We are starting the delivery of our CSA Boxes of local, seasonal gourmet vegetables on Tuesday, May 16. All CSA Members who are to pick up their first box of veggies during this first week have been notified by email. Please check your Spam Boxes. And please RSVP to my email so we know that you know you are to come for your first box of delights!
If you have signed up for Cane Creek Asparagus & Company CSA and do not find an email from us, then you know your first box of veggies will be coming during the second rotation or the Week of May 22. I have not sent out those informational emails yet. Do not fear!! I have not forgotten you. They will go out next Friday. Remember it takes us two full weeks to complete our start up. We have been operating using this procedure for nearly thirty years as we have discovered most families prefer every-other-week CSA Boxes and our veggies will last at least that long as we harvest the day of delivery!
The veggies in the boxes will be similar both weeks. And if something new is added one week, you can be sure it will still be available the following week. Most crops have a four week harvest window because we plant in waves so that we can maintain a constant supply–or as constant as Nature will allow because sometimes they grow at the same rate! The first boxes will contain five different Asian green varieties of choi or choy as shown in the above photo. Four are green and one is purple. The variety on the far right is new to us this season. It is called Asian Delight! You will need to look closely to tell one variety from another. The Veggie ID pages on the website will help. However, mixing them all together into one big salad is how we like to enjoy them.
The item in the photo on towel is called Tatsoi. This can go into your salads, too. You have seen this before I am sure, but usually they are quite LARGE in size. We attempt to harvest as seasonal gourmet vegetables. Of course, anything in the soil will continue to grow until it is harvested so they will get bigger as the weeks pass. We do plant our crops in “waves,” but sometimes the weather conditions still cause everything to grow at the same rate. Gardening can be tricky!
Most all crops will be rinsed one time before leaving the farm, but I recommend two to three more washing to remove all of our Fairview soil. I like to wash them all at once and store greens in a two-gallon Hefty Bag. Pour out as much of the remaining water as possible and gently squeeze most of the air from the bag without damaging the tender leaves. Then at mealtime all one needs to do is pull out some greens and a chef’s knife to prepare salads! The leaves are hearty, so I do not recommend tearing as it will bruise them. We usually add a drizzle of honey or something sweet like dried cranberries to our salads. Asian greens fall into the bitters category when it comes to vegetables. There will be lettuces, but we start with hearty, nutritional greens.
And now the Parade of Salads begins! Yes, all of the greens can be sauteed or sauteed and properly frozen for later. And we love Tatsoi Quiche Cakes, Tatsoi Feta Pie, and a tasty Tasoi Casserole in the dead of winter, but fresh garden salads is my absolute favorite time of the year! All of these recipes are on the website under “G” for greens and “T” for tatsoi.
Cane Creek Asparagus & Company CSA 