They say that April showers bring May flowers, but they also bring delicious fruits and vegetables! The extra long winter has made spring feel a little slow in coming, but we have new produce items appearing every week and this one is no exception.
English shelling peas are the highlight of this week’s All-Veggie Boxes. Shelling peas takes a bit of time, but once you develop a rhythm it can be one of the more satisfying of the kitchen chores, and a fun way to get the kids involved! Fresh peas don’t store very well, so if you’re not planning to use them within a couple of days from your delivery, we suggest you blanch and freeze them.
The first organic peaches of the year will find their way into the All-Fruit Boxes, which is exciting news for stone fruit fans. These peaches come from Florida, where a number of orange trees have been cut down and replaced with peach orchards in response to the vicious bacterial disease known as citrus greening. Because this is the first harvest, the peaches may be a little smaller than usual, which is why we’re tossing (gently placing) a couple in each box.
The Abate Fetel pears in almost all of this week’s boxes are another special treat. You can read more about them in the Beneath the Peel blog post included in our weekly newsletter.
Organic eggplants are also starting to come into season and we have a fantastic recipe for you to try. Grab a block of tempeh and a can of coconut milk and you’ll be ready to whip up this Tempeh & Eggplant Coconut Curry. Tested and approved by the Boston Organics Crew, this is one of those vegan recipes that omnivores will love too.
Both vegans and omnivores should also check out our new organic almond milk from local juice company, Jubali. Made with just two ingredients—almonds and water—this is pure, unadulterated goodness. We also just launched two assorted snack kits that will help families and offices who want to eat healthy snacks save money. See what they contain and explore all of our other new grocery add-ons by clicking here.
Enjoy our box and have a delicious week!
There is so much to celebrate this week, it’s hard to know where to start! With Patriots’ Day and Earth Day falling in the same week, we’ll barely have time to catch our breath. Thankfully our farmers have been working tirelessly to bring us yet another bountiful early spring harvest.
Let’s Commemorate Patriots’ Day
Happy Patriots’ Day to everyone in the Boston Organics Community and good luck to those of you who are running the marathon—with so many healthy and active followers on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, we know of at least a handful.
Due to the street closures, we will not be making deliveries today. If your office is normally scheduled for a Monday delivery, please check your email to see whether your delivery has been moved to Tuesday or to Wednesday.
Let’s Honor the Earth
Wednesday is the 45th annual Earth Day, an international celebration of our planet’s natural beauty and an opportunity for individuals across the globe to unite over common principles of environmental conservation and ecological restoration.
We’re looking forward to celebrating the occasion with the Sustainability Collective at Tufts University.
We’re also honoring the planet by reigniting the Green Plate Club with our friends from Bootstrap Compost. If you live in Allston, Back Bay, Brighton, Brookline, JP, Newton, Roslindale, Wellsley or West Roxbury, click here to see how you can join!
Let’s Toast To Smoothies
Jubali Smoothies are a delicious and convenient way to give your body the nutrients it needs, whether you’re running the marathon or watching from the sidelines. Made locally with raw, organic fruits and freshly made nut milks, these are the tastiest smoothies we’ve ever tried.
We’re giving away free samples again this week to a lucky few customers selected at random. You can also order them as an add-on. Get the combo pack to save money and try all six new flavors!
Let’s Celebrate Spring
Fresh asparagus is now available as an add-on. A sure sign of spring, these crisp spears can be prepared any number of ways, but this recipe for Roasted Asparagus and Baby Artichokes with Lemon-Oregano Aioli is perfect for customers with all-veggie boxes who will also be getting a handful of baby artichokes in their delivery this week.
We also have a lot of exquisite organic zucchini and yellow summer squash on the way. Our recipe for Yellow Squash, Onion and Tomato Bake is worth checking out because it’s so simple to make. It just happens to also feature the local, organic tomatoes from Deep Root Organic Coop and raw milk cheddar from Neighborly Farms, which is on sale this week!
In just a few weeks we’ll get to taste the first local kale of the year from Atlas Farm, but for now we’re sourcing it from a few organic farms further down the eastern seaboard. Organic kale is extremely healthy for you and can be sautéed with tofu, baked into chips and blended into pesto.
One cup of kale has 2.5 grams of fiber, which makes it a little tough to eat raw unless you massage the leaves with olive oil and lemon juice first. You can also blanch the leaves quickly in salted water, like it explains in this recipe for Shredded Kale Salad with Pancetta and Hard-Cooked Egg.
However you prepare your kale and whatever you decide to cook this week, we hope you enjoy it in the company of good friends and family. With plenty of good weather on the way, there is a lot to celebrate!
Enjoy your box and have a delicious week!
It’s impossible to miss the plump organic tomatoes in this week’s Dogma Boxes because they’re the first locally grown tomatoes we’ve seen in a very long time.
It’s still way too early in the season to get our hands on any local field grown tomatoes, but these beauties come to us by way of Deep Root Organic Coop’s geothermally heated greenhouses.
One of Deep Root’s member farms grows a mix of juicy red tomatoes and “pink rose” tomatoes, which are slightly paler but full of vibrant tomato-y flavors that will have you itching for summer.
Locavore Recipe of the Week
The weather’s warming up, but with a few April showers in the forecast this week it still feels a lot like soup season.
This week’s recipe for Carrot-Parsnip Soup with Sunchoke Chips combines a few of the winter’s finest root vegetables in one delicious blend. Winter Moon Farm intentionally left a few rows of parsnips in the ground over the winter and the lengthy frost has made these spring-dug parsnips particularly sweet!
This soup can be made entirely out of locally sourced organic vegetables and the addition of lightly fried sunchoke chips adds both a complementary crunch and a rich, umami flavor.
This Week’s Local Produce
| Radish Medley Spring Dug Parsnips Turnips |