We hope you've all had a wonderful holiday season! We really enjoyed our time off and are feeling recharged to hit the ground running in 2016.
The farm has been slow to recover from the big flood a few weeks ago. Although we responded quickly and replanted the fields as soon as possible, we have been facing issue related to soil fertility and increased pest pressure. We believe the flood severely leached our soils of nutrients far beyond what we expected. Most of the crops we seeded since then are not healthy and we've had to re-seed them a second time. All this to say that your CSA shares this week are mostly comprised of beautiful veggies from other local farms. Although we didn't grow these veggies, they are truly great and we hope you enjoy them!
Small Shares:
Lettuce from Worden Farm
Kale from Verde Farm
Cherry tomatoes from Verde Farm
Garlic chives from Verde Farm
Watermelon radishes from Worden Farm
Celery from Worden Farm
Fennel from Worden Farm
Cabbage from Worden Farm
Sapodilla from LNB Groves
Large Shares:
Lettuce from Worden Farm
Kale from Verde Farm
Cherry tomatoes from Verde Farm
Garlic chives from Verde Farm
Watermelon radishes from Worden Farm
Celery from Worden Farm
Fennel from Worden Farm
Cabbage from Worden Farm
Sapodilla from LNB Groves
Extra cherry tomatoes!
Frisee endive from our own fields
Summer squash from French Farms
Sapodilla, also known as Nispero in most of the Caribbean and Central America, grows widely in South Florida. It can be found on city streets in Miami and the large trees are commonly used to border groves of other fruit crops in Homestead. These fruit are deliciously sweet with a malty or almost caramel flavor. When they are unripe they are very firm and contain an astringent sap which will dry out your mouth. They feel soft like a pear when ready. The slightly grainy texture of the flesh is also much like that of a ripe pear. The skin is edible, but because it's texture is not particularly appealing, you can peel them before eating, like you would peel a kiwi. Enjoy!
Garlic chives, sometimes known as Chinese leeks, are hands down one of my favorite local specialties. They are used so commonly and abundantly in all kinds of Asian cooking; think dim sum leek dumplings or pad thai. Check out this link for a super easy dumpling recipe and 36 other garlic chive recipes!