In Your Share (Feb 3rd edition)

We’ve had a relatively mild winter so it should not be too surprising that the raab has arrived ahead of schedule. This week you’ll see beautiful and tender little kale tips in your share. Likely the next pickup will include collard raab. As many of you know, these delicious treats are part of the brassica family. They are both biennials which we plant in the fall & we harvest leaves through the winter. When some combination of warmth and day length convince the plant it is time to start it’s reproductive cycle, then we are blessed with tiny flower buds aka raab. Yum!

Amazing recipes for everything in your share are available to members at our website and at  Cook With What You Have. If you joined our Winter CSA you will find your access key in the member email. Enjoy 24/7 access to recipe inspiration!

This week your share may include…

  • Black Spanish Radish: These make great roasted coins or chips. You can also roast them with other root veggies like carrots & potatoes. And you’ll find almost  2 dozen tasty recipes at the Cook With What You Have website.
  • Carrots: Yum!!!
  • Tuscan Kale Raab: This is one of my favorite spring treats! The kale plants have been producing leaves all winter and then some combination of increasing day length & warmer temperatures convinces it to start make little flower buds aka raab. The small ones are tasty roasted or sautéed whole. Or chop them all up for use in raw salads.
  • Kohlrabi: These have delicious sweet crunchy flavor. I eat most of mine raw with dips like humus – or ranch dressing : ) They also roast well with other root veggies like carrot & potatoes. There are almost 30 excellent recipes for kohlrabi at Cook With What You Have
  • Onions: I used to take the yellow onions for granted. A basic, ubiquitous, staple crop that is relatively easy to grow and nothing to get excited about. Well, maybe not! Though many varieties look similar on the outside, agronomic qualities like disease resistance, productivity, flavor, and long storageability can vary widely. Since my favorite yellow onion, Copra, disappeared from the market a few years ago it has been very challenging to find a replacement that has all those good qualities. In 2019 we grew two different onions, hoping that one of them would successfully replace Copra. The variety recommended by most seed companies is Patterson and a locally developed open pollinated variety is called Newberg. We’re growing both again for the 2020 season then we’ll hopefully have a winner. Continually testing new crops and varieties is an important part of bringing you the best veggies possible : )
  • Potatoes: This Red Desiree variety is very versatile and can be roasted, pan fried or mashed.
  • Winter Squash: Marina di Chioggia is a delicious Italian heirloom squash grown by the Venetians since the 1600’s. It has sweet, dry, flakey, flesh that is easy to use in many ways from mashed to muffins. Learn more about the history & culinary uses of this strangely beautiful squash here.

Coming soon… Purple Sprouting Broccoli!!