weeeeeeek 1.START!

Cooking in Season
Week 1

Welcome to High Mill Park’s 4^th CSA season. I can’t believe it’s our 4^th year. Anyway, for the next few months, we’ll follow the crazy Ohio weather through our short and sweet growing season. And what a start it’s been so far. We were pummeled with rain so much during the spring that we’re a bit behind on planting, but that’s what CSA is all about. You really get to experience eating at the peak of freshness no matter what the weather throws at us.

A few rules before we get started.

1.       Bugs happen. If there aren’t bugs or rabbits or deer trying to eat your food, then you should question whether or not you want to eat it. We don’t spray harsh chemicals, which makes it safer for you, but there will be bugs.  Which brings me to my next point….

2.       Wash everything. Twice. Just because we grow organically doesn’t mean that you don’t have to wash your fruits and veggies. We integrate raising animals with plants for the best ecosystem and farm sustainability and we do not triple wash with a chlorine finish like your bagged lettuce so it’s up to you, your strainer, and your sink to get your vegetables and fruits rinsed.

3.       If you cannot make it for pickup, please find someone to pick up your basket in your place. Vegetables don’t keep week to week and we plant for how many members we have and so there’s a limited number of vegetables, especially in the beginning, slow part of the season.  Or email me and we can setup another time.

With that being said, wow, it’s been quite an odd spring. The good news is that none of our fruits got frosted so we’ll have some plums in a few weeks. The bad news is that we couldn’t work the soil for a few critical months and now we’re starting really behind. The root crops didn’t like the wet and the lettuce didn’t like the heat. It felt like the gardens were an unruly class of second graders where no one could agree and all hell was breaking loose – the beans refused to sprout, the potatoes hated the wet soil, the lettuce and kale was going to seed, and the tomatoes set little green tomatoes in their pots before we could get into the garden to plant them

So we’re starting out with the perennial crops. They are the old reliable friends of the garden. The rhubarb came back with it’s big, beautiful, poisonous leaves held up by deliciously tart and zippy, edible stalks. They’re a bit green by this time in the season, but still hold all that powerful rhubarb flavor so many love to slip into fruit pies.

The garlic is really thriving. In your baskets this week are the secret deliciousness of garlic – the garlic scapes. Garlic sends up seed heads in the spring, which zap the plant of it’s energy that should be put into making big, delicious bulbs. So we go through and cut off these seed head “scapes.”  They are delicious! They’re light with garlic flavor and a bit like green onions. You can use them in this recipe, or just chop them up and sauté them as you would regular garlic.

Another star of your perennial spring basket is horseradish leaves. And yes, they kinda taste like horseradish so chop them up really fine and mix them in with a lettuce mix.

We’re going to start out with a nice, light, Gourmet Salad.

1.       Wash and chop up your horseradish leaves fine and add them to a lettuce mix in a large bowl and set aside.

2.       Mince up the rhubarb from your baskets, which should be about ½-1 cup and sauté in a sauce pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. While that’s simmering, chop up the garlic scapes really fine and add them to the saucepan as well. When the rhubarb begins to lose it’s color and turn amber yellow, remove from heat and add 2 tablespoons of honey and stir well.

3.       Take the rhubarb mixture and put into a small bowl. Add ½ cup white vinegar, 1 cup of olive oil, a squirt of lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.

4.       Let the rhubarb salad dressing cool in the refrigerator before tossing on the lettuce mixture.

5.       Add edible flowers on top of the salad along with any fresh spring fruit and serve.

The edible flowers in your baskets are chosen based on taste. Some roses don’t have a nice flavor, but these petals from rosa rugosa have a nice light flavor with a slight fragrance. Remove them from the stem and toss them in your salad. There are also small edible violas and tiny blue flowers, which is Borage. The flavor is bright and kinda like a cucumber. You can remove the petals or eat the whole flower if you don’t mind the fuzzy texture.  The leaves are a bit fuzzy and can be enjoyed in salads or sautéed like spinach.  Anyway, this is the fresh, albeit timid start of the season. We’re looking forward to more things to come as we begin cooking in season.    ~Janeé