In the share this week:
1 bag salad mix
1 bag spicy salad
1 bag baby kale or spinach or curly kale
1 bunch beets or 1 pint sugar snap peas
1 bunch green onions
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch radishes
1 little gem lettuce
Thoughts from Farmer Anna:
This fine mist rain today is working for me since I was able to get a couple more beds of carrots seeded late yesterday. This is exactly the kind of precip you hope for when you put those tiny little seeds into the ground! I had to completely scrap two April planted beds of carrots because we got one of those 2+ inch rain events a few days after they were seeded. It seems like it is typically May before I can get reliable germination on carrots. I think I'd need to seed them under cover of a hoop house to have a nice stand of them any earlier. I may actually give that a try next year since we are planning to put up a larger greenhouse sometime later this season. The farm grown carrots are just so good and we'd love to have them available as much as possible!
Well sorry to tease you with too much carrot talk when they are still about 2 months away. Happily, we do have some other exciting veggies in the share this week! We weren't sure if we'd have enough beets or sugar snap peas for everyone this week, so you will either get one or the other in your share. The beets are just perfect, with gorgeous greens that you can certainly cook and eat as well as the root. If you aren't yet a fan of beets, may I suggest quick pickling them? I really think the earthy sweetness of beets needs a vinegary twist. This recipe just calls for keeping them in your refrigerator, where they will stay good for 6+ weeks and you can add them to salads or grain bowls, etc as you like. It would also be delicious to add some of your spring onions to the jars as well:
Speaking of spring onions (pictured above), those are what I'm most excited about this week! These are onions that we plant in October and then cover for winter. That little head start they get in late fall and early spring, allows these babies to start bulbing up about a month sooner that most of our spring planted onions. I love the first few weeks of harvest when the greens are still really nice, so we can give you these beautiful bunches. You can use both the green and bulb part and they are best stored in the fridge when they are fresh. I think it's so important to have some kind of allium (onion family) crop in your share each week because they are the foundation of so many meals. We are eating a lot of tacos and noodle bowls these days and onions are a key ingredient in both.
If you are getting peas this week, I'm guessing many of you will just snack on them raw (highly recommend!). If you decide you'd like to cook with them, they are a great stir fry veggie and you could toss in some of your onion and maybe kale or spicy mix too! I love that the spicy salad mix is so versatile and can be eaten raw or cooked.
Our second bed of radishes is just picture perfect! You could add these to a veggie tray along with the peas and some ranch dressing or hummus. This cooler spring weather has meant that we do have some top quality spring veggies coming out of the fields. Next week, we'll have a much nicer planting of salad turnips coming on, along with bok choy. Have you ever tried cutting up your green onion into a salad? I like to cut up my bunch of green onion immediately and store in a container, that way it's easy to grab a handful to throw into any manner of dishes. I don't always think to put them on my salad, but it's such an easy way to add more flavor. We are definitely using a lot of them in soups these days.
It's hard not to post of pic of the baby chicks each week. Maybe I'll go for every other week so you will definitely see their growth progress :) It's a joy to watch them. Their appetites have really increased this week and the are feasting on all of the greens that I throw into their brooder. I can't wait to get them out onto the grass and watch them eat up lots of insects too!
Hope you have a great week everyone!