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  • Cauliflower with Béchamel Sauce

    *this is an updated post by Mo. The original was posted 2014 by Amy.

    This recipe is adaptable to using Romanesco and or cauliflower. Both are very similar in texture, flavor, cooking methods and time. Béchamel is a basic creamy sauce that is used in many classic dishes. When I worked in restaurants we called Bechamel sauce ‘Culinary Duct Tape’. It pulls textures and flavors together, and upgrades dishes from simple to special, like magic.

    This is super simple and fast dish to make. Gather your (very white if not using Romanesco) ingredients.

    Recipe

    1-2 heads Romanesco and/or cauliflower cut into manageable sizes
    2 Tbsp butter
    1/4 cup flour any flour will do, even gluten free or corn flour
    1 1/2 cups milk, any type of milk works
    1/2 cup grated cheese, plus more to sprinkle on top. This is optional again, any cheese works here. This is where you can get really fancy, try Blue cheese or Brie or English Cheddar or whatever you love. It’s super fun to customize.
    White pepper
    Salt

    Steam the Romanesco and cauliflower until almost tender for about 5 minutes in a covered pan. They will cook more in the oven, so you want to leave them a little bit firm. Romanesco takes a little longer to get tender so check after 5 minutes for cauliflower and 7 or 8 for Romanesco.

    To make the Béchamel sauce. Melt the butter over medium-low heat then whisk in the flour to make a roux.

    Add 1/2 cup milk, whisking constantly. Whisk until the lumps dissolve and you have a smooth, thick paste. Add the remaining cup of milk, 1/2 cup at a time. Each time you should whisk until the sauce thickens. When you can draw a line that stays on a spoon the sauce is the right consistency.

    When the sauce has thickened (roughly the consistency of thin gravy), stir in the cheese, white pepper, and salt to taste. Remove sauce from heat.

    Place half of the florets on the bottom of your baking dish and half of of the Béchamel sauce.

    Put the remaining half of the florets on top of the first layer and cover with the remaining Béchamel sauce and sprinkle with cheese.

    Bake in a pre-heated 375F degree oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

    This is a great side dish for simple weeknight meals or a fancy holiday celebration.

  • Winter CSA 2025/2026

    We are excited to announce our 2025/2026 Winter CSA! Click here to join.

    Details:

    • Two Pickup Locations:
      • Wednesdays at Red Wagon Farm at 7694 N 63rd St, Longmont (near Niwot).
      • Thursdays at Red Wagon at Thomas Open Space at 1640 W Baseline Rd, Lafayette.
    • Pickup times: 3 to 6 pm.
    • Pickups are from 10/29/25 – 1/29/26
    • Weekly Veggie Share $643.50 (13 pickups)
    • Biweekly Veggie Share $346.50 (7 pickups)
    • Mushroom and Coffee Shares also available.
    • Prices are prorated if you join after Oct 29.

    Possible crops we will have (depending on weather and availability):

    • Greens: lettuce, spinach, arugula, bok choi, kale, chard, collards
    • Onions, garlic, leeks
    • Potatoes
    • Carrots
    • Beets
    • Cabbage
    • Roasted chiles
    • Winter squash
    • Pie pumpkins
    • Herbs
    • Rutabagas
    • Celeriac
    • Winter radishes
    • Turnips

    Select here to see what was in our Winter CSA shares every week last year.

    Click here to join now!
    Email csa@redwagonfarmboulder.com with questions.

  • Casualties of Hail: Melons and U-Pick Tomaotes

    On July 11 in Lafayette we had the worst hail storm that I think Wyatt and I have seen in our 20+ years of farming in Boulder County. It can be difficult to tell how bad the damage is right after a hail storm. Some plants have strong root systems and will eventually grow through the hail damage, though with lower yields. With other crops you don’t see the full extent of the damage for several weeks. The hardest hit crops from this hail storm were our melons and our U-pick tomatoes (among other crops) and we will feel the effects of the hail storm for the rest of the season.

    Diseased tomato plants

    On July 12 the tomato plants looked damaged but they were fairly well established and we thought they would eventually recover. However, in the few weeks after the hail storm the plants were in a weakened state and therefore more susceptible to disease. Now over 75% of the tomato plants in our U-pick area are dead and it is a sad sight! There are still some tomatoes out there are we are holding U-pick events on Saturday mornings. But you really have to hunt for the tomatoes and it is not the bounty we had planned for! The good news is that the tomatoes we have for our CSA members are in caterpillar tunnels and were protected from the hail. That’s why we are still able to bring beautiful tomatoes to you every week! We are now leaning towards putting our whole U-pick area into tunnels next season. It just feels too risky to plant tomatoes outside.

    Battered melon plants

    Our melon plants were also badly damaged and we could see that right away. Before the storm the foliage was thick and lush. After the hail most of the leaves were stripped off and the plants were mostly stems. This was our first melon succession of the season and by far the largest. Usually we would be harvesting hundreds of melons from those plants right now. But this year we’re just getting a trickle off of the plants. We always plant a second and third melon succession but those are much smaller plantings. So the short (and sad) story is that there will be a small melon harvest this year.

    Other crops were damaged but not as badly. The tender zucchinis that were on the plants during the storm all had hail marks. You might remember the beat up looking zucchini the following week! But the plants mostly recovered. The beet leaves were shredded and the beets aren’t forming the way they should. The pepper plants had each put out their first pepper or two. Those peppers were damaged and had to be removed from the plants. We had to wait a few weeks for the plants to recover and put out the next peppers which is why we don’t have any red ripe peppers yet—like Carmens.

    Caterpillar tunnels
    Caterpillar tunnels

    We’ve used row cover for years. For a long time we mostly used a lighter weight row cover and much of that was shredded in this hail storm. But it did provide some protection for the plants that were under the cover. In recent years Wyatt has started using a heavier and more durable row cover. That paid off and there were hardly any holes in the heavier cover!

    It’s more expensive and requires more work to build caterpillar tunnels every year or to use what feels like acres of row cover. But when we’re facing challenges like hail or cucumber beetle infestations we really see the benefit. We will likely keep adding more tunnels to our farm in future years.

    Just a few minutes of hail can greatly impact our whole growing season. It’s a constant source of stress that you just have to live with as a farmer. The good news is that we plant crops all throughout the growing season. We still have a lot of beautiful veggies in the field and will be able to feed you for the months to come!

  • Fundraiser for Tapias de Santa Cruz, Mexico

    For the next couple of weeks, you’ll see a donation can at your CSA pickup. Just a dollar or two will make a difference!

    Tapias de Santra Cruz is an impoverished agricultural town in the central Mexican state of Zacatecas with a population of 1,400. Red Wagon has had a long relationship with Tapias. If you’ve been with Red Wagon for a while, you’ve surely met Javier who has overseen growing operations here for the last 15 years. Tapias is Javier’s hometown. In the past few years Red Wagon has struggled with the shortage of qualified agricultural workers. Last year Javier came through for us and found a few friends and family members from Tapias who were willing to come to Colorado on work visas and work at Red Wagon. This year we have 6 people from Tapias working in our fields!

    We are now trying to help with a fundraiser for the church in Tapias. The church is the center of this small community. Among many other things, it acts as a safety net and performs charitable work for residents in the community.

    The Reina de Tapias de Santa Cruz is a young woman who spends a year acting as the ambassador for Tapias and is responsible for fundraising for the church and the community. Javier’s daughter, Andrea, is a contestant to be the next Reina of Tapias. We are trying to help Andrea raise money to provide for her family and community in Tapias. We hope you’ll join us!

  • Carrot Top Pesto

    We have loads of pesto recipes here on this site each one highlights a season or ingredient. Might as well add one more!

    Carrot top pesto highlights the first carrots of the season because it is best made with tender young tops. Older long season carrot tops are tougher and a little bitter and will be a bit chewy.

    Carrot Top Pesto

    • 2 cups washed young tender carrot tops, stems removed
    • 1 clove garlic
    • 1/2 cup nuts or parmesan cheese, or both!
    • Salt and pepper
    • 1/2 cup olive oil
    • juice of 1/2 a lemon or lime (optional)

    Place the carrot tops, garlic, nuts and or cheese, salt, and pepper and lemon or lime juice in a food processor. Pulse several times. Scrape the sides down with a rubber spatula then slowly add the oil-presto! You made pesto!

    Use this with grilled fish or vegetables, mix it in pasta or beans or just spread on bread.

     

     

     

     

  • Rhubarb Salad Dressing

    Here is a simple salad dressing using rhubarb. It is tart and sweet thanks to the honey and bright and clingy so it is suitable for heavy greens like kale or sturdy lettuces.

    You need only a few ingredients and a blender.

    3/4 cup chopped rhubarb
    2 garlic cloves or green garlic
    1/4 cup of whatever onion you have. I had walking onions, use what you have
    3 tablespoons honey
    3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
    6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
    1 teaspoon oregano fresh or dried
    Salt to taste
    Freshly ground black pepper to taste

    Chop the rhubarb and garlic and onions and put everything except 2 tablespoons of oil in the blender. Blend everything and thin the dressing with the oil you held back. This is a thick dressing!

    That’s it. Dress your salad. I used kale and I like to have cheese and fruit or protein in salad so I added feta, dates and pistachios, but use what you like. Apples and chicken would be delicious with this dressing. Use your imagination.

  • Thank you Winter CSA Members!

    We are delighted that you joined us for our Winter CSA! It makes us happy to be able to feed you for a few extra months each year. I hope it has warmed up your winter to have local veggies to take home. All of the roasted veggies and soups. And the fresh greens that you just can’t get anywhere else this time of year.

    Things are quieter at the farm in February. Wyatt and I will be busy with indoor work like ordering seeds and doing repairs on equipment. The rest of our crew takes most of the month off. But we start things up in the greenhouse the first week of March. The first crops we start are things like onions, kale, and tomatoes. We also do our first outdoor planting of peas, radishes, and arugula in the middle of March. There aren’t many months of the year that we don’t have something growing even though we’re in Colorado!

    The crops we start growing in March are what we feed you when our Summer CSA starts in late May. You can join now and look forward to warmer weather and fresh veggies. That always helps to get me though the final cold, dark months of winter.

    Our CSA members are the foundation of our farm. We plan everything around our CSA and you’re the ones that keep us going year after year. It is beyond challenging to keep a vegetable farm running and we have so much gratitude for all of your support in this journey.

    Amy

  • Celeriac Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

    I have a few favorite recipes that I turn to again and again. For the Fall and Winter holidays this Parsnip Cake is a favorite, it has a great texture and keeps for several days. It can be made a day or two ahead and it’s just fine, maybe better.  The slight vegetal flavor and spice are just what I want in a fall dessert. For a couple years now our parsnip crops have failed for one reason or another so I haven’t made Parsnip Cake for at least a couple years. I was planning my Thanksgiving menu wishing we had some parsnips for the cake, and a light bulb went off….parsnips and celeriac are ‘related’ (Apiaceae family).

    I love celeriac and had celeriac,  I wanted to make  the Parsnip Cake and didn’t have any parsnips, so…I used my recipe for parsnip cake and subbed equal amounts of celeriac for parsnips and voila.

    After successfully subbing celeriac for parsnips I’m confident you could use any carrot cake recipe you like and sub parsnips, celeriac, beets or even rutabagas and be happy with the results. Some vegetables might be more pronounced but I’m sure all will be delicious. I like this recipe because it uses melted butter instead of oil giving the cake a nice refined texture, not heavy and oily like most carrot cakes.

    There is a pretty good amount of celeriac, you can see here in the batter before it’s baked. There is some apple in there too to add to the moisture level and give it a tart sweetness.

    The cakes bake nice and even and are easy to handle.

    Recipe Celeriac Cake

    • 12 tablespoons of butter
    • 250gm turbinado sugar (can sub raw sugar or brown sugar)
    • 100gm maple syrup
    • 3 eggs
    • 250gm all purpose flour
    • 2 tsp baking powder
    • 1 tsp baking soda
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 2 tsp all spice
    • 250gm grated celeriac
    • 1 apple grated (I didn’t peel it)
    • 50gm chopped nuts
    • zest and juice of one small orange (I used a mandarin)
    Instructions:
    • Preheat the oven to 350F and grease two 8 inch cake pans. I also put parchment in the bottom of the pans. I do this out of habit. I don’t know if you need to do this step or not. I always do so I mention it here.
    • Melt the butter, sugar and maple syrup in a pan, let it cool a little
    • I used a hand mixer to add the eggs to the butter and syrup mixture
    • Add the flour, baking powder/soda/salt to the above
    • Add grated celeriac and apple, pecans, orange zest and juice to the above and mix
    • Divide the batter between the two pans and bake for 45-50 minutes or so until they are firm to the touch (in the middle) and brown. They will just start to pull away from the side of the pan when they are done.
    • When the cakes are done cool them before removing from the pans. I had to run a knife around the sides of the pan to release the cakes.

    I made a basic cream cheese frosting for this cake. For the Parsnip cake I make a mascarpone filling. Both are delicious and could use either, or you could just dust it with some powdered sugar.

    Let me know if you try this. I think you will really love it.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • End-of-season thank you!

    Winter Squash harvest
    Winter Squash harvest

    It doesn’t feel like another farm season is coming to a close! It always goes by so fast! Yesterday I was at our CSA pickup in North Boulder. I saw many people that have been CSA members for 15+ years. I also met a brand new CSA member who just joined a few days ago and wanted to try our CSA for the very last pickup of the season. We have so much gratitude for all of these CSA members and everyone in between!

    Farming is very hard. Growing vegetables is always challenging–weather, water, pests, and diseases, but it is so much more than that and it feels like it has gotten a lot harder in the last handful of years. The economics of farming, the chronic labor shortages and high turn-over rates, the rising cost of expenses, the time it takes to comply with an increasing number of  regulations. Wyatt and I have had to work more and more each year and are stretched pretty thin.

    Onion harvest
    Onion harvest

    The thing that keeps us going is you! Our CSA members! We count on the consistency and stability of our CSA. Our members show up week after week and year after year. We’ve distributed our vegetables many different ways over the years: farmers’ markets, our farm store, to local restaurants, and more. While we value these opportunities and connections, they also have a lot of challenges. Our CSA is by far the thing that works best for us at Red Wagon.

    We’ve also been working hard on building a great team at the farm. It’s still not easy but it feels like we’re finally getting somewhere this year. Many of you have seen Mo, Kai, and Brie at our CSA pickups. Javier has been with us in the field for many years and even brought a handful of his family members from Mexico this year to help with our labor shortage. We are really hoping they will return to work with us again next year! It has been a huge relief to know they will show up to work every day and do a great job. We also started our Working CSA Member program in 2021. It started as a desperate attempt to fill holes in our staff. We now have about 20 workshare members and half of them have been with us for multiple years. They are such a valuable part of our team!

    I feel like I can never adequately express why our CSA members are so valuable to us–you might just have to take my word for it. But you really are the thing that keeps our farm going. We hope to keep feeding you for many years to come!

    With gratitude,
    Amy

  • Roasted Green Chile Meatloaf

    This is a fast, fun and delicious take on a traditional dish. You can use any ground meat or ground meat substitute to make this.

    I got the original recipe here, my changes are in parentheses.

    -1 ½ pound ground meat or meat substitute (I used ground turkey and turkey sausage)
    – 1 whole finely chopped onion
    – 1 cup finely roasted chopped green chile (I used 1 pound of roasted chopped poblanos)
    – 2 eggs (I used one egg)
    – ½ cup Italian bread crumbs
    – 2 tablespoons of Filtered Honey (I used agave)
    – 1 can Rotel with green chile (I didn’t use this)
    – 1 finely chopped bell pepper (I didn’t use this)
    – 1-8 oz. can of tomato sauce (I used salsa)

    Instructions:

    1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
    2. Mix together all ingredients in a large bowl until well incorporated.
    3. Place mixed ingredients into a glass baking dish 9×13 (I used a loaf pan)
    4. Bake for 45 minutes.
    5. Top with ketchup to taste (optional) and bake for 15 more minutes. (I mixed salsa and brown sugar! Yum!)
    6. Serve hot or cold!