Aloha Oahu Fresh family!  This week brings us into the last days of March and hopefully the last of the heavy winter rains.  I am always sad to see the whales leave, but I know there are still some around so get out and see them now while you can!

We return to citrus in this week’s bag, with clementines for you from Uluwehi Farm, long beans from Ho Farms, cucumbers from Pacific Gateway Farmers, organic keiki greens mix from Kahumana Farm, and, at long last, slicing tomatoes (!!) along with green onions from Green Growers.  I am feeling like there will be some wonderful salads with this week’s produce, so we are going to

explore those options in this week’s recipe list.

Have you tried roasting a salad?  Me neither but I’m about to!  Here’s a recipe to help you get started, and keep in mind the mix you receive in your bag is more like 3-4 cups not 6, so you should halve the ingredient amounts listed here.  Roasted Salad of Spring Greens   In this recipe she uses hazelnuts, but I would probably sub in mac nuts to keep it local or pine nuts, almonds, or walnuts.

Balsamic Steak and Spring Mix salad   Easy, healthy, and you can go one or two steps further and add your tomatoes and green onions to this.  Or steamed/sauteed long beans.

Blueberry Cucumber Smoothie

Thai Beef and Cucumber Salad

Barbecued Chicken with Warm Green Bean Salad   Use your long beans here!

Cucumber Yogurt Soup

 

 

Alooooha everyone!  We finally made it a week without rain!  Or at least not much of it…but the wind was pretty amazing.  Now that we are more than halfway through March we can expect better weather but the rains have definitely taken a toll on our farms.  Produce is suffering a bit and quite a lot of what is available is the same from farm to farm.  It’s easy to see what crops can take the consistent rains and what doesn’t do so well!

This week we had a tough time finding a diversity of veggies for you but we were able to get beautiful hydroponic organic lettuce from Mari’s Garden, it is a mix of Salanova Green Butter and Red Butter lettuce, plus Shanghai Bok choy from Green Growers, crispy string beans from Pacific Gateway Farmers, and chinese parsley from the amazing ag students at Leilehua High School!  Also we were able to get a little bit of rambutan and some longan (Dragon’s Eye).  A pretty good bag despite the rain!

Here’s a few suggestions on what you could use this produce for:

How to Cook Bok Choy, and recipe--we may have posted this link before but it is so good and such a good tutorial that I keep coming back to it!  Steamy Kitchen–always a winner!

Greek Style Green Beans   Lots of good review of this one.

Barely Cooked String Beans   and if you’re not interested in cooking your beans until they are soft, try this one!

Butter Lettuce Salad with Gorgonzola and Pear Dressing…well yes, because I will eat anything with Gorgonzola on it 🙂

Green Beans with Parsley Lemon Pesto   Although this uses Italian Parsley, Chinese Parsley will be a nice switch–making this asap!!

Cold Lemon Soba Noodles

Bon Apetit local eaters!  Also if you are not busy, Leilehua HS is hosting the 60th Annual Kunia Orchid Show starting this Friday!  Support local ag students!  and maybe win an orchid basket, the 2014th visitor gets one!

Hello Oahu Fresh Members!

This week’s bag contains an old favorite that we haven’t seen in a long time- Long Squash from Ho Farms is back!  Long squash, aka opo, is something that we often see at the market but many people aren’t quite sure how to use it.  We’re going to help you out with some ideas below!  We’re also bringing you organic keiki greens from Kahumana Farm, rambutan from Frankie’s Nursery, green onions from Green Growers, and baby cucumbers and kale from Pacific Gateway Farmers.

A great recipe to use your long squash in was posted by one of our members on our facebook page but in case you aren’t using that type of social media, we’ll put it here too!  But hey, if you’re on facebook–like us!!

Tasting Hawai`i with Moloka`i Chef James Temple–Opo (Long Squash) Soup

Opo-Uncovering Food   With a recipe for Squash Chips!

Baked, Stuffed, and Stir Fried Opo Recipes

Potato Kale Soup   I made this soup last night and it’s really good!  Great flavor, and kale is also very good as a detox food, so if you have maybe made a few bad choices over the weekend or last few days, this recipe will help!

Baby Heirloom Tomato and Cucumber Salad    An excellent way to utilize any leftover tomatoes from last week’s bag!

Aloha Oahu Fresh members!  It’s early March and we are happy to bring you some great items this week–potatoes from Twin Bridge Farm, organic keiki greens from Kahumana Farm, Shanghai Bok Choy from Green Growers, string beans from Pacific Gateway Farmers, Ho Farms tomatoes, and longan (Dragon’s Eye!) from Frankie’s Nursery.

What can you make with all this amazing food?  Well here are our suggestions:

Stir Fried Shanghai Bok Choy with Ginger

 

Honey Dijon Potato Salad   a different take on potato salad!

Green Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad Recipe

Mixed Greens with Grapes and Feta   If you are tired of the same old salad recipe, try this one for a sweet and tangy change.  You can also order locally made feta cheese from Naked Cow Dairy to be delivered along with your produce bag–it, and many other specialty items, can be added on to your order from our Specialty Items store!

If Longan is a new fruit to you, here’s a little background:  it is a tree native to southern China, and has many traditional uses beyond just eating the fruit!  It can be eaten at room temperature but is also very good chilled, although the tough skin allows for little to no refrigeration for up to a week.  Peel the skin off and you can pop the whole fruit into your mouth, be aware that there is a seed in the middle that you will have to spit out!  Once you peel the fruit you will see why it is commonly referred to as Dragon’s Eye!

Bon Appetit and many thanks for supporting local businesses!

 

 

Hopefully this means it’s also the end of the rainy season!  But for sure we know that it means spring is on the way and around this time of year we always look forward to getting potatoes from Twin Bridge Farm in Waialua.  This week we’ve got two pounds of mixed potatoes for you, as well as greens mix from Ho Farms, lettuce from Mari’s Garden, carrots from Kahumana Farm, cucumbers from Pacific Gateway Farmers, and rambutan from Frankie’s Nursery.

 

Winter Greens and Potato Casserole

 

Chilled Sweet and Sour Cucumber Noodles   (good knife skills practice if you don’t have a veggie slicer…but if you like making noodles with your raw veggies -squash, cucumbers, etc- try the Paderno slicer from Amazon.  Inexpensive and it works!)

Crash Hot Potatoes   These look amazing!!

Barbeque Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Quinoa Lettuce Wraps

Easy Carrot Salad

Carrot Mash with Orange and Mint