Members should get 2 regular emails from LFFC:  1) Weekly newsletter on the weekend, with predicted contents, farm news, special orders, whatever. 2) Day of reminder and contents. If you’re not getting this, contact them: csa@lancasterfarmfresh.com

I’m assessing my current vegetable bounty plus the predicted contents for next week. Nothing jumps out as pairs. Speaking of pairs:

I didn’t really have plans for Week 4’s beets and potatoes and then I realized beet and potato salad! There are tons of recipes online for beet and potato salad. It seems the entire world has versions. The premise is simple: cooled cooked potatoes and beets, tossed together with a creamy sauce of olive oil, mustard, and yogurt or mayo or sour cream, sprinkled with herbs like chives or scallions or dill (or fennel fronds and green garlic maybe!). Some easy protein adds: chickpeas, crumbled feta, or shredded chicken.

Both the most delicious and least messy way to cook beets in my experience: Slice off the ends of the beets and roast while tightly covered. Cool, then you can sort of just rub off the skin with your hands. They basically steam themselves out of their own skins! Kitchn wraps them individually in foil, but I’ve had success in a covered pan.

The newsletter predicts these for my May 23 Medium Share:

• Escarole
• Garlic Scapes
• Green Mustard
• Hakurei turnips
• Italian Parsley
• Red leaf lettuce
• Red radishes 
• Strawberries

Most of the box screams salad to me, but I’m really looking forward to the other half. Strawberries are a rare and lovely treat. If you want more fruit, there is a separate fruit share you can buy. I love garlic scapes and I’ve never seen them in a grocery store. In my experience, the garlic scape season is fleeting and delicious. They are vaguely like delicious curly green beans. Tiny Japanese Hakurei turnips are much better than those large purple and white turnips. They are the turnip equivalent to the little potatoes like I got last week.

Hakurei : Turnip :: Little potato : Starchy russet potato 

I like to cook them on the stove top with a glaze, either a simple butter+sugar or butter+maple syrup+miso. Search for “glazed Hakurei turnip recipes.” A great breakfast is glazed turnips on top of scrambled eggs on top of toast.

I’m off to prep the collards and set them on the stovetop for dinner. I like collards cooked Southern style, simmered in a delicious, flavorful “pot liquor.” I cut out the stems and cook down the leaves only. Fear not, the stems don’t go to waste. They go in the stock bag, which lives in the freezer collecting delicious, nutritious bits and pieces of vegetable, until I turn it all into a large batch of stock.