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Week 6 from Valley Flora!

Beet Box -

Week 6 from Valley Flora! Fava Beans! Beets! Dill!
Thanks for eating locally from our family farm!
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What's Cookin' at the Farm...
  • Favas - Beets - Dill
  • Tamales this Week!
  • Delivery Van Woes
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What's In Your Share This Week:*
  • Cylindra Beets
  • Broccoli
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Head Lettuce
  • Strawberries
  • Dill
  • Fava Beans
  • Bunch Carrots
  • Red Ursa Kale
On Rotation:
(Some locations will receive it this week; others in a future week)
  • Broccolini
  • Possibly green cauliflower...
*Harvest Basket contents may vary between pickup sites in a given week depending on what's ripe and ready on the farm. Don't worry - if something is on the list but not in your tote, you'll get it soon!

The VF Crystal Ball - What Might be in your Share Next Week...
  • Carrots
  • Purplette Onions?
  • Broccoli
  • Lettuce
  • Strawberries
  • Basil?
  • Fava Beans
  • Zucchini
  • Collards?
  • Cucumbers?
  • Cauliflower?
Favas - Beets - Dill
Those of you who are familiar with fava beans probably know them more as a cover crop you plant in your garden in the fall, but you also know that after those those tall, grey-green plants bloom their ambrosial, bee-attracting bloom, they make big fat pods. And inside the cottony cushion of those pods (see above), are big fat beans wrapped in a light green skin. And if you peel away that light green skin (you can learn how to do this most efficiently here), you come to a bright green bean that is tender and delicious. Kind of a process, yes, but worth it. I'd approach the pile of favas in your tote  as a weekend adventure, when you have a little more time to play in the kitchen (and ideally have friends and family over to help you de-pod and de-skin them).

Once you get your beans prepped, the sky's the limit. Here's a gallery of recipes to stoke your creative juices: 19 Fava Bean Recipes from Epicurious.

The totes are getting a little less green and fluffy and a little more dense and coloful thanks to the root crops that are starting to size up on the farm. Beets for all this week! One thing I've learned after a decade of doing the CSA is that there are controversial vegetables and beets are one of them. Some of you will no doubt thrilled to see them this week and some of you will be downright disgusted. Studies show that in the case of kids, who always have strong opinions about food, it takes 20 tries before they will learn to like something that they are dead-set against eating. You might put yourself up to the 20-Try Challenge if you're wrinkling your nose at beets this week. And as a little aside, our raw beets are one of kids' favorite things when school groups come to the farm for fieldtrips each spring and fall and get to taste things in the field. If the second graders can do it (and love it), so can you! And of course, if all else fails, there's always chocolate beet cake (and it's even gluten free).
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Tamales this Week!
We'll be delivering tamale shares in marked blue coolers this week. Please only take tamales if you have signed up for them. Thanks!
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Delivery Van Woes
Some of you may have noticed the absence of the Valley Flora delivery van on the road these past few weeks. The timing chain went out three weeks ago and our mechanic has been beset by problems getting the parts to fix it. We've been cobbling it together with rented U-hauls and vans (a big thank you to Joe Pestana of Costpro Direct for letting us use his van on Saturdays, and to Amelia for her good-natured ability to take it as it comes on her Wednesday delivery route, which has been thoroughly upended the past three weeks!). If anyone has a spare van or box truck lying around that they want to rent to us until we resolve this problem, email me!
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The Farmstand is Open for Summer Hours!
 
Every Wednesday & Saturday
9 am to 2 pm
Rain or shine!

Fresh Produce
U-Pick Strawberries & Flowers
Homemade Jam & Hot Sauce

Please bring your own bags and u-pick containers if possible!

Directions to the Farm
For Recipes & Cooking Inspiration:
 
Valley Flora Recipe Wizard
Our own collection of recipes gathered over the years.
 
Epicurious
A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients
 
Full Belly Farm
Recipes from one of my favorite farms in California, pioneers of the organic movement since the 80s.

Farm Fresh to You
A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient.
 
Helsing Junction Farm
A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes geared toward CSA members.
Copyright © 2019 Valley Flora, All rights reserved.


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Week 5 from Valley Flora!

Beet Box -

Week 5 from Valley Flora! Broccoli! Cauliflower! Cabbage!
Thanks for eating locally from our family farm!
View this email in your browser
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What's Cookin' at the Farm...
  • Broccoli at last!
  • New Produce: Cabbage, Bunch Carrots, Cauliflower
  • Flower Shares!
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What's In Your Share This Week:*
  • Baby Arugula
  • Green Cone Cabbage
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Head Lettuce
  • Strawberries
  • Cilantro
  • Broccoli
  • Bunch Carrots
  • Purple Cauliflower
On Rotation:
(Some locations will receive it this week; others in a future week)
  • Nothing this week...
*Harvest Basket contents may vary between pickup sites in a given week depending on what's ripe and ready on the farm. Don't worry - if something is on the list but not in your tote, you'll get it soon!

The VF Crystal Ball - What Might be in your Share Next Week...
  • Carrots
  • Beets?
  • Broccoli
  • Dill
  • Lettuce
  • Strawberries
  • Snap Peas
  • Fava Beans
  • Red Ursa Kale
Broccoli, at last!
It's a few weeks late, but the broccoli is finally here! Our early plantings were set back by spring slug damage - an issue I've never seen before in any of the hundreds of broccoli plantings we've set out into the field over the years. I experienced a few worried weeks back in early May when I wondered if our first plantings were ever going to bounce back from their slug-razing, but a little warmth and long sunny days finally did the trick. Now, of course, we are headed into a broccoli pile-up of epic proportions since our early plantings are maturing in sync with our mid-season plantings. Which is all to say, it's time to bust out your favorite broccoli recipes. Broccoli Caesar anyone (sub your green cabbage for the Napa cabbage)? Or peruse this diverse collection of broccoli recipes from Epicurious.

Our spring broccoli season tends to run through July, so it'll be a staple in your share for at least the next month. Enjoy!
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New Produce
Bunch Carrots: Our first spring seeding of carrots also suffered a setback when we got six inches of cold rain over a few days in April. Some of the seed simply rotted in the ground, and some germinated and then got mowed down by - yes, you guessed it - slugs. We re-seeded as soon as we could but ultimately fell a few weeks shy of my goal to have freshly-dug carrots year-round on the farm. We're back in 'em now and if all goes according to plan, you should see carrots every single week for the rest of the season - even some rainbow carrots here and there!

Green Cone Cabbage: I love this whimsical cabbage variety for lots of reasons. As a farmer, I love how early it matures and how sure-heading and consistent it is. As an eater, I love how tender and sweet it is, and how easy it is to cut up in the kitchen. You'll see six or seven different types of cabbage from now until December, but only this one will make you want to get on You Tube and pull up some old Saturday Night Live Conehead skits.

Purple Cauliflower: This one snuck up on us! A week ago they were but lavender buttons wrapped in the cozy embrace of big-framed cauliflower leaves. Then, BAM!, on Tuesday we were filling bins with neon cauliflower (a lot can happen in a few long days around the summer solstice!). I love this variety because it stays purple when you cook it.
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Flower Shares!
Flower shares are officially on! If you are signed up for flowers, look for a separate weekly email from Amelia. Remember to take your bouquet home each week, and please only take flowers if you have signed up for them.
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The Farmstand is Open for Summer Hours!

 
Every Wednesday & Saturday
9 am to 2 pm
Rain or shine!

Fresh Produce
U-Pick Strawberries & Flowers
Homemade Jam & Hot Sauce

Please bring your own bags and u-pick containers if possible!

Directions to the Farm
For Recipes & Cooking Inspiration:
 
Valley Flora Recipe Wizard
Our own collection of recipes gathered over the years.
 
Epicurious
A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients
 
Full Belly Farm
Recipes from one of my favorite farms in California, pioneers of the organic movement since the 80s.

Farm Fresh to You
A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient.
 
Helsing Junction Farm
A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes geared toward CSA members.
Copyright © 2019 Valley Flora, All rights reserved.


unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences 

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