2020 Spring CSA: What's in the Box?
What’s in the Box?
Thinking of trying out one of our community-supported agriculture (CSA) vegetable subscriptions for the spring season? Here’s what we and our community partners were sending out in 2020. Unless otherwise noted as coming from one of our neighboring farms, this is a snapshot of what we’ve grown and delivered:
Box No. 2:
Yellow Onion (St. Croix Valley Produce): Good cooking onion
Tri-Color Carrots (Blackbrook Farm): Storage Carrots, great in a stew or slow cooked with a roast. There was one giant octo-carrot in a box. Maybe you’re the lucky winner?
Spinach: Still yummy and sweet, but bigger. Would be good wilted, or used to make spanakopita or saag paneer.
Napa Cabbage: First harvest of the season! Would be great as a salad or used in a stir fry.
Baby Butterhead Lettuce: These little guys are very mild in flavor. Makes a wonderful salad or is great on sandwiches.
Power Mix: This colorful mix is made up of baby green and purple kale, mizuna, tatsoi, green mustards and ruby streaks. Yum!
Le petit dejeuner de champions, aka champion’s breakfast aka French Breakfast Radish and Radish Greens: These are the smaller thinnings that most large commercial producers throw away. What they lack in the bulb department, they make up for with delicious greens!
Box No. 3:
Microgreens: These are great topping on just about anything. Definitely give these a rinse before eating.
Napa Cabbage: Bigger. Better for sautéing, or slaw.
Kale: Like no other kale we’ve ever tasted… yowza!
Rainbow Chard: So tender from top to stem. Brightens up any salad.
French Breakfast Radish: They’re all grown up! The greens are still tasty sautéed.
Butterhead Lettuce: A little bigger, still tender and tasty in salads or on sandwiches.
Spinach: The last of our fall plantings. Braise it up with a little garlic and onion.
Power of Purple Salad Mix: Food should inspire curiosity. Pops of color, different shapes and textures make this fun to look at and eat. Purple kale, mizuna and mustards contrast with greens in tatsoi, mizuna, and curly mustards.
Box. No. 4
Red Russian Kale: Sauté or massage into a salad. We love this variety of kale for its versatility.
Rainbow Chard: Some of these leaves are huge! Wrap spiced lentils in them and steam. Yum!
Crunchy King Radishes: From the tops to the tails, these radishes are delicious. Sauté in butter and enjoy.
Magenta Lettuce: A crunch leaf lettuce that is great on sandwiches or used for wraps.
Arugula: Raw or whipped into pesto the peppery spice of this arugula is unmistakable.
Spinach: So sweet steamed. Sad to see the end of this beautiful crop.
Genovese Basil: Ironic we didn’t include a classic pesto recipe isn't it?
Power of Purple Braising Mix: Food should inspire curiosity. Pops of color, different shapes and textures make this fun to look at and eat. Purple kale and mustards contrast with mizuna, and curly mustards.
Box. No. 5
Red Russian Kale: Sauté or massage into a salad. Also great in soups!
Rainbow Chard: Colorful, crunchy, and great in sautés and soups.
Crunchy King Radishes: Delicious from leafy top to veggie bottom. Sauté or slice and enjoy.
Red Romaine Lettuce: A crunchy lettuce that would make a stunning Caesar salad.
Mini Green Romaine Lettuce: Small, but mighty. Cutting the bottom off reveals a densely packed inner core with plenty of leaves for sandwiches or salad.
Arugula: Raw or whipped into pesto, the peppery spice of this arugula is unmistakable.
Mustard Greens: Sautéed in olive oil with onion and garlic = yum.
Green Onions or Chives: Sprinkle on everything for a mild onion flavor. Great in eggs.
Our First Spring Party is Over, but the Fun has just Begun!
Is this really it? No more boxes to pack? No more newsletters to write? No more deliveries in the rustiest van on either side of the St. Croix?
Speaking for Emmalyn and Chris, as well as myself, the past two months have flown by. It hasn’t always been easy, it hasn’t always been fun (looking at you, frozen hoses, hungry moles and steamy high tunnels), but it has always been worth it.
Getting to meet some of you on deliveries and receiving kindly worded emails of encouragement has really hit the point home that what we do matters. We’re not just packing boxes and sending them out into the ether. We’re growing good food for appreciative people. Seeing photos, reading recipes and listening to the stories you’ve shared with us makes us feel like we’re a small part of your lives. Thanks for making us feel wanted!
Emmalyn and I are overall very happy with how our first CSA as farm-owners turned out. That said, we’re not naïve enough to think there isn’t plenty of room for improvement. We’ll be sending out a survey in the next week asking for your feedback. We’re not yet the well-oiled machine that Chris and Paul were running, but with your feedback and our continued hard work and planning, we’ll keep improving.
Going forward, Chris, Emmalyn and I will still be plenty busy. We’ll be continuing to sell at the Fulton and Midtown Farmers Markets in Minneapolis. We’re wrapping up plant start sales next week (let us know if you need any last minute things for your garden), and we’re starting to plant for the Fall CSA as well (there’s still room, head to foxtailcsa.com to sign up).
In addition, we will be launching an online store in June! You’ll be able to pick what veggies and fruits you want, and we’ll deliver once a week to a few locations in the cities (similar to the plant sale). Our hope is to still be able to provide fresh produce to folks that don’t want to go to markets at this time. Emmalyn and I are pretty excited, we’ll be sending out more info as we get closer to launching the site.
I’ll sign off with a quote from one of my country music heroes, Buck Owens.
“It takes people like you to make people like me.”