Produce Subscription (Week 22)

Welcome to the first week of the season! Your boxes will be in their respective drop site locations by 9am Wednesday. (Dropsite Location Details) Find the box with your name and have at it!

If you have any questions, please call Roger on his delivery phone 626 488 5437 (if before 10a) and the farm phone 715 426 7582 (if after 10am).

Greens and storage roots in your boxes this week; winter-spring combo!

Pea shoots A quick hit of a green springtime seedling! They come but once a year. Green smoothie, quick flash braise, salad, sandwich topping…versatile and unique.

Braising greens, triple bunch A variety of flavors; pair them with a tangy barbeque sauce + protein of your choice. (Sorry, I forgot to photo these fellas. You’ll recognize them!)

Lettuce A pint-sized romaine and a big fluffy leaf-lettuce!

Spinach, Red Kitten A little different look to this variety with its red veins. But same old spinach and its plethora of nutritional bennies! Spinach

Parsnips These are perfect for some freezer pot-pies. Dice with other roots, make up a simple roux for a mellow gravy and fold it all in a nice crust. Bake and freeze. Or freeze and bake.

Potatoes, Purple majesty What a name for a potato, huh?!

Boc choi, red and green Flash braise in a pan with a little sesame oil, cover and steam. Serve under Honey Sesame Wheatmeat

Radish, red rover Spring crunch and a little sweet bite!
Chives Keep it simple with potatoes and chives.

Recipes for your consideration

A little time consuming to make, but well worth the effort. If you’d like to use as a main course, consider increasing the recipe and adding a protein (the Kielbasa Tofurky-brand sausage, diced, nice)

Greens Risotto

1 tsp sea salt
1 cup cooked greens (mustard, spinach, kale, chard, wild greens, pea shoots)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, minced (alternate: chives, green onion, onion)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup Arborio/risotto rice
2-3 cup vegetable broth, divided
1/2 cup dry white wine (optional)
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp margarine (Earth Balance brand is nice)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a spoonful of salt.
Put the greens into the boiling water. Stir the greens and let boil for about 3-5 min. Remove the greens with a skimmer or tongs and immediately dump them into a big bowl of ice water. Once the greens are cool, drain them in a colander.
Roll up the greens in a cloth or tea towel. Twist one end of the cloth one way, then the other end of the cloth the other (like a candy wrapper) and squeeze out as much moisture as you can.
Chop the greens finely (don’t use a food processor, or you will get mush). The finer you chop, the smoother your risotto will be. Remove any stray stems.
Melt 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large saucier or heavy pot over medium-high heat; add the shallot. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring often.
Add the garlic and the rice and stir to combine. Stirring constantly, cook everything for a minute or so or until all the rice is well coated with margarine.
Stir 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 cup of the vegetable stock into the rice and increase heat to high. When the rice starts boiling strongly, turn down the heat to medium and stir often, at least every minute or so, until the rice absorbs the stock. Repeat with a second cup of stock.
When the second cup is absorbed, add the greens and the third cup of stock. If using store-bought broth, switch to water for this third cup—otherwise your risotto could become too salty. Stir well to combine. Keep stirring constantly to develop the creaminess in the risotto and to distribute the greens evenly. Let the stock absorb well. Add white wine and allow to absorb, stir well.
Add additional salt, if desired. The risotto may need another full cup of stock or water, as you want the dish to be loose, not firm (and you will need at least a little more stock to loosen the risotto for the nutritional yeast).
Add tablespoon of margarine as well as the nutritional yeast. Stir everything well and let the margarine and nutritional yeast melt in the risotto for about 2 or 3 minutes, stirring often. Serve immediately.

Pea shoots come but once a year. The Tea House in St. Paul (great restaurant, by the way) has them seasonally. They are simply done. And the taste— well it’s first the texture of greens and then pea-flavor comes thru. Very odd. Very delicious.¬

Sauteed Pea Shoots
1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 lb pea shoots
1 Tbsp tamari soy sauce
1 clove garlic, crushed/minced

In a large skillet, heat oil on medium-high. Add pea shoots, soy sauce and garlic. Cover and cook for 3-5 min, until pea shoots are well wilted but still retain a bright green color. Serve immediately.

Anything with potatoes and olives has to be good! Two of my favorite things.¬

Garlicky potatoes with greens and olives

6 medium new potatoes, scrubbed
1 bunch kale, chard, spinach or mustard greens, chopped (when chopped probably 3 big handfuls)
2 Tbsp olive oil
6 cloves garlic
1/2 cup pitted Kalmata olives, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp lemon juice (or substitute seasoned rice wine vinegar)
1 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Slice potatoes thickly. Boil in hot water until just tender with fork-test. (Don’t let them fall apart to mush.) Drain and set aside.
De-stem kale (if using); chop roughly. De-stem chard (if using); chop roughly and then thinly slice the stem. (If using) spinach, just chop roughly.
Heat oil in pan, sauté garlic for just 1 minute over low heat (don’t toast it!)
Add potatoes and kale or chard (if using spinach or mustard greens, wait to add for 2-3 minutes; they don’t take as long to cook). Add ¼ cup water, turn up heat to medium-high and cook 5-7min until greens are tender but bright green.
Remove from heat and stir in olives and lemon juice/rice vinegar, sprinkle with basil and salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Simple, sweet and delicious.

Parsnips and Dill

Parsnips, peeled and sliced
Dill weed, dried
1 Tbsp olive oil
Pinch sea salt, to taste
Heat oil over medium heat in a skillet w/ a lid. Add parsnips and sauté for a few minutes.
Add enough water to pan to cover bottom 1/4 inch. Sprinkle dill weed over parsnips (as much as you like…approx 1-2 tsp). Add salt. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer.
Monitor every 3-4 minutes until water has boiled away. Allow the parsnips to cook just a little bit longer until lightly caramelized. Serve immediately.

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For Your Reading Pleasure

GOMBBS: Greens, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, Beans, and Seeds or G-BOMBS!

Click here for a brief tutorial on this list of essential foods to have in your daily diet. This spring at Farm WLIG, we are doing our part to satisfy the “G” for you. (Now you just have to eat them!)

Farm News

Well, another downpour last night. And then the mosquitoes emerged today, en mass! (So you get to hear about them for awhile.) It felt like a muggy rainforest day all during harvest. A quick trip up the hill on the ATV to scope out morel mushrooms was just what we needed to dry off from the steamy day.

Flea beetles are out in record numbers; they have foiled our fabric row covers, and we are hesitant to use chemicals (even natural ones) to knock them out. We can’t seem to figure out how to reduce their populations, and just end up feeding them our boc choi, arugula, kale, mesclun. Gets depressing after awhile. We apologize for the lacy appearance of the various greens in your boxes this week…

So as not to end on that lousy note, morel mushroom season is just about to start (we hope). If we can find enough of the wee-little wild beasties, we will offer them on the market. Stay tuned.

Please bring your boxes back next week. Reduce – Reuse – Recycle (thanks!)

Have a wonderful week, and enjoy the vegetables.

Roger and Lara