May 29, 2011
Naturally grown food for those dear
Hello again everyone!
First off, dear CSA customers, I have to give a spiel from us mega anti-plastic freaks. Pretty please DO NOT throw your ziplocks away! Basically, anything that isn’t edible in your basket is meant to be washed and returned to us in order to be reused. We are very passionate about not investing in more non-biodegradables, and the decision to purchase ziplocks to hold onto your delectable greens between the garden and your plates was a difficult one. The precious money you are spending on our CSA is meant to go into the garden and we don’t want to waste money on waste. So, before anyone even has a chance to pitch a ziplock, I ask you to please pitch it in the sink instead, give it a quick rinse and return it to us when we bring your next basket. And of course, if you have a different preferred receptacle for greens and other delicate perishables, hand it over and we’ll be happy to use it. In addition to individual vegetable packaging, we are still on the lookout for good CSA baskets. The ones we bought, so cute, turned out to be WAY too small for the share. I’d love to weave our own, but where to find the time?!
And onward. What a wonderful response we’ve been getting! To the food, the newsletters and the pictures, your welcome and thank you. I’m glad the food is being enjoyed and while I’m sorry we can’t take on more customers right now, I’m glad there is such demand! Since we only began at Kokovoko this winter, we do not have the spring bounty we hope to have in coming years (many spring crops are sown the previous fall, long before we were here!), but summer and fall will just be a mess of produce. We are very excited to be taking on at least three new shareholders in July to make a total of seven our first season!
Moving onto what is of greatest interest, the garden! It’s looking wonderful and we’re enjoying every new blossom, pod, leaf, globe, etc. with mouse-like squeaks of excitement. Our sustenance, just popping up out of the ground. While lettuce and spinach are still tender, the arugula has come and gone. It was so short lived; delicious for a week or so, and then just in time for our first week of distributions, bam! Bolted (this means it has gone to seed, which, for arugula, means no longer tasty). For arugula and other early bolters like bok choy we will simply save the seeds and try out sprouts for the baskets. They are mega delicious and vitaminaceious so I’m hoping we can all forget about how much we miss arugula salads until they arrive again in the fall. In other garden news, we have planted sweet corn, and I think everyone will be happy about that.
As for this week’s basket, expect much of the same, minus arugula. We will also hold off on the rhubarb for a week to let it come back. The sugar snaps are covered in pods, but haven’t fattened up yet into their sweet and juicy true natures. We’ll pick some to get them producing more and just throw them in your stir fry mix. You’ll also be receiving pea shoots, which are wonderful stir fried or fresh in salads (we’ll keep them separate so you can make the decision) Speaking of stir frying, I ought to include some cooking tips eh? All those garlic and onion tops can seem a little intimidating so here is my advice-chop them off and boil them. Boil them for awhile and then leave them under cover in the pot for an hour or two, or whatever length of time you need to go do something else before making a proper lunch. Come back, pull them out, squeeze them like a wet towel for any remaining flavor, throw them in the compost heap, and dump a bunch of rice in the pot. Cook the rice and enjoy. You can cook any absorbent grain in this onion and garlic top stock, I just find rice easy and holds onto the most flavor. I also toast the rice and some garlic and onions in lard or bacon grease before throwing it in the stock-makes it even better. You can also throw the Asian and turnip greens in when the rice is almost done for a full meal. Well I’m making my own self hungry so I’m going to go eat, sleep, and wake up ready to harvest!
Have a wonderful week,
Bri & Josh
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