Simple Asparagus Ideas

These two asparagus preparations don’t warrant  recipes, just a couple photos to spark meal ideas.

Here I washed and trimmed my asparagus and  pan roasted it in olive oil and salt. I added my Hazel Dell mushrooms, you can obviously leave those out, or add something like walking onions or leeks. The point is, compare and contrast textures and flavors. Use what you have and love.

Sautee the asparagus and whatever else you like in a medium hot pan for about 8 minutes and finished it with a good squeeze of lemon and pepper. Oh boy was this a treat.

Speaking of treat. Bacon wrapped asparagus bundles are fun to make and eat. Kids love to help make these. You can use any kind of bacon. Turkey, pork, vegan…it all cooks about the same time. You might need to add extra oil if you are using vegan or turkey but just a little.

Preheat your oven to 400F and toss your asparagus in a little oil and salt and pepper. Wrap two or three spears in bacon and cook for 25 to 30 minutes turning them carefully once or twice until the bacon is done to your liking.

The asparagus roasts perfectly wrapped in the bacon.

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Hakurei Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

Hakurei turnips are a perfect addition to any simple salad. Hakurei’s are juicy and sweet eaten raw. Cooked they become pleasantly soft and buttery.

I made an old school Honey Poppyseed dressing here. I really like to have a few sauces and dressings in my refrigerator at the ready. This dressing is a great one to have on hand, it’s delicious and keeps for a long time and goes great with any seasonal green or chopped vegetable.

Poppyseed dressing

  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 3 Tablespoons honey can substitute with agave or maple syrup if vegan
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
  • pinch salt

Put everything in a jar with a lid and shake it really well.

For the salad wash and dry your greens and other salad ingredients, tear large leaves into bite size pieces and slice the Hakurei turnips as thinly as possible. A mandolin works great here. Toss the sliced turnips with a splash of dressing to coat and separate the slices.

Toss everything together and enjoy!

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CSA Week 2

 Hello CSA Members!

We’re excited to bring you week 2 of your CSA share (first week for Biweekly B). It’s been a great start to the season. See you at pick-up!

Here is what we hope to bring you during week 2:

Regular Share:
Herb Choice
Greens Choice                                         
Green Garlic
Asparagus
Bok Choi
Hakurei Turnips       
Kale
Rhubarb

Large Share Additions:
Double Asparagus
Spinach

 

 

 

 

 

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Welcome to Red Wagon Farm’s CSA!

We are very happy to be starting another CSA season! It has been a busy spring at our farm. The weather has been beautiful but that means things have been non-stop. No rain days for us! We’ve planted the first succession of the early season crops – radishes, peas, lettuce and all the other greens, and a whole bunch more. And most of the summer crops have been transplanted as well – tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini. We’re still working on things like melons and winter squash but those will be planted very soon. It’s an exciting time of year!

There are a few hundred lettuce heads that are almost ready!

So much of our farm is planned around our CSA members. Wyatt does his crop plan for the entire season based on making sure we have a good mix of veggies to give you each week. I love the CSA model partly because we know how much to plant and at harvest time we know exactly how much we need with no waste. And for many of the crops you take them home within hours of harvest so they are almost as fresh as picking them from your backyard garden.

Our CSA members are the backbone of our farm. You give us stability and shower us with your gratitude. Farming is hard. There’s no other way to put it. We appreciate every one of you for making Red Wagon possible!

Amy

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Welcome 2024 CSA Members

And…we’re back. Hello and thank you to all new and returning Members.

The first pickup is always crazy for us, we go from 0-100 in a blink of an eye. It used to be the first pickups were kind of lite and we sort of eased into the season. Not so this year. What a beautiful array of produce we’ll be getting this week.

If you are new to our CSA or even if you are returning check out this blog for some tips to help you organize and prepare for the week and keep your vegetables fresh and easy to cook until your next pickup.

Check out this blog as well for the best ways to wash and store your CSA share.

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You might have a look around here to refresh your memory on past recipes, or if you need inspiration or feel stuck on how to use up your weekly share.

Also, make sure you bring your bags to pickup and also have enough storage bags and containers to store you CSA haul.

I’m excited, it feels like it’s going to be a great year.

I’ll see you at pickup!

Mo

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CSA Week 1

 Hello CSA Members!

We’re excited to bring you week 1 of your CSA share. It has been a busy spring and we can’t wait to kickstart the season. Looking forward to the first pick-up!

Here is what we hope to bring you during week 1:

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Regular Share:
Herb Choice
Greens Choice                                         
Pea Shoots
Spinach
Walking Onions
Hakurei Turnips       
Asparagus

Large Share Additions:
Double Walking Onions
Double Spinach
Lettuce

 

 

 

 

 

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Baked Potato Skins

Mmmm crispy potato skins filled with your favorite vegetables and proteins and maybe a little cheese.

Use anything your heart desires, there are no rules, you’ve eaten enough of these to know what you like! Look in your refrigerator for leftover vegetables like broccoli or chard or kale. I had some red chard, meatballs, a little bacon and a few roasted chilies (I wish I had broccoli for the photo) that needed using.  Potato skins are a great way to pull together a really delicious meal.

To make your potato skins start by baking washed, oiled and salted potatoes in a 400F oven for 40-60 minutes depending on how big your potatoes are. Stab the potatoes a few times so they don’t blow up. Trust me on this and stab them. Make more than you need if you have lots of potatoes that need using up. These freeze beautifully or keep in the refrigerator for several days for quick meals or snacks.

When the potatoes are done baking, let them cool for a few minutes and cut them in half and scoop out the insides. Save the insides for soups or mashed potatoes. If you’re a bread baker like me, use the insides for making bread or rolls. You can also use the mashed potatoes to stuff the skins and make twice baked potatoes. If you look at the top picture I used mashed potatoes and meatballs for some of my skins.

Oil the skins and put them skin side up and bake for about 10 minutes to crisp them up.

 

Then flip them over and fill them with whatever you like.

Bake them for another 10 or 15 minutes until your fillings are crispy and melty.

So versatile and so good.

Have a great week. I’ll see you at pickup.

Mo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Winter CSA Week 14

Hello CSA Members!

What a marvelous season! We’re already feeling nostalgic, as this will be our last week of pickups for the 2023-24 Winter CSA. Thank you for a wonderful 14 weeks; seeing you all at pickup is hands-down our favorite aspect of working CSA. You make our week special, and we’ll miss you! Look out for the 2024 “spring through fall” season signups, which will begin sometime in the next month or so.

Here is what we plan to bring to our final pickup during week 14:

1 – Winter Radish, Shallots, or Garlic
2 – Cabbage
3 – Celeriac, Rutabaga, or Beets
4 – Carrots
5 – Turnips
6 – Potatoes
7 – Butternut Squash

PLEASE NOTE: Winter CSA pickup is from 3pm-6pm. January 25th is the last pickup for the season.

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Winter CSA Week 13

Hello CSA Members!

What a weekend we had! Hope everyone stayed warm. Last Friday, we cleared the greenhouse completely so as not to lose all of our greens.

This is our last pickup for A week members. (Weekly and B week members’ last pickup will be next Thursday 25 January.)

Below is a list of what we hope to bring you during week 13 of our winter CSA.

1 – Greens (double share)
2 – Roasted Peppers or Winter Radish
3 – Carrots or Beets
4 – Turnips, Celeriac, or Rutabaga
5 – Leeks, Shallots, or Garlic
6 – New England Pie Pumpkin

PLEASE NOTE: Winter CSA pickup is from 3pm-6pm. January 18th is the last pickup for Biweekly A members. January 25th is the last pickup for Weekly and Biweekly B members.

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Celeriac Hashbrowns

 

I have lots of root vegetables in my refrigerator, I bet you do too. I love making a big batch of various collections of roasted vegetables and using them in different meals throughout the week. This is another way I like to use root vegetables. Like roasted, these pan fried patties make delicious meals easy to pull together. Make more than you think you need. You’ll be happy to have leftovers.

They look like potato latkes don’t they?

That’s because I pretty much make them how I make latkes but I prefer to mix and match whatever root vegetables I have. Today I had some potatoes and celeriac. Kohlrabi or rutabagas make great hashbrowns too. Just sub what you have and what you like.

Aim for about 1 1/2-2 pounds of vegetables for about 8 pretty good sized ‘patties’. Scale this recipe up or down with what you have.

I used a food processor to grate the vegetables. You could use a box grater if that is what you have.

  • 1 pound celeriac peeled and grated
  • 1 pound potatoes washed and grated. I don’t peel them. I also use whatever potatoes I have. I know people say to only use russet. I use what I have.
  • 1 medium onion grated
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch, potato starch, arrowroot or tapioca starch.
  • salt and pepper and optional red pepper flakes

Throw everything in a bowl and toss/mix it really well. I know for latkes people squeeze out the water from the potatoes. I don’t ever squeeze. There is liquid at the bottom of the bowl, whatever, it always works out. If you want to squeeze your vegetables though, do it!

All mixed up it looks dry doesn’t it? Don’t worry it will be great.

Heat a skillet on the stove for a few minutes on medium. When it’s good and hot add a slick of oil and spoon mounds of the mixture into the skillet. Look at the photo below; It looks dry and like it will fall apart when you turn them. It will be fine, the egg and the starch and the moisture from the vegetables are making delicious magic. Let them cook for about 3 minuets and carefully turn them and give them about 3 more minutes on the second side. Set the finished ones aside and finish the rest.

We ate these with some soup, dipping them into the soup the first night I made them. With the leftovers I made them into a kind of hybrid breakfast burrito/soft taco. I had some leftover refried beans from last week that were great with the leftover hashbrowns.

Have a great week.

Mo

 

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