CSA #5

This week’s Preassembled Bag will contain Spinach, Lovelock Lettuce, Baby Beets with Greens, Parsley, and Swiss Chard. Orders may now be placed on the online market at: https://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

Once again, we’d like to affirm that we intend to offer CSA so long as the farm team remains well, and we are permitted to do so by the orders coming from the state. So far so good on those fronts. As always, we are thoroughly committed to doing our best for your health and our community’s. It is our belief that nutritious vegetables are important to keeping bodies strong and resilient to things that might threaten them. We are grateful for the sensible legislature that has deemed agriculture a necessary industry and hope to continue serving you.

We are, unfortunately reaching a time of year where our selection will be somewhat limited. April is what we call a “shoulder season,” meaning it is on the cusp between seasons. Over-wintered plants are starting to be depleted and Spring/Summer plants, are yet too small to be harvested. This has been exacerbated by an extremely wet and cloudy March. Less light hours mean that plants can wind up a week or two behind where they should be. If you’ve been following the newsletters, you will recall we’ve pursued aggressively early plantings to try and prepare for this, but there’s only so much you can do when the sun doesn’t shine. Nevertheless, take this as an opportunity to enjoy the bounty of what’s available. The head lettuces are excellent right now. If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at a grilled romaine this would be the perfect time to try!

Grilled Romaine Lettuce
Ingredients
• 2 heads of fresh and firm romaine lettuce, cut vertically (you will have 4 halves)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• kosher salt, divided
• black pepper
• one medium lemon, cut in half
• fresh parmesan cheese
Instructions
1. Make sure grates of grill are clean and turn to medium high.
2. Brush lettuce halves liberally with 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, cut side and back side. Then sprinkle each halve with some salt.
3. Grill for 3 minutes, cut side down, pressing with your tongs to make sure the lettuce gets a good sear. Flip and grill for one or 2 more minutes.
4. Remove from grill. Sprinkle with more salt and pepper, drizzle with remaining olive oil. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over each half. Top with a tablespoon of parmesan on each halve.

Batavia Lettuce and Radish Salad with Oranges

1 batavia lettuce
4 oranges
1 red onion
½ bunch radish
2 tablespoons white vinegar
½ teaspoon mustard
salt
freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

1. Divide the lettuce into leaves, trim, rinse, spin dry and set aside some beautiful small leaves to line the salad bowl. Cut the remaining leaves into bite-sized pieces.

2. Peel the oranges with a sharp knife, removing all of the white pith. Then cut out orange segments between the separating membranes, collecting the juice.

3. Peel onion and cut into thin rings.

4. Rinse radishes, trim and cut into thin slices.

5. Mix vinegar with mustard. Season with salt, pepper and about 3 tablespoons orange juice. Whisk in the oil and combine with the lettuce, radish slices and onion rings.
6. Line a salad bowl with reserved lettuce leaves, spread the prepared salad on top and sprinkle with the orange segments.

On a bright note, we did see some gorgeous sun lit days this past week. We recently installed two Bluebird houses on the farm periphery and were thrilled to see bluebirds at both. Bluebirds are beautiful, graceful fliers, and excellent predators of our pest insects. The sunlight and dry made good weather for preparing more outdoor beds and strong progress was made on that. The plants that have been in the ground a few weeks look very happy, and we’re excited to see them flourish in the Spring light.

As always, thank you so much for supporting our local organic farm. We hope our produce can bring some of that Spring light into your home this week!

Sincerely,
The Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team