2014 CSA Week 4

Good morning!
I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day holiday weekend!

I'm writing this blog from Massachusetts, where I'm visting family and friends. I grew up outside of Boston, and every year our family made the pilgrimage south to visit family on "the farm," where I now live. You can say that literally "I bought the farm." Though I just have two acres of the original 600, I do live in the historic home place, of which I'm extremely proud.

One of my fondest memories of visiting family in Russell County, is the strawberries that my grandfather grew. It became my favorite food when I cleaned out the supply he put up in the freezer. I still remember the sweet syrupy goodness created from the sugar coated sliced berries. To this day, I can't get enough! Thanks to Ford and family, there is an abundance of these naturally sweet berries continuing into this week's CSA!

In addition, he will have a variety of wonderful greens, and crunchy radishes and kohlrabi.

~ Nancy

In your share this week...

Item	How to store it	How long will it last?
Strawberries	Unwashed in fridge	2-5 days
Radishes	washed or unwashed in refrigerator	several weeks
Kohlrabi	washed or unwashed in refrigerator	several weeks
Kale or Swiss Chard	washed & thoroughly dried or unwashed, in fridge, sealed in container or plastic bag	1-2 weeks
Bok Choy	washed & thoroughly dried or unwashed, in fridge, sealed in container or plastic bag	1-2 weeks
Komatsuna (Asian green similar to Bok Choy - large, dark green leaves)	washed & thoroughly dried or unwashed, in fridge, sealed in container or plastic bag	1-2 weeks

Strawberries 
In addition to rinsing and eating fresh, sliced in a salad, or sprinkled with sugar (try powdered, too), strawberry jam is another favorite. As usual, I look for the easy recipe and found below from the website http://allrecipes.com/recipe/strawberry-jam/

Easy Strawberry Jam

Ingredients
Original recipe makes 5 cups 2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled
4 cups white sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions
In a wide bowl, crush strawberries in batches until you have 4 cups of mashed berry. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees F (105 degrees C). Transfer to hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace, and seal. Process in a water bath. If the jam is going to be eaten right away, don't bother with processing, and just refrigerate.

Radishes and Kohlrabi are both wonderful just sliced and added to salads.
Kale, Swiss Chard, Bok Choy, and Komatsuna can all be chopped and steamed or sauteed with olive oil (or, my favorite, coconut oil), onions and garlic.

The following is another recipe I discovered and plan to try.

TAHINI-SOY SAUCE GREENS
Works well with either bok choy or komatsuna

1 head bok choy or bunch komatsuna
1/4 cup tahini
1-3 tablespoon water or lemon juice
1-2 teaspoons soy sauce to taste

Wash and coarsely chop greens. Put stems into a steamer for two minutes; then add the leaves and steam for three to four minutes, until tender-crisp. Drain, pressing lightly to remove excess water. Mix the tahini, water or lemon juice, and soy sauce in a bowl. Pour the sauce over the greens and toss, or by let each person dip pieces of greens into the tahini-soy sauce.