Week 3 CSA newsletter

Dear Common Thread CSA Members,

It's finally not raining! It's super busy on the farm preparing the soil for planting, planting, harvesting, weeding, and putting up deer fencing. It's been very cool for June but the spinach, broccoli and lettuce are all loving it. New this week: mini-onions, red turnips, garlic scallions, red russian kale, and lacinato kale. The what's in page has a list of what you may find in your share this week.

Frisee is a type of chicory and a salad green. It is mild, tasty, and has a beautiful, twisty shape that adds nice texture to salads.

Garlic Scallions are what we are calling the young shoots of garlic plants that are coming up in a few spots on the farm where last year's garlic wasn't fully harvested. The plants are too close together to become mature garlic bulbs so we are pulling them out young, when the plant can be chopped up like a garlicy scallion. They can be used anywhere that garlic is used, they are just a little more bulky.

Kale is one of the "super-vegetables": it is very nutritious. We are growing three types of kale on the farm this year: the standard curly kale, lacinato (or dinosaur) kale, and red russian kale. Lacinato and red russian are both more tender than curly kale. Curly kale is the best kale to use for kale chips, which is one of our kid's favorite ways to eat kale. My recipe is very simple:

Kale Chips

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Wash about a pound of kale. Strip the kale from the stems and tear it in to smaller pieces. Toss in a big bowl with a slosh of olive oil and a generous sprinkle of salt. Lay out - not too thick - on 2 or 3 cookie sheets and put into the oven. Take out and toss the kale about every 4 minutes to help even the cooking of the kale. Take the kale out when a fair amount of it is crispy and before it gets overcooked, usually after 10-20 minutes. Serve warm and crispy.

There are a many other ways to eat kale, including sauteing with garlic and olive oil, including in smoothies, adding to soups, eating it raw in a massaged kale salad, and kale pesto.

Common Thread Member Carey Hay shares this recipe for kale:

Here's one of my all time favorite recipes -- delicious tonight with your kale -- and keeps really well for days!

***from Epicurious***

Kale Salad

3/4 to 1 pound lacinato kale (also called Tuscan kale) or tender regular kale, stems and center ribs discarded
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 ounces coarsely grated ricotta salata (1 cup)

Working in batches, cut kale crosswise into very thin slices.

Whisk together shallot, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, then add oil in a slow stream, whisking until combined well.

Toss kale and ricotta salata in a large bowl with enough dressing to coat well, then season with salt and pepper.

We have been sharing a lot of bok choi since it is one of the easiest vegetables to grow this time of year. It is plentiful on the farm right now but it will disappear in a few more weeks until the fall. Common Thread Member Kristy Lenuzza shares this recipe for bok choi:

Delicious Bok Choi salad

1 stick of butter

2 pkg chicken flavored ramen noodles

1 packet seasoning from ramen noodles

1 c slivered almonds

2 tsp sesame seeds

1 bunch bok choi

2 bunches scallions (use green and white parts)

1/2 bunch chinese cabbage (or napa cabbage)

dressing:

1/2 c veg oil

1/4 c cider vinegar

1/2 c sugar

3 Tlbs soy sauce

melt stick of butter and saute sesame seeds, noodles (broken up) and seasoning packet for 2-3 min.

cut up bok choi, scallions and cabbage. put greens in large bowl add sesame seed mixture and almonds. mix dressing together and toss.

Enjoy your veggies!

Yours in the Field,

Wendy and Asher