This weeks basket
Gourmet Lettuce
Sorrel
Endive
Butter crunch Lettuce
Radish
Cilantro
Grapefruit 
your choice: spinach, pak choi, arugula or stir-fry mix

Recipe suggestions: 
Tart green salad with Avocado dressing_
Arugula, grapefruit and toasted coconut salad
Cinnamon Sugar Radishes

INGREDIENTS

• 10-15 radishes
• 1 tbs. olive oil
• ½ tbs. honey
• 1-2 tbs. cinnamon sugar mixture

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Slice the radishes approximately ¼ inch thick and put them in a microwave safe bowl. When you are done slicing, microwave for about 30 seconds to soften them up. Drain any liquid, and add them to a larger bowl.
2. Add the olive oil, honey, and cinnamon sugar. Mix well to coat all of the radishes. Spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Make sure they are evenly spread out and not stacked on top of each other.
3. Cook for 15 minutes at 350, then remove the radishes and flip them over. Reduce oven temperature to 225 and bake for another 20 minutes. You will notice they will begin to shrink in size and crisp up, which is a good thing! Remove from the oven, plate and serve.

Recipe from Pinch of Yum_

Original Recipe from Whole Living

• For The Salad
  • 4 packed cups sorrel (4 oz)
  • 1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced (1 cup)
  • 1/2 cup lemon balm
  • 2 tablespoons freshly minced chives
  • Coarse salt and ground black pepper
  
  
• For The Dressing
  • 1/2 ripe avocado
  • 1 anchovy, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
  • Coarse salt and ground black pepper

Directions

1. Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.
   
   
2. Place dressing ingredients and 1/4 cup water in a blender and puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. (If thick, add water by the tablespoon.)
   
   
3. Drizzle salad with 1/3 cup dressing.
   
   

1 cup chopped garlic scapes
2 cups chopped sorrel
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan
juice of half a lemon
1/2 cup good olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor pulse first five ingredients, scraping down the sides as necessary. Slowly add in the olive oil until blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Can be frozen. I like to freeze my pesto in an ice cube tray, pop them out once frozen, and keep the individual portions in a freezer bag. This is a great way to make short lived spring produce last!

Originally written by Chocolate and Zucchini 

Garden sorrel (Rumex acetosa) is commonly cultivated in French vegetable patches, and the season is just beginning. It is a sturdy, easy-to-grow leafy plant that comes back year after year, and belongs to the same botanical family as rhubarb and buckwheat, which is always fun to know.

I think of it as being halfway between a green and an herb: its flavor is notably tangy and sour, and it can be eaten raw or gently cooked, but in both cases it is best served in combination with other ingredients, so its pungency won’t overwhelm.

Well used, it is a delight that can really lift a dish, especially in conjunction with a sweet or fatty element.

But the operative words here are “well used” and I thought I would turn to you via twitter to hear about your favorite uses of fresh sorrel, as I did last year for the 45 things to do with fresh sage list.

Many thanks to all who chimed in; here’s the list I compiled, for your use and enjoyment.

(Note: in French, sorrel is oseille and it’s a classic slang word for money, in use since the late nineteenth century. Woody Allen’s 1969 movie Take The Money And Run was released in France under the title “Prends l’oseille et tire-toi.”)



Sorrel pairings- Sorrel + fish (especially fatty fish, such as salmon — seek out a sustainable source — or mackerel)
- Sorrel + shellfish (especially scallops, same comment as for salmon)
- Sorrel + cream or butter
- Sorrel + bacon
- Sorrel + potatoes
- Sorrel + rice
- Sorrel + lentils
- Sorrel + celeriac
- Sorrel + leafy greens (spinach, Swiss chard, kale)
- Sorrel + eggs
- Sorrel + chicken or veal
- Sorrel + mustard
- Sorrel + goat cheese

Sorrel uses- Add to soups
- Make it into a sauce for fish
- Add to omelets and scrambled eggs
- Add to a stuffing for meat
- Shred sorrel and stuff it into fish
- Add to quiches
- Add to mashed potatoes
- Add to hummus
- Add to pasta
- Add to mixed-leaf and herb salads
- Add to chard and spinach anywhere you would use those
- Use as a filling for buckwheat crêpes
- Make it into a pesto, to use in pasta, on pizzas, or with grilled salmon

Recipe ideas- Salmon with sorrel, a legendary dish originally invented by the Troisgros brothers in Roanne in 1973
- Baked line-caught seabass with beurre blanc and sorrel
- Chop sorrell into a butter sauce to go with salmon fishcakes.
- Pair with salmon, mustard seeds and raspberries.
- Hot sorrel soup, with leeks, dill and sour cream
- Soup of fresh shelling beans and sorrel
- Green borscht
- Chilled sorrel soup with plain yogurt and lemon (a.k.a. schav in Yiddish)
- Lightly sauté in butter with shallots, deglaze with sherry, then mix all with goat cheese and use as an omeletfilling.
- Chicken and sorrel sandwich with fresh mayonnaise
- Toss into mixed-leaf salads, with a relatively sweet dressing, and optional goat cheese crumbled on top.
- Chopped sorrel with black beans or lentils for a cold salad
- Warm potato and salmon salad with sorrel vinaigrette
- A salad of white peaches and sorrel
- Charlotte potato salad with wilted sorrel, yogurt and some freshly grated horseradish and chives
- Rice with sorrel and lemon, served as a side to fish
- Chop with an onion, garlic and mushrooms. Sauté lightly in butter and stuff a chicken.
- Pan sear with butter, and pair with a thin piece of veal in a port reduction, with a very light sprinkling of sumac.
- Fried beans with sorrel, feta and sumac from the second Ottolenghi book, Plenty
- Add to spanakopita.
- Sauté briefly in olive oil and mix with almond butter and salt, to accompany mushrooms (crisp bacon optional).
- Sorrel spinach pesto with pumpkin seeds
- Sprinkle sorrel, chiffonaded or gently melted into frying butter, on fresh pasta. Grate a little lemon zest on top.
- Toss some penne with sorrel, red onion, mint and garlic.

Do you love carrots? Are you considering planting carrots this year in the garden? Or do you just purchase your carrots? Here are a few helpful bits of information to consider when purchasing seeds or carrots from the store or farmer's market. 

1-Whole carrots are better for you than the pre-cut or baby carrots you buy in the grocery store. If the carrot has its top still attached, it has an even better flavor.

2-Cooked carrots are better for you than raw carrots, cook them first then slice them and serve them with oil. The will contain more of their sweetness if you cook them whole. When you eat them with oil or fat, will give you 8 times more beta carotene. Beta carotene is a fat-soluble nutrient.

3-Purple or purple and orange carrots are the very best! What? You didn't even know that purple carrots existed, well they do! This is a picture from Johnny Seed Company, you can click on it to see what varieties of carrots they carry. Purple carrots have an increased amount of anthocyanin which is a powerful antioxidant.  

4-You can plant carrots in the summer and cover them with a straw or other mulch and dig them out all winter. You will find over wintered carrots are more sweet than a carrot grown in the summer heat. 

5-Carrots can be stored in a sealed plastic bag in a cool place for months. 

So plant a variety of carrots including red, yellow, white and purple carrots. Use your carrots cooked whole and served with oil or juice them for great antioxidant benefits. Happy carrot gardening. 

Resource: Eating on the Wild side by Jo Robinson