How we wash the produce in your CSA boxes

Thanks to Cora, who sent three good-looking recipes to us this week! Here they are in case you’d like to try them:

• Quinoa salad with roasted sweet potatoes and kale (http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/quinoa-salad-with-roasted-sweet-potatoes-kale-dried-cranberries-red-onion)
• Sausage kale strata (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/01/sausage-kale-strata)
• Roasted root vegetable candy (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/09/roasted-root-vegetable-candy)

The moisture has been nice, but we are still behind with seeding and planting, and a 3 to 5 day window of sunshine would help bring us up to speed. We’ve been weeding inside the tunnels and will do a lot of weeding outside when it dries up. We planted sweet and hot peppers last week, along with the outside tomatoes, and we’ll soon be staking them. The eggplants are also planted. The potatoes planted April 29 and 30 are popping up, so we can see where they are and till between them.

Sometimes people ask whether we wash the vegetables in their box. We use the word “rinse.” The word “wash” leads to questions about what is used in the washing! We rinse with water from our rural water system, Rock Valley Rural Water.

Most greens are rinsed in a large tub, spun, and then packaged for you. If we take a package of these greens to the house we do not rinse it again. Head lettuce is often not rinsed but simply packed in the field, especially out of the high tunnels which are less dusty than the outside gardens. When we take them into our house, we rinse and spin the heads before eating them. Root crops like turnips, radishes, and hopefully soon carrots and beets, are sprayed with water before being packaged for you. We try to get off all the dirt, but sometimes it is sticky and you will find a little sandy black dirt. When in doubt, rinse with cold water once more!

Feel free to share recipes for your favorite greens and other seasonal produce; we’ll try to include several recipes in each newsletter.

–John