Summer #2 CSA Newsletter June 7-13, 2026
- Jun 10
- 11 min read
Updated: Jun 12
This week's share
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VEG SHARES - Weekly + "B" week for EOW
Info for the vegetables in the Default Share plus those available for those choosing the Design Share:
ASPARAGUS (1 lb) - Can be eaten raw or cooked many ways—roasted, grilled, steamed, boiled, pan-roasted, fried and can be added to pasta, salads, soups, and stir-fries.Steam with butter or hollandaise sauce, blanch and chill with a vinaigrette, herbs, or other dressing. Generally speaking, thicker spears are better for roasting, grilling, and stir-frying, and thinner stalks are traditionally left whole so their tender, meaty texture can be appreciated. Trim before cooking by holding the ends and bending the spear until it breaks somewhere in the middle; everything from the middle up will be tender enough to eat easily. Store in the fridge either in a vase of water (cut a sliver off the stalk ends first if they are dried) or store them in a loosely wrapped plastic bag in the crisper drawer. Just remember that the sooner you eat it, the better the flavor. Asparagus can also be blanched and then frozen although it will be more mushy when thawed - perfect for soup! Pickling is another option.
LETTUCE MIX (5 oz) - Store in a plastic bag in your fridge. Often considered a “1st Priority Vegetable” with a shorter shelf life than the other vegetables in your share, however if you put a paper or cloth towel in the bag to absorb moisture, our freshly harvested lettuce will often lasts more than a week! Guide & Recipes
ARUGULA (4 oz.) - Arugula is spicy peppery green. You can eat it alone or as an accent in other salads. It’s more perishable than lettuce and should be eaten earlier rather than later. Although adding a sheet of paper towel to the plastic bag before storing in the fridge will extend its life. Guide & Recipes
SPINACH 5 oz) - This green is very versatile (and YES! You can eat the stems, in fact they are very tasty too. ;) It can be eaten cooked or raw, requires little prep, works with sweet or savory ingredients, stands up to other hearty ingredients, and pairs well with rich, fatty foods such as cheese, butter, bacon, and cream. Raw is popular in salads with, or without, pecans, dried fruit such as cranberries, chunks of cheese, sunflower seeds, and roasted beets. Other possibilities are steaming, boiling, stir-frying, or sautéeing with butter or olive oil. Known as a longer keeper than lettuce, store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for a week or more. Note - Cooks down in size considerably. Guide & Recipes
STINGING NETTLES (1/2 lb) - Guide & Recipes
GOLD POTATOES (1 lb) With a golden peel and flesh, these potatoes have a sweet, buttery, and earthy flavor suited for cooked applications such as roasting, grilling, frying, mashing, sautéing, and boiling. The tubers retain their color when cooked, and the skin can be peeled or left intact, depending on preferences. Guide & Recipes
CARROTS (1 bunch) - Store the roots dry and unwashed in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Guide & Recipes
SUNCHOKES - Also known as Jerusalem Artichokes. Its texture is crispy, like jicama and water chestnuts, and it has the earthiness of a real artichoke. Sunchokes are edible raw or cooked, including the skins. The thin skin is difficult to peel, and they turn brown/grey quite quickly, so a good scrubbing is a better option. Sunchokes can be eaten raw, cooked, baked, pickled, and fermented. Storage: Because of their thin skin, sunchokes can’t be “cured” for long storage like potatoes can be. Keep them in a bag or container in the fridge and plan to use in about 10 days. Guide & Recipes
SNOW PEAS (1/2 lb) - Often used in Asian recipes, you eat the whole pod which is tender and contains baby seeds inside that are so small, you may not even notice them! Munch on this healthy snack and enjoy the crunch. Guide.
RADISHES with greens (1 bunch) - Separate radish from leaves for storing! Keep the greens in a loosely wrapped plastic bag in the crisper bin of your refrigerator and eat them soon. Store the colorful roots in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for a week or so. Eat them raw with a sprinkle of salt, slice into salads or on sandwiches for added crunch, pickle or roast with carrots. Guide & Recipes
SALAD (Hakurei) TURNIPS (1 bunch) - These popular white golf-ball or smaller size roots are juicy, sweet and less starchy than an average turnip, with a texture that deserves to be eaten raw or barely cooked. Hakurei turnips have the tender, almost creamy texture of a spring radish, but without the sharp heat of a radish, their more mellow turnip flavor shines through.They are crisp and tender. Use them in salads, sandwiches, stir frys, sautes, scrambled eggs or sauces. Remove the edible tops (use in salads or lightly sauteed) and store them separately in a plastic bag in the fridge (or the root will get soft). Best used within 3-4 weeks but will keep a long time! Guide & Recipes
SORREL (1 bunch) - Kind of a salad green & kind of a herb and in the same family as rhubarb, sorrel’s astringent citrusy flavor adds a little kick to your meal. And its rich in potassium, vitamins Q, B1, and C. A rule of thumb for using - anywhere you’d add a squeeze or two of lemon, sorrel would be good! When heat is added, sorrel breaks down nicely making it a great thickener for sauces and soups. It’s strong flavor pairs well with fatty meats & fish like salmon, creamy dishes, and cheeses. Great cut into thin strips and mixed with other salad greens to eat fresh. Other ideas include using it in soups, sauces, pesto, salads & dressings, potato toppings, hummus, quiches, omelets, crepe fillings, pizza, pasta dishes. 7 More Recipe Ideas Sorrel will last 1-2 weeks in a plastic bag in your fridge. If you wish to rinse or wash, wait until just before using to prolong shelf life.
YELLOW ONIONS (1 lb) - Store on your counter or in your pantry out of direct sunlight. Onion peels can be put into a freezer bag with other vegetable scraps to make soup stock later, as they are full of antioxidants. To freeze: Cut or slice onions to desired size and place in Ziplock bag. Remove all the air and seal. It helps to freeze them in 2-3 cup increments. These are a good all-around onion, great for cooking and flavoring dishes. By far, they're the most popular onion sold in America and versatile enough for just about anything. Yellow onions are a smart choice for caramelizing, which draws out their natural sweetness. (from our farm & Gwenyn Hill Farm)
GARLIC SCAPES - (1 bunch) These are the curlicue curiosities in your box. Store them in a plastic bag in your crisper. They’ll last about 2-3 weeks. You can trim off the bottom inch of the scape (if it’s woody) as well as the flowering tip (although that is also edible if you want to try it). Steam, saute, or grill them whole or chopped in pieces, similar to green beans, with some olive oil and salt/pepper. Or finely chop as a garlic substitute. Can also be sliced and included in fresh dishes - like you’d use green onions. Can also pickle or chop and freeze them in a Mason jar or Ziplock bag. Then you can use them all summer/winter as needed.
CHIVES (1 bunch) - Chives, with long, pencil-like, thin edible leaves with hollow centers and also edible purple flowers, belong to the allium family, making them relatives of onions, leeks, scallions, and garlic. They are typically chopped and are most often used as a garnish but are good on just about anything. Their flavor pairs well with any savory dish. and the bright green color adds visual appeal as well. Note: if added to a dish too early, they will wilt easily. Chives will keep a few weeks in the fridge in a plastic bag although quality will be better if used within a week.
GARLIC CHIVES (1 bunch) - Garlic chives look similar to chives, but their leaves are broad and flat instead of hollow. Their garlicky flavor enhances cooked dishes, particularly ones where the food is slowly simmered in a sauce, such as red-cooked stews or soups, or in stuffing. Use them also to add flavor to stir-fries. They go particularly well with eggs and seafood—you’ll often find them paired with scrambled eggs or prawns.
BABY GINGER (¼ lb) - Baby ginger is much milder than mature ginger. Ways to use it: Grate it into stir-fries and soups for a mild, warming spice, blend it into smoothies or homemade popsicles, make a soothing, sweet-spiced tea, perfect for cozy evenings, simmer with sugar to make a ginger syrup, make a zesty salad dressing with minced baby ginger, olive oil, vinegar, and honey, or add it to muffin or cookie batter for a subtle warmth and aroma in your baked goods. Storage: Baby ginger will keep a couple weeks in the fridge. If you won't use it by then, put it in the freezer and just grate some off when you need it. It'll keep many months there. from Farm on Central and not certified organic BUT grown organically without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.
RHUBARB - (1 lb) - These tart green & magenta stalks this hardy perennial vegetable is generally thought of as a fruits. It’s mouth puckering goodness is often sweetened with a little sugar or honey and is used in dishes like crisps, compotes, and pies (from which it gets its second name, "pie plant"). Rhubarb also lends a fruitiness to savory dishes and pairs very nicely with pork and poultry. To use: wash and trim off any dry ends. Some peel the skin but there’s no need to do this and besides it holds lots of color and flavor. Store in loose plastic in the crisper drawer of the fridge, where it will keep for about a week or a little more. To freeze, cut the rhubarb stalks into 1-inch chunks and seal in an airtight bag and it will keep for up to a year.
ALL PURPOSE BOLTED FLOUR - Best applications include but are not limited to cakes, crackers, pizza dough, and breads.PROTEIN CONTENT= 10.5%. (from Meadowlark Organics)
WHITE CHEDDAR CHEESE (8 oz) - Semi-hard Cheddar that carries a tanginess along with smooth, consistent flavor. Great table cheese used for grating or grilling. Pairs well with: Champagne or Chardonnay *NOT organic. (from Meister Cheese)
MES SHARES - Round 1, 2nd week
EGG SHARES - all Weekly & Biweekly "BA"
Recipes:
On the Farm . . .
The garlic is aaaa-scaping!
No, not escaping, I'm being silly, but putting up its scapes, or seed stalks.
We pull them off so all the plant's energy goes towards growing a bigger bulb underground instead of into making seeds.
And luckily for all of us, the scape is a tasty treat.
Yum, yum!
The first batch of sweet corn is growing great with all the heat and recent rains.
This season asparagus and peas have been early for us, and it's looking like sweet corn will be too.
Below is the first succession of our summer squash crop. ⬇️
It's growing good also.
We often have issues with squash bugs, but so far, so good. 🤞
You can't tell how hot it was when Marlee, Aidan, and I picked these gorgeous snow peas on Tuesday by looking at this photo, so just take my word for it.
It was H-O-T!
In fact it was so hot and sticky that my glasses kept sliding off my nose when I bent down to pick the lower pods - bleck!!!
Finally, I quit trying to wear them and parked them on top of my head.
That worked and turns out picking slightly out-of-focus peas pods doesn't affect their flavor one little bit.
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get the job done.
There's always something to do on a farm, and sometimes when I think about it, the jobs seem to be working against each other.
Above is just such an instance.
Last weekend before the rains came, Aidan was moving the irrigating gun and hose around the farm to water vegetable crops because growth was slowing down while Bill was mowing our walking paths because the grass and clovers were growing too much.
Go figure!
While we're picking and eating snow peas, a few beds away, the transplanted shelling pea seedlings have taken root and are off to a good start.
And the farther along from that, the sugar snap peas are doing the same.
While most of our CSA members and market customers L.O.V.E. peas, annnnd we could grow and move lots more of them at one time,
those aren't our only considerations.
Since we're a small family farm, and there's just the 5 of us picking,
with Liam and Marlee only part-time,
we spread out the harvests to help prevent personal burnout.
Our goal is sustainability all around because we plan to be here growing food for ourselves and you for years and years and years to come.
When our son Liam hasn't been helping us harvest asparagus, feed pigs, gather eggs, or pick peas, he's been making metal sculptures in his Black Pearl Forge shop.
He's been building his inventory for his summer art show schedule.
(Alert: Incoming shameless parental promotion upcoming ➡️)
June 27 & 28= Spring Green Arts & Crafts, July 18 = Stockholm Art Fair, Aug 8 & 9 = Green Lake Art Fair, Sept 5 = Cow Chip Throw & Festival Prairie du Sac, Sept 12 & 13 = Wausau Art Fair,
Sept 19 & 20 = Driftless Area Art Festival Soldiers Grove
A few months back, a neighbor farmer gifted him rolls of old barbwire, and Liam decided to do a series with barbed wire as his "medium".
Above he's standing by his barn owl, and below he's working on a fox.
The fox ended up selling at the Art in Wyoming Valley show in May.
While out moving cows with Aidan recently, I took this photo of a Jack-in-the-Pulpit.
They're such interesting plants.
Back home later, I showed it to Liam.
It intrigued him and provided inspiration to reprise it in metal.
And
Voila!
Now there's a metal Jack-in-the-Pulpit
that'll be making the art fair circuit with him.
Marlee has also been busy.
She's been pursuing her photography interest.
Longtime farm members have seen her photos in newsletters for quite sometime now.
And also heard me complain about her often interrupting her vegetable picking on harvest days to take them of an ant, butterfly, or other insect on a nearby flower,
milkweed plant, or other vegetative structure.
Almost as if we planted them all just for her to observe and preserve
in still photographs.
Lol.
Well, she's been taking all of these with her phone camera.
And it's done a nice job of capturing her unique perspective.
So much so, that she spent the money to turn several into blank photo notecards and set up and sell next to Liam at the Art in Wyoming Valley Show.
Her instagram is under her business name Marvelous Marlee if you'd like to follow her.
Or (shameless parental promotion alert) if you're are interested in getting a notecard, handbound journals, or a piece of jewelry from her. ;)
Nevertheless, she's been dreaming of getting a real camera.
Well, Bill's friend, regular market customer, and photographer, Michael, saw the notecards on our market table. (More shameless parental promotion!)
Seeing a chance to encourage the next generation of photographers, he proposed passing on an old-to-him but new-to-her professional camera in trade for some of her resulting notecards.
Marlee gladly agreed and is now learning how to use her Canon Rebel camera.
Our resident jack-of-all-trades Bill knows a little about cameras and helped get her started on his way out to check his bee hives.
(Hence the bee suit and and hood he's wearing above.)
And she was off!
(I don't have any recorded evidence of her reading the manual or watching YouTube videos, but she's been doing those as well as practicing like below.)
Dash, our border collie became one of her first subjects. Even though he wasn't sure about being in the spotlight, she got this shot.
(Please ignore Liam's metal bird sculpture doubling as a large mosquito in the background. lol.)
Birds, including the rooster at the beginning of this newsletter, and this photogenic barn swallow, have been captured, as well as flowers - like the peony I shared in the last newsletter -
besides whatever else catches her fancy.
Back to more farm-related info,
Aidan, Bill, and I managed to plant more than 50 blackberry brambles in our new blackberry patch after the rain.
While we don't expect to see many, if any, blackberries this summer,
we should have a good harvest next year.
We've been dreaming of building on our past raspberry success for a while, and it felt good to be putting these guys in the ground.
So here's to future abundant blackberry harvests for us all to enjoy!
Have a great week.
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