Locavores CSA April 15, 2013

What's in the box?

There were a few asparagus, and a few artichokes and a few eggs, so if you got one of these, you didn't get the other.  Also, lettuce, Swiss Chard, wildings, rhubarb, Turnips (last of), carrots, spring onions, Spinach, kale chips, mint,  last of the Blood Oranges, last of last year's garlic, and this week's special gift:  Soap! Also if you have a box, roses.

Soap:

Well it's time for spring cleaning.  You all scrub up so nicely!  My friend Tina raises goats in Alaska, and I promised her I'd send some of her luffa goat soap to my CSA.  I love her soap and have it stashed in drawers all over the house.  I particularly like this soap when I come out of the garden.  I get really really dirty and this helps me clean up.

Wildings:

In the wildings

In days gone by, we used to have these women who would come out the farm each Spring and gather all the mache and lambs quarters and amaranth that came up.   So this year I gathered up some of these for you along with a little portulaca.  Sprinkle some in a salad,  put them in soup.  Since the plant contains oxalic acid, it should be cooked in a steel pan, not in aluminum.  lambs quarters are loaded with vitamins A, C, K and potassium, calcium and iron.

Rhubarb
This is the very first of the early rhubarb.  I'll post some recipes later.  This is champagne rhubarb and another strain from our Greenville house, which we have no idea, but we think some sort of Victoria cross.  This early rhubarb is not as red as folks expect.  But every bit as tasty.  I have never found a recipe for making Rhubarb Champagne, or even Rhubarb Wine.

Artichokes

These are new plants this year.  So, we won't get as many as last year, but next year, they should be really productive.  Right now the Pugliese and the Romanesco are both making thistles.  Hold these firmly at the bottom and hack off the spines, or use a pair of scissors and snip them off before cooking.  Ouch, these hurt to pick!  The French artichokes will be a bit later than these Italian ones.  I'm keeping track of who got these, so I can make sure everyone gets them. Also, I'd like to thank those folks across the pond who went through a lot of trouble to help me get some great artichoke varieties! 

Kale Chips

There's 2 kinds, I don't know which you got.  One is terriyaki, and one is just cider vinegar.  What to do with them...sprinkle them on salad, put them in a soup.  Last year some folks loved these and some folks hated them.  Chose your camp.  One CSA member even asked for the recipe and went to the market, bought kale and made jars of these.  They ate them straight out of the jar.   I'm a soup girl myself.  You can hide anything in soup. 

Have a great week.  As you work through the veges, hang the bags out to dry and return them in your box, next week.  They also can be washed in the washing machine and dried in the dryer.  Also, please return the jars with the rings.  The rings help the jar edges from getting chipped.
 
See you next Monday.  Have a great week.