This Week’s Share:

Lettuce: Ermosa, Cherokee

New Potatoes: Desiree

Chard: Bright Lights

Collards: Champion

Turnips: Hakuri

Cilantro: Santo

Summer Squash: Costata Romanesco, Black Beauty

Arugula: Astro

Bok Choi: Black Summer

Sneak Peak for Next Week:

Scallions

Dill

Summer Squash…

Shooting

STAR

CSA

Welcome to Shooting Star CSA

This week marks the first week of the Shooting Star CSA harvest season!  It has taken a lot of work to get here and we are absolutely thrilled to begin the harvest. What started out as a fallow mustard field has grown into a beautiful vegetable farm. Our 1961 Farmall tractor seems right at home here cultivating in between our plants. Our philosophy is to care for the soil, the plants, and our CSA members. CSA is the backbone of our farm. We are the growers of your food and stewards of the land. We feel that by providing nutritious produce we are stewards of health as well.

Enjoy your boxes-Matt

Crop Notes

The potatoes in the box this week are the best we have ever had (seriously!). New potatoes are harvested when the potato plant is still growing and has just started producing potatoes big enough to harvest. The skins are very tender because if left in the ground they would keep growing into much bigger tubers. We gave them a very gentle rinse after harvesting as to not tear their skin so they might still have some dirt on them. I recommend roasting them with olive oil, salt and pepper. They have such a sweet creamy flavor you won’t need much else.

Turnips: try them raw, they are a sweet crunchy snack. This is a variety from Japan. See recipe below.

Lettuce: We are only planning to have two weeks of lettuce this spring because of the high temperatures we get here in the summer (don’t worry, we will have some salad mix!). So we are keeping you well stocked, and hope you enjoy it while it lasts.

Summer Squash: This is the first of the warm weather crops. Plenty more to come.

Eat your Greens: These first few weeks of the CSA are going to have an abundant amount of greens, but just like the head lettuce, they won’t last long. So eat up!

Storage Tips

We want to help you keep your vegetables fresh all week long. When you get home from picking up your share, be sure to put everything in the fridge as soon as possible. All leafy green should be put in plastic bags because the refrigerator will continue sucking moisture out of the leaves until all that is left is a limp pile of leaves. Many people find it easier to rinse and chop things like head lettuces the day they get their box so that they are ready to use when they want them later in the week. Bunched root crops (beets, turnips, and carrots) that come with tops should have their tops removed before going into the fridge (unless you plan on using the tops) because they actually continue sucking moisture out of the roots as long as their attached. I always store potatoes in the fridge too; it helps keep them firm longer.

Shooting Star CSA    PO Box 3087    Fairfield, CA 94533        shootingstarcsa@gmail.com

                            www.shootingstarcsa.com

Recipes: Feel free to send us your favorites!

Turnip and Cilantro Salad

1 bunch Hakuri Turnips, sliced

½ bunch cilantro, chopped

juice of 1 lemon

salt and red pepper

Mix all ingredients and let stand for a half hour.

Stir Fried Bok Choi

2 or 3 bok choi, chopped

1 onion, chopped

olive or canola oil

1 tsp ground cumin

soy sauce

Sautee onions in oil until almost cooked, then add bok choi. Add cumin and soy sauce to taste. Great sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Below is a picture before and after we started the farm. Thanks again for supporting small scale sustainable agriculture. Enjoy your box.