Receiving today’s delivery from Veritable Vegetable was like waking up on Christmas morning. Summer has arrived in California with a bang.

When we eat a sweet ear of corn or slice of cantaloupe, we’re literally eating sunshine, captured and transformed by photosynthesis into sugar.

Do you want to cook more vegetables, but need some inspiration? Would you like to save some time shopping for food? Are you interested in exploring different ingredients?

The Veggie Box Weekly Subscription offers recipes, ingredients, snacks and special treats. Sign up monthly for a box of seasonal produce enlivened with dairy, eggs or other packaged foods. Pick up at the store every Monday.

A typical box may include:

• Recipe and ingredients for a vegetable soup
• Recipe and ingredients for a pasta dish
• The makings of a green salad
• Several pieces of fruit in season
• A loaf of fresh bread, or a dozen eggs

The recipes will be suitable for adding meat or not, and will change with the seasons.

The cost is $38.50 per week, and you can sign up for one or three months at a time. Three months gets an extra week.

Sign up here or click on the “Weekly Box” tab at the top of the page.
 

Fava beans are here! Along with peas, asparagus, green garlic and strawberries, young favas are a pure expression of springtime.

These are from Live Earth Farm in Watsonville, one of the great local farms where Veggie Box gets organic produce. LEF has one of the largest CSA (community supported agriculture) programs in the area, and puts out a great newsletter for its members. Debbie Palmer wrote a very nice piece on the same young favas that are going out in the CSA boxes this week, and she has graciously allowed me to use it here.

This is an item you’ll never see in the store. I’m not even sure you’ll see them this way at the farmers market (everyone always waits to harvest favas until the pods are huge and the beans inside are mature), so you are in for a treat. As you by now have guessed, that bag inside your box this week containing what looks like outsized green beans would be the young favas.

Storage: As long as they’re not wet, you should just be able to stick them in the fridge in the bag they came in. If they are wet for some reason, spread them out on a cotton floursack towel or similar to dry, then put into a clean, dry bag and refrigerate. They should keep most of the week.

To cook and eat: top and tail the pods, washing as needed, and cut into bite-size segments, steam just a few minutes, until just tender and bright green, then eat any number of ways: simply tossed with a little butter, salt and tarragon (or other herb), or saute up in olive oil with – what else – some chopped green garlic of course! (See recipe below.) For variety, maybe add a little herbes de Provence when sauteeing. Another yummy way to prepare them is to lightly oil the whole pods, sprinkle them with salt and chili powder, toss them on the grill for a few minutes until they start to brown in places and wilt. Then pull ‘em off the grill and, while still hot, squeeze a little lime juice over them, sprinkle with additional salt and chili powder to taste… and eat! Double-yum!

Sauteed young fava pods and green garlic
Quantities are not an issue here, as you can’t ruin this with ‘too much’ or ‘too little’ of something really. Just take as many fava pods as you think you are going to eat, trim the ends and cut them into bite size (inch-ish) segments. On the diagonal if you want to be fancy Then partially steam them: just a few minutes; two, maybe three at most.

Meanwhile, chop up one or more stalks of green garlic (as with leeks, use the white and light green parts, just not the dark green leaves) and throw it into a heated skillet with some olive oil and saute it while your beans are steaming. Add partially steamed beans to the skillet and stir/toss/coat with the olive oil and garlic and cook a minute or two more, until tender to your liking. Season with salt, to taste.

Now you could stop right there and you’d be fine, but if you want you can elaborate… cut up and then plump some sundried tomatoes in a little hot water and add them, along with the water, to your saute. Stir and cook until the water has mostly evaporated. You could also add some olives, kalamata or similar; just be sure to pit them first (or warn your diners that you’ve left the pits in). You could add them whole, or sliced, or minced… whatever your mood.

Another elaboration: try mincing up some anchovies and adding them to the sauteeing garlic. You won’t need to add salt in the end, in this example. Squeeze some lemon juice over all when you’re done. If you don’t like anchovies, try some diced up bacon or ham. If you’re vegan or vegetarian, try throwing in some chopped walnuts.

Whatever you do – enjoy! Debbie

Thanks for your patience as I update our presence out in the digital world. I’ve made text of the blog bigger, and you can look forward to even more changes, both in content and layout, in the near future.

For those of you who haven’t made it over to the San Pedro Square Market yet, I thought I’d give you a little tour.

We’re in what’s called the Lusardi Building, at the southeast corner of Almaden Ave. and St. John St. in downtown San José.

Its last incarnation before the Market was as the office of the San José Earthquakes.

When you walk in from Almaden Ave. the first thing you see are our beautiful flowers and tomato starts.

The bouquets are from Thomas Farm in Corralitos (who also sell at the Saturday morning farmers market on St. John) and the plants are from Veggielution Community Farm at Prusch Farm Park in East San José.

We have a table full of onions and tubers,

and a produce case filled with seasonal vegetables.

All of our produce is 100% organic, and almost all of it comes from California, the majority within a few hundred miles of the store.

We have another display with organic, seasonal fruit.

Citrus is still the anchor of the fruit section, although California kiwifruit is also in season and strawberries are now available. But it won’t be too long before we see beautiful local cherries and other stone fruit.

In addition to fresh produce, we also carry ingredients and packaged foods such as beans, flour, condiments, and pasta, as well as fresh bread delivered every day from Sumano’s Bakery in Watsonville.

We have a seasonal selection of preserves from Happy Girl Kitchen in Pacific Grove,

and spices from Spice Hound (another Saturday vendor.) All of our jams are handmade from local fruit.

Behind the counter, the store continues on to our freezer, featuring pies from Duarte’s in Pescadero, handmade dim sum from OFS Food & Services in Fremont, and pierogi from Polska Foods in Los Gatos.

We’re still ramping up our refrigerate section. You can find fresh cheese and artisan soda right now, and more dairy and prepared salads and sandwiches very soon!

I’d love to hear suggestions on what products you’d like to see. And I’d love to see you at the store!

Thank you to everyone who came out yesterday to make Veggie Box’s opening day such a success. It was great to meet so many downtown folks. We’re closed today for Easter, but we’ll be open every day starting tomorrow from 10 – 7.