Week Five

Greetings to all our members!  We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their produce and flowers.  It's been fairly quite on the feedback front, so we're going to optimistically assume everyone is enjoying the CSA so far.  We are shocked we're already at week 5, a quarter of the way through the subscription.  It's so strange how time shifts during the season.  May is such a physically demanding time and it goes by so fast, but, by August, time has slowed and things become more mentally challenging for us than physically.  We are in disbelief that May is over and June is before us.  June, the month of the summer solstice, the month where heat and humidity tend to slip in, the month of potatoes, squash, cucumbers, weeds, the end of things spring, and the joy of no longer having to pick strawberries.  And much more I'm sure.   
We'll be harvesting our onions and potatoes soon, so I thought we'd have a sneak preview with these pictures for everyone to keep you excited about things to come in the near future.  We'll also start harvesting our garlic this week; we have two kinds, elephant garlic which is very mild, and a California softneck variety.    

In your boxes this week: (a reminder to everyone that we have not yet harvested the produce, so there is always the chance things in the box may change at the last minute)

HALF-SHARES--

two pints peas 5

broccoli 2

squash 4

lettuce 2

kale 2.5

collards 2

FULL-SHARE

same as half with additional:

diva cucumbers from the hoophouse 3.5

extra pint of peas 2.5

extra squash 1.5

RECIPES

We're going to assume everyone knows at this point what to do with peas, kale, and probably the broccoli as well.  There are recipes for kale and peas in our previous newsletters if you need some help with these.  

So, we'll give tips on collards.  Collards are an old-fashioned green that you will find at most traditional southern fare restuarants (in season hopefully).  Bill Smith at Crook's Corner makes some incredible collards if you're ever there for dinner and need a side item.  

For us, we usually wash then de-stem them with a knife as the stems take longer to cook, then roll up the collards like a cigar and cut on the diagonal in about half inch strips.  You're now ready to cook!  

Here is a recipe from Piedmont restaurant in Durham (from the September issue of Bon Appetit which Bluebird Meadows was in!)

Braised Collard Greens

(you won't have this many collards, so pare down the other ingredients given here)

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 lbs collard greens, thick stems trimmed, leaves coarsely chopped

2 cups low salt chicken broth

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Melt butter with olive oil in heavy large pot over medium high heat.  Add onion and garlic and saute until tender, about 6 minutes.  Add greens and saute until beginning to wilt.  Stir in broth; bring to boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until greens are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes.  Stir in vinegar.  Season with salt and pepper.  

If you want to do something more simple (as we always like simple around here), collards do not need to cook for so long as the previous recipe calls for.  We usually do a tbsp of olive oil, a tbsp of butter (we love butter, it really does add so much flavor) heated in a saute pan on medium until warm.  We then add the collards and saute for about 10-15 minutes, adding salt and a little water, and sometimes a splash of ume plum vinegar at the end to season.  You could also use apple cidar vinegar if you have it, or just leave out the vinegar.  We'll also sometimes use store-bought teriyaki sauce on the collards instead of salt and vinegar.  Usually a tbsp to 1 1/2 tbsp does the trick.  We love collard greens and we hope you try them! 

Summer Squash--These guys are super easy to cook.  They only take a few minutes to cook.  You can steam them or saute them; we usually throw ours in with our pea sautes.  We chop them up into inch by half inch pieces (but any size works really) and throw them in the same time as the peas as they both take around the same time to cook.  Here are a couple links to recipes we like from epicurious.  

Orzo with Summer Squash and Toasted Hazelnuts 

Summer Squash Saute 

 Also, if you have any recipes to share, please let us know and we'll post it for everyone.  

FLOWER SHARES:

This week we will have a beautiful and bright mixed bouquet with cosmos, electron purple dianthus, and sunflowers.  Hope you all enjoy the spring pinks.  

Thanks everyone!  Have a great week, and, as always, we welcome any comments, suggestions, and feedback.