Today's Veggies

What’s for supper?  For lunch today, we had a large salad with lettuces, radishes, the last of the green onions and the first of the carrots, along with pasta salad with pesto and roasted veggies from the freezer / last year’s bounty.  

You have a large amount of mixed lettuces for salad this week.  They are triple-washed and just need a quick rinse and spin as we can’t sell ‘ready to eat’ items from the Farm.  There’s also a large amount of Cherry Belle Radishes.  These still taste sweet to me.  Radishes get hot and spicy as the weather heats up.  

Chive Blossoms are edible.  Use whenever a light onion flavor and aroma is desired. Separate the florets and enjoy the mild, onion flavor in a variety of dishes.

They can be a nice addition to a salad:  crumble the bloom petals right into your salad.  Kids usually get a kick out of eating flowers. Or try the recipe below!

The fresh Dill Weed is good for flavoring salads and veggie dips, or making salad dressing.  Dill is also good in scrambled eggs.

If you have been in our CSA in past years, you are familiar with Kale.  This is White Russian Kale, a standard variety.  We grow 3 different kinds.  My favorite way to prepare it is to prep the Kale by washing it, removing some of the large stems, and chopping it into smaller pieces.  Then sauté onions and garlic (green garlic?) and add the kale after about 4-5 minutes.  Saute for about another 5-10 minutes.  I usually then turn off the burner and cover the pot.  The kale will be ready to eat in about 5 minutes or so.  You can just flavor it with salt and pepper, or toasted sesame oil and rice wine vinegar, or tamari.  Chopped Kale can also be added to any soup, casserole or stew dish.

The Pak Choi isn't as pretty as we like to grow them.  The taste should be fine.  We'll try to get them sprayed with the biological spray soon so the next harvest looks better.  They have been covered with row cover for bug prevention.

Recipe for today is below.  If we'd been thinking through this CSA business from the start, we would have planted a quarter acre of asparagus the first year so we'd have asparagus for all of you!  You'll have to get your asparagus from elsewhere (organic is available at Sweetwater Local Foods Market).

Asparagus with Sesame & Chive Blossoms

Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 8 min

Ingredients:

1 pound asparagus, washed, trimmed, and cut diagonally into 1-inch lengths
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
About 16 chive blossoms, stems removed to separate flowers
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
Salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste
A few whole chive blossoms for garnish 

Preparation:

Blanch the asparagus in lightly salted boiling water for about 3 minutes or until crisp-tender; do not overcook. Remove from heat and refresh under cold water; drain well.  (Patrice's note:  I would skip this part and just plan to sauté the asparagus a little bit longer).

In a large frying pan over medium heat, heat the olive oil; add sesame seeds and stir for 1 minutes. Add asparagus and soy sauce with salt and pepper; stir well, cover, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

Remove the lid, sprinkle the chive blooms over and asparagus, and cover for 1 to 2 minutes so that the chive blooms steam briefly. Remove from heat. Stir lightly and taste for seasoning. Serve hot. Garnish each plate with a whole blossom or the serving dish with a few.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.