CSA #22

Dear CSA-ers,

This week’s Preassembled Bag will contain Arugula, Lovelock Head Lettuce, Cherry Tomatoes, Mixed Peppers, Beets, Oregano and Tulsi Basil. Orders may now be placed on the online market at: https://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

Fall planting continues on the farm and the first of some of our summer planted vegetables are beginning to come to fruition this week. Notably, Arugula is back for a limited time, and this round is looking good with all the intermittent down-pours we have experienced in Princeton. Lettuce and carrot harvesting continues, along with many of the other summer vegetables you love. This week saw the removal of our first rotations of both cucumbers and squash; we hope to have these back as late plantings before frost.

Timing is the nature of everything in agriculture. From the correct planting of seeds, efficient management of weeds, and predicting harvests to maintain a diverse CSA; all these things require tuning into a rhythm of rhythms. Sometimes we hit a wrong note, and that can really throw things off. For instance, an incorrect setting on our walk-behind seeder made for a sparse planting of beans in one of our plots this year. Ordinarily a thick planting of beans would shade out many of the weeds, but at such a diminished rate, the opposite became the case. This limited the productivity of the existing beans and required much more intensive weeding to salvage the beds than ordinarily would have been the case. Live and learn.

Our commitment to the USDA Organic Standard and our own sustainability goals, often increase the amount of labor that it takes to grow the delicious food that arrives in your bag each week. We do not use herbicides to level field weeds or synthetic amendments to blast vegetables into productivity. Our process is slower and gentler. Instead of forcing the land to produce food, we nurture its soil and its ecology. The goal is to evoke the natural productivity of the Earth and improve our own little corner of it over time. We believe it is the better way to grow, and that the deep flavor and rich nutrition of our produce reflects this.

We sincerely thank you for your support of this endeavor. We are always striving to improve our service and offerings to you, our West Kentucky community. Your support makes what we do possible.

Sincerely,
The Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team

Weblog Entry

Dear CSA-ers,

This week’s Preassembled Bag will contain Malabar Spinach, Muir Head Lettuce, Carrots, Garlic, Eggplant, Hot Peppers, parsley and chives. Orders may now be placed on the online market at: https://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

Life on the farm progresses as we harvest Spring crops and plant the Autumn ones. In such intimate contact with the land, the cosmic cycles that have driven our world for millennia become observable. At this time of year, we begin to notice that the sunlight hours recede each day. The sun rises just a tiny bit later and sets just a tiny bit earlier. The change in day length is not a set amount through the year. Towards Summer and Winter Solstice, day-length changes just seconds each day, but as the farm moves towards the Autumn Equinox (September 22) this change accelerates to nearly 3 minutes a day. All things, in agriculture, and perhaps life, are cyclical.

The cosmic cycle of seasons is important to us because it affects what is in season and what grows well. At one point in human history, this would have been second nature to everyone, but this seasonality has been blurred by our modern era of refrigerated storage warehouses, 24 hour groceries, and international shipping. It is our hope that participating in CSA helps to reconnect to the Earth and its bounty through seasonal eating. It is not a stretch to believe that our bodies perform best when they eat what the Earth is providing in its proper time.

On the topic of seasonality, our heirloom hard-neck garlic have completed their curing time and are now ready for consumption. Curing is the process by which the garlic dries enough to be stored at room temperature. This year, the garlic is admittedly small, but we invite you compare flavor clove to clove, to what you get from the store, and there is no contest. We are still working to perfect garlic growing in this climate. While it was too late to implement much of what we learned at the OAK conference this Spring, we are excited to try some of the techniques from world-class organic farmers, Jean-Paul & Crystal Stewart-Courtens when we plant again this Fall. Regardless of size, heirloom garlic is a culinary luxury. We believe all the garlic lovers in our CSA will find that their spicy, savory flavor heightens every recipe that begs their inclusion.

As always, we want to thank you for your interest, support, and participation in our farm. Whether you are a market loyal, CSA regular, both, or simply curious about organic agriculture in Western Kentucky- we are glad to have you as a part of our community. We wish you and those you hold dear the best in your week to come!

Sincerely,
The Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team

CSA #20

Dear CSA-ers,
This week’s Preassembled Bag will contain Spring Mix, Beets, Mixed Peppers, Green Onions, Cherry Tomatoes, Basil and Fennel. Orders may now be placed on the online market at: https://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

Abundant sunlight punctuated by torrential summer storms seems to be the way of this time of year. It has made for some oppressively humid days this past week, with more promised in the week to come. This is unfortunate as the time for Fall planting is now. If we hope to have broccoli, cauliflower, and some of the other long season vegetables for you this Autumn, now is the time to get those plants in the ground. We have been adapting. Some of our team members opt to get here very early in the morning, while others prefer to work through the heat of the day in a sunhat. We have all been staying hydrated!

To take a candid moment, in composing these newsletters for the past 2 years, I frequently find myself tempted to write the line “this is a challenging time of year.” As I sit in the shade of the back porch listening to the chatter of birds, the shuffle of chickens, and the relentless hum of the air conditioner, I have had an epiphany: “every season has its own challenges.” There are days when this is daunting and there are other days where it is inspirational. Upon thorough reflection, I think it is best to focus on the inspirational aspect.

Maintaining all the moving parts of an organic farm will always be challenging. Pure grit only goes so far. What has really catalyzed our growth as a farm is teamwork. At the beginning, this team was only family, but now it has grown to encompass a small number of people from our local community. Each team member brings their own skill set to contribute to the whole. Sometimes we struggle with communication, but this is a part of growth. Having a team to rely on makes the farm more resilient. It helps us with those challenging times and to make the farm a greater asset to our community.

Carrots and fennel braised with orange zest and honey

serves 4
active time: 20 min
1. 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2. 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3. 1 tablespoon honey (preferably orange blossom honey)
4. 1 1/2 lbs (680 g) carrots – peeled and cut in 1/4? x 3? sticks
5. 1 fennel bulb – ends trimmed, bulb cut in half, each half cored and cut lengthwise in 1/8? slices
6. 4 strips of orange zest – 1? x 4? long (use a vegetable hand-peeler)
7. 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds – crushed in a mortar
8. 1/3 cup spring water
9. 1/3 cup orange juice
10. 1/2 + 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
11. freshly ground black pepper to taste
12. 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fennel greens or dill
1. Step 1: Heat a large heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat. Add the butter, olive oil and honey. Stir well and add the carrots, fennel, orange zest and fennel seeds. Toss until the slices are well coated with the oil. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes until the fennel starts to soften, tossing occasionally. Add the water, orange juice, salt and pepper. Toss quickly and reduce heat to between medium and medium-low. Cover the pan and simmer for 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
2. Step 2: Uncover the pan. Raise heat to high and fast-simmer until the juices have all evaporated and some of the vegetables are golden-brown, about 6 to 7 minutes, tossing only occasionally so as not to break or mush the vegetables. Remove orange zest, transfer to a serving platter, sprinkle with the fennel greens and serve immediately.
3. Cook’s note: The carrots and fennel can be trimmed and cut up to 6 hours ahead and refrigerated until ready to use, but the dish is best made just before it’s served. It does not reheat well.

We consider you part of that team, and we appreciate all that you do. From providing feedback, to sharing recipes, telling your neighbors about CSA, and even just being a part of our community here in West Kentucky, we thank you. It’s your support that makes all of this possible!

Sincerely,
Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team

CSA #19

Dear CSA-ers,
This week’s Preassembled Bag will contain Malabar Spinach, Fennel, Carrots, Muir Head Lettuce, Mixed Eggplant, Cherry Tomatoes, Oregano and Parsley. Orders may now be placed on the online market at: https://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

On a farm, one comes to know the seasons by their sounds. The sound most iconic to mid-summer is the constant whirring of cicadas. Though we plant by the calendar, it would be just as easy to start fall planting by the arrival of cicada song. Perhaps at one time in human history, people did.

This is a bittersweet time, as some of our long-standing crops that have reached the end of their productivity will have to be turned over to make room for those that will succeed in Fall. As part of our organic and sustainability practices, we return the nutrition of the “crop residue” to the soil by using a special mower that mulches the aboveground portion. The shredded leaves and stems increase the organic matter content of our soil and return any minerals the plant accumulated during its life. Earthworms and beneficial soil microbes turn this mulched “crop residue” back into forms that can be used by the new plantings. The cycle begins again.

This week’s featured vegetable is the eggplant, or “aubergine” as it is known in some parts of the world. Genetic studies of eggplant suggest it originated in South-East Asia, but it was quickly disseminated by trade routes through the Mid-East to Europe, and then later to European colonies. Now the vegetable is popular world over. Eggplant is best eaten cooked, though this business of salting and soaking alluded to in cookbooks is not necessary for the low-bitter varieties that we grow. Eggplant is prized for its ability to absorb and concentrate the flavor of what it is cooked in. Likewise, there are numerous dishes that revolve around the eggplant; ratatouille, moussaka, baba ghanoush, eggplant parmesan, and countless others. Eggplant skeptics are quickly won over with its addition to simple recipes like stir-fries or minestrone soups. We hope you come to enjoy this beautiful vegetable as much as we do.

Garlic Parmesan Baked Eggplant Recipe

Ingredients
• 1 large eggplant
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Instructions
1. Start by preparing the eggplant: wash the eggplant and trim off the green end. You can peel the skin if you like. Next, slice eggplant into 1/2" disks. Place all disks in colander or cooling rack set over baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and let sit for at least 30 minutes
2. Next, melt butter in a bowl. Mix breadcrumbs, spices and Parmesan cheese in another bowl.
3. Dip each eggplant disk into butter first, then breading mixture. Place on aluminum foil or parchment paper lined baking sheet.
4. Bake in 400 degrees F oven for 15 minutes, then flip each disk and baked for 7 more minutes. The eggplant should be golden brown and the breading crispy.
5. Serve as side dish, appetizer or use in eggplant Parmesan.
Recipe Notes
Eggplant skin is completely edible. It’s a personal preference, just like zucchini. You can peel the skin off or leave it.

As always, we thank you for being a part of our CSA, and supporting sustainable, organic, and truly local agriculture in Western Kentucky. It’s you who make this possible!

Sincerely,
The Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team

CSA #18

Dear CSA-ers,

This week’s Preassembled Bag will contain Spring Mix, Red Mist Head Lettuce, Mixed Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes, Mixed Cucumbers, Beets, Cilantro and Chives. Orders may now be placed on the online market at: https://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

CSA will be delivered as usual this week; however, the farm team will be taking July 4th off. Likewise, we will not be at the Murray, Paducah, or Grand Rivers’ Farmers’ Markets this coming Saturday (July 4). For those of you who visit us at markets, but have not placed an online order yet, this would be a good week to try out the service. We have worked really hard to build an online CSA with flexibility, value, and convenience. We do ask that you meet our $20 minimum order but invite you to compare what $24 of pizza delivery looks like versus $24 of Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Organic Vegetables. In our minds, it’s no contest!

This week was spent harvesting, training plants, and planning for Fall. Notably, we dug our garlic crop and stored it for the two week curing process it undergoes before coming to you. “Curing” is a method of drying just the right amount of moisture out of a vegetable so that it can be stored for longer periods of time at room temperature. If freshly harvested garlic is set on the kitchen counter without curing, it quickly goes bad. The bulbs are small this year but packed with flavor. Look for them on the CSA online market next week!

Our featured vegetable this week is the pepper! In the same family as tomatoes, peppers are an exclusively a summer season vegetable. It is still early in pepper production season so expect the peppers you receive this week to be green, crisp, and vegetal in flavor. Excluding a small planting of our pet favorite heirloom ‘Czech Black’ (a striking black-turning-red fang-like pepper with Jalapeno-like hotness) we grew only heatless sweet peppers this year. Those of you wary of heat can rest easy. All peppers eventually ripen to color and take on a different flavor. Expect colored peppers to appear later in the season, towards the end of July and August. Nevertheless, green sweet peppers still have excellent nutritional properties with high amounts of Vitamin C, fiber, and the electrolyte Potassium. We hope you enjoy them fresh on dipping trays, or in the myriad cooked dishes that feature them!

As always, we thank you for being a part of our CSA and extended farm team. By supporting our organic farm, you are supporting sustainable agriculture and the food security of Western Kentucky. We are ever grateful for this. Your patronage allows us to do what we love!

Sincerely,
The Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team

CSA #17

Dear CSA-ers,

This week’s Preassembled Bag will contain Lovelock, Fennel, Malabar Spinach, Cherry Tomatoes, Mixed Cucumbers, Green Onions, Dill and Basil. Orders may now be placed on the online market at: https://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

Yesterday’s Summer Solstice marks the longest day of the year and the official beginning of Summer. From this point onward, daylight hours will grow shorter. This signals the time to produce abundantly for many of our vegetables, particularly eggplants and peppers (which will start gracing the online market in a couple of weeks). As this email is being written some much-needed rain is falling on the farm. Though we utilize water efficient irrigation techniques, there is no substitute for the fresh water that falls from the sky. This time of year, it settles the dust in the air, and everything seems to green up with such vibrance after a good rain. We are thankful.

The beginning of Summer also marks the beginning of planning for Fall and Winter, a task the team will embark upon Monday. It takes a lot of planning to keep an abundant and diverse mixture of vegetables growing, harvested, and available for you through the online market. This process is always some combination of tedious, stressful, and fun. We will dwell on the fun aspect of it though. There are a number of plants we didn’t have the opportunity to grow this Spring that we’re excited to bring back for the Fall, as well as some new ones we want to try. In particular, we’ve heard a lot of feedback lamenting the absence of Bok Choy and Tatsoi from Spring baskets; these are definitely coming back. We’re also going to try for more significant plantings of Cauliflower, Romanesco, and Celery. If you’ve got any suggestions or requests for Fall and Winter vegetables, this is the time to reach out! Seeding begins soon, and believe it or not, these crops will go in the ground at the peak of summer heat in July and August.

You’ve known it was coming, and now it’s here! This week’s featured vegetable is the tomato! You’ve probably heard that the tomato is a fruit, and while that is true, it’s not a very interesting fact because any crop with seeds is technically a fruit (cucumbers, zucchini, peppers- all fruits). What is interesting about tomatoes is their history. Tomatoes come from a very tiny desert region of Central America where the wild plant grows as an unassuming sprawling vine with tiny pea sized berries. At some point prior to recorded history someone walked a handful of these tiny berries to South America, planted the seeds, and began the domestication of one of the world’s most popular vegetables. In the early 1500s, the Spanish conquistadors encountered the Mesoamerican empires growing tomatoes, liked the vegetable, and disseminated the seeds throughout Europe and all the Spanish colonies. Now tomatoes are grown all over the world.

Their history has two important implications on the modern-day cultivation of this crop. The first is that, at heart, the tomato is a desert plant; and the second is that the plant was domesticated from relatively few wild individuals, so it is severely inbred. Summarily, this is why tomatoes are difficult to grow. They have little deep genetic diversity to impart disease resistance, and the humid and rainy conditions of Eastern North America are less than ideal. For this reason all our tomatoes are grown in high tunnels, where we can protect the foliage from overhead water. This simulates their desert climate and helps prevent the maladies they are susceptible to. Eating tomatoes is delicious and healthy. They have lots of Vitamin C and lycopene, which may improve one’s immune system and reduce cardiovascular risks. They are also the basis for tons of recipes. This year, we’re growing two varieties of cherry tomatoes, ‘Sakura’ (round red), and ‘Starlight’ (elongated yellow). We’ve also got a significant planting of ‘Speckled Roman’ (a red and yellow striped, heirloom paste tomato), and trialing 3 heirloom slicers which may be offered sporadically. We hope you enjoy all of them!

As always, we want to thank you for being a part of our farm. It brings us joy to be involved with our community’s growth in both sustainability and food security. Your support makes growing food organically in West Kentucky possible. Thank you.

Sincerely,
The Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team

CSA #16

Dear CSA-ers,

This week’s Preassembled Bag will contain Cucumbers, Mixed Squash, Cherry Tomatoes, Red Mist Head Lettuce, Spring Mix, Cilantro, and Carrots. Orders may now be placed on the online market at: https://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

Long, bright days tell us we are speeding towards Summer Solstice, (next Saturday, June 20th) the longest day of the year. This celestial event signifies the official beginning of Summer. In Princeton, Kentucky, Solstice clocks in at a whopping 14 hours 46 minutes of daylight. From an office, it might be easy to miss the big 4 celestial events that demarcate the seasons, but on the farm, it’s hard not to notice their significance. These long sunlight hours mean that our plants will grow their fastest, provided they have the water and nutrition that they need.

Nutrition is taken care of at planting with a careful mixture of organic amendments we craft based on a soil test which tells us what needs to be bolstered. However, water can be challenging this time of year. Pursuing our broad goals towards sustainability, we utilize water efficient drip irrigation on the overwhelming majority of our plantings, with overhead wobbling only for seedbed establishment and lettuce production. Nevertheless, weeks without any forecasted rain can be kind of scary. Currently we are working on establishing Sweet Potatoes for the Fall and are going to try to heal-in some winter squash plantings as well. It’s incredible how quickly a cool, wet Spring can flip to a hot, dry Summer.

For this reason, our featured vegetable this week is the cucumber, which hails from the arid climate of India. With its crisp, cool interior, one might not think of cucumbers as a crop that thrives in deserts and areas of extreme seasonal dryness, but it very much is. Observing the plant itself, this climbing vine is covered in tiny hairs (formally “trichomes”) that protect it from sunlight, herbivores, and losing too much water to evaporation. The rind of the cucumber protects the delicious fruit itself as it accumulates moisture and nutrition. Cucumbers are mostly water, but they also contain a near perfect blend of electrolytes for humans. They are the perfect snack if you are feeling dehydrated or have been outside in the heat. We get asked a lot about “burpless” cucumbers, which is a complicated and misunderstood topic. There is a compound in cucumbers called “cucurbitacin” that protects the plant itself from insects and herbivores. Some plants accumulate this compound in fruits and others only produce it in foliage. At one time, this chemical was thought to induce burping in people who ate the bitter cucumbers. Plants with low fruit bitterness were selected for and bred. The link between cucurbitacin and burping has never been substantiated, and more likely burping is caused by eating any cucumber too fast. Yet the term “burpless” stuck as a marketing thing, and functionally means a low-bitter cucumber. We selected out cucumbers varieties to be resilient and delicious. Not all of them are advertised as “burpless” but so far they all taste great. So next time you think about asking a vendor if their cucumbers are ‘burpless’, instead, ask them “are they delicious?” We hope you find the answer for ours is “yes!”

As always we thank you for supporting our farm through our CSA and market presences. We are still very much a growing farm and are working perpetually to improve your experience. Yet we are still human, and subject to err. Should you have an issue with our produce, please let us know, and we will try to make it right for you. Customer feedback is an important part of improving our service, and being the best farm we can be, for you, our community.

Sincerely,
The Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team

CSA #15

Dear CSA-ers,

This week’s Preassembled Bag will contain Arugula, Muir Head Lettuce, Beets, Kale, Squash, White Icicle Raddish, Dill and Basil. Orders may now be placed on the online market at: https://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

Our gentle, doting Spring seems to be giving way to a full on, hot and tropical Kentucky Summer. This is the time of year where we begin to see the bold summer vegetables. Cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes will all be in bags soon. Despite the great potential for bounty, this time of year comes with significant challenges. Irrigation becomes critical, plant maintenance demands are at their peak, planting new crops continues, and working in the heat is just straightforwardly more difficult. Some adaptive measures the team is taking are shifting work to dawn and dusk, staying well hydrated, and wearing good sun hats.

For those of you feeling up to braving the heat, Murray’s Farmers’ Market is in full swing and Paducah’s will begin this Saturday (June 13th). We appreciate those of you who come out to support the local farmers’ market scene, especially with the complications added by COVID-19 this year. Of course, CSA remains our priority. With the weather becoming hot, you may want to consider leaving a cooler out with an ice pack or two if you are not at home during our delivery time. Many customers do this to good effect, the high-top cube coolers work very well for how we pack CSA bags. We always want you to be able to receive your vegetables at their peak freshness.

In mindfulness of seasonal eating, today’s featured vegetable is the zucchini. The plants are at their happiest during this hot bright weather just before summer solstice. Technically, the zucchini (or courgette, as some Europeans know it) is a part of the “summer squash” group. Zucchini tend to be straighter and firmer textured than what we call a “squash” but there is little objective distinction. Zucchini is very versatile, being excellent sautéed, stir fried, grilled, roasted, in breads, or made into “zoodles” as a pasta substitute. They can even be cubed and frozen for use in soups later. Nutritionally zucchini are high in Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, and fiber. Currently we are growing a traditional green, a yellow variety, and an Italian heirloom called ‘Cocozelle’ that is striped green. We’re already forming some opinions in our test kitchen, but we’d love to hear what you think about each of them!

As always, we are so grateful for your support of our farm. We appreciate your patience as we’ve grown and your understanding in times we’ve erred. We are always striving to improve and deliver the fresh bounty of our certified Organic farm to your doorstep each week.

Sincerely,
The Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team

CSA #14

Dear CSA-ers,
This week’s Preassembled Bag will contain Spinach, Summer Squash, Kohlrabbi, Lovelock Head Lettuce, Swiss Chard, Snow Peas. Orders may now be placed on the online market at:

https://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

Bright sunlit days punctuated by bouts of heavy downpour have thrown growth on the farm into full throttle. This has some real positives in terms of vegetable production and keeping our water usage and irrigation bill at bay. The downside of this is that the grass and weeds that frustrate our production are also clipping along at full pace. To a large extent, agriculture is trying to find a balance between what can be managed by our actions and the things that are beyond our control. A wise and experienced grower once described this as “massively humbling,” and those words come to mean more each day.

That said, things on the farm are coming along very well. Those of you in Murray may have seen Hannah and Katie at our farmers’ market stand the past two Saturdays. We are also looking forward to being at Paducah’s market which is set to open two weeks from now on June 13th. We are rolling into the season of summer vegetables and with the season change, so too will the items we have available through CSA. This week we are coming into zucchini and spinach in a big way as well as our peak production of snow peas.

For this reason, our featured vegetable this week is Snow Peas. This was a largely experimental crop for us this year and one of our earliest planted outdoors. They struggled along, the sprouts frozen twice and nibbled by rabbits all March and April. We had largely written them off until just last week when they seemed to burst forth with flowers and delicious pods. These tender treats are nutritional powerhouses full of Vitamin C, Vitamin K, trace minerals, and dietary fiber. They are best stir-fried or lightly steamed after removal of the tips and fibrous string along the top of the pea pod. We are very happy to be offering this one in CSA and look forward to growing more snow peas in the future.

As always, we thank you for your support of our CSA. We love hearing from you and seeing what you create with our dishes. We encourage you to reach out at any time! Wishing you and those you hold dear the best in your week to come.

Sincerely,
The Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team

CSA #13

Dear CSA-ers,

This week’s Preassembled Bag will contain Garlic Scapes, Carrots, Black Radishes, Muir Head Lettuce, Spring Mix, Cilantro and Kale. Orders may now be placed on the online market at: https://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

The long cool Spring finally seems to be giving way to warmer weather. Days above 80 mean that its safe to put plants of more tropical origin in the ground. This includes our Malabar Spinach, as well as some new things we are trying out, edible hibiscus, ginger, and turmeric. Look forward to all of those later this year. Summer plants are very much beginning to come into their own. We are very close to zucchini, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

Murray’s Farmers’ Market officially began this Saturday, and despite all the additional precautions mandated, Hannah reported that there was a great turn out. Paducah Farmers’ Market is still set to open June 6, and we will be looking forward to that too. Markets are a good opportunity for us to sell any overproduction of vegetables that don’t go into our CSA. By participating in CSA, you are getting the “first-fruits” delivered to your door. We always try to make sure you are getting our top quality produce.

This week’s featured vegetable is the striking Black Radish! Sometimes called the Spanish Black Radish or Schwarzer Runder Radish, this variety is a true heirloom. Depicted in ancient Egypt and documented as a staple of European cuisine during the 1500s, the Black Radish had become something of a “forgotten variety” by the 20th century. Lately, there has been rekindled interest in this unique variety for a number of reasons. The charcoal exterior and bright white interior is unique among vegetables. It is a dense fleshed radish, well suited to roasting, soups, pickling, or slivered on charcuterie boards. Be aware that this is a naturally spicy variety of radish. The spicy taste is caused by protective compounds called “glucoraphanins” that defends the plant from insects. In humans, these compounds are being studied for their action against certain cancers and dementia. We are excited to be offering such a distinct vegetable and hope that you will enjoy it.

As always, we thank you for being a part of our community and supporting our farm through CSA. We are always striving to make the farm and its services the best they can be. You are helping us achieve those goals each week. We hope that in some way, we are helping you and your loved ones to achieve your goals as well!

Sincerely,
The Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team