Week 7 CSA from Valley Flora!

  • Carrots
  • Fennel
  • Head Lettuce
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Strawberries
  • Cilantro

On Rotation:

  • Broccoli
  • Broccolini
  • Red Ursa Kale
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Cucumbers
  • Zucchini

Fennel!!!

One of my favorite vegetables is finally here this week! Like many things on the farm this season, this first harvest is a few weeks later than usual due to our chilly spring weather. For those of you who have never eaten fennel, here's a little context: in all these years of running the CSA, fennel seems to be one of those black and white vegetables, where people either love it or decide to hate it. I like to say "decide to hate it" because there is a study they did with kids that shows it can take 20 tries for someone to learn to like a new food. We saw that happen with our 11-year old, who hated mushrooms. I'm not one to cater to picky eating habits in the kitchen, so after enough bowls of mushroom-studded risotto and sauteed chanterelles, one day she suddenly realized she loved mushrooms. Which could happen to you if you're in the anti-fennel camp!

Here's a mouth-watering collection of recipes to lend some inspiration. It's pretty meat-heavy, so if you're not a carnivore this set of vegetarian recipe ideas might be more up your alley.

I hope loving fennel is easy for you. We grow successions of it, so you'll see it again a few times this season - hopefully enough that you can learn to love it if you don't already.

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