Welcome to week 8 of your CSA! heres the low down on what will be in your share this week:

Grove small:
strawberries
parsley
rapini
sorrel
beets
collards
turnips

Grove large get all of this plus:
napa cabbage
fennel
butterhead lettuce

Upper East Side small:
strawberries
parsley
mizuna mustard
new zealand spinach
beets
collards
turnips

Upper East Side large will get all of this plus:
napa cabbage
fennel
butterhead lettuce

This time of winter is South Florida's main Strawberry season, and we couldn't  be happier about it. Homestead is full of strawberry farms, including the popular U pick Knaus Berry Farm, home of the best and naughtiest cinnamon buns ever, and this week we are getting our berries from Pine Island Farm in Homestead. We planted a few starts in the fall at our garden and nursery space which are producing small amounts of fruit, if you got strawberry plants at one of our seedling sales this fall we hope yours are happy and productive too. No need to suggest recipes for strawberries since were pretty sure your pint of fresh bright red berries might not even make it through the drive home!

This week we're also including an array of extra healthy greens for you to cook and enjoy in a myriad of ways. First up, beet greens! (don't worry, were also including the beets themselves, but right now lets talk about their tops) While often treated as compost fodder, beet greens should most definitely be consumed as they are incredibly good for you and high in fiber and antioxidants. One half cup of sautéed beet greens contain 30 percent of your daily recommended intake of vitamin C, and are also a source of Vitamin A  and K. Beets are related closely to swiss chard, so cook the greens as you would chard, perhaps sautee them with olive oil, garlic and some red pepper flakes.

Parsley, while treated mostly as an herb or garnish, can be a tasty green to showcase in a salad or pesto. Mandolin Aegean Bistro, in the Design District, makes a seasonal salad with our parsley harvest that is so simple but so tasty! They tear the leaves off the stem so that there aren't any firm twiggy bits in the salad, then toss the greens with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. The pile of parsley is topped with slices of fresh tomato and shaved parmesan cheese. Here is a round up of parsley recipes from the U.K.'s The Guardian Newspaper, we want to try making the parsley tempura!


Have you noticed the kind of annoying slogan on the side of paper whole foods bags, proclaiming that "Collards are the new Kale"? Despite it being kind of annoying because its a slogan on the side of a whole foods bag, we hope its a little bit true. Collards are indeed healthier than kale and are packed with higher amounts of vitamins and minerals, plus they are a traditional dish here in the south. The key to making enjoyable collard greens is slow cooking them for longer than you would kale, or adding them to long cooked dishes like stews and soups. 

This isn't the first time we are including french sorrel in the shares so hopefully you've found some delicious ways to incorporate it into your diet already. We add it to salads for a tangy change of pace, however there are many traditional french recipes that honor its tangy sour flavor, like french sorrel soup, and sauce. Here is a Julia Childs inspired recipe for a traditional french sorrel sauce. We also have a chef buying sorrel to add to his key lime pie, which is a great idea and makes the filling extra green!

French Sorrel Sauce

• 1/2 cup (packed) chopped fresh sorrel or spinach
• 2 tablespoons dry white wine
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced shallots
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
• ground white pepper
  
  Combine sorrel, wine and shallots in heavy small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sorrel wilts, about 2 minutes. Add cream and lime juice. Boil until reduced to sauce consistency, about 12 minutes. Transfer sauce to blender. Purée until almost smooth. Return sauce to same saucepan. Season with ground white pepper and salt.

Last but not least, we want to speak briefly about New Zealand Spinach, one of the many subtropical spinach alternatives that thrive here in Miami. When Tiffany spent a summer WWOOFing in Normandy, France, the summer heat had made the farms New Zealand Spinach plants explode with tender new growth and she and the other volunteers had it in every dish they made. Called there by its latin name, Tetragonia, it was chopped and added to stews, omelettes, fritattas, soups, sauteed greens dishes, you name it and it had Tetragonia in it. While this succulent leafy green is very versatile we dont recommend eating too much of it raw, since it contains Oxalates that can irritate a sensitive kidney when raw.