CSA Box #1 — Welcome to the 2026 Season!
After months of planning, seed starting, transplanting, weeding, watering, and watching the weather, we're thrilled to finally share the harvest with you. Every box represents not only the vegetables and flowers harvested this week, but also the countless hours spent building healthy soil, supporting pollinators, and caring for this little corner of the prairie.
Early June is one of the busiest times on the farm. The cool spring temperatures produce some of the best greens of the year, perennial flowers are beginning to bloom, and the first tastes of summer are just around the corner. Thank you for joining us for another season of local food and flowers.
In This Week's Box
Butterhead Lettuce
Butterhead lettuce is known for its soft texture, tender leaves, and sweet flavor. The heads form loose rosettes of buttery leaves that are perfect for salads, wraps, or sandwiches.
Storage: Store in the refrigerator wrapped loosely in a damp towel or reusable produce bag.
Try it: Use the large outer leaves as lettuce wraps for chicken salad, tacos, or grilled vegetables.
Merlot Lettuce
One of our favorite varieties, Merlot lettuce features deep burgundy leaves and exceptional color. It brings beautiful contrast to salads while offering a mild, slightly sweet flavor.
Storage: Refrigerate and use within a week for best quality.
Try it: Mix with the Butterhead and Yedikule lettuces for a colorful salad base.
Yedikule Lettuce
This heirloom romaine-type lettuce originated in Turkey and is known for its crisp texture and upright growth habit. It offers the crunch of romaine with excellent flavor and tenderness.
Storage: Store in the refrigerator and wash just before use.
Try it: Chop into Caesar salads, use as a crunchy base for grain bowls, or pair with radishes and a simple vinaigrette.
Spinach
Spring-grown spinach is one of the sweetest greens you'll eat all year. Cool temperatures help concentrate sugars in the leaves, creating a rich flavor that often surprises people who think they don't like spinach.
Storage: Keep refrigerated and use within 7-10 days.
Try it: Enjoy fresh in salads, blend into smoothies, sauté with garlic scapes, or add to omelets and pasta dishes.
Prize Choy Bok Choy
Prize Choy produces tender stems and dark green leaves with a mild flavor that works equally well raw or cooked.
Storage: Refrigerate in a produce bag or container.
Try it: Stir-fry with garlic scapes, soy sauce, and sesame oil. The stems stay crisp while the leaves become silky and tender.
Cherry Belle Radishes
Cherry Belle is a classic heirloom radish known for its bright red roots and crisp texture. Spring-grown radishes are often milder and sweeter than many people expect. We ate these raw out of the raised beds and were pleased with the spicy crunch.
Storage: Remove greens if attached and refrigerate.
Try it: Slice thinly onto buttered toast with flaky salt, add to salads, or enjoy with a simple vegetable dip. Radishes dipped in herb butter keep coming across our Instagram feed but this recipe for Garlic Scape Herb Butter might be a match made in heaven.
Rhubarb
One of the earliest harvests of the season, rhubarb's bright tart flavor signals the arrival of summer desserts. Many people think rhubarb should be bright red, but stalk color is primarily determined by variety. Green rhubarb is fully ripe and just as delicious as its red cousins. It simply lacks the pigments that create the classic red color.
Storage: Refrigerate for up to two weeks or chop and freeze for later use.
Try it: Bake into crisps, pies, muffins, or cook down into a sauce for yogurt, pancakes, or ice cream.
Garlic Scapes
Garlic scapes are the curly flower stalks produced by hardneck garlic. We remove them to encourage the plants to put more energy into developing large, flavorful bulbs for harvest later this summer. Thankfully, this important field task comes with a delicious reward.
Their flavor is similar to garlic but milder, greener, and slightly sweet.
Storage: Refrigerate in a plastic or reusable bag.
Try it: Chop into scrambled eggs, grill whole, blend into pesto, or use anywhere you'd normally add garlic.
Mint
Fresh mint adds brightness to both sweet and savory dishes.
Storage: Place stems in a jar of water in the refrigerator or wrap loosely in a damp towel.
Try it: Add to iced tea, lemonade, fruit salads, cocktails, or infuse in water with cucumbers and lime.
Cilantro
Love it or hate it, cilantro is a staple herb in kitchens around the world.
Storage: Store like a bouquet of flowers in a jar with a little water or refrigerate wrapped in a damp towel.
Try it: Use in tacos, salsa, curries, grain bowls, or chopped over roasted vegetables.
Farm-Made Extras
Fermented Sriracha
This year's fermented sriracha was crafted from peppers grown here on the farm and naturally fermented to develop deeper flavor and complexity. The fermentation process creates tangy notes alongside the heat, making it much more than a typical hot sauce.
Try it on eggs, tacos, stir-fries, sandwiches, or mixed into dressings and marinades.
Habanada Pepper Jelly
Habanadas are a unique pepper variety that deliver the fruity flavor of habaneros without the heat. We transformed them into a sweet pepper jelly that's equally at home on a cheese board or spread on toast.
Try pairing it with cream cheese and crackers, goat cheese, grilled meats, or sandwiches.
Flower Seeds
Each box includes a packet of flower seeds to help spread a little more beauty throughout our community. Whether planted in a garden bed, tucked into a vegetable patch, or shared with a friend, we hope they bring color, joy, and plenty of pollinators to your corner of the world.
This Week's Bouquet
The first bouquets of the season celebrate some of our favorite early-summer blooms. Many of these flowers are beloved by bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects that help keep our farm ecosystem thriving. They're grown using the same regenerative, no-till practices that guide our vegetable production and are never treated with synthetic pesticides.
You may find:
Peonies
Delphinium
Anise Hyssop
Yarrow
White Wild Indigo
Campanula
A few bouquets may also include:
Calla Lily
Lupine
Iris
Bouquet Care Tips
Give stems a fresh trim before placing them in water.
Remove any foliage below the water line.
Change water every 2–3 days.
Keep arrangements away from direct sunlight and heat sources.
Peonies may continue opening dramatically over several days. Interestingly the coral variety we grow changes from bright, hot pink to a more muted golden yellow in some cases. Quite the transformation!
This Week's CSA Challenge
One of the joys of joining a CSA is discovering something new.
This week, we challenge you to try an ingredient you've never cooked with before. Maybe it's your first time making garlic scape pesto, grilling bok choy, or tasting Yedikule lettuce. Perhaps you'll find a new favorite way to use mint or finally discover why gardeners get so excited about rhubarb season.
If you create something delicious, we'd love to see it! Share a photo and tag us on social media so we can celebrate your culinary adventures.
From Our Farm to Your Table
Every item in this week's box represents a season of anticipation and care. As we begin another CSA season together, we're reminded that farming is about more than growing food. It's about building healthy soil, creating habitat for wildlife and pollinators, nurturing community connections, and sharing the beauty of each season's harvest.
Thank you for supporting local agriculture and helping small farms thrive. We hope you enjoy the first tastes and blooms of the 2026 season.