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Welcome to the CSA page! If you are one of our lucky participants, check in here for what is available. Pick 3 items and we'll fill your crate, or just say 'surprise me!' If there is something you don't want, just let us know. When you are in town and want fresh veggies, bring the box back. The boxes are about 8"x8" and it is a flat rate of $7. We get to share the fun stuff growing here...berries, mushrooms, crazy salad greens with great nutrients. Everything is organic, and it only has to travel about 5 minutes to get to you. (If you REALLY believe in the food miles thing, you can bike over and pick up your mini-CSA.)
If you like arugula, you'll love spicy, hearty mustard greens. They are delicate enough for salad but also saute and freeze beautifully. Plants can be perennial, and many mustards will put out a delicious floret (think brocolli rabe). We grow 6 types of mustard greens, ranging from deep purple to light green.
Rhubarb stalks are one of the first signs of spring in a McCall garden. My favorite dessert of all time is rhubarb crisp with ice cream. We use rhubarb for liqueur, desserts, jams, syrups and chutneys, but if you are pressed for time, just try it over ice cream. It has a fantastic sour taste that really balances the sugar that is in many preserved foods.
Early herbs are up! Grab sage for savory poultry dishes, or try the browned butter sage sauce that the epicurious keep raving about.
Wine caps are an edible mushroom that also improves garden soil. We 'plant' wine cap mushrooms, or Stropharia rugoso-annulata, in the garden. The have a hint of honey sweetness when sauteed, and taste amazing paired with cheddar or a little nutmeg. These come in flushes, so if you want some let us know.
If you have never tried cress, it has a mild peppery flavor that is great in salads or sandwiches. Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Garden Cress is my all-time favorite green...it has great texture and a mild radish bite. We are also growing regular Garden Cress, Upland Cress, and true Watercress.
Purple Orach is also called 'mountain spinach' and it is a fantastic spinach alternative. It has a similar structure and mild flavor, but it's purple and doesn't bolt! Pile it in lasagne, omelets, or salads for extra antioxidants and beautiful color.
Chives go in everything! Sprinkle them into quesadillas, or chop them to top baked potatoes. The beautiful purple flowers are edible and gorgeous...Dress up your salad with their mild onion-like flavor.
Oregano is often used in Italian and Mexican dishes. It dries well, so you can store it to use all year in your spaghetti or enchiladas.
Everyone likes peas! Peas produce early and late season here, with a lull in mid-summer when it is too hot and they get starchy. We have sugar snap peas, snow peas, and shell peas.
Okay, we know lettuce is an important ingredient in salad, but it is generally flavorless and nutrient-poor. We try to grow less well-known greens that are high in vitamin C and other nutrients. Try miner's lettuce, mache, or wild sorrel in your salad instead! (Okay, we do grow a few lettuces.)
This is the year of the strawberry! The cool temperatures and heavy rains have produced a bed full of blossoms. Both alpine and garden strawberries are ripe now.
If you have never tried these delicate blossoms, you're missing out. Sautee them like you would greens, put them into a quesadilla, or fill them with ricotta. Squash blossoms are great for stuffing! The blossoms do not travel well, so they can be hard to find.
Inch-long dark blue berries are in the honeysuckle family, and taste like a combination of a blueberry and huckleberry. Honeyberries are done for the season.
A mild, sweet root vegetable, rutabagas are a great addition to mashed potatoes, soups, or breakfast scrambles.
We grow oyster mushrooms on logs and in straw bales, and while they don't help our plants they are delicious! Use in any savory dish...stir fries, pasta, or omlets. Oysters taste great with a little garlic. We grow two subspecies of Pleurotus ostreatus, blue and pearl, and Pleurotus pulmonarius, the Phoenix oyster.
After living in Southern Idaho, where asparagus grows in every borrow pit and on every canal bank, we had to have our own supply. 2017 will be the first harvest year, so we'll only be getting a small amount. Look for it next year!
Purple carrots - eat them now or store them through the winter! Slice into a salad for beautiful color.
Char zuchinni on the grill and toss with a little olive oil and vinegar. It's like a fast, tasty summer french fry that you don't have to clean up after. Zucchini also stores well. Try shredding and freezing for winter zucchini bread, sauteeing and freeing to add to pasta or eggs, or dehydrate it in strips to add to lasagne.
Each year, hundreds of expensive flats of berries go bad in the refrigerators of our nation. They are packed with nutrients, they are delicious, but they last such a short time! We'll try to change that by having small portions of fresh-picked berries available. We are currently growing several kinds, some you won't easily find: gooseberries, blueberries, lignonberries, raspberries, strawberries, seaberries, honeyberries, silver buffaloberries, salmonberries, blackberries, tiny alpine strawberries, and cold-hary kiwis.
By far our favorite carrot to grow is the Bolero, a delicious square shouldered orange carrot that is sweet, crunchy, and incredibly easy to clean!
We will be doing some early onions that are great for salads, and also purple, white, and yellow onions later in the fall.
Love them or hate them, beets are packed with nutrients. Detroit Red is a great producer here, but we will also be trying golden and white beets in 2017. Chiogga (the ones with the beautiful stripes) are extremely fibrous at the top.
Radishes are one of the first vegetables of spring, with growing times of 25-50 days. Slice them up to add crunch and heat to your mini-CSA salad. Specialties this year are purple plum and nero tondo radishes.
Of course we had to try this green bean variety from Johnny's Seeds. It was clearly made for us.
