Greetings Country Valley Farm Members,
This is our first CSA share week of the year! We are excited to get this early season produce out to our community. Thank you for your support and for sharing in the joy of fresh, local, organic produce from small family farms.
This newsletter contains some important information. Please read carefully and reach out to Adam with any questions.
CSA share boxes are distributed on Sundays weekly.
If you are a member who has opted for home delivery, we will send you a separate email with a more specific delivery window a bit later this evening. Deliveries will occur between 10am and 3pm Sundays. If you won’t be home during the delivery, please leave a cooler on your front porch with some ice packs or frozen water bottles etc.
For all the members who pick up shares – that happens at Genesis of Ann Arbor (St. Clares Episcopal Church/Temple Beth Emeth) 2309 Packard. Please come to the back parking lot behind the building. Adam will be there from 4pm-6pm distributing shares. We arrive right at 4pm and leave at 6pm promptly every week – please be on time to pick up your shares.
CSA shares are packed in clear half bushel plastic totes. We purchased 2 totes for each member to last for the entire season. Please return your empty tote each week so we can sanitize it and use it for the following week’s shares. Please don’t use the totes for any purpose other than the transferring of CSA shares.
Most produce is washed and cooled before we pack it (we don’t wash tomatoes and peppers and items that don’t like to be washed in advance). That said, this is farm-level washing to remove most of the soil and to ensure the produce is well hydrated and super fresh. We very much recommend washing at home before preparation. Personally, we like to do a triple wash before we cook anything.
Most items should be placed in your refrigerator as soon as possible after receiving your share. We don’t recommend transporting the produce in the trunk of a car, as there is no airflow and temperatures can really heat up fast. Any item that should be stored in the refrigerator will be packed into new plastic bags, items that can be stored on the counter will be packed into pint or quart recyclable cardboard containers or packed loose in the tote. Most of these okay on the counter items will have a much longer shelf life if you store them in the refrigerator also – it all depends on how soon you plan on eating them. Tomatoes are an exception and item that we don’t recommend refrigerating.
This week’s small shares contain the following items:
- Green Garlic – 2 bunches from our farm
- Russet Potatoes – 2 quarts from Cinzori Farm
- Spinach – 2 bags from Cinzori Farm
- Sunflower Sprouts Microgreens – 1 package from Gardenworks
- Medium shares will receive an extra 2 quarts of potatoes and extra 2 bags of spinach.
- Large shares will be packed as 2 small shares.
We had hoped for more variety to start the season, but that didn’t work out, hence the doubling up of most items. For example, we thought the wintered over green onions would be ready this week but they need a bit more time to plump up before harvesting. Shares should have considerably more variety most weeks and will increase as each week of the season progresses. We are hoping that asparagus (among other items) will be ready for next week’s shares. We like to pack asparagus into the shares most weeks while it is in season to make the most of it.
Some preparation and cooking tips:
- Green Garlic is an item that has a relatively short season and is a chef favorite. It is the tender young shoots of garlic that have yet to develop a bulb. The entire plant is edible, other than the small root tip which should be removed similar to green onions/scallions. You can use green garlic anywhere you would use green onions or garlic. It is a milder flavor than garlic bulbs when cooked, but is a bit stronger tasting when served raw. We use them in almost any savory dish we cook. They are great sauteed with veggies or meat, excellent in soups, chopped and served raw atop ramen soup, cooked into mashed potatoes, basically very tasty and healthy when eaten any way you like.
- Russet Potatoes were harvested late last season and have been kept in cold storage through the winter. Also known as Idaho potatoes by many. They have a white flesh and are great baked, mashed, roasted etc.
- Spinach is a Spring favorite among Michigan farmers. It grows great during the cool and changing weather. This spinach was grown in a hoophouse and is of excellent quality. It can be eaten raw or cooked (fresh spinach cooks very fast so be careful it only takes a minute or so at a low heat).
- Sunflower Sprouts are a member favorite amongst the microgreens. They are grown in a greenhouse from sprouted sunflower seeds. They have a nice succulent texture and a nutty and fresh flavor. We like them on sandwiches, in salads, or served on top of almost any entrée. One of our members shared that she likes them in her morning granola and notes how the nutty flavor of the sprouts pairs well with the granola, and what a healthy way to get the benefits of the microgreens into the morning routine.
That’s all for now. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon.
Adam Mitchel
Country Valley Farm