2010 Week One

Nothing like the first delivery to send the farmer into a panic. CSA style marketing requires attention to detail and so I sort through the details making sure my numbers are right and syrup shares are in order. Everything is out of rhythm. Yet I am excited to get the deliveries underway. The next few weeks on the farm will be busy and somewhat frantic as there are still plants to put in the ground, weeds to stay on top of, and then harvesting and delivering to go along with all that.
Now our third season of operating the CSA, we find ourselves becoming more efficient and some of our hard labor from the first few years paying off. Farming is still hard, but maybe it will be just a little bit easier this year than the last. We can always hope…and as far as I can tell, there is a lot of hope and faith that go into farming.

I can’t remember if I said it in the member handbook or not, but it’s a good idea to wash your produce, even if it looks clean. We try very hard to wash everything and maintain a clean harvest area, but washing it yourself before eating is the only way to be sure it’s really clean. Occasionally you will probably find a slug or other bug in your lettuce or delivery bag. As a CSA we do what we can to make the produce look good and treat it right so it stores well. But if you compare how our produce looks to what you see in a co-op, you might think your carrots have more dirt or your Swiss chard leaves have a few more holes. I appreciate the CSA market style because we are able to use more produce…whereas only the most perfect produce can be sold at a co-op. They also put considerable time in at the co-op cleaning produce before putting it on the shelf and anything imperfect doesn’t sell.
We had wonderful helpers at our member work day a week ago—planting and weeding galore. The highlight for all was the homemade maple ice cream that one of our members brought for the potluck. We also had some great help from Josh and Becky and their sons harvesting for the first delivery. They did a great job on slug patrol.

The vegetable cast list for this week:

-Rhubarb
-Swiss Chard (white and colored stems)
-Spinach
-Lettuce
-Frisee (bright green leaves with serrated edges)
-Radishes
-Chives
-Tarragon
-Horseradish

I highly recommend having a really good cookbook for vegetables. Of course you can probably find good recipes on the internet, but I still like paging through the cookbook. Two that I have and use often are:
Asparagus to Zucchini from the MACSAC (Madison Area CSA Coalition) organization.

Farmer John’s Cookbook: the real dirt on vegetables.

A new addition to your bag this year is the frisee’ otherwise known as endive. It is a slightly bitter green that can be used in salads, but might be better off cooked. Here is a recipe we tried last night to great success:



Steamed Frisee with Pine Nuts and Raisins (from Farmer John’s cookbook).

3 tablespoons raisins
1 pound frisee (I think you could add swiss chard to this as well if you’d like).
¼ cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons pine nuts
salt and pepper

1. Put the raisins in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside to plump, then drain.
2. Steam the frisee in a steamer basket until wilted, 2-4 minutes.
3. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and pine nuts and cook, stirring constantly until the pine nuts start to brown.
4. Give the greens a few chops on the cutting board and add to the skillet. Stir until coated with oil, then remove from heat and stir in the raisins. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

About the radishes:
Whoa, they got kind of big! We started harvesting them early, but even so… The slugs had a chew on the radish tops. You can use radish tops in a stir-fry. Radishes themselves can be cooked too, which takes away the spicy edge. I also like them grated on my salad…not quite as intense as eating them whole, which I like to do if I am driving because it keeps me awake :)