It’s finally here! Your first CSA share of the season is coming this week and we are stoked!
In spite of the rain the veggies are steadily growing, they are definitely taking advantage of every bit of sun that sneaks through the clouds. And us farmers are happily pulling out our wide brimmed hats and sunscreen every chance we can, delighting in the tease of summer weather.
As the season goes on, you will receive this 'farm happening' newsletter each week along with your customization newsletter. It will be the place where we will keep you in the loop about whats up on the farm. Here we will share important updates about the contents of your share, stories from the farm, reflections, as well as fun photos, recipes and more!
Also a fun update for keeping up with the farm - you can follow us on instagram at arocha.market. This season we are hoping to share more of the 'inside the farm' stories here as well, along with other happenings at the A Rocha market.
As a reminder for your first week, now is the time to take a moment to review your box contents and to make swaps - we encourage you to try new things if you feel adventurous, but we want your CSA box to provide you with maximum value so feel free to take full advantage of customizing to create the best box for your household tastes! You have until Thursday at 12PM to customize your box.
This weeks shares are very greens heavy and as the season progresses they will start to get heavier as crops like broccoli, fennel, zucchini, tomatoes and many more start to ripen up. But for now we hope you are excited as we are for fresh local greens as we are!
And if the amount of greens feels overwhelming, here are few ideas for how to diversify your use of the many greens you're getting this week:
- Salads! I must confess the Californian in me LOVES a good salad and I eat one with every meal when I can. This year I have been enjoying lots of chicory caesar salads with our sugarloaf chicory! You can make your own caesar (I love this simple vegan caesar dressing) or just buy a bottle at the store for a super quick meal. And of course the salad mix, maché and some sliced kohlrabi would make for a lovely early summer salad as well!
- Kohlrabi is tasty roasted and tossed with some oil (or butter), salt and pepper. They're also really fantastic sliced up and dipped in ranch or eaten on their own - a good farmer friend of mine calls them a 'broccoli apple' I think that suits it well.
- Your asian greens (bok choi, mustard, tatsoi and mizuna) are tasty raw, but I think they are especially nice when added at the last minute to a stir fry, tossed into soups, or braised quickly with a little soy sauce and water.
- hard this week is our first harvest from these plants, and is extra lush. I am excited to try it sautéd over some garlicky, crusty bread like this recipe. And maybe even throw an egg on top and call it breakfast!
- Abundance kale is a very tender kale variety and I often just chop it up eat it fresh in a salad. But, like the chard, it lends itself well to a simple sauté with garlic and onions as a side or over some crusty toast.
- Green smoothies are a great go too when you are too overwhelmed with the amount of greens - the kale, bok choi, tatsoi and parsley would go especially well in any smoothie alongside whatever frozen fruit you might have on hand.
One final note we want to share as you get all these fresh greens this week, some of which are bagged and pre-prepared is that we recommend you always wash your produce from us before using it. While we do not use pesticides and do often give things a rinse before sending them your way, it is best practice to wash them when you get home as well.
We hope you enjoy getting lots of nutrient dense greens into your diets this week. Feel free to email us back and let us know what you end up using them for - we always love to hear from you!
Happy first CSA!
Farmer Carly and the A Rocha Farm team
PS: check out these cute babies we've been watching grow up in our pea patch:
