farmshare

"Take these," Greg Reynolds says, handing me a handful of rubber bands and a clipper. 

"Ah, uh, mmm…," I stammer.

"They’re for the arugula," he offers. Pull 'em out and clip 'em just below the crown. Then rubber band 'em two times around." Maybe Greg doesn’t realize who he’s talking to, or maybe, more likely, he's having fun at my expense.

This recipe was provided by chef Adam Anderson, formerly of Lucia's restaurant in Minneapolis. It uses local, seasonal ingredients - many of which are found in this week's farm shares across Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Roasted Carrots, Golden Beets and Green Beans with Crispy Chard and Fresh Chevre

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

Jackson Hollow, a terrific, long-running organic farm in Wisconsin, is now offering a limited number of 10-week, midsummer, half-shares for $200 each. This is a rare opportunity to buy into a CSA at the best time in the season, and a great way to give Jackson Hollow a test run to see if you want to sign up again next year. Here's what Jackson Hollow has to say about it:

This recipe came to me from my new friend Michelle O’Kelley. She says it originally came from Bon Appetit in August 2000, and was recently delivered with her CSA box. According to Michelle, "it’s so simple and I happen to have all the ingredients on hand (except the Pernod)." We're getting tons of fennel from our farmshare this month, so a new recipe for it is welcome in my house. Here goes:

Fresh Fennel Vichyssoise

I recently had a chance to help the great team at Riverbend Farm in Delano, MN pick and pack their weekly CSA/farmshare harvest (they produce 80 shares each week). Riverbend is a terrific, well-respected farm, which provides foods to many local Twin Cities restaurants, including the Birchwood Cafe, Common Roots, Corner Table, and many others. Here are the photos I took, along with a few notes from the day.

Here's what my family is getting from our CSA this week. The picture and the text below come directly from Harmony Valley Farm's weekly email.

Before last week, I didn’t know what garlic scapes were. I’d never seen them, smelled them, or touched them, and I most certainly did not know where they came from. But our Harmony Valley farm share delivered local, organic scapes to Minneapolis last week - and oh, how far my family has come in one short week.

According to Mother Earth News:

The weeks go so fast! I've barely finished last week's box of goodies from Harmony Valley Farm's CSA, and it's Thursday again! To be honest, I do occasionally get a small sense of panic. I don't want to waste any of the amazing foods I'm getting, especially when I consider the work our local farmers have done to produce all this sustainable, organic food - and get it to the city.