In Your Share (Feb 4th edition)

It is conference time for farmers!  I just got back from a quick trip to Idaho to speak at the Grower’s Own organic farming workshop and I’ll be at the Oregon Tilth conference, Organicology, this weekend. We’re also taking the farm crew to the OSU Small Farms conference on March 2nd in Corvallis. I hope to post soon about all the interesting farmers I’ve met and fun things I’ve learned.

Here is the Recipe Packet for this week’s share. I know that the link didn’t work for everyone last week so I’ve tried it a new way this time. Let me know if you have any trouble.

This week your share may include…

Brussel Sprouts: They look a bit rough, but peel a few leaves off  and they’ll be ready to go. The sprouts are really good when roasted. Cut the large ones in half, toss them with a bit of olive oil & sea salt, then put them in a 425 degree oven until they start to get a bit carmelized around the edges – yum! You’ll find more tips and recipes here.

Cabbage: Nice heads of sweet winter cabbage – we picked both Colorsa & Deadon, a beautiful semi-savoyed type with a pretty red blush.

Carrots: What could be better than sweet winter carrots!

Garlic: Some of the cloves are starting to sprout, but the garlic is still tasty and good. I had a chef tell me once that the sprouts made garlic bitter, but then we tasted some together and decided that was just an old wives tale. If some green shoots make it all the way out of the clove, clip them off and use like you would green garlic.

Kale: We’re back to green curly Winterbor this week. This kale has had a hard time of it over the winter and you may see a bit of yellowing on the edges. I’ve been talking to some other kale growers and the folks at OSU to see if we can figure out why this is happening. Usually, Winterbor is one of our most hardy greens so hopefully we can have it looking better soon! I sauteed a bunch recently, and despite it’s imperfections, it cooked up quite nicely.

Leeks: This variety, King Richard, has beautiful long white shanks that are nice and tender. Try them with the recipes for beans or  parsnips that are in your packet.

Onions: Copra yellow onions

Parsnips: They’re back! In your recipe packet there are recipes for parsnips with Potato Gratin or as a Creamy Puree. I’m adding them to soup and roasting them with carrots & onions – yum!

Potatoes: Desiree red potatoes.

Winter Squash: The butternut is back! And we’ll also have a few more Kakai hulless seed pumpkins that have the absolute best tasting SEEDS of any pumpkin I’ve ever grown!!

Coming soon… hopefully some winter beets in the next share!