Yep, today is the first winter share, the first share in fact, of 2014. Despite the deep freeze we had in the fall and the outrageous vole and gopher pressure that followed it’s a pretty good one.
Pictured above is an averageish share though the do vary a bit. All of the shares got kale and carrots. The Rainbow Lacinato kale is beautiful right now, the cold really brings out beautiful color in it, but the leave are growing slowly so they’re small, perfect for stir fry. The carrots are Napoli, very sweet and crunchy for fresh eating. The high sugars have cause a few to crack, but just take that as a sign of sweetness.
All of the shares also have a mix of chicories, a red variety and a green. Among the reds are Grumulo, which is the most bitter green we grow, excellent cooked. Bitter is often overlooked in American cooking, but other cultures embrace it and the bitter pairs well with strong flavors like salty, sweet acid tartness, and fatty. I have come to crave it in the winter. There are also two types of radicchio, Rossa Verona which is round, and Treviso, pictured above. The red is beautiful but white ribs on all of these are the real treat: sweet, crunchy and slightly bitter. They can also be cooked or eaten raw in salad. Similarly the green varieties have excellent ribs. Sugarloaf, Castlefranco and Bellesque frisee are the three in the rotation. Bellesque is pictured above. Sugarloaf is light green with broad leaves forming a kind of loaf, and Castlefranco has red flecks. These are also all good in salad or cooked, each with slightly different characteristics, but basically interchangeable. There is some freeze damage on many of the heads showing up as small black or brown spots. These can be trimmed out and don’t negatively effect the flavor.
A few of the shares got a small bonus leek. Unfortunately the gophers found the leeks, and while I’ve never known them to be big allium eaters, they sure did a job on our remaining leeks so we were quite short.
We were also a bit short on time and crew this morning so harvest went longer than I had hoped. Part of that was just us recovering from the holidays. Forrest and Louis are still traveling back from holidays with family so it was just Karen and I to start. Machelle and Amaya jumped in to harvest the carrots and to help with the kale, and Eugenio and Anatolio who were pruning blueberries took a break to harvest the remaining leeks. It was fun to involve other folks from the farm in the CSA harvest and we definitely appreciated the help.
The next share will be in two weeks and we’ll see what that brings. Lets hope for some warmer, wetter weather (with a bit of sun in between) in the meantime to get the crops growing again.
Josh Volk
Chicory Aficionado
Pictured above is an averageish share though the do vary a bit. All of the shares got kale and carrots. The Rainbow Lacinato kale is beautiful right now, the cold really brings out beautiful color in it, but the leave are growing slowly so they’re small, perfect for stir fry. The carrots are Napoli, very sweet and crunchy for fresh eating. The high sugars have cause a few to crack, but just take that as a sign of sweetness.
All of the shares also have a mix of chicories, a red variety and a green. Among the reds are Grumulo, which is the most bitter green we grow, excellent cooked. Bitter is often overlooked in American cooking, but other cultures embrace it and the bitter pairs well with strong flavors like salty, sweet acid tartness, and fatty. I have come to crave it in the winter. There are also two types of radicchio, Rossa Verona which is round, and Treviso, pictured above. The red is beautiful but white ribs on all of these are the real treat: sweet, crunchy and slightly bitter. They can also be cooked or eaten raw in salad. Similarly the green varieties have excellent ribs. Sugarloaf, Castlefranco and Bellesque frisee are the three in the rotation. Bellesque is pictured above. Sugarloaf is light green with broad leaves forming a kind of loaf, and Castlefranco has red flecks. These are also all good in salad or cooked, each with slightly different characteristics, but basically interchangeable. There is some freeze damage on many of the heads showing up as small black or brown spots. These can be trimmed out and don’t negatively effect the flavor.
A few of the shares got a small bonus leek. Unfortunately the gophers found the leeks, and while I’ve never known them to be big allium eaters, they sure did a job on our remaining leeks so we were quite short.
We were also a bit short on time and crew this morning so harvest went longer than I had hoped. Part of that was just us recovering from the holidays. Forrest and Louis are still traveling back from holidays with family so it was just Karen and I to start. Machelle and Amaya jumped in to harvest the carrots and to help with the kale, and Eugenio and Anatolio who were pruning blueberries took a break to harvest the remaining leeks. It was fun to involve other folks from the farm in the CSA harvest and we definitely appreciated the help.
The next share will be in two weeks and we’ll see what that brings. Lets hope for some warmer, wetter weather (with a bit of sun in between) in the meantime to get the crops growing again.
Josh Volk
Chicory Aficionado
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