How To Grow, Care For & Use Your Culinary Herb Packs!

 

By Chef Andrea

Fresh herbs bring a fragrant vitality to your kitchen as well as adding beauty to your landscape or patio if your garden space is limited to potted plants.  Back in our early days of CSA, we used to include more herbs in the CSA shares.  We wanted to give members fresh herbs to cook with, however we heard frequently from members that they were not using all of the herbs in a bunch before they went bad.  We brought this issue up at a meeting with our members and one member suggested we send the herbs as plants that they can plant themselves.  What a great idea and an even better way to accomplish the overall goal of making fresh herbs available for CSA members to incorporate in their meals!  When you need a fresh herb, you simply cut it from your plant—it doesn’t get any fresher than that! 

You can plant your herbs in a garden space or in pots to keep on your patio, porch or kitchen window sill if you’re limited on space.  Choose good, loose garden soil mixed with lots of compost (up to 1” mixed into the soil if you’re planting into a garden space).  The plants will do best in well-drained soil with full sun.  If you don’t have a space with full sun exposure, partial sun will be ok too.  If you have rabbits or other little herb-loving critters in your yard, you might need to fence your herbs to protect them. 

If you need help identifying the herbs in your pack, please refer to this diagram as well as the pictures that follow.  (Note:  We had trouble sourcing Winter Savory seed this year, and we were not able to get enough seed for all packs.  Thus some packs will have a basil plant in place of the Winter Savory)

OREGANO

SAGE

THYME

SAVORY

There are four perennial herbs in your pack:  Oregano, Sage, Thyme and Savory.  These herbs can survive the winter and will consistently come back year after year, so consider where you’d like to establish these herbs in your garden.  Sage and oregano will get quite large, so it is best to give them about 2 square feet of space in the area you plant them in.  Each year we cut off all the old wood from our sage plant to make room for the new growth.  Thyme and savory are a bit smaller and only need about 1 square foot of space. 

ITALIAN BASIL

ITALIAN PARSLEY

CURLY PARSLEY

CHERVIL

The remaining plants in your pack are annuals and include Italian Basil, Italian Parsley, Curly Parsley and Chervil.  Annuals will only produce for this season and will not survive the winter outdoors.  Italian basil and chervil need to be cut back regularly to delay flower and seed formation so they continue to produce usable leaves.  If you see even the earliest sign of flowering in either of these plants, cut them back to keep them vegetative.  Parsley will continue to produce throughout the season, so don’t be afraid to cut these plants back too.  If you can’t use your herbs as fast as they are growing, cut the extra herbs anyway and preserve them.  There is more information about that below.  When harvesting your herbs, use a sharp knife or scissors so you can make a clean cut.

Herbs are a great way to add flavor and nutrition to your cooking.  Sometimes herbs are used to provide a background flavor, such as when you add herbs to the pot when making stock, broth or braised dishes.  Often the herbs are put in as whole stems or bundles, are left to impart flavor and then are removed before using or serving.  Other times herbs are used as a garnish, added just before serving with the purpose of complementing the dish.  Examples of this include adding a little fresh parsley to a bowl of chicken soup or a plate of pasta or perhaps you add a little fresh basil to a pizza after it comes out of the oven.  Fresh herbs should be cut as close to serving as possible and with a sharp knife so you don’t bruise the leaves.  The flavor and aroma from herbs comes from the oils in the herb and will lessen over time.  This is also why you usually add fresh herbs to a dish at the end of cooking or shortly before serving.  In contrast, dried herbs need more time to develop the flavors that have been preserved in the process of drying.  Dried herbs are added earlier in the cooking process to give them time to develop and come together with the other ingredients in the dish.  In culinary school, we were taught to strip the leaves from the stems on fresh herbs and either discard the stem or use it in stock.  If the stem is tough or more like a stick, you will want to do this.  However, some herb stems are tender, flavorful, juicy and totally usable!  I often chop the leaf and the stem when I’m using fresh thyme, parsley, chervil and sometimes young basil stems.  Sage, savory and oregano stems are sometimes a bit more coarse and not as usable.

There are some classic preparations from around the world that feature herbs not as a garnish, but rather as the main ingredient.  When your plants are really producing and you have a lot of fresh herbs available, consider using them more as a main ingredient in some of these preparations.  Pesto is a great example of this and is traditionally made with fresh basil.  Gremolata is an Italian condiment made from fresh parsley, lemon and garlic.  It is traditionally served with osso bucco, an Italian dish of braised veal shank, but can also be served with lamb, beef, chicken or bean dishes.  Chermoula is a Morroccan herb condiment made with fresh herbs including parsley and cilantro.  It is often served with fish and seafood dishes.  Chimichurri is another parsley based condiment originating in Argentina.  It also includes garlic and parsley as the main ingredients, but also often includes fresh oregano, red pepper flakes and red wine vinegar.  Salsa Verde is another fresh herb sauce, different from the salsa verde made from tomatillos.  The herbal version of Salsa Verde is a simple herb sauce, similar in some ways to a coarse pesto.  It’s often made with parsley, but you could make it with any fresh herbs. 

There are also some traditional salads that feature fresh herbs.  Tabbouleh, a Lebanese salad, is a combination of bulgur, tomatoes and lots of fresh parsley and mint.  The Italian Caprese salad is another delicious salad built on simple ingredients of fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella and a little olive oil.  You can also make your own simple vegetable and herb dishes with a few simple ingredients.  In the middle of the summer I like to make a salad with whatever fresh vegetables are available.  It could be something as simple as chopped peppers, shredded carrots, cucumbers and or tomatoes.  Put them in a bowl and toss them with salt, pepper, olive oil and handfuls of whatever fresh herbs are available!  These types of fresh vegetable salads make a delicious, fresh accompaniment to simple summer dinners which may be nothing more than a simple piece of grilled fish, a plate of fresh pasta or some good bread and cheese. 

If you do have more herbs than you can use fresh, cut them back and preserve them.  Some herbs, such as basil and parsley, can be pureed with a little oil and frozen in ice cube trays or muffin tins.  Other herbs such as parsley, sage, oregano, thyme and savory are good as dried herbs.  After you harvest them, give them a quick rinse and then dry them in a low-heat oven or in a food dehydrator.  The other option is to bundle the herbs in small bundles and hang them in a dry place with good air flow and let them air dry. If you do this, make sure the herbs are more on the dry side when you bundle them and don’t put too many stems in a bundle or they may mold or take longer to dry.  I hung bundles of herbs in my kitchen last year and they dried beautifully.  Once your herbs are dried, strip them off the stem and put them in a glass jar.

We hope you enjoy growing your own herbs and find interesting and delicious ways to make use of them throughout the year.  They really are a simple way to brighten up your landscape as well as your meals and the benefits they offer go beyond the flavor. 

 

May 20, 2021 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Hon Tsai Tai!

Cooking With This Week's Box

By:  Chef Andrea Yoder

Chives:  

Chive Cream Cheese  

Garlic Bread Except with Chives! 

Green Garlic:  

Greens and Green Garlic Pesto (See Below)  

Savory Greens Pancakes 

Asparagus:  

20 Asparagus Recipes to Make Right Now 

Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic and Parmesan

Baby Arugula:  

Roasted Asparagus and Arugula Pizza 

Grilled Chicken with Arugula and Warm Chickpeas 

Green Top Red & Purple Radishes:  

Mediterranean Tuna & Radish Salad

Mustard Crusted Salmon with Dill Radishes and Asparagus 

Sorrel:  

Sorrel-Lime Cooler

Armenian Cold Yogurt & Sorrel Soup 

Sauté Mix:  

Sesame Noodles with Wilted Greens and a Fried Egg 

Mixed Greens Salad with Mandarins, Toasted Almonds and Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette

Hon Tsai Tai:  

Spring Greens Pasta with Greens & Green Garlic Pesto (See Below)

Sesame Soy Hon Tsai Tai Salad with Chicken 

Baby White Turnips:  

Creamy Turnip Grits & Greens 

Turnip Greens Pesto Pizza 

Baby Bok Choi:  

Bok Choi Salad with Sesame Almond Crunch 

Bok Choi Stir-Fry with Crispy Tofu 

This week’s box is packed with leafy greens, which is the focus of our articles and recipes!  Spring greens are an important part of a seasonal midwestern diet and we’ve got you covered this week!  Hon tsai tai is a specialty green we plant two times early in the season and is the featured vegetable this week.  While it’s related to baby bok choi, it’s special in its own right and stands out with its purple stems and yellow edible flowers.  You really can use it anywhere you would use baby bok choi, but this week you could use it to make the Spring Greens Pasta with Greens & Green Garlic Pesto (See Below).  I also included a link to Sesame Soy Hon Tsai Tai Salad with Chicken which has been a popular member recipe in past years.  

Green Garlic Pancakes

Throughout the season I will continue to encourage you to eat the green tops on pretty much every vegetable that has an edible top!  Don’t be afraid to use your greens and green topped vegetables interchangeably in recipes such as the featured pesto recipe this week as well as Savory Greens Pancakes.  Of course, you can always keep the greens with the roots, especially when we’re talking about the darling baby white turnips in this week’s box!  I included two of my favorite turnip recipes from past newsletters, but there are more on our website too!

Make sure you get your fill of asparagus as the season is never long enough!  This week I included another pizza recipe to couple asparagus and arugula, but I also found a nice article featuring 20 Asparagus Recipes to Make Right Now.  Of course, there are some times when I just like to keep it simple and sauté asparagus with a little butter or toss it with olive oil and roast it.  

Creamy Turnip Grits & Greens

This is our final week for chives.  Next week we’ll start harvesting our spring potato onions which are a very savory, delicious multiplier onion.  We also have a pretty crop of mini red romaine head lettuce that should be ready to harvest next week.  We’re also hoping to harvest our first spring-planted spinach crop and possibly some salad mix.  You can also look forward to rhubarb in next week’s boxes, so get your favorite rhubarb recipes ready!

Have fun in the kitchen, eat your greens every day and have an invigorating week until we check in again!—Chef Andrea 

Vegetable Feature: Hon Tsai Tai

By:  Chef Andrea Yoder

Description:  Hon tsai tai is in a group of plants referred to as “flowering brassicas” and has a mild mustard flavor.  It is a Chinese specialty green also sometimes called Kailaan.  While it is related to such vegetables as mustard greens and bok choi, what sets it apart is that it has beautiful purple stems that produce a sweet, delicate, edible yellow flower.  The sweetness of the buds and flowers is the part we love the most!  While other vegetables in the brassica family also produce flowers, they do so towards the end of their life cycle and at that point there are often undesirable flavor changes in the edible portion of the plant.  Hon tsai tai is unique in that it produces the flower early in its life when all the parts of the plant still taste good.  

Preparation & Use:  The entire plant is edible and may be eaten raw or cooked.  The thin purple stems are more tender when the plant is young.  While still flavorful, they may become more coarse as the plant matures, so should be cut very finely at this stage.  Hon tsai tai is delicious in stir-fries or lightly steamed or sautéed, but also makes a stunning and flavorful addition to raw salads.  A common preparation in Chinese cuisine is to quickly stir-fry hon tsai tai with garlic, onions, and ginger, then add oyster sauce.

Storage:  Store hon tsai tai loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator until ready for use.  

Nutrition:  Hon tsai tai has specifically been studied to evaluate its antioxidant potential in the body.  In comparison to other vegetables in this family, some studies have shown that hon tsai tai has more antioxidant effect and may be effective in retarding the effects of aging.  Just one more reason to make sure you eat hon tsai tai and other vegetables in this family when available! 

(Chen J, Zhang J, Xiang Y, Xiang L, Liu Y, He X, Zhou X, Liu X, Huang Z. Extracts of Tsai Tai (Brassica chinensis): enhanced antioxidant activity and anti-aging effects both in vitro and in Caenorhabditis elegans. Food Funct. 2016 Feb;7(2):943-52. doi: 10.1039/c5fo01241d. PMID: 26726147.)

Greens & Green Garlic Pesto

By:  Chef Andrea Yoder

Photo from www.brooklynsupper.com

Yield:  2 cups

2-4 stalks green garlic (Greens and white portion)

½ cup toasted hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas) or almonds

2 cups chopped leafy greens, roughly chopped*

½ tsp salt, plus more to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

½ cup olive oil (or other flavorful oil)

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Zest of 1 lemon

2-3 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Cut the green garlic into approximate 1-inch pieces.  Place in the bowl of a food processor along with the pepitas or almonds, leafy greens, salt and black pepper.  Pulse to break down the ingredients into a coarse mixture.
2. With the food processor running, drizzle in the oil and mix just until combined.  Stop the food processor, remove the lid and add parmesan cheese, lemon zest and 2 Tbsp lemon juice.
3. Blend until fully combined.  You want the mixture to still have some texture, so do not try to blend it to be totally smooth. Taste and adjust to your liking by adding more lemon juice, salt and black pepper as needed.
4. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

*Note:  For “leafy greens” you may use nearly anything you have available!  Radish & turnip tops, spinach, arugula, mustard, sauté greens, etc are all appropriate.  Get creative!  

Serving Suggestions:  This pesto can be used in a variety of ways.  Toss it with pasta or stir it into rice or other cooked grains.  You can also mix a spoonful into scrambled eggs, spread it on toast or use it as a spread for a wrap or on sandwiches.  Mix it with cream cheese and spread it on crackers.  Serve it on fish, chicken or grilled steak.  Toss it with roasted potatoes or other vegetables.  As you can see, once you make this basic recipe there are a lot of options for how to put it to use!  

Recipe adapted from www.brooklynsupper.com.

Spring Greens Pasta with Greens & Green Garlic Pesto

Yield:  3-4 servings

8 oz spaghetti noodles

4 oz bacon, sliced thinly (optional)

1 bunch hon tsai tai, or 2-4 cups of other “greens” 

1-1½ cups Greens & Green Garlic Pesto (see recipe above)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Parmesan cheese, grated, for serving

Olive oil, for serving

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.  Cook spaghetti per package instructions.  When cooked to al dente, drain the pasta in a colander and set aside.
2. In a medium sauté pan over medium to medium high heat, cook bacon until crispy.  You want about 1 Tbsp of fat in the pan once the bacon is cooked.  If it looks like there is more oil than that, remove some with a spoon.  If there is not enough fat, add a little olive oil.
3. Wash the hon tsai tai or whatever greens you are using.  Shake off excess water, but note that it’s ok if they are not totally dry as you need some moisture to help them wilt down.  Roughly chop them into bite-sized pieces.
4. Reduce the heat to medium and carefully add them to the pan with the bacon, if using, or to a pan with a little olive oil if you are not using the bacon.  Be careful when doing so as the addition of moist greens to the pan with hot oil can cause spattering.  After adding the greens to the pan, immediately put a lid on the pan and wilt the greens down for about 1-2 minutes.  
5. Add the spaghetti to the pan along with about 1 cup of pesto.  Stir to combine.  Add more pesto to your liking.
6. When pasta is thoroughly heated through, taste and adjust to your liking with salt and pepper. 
7. Serve hot with a drizzle of olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese.

Note from Chef Andrea:  This is a very basic recipe for pasta tossed with greens and pesto.  The beauty of this dish is that you can build upon this base by adding other ingredients of your choosing.  Don’t limit yourself, rather use the ingredients you have available and turn this into whatever you want it to be!

If you don’t wish to use bacon, substitute another meat of your choosing (chunks of chicken, steak, or fish) or eliminate meat totally.  Of course, you can add as many vegetables to this recipe as you wish!  Just sauté any non-leafy green vegetables in a touch of oil before you add the spaghetti and leafy greens.  Baby white turnips, asparagus and mushrooms would be tasty additions this time of year.  

May 13, 2021 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Sorrel!

Cooking With This Week's Box

Sorrel:

Sorrel and Blue Cheese Smørbrød (Engsyresmørbrød med Blåmuggost)

Frosty Sorrel & Banana Smoothie

Sorrel Hummus

Sorrel-Lime Cooler

Nettles:

Nettle & Honey Cake

Nettle Risotto with Goat Cheese

Spiced Lentils with Nettles & Sorrel Yogurt Sauce

Green Garlic:

Mini Potato Pancakes with Green Garlic & Chives

Herb-Roasted Chicken with Asparagus & Green Garlic

Fried Rice with Green Garlic

Asparagus:

Bruschetta with Shaved Asparagus, Fresh Goat Cheese & Chive-Infused Oil

Penne with Asparagus Butter and Almonds

Baby Arugula:

No Chop Chickpea Salad with Arugula

Prosciutto & Arugula Pizza

Green Top Red & Diana Radishes:

Radish “Mock Potato” Salad

Sheet Pan Dill Radishes with Salmon

Radish Greens Pesto Pasta

Overwintered Parsnips:

Cardamom-Spiced Parsnip & Date Muffins with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

White Bean Stew with Parsnips & Bacon

Overwintered Sunchokes:

Chili & Lime Sunchoke Salsa

Garlicky Sunchoke Salad with Dill & Feta

Chives:

Chive Pesto

Chive Infused Oil

How To Dry Chives

Radish "Mock-Potato" Salad
photo from itsavegworldafterall.com

Welcome to Week 2 of Cooking Out of the Box!  For those of you who are just joining us for the first week, I’m Chef Andrea and you’ll find me here every week!  The purpose of this article is to provide you with a few ideas for how you might use each item in your CSA box each week.  This week we’re featuring Sorrel, a tangy spring green that we grow as a perennial crop.  In this week’s newsletter I shared two of our most popular recipes for sorrel that we have published in past newsletters, Frosty Sorrel & Banana Smoothie as well as Sorrel Hummus.  If you don’t look any further than these recipes this week and make one or both of these, I guarantee you will not be disappointed!  I also shared a new recipe I found for Sorrel and Blue Cheese Smørbrød (Engsyresmørbrød med Blåmuggost) which is super easy to make.  All you need is good bread, good butter, good cheese and some good honey paired with this week’s sorrel.  Assemble and enjoy for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

This week’s collection of recipes also includes several ideas for how to use the generous bunch of chives!  Don’t let them go to waste when you can easily turn them into preparations that can be frozen or are shelf stable so you can use them later! We’re happy to be sharing baby arugula and the first of our fresh green top radishes with you this week!  If you were planning to cut the radishes off the tops and throw the tops away, DON’T!  The tops are edible and packed with valuable nutrients!  Turn them into a tasty Radish Top Pesto and toss it with pasta!

Nettle & Honey Cake
photo from northwildkitchen.com

This will be our final week for nettles.  I stumbled across a few new recipes including nettles including a tasty risotto as well as nettle cake.  That’s right, bake those greens right into a cake!  Part of the fun with cooking out of a CSA box is trying new ways of preparing vegetables.  I wasn’t so sure about putting greens into baked goods, but it works and is a great way for those who don’t typically like green vegetables to enjoy them!

I hope you have fun with this week’s box and don’t forget to share your cooking adventures in our Facebook group!  Looking ahead to next week, we’re hoping the Baby White Turnips will be ready and we’re planning to include the beautiful Hon Tsai Tai as the cooking green!  Have a great week!---Chef Andrea

Vegetable Feature: Sorrel

By:  Chef Andrea Yoder

Description: Sorrel is a unique perennial plant we look forward to every spring and is amongst the first greens of the season.  It belongs to the Knotweed family of plants, which also includes such plants as rhubarb and buckwheat.  Sorrel leaves have a pointy, arrow shape and are thick in texture and bright green in color with pinkish stems.  You’ll recognize sorrel by its tart and citrus-like flavor if you nibble on a raw leaf.  It has a bright flavor that will call your taste buds to attention!

Preparation & Use: Sorrel may be used in a wide variety of preparations and may be eaten either raw or cooked.  Raw sorrel can be tannic and leave your mouth with a dry feeling, similar to drinking a tannic full-bodied red wine.  Therefore, sorrel in its raw form is often used more as a seasoning or to compliment other ingredients.  Raw sorrel can brighten any salad and is excellent when blended into cold sauces, vinaigrettes, dressings or dips.  When cooked, sorrel behaves in a very interesting way.  First, its color changes from bright green to a drab olive green almost immediately.  Don’t worry, this happens to everyone and it’s just the way it is with sorrel!  The other unusual thing about sorrel is how it “melts” when added to hot liquids.  The leaves will almost immediately change color and then start to soften.  The longer it’s cooked, the more the leaves break apart and you can stir it into a coarse sauce.  This is one of the reasons it’s often used in soups and sauces.

Pasta with Sorrel Butter & Nettles

The tart, citrus-like flavor of sorrel pairs well with many other spring vegetables such as ramps, asparagus, spinach, sunchokes, and parsnips.  The acidity of sorrel makes it a natural companion to more rich foods such as cream, butter, sour cream, yogurt, duck, and fatty fish (salmon & mackerel).  Additionally, it pairs well with more “earthy” foods such as lentils, rice, buckwheat, mushrooms and potatoes.  As with many other spring vegetables, sorrel pairs well with eggs and is often used in quiche, scrambled eggs, custard, etc.  Don’t be afraid to think “outside of the box” and incorporate this green into beverages too!

Storage: Store sorrel in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.  Wash well in cold water and dry it well before using it.

Frosty Sorrel & Banana Smoothie

Yield:  2 servings, 14-16 oz each

¾ cup plain yogurt

1 cup milk

1 frozen banana, peeled and cut into chunks

3 Tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

7-8 ice cubes

½ bunch sorrel (approximately 3 oz), leaves and stems roughly chopped

1. Put all ingredients in a blender in the order listed above.  Put the cover on the blender and, with the blender on low speed, turn it on.  Gradually increase the speed of the blender and blend until the mixture is smooth and bright green.
2. Serve immediately in a chilled glass.  

Note: While this smoothie is best served immediately while it’s frosty, you can store it in the refrigerator for a day or so and it will still be delicious.  It may separate a little bit, but it will come together again if you just give it a good shake before you drink it.

Recipe by: Chef Andrea Yoder, Harmony Valley Farm. This recipe was previously published, however it is one of the most popular sorrel recipes so we’re sharing it again!

Sorrel Hummus

Yield:  1 ½ cups

2 garlic cloves

1 ½ oz sorrel leaves, roughly chopped (approximately 1 cup)

1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas (one-15 oz can)

¼ cup tahini

Grated zest of 1 organic lemon

1 ½ Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ tsp sea salt, plus more if desired

1 ½ tsp raw honey or pure maple syrup

¼ cup water

Cold-pressed olive oil, for serving*

1. Put the garlic in a food processor and pulse to mince.  Add the sorrel, chickpeas, tahini, lemon zest and juice, salt, honey, and ¼ cup water, and blend on the highest setting until smooth.  Season with more salt if needed.  
2. Transfer the hummus to a serving bowl, drizzle olive oil over the top, and serve.  Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days.

Note: If you are using the hummus as a spread, add 1 ½ tsp olive oil to the food processor and blend it into the hummus.

Serving Suggestions: This sorrel hummus is delicious served with pita bread, corn chips or fresh vegetables as an appetizer or snack.  You can also use it as a spread for sandwiches, flat bread or wraps.  When we tested this recipe, we chose to spread the sorrel hummus on a tortilla and stuffed it with fresh spinach and diced raw asparagus tossed with a little drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.  The hummus is bright and lemony and in Farmer Richard’s words.... “also rich & creamy.  I like the contrast of the crispy asparagus with the creamy hummus.” This spread goes well with any spring vegetable including radishes, green onions, blanched nettles, baby white turnips and more!

Recipe Source: This recipe was borrowed from Sarah Britton’s beautiful cookbook, My New Roots.  This book was just released 10 2015 and it’s packed full of nourishing plant-based recipes organized by the season.  Sarah also has a blog by the same name, My New Roots ( www.mynewroots.org).  Her recipes are vegetarian and often vegan friendly, although they are also adaptable to include in meals for meat-eaters as well.  Another bonus of both her book and her blog…..the gorgeous pictures!

This recipe was previously published, however it is one of the most popular sorrel recipes so we’re sharing it again!

Sorrel & Blue Cheese Smørbrød (Engsyresmørbrød med Blåmuggost)

Medium-dark, hearty bread

A handful of sorrel leaves, rinsed

Firm blue cheese

Handful of walnuts, roughly chopped

Runny Honey

Butter, for spreading

Slice the bread. Spread each slice with butter, then top with a couple of sorrel leaves, some blue cheese, a couple of walnuts and then drizzle the top with a good honey.  You can also serve these as appetizers.

Recipe from www.northwildkitchen.com

May 6, 2021 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Wild Ramps!

Cooking With This Week's Box

Wild Ramps: 
Wild & Wonderful Ramp Chowder (See Recipe Below)
Wild Rice Bowl with Ramps and Asparagus (See Recipe Below)
Ramp Butter
Ramp Deviled Eggs
 
Overwintered Spinach: 
Creamed Ramps and Spinach
Spring Spinach Chop Salad with Creamy Buttermilk Ramp Dressing
 
Watercress:
Asparagus & Watercress Pizza
Mushroom, Parmesan and Watercress Omelet
 
Overwintered Parsnips:  
Spiced Honey Parsnip Bread
Roasted Parsnip Salad
 
Overwintered Sunchokes:
Important information about how to best utilize and enjoy Sunchokes.
Lacto-fermented Pickled Sunchokes
Chili-Roasted Sunchokes
 
Chives:
Sunchoke and Chive Soup
Chive and Parmesan Popcorn
 
Nettles:   
Important information about how to handle and prepare nettles.
Nettle & Mushroom Pizza with Ramp Cream
Nettle & Ramp Pesto
Nettle Tea
Nettle Soup
 
Green Garlic: 
Spaghetti with Green Garlic and Olive Oil
Asparagus & Green Garlic Soup with Parmesan Croutons
 
Asparagus: 
Roasted Asparagus with Breadcrumbs & Herbs
Asparagus, Spinach & Feta Quiche

Asparagus, Spinach & Feta Quiche
photo from twopeasandtheirpod.com

Welcome to the 2021 CSA season!  We’re happy you’ve chosen to journey through another year with us and I hope you are ready to roll up your sleeves and get cooking in the kitchen!  My name is Andrea and I am a professionally trained chef.  Each week I will share recipe ideas and links in this space we call “Cooking With the Box.”  Some weeks you may choose to prepare some of these recipes, while at times these recipe links may simply serve as a launching pad for your own creative cooking ideas.   Either way is perfect!

 
I also encourage you to use some of the other resources we have to offer you including the searchable recipe database on our website.  This is where we’ve archived recipes from past years, many of which have become farm and member favorites we turn to every year! Lastly, I encourage you to participate in our private Facebook Group, just for members.  This is a great platform for sharing recipes with other CSA members and is one way we can create a supportive community for each other. 

Nettle & Mushroom Pizza with Ramp Cream

This week’s box is packed full of special spring vegetables, an eclectic mix of wild-harvested vegetables we forage for as well as some crops we overwinter in order to extend the season and give us something to harvest and eat before our spring planted vegetables are ready.  If you are new to our CSA, some of these items may be new to you and you may be unsure what to do with them!  This is where I have to insert my vegetable mantra which is: “Never Be Intimidated by a vegetable!”  I hope the resources and support we offer you each week are helpful, but if you do have any additional questions you are always welcome to call or email me! 

 
Have a great week and enjoy your first CSA box!
--Chef Andrea

Vegetable Feature: Ramps!

By: Chef Andrea Yoder

Description: Ramps, sometimes referred to as “wild leeks,” are one of the first signs of spring we see emerging on the wooded hillsides of our valley.  They have a very short season which is typically only 3-4 weeks.  The flavor of ramps is similar to onions or garlic, but they really have a unique flavor that is best described as “rampy!”  Ramps resemble a green onion, except they have tender, delicate, lily-like leaves and the base of the ramp becomes more bulb-like as it matures.

Preparation & Use: Ramps may be eaten raw or cooked and can be used in ways, similar to a green onion.  When raw, they can be quite pungent, however the flavor mellows with cooking.  You can eat both the leaves and the lower bulb, just trim away the roots.  Ramps pair well with cream, cheese, bacon and other spring vegetables including mushrooms, asparagus, nettles and spinach.  Ramps also pair well with eggs in scrambles, frittatas and quiche and are often incorporated into pasta and rice dishes.  Ramp pesto and ramp butter are simple preparations that may be used fresh or can also be frozen as a way to preserve that delicious spring flavor!

Ramp Pesto

Storage: The leaves on ramps are delicate and the most perishable portion of the plant.  We are in our final week of harvest and did have rain ahead of harvesting some of this week’s ramps.  Ramps that are more mature and harvested under these conditions often have a shorter shelf life.  Thus, we encourage you to eat them within a few days of receiving them.

Store ramps in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.  If you are going to keep ramps for several days, it’s a good idea to wrap the leaves with a damp paper towel.  The bulb portion of the ramp will store longer than the leaves, so some may choose to separate the bulb from the leaves and store them separate.

Cultural & Historical Background: Back in the early days before ramps were popular and customers came looking for them, Farmer Richard actually gave ramps away at the farmers’ market!  That’s right, he couldn’t sell them so he gave them away with hopes that people would give them a try and come to like them so much they’d buy them!

Ramps growing in the woods

Growing Information: Ramps grow wild in the woods on north-facing hillsides early in the spring.  While they can be replanted in woodland areas that are conducive to supporting ramp populations, it takes awhile for them to multiply and spread.

Additional Points of Interest: We have been wild-harvesting ramps in our valley since the mid-80’s.  Many individuals are concerned about the sustainability of harvesting ramps.  Of course, we want our ramp populations to remain sustainable as well, thus we carefully manage our harvests.  We harvest from private land which allows us to rotate harvest areas.  Additionally, ramps grow in clumps and we’re careful to only take about half of a clump while leaving the other half undisturbed.  We’ve been implementing this practice since the very beginning and our ramp populations remain strong and healthy!  With the future in mind, we have been planting ramps in a few wooded areas on our land over the past few years.  It will be awhile until we can harvest from these areas, but they are well-established and we’re hopeful they’ll thrive into the future!

Wild & Wonderful Ramp Chowder

Yield:  4 Servings

photo from healthstartsinthekitchen.com

2 Tbsp butter

1 cup ramp bulb and greens roughly chopped

4 cups russet potatoes, peeled & diced

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

⅛ tsp white pepper

Sea salt, to taste

2 cups half & half

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese 

Optional Toppings:

Crumbled bacon

Shredded Cheese

Ramp greens, thinly sliced

1. In a Dutch oven or other heavy bottom pot, over medium heat, melt butter.  Sauté ramps in butter until soft.
2. Add the potatoes, broth and pepper.  Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through. (Note:  Taste your broth while heating and season with sea salt.  Ideally the liquid that the potatoes are cooking in should be well salted, perhaps a little tiny bit over salted).
3. Reduce heat to low.  Add half & half and shredded cheddar cheese, stir well to combine.  Cook over low heat until everything is well incorporated, do not boil.  
4. The flavors deepen and it will thicken up a little more if you let it set off heat for 30 minutes before gently reheating and serving.  If you prefer an even thicker soup, you can blend 1-2 cups of the soup in your blender until smooth, then add it back into the pot.
5. Garnish individual bowls with toppings of your choice including crumbled bacon, shredded cheese or thinly sliced ramp greens.

Recipe borrowed from healthstartsinthekitchen.com.

Wild Rice Bowl with Ramps & Asparagus

Yield:  Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a side

photo from abetterhappierstsebastian.com

1 cup wild rice

1 pound asparagus

1 bunch wild ramps

½ cup slivered almonds

2 Tbsp butter, divided

Salt and pepper, to taste

1. In a medium pot over high heat, bring 3 cups water to a boil.  Stir in wild rice, reduce to a simmer and cover.  Cook 40-45 minutes or until rice kernels just begin to open.  Fluff with fork and drain off any excess cooking liquid.  Place a clean kitchen towel over the pan and put the cover back on.  Set aside, off heat until ready to assemble the dish. (Note:  the towel will absorb any steam or moisture from the rice so it will be fluffy)  
2. Meanwhile, while rice is cooking, trim the ends of the asparagus spears and cut into ¾-inch pieces.  Set aside.  Divide the ramp greens from the bulbs.  Chop the greens into bite-sized pieces and dice the bulbs.  Set aside.
3. In a skillet over medium heat, melt 1 Tbsp of butter.  When the butter is foaming, add asparagus, season generously with salt and pepper and cook until just slightly wilted, tossing frequently, about 4 minutes.  Remove asparagus from skillet and set aside.  Return pan to medium heat and melt additional ½ Tbsp butter.  Add ramp bulbs and sauté briefly, about 1 minute.  Add in ramp greens, season with salt and pepper and cook an additional minute until the greens are wilted.  Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Over medium heat, melt remaining ½ Tbsp butter.  Continue cooking down butter until it begins to brown slightly, swirling the pan to cook evenly.  When lightly browned, add slivered almonds, salt and pepper, tossing to coat.  Continue to cook over medium heat until almonds are toasted, about 3 minutes.
5. Reduce heat to low and add rice, asparagus, and ramps back to the pan.  Toss to combine all ingredients and season with additional salt and pepper to taste.  Serve warm.

Recipe adapted from abetterhappierstsebastian.com.

Welcome to the 2021 CSA Season and Your Spring Planting Report!

By:  Andrea Yoder

The first asparagus poking through
just in time for the first CSA box!

We may be the only ones to think this, but my goodness winter seemed to be very short!  Here we are at the start of another CSA season and we are so grateful to be packing over 1,000 boxes this week!  Many of you are longtime members, but we also have quite a few first and second year individuals joining us.  Regardless of how many times you’ve journeyed through a year of CSA at Harmony Valley Farm, each year’s adventure is filled with both familiarity along with the uniqueness of every growing season.  Hold on tight, we’re ready to start sending you some of the best vegetables we can manage to grow!

Before we go any further, I’d like to introduce myself.  My name is Andrea and I started here in 2007 as the summer farm chef.  I spent my first summer cooking for our crew of about 30 at that time.  I have since moved on into other roles and have assumed many other responsibilities.  I do still hold onto my role as a Farm Chef, however I now use my culinary training and expertise to develop, research and test recipes to share with all of you through our newsletters and blog articles each week!  If you are interested in my full story, you can read more about my journey on our blog.  I also want to introduce you to Richard de Wilde, the visionary behind everything that Harmony Valley Farm has become.  He is our founding farmer and has been farming since the mid 70’s.  In his early years of farming he played an instrumental role in the development of organic standards and certification.  In fact, he has been described as a “Pioneer in Organic Farming!”  He has led a very interesting life and has many achievements to celebrate, but Harmony Valley Farm is his greatest joy and the result of many hours of labor and devotion.  You can read Richard’s full bio in an article we published on our blog several years ago.  Richard’s desire is for the farm to continue indefinitely into the future, which is why he has been cultivating the next generation of farmers to continue the work that he started.    And that leads me to today’s final introduction, Rafael Morales Peralta.  Rafael has been working with Richard for over 10 years, originally coming to Harmony Valley Farm on a H2A work visa.  He demonstrated such potential, skill and passion for vegetable farming that Richard invited him to become an owner.  He has been tasked with downloading all of the farming knowledge from Richard’s brain, a task that he is quite good at!  Rafael is enthusiastic, optimistic and energetic while also being very innovative.  Rafael has had an interesting journey as well, which we shared on our blog last year.  There are many other individuals who work at Harmony Valley Farm, each with important roles and responsibilities that contribute to our collective success.  Throughout this CSA season we hope to share some of their stories with you as well!

Dark Green Overwintered Spinach!

Now that you know who we are, we want to tell you what we have been up to since our last farm update several weeks ago.  Spring is always an exciting time of the year, but it is also a super busy time!  Early in April it looked like we were on track to have an early spring.  The weather was beautiful with sunshine and warmer temperatures.  We were able to dig overwintered sunchokes and parsnips as the ground dried out quickly.  We also started harvesting our overwintered spinach crop in early April, ahead of when we typically see this crop start to mature.  While we were thrilled to have green food coming out of the fields again, we also panicked a bit as we really wanted to preserve that crop to harvest for our first two CSA boxes in May!  Well, Mother Nature decides the timing and there really is not much we can do aside from responding to her cues and seeing how she’ll show up for us each year.  We have had several very strong weeks of spinach harvest and really thought it would be finished before our first week of CSA.  However, we got lucky and preserved one portion of the field that we could still harvest late last week and this week! So, we are at the tale end of the season, but there will be one delivery of overwintered spinach!

Ramps as far as the eye can see!

The season for ramps, another spring favorite, started in mid-April as well.  When we first started to harvest, it looked like it may be a short season that would end in April.  If there is one thing we’ve learned, and sometimes still forget, it’s that you should never underestimate the power of Mother Nature to show up for us.  Over the past few weeks, weather conditions shifted and what looked to be a warm, early spring turned into dry, cool conditions that slowed things down and moved us back to more of a “normal” time schedule for spring.  As such, the conditions have been favorable for continuing to harvest ramps and we are excited to send you at least one week of this special spring vegetable.  We are crossing our fingers to be able to deliver them in the second week too, but that verdict is up to Mother Nature.

Transplanting Strawberries

While we have been staying busy with harvests, we have also been working very hard to do the necessary field work to move forward with our spring plantings.  We started planting early in April and have had a very productive month leading up to the first week of May!  This year in particular we carried a heavier load for spring plantings as we needed to plant some perennial crops along with all the other standard crops we plant every year.  Last week we finished planting a nice field of strawberry plants for next year’s harvest.  We also planted a new field of asparagus along with rhubarb and a few horseradish plants.  It will be 1-3 years before we harvest some of these perennial crops, but we have to plan ahead to ensure we have these crops ready for your tables in future years!

While our seeding plan starts the first week of April, we seldom actually plant that week.  This year however, we were able to do our first “5/15 row plantings.”  This is a group of crops we plant every week, some crops for the entire season and others just for spring and fall.  That first planting is still small, but it looks like we may be harvesting our first baby arugula next week!  

Tiny little red radishes!

Red Radishes also look promising and we estimate they’ll be ready to harvest within the next 1-2 weeks! Spring planted spinach and cilantro will follow very closely behind .  We anticipate we’ll be harvesting spring spinach in about three weeks and cilantro in 3-4 weeks!

We have actually been hoping for rain over the past few weeks.  Unfortunately we had not received more than a little sprinkle here and there.  The irrigation crew has been working very hard to try to get water to some of our newly transplanted crops as well as some of the new plantings we had seeded.  Without adequate water the seeds just set there and do nothing or try to sprout and then die.  We all breathed a

huge sigh of relief Sunday evening when the clouds rolled in, we started to hear rumbles in the distance and it started to rain!  It rained throughout the night and we were happy to dump an inch of rain out of the rain gauge this morning!  Everything looks bright green and fresh today and we are anxious to see some of our direct seeded crops like peas, beets, carrots, parsnips and burdock take off now that they have some moisture!

Storm clouds over our farm Sunday night
bringing us the rain we needed!

I almost forgot to mention that all of our potatoes have been planted and the plastic mulch is ready for transplanting the first basil and zucchini crops.  We have a nice crop of mini red romaine head lettuce growing nicely in one of our greenhouse tunnels and hope to harvest it within the next few weeks.  Until some of our spring planted vegetables are ready, we will continue to rely on our overwintered crops, foraged vegetables and spring perennials.  For those of you who are new to our CSA, your boxes for the first few weeks may contain some vegetables you are less familiar with.  Hang in there and rely on your resources to guide you.  We have a lot of recipes to choose from on our blog and website.  We also encourage you to join in the conversations in our private Facebook group where it is totally safe to ask questions like “Help, what do I do with nettles?!”  I say this every year, but my motto has always been “Never be intimidated by a vegetable!”

Our cows grazing on the hillside 

The animals are also happy and content as they are back to grazing and rooting around our hillsides.  Our little pigs, which came to our farm several weeks ago, made acquaintance with our beef cattle when the cattle were rotated to a pasture close to the pigs last week.  The pigs acclimated very quickly to their new environment and can be found running around the woods, playing in the creek, or munching on some of the spinach and parsnip scraps from the packing shed!  While the beef cattle are large creatures, they move quietly and calmly through the pasture.  It is a pleasure to see them so peaceful on the hillsides.  In the goat pasture, there is quite a lot of activity!  Last week we welcomed nine more kids into the herd and throughout the day we now see little goats darting around the pastures, climbing all over their mamas, playing in the feeders and exploring their world.

As spring continues to unfold around us, we welcome the bounty our fields will afford us this year.  We hope you enjoy this year’s adventure alongside us as you discover new favorite foods, new favorite recipes, and benefit from being part of our CSA community!