Hello Fellow Locavores,
Welcome to the Week 53 Newsletter – Easter Immune Booster CSA Share. We have a splendid mix of fresh produce and colorful prepared foods for you this week. This newsletter is a guide to your local food networks, and delves into detail about the food featured in this week’s share; where it came from, who grew it, and who prepared it. Braided with light humor, meal prep tips and a passenger eye view of how this box of wholesome food comes together, we will take a little journey down the local culinary road to a healthier you and a healthier planet. Hop on in! The Immune Boost is about to depart…
First stop – Ypsilanti – for some fresh cut heads of organically grown, hydroponic Lettuce from Sell Farms and Greenhouses. ‘Deep Local’ is what I call this fine, multicolored lettuce, because it is grown about 10 miles from the Food Hub where you pick up your share. Featured for many weeks in our Immune Booster CSA, this leafy green is always a sure fire winner. So get your spring salad on with this beautiful lettuce that is light and crisp, hydrating, and refreshing. One bag should satisfy your salad cravings for a week or two. Bon Appetit!
Well, it is Spring Break, so why don’t we head down south….. to Florida anyone??? Haha, not quite, because we like to keep the food in this share as LOCAL as possible. So we will have to settle for Ohio, a much shorter trip south to Wayward Seed Farm. This organic, collective farm has partnerships with other smaller, organic farmers in their immediate area. On this particular mission we are collecting a serious bounty of organic Spinach, Green Cabbage, Beets, Sweet Potatoes, Red Potatoes, and Gold Potatoes. A plethora of diverse produce, so let’s dig right into what each fresh veggie has to offer…. Spinach for fresh tossed salads or boiled down for a wilted salad, cabbage and the not-yet-mentioned carrots would be ideal for an Easter slaw, beets for dying Easter eggs (and kids’ fingers, ha!), or the beets roasted, skinned, sliced, and brined for a sweet, quick pickle and the perfect topping for the salads mentioned above. Sweet potatoes for a sweet potato Easter pie, oh my! And finally the red and gold potatoes for that Easter potato salad that will help you use up all those hard boiled Easter eggs, hint hint. Now that we dropped enough ideas to make an Easter brunch feast, we best get back on the road before the wheels on the truck pop with this heavy load of awesomeness. Time to head back up to the Food Hub and unload.
With the produce unloaded and stored in the Food Hub coolers, we head on out to Tantre Farm for some Purple Carrots. What’s up Doc? These purple storage carrots have retained their sweet taste and crisp texture remarkably well this winter, and what’s Easter without purple carrots? Well, maybe not the traditional Bugs Bunny snack, so we’ll head ‘Up North’ to Second Spring Farm for some brilliant, organic Orange Carrots too. Both carrot varieties shredded up with the green cabbage for that Easter Slaw will look epic on your lunch or dinner table. If you’re not into the slaw, then steam, roast, grill, juice or dip these carrots in your favorite condiments that kids and adults alike are sure to enjoy.
On our way back down south, we stop by Almar Orchards and Cidery to say hello, quench our thirst with a fresh cider off their in-house taps, a fresh donut off the fryer or three for the road and load up the truck with bushels of apples for the share. This week we have organic Fuji and Northern Spy Apples. These apples have been stored in just above freezing temperatures beginning late last summer when they were picked off the trees on their 500 acre farm. This farm is just to the west of Flint and has a fun family-friendly cider mill open year round. So take a little drive on one of these cooler spring days or wait until the apple blossoms are in full bloom, which would definitely be worth a visit.
Heading farther south, we pass by Ann Arbor just a tad to collect a few more bushels of Fuji Apples from Kapnick Orchards. Why the mix of the same type of apple from another farm? We like to share the love and spread the Immune Booster partnership to as many great local farms as we can handle. These Fuji apples will be super crisp and have a slightly different taste than the Fuji apples from Almar. Does it matter? Nope, not in the slightest. Apples of the same species grown in different groves far away from each other can have their own distinct taste and texture based on many different variables such as water, pollinators and overall soil health. So quiz your taste buds and see which one appeals the most.
Rounding out the produce in this week’s share we pull up literally right around the corner from the Food Hub to Garden Works Organic Farm for some really deep local, organic Pea Shoots OR Daikon Radish Microgreens. It’s a toss up as to which one you will get in your share, but rest assured these soil-grown microgreens are packed with nutrition and some serious immune boosting properties. Both varieties are great for salads on their own, salad topping, tacos, burritos or right out of the container like my daughters like to eat them. So eat them up and eat them up quick for optimal health benefits. They are best consumed within the first few days of picking up your share.
Waking up early to get the Easter festivities going? We have the perfect on-the-go “Health is Wealth” Cacao Nib Granola from Harvest Kitchen that is vegetarian and gluten-free. This healthy granola will get your energy levels up for the day’s activities. Made from crushed cocoa beans, cacao nibs are a highly nutritious chocolate product that are exceptionally rich in antioxidants, reducing oxidative stress and inflammation. They have the bitter, complex flavor of unsweetened dark chocolate with a firm but chewy texture, and pair well with berries for extra sweetness. This particular mix is composed of organic rolled oats, cocoa nibs, dried mulberries, sesame seeds, turmeric, black pepper and local honey. Serve right out of the container or in a bowl with your preferred milk. Yum!
Moving right along, we have one dozen of Local Free-Range Eggs from Webbed Foot Pines for all your fun and festive Easter egg needs. Get your food dyes ready with that familiar vinegary smell, stickers, wax crayons, glitter, you name it… and get the artist in you (and your family) all fired up. Keep your traditions going and make the best decorated eggs around. After the big hunt, continue the fun and traditions with homemade potato salad, deviled eggs, egg salad sandwiches… It’s egg-a-palooza time and a great way to use up this dozen.
misskimannarbor.com(opens in a new tab)
Now that we have mentioned all the salads one could ever want, let’s switch things up to a main meal in the form of Tempeh OR Chicken Sliders with all the fixings from Miss Kim. Both slider options will come in a pack of two. The vegan Tempeh Sliders are composed of The Brinery Tempeh, soy sauce, rice, water, garlic, apple juice, scallions, cucumbers, jalapenos, carrots, rice vinegar, sugar, onion, sesame oil and sesame seeds. The Chicken Sliders are composed of chicken, garlic, jalapenos, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, apples, anchovy fish sauce (no shellfish), scallions, cucumbers and carrot. Both versions of the sliders will be served with Zingerman’s Bakehouse Farm Rolls that are vegan and are guaranteed to be delicious. I am sooo excited to feature these slider gems in the share! Ji Hye, the head chef and owner of Miss Kim is such a pleasure to work with and her innovative food is the real deal… so if you don’t know, now ya know!
Speaking of innovation, let’s move on to Ginger Deli, who have prepared hand-rolled rice noodles from scratch for this share. Offering a creative and flavorful Tofu Salad with Hand-Rolled Noodles that is vegan and gluten-free. It will take less than a minute in the microwave and then another few seconds to drizzle it with the sweet and tangy sauce before you’re volleying that fork from container to mouth with pure delight. That’s what I’m talking about! This salad is composed of fresh handmade rice noodles, cucumber, lettuce, carrot, and a house made tofu patty that has tofu, mixed herbs, spices, onion, garlic and black pepper. Garnished with mint and fried shallot for that extra pop and a side container of sweet and tangy sauce to pull it all together. I had one of these tasty salads for dinner tonight and the tofu tastes just like turkey. Tofurkey is the real deal, haha. Delicious and nutritious!
Since it’s Easter and the bunny is visiting, we can’t have too many carrots. JKC Spicy Carrots from The Brinery will give that bunny a little extra pep in his step! I get asked frequently when these amazing fermented spicy carrots will be in the share again, so now is the time, folks! These well-loved Spicy Carrots are composed of carrots, green jalapeno, garlic, filtered water and sea salt. Mildly spicy with an occasional heat wave, they are great served with pretty much any savory meal across the board or straight out of the jar with a fork. The wide mouth jars are so convenient for the straight out the jar method. Yes, please!
Rounding out this week’s prepared food, we come to the last-but-not-least stop on this Immune Booster CSA ride with a final nod to Easter in the form of Hot Cross Buns from Zingerman’s Bakehouse. A spiced sweet bun usually made with fruit and marked with a cross on the top, Hot Cross Buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday in many countries across the globe, including the U.K., Ireland, Australia, India, South Africa and parts of the Americas. These Hot Cross Buns contain organic wheat flour, milk, honey, eggs, candied citrus peel (lemon, orange, citron), raisins, butter, water, yeast, and sea salt. Best served sliced, lightly toasted and buttered, this four-pack is the perfect ending to our Easter-themed share and we are elated to feature Zingerman’s Bakehouse once again with this delicious seasonal treat.
So there you have it! The circle is complete and this week’s Immune Booster tour of the local food scene has rolled to a stop. This week’s share is the result of many collaborations and elbow bumps (COVID high fives!) with our beloved partners. It brings me great joy and honor to represent all of these farms, restaurants, bakers and artisans, and I hope that you will venture out to the businesses outside of the share to see what other great local food they have to offer. I wish you nothing but the best this Easter Sunday. Enjoy your food and time together with family and loved ones. Thank you for your continued support and I will see you all on Saturday at the Washtenaw Food Hub for the folks who pick up in Ann Arbor. For the folks picking up at Agricole in Chelsea, Deb will be there with her usual smile and engaging conversation. When Deb and I get together we have to set time limits, lol. We both like to talk and we are just passionate about what we do!
Here’s a link to Tantre’s treasure trove of recipes, where you can get some additional ideas for using this week’s share: http://tantrerecipes.blogspot.com
Don’t forget to keep an eye out for our next email on April 4 regarding Tantre Farm’s Immune Booster CSA Share, Week 54 for pick up on April 11.
All the best,
Ryan Poe and the talented Tantre Crew
**We look forward to hearing your weekly feedback on the shares and welcome any suggestions on how to improve. Please understand that we try to give you an accurate listing of the produce in your box each week; however, since this menu is published before we pack the boxes on Fridays, we may sometimes have to substitute some vegetables for others. Mostly we are able to update you of changes in our Friday newsletter, but sometimes our decisions are made after the newsletter is published. Please let us know whenever you think you are missing anything, and we will try to find some way to make amends. Thank you for your patience and understanding, as we try to keep things as smooth as possible. Please contact Ryan and Zoe with questions or comments at immuneboosterbytantre@gmail.com.
Back to top