2014 CSA Week 6

I'm so excited to visit the Waterstrats and their farm this Saturday during the Farm Tour! I'll take lots of pictures that I will be able to share in future blogs. It's a wonderful opportunity for CSA members to see where their food is coming from and observe the loving care with which it is tended and harvested. No wonder it tastes so delicious! Hope to make some new friends!

 
In this week's share, you will find an addition of tomatoes (yay!) and garlic scapes. I actually had to look up what a garlic scape is (can you tell I'm not a gardener?), which I've added below the chart with ways to enjoy them.

Item	How to store it	How long will it last?
Kale and Swiss chard	washed & thoroughly dried or unwashed, in fridge, sealed in container or plastic bag	2-5 days
Radishes or turnips	washed or unwashed in refrigerator	several weeks
Kohlrabi	washed or unwashed in refrigerator	1-2 weeks
Green Onions	Lightly rinsed, dried, and stored in plastic wrap of fridge container	1-2 weeks
Tomatoes	room temperature	several days
Garlic Scapes	Unwashed, loosely wrapped in plastic in the fridge	up to 2 weeks

Kale and chard - With the temperatures cooling and the rain this week, a nice Kale Soup is in order. My mom used to make it Portuguese-style. She would keep a pot going on the stove for days, continually adding ingredients almost as fast as we would enjoy bowl after bowl! I grew up in Massachusetts and went to college near New Bedford, which became known as the "Portuguese capital of the world" after immigrants started arriving in the 1800s for the whaling industry. Follow this link for a little history: http://www.whalingmuseum.org/learn/research-topics/cultural-communities. Chourico sausage is key to the flavor, though you can substitute Kielbasa, which my mom would often do. Here's a recipe claiming to be close to authentic: http://easy.betterrecipes.com/portuguese-kale-soup-new-bedford-style.html

Turnips - Did you know they are full of vitamin C? They are also very low calorie!
Kohlrabi - Can be eaten raw or cooked, and taste similar to broccoli stems. Just peel and slice!
Green onions - Chopped in salads, stir fry, or throw some in the soup!
Tomatoes - Amazing! I've been waiting for these since the last one appeared in my share last season! I love them sliced, chopped for salads, and, added to the soup!

Garlic scapes - OK, here's mystery solved! These tender tendrils are the "flower stalks" of hardneck garlic plants, according to About.com. They can be chopped and added to salads, sauteed lightly and served over pasta, mixed with cooking greens, or in any dish complemented by garlic. There's even a recipe for a garlic scape pesto on this site: http://gardening.about.com/od/herbsatoz/a/What-Are-Garlic-Scapes.htm

See you Saturday!
~Nancy