Week 5: July 5
What’s in your Share This Week?
Head lettuce
Strawberries
Raspberries
Baby Beets
Broccoli
Kohlrabi
On Rotation:
Cucumbers
The New Stuff: How to eat it, cut it, cook it, and keep it:
Beets
One of the lessons I learned last year is that there are two very distinct kinds of CSA members: beet lovers and beet haters. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to fully please either one of them. Beet lovers can’t get enough of these rich earthy roots and beg for them in EVERY basket. Meanwhile, beet haters loathe them with a passion and make special requests for us to substitute fennel or carrots or anything else in their tote (a request we unfortunately can’t fulfill).
No matter your inclination when it comes to controversial Beta vulgaris, we have posted all kinds of beet recipes on the recipe exchange, in hopes of delighting the beet lovers among you. And well, for the beet haters, I’d encourage you to at least give the Beet Chocolate Cake a chance. If sugar and chocolate can’t even convince you, then find a beet lover at your pick-up site and make their day.
We’re sending out baby and adolescent beets this week – a clever way for us to get our beet bed thinned AND get a colorful root into your baskets. There are a few wonderful things about petite beets:
1. You can steam or roast them whole for an elegant presentation.
2. Baby beets tend to be exceptionally sweet and tender.
3. The young tops are great for eating. If you remember your rainbow chard from last week, you’ll notice a close resemblance to the beet tops. Close cousins. Beet tops can be used in all the same ways as chard, spinach, or other leafy greens.
A little beta on the betabel (that’s Español):
· Beets are high in nutrients, including vitamins A & C, and also the carotenes. If you use your beet greens you’re also getting lots of vitamin C, calcium and iron. Move over Popeye.
· Beets are tremendously long storing. If you top ‘em, they’ll hold in your fridge for weeks – even months under the right conditions.
On the Farm…
Weeds, weeds, weeds! It’s a short newsletter this week because there’s a war on in the root field! We are diligently rescuing our carrots (which are late this year, but coming soon!) from the June bloom of weeds. We’re also going full steam with hoes, horses and hands in the onions, leeks, parsnips, and broccoli.
The catch 22 of all this great weather is that the weeds like to grow as fast – and often faster – than our crops. So it’s off to the furrows with me! If you like weeding, drop us a line! It’s FUN.
Sincerely,
Huck Finn
