Welcome to Week 3 of the 2025 summer CSA season. This week is a Group A week, which means full shares in all locations pick up and half shares in Duluth pick up.
In their shares this week, members will receive the following vegetables: broccoli, collard greens, Japanese salad turnips, radishes, and a mixture of head lettuces. Some shares will also receive napa cabbage.
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.”
Movie Night at the Farm
Summary: This is our fourth annual movie at the farm. We are going to start the movie earlier this year and watch it in the barn so that families with small children can attend. This year, we’ll be watching the Oscar-winning film “Flow.” It’s an inspiring film.
- Date: Saturday, June 28
- Time: 6:30 (Movie starts at 7)
- Location: Rising Phoenix Community Farm
News from the farm
Now that it’s Week 3, we can start to see what kind of season we might expect over the next month or so. As we walked the field on Monday morning, we were quite pleased to see the progress the plants were making—both in the field and in our tunnels.
We’re very pleased to be able to give broccoli to 43 members in the third week of the growing season. For us, that is a sign of success. It means that the plants started in our high tunnel back in April have grown, been successfully transplanted into the field, and have had the right conditions to be ready for harvest at the right time.
Planning out a summer-long CSA is a lot like planning a fireworks show: if you plant everything at once, it would be a mess—like all the fireworks going off at the same time. Instead, Heather Marie has to plan out the entire growing season and start plants in both the greenhouse and from seed, so they are ready for harvest at different times throughout the season.
It’s a tricky process that involves lots of notebooks, planning sheets, and record-keeping. Thankfully, Heather Marie has all of the paperwork from each of her 15 growing seasons to guide her as she plans. At the same time, you can do everything right and still have things go wrong. Some years it’s too hot. Some years it’s too cold. Some years the plants delay ripening, and other years they’re ready too soon.
This year has been a good one—especially for plants that thrive in a cool, wet early season. That means Japanese salad turnips and radishes have done wonderfully for us. These are probably the best turnips we’ve ever grown.
We’re also seeing evidence that many other plants are coming along nicely. The snap peas are flowering and will soon be producing the sweet, crunchy peas everyone loves. Our kohlrabi looks beautiful and is either ready or will be ready for harvest next week. In our high tunnel, we have more than 200 feet of scallions that are looking fantastic. The cucumber and tomato plants are growing by the day. For those who have signed up for flower shares, the flowering plants are also coming along well.
Images from the farm
This week’s veggies and recipes
Collard greens
Collard greens have a special significance for us and the story of how we became a couple. You can read that story and learn about some recipes by reading this post, written in 2019.
Grilled brunch
In the summertime, we try to do as much cooking as possible either outside or by eating mostly freshly harvested and raw. This Sunday, we decided to have some fun by grilling the mini Romaine lettuces and the amazing radishes and Japanese salad turnips we’re enjoying thanks to this cooler, wet early summer.
There really is no recipe. The goal is to throw a bunch of vegetables on the grill and either eat them right away or have them in a storage container so you can toss them in an omelette, put them on a frozen pizza or, in this case, have them for a Sunday brunch with some cooked brown rice, grilled salmon and a Rhubarb Vinaigrette dressing.
Ingredients
- red onion, sliced into large wedges
- 2 heads of lettuce, split lengthwise
- 1 bunch Japanese salad turnips, washed
- 1 bunch radishes, washed
Instructions
- Start grill, either gas or charcoal.
- Prepare vegetables and lightly salt. Once salted, let them rest for as long as you can — ideally 20 minutes or more.
- Spread items across the grill. You can lightly baste with either olive oil or a neutral oil like grapeseed, but be careful of flareups and burning from the oil.
- Grill until the vegetables have a nice char to them and a texture that looks appealing to you.
- Once done, serve them on a bed of cooked brown rice drizzled with rhubarb vinaigrette dressing.
Rhubarb Vinaigrette
From My Island Bistro Kitchen website
- 1 cup rhubarb, sliced
- ¼ cup orange juice
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tsp grapefruit balsamic vinegar (balsamic vinegar is fine)
- ½ tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 small green onion, minced
- 1 tsp mustard
- ¼ cup Mandarin-infused olive oil (extra virgin olive oil is fine)
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- ½ tsp minced or puréed garlic, optional
In a small saucepan, combine the rhubarb and orange juice. Heat over medium heat and cook until rhubarb has completely softened, about 5-7 minutes. Stir frequently to prevent scorching. Let cool. When cool, use an immersion blender to purée the mixture.
Add the maple syrup, vinegar, lemon juice, green onion, mustard, olive oil, sea salt, and garlic (if using). Stir well to combine.
Serve over your favorite salad. Keep refrigerated in a covered bottle for up to 1 week.