Summer 2022 CSA - Week of June 13th
Full share: Rhubarb, radishes, bok choy, green garlic, spinach, lettuce mix, microgreens, rosemary
Half share: Rhubarb, green garlic, spinach, lettuce mix, microgreens, rosemary
Hello everyone!
If you are receiving this email, congratulations! You are officially a Summer 2022 Gallatin Valley Botanical CSA member. Each week for the next 17 you will receive a box of fresh, local, organic produce grown and harvested less than five miles from downtown Bozeman. If this is your first summer with us, welcome. If you’re a returning member, welcome back! Either way, we are so excited to have you in our community of healthy, well fed, small farm-supporting Bozemanites and we can’t wait to share all of the unique and exciting parts of our farm with you this season.
Every week along with your produce you’ll receive an email like this one detailing the contents of your box along with farm notes and updates, relevant produce storage tips, and a few recipe suggestions to help you make the most of that week’s veggies. The newsletter will be sent out and posted on our website on Tuesdays (view the full archive here) along with a pickup reminder, but if you get your box on a different day, you’ll receive a reminder email that day as well.
CSA pickup breakdown:
If you’ve signed up to pick up at the farm on Tuesdays (2-6pm) or Saturdays (8am-12pm), you’ll be participating in a market style pickup. This means we’ll have all of the week’s produce laid out in the market stand for you to choose, along with a swap box if you’d like to make any substitutions or exchanges. If you happen to miss your pickup window, premade boxes will be stored in the cold room for 3 days.
If you are not doing farm pickup, you will retrieve your box from your pre-selected location.
If you miss your time at (for example) GVLT, you miss out on your box for that week. Boxes from other locations will not be returned to the farm. No exceptions.
Market style pickup in action!
CSA produce tips and recipes
Most weeks I like to choose two items from the box and do a deeper dive on their descriptions and ideal storage conditions. I’ve talked about rhubarb, radishes, and microgreens in the past, scroll down on the hyperlinks to read more about those!
Green garlic: Green garlic is harvested before the plant reaches full maturity and has a milder, fresher, and sweeter taste than regular hardnecked garlic. It can be stored wrapped in a damp paper towel in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for around a week, or in a glass jar with its stems in an inch or so of water. The whole plant is edible, so whatever you don’t use in your cooking can be saved for stock or added to a soup. Cooking ideas here.
Bok choy: Lasts around a week wrapped in a damp paper towel or stored in a plastic bag in the crisper. “Sweet and tender. Diced, it makes a nice addition to salads… very good sauteed with ginger, garlic, butter and toasted sesame oil. Try to use the juicy white part in the hottest part of the pan or grill. Brief cooking keeps the streams and leaves most flavorful and crisp” (Eating With the Seasons - Note: I’m putting in an order for a few of these books since folks have expressed interest, let me know in person or in a note on the check-off sheet if you’d like one! There’s a copy in the lending library too.)
Recipes:
A rhubarb crisp feels like the perfect complement to a week like this. It’s warm, it’s comforting, it can do no wrong. We made this one last night and substituted raspberries for the strawberries and it was out of this world. There’s also a recipe bookmarked in one of the lending library books that looks amazing! If you’re looking for more creative rhubarb options, definitely check out the newsletter from the week of 5/30 — the Curried Lentils with Rhubarb Compote would also be a wonderfully warming way to put your stalks to use!
We also added half an orange to our crisp (amazing) and then used the other half in the salad we had for dinner. This Radish, Orange, and Avocado Salad (also from a lending library book, bookmarked in the market stand) sounds delicious:
2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large avocado, cubed
2 large oranges
1 bunch radishes, thinly sliced
In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil. Add the avocado and toss gently.
Cut the rind off the oranges. Cut from blossom to stem end into quarters then crosswise into ½ inch slices. Add the orange slices and radishes to the bowl. Season with salt and pepper and toss.
Serve immediately!
Thanks for reading and get ready for a great summer!
Sasha (market stand manager, say hi if you see me!)