CSA for Thursday, July 18, 2013

'Red Sails' lettuce.

A nice, light shower last night - didn't really water the gardens in any big way but it's keeping the dust down and it was a nice cool start to the morning!  We shared this great link in Tuesday's newsletter but thought we'd share it again: some great tips on keeping a wide assortment of fruits and veggies fresh.  A great review for old and new members as we start the season!  Don't know if you saw on the Facebook page but we acquired a new tool yesterday:  a commercial size salad spinner!  Should help to get you drier greens, but they'll still need another rinse when you get them home....they're pretty 'fresh from the field' and we do rinse them but, especially after rain, may still have a wee bit of soil on them!  One of our big 'things' about keeping your share of the harvest is get things out of plastic bags - especially items we have rinsed such as salad greens.  Water + plastic is just a home for mold!

If you're not familiar with them, garlic scapes are in all the boxes this week.  This is a one-time thing using the flowering stems of the garlic.  It's a nice, fresh garlic taste best used raw.  If you want to cook with them in something like a stir-fry, finish your dish, remove from the heat then add the scapes.  They're awesome mushed up with a soft cheese for a garlic/cheese spread or dip.  They also make an excellent pesto, here's a link here.  It's super on pasta or toast!

Not a huge harvest to start the season, but the lettuces are very nice this year!  More goodies are coming quickly now.....if anyone wants to help the next couple of weeks we could really use some volunteers to help pick raspberries and beans the morning of pick up (or Tuesday, if you don't mind to harvest for our other families).  There's always bonuses for volunteers.....

So, this week:

FULL SHARES:  Large bag of 'Grand Rapids' loose leaf lettuce (the bright green frilly stuff!), large bag of 'Red Sails' loose leaf lettuce, large bag of 'Buttercrunch' Bibb lettuce, red onions, radishes, garlic scapes.

PART SHARES:  Medium bag of 'Grand Rapids' loose leaf lettuce, medium bag of 'Red Sails' loose leaf lettuce, medium bag of 'Buttercrunch' Bibb lettuce, red onions, radishes, garlic scapes.

SINGLE SHARES:  Small bag of 'Grand Rapids' loose leaf lettuce, small bag 'Red Sails' loose leaf lettuce, small bag of 'Buttercrunch' Bibb lettuce, red onions, radishes, garlic scapes.

Enjoy!

Garlic Scapes: Get Them While You Can!

If you love garlic, you will love garlic scapes.  It's a short-lived delight, available for a couple of weeks early in Summer.  We always say it's what gets us through until the garlic bulbs are ready later in the summer!  Not familiar with scapes?  Lots of people aren't.  We took them to both the Friday Night Farmers Market and the Saturday Morning Market at Riverbank Discovery Centre this week.  A few people were delighted to see them; most asked what the 'curly' thing was!  Love introducing people to something new at the Farmers Market!

Garlic scapes are the flowering stocks of garlic plants.  They should be removed so that more energy goes into the formation of the bulb.  The upside to all that work is that they are delicious eating!  Milder than a garlic clove but stronger than garlic chives with a fresh, almost sweet flavor, this first cut will be very tender and awesome for fresh eating on salads, in a tuna salad, salsa and such.  They are also great for cooking, although they should be added later in the cooking as they are a little delicate.  Perfect for sautes, stir-fries, in omelettes; we diced them and put them on a pizza with shaved asparagus a few nights ago.  Yummy!  Later today, we're doing a garlic scape pesto from this recipe, which has almonds instead of pinenuts.  On the food blogs, they're pickling them!  Very useful for the garlic lover, but in another week they are all gone.  We'll have them at Tuesdays' Neighborhood Country Market, and the last cuts will be available at the Friday Night Farmers Market and Saturdays Farmers Market at Riverbank Discovery Centre.  Have you tried garlic scapes?