CSA Week Two

News from the field:

Dry dry dry. Any rain this week will be welcome. When it gets dry the veggies start to slow down a bit, so the broccoli, zucchini, and peas are almost there, but not quite. That means a bounty of early greens and salad! The mesclun is here now, as it the arugula, and garlic scapes too. And there are even a few tomatoes starting to turn red in the greenhouse for the weeks to come. Enjoy!

In the Basket:

Mesclun - Ahh the salad days of summer. Two bags this week to celebrate. Enjoy salads every night, stuff it in your sandwich, try pasta with mesclun (recipe on the blog).

Arugula - This is a peppery, tender green. Italians eat a salad of arugula, shaved parmesan cheese, and fruity extra virgin olive oil. Or sprinkle it over a crisp hot pizza right after taking it out of the oven. We like making it into pesto: Put two cloves of peeled garlic in the food processor, process till it is finely chopped and stuck to the sides of the processing bowl. Stuff the food processor full of arugula, add some olive oil and process, adding oil till you have a very a thick liquid. Add grated parmesan cheese and toasted nuts (we used peanuts because it was all we had but almonds or pine nuts would be more appropriate), toss with hot pasta, top with more grated cheese and enjoy. Waverly ate this up and it was a great way to get a lot of greens into her.

Cucumbers - One long ridged English cucumber, one regular.

Salad turnips - Eat raw with dip, in a salad with the mesclun, as a sandwich layer, or even like an apple.

Chard - I got Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone for Christmas last year, and here’s what she suggests for chard: slice the leaves off the stems, wash them well, coarsely chop. Drop them into boiling water, cook till tender, drain, press out excess moisture with the back of a spoon, toss with extra virgin olive oil or butter, salt and pepper. Or turn the cooked, drained greens into a skillet in which you’ve heated olive oil with a crushed garlic and a pinch or two of red pepper flakes.

Garlic scapes - Scapes have a bright, springy flavor with a coarse, tough texture. So the trick is figuring out a way to soften them without losing their flavor or making them mushy. We usually just puree them (raw) in the food processor with olive oil and then use that base in various ways – thinned with olive oil to make a dipping sauce for crusty bread, add cheese and nuts for pesto, tossed with potatoes for roasting, add vinegar and oil for salad dressing, etc. My friend Chris finds that way to be too gritty, and he’s come up with more elegant uses; recipes are here. Thanks Chris!! If anyone else has recipes to share, please do!!!