First basket of the season! Before the day began we thought we had solved one of last year’s problems, that the paper bags we used for packaging got really soggy and sometimes fell apart in the bins. We replaced the paper bags with glassine bags: that would work, glassine is like waxed paper so they should hold up in a bit of water, right? Wrong! Very, very wrong. Here’s what the bags of mesclun looked like a little after they had been put into the bins:

Can’t even tell the bottom from the top! Sure wouldn’t be a pleasant experience trying to pick up one of these bags and have the mesclun fall all over the floor or the counter…

Fortunately we had also located another type of bag, that we were only going to use for presenting produce at the market because they are much more expensive. They are home-compostable cellophane bags. Very pretty! So we emptied all of the mesclun into fresh cellophane bags, and some of the bags of spinach as well. If you don’t have a compost bin at home, you can return these bags to us and we’ll compost them at the farm.

Just a reminder: we rinse the vegetables after they are harvested, both to cool them down and to get some of the dirt off, but we don’t wash them.

In addition to what was expected in the baskets, there is a bunch of Asian Greens and some radishes.

Here’s a link to a recipe that I find promising:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2007/12/26/sauteed-mustard-greens-ginger-garlic-and-soy-sauce/

The radish tops are nice, so you can add them to the Asian Greens for sauteeing.

The bunch of herbs includes tarragon, oregano, and mint.

Here’s Catherine’s salad suggestion for the mesclun mix:

Lettuce and Mint Salad

1.5 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
about 5 cups salad greens
1 bunch mint leaves, rinsed and spun dry

In a bowl whisk together the vinegar, the mustard, and salt and pepper to taste, add the oil in a stream, whisking, and whisk the dressing until it is emulsified. In a large bowl toss the greens with the dressing. Serves 4.

N.B. If you would like to soften the bite of the mesclun, replace the mustard with honey.