May 19th, 2010 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

This week we have kohlrabi again from the folks at Taylorganics.  So I decided that it was Kohlrabi festival time.  Check out the website for two different recipes for Kohlrabi and even a very strange video on Kohlrabi courtesy of a fellow basket subscriber.  The video is in the “Community Love” section on the website.  My favorite way of using this wonderful spring vegetable is still cut into cubes and roasted.  Let me know what yours is.

Taylorganics also harvested our beets this week and, yes, the beautiful strawberries.  As some of you might remember, we enjoyed strawberries from the Miles farm in middle Georgia as well as from Woodland Gardens in Athens, Georgia.  Now this week, see how you like strawberries from nearby Ellenwood, Georgia.  Hopefully, we’ll all be lucky enough to do taste tests of strawberries from patches all over Georgia – a job I will not turn down.

For those of you who are new to having a vegetable with roots in your kitchen, this adds an additional level of freshness.  This watercress is from the guys at Neva Farms and will only be harvested when you clip it for your salad or cook it.  I know I have mentioned before, but over 50% of the nutrients in our vegetables are lost 72 hours after harvest.  Think of how many people never access the nourishment that we are enjoying each week.  Below is your list of goodies for this week:

Heirloom Lettuce Head

Bok Choy

Onions

Mixed Kale

Watercress with roots

Beets with tops

Kohlrabi

Strawberries

As a reminder, next week is the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend.  Please remember to let us know if you’re going to be away and if you need special arrangements on your delivery.  And remember, I am always happy to talk food!

Gratefully,
Margie Thorpe

May 12th, 2010 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

This week brings a great surprise from Woodland Gardens as we harvest heirloom tomatoes.  Woodland Gardens is also providing us with the beautiful leeks in your basket.  We are well on our way to onion season, so expect local Vidalia Onions in the coming weeks.  Neil at Taylorganics has provided us with fresh beets with tops, your kohlrabi, and the purple bok choy.  The kohlrabi can be eaten raw, shredded in a salad, or cooked.  I like to cube and roast mine.

Brooks Garcia at Moonbeam Farms has tender, yellow collards for us as well as your mixed heirloom lettuce.  Be sure to plan to wash these thoroughly.  They are only washed once at the farm.  These lettuces are delicate, and it’s best to have less handling on our end to have the best product for you.  Brooks also harvested more of the baby fennel for us this week.  This should be the last of their fennel, so enjoy the recipes posted on our website for this unusual flavor.  Unfortunately, we were not able to access strawberries again this week, but I promise you that we will have more soon.  Below is your list of goodies for this week:

Heirloom Lettuces

Purple Bok Choy

Yellow Collards

Leeks

Beets with Tops

Kohlrabi

Heirloom Tomatoes

Baby Fennel

Our farmers are entering into the warmer temperatures, and the food will be in abundance over the next few months.  If I can help you in any way plan the use of your veggies, please let me know.  As tomato season approaches in the summer, I plan to have canning get-togethers.  If this or any other food preparation workshops are of interest, I would love your feedback.  Many of you already order some of our extra items such as cheese and honey.  If there is some other product that you’ve been looking for locally, don’t hesitate to ask.  I might be looking for it too.  As always remember, I am always happy to talk food!

Gratefully,
Margie Thorpe

May 5th, 2010 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

I hope you all had a wonderful May Day weekend or Derby Day, whichever holiday you chose to celebrate.  Today is another holiday for you, Cinco de Mayo; this is the holiday to recognize the Mexican army’s victory in the Battle of Puebla.  As a pacifist, I will just celebrate May Day for an entire week (smiles), but I did add cilantro to your basket for a little Mexican culinary delight this week.  It is going to flower this week at most of the farms so enjoy it while you have it.  Walker Farms have provided us with beautiful baby beets and greens.  You can cook these with your turnip greens or just juice them for a power-packed drink!

You also have baby fennel as a treat from Moonbeam Farms this week.  I have added a recipe using fennel on the website, but please share any that you might have with us this week.  Last week we enjoyed kohlrabi and many of you gave me your recipes for using it.  Thank you!  Moonbeam is the source of our cilantro and white turnips, too.  Be sure to eat the greens from these – they are incredible!  We also have strawberries – yeah!  We are in the thick of season for these wonderful candies of nature.  The ones we had a few weeks ago were from Miles Farm in middle GA.  Now, this week you are enjoying berries from Woodland Gardens just outside of Athens.  Next week we will harvest with Riverview Farms, an hour northeast of Atlanta.  See if you start to taste distinctions between the harvests that could either be the soil, the type of plants, or maybe the week they were harvested.  Below is your list of goodies for this week:

Heirloom Lettuces

Rainbow Chard

Baby beets with tops (some tops are purple and some green)

Bok choy

Fennel

Japanese white turnips with greens

Cilantro

Strawberries

I can’t write to you this week without acknowledging the horrible disaster we have with the oil spill in the Gulf.  I am collecting hair thru matteroftrust.org and they are making huge booms with natural hair to soak up oil.  Hope it works - please let us know if you hear of others ways that we as a community can help.   For now enjoy your healthy veggies and remember, I am always happy to talk food!

Gratefully,
Margie Thorpe

April 28th, 2010 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

I want you to know that our countryside around the state is getting more and more beautiful with the changing weather.  I find myself driving down the same two lane on my way to the same farm but suddenly thinking that I have missed my turn.  Every week the same area looks so different.  Be sure to look around and notice all the wonderful changes in our own intown streets as well.  I know it’s hard to see beyond the pollen sometimes but the source of the pollen is quite stunning!

In each basket you have a borrowed fruit from our Florida neighbors.  Many of you have asked that we try to find fruit each week so I am doing my best.  This week I could not get enough berries from our Georgia farms quite yet.  The colder temperatures slow down the warm weather crops.  We will continue to harvest local strawberries in the next few weeks, but for now let’s enjoy the goodness of the Florida Valencia oranges.  These are bright and juicy.  You also have gorgeous European cucumber once again from Woodland Gardens in Winterville, GA.  These were so tasty last week that we all hoped we could get them once more and we were in luck.

I added a wonderful recipe for chard and leek tart on the website to help you use the leeks you have this week.  These are beautiful and came from this morning’s harvest at Whippoorwill Hollow Farm.  The kohlrabi, turnips and the lettuces came from Neil over at Taylor Organics.   These heirloom lettuces make salad a buttery treat.  I am not sure I can go back to restaurant lettuce ever again.  Enjoy!  Below is your list of goodies for this week:

Heirloom Lettuces

Leeks

Rainbow Chard

Kohlrabi

Purple turnips with greens

European cucumber

Cilantro

Oranges

Please think about ways that you can connect yourself to your growing season whether it is food or wonderful flowering plants around you.  I am organizing some summer workshops to help us all think of ways to prep and store our summer harvests for leaner winter months.  Let me know if there is a particular interest you have.  That’s all for now remember, I am always happy to talk food!

Gratefully,
Margie Thorpe

April 21st, 2010 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

The spring weather is paying off in the fields. We are seeing nice growth in several new veggies. This week you better be ready for loads of sauté and salad. We have a wonderful bouquet of braising greens from Brooks Garcia’s farm. There are three heads of greens from his farm; a bok choy, a lighter green leaf, which is a flowering Chinese cabbage, and the third head is tyfon greens and will have a radish root at the end. Enjoy the green and the root!

The big surprise was when Woodland Gardens told me they had a large European cucumber for each of us. What a treat! They also provided their young bok choy so you will have several varieties of Asian greens to try. Your arugula and garlic chives were harvested this morning from Serenbe Farms and the van smelled so good the rest of the drive (smiles). I can’t wait for my dinner tonight of something with butter and garlic chives, for sure! The lettuces are coming on strong so we will enjoy fresh lettuce for another couple of weeks. This week our lettuce is from Taylor Organics here in Ellenwood GA.  Below is your list of goodies for this week:

Heirloom Lettuces

Arugula

Spring onions

Braising greens (bok choy, flowering Chinese cabbage, and tyfon greens w/root)

Bok choy

European cucumber

Easter egg radishes

Garlic chives

I was fortunate enough to get out and celebrate a brand new office for our Georgia Organics office this last week. Several farmers and sustainable local food companies were represented. I am considering inviting more local companies to join our list of extras that we pick up regularly. Feel free to let me know anything in particular that you would like to find. We also are welcoming Jason Mann’s new restaurant, Farm Burger, in Decatur which opens today with sustainable, locally-raised meat and veggies. Check out the link on our website. That’s all for now remember, I am always happy to talk food!

Gratefully,

Margie Thorpe