The first taste of summer is finally upon us, and our first two deliveries from Golden Earthworm Farm have been wonderful. CSA Weeks 1 and 2 gave us rhubarb, turnips, so much lettuce and other delicious, unparalleled produce.  We took those French breakfast radishes above, sliced them and put them on a bed of lettuce with mustard vinaigrette and flaked tuna. Fantastic.

Week 1’s haul, dimly lit on our kitchen island:

The rhubarb was given a special treatment: Deb’s Big Crumb Rhubarb Coffee Cake, which is the perfect way to begin a Sunday morning (or afternoon, if you’ve decided to have a lot of beer the night before.) Reid brought three slices to work intending to share, but ended up eating all of them by himself. I call that a win in my book.

Week 2 (Couldn’t get great pictures):

Those are garlic scapes, some beautiful and burgundy beets and swiss chard. The whole shebang also included red Boston lettuce, arugula, baby spinach and spring mix. Never heard of garlic scapes? Neither had we until last summer; it’s the top of the garlic plant that’s something you can only experience in late spring and early summer. It has a milder flavor than regular garlic, and is just as delicious. We usually saute them as you would garlic, or use them in pesto.

The biggest question that we asked ourselves last summer was “what are we going to do with it all?” Between two people, we were up to our eyeballs in leafy vegetables, so our upstairs neighbors are splitting the box each week with us. The rest is going to be obviously tried out in new recipes, and I hope to can and preserve some of the later vegetables for the first time.