CSA #6 (7/1/2025)

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In Your Share This Week

• New Potatoes! The Dark Red Norland potatoes you'll get this week are the first of the season, and have thin, delicate skins and great flavor. We recommend simply boiling them until tender, and then enjoying with a little butter and salt.

• Onions

• Beets

• CHOICE of Radicchio or Fennel -- Some of the fennel is full-sized, and some will be smaller heads bunched together. Either form is great raw or cooked. See recipe ideas for both fennel and radicchio below.

• CHOICE of Italian Parsley or Dill

• Kale, Broccoli or Cabbage - This is the last week for broccoli and cabbage, so there's not much of those, and most people will get kale. Henry's kale is equally good raw in a salad (especially a massaged kale salad) or sauteed as a side dish.

• CHOICE of regular Sugar Snap Peas (the last of the season) OR Green Peas for Shelling Over the past week, Henry's many family members have been shelling out the "for us" sugar snap peas, meaning those whose pods are cosmetically imperfect or slightly over-mature. ( Pictured below, our mom, Marlene; Henry's youngest son Kazami, my partner Joel, and our honorary grand-kid Angel). Although the outer pods may look unappetizing, the peas inside are tender and sweet!

  • If you want the green peas for shelling, choose the larger container (box or bag)

  • If you want the last regular sugar snap peas of the season, choose the smaller container.

Food Notes: Fennel

I’ve heard folks say they don’t like fennel because they don’t like licorice. Well, neither Henry nor I like licorice, and yet we love the fresh, sweet, anise-y scent and flavor of fennel, and think you will too. It's easy to slice fennel into a slaw, or just eat raw slices for a snack or a dessert. 

Simple Fennel Slaw

1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced

1 onion, thinly sliced (optional)

1 cup shredded cabbage (optional)

1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley leaves

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a medium bowl, whisk olive oil and lemon juice. Add fennel, onion, cabbage, and parsley. Toss all ingredients and season with salt and black pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

And here's a similar recipe we brought to a potluck recently. It calls for celery or celery leaf, mint leaves, and pecorino cheese and prosciutto -- but can be adapted to your taste. Just toss all the ingredients together and enjoy!s, and the sweetness comes to the fore.

Farm Notes: Slight Relief from the Heat!

Every day last week the highs were in the 90s, with the humidity about the same. The overnight lows only fell to the mid-70s, and by 8am it was back in the 80s, and soon back up in the 90s.

Henry is not one to complain, but he said the effect is definitely cumulative. Every day, his body had to work hard, not just to do the intense physical labor, but to keep him cool.

When he went home at sundown each day, it took a long time for the house to cool overnight (no AC), so it was hard to get a good night's sleep. Then he got up at dawn every day to do it all over again. Even Henry admits that a week of that takes its toll.

So we are very grateful for the slightly cooler days this week -- even a degree or two under 90 is a relief!

Read the original CSA Food & Farm Notes here.