Week #5. Final BiWeekly/A group box.

Who grows your food?

From left, Ben, Pollo, Steve, Aly, Simone, Ken, Maggie, Beth and Ava.  MIA that day, Ari, Madelline and Ida. 
The crew picks collard greens for this week’s delivery.  From left, Maggie, Madelline, Ben, Aly and Ida.

Let’s acknowledge the group working hard to grow good quality produce for you.  Our farm is staffed by a group of experienced farm hands and managers, plus me and Steve.  These individuals have worked for us from one year to 27 years.  They know so much about growing good produce. 

We all enjoy the work (or aspects of it) but the recent weather has been rough; too hot for us, too hot for the crops.  We are grateful for the rain that fell this week, as many storms had passed us by, and grateful that it came relatively gently, unlike other storms in the area. Wash your lettuce with extra care this week.  It has grit from the storms.

Strawberries are finished.

A string of 95 degree days, followed by heavy rain, ended our strawberry crop.  They are too delicate for that.  I am sad that we don’t have berries for the CSA boxes this week, but that gave us time to pick lots of peas for you instead.  I am happy we could offer multiple u-picks for you to pick for yourselves.  It was a nice field. We’ll be back with berries next year.

A woodlot for the woodlot

The maple trees are growing!

The new woodlot is a mix of hardwoods (in protective tubes) and conifers (without tubes).

I planted many new trees and shrubs this spring.  Seventy-two trees in a new woodlot, plus 35 flowering shrubs near our east border.  The shrubs will be beautiful in spring.

The woodlot is more functional.  The woodlot protecting our house and buildings was damaged in a February 2024 tornado, the first February tornado in Wisconsin.  Fortunately, the tornado just missed our buildings, greenhouses, etc.  Its path across our farm (and neighboring farms) was evident in downed trees in each fence line. 

It was weeks before I realized that the woodlot behind our house had sustained damage too.  Basically, the funnel must have picked up, gone over the top of the woodlot and house, then came down again out in the fields.  It came so close to our house!  One day I looked up and realized that I could see daylight through the trunk of every tree, near its top.  Across the woodlot, each tree had a gap at the same angle and same height.  Every storm since brings down more trees or snaps them at the damage line.  There are some healthy trees in there but the lot has been greatly thinned.

It was time to plant a new woodlot to protect the remaining woodlot.  I planted a mixture of conifers and hardwoods, with lots of sugar maples for future maple syrup gathering.  Also, hackberries, basswoods, serviceberries and a few oaks, all species that do well on our farm.  This is fun for me.  I think it will be more fun if we have steady rain, so I don’t have to spend so much time watering.  Protecting, mulching and watering the trees takes as much time as planting, but are all essential for survival.  This is a longterm project.

Thanks for reading,
Beth

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #5, June 26, 2025

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ A group

Sugar snap peas, 0.8 lb
Snow peas, ~1/2 lb
Zucchini &/or Zephyr yellow squash, 2.5 to 3 lb
Collard greens, 1 large bunch
Cucumbers, 2
Romaine lettuce
Kohlrabi, 1 large
Basil, 1 small sprig
Scallions, 1 bunch

Next week’s box will probably contain snap peas, green cabbage, cucumbers, zucchini & squash, snap peas, kale, basil, scallions and more.

Snap peas and snow peas – See photo below, to tell them apart.  Both require stringing.  Snap off the stem end and pull the string down the concave side of the pod (the inward-curing side).  Throw away the string and eat the pod.  The thicker pea pods might have a string along both edges. 
Storage: Refrigerate.

Collard greens – These grew well in the recent hot weather.  Strip out the tough midvein before cooking, like you would with kale.
Storage: Cover and refrigerate.

Cucumbers – We have been waiting for these! 
Storage: Store at room temperature for a few days or refrigerate in the warmest part of your fridge.  Cucumbers get chilling injury if stored too cold.

Romaine lettuce – This batch has grit from recent storms and will need care when washing.  I recommend cutting them dunking in a basin of water.  Repeat with fresh water or until the water is clear.

Kohlrabi (pale green, round vegetable with thick skin and attached leaves) – Crunchy and sweet, kohlrabi is a great addition to salads.
Storage: Kohlrabi bulbs will store for a month in the refrigerator.
Uses: Kohlrabi are good peeled and eaten out of hand, or added to sandwiches, or added to salads. It makes a nice salad on it’s own. You can grate it, slice it, or cut it into matchsticks. It’s also good cooked.

Basil – We washed the basil very gently.  Expect to wash it again to remove grit.  This batch is tender and flavorful but showing all its life experience; cold weather under row cover, strong winds under row cover, strong winds without row cover, heavy rain.  You notice that I don’t mention hot weather.  It takes that in stride.  Next week’s basil is beautiful.

Sugar snap peas (left) and snow peas (right).

RECIPES by DEB

Caramelized Zucchini Pasta

From Grilled Cheese Social

This pasta is quite similar to smitten kitchen’s zucchini butter spaghetti in terms of ingredients, but rather than grating the zucchini (or yellow squash), the squash is sliced. Personally I think slicing makes a prettier dish, but grated or sliced, these recipes transform a pile of zucchini into a pile of pasta! The three medium zucchini called for add up to about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds of zucchini.

Kohlrabi Remoulade: A Fresh Take on a Classic Salad

From Umami Girl

Classically, it’s celery root that is cut into a julienne and dressed with remoulade sauce; here kohlrabi, which is crunchier and juicier, takes the place of the celery root. If you don’t have a mandoline, you can grate the kohlrabi or cut it into matchsticks with a sharp knife. For a more traditional and slightly orange-r remoulade, see this Serious Eats recipe.
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Easy Chicken Club Lettuce Wraps

From YellowBlissRoad.com

You could sub in purchased chicken- or not-chicken nuggets to fill these wraps if you like, or instead of making wraps, you could make a big salad with the same ingredients. The dressing provided here is a 50/50 mix of Dijon mustard and sour cream, great on a wrap, but if you go the salad route, I suggest jazzing it up a bit with some sliced scallions and basil from the box, and a few tablespoons each of red wine vinegar and olive oil.
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Chili Crisp Snap Pea Salad

From Munching with Mariyah

Combine the sugar snaps and scallions from this week’s box with a few pantry staples like chili crisp and sesame oil to create this crunchy salad (control the heat by reducing the amount of chili crisp or omitting). If you have cilantro from last week, it goes in the salad, or sub this week’s basil instead. If you don’t have any edamame in the freezer, just skip it and consider adding chopped roasted peanuts as a topping.
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Stuffed Collard Green Roll Ups Recipe

From LeelaLicious

Collard leaves are easier to stuff than cabbage, since they start off flat. These rolls have a ground beef filling, but you could sub any ground meat. There’s also bacon in the tomato sauce, which sounds delicious but if you don’t eat pork, at the point in the recipe where you set the collard rolls on top of the bacon strips in a skillet you could simply use butter or olive oil, then pour your favorite tomato sauce over.
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Sour Cream and Charred Scallion Dip

From The Kitchn

Forget the Lipton’s, make your next batch of chip dip with charred scallions! And as the recipe suggests, in addition to serving the scallion dip with potato chips, try it on veggies, like sugar snaps, snow peas, or kohlrabi sticks. You can also spread it on a sandwich or use as salad dressing.
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Scallion-Corn Muffins

By Colby Garrelts and Megan Garrelts for Food and Wine

Photo by John Kernick
Scallions and cornbread are such a great combination they go with just about any meal. We don’t have local sweet corn as yet, but frozen works just as well in this recipe. Note that although the pictures shows six muffins, the recipe actually makes 24. If you don’t need that many muffins, cut the recipe in half or freeze the extras.

Week #4. Strawberries continue.

Erika and Jessica, the owners of Giant Jones Brewing Company, came to pick berries this week, to make into organic strawberry soda.  How cool is that?  Jessica has worked on her concoction for a few years and says it’s low in sugar and high in flavor.  I can’t wait to try it.  Erika was the executive director of FairShare CSA Coalition for many years.  Any farmer gatherings in Madison tend to gravitate to their brewery.

We picked lots of berries too!  Thanks to everyone who came to the farm u-pick this past weekend.  That was one of our best u-picks.  The berries and weather were both perfect.  Everyone was in a great mood and the plants were loaded.  I neglected to take any photos.  Shoot.  Believe me, it was a good, good day.

The later berries are still coming on strong.  Check your email for this week’s u-picks.  These might be our final u-picks.  It depends on the weather and the upcoming heat could be hard on the berries.  We do hope to pick again for next week’s CSA boxes. 

Napa cabbage

Your napa cabbage started to flower, so we harvested it a bit early.  There’s a flower stalk in the middle that you can snap out or chop and include in your cooking.  The stalks that I checked were all quite tender.  Bolting (early flowering) happens when you grow napa cabbage, bok choy and other Asian greens in spring.  Alternating temperatures stimulate the plants to flower.  The long days in June play a role too.  Fall-planted napa rarely bolts.  The cilantro this week is also trying to flower, but is still very nice.

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #4, June 19, 2025

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ B group

Strawberries, 1 quart
Sugar snap peas, 1/2 lb
Zucchini &/or yellow summer squash, 2.25 – 2.5 lb
Napa cabbage
Red bibb lettuce
Bok choy, 1 medium
White salad turnips, 1 bunch
Cilantro, 1 small bunch
Scallions, 1 bunch

Next week’s box will probably contain strawberries (weather permitting), snap peas, snow peas, kale or collards, zucchini & summer squash, Romaine lettuce, scallions and more.

Sugar snap peas.  These peas should be eaten pod and all.  They are delicious raw, or very lightly cooked or stir-fried.
Preparation: They will need a quick rinse to remove faded gray blossoms.  Here’s how to remove the strings on each pod.  Snap off the stem end and pull the string down the concave side of the pod (the inward-curing side).  Throw away the string and eat the pod.  The thicker pea pods might have a string along both edges. 
Storage: Refrigerate.

Zucchini & summer squash –  Zucchini and summer squash need refrigeration but do not do well at very cold temperatures, as they will soften and form pits in their surface. Refrigerate these squash but in the warmest part of your fridge.  

Napa cabbage (large, pale green cabbage with crinkled leaves) – Napa cabbage is an interesting vegetable, useful for both fresh, raw salads and for cooking.  Its most famous use is fermented kimchi.  I like to prepare a fresh, unfermented kimchi.  Same seasonings, but it’s ready to eat right away.  You will be amazed at how much shredded napa cabbage shrinks when prepared this way.  See here for an example, but cut the salt in half (or even further): Grilled Flank Steak with Kimchi-style Coleslaw.
Storage:  Napa stores very well.  When refrigerated, it will keep for several weeks.  Peel off the outer layer and it will be ready to use.  Here are a few preparation ideas from the ‘Asparagus to Zucchini’ cookbook.
– Chop raw napa into green salads.
– Substitute napa in traditional coleslaw.
– Chinese cabbage cooks quickly.  Steam 3-5 minutes, or until leaves are wilted down but remain slightly crisp.
– Substitute napa cabbage for common cabbage in recipes, but reduce the cooking time by 2 minutes.
– Napa cabbage is the main ingredient in egg rolls.  Try making an egg roll mixture to eat as a cooked side dish instead of preparing time-consuming egg rolls.

Red bibb – Look at that gorgeous lettuce!  It is visually stunning, as well as tender and delicious.

Cilantro (small bunch, fragrant leaves) – Used in both Mexican and some Asian cuisines.  Good to season stir-fries, salad dressing, salsa, etc.
Storage: Cover and refrigerate.

RECIPES by DEB

Pasta with Smashed Zucchini Cream

From 101 Cookbooks

Here’s an interesting way to use your zucchini, as the pasta sauce rather than chunks of vegetable in the sauce. The recipe calls for fresh basil, but you could sub cilantro or parsley, or stir in a few tablespoons of pesto, if you have some. Or simply omit the basil! The recipe comes from Heidi Swanson of 101 cookbooks, a vegetarian recipe blog that’s been online since 2003, and there are 20+ more ideas for zucchini here.
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Old-Fashioned Strawberry Spoon Cake Recipe

From The Kitchn

Photo by Alex Lepe, Food Styling: Rachel Perlmutter
Our beautiful strawberries don’t really need to have anything done to them – except eating! But here’s a quick cake that really gilds the lily – or strawberry – and it only uses about a cup of strawberries to make dessert for six, so you will still have strawberries to eat plain.
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Turnip Gratin Recipe

From Simply Recipes

Photo by Elise Bauer
The salad turnips in this week’s box are sweet and tender enough to eat raw, but here’s a way to dress them up that should even appeal to people ambivalent about turnips!
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Lemon Buttermilk Dressing

From Foodess

In honor of the tender red leaf lettuce and salad turnips in this week’s box, here’s a recipe for a buttermilk dressing that’s tasty on a variety of spring vegetables. Try it on a salad with the red bibb lettuce, salad turnips, sugar snap peas, radishes if you still have any, and enjoy!
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Napa Cabbage Salad

From Forks Over Knives

Here’s a nice crunchy salad using the Napa cabbage, scallions, and cilantro in the box. Sugar snaps can stand in for the green beans and some julienned turnip would be a nice addition.
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Pizza With Zucchini, Feta, Lemon, and Garlic Recipe

From Serious Eats

Photo by J. Kenji López-Alt
Zucchini as a pizza topping – with a lot of its moisture removed. This recipe calls for feta and mozzarella cheese, but you could sub in other good melting cheeses if you wish. It also features LOTS of garlic, lemon, and scallions for garnish. The recipe makes four small 8-inch pizzas, using 2 pounds of purchased pizza dough or a recipe to make your own dough is provided. You could also buy ready made crusts – there’s probably enough topping for two 12-inch crusts – or use purchased naan or no-pocket pita bread for your pizza base.
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Roasted Napa Cabbage with Crispy Tofu

From Jackfruitful Kitchen

Here’s an interesting way to prepare our Napa cabbage. I have not tested the grated tofu, but see no reason why it would not work, especially with extra firm tofu. If you’re uncertain about preparing the tofu this way, I suggest cubing it, boiling it briefly in enough water to cover, drain well and proceed with the recipe. Boiling is a sure way to remove enough water from the tofu so that it will crisp. You can sub white wine or sherry for the Mirin and soy sauce or Tamari for the coconut aminos.
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Cilantro Lime Rice Recipe

From Love and Lemons

This rice would be a nice side dish alongside your favorite protein or other vegetable main dish. You could also try throwing a few handfuls of rinsed and stringed sugar snaps on top when the rice has about 10 minutes to go, before step 2 in the recipe. The peas will be lightly steamed by the time you fold in the additional ingredients listed in step 2.

Week #3. Big berry week.

The crew picks your strawberries.  It’s a beautiful patch this year.

All your berries are ripe, even if one side is white and the other colored. This is normal for the ‘Cavendish’ variety.  Eat one that looks like this and you will understand that they are ripe.

Happy u-pickers this past weekend. I gotta say, I like our reservation system. It keeps our u-picks calm and manageable with a small staff.

Strawberry u-picks

We expect to host an organic strawberry u-pick in coming days. 
RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED.
U-pick price: $4.00/lb
Tipi CSA members, follow instructions in an email that I sent you this week.  Non-members, if we have enough capacity, we will offer reservations directly to our email list and (perhaps) on our berry page.  Join our email list for direct notification.

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #3, June 12, 2025

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ A group

Strawberries, 2 quarts
Asparagus, ~2/3 lb
Button mushrooms, 12 oz
Baby bok choy
Zucchini, 2 or 3 ct.
Spinach, 1 bunch
Romaine lettuce
White salad turnips, 1 bunch
Salad radishes, 1 bunch
Scallions, 1 bunch

Next week’s box will probably contain strawberries, zucchini &/or summer squash, leafy greens, scallions and more.

Strawberries – Eat soon.  Strawberries are perishable and these are delicious right now.  I encourage you to avoid washing these berries.  Rinse any berries that have soil on them, but the rest do not need washing.  It only shortens their storage life.
Storage: Refrigerate.

Button mushrooms – These organic mushrooms are from Hidden Valley Mushrooms from Wisconsin Dells.  We buy mushrooms from Mary and Ed every spring because they combine so perfectly with our spring vegetables, for salads, quiches, etc.  
Storage: Here are Mary’s suggestions for storing the mushrooms:
– Store separate from leafy greens, which hasten mushroom aging.  
– If storing for more than a few days, remove from the box and refrigerate in a paper bag with holes punched in the side.  Keep dry.  
– Don’t wash to clean, just wipe with a damp cloth.

Baby bok choy – We continue experimenting with adorable baby bok choy.  My favorite preparation is to slice lengthwise into quarters (or sixths or eighths depending on size).  Steam in a steamer basket until tender.  Dress with a simple vinaigrette of rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and hot pepper flakes.  There are lots of recipes online with steamed mushrooms and baby choy. 
Storage: Cover and refrigerate.

Scallions (bundle of green onions) – These are useful raw or cooked.  Thinly-sliced raw scallions can be folded into biscuit dough or sprinkled on top of soups or salads.  Terrific garnish for pasta dishes.  Think pad thai. 

Notes and storage for these vegetables in previous newsletters.  Info will be under “Veggie List and Veggie Notes”.
Asparagus
Spinach
White salad turnips
Salad radishes
How to wash lettuce and other greens efficiently

RECIPES by DEB

Spring Vegetable Stir Fry

From Making Thyme for Health

This recipe calls for half a pound each of mushrooms and asparagus, and a cup of sliced radishes, all of which we have in the box, and the notes point out you should feel free to sub what you like. This means the zucchini, bok choy, and salad turnips would all be nice additions. Personally, I think salad turnips are very tasty in stir fry’s.
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Red Radish Crostini with Lemon Ricotta

From Vanilla Bean Cuisine

Here’s a fun appetizer to use up some of our supply of radishes – that could also be lunch with maybe some fruit or a salad. Pairing radishes with something creamy, like ricotta, is always a hit. Try spreading halved radishes with a little cream cheese and sprinkling with coarse salt and fresh ground pepper for another easy snack.
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Banh Mi Sandwich Recipe

From Love and Lemons

The pickled veggies that fill this Bahn Mi sandwich include Daikon, cucumber, and carrots, but you can sub red radishes for the Daikon (the recipe suggests this) and turnips for the cucumber. Add carrots if you have them, or simply use more radishes and turnips. You’ll probably have extra pickled veggies that are good on avocado toast or in tacos.
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Easy Brown Rice Risotto with Mushrooms

From Cookie and Kate

Here’s a way to make risotto without stirring! And the recipe is very forgiving. The first time I made it, I had a friend visiting who doesn’t eat onions or pepper, so I left both out, and didn’t miss them. Similarly, omitting the fresh oregano will not decrease the flavor of the dish. Thinly sliced scallions from this week’s box would be a nice garnish, along with some asparagus on the side. The short-grain brown rice that’s called for in the recipe is delicious, but if you don’t have it, long grain will work.
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Fresh Turnip & Greens Quiche with Almond Crust

From Dishing Up the Dirt

This quiche has a patted-in almond flour crust that’s gluten free, but you could sub your favorite rolled crust if you like. The recipe calls for turnip greens, but you could also use spinach from the box, and sub scallions for green garlic.
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Easy Asparagus Egg Bake with Mushroom and Swiss Cheese

From Honey and Birch

Combine the asparagus and mushrooms from this week’s box with eggs and cheese to make this brunch dish. A handful of spinach and/or some chopped zucchini would also be a nice addition.
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Roberta’s Romaine Salad with Candied Walnuts and Pecorino

From Serious Eats

Photo by Dave Potez

Roberta’s is a wood-fired pizza place in Brooklyn NY, know for its salads as well as its pizza. This recipe make A LOT of dressing and candied walnuts, more than is needed for one head of Romaine, but they’re good leftovers to have. As the recipe points out, you can serve the walnuts as part of a cheese board, and the dressing is good on any salad made with sturdy greens, like the spinach in this week’s box.

Week #2. Weekly+BW/B. Fox kits.

We pack produce this week for these shares:

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ B group

Fox kits

For the first time, we have a fox family living on the farm.  I guessed foxes as soon as I found the den.  The den itself is substantial but the abundant trails, skat, and rabbit legs really gave it away.  Lots of gnawed groundsquirrel legs too.  I was able to capture this snippet of video on our trail camera.  They have already moved out of the den but I continue watching for them. View below or on YouTube at youtu.be/zGs1DIS49ow 

Organic strawberry updates

Our berry field is progressing very nicely.  We expect to begin picking in mid-June.  Tipi members, watch our emails for u-pick announcements.

If you are not a Tipi member this year, please join our email list so we can alert you when it’s time to pick.  As usual, our u-picks are by reservation only.

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #2, June 5, 2025

Asparagus, 1.25 lb
Shiitake mushrooms, 8 oz
Red leaf lettuce
Spinach, 1 bunch
Komatsuna mustard greens, 1 bunch
White salad turnips, 1 bunch
Salad radishes, 1 bunch
Green garlic, 1 bunch
Rhubarb, 1.2 lb

Next week’s box will probably contain strawberries (weather permitting), asparagus, lettuce, button mushrooms, salad turnips, spring greens, scallions and more.

NEW ITEMS THIS WEEK:

Shiitake mushrooms – These are from Hidden Valley Mushrooms, the same people who grow button mushrooms for us.  I love shiitakes cooked with spinach or other greens.  Shiitakes must be cooked.  A small subset of people can have a toxic reaction to raw or undercooked shiitakes.  Once cooked, they are harmless.  And tasty!  Lightly sauté in butter and add to any dish.  We use ours in frittatas, as well as sautéed and mixed into pasta salad or any dish.  Sautéed shiitakes and spinach are a great topping for pizza or rice bowls, e.g. bibimbap.
Storage, general: Refrigerate in a dry paper bag, but not in your crisper drawer with other vegetables, especially brassicas.  It’s OK to put a loose plastic bag over the paper bag but don’t close.  Mushrooms are perishable so use soon.

Komatsuna greens (bundle of dark green leafy heads. &nbs) – These tasty spring greens are similar to mustard greens, with great flavor, but are more mild than mustard greens. 
Preparation: Use in any recipe that calls for mustard greens or bok choy.  We suggest using just the leaves, as stems are fibrous.
Storage:  Cover and refrigerate.

White salad turnips – I know that returning members look forward to these sweet and delicious turnips, which taste nothing like the turnips that are harvested in fall.
– Storage: Cover and refrigerate.
– Uses: Both the turnip roots and tops are edible.  The roots are excellent raw; Slice and add to salads.  They can be cooked and are especially good when lightly sauteed in butter.  Stir as little as possible so they brown on at least one side.  The turnips greens are excellent cooked.  Treat them like mustard greens.
– Our favorite use:  Slice the roots very thinly and combine with a mixture of rice vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil.  Eat immediately or marinate.

INFO REPEATED FROM LAST WEEK:

ASPARAGUS – This is my favorite spring treat!  
Prep: Wash your asparagus thoroughly to remove hidden grit.  Submerge in water with the tips pointing down, soak briefly, then swish vigorously and pull out of the water.  The draining action helps pull the grit out of the asparagus tips.  Repeat several times.
Storage: Asparagus is perishable, so eat it as soon as possible.  Store in a paper towel, cloth or paper bag, then wrap loosely in a plastic bag.  The paper bag protects the asparagus tips from direct contact with the plastic bag.  The plastic bag keeps the asparagus from wilting.
Preparation: We snap our asparagus at harvest, rather than cutting.  Therefore, there is no need to snap the stalks to remove fibrous ends.  For the same reason, it is not necessary to peel the asparagus stalks.  It’s OK to trim the cut end a bit.
Cooking:  If your asparagus stalks vary greatly in size, you will want to cook the thicker ones longer.  Put an empty steamer pot over water, and bring the water to a boil.  Add the asparagus.  Cover and steam over medium heat until just tender.  Use two forks or a spatula to turn the asparagus during cooking, rotating the bottom spears to the top.  Drain and serve.  Alternatively, you can lay spears flat in the bottom of a broad pan, with ½ inch of water.  Also excellent broiled or grilled.  Good dressed with vinaigrette, or with lime juice, salt and pepper.

RED LEAF LETTUCE – The lettuce tender so handle gently.  
Storage:  Refrigerate in a bag or other container.

SPINACH – This spinach is good for salads or for cooking.
Storage: Refrigerate in a bag or other container.

SALAD RADISHES – These are great in salads or thinly sliced on sandwiches. 
Storage: Cover and refrigerate.

GREEN GARLIC (looks like scallions, tastes like garlic) – Last fall, we planted garlic cloves that grew into the stalks we harvested this week.  If left to grow until mid-summer, the slim white bulb on this week’s garlic will divide and form the usual cluster of cloves in a garlic bulb.
Preparation: Green garlic is more pungent than scallions, so slice thinly and use sparingly when raw.  It mellows when cooked.  Chop and add to any cooked dish that would benefit from garlic.  Use the white bulbs and pale green stems.  Don’t use the dark green stems and leaves, as these are fibrous.

RHUBARB – Storage: Refrigerate in a plastic bag.
Stewed rhubarb: This is the simplest way to prepare rhubarb. Chop rhubarb into one inch chunks. Stir over medium heat with a small amount of water in the bottom of the pan. The rhubarb will release moisture as it cooks. Stew until it softens and falls apart. Sweeten to taste with honey or sugar. Eat warm on its own, over vanilla ice cream, on pancakes, etc.
Storage:  Refrigerate.
Preserve: Rhubarb is extremely easy to freeze. Wash, chop and pop it in a freezer bag. That’s it; no need for blanching. When baking muffins or cakes, add the frozen rhubarb directly to the batter.

RECIPES by DEB

Asparagus Mushroom Stir Fry

From Jo Eats

This recipe includes a lengthy discussion of stir fry dinners as well concise instructions for how to make the stir fry, plus it’s perfect for the asparagus and shiitakes in this week’s box. There’re also some really nice photos! If you don’t have a hunk of fresh ginger on hand you could sub about a teaspoon of powdered ginger, or if you happen to have crystallized ginger lurking with your baking ingredients, try chopping that up for your stir fry – the added sweetness enhances the dish.
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Mustard Greens Breakfast Salad With Maple Glazed Turnips & Bacon

From Dishing Up the Dirt

This recipe from Dishing up the Dirt calls for raw mustard greens and maple-glazed salad turnips. The komatsuna in our box is a mustard green, but will probably taste best cooked.  Beth suggests using just the komatsuna leaves this week, not the stems. You can decide for yourself if the leaves are tender enough to be eaten raw, or if they need need a little cooking along with the turnips. And despite the “breakfast” word in the recipe title, this dish would be good for lunch or dinner, too!
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rhubarb jam (small batch)

From the farmers daughter

I’ve always frozen lots of chopped rhubarb in-season and also made puree and frozen that, but I think this quick jam might be my new favorite way to preserve spring rhubarb for future use. It has a bit more sugar than rhubarb puree, and can be frozen. I immersion-blendered my batch to smooth it, and thought it might be too thin, but it thickened up nicely when chilled. The jam is delicious on toast or biscuits, and you can also use it to fill jam-bellied scones, the following recipe.
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Jam-bellied Scones

By Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen, for King Arthur Baking

The combination of unbleached flour with bran added back makes a fluffy but wheaty scone, but if you don’t have wheat bran you can use all whole wheat flour, or a 50/50 mix of whole wheat and unbleached flours.
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Spring Vegetable Gnocchi

From Ahead of Thyme

Add packaged gnocchi, pesto, and frozen peas, to the asparagus in this week’s box to make this spring pasta dish in a flash. You could also make a green garlic and spinach pesto and use that in the gnocchi.
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Any Greens Pesto

From Smart In The Kitchen Recipes

Use the proportions in this recipe along with the green garlic and any of the cooking greens from this week and last week’s boxes to make this pesto (arugula, spinach, Komatsuna leaves, turnip or radish greens).

Arugula (or spinach), Apple & Chickpea Salad Wraps

From The Kitchn

Photo by Emma Christensen
This recipe is from a set of 10 recipes at the Kitchn website decided to use up an abundance of spring greens. Spinach works well in these wraps, or you can also use arugula if you have some left from from last week’s box. The recipe provides instructions for dressing the greens and apple with a balsamic vinaigrette, but a creamy dressing made with green garlic, such as this one from Willy Street Co-op, would complement the other ingredients.
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Vegetarian Chef’s Salad

From Cozy Peach Kitchen

Here’s kid-friendly chef’s salad that replaces the traditional sliced turkey and ham with vegetarian chicken nuggets. You should feel free to sub chicken nuggets made from chicken, as well swapping ingredients we do not have, like romaine, cherry tomatoes, and cucumber, with vegetables we did get in this week’s box, like red leaf lettuce, steamed asparagus, lightly sauteed shiitakes, radishes, and salad turnips. There’s a recipe for vegan ranch dressing provided, or use creamy green garlic dressing.

Spring Share, Week #1, May 29

Deliveries begin this week (May 29) for these shares:

– Weekly Shares
– BiWeekly/ A group.

Deliveries next week (June 5) for:

– Weekly Shares
– BiWeekly/ B group.

If you don’t remember your share type, log in online and look at your scheduled dates under “Orders”.

Farm News

Transplanting melon seedlings into plastic mulch. The mulch suppresses weeds, conserves moisture, and improves melon quality. From left, Madelline, Aly, Ben and Maggie. Not in photo, Simone, Beth, Steve.

Our spring work progresses nicely.  We’ve had a lot of beautiful, blue-sky days.  It is pleasant working weather despite the swings in temperature.  Some of your asparagus is short, some is long, the result of weather swinging hot – cold – hot – cold.

Our farm is quite dry.  Many storms have missed us narrowly, raining a few miles away but missing us entirely.  We watch the clouds and rain pass by on the horizon.  It is a good thing we have irrigation. 

We were relieved when one April storm passed us.  Our town of Evansville was heavily hit by enormous hail.  There was so much damage to cars, houses and roofs.  Friends and neighbors are still arranging repairs and wrangling with their insurance companies.  We could only imagine what it would have done to our spring crops, solar array, greenhouses, etc.

A hail stone that fell in Evansville WI this April.  Photo credit Lisa Cromheecke James

From left, Steve, Ari, Beth, Sophie.

Ari graduated from Macalester College this spring.  He is our youngest child, so this is a big milestone.  He has a research position in mathematics lined for the summer, and is looking for a math-related job for fall in the Twin Cities.  Most of you know Ari from the strawberry u-picks.  He’s the tall guy showing you how and where to pick.  We are very, very proud of this kid.

Strawberry forecast

The berry field looks great so far.  There was only one frost during blossoming and we irrigated to protect the fragile flowers.  There are many tiny berries on the plants.  Keep your fingers crossed that they mature without trouble.  They are delicate!  We expect to begin picking berries in mid-June.

Let’s review the essentials of how our strawberry u-picks work.
– U-picks are by reservation only. 
– I offer reservations first to our 2025 CSA members.  Watch for emails from us with all the details, plus a link to place a reservation.
– If there are unclaimed reservation slots, I will offer them to our u-pick email list.  After that, I’ll post publicly on Facebook.  Honestly, it’s unlikely that we’ll get that far.  Our organic berries are in high demand. 

How to wash greens efficiently and to maximize storage life

Washing and drying your lettuce, spinach, and other greens prolongs their storage life.  And they will be ready to use on busy weeknights!  Here’s our approach.  It works.

There will be grit in your produce this week, a side effect of recent rain and irrigation.
Thoughts:
– Cut your lettuce one and a half inches above the base and you’ll leave a lot of dirt behind.
– Expect to spend extra time cleaning this week’s greens.  Let’s talk about how to do that efficiently.

Cut your lettuce heads at one and a half inches above the base and you’ll leave a lot of dirt behind.

1.  Fill your sink or a basin halfway with cold tap water.  If you have two sinks, fill one sink partway with cold water.
2.  Chop your lettuce, spinach, escarole or other green to the size you wish.
3.  Dump it into the water and swish around gently but thoroughly.
4.  Working in two batches (for average lettuce head) or more batches (big spinach bunches, Romaine), pull handfuls out of the water and drain in the basket of a salad spinner.
5.  After all the greens have been rinsed one time, dump the water.  Rinse the sink/basin and refill with cold tap water.
6.  Repeat the process.
7.  Spin your greens dry and store in a dry container.  They store much longer when spun dry.

This works because …
– pre-chopping the greens frees soil trapped in the head.
– the large amount of water washes and dilutes away the grit.
– By pulling the greens out of the water, you take advantage of the draining action to pull the grit with it.
– Drying (spinning) the greens before storage reduces spoilage.

Veggie List & Veggie Notes

Asparagus, 1 lb
Carrots, ~2.5 lb
Green leaf lettuce
Spinach, 1 bunch
Bok choy, 1 head
Arugula, 1 bunch
Salad radishes, 1 bunch
Green garlic, 1 bunch
Rhubarb, 1.5 lb

Next week’s box will probably contain asparagus, lettuce, spinach, leafy greens, radishes, green garlic and more.

ASPARAGUS – This is my favorite spring treat!  
Prep: Wash your asparagus thoroughly to remove hidden grit.  Submerge in water with the tips pointing down, soak briefly, then swish vigorously and pull out of the water.  The draining action helps pull the grit out of the asparagus tips.  Repeat several times.
Storage: Asparagus is perishable, so eat it as soon as possible.  Store in a paper towel, cloth or paper bag, then wrap loosely in a plastic bag.  The paper bag protects the asparagus tips from direct contact with the plastic bag.  The plastic bag keeps the asparagus from wilting.
Preparation: We snap our asparagus at harvest, rather than cutting.  Therefore, there is no need to snap the stalks to remove fibrous ends.  For the same reason, it is not necessary to peel the asparagus stalks.  It’s OK to trim the cut end a bit.
Cooking:  If your asparagus stalks vary greatly in size, you will want to cook the thicker ones longer.  Put an empty steamer pot over water, and bring the water to a boil.  Add the asparagus.  Cover and steam over medium heat until just tender.  Use two forks or a spatula to turn the asparagus during cooking, rotating the bottom spears to the top.  Drain and serve.  Alternatively, you can lay spears flat in the bottom of a broad pan, with ½ inch of water.  Also excellent broiled or grilled.  Good dressed with vinaigrette, or with lime juice, salt and pepper.

CARROTS – These colorful carrots are from our excellent crop harvested in fall, then stored over the winter.  You’ll get any two (or three!) of these colors: orange, purple, red, or yellow.  Don’t be surprised to see small roots.  They will rub off when you wash and/or peel your carrots.
Storage:  Keep refrigerated!  They want to grow! 

GREEN LEAF LETTUCE – The lettuce very tender so handle gently.  
Storage:  Refrigerate in a bag or other container.

SPINACH – This spinach is good for salads or for cooking.
Storage: Refrigerate in a bag or other container.

BOK CHOY (rosette with thick white stems and green leaves) – This Asian green is good for stir-frying or sautéing or in soup. You can think of the stems and leaves as two separate vegetables. The stems require longer cooking. The leaves will cook almost as quickly as spinach. Bok choy stores well, so feel free to pull off leaves as you need them, or use the whole head at once.
Storage: Refrigerate in a plastic bag or other container.

ARUGULA – (bunch of green leaves with pungent scent) – This is a spring treat!  Arugula is good mixed with lettuce or spinach in salads, or added to cooked dishes such as lasagne or quiche.  I love it on sandwiches.  
Storage:  Refrigerate. 

SALAD RADISHES – These are great in salads or thinly sliced on sandwiches. 
Storage: Cover and refrigerate.

GREEN GARLIC (looks like scallions, tastes like garlic) – Last fall, we planted garlic cloves that grew into the stalks we harvested this week.  If left to grow until mid-summer, the slim white bulb on this week’s garlic will divide and form the usual cluster of cloves in a garlic bulb.
Preparation: Green garlic is more pungent than scallions, so slice thinly and use sparingly when raw.  It mellows when cooked.  Chop and add to any cooked dish that would benefit from garlic.  Use the white bulbs and pale green stems.  Don’t use the dark green stems and leaves, as these are fibrous.

RHUBARB – Storage: Refrigerate in a plastic bag.
Stewed rhubarb: This is the simplest way to prepare rhubarb. Chop rhubarb into one inch chunks. Stir over medium heat with a small amount of water in the bottom of the pan. The rhubarb will release moisture as it cooks. Stew until it softens and falls apart. Sweeten to taste with honey or sugar. Eat warm on its own, over vanilla ice cream, on pancakes, etc.
Storage:  Refrigerate.
Preserve: Rhubarb is extremely easy to freeze. Wash, chop and pop it in a freezer bag. That’s it; no need for blanching. When baking muffins or cakes, add the frozen rhubarb directly to the batter.

RECIPES from DEB

Rhubarb and Brown Sugar Skillet Pork Chops

From The Kitchn

This rhubarb sauce would also be delicious on boneless chicken breasts, that you could sauté using the same procedure as the pork chops. For a pinker sauce, you could omit the soy sauce – taste for salt – and sub white sugar or honey for the brown sugar.
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Peppery Greens Salad with Avocado, Chicken, and Tortilla Croutons

By Justin Chapple for Food and Wine

Here’s a main course salad recipe that you can make with a combination of the arugula, spinach, and lettuce from this week’s box, about 8 1/2 cups of greens all together. The recipe suggests toasting flour tortillas that have been brushed with oil directly on the rack in your oven. If you don’t want to risk a smoky mess, put the tortillas on a cooling rack placed on a cookie sheet to protect your oven! Broken, purchased, corn or pita chips would also work to add crunch to your salad.
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Rhubarb-Walnut Quick Bread Recipe

From King Arthur Baking

In this recipe the rhubarb is cooked briefly before being mixed into the bread batter, which improves the texture of the finished bread. Unless you have 3-4 very skinny stalks to decorate the top, I recommend splitting the stalks lengthwise.
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Bok Choy and Radishes

From Taste of Home

I think we often forget that cooked radishes are tasty, and this simple, spring-y stirfry combining radishes and Bok Choy reminds us. The recipe calls for lemon-pepper seasoning, but if that’s not on your spice rack, regular black pepper alone or with some grated lemon zest or a squish of lemon juice will work just as well.
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Carrot Tart

By Erin Merhar for The Pioneer Woman

Photo by Will Dickey
Roast the carrots from this week’s box and turn them into this elegant but easy tart with a purchased puff pastry crust. The recipe suggests using a soft garlic and herb cheese, such as Boursin, along with some grated Monterey Jack, but you could sub in other soft or grated cheeses depending on what you have on hand.
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Spring Pasta with Peas and Asparagus

From Cookie and Kate

This recipe calls for a cup of fresh herbs, such as parsley and mint. Tossing in a combination of washed and roughly torn or chopped spinach and/or arugula leaves and sliced green garlic will add flavor in place of the herbs. I suggest adding the greens and garlic at the same time as the asparagus and peas.
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Spicy Pork Bowls with Bok Choy & Broccoli

From Dishing Up the Dirt

Dishing Up the Dirt created this recipe for the transition season from summer to fall, but it works just as well in the transition from spring to summer! You can purchase broccoli to add to your bowls or use asparagus and arugula or spinach. Garnish with fresh radishes, and use sliced green garlic in the marinade. If you don’t eat pork, sub ground turkey or chicken, or crumbled tofu for vegetarians.
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