To help, here are curated boxes that contain the absolute best of a day’s harvest, including an Introduction Box of Fresh Vegetables, along with these delicious and nutritious choices:
These boxes may contain vegetables you already include in your weekly meals, as well as those that are new to you. To spark ideas for healthy, flavorful meals, we’ve created this vegetable primer, which includes information about flavor, nutrition, texture, storage, and care—along with links to individual vegetables that you may want to order.
Enjoy!
Think earthy. Think sugar-sweet. Farm fresh beets miraculously combine the best of both. How?
When raw, mixed beets are the earth’s sugar; when cooked, flavors are reminiscent of plum, dried cherry, raw mushroom, radish, parsnip, and dark caramel. Texture is crisp and crunchy—with beets enjoyable when raw, roasted, steamed, boiled, or shaved. You can bake them when washed, still unpeeled. Submerge them in liquid at 330F for about an hour or until fork tender. Remove them from the oven and wipe off the skin with a linen. Cut and serve hot or cold.
Beets provide folate and vitamin C, magnesium, potassium, and iron.
Here are instructions for storage and care: Rinse and scrub gently in cold water. Place them on a dry or slightly damp paper towel or linen cloth in a sealable flat container without stacking them on top of one another. They can stay on a paper or cloth linen in the container; however, make sure the linen isn’t ever wet. The linen can be damp. The container should not allow too much light. Keep packaged between 40 and 45F.
Add the flavor of sweet mustard cabbage to your home-cooked dishes quickly and easily. Bok choy is delicious when sautéed, steamed, or roasted. We like searing them in a hot pan with oil until they’re charred or heavily caramelized on one side and just barely on the other. Season with salt – and then add to your plates.
Texture is crisp, with butter-soft leaves and crunchy stems.
Nutrients include vitamins C, A, and K, along with phosphorus, zinc, manganese, selenium, niacin, and folate. Keep packaged between 40 and 45F.
Carrots are sweet, nutty, and earthy—so aromatic with a crunchy, juicy texture. And they are incredibly versatile! You can eat them raw, roasted, grilled, steamed, boiled, stir-fried, or shaved. Here’s a favorite technique of ours: Wash well and roast whole at 350F until tender. Dress lightly with honey and season lightly with salt.
Nutrients include vitamins A, K, and C, potassium and calcium, alpha-carotene, and beta-carotene. Store packaged between 40 and 45 degrees, and don’t store near apples.
This deliciously edible root is enjoyed worldwide—and we’re glad to introduce it to even more people. They are the root of a certain celery plant, offering an intense celery flavor. They’re crunchy when raw and creamy when cooked. Cooking techniques include roasting, baking, boiling, and mashing—and pureed. You can julienne your celery root with a Caesar dressing or vinaigrette. Or, you can boil them with an onion and herbs until soft, and then blend the mixture on high until smooth for a terrific soup.
You can wrap these in plastic and refrigerate them for up to one week. Nutrients include vitamins K, C and B, plus phosphorus, potassium, iron, calcium, and manganese.
Of course, fresh cucumbers are delicious when raw—whether sliced or whole. If you still have cucumbers within a week, pop them into a jar of pickles that you already have in your refrigerator. Or slice and season with salt, and store refrigerated.
Cucumbers offer a refreshingly nutty flavor, the bright green almond flavor associated with delicious cukes. Ours are tender and crunchy, with a buttery bloom. They contain vitamins A, B, C, D, and E and should be kept packaged between 40 and 45 degrees.
Now, these are a special treat to brighten and add beauty to your family’s plates. Flavors come in a kaleidoscope of floral aromas and associated flavors, from sweet to slightly bitter. Textures are mixed.
You can add edible flowers raw to salads or candy them for a sweet treat. They can be steeped or dried and powdered. The reality is that there’s no bad time to use edible flowers to bring a touch of sunshine into mealtime—and here’s an easy and eye-catching way to use them: add a bloom or two to a scoop of ice cream. Keep packaged between 40-45 degrees.
If you’re used to using garlic cloves in dishes, know that these roots offer up the flavor of true garlic—meaning, spicy yet milder than a raw clove. Expect a deliciously lingering finish. You can use a garlic root raw or, if you decide to fry them, they crisp up quite nicely in an oven or fryer. Consider chopping these edible roots for a much easier alternative than whole cloves.
The texture is wiry and fibrous, offering a soft, dry finish. These nutritious roots add manganese, calcium, copper, selenium, phosphatase, and vitamins C and B6 to dishes.
Keep your garlic root in the original package. Refrigerate at 100% humidity, out of direct light, and remove only as needed. Handle with gloves because hand oils can deteriorate the product. Keep packaged between 40 and 45F.
Sweet, cabbage-y, nutty—delicious! Fresh kale can be enjoyed raw, blanched, braised, roasted, sautéed, steamed, or fried. We like to braise fresh leaves like collards with smoked meat and aromatic veggies. This is a quick, super tender, and delicious use of fresh kale.
Texture is rigid, firm, crisp, dry, and fibrous. As far as nutrition goes, kale adds protein, fiber, folate, and vitamins A, C, and K to your family’s meals. Keep packaged between 40-45F.
Kohlrabi adds a pleasant mustard flavor to dishes, and its stems provide a touch of sweetness. This veggie can be eaten raw, steamed, roasted, or sautéed, and it pairs especially well with apples or baked au gratin style with a delicious cheese.
The texture is thick and cabbage-like, and it provides a rainbow of nutrients: thiamin, folate, magnesium, and phosphorus, plus potassium, copper, manganese, and vitamins C and B6. Keep packaged between 40 and 45F.
These lovely leeks provide a sweet onion flavor that’s also somewhat earthy. It builds up heat with a great finish. You can enjoy leeks raw, roasted, grilled, steamed, or fried. Creamed leeks can be a versatile addition to nearly every meal. They’re also delicious when braised with sauce gribiche.
Texture is chewy and fleshy—and leeks are yet another nutritional powerhouse, containing thiamin, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, folate, potassium, manganese, and vitamins C and B6. Keep packaged between 40-45F.
We grow lettuce that offers up a rainbow of flavors, including grassy, nutty, and earthy. Some varieties have the mild taste of raw mushrooms, bell peppers, and green grass. Textures also run the gamut, including tender, crunchy, crisp, and chewy.
In general, lettuce is eaten raw. If you can’t use yours quickly enough, you can blanche the leaves. Otherwise, chop leaves or keep them whole, and then dress them with your favorite vinaigrette or dressing.
Lettuce contains calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, and vitamins B6 and other B vitamins, plus vitamins C, A, E, and K.
To store and care for your lettuce, submerge it in cold water. Spin and store it in a plastic container with a damp towel on the bottom and on top. Cover the container with a lid and store it between 33 and 38F. Wash it again before serving.
Marvelous microgreens can be used on almost anything, from sandwiches to side dishes, salads, soups, and virtually anything in between. It’s an ideal way to get greens inside the entire family! As a bonus, microgreens contain all the nutrition found in their bigger brothers and sisters—in every single tiny bite.
Get ready to enjoy a mix of spicy and funky mustard flavors, with some leaves crunchy and others chewy. Feast on them raw, blanch, braise, sauté, or cream them—and know that these greens are ideal for intense salads. Picture our young mustard greens in a salad alongside sweet dried fruits. Delicious!
Nutritious mustard greens contain protein, niacin, and phosphorus, plus thiamin, riboflavin, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, copper, and manganese, along with vitamins A, B6, C, E, and K. Keep packaged between 40 and 45F.
Our delicious parsnips are nutty, salty, and earthy, with a sweet caramel flavor similar to that of carrots. Their texture is crisp, and these amazing parsnips can be eaten raw, boiled, or roasted. Here’s what we love: caramelize them, cook them until tender, and then blend them until smooth with milk and butter. Serve with salt. You’re welcome!
Powerfully nutritious parsnips contain potassium, folate, manganese, and vitamins C and K.
These sweet legumes are so marvelous that we typically don’t cook them at the Culinary Vegetable Institute. We eat them raw as a treat. That said, you can cook these tender yet crisp peas. They can be, for example, steamed, boiled, or sautéed.
They contain calcium, potassium, iron, and vitamins B1, B2, B3, C, and K.
Be sure to keep petite mixed snow peas in the original package. Refrigerate at 100% humidity, out of direct light, and remove only as needed. Handle with gloves because hand oils can deteriorate the product. Keep packaged between 40 and 45F.
Talk about a versatile veggie! Fresh potatoes from The Chef’s Garden have a mix of sweet and earthy flavors and smooth and flaky skins. They’re all delicious and can be roasted, boiled, mashed, and more.
Try this! Quarter our potatoes and roast them in the oven at 400F with just a bit of olive oil and salt until tender.
Potatoes provide potassium, and vitamins B6 and C. Keep packaged between 40-45F.
For an intense radish/horseradish flavor, these fall radishes can’t be beaten. Crunchy and crisp, they’re delicious raw as well as when braised, roasted, or grilled. Consider shaving them and serving them raw on a salad or with a dip. As another idea, roast them with salt and olive oil until tender; this takes off the spicy edge.
Nutritious radishes provide folate, fiber, zinc, potassium, phosphorous, magnesium, copper, calcium, iron, and manganese, as well as vitamins A, B6, C, E, and K. Keep packaged between 40 and 45F.
This is one of the greatest ingredients to have in your pantry! Salsify adds subtle hints of licorice, umami, and artichokes to your dishes, along with a smooth and crisp texture. This is a beautifully underappreciated ingredient that fries well when shaved, purees well for soups, and can simply be cut into rounds for mixed vegetable dishes. Boil it, mash it, enjoy it.
Nutrients include riboflavin, potassium, manganese, and vitamins B6 and C. Wash yours well and keep packaged between 33 and 35F.
Mild, fresh, green, buttery—and beautifully sweet. That’s what you can count on with spinach from The Chef’s Garden. Texture is crisp and delicious when raw. Or, you can steam, blanch, or sauté our spinach—and we especially love it when it’s creamed. Consider adding fennel pollen, toasted fennel seeds, or poppy seeds.
Fresh spinach is another nutritional powerhouse, with iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, folic acid, and vitamins B6, B9, C, K, and E. Keep packaged between 40 and 45F.
Sunchokes, AKA Jerusalem Artichokes
Think apple-nutty-caramel deliciousness—and you’ve got the flavor of sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes. This veggie has a potato-like texture and is delicious when roasted, mashed, or fried. We love sunchokes so much that we believe chips made from them should be commercially available. Make them, and then let us know if you agree! Fry at 300F for about a minute and then season with salt.
Nutrients include thiamin, phosphorus, potassium, and iron. Keep packaged between 40-45F.
Our sweet potatoes can offer up a pleasantly sweet flavor, with other varieties being spicy and, still others, creamy. They have smooth skins with starchy flesh and are delicious when roasted, baked, mashed, grilled or fried. For an easy dish, wrap them in aluminum foil and bake them at 350F for about 40 minutes. Done!
Nutrients include potassium and manganese, along with vitamins A and B6. Keep packaged between 40-45F.
Our fresh turnips offer mustardy-spicy goodness with a juicy and soft potato-like texture when baked or boiled. They can also be eaten raw, roasted, steamed, or mashed—and they are one of our favorite vegetables on the farm. You can put them in a hot pan, blister them, and then take them out when barely cooked.
Talk about nutrition! Turnips contain vitamins K, A, C, E, B1, B3, B5, B6, and B2, along with folate, phosphorus, manganese, potassium, magnesium, iron, calcium, and copper, plus omega-3 fatty acids and protein. Keep packaged between 40 and 45F.
We are thankful for the opportunity to be your personal farmer! Please let us know what you think.