Week 15 means we are 3/4 of the way through the season.  We're going to get those big colorful heirloom tomatoes from Michael Borek one more time before we're through!  These big guys are majorly tasty and best eaten raw to enjoy their earthy tangy flavor.  Micheal Borek and his mother Teena who created the locally famous Teena's Pride farm brand have been growing tomatoes for many years and they've really perfected their craft.  Heirloom tomatoes are a tricky crop here in South Florida with all of the pests that plague this crop and the strange winter growing season with it's short days.  We're all lucky to have them in our community and we're proud to support them.

Another lucky charm in our community, Chris French who's been growing the majority of your veggies this season.  He harvested these purple scallions for you once before and this week we are getting a second batch.  Yes!!! These are a total favorite for everyone and it's not just because they taste really good, but it's mostly because they LOOK really good.  We do in fact eat with our eyes and beautiful vegetables inspire healthy meals at home.  This is the one of the main reasons we do what we do and why you are involved with our CSA.  Beautiful and unique vegetables. 

Sorry, radishes again.  Hopefully since they are the cutest radishes in the world you wont mind.  French Breakfast are super mild, crisp and versatile in the kitchen.  Sliced thinly for salads or cream cheese toasts.  Cut halfway down the middle and seared in butter to go with scrambled eggs for breakfast (get it, "breakfast").  Dropped into a pot of chili or roasted whole along with other root veggies sprinkled with olive oil and herbs.  You see, you can't be too mad ;)  Enjoy!

Small shares:
French breakfast radishes from our fields
Red scallions from French Farm
Choice between savoy cabbage or kohlrabi from French Farm
Spicy salad mix from French Farm
Head lettuce from French Farm
Large heirloom tomatoes from Michael Borek Farm

Large shares:
French breakfast radishes from our fields
Red scallions from French Farm
Choice between savoy cabbage or kohlrabi from French Farm
Spicy salad mix from French Farm
Head lettuce from French Farm
Large heirloom tomatoes from Michael Borek Farm
Asian eggplant from Worden Farm
Parsley from Worden Farm
Bol Choi from our fields

We hope you all are as excited about the upcoming cold front as the farms are. This time of year when things start to heat up a bit the farms experience a "bloom" of insect and pest activity and it can be quite challenging to find the time and enthusiasm to go out there day after day and fight the organic pest management battle... but this little weekend cold front will really help out our side and keep the populations at bay for just a little while longer. 

Small shares:

Choice of dino kale, curly kale or spigariello from French Farm
Baby bok choi from our fields
Choice of watermelon, french breakfast, red round, or purple daikon radishes from French Farm
Salad mix from French Farm
Carrots from Worden Farm
Choice of potted oregano, marjoram or creeping thyme herb plant from Kitchen Garden Herbs
Zucchini from Worden Farm

Large shares:

Choice of dino kale, curly kale or spigariello from French Farm
Baby bok choi from our fields
Choice of watermelon, french breakfast, red round, or purple daikon radishes from French Farm
Salad mix from French Farm
Carrots from Worden Farm
Choice of potted oregano, marjoram or creeping thyme herb plant from Kitchen Garden Herbs
Zucchini from Worden Farm
Extra baby bok choi from our fields
Cherry tomato pint from Worden Farm
1 spring onion from French Farm

How on point is Chris' salad game this season!? Besides growing the heck out of some salanova butter lettuce Chris has been trialing some very cool new varieties of "open gene pool" lettuce seeds from Wild Garden Seed which is where all the colorful purple and speckled leaves are coming from. An open gene pool seed mix is basically a big old mix of lettuces that are cross breeding with each other at the seed farm to constantly create new varities on their own. The seed farmer exerts some control over their characteristics by doing things like encouraging the extra colorful, strong or flavorful varieties to propagate themselves more freely (mostly by removing the undesirable varieties before they go to seed) so when Chris bought a nice big package of "island gem camouflage mix" he didn't know just exactly what would come out of it but he knew they would be beautiful, variable and delicious. 

Spring onion season is a fun one for us because they are really the only type of onion that can be successfully grown here during our winter growing season! The storage onions with the papery outside you buy at the store need a full season of long summer days followed by some cold and then some time curing in a dry chilly place before they taste and look like the onions you recognize. But farmers in South Florida can buy "short day" fresh onion varieties and after a grueling 150 days of weeding, watering and watching... viola! fresh spring onions. You'll notice your eyes don't water as much when you cut these, thats because they haven't cured and their flavor is more mild, which makes them great for use raw. 

If your crisper drawer is filling up with little leftover orbs like turnips and radishes and the idea of wasting them is stressing you out, you can pickle that! We regularly pickle all of the radish varieties and it couldn't be easier... they are a great "gateway veggie" if you are interested in learning how to lacto-ferment vegetables. Heres a really useful blog post about lacto-fermenting radishes, check it out and give it a try. Tiffanys secret tip to getting them to taste a little bit more like the pickles at the store is to add a splash of apple cider vinegar (the living kind, with the mother in it) when youre making your brine... that way the vinegary flavor that we are all used to with shelf stable pickles will be present, but your pickles will still be living and super good for your gut!

That was some cauliflower last week, we hope you all got through it by now!  It's time to start making room for this weekend's share.

Chris French is harvesting a mountain of the sweetest snap peas for you guys this week.  Snap peas are one of those vegetables that are truly better when they are fresh.  Walking down a long row of snap pea trellises at a farm and snacking on the sugary and crunchy pods is one of the top 5 best food experiences in the world.  I'd say that getting a basket of them in your share this weekend could come in somewhere close behind that ;)

Peas and carrots.  Carrots from Worden Farm whose been growing a mean carrot for as long as I can remember.  This time the carrots will have tops attached so make sure to remove them before storage in order to keep them really crisp.  Carrots are in the parsley family and carrot tops look and taste like a distant cousin of the herb.  If the tops are looking really vibrant and fresh you can certainly use them for a carrot top tabouli using this beautifully photographed recipe from Abra's Kitchen or carrot top pesto.  Bon Appetite has a pretty genius recipe for roasted carrots with carrot top pesto. 

Small shares:
Choice of dino kale, curly kale or spigariello from French Farm
Snap peas from French Farm
Kohlrabi from French Farm
Salad mix from French Farm
1 spring onion from French Farm
Carrots from Worden Farm
Tangerines from Central Florida

Large shares:
Choice of dino kale, curly kale or spigariello from French Farm
Snap peas from French Farm
Kohlrabi from French Farm
Salad mix from French Farm
1 spring onion from French Farm
Carrots from Worden Farm
Tangerines from Central Florida
Scallions from Worden Farm
Golden beets from Worden Farm
Turnips from French Farm

The weather has taken a turn for the warm over the past couple of weeks.  Consistent warmth, especially when it persists through the night time (24 hour warmth) means that we start to see pest spikes out in the field.  Aphids, leaf hoppers, mites and white fly all thrive and reproduce at much faster rate in warmer temperatures.  Even 5 degrees can make a big difference.  Luckily we haven't had any truly big pest problems yet, but we are on the look out and if the weather continues to stay warm we'll have our hands full for the remainder of the growing season.  In a nut shell, party's over...

The good news is that Michael Borek has grown a beautiful crop of white cauliflower that we'll get to enjoy this week.  When in doubt about what to do with a vegetable check out www.101cookbooks.com.  Heidi Swansen writes and photographs for this awesome food blog and she always shares the best recipes (with the best instructional photos) for people who like to cook simple, quick and healthy meals.  I like to search her site by ingredient which pulls up all of the recipes she's ever posted that feature that vegetable. 

We've noticed fennel is not a crowd pleaser, but why?  The unique anise flavor of raw fennel is a bit strong and unusual for most people.  Cooked fennel however is much more mild and we think most of you would really like it if you tried a cooked fennel recipe.  It can be as simple as roasting it with oil salt and pepper, but why not try a fennel confit!  Our tomato confit has been really popular at the farmers market and this week Tiffany is making a batch of fennel confit that we're really excited about.  Confit is an old french word for a classic method of food preservation.  It basically means food that has been slowly cooked in oil and salt for long term preservation.  Duck confit is a famous example, but vegetables and garlic are really common too.  Check out this recipe to see how truly simple it is to prepare.  With the fennel in your share this week you can make a pretty big batch and have it handy for the next few weeks to season all sorts of future meals.

Small shares:
Savoy cabbage from French Farm
Radishes from French Farm
Fennel bulbs from French Farm
Salad mix from French Farm
Cauliflower from Micheal Borek Farm
Ruby grapefruit from Central Florida

Large shares:
Savoy cabbage from French Farm
Radishes from French Farm
Fennel bulbs from French Farm
Salad mix from French Farm
Cauliflower from Micheal Borek Farm
Ruby grapefruit from Central Florida
Spring onions from French Farm
Lettuce head from French Farm
Extra grapefruit!

When we noticed Michael Borek's instagram post about his crazy corn harvest we contacted him right away to get a piece of the pie for you guys.  We're pretty excited about Homestead grown corn!

We're also getting more of his heirloom cherry tomatoes this week.  Cherry tomatoes are one of those things we could all eat every week right?!  We skipped tomatoes the past two weeks and everyone has been asking about them.  To make things even more perfect, we're also getting homestead grown spring onions this week.  Add a choice of parlsey, cilantro or dill from French Farms and you've got yourself a local salsa (insert dancing lady emoji here)!

Spring onions are not super popular in stores so let me tell you a bit about them. They are neither a scallion nor an onion.  I suppose they are most similar to the onions you know well with the dry flaky skin, but these aren't dried so they don't have a skin.  This means they are more perishable, they must be stored in the fridge.  Spring onions have a milder sweeter taste than regular onions and you can use their green tops much like scallions; in a way they are the best of both worlds.  To read more about the difference between spring onions and scallions, check out this blog post on thekitchn.com.

Small shares:
Heirloom cherry tomatoes from Michael Borek Farm
Corn from Michael Borek Farm
Spring onions from Pine Island Farm
Salad turnips from French Farm
Spicy salad mix from French Farm
Choice of parsley, cilantro or dill from French Farm
Cubanelle peppers from Worden Farm

Large shares:
Heirloom cherry tomatoes from Michael Borek Farm
Corn from Michael Borek Farm
Spring onions from Pine Island Farm
Salad turnips from French Farm
Spicy salad mix from French Farm
Choice of parsley, cilantro or dill from French Farm
Cubanelle peppers from Worden Farm
Chinese broccoli from French Farm
Extra corn from Michael Borek Farm

Week 10 is here, we're at the halfway mark of the growing season and thus the half way mark of the CSA.  If nothing else this fun fact could serve as a reminder to fully enjoy your share this week.  Relish in the pick up process, make a big fuss over it and invite your friends to the park on Saturday morning.  Use up every last leaf in your share by preserving what you can't eat, meal prep for the week and have a dinner party.  Celebrate the halfway mark! 

Passion fruit is on the menu this week, which is super exciting even for us.  We were lucky to find a farmer in Homestead that grows primarily dragon fruit and passion fruit and she has a bumper crop of this sour tropical fruit this week.  Passion fruit is very versatile, but keep in mind that it's all about quality not quantity when it comes to this fruit.  The pulp found inside of the hard shell-like outer layer is intensely scented and flavored, meaning, a little goes a long way.  You can slurp it up with a spoon for instant gratification, but you can also add a spoonful of the pulp to your smoothie, your granola, your bowl of vanilla ice cream, etc...  There's a really simple way to preserve passion fruit pulp for future use.  Cut them all open and scoop the pulp into an ice cube tray.  The pulp defrosts beautifully for many of the uses mentioned above or a fancy dessert recipe like mousse de maracuja.

 We're also getting broccoli for the first time this season.  That's a bit embarrassing for us because we know how much everyone loves broccoli.  In an ideal world we'd give you guys yummy broccoli once per month, but we haven't had it yet because it's such a tough crop to grow that none of the farmers we know like to grow it in large quantities.  Worden Farm came through this week and we're really glad about it.   They also grew the celery for the large shares this week, the first celery of the season!  There should be more celery coming soon so that everyone can try it. 

Small shares:
Baby bok choi from our fields
Broccoli from Worden Farm
Lettuce from French Farm
Choice of basil, thyme or oregano from Michael Borek
Choice of dinosaur kale, spigariello, curly kale or rainbow kale from French Farm
Fennel from Worden Farm
Carrots from French Farm
Passion fruit from Homestead

Large shares:
Baby bok choi from our fields
Broccoli from Worden Farm
Lettuce from French Farm
Choice of basil, thyme or oregano from Michael Borek
Choice of dinosaur kale, spigariello, curly kale or rainbow kale from French Farm
Fennel from Worden Farm
Carrots from French Farm
Passion fruit from Homestead
Sexy salad mix from our fields
Celery from Worden Farm

The beet goes on as we move along with this wonderfully smooth growing season.  Chris French will be harvesting beets for you this week as well as his famous salad mix, this time the spicy mix which typically includes mustard, arugula and mizuna.

We'll be harvesting two very flavorful items for you which are intended to be used together.  Lemongrass and galangal root are both herbs that grow really well in our tropical environment and they are typical ingredients in Thai and Vietnamese cooking since those countries have similar climates to ours.  They are both key ingredients in the famous tom ka gai soup.  If that is a bit intimidating to you, check out this recipe for coconut galangal broth which also utilizes the sweet potatoes in your share this week.  Note that both lemongrass and galangal root keep really well in the fridge for future use if you don't use it all or if you just can't get around to making a coconut milk based broth this week!

Small shares:
Beets from French Farm
Lemongrass from our fields
Galangal root from our fields
Sweet potatoes from Worden Farm
Shunkyo radishes from our fields
Choice of dinosaur kale, curly kale, spigariello or collards from French Farm
Salad mix from French Farm

Large shares:
Beets from French Farm
Lemongrass from our fields
Galangal root from our fields
Sweet potatoes from Worden Farm
Shunkyo radishes from our fields
Choice of dinosaur kale, curly kale, spigariello or collards from French Farm
Salad mix from French Farm
Zucchini from Worden Farm
Napa cabbage from French Farm

Last week's share included some very ripe strawberries and even more ripe heirloom tomatoes, hopefully everyone got to enjoy them before they got too too too ripe.  Getting that much fruit just right can be pretty tricky for us, please pardon our learning curve ;)

We're excited to be getting butternut squash again from Worden Farm.  When we got them a few weeks ago before the holidays they were a hit.  We heard back from many of you that the flavor and sweetness of these small butternuts was pretty spectacular.  In the spirit of continued chilly weather we'd like to share this beautiful recipe from one of our favorite food porn sources, Bon Appetite.  It's a really simple recipe for roasted squash with maple syrup, bay leaf and chile, but the beauty of it is in the presentation.  There's a fun (and really useful) video on their site that shows some tips for getting it right. 

Also in the share this week is kohlrabi, almost certainly a veggie most of you wont be familiar with.  Kohlrabi is in the cole family, a family of veggies which includes cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and broccoli; you can start to get a sense for it's flavor profile.  This odd veg is pretty popular in other cultures, mostly European.  It's an old world vegetable, like turnips.  The part you eat is the stem; in the case of the kholrabi the stem swells into a round ball with leaves sticking out in every direction.  The inside of the stem is like a glorified broccoli stem, much sweeter and tender than broccoli stem, think juicy and crisp as an apple, but with a broccoli taste.  Anyhow, after peeling the round stem you can simply eat it raw in salads, or cut it into sticks for a crudite.  There are some cooked kohlrabi recipe out there so feel free to google around and try something warm too.  Keep in mind that the leaves of your kohlrabi are also edible and can be used pretty much like kale.

Small shares:
Kohlrabi from French Farm
Lettuce mix from French Farm
Carrots from French Farm
Baby heirloom tomatoes from Michael Borek
Choice of parsley or cilantro from French Farm
Butternut squash from Worden Farm

Large shares:
Kohlrabi from French Farm
Lettuce mix from French Farm
Carrots from French Farm
Baby heirloom tomatoes from Michael Borek
Choice of parsley or cilantro from French Farm
Butternut squash from Worden Farm
Salad turnips from our field
Frisee from French Farm
Extra baby heirloom tomatoes

The star of the show this week is.... Starfruit!  Sorry for the cheesy pun, I didn't even plan it, the thought just came to me as I started typing the sentence.  We literally have the most delicious starfruit in the world.  Even haters will like this variety.  It's a deep orange fleshy fruit mostly sweet in flavor with a very subtle hint of sour.  Don't do anything fancy with these, just eat them right out of your hand.

We are also getting large heirloom tomatoes from local farmer Michael Borek.  Michael is an old timer who comes from a family of Homestead farmers and lately he's the man running the show.  He's the sweetest guy and he's really really good at growing heirloom tomatoes.  We dabble in a few hundred feet of tomatoes planted at the farm, but we've come to learn that growing a successful crop of tomatoes in the tropics is tough.  A few years we decided to leave the CSA tomato growing up to Michael and it's been working like a charm.  Hope you enjoy his bad boys this weekend.

Can we all get a little excited Chris' lettuce?!  This guy is pulling off a killer lettuce production this season, providing baby salad mix for you guys almost every week with the occasional full head lettuce harvest.  He sent me this picture from the farm on Monday.  These are destined for your kitchens over the weekend.  Chris and his crew will be harvesting all day Friday as usual, loading bin after bin into his refrigerated trailer which he drives back to Miami straight to the market on Saturday morning.  These lettuces and everything else from his farm is so fresh and vibrant; we wouldn't even consider doing the CSA without him. 

We may be getting strawberries from Strawberry Kreek Farm again this week, but I won’t know for sure until Thursday.  Keep your fingers crossed! 

Small shares:
Starfruit from Homestead
Mint from Michael Borek Farms
Heirloom tomatoes from Michael Borek Farms
Choice of kale, collards, hon tsai tai or spigariello from French Farm
Head lettuce from French Farm
Cubanelle peppers from Worden Farm

Large shares:
Starfruit from Homestead
Mint from Michael Borek Farms
Heirloom tomatoes from Michael Borek Farms
Choice of kale, collards, hon tsai tai or spigariello from French Farm
Head lettuce from French Farm
Cubanelle peppers from Worden Farm
Frisee escarole from French Farm
Extra starfruit
Extra strawberries if we get them!

After a whirlwind of holiday relaxation, fun and recharge it's time to get back to the routine of the CSA.  Looking at the list of veggies we'll be harvesting this week is super inspiring for a fresh and healthy start to the new year.  Pretty much everything in the share is coming right out of French Farms fields, except for the strawberries which are a welcome surprise from an organic farm in central Florida near Plant City which is just inland from Tampa.  We teamed up with Worden Farm and Bee Heaven Farm to purchase a bulk order of strawberries for all of our CSAs.

Chris French has been busting his butt over the holidays to keep crops streaming in for you guys.  He loves to farm so don't feel bad for him!  This week he's harvesting the first big crop of a new scallion variety everyone is swooning over.  Check out the purple coloring on these beauties!  You'll also be enjoying the first CSA carrot harvest this week!

Small shares:
Carrots from French Farm
Watermelon radishes from French Farm
Red scallions from French Farm
Salad mix from French Farm
Choice of kale, collards, chard or spigariello from French Farm
Hon Tsai Tai from our field
Strawberries from Strawberry Kreek Farm

Large shares:
Carrots from French Farm
Watermelon radishes from French Farm
Red scallions from French Farm
Salad mix from French Farm
Choice of kale, collards, chard or spigariello from French Farm
Hon Tsai Tai from our field
Strawberries from Strawberry Kreek Farm
Broccoli from French Farm
Extra strawberries

Here are a few storage tips to help keep your CSA share fresh through the end of the week.  First things first, top your carrots and radishes!  You never want to store root vegetables with their leafy tops still attached because the leaves continue to wick moisture from the roots even after harvesting which results in soft withered roots.  The reason we give you the leafy tops attached to your carrots and radishes is to give you the opportunity to make use of the tops in your weekly meals.  Radish tops are so yummy in a stir fry or quiche; they can be used in place of spinach for pretty much any cooked recipe.  Carrots are closely related to parsley so their leafy tops have a similar flavor profile.  Carrot top pesto is a thing, google it!  Also, did you know that root veggies such a carrots and radishes can last weeks in your fridge?  They'll stay crisp and fresh if you store them in a sealed container in the darkest place in your fridge. 

Another very important tip related to keeping things from wilting: always store your leafy greens in a sealed container or bag.  Leafy greens like salad mix and kale bunches wilt almost instantly if they are left in the open air both in and out of the fridge.  In fact, the dryness of the fridge wilts them even faster.  You can either wrap each leafy item in a plastic bag or you can store all of your leafy items in a large sealed tupper ware. 

Generally speaking baby greens spoil the fastest, then larger greens like kale and lastly hard veggies like broccoli.  If you can eat them in that order you're less likely to waste greens this week.

Enjoy!