Gourmet Lettuce Mix
Leeks
Turnip
Golden Beets with Greens
Chives
and your choice of another green.

Here are some recipe suggestions:
Turnip Sausage Stew Recipe
SHAVED GOLDEN BEET, CARROT AND RADISH SALAD RECIPE

This weeks offerings:
Romaine Lettuce
Tatsoi
Baby Swiss Chard
Green leafy lettuce
Bok Choy
Oranges
Recipe Suggestions: Crispy Flounder with Bok Choy and Tatsoi
Grilled Bok Choy

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

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

Nature Hills Farm will be offering a CSA this summer with limited shares available and will begin enrollment soon! We are so excited to offer this addition to our current farm offerings. So, what is a CSA you ask? Well, let me explain, this is an old concept, that is fairly new to our area.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  Community supported agriculture is a new idea in farming that originated in the 1960s in Switzerland where consumers who were interested in safe, local food and farmers seeking stable markets for their crops joined together in a partnership.  A CSA is a group of individuals who pledge support to a farm or operation and in return, they receive locally produced products that are seasonally appropriate as well as the satisfaction of participating directly in supporting their local farms and ranches.  The CSA model insures that growers receive better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing.  All CSAs have at their center a shared commitment to building a more local and equitable agricultural system, one that allows growers to focus on land stewardship and still maintain productive and profitable small farms.  Most CSAs offer a diversity of vegetables, fruits, and herbs in season; some provide a full array of farm produce, eggs, meat, cheese and baked goods. 

What if, instead of getting a news magazine every week, you got a big box of produce from a farmer down the road, a box of fruits and vegetables picked that very morning, bursting with flavor and nutrition? That's what you get when you subscribe to a CSA.

Community-Supported or Community-Shared Agriculture (CSA) is also known as "subscription farming." You buy a subscription from a local farmer just like you buy a subscription to Time or Newsweek. But instead of receiving a magazine each week, you receive a "share" of fresh, locally grown or raised fruit and/or vegetables. Some farmers also offer CSA subscriptions for farm-fresh eggs, and/or meats.

While new in name, Community Supported Agriculture hearkens back to an earlier time-a time when people knew where their food came from, ate in harmony with the seasons, and enjoyed a delicious, healthy diet of pure, fresh foods.

"In season" is what CSAs are all about. The grocery store knows no seasons. It is disconnected from Nature and so are the people who must shop there. Sure, you can buy tomatoes in January-but who wants to eat cardboard tomatoes? That sorry tomato was picked green 2000 miles away and weeks ago, then blasted with ethylene gas to make it turn red just before it landed in the produce section of your store. What we have gained in convenience, we have lost in flavor, freshness, nutritional value, and human connection-to each other and to the land.

When you subscribe to a CSA, however, you remake all those connections. Of course, you may not get tomatoes in May. In May, your vegetable CSA share will be full of luscious lettuce, spinach, and other spring delights. When August comes, then you will experience an explosion of true tomato flavor with your first bite of a juicy, just-picked, sun-ripened tomato- proving once again that some things are worth waiting for!
CSA subscribers don't so much "buy" food from particular farms as become "members" of those farms. CSAs provide more than just food, they offer ways for eaters to become involved in the ecological and human community that supports the farm. Join one today!