We organized this week's share to be light and refreshing so that you'd have an opportunity to recover from holiday eating.  The funny thing about Thanksgiving is that there is so much focus on food for Thursday that we tend to forget that it'll be nice to make yummy food on the days that follow the holiday.  We hope that picking up your CSA share on Saturday will inspire you to keep cooking post-Thanksgiving. 

We don't do a lot of fruit in our CSA, but this week we included two different fruits!  Organic oranges from North Florida and dragon fruit from Homestead.  We caught the tail end of dragon fruit season and got a few cases of the last harvest until next year.  Dragon fruit are a super cool local treat that we don't often see at the grocery stores.  If you've ever driven down to Homestead you've probably seen the acres and acres of dragon fruit plantations which look out of this world.  The cactus plants are trained to grow like stubby palm trees for commercial production.  We recommend enjoying this fruit fresh and raw; just peel and eat.  You can also add it to a fruit salad or try one of the many recipes going around online for smoothies, juices or frozen desserts.

This week we are excited to include veggies from Cool Runnings Organic Farm in Homestead.  They grew the cucumbers, scallions and some of the zucchini squash in the shares.  We are also going to be selling his butternut squash, pumpkins and starfruit at our market stand. 

Here's a full list of the CSA shares:

Small shares:
Baby bok choi from our field
Baby lettuce mix from French Farm
Your choice between dinosaur kale, spigariello kale or swiss chard from French Farms
Salad turnips from French Farms
Your choice between zucchini or cucumbers from French Farms and Cool Runnings Farm
Oranges from North Florida
Dragon fruit from Homestead

Large shares:
Baby bok choi from our field
Baby lettuce mix from French Farm
Your choice between dinosaur kale, spigariello kale or swiss chard from French Farms
Salad turnips from French Farms
Your choice between zucchini or cucumbers from French Farms and Cool Runnings Farm
Oranges from North Florida
Dragon fruit from Homestead
Scallions from Cool Runnings Farm

Chris of French Farms grows all of the baby greens for you guys and this week you'll be getting his amazing baby lettuce mix.  He grows a special variety of lettuce called Salanova which stays petite even at full maturity.  That means every leaf is the perfect size for salad mix when the head of lettuce is gown up and has developed full flavor and texture.  Most other baby lettuce at the grocery stores is just regular lettuce plants that have been harvested when the plants are actually baby so the leaves are very tender, bruise easily and don't last long in the fridge.  Salanova lettuce has revolutionized salad lettuce production and we're so happy that Chris has jumped on that band wagon to make this great product available to our CSA members. 

The bok choi in your share was grown by yours truly with much love and care!  Over the years we've tried many different varieties of bok choi and just last year found our all time favorite called Li Ren.  It's a petite choi that stays small even when the plants are fully mature.  Just like the Salanova lettuce, this means they are packed with flavor and texture.  One of our favorite ways to enjoy Li Ren choi is simply cut down the middle lengthwise and seared face down on a hot skillet with a bit of olive oil, sesame oil, salt, pepper and sesame seeds.  Sear the halves for about 5-6 minutes and then cover the pan on low heat for another 10 minutes to get the whole thing tenderized.  Serve as a side with scrambled eggs for breakfast, add to a brothy soup or as a dinner side. 

Happy Thanksgiving, enjoy your veggies this week!