CSA: Try a Bok Choy Salad
Farm Share Newsletter - July 16, 2023
Housekeeping
We noted in our CSA info at the beginning of the year that we would skip a week this season for personal reasons. And that week will be August 13 to 19. Don't worry! This will still be a 20-share CSA, wrapping up the week of October 22. We'll remind you again when the date gets closer, but just wanted to give you a heads up.
Also, here's a reminder of our optional Discord server: https://discord.gg/Xj8Xyvnp. It's fun! We're partying in there at a once-every-two-or-three-day posting clip, but I feel like it's picking up. And it's also very useful for communicating.
CSA Week 7:
-Stir-Fry Mix
-A Choy
-Thai Basil
-Chrysanthemum Greens
-Fava Beans
-Bok Choy
-Unagi Cucumber
-Scallions
On the Cusp of Tomato Season
Whew. So far, this summer's unusually frequent heat spells have mostly fallen outside of our harvest days, but yesterday the two collided in a sweaty, exhausting, mistake-filled 10 hours. For a second there, I almost forgot why we do this, and then I walked into our tomato house, where a layer of orange in a green mass lifted my spirits. It looks like we're less than a week out from bringing sweet sun gold cherries and maybe even a few slicers to market. We could have enough for CSA within two weeks too!
For now, cucumbers will once again fill the summer crop slot in your box. For three seasons now, I've been astounded by how quickly cucumbers grow from a caterpillar-sized appendage to two servings of salad. You'll receive some bigger cukes this week. When they get larger, the skin can turn a little bitter, so consider peeling before enjoying. Our Thai basil has really taken off, as have our bundle sizes. Maybe throw a few leaves of on top of your sliced cucumbers?
Our stir-fry mix has been a market staple from the beginning. It used to be our waste-not gleaning offering, but it proved popular enough to grow crops dedicated to it. Tatsoi, komatsuna, mizuna, washed and spun and ready for your hot, oiled pan. A choy is back, and could also go into a hot, oiled pan.
I'm realizing as I write this that the addition of bok choy makes triple stir-fry greens this week, at least as far as the conventional American (read: my) culinary imagination goes. So why not try a bok choy salad? I wrote a recipe for one below that would also use your scallions.
This is the last of our fava beans, which we've enjoyed now as a spread and some burgers a la Ottolenghi. I've never tried making chrysanthemum soup, but this recipe looks like one of those dishes that looks almost subconsciously familiar to me as something I probably ate as a kid. I'd probably drop an egg into that recipe though.
Member Photo (And Recipe!): Rita's Miso-Marinated Turnip Salad
We'll definitely give you turnips at least one or two more times, so file this away for a future share. Rita's instructions:
Remove most of the greens (stir-fried separately) and thinly slice the turnips.
Marinate for several days, covered with a mixture of white miso, homemade vegetarian dashi (shiitake/konbu), and grated fresh ginger.
Add shredded carrots, finely shredded konbu (from the dashi) and a splash of rice vinegar.
We LOVE receiving recipes and photos from you all. It's truly profound to see our work turning into your work turning into your food. From seed to sprout to plant to harvest to wash and pack to transport to process to cook to eat. I could cry.
Recipe: Landlady Salad
During our first season, our first successful crop was a bed of early May bok choy, the same variety you're receiving in this share. We celebrated by taking some glamour shots with the, frankly, gorgeous, heads. We also gave one to our landlady who, perhaps, made the first ever dish with Tian Tian Farm vegetables: a salad. It's too early in the day to ask her how she did this, so I'm working off of memory and photo interpretation here.
One day, I will ask our landlady if I can write more about her, including her name, and how badly I butchered her salad recipe below.
Ingredients
-1 tbsp soy sauce
-1 tbsp rice vinegar (or apple cider or sherry or whatever you have, to be honest)
-1/4 cup neutral oil
-1 tsp toasted sesame oil
-Salt to taste
-1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
-1 packet of instant ramen (the thinner, budget noodles are best, like Shell station Top Ramen. Don't go wasting a Shin Black.)
-1 head bok choy
-1 or 2 stalks of scallions
-Optionally, 1/2 bundle chrysanthemum greens
-1/4 cup of toasted and chopped nuts (peanuts, I think, in this picture. Almonds, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, pistachios, I think, would all be fine.)
Steps
Combine soy sauce, vinegar, and neutral oil in a jar. Whisk or stir vigorously. Add sesame oil and seeds and stir some more. Add salt to your liking.
Crush instant ramen in bag until you have one-inch pieces or smaller. Toss the seasoning packet in your pantry or napkin drawer for later, where you'll forget about it until, one day, you work up the emotional wherewithal to send those packets of crushed red pepper, ketchup, and ramen seasoning into the landfill. Alternatively, get a little adventurous and add a little bit of ramen seasoning to your dressing.
Chop bok choy, stem and leaves, into 1 to 2 inch pieces. Chop scallions into 1 inch pieces. Optionally, chop your chrysanthemum greens the same.
Combine vegetables, ramen, and nuts in a salad bowl. Add dressing and toss.
'Til next week,
Steven