May 28, 2018

Box Contents:

1 bu. Asparagus

1 bu. Fennel

¾ lb. English Shelling Peas

¾ lb. Little Gem Lettuce

1 bu. Italian Parsley

1 bu. Red Beets

1 bu. Dino Kale

Box Notes: This will be the last week for asparagus. A few cases are still available for purchase in the web store if you haven’t had enough to satisfy your local asparagus craving for the year. The English shelling peas are best taken out of the pod as the pods are too fibrous to eat. They are great eaten raw in a salad, straight out of the bowl or slightly cooked (steamed or heated with pasta). Add a bit of chopped parsley to the pasta and peas and you have a tasty spring meal. This week’s beets are the first harvest from our spring planting of beets. Both the roots and the tops are edible and delicious. Steam or braised the beet greens like you’d cook spinach. This is likely the last of fennel for some time. The bulbs have begun to flower do to the heat this past weekend. The flavor of the fennel bulb is stronger when nearing the flowering stage of its life cycle and so delicious, though flowering fennel can use some added cooking time to soften it. I love grilling the elongated bulbs on low heat for a good 25 minuets and finishing with a drizzle of balsamic reduction.

Field Notes: The greenhouses are full of melon starts and the last seeding of tomato plants. We will soon begin to seed the fall crops of kale, chard, fennel, broccoli and cauliflower in trays in the greenhouse. The plastic that covers the greenhouse during the colder winter months will be replaced with shade cloth, creating a cooler microclimate for the fall crop seedlings. Temperatures are nearing 100 degrees here today. See the recipes below for our favorite salads of the season.

Web Store Highlights:

Case quantity Vegetables available: Last call for Asparagus! Little Gem lettuce, loose carrots and more. Get them while you can!

Pastured meats – chicken and pork – are also available via the web store. Riverdog Farm’s specialties include our pork sausage (many flavors), whole Poulet Rouge chickens, and bacon cured and smoked by Roundman’s Smokehouse in Ft. Bragg. Follow this link to our online store to see all of the farm direct products you can add to your csa delivery this week: https://csa.farmigo.com/store/riverdogfarmcsa

Upcoming Valley Events:

Cache Creek Lavender Festival:

JUNE 9 - 10, 2018 -3430 MADRONE STREET, RUMSEY, CA 95679

weekend of family fun in the fields! Harvest your own lavender, taste wines from Capay Vineyard, enjoy lavender ice cream & lemonade, listen to live music. Free admission.