This week your basket contains: radishes, GREEN GARLIC, potatoes, cooking greens (spinach and radicchio), salad mix (lettuce, spinach, arugula, and endive), sorrel and Purple Sprouting Broccoli or raab or cauliflower.

Today you have renewal letters and bills in your basket (unless we have records of your plans and you are all paid up!). If you have already told us your plans, but got a form anyway, we apologize. It is helpful for us to have the hard copy, but not necessary. DEPOSITS ARE NOT DUE UNTIL MAY 15^TH. If we have billed you for the full year but you would like to change to paying monthly, just let us know and we will adjust your bill. You can also change your share size for the coming season (starting in June) by dropping us an email.

In addition to offering cheese from Fraga farm, we are also partnering with Cloud Cap mushroom farm! Right now, they are offering a mix of Shitake and Oyster mushrooms that we can deliver with your basket. “Cloud Cap Mushroom Co. is a small mom and pop specialty mushroom farm run by just the two of us, Emilia & Chris Ponti. Our farm is located an hour north of Portland, outside St. Helens, Oregon. We grow our mushrooms using all organic practices and inputs. We are currently working with Oregon Tilth on our organic certification. We are now very excited to be working with Pumpkin Ridge Gardens to bring you our mushrooms! Right now, we are growing delicious Shiitake and Oyster mushrooms, and we are planning to add more varieties soon! We are offering orders for 1 month at a time: A $40 full share order gets you 1 pound of fresh mixed mushrooms delivered every week for 4 weeks. Half share orders are $20 and you get 1 pound every other week for 4 weeks. To start, orders will be approximately half Shiitake and half Oyster. We will be able to start fulfilling orders for Tues. April 21st. Visit Cloud Cap’s website and click on Pumpkin Ridge Gardens to order directly through the site (credit/debit card only) at www.cloudcapmushroom.co/pumpkin-ridge-gardens. We welcome your feedback on your preference of mushroom type, and will do everything we can to fulfill your requests. We hope you enjoy these delicious mushrooms as much as we do! For more information or to reach us directly please visit www.cloudcapmushroom.co. COVID-19: We have always thoroughly sanitized all product touching surfaces, and worn masks and gloves for all of our harvest, packing, and distribution processes and will continue to do so.”

We will also have an expanded list of plant starts available this year. You can check out the offerings at https://pumpkinridgegardens.square.site (link will be live on our weekly note on our regular website). Next week, we’ll include a paper list in your basket. Ordering from the paper list will help us know which orders get delivered, but you can order on the web site too. Just leave a note that you are a subscriber so we know to deliver your starts when they are ready.

The two mixes in your basket today are similar. The spinach and radicchio mix contains overwintered leaves that are tougher and therefore better for cooking. They would be perfect in this soup:

GRANDMA KATE’S WEDDING SOUP

2 qts veg. or chicken stock

½ – ¾ lb mixed greens

meatballs

Wash the greens, blanch in boiling water or steam briefly.  Form small meatballs (use your favorite recipe or vegetarian meat substitute).  Drop meatballs into simmering stock and cook 10 minutes or until done.  Meanwhile, squeeze the excess water out of the greens, slice them into thin strips, and add to the hot stock just before serving.  Garnish with grated hard Italian cheese.

Potatoes are raised to another level when you roast them and drizzle them with this sublime sorrel pesto!

SORREL PESTO

2 cups coarsely chopped fresh sorrel, ribs removed

2 green garlic, roughly chopped

1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan

1/4 cup pine nuts or pumpkin seeds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup olive oil

In a food processor or blender puree the sorrel, garlic, parmesan, pine nuts and olive oil.  If you are not going to use the pesto right away, transfer the pesto to a jar with a tight fitting lid and refrigerate it, for up to 2 weeks. Makes about 1 cup.

When you are ready to use the pesto simply stir together in a heated serving bowl the pesto and 2/3 cup of the hot cooking water. When the pasta is al dente, drain it in a colander, add it to the pesto mixture, and toss the mixture until the pasta is coated well.

Another sure sign that true spring is here is that TULIPS AND DAFFODILS are blooming!  We will be offering bunches of 10-12 blooms (plus greens) for only $6.  Order now via email (see below) and we will send them along as the are available. In addition, RHUBARB is ready.  We’ll send along approx. 1 Lb. for $3.  Just email to order.