I think the flavor of them bears this out. They have that woody, perfumy note thats present in the bok choy, but isn’t quite there in the radishes. Sliced thin, these are nice for snacking raw if you like the zestiness. They cook very similarly to radishes, softening and sweetening.
An early seasonal feature, sugar snap peas are about as good as it gets. If you’re going to cook them, keep it brief with high heat so that they keep a little bit of that crunch. Otherwise, they’re pretty great for just snacking on them as they are (a tasty dip would take them next level).
We got a nice mix of frilly lettuce and broad leaf so that this will be a nice mixed greens. We have a recipes for a simple vinaigrette, although for a different salad. A light vinagrette like that would really make this lettuce pop, for a salad or on a sandwich.
Early in the week Nichols had indicated that asparagus would be in the shares, but on Tuesday when we received the veggies from the farm, no asparagus and this spinach in it’s place today. Todd later sent a note apologizing and explaining that their asparagus crop was not what they had been anticipating. When Nichols saw the warm weather of this week in the forecast, they expected the asparagus to start popping off as the cold had slowed it down. Unfortunately, the dry spell we had been experiencing had left the soil hard packed so that the asparagus tips weren’t able poke through and out for harvest. Luckily, we’re flexible. This is a great example of the resilience and support that Community Supported Agriculture offers to farmers. If a grocery store or restaurant had ordered asparagus and a farm failed to fill that order, they probably wouldn’t order from that farm again. Us, we’ll roll with it and will happily eat some spinach this week.
Besides Brassicas, the other of the two major vegetable families are Alliums. Onions, like these spring onions, are of the species Allium cepa. Other Alliums include shallots, garlic, leeks, ramps, and chives.
These are another product of Nichols’ impressive greenhouse programliek the cucumbers last week. Last month I saw another farmer, Tim Frillman of Frillman Farms, celebrating his impressive early season greehouse cherry tomato crop. Tim also mentioned how he couldn’t have achieved it without his mentors in the space helping him. I love this. Clever farmers are not only developing and honing novel techniques, but also spreading these within the community to strengthen the overall local food system. Love it.
These were some big ‘ole bok choy bunches. Bok choy is part of the cabbage family, formally called Brassicas. Brassicas include a huge number of vegetables (cauliflower, brussels sprouts, turnips, radishes etc.) but most of those fall under just two species, Brassica oleracea and Brassica rapa, and are just varieties of the species, like granny smith and red delicious are varieties of the same species; apple. Bok choy is part of the Brassica rapa group which also includes turnips, rapini, and napa cabbage.
