Week FIVE!
We are providing the e-news for ALL shareholders, however only Full Share and Week A Half Shares pick up this week!
Please take care when you pick up your share that you leave the dropsite area tidy (no veggie scraps on the ground, please!) and have unfolded & flattened your box properly. Watch THIS VIDEO for a demonstration because it can be difficult if you've never seen someone do it before. Thank you!
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Farm News this week from intern Christina
Hi all!! Greetings from Wellspring!
My name is Christina and I am one of your interns for this very WET season. I'm very happy to be a part of the Wellspring family this summer, and to help grow the most delicious and nutritious produce for all of you!! So, before I tell you what we've been up to this last week, I'd like to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about where I stem from. I'm from Milwaukee, WI and just graduated from UW-Whitewater with a BA in German and Biology. I love to read about new things and learn little tidbits of information that are not common knowledge. I have an extremely fluffy dog named Cody and I absolutely love being outside with him. I learned about Wellspring by visiting the Tosa Farmers Market last summer and instantly knew it was the place for me. Aside from reading and playing with my dog, farming and gardening are my favorite things to do and it is my passion to one day own my own sustainable farm geared toward supplying cancer patients with healthy, bountiful produce during their treatment. Wellspring is making this dream become a reality.
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Back at the Tosa Market again...on the other side of the table this time!
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Speaking of reality.... where has all of this rain been coming from!!? Never in my life have I seen it rain this much in Wisconsin during the summer months. So much rain has made things a bit muddy here on the farm, causing many of the crops to bolt prematurely in hopes of spreading seed before more stressful weather strikes. Although bolting is not the best news for harvesting (since it often times makes the crop turn bitter shortly after the flower stem emerges), it is a smart move by the plant because, if left untouched, it would be able to pass its genetics along in a stressful situation. No worries though, there are still plenty of crops out there that haven't bolted, meaning sweeter more delicious produce for all of you!
As for other news, Wellspring has also become a frog (and mosquito!) haven with all of this rain. Tiny little frogs half the size of your pinky are jumping around everywhere and it takes every speck of will power NOT to take one home with you. They're SO CUTE!! I wish I could say the same about the mosquitos.......
A lot of hard work has been done this week to provide you with the best food possible. Long, cold, wet harvest days and hours of weeding. It may sound strenuous, but we here at Wellspring love it. We work hard for you so that you can enjoy a healthy, wholesome harvest that is unparalleled elsewhere. Enjoy your Napa cabbage and kohlrabi this week!!! YUM!
Nice to meet all of you!
Your Wellspring intern,
Christina
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What's In the Box and Where Does It Go?
CROP FRIDGE? NOTES/VARIETY
Kohlrabi Yes Winner
Pea pods Yes Sugar Snap and/or Snow Peas
Lettuce Heads Yes Red/Green Butterhead, Magenta, Romaine, Frisee, Nevada, Breen
Kale Yes Purple Curly or Red Russian
Broccoli Yes Bay Meadows and/or Amadeus
Garlic Scapes Yes from Asian Tempest
Napa Cabbage Yes some pest damage
Dill Yes Bouquet
Basil No Genovese
Mustard Greens Yes Green Wave, spicy!
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Wellspring Bits - Executive Director Angie Rester
I just wanted to take a moment to again thank you for being a part of the Wellspring family. Besides getting certified-organic produce that tastes great, I hope you also appreciate all that we do at Wellspring to positively affect our local food system for ALL of us!
Wellspring has been the catalyst to making local and organic food more accessible to schools, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. We partnered with the Ozaukee County Health Department to host several Food Hub Summits that gathered together farmers & folks from institutions (schools, hospitals, & nursing homes), specialty grocers, nonprofits, government officials (including county health departments) and other interested parties to discuss how we could help institutions access local food. Several meetings later, we are now about to launch a VIRTUAL Food Hub that is a first step to our goal. If you want to learn more, please contact me at 262-488-4747 or wellspringed@aol.com.
On a different note, have you noticed how much rain there is lately? I want to thank our farm team & volunteers who work in all this crazy weather to bring us this bounty every week. When you are savoring those tasty veggies, please remember that each leaf of kale and every single pea pod has been reverently grown and harvested by hand for you. Now multiply that by 110 boxes every week. Now factor in the rain and having to walk and/or kneel in mud with mosquitoes buzzing around. We are so lucky to have farmers who endure this in order for us to have great food, so I am hoping you all appreciate it & I hear from many of you that you do. Also, because we grow organically, we do have pests who also want to eat our tasty veggies. Your Napa Cabbage may have some holes from those pests, but I can assure you it will still be nutritious and delicious for you!
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Storage Tips
BASIL! Do NOT put the basil in the fridge. It will turn black. It does not like cold or wet, so this herb is tricky to store. If you can't use it right away, the best method here is an airtight container/jar loosely packed with a small, damp piece of paper inside- left out on the counter.
Though we wash all of the vegetables after harvest, it is impossible to get every last bit of dirt off of them all. Therefore we recommend giving all the greens another wash before storing in a bag/container with a piece of paper towel, in your crisper drawer. This method works great for washing greens, sans salad spinner.
Later on in the week if your greens start to get limp, remember that this does not mean that they are rotting, it simply means that they have lost some water weight. A quick soak in ice cold water will rejuvenate them.
The broccoli should be eaten as soon as possible because the fresher it is, the better it tastes! Even though it will last in the fridge, I suggest not waiting.
The bulb part of the kohlrabi should be separated from the thin stems and leaves. If wrapped, it will last in the fridge for several weeks.
For the dill, remove the rubber band and place in a glass of water in the fridge w/ a loose bag over the top.
The peas might still be wet, so unless you are eating them right away, remove them from the bag and store in open container in the fridge.
For best storage practices for all your fresh fruits and veggies,
Save those scraps! Keep the stems, trimmings, peels, etc from your veggie prep each week in a gallon bag in the freezer. When you accumulate enough, you can make a delicious, homemade vegetable stock...from seemingly nothing at all!
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Recipes from Farmer Heather
Garlic Scapes: We are flush with scapes right now. They are starting to open up on the plants, so we had to harvest them all this week. They store well in the fridge, but if you still have some from last week here are some ideas to deplete your stock:
-chop them up and stir into softened butter for a pretty, green-flecked compound butter (spread on grilled/toasted bread. instant-garlic bread!)
-put them in the food processor with your favorite hummus (or make your own garlic scape hummus)
-grill them whole
-blanch them & add to salad
-make pesto (pesto freezes well too so it is a great way to preserve herbs)
-eat them raw...plain...like one of our worker share's daughters does. wow!
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
1 cup garlic scapes, thinly sliced crosswise
1/4 cup pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, or pistachios
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan
Salt and pepper, to taste
Add the scapes and pine nuts to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until everything is broken up a bit. Then turn the processor back on, and with it running, add the oil a little at a time until it's fully incorporated. Add cheese, pulse, then season with salt and pepper to taste. This won't brown like basil pesto will, so if you're not using immediately, just store in a container in the fridge. It will last a week.
Broccoli: Why does it get such a bad rap? It is so incredibly good for you! I would choke down over-steamed broccoli if I had to based on the shear fact that it literally FIGHTS CANCER. Broccoli contains a laundry list of beneficial compounds whose names I won't list here because they give me flashbacks to the college nightmare that was Organic Chemistry. Still, these "compounds-which-shall-not-be-named" are incredibly important because they do things like repair the DNA in your cells that carcinogens & free radicals damage. In addition, broccoli provides the micronutrients Vitamin C, beta-carotene and selenium that also scavenge and tie-up free radicals before they can do further damage to our cells. Our bodies cannot produce these compounds on their own, therefore they must come from our diet! That was a lot of science, but the moral of the story is that your mother was right. You really should eat your broccoli.
"I don't like broccoli," you say? Have you ever had it roasted? It will change your life. Maybe I am being overzealous here, but won't you at least try it once before you swear off broccoli for good? If you can't get down with some roasted broccoli that is finished with lemon zest and a dusting of Parmesan cheese, then maybe we should agree to disagree.
Roasted Broccoli
Ingredients:
an amount of broccoli (make sure it is dry if you washed it first)
some olive oil
salt & pepper
a lemon
a hunk of Parmesan/Asiago/some other aged, hard cheese
garlic (a clove for every lb. or one scape per lb. of broccoli)
several fresh basil leaves
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Take care to dry the broccoli before you roast it so that it gets that delicious crispy outside. Cut the broccoli into florets and scatter on a baking sheet (don't overcrowd). Chop up the stalks too and put those on the sheet pan please. If the lower stalks are too woody for you, take a vegetable peeler to the outside layer and then roast the tender insides. Roughly chop the garlic scapes (or cloves, but you have scapes in your box this week!) and scatter them on the pan. Toss with olive oil to coat. Sprinkle with desired amount of salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes until just tender and browned. Sometimes I put them under the broiler for a minute after to increase the browning. Remove from oven, grate some lemon zest over the top and/or squeeze some lemon juice over the broccoli. For the grand finale, dust the florets and stems with grated cheese and a chiffonade of basil. Aren't we fancy?
Kohlrabi:
New in the boxes this week! Another member of the brassica family, the name means "cabbage turnip," but I find that slightly misleading since kohlrabi does not taste anything like a turnip until it is roasted. Raw is my preferred way to eat this vegetable. Try serving wedges on your 4th of July veggie platter with hummus or another dip. The bulb that you see is actually a swollen part of the stem. The entire plant is edible, although the smaller stem pieces may be a bit woody, so sample them raw first or cook them to soften. The leaves you can prepare in the same way you would other brassica greens such as kale and collards.
Thai Inspired Kohlrabi Coleslaw
Serves: 2
1 small Kohlrabi, matchsticks
1 small carrot, shredded
2 cups cabbage, shredded
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 green onion, finely chopped
1 small red or green chile, finely chopped
Dressing:
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp red curry paste
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp vegetable oil
In a large bowl throughly mix all the dressing ingredients until well combined. Set aside. In a separate large bowl toss the vegetables then pour the dressing over them. Gently toss until vegetables are fully coated. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or until ready to serve. Before serving crush desired amount of shelled peanuts. Rinse desired amount of fresh basil leaves. Serve the crushed peanuts and basil on the side to allow each person to top as desired.
Kale: Third week in a row. I hope you are all okay with that. Most people love kale these days, but if you are still struggling to open your heart, here are 10 kale salads that might help you out. Kale salads, unlike lettuce salads, actually get better after a day or so because the fibrous leaves continue to break down from the oil in the dressing, making the kale more tender. If that still doesn't work, blanch it and put it in pesto. The garlic and/or whatever herbs you use will overshadow the flavor of the kale.
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Food Photos
 | | Lettuce Head (sample variety) |
 | | Lettuce Head (sample variety) |
 | | Kohlrabi |
 | | Garlic Scapes |
 | | Basil |
 | | Purple Curly Kale OR |
 | | Red Russian Kale |
 | | Mustard Greens |
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Sugar Snap Peas
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Dill
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Broccoli
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Napa Cabbage
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