(If you’re new to my blog, or you just don’t know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. A farm share. The one I belong to has weekly pick ups at a synagogue and is affiliated with Hazon. Our farm is Everdale Farm in Hillsburg Ontario but optional add-on egg shares come from Stoddart Family Farm and optional grains from CIPM. I’m on the CSA planning committee and do the weekly newsletter.)

The 20 week season is over. I made it to 18 pick ups. The good news is that we’re extending into a mini-season with bi-weekly pickups. That gives me two more months. I might join another one in the winter. I hear that Kawartha Ecological Growers does year-round and they deliver to Appletree Market and U of T. And hey, I’ve got my year-round farmers’ market (Wychwood Barns), at which my farm has a table.

The farm’s “veggie of the week” is mustard greens, which isn’t exactly one vegetable but a combination of varieties of leafy greens in the mustard family. In this case it’s mizuna, Red Rain, Green Wave, and Red Giant. Here’s what our farmer said about the mustard greens:

This is the first year I’ve grown them, and I am totally impressed. They all have a mild flavour (not too spicy) and can be eaten raw or cooked … except Green Wave, which is quite hot until you cook it slightly, then it mellows. They’re beautiful and they’re perfect greens for this time of year. Soon the hard frosts will wipe them out.

The only information I could find about Green Wave were seed sales and blog posts about CSAs. Since I was on newsletter duty this week and this gives me an excuse to exercise and share my nutritional nerdiness, I learned that mustard greens are detoxifying, can help prevent cancer, they’re an excellent source of antioxidants, they have anti-inflammatory benefits and support the cardiovascular system.

Mustard greens are an excellent source of many vitamins including vitamin K, vitamin A (beta-carotene), vitamin C, folate, and vitamin E. They are also an excellent source of manganese and calcium as well as dietary fiber. They are also a very good source of potassium, vitamin B6, protein, copper, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B2, and magnesium. Mustard greens are a good source of vitamin B1 and vitamin B3 (niacin).

Serving Ideas

• Young mustard greens make great additions to salads.
• Serve healthy sautéed mustard greens with walnuts.
• Adding chopped mustard greens to a pasta salad gives it a little kick.

I included this recipe for sauteed mustard greens from Simply Recipes but was also interested in this recipe for Balsamic-Glazed Chickpeas and Mustard Greens.

Here’s what else I chose this week after missing last week:

• Spinach
• Kale
• Spaghetti squash (I now have 4 kinds of squash, all acquired separately, though I could have also gotten acorn squash and others today.)
• garlic
• Sunflower greens
• cilantro

I need regular salad greens. If the farmers’ market can’t provide, it’ll be Earthbound Farms, my off-season choice.

Here’s my squash collection, by the window in my living room.

Now to decide whether or not I want to stay with the 8-point small share or upgrade to a 12-point medium share if I’m doing half the pickups in the fall than in the summer…

Eat well, be well.

Image by Chris Campbell via Flickr

Registration is open for Everdale’s 2011 season, starting June 14 and running until October 25!

To register online, Click Here
To print off and mail in your registration form, Click Here

About Everdale’s Harvest Share Program:

Everdale’s harvest share program is based on the Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) model that is becoming popular all around the world.  Here’s how CSA farms generally work: the CSA farm receives a set fee from you prior to the start of the growing season. In return, you receive produce from the farm every week during the harvest season. In southern Ontario, the harvest season is about 20 weeks long (June-October).

Everdale’s version of the CSA model is called the “Harvest Share Program”. Everdale’s Harvest Shareholders receive fresh fruits and vegetables grown on our certified organic farm and on other local farms.

Pickup Dates and Locations

Everdale’s Harvest Share program begins in mid-June and runs until the end of October. They have two membership options, depending on which pickup location is closest to you:

• in the Annex neighbourhood in Toronto (187 Brunswick Ave.), on Tuesday afternoons
• at the farm in Hillsburgh, Erin township, on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings

Member Benefits

• 20 weeks of fresh, local, organic food
• 20-30 seasonal fruits and vegetables to choose from each week
• 4 share sizes to suit your needs
• take-what-you-need fresh herbs
• farm events and activities
• cut flowers and u-pick peas and beans (farm pickup location only)
• a choice of how many weeks you would like to pick up your share!

Working Share Option

Everdale also offers the option of a Working Share, which means that you can get your Harvest Share in exchange for working on the farm or at one of our pickup locations.  For more information about the Working Share, Click Here

The number of Harvest Shares available in 2011 is limited, so sign up now!

For full details about the 2011 Harvest Share Program, Click Here (PDF).

Also see my blog post It’s not too early to consider your 2011 CSA share from last month.

Other related articles

• Green Things Growing: What Is A CSA Anyway? (meghantelpnerblog.com)