In Your Share (May 20th edition)

We’ve got garlic!  The green garlic is coming on strong and the Early Chinese Pink and Music are both sending up tasty tender twirling flower stalks aka scapes. Thanks to Tayne (& Lucy) for picking it all at our Grand Island farm, packing the little car full and bringing it up to town for us. There are some great recipes for garlic and the rest of the veggies in this week’s recipe packet which you can download HERE.

And by the way, we still have a few summer shares left for sale!! Follow the links above to sign up. We’ve also posted some fun photos of the farm crew and the veggies on our Facebook page.

This week your share may include…

• Arugula: Cute little bunches make a great salad or can be lightly sauteed.
• Beets: The last of our winter beets – they have served us in good stead through spring. Here are some of my favorite classic beet recipes.
• Cilantro: This is not just for salsa anymore! I have a new appreciation of cilantro thanks to the recipes that Katherine had included in the packets over the years. This week is no exception – she has several interesting innovative ideas this time too.
• Garlic Scapes or Whistles: These are the tender tangled flower stalks from Early Chinese Pink garlic. True to it’s name, this is our earliest variety – it flowers first and the bulbs mature early too. Scapes are easy to use and tasty raw or sauteed. This variety is on the spicy side when raw so it’ll add a nice kick to a salad. The flavor mellows when you cook them. It makes a great pesto too!
• Green Garlic: In the fall when we plant our regular garlic field, we always save a few cloves just for green garlic. These are planted on a much closer spacing – just a few inches apart – and harvested early in the spring. The bulb end is most tender and can be used raw or sauteed. The tops are flavorful too they just take a few minutes longer to cook.
• Spinach: This is our best spinach crop in years so enjoy the beautiful bunches!
• Radish: These are such a nice peppery snack – I love them just plain. Or try this radish butter spread on fresh bread.
• Hakuri Turnips: Hope everyone has been enjoying these mild japanese salad turnips. The greens are pretty great too.
• Cherry Tomato Plant: Each year we give these out near the beginning of the summer CSA. It is one of the few veggies that almost anyone can grow – in your garden, in a pot on the deck – if you have any sunshine you should be able to get some tomatoes. And we all know how tasty cherry tomatoes are just eaten straight off the vine!

Coming soon… sugar snap peas!