CSA Week 1: Shoots galore!
Farm Share Newsletter - June 3, 2023
We welcome any food photography tips.
Housekeeping
Hopefully everyone has all the information they need to pick up their boxes this week. We've decided to put all Vashon boxes in our farmstand cooler on Wednesdays, as that is the day most of you prefer.
Reminder: Please keep your wax box and bring them back with you when you pick up your next share. We'll wash and reuse the box.
Also, send us photos of anything you make with your veggies! We'll feature them here with your first name.
Finally, if you have any feedback or questions, please don't hesitate to let us know. Steven's phone number is 314-728-3945 (text is preferred).
Week 1 Share
Hakurei Turnips
Cilantro
Garlic Scapes
Pea Tendrils
Sugar Snap Peas
Chrysanthemum Greens
Celtuce
Spring Shoots
And so we begin.
We bring you three different types of shoots for week one, and that's about all they have in common. Celtuce, also known as wo sun, shoots directly out of the soil with sword-shaped leaves flaring up and down and all around the stem. We strip the leaves save for the ones on top to encourage stem growth, giving the veg a palm tree or 80s hair metal vibe. The English name is a portmanteau of celery and lettuce, though I don't personally think it tastes anything like the former. Peel the stalk and stir fry it. Or try it as a salad. Elizabeth made celtuce salad from this Woks of Life recipe to the delight of both of us. The leaves are edible, if not quite bitter, and could be used as a soup green.
We grow many pea tendrils, as you might remember from our newsletter a couple weeks ago. We only harvest the most tender portion of each pea vine. Keep it quick and simple with these. Hot pan. Neutral oil. Salt. Very fast.
Perhaps no vegetable better announces the relief of spring than garlic scapes. They come once a year, stemming up from hardneck garlic, harvested before the bud begins to flower. A whiff of the garlic flavor that will develop in the bulbs below. They can be used in any recipe that calls for shallots or onion.
Recipe - Chrysanthemum Salad With Turnips
We've been eating lots of salad lately, mostly with what we don't sell at market. One week we returned from Ballard Farmers Market with several bunches of chrysanthemum greens, also known as tong hao in Chinese (or shungiku in Japanese or ssukat in Korean). Floral, herbaceous, and slightly bitter, chrysanthemums are perhaps best known as a component in hot pot meals.
Thankfully, they also happen to be a uniquely tasty salad green. The one pictured above uses a variation of a miso-sesame dressing by J. Kenji López-Alt. I added chopped hazelnuts because we brought some back from market, but I think any kind of nut will do. (We also tried this with crushed candied pecans and that was even more delicious.) The miso and chrysanthemum play together nicely, if not a little powerfully. This is not a subtle salad.
Ingredients
Salad
1 bunch chrysanthemum greens
1 bunch hakurei turnips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (hazelnut, pecan, almond, or peanut)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Dressing (pretty much a copy of the pay-walled dressing I linked to above, subbing soy sauce for shoyu and subtracting the stuff I couldn't find in our pantry and forgoing a blender because I hate cleaning blenders)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon light miso
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup neutral oil (vegetable, avocado, canola, etc)
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
Steps:
Toast nuts in dry pan over medium heat, making sure not to burn them like I usually end up doing. They're ready just as they begin to brown and start to smell good. Transfer to a plate to cool.
Make your dressing. Combine garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, miso and sugar in a jar. Stir vigorously while slowly drizzling in oil. Stir in sesame oil and seeds.
Chop frilly greens off chrysanthemum bunches to desired size. Optionally, chop the stems into small pieces. Or julienne them. Whatever your heart desires.
Peel your turnips if you feel like it. If you don't, give them a good scrub. Chop them roughly, or slice them in rounds.
Consider if you would like to add anything else to your salad. Apples might be nice. You could also peel and chop your celtuce and add that.
Toss greens and turnips in a salad bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add most of the dressing and mix with tongs or by hand. Add nuts and rest of dressing and mix again.
Till next week,
Steven