CSA SPRING SHARE WEEK #12 - The Holiday BoxWishing you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday filled with peace, joy and great food! We have included extra herbs for roasting vegetables or making stuffing.

NOTES ON STORING THE HARVEST Please check out our Vegetable & Fruit page on the website to find tips on maximizing the life of your veggies. We envisage that many of the vegetables you are receiving this week will last for two weeks with careful attention to storing upon arrival. Although we do wash all the greens after harvest, we are washing to take the heat out of the plants and wash away some surface dirt, not to prepare them for consumption. We also spray a seaweed/herb brew about every ten days. While this will not harm you, it does have a taste. We do suggest washing your produce prior to eating.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX The following are the items harvested this week. Items and quantities in your box may vary depending on your harvest day and the total harvest of each crop. The boxes are completely governed by what is ripe and ready for harvest and how much of it there is. We endeavor to divide the harvest fairly. 1/4 share: 5-7 items 1/2 share: 8-10 items Full Share: 10-12 items

Basil Beetroot Broccoli Carrots Cucumbers Fennel Garlic Lettuce Rosemary Salad Onions Baby Silver Beet – Great in salads or cooked. Thyme Zucchini

Extras Romanesco Broccoli Cabbage Cauliflower Radishes Squash Tomatoes

NOTES ON WHAT IS GROWING This week we said goodbye to our Spring Intern Emily. She has been a fantastic help and we wish her all the best in her growing future!

There should be lots of beans in next weeks box. They were not ready for picking yesterday. The peas have returned though and if the weather stays cooler, we should get another harvest of sugar snaps. We also have a whole planting of snow peas that is just starting to flower.

There are lots of flowers and herbs to pick during the farm collection times of Friday 2-5pm and Saturday 8-11am.

Please remember, next week the boxes will be delivered on TUESDAY 30 DECEMBER. Farm pick up returns to FRIDAY 2 January 2-5pm and SATURDAY 3 January 8-11am.

RECIPE SUGGESTIONS Grilled Zucchini and Summer Squash - I plan to make some black rice and use a mixture of these two recipes to make a festive Christmas Salad. Fennel and Radish Salad Ottolenghi's Perfect Salad Carrot and Radish Salad with a Moroccan Inspired Dressing Roasted Carrots and Beetroot

HERBED STUFFING WITH QUINOA AND NUTS This is a traditional flavoured stuffing. You can also substitute the celery with fennel fried lightly in butter with garlic, remove the rosemary and use salad onions and their tops to create a very different flavour. Ingredients 8 large slices of whole grain bread 1 cup cooked quinoa ½ cup almonds, ground 3 sticks celery cut up 1 whole onion chopped finely 3 sage leaves 1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves bunch of fresh thyme ½ bunch of parsley salt and pepper melted butter stock Method 1. Lay the whole loaf of bread out in the oven and toast the slices for about 20-25 minutes. Put into a food processor with the fresh herbs and almonds and grind until a medium texture. 2. Mix in about 1/4 cup melted butter, the quinoa, celery and onion, salt and pepper and enough stock to make the stuffing just hold together. DO NOT OVER MIX.

You can search our recipes by looking for the key ingredients on our website recipe page.

Please note - Photo is a randomly selected full share box.