This week may be the most colorful share of the season!  Literally.  Rainbow carrots from Three Sisters Farm and rainbow chard from French Farms will add lots of multicolor meals to your week.  We're also including bright nasturtium flowers to your salad mix and instead of a boring bunch of cooking greens, we're making a bouquet with three different colored crops from the farm. 

Small and large shares:
Rainbow carrots
Dandelion greens
Calabaza pumpkin
Stir fry bouquet (tatsoi, rapini, mustard)
Lettuce mix with edible flowers
Grapefruit

Large shares also get:
Sorrel
Fennel
Rainbow chard

It's peak citrus season in Florida guys!  We got a hold of organic grapefruits from a smaller grove in Central FL.  The fruits are huge, so juicy and delicious.  Enjoy.  We'll try to get more citrus in the next few weeks to take advantage of what our state is producing.  Some of the smaller groves grow very unique varieties that you can't even find in the stores.

Meet Rachel, she grows food at Three Sisters Farm in Redland right across the street from the Fruit and Spice Park.  This week we are including their perfectly bright rainbow carrots in the shares.  My personal favorite way to eat carrots lately is halved lengthwise and roasted with oil, salt and pepper.  So simple and so satisfying.  These rainbow carrots will be awesome shredded in a salad or a slaw too.

This is Calabaza, also from Three Sisters Farm.  It's a type of pumpkin that grows really well in our South Florida climate and soil.  The flesh is super bright yellow, almost neon, and the flavor is very rich; it makes a mean pumpkin soup or pumpkin bread; you can also roast it in pieces with your rainbow carrots to bulk up your meal. 

We are harvesting a beautiful multicolor salad mix for you guys this week and the best part is the nasturtiums.  You can use this salad like any other baby greens with your favorite dressing or maybe you'll get inspired to try a totally new dressing.  Maybe something with grapefruit in it?  I found this yummy recipe to put over a bed of baby greens, pistachios, a little red onion and gorgonzola cheese. 

This week is all about choices!  You guys are a big group and sometimes it's hard to grow enough of the same crops for everyone so we are letting you choose between a few varieties of kale, two different radishes and three very different kitchen herbs.  It's a win/win situation because you get a chance to have preferences and we get to give everyone in the CSA a bounty!

Over the last few weeks we have harvested lots and worked hard to replant all of the newly freed up space at the farm, but we are experiencing a small production gap in our greens department. The same seems to have happened at the two farms who contribute to the CSA the most, Verde Farm and French Farms, so this week everyone will have a bit of a greens break and we will focus on roots and fruits instead.

Large and Small shares get:
Kale (choose between Lacinato, Red Russian, Curly, or Rainbow kale)
Salad turnips with tops
Carrots
Radishes (choose between Watermelon radish or Shunkyo Long radish)
Herb (choose between Oregano, Parsley or Cilantro)
Strawberries
Bananas

Large shares also get:
Frisee
Poblano peppers
Spicy mustard sprouts

By now we are all familiar with using radishes in many ways, this week we will have two varieties for you to choose from: watermelon and shunkyo. Watermelon radishes are great for those of you who don't like a super spicy radishes, or who prefers a meatier radish for roasting. If sliced into thin rounds their bright pink interiors add a beautiful touch of color and flare to any salad, but we think their flavor really shines when slow roasted in the oven with just olive oil and salt. Shunkyo are bright fuchsia on the outside with a white interior, and raw they are super spicy! If halved lengthwise they can be sautéed in butter just like a french breakfast radish, or if you're up for the spice they can be eaten raw.

Turnips, although less familiar, are just as versatile. They can be sliced thin and eaten raw in salads, or roasted, and it seems that their most common preparation (according to my internet searches) is a mashed turnip dish, which sounds really delicious and comforting. Check out this recipe, for roasted parsnips and radishes, it looks great and it is winter after all, time to eat hearty roasted things like the rest of the country. Turnip tops, like radish tops, are a bit prickly raw but are delicious and healthy when cooked, so don't forget to take advantage of those tops. To make veggie storage easier and keep the roots fresher, its best to remove greens from your roots when you get home, and store them separately in a plastic bag or wet cloth.

This week you will also get a chance to pick an herb of your choice: we are harvesting oregano, cilantro and parsley. If you feel very strongly about your herb selection we suggest you show up early, as certain herbs may be completely gone towards the end of the day. Last week you got parsley but if you're like me and love parsley and think cilantro smells like soap, then there's no shame in picking it again! You can use the oregano fresh for a healthy and spicy flavored anti fungal tea (it also aids in digestion), or hang it to dry in a cool area with good air flow, and save it for your pantry.

And now, on to the fruit! Since it is strawberry season, and South Florida is a large strawberry producing region, we have found them again, freshly picked from a homestead farm for us all to enjoy. We figured no one would mind getting strawberries a few times through the season.  Last time we included them in the shares we almost had a riot on our hands from the market customers who desperately wanted to buy the CSA strawberries. This week we ordered a few extra quarts so that everyone can share in the sweetness. Last time we included strawberries in the shares Muriel and I got to take home the mushy ones; we both made fresh jam which we used for homemade pop tarts and for topping morning bowls of greek yoghurt.  They are amazing fresh or jammed!

All of a sudden three large bunches of bananas ripened at the farm so we can give everyone a bunch this week.  Bananas are such a staple and it's really cool that we can grow them so easily in South Florida year round.  Lucky us.  My favorite way to eat em is dried, as an easy snack on the go.  Having a dehydrator, even a small one, is a really good idea in this town which is so plentiful of fruit.  For just over $100 you can get a small counter top Excalibur dehydrator (it's the size of a tiny toaster oven).  Check out www.excaliburdehydrator.com

We grew sprouts for ya'll in our greenhouse!  This week we are harvesting spicy mustard sprouts and hopefully in the following weeks we'll get to try a few different varieties.  These are so fun as a garnish on anything from tacos to avocado toasts to cooked dishes like pasta or soup. 

It's the peak of the growing season in South Florida and the farm is looking spectacular so we want to show it off.  No, really, we want to give our CSA members and everyone who has been wanting to visit the farm a chance to come out on a Sunday for a day of field tours, lounging and refreshments.

Where: 360 ne 154th street
When: Sunday February 8th
Time: 10am-2pm

We'll have some light refreshments and picnic blankets to hang out on.  There is lots of shady lawn space and greenery to get lost in.  Bring your friends, kids, cameras and snacks.  If you're a local chef or someone who has inquired about volunteering on the farm this will be a great opportunity to see the farm and speak with both farmers about working together in the future.  We have found that the best working relationships start with a face to face conversation! 

Hope to see you there!

Dear CSA members we are some of the luckiest people in this country right now, blessed with the most beautiful weather while many other states freeze.  Our Miami skies have been breath taking lately and I'm particularly thankful for being able to spend my days at the farm soaking it all in.

Here's what we are harvesting for the 11th week of the CSA.  You'll notice we are including a grain in this week's share.  How cool is it that central Florida produces organic rice?  We thought it'd be a fun thing to include in order to add variety and help you round out your meals with totally fresh local plants.  Let us know what you think!

Small Shares:

Carambola aka starfruit
Large heirloom tomatoes
Kale
Baby spinach
Scallions
Kohlrabi
And local brown rice!

Large Shares will also get:

Parsley
Watermelon radishes

Kohlrabi is not commonly found in most supermarkets here, which is a shame because it is such a cool veg.  The main edible part is the bulb; once you peel the tough skin you'll have a snow white ball of crunchy, juicy kohlrabi to eat.  It tastes like a cross between broccoli and apple!  I like to cut it into strips and snack on it as an appetizer; it'd be great on a cheese platter or as an alternative to baby carrots for dipping into fondue or a cold dip.  The leaves can be cut off and used like you would kale.  They are best cooked; the chef at Zak the Baker Cafe once made a delicious tomato based stew/ sauce type thing served over rice which included chopped up kohlrabi leaves and it was great.

Heirloom Tomatoes are a bit of a sore subject for us only because we've had a hard time producing them on our farm for the past couple of years.  They are a magnificent crop and we will continue to try, but in the meantime, we're getting these beauties for you from a local Homestead farm you may have heard of, Teena's Pride.  Enjoy, they are amazing!

Week 10 is the halfway mark of the growing season.  It's a big accomplishment for us as the farmers and a reminder for you the eaters to enjoy the fresh local bounty while we still have it.  The growing season is a fleeting thing! 

This week the small shares are getting:

This week the large shares are getting:

Beets
Cabbage
Lettuce
Rainbow chard
Carrots
Pac choi
Sage
Moringa
Edible flower mix

Beets and Carrots are the candies of the vegetable world.  They will sweeten your juices (if you are into juicing veggies, remember to the also add the tops of carrots and beets since they are very nutritious and delicious) as well as your soups, purees and roasts.  Store roots separate from tops to keep the roots from getting soft.  Peel them for an extra sweet treat (the skins can be a little bitter), but you'll see that roasted whole or simply cut in half, both carrots and beets are a delicious side dish or snack.

Rainbow Chard is in the spinach and beet family.  It's colorful stems are fun to cook with.  Try a simple stir fry and chop the stems to put them in the pan first, with a bit of garlic or onions until soft and then add the green part of the leaves at the end for a short time.  The leaves are best undercooked otherwise they get too mushy.  This cooked down chard is great for filling omelettes or quiches paired with a salty sharp cheese.  You can also try adding cherry tomatoes to the pan until they get squishy and soft and serve the whole mixture over brown rice (add a sunny side up egg for a complete vegetarian meal!).

Sage is a personal favorite and we can only grow it during winter and spring here in South Florida because it doesn't survive the humidity of our rainy summer season.  It goes really well with squashes, potatoes or meats. 

Moringa is a perennial short lived tree that grows in tropical climates.  It's also known as "miracle tree" because it contains so many vitamins and minerals and because it grows so fast, providing a reliable source of nutrients for the poor in tropical countries.  We've been growing it at the farm for a few years and we sell young trees at the farmers market.  We also dehydrate the leaves and sell moringa in a powder form that can be added to everything from smoothies to soups to increase nutrients.  The fresh leaves can also be added to smoothies, juices, stir fries, salads, grains, etc.  Think of moringa as a nutritional supplement that you can add to any meal.

Welcome to week 9 of the CSA!  We hope you're enjoying your veggies at the peak of the growing season. 

Grove Pick-up small:
starfruit
lettuce
kale
cabbage
carrots
dandelion greens
cherry tomatoes

Grove Pick-up large:
starfruit
lettuce
kale
tatsoi
carrots
dandelion greens
cherry tomatoes
baby arugula
lemongrass


Upper East Side Pick-up large:
starfruit
lettuce
kale
tatsoi
carrots
dandelion greens
cherry tomatoes
baby arugula
lemongrass

Upper East Side Pick-up small:
starfruit
lettuce
kale
cabbage
carrots
dandelion greens
cherry tomatoes

Rainbow Kale is one of the varieties of kale we love most.  It's a hardy plant that produces beautiful medium to large leaves for bunching.  This week you'll be receiving either Rainbow or Lacionato kale aka Dino kale.  We include this crop in the shares often because we know it's a staple in home cooking plus it's a super food full of nutrients, vitamins and fiber.

French Farms continues to impress us with the lettuces they are producing.  The variety pictured here is called Natasha and it's literally the size of my hat!  So beautiful it's hard not to want a fresh salad right away. 

Carrots are in season!  We'll be including them in the shares as often as possible before the weather warms up too much and it becomes impossible to continue growing them.  Carrots, like most root veggies, taste much better when the weather is mild or chilly.  The colder it is the sweeter the carrots.  If you ever have a chance to pull a carrot out of the ground in the snow, do it!  That will be the sweetest carrot you'll ever eat.  When you get your share home, cut the tops off your carrots and store the roots in a fridge drawer.  The tops can be used for pesto or soup stock, but if you're short on time this week, they make a great addition to the compost pile ;) 

Starfruit is a local treasure.  These fruit trees are common in urban South Florida yards as well as in small farms in agricultural areas.  It was featured in Tiffany's book, Forager which came out last year and is now itself a local treasure.  Starfruit are sweet and tangy, very juicy and so cool because they are shaped like stars.  Kids love them.  They make great garnishes for drinks.  Add star shaped slices to your green salads or fruit salads.  Enjoy!

Savoy Cabbage in the shares this week are coming from French Farms.  They are just like a regular green cabbage except for their texture, which is ruffled.  The term savoy refers to it's texture.  In the future when you come across another plant or vegetable that includes the word savoy in it's name, you'll find that it has a similar texture.  Cabbage lasts a very long time in the fridge if you keep it in a drawer or a bag.  It's crunchy and refreshing flavor is good raw in either a salad or a slaw, but it's good stir fried or roasted.  Try pairing it with curry powder and butter for a quick stir fried side dish.  Also worth while is a recipe I used a lot last season for a roasted cabbage wedge salad.  Here's what you do: quarter the head of cabbage, rub with a little oil and roast the pieces until they are tender and toasty on the outside.  Serve warm, drizzled with vinaigrette (olive oil, sherry vinegar, dijon mustard, salt) and freshly grated parmesan or romano cheese.  So easy and so comforting.  Try it!

Last but not least we'd like to talk about Dandelion Greens.  Although dandelion is common as a wild foraged weed, it is also cultivated in farms.  The cultivated varieties are a tad more tender and less bitter although be prepared for a bitter taste.  They are super nutritious, almost to the point of being medicinal.  We recommend you do your own research about this crop because there is so much interesting information about it on the internet.

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. 

French Farms

We hope everyone had a great holiday season. Special shout out to New Years! Happy 2015!

We are so lucky to start the year with a farm full of veggies. Thank you for being a part of this project, we couldn’t do it without each of our CSA members.

Week 7 of the shares includes some great things, like the first carrots of the season and our signature three colored bush beans. We’re also harvesting beautiful fennel and kohlrabi for you this week, both of which are pretty unique veggies. The lettuce and cilantro in the shares come from our friend Chris at French Farms in Redland. He’s working hard and doing a great job producing top quality produce almost exclusively for our CSA.

You’re probably used to making salads with lettuce, but frisee might be a new thing for some. Frisee is in the endive family which also includes lettuce, but endives are more bitter. Of all the endives, we like to grow frisee in particular because of its super curly texture. Mix half lettuce half frisee for a light and fluffy salad that holds dressing really well. To cut the bitterness try a sweet dressing like honey mustard or raspberry vinaigrette.

Carrots at French Farms

  Fennel

There are a lot of good roasting veggies in the share this week, which is perfect because we should be getting a little cold front soon; what's better on a cold day than lighting the oven? Rather than cutting up veggies into small squares I like to keep them as whole as possible to reduce prep time, but also for aesthetic reasons. Carrots and fennel can be halved or quartered and beans can be roasted whole. They can all go in the oven in a big baking dish together, coated with a little oil (try sesame oil for a change of scenery), salt and pepper to taste. Roast until the carrots are tender.

Burgundy Bush Beans

Here’s an idea for a rainbow slaw. Grate carrots, radishes and kohlrabi (it works without the kohlrabi too) and dress with olive oil, vinegar and salt to taste. Done. It’s a beautiful, fresh and crunchy side dish.

 Enjoy the harvest this first week of the year.

 Happy Holidays from the farm! This Week we thought we would go light on greens, since we know you all have many fun side dishes to make for a variety of holiday feasts. Cherry tomatoes, fennel, dill, parsley and eggplants all combine well and compliment one another for traditional mediterranean cooking. We recommend flipping through the pages of your well worn copy of PLENTY (or asking for plenty for christmas if you dont already own it!), Yotam Ottolenghi's all veggie Israeli cookbook for inspiration.



The cover photo recipe is Roasted eggplant topped with yoghurt and pomegranite seeds:

Sungolds are everyones favorite cherry tomato, beloved for their sweet almost pineapple flavor and vibrant sun inspired coloring. A simple yet delicious way to eat them is to halve the small fruit, then toss with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh oregano. 

Rainbow Kale, a fun purple tinged variety with similar flavor profile and uses to our more popular Lacinato kale.

Fennel has many uses as it can be eaten both raw and cooked. Use a mandolin or your expert knife skills to slice the raw fruit thinly then toss with chunks of citrus, dill, cress or arugula (both available at the market stand) and a tart vinaigrette for a refreshing shaved salad. Or cut into thicker more hearty chunks and roast in the oven with garlic and olive oil. Roasting brings down the anise flavor of the raw vegetable and lets its sweetness stand out. 

Tat Soi, an asian cabbage popular in stir fries

This week marks the first quarter of the growing season, although it feels like we just started.  Time flies this time of year because of the holidays and the nice weather here in South Florida. 

We'll be enjoying the last of the cucumbers from Verde Farm.  If you're into juicing cucumbers are really good for cutting the sweetness of carrot, beet, apple and orange juices.  To take full advantage of the crisp texture of these amazing cukes, cut them up for a salad with feta, herbs (dill, cilantro, etc) olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt.  Maybe add diced jalapenos and/or diced radishes too!  Need other ideas for using jalapenos?  Check out this smashed fingelings with jalapenos recipe, it is mouth watering.

Watermelon Radishes

Watermelon radishes (or any radish) are very good sliced into medallions and lightly seared in butter or oil; good as a side dish for almost any meal.  Take advantage of the tops by quickly wilting them in the same skillet you used to sear the radish medallions and serve the root and the tops together.  I like to drizzle good quality virgin olive oil and course sea salt on the wilted tops once they are plated. 

Broccoli

In previous years I've recommended recipes from one of my favorite food blogs, Heidi Swanson's 101cookbook.com, almost every week.  I'm still a fan, in fact maybe even more of a fan than ever.  Heidi shares recipes she tries from many cookbooks, but usually my favorites are the ones she writes herself.  They are vegetable based, truly simple and seasonal.  This week I'd like to bring your attention to her double broccoli quinoa bowl as well as this recipe for spiced coconut spinach she adapted from a book.

New Zealand Spinach

New Zealand spinach is not a true spinach; it is in a totally different family of plants, mostly coastal plants native to Australia, Japan and Chile.  As the name implies, it is very similar in texture and taste to spinach and you can use it interchangeably by blanching or sautéing before eating.

Red Choi

Red Choi is basically a bok choy relative.  We picked to grow this variety for it's beautiful color and small size.  You can sautee these little plants whole or cut length wise down the middle in a large skillet with lots of garlic for a Chinese style side dish.  Check out this recipe on bonappetit.com for inspiration!  By the way, you can use rapini or hon tsai tai in this exact recipe.