Thursdays are CSA Pick-up Days! Abbondanza Organic Seeds & Produce ^[1] is a local CSA, or “Community Supported Agriculture” farm. CSA membership fees in the winter and spring help support the farm, and members pick up a share of the produce each week during harvest.

That’s CSA 101. And this is CSA Week 2!

(What happened to Week 1? I was out of town. Oops.)

Click over to the Abbondanza web page and take a look at the upper-right-hand corner of the page: “What’s in the Box?” This is updated every week to give members an idea what to expect when they come pick up their veggies. This week, Week 2, a lot of the produce was damaged by hail, particularly the lettuce and the arugula. That’s farming for you – stuff happens. But there were plenty yummies to be had regardless. Here’s what I brought home today in my partial share (full and individual shares vary):

CSA 2009 Week 2

• Garlic ^[2] “scapes” (stems)
• Spinach ^[3]
• Radishes
• Mizuna ^[4]
• Hon Tsai Tai ^[5]

There was also cilantro, from which I abstained.

Hon Tsai Tai is a new one on me. Monday I got to meet it in the field when a team of us were out there weeding (wanna volunteer? click here ^[6]!). They pointed it out to us as we unrolled the hail-protective covers from several rows of lettuces and Asian greens. “See that one there? That’s a great crop. It’s kinda like broccoli. You can just eat it raw in a salad–the flowers, too.”

Some of everything, except the garlic scapes, went into tonight’s salad, which accompanied my first grilled cheese sandwiches since de-rusting, cleaning, and re-seasoning my grandmother’s old cast-iron skillet. Bliss. And now I’m looking forward to stir-fry.

Recipe: Very Simple Basalmic Vinaigrette

• 3 tbls balsamic vinegar
• 3 tbls olive oil
• 1 tsp or 3 stems chives
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 hard boiled egg yolk, mashed

Combine all ingredients. Chill overnight. Shake thoroughly when you think about it.

(Next batch will have a garlic scape instead of the chives.)

Note! Abbondanza are still taking membership applications ^[7]! Also, you can find them at the farmer’s markets in downtown Boulder and I do believe in Longmont too.