In Your Share (March 17th edition)

DSCF0276The onions have come full circle! In order to have onions of some kind in the share almost every month of the year we started seeding last month, planted sets this month, and we’ll do more planting through April and into May. We grow a myriad of different kinds of onions – the sets are for spring onions & onion scapes, the summer onions include sweet varieties like Walla Wallas & Red Tropea, then storage onions like Copra  & the Redwing in your share this week see us through the fall and winter. Hopefully the sunny days will continue so we can get out there in the fields and plant more onions!

A bumper crop of inspiration in the Recipe Packet!

This week your share may include…

  • Dry Beans: The Vermont Cranberry variety is a nice big bean that works for soups or baking. It’s an heirloom from New England that has been around since the 1800’s. We like it because of the rich flavor and ability to ripen in a short cool summer. It was one of the first dry beans we ever grew on the farm – in part due to it’s versatility. It can be picked as a green bean, shelling bean or as a dry bean like we’re using it this year.
  • Collard Greens: This bit of sunny spring weather has inspired the collard greens back to life!
  • Leeks: This week we have both the Flemish heirloom Giant Winter Leige and the vigorous and disease resistant Tadorna.
  • Onions: Our old standby, Redwing onions. If you have onions accumulating on your kitchen counter try this recipe for Onion Marmalade. It called for sweet onions but in fact it works just fine with other varieties.
  • Parsnips: This is probably the last time you’ll see parsnips in the share until next fall. There’s a great recipe for parsnip hash with parsley & lemon in the recipe packet.
  • Potato: Red Potatoes are Sangre which is especially good for boiling or baking.
  • Raab: Hip hip Hooray for raab! We will be picking lots of different variations on this theme for the next few weeks – this week the little heads are surrounded by lots of leaf still and are from the green kale.
  • Shallots: Conservor is a lovely red shallot that is mild enough to use in salad dressings and also makes a great batch of Pok Pok style crispy shallots.
  • Winter Squash: In your share this week is one of my favorites – Butternut.

Coming soon… Popcorn!!