Hello CSA members!
This week we hope to bring you beets OR carrots, hakurei turnips OR scarlet turnips, peas, kale OR collard greens OR chard, arugula and garlic. Large share members will get all of the above items as well as both beets AND carrots, lettuce and basil. We are also very excited to have cherries from First Fruits Organic Farm for the fruit share this week!
In This Week’s Newsletter:
Posted by: Maddie
You may have received our email announcement that the fruit share will be getting cherries this week. We have been very happy to hear that the Western Slope is having a great year for fruit so far. Let’s all cross our fingers that this continues! If you don’t currently have a fruit share and you would like to sign up for one, you can do so by logging in to your account at: http://csa.farmigo.com/account/redwagonorganicfarm and adding a fruit share to your subscription.
Click here to read all about the fruit share including the weekly vs. biweekly options, pricing, and what the fruit share received last year.
The CSA Experience
Posted by: Maddie
As returning CSA members will recall (and new members are learning), being part of a CSA comes with many unique delights and challenges. As members of Red Wagon’s CSA, you receive produce at the peak of its freshness, flavor and nutrition. Your veggies are harvested the same day that you receive them, and most often the people who deliver them had a hand in growing and harvesting them as well! By being part of a CSA, you are supporting your local farmer and getting the very best of what we have to offer in exchange.
Some CSA boons and battles are one in the same. This week, for example, you may choose to take home scarlet turnips in your share. Maybe you’ve been eating scarlet turnips for years, or maybe you’ve never even heard of them. Trying new things can be daunting at first, but I hope you’ll find that the rewards outweigh the challenges. You might just learn that your kids LOVE curly green kale chips, or that Mo’s turnip slaw is your new favorite dish to bring to summer potlucks.
One of my favorite quotes is as follows: “Blessed are the flexible, for they do not get bent out of shape.” One requirement for being part of a CSA is flexibility. As an example, last week we tried very hard to bring you Easter Egg radishes. This was a challenge for several reasons and we were able to harvest only a small amount for pick-up on Monday and Tuesday. Because of the warm spring weather, one planting of radishes began to bolt (or flower) sooner than expected. At the same time, most of the radishes in the later planting were still too small to harvest. I realize that many of you who may have wanted them did not get a choice of radishes, and Thursday’s pick-up did not include radishes at all, but baby carrots instead. We try hard to predict what we will have to offer each week. However, a large part of the CSA experience is eating what is available when it is available and understanding that those of us on the farm often can’t know how things will work out.
That said, we at Red Wagon appreciate the support of our CSA members immensely. We hope you know that the quality of your experience is our top priority and we could not do it without you! Thank you again for being a part of our CSA and I will see everyone at pick-up!
-Maddie
Here are some photos of our June 11th crops and harvest.
Clay, Chayo, Martha and Madi harvesting arugula.
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Beets. Eat those greens!
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Garlic.
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Posted by: Mo
They are gorgeous if nothing else. Remember ‘magenta’ in your Crayola box?
I made a couple of dishes with scarlet turnips to give you some ideas about how to use them. Scarlet turnips taste like a hakurei turnip inside; white, sweet and succulent. The scarlet outside has more of a mild bite like a radish. When you cook them they become all sweet and lose the mild spicy bite.
I made one cooked dish and one dish using the turnip raw. If you decide to cook your turnips you can use them anyway you would cook a potato or a large turnip: baked, scalloped, mashed, or braised. I braised mine.
I used this recipe but omitted the soy sauce because I wanted the white and pink color and not a brown (other than the caramelizing from the braising).
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 2-3 scarlet turnips, sliced thinly
- 1 tsp soy sauce, or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
Melt your butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the turnip slices and sauté for a few minutes until they start to brown. Add a splash of water or broth, stir, and cover with a lid to braise the turnips until tender, about 8 minutes. Check and stir them periodically. They should be golden-brown in places, almost caramelizing, when they are done, and tender all the way through. Add your soy sauce directly to the pan. Eat!
It looked like this:
Add turnips and sauté.
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Add a splash of water. That is water boiling. It looks like oil, huh?
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After the turnips have been covered with a lid and braised.
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This was dinner. Turnips, snap peas, the last of last week’s lettuce mix and an egg.
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I also made a scarlet turnip slaw with raw turnips.
Turnip Slaw
Red Wagon Farm 
