Week 1: April 11 - April 14
Reminder: Pickup is Thursday 3pm - Sunday 8pm
at 13197 10th Street S. Afton, MN
Welcome to the 10th Street Farm & Market 2024 spring CSA! We are proud to grow, harvest, clean, and pack delicious local veggies for you this spring.
Especially in this weather, spring feels like a time of growth and new life. Even without a real Minnesota winter, later sunsets and warmer days feel like an emergence into the outdoor months. An early spring on the farm has us jumping at the opportunity to plant - yesterday we filled our first outside field with salad greens, arugula, and kohlrabi that are headed toward your CSA bag in the coming weeks.
Persistent warmer weather doesn’t mean an easier spring across the board, though. Many of the crops we count on for these first few weeks of Spring (mustard, mizuna, kale, and even lettuce) felt the warmth in February and decided to send up flowers and go to seed, leaving us with a few gaps to fill in our plans. The temperature rollercoaster is as confusing for plants as it is for us, it turns out. But new plants are growing in their place and we’ll have plenty to offer this season.
We often say that our favorite vegetable is whatever is ready for its first harvest. In the spring we love fresh greens, then radishes, then salad turnips and kohlrabi. Eventually peas and carrots take top billing, before we head into summer and tomatoes and cucumbers steal the show. Spring is the best season for observing (and eating) these rolling ripenings. Our first weeks will be heavy on greens and microgreens, with radishes quickly joining the ranks and lots more to follow. We hope you enjoy eating with the season with us over the next 9 weeks, and look forward to seeing you on the farm!
If this is your first 10th Street Farm CSA, the pickup process is simple. Show up anytime between Thursday 3pm and Sunday 8pm and head into the market barn and into the big silver walk-in cooler. Find your name on the rack and grab the bag BELOW your name. That’s it! When available, extra veggies, baked goods, kitchen goods, honey, and flowers can be purchased a la carte in the market. And next week be sure to bring your purple bag back and leave it under the front table in the market so we can reuse it!
Thank you for your support of the farm and local, well-grown food. CSA members help this farm run sustainably year after year, and we truly can’t thank you enough. See you soon!
In Your Bag This Week
Flavor Mix microgreens: Mild and tasty, these make an easy salad on their own or can add some color to any other salad. Try them on eggs or sandwiches – or anything, really! Store in a bag in your fridge.
Persephone Mix salad: Our winter salad blend of , you can eat with just olive oil and salt or dress it up with any toppings you want. Store in a bag in your fridge.
Radish Shoots: These beautiful purple shoots have a spicy taste and add a pop of color. Store in a bag in your fridge.
Spinach: Spinach gets sweeter the more it freezes and thaws as the plant produces sugars to use as an anti-freeze to keep the plant alive. That means the best spinach you can eat is grown in cold place! Use as a salad base, sautéed as a side dish or bake into a casserole. Store in a bag in your fridge.
Pea Shoots: Sweet and crisp, these make a great addition to sandwiches, wraps, salads or can be lightly sautéed as a side dish. Store in a cool, dry place.
Micro Arugula: Flavorful micros to add some zest to your meals. Add them to soups, sandwiches, pizzas, or tacos. Store in your fridge.
Kale (Full Only): Strip the leaves from the stem and eat raw or cooked. Store in a bag in your fridge.
Nasturtiums (Full Only): Sweet and crisp, these make a great addition to sandwiches, wraps, salads or can be lightly sautéed as a side dish. Store in a cool, dry place.
What should I make with what’s in the bag?
If you're looking for some eating inspiration, we’ve been loving pea shoot salads recently, like this pea shoot salad with red onion and manchego cheese. Or maybe try a riff on this pea shoot and arugula salad with arugula micros and radish shoots? Arugula microgreens and spinach also make a great pesto - and full share members could add nasturtiums in for a little extra zip. Feel free to omit the dairy if that’s how you roll. Our persephone mix - which includes some heartier winter greens - is full of flavor, and makes a great salad even just lightly dressed. And a spinach salad with pears and pecans sounds like the perfect springtime lunch to us.
Have a recipe you’ve been loving recently? Drop us a line and we’ll include it in an upcoming newsletter!
Your farmers,
Ashley, Chris, Hallie, and the 10th St Farm crew
We wash everything in your bag but we wash them in bulk so some things may need an extra rinse at home. Please bring your bag back next week so we can re-use them! Thanks!