Tuesday
Jun292010
First Official CSA Share of the Season
Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 5:55PM
With two pre-season deliveries out of the way it's time for the CSA season to officially get underway. Here's what to expect in your first official share:
This share offers some freshly grown spinach. The ziploc bag contains a mix of several varieties of spinach that were planted at our CSA planting party in May. Thanks to Hannah, Joseph and Tavi for getting these spinach plants going! Please rinse and dry the plastic bag and return it with your box next week. You can make a fresh spinach salad, steam it and serve with balsamic vinegar or sautee it with garlic and olive oil (if you want to be "food" naughty - make a fresh bacon dressing like Andy likes).
There’s a few more of the Champion radishes hidden in the box. If you think you aren’t a radish person, give them a chance by trying something other than just munching on them fresh with salt – that can often be too much bite for the average person. Try out the radish sandwiches mentioned in last week’s post or try sautéing them or putting them thinly sliced in a salad. Radishes are a good source of vitamin C and so are their greens which you can also sauté.
You will find two different types of peas: larger flatter snow peas and thicker sugar snap peas. As you know from last week’s share, snap peas are excellent to snack on fresh. You will see that our recipe this week is simple: a sour cream and chives dip for the snap peas! So to make sure you can try that if you want, in another small plastic bag, you will find some chives to make the dip for your peas. Last week, one of our CSA members reported that she made this recipe with the snap peas only and the whole family loved it! (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fresh-Green-Peas-and-Sugar-Snap-Peas-in-Sesame-Dressing-109708. ) Try it out yourself and share your recipes with us on our Facebook page.
The snow peas (flatter ones) can also be eaten fresh but they are excellent sautéed or blanched (1 minute in boiling water and then immediately cooled in ice water).
The last item in this weeks share was new to us this year - so this is all of it. It's and Asian green called bok choy. It's the green leaves with the white stems. Consider sautéing together the snow peas and the bok choy with olive oil / sesame oil or one of Wegman’s stir fry sauces. Serve over pasta to make a noodle bowl that even the kids will like. We have found that it is best to cut the bok choy leaves from the stems. Sauté the stems in chunks for a few minutes before adding the leaves and the snow peas, then continue cooking for just a minute or two until the leaves wilt.
This past week we made a noodle bowl with some Thai Spice Fettuccine from a local pasta maker – Flour City Pasta. Great Stuff!
Be sure to enjoy this week share. And remember, nothing should ever go to waste. You can easily freeze any of these items. To freeze, simply blanch for one minute, cool, dry and lay out on cookie sheet to freeze individually and quickly. It’s a real treat to enjoy our spring peas over the winter!
This share offers some freshly grown spinach. The ziploc bag contains a mix of several varieties of spinach that were planted at our CSA planting party in May. Thanks to Hannah, Joseph and Tavi for getting these spinach plants going! Please rinse and dry the plastic bag and return it with your box next week. You can make a fresh spinach salad, steam it and serve with balsamic vinegar or sautee it with garlic and olive oil (if you want to be "food" naughty - make a fresh bacon dressing like Andy likes).
There’s a few more of the Champion radishes hidden in the box. If you think you aren’t a radish person, give them a chance by trying something other than just munching on them fresh with salt – that can often be too much bite for the average person. Try out the radish sandwiches mentioned in last week’s post or try sautéing them or putting them thinly sliced in a salad. Radishes are a good source of vitamin C and so are their greens which you can also sauté.
You will find two different types of peas: larger flatter snow peas and thicker sugar snap peas. As you know from last week’s share, snap peas are excellent to snack on fresh. You will see that our recipe this week is simple: a sour cream and chives dip for the snap peas! So to make sure you can try that if you want, in another small plastic bag, you will find some chives to make the dip for your peas. Last week, one of our CSA members reported that she made this recipe with the snap peas only and the whole family loved it! (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fresh-Green-Peas-and-Sugar-Snap-Peas-in-Sesame-Dressing-109708. ) Try it out yourself and share your recipes with us on our Facebook page.
The snow peas (flatter ones) can also be eaten fresh but they are excellent sautéed or blanched (1 minute in boiling water and then immediately cooled in ice water).
The last item in this weeks share was new to us this year - so this is all of it. It's and Asian green called bok choy. It's the green leaves with the white stems. Consider sautéing together the snow peas and the bok choy with olive oil / sesame oil or one of Wegman’s stir fry sauces. Serve over pasta to make a noodle bowl that even the kids will like. We have found that it is best to cut the bok choy leaves from the stems. Sauté the stems in chunks for a few minutes before adding the leaves and the snow peas, then continue cooking for just a minute or two until the leaves wilt.
This past week we made a noodle bowl with some Thai Spice Fettuccine from a local pasta maker – Flour City Pasta. Great Stuff!
Be sure to enjoy this week share. And remember, nothing should ever go to waste. You can easily freeze any of these items. To freeze, simply blanch for one minute, cool, dry and lay out on cookie sheet to freeze individually and quickly. It’s a real treat to enjoy our spring peas over the winter!
tagged local food, sustainability, vegetable in CSA
local food, sustainability, vegetable in CSA
Reader Comments (2)
Your asian stir fry looks great!
I have a confession. I like the packaged Ramen soup mixes, and yes, I use the full seasoning packet (I don't care how much sodium is in there!). I like to pretend I'm making it extra healthy by tossing in snow peas, chopped up bok choy, small broccoli florettes (and even the thinly sliced stems), thin-sliced zucchini/summer squash, etc... So much of the good stuff from the garden goes great in Ramen!
[...] them to a salad, eta them whole with a little salt or follow our super simple recipe below for radish sandwiches and be the talk of the 4th of July party (with almost no [...]