Welcome to Week 2 of the 2025 summer CSA season. This week is a Group B week, which means full shares in all locations pick up and half shares at the farm pick up for the first time.
In their shares this week, members will receive the following vegetables: napa cabbage, Japanese salad turnips, radishes, microgreens (broccoli this week), mini Romaine lettuces (red and green) and lettuce mix. Duluth CSA members will receive oregano. Farm pickup will receive chives.
* Note: Neither the lettuce mix nor the microgreens have been washed, so it might be a good idea to give them a quick rinse to remove any grit.
This newsletter includes a roundup of news from the farm as well as information and recipes. Feel free to jump to the bottom of the newsletter to find the section titled, “This week’s veggies and recipes.”
News from the farm
It’s now mid June and our field and high tunnels are about 70 percent full. The greenhouse where plants are started is getting more and more empty. On Friday, with the help of CSA members Katie and Addy, we plopped seed potatoes into 900 row feet.
Knock on wood, but it’s been a pretty steady and not overly stressful start to the growing season this year.
These are strange things to write because most of the time, farmers love to complain (especially to other farmers) about:
- How much work they have to do
- How far behind they are
- The weather
Make no mistake, we are busy. May and June are the busiest times at the farm as we rush to take the literally thousands of transplants that Heather-Marie started in the greenhouse and get them into the ground. We are also direct seeding things like carrots, beets, flowers, herbs and more.
So, yes, we’re busy. At the same time, the pace has felt manageable and doable.
There seem to be a couple of reasons for this. One is that we have a great team working at the farm. This year, Kristina is back working with us part time and our intern, Amelia, is back for her second year as well. We also have had great support from our contributing CSA members, who work hours on the farm in exchange for a reduction in the cost of their CSA.
But another reason things are going well is that, after five years here at this location, we’ve learned a lot. Projects that might have taken longer in the past have been honed and refined or abandoned entirely. Meanwhile, our systems and major projects (most of them) are behind us, making our farm operations more efficient.
In short, we feel like we’ve found our rhythm.
What’s most rewarding this year is that it also feels like our soil and our fields are showing improved fertility thanks to hard work, lots of compost, manure and cover crops.
While the early weeks of the CSA growing season will continue to be a slow progression of lettuces and other leafy greens, we’re excited by the fertility we’re seeing at the farm and the potential bounty it will bring.
We hope you are, too.
Images from the farm
This week’s veggies and recipes
Asian Noodle, Mushroom and Cabbage Salad
This is why we grow Napa Cabbage! Don’t let the long ingredient list scare you off, this salad is amazing.
Napa Cabbage
Napa cabbage, or Chinese cabbage, originated in China. Used primarily in stir fries, but also salads and soups and can be grilled. The leaves have a slightly sweet flavor. The heads are not round and compact like regular cabbage but grow upright and have a bullet shape.
Ingredients
- 12 large dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 Tb peanut oil
- 3 c. thinly sliced Napa Cabbage
- 1 Tb minced garlic
- 14 green onions, 12 halved and cut into 2½ in. pieces; 2 chopped
- 3 Tb soy sauce
- 1 1-lb package fresh thin Chinese egg noodles or one 12 oz package dried Chinese egg noodles (** I just use regular wide egg noodles)
- 1/3 c. oriental sesame oil
- 2 Tb lemon juice
- 1 Tb unseasoned rice vinegar
- 2 tsp sugar
- 3 hard boiled eggs, 2 thinly sliced, 1 chopped for garnish
- 1 c. fresh cilantro
- 1 Tb minced ginger
Instructions
1. Place mushrooms in medium bowl with boiling water to cover. Set until softened, 45 minutes. Drain. Cut off stems and discard. Thinly slice caps.
2. Heat peanut oil in heavy wok over medium-high heat. Add cabbage, ginger, garlic and mushrooms. Stir-fry until cabbage wilts, about 2 minutes. Add 2½ in. green onion pieces; toss until tops begin to wilt, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Mix in 1 Tb soy sauce.
3. Cook noodles in boiling water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain well. Place in large bowl. Whisk sesame oil, next three ingredients and 2 Tb soy sauce in small bowl. Add to noodles. Add sliced eggs, ¾ c. cilantro and cabbage mixture; toss well to blend. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and chill.
4. Sprinkle salad with the 2 chopped green onions, chopped egg and remaining ¼ c. cilantro.
Try spring rolls for an easy change of pace
Spring rolls w/ fish sauce
Spicy Fish Sauce
From Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden
We could drink this sauce, it’s so good! It’s a staple in Vietnam (called “nuoc cham”)
- ¼ cup seeded, deribbed, and minced fresh hot chiles
- 4 large garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup fish sauce
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup white wine vinegar
- 2 T sugar
Stir everything together in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust so you have an intense sweet-salty-sour-hot balance. Ideally, make this a day ahead, then taste and readjust the seasonings on the second day. The sauce will keep for a month or two in the fridge.
The Farm’s Asian-style salad, and spring rolls
This seems to be on our rotation a lot on the farm, especially for Heather-Marie
Any vegetable combination, cooked or raw: Sauteed bok choy, kale or greens; roasted carrots; or any raw veggies: radishes, turnips, carrots, etc
- Microgreens
- Rice noodles
- Fish sauce-sauce (see above)
Protein, optional: fried egg, scrambled egg, roasted garbanzo beans, shrimp, cooked chicken, etc
Herbs, optional: mint, Thai basil
Prepare vegetables and protein, if using.
Cook the noodles according to package (we boil water in a kettle and pour over noodles and let site for about 3-4 min. Check for doneness).
Assemble salad with noodles in the bottom of individual bowls, followed by the rest of the ingredients and topped with the sauce.
Spring roll variation
Instead of a salad with all of the above ingredients, you can also make this into spring rolls, or lettuce wraps.
Additional ingredients: rice paper and/or large lettuce leaves
Have all of your ingredients chopped and made ahead of time. Have a large bowl of water ready to slide the rice paper sheets into. You only need to get them wet for a few seconds. You can still assemble them when they are still stiff. They will hydrate. In the bottom third of the rice paper, place a small amount of rice noodles, egg, radishes, microgreens and whatever other veggies you want. Fold up the bottom edge, then the two sides and roll all the way up. You can make a plate of these to eat all at once, or eat as you go. Such a fun meal to do with friends or family.
Quick Pickles
Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden
- Brine
- (makes enough for about 3 pints pickles)
- ½ cup rice vinegar
- 1 Tb white wine vinegar
- 1 ½ cups hot water
- 5 Tb sugar
- 1 Tb plus 1 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
Put everything in a pot or big pitcher and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved.
Using clean canning jars, fill with your vegetable in a way that shows off the beauty of it, pour over the brine until the vegetables are completely covered and the jar is full, and screw on the cap. Refrigerate for up to 2 months. Start tasting after the first day to see how the flavor and texture are developing. They are ready to eat as soon as you think they are ready.
Turnip Pickles
Ingredients
- 5 smashed garlic cloves
- 3 strips of orange zest
- 1 Tb black peppercorns
- Rinse all seasonings.
Preparation
Use early season Japanese turnips. Remove tops, leaving ½ inch of the greens. Scrub but don’t peel, then cut into quarters lengthwise. With larger late-season turnips, peel and cut into wedges. Layer with seasonings.
Tips for turnips, and other roots
In the earlier part of the growing season, you will find your root vegetables still attached to their greens. That is because the greens are still tender enough to eat. Later in the season the greens become tougher and roots like storage carrots, will have their tops removed.
So a couple of things to keep in mind:
- Remove the greens promptly. If left on for too long, roots will become soft.
- Store the roots and greens separately. They will both keep longer.
- Cook up the greens like you would any other greens. Turnip greens are used quite frequently in southern cooking, along with collards.