CSA Week 5: The Early Bird Beats the Heat
Farm Share Newsletter - July 2, 2023
CSA Week 5
Amaranth
Perilla
Head Lettuce
Hakurei Turnips
Golden Beets
Baby Bok Choy
Komatsuna
Green Garlic
A Race Against the Sun
It's hot, and it's about to get hotter. We definitely felt the heat during our harvest on Saturday. We always try get get as many of our greens out of the field as early as possible. Pretty much every vegetable prefers to meet the knife before the sun makes contact. Harvesting early becomes extra important on a hot day. Heat will really do a number on a leaf.
But we are only three strong (me, Elizabeth, and a part-time employee), and inevitably, some of the harvest needs to happen in the afternoon. Keeping veggies in the shade and dunking them in cool water becomes really important when temperatures rise. It's a race against time and biology.
Amaranth was a priority yesterday. It was our first big harvest for our most beautiful green. Substitute amaranth for spinach. Cook it really fast, otherwise you'll be dealing with mush. If you can avoid the mush, however, you'll be awarded with delicious, complex flavor. Baby bok choy and komatsuna also left the field in the morning. We have always grown a lot of komatsuna, but we are suddenly confronted with an excess supply. You will definitely see it in a few more shares to come. Thankfully, it is incredibly versatile. Try stir-frying it with eggs! Throw in your perilla for a luxurious breakfast.
Double roots this week. More turnips. And our first big harvest of golden beets. I'm confident you'll figure something out. Maybe a sheet pan roast with both of them? Or a goat cheese salad with your lettuce, sliced turnips and roasted beets? I bet the perilla would be good on there too (more on that later).
Green garlic belongs in that wonderful category of vegetables that I did not know where vegetables until I began farming. They're something of a CSA staple and I felt like we needed to have them in at least one share this season. It's garlic, but fresh. It'll pack a oniony punch if you eat it raw. I'd recommend cooking it. Sub for onions and leeks. You can slice and eat the stem, too!
Guest Recipe: Strawberry - Yuzu Kosho - Mustard Dressing
This week's recipe comes courtesy of Tian Tian CSA members Rebar and Cate! We haven't tried making it ourselves yet due to a few missing ingredients, but we definitely will the first chance we get. It feels like your komatsuna, turnips, lettuce, amaranth, and perilla could all work with this dressing. Here's what the cooks wrote:
We had an incredible salad tonight featuring the a-choy, spring mix, snap peas, green onion, and perilla. We added a little bit of jammy quail egg and sliced almonds to that along with this recipe for an awesome dressing. It goes great with all kinds of greens although slightly bitter/grassy greens balance it best since it is a little sweet. You could also definitely make the dressing with almost any kind of fruit preserves. Cherry or fall stone fruit would be great too.
Ingredients
1 tbl strawberry preserves
1 tbl mayo
1 tbl Dijon mustard
2 tbl olive oil
1 tbl red wine vinegar
1 tbl soy sauce/tamari
1 tbl mirin
1 tsp yuzu kosho
1/2 tbl honey (or to taste)
Pepper to taste
Steps
Chunkier parts first, add oil and liquids and whisk until emulsified! Or shake in a canning jar and save for later.
Paired with Poing Leve '21 from Domaine in Black, a tasty Riesling from Alsace. We got it at Otherworld on Capitol Hill.
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Thank you, Rebar and Cate! We're thrilled to say we've received a couple more recipes and photos from members and will roll them out when appropriate.
Stay hydrated,
Steven