This Week's Share: Red Round Turnips, Sugar Snap Peas and More

This photo from CSA member Rebecca!

 

Hello, CSA members!

It's that time of the week. Here's are the details for this week's share, with new items on u-pick and recipe suggestions for garlic scapes! Enjoy!

What's in this week's share:

• 1/4 pound total spicy mix + arugula + lettuce + spinach 
• 3/4 pound total tender greens + bok choy + kale + collards 
• 3/4 pound Red Round or Hakurei turnips + garlic scapes or scallions
• 1 pint strawberries OR 1 bunch asparagus OR 1 pint sugar snap peas

What's on U-Pick:

Strawberries. Still on u-pick! Pick any day this week, as much as you want. 

Greens: Swiss chard, Collards, Lettuce, Spicy Mix, Arugula, Kale, Spinach and Tender Greens. 

Garlic scapes

Herbs: parsley, sorrel, mint, lemon balm, sage, onion chives (flowering), garlic chives, lavender, chamomile, dill, stevia and thyme.  

 

What's coming up in the share:

Rhubarb will come back next week. We may have our first zucchini of the season next week also, if not the following week. 

 

This Week's Tip: What to do with Garlic Scapes

Garlic scapes are the tops of garlic plants, long, green, curly stems. What to do with them? Here are four ideas:

• Make a pesto
• Pickle them
• Make a soup, adding spinach and peas
• Make a vinegar
• Sautee them

Have another way you like to use garlic scapes? Leave a comment here on the blog! 

 

This Week's Share: Strawberries, Greens and More

This is Will, who works at the farm, getting strawberries ready for pick-up. Photo submitted by CSA member Fred. Thanks Fred! 

 

Happy Tuesday! 

We hope everyone enjoyed the first share of the season! We received notes and a comments from a few of you reporting  back on how you used the produce. If you have a tip or recipe that you love, and would like to share with other members, please submit them via email and we'll feature them here on the blog. And thanks to those who sent in photos last week, like the one at the top of today's post. if you've got more photos, you can send those via email, too!  

So with that, here's what's in this week's share: 

What's in this week's share:

• 1/2 pound total spicy mix + arugula + lettuce + spinach 
• 1/2 pound total tender greens + bok choy + kale + collards 
• 1 1/4 pound Easter Egg radishes + Hakurei turnips + garlic scallions
• 1 pint strawberries
• 2 seedlings - we have a mix of Genovese Basil, Thai Basil, Lettuce, Parsley, Chili Peppers, and small amounts of others. 

 

What's on U-Pick:

Strawberries. Go crazy! Pick any day this week, as much as you want. Today, the berries are ripe but don't seem especially sweet. They'll sweeten with sunnier days. 

Greens: Spicy Mix, Arugula, Kale, Spinach and Tender Greens. 

Herbs: parsley, sorrel, mint, lemon balm, sage, onion chives (flowering), garlic chives, lavendar, chamomile, dill, stevia and thyme.  

 

What's coming up in the share:

Rhubarb will make another appearance in a week or two. Peas will be ready by next week. Garlic scallions will switch to garlic scapes in a week or two. Basil will hopefully come into the share in a few weeks. Next week we may not have radishes, but may sub in Red Round turnips. And Swiss chard should be coming into the share soon. 

 

This Week's Tip: How to Use Cooking Greens

The cooking greens in this week's share -- like collards, kale or spicy mix -- can be used in a number of ways, but here's one idea for you. Wash and dry the greens. In a large skillet, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add a few cloves of thinly sliced garlic, sauteeing briefly, then add the greens, allowing them to cook down briefly, for a just a few minutes. Finish the greens with salt and pepper and a splash of vinegar of your choice, like balsamic or champagne vinegar. Enjoy!

 

In the meantime, do you have questions? Comments? A tip to share? 

Leave them here on the blog! 

 

U-pick Strawberries!

The strawberry season has begun.  Hooray!  We should have strawberries for about a month, and there will be plenty of opportunities to u-pick.  Here's the schedule for the next few days:

• Today (Saturday 5/18), 1pm til dark: Strawberry field open for u-pick, no quantity limit.
• Tomorrow (Sunday 5/19), all day: Strawberry field open for  u-pick, although there might not be many ripe ones left. 
• Monday and Tuesday (5/20-5/21):  NO u-pick. 
• Wednesday (5/22), 3pm til dark: You may pick strawberries again.

The first berries to ripen are a variety called Earliglow, which is at the far edge of the field, so make sure you've walked to the farthest corner before you settle on the best place to pick.  We'll have directions to the field at the washing station.  For those of you who remember, it's the same field as last year. 

U-pick is ONLY open to current CSA members, as well as worksharers who are taking their share this week. 

Some people ask us if we've sprayed the field because they see bits of white foam here and there.  No, we haven't sprayed anything on those strawberries, ever.  The foam belongs to the spittle bug, which is an insect pest--mildly harmful to the berries but not at all harmful to you.  They use the foam as their hiding place. 

 

This Week's Share: Salad Greens, Radishes, Rhubarb and More

Here's a photo of the farm staff transplanting lettuce & spinach with students from St Stephens & St. Agnes School on April 10th. We’ll be eating this lettuce and spinach this week. Photo taken by Genevieve Fulco.

 

Tomorrow is the first pick-up of the season! Hooray! 

As a reminder, the pick-up begins tomorrow (Wednesday, May 15) at 3 p.m. at the farm and 5:30 p.m. at Dupont. All the details and directions can be found on the 2013 CSA Details page. 

For this week, we're going to do things a little differently and go ahead and provide you all the information a day in advance. For those of you who are new, the weekly updates from the farm have a few consistent components. 

Each week, we'll tell you:

• What's in the share -- most weeks will include the items + the amounts 
• What's on u-pick -- this will be included in the updates, but when you go to the farm, always check the board at the wash station first and defer to the board - sometimes there are changes mid-week
• What you can expect in upcoming weeks -- an update on how crops are progressing
• A tip of the week - these will run the gamut, from storage tips to how to prep to recipes to interesting facts about vegetables. If you have a tip you think is worth sharing, please submit it by emailing us!  

Lastly, thanks to those who emailed us photos from the Spring Meet 'n' Greet. We'll be using them here on the blog in the coming weeks. We love to feature member photos here on the blog!  If you snap photos at the pick-up or take glamour shots of your veggies after you get them home, send them our way! You can submit them via email. 

 

So with that, here's what's in this week's share: 

 

What's in this week's share:

• Salad greens, including spinach, arugula and spicy mix
• Garlic scallions
• Radishes
• Rhubarb

As they were at the Spring Meet 'n' Greet, a small amount of asparagus and wine cap mushrooms will be available. Unfortunately not everyone will be able to take these items - we'll bring them out at random times, so it's a bit luck of the draw. If you get the mushrooms, three bits of advice: cook them before you eat them, be cautious at first - try them in small doses so you're certain you don't happen to be allergic, and a friend tells us that it's not recommended that you eat them three days in a row. 

What's on U-Pick:

Herbs: parsley, sorrel, mint, lemon balm, sage, onion chives with edible flowers and garlic chives (no flowers yet).  

What's coming up in the share:

The strawberries and cooking greens are looking good and have made a lot of progress since last week's update. We hope to begin harvesting both for the second share of the season. 

This Week's Tip: How to Store Salad Greens

Wrap the greens in a slightly damp cloth or paper towel (if your greens are wet, no need to dampen the cloth). Don't wash the greens first -- wash them just prior to use. Put the wrapped greens in a plastic bag and store in the crisper. They will last for nearly a week unwashed. 

 

In the meantime, do you have questions? Comments? 

Leave them here on the blog! 

 

One Week From Today: Preview of the First Shares of the Season

First, thanks to everyone who came out to the Meet 'n Greet on Saturday -- we enjoyed spending a beautiful day on the farm with you.  We we pleased (and a little surprised) that we were able to offer all the CSA members who came a little treat:  a choice of spinach, asparagus or dried winecap mushrooms.  If anyone snapped photos from the event, we'd love feature them here on the blog. You can email your photos to Clay and we'll feature them on the blog and our Facebook page.

And now, drumroll.....

We're just one week out from our first CSA share of the season!  The first shares for 2013 will take place at the following times:  

• Dupont Wednesday Pick-up: Wednesday, May 15, 5:30pm-7:30pm
• Clagett Farm Wednesday Pick-up:  Wednesday, May 15, 3:00pm - 7:00pm
• Clagett Farm Saturday Pick-up: Saturday, May 18 1:00pm-4:00pm

These pick-up windows are good for the entire season (for those of you returning, note that the Dupont pick-up begins 30 minutes earlier than last year). 

 

Other important information you need to know:

Our 2013 CSA Details page has been updated and provides you with all the details you should need, including directions to the pick-ups, the guidelines for how you can skip a week and double another week, and what to bring when you pick-up your share. If you have a question that is not answered on that page, let me know by leaving a comment on the blog or replying to this email, and we'll get you an answer. 

 

How to Get Updates About What's in the Share

Updates about what's in the share and what's on u-pick will be posted on Wednesday afternoons, typically around 3 PM.  There are a few ways to get this information: 

• Visit the blog and look for the latest blog post.
• Sign up for email updates on the left hand column of the blog and you'll get notified when new items have been posted. Are you splitting your share with someone? Encourage them to sign-up to get the share emails. You can add as many email addresses as you want to the list. 
• "Like" Clagett Farm CSA on Facebook and you'll see updates in your news feed. 

 

What Will Be in your First Share

We won't know amounts until we pick them, but we're guessing we'll be able to give you a nice selection of salad greens, including spinach, arugula and spicy mix.  Plus you'll get a bunch of garlic scallions, radishes and some rhubarb.  We'll have a little asparagus and winecap mushrooms, but not enough for everyone, so we'll probably bring them out at arbitrary times during the pick-up as on option with something else. 

There's some herbs for u-pick, including parsley, sorrel, mint, lemon balm, sage, garlic chives with edible flowers and garlic chives (no flowers yet).  It's been cooler than normal, so a few items will be arriving later in May and June than normal.  The strawberries, for example, look terrific, but not close to ripe yet, and the cooking greens are still very small. 

 

That covers the most pressing for kicking off the season. We'll provide you with a reminder early next week.  In the meantime, we hope you have a great week and we look forward to seeing you next week! 

Clay, Carrie & The Clagett Farm Crew 

 

[photo above via TheBittenWord.com]