Also known as Tokyo or Japanese turnips, Hakurei turnips are white and tender, sweet and slightly spicy. This is one of the first spring crops we harvest that isn’t lettuce, kale, or other greens. We like to call Hakurei “the white knight of spring,” here to brighten up our meals after a long, dark winter.
Cooking Tips
You don’t need to peel them. You can eat BOTH the greens and roots raw in salads or sandwiches, or saute them quickly with a miso glaze and anything else you like. Try the turnips sliced and served with dip, or lightly pickled with rice vinegar and a touch of salt and sugar.
Storage Tips
Wrap loosely in a plastic bag and refrigerate for up to a week. Trim greens and store in a separate bag for up to 3 days. Roots can last a good bit longer refrigerated.
The Basics
We grow a huge variety of tomatoes, over 100 types! From juicy heirlooms to red slicers to a rainbow of cherry tomatoes, you’ll be amazed at the variety of hues and flavors on display at our farm stands.
Our heirloom types vary widely in shape, size, and color. Sample varieties include small Green Zebras, enormous Watermelon Beefsteak or Paul Robesons, and Pink Beauties.
We also grow several varieties of paste tomatoes, which make excellent sauces and preserves. Try making your own sauces for pasta, barbecues, enchiladas, and more.
Cherry tomatoes are available for members to pick their own at our farm locations. Eat them plain, chopped in salsa, or roasted in the oven.
Our red slicing tomatoes are amazing on sandwiches and chopped in salads. Also a great variety for salsa.
The Basics
In the tomato family, tomatillos are the bright green cousins. They come in a papery husk that they fill and often split open when ripe and ready to use. If you pick your own, wait to pick until the husk is tight around the fruit and splitting at the bottom.
Cooking Tips
These tangy fruits are perfect salsa ingredients, and are the primary ingredient in salsa verde with jalapenos. Roasting tomatillos brings out their sweetness and adds a great depth of flavor.
Tomatillos are available for members to pick their own at our farm locations.
The Basics
Thyme is a resilient herb that retains its flavor well even after drying or freezing. It is one of the traditional herbs de Provence, an herb blend from the south of France (along with marjoram, oregano, sage, savory, and rosemary).
Cooking Tips
Some favorite pairings for thyme are mushrooms, onions, cheeses, citrus, winter squash, and tomatoes.
Its warm aromatic flavor makes a wonderful tea just by itself as well, just boil some sprigs, either fresh or dried, in water for a few minutes and then sip away. Sweeten with honey if you like.
Most culinary herbs also have medicinal value, and thyme is no exception. It has been used for boosting the immune system, as a digestive aid and more.
The Basics
The local fruit of June… This delicious red berry marks the beginning of summer and our CSA for us at the farm. We typically grow over 15 varieties, each with their own flavor. A few are special early types that we care for using row covers, plasticulture, and planting techniques, and we hope these yield some time in May. Then we get into the June-bearing varieties that ripen in cascades. We try to select varieties that will cover the longest season with the best flavors.
Cooking Tips
The first berries of the season usually get eaten straight up, but there are many wonderful things you can make and cook with them too. Dip them in melted chocolate. Make jam. Try the recipe in the Pomona’s Pectin box for making jam with honey. Slice onto salad with a balsamic dressing. Don’t forget strawberry shortcake with fresh whupped cream!
The Basics
We grow a majority of the Beauregard variety of sweet potatoes with their delicious orange flesh, a white type called O’Henry, and a purple-skinned variety called Japanese White. Packed with vitamin A, vitamin C and manganese, sweet potatoes are also a good source of B6 and potassium, among other nutrients.
Cooking Tips
Sweet potatoes come in all sizes, from almost a loaf of bread to skinny little potato fingers. The skinny ones bake quickly, or chop up larger ones into little circles for stir frys or homefries. No need to peel any of them, just wash and chop – the delicate skins are delicious. Sweet potato homefries are a great alternative to greasy French fries. Slice the potato into strips (like fries), then mix with oil, salt and pepper. Broil until crispy.
Bake sweet potatoes at 375-400 degrees F for 30 min to an hour. When they give in easily to the tines of a fork, they’re ready. You can also slice them thin and saute for a quicker cooking time. Nice with onions and soy sauce.
The Basics
Spinach is one of the healthiest greens out there. Super nutrient-dense, spinach can be eaten raw in salads or cooked. Spinach is related to Swiss chard, beets, and the grain quinoa.
Cooking Tips
Try spinach in a simple salad, or lightly braised or sauteed with garlic as a side or part of a main dish.
For picky eaters, spinach can easily be incorporated into a wide variety of dishes: chop it finely and add to pasta sauce, meatloaf or meatballs, lentils, beans, or quesadillas or burritos.
You can also try a long, slow cook, and add butter and cream for a creamed spinach dish.
Spinach is an excellent green for making smoothies because of its mild flavor and tender leaves.
Storage Tips
Wrap loosely in a plastic bag in the fridge for 4-6 days. Discard any leaves that are yellowed or soft.
The Basics
We grow two varieties of shallots, a red and a yellow type. We grow them mostly for the winter, as they store very well. Prized by chefs, shallots have a delicate onion-y flavor with a touch of garlic in it.
Cooking Tips
You can use them anywhere you would onions. They’re nice in warm dressings and sauces. They’re also great raw sliced on sandwiches.
A recipe for classic French vinaigrette often includes red wine or sherry vinegar, Dijon mustard, fresh herbs, and diced shallot.
Try slicing them thinly and frying until very crisp. Blot them on a paper towel, and then store in a glass jar. This makes an excellent topping for Asian dishes, baked potatoes, breadcrumb toppings, and dressings.
Storage Tips
Store in a cool, dark place with good ventilation. They will stay good for up to a month, but then they may begin sprouting and will taste bitter.
The Basics
Scallions are in the Allium family with garlic, onions, shallots, and chives. They are also known as spring onions or green onions.
Cooking Tips
Chop off the root end and use the entire stalk for cooking. Save the roots and place them in a glass of water to re-grow the stalk.
They are great added raw to salads, thrown into sautes just at the end, or in miso soup.
Scallions are even a delicious little salad by themselves, sliced thinly length-wise and soaked in cold water until they begin to curl. Toss with Korean red pepper flakes, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and sesame oil.
Roast whole in the oven with olive oil, and green beans, and perhaps a little balsamic vinegar.