The “Tell” – Springdell Summer CSA Pickup #1 2

What a week, what a week! It’s hard to believe, but besides the butter, this whole beautiful table of goodies has been consumed. Look at this beautiful produce!

Let’s review how things went in the kitchen this week:

• Strawberries
  • Enjoyed as-is
  • Strawberry Cap Water
  • Kale and Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
  • Strawberry Fool
• Crimson Rhubarb
  • Peeled and dipped with Ben’s Maple Sugar
  • Peels saved in freezer for later (I plan to make a rhubarb simple syrup with them at the end of the rhubarb season)
• Red Russian Kale
  • Kale and Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
  • Kale stems frozen and used in smoothies
• Rainbow Radishes
  • Bulbs soaked in water and snacked on
  • Greens sautéd in butter and lighty salted
  • Slivered into Summer Rolls with homemade Peanut Sauce
• Red Leaf Lettuce
  • Summer Rolls with Homemade Peanut Sauce
• Bok Choy
  • Bok Choy Salad

• More Strawberries!

• Popeye Spinach
  • Omelette with Chivey Goat Cheese, Spinach and Pea Tendrils
  • Enjoyed as-is
• Pea Tendrils from Johnny Putt Farm
  • Enjoyed as-is 
  • Summer Rolls
  • Omelette with Chivey Goat Cheese, Spinach and Pea Tendrils

• Eggs!
  • Shortcake Biscuit
  • Omelette with Chivey Goat Cheese, Spinach and Pea Tendrils
  • Scrambled

Here’s a quick review of our first week!

The first radishes out of the farm are always great! I know some of you don’t like radishes, so let’s read on to see if we can help to change that!

If you don’t like the bite of the radish, store them in a bowl of water in the fridge like this.  Still too much bite?  Slice them and then store them in the water!  Be sure to change the water every couple of days for best results.

When the radishes are small and tender, the greens are quite delicious sautéed. Be sure to wash and drain them well to avoid any grit, and if the stems are too tough, best to snip them before sautéing.  A quick saute in Amish Roll Butter or coconut oil is a great way to prep, salt and pepper to taste and as desired. Visit here for more details on all things radish!

Here was one of the boy’s lunches this week.  Hulled strawberries and spinach as-is always make an easy and accompaniment to any meal, so as long as my boys keep eating these, I’ll keep serving them!  We picked up a few of the extra shortcake biscuits at the end of the Strawberry Festival, and they doubled as lunch biscuits for these egg sandwiches.

Another residual morsel of deliciousness was this pulled pork from Hubba’s BBQ that I bought to bring home after the Strawberry Festival.  Pea tendrils and spinach joined in.   

Here’s a quick strawberry salad with massaged kale.  In the interest of time, I went with a bottled poppy seed dressing (I like Brianna’s).  If you have a bit more time to do your own, this Massaged Kale Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette is a goodie!

When so many fresh and tasty greens are available, I usually revert to rice paper rolls and my favorite peanut sauce for dipping. This week’s ingredients included pea tendrils, red leaf lettuce, slivered radishes and pressed tofu. The original plan was to go for Jordan Brother’s shrimp, but they ran out before I got there (a good thing!)  If you know you want something at pickup on Wednesday from the Jordan Brother’s seafood truck, always best to call ahead so they can bring it for you.

Here’s a quick action shot of the rice paper roll getting ready to be rolled.  When the lettuce is on the bottom, it creates a little shield that keeps your other ingredients from poking through the rice paper during the rolling process.

Some grilled Springdell pork kabobs made an appearance with the rolls and peanut sauce.  This is a yummy summer combo!

Given it’s the first rhubarb of the season, I just wanted to taste it.  As a little girl, I grew up dipping rhubarb in sugar, so I went for the grown-up version by switching to Ben’s Maple Sugar.

I’m going to try to make a rhubarb simple syrup once I get enough peels going. I’ve never done it with just the peels, but I’m sure it’s worth a try!  Save the peels and try it with me!

We went camping the latter part of the week, this strawberry fool always makes an easy camping dessert!  All you need is some heavy cream, a little bit of sugar and vanilla, berries, and a large jar, such as this half gallon mason jar. The kids always have fun shaking the jar to whip the cream while I hull the berries.

Here’s some cut up bok choy before I added the dressing to make the addictive bok choy salad.

My log of chive goat cheese was melted into these delicious omelettes which were also stuffed with wilted spinach and pea tendrils.  Yummy yum!

The final jar of last year’s pickled beets…  Oh, how I’ll miss them… Until this year’s pickled beets come, of course!

Tonight we got home from camping, and though our CSA crate was bare, my Uncle Harry went fishing and brought us some haddock to cook up for Sunday Dinner. Perfect timing as we prepare for tomorrow’s CSA pickup!

Am I the only one that tried Farmer Jamie’s Springdell Strawberry Cap Water?  I can’t imagine so!  It’s good stuff, I even added a swirl or two of rhubarb peels into it for a tangy twist.

Photo by Lisa Simons-Kearns

Fellow Springdellian Lisa Simons-Kearns baked this delicious recipe inspired by Ellen Rainey’s recipe on All Recipes. Here is Lisa’s version. Thanks for sharing, Ellen and Lisa!

For those that missed the Springdell email about how to store fresh greens, feel free to check in here on Veggiescope for the recap.  

That’s about it for today!  I hope you enjoyed this Tell, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s pickup!  Thank you for reading and until tomorrow, sweet and savory dreams!