What’s in the box?

Summer Squash/Zucchini
Carrots
Cabbage - Napa or Savoy
Kale
Salad mix
fennel
Green onions
Cilantro or Broccoli (medium and large shares)
cucumbers (small shares)

Notes on the box.

The textures in this weeks box! So varied and beautiful.
Be sure to remove tops from the carrots for the best storage.
New this week is Fennel. The fronds and the bulb are edible. It has a nice anise type flavor. It’s good roasted, sauteed, or sliced very thin and added to a marinaded salad.
Savoy or Napa cabbage are both great for crispy slaws!

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

MoonGlow and MoonShadow! I love sending these cheeses at the same time. The MoonShadow is made in the early part of the season before grazing on pasture can happen when the cows are still eating only hay. The MoonGlow is the same recipe, but made when the cows are on pasture. It’s a fun way to see the difference that what the cows are eating will make in the cheese! You can see the more golden color of the MoonGlow from the carotenoids in the milk when the cows are on fresh pasture. The flavors are also different and I suggest tasting them side by side. Hope you enjoy!

Recipes.

Chickpea Pancakes with Kale and Fennel
Sauteed Zucchini and Fennel
Zucchini and Fennel Pasta

Asian Slaw with Napa or Savoy Cabbage

On the farm.

Hi everyone! We hope you can join us next weekend on the farm for the Co-op Eat Local Farm Tour. July 10 from 10-4 you can come out to the farm and check things out and visit. There will be cheese curds, a farm store, and tours every hour on the hour as well. If you come out, make sure you find us and let us know that you are a CSA member!

We wanted to have you all meet our amazing farm crew. We couldn’t grow and deliver all this food without them! First up is Anabel. She’s from Santo Domingo and has studied as a veterinarian. We love that she’s here working with us! From Anabel:
”Arriving to the farm as an Exchange visitor to start my internship has been an opportunity of a lifetime! Coming from a different country lacking job experience & cooking skills represented a challenge for me. However after the weeks were passing, the farm crew made me feel like home. Is a privilege to do some hard work in the farm when in some countries is usually work for men, however here I’m allowed to do several tasks that contributes to my development.
Working my whole body everyday, feeling stronger and acquiring both mental and physical endurance.
My favorite chore is milking the cows, from preparing the milking equipment to pay attention to each cow in order to get fresh milk everyday. I also like seeding, planting & packing vegetables for the CSA boxes. Is a rewarding feeling once we’re harvesting and able to see the results of all the work, is nice to smell the scent of each vegetable. I’m glad to be part of an industry that produce food to many families.”
One of our favorite questions for everyone is If you were a vegetable, which vegetable would you be and why? Anabel said that was an easy question, she would be broccoli because it looks similar to her afro! <3 (:

What’s growing on?

Anabel in the barn

MOO!

Squash harvest

Anabel at Mill City

What’s in the box?

roamine
oak leaf lettuce
beets
carrots
salad turnips
spinach
zucchini/ summer squash
radishes (medium and large)
garlic scapes (medium and large)
cucumbers (large)
broccoli (large)

Notes on the box.

Lots of roots this week!
Taking the tops off the carrots is a must for best storage! Just break them off close to the roots. If you don’t, the carrots will get bendy and dry out faster. I break off the greens and put the roots in a plastic bag until I’m ready to eat them. But the first carrots of the season never last long! We gobble them up on their own. The greens are actually edible! The way I’ve enjoyed them most is added to chimichurri.

Beets, Radishes, and Turnips all will store best with the tops removed. The tops of all these veggies are edible! You can add beet greens to any cooked spinach recipe you might be making. Or use where you would Chard.

Summer squash, zucchini, and yellow zucchini can be used interchangeably.

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

This week we have Antares, which is our cows milk manchego, aged about 6 months. It’s got a bold flavor and a lingering finish. It’s great grated on eggs or on pasta or grated onto a salad.
We also have a pint of whole milk ricotta. It’s so yummy on toast with olive oil and black pepper (and some chopped up garlic scapes and radishes). But you can also have it sweet with a drizzle of honey! Or use it in your favorite pasta or baking recipe.
NEXT WEEK CHEESE: MoonGlow and MoonShadow (two aged cheeses, same recipe made at different points in the season)

Recipes.

Quick Pickled Radishes

Beet Salad with Ricotta - recipe calls for chard, but your can use the beet greens!

Carrot Greens Chimichurri

Spinach Ricotta Lemon Pasta
Boil your favorite type of pasta. While pasta is cooking, wash and roughly chop a bunch of spinach, arugula, turnip greens, chard, or other tender greens. Put 1 1/2 cups ricotta into a bowl and mix in a few tablespoons of good olive oil, and the zest and juice of a lemon, salt, and pepper. Grate some parmesan or another flavorful cheese of your choice. When pasta is done cooking, drain and return to the pot. Add spinach, ricotta/lemon, and grated cheese to the still hot pasta. Mix together well to allow greens to wilt and flavors to combine. You can add sauteed summer squash, olives, grilled chicken or other protein of your choice, fresh herbs, etc…

On the Farm.

We got 1/2 inch of rain! Doesn’t seem like a lot to celebrate, but it’s better than nothing. But still not enough…. We’ve seen several storms just miss us, so hopefully we get some more rain soon. Until then, we continue to irrigate every day. Thank you so much for the photos, Magdalen!

What’s Growing on?

savoy cabbage
fennel
summer squash/ zucchini
lettuce
green onions
carrots
cucumbers?

What’s in the box?

green leaf lettuce
romaine lettuce
radishes
rainbow chard
green onions
garlic scapes
summer squash
salad turnips aka hakuri turnips
cucumber (large shares)
cilantro (medium and large shares)

Notes on the box

Less cucumbers last week than this week. The heat last week knocked off the blossoms and fried the little baby cukes on the vines. Hopefully the plants bounce back from the heatwave.

The curly long skinny loopy green things are garlic scapes. As the bulb is developing, it sends out a stem with what will be a flower on the end if we don’t harvest it. Pulling off the stem/flower bud makes the bulb grow larger. And they are an early season treat! You can use them as you would green onions, but they will have a garlic flavor.

Stems of rainbow chard are beautiful and edible! They take a bit longer than the leaves to cook, so I like to add the chopped stems at the same time as garlic and onions when cooking, then add the leaves at the very end as they will wilt down quickly.

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

Two of my most favorite cheeses! Circle of the Sun is a raw milk aged cheese. It’s great for snacking or cubing or shredding onto a salad.
The quark is flavored with green garlic and is wonderful on some bread with sliced radishes. It’s also good on crackers or with roasted potatoes or baked salmon.

Recipes.

Rainbow Chard with Hot Bacon Dressing
Chop the stems of the chard up to the leaves. Chop up some green onions and a garlic scape. Chop us chard leaves and place into a bowl (you can also add radish greens and turnip greens if you’d like a larger helping. Put the chopped greens into a serving bowl. Chop up 4-5 slices of bacon. Fry up the bacon in a skillet until preferred level of crispiness. Remove and reserve bacon, but leave bacon grease in the skillet. Add chopped chard stems, green onions, and garlic scapes. Sautee for a few minutes. Add to the pan 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of sugar and cook until sugar is dissolved and heat for about a minute. Pour the hot dressing over the greens and mix well. Greens will wilt down. Top with bacon and hard boiled eggs (optional).

Edamame Garlic Scape Dip
Blend together in a food processor: 8 ounces steamed edamame, 3 garlic scapes, 1/2 teaspoon coriander, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 lemon - zest, 1/2 lemon - juiced, 1/3- 1/2 cup olive oil. Use as a dip with pita chips.

Buttery Braised Radishes and Greens

5 ingredient Cilantro Vinaigrette you can use garlic scapes in this recipe instead of garlic cloves if you like.

On the Farm.

Farmers are always talking about the weather. That’s no surprise. It’s to be expected. So much of our livelihood depends on it…. But wow. Record breaking heatwaves and no rain for weeks. We keep on going and doing our very best, but it’s impossible to know what to expect. Seems like we have entered chaos mode on the farm. Seasons have gone very wonky. We are harvesting summer squash already! Looks like broccoli is bolting, which is a heartbreaker. We are long overdue for some rain, so irrigation is going on and on and on and on. We know that some of the damage from the hot weather will not be obvious until later in the season… As we work on our deep breathing and trying not to be overwhelmed by the swings of this Spring we are grateful, if wary. We are beyond impressed with the incredible endurance of our farm crew! Everyone has been put to the test and are proving to be champions. Working together to endure and thrive in trying times is what we should always be moving towards. Being small and nimble enough to bend in the relentlessly changing wind is a strength. Building community that actually cares about it’s farms is the only way forward. So, here we go!

Farm and food system suggested listening: Discussion on Debt relief for Black farmers with John Boyd Jr of the National Black Farmers Association and professor Thomas Mitchell. A really great source to learn about this program and why it’s so necessary.

What’s Growing On?

summer squash
lettuce
radishes
beets
carrots
green onions
cucumbers?