Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

I am overwhelmed this week with all the information I received from the Georgia Organics conference.  It was wonderful to see so many people excited to continue working for healthy, beautiful, heirloom alternatives to our industrial food supplies.  I met several new farmers that are interested in being a part of our community and will be planting food specifically for us this spring – Yeah!

This week we are still looking to our Florida and Carolina neighbors for some of our food but we are fortunate to have very local items, as well.  I had several requests for red cabbage and this week we have it.  We also have celery that was brought from Florida for us this morning.  Roots farm is still going strong for us with carrots and Serenbe Farms harvested another dig of sunchokes. Please refrigerate these – even though they look more like ginger or a root item that could stay out, they are not. They dry and go bad very quickly left out.  Kept cold, they seem to last for a while. Your basil is also grown here by Neva Farms. This is such a treat to have this time of year. Below is your list of goodies:

Carrots

Swiss chard

Sunchokes

Celery

Red cabbage

Zucchini

Tangerines

Basil

I have a great recipe for the red cabbage with Sake this week if you are in the mood for a yummy vegan friendly Asian influenced dish.  I have also added one last recipe for your sunchokes to give you a bit more inspiration.  I love these but I know some friends have found it difficult to come up with new ideas for them.  I hope some added recipes will help.

I will be posting several ideas and highlights from the conference to our facebook page later this week so if you are not a member yet, come join us there!  Go in good health this week and remember I am always happy to TALK FOOD!

Full Moon farm after the high winds...

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

We have several new folks joining us this week for our baskets. I hope you enjoy your collards. I had such a delicious breakfast everyday last week with some sort of quick sautéed greens and scrambled local eggs. Such a great start to the day! This week you also have arugula with roots grown by Neva Farm. You can put the roots in a cup and stick it open in the fridge or keep it in the bag but don’t leave it too long in the crisper. This plant is still live and it tastes so great to enjoy live greens. Neva also grew the beautiful lettuce you have this week.

Woodland Gardens grew us the fresh pea shoots in a bag. These are the very small green leaves. They are so sweet just like a pea and can be eaten in salad or delicately cooked. Leave these in a pan less time than baby spinach if you choose to cook them. They wilt quickly. I like adding them to my plate raw and putting a hot cooked item over them. It cooks them just enough.  Below is your list of goodies:

Carrots

Pea shoots

Collards

Arugula with roots

Mixed baby lettuce

Tangerines

Grape tomatoes

Flat leaf parsley

I will be leaving tomorrow for our annual Georgia Organics conference where I am hoping to strengthen our relationships with our current farmers and invite more to grow for us. I will spend some time with the chefs at Farm 255 and see if they have tips for our recipe list as the crops come in for spring. I am hoping to taste a variety of ways to use Alice and Tim Mills’ grits on Saturday, too. Feel free to email us or check in on our facebook site, as we are always looking for your notes. Until next week, remember I am always happy to TALK FOOD!

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

Old man winter is trying to blow us away today but your veggies are still arriving. Once again, our closest crops are the carrots and sunchokes, but we have beautiful basil from Georgia too this week! Neva farm is growing this for us. Next week we look forward to more items grown by Woodland Gardens in Athens. For now, I am thrilled to say that our Florida neighbor has provided us with celery! I am so excited about this because this is something that just does not do well in our soil. Enjoy it! I hope mine makes it thru the day.

We have some nice Swiss chard from C&B farms in Florida and we are happy to get collards again this week. If you aren’t sure how to use your greens, take a look at the website. I have posted several recipes for greens and there is a new one going in tonight.

Next weekend I will be attending the Georgia Organics conference where I will have the pleasure of spending days meeting with our farmers. Please send notes of any veggies that you would like to see more of and I will let you know if they are in the works. We are definitely buying for the spring and summer plantings now. We also have fresh raw honey in our future as a new extra!  Below is your list of goodies:

Sunchokes / Jerusalem artichokes

Carrots

Swiss chard

Collards

Zucchini

Sweet potatoes

Celery

Basil

I just noticed that some of you might only have one sweet potato because they were a bit larger this week than in the past. For those one-potato baskets, I will add a little extra of something else (smiles). I would love to hear more of what you are cooking up with your weekly baskets. I am trying to post these to the facebook site and some on the website so keep the notes coming! Have a beautiful week and remember I am always happy to TALK FOOD!