Fellow CSA members, your patience has paid off!  This week brings the best share we have had yet with the first appearances of fingerling potatoes, carrots and peppers.  You might already have some standby recipes for your favorites in this week’s box, but if you do need a new idea, Shana is here to help:

Nightshade time!  This may be my favorite CSA time of the year. We are still getting greens, but not in such huge quantities and the nightshade family (my favorite) is making its debut.  Eggplant, peppers and tomatoes (soon to come) abound and the cooking possibilities explode!

I used to watch Jess make a quick dish of sautéed onions, peppers and sausage for her family and that has now become a regular in my household.  I use Wrong Direction’s Sweet Italian sausage, which is incredible, de-case it, brown it and add onions, peppers and this week I even added some of the bitter dandelion greens – yum!

Beets are here!  Both Shana and Bob are excited to put this week’s beets to good use.  Here’s Shana’s take:

Sorry for the late, and short, post this week.  We were a bit thrown off by the holiday this week.  Back to normal next week!

The run of leafy greens continues!  Fear not, those of you who are getting tired of salads for dinner, we’ll have some more veggies joining the mix soon (last year the first July delivery brought fennel, broccoli and cucumbers).  A new addition in this week’s share was frisee which may be less familiar than the other greens.  Shana shares her thoughts on frisee:

For the last several years I’ve avoided this one at the CSA or put it in the back of my fridge hoping to like it better.  Then I started having digestive issues and my nutritionist said – “Eat more bitters!”  They are really good for reducing inflammation and improving gut health.  So, I’ve been chopping them finely and eating them in heapfuls in my salad!  One thing I found to help reduce the “harshness” of bitters, both in flavor and texture, is to add tahini to a salad.  It’s creamy, high in protein and good fats and is a really nice addition.  Happy eating!

To help support the plea from her nutritionist, Shana did some further research and came across the following information about frisee:

Frisee is a salad green in the chicory family, along with Belgian endive, radicchio, and escarole. Also called curly endive, frisee lettuce has long, narrow leaves which are extremely curly. They shroud the more tender whitish stalks and yellow branches. The leaves are usually a pale to bright green, although they can have reddish hues along the edges. Frisee can be described as a bitter salad green, although it also has a slightly nutty taste.

What is the nutritional value of frisee? A green leafy vegetable, frisee is packed with nutrients, and very low in calories. It is an excellent source of folic acid, vitamin A and vitamin C, with approximately one third the daily recommended amount of each, in a single serving. Frisee lettuce is also a good source of vitamin K, and manganese.  Its vitamin A content maintains healthy eyes, moistens the skin, and acts as an antioxidant, neutralizing free radicals in the body that would otherwise damage cells Vitamin C is also a powerful antioxidant. It is necessary for the synthesis of collagen, and immune health. Vitamin K’s primary role is to prevent blood loss by forming blood clots, but it also helps to link calcium to bone. Folic acid is involved with a number of reactions, including energy production, and nerve cell development. It is one of the most essential nutrients for a healthy pregnancy. Manganese as well serves a number of functions, from body metabolism to brain health.

Like Shana, Bob likes to pre-wash and cut his frisee into smaller bite size pieces and add them to each salad he makes throughout the week, rather than trying to eat the frisee on its own.  In fact, Bob decided to use Shana’s tip from last week and washed, cut and bagged all of this week’s greens right away on Tuesday.  It may take extra time on CSA pickup day but you’ll be happy you did all the prep later in the week when you can easily throw together a side salad alongside grilled meat or maybe as an entree with your favorite toppings.

After countless vinaigrette topped dressings this month, Bob decided it was time to try something new:

I stumbled upon a homemade ranch recipe from BarefeeintheKitchen.com.  It was quickly whipped up using things I already had on hand – sour cream, mayo, buttermilk, vinegar, some herbs and spices – and proved to be a nice change of pace.  Sure it’s not the healthiest salad dressing but it was homemade and if it helps use up some of those greens, I say go for it!  The bottom of the blog post for the recipe had a few links to other dressings from the site.  Some are more involved than others, including this fantastic looking Creamy Mango Chipotle Salad Dressing, but plan ahead when grocery shopping this weekend and plan to use it next week with a few meals to make it worth the time, effort and ingredients.

That’s it for this week – thanks for reading and we’ll see you again next week!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes.  Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob.  If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com.  To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive.  You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Greens, greens and more greens!  Shana has been hearing people talk about needing to use greens quickly before they go bad. Here are some tips that she has learned over the last 9 CSA years:

1. Make sure to put your greens in a bag in the fridge, not directly in the fridge or they will wilt. I love Debbie’s Green Bags – I reuse them many times over, they protect the greens and supposedly keep nutrients in!  Here’s a link to order on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I4V1U06/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_AsDszbVS0ZY68

2. Wash, trim and store salad greens right away. I’ve found that washing and trimming salad greens on the day I get my share helps them stay longer. I put them in a large bag and make sure not to give them lots of space and not squish the greens. This makes my greens last for a week or more (depending on the green).

3. Every couple of days make sure to take your produce out, turn the bag inside out and shake out any condensation that has accumulated and put the veggies back in.

Staying on the topic of having too many greens, last week Bob decided to use some of his unused spinach in this Spinach Salad with Pancetta and Fried Eggs.  It was fantastic!  The crispy pancetta was a great texture contrast to the spinach that had slightly wilted from the heat of the fried eggs.  The runny yolk combined with the simple vinaigrette to make a rich sauce that was perfect for mopping up with some bread.  Frying eggs in oil like that was something new for Bob and lead to a nice puffy white which was studded with scallions that had first fried in the oil – that alone could become a staple weekend breakfast.  The salad serves as a vehicle to use up some of your CSA herbs (dill in this case, but just about any would work) and you could even sub out the scallions for some finely chopped garlic scapes.

We hope today’s tips are helpful and not too obvious!  Happy storing and eating!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes.  Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob.  If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com.  To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive.  You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.