June 13, 2019 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Kale!

Cooking With This Week's Box

Pea Vine: Pasta with Asparagus & Avocado-Pea Vine Cream Sauce; Spring Noodle Bowl with Pea Vine Broth

Potato Onions: Spicy Kale & Coconut Fried Rice (see below); Spring Noodle Bowl with PeaVine Broth

Garlic Scapes: Spicy Kale & Coconut Fried Rice (see below); Garlic Scape & Mushroom Pizza with Turnips and Bacon; Pasta with Asparagus & Avocado-Pea Vine Cream Sauce (See Below); Spring Noodle Bowl with Pea Vine Broth; Spring Salad with Garlic Scape Herbed Croutons

Asparagus: Pasta with Asparagus & Avocado-Pea Vine Cream Sauce; Spring Noodle Bowl with Pea Vine Broth; Grilled Asparagus in Dill Butter

Baby White Turnips: Garlic Scape & Mushroom Pizza with Turnips and Bacon; Spring Salad with Garlic Scape Herbed Croutons

Dill: Spring Salad with Garlic Scape Herbed Croutons; Creamy Dill Chicken Salad; Salmon Cakes with Yogurt & Dill Sauce; Grilled Asparagus in Dill Butter

Baby Spinach or Arugula: Pasta with Asparagus & Avocado-PeaVine Cream Sauce

Salad Mix: Salad Mix tossed with Red Wine Vinaigrette

Red Oak & Red Butterhead Lettuce: Spring Salad with Garlic Scape Herbed Croutons

Lacinato Kale: Spicy Kale & Coconut Fried Rice (see below); Lemon Kale Muffins (see below)

Strawberries: Just eat them!

This week we’re going to kick off our cooking discussion with an easy, quick recipe utilizing this week’s featured vegetable, Lacinato Kale.  This recipe for Spicy Kale & Coconut Fried Rice (see below) is very easy to assemble.  You do need to plan in advance to have cold, cooked rice which could be made on the weekend or the night before. If you have the rice, the rest of this recipe comes together very quickly which is great for a weeknight dinner.  This can serve as a vegetarian main dish, or you could add fish, pork or chicken to the fried rice if you wish.  The other recipe featuring kale is for Lemon Kale Muffins (see below).  This comes from veggiedesserts.uk.co, an interesting site that has a lot of different ways to incorporate vegetables into both sweet and savory preparations.  All of the recipes I’ve tried from this site have always been good, so be brave and try some things you may not have considered before…like putting kale in a muffin!

Garlic Scape & Mushroom Pizza with Turnips & Bacon
Photo from DishingUpTheDirt.com

This past week Andrea Bemis posted a recipe on her blog, Dishing Up the Dirt,  for Garlic Scape & Mushroom Pizza with Turnips & Bacon.  This is a very timely recipe since we have both garlic scapes and baby white turnips in the box this week!  You’ll use the turnip greens to make a pesto to spread on the crust.  Then top it off with sautéed scapes, crispy bacon, mushrooms and salad turnips.  Delicious!  Serve this on its own, or with a simple side salad using this week’s Salad Mix tossed with Red Wine Vinaigrette.  This is one of my go-to vinaigrette recipes that is nice to keep in the refrigerator for when you want to put together a nice, simple salad.  Grate a little Parmesan on top and you’re set.

It’s a salad kind of a week!  We’re happy to have these pretty little red oak and red butterhead lettuces.  Here’s another recipe from Andrea Bemis for Spring Salad with Garlic Scape Herbed Croutons.  This recipe would be delicious made with a mix of the two types of head lettuce that are dressed with a light lemon-dijon vinaigrette that contains fresh dill.  The salad is topped off with hard-boiled eggs, salad turnips and radishes as well as garlic scape herbed croutons.  This one is filling enough to stand on its own for a nice lunch or dinner option or add a little grilled chicken.

Creamy Dill Chicken Salad
photo from LifesAmbrosia.com

Dill is the herb of choice this week and if you’re wondering what else to do with it, consider a few of these options.  This recipe for Creamy Dill Chicken Salad would be a nice lunch option.  You can turn it into a sandwich, but don’t forget to load it up with a handful of spinach, salad mix, arugula or several pieces of head lettuce.  Dill is also a natural accompaniment to fish, so these Salmon Cakes with Yogurt & Dill Sauce seem like a good option.  Serve these with a simple salad or perhaps Grilled Asparagus in Dill Butter.

This is our second and final week for pea vine.  If you didn’t have a chance to make the featured recipe from last week, Pasta with Asparagus & Avocado-Pea Vine Cream Sauce, I’d encourage you to give it a try.  I also like to make a simple broth with pea vine, so my other recommendation is this recipe for Spring Noodle Bowl with Pea Vine Broth.

I think we’ve reached the bottom of this week’s box.  Wait, I forgot the strawberries!  What should you do with them?  JUST EAT THEM!  This year’s strawberry season is off to a bit of a late start, but there will be more to come!  I hope you’ll consider joining us for our annual Strawberry Day coming up this Sunday, June 16.  We’ll have delicious strawberry ice cream to celebrate the event and we’re anxious to show you some of our vegetable fields!  Have a good week!

Vegetable Feature: Kale

Green Curly and Lacinato Kale in the field

Kale has come a long way over the past 20-30 years.  What once was a vegetable eaten by hippies or used to decorate salad bars and buffets became a well-known hipster “super-food.”  I’m not sure how kale became so popular, but I’m glad more people learned how to use and enjoy it because it really is a delicious and nutrient packed vegetable and there are so many different ways to incorporate it into your diet!

There are different types of kale.  This week we’re harvesting Lacinato kale as well as green curly kale.  Lacinato kale is sometimes referred to as Toscano, dino kale or dinosaur kale.  This type of kale is dark green in color and has more of a flat, slightly savoyed leaf.  Green curly kale is just as its name says—it’s lighter green in color with ruffled leaves.  We also grow a unique variety called Portuguese kale.  This is a much different kale compared to lacinato and green curly kale.  We’ve grown this in the past and have a small planting for this fall which we plan to harvest with all of you at our fall Harvest party!  Kale is usually available from mid-June through October or early November.  The flavor can change over the course of the season. Right now it is pretty mild flavored.  In the heat of the summer it might have a little stronger flavor and then after it gets kissed by frost, the flavor becomes a little more sweet and mild again.

Kale is part of the family of vegetables called brassicas or crucifers.  Vegetables in this family share some similar nutrient characteristics including being high in vitamins, minerals and sulfur-rich phytonutrients that aid in cancer prevention.  They are also high in fiber and low in calories.  In particular, kale is an excellent source of vitamins K, C, and A as well as lutein and beta carotene.

Portuguese Kale in field

Kale has a pretty mild flavor and can be eaten both raw and cooked.  The texture of a kale leaf is much different than some of the other greens we’ve had this spring such as bok choi and hon tsai tai.  Kale leaves are thicker and require a little more cooking time to make them tender.  If you choose to eat kale raw in salads and such, it helps to marinate the kale in a vinaigrette or dressing for 30 minutes to an hour before serving.  The acidity from vinegar, lemon juice, etc in a vinaigrette helps to soften the leaves.  The great thing about kale salads is that they are more durable in comparison to a lettuce salad.  You can put the dressing on the night before and the salad isn’t soggy the next day!  It actually is better the next day!  In its cooked form, kale is often used in soups.  It can also be steamed, baked, sautéed and even roasted, as in the case of kale chips.  It can also be made into pesto, added to pizzas, incorporated into lasagna, casseroles and gratins.  You can even add it to smoothies and use it to make baked goods!  Yes, you can put kale into muffins, cakes, etc!  Check out this week’s recipe for Lemon Kale Muffins!  Kale pairs well with many other vegetables including mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, other greens, root vegetables and potatoes.  It is also often used in recipes paired with beans and lentils as well as citrus, dairy and pork products.  It is often incorporated into pasta and rice dishes as well.  This week we’ve featured a recipe for Spicy Kale and Coconut Fried Rice that is pretty tasty and very easy to make!

Both lacinato and green curly kale have a thicker stem that the leaf is part of.  It is best to wash the kale in a sink of cold water first, then strip the leaves off the main stem.  Store kale in the refrigerator in a plastic bag or wrapped in a damp towel.  

Spicy Kale & Coconut Fried Rice

Yield:  3-4 servings

2 Tbsp coconut oil or sunflower oil
2 eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp finely chopped green garlic or garlic scapes
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced
¾ cup thinly sliced green onions
1 cup chopped seasonal vegetable (mushrooms, carrots, peppers, etc)
1 bunch lacinato or green curly kale
¼ tsp sea salt, plus more to taste
¾ cup large, unsweetened coconut flakes
3 cups cooked and chilled brown rice
1 Tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1-2 tsp chili garlic sauce or sriracha
1 lime, halved
Fresh cilantro, for garnish
¼ cup toasted sesame seeds (optional)

1. Heat a large wok or skillet over medium-high heat.  Once the pan is hot enough, add 1-2 tsp oil and swirl the pan to coat the bottom.  Pour in the beaten eggs and cook, stirring frequently, until the eggs are scrambled and lightly set.   Transfer the eggs to an empty bowl.  Wipe out the pan if necessary with a paper towel.
2. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the pan and add the garlic, ginger, green onions and additional vegetable of your choosing.  Cook until vegetables are just starting to get tender, stirring frequently, for 30 seconds or longer.  Add the kale and salt.  Continue to cook until the kale is wilted and tender, stirring frequently, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Transfer the contents of the pan to the bowl with the eggs.
3. Add the remaining 2-3 tsp oil to the pan.  Pour in the coconut flakes and cook, stirring frequently until the flakes are lightly golden, about 30 seconds.  Add the rice to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice is hot, about 3 minutes.
4. Pour the contents of the bowl back into the pan, breaking up the scrambled egg with your spatula or spoon.  Once warmed, remove the pan from the heat.
5. Add the tarmari, chili garlic sauce and juice of ½ lime.  Stir to combine.  Taste, and if it’s not fantastic yet, add another teaspoon of tamari or a pinch of salt, as needed.
6. Slice the remaining ½ lime into wedges, then divide the fried rice into individual bowls.  Garnish with wedges of lime, cilantro and toasted sesame seeds.  

Recipe adapted from cookieandkate.com

Lemon Kale Muffins

Yield:  12 muffins

Photo from veggiedesserts.co.uk

2 cups packed raw kale leaves

½ cup unsalted butter, softened 

¾ cup sugar 

2 eggs 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1 lemon, zest and juice 

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour 

1 tsp baking powder 

½ teaspoon salt 

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.  Line or grease a muffin pan. 
2. Tear the kale leaves into bite-sized pieces and boil or steam for a few minutes until tender. Refresh in cold water, drain and puree in a food processor or blender (it will still be a bit stringy). Set aside. 
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then beat in the kale, vanilla, zest and lemon juice. 
4. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and stir to gently combine. 
5. Fill the muffin cups ¾ full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Recipe borrowed from www.veggiedesserts.co.uk.

October 26, 2017 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Sugar Dumpling Squash

Cooking With This Week's Box

Can you believe Thanksgiving is only about 4 weeks away!?  Have you started gathering your recipes and planning your menu for the big dinner?  Brussels Sprouts with Ginger & Cranberries, Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Caramelized Apples,  Grandma Yoder’s Squash Pie . . perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.  Well, you still have some time but I would encourage you to start planning for the big day! 

As the weather becomes more chilly, I’m more in the mood to eat some of these warm, nourishing foods like winter squash and sweet potatoes.  This week’s featured vegetable is the sweet little sugar dumpling squash.  Use this squash to prepare Andrea Bemis’s recipe adaptation for Autumn Spiced Pork Sausage & Kale Stuffed Squash (see below).  She used delicata squash in her recipe, but this will work with any squash that has a little cavity to put a filling into.  This recipe also makes good use of the tender kale in this week’s box.  The other squash in your box, either honeynut butternut or butterscotch butternut, is a great variety to bake or roast and both are naturally sweet & flavorful.  Melissa Clark has a tasty recipe for a Roasted Mushroom and Butternut Squash Tart featured at cooking.nytimes.com. 

Red Lentils with Winter Squash and Greens   

I’m excited to have so many different greens in this week’s box and I have a use for each one.  The tender bunched kale will go into the stuffed squash recipe, but I’m saving the spicy mustard greens to make a recipe we featured in our newsletter back in 2015.  It’s a recipe for Red Lentils with Winter Squash and Greens.  You’ll likely have enough butternut squash to make both the lentil recipe and the tart recipe mentioned previously.  I really enjoy this recipe prepared with the spicy mustard greens.  It makes a flavorful, nourishing meal and may be served with rice. 

Bok Choi Salad with Sesame Almond Crunch

The baby bok choi is going to be used to make the Baby Bok Choi Salad with Sesame-Almond Crunch featured in our June 2016 newsletter.  Trust me…it’s delicious! 

This recipe for Crushed Potatoes with Cream & Garlic is one of my simple go-to recipes for busy weeks. This recipe works well with the waxy potatoes like we have in this week’s box.  I usually just serve it with a seared steak or pork chop.  This week I think I’ll add roasted Broccoli and/or Cauliflower or Romanesco with Lemon and Garlic to this meal. If you’re going to eat garlic you might as well go big and put it in nearly everything!

I came across this recipe for Carrot Salad with Tahini and Crisped Chickpeas at Smitten Kitchen.  I think I’ll serve this salad with a roasted sweet potato for a simple vegetarian dinner.  Of course….there will be leftovers for lunch the next day! 

And once again we’ve reached the bottom of another delightful CSA box!  Next week we’re hoping to harvest Brussels sprouts and Tat soi for your boxes.  These are two of my favorite fall vegetables.  Even though we’re nearing the end of this year’s CSA Season, we still have a lot of interesting vegetables to include in your boxes!  Don’t forget that we change our delivery schedule a bit next week.  Please check your CSA calendar so you don’t miss any deliveries!

That’s a wrap for this week.  Have a good one!
-Chef Andrea

Vegetable Feature:  Sugar Dumpling Squash

Sugar Dumpling Squash

The world of vegetables is so diverse, and even within a category such as “winter squash” there are very different varieties.  This week we’re featuring the sugar dumpling squash, which has different qualities and characteristics in comparison to the two other squash we’ve featured this year.  Sugar dumpling squash is a variety that was developed out of collaboration between the University of New Hampshire and our friends at High Mowing Organic Seeds, an all-organic seed company in Vermont.  This variety is similar in shape to an acorn or festival squash, but is a bit more squatty and rounded.  It has yellow and green markings on the skin with a light yellow flesh.  The flesh is not as rich as a kabocha squash, but is very flavorful and sweet.  While they have been storing very well this year, they do have a higher sugar content which makes them less of a candidate for storing deep into the winter. 

Sugar dumpling squash is delicious when simply cut in half and baked until tender.  You can serve it with nothing more than a pat of butter and a little salt and pepper.  It also is a good squash for serving with a filling.  In late fall and winter I actually enjoy eating this squash for breakfast.  I cut it in half and bake it with apples, cranberries, and/or raisins in the middle and sprinkle it with a little cinnamon, a drizzle of maple syrup and sometimes I eat it with the toasted squash seeds on top.  You can fill it with any variety of fillings ranging from fruit to all vegetables, rice, meat, cheese, etc.  As I was thinking about the recipe I wanted to feature in this week’s newsletter, Andrea Bemis of Dishing Up the Dirt blog popped one right into my inbox!  Check out her recipe for stuffed squash featured in this week’s newsletter.  It was a perfect recipe that utilizes not only the sugar dumpling squash in this week’s box but also some of the onions and the tender kale. 

This squash variety also has tender seeds that toast up nice and crispy.  Last week Heidi Swanson did a very nice feature on her blog, 101cookbooks.com, about toasting pumpkin seeds.  The process is the same whether the seeds come from a pumpkin or a squash.  She has step-by-step pictures and several variations for how to flavor and season them, one of which is included in this week’s newsletter.  If you’ve never saved the seeds from your squash, or don’t have a good process for doing so, I’d encourage you to give it a try this week.  You might as well take advantage of using as much of the squash as you can!  

Autumn Spiced Pork Sausage & Kale Stuffed Squash

Photo from Dishing Up The Dirt blog

Yield:  4 servings

2 medium or 4 smaller sugar dumpling squash

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 pound ground pork sausage

¾ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 small bunch of kale, leaves torn into bite sized pieces

½ cup dried cranberries, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes and then drained

¼ cup pecans, finely chopped

Drizzle of pure maple syrup (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.  Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Set them aside so you can clean and prepare them to toast (an optional step, but highly recommended).  Drizzle the cut side of each squash half with a little olive oil and place each squash cut side down on a baking sheet.  Roast them in the oven until the squash is tender, about 25-30 minutes.  Cooking times will vary depending on the size of the squash.
2. Heat a little olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until they are translucent.  About 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and continue to cook for about 2 minutes longer.  Add the pork, spices, salt and pepper and use a wooden spoon to help break up the meat.  Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the meat is cooked through and no longer pink.  Add the kale leaves and continue to cook until the kale turns bright green and becomes tender, about 5-8 minutes longer.  Stir in the drained cranberries. 
3. Once the pork and the kale are fully cooked, remove from the heat.  
4. Divide the sausage mixture between the squash halves and sprinkle with the toasted pecans and a drizzle of pure maple syrup.  Put the squash halves back on the sheet tray and put them back in the oven just long enough to wam up all the ingredients.  Drizzle them with a little maple syrup just before serving. 

Andrea & Author’s Note:  If you have extra filling left over, put it in the freezer. You can use this filling for a future delivery of sugar dumpling squash or with the festival squash coming before the end of the season. This recipe was adapted from Dishing Up the Dirt.

Sweet Curry Squash Seeds

Yield:  1 ½ cups seeds (or however many seeds you get out of your squash!)

1 ½ cups winter squash or pumpkin seeds, well-cleaned, well-dried

2 tsps olive oil
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp brown sugar
Fine grain sea salt

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, toss the squash/pumpkin seeds with the olive oil and sea salt. Transfer the seeds to the prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the seeds are deeply golden. A zap under a broiler is a nice finishing touch, but not necessary.
3. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a minute or two, and then stir in the curry powder and brown sugar.  Sprinkle with additional salt if necessary.

This recipe was adapted from Heidi Swanson’s blog, 101cookbooks. com.  Just last week she did a great blog post all about how to save and toast pumpkin seeds, but she does mention that all the techniques also may be applied to seeds saved from a variety of winter squash.  Her post includes step-by-step pictures and instructions as well as a few other tasty seasoning variations.  You may need to scale this recipe to whatever quantity of seeds you have available from your squash.  

Vegetable Feature: Green Curly Kale

By Andrea Yoder

     In the foreward to her book, Brassicas—Cooking the World’s Healthiest Vegetables…, Laura B. Russell states “When Hippocrates said ‘Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food,’ there’s little doubt in my mind  that he was referring to foods drawn from the brassica family.”  We thought it fitting, given the topic of our main article, to feature green curly kale.  This is just one of several varieties of kale we grow.  Our other varieties include red curly, lacinato and baby kale as well as collard greens.  These greens vary from others we’ve sent your way in that their leaves are thicker than say spinach.  As such, they need to be cooked a little longer or “marinated” to soften the leaves.
     Kale may be eaten raw or cooked.  Raw kale salads have become quite popular in recent years and are great for the summer when lettuce and spinach are less available.  If you choose to eat kale raw, we recommend thinly slicing it and “marinating” it for 30 minutes or more with oil and/or an acidic ingredient (such as vinegar or lemon juice) to soften the leaves and make them more palatable.  Kale may also be stir-fried, sautéed, steamed or added to soups, stews and the like.  Baked kale chips are also a fun way to eat kale and a healthy alternative to potato chips!  Due to the recent surge in popularity of kale, there are loads of recipes available on the internet.  We hope you enjoy your “Wisconsin Superfood” this week!

Kale Chips with Almond Butter and Miso

Yield:  4-6 servings

¼ cup almond butter

2 Tbsp warm water

¼ cup chopped onion

1 ½ Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 Tbsp white miso

2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped

2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped

1 tsp cider vinegar

1 tsp tamari

¼ tsp ground turmeric

⅛ to ¼ tsp crushed red pepper

1 bunch green or red curly kale, washed

Salt, to taste

1.       Preheat the oven to 300°F.  Lightly grease two sheet trays and set aside.

2.       Place all of the ingredients except the kale and salt into a blender or food processor.  Puree until smooth. 

3.       Shake any excess water off of the kale.  Strip the leaves off the main stem.  Discard the stems and tear the leaves into large bite-sized pieces.  Place the leaves into a large mixing bowl and drizzle the almond butter mixture on top.  Using your hands or tongs, mix the kale to evenly coat all of the pieces with the almond butter mixture.

4.       Spread the kale pieces evenly on the two sheet trays and lightly sprinkle with salt.  Place in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes.  Remove the pans from the oven and lightly toss the kale pieces.  Return the pans to the oven and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until all the pieces are crispy. 

5.       Remove from the oven and let cool, then carefully lift the kale chips off the baking sheets and serve.

Recipe adapted from one originally published in Food & Wine magazine in March 2012.

Vegetable Quesadillas with Pistachio-Kale Pesto

Yield:  4 servings quesadillas and 1 cup pesto

Kale Pesto:

½ cup pistachios

1 clove garlic

½ cup olive oil

2 cups raw kale, packed

2 cups basil, loosely packed

Juice of 1 lemon, more to taste

Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Quesadilla Filling:

2 medium zucchini
1 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 Tbsp olive oil

8-10 cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 cup cheese, shredded (variety to your liking)

Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

4 tortillas (9-10-inch)

1.       Preheat oven to 350°F degrees. Cut zucchini into slices ¼-inch thick.  Lay them on a sheet tray and brush with olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Flip the slices over and repeat on the other side.  Thinly slice the onions and toss with enough olive oil to lightly coat.  Put the onions on the sheet tray with the zucchini.  Place in the oven and bake 15-20 minutes or until the zucchini are tender.  You may need to remove the onions before the zucchini is finished. 

2.        While the zucchini is baking, prepare the pesto.  Place all the ingredients for the pesto into a high speed blender or a food processor.  Blend until nearly smooth. Adjust seasoning with additional salt, pepper and lemon juice as needed.

3.       Assemble the quesadillas.  Spread approximately 2 Tbsp of kale pesto on half of each tortilla.  Top with zucchini slices, onion, and cherry tomatoes.  Sprinkle cheese on top of each tortilla, then fold in half. 

4.       Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add ½ Tbsp olive oil. When the skillet is warm, add the quesadillas and cook on each side for about 2 minutes or until the tortilla is golden and the cheese is melted. Cut into quarters or thirds and serve immediately.

Recipe adapted from one originally sourced from purelyelizabeth.com

Vegetable Feature: Sugar Snap Peas

by Sarah Janes Ugoretz

That’s right—sugar snap peas are back in season! After weeks of teasing you with pea vine, the time has finally arrived. For those of you who are less familiar with these delicious late-spring vegetables, sugar snap peas are a cross between plump garden peas and flat snow peas, which come shortly after the sugar snap peas.  Their ability to produce pods with enclosed seeds places them in the legume family, along with other familiar foods such as beans, peanuts, and lentils. Although you may find that your pods have “strings” along the seam, the entire pod is edible.
The crisp and crunchy texture of sugar snap peas, paired with their sweet flavor, makes them stand out among other vegetables. You can eat them raw, just as they are, or you can cook them. If opting for the latter, they’re excellent steamed, seared, or roasted. In order to preserve the unique crunch of your sugar snap peas, make sure you don’t stray too far from the kitchen while you’re preparing them. Pay close attention to suggested cooking times, since overcooked peas will be soft and much less flavorful.
Falling second only to lima beans, sugar snap peas are our best option for protein when it comes to vegetables. One cup will get you about two grams of protein, not to mention three grams of natural sugar and about two grams of fiber. When it comes to vitamin C, sugar snap peas get the job done even better than an orange! One three-ounce serving will provide you with more than half of the recommended daily intake of this important antioxidant. For storage purposes, be sure to keep your sugar snap peas in the refrigerator, and do your best to eat them within one week. Just as with corn, the sugars in these peas will naturally convert themselves to starch. Keeping them cold will slow this process, while also preserving their texture and nutrient content.
I’ll leave you with this interesting, trivial fact: because they hold up so well to freezing and canning, only about five percent of sugar snap peas are sold fresh in the U.S. As informed eaters, we know that these peas—as with other vegetable—are best fresh, both nutritionally and flavor-wise. That being said, enjoy these healthy, delightfully crispy sugar snap peas and savor their short-lived season!

Sources:

http://cals.arizona.edu/fps/sites/cals.arizona.edu.fps/files/cotw/Sugar_Snap_Peas.pdf

http://fns.dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/fns/pdf/ffvp_fs_ssp.pdf

Kale Dip with Sugar Snap Peas

Recipe sourced from http://www.marthastewart.com/1050593/kale-dip-snap-peas

Serves 4
1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced (or substitute garlic scapes)
3 cups thinly sliced kale leaves
Coarse salt
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
Pinch red-pepper flakes
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 cups sugar snap peas, trimmed

1. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add garlic and kale and season with salt. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Let cool. 
2. Transfer to a food processor. Add cottage cheese and puree until smooth. Season with pepper flakes and lemon juice. 
3. Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil and cook peas until bright green and tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to an ice-water bath; drain. Serve with dip. 

Cook’s Note:  Dip can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Roasted Sugar Snap Peas with Black Pepper

Recipe adapted from Rachel Ray’s recipe featured on www.foodnetwork.com. 

Serves 2-3
½ pound sugar snap peas
Olive oil, to coat
Fine sea salt
Coarse black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. 
2. Coat the snap peas lightly with olive oil. Season with sea salt and lots of black pepper. Roast (in a single layer on a baking sheet) until browned at the edges but still with some bite left to them, 10 to 12 minutes.

Survey Says!

 By Andrea Yoder
   It’s hard to believe our first CSA deliveries of the 2015 season are just 7 weeks away!  We’re looking forward to all the special spring vegetables including overwintered spinach, wild-harvested ramps, tangy sorrel, asparagus, and sweet overwintered parsnips.  Over the past 2 weeks we’ve enjoyed some sunny, beautiful days and welcomed warmer temperatures.  Our small year-round crew has been busy trimming the willow hedgerows & washing the last of our winter storage crops.  They’ve also worked very hard to get our first two greenhouses cleaned and sterilized.  The houses are filling up quickly and it’s refreshing to see the vibrant, new green sprouts.

Laurel & Andrea unpacking lemongrass & ginger

   Richard and I have been putting together our plans for the season.  Richard has been plotting out his field plan, planning which fields need to have minerals applied this spring, and making sure we have all the necessary supplies for the field crew to get to work when they arrive in just a little over two weeks!  I’ve been working on planting plans for greenhouse plantings and making sure we have all the seeds for the season.  There is a lot that goes into the decisions we make from year to year, including the feedback we get from you….our loyal members!  At the end of the 2014 season we asked for your feedback in the form of our end-of-season survey.  Over 600 members contributed their input and we really appreciate the information we gleaned from the survey.  We wanted to share some of the results we received and a little insight into how this impacts some of our decisions for the season.

Summer Vegetable Box

According to the survey results, 95% of members were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the box contents, overall value of their shares, and newsletter content.  The most important factors members consider when deciding whether or not to purchase a CSA share are Quality, Variety & Freshness.  This was true for not only vegetable shares, but also carried over into the fruit, cheese, & coffee shares as well.  We’re happy to see such a high rate of satisfaction and will continue to strive for producing and delivering a variety of high quality products this season.

Radish Seed Pods

 One of the challenges we face throughout the season is striking a balance with the contents of our CSA shares.  Given our long delivery season, we try to include a variety of vegetables to make your CSA experience interesting & exciting. We realize some members may be up for more of a challenge than others.  Those who are new to CSA prefer to focus on mastering their use of
more familiar vegetables such as green beans, carrots, broccoli & tomatoes.  We also find we have quite a few members who have been with us for 5 years or more and enjoy experimenting with new vegetables each year.   The feedback we received from our recent survey indicates that the majority of members are happy with the variety of the box contents.  There were some members who expressed that they would like to see some of the unusual crops we’ve grown previously included in shares again. We agree with you!  Based on member feedback several years ago we felt like perhaps members were getting tired of some of our more unusual crops.

Lemongrass

We didn’t want to stop growing them completely, but thought we’d try rotating them in and out of the growing plan and taking a year or two off from some of these.  Some of these crops include lemongrass, Portuguese kale, Egyptian spinach, jicama, radish seed pods and some of our specialty greens.   Based on feedback from the recent survey, it sounds like it’s time to bring a few of these crops back.  This year we’re planning on growing a small amount of lemongrass as well as Portuguese kale.  I myself have missed both of these vegetables and am really looking forward to making some of my favorite dishes this year!  We are also planning to try a few new interesting greens including one called “Amara.” This is a green I read about in a cooking magazine last year, but couldn’t find a source for the seed at the time.  It originates in Africa and is also known as Ethiopian kale.  I was excited to find it in one of the catalogs we received in January and quickly added it to our order.  They are supposed to be good in salads as well as cooked and are described as having “an excellent, rich flavor.”   For those who like to keep things interesting in the kitchen, we hope you’ll enjoy some of these interesting vegetables.  If you’re not as familiar with some of these less familiar vegetables, we hope you’ll give them a try.  We’ll be sure to give you recipes and information to guide you along the way.  Who knows…you just might discover a new “favorite” vegetable this year!
   We were pleased to receive quite a few comments related to the greens we included in the boxes.  Many of the members who commented on greens stated that they really enjoyed the variety.  For many years Farmer Richard’s mantra has been…. “Eat your greens every day!” Perhaps his efforts have paid off!  Some members expressed they’d like more salad mix, spinach and some of the heartier greens such as gold & rainbow chard and kale.  Salad mix and spinach do best in the spring and fall, so their season of availability is a bit more limited.  Other salad greens such as baby arugula, sauté mix and baby kale mix are more heat tolerant and have a longer season of availability.  We will do our best to include more of these items throughout the season and try to strike a balance with the selection of greens.

Harvest Party!

   One of the basic CSA concepts is that members have an opportunity to connect directly with the farm where their food is produced.  While there are many places to purchase and source food, one of the benefits of CSA is the transparency that comes along with your food.  We encourage our members to come and visit their farm so you can see for yourself where your food is produced.  We realize it’s not feasible for everyone to visit, so we try to bring the farm to you every week through our newsletters.  We put a lot of time and energy into producing weekly newsletters to accompany each of the shares and appreciate that 70% of survey respondents who received vegetable shares read the newsletter weekly.  About 63% of respondents who received fruit shares read the fruit newsletter with each delivery.  We also received quite a few positive comments from members who appreciate the variety of content within the newsletters.  Every year we brainstorm different topics that we’d like to include throughout the season.  If you have any suggestions for topics you’d like to read about, please send them our way so we can consider them as well.
   One comment we heard frequently throughout the survey was “more recipes!” We will continue to tap into our creative culinary minds to come up with simple, tasty and interesting recipes to feature in our newsletters.  Several members commented that they’d like to see more recipes shared by our members.  So would we!  If you have a recipe you’ve tried and found to be a hit with your family, please send it our way.  We’d love to try it in our kitchen and share it with other members.

Fruit Share

   Beyond our vegetable shares, we asked for feedback regarding the other shares we offer.  With regards to the fruit share, over 75% of members who received fruit shares and answered the survey expressed that they were “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the variety & quality of the fruit selections last year.  Some members did comment that they were disappointed with the quality of some of the fruit selections last year and some members felt like the variety was greater in previous years.  Last season was a challenging year for many of the fruit growing regions we source our products from.  Due to weather challenges, there were times during the season when the supply of fruit was pretty limited and some selections we’ve received in previous years were crop failures last year.  With over 30 plus years of work in this industry, our fruit buyer, Rick, has developed many  good connections directly with the growers.  Even when the supply was tight and the challenge was high, Rick was able to secure fruit for our boxes.  When I met with Rick this winter I shared some of the survey feedback with him.  He was grateful for the feedback and will continue to work hard to meet the demands for both quality and variety.  He spent some time visiting growers on the west coast this past January.  He was able to meet some new folks and has his eye on a few interesting varieties we hope to include in the upcoming season.
   We continue to receive mixed feedback regarding the preferred size of the fruit share.  In 2014 we reduce the size and price of the fruit share based on feedback we had been receiving from members that there was just too much fruit in the shares.  Throughout the course of the season and in the survey results, some members expressed that they’d prefer to go back to the size of share we previously packed.  On the flip side, we continue to receive comments from some members that the share is still too large.  We did make the decision to continue with the same size share as last year, at least for the 2015 season.  We’ll reassess the share size in the fall before we make our decisions for the 2016 season.
   Thanks again to those of you who took the time to complete the survey.  We also appreciate the feedback we receive throughout the season through our conversations with members and email communication.  While we can’t accommodate every request or suggestion, we do value your input as to what is working as well as considering ways we might improve our CSA.  We’re looking forward to a new growing season and hope you’ll join us for another year of good food!