This week’s box included: bok choy, lettuce head, spinach, cucumbers, mustard greens, cauliflower, tomatoes, radishes, spring onions. 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.
One of our favorite things about getting a CSA box are these messages from Conne Ward Cameron. A long-time CSA subscriber, Conne shares her thoughts on approaching the weekly bounty. Her message for this week’s box is below. Conne writes about food for the AJC. ~Riverview Farms
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I missed the opening of CSA season last week so lucky you all who got strawberries! Today’s box is a good bit more of the same – spring onions, more radishes, in our case one cucumber, a bunch of gorgeous tomatoes I can’t wait to enjoy, a big head of bok choy – but also a bag of beautiful tiny spinach leaves, a bunch of mustard greens and a beautiful, beautiful cauliflower (my new favorite vegetable).
But another box – my inbox – today (maybe yours, too?) has been overflowing with ideas perfectly geared for today’s CSA bounty.
The Washington Post sent a recipe from April Bloomfield’s “A Girl and Her Greens: Hearty Meals From the Garden” for braised lettuce and peas. I’m not going shopping for peas, but I loved the suggestion of serving the cooked lettuce on top of a cooked grain like barley or on top of thick pieces of sourdough toast rubbed with some raw garlic. Sometimes I just want to do something other than make a salad with our beautiful lettuce so I’m giving this a try.
Speaking of sourdough toast, I also loved this idea for bruschetta topped with radishes from the Athens potter Rebecca Wood. She makes it with a can of lima beans, but I have cooked field peas in the freezer that I will use instead. Basically you’re making hummus, then topping it with beautiful thin slices of pretty spring radishes. If you like, sliver up some of the prettiest and most tender of the radish greens and add for additional peppery zing.
And then I’ve been seeing so many posts and emails about tuna salad and sandwiches and today Dorie Greenspan popped up with a recipe for Pan Bagnat, the “iconic” French tuna sandwich. All the posts made me put jars of tuna canned in olive oil on my shopping list two weeks ago and now I know what I will do with them. Looks like summer on a bun to me, and with tomatoes and cucumbers in the box, it feels like summer!
Braised Lettuce with Barley
Adapted from April Bloomfield’s “A Girl and Her Greens: Hearty Meals From the Garden.”
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided, plus more for serving
3 garlic cloves, cut in half
1 head lettuce, cut in half lengthwise
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 bunch spring onions, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cups cooked barley, warm
2 tablespoons chopped mint
In a skillet large enough to hold the lettuce, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add garlic and cook until golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove garlic from oil and set aside. Place lettuce halves in oil cut side down and cook until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. If they still have water on the leaves, the oil will hiss and pop. Turn them over and sprinkle lightly with salt. Cook just until lettuce is translucent at the stem and wilted at the tips, about 3 minutes more. Transfer to a plate. Reduce heat to medium-low, add remaining tablespoon olive oil plus butter and onions. Stir and cover the skillet, Cook until onions are soft and creamy, but not colored, about 20 minutes. Increase heat to high, add wine and boil until most of the liquid evaporates, about 4 minutes.
While onions are cooking, slice lettuce into ribbons. Put barley in a large serving bowl. When onions are done, pour over barley, then top with lettuce and chopped mint. Add extra olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Serve warm.
Bruschetta Topped with Radishes
From Rebecca Wood
About 2 cups cooked beans, your choice
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons tahini
Juice from 1/2 lemon, or to taste
Salt and pepper
Toasted slices of sourdough
1 bunch radishes, thinly sliced, greens thinly sliced as well
In the bowl of a food processor or jar of a blender, combine beans, garlic, olive oil and tahini and blend until smooth. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Spread on toast and top with radish slices and greens.
Pan Bagnat
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan
6 crusty buns
3 large hard-boiled eggs, at room temperature and cut into 6 wedges each
1 garlic clove, cut in half
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Red wine vinegar for sprinkling
Three 4.5-ounce cans tuna in olive oil, drained (or tuna in jars, weighing about 14 ounces)
2 beefsteak tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
6 to 8 radishes, thinly sliced
2 spring onions, white and pale green parts only, thinly sliced
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
2 mild-tasting long green peppers, such as Anaheim, thinly sliced (I’m going to use my cucumber)
One 2-ounce can anchovies in oil
1/4 cup pitted Niçoise olives
12 large basil leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
To assemble the sandwiches: Split the rolls in half and remove some of the crumb from the top halves, if you like. Gently rub the bottom halves with the cut garlic clove. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with red wine vinegar to taste. (From Greenspan: Think of this as “seasoning” both halves of the rolls.)
Place 2 slices of tomato on the bottom half of each bun. Flake the tuna onto the tomatoes and top with the sliced vegetables. Finish with the eggs, anchovy fillets, olives, and basil and season with salt and pepper. Top with the top halves of the buns and press down so that the bread absorbs some of the juices. Let stand for at least 10 minutes, and up to 2 hours, before serving.