one potato two

and new ways to prepare foods that you may not think you like. I am not going to lie - a CSA box can be challenging for those (like me) who haven’t spent a ton of time in the kitchen. All I can say is: the work is worth it and I do believe that we’ll all be healthier come fall after a season of eating ‘from the box;. Being a CSA member is more than just about the eating - it is as much about learning as well! How to eat seasonally, how and where those veggies of yours come from, and who actually grows them are all things that we hope to help you learn about throughout this season. Andfinally,Ihavetoonceagainthank you all for signing up this season. It is your dollars and your faith in us as farmers that has enabled us, and I mean all of us: Josh, Noah and I; but also our amazing crew consisting of: Rachel, Eric, Kaleb, Lilly E., Patrick, Paul, Eric, Joey, Liz, Nick, Tom, Lilly D., Chris and Susan to do what we love and that is grow great vegetables for folks like you.

And that’s the news for the week. Remember, if you have any questions, comments, complaints or whatever, feel free to give me a jingle. I would love to help you out in anyway I can to make this 2012 CSA season an enjoyable and educational one for you. Here’s to another year, may it be the best yet!

--Mike, your CSA go-to guy.

nd so it begins! With much anticipation and a whole heck of a lot of excitement, we once

again start another CSA season. All of us here at Driftless Organics are proud tofinally,after3monthsofhardwork,be able to provide you all with your firstCSAboxoftheseason. What a spring it has been! With temperatures in the 80s in March and highs in the 40s in April, it seems like craze weather has become the new norm. Our biggest struggle thus this season has been a lack of rain. Coming off a virtually snow-less winter, and now nearly 2 months with a mere inch of rain, our soils our DRY. We do have irrigation though, and we are trying to keep it running around the clock to keep those thirsty veggies alive. Despite it all, we are really on top of things this year - and I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to be off to such a great start. We love spring with all of the planting and seeding and positive attitudes and excitement about starting the cycle all over again. We have about 55% of this year’s crops already planted: everything from 5 rounds of broccoli to most of the potatoes . With 2 rounds of carrots planted and 2 of the 4 plantings of sweet corn in the ground, things are looking great. Now comes the fun part - harvesting all of that goodness. We are hoping for a tremendously bountiful season, and hope you are ready to fulfill your duty as aCSAmember. You see - being a CSA member isn’t just about getting a box of veggies every or every other week. It is about opening your minds (and mouths) to new foods, new recipes

A

THIS WEEK’S BOX

news from the fields of driftless organicsvolume six • issue onej u n e s e v e n - n i n et w o t h o u s a n d t w e l v e

Paul, Joey and Eric transplanting broccoli that will one day very soon be in your box!

arugulablack spanish radish

collard greensgarlic scapes

german butterball potatoesgreen or red leaf lettuce

fresh garlicmint

pea tendrils rosemaryspinach

strawberries

this week’s box!

Rosemary Vinaigrette1/3 cup balsamic vinegar 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard 1 Tbsp. green garlic, minced 1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary leaves, coarsely chopped1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice 1 Tbsp. honeysalt & pepper to taste 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil or Driftless sunflower oil

Combine all ingredients but oil in a food processor (or bowl with an immersion blender or even just a blender) & puree. While machine is running, slowly pour in oil until immulsified. Will keep in the fridge for a couple weeks.

Strawberry & Arugula Salad with Fresh Mint

1 pint strawberries, sliced4 cups arugula or mixed greens¼ c. potato onions, thinly sliced3-4 Tbsp. rosemary vinaigrette (or any vinaigrette)¼ c. fresh mint, cut into a chiffonade¼ c. toasted, chopped hazelnuts or almonds

Toss strawberries, arugula, onions, & vinaigrette in a serving bowl. Top with mint & nuts & serve immediately. Serves 3-4.

Arugula - probably my favorite salad green. Adds zippy spice & warm pepper notes to salads, sandwiches, omelets, & pasta. I had it fresh on top of pizza in Italy (cut up & put on the pizza after it comes out of the oven) & now it’s a mainstay pizza topping at home. Doesn’t keep long: store in plastic in the fridge & use up within a few days.Black Spanish Radish - a crazy dinosaur egg-looking storage radish with black knobby skin & snow white flesh. It’s harvested in the late fall when it’s quite spicy & will store until the next summer, getting milder all the while. I like to keep the skin on because it looks great when grated onto salads or slice for a veggie tray. You can also cook with it – in stir-fries or Asian soups. In plastic in the fridge it should store for a couple more weeks. Collard Greens - are in the same family as cabbage & kale, & are similarly super healthy for you! It’s easy to add collards into soups, stir-fries, pasta sauces, bean dishes, eggs, or sauteed with garlic. Best to strip the leaves off the stem, as it’s rather tough. Store in plastic in the fridge for about 5 days. Fresh Garlic - is fresh out of the ground and uncured, meaning it won’t store like cured garlic will (fresh garlic will be layed out in the greenhouse with fans going for several weeks to cure and be ready to store). It’s really easy to peel. Use it like cured garlic, just use a little extra since it has a higher moisture content.

Garlic Scapes - are the gorgeously swirled floweringstemofhard-neckgarlic.Theyare

harvested about a month before their better known bulbs are ready to be dug. Scapes can be used as a substitute for garlic cloves, fresh or cooked, or cooked as a vegetable in their ownright.Theirflavorisslightlymilderthangarlic; their texture & shape are similar to asparagus when cooked. Store them in plastic in fridge for a week or two or trim the ends &puttheminavase(theyareaflower,afterall) to grace your kitchen table with for up to a week. You can fry, sauté, steam, boil, or roastthem.Thewholestem&flowerbudisedible (discard the tough tip above the bud). Scapes are especially good in stir-fries, eggs, soups, mashed potatoes, pasta... Or try the pesto recipe on pasta, pizzas, in dressings, or as a dip.

German Butterball Potatoes - our favorite potato: golden skin that’s flakier than a Yukon but waxier than a russet. No need to peel - the slightly russetted skin roasts up nice & crispy. A great all-purpose potato, from mash, soups, & salad to steamed, boiled, fried, or roasted. Store in a cool dark place in paper, or even the fridge, & use up within a couple weeks.

Green or Red Leaf Lettuce - The outer leaves are perfect for sandwiches or lettuce wraps, while the inner part is sweeter & crunchier & is great in salads or as lettuce “boats” for many fillings, like tuna salad or tabouli. Store in a plastic bag with a paper towel in the fridge & use it up within a few days.

Mint - fresh mint is the making of many

Hi there CSA folks – Mike’s wife, Dani, here. For all you newbies, this is the part of the newsletter where we give you descriptions of each of the items in your box along with storage tips & cooking suggestions plus a couple recipes. I usually write this page, being the resident produce nerd & cooking fanatic. You can find more information & lots of recipes on our website, www.driftlessorganics.com. We welcome nice easy recipes that feature seasonal produce – if you have any favorites you’d like to share, please send them to Mike! The first couple CSA boxes, being composed mostly of what’s in season, are all about greens & herbs. We’re careful to save some storage veggies from last year, like the black radishes & potatoes in this week’s box, to beef the early boxes up a bit before the heavier crops start rolling in later in June.

a middle eastern or Vietnamese dish. It’s also great in tea, hot or cold, & of course mint juleps & mojitos!! Store in plastic in the fridge & use it up within a few days.

Potato Onions - kind of a cross between a green onion, and a regular onion, you should refrigerate these in a plastic bag. Use like you would a green onion: even the majority of the green part!

Pea Tendrils - otherwise known as “pea vine” or “pea shoots” these edible vines have sweet pea flavor & crunch earlier than actual peas are set. They are fun to cook in stir-fries or sautéed greens, or you can cut them up in a salad. Use them within a few days & store in plastic in the fridge.

Rosemary - a classic Mediterranean herb that is delicious in roasted or mashed potatoes, salad dressings, pasta. Makes a fantastic rub/stuffing for any kind of roasted or grilled meat – chicken, beef, pork, lamb, or fish – simply grind the leaves coarsely with the white part of green garlic, salt, & pepper in a mini food processor or mortar & pestle (if it’s for chicken, lamb, or fish add some lemon zest too). Or try the rosemary vinaigrette recipe, below. Rosemary will keep in plastic in the fridge for a couple weeks. To use, strip the leaves from the stem, which is too woody to eat.

Spinach - add to salads, sandwiches, eggs, pasta, soups… Store in plastic & eat within a few days.

Strawberries - Our friends at Harmony Valley Farm helped us out in ensuring that y’all got 2 pintsofstrawberriesforyourfirstbox.Ithinkweall know what to do with strawberries, right?

Welcome to the Driftless Organics CSA Program!

As we begin this 2012 season, we have nothing but high hopes for a season of plentiful, and great tasting fruits and vegetables that continue to satisfy you week after week. Whether you are a first time member or a seasoned CSA veteran, we want you to get the most out of your vegetable boxes. Make no bones about it, learning to eat the contents of your box can be challenging at times. I mean, we all know what to do with strawberries (you stuff ‘em in your face!!), but what do you do with a bunch of broccoli-raab? (you’ll find out...)

We aim to help you through this endeavour with a newsletter that includes tasty recipes and food tips that focus on the veggies in each week’s box. And, as we all

know, the internet is a great resource to find just the right recipe for what you crave. Our website alone has over 200 useful recipes and oodles of cooking tips for lots of different veggies and herbs. Most of all, what I find helps the most when you are faced with a box of vegetables that you are unsure of what to do with is to be creative. Don’t let past preconceptions about certain vegetables hold you back. Try new things! Throughout this entire CSA experience we hope you will remember that we are a part of a nationwide movement towards a more sustainable, healthy and just food system; one that exemplifies the things we care about, like treating the earth a little better and making our ecological footprint just a bit smaller. We, the farmers and you, the eaters, have joined forces to take steps towards positive change. In addition, we want y’all to learn a bit more about how we grow your food. Through the newsletters, our web site, and our facebook page, we are going to try to show you some of what goes on here on the farm from day to day. We encourage and welcome farm visits and please, if you have any questions feel free to give Mike a call (608-624-3735) or e-mail (csainfo@driftlessorganics.com). With these ideas in mind, we embark on the 2012 season with gusto. From the bottom of our plows to the tip top of the corn tassel, we wish you the most enjoyable CSA season you have ever experienced.

Other Important Things to Remember:

Your pick up site, be it a garage or parking lot, co-op or cafe, has a designated site coordinator. This hardworking soul (or souls) help us out in ensuring that you all get your boxes. They are an extremely important and valuable, piece of the puzzle of the CSA program. Let’s all try our best to make their job as easy as can be by not forgetting your box! One of the hardest things about belonging to a CSA farm is remembering to pick up your box. If you do indeed forget your box, the first thing to do is call your site coordinator and let them know. Arrangements can be made for a later pick up but just keep in mind that this can’t become a habit. Your site coordinator is not responsible for your box after the pick up time and if arrangements haven’t been made - your box will be redistributed so the food doesn’t go to waste. Your veggies and fruit come in a reusable food-grade wax box and we would love it if you could bring your box back to your pick up site so that we can reuse it. Better yet, bring your own bag along to transfer your goodies so that you can leave your box at your site. There will be a place for you to put your box and here are instructions on the back of this sheet on how to break down your box without ripping it. Please be careful, because a ripped bottom on a box is box wasted. Unfortunately, we can’t reuse the pints that your berries and tomatoes will be coming in. However, the plastic pints can be recycled and the green pulpy pints we use can be composted. Something that we encourage throughout the entire season is feedback. Of course we LOVE to hear the good stuff and we sure appreciate the compliments, but we want to hear the not-so-good stuff as well. Please feel free to e-mail us with any questions or concerns, complaints or desires. Anything! We are open to it all and we are constantly striving to improve our farm and one of the best ways to find out how is by listening to our members! You can e-mail us at csainfo@driftlessorganics.com or call the office at 608.624.3735.

STEP 1: Turn your box upside down. Grip flap with fingers and squeeze together allowing flap to fold along its maufactured fold line. Here’s the key: SQUEEZE the flap together, don’t PULL. Squeeze=yes. Pull=no. This is where the majority of the tears occur and when the box tears here, it is useless to us as it no longer is strong enough to hold your veggies.

STEP 2: Flip box and repeat step 1.

REUSING THOSE WAX BOXES As you see, we deliver your veggies in wax boxes. We like to reuse the boxes as many times as we can for obvious reasons like recycling and keeping our expenses down. It is up to you to return your box without ripping it and this can be tricky as they are a bit difficult to break down for the novice wax box-breaker-downer. Here’s a few helpful tips:

STEP 3: After both side flaps have been released, the two larger flaps should easily bend upwards until all four flaps are standing upright.

STEP 4: At this point, box should be loose and able to flat-ten easily. Like many things in life, don’t force it. Gently break down box and flatten. Now you can stick it in the empty (larger) wax box provided at your site for empties.

Thank you for helping us reuse these boxes... every little bit helps keep costs down.