2024 CSA Week #1

This week’s box included: bok choy, lettuce head, lettuce mix, cucumbers (or broccoli), tomatoes, radishes, spring onions, strawberries, kale. You can see a photo that can help with identification on our Facebook page or check out our weekly video on Instagram.

Need storage instructions? Visit our fruit & veggie home pages. Click on the pic and a new page opens with storage instructions and a list of recipes curated by Conne over the years.

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Welcome to the 2024 Riverview Farms CSA!

Long-time subscriber Conne Ward-Cameron, a food writer for the AJC, normally writes these messages providing her ideas on approaching each box. She’ll be providing guidance for you this year starting next week when she returns from South Carolina. Conne’s enthusiasm for cooking with fresh food is infectious; I particularly enjoy hearing how she approaches each week’s box for her family of two with aplomb. Two!

Conne provides a couple of recipes most weeks; we’ve assembled an archive of her recipes for years. Bookmark this page. Click on an image and a new page opens with storage instructions for that item, its harvest season, and links to gobs of terrific recipes. Need ideas for kale? There are kale recipes galore here, and another 5 dozen recipes for greens here. Not a dud in the bunch.

Lately I’ve been enjoying reading what Conne wrote about the first CSA box last year. Subscribing to a CSA turns meal planning around — possibly upside down – to focus first on what’s fresh, what’s coming out of the Earth near you.

Speaking of the farm, Charlotte Swancy shared what her plans are for eating this week’s box. Have you met Charlotte? She and Wes are the owners/farmers at Riverview. She’s at the Freedom Farmers Market every Saturday morning. Charlotte delivers half of the CSA boxes every week. If you’re ever in the mood to lend a hand, she always appreciates volunteers, especially in watermelon season.

This week, Charlotte’s plan is to focus first on the kale and the bok choy. After that, she said, “everything else is easy.” She’s smart. But I can’t help myself and will be starting with the huge head of lettuce tonight.

First prep. Conne would counsel you to wash the lettuce when you get it. Fill a large bowl with cold water in the sink, add greens; let them soak a bit if they need to rehydrate. Swish them a bit and any dirt or sand will sink to the bottom of the bowl. Gently spin, or wrap the leaves in paper towels before stashing in the fridge.

NOTE: The salad mix in the bag is not pre-washed. That water you see in the bag is from the dew that covered the plants when the leaves were harvested in the early morning coolness. Drain it before storing so that the leaves in the bottom of the bag aren’t sitting in water. It’s easy to drain; tear a little hole in an corner of the bottom. Even still, salad mix doesn’t last as long as the head lettuce so maybe start with that first.

But! I have been dreaming of that first head of lettuce of the year, and this one doesn’t disappoint. Ours (or half of ours) will be a BLT salad. Cook up lots of bacon (I use an entire package which is ¾ lb), handfuls of big meaty tomato chunks salted with your favorite crystals, croutons, spring onions, and some creamy dressing. Ranch works. I like blue cheese. Bread on the side and dinner is DONE.

More salad support from Conne: Green goddess dressing recipe with avocados. Dip your radishes in that for snacking, or make Steven Satterfield’s radish sandwich, a spring sandwich that rivals summer’s tomato sandwiches. Speaking of Steven, he’s a staple in Slow Food Atlanta’s chapter, a worthy organization that celebrates food. I had forgotten how many interesting foodie people attend their gatherings. Joining anew.

Radish tops can be blended into a pesto! I’ve been reading that bit for years, but finally blended some carrot tops into pesto this spring and was shocked at how good it was. Newsflash: basil isn’t required. Pesto, or chimchurri, can make any dinner special. Whir up a jar, give it a coating of olive oil, and you have an herby spring tonic that can be used in multiple meals. My favorite cookbook of this year, Vegetable Relevations (from Chef Satterfield) includes recipes for chimchurri, pesto, more.

You technically don’t need a formal recipe for pesto!  Leaves, herbs, oil, garlic, salt & pepper are the basics. Options: Add lemon zest for brightness. A little bit of hard cheese like parmesan, romano, etc for creaminess. Or nuts to boost the protein. Consider nuts other than pine nuts, which are pricey and sometimes hard to find. Pecans would be lovely. Or skip the nuts altogether. Done.

That said, here’s a recipe I’ll be making this week:  Kale Pesto with Pasta. Because we have herbs growing in the yard, I’ll throw in some of that cilantro that’s bolting and maybe some other odds and ends. And the radish tops, of course.

Enjoy your first box of 2024!

~Suzanne

PS:  Our CSA crow returned this year!  Within minutes of the truck’s arrival in Grant Park, the crow was cawing for the egg that Charlotte donates to it. After the truck leaves, the crow swooped onto the table on the porch and headed straight for the strawberry cake dropped off by the Rogue Baker (anonymous neighbor CSA member who loves to bake, not me for gosh sake). Once redirected to the eggs, it persevered and pecked into one for a snack. It’s outside now, asking for more.