Hello, May!

Markets & CSA for the first week of May

At The Market

• Butterhead and Little Gem Lettuce

• Red Radish bunches

• Red & Gold Beet bunches

• Bunched Greens: Rainbow Chard, Curly Kale

• Bagged Greens: Spinach, Arugula, Baby Mustard, Cheap Frills Mix

• Baby Bok Choy

• Big Bok Choy

• Frisee

• Escarole

• Pea shoots (last week until Fall)

• Scallions

• Choi Sum

Everything above is available for CSA and for purchase a la carte, but the following are available only for purchase:

• Agriberry’s Strawberries

• Asparagus from Agriberry

• Pints of our own organic Honey-eye strawberries!

---

In The Kitchen

Thank you to everyone who sends me photos and recipes from their veggies hauls!

On the left: cheap frills mix, dill, mint, thin sliced oranges, feta, dried cranberries, dressed with olive oil and balsamic. - Dyanna Jaye. On the right: arugula and radishes thinly sliced and dressed with a tahini/honey/red wine vinegar drizzle, plus salt+pepper. - Georgia Downey.

My own Friday night special featured Kestrel Hollow chorizo on a bed of beet greens alongside a butterhead, radish, golden beet and cheddar salad:

1. I topped the beet greens, and tossed the roots into boiling water for 20 minutes, or until a fork could pierce the globes easily.

2. I put the chorizo in our cast iron pan at medium high heat and let it cook for about 20 minutes also, rotating it occasionally.

3. While the beets boiled and chorizo seared, I sliced radishes into thin circles, chopped lettuce into 1/2” thick strips, and shredded large pieces of cheddar on that one side of the grater is rarely used…

4. I took the beets out of the boiling water and when they were cool enough to handle, I slipped their skins off in cold running water, then cut them in 1/4” (or thinner) circle slices.

5. I chopped the entire bunch of beet greens into 1 inch bits! All the way from the stem to the top of the leaves.

6. I put the chorizo sausages on a plate to rest, and threw the stem parts of the beet greens in the cast iron pan with any oil from the chorizo remaining.

7. After the stem parts had cooked for about 3 minutes, I add the greens and a solid swig of chicken broth- this could be water instead of broth. The point is to get the greens cooking down and soften the stem parts a little faster. This is also when I added salt, and whatever other spices I want: cumin, turmeric, paprika, chili, etc.

8. For the salad dressing: I put equal parts (about 2tbsp each) of oil and apple cider vinegar in a dish, a big pinch of salt, and something sweet (1/2tbsp honey, maple syrup, plain old sugar would all work) and whisked it together with a fork. The idea is to whisk until the oil and vinegar emulsify and you get one thicker substance from the two- it’s a very satisfying process.

9. Once the beet greens had cooked down sufficiently, I put them in a bed on the plate and popped the chorizo on top.

10. Finally, I tossed the lettuce with some dressing, put the radish, beets, and crumbled cheddar on top and drizzled with extra dressing. This salad would also be awesome with the week’s incoming frisee.

We’ll be spoiled at Little Market at Lampo this week because Oro Pasta is back! Lucky for us Laine is every other Tuesday in May, so we don’t have to stockpile too much. There are countless veggie and pasta recipes available online - here’s one that looks fantastic and easy with spinach!

---

From The Field

Everything is steady in the field although variety won’t substantially increase until later in May thanks to those extreme cold temperatures in March. Hoping for sugar snap peas next week!

From a little outside of the field… I’ve been on a plastics deep dive. Begrudgingly, there isn’t an economically viable alternative for most of the plastics that we use to bag greens for sale. Our modern configuration of plastics are often also the perfect way to keep vegetables fresh- they insulate moisture and temperature in your otherwise dry fridge to retain freshness. You can follow Clay Bottom Farm in Indiana for some of his experiments in using less plastic on his farm (which I will point out are grant funded- awesome, but sustainable from a small business standpoint?).

Anyways, I’m in the process of evaluating how we can reduce our personal plastics at home, so I visited Refill Renew in Charlottesville. I saw these bags on the shelf and wanted to share this option for veggie storage with you all:

Let me know if you try these out for storing your vegetables and if they work well!

Thanks for reading,
yr farmers