Spring Crossover

We planted in late February, aiming for harvest in the first half of our Spring CSA. We made it! Weeded today, so you can eat it tomorrow. No more grocery store salad!

THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Baby Lettuce Mix
• Asparagus (just a few spears—it’s our first harvest year)
• Baby Turnip Greens with Tiny Turnips
• Baby Leeks
• Carrots
• Sorrel
• Chervil

Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.

COMING SOON: Pea Shoots, Beet Greens, Parsley, Arugula, and much more.

We time the start date of our Spring CSA season to coincide with the availability of overwintered crops—those that we planted the year before, and survived the winter to be harvested as the weather warms up in spring. You’ve seen what comprises that group: Garlic, Onions, Cooking Greens, and Rapini of various types.

But we start planting very early in spring, so that we have other crops to harvest as those overwintered crops peter out or start flowering and are no longer tasty. This year we started planting in February, in all of our hoop houses. Salad greens, beet greens, spinach, turnips, and carrots this year. AND, we’ve already got the next installations ready in flats, waiting for those crops to be used up so we can replant! It’s such an exciting time of year, and so nice when the “plan” works out.

We weeded these last week and watered, and with the warm temperatures inside the hoop house they are ready to start picking! They’ll be bigger as the weeks go by, but they are pretty succulent and sweet now. Use the leaves and all in salad, or lightly steam or sauté them. Very tasty!

We found a patch of carrots that survived the winter, and they have not yet started bolting to seed, so there are no cores yet. They aren’t as tasty as tender new baby carrots, or freeze-sweetened winter carrots, but they are fresh and available. We also decided to harvest the last of the baby leeks from last fall, planted a bit too late so they won’t get large, but we want to use them before they also start flowering.

A few odds and ends: Chervil is a delicate, anise-flavored herb. It’s tasty in/on eggs, fish, poultry, or added to salad. Sorrel is lemony and bright, be sure and check the sorrel recipe page.

April is for Eggs, and we have lots! Egg-laying productivity is directly related to day length, so as the days increase the laying hen’s pituitary gland says “it’s time to make babies!” Unfortunately, as the day length decreases toward the end of summer, so will the eggs disappear, so get them while they’re here!

And we are leaving eggs out of the CSA package this week because we know not everyone wants that many eggs. If you DO want eggs, we have more than plenty, so be sure and pick some up. $7 per dozen, or two for $12.